dir. Michael Haneke
Austria, 2008
Fantastic. Chilling, unsettling, edge-of-your-seat stuff. Nudges The Class off top-spot for film of the year.
Friday 4 December 2009
Sunday 1 November 2009
Tuesday 8 September 2009
Thursday 13 August 2009
The Go-Between
dir. Joseph Losey
UK, 1970
This film has been far too Pinter-ised for my liking. Grated after a while, got irritating later on.
UK, 1970
This film has been far too Pinter-ised for my liking. Grated after a while, got irritating later on.
Wednesday 12 August 2009
35 Shots of Rum
dir. Claire Denis
France, 2008
Nice, quiet tale of immigrant life in Paris. Lovely observation of a father and daughter relationship, beautiful shots of train-tracks and faces old and young. Not as much of a knock-out as Beau Travail, but then few things are, and this is a different type of film.
France, 2008
Nice, quiet tale of immigrant life in Paris. Lovely observation of a father and daughter relationship, beautiful shots of train-tracks and faces old and young. Not as much of a knock-out as Beau Travail, but then few things are, and this is a different type of film.
Monday 27 July 2009
Persona
dir. Ingmar Bergman
Sweden, 1966
A few notes:
Ghost story. The notion of the self. What makes it? How is it made? Differences between people. Lost.
Sweden, 1966
A few notes:
Ghost story. The notion of the self. What makes it? How is it made? Differences between people. Lost.
Wednesday 22 July 2009
Beau Travail
dir. Claire Denis
France, 1998
Wonderful. Full of dance, photography, memory, bodies in motion...
France, 1998
Wonderful. Full of dance, photography, memory, bodies in motion...
Friday 17 July 2009
Summer With Monika
dir. Ingmar Bergman
Sweden, 1953
The bit in the middle when they're running free, sailing around the archipelago is great, for obvious reasons. I suppose the fact that the audience recognises that as the heart of the film is indicative of its power, when, later on, the dream turns sour, reality bites and they sail back to Stockholm...
Sweden, 1953
The bit in the middle when they're running free, sailing around the archipelago is great, for obvious reasons. I suppose the fact that the audience recognises that as the heart of the film is indicative of its power, when, later on, the dream turns sour, reality bites and they sail back to Stockholm...
Wednesday 15 July 2009
Rewatch: Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)
dir. Jean-Luc Godard,
France, 1960
Shown at the GFT as part of their mini-New Wave series. Not the best quality print, but still great. Next week they're showing Chronicle of a Summer! So excited! Might come back from an academic conference early for it!
France, 1960
Shown at the GFT as part of their mini-New Wave series. Not the best quality print, but still great. Next week they're showing Chronicle of a Summer! So excited! Might come back from an academic conference early for it!
Thursday 2 July 2009
Les deux anglaises et le continent (Anne and Muriel)
dir. François Truffaut
France, 1971
Strange film, seen in French with no subtitles, at the Insitut Lumiere in Lyon. Not sure I really got it all...
France, 1971
Strange film, seen in French with no subtitles, at the Insitut Lumiere in Lyon. Not sure I really got it all...
The Best Of Youth (La meglio gioventù)
dir. Marco Tullio Giordana
Italy, 2003
In an Italian film tradition that includes Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard (and not Cold Mountain, as the ill-conceived DVD blurb suggests), this is a wonderfully sweeping, soap-operatic account of two brothers and their family stretching from 1966 to 2003.
I remember the trailers for this showing at the Watershed in Bristol. It was released in two parts (and appears as such on the DVD) of about 3 hours each. It is pretty epic. It was originally a TV mini-series in Italy shown in 4 parts. It's made by some of the people that made last year's surprise My Brother Is An Only Child and features the same natural, engaging acting and moving family dynamics, particularly in its presentation of the deep bonds and differences between two brothers.
I fear some might call it a technically conservative film because its strengths lie in classic storytelling. Whilst across the spectrum of narrative devices it may well turn out to be that, I don't think that is inherently bad. In fact the word conservative is best avoided as it has too many unwanted and unpleasant connotations. The storytelling really is, like My Brother, effortless. I am not alone in wanting to repeat the experience of watching it. Gorging ourselves on it over three nights, the only complaint was that it was too short. It draws you in, makes you care about the family, and doesn't let go.
I'm sure it will feature in my end of year "Best Of" post.
Italy, 2003
In an Italian film tradition that includes Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard (and not Cold Mountain, as the ill-conceived DVD blurb suggests), this is a wonderfully sweeping, soap-operatic account of two brothers and their family stretching from 1966 to 2003.
I remember the trailers for this showing at the Watershed in Bristol. It was released in two parts (and appears as such on the DVD) of about 3 hours each. It is pretty epic. It was originally a TV mini-series in Italy shown in 4 parts. It's made by some of the people that made last year's surprise My Brother Is An Only Child and features the same natural, engaging acting and moving family dynamics, particularly in its presentation of the deep bonds and differences between two brothers.
I fear some might call it a technically conservative film because its strengths lie in classic storytelling. Whilst across the spectrum of narrative devices it may well turn out to be that, I don't think that is inherently bad. In fact the word conservative is best avoided as it has too many unwanted and unpleasant connotations. The storytelling really is, like My Brother, effortless. I am not alone in wanting to repeat the experience of watching it. Gorging ourselves on it over three nights, the only complaint was that it was too short. It draws you in, makes you care about the family, and doesn't let go.
I'm sure it will feature in my end of year "Best Of" post.
Monday 8 June 2009
Friday 5 June 2009
Monday 25 May 2009
Rewatch: Wild Strawberries
dir. Ingmar Bergman
Sweden, 1956 (?)
The Monorail Film Club put it on at the GFT. Wonderful to see it on the big screen. I think it's quite the perfect film.
Sweden, 1956 (?)
The Monorail Film Club put it on at the GFT. Wonderful to see it on the big screen. I think it's quite the perfect film.
Thursday 21 May 2009
Tuesday 19 May 2009
Saturday 16 May 2009
Sunday 3 May 2009
Le Feu Follet (The Fire Within)
The third in our little Louis Malle season, this was the best I think.
The story is of a alcoholic man in his (guessing) thirties, who has been told he is now "cured" yet still lives at an upmarket clinic in Versailles. Having vowed to kill himself "tomorrow", Alain goes to Paris, where he meets old friends and faces the crazy days of his youth.
It was a good film, and I liked it a lot, but I can't think of a word to describe it. It wasn't "wonderful", or "brilliant". Of course it wasn't funny. I suppose "elegiac" would be a good description of the atmosphere, if not of Alain. He is not particularly desirous of his past life as a man-about-town, and the women that gaze at him are met with aloofness.
In fact, as a protagonist he is curiously unloved. The film shows him ambiguously. His friends variously riff on the same "grow up, you're an adult now" message but his heartfelt pleas to connect with something ("to touch" is the word he uses) are genuine. This path is well-chosen by Malle. Its effect means the viewer sees an environment of conflicting world views, those of Alain's friends who have given up possibilities for "securities" and find an equally intense life there, and those of Alain who sees in their securities a great bourgeoising of his friends, a dulling of experience.
This is so well created that the suicide that inevitably ends the film is as downbeat and enigmatic affair as it should be, providing neither closure nor conclusion.
You can watch the whole film here.
The story is of a alcoholic man in his (guessing) thirties, who has been told he is now "cured" yet still lives at an upmarket clinic in Versailles. Having vowed to kill himself "tomorrow", Alain goes to Paris, where he meets old friends and faces the crazy days of his youth.
It was a good film, and I liked it a lot, but I can't think of a word to describe it. It wasn't "wonderful", or "brilliant". Of course it wasn't funny. I suppose "elegiac" would be a good description of the atmosphere, if not of Alain. He is not particularly desirous of his past life as a man-about-town, and the women that gaze at him are met with aloofness.
In fact, as a protagonist he is curiously unloved. The film shows him ambiguously. His friends variously riff on the same "grow up, you're an adult now" message but his heartfelt pleas to connect with something ("to touch" is the word he uses) are genuine. This path is well-chosen by Malle. Its effect means the viewer sees an environment of conflicting world views, those of Alain's friends who have given up possibilities for "securities" and find an equally intense life there, and those of Alain who sees in their securities a great bourgeoising of his friends, a dulling of experience.
This is so well created that the suicide that inevitably ends the film is as downbeat and enigmatic affair as it should be, providing neither closure nor conclusion.
You can watch the whole film here.
Sunday 26 April 2009
Two Or Three Things I Know About Her... (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle)
The Believer magazine's March/April Film Issue comes with a DVD of a collection of Jean-Luc Godard's travels in the US. The first film is a 40 minute discussion, called Two American Audiences, with a group of film students at NYU. It's fascinating, especially as the film they're talking about is one of my favourites, La Chinoise.
Towards the end of the film (the fourth video in this post, at about 9 minutes), Godard says that what he liked about Brecht was that he "did philosophy through art". This is, I think, what Godard always tried to do, and Two or Three Things... is a prime example of it. (Weekend would be another, and possibly La Chinoise, although it's more performative).
As such it comes across as a film essay, or a journalistic investigation. It was inspired by a newspaper article on housewife prostitution in Paris, and illustrates Godard's theory that to survive in Paris it was a necessity. (According to the DVD booklet at least).
Compared to some of his other films from the same period that dealt with social and political problems - Vivre Sa Vie, Le Petit Soldat - this is less iconic-looking, less interventionist, but more thoughtful, introspective. A little dull though, too.
The problem, I think, is that it never really gets going. It doesn't build up a head of steam, the cutting is quick but quite unenergetic. There are interesting moments, such as when the whispered narration (by Godard himself) meditates on the relationship between language and image while we see shots of garage signs, street signs, shop titles etc. But generally it has something of the dirge about it. Perhaps it's the tone, which is the same throughout. The film's register never changes, which is uncommon for a 60s Godard film. The viewer is so used to seeing changes in timbre that when they don't happen it feels as if a minute's segment has frozen and extended for ten, twenty minutes.
It's interesting, then, to remind oneself of the highly dynamic, sometimes simple, sometimes complex political films Godard made in the 60s. (Letter to Jane, above, is an extension, or reply, to Tout Va Bien). One can perhaps see in Two or Three Things... the transition between the lighter - yet still socially conscious - films of the early-to-mid 60s and the "political period" films he made for five years or so from 1967's La Chinoise, continuing with Made in USA, Tout Va Bien and many others that are difficult nowadays to get hold of.
I wonder if that is the problem with Two or Three Things... - that it marks a transition, and is therefore neither one thing nor another.
Towards the end of the film (the fourth video in this post, at about 9 minutes), Godard says that what he liked about Brecht was that he "did philosophy through art". This is, I think, what Godard always tried to do, and Two or Three Things... is a prime example of it. (Weekend would be another, and possibly La Chinoise, although it's more performative).
As such it comes across as a film essay, or a journalistic investigation. It was inspired by a newspaper article on housewife prostitution in Paris, and illustrates Godard's theory that to survive in Paris it was a necessity. (According to the DVD booklet at least).
Compared to some of his other films from the same period that dealt with social and political problems - Vivre Sa Vie, Le Petit Soldat - this is less iconic-looking, less interventionist, but more thoughtful, introspective. A little dull though, too.
The problem, I think, is that it never really gets going. It doesn't build up a head of steam, the cutting is quick but quite unenergetic. There are interesting moments, such as when the whispered narration (by Godard himself) meditates on the relationship between language and image while we see shots of garage signs, street signs, shop titles etc. But generally it has something of the dirge about it. Perhaps it's the tone, which is the same throughout. The film's register never changes, which is uncommon for a 60s Godard film. The viewer is so used to seeing changes in timbre that when they don't happen it feels as if a minute's segment has frozen and extended for ten, twenty minutes.
It's interesting, then, to remind oneself of the highly dynamic, sometimes simple, sometimes complex political films Godard made in the 60s. (Letter to Jane, above, is an extension, or reply, to Tout Va Bien). One can perhaps see in Two or Three Things... the transition between the lighter - yet still socially conscious - films of the early-to-mid 60s and the "political period" films he made for five years or so from 1967's La Chinoise, continuing with Made in USA, Tout Va Bien and many others that are difficult nowadays to get hold of.
I wonder if that is the problem with Two or Three Things... - that it marks a transition, and is therefore neither one thing nor another.
Thursday 23 April 2009
Zazie dans le metro
In the recent portmanteau film Paris Je T'aime, Sylvain Chomet (who made Belleville Rendezvous) tries to create a live-action cartoon, featuring two clowns who meet in jail and fall in love.
Zazie dans le metro, Louis Malle's film from 1960, is a feature-length, Tommy and Jerry-style live-action cartoon. Full of Technicolor colour and quick cutting, the film is a joyous ode to Paris, a gentle depiction of childhood clashing with "the real world" and a love letter to cabaret-style frolics.
Zazie dans le metro, Louis Malle's film from 1960, is a feature-length, Tommy and Jerry-style live-action cartoon. Full of Technicolor colour and quick cutting, the film is a joyous ode to Paris, a gentle depiction of childhood clashing with "the real world" and a love letter to cabaret-style frolics.
Monday 20 April 2009
Les Amants (The Lovers)
Watching this I remembered something from French National Cinema, a module I took at Roehampton. The New Wave, whilst displaying the influence of American noir and B-movies, was fired by the desire to provide alternatives to the dominant modes of French cinema, namely films about the bourgeoisie, featuring large country chateaux and aristocrats. The Italian Neo-Realist films of the early 1950s were a similar reaction; the Italians called them "white telephone" films (because they always featured people using white telephones, duh!).
Louis Malle's Les Amants, made in 1958, has chateaux and aristocrats and is a little on the dull side. But it also has Jeanne Moreau, scandalous-in-the-50s nudity and an encouragement of adultery and child-abandonment.
Louis Malle's Les Amants, made in 1958, has chateaux and aristocrats and is a little on the dull side. But it also has Jeanne Moreau, scandalous-in-the-50s nudity and an encouragement of adultery and child-abandonment.
Sunday 19 April 2009
Let The Right One In
Reasons I liked this:
- Any scary aspect is created out of a wonderful creation and nurturing of atmosphere, rather than on moments that make you jump. The film takes place in a world in which strange, scary things happen - a man goes round killing people by drugging them, hanging them upside down and draining their blood, a small girl vampire jumps down on passersby, a man deforms himself with acid to prevent his apprehension by the police...
- As Claire said, it's ripe for film students. It tackles a coming-of-age story, a love story, a story of obsession, of desire, of family, of the alienation of childhood and gets it all right. The vampire stuff is done well, but the story is about far more than that.
- The cinematography. There's never a shot that takes you out of the story, that makes you go "wow", but there are lots of quietly amazing shots. It opens with a distorted reflection of Oskar on a windowpane, and there are great shots of schools, shops and the city at night.
- The ending. Absolutely terrifying, absolutely wonderful!
Definitely another contender for a film of the year.
- Any scary aspect is created out of a wonderful creation and nurturing of atmosphere, rather than on moments that make you jump. The film takes place in a world in which strange, scary things happen - a man goes round killing people by drugging them, hanging them upside down and draining their blood, a small girl vampire jumps down on passersby, a man deforms himself with acid to prevent his apprehension by the police...
- As Claire said, it's ripe for film students. It tackles a coming-of-age story, a love story, a story of obsession, of desire, of family, of the alienation of childhood and gets it all right. The vampire stuff is done well, but the story is about far more than that.
- The cinematography. There's never a shot that takes you out of the story, that makes you go "wow", but there are lots of quietly amazing shots. It opens with a distorted reflection of Oskar on a windowpane, and there are great shots of schools, shops and the city at night.
- The ending. Absolutely terrifying, absolutely wonderful!
Definitely another contender for a film of the year.
Thursday 9 April 2009
In The City of Sylvia
Reasons I loved this:
- Made me forget it was a film. A scene of a man sitting on the terrace cafe of Strasbourg's Conservatoire watching people drinking and chatting lasts for over 20 minutes. As a summation of another film put it, "pure cinema". As Peter Bradshaw put it, "In the City of Sylvia reminds you that most cinema discourages you from looking, really looking".
- Sound design as good as Elephant. Came out of the cinema with an exaggerated ear for footsteps, the rise and fall of chattering voices.
- The lack of dialogue. One scene of a conversation in nearly an hour and a half.
&
- the quietness of the film.
- And the length of the takes. Long, long, long...
- The loveliness of Strasbourg in the summer. Made me want to go there.
&
- The depth of field of the compositions. Watching a square opening onto many alleys with no idea where people were going to come from, sound emanating from behind the camera, beyond the camera, people crossing, passing each other and the camera, a bottle rolling down the street, a bicycle going past...
- The hints at other directors - Hitchcock, Linklater etc ...
- The ability to create amazing suspense from a simple encounter. When the man finally asks the girl if she's Sylvia, I, like Bradshaw, was on the edge of my seat.
- The many interpretations it gives. Lil hated it (at first?) for its focus on beautiful women. I saw it as an extremely subtle comment on the images we create, both in terms of the dreams we make for ourselves based on very little fact, and the images we as a society create of women and romantic love.
- The imaginative visuals created from filming the reflections the windows of moving trams - people look ghostly, like apparitions, their form not certain.
- This is definitely in my top films of the year so far. Can't make up my mind whether it has toppled The Class or not. Here's the trailer:
And here, actually, is the first 9 minutes of the film! This Youtube user has uploaded the whole film in 9 parts. As there's hardly any dialogue, anyone can watch it!
- Made me forget it was a film. A scene of a man sitting on the terrace cafe of Strasbourg's Conservatoire watching people drinking and chatting lasts for over 20 minutes. As a summation of another film put it, "pure cinema". As Peter Bradshaw put it, "In the City of Sylvia reminds you that most cinema discourages you from looking, really looking".
- Sound design as good as Elephant. Came out of the cinema with an exaggerated ear for footsteps, the rise and fall of chattering voices.
- The lack of dialogue. One scene of a conversation in nearly an hour and a half.
&
- the quietness of the film.
- And the length of the takes. Long, long, long...
- The loveliness of Strasbourg in the summer. Made me want to go there.
&
- The depth of field of the compositions. Watching a square opening onto many alleys with no idea where people were going to come from, sound emanating from behind the camera, beyond the camera, people crossing, passing each other and the camera, a bottle rolling down the street, a bicycle going past...
- The hints at other directors - Hitchcock, Linklater etc ...
- The ability to create amazing suspense from a simple encounter. When the man finally asks the girl if she's Sylvia, I, like Bradshaw, was on the edge of my seat.
- The many interpretations it gives. Lil hated it (at first?) for its focus on beautiful women. I saw it as an extremely subtle comment on the images we create, both in terms of the dreams we make for ourselves based on very little fact, and the images we as a society create of women and romantic love.
- The imaginative visuals created from filming the reflections the windows of moving trams - people look ghostly, like apparitions, their form not certain.
- This is definitely in my top films of the year so far. Can't make up my mind whether it has toppled The Class or not. Here's the trailer:
And here, actually, is the first 9 minutes of the film! This Youtube user has uploaded the whole film in 9 parts. As there's hardly any dialogue, anyone can watch it!
The Man From London
Very disappointing after the masterful first twenty minutes, especially from the director that brought us this:
How wonderful this sequence is! It could be a film on its own.
How wonderful this sequence is! It could be a film on its own.
Tuesday 31 March 2009
In A Lonely Place
Nicholas Ray's GREAT, GREAT film with Humphrey Bogart as a screenwriter who is suspected by his new lover of killing a girl found murdered after visiting him. Her suspicions grow and their relationship becomes more and more fraught...
Quite possibly the best film I've seen this year so far. The Class down to second, Rachel Getting Married down to 3.
Quite possibly the best film I've seen this year so far. The Class down to second, Rachel Getting Married down to 3.
Monday 23 March 2009
Friday 6 March 2009
The Soft Skin (La Peau Douce)
Someone on Amazon said that this Truffaut film has aged better than others. I'm not entirely sure that's true.
I found this rather dull to be honest. The lead man is irritatingly infantile, and has a smarmy way about him that made me take agin him. He is a man who at not being able to find a newspaper he's left lying around his house, leaves his wife looking for it while he drives off to his lover.
Compared to the Antoine Doinel films that we've been watching recently, which are so light yet subtly dark, and so evocative and charismatic, this was humdrum and curiously un-full of desire, both on the part of director and actors.
I found this rather dull to be honest. The lead man is irritatingly infantile, and has a smarmy way about him that made me take agin him. He is a man who at not being able to find a newspaper he's left lying around his house, leaves his wife looking for it while he drives off to his lover.
Compared to the Antoine Doinel films that we've been watching recently, which are so light yet subtly dark, and so evocative and charismatic, this was humdrum and curiously un-full of desire, both on the part of director and actors.
Thursday 5 March 2009
The Class (Entre Les Murs)
Rachel Getting Married has been fallen one place in Films-Of-The-Year-So-Far. This is a new entry, it's The Class by Laurent Cantet.
This trailer's in French, but it's so much better than the Anglo ones. And you don't really need to know French to see what this film's like.
This trailer's in French, but it's so much better than the Anglo ones. And you don't really need to know French to see what this film's like.
Sunday 1 March 2009
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Kasaba (The Small Town)
After falling in love with Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak (2002) and Climates (2006) and in my excitement about his forthcoming Three Monkeys, I rented Artificial Eye's "Early Works" DVD.
This film, made in 1997, reveals the Ceylan sensibilities to already be a fully formed aesthetic style. The long, almost drowsy takes, the picking out of exquisite, minute details, the lingering on faces. Shot in black and white, it is essentially a documentary, a portrait of the small town of the title through the eyes of its children. There is a wonderful sequence at the beginning, in the depths of a snowy winter, as the children come to school for the day. One of their group arrives late, being spotted running down a hill at the far end of the town, runs into the room soaked from head to foot, a big grin on his face. Throughout the scene, his drying socks over the stove and a feather floating around the classroom provide a steady, slow rythmn:
This film, made in 1997, reveals the Ceylan sensibilities to already be a fully formed aesthetic style. The long, almost drowsy takes, the picking out of exquisite, minute details, the lingering on faces. Shot in black and white, it is essentially a documentary, a portrait of the small town of the title through the eyes of its children. There is a wonderful sequence at the beginning, in the depths of a snowy winter, as the children come to school for the day. One of their group arrives late, being spotted running down a hill at the far end of the town, runs into the room soaked from head to foot, a big grin on his face. Throughout the scene, his drying socks over the stove and a feather floating around the classroom provide a steady, slow rythmn:
Sunday 15 February 2009
Bed and Board (Domicile Conjugal)
Fourth part of Truffaut's Doinel tetralogy just as good as part three! Oh it's great!
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Rachel Getting Married
Thanks should be given for the big queue at the Cineworld that led us to abandon an attempt to see Revolutionary Road and hotfoot it to the GFT to see this instead.
It was absolutely fantastic, both on silly "wow, that's a really cool wedding" way (there was a samba troop, loads of musicians sitting around, Sister Carol) and in a "wow, Anne Hathaway is an amazingly good actor" way. She is really, really good; the whole 2 hours are spent inwardly fighting the equally dominant feelings of love and hate you have for her character, Kym. She walks the tightrope perfectly. In almost every scene you want to hug her and shout at her, which, incidentally is what the family do most of the time!
This is what Noah Baumbach's disappointing "Margot at the Wedding" should have been.
Film of the year so far. Hope she gets the Oscar.
It was absolutely fantastic, both on silly "wow, that's a really cool wedding" way (there was a samba troop, loads of musicians sitting around, Sister Carol) and in a "wow, Anne Hathaway is an amazingly good actor" way. She is really, really good; the whole 2 hours are spent inwardly fighting the equally dominant feelings of love and hate you have for her character, Kym. She walks the tightrope perfectly. In almost every scene you want to hug her and shout at her, which, incidentally is what the family do most of the time!
This is what Noah Baumbach's disappointing "Margot at the Wedding" should have been.
Film of the year so far. Hope she gets the Oscar.
Saturday 31 January 2009
Milk
Great acting, but it's still a biopic. I don't like them, there seems to be only one way of doing them, and they're always very linear, very this-then-this-then-this, and they tend to leave very little room for a director's vision. This is what happened here. There are great performances, but Gus Van Sant is pretty much anonymous. There's nothing of his unique visual style - what we saw in Elephant, Last Days, Paranoid Park, My Own Private Idaho. Shame.
Friday 30 January 2009
Stolen Kisses (Baisers volés)
Me and Al never got round to buying the Criterion Antoine Doinel boxset, but Al did find Stolen Kisses on DVD, which is the third installment, after The 400 Blows and a short film we're not sure the name of.
Me and Lil watched Stolen Kisses tonight. This, along with Une Femme est Une Femme by Godard, sums up the lighter side of the French New Wave so wonderfully. This was a joy to behold. The speed of it, Jean-Pierre Leaud's face...wonderful! Here's a clip:
and the great opening:
oh and my favourite scene from Une Femme est Une Femme:
oh and this from Bande a Part!:
Me and Lil watched Stolen Kisses tonight. This, along with Une Femme est Une Femme by Godard, sums up the lighter side of the French New Wave so wonderfully. This was a joy to behold. The speed of it, Jean-Pierre Leaud's face...wonderful! Here's a clip:
and the great opening:
oh and my favourite scene from Une Femme est Une Femme:
oh and this from Bande a Part!:
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
I'd been waiting a while to see this, and Al got given it for his birthday so the other night we made cocktails - black cherry martinis; cassis & vodka - and watched it on the big screen, courteousy of Al's projector.
It was a grey and dank and paranoid as I'd been led to believe, and it had a brilliantly evocative score to go with Richard Burton's grim visage. It reminded me a lot of Conrad's Secret Agent. Seeing Burton's agent go down the labour exchange bears similarities with the shopkeeper/agent in Conrad's book.
There was a great end speech from Burton too (starts at 2:40):
It was a grey and dank and paranoid as I'd been led to believe, and it had a brilliantly evocative score to go with Richard Burton's grim visage. It reminded me a lot of Conrad's Secret Agent. Seeing Burton's agent go down the labour exchange bears similarities with the shopkeeper/agent in Conrad's book.
There was a great end speech from Burton too (starts at 2:40):
Thursday 22 January 2009
The Five Obstructions
Finally saw this.
As the final narration says, "it is always the attacker who reveals himself". This film reveals (as if it wasn't highly suspected already!) that Lars Von Trier is ever-so-slightly odd.
As the final narration says, "it is always the attacker who reveals himself". This film reveals (as if it wasn't highly suspected already!) that Lars Von Trier is ever-so-slightly odd.
Casque D'Or
I fell asleep during the main plot points of this film, although that is not a comment on its quality, merely an note of the fact that I'd been working all day.
I will remember the strange, slighly elaborate dress of French gangsters at the fin de siecle.
I will remember the strange, slighly elaborate dress of French gangsters at the fin de siecle.
Monday 12 January 2009
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Or, rather, the last 2 thirds of it. I came in on it after finishing an essay I was writing, but what I saw was fantastic.
Friday 9 January 2009
Che (Part One)
The first film of 2009 wasn't such a turkey as last year's; it had a rather toned-down atmosphere.
I read somewhere that it had no dramatic tension, which is true, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Although not necessarily good either. It was a strange film, and I'm still not entirely sure what I thought of it. I suppose its elements of dullness could be seen as a positive thing, showing the dreariness of revolution, showing how dull and drawn out and boring it must've been, rather that the exciting, invigorating thing we tend to assume revolution is. Similarly, Benicio del Toro is so good you forget he's acting.
I read somewhere that it had no dramatic tension, which is true, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Although not necessarily good either. It was a strange film, and I'm still not entirely sure what I thought of it. I suppose its elements of dullness could be seen as a positive thing, showing the dreariness of revolution, showing how dull and drawn out and boring it must've been, rather that the exciting, invigorating thing we tend to assume revolution is. Similarly, Benicio del Toro is so good you forget he's acting.
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