the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

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).

Yeah, if you can fit them in your schedule here then that's the way to go. Not quite sure when you'll be leaving for Paris but Chéreau's Gabrielle opens on September 26th; Haneke's film will be out the first week of October closely followed by Dardenne's latest. Films from Blier, Allen, Garrel etc are also in October.

It's good to see that you're more keen on foreign DVD's now; it's like a whole new world especially for someone who lives here. Will you be visiting Italy this year? I do remember our exchanges on the Italian films you saw and brought.

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.

Millenium Mambo should be at Netflix, although I'm not totally sure. A few of his earlier films that were part of a box-set devoted to him were available at Nicheflix once, but a couple of them aren't there anymore otherwise that would've been an option. (The four films in the set are: Boys from Fengkuei [1983], A Summer at Grandpa's [1984], Time to Live, Time to Die [1985] and Dust in the Wind [1986]. All of them are region-0 or "All" so they can be played everywhere.)

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.

Thanks. I hope that you get to see Seventh Heaven. Among the other films I mentioned, only A Single Girl and The School of Flesh are available on DVD here. I really liked Pas de Scandale with Huppert and Vincent London but it's only available in France (no subs). His 1990 film The Disenchanted is available here although it isn't as good as some of the other ones; also Sade which I didn't like very much. His other worthy films like La Fausse suivante, Tosca, Marianne, and earlier ones like L' Assassin musicien are hard to come by. As for his latest, there were a couple of problems late as I mentioned in my post on the film, but I liked the consistency he showed with his protagonist.

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.

I agree. There are A LOT of films that are still only available on vhs and in some cases that will continue because the source prints are either lost or aren't good enough to be used again. Even libraries seem to running out of space which is a bit sad.

Even libraries seem to running out of space which is a bit sad.


It's more than a bit sad, if you ask me. I have put everything on my queue that you mention, or I will shortly. Yes, Netflix does have Milleniium Mambo and I will be getting it eventuallyl, I have a list of Chinese items, but I've gone for the French ones first. I have put Seventh Heaven near the top and added A Single Girl. Of course I'll soon be gone, so I can't watch many more Netflix flicks right now. If Peter gets me into press screenings and that enables one to also get DVD's of films one can't make it to, I may be able to watch the films I want to see before the public gets to them, but I will be leaving on October 7, arriving Paris October 8. Yes, I am going on to Italy after two weeks in Paris. I don't think I will bother to buy books in Italy thhis time because that didn't turn out to be useful. If I buy any I will have to research them more carefully. In any case one is inevitably rushed, but I think I will be luckier in getting French DVD's this time, which I didn't even think of last year, assuming there is not any unexpected snag. From going over the Netflix list of French (which seems pretty limited -- again, because it is just DVD's -- there is a lot of stuff on US videotapes that has not come onto DVD's and never willl --) and from going over all the French films in video stores here in the past, I have a pretty good picture of what is available here or isn't. Of course the price in France is higher, as it is in ITaly, and as CD's are. But I saw a lot of tables on the sidewalk especialy around the Pompidou..... So there may be cut-rate DVD's. Know anything about that? Anyway I'm sure there are tons of French DVD's there that you can't get here.

I may get to Nicheflix eventually. But I wonder how I could get The Boys from Fengkuei if even they don't have it any more? I can't go to China, and even if I could, I can't follow Chinese without subtitles!

I believe Facets still has those films available.

feel free to check at www.facets.org

If I were taking a trip to France to buy some DVD's, I'd certainly look into the Ousmane Sembene films released there that still haven't made it to America. I also believe they're ahead of us on Louis Malle. I'm an embarrassing ignoramous on modern French film, I've maybe seen ten from the past decade.

Audition (1999) - Takashi Miike

Kind of a let down on this one, too much hype. The first 90 minutes or so were so damn boring that I didn't even care by the end.

wpqx--
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Thanks for the reminder about Facets--I know about them, though I haven't tried their rental service and having just joined Netflix the past month or so and living in CA, I can't make any generalized use of them now. They're a great resource, and you're the more lucky to be in Chicago where they are, but the disappearance of tapes generally is still going to cut out a lot of films for us, Facets or no.

Facets says:

" Renting VHS tapes over the mail will entail an outgoing surcharge (because
they weigh more): $5.00 for one tape, $8.00 for two and $10.00 for three.
You are responsible [sic] the return postage."

That's in addition to the $25-a-month membership fee.

John Palmer's Sugar (Think Film , 2004) > rental DVD.

This is a little Canadian indie first film (based on stories by Bruce LaBruce, and pretty much straight-to-DVD, I guess) about a gay youth who comes of age by leaving the suburbs -- prompted by his precocious and understanding little sister -- on the night of his eighteenth birthday for the gay hustlers of downtown Toronto. He finds one to like right away, the druggy but fresh-faced and Bruce Weber-handsome Butch (Brenden Fehr of "Roswell"). "I'm bad news. You know that, right?" says Butch, predicting the outcome of the story. Nevertheless, they bond in a semi-sexual, semi-buddy relationship. Sugar gets extreme reactions, from total dismissal because of the cheap production and desultory plot (and frank details about sexuality?) to raves because of lively, committed acting and plausible situations. The trick scenes go deeper into both nastiness and sweetness than slicker efforts like My Own Private Idaho. It all may seem a complete waste of time to clueless straights but from the gay point of view it's curiously endearing and feels very real and familiar. This is not the usual gay-audience skin-deep pretty-pretty gay boy drama. Felt performances and authentic subject matter make this something quite different from that. There's an extra poignancy in the fact that Andre Noble, who plays Cliff, died that year from a poisonous flower while camping. If not a total success, Sugar has redeeming features. There's no doubt that Palmer and his actors (who include Sarah Polley in a minor role) highlight Cliff's naïve enthusiasm and Butch's ambivalence about his sexuality quite effectively. I'd have to recuse myself from trying to express a "neutral" opinion. I could not describe the basics of Sugar better than Harrison Cheung of Movie Gurus: http://www.movie-gurus.com/content/r...97/index.html.

You could get some good deals from those vendors but don't expect top quality. Might wanna pick up Les Soeurs fâchées starring Huppert if you can get it for a good price. It's a nice comedy and should have English subs. Same for La Femme de Gilles which you've seen (I think) as it just came out on DVD.

Wpqx is right about the Sembene set but a few of his films are out now in the U.S. and I'm not sure how much you're interested. As for Malle, films like Zazie dans le métro and L'Inde fantôme are available but no subs.

The Hou set isn't cheap. Perhaps you could find something on Ebay but I think you should first watch the films that are on Netflix.

Facets has a great selection but it's a bit too much for non-residents. I believe they do carry a Tarr film which is only out on vhs.

Sugar is from TLA Releasing I think who specialize in Gay/Lesbian films. (include Sarah Polley in a minor role.) I think I'll have to see this one, although, I'm not sure if it's readily available. You got the un-rated version, didn't you?! ;)

Miike's Audition is said to be the film for non-fans and I qualify as such. I liked its slow build-up instead of getting bashed in the head from the start, something you normally get from him.

Yeah sorry about the facets endorsement. My membership is $250 a year for however much I feel like renting. Unfortunately though, this year I'm not going to renew, seeing as how I'll be going away to school, and in all honesty I haven't made as much use of my membership this past year as I did the one before. I still got a couple to watch however, and they have been the best damn resource imaginable for me.

There may not be any other rental store in the country that's as big and as good as Facets, but if you're not in Chicago, it just won't work as well. It's Netflix for the rest of us. It may be particularly popular here because the San Jose mailing point makes for an especially quick turnaround.

Yes, I guess the version of Sugar I just watched was unrated, if there is any other. If I got it at my local Blockbuster I should think maybe it actually IS readily available, but I could be wrong.

I know if you buy on the street you're taking a chance, but I could get more that way. Even if I go to Paris every year that's not often, so I want to stock up, but not blow all my dough on them. I would go for anything with Isabelle Huppert that I haven't seen. I don't really care about subtitles, by the way. It's nice to have them, if you can cut them off or on (some films cheaply produced on DVD for the US you can't take them off), but watching without them makes me focus on the language more, and as I've mentioned I'm working to improve both my French and my Italian. With French DVD's with subtitle on-off options, I try to watch with them off, and if I'm really studying a film to improve my French, I go back and read the subs for phrases I can't catch. As my French teacher has pointed out later, I still often get the phrases wrong, but at least my comprehension is improving some this way.I've bought more DVD's lately, hardly any till the past year or so. These fancy US DVD's like Collateral, Bourne Supremacy, and The Aviator, and Le Divorce, all of which I just bought very cheap at this local Blockbuster the past week, usually have soundtracks in French now so I watch them that way. So Bourne begins, "Ceci n'est pas un exercice d'entrainement...."!

I will watch whatever Netflix has of Hou, contemporary French, Liang, etcl, before I go to any other more complicated or expensive source. Their French list seems disappointing--there's just obviously so much that's not on it that would be interesting, some of it stuff you've seen at the Rendezvous showings or on Canal 5, but I guess that's simply true of the US DVD's of French films and not particularly the fault of Netflix, that the selection is limited and some choice items are always missing. Netflix is doing their best. But why do they have to hard-sell Audrey Tautou so much?!

Combats de femme - Un amour de femme/A Woman's Love (2001) (TV)

With Raffaela Anderson and Anthony Delon. Written and directed by Sylvie Verheyde, whose first film, Un frère/A Brother (1997) was described by Stephen Holden as "rhapsodically sensual" (César du meilleur espoir féminin 1998). Un amour de femme is about Jeanne (Hélène Fillières) a bored and beautiful married woman with a young son and a successful practice as an osteopath, who has an affair with a vivacious and soulful (female) dancer Marie (Anderson) whom she meets at a club with her husband David (Delon, Alain's son). I thought it might be trashy, but it's not. I didn't know that Verheyde had been a Cannes entry and a César winner. It has a light touch and is pleasant to watch. I believe it was shown in the Rendezvous series in NYC. Verheyde has done aa more recent film called Princesses (2000) that has Jean-Hugues Anglade in it. Earlier, two shorts. This was shown at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival back then (and at other simililar festivals) but I didn't see it before.

Talking in campy VARIETY-speak, Dennis Harvey was unimpressed:

Quote:

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Lipstick lesbiana without the ice pick still sports the same artificial, titillative feel. Writer-helmer Sylvie Verheyde may intend French telepic as a serious portrait of one woman's abrupt coming-out-cum-marital-collapse. But glam mood and glib emotional content make this play more like a slightly arthoused "See two chicks together!" exercise....

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That's such a gem I'm sure you'd like to read on, but I haven't got the dough to subscribe to VARIETY.

Seriously, it was pretty funny watching this after Sugar, which is relatively so real and specific. Un amour de femme is too smug and pleased with itself, and Dennis Harvey was right to have his shit detector turned on. There is indeed too much of the "'See two chicks together!' exercise" and too little exploration of relationships. Jeanne is like a girl who doesn't know how to handle being on a date. Okay, this is new to her. But why should Marie, who's had other relationships with women, be so girlish and tongue-tied? There's a kind of shy gloating ("See two chicks!") going on that's kind of embarrasing.

In theaters 2046 (2004) - Wong Kar-Wai

Somewhat baffling film that seems designed to be seen at least twice. Very characteristic of Wai's work, and not without it's high points. Overall though I'm still trying to figure out what I think about it.

At home, Close to Eden (1991) - Nikita Mikhalkov

Interesting but not fantastic. Mikhalkov makes what could be a boring story about modernization interesting by throwing a few surreal sequences in. There was humor throughout, but not exactly a comedy. If I were to be generic I'd say thumbs up, but don't go telling people I said it was a masterpiece.

I also plan to watch 2046 again in order to form a more stable opinion.

________________________

Ousmane Sembene's Mandabi (1968)

I feel the same way you do about 2046. Designed to be seen a lot more than once. Ravishing as it is to look at, I hate to come out and say it's a disappointment. I've watched it on DVD any number of times, but it remains uninvolving. Given the bipolarity of the experience, I'm not sure a more stable opinion is possible.

Yves Saint Laurent 5 avenue Marceau 75116 Paris (2002)
Paired on DVD with
Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times (2002) as it was in showings early this year at Film Forum. DVD > Netflix.

Both by David Teboul. The first one is coverage of YSL and his staff preparing over a period of several months what turned out to be his last annual collection, dress by dress, in a film which has not inaccurately been called "incredibly tedious." But if you're into French couturier design or are yourself a designer, this is gold. The other one is a life of YSL with some great interviews with him, at various ages, his longtime companion, Pierre Bergé, his "muse," Loulou de la Falaise, and others. You also see some of the collections being shown. I was deeply impressed by Saint Laurent's unquestionable genius and precocity, and maybe because of this context I was more appreciative than I've ever been before of the glory of one of his collections. An incredibly concentrated period of creativity precedes the production of the several hundred designs each year. In a couple of weeks he turns out all these pencil drawings on sheets of paper, the pages are organized and lined up, and under his constant hands-on supervision his brilliant team -- still themselves doing everything in the classic way, by hand -- rapidly turns them into splendid dresses. It's quite an amazing process in which elegance and style are bound up with intense hard work. YSL came to Paris from Oran, Algiers, with his mother when he was sixteen. At nineteen he began working with Dior. At 22 Dior declared him his only possible successor, and in four days, Dior died and Saint Laurent took over the house of Dior. Five years later he was forced out of Dior and started the house of Yves Saint Laurent. Fashion may be ephemeral, and it is different from art. Jean Cocteau thus famously contrasts the two: "Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time. " But after seeing this melancholy genius at work in Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times, I have no doubt that he is an artist, and one of the great ones of his century. Amazing, and essentially a mystery, like all the great ones. It's sad to see the contrast between the cute, witty young YSL and the old, addiction-ravaged chain smoker at the end, but the words are as carefully chosen at both ends, and the terrifying intensity of focus, the passion for creation, never falters. I will guarantee you that if you give your attention to these films and particularly the biography, this man will leave a lasting impression upon you: tall, erect, with the distinctive large-framed glasses, he is as unmistakable a trademark as his fashion. You will also get to see Catherine Deneuve, as beautiful as ever, casually picking out some clothes for daytime wear from her pal YSL in the year of these documentaries, just before he said his last adieux to haute couture (January 7, 2002). Not all the great couturiers are gay, but a lot of them are, and the art of fashion seems somehow inexplicably and inextricably bound up with homosexuality -- this special love of a man who loves men for women and their bodies, which are YSL's declared and unmistakable inspiration. That to me is part of the mystery and fascination of this intense closeup of fashion design at its highest level. And Saint Laurent speaks of his homosexuality and its role in his work. His collaborator, his manager and his director was also his lover, Pierre Bergé.

Jun Ichikawa: Tony Takitani (2004). Theatrical showing, Berkeley, California.

Perhaps obviously a short story. It seemed like a short story. It turns out it is, by Haruki Murakami, and it appeared in translation in The New Yorker three years ago. It's constantly narrated, this film, in voiceover, sometimes with the actors finishing one of the narrator's sentences, as if they were in a tableau. A boy is born to a jazz musician father shortly after the end of the war and his mother dies, he is neglected, he learns the melancholy life of being alone, and he becomes an artist, eventually a successful illustrator specializing in depicting anything mechanical. He finds a wife, younger than himself, who makes him happy, but loving clothes, and now having a good source of income, because Tony Takitani is quite successful in his career as an illustrator, she becomes addicted to shopping. She buys an endless number of dresses, coats, shoes, so many a whole big room has to be set up to store them. When he loses her, he devises a strange ruse to transition himself into a life without her. The story fizzles away... but it's told with such tact and style that one walks out curiously satisfied.

Tony's backstory, his boyhood, his trombonist dad, his early artistic development, the far off immediate postwar years, using black and white stills and movies, is constructed so engagingly and with such a fine hand in the editing that the central events, which may seem more a conceit than a story, are almost a letdown. The main section is presented in very faded greyed out color that is perfectly right for the delicacy of the telling. Left to right slow panning shots create an effect like turning pages; the wife's developing shopaholism is depicted in overlapping shots of her legs walking in a succession of elegant shoes and boots. Ryuichi Sakamoto's simple piano score resembles French impressionist compositions like Satie's "3 Pieces in the Form of a Pear."

If the subject matter is a bit thin, the style is such a delight that it doesn't matter, and the themes of loneliness, dress, possession, and money (relevant to our last century and to Japan's postwar history and perhaps to all human experience) are thought-provoking enough to make the minimalist content expand in the mind. A quiet, subtle, delightful film.

Have heard a lot about Tony Takitani but might have to wait till it comes to DVD due to all the other events coming soon.

Good post on Laurent. People who are in some way associated with the industry will certainly be interested in the doc.

Thanks. Too bad not to see Tony Takitani theatrically since it's so visual, but one can't make it to everything. I might have missed this myself if a Japanese-American friend had not made this her first choice for us to see yesterday. The sureness and elegance of the style grabbed me immediately.

Jacques Doillon's Petits Frères (2001)

Benoît Jacquot: Seventh Heaven (1997) >Netflix DVD.

arsaib already has an interesting comment on this on the DVD Releases/Jacquot thread. I may add my own comment later. It fails to engage me like Jacquot's 1998 École de la chair/The School of Flesh. I have seen À toute de suite but I have not seen much of Jacquot so my knowledge of his filmmaking is limited. I can see a similar taste for jump cuts here.

Volker Schlöndorff: The Ninth Day (2004)/ Der Neunte Tag Theatrical screening in the Bay Area.

A austere, wonderfully cast WWII film about an unusual incident in the life of a Luxumberg priest who was released briefly from Dachau in 1942, apparently to pressure the bishop and possibly his fellow priests to endorse Nazism, based on Dachau surviver Jean Bernard's 1945 memoir, Pfarrerblock 25487. There's excellent reference material online about this film particularly through , Wikipedia, which will take you to a comparison of the film with the memoir by Prof. Harold Marcuse of UC Santa Barbara, several Dachau websites, and much more. Just having given a careful and loving look at Schlöndorff's 1984 Swann in Love/un amour de Swann I'm pretty amazed at the sheer versatility of the man.

Irreversible (2002)

Well second time did some wonders for this film. Knowing what had happened, I didn't have to figure anything out, and I didn't really have to pay attention to the plot. So I focused on the shooting of the film, and I was pretty damn impressed. This film may be a gimmick movie, but I think it's a damn effective one. Due to it's subject matter it will never be loved by all, but I think the film is quite successful in its objectives. Helps to mention as always I'm a fan of long takes, which is one reason why I'm still kicking myself for having never seen a Bela Tarr film.

Quote:

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(wpqx)
Irreversible (2002)
Well second time did some wonders for this film. Knowing what had happened, I didn't have to figure anything out, and I didn't really have to pay attention to the plot. So I focused on the shooting of the film, and I was pretty damn impressed.

---

So much for the whole silly idea of "spoilers." If you know what happens you can appreciate a film better: I'm always trying to get that idea across but nobody listens.

I'm not condoning giving away vital plot points, just saying a second viewing of a film like this can do wonders.

I just watched Happiness (1998), and well I'm not overly impressed. Kind of a mess of a movie, with some redeeming qualities, but ultimately a little too embarassing.

The Circle (2000) - Jafar Panahi

One of the few films I've seen from Iran that focuses exclusively on women. Needless to say there is plenty of material for drama, as we find just how little rights these women have. I am unfamiliar with any of Panahi's other films, so I'm yet to make any comparissons. The film can be somewhat preachy (as many Iranian films are), I found it somewhat muddled however. Not quite as effective as the story could have been.

I'm still kicking myself for having never seen a Bela Tarr film.

Well, his first three are available now so try to see them if you get a chance. I've talked about his first two so far in this thread. Feel free to add there if you like.

I know, but the release of those films coincided with my financial collapse. I'm more intrigued by his later, largely unavailable work. From what I've read of his style though, he seems very much my kind of filmmaker. Basically a modern incarnation of Miklos Jansco.

Dolls (2004) - Takeshi Kitano

Interesting change of departure, that put me to sleep. Now the sleeping part isn't necessarily a bad thing, because I literally fell asleep for every Andrei Tarkovsky film I watched. Certainly plenty to enjoy about the film, but not really exciting cinema.

Rebels of the Neon God (1992) - Tsai Ming-Liang

Well perhaps I paid more attention, or perhaps I finally understand Liang's style, but this film went over wonderfully well for me. The characters were more identifiable, and although I couldn't tell who was who for awhile (the main characters do look a lot alike), I figured it out and went from there. I believe the similarity of the characters looks was intentional, naturally as two were brothers, but I think there was a similarity amongst everyone. Lots of people going somewhere with no destination. As the film progressed a conscience built up, and truly a great film. I still have more Liang to watch, so my expectations are certainly high for the next viewing.

Erik von Looy: Memory of a Killer (2004)

In De Zaak Alzheimer, a Belgian hit man rebels when sent to kill a young girl and finds out she's at the bottom of a child prostitute ring which he decides to wipe out all the way up the chain of command -- just a few steps ahead of the police detectives. The only trouble is he's experiencing the onset of Alzheimer's. A brother is in a sanatorium with it. Despite this nod to an aging population (and hypertrophied genre) this is a conventional enough police procedural that includes such clichés as feuding branches of law enforcement and a bond between the chief investigator and the criminal, but it's well worked out with some neat little details and it moves fast. It would have been nice if there weren't all those banging drums to signal when the action is heating up and it would have been even nicer if the very able hit man would actually show more signs of oncoming senility. But the plot cheats us out of whatever dash of color that would bring by having him take medication to control the symptoms. Even with a bullet wound and a crooked shrink working for the top man in the ring trying to shoot him full of poison our hit man keeps the whole police force hopping till the end. Jan Decleir, who resembles the late William Bendix, is compelling as the hit man, Angelo Ledda, and Koen De Bouw is sexy as the chief detective, Vincke.


Fernando Meireilles: The Constant Gardener (2005).

Meireilles' chronicle of three decades of favela crime life in Rio, City of God/Cidade de Deus (2002), was a wonder of color and whirlwind action. Here he applies his bright brush to a post-cold war John Le Carré story about a mild and moral diplomat, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) whose political firebrand wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) gets assassinated in Kenya, leading him to go against the grain and offend his superiors by hunting down the medical cartel scandal that got her in harm's way. The contrast between the gentleness and focus of Fiennes's character and the turbulence and corruption all around him as he moves closer and closer to the same danger his wife faced is beautifully conveyed. The film is particularly notable for its endless fast succession of dazzling bright African images and its panoply of morally dubious secondary characters ably played by the likes of Bill Nighy, Danny Huston, Gerald McSorley, and Keith Pearson. But unfortunately Meirelles' hyperactive editing, which underscored the wild energy of the favela in Cidade de Deus, tends to overwhelm the story sometimes and isn't altogether appropriate to a writer whose métier was always conveying the gray world of self effacing bureaucrats. When it's all over all you may remember is Fiennes' sad face. He's fine, though, and so is Weisz and so are many of the others. It's not certain this was the ideal project for Meirelles, though he has produced a stylish mainstream film.

The Circle (2000) - Jafar Panahi

I couldn't agree more. What I did like here, however, is the tragectory of his shots, all referring to the circularity of the title, but otherwise it doesn't have anything new to offer. There isn't much common between The Circle and Panahi's other efforts (The White Balloon/The Mirror/Crimson Gold). The latter two are available on DVD and they're much more Kiarostamian. I think you'll like them.


Rebels of the Neon God (1992) - Tsai Ming-Liang

Glad to see that you stuck with Tsai. His films will definitely grow on you.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)

Holy shit this is quite possibly the funniest movie ever. Every time I watch it there are new things to laugh at, and within the first five minutes I was literally crying. So much for saying no movie can make me cry. Sure these weren't tears of sorrow, but nevertheless I was hysterically laughing as my girlfriend looked at me in stunned disblelief. I regret to inform you that she wasn't too amused with the film. Of course only a super grinch would be unable to laugh at anything in the film, I mean is there much funnier than a white fluffy rabit decapitating a full grown man?

Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Well I like it, certainly not enough to see it for a THIRD time, but well it wasn't my choice. Try reasoning with someone who refuses to watch 8 1/2. Not a very strong acting film, but great characterization, and people can historically point to this film as the one that made Angelina Jolie a household name. Actually it was more her Oscar acceptance for this film that did that, but whatever. I don't recall anyone commenting on this one the last time I reported on it. I'm curious to know if anyone else saw it, and what they may think about it.

I saw it and I thought it was a lot of drama queens hamming it up. The Oscar showed that the Academy is fooled by actor-y excess. But Angelina may be a force for good. I bought the issue of W magazine with the 30-page art photo spread with her and her new boyfriend, and I wish them a happy life.

You can't go wrong with the Python crew.

Cote d'Azur/Crustacés et coquillages (2005) French seaside sexual midlife crisis-cum-coming of age story with a gay slant. Fluff. Gay fluff, with a farcical structure this time, so it has straight people and the classic round of secret trysts, only this time some if it is just fucking and some of it is just cruising.

Games of Love and Chance/Les jeux de l'amour et du hazard.The one that won the Cesar for best picture beating out films by more prestigious directors, brilliant conception, though the execution drags at times due to reliance on improv. I was touched, and that isn't happening at the movies much lately. It was a bold gesture on the judges' part to choose this, but not a foolish one.

Green Street Hooligans Directed by a German woman kick boxing champion, a rather dumb movie out of Clarke's The Firm and Fincher's Fight Club. I love Charlie Hunnam and he rules in this. Elijah Wood is sweet and sincere, and the whole thing is aquestionable project but I hope it doesn't hurt either of these young men's careers. Anyway Wood has Everything Is Illuminated, which is some high literary stuff, coming out shortly, so he's perhaps safe. Except for a bad cockney accent, Hunnam does manage to strut through this with undeniable panache. I still love him, but I wish he'd let his hair grow back out.

The Notebook (2004) - Nick Cassavettes

At the risk of never getting laid again, I'll refrain from saying anything bad about the film. Needless to say, that's about all I can say.

I think many men out there share your sentiment. :)

The French title of Games of Love and Chance isn't Les jeux de l'amour et du hazard--that's the title of the Marivaux play used in the film. The film is called L'Esquive. It means "avoidance" or "evasion," and no doubt refers to the young lady's behavior toward her suitor in the story --Lydia's evasion of Krimo. The director, by the way, was Abdel Kechiche (born in Tunisia Abdel Latif Kechiche in 1960). This was his second film. The first one was called La faute a Voltaire (2000).

The directors of Cote d'Azur were Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. Their previous films were The Adventures of Felix (Drole de Felix) and My LIfe on Ice (Ma vraie vie a Rouen).

The director of Green Street Hooligans was the German female former kick boxing champion, Lexi Alexander. Her third outing.

Jacques Doillon's Raja (2004)

Danis Tanovic's L'Enfer (TIFF)

Michael Almareyda's William Eggleston in the Real World

Gael Morel's Three Dancing Slaves/Le Clan.

Will post reviews of them later.

I think you accidentally reposted in the TIFF thread.

Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener (2005)

Jeff Stanzler's Sorry, Haters (TIFF)

Izo (2004) - Takashi Miike

A very, very, very senseless and boring display of pure violence for 128 minutes. This film was a complete and utter waste, lots of blood thinly trying to immitate art. There was no point to the story, no character development, no plot, just some stupid asshole randomly transported to different times and places killing everyone in sight.

Elevator to the Gallows (1957) - Louis Malle

Well for some strange reason this film is in re-release, and I was determined not to miss it. Seeing it after a slew of later era Malle films, this is a radical departure. Whereas he steadily began to make his films "wordy" this one is low on dialogue. With it's infectious Miles Davis score, and rain soaked Parisean streets, this has all the "feel" of a classic New Wave film.

The film centers on irony, from the very beginning we get a sense that things aren't going to go the right way, for somewhat strange reasons. That said, the film doesn't have too many surprises, but there is a comedy of irony. Something that we can laugh at not with. Not to say it's "ha-ha" funny, but there is certainly a tension break, and constantly reminded of the sad, sad face of Jeanne Moreau.

We do pick sides here, and both me and the person going with me agreed that we were for the main couple. The younger couple that stole Julien's car was irritating and immature. I wanted them to get caught right from the beginning, and somebody badly needed to smack the skinny car thief. Well I won't say who get's there's and how, because that would defeat a lot of the fun. The film was not a disappointment, and the print is in pretty mint condition, I would recommend seeing it at your earliest convenience.

This was Malle's first feature film and he made it at the age of 24, not bad considering. The film avoids almost all the cliches of adulterous lovers hatching a murder plot. Malle focuses on the crime and aftermath, rather than the affair leading up to it, in many ways a radical departure from the American style. Like any great Hitchcock film, which this was clearly influenced by, we find ourselves wanting to yell at the characters in the film, on how to save themselves, particularly Julien, who's on our side from the get go.