Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

"Lukewarm" is only my impression without having read every review. A.O. Scott's review in the NYTimes seems typical. He praises Maya Sansa but is neutal otherwise:

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you may feel that the director is handling his volatile material with a bit too much delicacy. But the movie's atmosphere is a curious mixture of obliqueness and intensity.

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See also the quotes given from reviews http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/buon...te/?critic=all

I saw Purple Butterfly in New York last December and wrote a brief comment later. As you probably recall, when I posted this on the House of Flying Daggers thread on FilmWurld there was some discussion http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...=8486#post8486

*I agree with your comment that PB is "just as pretty to look at" as Suzhou River, but for me that's the sole favorable comparison between the "watchable" PB and the excellent Suzhou.
*I have now read Scott's review of Buongiorno. He describes the music as "lush, sometimes jarring" which definitely matches my reaction. Even more so, a comment from a Times reader who states he "found the magic realism of the ending inappropriate...". I am still baffled by the decision to show Moro walking free a second time. It's clear that the first time this scene is shown it turns out to be Chiara's dream. The second time felt like a cruel joke to me.

Thursday June 30th

Elena et les Hommes (France, 1956) on dvd
The third in Renoir's trilogy of period films in which a heroine is pursued by three suitors, a trilogy renamed "Stage and Spectacle" for release on dvd by Criterion. Elena and Her Men was released in the USA in 1957 in an edited version titled Paris Does Strange Things. The film is now considered one of Renoir's most daring because of its light treatment of a serious subject. The opening titles qualify Elena as a "musical fantasy", a comedia dell'arte in which Gral. Boulanger (thinly disguised as Rollan) attempts to conquer the heart of Polish princess Elena and take over the French government from the republicans. Basically, with the help of Royalists and Bonapartists, he wanted to establish a dictatorship. Many critics though this aspect of the plot was inappropriate for a musical comedy and dismissed the film. Not included among them was Jean Luc Godard, who went overboard by writing "Elena et les Hommes is the most intelligent film in the world". The main reason for the film, according to Renoir, was to create a comedy for Ingrid Bergman, whose career badly needed one at that stage. Her three suitors are Jean Richard, Mel Ferrer, and a mature Jean Gabin as Gral. Rollan. Renoir had by 1956 revealed himself to be a moralist in the broadest sense, illustrating a certain attitude towards life's problems. It had also become clear that he loved to experiment by juxtaposing genre, tone and subject in novel combinations. These impulses resulted in the creation of this fresh and delightful conclusion to the master's trilogy.

I hold no special brief for Purple Butterfly, as I'm sure you can see from my brief coverage of it. I wasn't even sure it merited a review at all. But things I see in New York often look just a little bit more interesting simply because I see them there surrounded by the New York energy. As I recall, it was a rainy night when I went over to the Quad Cinema for it, which nicely fit the film's mood.

I'll have to watch Buongiorno, notte again some time to consider your various criticisms, including the one about seeing Moro walking free a second time. I don't feel up to watching it right now. I thought that final scene fit in with the whole dreamlike feel of the film, but you may be right. Not every decision in the film is a wise one. I simply, as I keep saying, was carried up into the whole experience of it. As for the music, it is not jarring if you give yourself up to it. It is hypnotic and creates a strong mood. But that description of Scott's of the music -- "lush, sometimes jarring" -- reflects his general ambivalence about the whole thing. Good/no good: that's what he's telling us. He's willing to acknowledge that there is quality here. He doesn't say something rude and tasteless as Rex Reed's comment that it's as stale as week-old pasta, but he like you wasn't compltely caught up in it, so for every favorable thing he says, he adds a reservation.

*I try to apply my belief that film criticism is to some extent a matter of finding the right words to clearly convey entirely subjective, personal opinions, and that every opinion is valid. But comments like Reed's about a film like Buongiorno are a challenge to my tolerance. One wonders at times like these whether the writer actually likes movies enough to have his opinions published.

Second Quarter Report

Total Films: 134, including 6 silents and 11 shorts.

By Decade: 00s=66, 90s=11, 80s=6, 70s=8, 60s=16, 50s=10, 40s=8, 30s=3, 20s=6

By Language: English=55, French=19, Spanish=12, Others=48

Viewing Environment: Theatre=40, Video=83, Broadcast TV=11

*I decided against listing Faves of 2005 So Far. I am likely to watch several films of 2005 for a second time and I want to remain fully open to changing my mind about any given movie in either direction.

I'm afraid I was encouraging you to lose your sense of tolerence. It's true, Rex Reed's remark adds nothing to our discussion, but to call it "rude and tasteless" is a waste of breath on my part and overlooks the fact that it has a very real purpose in its own admittedly not very serious or polite context. Some critics may sound like they've lost patience with their work, but they may just be in search of quotable quotes and not averse to digging low to find them. A newspaper critic has got to grab the reader and he isn't going to keep him if he can't entertain. The Baltimore Sun critic Michael Sragow, who used to have the premier critic's spot out here and who does carefully crafted revival thumbnails for The New Yorker, is brutal sometimes in his writing for the Baltimore paper:

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Cinderella Man wants to be Seabiscuit on two legs, but lacks the guts and smarts and heart.

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and he delivers this on "War of the Worlds":

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Forget what Tom Cruise does outside his movies: What he does inside his movies is more than enough to wreck them. He hides booby traps of self-absorption within a bundle of energy.

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These are opening grabbers. He's not a subtle writer and sometimes he loses track of his point, but these pungent lines lead on to some valid observations. As for Rex Reed, I couldn't access the rest of his Bellocchio piece but he has always traded on bitch-slap cattyness. People read Reed for zinger put-downs like these openers of a review of "Bewitched":

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Ron Howard’s rich, rewarding, critically embraced and artistically sound Cinderella Man, the best film of 2005 up to now, has turned into a box-office bummer, while Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a stupid, brain-dead movie for morons, has raked in the loot like a carnival barker promising free porno slides. . . .Garbage is everywhere, especially in the summer, and each week dumps more. Last week, we got the bloated, pretentious and incomprehensible Batman Begins. This week, we get another labored rehash of another lousy TV sitcom. Frankly, in my opinion, the public is getting what it deserves.

In a saner time, I wouldn’t be caught dead trapped in a theater seat staring at a piece of junk like Bewitched. But hey, this one’s got the names of people I respect and admire plastered all over it like pit stops on vaudeville trunks. When pros like Nicole Kidman, Shirley MacLaine and Michael Caine show up in a movie written and directed by somebody as savvy and lucid as Nora Ephron, attention must be paid. And then Bewitched crawls its way across the screen like road kill on its last gasp, and you begin to wonder why Hollywood has such a low suicide rate . . .

Bewitched was popular boob-tube escapism back in the days of Sputnik and Francis the Talking Mule. The only thing about that old ossified sitcom that doesn’t endanger the I.Q. is the enchanting way Elizabeth Montgomery caused havoc in the neighborhood just by twitching her nose. Nicole Kidman does the same thing, but after the first three twitches, the effect wears thin. Three thousand times more, and you’re checking the battery on your Timex.

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After the suave earnestness of Denby or the British wit of Lane in The New Yorker, the spicy rhythms of Rex Reed in the New York Observer feel like very much a guilty pleasure; one could enjoy slumming a bit in its pink pages. No need to assume Mr. Reed has lost enthusism for his work or for the movies. And this is not a sign of battle fatigue: he's always talked like this. If anything, he's just better at it. Reed's put-down of Buongiorno, notte may add nothing to our discussion of it, but it has its place on the pages New Yorkers wrap their dead fish in. Frankly, I couldn't stop quoting that. The man's a real entertainer. Let's not be too judgmental.

Of course there's a place for this type of writing about movies but I'm not interested in it.

Friday July 1st

Tabu (USA, 1931)

The last film directed by F.W. Murnau is technically an American release because Paramount bought the distribution rights, but the film was independently financed, filmed on location in the South Pacific, and features non-actors. The film was initially a collaboration between the German master, who died in a car accident days before its premiere, and Robert Flaherty, who decided to withdraw. Tabu, which started as a simple depiction of the life of the Polynesians, somewhat on the order of Flaherty's Moana, was transformed into something grander when Murnau took over the reins. There was documentary coverage of South Seas life and customs (rituals, fishing, weaving, music and dance), there were vistas of lush palm forests and rolling surf, but merely as backgrounds to a mystical love story. The story of of Neri, a girl consecrated to the gods by the elders, and thus forbidden to love, or marry. But she already loves a sea diver so the holy man tells her he'll kill him unless she agrees to leave the island to prevent consummation of their love. The distraught diver swims after the holy man's schooner carrying Neri only, eventually and inevitably, to sink beneath the waves when exhausted. This time, religion triumphs over nature.
You'd think Tabu is the last silent masterpiece but Yasujiro Ozu had yet to release I Was Born but... and Chaplin's City Lights was still playing at theatres worldwide. Speaking of theatres, I wonder how many actually showed Tabu in completed form, without excising scenes of topless girls at work and play.

Princess Mononoke (Japan, 1997)

Having seen the original version twice during the 90s, I decided to watch the dubbed-into-English version with Dylan (12) today. Hayao Miyazaki's adventure epic constitutes the best animation of flora and fauna motifs in the history of the medium and the first opportunity most of his Americans fans had to watch a Miyazaki film at theatres. The story is set in 14th century Japan and involves gods, humans and animals in a monumental struggle for peaceful co-existence. Dylan loved it as much as Spirited Away. One thing I'd like to say in favor of dubbed animation, it most definitely grants one more time to look at the animation and the damage done to the artist's original conception seems minimal to me. Voices by Billy Crudup, B.B. Thornton, Minnie Driver, Claire Danes and, thankfully, no Billy Crystal shtick.

Sat. July 2nd

The Last Laugh (Germany, 1924)
The rotund, middle-aged porter at the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin loves his job. He gets to meet important people and wears a plush overcoat with shiny gold buttons. His neighbors show him respect and admiration. The porter lives with a niece who's busy preparing for her nuptials. On her wedding day, the porter is shocked and bewildered to find himself demoted to washroom attendant. He begs the manager to reconsider but to no avail. He can't bear to show up at his niece's wedding without his overcoat so he lingers after his shift is over and steals it. At the reception, he drinks to excess to drown his sorrow. Director Murnau depicts his gradual inebriation by means of camera movements, oblique shooting angles, and out-of-focus photography. The porter passes out on a chair and dreams a fantasy in which he's back at his job, effortlessly carrying luggage as if he had superhuman strength while guests applaud. They wake him up, he readies for work, and doesn't realize until he sees his replacement that he is no longer the porter at the Atlantic Hotel. At his new post, the miserable man looks much older. A series of scenes reveal how his secret is discovered and how the news spread through the neighborhood. The once-proud porter become a subject of derision and ridicule to his neighbors. Murnau and screenwriter Mayer, pressed by UFA executives to end the film on a happy note, insert the film's sole title card: "in real life this is where the story would end but..." and conjure up a way for the porter to get "the last laugh". A deeply-felt masterpiece with a performance for the ages by Emil Jannings.

Class Trip aka "La Classe de Neige" (France, 1998)
An effective psychological thriller directed by Claude Miller. Nicolas is an introverted, bed-wetting 12 year old. His father agrees to allow him to go to a ski camp as long as he drives him there. He won't allow him to go on the bus with the other kids, not after a recent school bus accident. In flashbacks, the father is seen telling Nicolas about all sorts of child abductions in which kids ended up raped, mutilated and/or killed. No surprise that Nic's dreams and imaginings are full of morbid imagery, including visions of his father getting killed in a bloody auto accident and a child being dismembered after falling in a machine to make sausage. The undersocialized Nicolas manages to befriend another boy named Hadkann who is fascinated with Nic's grisly tales. Then we learn that a boy has actually disappeared in the vicinity and the police are furiously investigating. When the boy is found dead, Nicolas and Hadkann believe they have information that can lead to the perpetrator. The entire film is told from the point of view of Nicolas, played with understatement and restraint by Clement Van Den Bergh. The narrative, which could easily have taken a detour towards the supernatural, remains grounded in psychology. The resolution is utterly predictable, which may disappoint, but the characterizations of both kids and adults are rich in detail. Class Trip won a Jury Prize (3rd place) at Cannes '98, tied with Vintenberg's The Celebration, which is a better movie. Given the high quality of other films in competition that didn't receive awards, Class Trip doesn't deserve the Jury Prize but it certainly merits a rental.

La Classe de neige--based on a book by Emmnuel Carrère which, for obvious reasons, has been extremely popular: it's simple, short, but extremely well done. Imagine a lighter and more subtle Stephen King. I read it in French -- no boast, since it's easy French (at least on the surface). Perhaps the award you want to take back in favor of the let-it-all-hang-out family dogme fest (The Celebration) is a nod to popular preferences. But as tabuno has been at such pains to argue, such preferences are not always invalid. You seem a bit dismissive here, and phrases you use, "No surprise," "undersocialized, "then we learn. . ." suggest a failure to identify. If you detacned -- is that a therapist's technique? -- that would neutralize or at least significantly dampen the psychological power of the piece for you, and hence lessen your sense of its value. I don't think one should let the conflicting politics of Cannes prize-giving color one's sense of a film -- or rob one of an emotionally strong experience even if it's not "art" with a capital "A." A French "Comment" writer on IMDb suggests in an interesting and enthusiastic description -- which includes a knowledgeable discussion of Miller's previous œuvre -- how strongly identifying might leave one almost shattered by this one (I haven't seen it). Maybe arsaib4 (or you?) can comment on Claude Miller's other work, which I can't remember seeing, though the name is so familiar I must know some of it.

Is this a new DVD? How did you happen to see it? As always I like to know the reasoning or conditions behind your many choices.

The Last Laugh: I have so often read about this, but never seen it, although I know it so well I feel as if I have. I can only imagine that you are going eventually to teach a course in film.

We learn from one another, don't we? Speaking of courses in film, I took one at UM and I remember my fellow students, even the ones not high on silents, really enjoying Murnau's Nosferatu and The Last Laugh. I'll be revisiting the former soon.

Claude Miller
63 year old Parisian has a reputation as a good "molder" of performances, and an economical storyteller with a particular interest in crime stories involving children and youth. Eleven theatrical features in order of release (video refers to region 1):
-The Best Way (1976) on dvd
-This Sweet Sickness on vhs, based on novel by Patricia Highsmith
-Garde a Vue not on video, based on John Wainwright's "Brainwash" about an investigation into the rape/murder of two girls. Cesar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay, Miller's single win out of 13 noms for various films. Remade in the US as Under Suspicion, starring Hackman and Freeman.
-Mortelle Randonne, on dvd, based on Marc Behm's "The Eye of the Beholder"
-L'effrontee, on dvd, winner of the Prix Louis Delluc
-The Little Thief, on vhs, winner of French Critics award.
-The Accompanist, on dvd, based on Nina Berberova's "L'Accompagnatrice"
-The Smile
-Class Trip, on dvd. A good film but not as good (IMO) as other films in competition at Cannes '98 that didn't win, such as Hou's Flowers of Shanghai, Zonka's The Dreamlife of Angels, Chereau's Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train, Boorman's The General, German's Khrustalyov, my Car!, Tsai's The Hole, etc.
-Alias Betty on dvd, based on Ruth Rendell's "The Tree of Hands"
-La Petite Lili on dvd, based on Chekhov's "The Seagull".

I've seen L'Effrontee, The Little Thief, The Accompanist, Class Trip and Alias Betty. My conclusion is that you can count on Miller, he is remarkably consistent. I personally recommend any of these five but would not call any one a "must-see".

Now that you mention them, I realize that I have seen The Accompanist and The LIttle Thief. I'd agree they aren't must-sees. Did you read the IMDb comment I referred to by dbdumonteil, and if so what did you think? In frequency this writer almost rivals you, though if you go on this way for another three years I guess you'll have more than his/her 1,500 entries.

I'd certainly agree The Flowers of Shanghai and The Dreamlife of Angels are stiff competition. I hadn't seen the former till recently, but Dreamlife of Angels was a terrific, touching movie that I saw when it was shown here and it would be hard to beat for that year. I guess you could say it's my kind of movie, whatever that means.

dbdumontiel's comment is interesting. He writes at length about his favorite Miller film, the debut The Best Way, which I haven't seen. He likes Class Trip more than any of Miller's since the debut. I don't think it's better than the others I've seen but it's certainly not worse, so it boils down to a matter of personal preference. Where I (and Cristi, who saw Class Trip with me) disagree is when he writes "Miller doesn't do what the audience expects". We found its resolution highly predictable, which doesn't diminish Class Trip's value as a psychologically sound, damaged kid's p.o.v. coming-of-age film.

Sunday July 3rd

Manito (USA, 2003) at Cosford Cinema
Low-budget indie, shot on DV, about a Latino family living in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Painting-contractor Junior is throwing a big bash for his younger brother Manito, who's graduating from H.S. with a scholarship to attend Syracuse U. This Spanglish feature from writer/director Eric Eason is particularly well-observed: Junior and partner debating the differences between Mexicans and Caribbean Latinos, his Grandpa selling garments out of a suitcase to some "putas", Manito and pals boasting about imaginary conquests, Junior using White-Out to update his insurance certificate, etc.
Coverage of the raucous bash with a handheld camera evidence Eason and crew's filmmaking skills_every frame contains something of interest to the viewer. On the other hand, Eason's tendency to occasionally tilt the camera 30 degrees off horizontal is mannered and serves no purpose.
American filmmakers don't seem interested in middle-class Latino characters but that's not a valid criticism of Eason or Manito. What's lamentable is the high percentage of movies about Latinos that revolve around drugs and guns. Eason can't resist the temptation and Manito becomes all too typical during its last act.

Va Savoir aka "Who Knows" (France, 2001) on dvd
Actress Camille returns to her native Paris with her Italian lover Ugo to stage Pirandello's "As You Desire Me", described here as a play about "rekindling relationships". Camille visits Pierre, an ex she hasn't seen for 3 years, and finds him working on an essay on Heidegger and married to ballet teacher Sonia. Ugo meets grad student Do while searching for a lost text by 18th century playwright Goldini. Do has a half-brother, Arthur, a grifter who's still interested in former lover and accomplice Sonia.
Voila! Six characters in search of...romantic stability? emotional grounding? Thay all are much more settled and satisfied occupationally, while ambiguity and ambivalence rule their hearts. Jacques Rivette's script is highly intertextual_the more familiar you are with Pirandello (and Heidegger), the richer the experience. But there's enough pointed repartee, droll comedy and accomplished acting to amuse and entertain most for 154 langurous minutes.

I also obviously found dbdumonteil's Class Trip Comment interesting. I liked its enthusiasm. He's clearly steeped in French films and has reviewed or commented briefly on a lot of them among his 1,500 postings. I wonder what his problem with capitalization, punctuation, and spacing is, or if this is just a French thing. I can't remember the ending of the book and haven't seen the film so can't comment on that aspect -- yet. Would like to see this, obviously.

I thought you had seen Manito and Va Savoir.

I saw Manito in NYC and reviewed it then (with spoilers galore). Lots of good material in Manito despite its grungy look, which I didn't like. It could have used some polish, and I didn't like the ending. But the people and the milieu are powerfully evoked and there's an authenticity that you just don't get in mainstream movies. You may find my comparison with Raising Victor Vargas annoying. But it was too much in my mind to avoid.

I'm surprised such a well informed and enthusiastic fan of Rivette as you are just now seeing Va Savoir, which was well publicized here when it came. I thought Va Savoir one of the year's best foreign films, as did arsaib4. Or did you see it back then and are just reviewing it as a DVD? I saw it first in a theater and then on video and I have a copy of it. I liked watching it and have watched it three or four times. I enjoy the Italian and the glossy French interiors, the posh library, etc. and the intelligent, if not extremely involving, subject matter. I have not reviewed it; I wasn't writing reviews as much back then, and I might find it hard to make sense of on the page. Another bar to reviewing him is that I have seen little of Rivette other than Paris nous appartient, Celine and Julie go boating, and La belle noiseuse -- though when you think of it, that's still a lot of hours since they're so long! His movies are a curious combination of lightness and excess. I think they, like the work of current French cinematic darling Arnaud Desplechin (whose fun but unruly Kings and Queen has been extravagantly admired in NYC lately), could have done with some ruthless editing. No doubt you strongly disagree. But we would agree that they're worth watching.

Yes, I saw Va Savoir back then at the theatre. It's a second viewing and the first time I post about it. I like every Rivette film I have seen but Va Savoir is no Celine et Julie.
First viewing of Manito. I agree with your review and I like how your more recent reviews contain less spoilers.

I was excessive with the spoilers on Manito, and have since been forced by readers to learn the meaning of the term. There are still some cases, of which Crash was a notable example, where it appears to be impossible to discuss a movie intelligently or intelligibly without talking about some of the "surprises" it offers. Quite often they aren't such "surprises" after all. An example of this is Mysterious Skin. The shared background of the two principals is telegraphed from the start to anyone who's paying attention. But in the case of Manito, you just don't have to know all I told, prior to viewing.

It might have been a good idea to have mentioned that this was your second viewing of Va Savoir, in keeping with this being your cinema journal, i.e., a date book in which you spell out chronologically your personal filmgoing/viewing activities. What makes Celine and Julie so much superior to Va Savoir, in your view? I'd just like to hear your explanation of how the two compare.

Celine and Julie Go Boating has been referred as the last Nouvelle Vague masterpiece. Not to slight Va Savoir, it's just that the older picture is such a daring, inspired, one-of-a-kind experience. It's been a few years seen I saw it. I miss it very much and I'm getting tired of waiting for a dvd release. Nightclub magician Celine and librarian Julie meet, exchange tall tales, move in together and, at times, swap identities. Then there a plot-within-the-plot titled "Phantom Ladies Over Paris". Celine and Julie access this narrative via visits to a dark, old house where they take turns taking care of a little girl. It's hard to convey from old memories how the film becomes increasingly resonant and significant. Other Rivette films seen in 2005:
-Marie et Julien
-Secret Defense
-Le Coup du Berger

Monday July 4th

To Be or Not To Be (USA, 1942) on dvd
A masterpiece from director Ernst Lubitsch set in Warsaw just before and during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Jack Benny and the incomparable Carole Lombard (her favorite role) as the Turas, a married couple who are lead actors in a theatrical company. A handsome pilot on the second row sends word that she wants to meet her. Mrs. Tura thinks it's harmless but doesn't want to make her husband jealous so she sends instructions to the pilot to come to her dressing room as Mr. Tura starts the famous Hamlet soliloquy, hence the movie's title. Hilarious complications ensue but, thirty minutes into the picture, Lubitsch spends a quarter hour developing an espionage subplot. The second half of To Be or Not to Be is the most exhilarating, clever and witty blend of sophisticated satire and espionage thriller. Neither the first nor the last time I'll be making its acquaintance. The cliche fits_they simply don't make 'em like this anymore.

Van God los aka Godforsaken (Netherlands, 2003)
Bought the dvd cheap on Ebay based on a couple of good e-media reviews, high IMdb ratings, and awards at third-tier Euro festivals. Box says "In the tradition of Natural Born Killers" but the plot derives mostly from Goodfellas and the van Venlo gang of thieves-turned-killers that terrified Holland during the mid-90s. Van God los is competently shot but adds nothing new to the tired genre. And the lead actor, who provides constant voice-over, is definitely no Ray Liotta. Box says "Running Time:95 minutes". I was not disappointed it ended at 82.