Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

Lighting: In general I want to learn more about the technical side and be a bit more aware of camera work, lighting, and editing when I watch a movie and comment on it -- but you don't want to overdo that, because it can be a distraction from the overall experience. Focusing on the "cinematic" was something I used to harp on when I was young; I wrote an essay arguing that popular American reviewers talked too much about film as if it was theater or a novel. I was talking pre-Kael. To some extent Pauline Kael, with her keen visual memory, changed that, though conventional reviewers since still tend now to revert to talking like movies are books whenever they can. What I was less aware of then than I am now is how important the writing
is, more than anything else, particularly in something conventional of course, something with a lot of dialogue, such as a romantic comedy.

I would certainly say that the photography, which would include the lighting, of Jarmusch's Dead Man, is absolutely amazing. I don't know why people don't talk more about that aspect of Dead Man. The landscapes are shot just the way 19th-century photographers and painters saw landscape. It's a completely different look, unique for modern film.

I haven't seen a lot of the recent Criterion DVD's, but I just watched the Vadim And God Created Woman last week, and it looked great -- as it did when it was new, I realized, watching the DVD. Full of the brilliant light of the Côte d'Azur.

For those of you attending film festivals in the near future, check out the Chilean film Play, reviewed on this page. The title is easy to remember but it's a film you won't easily forget. It's not the type of foreign crowd-pleaser that gets picked up for distribution. It's doing the festival circuit right now and getting good reviews wherever it plays. I'm going out of my way to push this picture because Scherson is a young Latina filmmaker with a unique vision and there aren't enough of those. Actually, the only one that comes to mind is Lucrecia Martel from Argentina. Then again, you've all seen The Holy Girl. Well, what are you waiting for?

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
conventional reviewers since still tend now to revert to talking like movies are books whenever they can.
Most definitely. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are afraid to turn off readers who are not familiar with the terminology. Though truth is the main questions I get when discussing a movie are "who's in it?" and "what is it about?". Problem is certain movies require use of film grammar terms for a proper review, meaning one that conveys what's like to experience the film. If one is reviewing a Preston Sturges film for instance, one concentrates on the writing and the performance style. But a film by Kubrick or Greenaway demands descriptions of visual style. I think it all depends on the essential elements of the film being reviewed.

I would certainly say that the photography, which would include the lighting, of Jarmusch's Dead Man, is absolutely amazing.
To review that film without mentioning Muller and/or his work would be a failure to address one of the key aspects that make Dead Man so accomplished.

Friday November 18th

God's Sanbox (Israel, 2004) Cosford Cinema
A 50-something writer from Jerusalem comes to a beach that borders the Sinai desert in search of her runaway daughter. A bartender tells them the true story of a blonde Jewish "hippie" and her doomed affair with the son of a Bedouin sheik. Turns out the writer and the "hippie" are the same person and 30 years ago she was forced to undergo ritual mutilation. Director Duron Eran engages in exotic-chic and softcore eroticism before turning the film into an expose of outdated, anti-woman traditions. The effect is jarring. God's Sandbox is poorly written and suffers from serious casting problems. This is the worst foreign film in general release I've seen all year.

Sat Nov. 19th

The Phantom of Liberty (France, 1974) dvd

The penultimate film by Luis Bunuel keeps getting better with age. Sandwiched between the better-known The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire, Phantom has only in the last decade been acknowledged as a must-see. It's finally become available on a Criterion dvd almost devoid of extras (a brief interview with co-writer Carriere is not very illuminating).

The film comprises a series of interlocking episodes that illustrate with precision and economy various Bunuelian themes, such as the arbitrariness of convention, the modern world's ambivalent grasp of freedom, the hypocrisy within religious institutions, etc. It's full of paradoxes and absurdities that contain messages but, under the hands of the mature master, the film is light as spring air, efortlessly moving from one vignette to another. Guests sit on toilets around a table but sneak into a tiny dining room to eat their dinner, a mass killer is condemned to death so he is released into the arms of autograph seekers, a man in a playground gives pictures to preteen girls ("Show them to your friends but not to adults") and they turn out to be postcards of religious sites, a little girl is reported missing at school even though she's crearly there and accompanies her dad to the police station, etc. I've criticized Roger Ebert often, particularly for inaccurate plot descriptions, too many 4-star reviews, and not "getting" Kiarostami, but he summed up Phantom beautifully by stating: "In a world cast loose of its moorings by freedom, only anarchy is logical".

Other Bunuel films reviewed on this thread:
Viridiana
Nazarin
El Bruto
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Good to have the cross references.

Thanks for the feedback.

Sun Nov 20th

Grandma's Boy (USA, 1922) TCM
Harold Lloyd plays a young man who overcome cowardice and shyness when grandma tells him of a magic charm used by his grandfather to gain courage during the Civil war. Lloyd captures a thieving tramp, teaches a lesson to a bully, and gets the girl of his dreams. Funny of course, but not a classic like Safety Last or The Freshman.

Sun Nov 20th (cont.)

Early Summer (Japan, 1951) dvd

Setsuko Hara plays Noriko, a typist who is, at 28, entering spinsterdom. Her relatives are concerned. Her brother, sister-in-law, and her boss ploy to marry her to a successful 40 year-old. Noriko is very nice but she realizes she'd be happier with Kenkichi, a widower with a daughter. It's not so much that her relatives disapprove of Kenkichi. It's her self-sufficient approach that strikes her relatives as selfish and ungrateful. Moreover, this potential husband is being relocated to a faraway province. It's paradoxical that Noriko's "modern" behavior will be accompanied by a return to a traditional, provincial lifestyle. Thanks to Ozu's restrained emotionality and elliptical narrative, it's possible to sustain a number of possible interpretations for Noriko's choice. Is this a "love-marriage"? The fact that Kenkichi was the best friend of Noriko's beloved, killed-in-combat brother is one complicating factor. Anyway, Noriko's marriage means her relatives will have to adjust to her absence from the household and a reduction of the family's income.

The title's literal translation is "Barley-harvesting Season" not "Early Summer" and most of the plot transpires in spring. The titles of Yasujiro Ozu's films mean little. This one's said to be "among his best" and I love it. But that designation means little to me also because Ozu was consistently excellent. I've seen a dozen and each seemed "among his best" to me. The committed-drinker and eternal bachelor was one of the masters of the medium. Most of his pre-War films were called comedies and most of his post-War ones were family dramas, which evidence a pared-down style, a distillation of technique in search of substance.

I've always been curious about the fact that the director whose film plots deal with marriage and parenting more than those by any other director was himself not interested in being a husband and father himself. Ozu expert Donald Richie states in his brilliant commentary that the marriage-and-parenting plots were "pretexes" to board larger issues: the inevitability of chance, acceptance of the transcience of life, the dissolution of the existing order, and the clash between tradition and modernity. Richie discusses the formative influence of Ernst Lubitsch on Japanese directors, Ozu's dictatorial stance towards actors (he regarded them as "models", not unlike Bresson), the affinity between Ozu's and Jane Austen's narratives, relevant facts about Japanese history, art and societal conventions, etc. Besides the rich commentary, this Criterion edition includes a conversation between three of Ozu's collaborators.

Other Ozu films reviewed on this thread:
Tokyo Twilight

Mon Nov 21st

Gate of Flesh (Japan, 1964) dvd

There was a Japanese New Wave taking place at the same time as the French one but the West didn't take notice. It wasn't until the age of dvd that film buffs in the West have had a chance to regard many of the films involved. The acquaintance is forcing a re-evaluation of six key filmmakers from the period: Shoei Imamura, Yasuzo Masumura, Hiroshi Teshigahara, Kaneto Shindo, Nagisa Oshima, and Seijun Suzuki. The 82 year old Suzuki remains active and vital. He has never completely abandoned the tag of B-movie director, but he's always been an iconoclast with a strong tendency towards artistic stylization and an attraction to controversial themes.

It's hard to reconcile the fact that his Gate of Flesh is set around the same time as Ozu's Early Summer. This post-War Tokyo is chaotic and populated by thieves, beggars, and whores. American GIs are ever-present and viewed with bitter resentment. The picture itself is quite critical of the US and its occupation of Japan. Suzuki admits to hating the US at the time, having spent three years of his life in the front trying to survive American attacks. Gate of Flesh is also a story of survival, involving four prostitutes living in the ruins of a bombarded building who shelter a former soldier wanted for stabbing a GI.

The grotesque ambiance makes quite a contrast with Suzuki's expressive use of color and the conscious artificiality of his compositions. At times he superimposes close-ups of faces onto a scene shot from medium distance, or he slows down the image so that a character's cries appear disembodied, or he splits a scene into freeze-frames giving the impression of a slide show, etc. Suzuki is relentlessly playful_ it's clear he's having fun, without detracting from the plight of his desperate characters.

Mon Nov 21st (cont.)

Story of a Prostitute (Japan, 1965) dvd

Harumi is one of the girls brought from Japan to serve as "comfort women" to Japanese soldiers in Manchuria. She hopes all the fucking will help heal her broken heart and erase bad memories. Harumi becomes the favorite of Narita, a cruel high-ranking officer who beats and humilliates her. Love blossoms between Harumi and Mikami, Narita's young assistant, who's fiercely loyal to the Japanese cause.

This highly regarded film directed by Seijun Suzuki, like Gate of Flesh an adaptation of a story by Taijiro Tamura, is one of the most decidedly anti-War, anti-imperialist films ever. Suzuki is quite critical of, even angry towards, the aims of the Japanese emperor, the Japanese conception of honor and duty, and the arrogance of power. It's quite harrowing material, shot in widescreen b&w, with particular attention to creating contrast via lighting and mise-en-scene. Suzuki's stylings are more restrained than in Gate of Flesh, but not entirely abandoned: for instance, Harumi's hatred of Narita is expressed in a scene in which the frame is frozen and the portion of it that contains Narita broken into pieces. Suzuki is being crystal-clear here; no one can miss what Story of a Prostitute is saying so eloquently.

Tue Nov 22nd

10 Minutes Older: The Cello (UK/Germany/France, 2002) import dvd

Fifteen directors were commissioned to create shorts lasting ten minutes (more or less) that deal with the concept of time. The shorts were divided into two features for theatrical release. I watched The Trumpet last year. It included shorts by Victor Erice (the best), Herzog, Jarmusch, Wenders, Kaurismaki and Kaige. The Cello contains the remaining eight shorts:

Histoire d'Eaux
Bernardo Bertolucci's widescreen, b&w film tells the story of an Hindu immigrant who gets dropped off in Italy. A fellow traveler sits by a tree and asks for water. The protagonist runs into an Italian barmaid with a disabled motorbike, fixes the bike, gets her pregnant, marries her and becomes assimilated. He rides with wife and teenage kids down a country road and has an accident. He walks around seeking help and encounters the man who asked for water, who exclaims:"I didn't think it would take you a whole day to return".

About Time 2
Mike Figgis splits the screen in four and alternates between an old couple with TV monitors for heads, two boys playing war, and an affair between musicians in which the man has erectile dysfunction. This most experimental short is most unsatisfying because it's too elusive.

One Moment
Jiri Menzel shows an old man in a country setting reminiscing about his life. Turns out the man is legendary Czech actor Rudolph Hrusinsky and the memories are all culled from his long filmography that dates back to the silent era. The clips are obviously carefully chosen and edited in chronological order. A beautiful film.

10 Minutes After
Istvan Szabo seems to be showing the most dramatic scene from a long feature, one that implies that 10 minutes is long enough to ruin a life or two. A wife awaits at home with an elaborate lunch for her husband. He is brought by friends because of heavy drinking. They leave, he becomes extremely abusive. The wife grabs a knife and he practically runs into it. I didn't like this one.

Vers Nancy
Claire Denis shots a 10 minute conversation between a young woman who emigrated to France from Eastern Europe (like Denis) and the author of a book dealing with issues of immigration, acculturation, France's national identity vis a vis its treatment of foreigners, etc. A black man sits in the same train car trying not to draw attention. I found the discussion quite lucid and interesting so I can't blame Denis for returning to her favorite themes.

Dans le Noir du Temps
Jean Luc Godard's essay includes clips from several of his films, footage from WWII, particularly about the Holocaust and the Resistance; narration includes poems and philosophical excerpts.

Addicted to the Stars
Michael Radford's sci-fi tale about an astronaut who barely ages while in space while the young son he left behind upon departure is now senile. Nice cinematography.

The Enlightenment
Volker Schlondorff's short is the third out of eight in this collection to deal with Europeans-of-color. It's about a black man being introduced to his (white) girl's family while they vacation on a RV-park.

Tue. Nov 22nd (cont.)

This Charming Girl (South Korea, 2004) import dvd

Jeong-hae is not without charm, but charming is not the first adjective that comes to my mind when attempting a description. She's a 20-something postal worker who lives by herself in Seoul. The first half hour details her daily routine. She functions well occupationally and domestically, but her reticence and solitude hide a traumatic history; a history that is gradually revealed via flashbacks. This Charming Girl is set during a phase in Jeong-hae's life in which her affective needs are forcing her to come out of her emotional prison. This coming-out is evidenced initially by her adopting a stray cat. Jeong-hae eventually gains courage to ask a male customer to dinner, and come to terms with the incident that broke her soul.

Writer/director Yoon-ki Lee keeps the film's emotional temperature at a simmer, which won't be to everyone's liking. I found This Charming Girl quite satisfying as a wounded character study. It's well-acted and the character's development consistently rings true. I do appreciate the patient exposition during the first 30 minutes in order to establish Jeong-hae's present reality, but a 10-minute trim would not result in appreciative losses.

Ten-minute shorts series.

Sounds like some good stuff there.

It's a shame these shorts are only available on import dvd. Here's the official site:Ten Minutes Older

Wed Nov 23rd

Bright Future (Japan, 2003) dvd

Mamoru, a 20-something with a poisonous jellyfish for a pet kills his boss and the wife of his boss for no valid reason. Condemned to death, he asks best buddy Yuji to take care of the jellyfish, which includes acclimating the creature from salinity to freshwater. Yuji and Mamoru's dad become close. Yuji accidentally drops the aquarium. The jellyfish slips through floorboards onto a canal, propagates and becomes a public safety hazard. The fish exit Tokyo's canals onto the ocean as Yuji becomes acquainted with a youth gang.

I find the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse, Charisma) interesting and intriguing. I also admire his distrust of formulas and his restrain with shock effects. So, I'm finding it difficult to write that I didn't like Bright Future. I watched the 75-min making-of feature. Kurosawa states the obvious: he is not interested in character psychology or why his characters behave the way they do. Even the senseless murder of the boss, whose only fault is being a bit meddlesome. We're not supposed to wonder what got Mamoru to that point. The director's assistant states the characters are "incomprehensible" and Kurosawa's direction of his actors appears limited to their "hitting their marks". The intention was to make a picture about "the generational clash" and express it in "physical terms, like in a Robert Aldrich movie". Kurosawa strikes me as lacking ambition. The 50-year old doesn't seem to have much to say about "alienated youth". I did find myself moved by the unlikely relationship that develops between Mamoru's father and Yuji, but it was too little too late for me. Thinking of the jellyfish as a symbol or a metaphor didn't take me far either. The musical score is often inappropriately lilting.

Wed Nov 23rd (cont.)

Rent (USA, 2005) Sunset Place Theatres

Jonathan Larson's musical, inspired by Puccini's La Boheme, won the Pulitzer and the Emmy. It's had a successful 10-year run and been credited with bringing a younger audience into theatres. The film version of this celebration of bohemia, directed by Chris Columbus, lives by the motto "If it's not broke...". Six of the eight celebrated actors who originated the show are back and the two newcomers, Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms, are up to par. I propose there are few who liked the play and don't like the movie, which seems calculated not to upset the play's fans. I like the performances and most of Larson's material so I had a good time watching it with Chelsea. My 15-y.o. rocker-girl "loved it".

I loved it too.

Thu Nov 24th

Shenandoah (USA, 1965) TCM

Farmer Charlie Anderson (James Stewart) is a widower with five sons and a daughter. He's proud of not being a slave owner. He calls himself a Virginian, not a Confederate. He won't lend horses, much less sons, to the Confederate cause. One day, troops from the North take his teen son for a soldier and take him prisoner, forcing the Andersons to get involved in the conflict. Shenandoah is a Hollywood picture with the requisite straining of credibility for entertainment purposes. But it's handsomely mounted, engaging, and Stewart is uh Stewart.

Friday Nov 25th

A Peck on the Cheek (India, 2004) Cosford Cinema

In war-torn Sri Lanka, a pregnant woman evacuates to India where her daughter is born. Nine years later, the girl's middle-class adoptive parents decide to tell her about it. They decide to indulge the mischievious girl's desire to find her birth mother although the trip to Sri Lanka is quite perilous.
Writer/director Mani Ratnam's film is a mixture of war epic, melodrama and musical that's thoroughly entertaining and visually attractive. The overblown emotions and plot contrivances characteristic of big Bollywood productions are also present.

Sat Nov 26th

An Inn in Tokyo (Japan, 1935) import dvd

Yasujiro Ozu's penultimate silent film plays like a precursor to Italian neorealism although Japanese films of this era did not play internationally. Kihachi, abandoned by his wife, roams around looking for work with his two sons in tow. At a communal room where they sleep, he meets a Otaka, a young woman with a sick toddler who's also unemployed. When he finds work through Otsune, a woman friend, Kihachi tries to help Otaka, which makes Otsune jealous.
This heartfelt tale of survival and fellowship indicates Ozu developed his unique style at an early stage of his career. The pace of the storytelling, the acting style, and the camera angles he favored are already evident in An Inn in Tokyo.

Sat Nov 26th (cont)

Porto of my Childhood (Portugal, 2001) Sundance Channel

Manoel de Oliveira explores the city where he has lived his whole life. It's an exploration based on his memories, mostly those from his formative years. The film opens with the filmmaker visiting the ruins of the house where he was born in 1908, and the natural surroundings he calls "the Eden of my priviledged youth". There are re-enactments of cherished memories, including scenes of bohemian and "cafe culture", archival footage of public events, and thematically-appropriate clips from his earliest films (Aniki-Bobo and Hard Work on the River Douro). The soundtrack includes brief commentary, fado songs, and poems by close friends. Porto of my Childhood creates a unique synthesis between fiction and documentary, and its temporal shifts are so graceful. Manoel de Oliveira is one of the world's greatest directors.

Quote:

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An Inn in Tokyo (Japan, 1935) import dvd

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What sort of import DVD, if you don't mind?

Sun Nov 27th

Singin' in the Rain (USA, 1952) Cosford Cinema

A public screening of this classic is reason to rejoice. It's hard to believe Singin' in the Rain was a rushed production created around a collection of old songs to profit from the huge success of An American in Paris and its star Gene Kelly. Kelly and Stanley Donen directed, based on a script by Betty Comden and Adolph Green about Hollywood during the difficult transition from silents to sound films. Singin' in the Rain's wild variety of musical styles amounts to a delightful history of the genre, from burlesque and vaudeville to the more lyrical and romantic variations. The tone shifts from tender to laugh-out-loud funny. The story holds it all in place and the performances are uniformly brilliant. Cast includes Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Cyd Charisse, and a teenage Debbie Reynolds.

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
What sort of import DVD, if you don't mind?

It's a NTSC Region#3 release by Panorama, a Hong Kong company. Release date: 7/16/2005.

NTSC Region 3....etc.
Did you buy or rent it?

Singin' in the Rain -- makes me think of A Clockwork Orange. But yes, I have seen the original movie. Gene Kelly wasn't sexy -- or elegant like Fred Astaire -- but he was a great dancer and a charismatic personality for that style of musical.

*A rental from Nicheflix (the Ozu film).

Monday Nov 28th

Cowards Bend the Knee (or The Blue Hands) (Canada, 2004) dvd

A silent horror film inspired by the tragedies of Euripedes and films starring Bela Lugosi, shot in Super-8 and divided into 10 chapters of equal duration (6 min. 6 secs.). Also an autobiography with a protagonist named Guy Maddin, like the Winnipeg-based director. But he was born in 1956 and the film is set circa 1930. Maddin calls it the most accurate type of autobiographical film because it incorporates what he calls his "pre-history" and his family "mythology". The plot involves mutilation, revenge murder, a hoax transplant, and a Freudian love triangle involving a ghost. The action takes place in a graveyard, a hockey arena with a wax museum in its rafters, and a beauty salon that serves as after-hours bordello and abortion clinic. Maddin is true to his intention to make the film "as hysterical and elliptical as possible". Sometimes films take you on a trip to a strange place that only exists in the wild imagination of a fearless artist.

Tuesday November 29th

Kira (Russia, 2003) dvd

"My dream is to disappear with only my films remaining. No cross, nothing. Only her films remain! Some people like them, but most don't". (Kira Muratova)

Doc about Romania-born, Moscow-educated filmmaker Kira Muratova. A tough assignment for director Vladimir Nepevny because she doesn't want to be "opened up like a can and examined" and claims to have poor memory of past events. It's left for directors like Andrej Wajda and Alexander Sokurov to praise her uncompromising vision and key collaborators to provide some insight into Muratova's cantankerous but generous personality. Kira was extremely valuable to me primarily because I've only seen Passions and Chekhovian Motifs and Kira includes numerous clips from all her other features.

Tuesday Nov 29th (cont.)

Chekhovian Motifs (Russia, 2002) dvd

An updated merging of Chekhov's unfinished play "Tatyana Repina" and his short story "Difficult Natures", directed by Kira Muratova. The latter concerns the eldest son of a farming family leaving the nest to attend college and the generational clash between him and his cheapskate father. This story is split into two episodes that open and close Chekhovian Motifs. In between, an hour-long wedding in an Orthodox church where a motley group of guests kvetch, opine and cackle incessantly as Muratova's pans take it all in. Most interestingly, the chubby groom is under the impression that the ghost of his lover Tatyana, an actress who poisoned herself, is interfering with the ceremony.

Chekhovian Motifs evidences Muratova's penchant for dialogue lines repeated as mantras, affection for grotesque characters, and unusual attention to animals. I understand why Jonathan Rosenbaum would say "if you enter this without any warning you might wind up fleeing in terror", but I was happy under the fascinating spell of a filmmaker with a mind (and eye) of her own.

I wish you would give more information about where you got the film if its a DVD each time--Nettlix, NIcheflix, purchase, if so where purchased, etc. It's also helpful to give the director's name with the title at the beginning of your note or review. Thanks.

Wed Nov 30th

The Cry of the Owl (France/Italy, 1986) dvd

Claude Chabrol is the celebrated director influenced by Hitchcock and Lang who emerged from the Nouvelle Vague and has made at least 10 movies you must see (my list: La Beau Serge, La Femme Infidele, Le Boucher, The Cousins, Les Bonnes Femmes, This Man Must Die, Violette, Story of Women, Madame Bovary, La Ceremonie).
Claude Chabrol has also been called a hack and a sell-out because his poor discernment and addiction to shooting schedules has resulted in at least 10 movies you must avoid.
The Cry of the Wolf falls somewhere in between.

The Cry of the Owl was hand-picked by Patricia Highsmith for Chabrol. By all accounts, the film is quite faithful to the novel, except it is now set in Vichy, France. Highsmith seems to have understood that the novel's themes are a good match for Chabrol's preoccupation with unveiling the dark side of bourgeoise characters residing in seemingly placid small towns. As with most mystery thrillers, plot descriptions are likely to spoil the experience. It suffices to reveal that Robert, a recently divorced peeping tom who admits to mental instability is "found out" by the subject of his obsession. Instantly smitten, Juliette breaks up with her fiance, who won't take it lightly. The plot provides plenty of surprising twists and the characters gradually reveal traits not initially apparent.

Upon release, a number of critics questioned the plausibility of certain events. I was able to sustain disbelief until the climax, which is downright absurd, as staged by Chabrol. So absurd in fact that it raises the possibility Chabrol is playing a joke on Robert, a surreal move Bunuel would applaud. A minor complain would be the archaic, overly precious lines uttered at times by the morbid Juliette. I found The Cry of the Owl worth watching, but except for Highsmith's fans, I hesitate to offer a general recommendation.

I just watched (Netflix DVD) Chabrol's La rupture/The Breach, from 1970. It is treated by film professors as a classic. I liked your dividing his work up into works you must see and works to avoid, and this one also may lie in between. What would you say about it?

*Currently I'm taking full advantage of the Netflix membership and the good selection at my local library. Almost all the Region 1 discs I'm watching are rentals. Most of the imports are from Nicheflix but I'm about to cancel my membership as I've seen most of the titles that interest me. The Cry of the Owl is from my own library. It's one of about 100 discs I plan to sell (when I make the time to do it, that is.)

*Even though it's been a while since I watched La Rupture, I think I can answer your question. I think it's a bit better than The Cry of the Owl. I would not call it a classic. Those who appreciate Chabrol at his most surreal and experimental might think so though, whereas others may dismiss it as too implausible or believable.

Thursday Dec. 1st

Jarhead (USA, 2005) AMC CocoWalk

Pick Up on South Street (USA, 1953) dvd

An excellent film noir written and directed by Samuel Fuller (The Big Red One, 40 Guns). Richard Widmark stars as Skip McCoy, a pickpocket who snatches a wallet from Candy (Jean Peters) while riding the NYC subway. Candy was transporting a piece of microfilm in that wallet. She doesn't know that the recipient is a communist agent and that she's being tailed by FBI agents. A pro stoolie named Moe (Thelma Ritter) sells information to the cops that results in McCoy's arrest but they fail to find the microfilm.

Fuller's background as a journalist and his experience with underworld types proved invaluable in crafting the knowing, economical script. His skills in choreographing exciting and believable action sequences is amply evident here. Yet, what makes Pick Up on South Street so memorable to me are the principal characters and how they increasingly become more complex as the involving plot proceeds. The art direction and set design are deserving of particular praise for evoking New York City locales within the confines of the 20th Century Fox studio. Highly recommended.

Thank you for putting your comment, however brief and disappointed, on the Jarhead thread.

I hadn't thought of Pickup on South Street as a noir. Interesting thought. I just thought of it as a Samuel Fuller movie. That's a genre all to itself, which grows complexly out of his being what might be described as a "primitive," as an article on his death did, or as an expressionist, a political filmmaker whose politics are murky, an artist of "stylistic tics," a "melodramist" (Adrian Martin) certainly an extremist, certaily uneven, crude yet a master of technique. Fuller defies description, and his best work is certainly not to be missed, and Pickup is by general consent one of those.

I've seen only 7 Sam Fuller movies, the three mentioned above and the following: The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor, The Steel Helmet and White Dog. I cannot call him "uneven" based on my experience with these seven, as I like them a lot. He's one of the directors I'm paying attention this year. It's deserved I believe. Next Fuller I'll watch is either House of Bamboo or the made-in-Portugal Street of No Return.

Friday December 2nd

Charlotte and Veronique (or All the Boys are Named Patrick) (France, 1958) dvd

Godard debuted as director with this short written by Eric Rohmer. The titular roommates are picked up separately by Patrick (Jean Claude Brialy). Both agree to go out on dates with him. Charming, endearing film with nice b&w photography of Parisian streets. Included as an extra in the Criterion dvd of A Woman is a Woman.

Rana's Wedding (Palestine/Netherlands, 2003) Cosford Cinema

Unless Rana is married by 4 p.m., she has to move to Egypt with her widowed father. The young Palestinian intends to marry her boyfriend Khalil even though she has yet to discuss it with him. Rana's urgent predicament is not credible_she must've known for weeks of her father's plans. Yet, rather than regard this as a fatal flaw, I consider it dramatic shorthand; a way to create a fiction to document a Palestinian's travel around Jerusalem and her crossing the armed checkpoint separating Jerusalem from the occupied territories.

What emerges is a rich snapshot of Palestine and an expose of the plight of Palestinians under Israeli rule, anchored by a fascinatingly complex protagonist (Clara Khoury is wonderful as Rana). Dutch-based Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad's film never feels didactic or driven by a political agenda. Political outrage is held in check until the final credits, which include Mahmoud Darwish's angry poem "State of Siege".

Saturday Dec 3rd

A Woman is a Woman (France, 1961) dvd

Godard described it both as "a comedy a la Lubitsch" and "the idea of a musical". It's his first studio picture, a color CinemaScope one. The characters wonder it it's "comedy or drama". A demure stripper (Anna Karina) wants to get pregnant. Her lover (Jean Claude Brialy) refuses, so she recruits their friend (Belmondo). This premise is not treated with any gravity. It's used to generate amusing vignettes and visual gags to a score by Michel Legrand. Snippets of a score that is, with Godard hinting at the possibility of turning certain scenes into musical numbers, without ever doing so.

A Woman is a Woman is tirelessly self-conscious, with constant winking at the viewer, and packed with references to other films by Godard and Truffaut. Godard discourages full engagement by constantly stressing the fakery and artifice inherent to commercial genres. He's like a magician sharing the secret behind the trick. I found it mildly diverting yet inconsequential and slight. The film has ardent admirers as well as violent detractors (Manny Farber, for instance, called it "perhaps the most soporific, conceited, sluggish movie of all time"). A Woman is a Woman is more about Karina, and Godard's parental anxieties, than anything else. I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone except for devoted fans of the actress (and Godard completists, of course).

Other films by Godard reviewed on this thread:
Weekend
Tout Va Bien
Notre Musique
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
La Chinoise
Letter to Jane

Thanks for the cross-references.

Avec plaisir.

Sunday December 4th

Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed (USA, 2004) dvd

The first black woman elected to Congress launched a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. This debut of director Shola Lynch is primarily concerned with Shirley Chisholm's quixotic stance, how it was received by the electorate and portrayed in the media, and the difficult issue facing the Black Congressional Caucus on whether to support her or back others more likely to win the nomination. Chisholm '72 includes new interviews, archive footage taken during the campaign, and scenes of school girls in Barbados that evoke the 7 years she spent in her father's homeland. I was fascinated with Chisholm, her courage, and the strength of her convictions. The doc is lean and economical at only 75 minutes duration.

The Squid and the Whale (USA, 2005) at SoBe Regal

Monday Dec 5th

Bolivia (Argentina, 2001) dvd

Perhaps there's nothing more typically Argentine than the "Bar-Parrillada", a modest establishment where working-class men (primarily) can have a drink and a cheap meal (grilled meats usually). For the full effect, visit during soccer games and boxing matches when the joints are really rocking. Bolivia is mostly set in one such place. Over the opening credits, footage of a World Cup qualifying match between Bolivia and Argentina; replays of several Argentine goals as the commentator disparages the weaker rival. Cut to camera pans of the walls of the bar as we overhear the conversation between the bar owner and Freddy, who just arrived from Bolivia and wants the cook job. Freddy joins his sole co-worker, Rosa, an immigrant from Paraguay. Bolivia takes us to the clubs and pensions that cater to immigrants from poorer South American countries. We witness how they are overcharged for phone service and harrased by the police. But the drama takes place inside the bar, where it becomes evident the locals are angry at the mere presence of immigrants, at least when the economy is depressed. Freddy is constantly subjected to verbal abuse, some of which have a racial component (unlike Argentines, the majority of Bolivians and Peruvians are descendents of Indians). Eventually, violence erupts.
Bolivia was co-written and directed by Adrian Caetano, an Uruguayan working within Argentina's film industry. I've seen three of his four features and Bolivia is my favorite. The dialogue is richly detailed and thoroughly authentic_I wonder how much of it was improvised given the naturalistic perfs from several non-actors. The film was shot in 16 mm, b&w, and apparently filmed over the course of three years because of budgetary constraints.

Pride and Prejudice (UK, 2005) at AMC CocoWalk

Tuesday Dec. 6th

While the City Sleeps (USA, 1956) TCM

Penultimate American film directed by Fritz Lang, the German master who worked in Hollywood for two decades after making several silent masterpieces in his native country. In While the City Sleeps, the search for a serial killer is less interesting and resonant than the competition for the position of executive director of a media conglomerate. What interests Lang is the maneuvering, backstabbing and influence-peddling for power. The killer has a "mother complex", like Psycho's, but he's not a major character in Lang's film. Solid performances by Dana Andrews, George Sanders, Vincent Price, and others.

Wed Dec 7th

Slacker (USA, 1991) dvd

No other film reminds me more of the friends and acquaintances I made while attending graduate school at Ohio State than Slacker. Richard Linklater's film is a portrait of the denizens of a particular section of Austin near the University campus and a major psychiatric hospital. The structure, a series of loosely connected vignettes, seems borrowed from Bunuel's The Phantom of Liberty. Except that the vignettes in Slacker are shorter and used to give expression to the internal monologues of a variety of conspiracy theorists, burglars, musicians, psychiatric patients, students, paranoids, amateur philosophers, street merchants, etc. The transitions between scenes are graceful but the material itself is hit-and-miss. Slacker anticipates the director's more mature and thought-out Waking Life.