the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

I'm sorry if I seem to be bashing Van Sant's Psycho, Johann, and I can understand your liking it, and I happen to love Vince Vaughan, who's on top of things now with Wedding Crashers' huge success --not undeserved, but I wish more people had gone to Last Days..... The Psycho remake may eventually become the delight of cinephiles. Certainly it would be a perfect thing to use in a film course. To me I have to confess it seemed a "sterile exercise." And rather incomprehensible. Why? I just wish Van Sant had spent the time doing something of his own. But overall, it's been a great career, and a richly varied one, and here is a gay filmmaker who's made it into the mainstream, and still remained gay, and made it back out again. And that's pretty cool.

I don't remember Macy in Psycho. For me he is rarely memorable, and only works well as a complete nerd, as in Magnolia, "Quiz Kid Donnie Smith." There, he was well used, and performed well.

I'd agree Elephant was one of the best of its year, definitely. They thought so at Cannes too.

I'm sorry about the shrinking window; Savides' work in Last Days is superb. And he sees big.... never more than in Gerry -- where the desert landscapes are simply amazing; awesome, forbidding, harsh, and endless. Gerry is on a huge scale, and demands to be seen on a big theatrical screen, and up pretty close.

For me, DVD/videotape is a great tool for study or for catching up on things, but it just doesn't work on the same level as theatrical viewing of films.

Lacombe, Lucien by Louis Malle was just shown with Au revoir, les enfants at a little theater in San Francisco, the Balboa. As you probably know it isn't available on US tape or DVD. I'm not even sure I've seen it, though I remember fondly seeing Au revoir in its first week of showings in Paris. I wanted to see this, but the Balboa is rather remote from where I live and I didn't make it. So, another shrinking window effect. So I'm at home with my Netflix.

But overall, it's been a great career, and a richly varied one, and here is a gay filmmaker who's made it into the mainstream, and still remained gay, and made it back out again. And that's pretty cool.

That's certainly one way to look at it, and you aren't incorrect. I guess Don Roos could also make that claim -- on a smaller scale, of course. He made The Opposite of Sex and then made an Affleck/Paltrow starrer called Bounce (no, I haven't seen it either). And now he's come back with Happy Endings which I reviewed a few days ago.

I was fortunate enough to watch a few early Malle films -- Le Monde du silence (1956); Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1957); Zazie dans le métro (1960) -- in his retro we had here at the Walter Reade. I consider Lacombe Lucien as one of his very best. I hope you get a chance to watch it.

I was quite upset that retrospective didn't come to Chicago, I've still been unable to see The Silent World in any form. Although a restoration has been done on Elevator to the Gallows, and it will receive a limited theatrical re-release, I believe in September (or at least that's when it comes to my city).

I vaguely remember Gerry coming out, and I think I was still too put off by Van Sant's films to check it out, but knowing now that there is another potential masterpiece out there from him, it is certainly going on my list of films to see now.

I will shed some light on your topic of Last Days, but well long day, and I'm not really up for analyzing.

Alas, Lacombe, Lucien stopped showing today without my making it to SF's Richmond Dictrict. But I'll catch it eventually. Maybe I can get a DVD of it in France.

I saw Bounce, and it wasn't much. But The Opposite of Sex was okay. I'm hoping to see Happy Endings but it isn't working out so far. That's an interesting comparison, and I wouldn't defend Van Sant's more mainstream efforts, but I'd say Bounce was more out of gear for Roos than Good Will Hunting, which after all did have personal qualities (on the face of it) being by the then young unknown team of Affleck and Damon, rooted in a location, Southey, etc. But I saw it with a friend from Southey and though he thought they got the accent right, for him the movie was just fluff. I've found a silly website that might be a good dicipline for a verbose chap like me: four-word movie reviews. http://www.fwfr.com/ My fave there for Good Will Hunting: "Pinesol-swabbing Southey smarty." But even if you work at it, it's hard to do a review in four words and that ain't a review. One that is: "Brilliantly spun underdog story." This isn't bad: "Matt plays brat, easy." and here's one a tad more critical: "Genius stuns psychiatrist. Yawn." Now that's good!

L'Asenceur pour l'Echafaud is being revived here too, maybe with Zazie. I will see L'Ascenceur with a friend on Tuesday in downtown Berkeley. But actually I have long had a tape of it. I love all the old stuff by Malle that I'e seen. Have never seen Le Monde du Silence and you were indeed fortunate to see it in the Walter Reade retrospective because there seems to be no DVD of it, even in France.

wpqx--

If you loved Elephant and Last Days, you've gotta see Gerry. Not many people have, yet, it seems, and there were like four people in the theater when I watched it and two of them walked out. I sat with it, and I was real glad I did. That was when I discovered Manohla Dargis, when she was still writing for the LA and not the NY Times -- she liked it, and I thought, this lady is cool. I still consider her a worthy replacement for Elvis Mitchell

Elephant loses none of it's power on DVD.

I can see why the jury gave Van Sant the Palm D'or.
It's shot like a dream, and he captures high school angst perfectly.

It gives a situation like Columbine more humane treatment, it shows us teens (and staff at Watt High) who were just going about their lives, just like the kids at Columbine High School were.

It lulls us along with it's "realistic drama" and then pulls the rug out from under us. In slow motion.

We get to see the same day interpreted thru different sets of eyes to give us a greater scope of what's going down in Anyhigh, U.S.A.

The shower scene shocked me, I must say.
The weird vibes this movie produces...The drunk father, the school on fire, the delivery of the weapons, the tracking shots, the music (very appropriate) and all the other "real life" scenes that were pretty damn unsettling.

I don't know how many times I want to see Elephant again.

Pixote (1981) - Hector Babenco

Finally got to see this film, which I believe was Babenco's first feature, or certainly his breakthrough film. To me it helps to have seen Carandiru. This film is like a prequel to that, taking place slightly earlier, and featuring somewhat younger characters. We can see that the "untouchable" minors of Pixote will become the hardened inmates of Carandiru once they get older.

The story is moving without really being exploitative, which it certainly could have done. Crime is something of a way out, but these kids remain kids. They are not the professional gangsters at the age of 10 that were found in City of God. Instead they're gullible and get fooled easily. And on occasion they really do want to be kids. The absence of family affects them all, and they're ambition is misguided. When one of the gang is discussing what he wants to do with his share of money, it is to buy a .38 so he can shoot and rob people, which he thinks will give him respect. It is not the dream of escaping crime common to other films. Crime is life for them, and that's all they plan on.

Babenco's best film, at least of the four I've seen. Damn good picture.

I don't place Gerry anywhere near Elephant but it was certainly an interesting start for a "rejuvinated" Van Sant.

Interpretation of events through various sets of eyes in Elephant comes from Béla Tarr's Sátántangó. This overlapping 7+ hr masterpiece has had a huge influence on Van Sant. However, I have heard musings that his latest borrows a bit more than what he perhaps intended from Tarr's work.

Pixote is one of my favorite films of the 80's. Not an inch of that film is exploitative, something that can't be said about the otherwise technically brilliant City of God.

Pixote's great.

I don't feel that Gerry is drastically far from the two films that followed it; it certainly has less to offer an audience looking for action and dialogue than Elephant, but so does Last Days. My main point remains, that it's valuable to see all three, and if you really admire one, you must see the rest.

The last films I've seen:

Dominick Moll: With a Friend Like Harry (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, 2000).

Harry Balestero is an old schoolmate of Michel (though Michel has forgotten him). They meet in a highway men's room. Harry and his girlfriend wind up staying the night at Michel's summer place with Michel and his wife and kids. Their life will never be the same. One of the sublest and most original horror movies of recent years. With it's haute bourgeoisie accoutrements and assured pacing, With a Friend Like Harry has echoes of Hitchcock and other masters of suspense. But his quiet smugness and increasingly menacing "kind" gestures make Sergi Lopez's Harry a pretty creation.

Re-seen on a Netflix DVD.

Lucas Belvaux: On the Run: Trilogy 1 (Cavale, 2002) The Belgian writer-director also stars as Bruno, the sullen escaped prisoner with revolutionary ideas who sets out to eliminate the people who got him in jail. Not much style, or much fun, in this piece on appearances, but I'll have to reserve judgment till I've seen the rest of the three of which it's a part, each interlocking tale in a different genre. The woman in the piece, Catherine Frot, played the ditsy wife in Klapisch's Un air de famille/Family Resemblences (1996). She looks tired.

Netflix DVD.

Mad Hot Ballroom

(seen in a theater -- still showing, for obvious reasons). This crowd pleaser is one of the best feel-good documentaries of the past couple of years. Watching the charming Dominican kids, I couldn't help remembering Raising Victor Vargas -- and how much I love to dance. This makes me want to go up to 181st street to meet them.

Chris, I was slightly puzzled when I read your post on "Dominick Moll: With a Friend Like Harry (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, 2000)". It seemed very familiar then I realised it was just a change of name and I had seen it a good while ago under the name "Harry, He's Here to Help".

I can't remember her name but I'm pretty sure the girl from "L'Ennui" was in it as well?

Cheers Trev.

trevor--

Yes, the English and American titles were different. It has had a variety of names, but the French title as you'll see on IMDb is "Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien." I'm sorry, I haven't seen "Ennui," but you mean Sophie Guillemin, who plays Harry's girlfriend.

"With a Friend Like Harry" is a more honest translation and makes more sense than "Harry, He's Here to Help", pretty decent film from what I can remember.

And yes it was Harry's girlfriend.

Cheers Trev.

I also liked Mad Hot Ballroom quite a bit.

Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien borrows from just about everyone but I agree with you and Trevor that it has its moments.

Haven't seen Belvaux's trilogy.

First of all, young Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone needs to be commended for having not taken the route of his counterparts after the success he had with his previous film The Embalmer (2003). Having said that, his latest feature, Primo Amore ("First Love"), which is undoubtedly a unique and personal effort, is also a bit oblique and underwhelming. Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan) is a lanky, shaven-headed goldsmith who seeks perfection when it comes to the human mind and body (not unlike his crafts). Through a classified, he ends up meeting a soft-spoken young woman named Sonia (Michela Cescon), an art-school model, who he instantly recognizes as someone who could meet his ideals. Sonia is a bit hesitant at first because of Vittorio’s unflattering remarks about her weight, but Garrone slowly reveals to us that she isn’t particularly happy about the way she looks so she ends up falling for Vittorio’s watchful gaze. After the couple move into a derelict mansion somewhere in Verona, Vittorio’s obsession increases, but Sonia more or less continues to oblige to his masochism which leads her to become a ghost of herself. Much like his previous feature, Primo Amore is a visually confident effort from Garrone. The gothic-colored palette is employed quite well in this strikingly shot film. What isn’t particularly striking is the narrative. Garrone probably would’ve been better off situating it a century or two ago because there are a few implausibilities associated with the time-frame. If this is some sort of a statement about the beauty and fashion standards that women have to live up to then he’s too forthcoming and a bit disillusioned. Trevisan’s straight-forward performance certainly doesn't help matters; it needed to be more evasive and subtle. Though, the Berlin and David di Donatello award winning music from Banda Osiris definitely meets all demands for a film which only seems agreeable due to the consistency of Garrone’s vision, as flawed as it may be.


Grade: C+

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*PRIMO AMORE is now available on DVD from Strand Releasing.

I shall probably have to see Primo Amore some time, though I think from what I've read and heard it's far more unpleasnat watching than your description implies; I have liked Garrone's earlier efforts and agree he's a welcomely individual and quirky director, especially in the climate of Berlusconi and Muccino's crowd-pleasers.


Re-watched for the second time in the past few days: Cavale (Trilogy 1: On the Run) by Belgian-born Lucas Belvaux. I have not looked up reviews of this lean, workmanlike and highly focused but somehow ultimately lacking film. Too many following shots, and the procedural detailing of the escaped leftist revolutionary/terrorist on the run played by filmmaker/writer Belvaux himself turns too much into just dogged running--ultimately pretty much to nowhere. But the actors can't be faulted, and I have to see parts 2 and 3; maybe what you have to say is that even if Belvaux isn't up technically to a plot requiring more of a Jason Bourne franchise budget and production staff, he's to be congratulated for undertaking a multiple-genre trilogy project of this kind, with its potential for richness and depth, at all. Probably the most interesting aspect of part 1 is how it contemplates the plight of a revolutionary who's all alone without any fellow revolutionaries or, according to Catherine Flot's character, the "masses" he claims still support his aims. He's isolated, deluded, dangerous, even -- with all his fake moustaches and hairpieces -- comic; but his intensity and passion are real and strangely touching.

War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg). Not bad in the ways critics had led me to believe, quite entertaining, but without any depth as an experience, unlike A.I.

Grizzly Man A documentary about an American who thought he was the friend of Alaskan bears and spent 14 summers living among them in a wildlife preserve (possibly against gov't regulations) and finally got eaten up -- along with his poor girlfriend -- by a mean and hungry one in the autumn after he would usually have been gone and his bear "friends" were all hibernating and replaced by new wilder meaner ones. Made by Werner Herzog the famous offbeat German filmmaker, who has made movies about crazy originals before, using a lot of footage left behind by the guy. A disturbing picture of what happens when humans lose touch with the line separating them from wild animals. Indigestible (no pun intended), disturbing and thought provoking, this will be one of the best documentaries of the year on my list.

I will post a review at least of Grizzly Man.

Yeah, Primo Amore isn't something you need to see right away, but it isn't violent or painful in anyway.

Still haven't decided whether to watch War of the Worlds or not. I'm a little turned off by the smugness of Spielberg and Cruise.

Herzog is having a huge year. Can't wait to see Grizzly Man. It's right up there with Murderball as the best reviewed doc of the year.

Strings (2004)

Directed by Anders Rønnow-Klarlund


A dark fairytale that plays out like a very simplified Shakespearian tragedy with suicide, murder, love, revenge, sacrifice and a lot more besides.

There is little if anything original about the plot but what makes this stand out is the fact that the puppet strings are integral to the characters lives. This is shown in a number of ways such as the suicide right at the start, the King, ashamed of what he’s done leaves a note for his son then takes his knife and cuts the string that’s attached to his head, this causes his death. There are many clever little touches to show the effect of the strings throughout the film such as the design of the city gate which is a single bar that’s raised, preventing the strings to pass under.

It’s a strange one though, there are moments which are too dark for children and most adults won’t be bothered simply because it’s a puppet play and fairytale like, so who would enjoy it?

Well I did, I enjoyed it for the little touches and the sheer artistry of the puppeteers plus the way the strings were integrated into the story, and also I like a good Shakespeare style tragedy. The rest of the audience seemed enthralled as well but this was an art-house cinema, it didn’t make it to the multiplexes, not in Cardiff anyway, unfortunately this will mean the majority will miss out on something enjoyable which is a shame.

A definite recommendation for those who like to try something a little different. If you get the chance to see it, especially in the cinema then take the opportunity.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated PG.

It went straight to dvd here so a theatrical screening is not possible. I'll rent it based on your recommendation. Gracias.

Grizzly Man seems quirky and offbeat but when you think about it it becomes very rich and significant, both as reference to Herzog and as a study of the kitsch anthromorphism of nature promoted in so many movies and TV shows. I can't compare Murderball because haven't seen it.

I haven't seen Bad News Bears either, but it seems to be less like Bad Santa (which I have seen) than I assumed at first and more a remake of the original that's an updating but doesn't add much, hence this is another one where you need to see both to describe and compare the new model completely, though that wouldn't necessarily change your impressions of the new one or your rating of it.

I went to see
War of the Worlds to see the end-of-the-world effects especially in the early part. They were worth seeing. I wanted to see it on a big screen and I wish the screen had been even bigger. My friend says Batman Begins is much better. Certainly War of the Worlds is pretty empty otherwise, but not quite in the ways reviews had led me to believe. Everything happens so Cruise's character can become a mensch, they said. It didn't really read that way so much to me. But that doesn't make it a good movie. Still, with world-class mise-en-scene, you have to admire the visuals, and Spielberg is a master at maniputating crowds, compare A.I., the fun fair sequence. But A.I. is way more interesting that this and so is that sequence. It seemed to me that much of what Spielberg was trying to do in War of the Worlds was done better in Haneke's 2003 Le temps du loup/Time of the Wolf.

The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

Well I was bound to eventually see this, and my motivation to see it jumped considerably recently (maybe it's the Spanish class I'm taking). I must say I enjoyed the film quite a bit. While it's no masterpiece, and probably wouldn't make any list of mine from last year, it was not the dreck I thought it might be. The characters were great, and even if it's a somewhat standard coming of age film, well it's been a while since it's been done. Thumbs up, and nice work to have Che's first time not be with a prostitute (which at least puts it above similar French movies).

I will say that the editing annoyed me. Road movies should be full of extremely long shots (ala Robby Muller), and this was edited like a music video, shame on you all.

You're absolutely right. I found it hard to talk about this movie because I enjoyed it as much as you did, but couldn't single it out as a significant statement about anything. Definitely not dreck. Had not thought that about the editing. There are certainly lots of road shots of the pair on the motorcycle, but you may be right.

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Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I haven't seen Bad News Bears either, but it seems to be less like Bad Santa...

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Yeah, you're right. But watching an obnoxious Billy Bob will certainly remind you of his performance in Bad Santa.

I wanted to see it on a big screen and I wish the screen had been even bigger. My friend says Batman Begins is much better. Certainly War of the Worlds is pretty empty otherwise, but not quite in the ways reviews had led me to believe. Everything happens so Cruise's character can become a mensch, they said. It didn't really read that way so much to me. But that doesn't make it a good movie. Still, with world-class mise-en-scene, you have to admire the visuals, and Spielberg is a master at maniputating crowds, compare A.I., the fun fair sequence. But A.I. is way more interesting that this and so is that sequence. It seemed to me that much of what Spielberg was trying to do in War of the Worlds was done better in Haneke's 2003 Le temps du loup/Time of the Wolf.

No matter what, Spielberg can certainly come up with some interesting set-pieces, and I've heard a lot about certain sequences from the film. Even someone as cynical as Atkinson was impressed. But if your friend said that Batman Begins is much better then I'm not sure because I certainly wasn't impressed with Nolan's effort. I'll try to see it, if not for anything else than to just add to your new thread (good idea, by the way).

It's safe to say, even without watching War of the Worlds, that there isn't much common between the Spielberg and the Haneke films, other than the apocalyptic landscape. Time of the Wolf dealt with what happens afterwards which is much more interesting I think. Haneke's vision was so pure that it possibly ended up impeding whatever success the film might've had.

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It's safe to say, even without watching War of the Worlds, that there isn't much common between the Spielberg and the Haneke films, other than the apocalyptic landscape. Time of the Wolf dealt with what happens afterwards which is much more interesting I think.

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You're basically right of course. But The funny thing, though, is that it's already pretty much "afterwards" in War of the Worlds too, but they don't acknowledge that in the screenplay. The fact that the planet has been trashed by the dying aliens is disregarded in favor of the little family reunion, which is flat-out stupid, but somehow satisfies an unthinking audience.

Hence the situation --the danger of losing people, being separated, starving- isn't completely different even if the two films naturally do feel completely different and I think the human intereactions in Hour of the Wolf are vaguely echoed by Spielberg's movie, but in a more limited way because there are fewer characters and more emphasis on the set pieces-but it's all more intense in Haneke because the big budget destruction process is skipped. I'm glad you don't think the new War of the Worlds thread is redundant. My friend has completely different taste from me -- the one who preferred Batman Begins to War of the Worlds -- but I'd guess B.B. does have more content that W.O.T.W.; and opinions differ on B.B., but some do think it an improvement over recent Batman flicks. I wouldn't be qualified to say, haven't yet seen it or all the earlier ones, and am not enthused about doing so. My immediate program for new flicks in local theaters now is (probably):

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Red Eye
Murderball
Happy Endings &
2046

(though I have a DVD of 2046 and have already watched it various times)

The Talent Given Us is also open here and may be an important new entry in the small indie category.

I may miss Winterbottom's 9 Songs. I missed 24-Hour Party People so I have nothing to compare it to by him, other than Welcome to Sarajevo, which doesn't seem very relevant, and it's hard to get to now.

Grizzly Man is going to rank very high among the movies I've seen in theaters this summer. Junebug was also good, and of course Last Days brilliant.

Interesting. I guess I'll give War of the Worlds a go pretty soon. If nothing else, it'll probably be a visual experience.

I've already commented on Murderball and Happy Endings

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance - If you're an OldBoy fan (and you are), then there's a good chance that you'll like it.

9 Songs - It's an experiment but one that doesn't seem to have much thought process behind it. It was worth it for me just because of the musical performances. I'm still glad that Winterbottom made it, although if he had modest intentions then I'm not quite sure why he hired a model for unsimulated sex scenes.

2046 - Still mulling it over but I wasn't overly impressed.

Haven't seen The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Red Eye. Not sure if I really want to either.

I highly recommend The Constant Gardener. For me, Fernando Meirelles found a compelling story/screenplay to go along with his talent.

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It's gonna be a busy couple of weeks for me. I want to make a quick trip to the city to see Last Days, Junebug, Grizzly Man etc. but I also have to go to Toronto to pick up the schedule and choose my films (they don't allow it via phone/online anymore). School is starting next week so that's another problem. I'll also try to catch a couple of films at Latin-Beat program.

I want to see Hong Sang-soo's A Tale of Cinema at NYFF because for some reason it didn't make it to Toronto. Not sure if I'll have the time. I'm an FSLC member so I do have a good chance of getting in but I'll have to make my decision shortly.

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2046 - Still mulling it over but I wasn't overly impressed.

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"Still mulling it over" describes me too.

The Constant Gardener is a little out of the way for me to go to but it is in San Francisco.

I think I'll like Red Eye, but I may be wrong. the 40-Virgin film I will see with some friends who have totally different taste from me, it's dinner and a movie, just a social thing. The last thing I saw with them was March of the Penguins, which believe me, was not mon genre. I agree with Walter Chaw on that, though I'm not as angry a guy as he is sometimes.

If you can see Last Days, Junebug, Grizzly Man, etc., that's great. A good list.

Maybe I'll see you at the NYFF, I'm expecting to be there. How great to go to Toronto, but they make it hard to get tickets, I don't see thhe point.

Last film I've seen: My Father and I/Comment j'ai tué mon père (2003) DVD > Netflix.

Father who abandoned his family long ago reappears from Africa and hangs about contemplating the sterile existence of his now successful and rich doctor son. An elegant production; the son lives in a very grand chateau. Rather static and theatrical. It contains substantial longeurs. With Charles Berling as the son, Stephan Guillon as his happier, but no-account brother, Natacha Regnier as his well-bred wife, and Michel Bouquet (a very spry if deadpan 79) as the rather annoying father. Directed by Anne Fontaine, who I never heard of. I don't think this is enlightening enough to justify the unpleasantness. Berling is a steely fellow. The French title is "How I Killed My Father," but it could more accurately be called "How I Almost Killed MY Father" -- but that wouldn't be very catchy, would it? (Of course Berling's been in some more interesting films, like Chereau's Those Who Like Me Will Take the Train, Assayas' demonlover, etc. Now if I didn't like this much, why do I list it here? Well, I watched it with the English subtitles off and I understood over 85% of it, so that made it a plus for me. I watched the all-French version of Le Divorce and I lost a lot of it.

Red Eye has surprisingly gotten some good reviews but it seems very generic. I'm gonna avoid the Penguins.

When are you coming? What do you plan to see at NYFF?

Yeah, they sure make it tough at Toronto, no more options for submitting choices through mail either. I guess they want to process all the entries at the same time so it'll be fair because Toronto has now become the biggest, most important fest in N. America. I'll definitely try to get into Larry Clark's Wussup Rockers, but I'm sure that so will everyone else.

It's been a while but I liked the Anne Fontaine film. Quite cold but it was fun to watch. Strongly disliked her next film called Nathalie which had all the pitfalls of bad French films.

Never actually been to a film festival, wish I would have went to Chicago's last year, then I could have seen the Weeping Meadow, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I just watched Ley Lines (1999) - Takashi Miike

Another in a seemingly endless string of movies from Miike, the man is active. This is one of his crime films, and one that concludes an informal trilogy. The camerawork was exceptional here, but unfortunately it is somewhat wasted on this somewhat bland film. Wasn't overly impressed with it, and seems like a lesser work.

Béla Tarr's The Outsider (1981)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Bright Future (2004)

I don't know what movies I'm going to at the NYFF, as many as I can handle I guess, especially French ones and ones by directors I admire like the Dardennes, Neil Jordan, Haneke, Soderbergh, Park Chon-wook, and Hou Hsiau Hsien. After that I'm going to Paris and stage a little mini-film festival of my own.
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[color=orange-red]The last film I watched: François Ozon's 1998 "SITCOM." DVD > Netflix. [/color]

White rats can make you gay

A wry look at the bourgeois family and sexual temptation. According to the French movie website Allociné this is Ozon's first full-length film. Perhaps that's not totally accurate. But assuming that it is, he got off to kind of a late start (he was thirty-one then, now he's about thirty-eight) but has had a pretty amazing, high-profile career since then. The father brings home a pet white rat and the sight or touch of it seems to make everybody go sexually haywire beginning with the son's dinner declaration that he's gay. Well-paced amusing outrageous polymorphously perverse and at the same time in a French way genteel, Sitcom has the bright glossy upper middleclass look you'd probably expect from a TV family comedy. An American newspaper reviewer said this is "John Waters crossed with Eric Rohmer," but for various reasons that is silly. At first I thought Ozon was somewhat derivatively channeling Almodóvar, and there is even an obstreperous Spanish housemaid. Ozon's personal touch is that she has an African husband who seduces boys in his gym classes. Ed Gonzalez got it right when he wrote that this is a bad movie but "its queering of genre conventions is still refreshing."

It's not revolutionary though, and that goes for all his films I've seen (Water Drops on Burning Rocks is still on my to-see list): Criminal Lovers, Under the Sand, 8 Women, Swimming Pool, 5x2. He's had fun with these and so have we, but there's a certain lack of conviction or consistent style (apart from the gay sensibility) and given that, it's worth looking back at this "minor" effort. It may have more meat in it -- and confront more personal demons -- than the slick ones with Charlotte Rampling.

We can track back those demons in the US DVD's one extra -- Ozon's very first film, a seven-minute silent in color made in 1988, Photo de famille (Family Photo). Like many fledgling efforts the cast consists of the young filmmaker's family members and they're used to show how a youth casually kills his whole family after dinner, poisons his mother, stabs his sister and smothers his father -- with a smile on his face every time, and then props up the dead bodies on a couch and poses with them for an automatic camera photo, throwing back his head and grinning from ear to ear. The young killer (Guillaume Ozon) looks like River Phoenix so that's a plus that would not have eluded the filmmaker whose young male principals in Les amants criminels were good enough looking to be given the full lush gay beauty treatment by the super-campy photo team Pierre et Gilles. Sitcom obviously realizes this early fantasy of intra-familial hostilities with a lot of embroidery added. Sitcom's siblings are played by an actual brother and sister, Marina and Adrien de Van (they sound like the incestuous siblings in Nabokov's Ada!), Marina being an old collaborator and schoolmate of Ozon's who's made films of her own. It's an amusing touch that Stephane Rideau, who's starred in and directed a number of gay films, plays the sister's straight boyfriend. I assume the Ozons in Family Photo are the actual brother and sister and mother and father. Ozon is doing the same thing in Sitcom; it's just more elaborate.

Posted on Chris Knipp website.

Unknown Pleasures (2002) - Jia Zhang-Ke

Not quite as ambitious or good as The World. Matter of fact I don't really think too much of this film at all. Just sort of went under the radar for me, no real impact left on me. Continues his theme of apprehension towards capitalism, and it's corruptibility. Maybe a second look is necessary for this, I don't know.

LA Confidential (1997) - Curtis Hansen

Almost forgot I watched this. Saw this one for the fourth time tonight, and I love this movie. It's so damn good that you rarely stop to appreciate anything but the plot. I did pick up some deep focus shots, and paid attention to Jerry Goldsmith's score a lot more this time around, but it's still the plot and acting that make this such a damn fantastic film. Granted I had someone asking me questions about the plot throughout the entire thing, but well that's to be expected I guess. Try to find a respectful way to say "stfu and watch the movie". But seriously though if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have watched it again.

I'd recommend that you give Unknown Pleasures another try sometime in the future. The fact that it's Jia's most humorous film shouldn't undermine its overall message, which, like you said, is his reservations regarding capatalism.

As for the humor, I recall a scene when the protagonist hears an explosion and runs to window and says, "Shit, are the Americans attacking?" We also witness him selling bootlegs of Jia's underground films on the street. And, of course, the dollar bill which roams around throughout the film and ultimately ends up buying a pleasure. I do agree with you that it's an inferior film to The World, which is slowly gathering momemtum.

Red Eye.
After watching this generic new Wes Craven thriller focusing on airlines and big hotels instead of terrified 20-somethings and houses, whose only originality is the new targets and techniques plugged into the right-wing politics of the plot, I'm doubtful that Cillian Murphy has a great future ahead of him, though both he and Rachel McAdams do a decent job as an evil terrorist-blackmailer and his almost too plucky victim. I should have seen 40-Year-Old Virgin instead. Or should I?

Park Chon-wook: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002).
Made before Oldboy (2003) and now part of a "revenge" trilogy. The third one, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, came out this year and I expect to catch it at the New York Film Festival. I haven't written an extended comment on Mr Vengeance yet. This is more gruesome than Oldboy and seemed to me to drag in the middle, while picking up momentum nicely in the latter part. Park's movies are as baroque and decadent as the late Jacobean "revenge tragedies" of 17th-century England, and there may be other similarities. An English university course outlined on the Internet uses the following statement as the basis for its first essay assignment:

Quote:

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"Jacobean theatre interrogated structures of belief which legitimated prevailing power relations, and...it often did this by seizing upon, intensifying and exposing those contradictions in the prevailing social order which it is one of the effects of ideology to efface" (Johnathan Dollimore, Radical Tragedy, p.xxiii).

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Well, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance has a rich man and a poor, disabled youth lined up against each other, and the boy's revolutionary girlfriend leaflets mafiosi and the public alike with screeds against neo-liberalism and corporate dominance. In other words, this one reads as more political than Oldboy.

"I don't know what movies I'm going to at the NYFF, as many as I can handle I guess, especially French ones and ones by directors I admire like the Dardennes, Neil Jordan, Haneke, Soderbergh, Park Chon-wook, and Hou Hsiau Hsien. After that I'm going to Paris and stage a little mini-film festival of my own."

That's nice. I didn't know that you were a HHH fan. Even if you were to miss the Dardennes and the Haneke at NY, you can probably catch them in Paris.


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Benoît Jacquot's Seventh Heaven (1998)

Shinji Aoyama's Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name (2005)

I don't know what will be on in Paris when I get there, I think it's best to see things when you can. There will be new things opening in Paris I'm sure. The Parisian cinematic fare last September was pretty interesting, and quite different from what you got here. Another thing I'm thinking of doing is buying some DVD's there. I don't have an all-region player but I can watch them on my computer. As you may recall I did that -- bought and sent back a little pile of DVD's -- in Italy last year, with some good results -- Gianni Amelio, and Buongiorno, notte, several interesting things by Pupi Avati and my favorie Muccino, his first, Come te nessuno mai (not available on US DVD).

If I'm becoming a fan of HHH, it's entirely thanks to Filmwurld. I've only seen three so far, Puppetmaster, Flowers, and Goodbye, South, Goodbye. Netflix doesn't have much else that I haven't seen, just a couple. Some of his highly regarded movies, such as Boys from Fengkuei, appear hard to come by. Kevin Lee had a good, very personal, essay on it in Senses of Cinema. I ignored Milenium Mambo when it was showing here because I'd hever heard of Hou then.

When I said "directors I admire," some of them are ones I think I'm beginning to admire, and some are ones I used to admrie who I hope will still do good things, such as Soderbergh and Neil Jordan....

I appreciate your comments on Jacquot and Seventh Heaven on the DVD Releases thread and have put Seventh Heaven on my Netflix queue. It's not clear to me if all the other movies by him tht you mention in your first paragraph about Seventh Heaven are available on US DVD's. I like The School of Flesh very much, have a copy on tape and have watched it many times, but I was a bit disappointed (at least at first viewing) in A toute de suite, though I certainly preferred it to Lila dit ça (they came here in close succession, they opened in NYC about the same week). I have seen nothing else by Jacquot and a lot of his work is not available on US DVD's, it seems (How many of the best ones are?), and only four are available from Netflix, two of which are coming, not yet available.

I wonder what's going to happen to all the stuff on videotape that isn't going to make it to DVD. A friend just mentioned that the bigger local libraries are now removing their videotapes and paring down to just DVD's. They seem enamored of the new medium, as are the big commercial rental stores, but for the purpose of renting or lending, it's not at all clear that DVD's are an improvement on tapes; in fact they seem to degrade more quickly, because they're rather delicate and if they're handled roughly, they're ruined and unwatchable. And anyway removing the tapes from the shelves means a fair number of films will just not be available any more that we might need to see.

When there was still a big Tower Classical store in Berkeley (now long gone) with a large, well informed staff, I remember one guy saying that there were tens of thousands of CD's already out of print. There is no permanence in these new media.

I hope somebody will watch Gianni Amelio's Le chiavi di casa/The Keys to the House. I saw it in Italy and in NYC, but I don't think it ever got here. Now it's at Blockbuster, so... watch it, people!

Lamerica is on my Netflix queue so I'll finally get a chance to watch it. Oscar has said he likes it the best, I think. But I was very impressed by both The Way We Laughed/Così ridevano and The Keys to the House. Both amazing.