Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

Of course Pauline was extreme but it came from passion, love, and a strong background keen intelligence and considerable gifts of memory. One can and should admire her for all that without sharing her specific views and many of her reviews have perhaps dated as have the movies of which they speak. Midnight Express is like a roaring great read of a book, a great watch if you will, not really a great movie but a compulsively watchable one -- a real "experience." I used to read Manny Farber sometimes when he was writing for -- what was it? Some intellectual weekly or other, and I knew about his paintings, mostly of objects strewn over tables as I recall.

I didn't mean to imply that your views were not "relevant" to the movies you were talking about; they were "relevant" to you, but I think political correctness means more to you in general, in and out of the movie house, than it does to me. Taste and political correctness don't often mix, not for me. This is true of the issue of revenge that you bring up. When is it morally sound? Is that a question for film criticism? I would say that revenge works well in drama--the Elizabethans and Jacobeans had a genre of revenge tragedies; revenge partakes of the inevitability of tragedy wherein humans are the playthings of the gods. And hence it is dramatically and artistically a font of creative invention for playwrights, novelists, and filmmakers. Things just happen to work well in movies and in plays, killing works well, smoking aand drinking work well, they look good. The smoke looked so great in black and white movies with dramatic lighting. It's not a question of morality, good politics, or good health, it's a question of artistic expediency. A source of great energy, and of style. It's also a matter of working within tradition. Tarantino -- we have to mention him; Kill Bill I and 2 are all about revenge -- he uses it because it is a great plot organizer and because he is working within various traditions of pulp fiction and martial arts and macho good and bad guy movies, into which he has injected a healthy dose of feminine machismo. The morality is icing on the cake. But art is part of culture which embodies a moral system.

I think that's a nicely balanced, fair post, Chris. It's edifying to interact with you. The term "political correctness" has become overused in our society and it seems to mean different things to different people, but I think I understand your point, especially applied to the issue of taking revenge. It's a huge issue for me. I specifically disapprove of films that promote taking revenge by depicting characters that take that course of action and get satisfaction, either intrinsically or extrinsically. (This would not include explicitly violent films like Irreversible in which the opposite occurs). Part of the reason why it's a huge issue for me is that, I think revenge plays a part in people's support for certain policies and practices I abhor, such as the death penalty.

Wednesday April 13

Murderous Maids (2000, US release in 2002) on dvd

The murders committed by the Pepin sisters in Le Mans, France in 1933 have served as the basis of several books, plays, films, etc. This film was directed by Jean Pierre Dennis, whose previous theatrical feature was released in 1987 (Dennis had been working as a customs agent in the meantime). Many of the art works the incident inspired took a sociological approach to the material, some provided a Marxist analysis of the maids murdering their burgeoise employer and her daughter. Dennis based the film primarily on the book by Paulette Houdyer, which provides explications based on the psychology and upbringing of the sisters, particularly Christine's. She is played by Sylvie Testud, who won a Cesar for her performance here and has since earned a second Cesar for her performance in Fear and Trembling (see journal entry for Jan. 21st). The film is austere and extremely compact at 90 minutes, evidencing the director's narrative skills. The murder scene strikes a perfect balance, conveying the extreme brutality of the murders without being overly explicit. Ms. Testud's performance is a revelation.

The Corporation is my favorite film of 2004, along with Eternal Sunshine. This Canadian documentary was directed by Jennifer Abbott and Marck Achbar (Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and The Media) and provides an engaging, entertaining, edifying, multi-angle perspective on the world's dominant institution. Having presented the origins of the corporation and the ways in which the entity has achieved rights originally reserved for individuals, the filmmakers adopt the brilliant strategy of applying the diagnostic criteria used by mental health professionals and apply it to the behavior of corporations. After a variety of interesting case histories are presented, the conclusion is that were corporations actual persons, they would be diagnosed as being psychopathic. The film provides a forum to eloquent academics, economists, philosophers, political activists, and CEOs. In fact, the CEO of the world's largest rug manufacturer, a North Carolinian, emerges as The Corporation's hero. The breath of material covered here is astounding: the practice of corporation branding, marketing strategies, Big Business' control over the media and its growing influence on governmental institutions, the broadening definition of what can be considered private property; learn about how the residents of Cochabamba, Bolivia resisted corporate efforts to privatize their water resources, learn about the corporate plot to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt...A great deal of care is evident in the thoroughness and accessibility of the content.

The film has been released with 7 1/2 hours of extras on two discs. Required viewing for all my dependents. Even if you're a well-informed, politically-aware person, this film has something to teach you. At the very least, you'll make a switch to organic milk. (Canadians and Europeans don't have to because their governments don't allow their citizens to poison themselves).

You're kind as usual, which keeps our discourse flowing nicely. I understand about revenge, but films have to be judged on a case by case basis, and even revenge has its positive side as a deterrant, as do extreme punishments, not that I favor them; I'm about as liberal as you are.

I've seen Sylvie Testud in these and also the disastrous Aime ton père (with Depardieu father and son) in all of which she's an effective, but one-note actress.

It seems to me telling that The Corporation is your favorite for 2004 (next to the non-didactic Eternal Sunshine), because it is purely didactic, and briliant, and probably right, if one-sided -- but very dry. Emotionally Fahrenheit 9/11 effected me much more, I don't care if it's messy and rubbed people the wrong way, it moved me.

I know "politically correct" is an misused and overused and pejorative term but it's the best I can do as a shorthand to describe an influence on your viewing that I don't have.

My point of view seems to be different (unless this is just miscommunication), depite my politics being pretty close to yours, in my primarily looking in film for something that moves me emotionally and delights me aesthetically -- largely irregardless of the ideas involved; things like Christopher Doyle's cinematography in some Wong Kar Wai's movies -- ravishing aesthetically but not pretty-pretty. There's nothing politically correct about Wong as far as I can see (despite allegorical interpretations of references to the HongKong changeover in Happy Days, etc.); of course not about Eternal Sunshine either, but in splitting your Best of 2004 top title, you give such ideas strong preference.

*I wouldn't want readers to get the impression that The Corporation is my favorite film of 2004 simply because I agree with its conclusions. This is my favorite doc since Crumb. I've seen a ton of docs, particularly in recent years, a substantial percentage of them deal with political/social issues of importance to me. Abott and Achbar's film is in a class by itself. It's ingenious in conception and impeccably edited, with a script that manages to illustrate clearly a variety of seemingly complex concepts and ideas of universal import, through a mix of old and new footage with interviews of people who advance their p.o.v. eloquently, provides a forum to those who disagree with the directors' opinion, and incorporates segments that point toward possible solutions to the problems presented. It didn't feel "dry" to me at all; it's entertaining, edifying, level-headed, and avoids tendentiousness while maintaining its focus.
*I share your enthusiasm about Wong and Doyle. Counting the days 'til we can enjoy 2046 with a theatre audience.
*Not surprised you'd be familiar with Farber. I love his writing. Very personal, idiosyncratic prose style and approach to film criticism. The last essay I read creates a dichotomy between "White Elephant Art" and "Termite Art", which is the kind he favors. Extremely amusing, for instance, he refers to Truffaut as a "French Rube Goldberg" and his Jules et Jim as a "love-is-time's-fool film".

Thursday April 14th

The Goddess (China, 1934) on rental dvd

I have wished to watch a film starring Ruan Ling-yu since I first watched Stanley Kwan's Actress, one of my top 10 films of the 90s. It's a mix of documentary, biopic and making-of feature about the "Shanghai Garbo", the first Chinese movie star, who committed suicide at 24 one year after shooting The Goddess. Ruan plays a single mother forced by circumstance into prostitution to support her son. Her aim in life is to provide him with the education she never had, but her gangster pimp, her gossipy neighbors, her son's schoolmates' parents, hell, society in general seems to stand in the way. Ms. Ruan gives a wonderful performance. She is as talented as any of her contemporaries in the West. This dvd was made possible by the People's Republic's Film Archives, a Dutch film conservation fund, and folks from Ball State University in Indiana. It's the first film starring Ruan to be released on dvd anywhere in the world (according to the commentary). Incidentally, Maggie Cheung's performance as Ruan in Kwan's film introduced Cheung to the West ( best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival).

Friday April 15th

Put together my own double bill at the Miami Latin Film Festival taking place today through the 24th in Coconut Grove (where Deep Throat was shot :) Both films tonight belong to what Spanish crits are calling New Andalusian Cinema, films from new directors which attempt to reflect the particular idiosyncracies of Andalucia (where flamenco, Picasso, Murillo, Velasquez, and Lorca were born), particularly their unique speech patterns and salty jargon. Both films deal with marginalized characters, most specifically, male protagonists who are heroin addicts.

Astronautas

Daniel is a long-haired, 40 year-old taking the first awkward steps towards recovery from heroin addiction. He is following a 10-step plan to return to a life of normalcy. He feels like an astronaut on a mission to an unknown planet, forced to develop a routine and a new social life. Laura is almost 16. She's come looking for her brother, who no longer lives next door to Daniel. She claims he's all she has. After Laura sleeps two nights in the hall outside the vacant apartment, Daniel offers her breakfast and something clicks between the two. Daniel allows her to stay for a few days, and despite his apprehension, they develop a bond of mutual support. But how long can it last?
Writer/director Santi Amodeo has crafted a recovery drama interspersed with comic, animated interludes that provide foreshadowing and commentary. Amodeo seems to love music as much as his protagonist, in that the film score features infectious, rock songs co-written by the director. Astronautas maintains an optimistic outlook while being realistic regarding recovery from addiction and the couple's age-disparity.

15 Dias Contigo (15 Days With You)

This film from writer/director Chus Ponce will premiere in Spain next Friday. Isabel (Isabel Ampudia) is a woman in her 30s being released from prison. She vows never to steal again and manages to do so by cleaning storefront windows for tips and having meals and baths at a homeless shelter. Isabel's sole true friend is Rufo, a junkie with AIDS who seems to genuinely care for her. She gradually develops a friendship with a woman her age and an attraction for an amiable bartender. On the other hand, Rufo's life seems destined for a tragic ending. This tale of survival in the streets of Seville is surprisingly funny given the grim milieu, although to be fair, half of its humor would be lost in translation. Some will find Sebastian Haro's performance excessively histrionic, although Rufo happens to be a gregarious, witty and desperate extrovert. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if Ampudia gets a Goya nom for her controlled, multi-faceted performance.

These sound great and the subject matter partly up my alley, though I'd miss linguistic details you can enjoy. What fun for you!

The SF Film Festival is coming the end of next week and I will go to some of them with the young man whose intense interest in movies has led his family to get me to help out taking him to things. So far I've agreed to five. Several of them are Latin American though he picked them for the story, not the culture.

Not much otherwise here, the last thing I saw was Agnès Jaoui's Look at Me (Comme une image).

Look at Me got a 3 1/2-stars review in the Miami Herald when it played at the fest. I passed on it to watch something else that had no US distributor. I'd like to know the titles of those five films and anything you want to share about the logistics of attending the SFFF.

I don't know what you mean by logistics exactly, but it has showings at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, the Castro Theater in SF, the Kabuki Theater in SF (the main venue, a cineplex in Japan Town that works well and was where the New Italian Cinema Event is also held), and a theater in Palo Alto. We are just going to the Kabuki and one at the Castro. You can get to the Kabuki from the East Bay, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland, via BART (the subway) by going to downtown SF and taking a bus, but we'll be driving over I think. Then you have to park but it isn't too bad near the Kabuki if you arrive early. It's harder to park at the Castro and the PFA in my experience.

The five films are:

Kings and Queen (Arnaud Desplechin, France)

Up Against Them All (Roberto Moreira, Brazil)

Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, Sweden)

Crónicas (Sebastián Cordero, Ecuador -- produced by Afonso Cuarón)

Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa (Sumika Hameda, Japan)

http://www.sfiff.org/fest05/calendar/index.html

Thanks, Chris. The youngster clearly likes heavy fare/big themes. Saraband is as good as chamber drama can get. I like it more than Bergman's Autumn Sonata and Scenes From A Marriage. The French film was named Best Film of 2004 by a French critics group. I passed on Cronicas when it played here because it's having a commercial run. Apparently what's best about it is the performance from Damian Alcazar, which received jury awards here and at San Sebastian. The Japanese and Brasilian films sound interesting.

Saturday April 16th

Practically spent the whole day at Regal Cinemas in Coconut Grove. I took Dylan to a free screening from the Next Generation Film Festival, international films of interest to youth that travel the world (Italy, Albania, Australia, Poland, California, and Florida). We watched a South Africa/France/UK co-production called The Wooden Camera. Madiba and Sipho are 14 year olds playing by the tracks when a dead man and his luggage are thrown from a passing train. Madiba keeps the camera and Sipho keeps the gun they find inside the suitcase. While shooting around the city, Madiba befriends Estelle, a rich white girl who plays a mean cello. Both Madiba and Estelle have serious parental issues whereas Sipho gravitates towards criminality. The Wooden Camera won a deserved cinematography award at the Paris Film Festival, but the serviceable script falters towards the conclusion when it tries to cover too much ground. A few scenes of violence are presented with great restraint but the film would probably get an R-rating in the US because of language and drug use. The teen jury awarded The Wooden Camera the Glass Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.

I returned to the theatre to watch a film from the Miami Latin Film Festival. El Lobo is a political thriller based on the true story of Operation Lobo (Wolf), the code name for a mole who infiltrated ETA, a Basque separatist organization, from 1973 to 1975. French-Spanish director Miguel Courtois acknowledges influences from Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing) and Jim Sheridan (In The Name of the Father) and manages to sustain the necessary rhythm while remaining faithful to the historical record. The film exposes the divisions and corruption within ETA and within the Franco government, during its last days. Eduardo Noriega (Open Your Eyes) as Lobo and the rest of the French/Spanish cast are fine throughout. What I found most interesting is the film's thesis that Fascist elements within the government saw ETA's terrorist activities as a way to justify their political positions and attempt to retain power after Franco's death. Ultimately they failed, and Spain became a democracy.

Then I watched Sin City at the same theatre, this year's most written-about movie at filmwurld. I don't see the reason for so much love/hate. An adaptation from a graphic novel, a compendium of borrowings from the film noir and action genres, tough 'n sexy guys and gals no one cares about except to look at, structure a bit clever here and there, excellent production values (especially the lighting I thought), human element buried beneath nihilism, objectification, and cynicism. I don't mind all that much because the fact that it's so stylized and other-worldly creates a buffer. I get the impression many people go to the movies with absolutely no knowledge of what's in store, based on the number of early walk-outs at this screening. (I would have posted in the film's thread but I don't think I'm adding anything to the discussion. Both arsaib4 and Chris Knipp wrote a lot of things that make sense to me.)

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human element buried beneath nihilism, objectification, and cynicism. I don't mind all that much because the fact that it's so stylized and other-worldly creates a buffer.

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Maybe you can say that but you get through things easier than I do I guess; I found it hard to sit through. Perhaps you either should "mind that much," or should realize that you like it? My friend Jessica, who prides herself on watching anything, sometimes says she didn't "mind" a movie, which I always find depressing, even coming from her. Coming from a film devotee like yourself, I find it somewhat baffling; but if one can't take a stand, one can't. It happens.

Sunday April 17th

Hector beat the latest films from Almodovar, Amenabar and Saura at the Spanish Critics Circle awards in the following categories: best film, best director (Gracia Querejeta), best screenplay, best score, and best actress (Adriana Ozores). The film was produced by Elias Querejeta, Gracia's father and veteran producer of such masterpieces as Cria and The Spirit of the Beehive. Hector is not a masterpiece and I don't think it's better than Bad Education, The Sea Inside, or The Seventh Day. What I decry is the fact that a quality drama dealing with universal themes won't get stateside distribution because it doesn't have a "big name" attached to it. Hector is the rare family drama which draws you in immediately, introduces eight characters that feel and talk like real people, creates narratives around them that never feel forced and arrives at resolutions that are neither predictable nor illogical (although a voice-over summary at its conclusion was not needed). Hector doesn't break new ground but it's too good to be kept from American filmgoers.

Mouchette (1967) on PAL dvd

I don't remember watching a film that made me more sad than Robert Bresson's Mouchette. Not the type of sadness that forces cathartic tears but the one that creates an ever-tightening knot in your throat. It comes natural for me to understand behavior from the point of view of psychology, and I've been trained to do so. Bresson instructed his non-actors or "models" as he'd rather call them to be as inexpressive as possible, to give "wooden" performances. These models' delivery is monotonic by design, that is, whenever they speak. There is a long dialogue-less sequence in Mouchette that illustrates Bresson's austere style. The titular 16 year old rural girl performs chores at a bar (closeup of her hands), approaches the cash register, receives a few coins (close up) and hands them to his stern father outside (close up), walks to the town fair nearby and stands by the bumper cars where a stranger places a token in her hand (you bet), she exchanges glances and smiles with a young man whose car keeps bumping into hers, afterwards they approach each other tentatively and, just before either says a word, her father suddenly appears and slaps her. The effect is striking in that, given the characters lack of specificity and color, one is freer to project onto them. For Bresson, human behavior results from forces far deeper and less fathomable than are explicable by mere cause and effect. Most, if not all, Bresson's films end with the protagonist's death or imprisonment. What happens to his characters seems a matter of unavoidable fate, which is anathema in our American culture, but it's too facile to say Bresson's world view is deterministic.
So, given my nature, my education and my culture, Mouchette is a difficult film to watch. And perhaps, beside the obvious formal virtues and aesthetic beauty of his films, the cause of my deepest admiration for him resides in how far away from my comfort zone his best films take me.
It's also quite a challenge for me to write about them, most particularly, without discussing scenes that would give away aspects of the plot (although I'd respond to any comments). It would be unfair to take away from your sense of discovery for I presume that a film like Mouchette is bound to come your away in the future, if it hasn't already.

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it's too facile to say Bresson's world view is deterministic.

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Why? Can you enlarge on that point? If Bresson's "world view" isn't simply deterministic, what is it, then? Why can't one call it "deterministic"? What is the more subtle, complex, less "facile" way that you propose of describing his "world view"?

I have not seen Mouchette.

I have seen
Les Dames du Bois de Bologne
Journal d'un Curé de campagne
Un condamné de mort s'est échappé
Procès de Jeanne d'Arc
Lancelat du Lac
Le Diable, probablement
and
L'Argent

I have a copy of Au hazard, Balthazar which I have not yet watched.

For all these films that I've seen (admittedly some of them years and years ago), I don't feel that I know much about Bresson. He is rather opaque, no doubt intentionally so.

The required woodenness of actors applies to Italian neo-realist films at times and made me think of a movie I love, Rossellini's Louis XIV: La prise de pouvoir. Your description also makes me think of Bruno Dumont, though I feel that his depressing and monotonous works are more pulsating with life, sexuality, and menace than Bresson's.

I have trouble liking filmmakers whose work is relentlessly pessimistic. Why emphasize the negative? I have done enough of that in my own life. Why not be life-affirming, like Renoir? Even a very sad film like Kurosawa's Ikiru is deeply life-affirming in showing how a life can be made useful, even at the end of it. (Of course Kurosawa is up and down, and hit a low point around the time of Do-des-ka-den.) This is my problem with most of the Iranian movies I have seen. However I'm more "culturally" as you would put it sympathetic I guess to French cinema, and I recognize that Bresson is an artist with a distinctive style whose work can be very powerful.

I also, frankly, have trouble seeing how filmmakers whose work is relentlessly pessimistic are not able to be described as "deterministic." I don't think it's going to seem fair to me to say as you imply here that a sense of "unavoidable fate," such as you say is conveyed by Bresson, however beyond somehow the reaches of "mere cause and effect," is anathema in our American culture, and therefore any negative reaction to the tendencies in Bresson's films (which I nonetheless to a considerable extent admire) is merely an example of my helplessly acting out a pattern of cultural "determinism."

I would suggest that all these characteristics of Bresson are the reason why serious film lovers in this country adire him so much: because he goes against the grain culturally and because he is "difficult." And this is also the reason why Lars von Trier is so admired.

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Originally posted by Chris Knipp
... When I think of recent documentaries that moved or involved me, like Touching the Void, To Be and to Have, My Architect, not to mention the politically involving ones like The Corporation and Fahrenheit 9/11, In the Realms of the Unreal fades out. ...

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I also like these ...
;)
To Be and To Have, My Architect, The Corporation and Fahrenheit 9/11

I may not have made my distinction clear. I'm saying Fahrenheit 9/11 straddles the two types of documentary for me, because it's political but gets a gut reaction. To Be and To Have and My Architect are full of love and personality and intimacy and are docs with personal, emotional impact. Both of them are literally capable of making you walk out of the theater with tears streaming down your face. Moore gets some of that into Fahrenheit 9/11. The Corporation is brillliant, but cold and analytical and without any personal intimate feel. I was also very impressed by it because it's very well done and devastating in its way; but it didn't have the emotional impact of the other ones for me. It makes you think but it is incapable of making you feel, and hence it has a severe limitation where the heart should be, which is why I was surprised at Oscar's listing it as one of his two favorite films of the year 2004.

Still looking forward a response from Oscar on my Bresson post particularly re the issues of pessimism and determinism.

My Bresson experience as follows: 10 out his 13 features, most seen several times but Lancelot, The Devil, probably, and Un Femme Douce seen once, years ago, and no longer accessible for purposes of analysis and discussion (unless I was to read reviews/essays to refresh my memory). Every single viewing (including repeats of course) a unique, rewarding experience thus I'd take advantage of any opportunity to watch any Bresson again. Passed on the silent on TCM last night to watch Mouchette again, before bedtime. Extremely moved and affected by it. Hard to conceive the images and sounds and the feelings they arouse would ever fade from memory even if never watched it again. It was hard to concentrate on the film I watched tonight (brief comment later). Perhaps Mouchette is Bresson's tragic film. (Possible spoilers ahead, although you can't quite spoil it).

During the course of 24-hours, Mouchette is subjected to a variety of events that cause her deep suffering and humiliation. Of all the protagonists of Bresson's films, this not-too-pretty-or-smart rural teen seems to have less control over what happens to her. She has all the odds stacked against her. She is burdened by adult responsibilities she's not equipped to handle. None of her pain and suffering is self-inflicted, and little is caused by personal foibles. Mouchette is an innocent, not yet grown. She seeks help from her family and community but no one provides it, for one reason or another. At one level, the film represents Bresson's protestation regarding the scarcity of charity and compassion. She is humiliated, beaten, raped, belittled, burdened and ostracized. For Bresson, God and the afterlife are simple matters of fact, but his faith eschews the piety and hypocrisy of organized religion. Mouchette is seen stomping her feet on mud prior to entering the church, and walking out defiantlly during Mass. But after having exhausted all hope, she commits suicide by drowning. Mouchette is typical of many Bressonian characters that are primarily observed through their struggles, but her burden is heavier than the condemned man's imprisonment or the county priest's illness. And death is simply only a passing for Bresson. And the gorgeous choral hymn that accompanies her drowning can only mean she's achieved grace.

I think it's possible to interpret the narrative arc of this film as a deterministic one, much more so than any of the other 9 Bressons I've seen_deterministic in the basic sense, a view that denies the importance and significance of free will. But I think it would be a mistake to make this generalization based one possible interpretation of one film.

I know this doesn't address every query you made, but it's a start (assuming you want to further discuss a filmmaker that may not be to your liking.)