Why did all that completely elude me? I think there's just something about Assayas' style that turns me off, sometimes anyway; but there are a lot of his films I haven't seen.
Why did all that completely elude me? I think there's just something about Assayas' style that turns me off, sometimes anyway; but there are a lot of his films I haven't seen.
Assayas' style is difficult to pinpoint because each of his films I've seen is quite different from the others. Perhaps you'd respond more positively to Late August, Early September (if you haven't seen it I'd like to recommend it to you). I'd be hard to guess that its director made demonlover.
Tuesday May 10th
Palindromes at SoBe Regal
Ten years after Welcome to the Dollhouse, writer/director Todd Solondz recalls Dawn Wiener, its wronged and angry almost-teen protagonist. It's her funeral and brother Mark delivers the eulogy. We learn she got fat and pregnant_from a date-rape_and killed herself. The reviewer from the Miami Herald calls it Solondz's "cruelest joke" and can't seem to forgive him for the rest of the film (a reaction that's probably not uncommon). I suppose Dollhouse is his most popular film and the one that poses little challenge to the viewer's conceptions and sensibilities. The films that followed were increasingly controversial, even offensive to some. Dollhouse is an excellent dysfunctional family comedy but its scope was rather narrow and apolitical. Palindromes cannot posibly be as popular. It's a biting satire pointed at society-at-large, with something to offend sensitive types of every political persuasion. The central character is Aviva (Hebrew for Spring), a girl of about 13 and Dawn's cousin. The character, a love-starved innocent, is played by 8 different actors including a boy, and obese African-American woman, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. A device meant to illustrate the fact that certain basic aspects of one's personality remain unchanged as we age. They're resistant to change, resistant to our will perhaps. Aviva's saga involves teen sex, pedophilia, abortion, selfish parents, and fanatics from left and right. I found it consistently funny and provocative, with a wonderful, over-the-top performance from Ellen Barkin as Aviva's mom. Palindromes has plenty to shake you out of your comfort zone, including a couple of Christian musical numbers performed by a group of disabled kids. Solondz is an original and Palindromes is one of his best films.
Dear reader, please post to tell me why you've avoided Palindromes. It's been playing for two weeks and none of my fellow movie-lovers here seems to have seen it. I know it's not because of the reviews: Two thums up, A- from Entertainment Weekly, 4 stars from Sterrit at Christian S. Monitor and Jones at the Chicago Reader, "a great film" says Armond White. I imagine there's an equal number of negative reviews, a film like this is bound to divide critics and audience. But, don't you want to have an opinion? Wouldn't you rather be angry with a movie than bored by it? I've resisted any mention of plot as to not to spoil your experience.
I'm looking very forward to Palindromes, and all the reviews I've read are positive: "Solondz' best!", "Provacatively Perfect!", etc.
I'll try to catch it soon- I'm back on the west coast again.
simply cannot pass up the Pasolini retrospective at the PC, which is pretty comprehensive. A few interview films, a few docs, and all the features. On the big screen. That's what I love...
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
Thanks for your response J. Please let me know what you think about it. Storytelling had its moments but overall it was a letdown after the brilliant Happiness (1998). I think Palindromes is a return to form, and a film that should be generating some spirited debates here if folks weren't ignoring it. A Pasolini retro is too much to resist though. I was watching Paso's films in chronological order last year but I got sidetracked. I hope to restar the project with Gospel and move forward later this year. I'll try to look for your Pasolini thread and post there. I also hope to rewatch a few Bergman soon to prepare for Saraband's commercial run.
Wednesday May 11th
Circle of Deceit (Germany, 1981) on dvd
Director Volker Schlondorff's follow-up to Oscar-winner The Tin Drum starring Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire, Downfall) as a journalist who leaves his marital battlefield in Berlin to cover the Lebanese civil war. In Beirut, he gets involved with a German widow (Hanna Schygulla) and clashes with several western colleagues regarding the role of the media in such conflicts. A high-budget production, shot in Beirut while the war was taking place, with good performances from a first-rate cast, and a nice score by Maurice Jarre that incorporates Arabic themes. It's the immediacy of its war scenes, the authenticity of its locale, and its provocative take on the role of the media that make Circle of Deceit stand out in a subgenre that's produced quite a few worthy features.
Last edited by oscar jubis; 05-12-2005 at 10:47 PM.
Thursday May 12th
La Perla (Mexico/US, 1947) on TCM
John Steinback was on vacation in Mexico in 1941 when a local told him a tale about an impoverished diver who finds a big pearl and how the event affects his life. Steinback befriended actor/director Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez and out of friendship agreed to write the screenplay prior to publishing the short novel he based on the simple fable. They cast Pedro Armendariz in the lead role of this Mexican-American co-production that went on to win 5 Ariels (Mexican Academy awards) and a Golden Globe for Gabriel Figueroa's cinematography. La Perla is a stunning-looking film shot on location in La Paz, Mexico with an excellent performance by Armendariz. La Perla was inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002. There's an English-dubbed version that was released by RKO in the US but Turner Classic Movies showed the Spanish-language version with excellent new subtitles. The network's Classic Mexican Cinema series continues during the next two thursdays. It's a rare opportunity to sample the vital cinema of Mexico's Golden Age.
La Vie de Chateau (France, 1965) on dvd
A nazi officer and a French spy are more interested in Phillipe Noiret's bored wife, played by Catherine Deneuve, than in WWII strategy in Jean-Paul Rappeneau's romantic comedy. Music by Michel Legrand. Entertaining, breezy and diverting.
Registered User
I've been interested in seeing this since my friend told me how much he loved Storytelling. Unfortunately, Albuquerque isn't exactly the ultimate film venue; I'm surprised I even got to see Crash.Originally posted by oscar jubis
Dear reader, please post to tell me why you've avoided Palindromes. It's been playing for two weeks and none of my fellow movie-lovers here seems to have seen it. I know it's not because of the reviews: Two thums up, A- from Entertainment Weekly, 4 stars from Sterrit at Christian S. Monitor and Jones at the Chicago Reader, "a great film" says Armond White. I imagine there's an equal number of negative reviews, a film like this is bound to divide critics and audience. But, don't you want to have an opinion? Wouldn't you rather be angry with a movie than bored by it? I've resisted any mention of plot as to not to spoil your experience. [/B]
"So I'm a heel, so what of it?"
--Renaldo the Heel, from Crimewave
Thanks for your response Tree. Palindromes has played at only 42 screens, two locally. It played on South Beach, where I watched it, for a single week. That's it! On its second week in Ft. Lauderdale, it's down to a single show daily. I'm sorry to say moviegoers have failed to show the support needed for the film to expand to smaller markets. The lack of a bankable star (JJ Leigh is a great actress but no b.o. magnet) has hurt the film's prospects. The name Solondz (director Todd) is apparently not enough to get the average moviegoer interested. If you haven't seen it, run to rent Happiness and support the one interesting film playing at your multiplex: Millions, a family film from the makers of Trainspotting.
Friday May 13th
Look at Me at SoBe Regal
Former-marrieds Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri are excellent writers. They collaborated on the scripts for Resnais' Same Old Song, Kaplisch's Un Air de Famille, and The Taste of Others, starring Bacri and directed by Jaoui. They repeat the feat here and Look at Me deservedly won the best screenplay award at Cannes 2004. Bacri plays an admired, middle-aged writer going through a creative crisis, married to a younger wife who's getting fed up with his antics, and father to Lolita, a 20 year-old aspiring singer who desperately needs his attention and approval. Jaoui plays Lolita's voice coach and the wife of a writer dealing with professional insecurity. Bacri's famous writer is pedantic and standoffish but his status and fame attract those around him, including Lolita's "boyfriend". She's heartbroken by the realization and builds a protective wall. As a result, Lolita might miss out on a relationship with Sebastien, a chance acquaintance who truly cares for her.
I couldn't find a single false moment in the entire picture. It's impossible to single out any actor here because the whole ensemble excels. I greatly admire Jaoui and Bacri for creating characters that felt to me "true-to-life", warts and all. There's absolutely no condescension to an audience need to sympathize with characters, their humanity is entirely conveyed through struggle with their weaknesses. There's so much unforced humor and great music (and singing) to balance the social frictions that I was sad to see the film end. A hit at the Miami Film Festival and the best reviewed festival film other than Bergman's Saraband.
Sat May 14th
3-Iron at SoBe Regal
South Korean director Kim Ki-duk's film about a young man who breaks into households with absent owners to live in them, not to steal anything. He meets an abused wife after a break-in of a house he thought was empty. They develop a relationship gradually without ever speaking a word to each other. A visually splendid romance with a premise that provides a conduit to a cross-section of Koreans. Some may like the magical twist at the end but it felt like a cope-out to me, an easy-way-out with a banal quote that made it even more facile. Recommended viewing nonetheless.
"Some may like the magical twist at the end but it felt like a cope-out to me, an easy-way-out with a banal quote that made it even more facile."
I must admit I did like the "magical twist at the end" but I found the film as a whole to be quite ethereal . A few of Ki-Duk Kims films have strange or inexplicable endings, The Isle for one, Birdcage Inn threw me as well but he certainly gives you something to think about.
Thanks for going on to recommend it despite your niggles because this film is an unique experience.
Cheers Trev.
Last edited by trevor826; 05-16-2005 at 03:24 AM.
The more I learn the less I know.
Trev, good point about the endings of Ki-duk's films. Another case in point would be Samaria, with its symbolic, long-shot ending. I agree that 3-Iron provides a unique and rewarding experience. Another contemporary Asian filmmaker with a unique, personal vision is Apitchapong Weerasethakul. I like his films even more than Ki-duk's. I'm curious regarding your take on his Tropical Malady or any of his previous films.
Sunday May 15th
Funeral Parade of Roses (Japan, 1969) on NTSC R2 dvd.
At the same time as the Nouvelle Vague, an equally vital and exciting New Wave in cinema was taking place in Japan. These films were not distributed as widely in the West for obvious cultural reasons. They have gradually become available in home video formats. I'm still in the early stages of discovery and appreciation of these films.
Brief list of key directors and representative films: Yasuzo Masumura (Red Angel, Giants and Toys), Shoei Imamura (The Pornographers, The Insect Woman), Hiroshi Teshigahara (Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another), Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill, Fighting Elegy, Youth of the Beast), Nagisa Oshima (Cruel Story of Youth, The Sun's Burial), Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba). Today I discovered the cinema of Toshio Matsumoto, a man unknown to me until his Funeral Parade of Roses was released on dvd in Japan last year with English subtitles. This movie is truly something especial.
Funeral Parade of Roses is a masterful blend of many genres and styles into a seamless, awesome display of artistry. There is a narrative plot at its center with young transvestite Eddie as protagonist. She (her preference) works as a hostess at a gay club named Genet whose 40ish owner is a lover of both Eddie and the aging club "madame" Leda. Eddie's life includes shopping sprees with other "queens", working at the club, attending wild after-hours parties, and shooting experimental, underground films with her arty friends (including another lover who dons a fake beard and goes by the name Guevara). Her wonderful life is disturbed by debilitating, intrusive childhood memories, seen in flashback. We witness his struggles forging an identity, as a pre-adolescent, and a tragic episode involving his mother and one of her paramours. Eddie doesn't remember his father. His only memento is a family picture; one with his father's face burned out with a cigarrette by his mother. Eventually the mystery is revealed as the film comes to an ending of tragic proportions.
A confident and assured blend. A sample: erotic but never explicit sex scenes in which overlit close-ups predominate; documentary scenes in which the actors are interviewed regarding being gay and/or transvestite in Japanese society; montage sequence of paintings of masks and distorted faces when Eddie wanders into an art gallery with a voice-over discussing social role-playing; quick cut to a line-up of young naked men facing a white wall, one has a rose between his buttocks; a beautiful shot taken from an elevator as it ascends Tokyo's Observation tower; a variety of intertitles of literary quotes; sped-up, slapstick montage of the "queens" fighting a trio of gang girls to a carnival music score; dialogue that references JP Sartre and Jonas Mekas ("All definitions of cinema have been erased"), among others; sensitive dramatic scenes of impeccable taste; a screaming showdown between Eddie and another hostess with word-balloons as used in comics, etc. An amazing display of artist virtuosity that never feels indulgent and not for a second detracts from the central story and its huge emotional impact. A great film.
The Family Jewels (USA, 1965) on vhs
My 11 year old and I love Jerry Lewis and I needed a breezy comedy. Produced, directed, co-written and starring the great comedian who plays seven different roles here. About a rich, orphaned girl who must choose a guardian among her five wacky uncles but ends up insisting on her lovable chauffer and bodyguard.
Last edited by oscar jubis; 05-16-2005 at 01:33 PM.
Monday May 16th
Children Underground (USA, 2001) on dvd
Edet Beltzberg's doc about five Romanian kids living at a subway station in Bucharest won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2001. Beltzerg's approach is non-intrusive and non-didactic, recording the kids' daily lives without narration or intervention. Title cards inform that 20,000 homeless kids live in Bucharest, a legacy of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's policies banning abortion and all forms of birth control to increase the labor force. We get a clear picture of harrowing routines that involve begging, stealing, fighting, scrounging for food, and inhaling paint fumes. Kids ranging in age from 8 to 16 tell their own stories of institutional and familial abuse, neglect, poverty and abandonment. Then Children Underground depicts the efforts of local and foreigners to provide assistance with limited resources and the prospects as these children grow into adulthood. A lucid, honest and revealing approach to documenting the lives of homeless children.
Tuesday May 16th
The films directed by Jean Pierre Melville (1917-1973), born in Paris to a family of Alsatian Jews, constitute a perfect introduction to foreign films for anglophones. Melville, who adopted the surname of his favorite novelist in 1940, when he fled into England to join the Resistance, professed a deep love for American culture. In particular, he was enamored of movies from Hollywood's golden era. Melville was a natural, self-trained filmmaker who's often referred as a "Godfather of the New Wave" (Rosenbaum). His first masterpiece was Les Enfants Terribles, a collaboration with Jean Cocteau. In the 50s, Melville began to make more personal films that appropriated American iconography and placed it in a decidedly French context. Of particular interest, he made gangster and film noir movies that equal the best from Hollywood, where those genres originated.
Le Doulos (France, 1962) on PAL dvd
This film noir has gradually grown in esteem in the 40+ years since its release. It was included on a list of 100 Best Films chosen by the staff of the influential Cahiers du Cinema in the 90s. It's absolutely brilliant in every aspect of production_montage, editing and lighting in particular_but it's the remarkably intricate and airtight narrative that compelled me to watch it twice in one night. I wish anyone making a mystery thriller nowadays was required to watch it, as well as crits who overrate modern thrillers full of implausibilities and plot holes. Without going into specifics of its plot, themes of betrayal, deceit, revenge and guilt predominate. Jean Paul Belmondo excels as the police informer alluded in the title, but so does everyone else. I've seen several of Melville's crime films, which include Bob le Flambeur, Le Samourai, Un Flic, and Le Cercle Rouge (being remade in Hollywood by John Woo), but Le Doulos is my personal favorite. It's available on vhs in the US but try to get a hold of this disc released by the British Film Institute which includes an interview with assistant director Volker Schlondorff, and commentary on selected scenes.
Wed. May 18th
"Kenji Mizoguchi is cinema's Shakespeare, its Bach or Beethoven"
James Quandt, Ontario Cinematheque
"The greatest of Japanese directors elluded general recognition as such only through unpropitious circumstances"
Alex Jacoby, Senses of Cinema
The Lady From Musashino (1951) on PAL dvd
Late-period Mizo starring the amazing Kinuyo Tanaka (Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff). Ms. Kinuyo is Michiko, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to the opportunistic Tadao. Tokyo is being bombed by the Allies as they return to her father's estate in Musashino, a nearby town. Michiko's father, who has instilled in her a strong sense of morality, warns her about Tadao. Michiko's parents die during the war years and she inherits their house and land. Michiko's cousin and childhood buddy Tsutomu returns from a p.o.w. camp in Singapore 3 years after the war's end. Japanese society has experienced tremendous upheaval with rapid change in ways and mores. Tamiko and Tsutomu grow close again while enjoying the pristine countryside, increasingly threatened by urban encroachment. Tadao's heavy drinking and philandering and Tsumoto's declaration of love test Michiko's sense of propriety but she sticks to her long-held values. Tsutomu drifts away. "Sleeping with you and your friends is making me sad", he tells a co-ed. Meanwhile, Tadao has an affair with his neighbor's duplicitous wife and plots to take possesion of Michiko's estate.
Like every film I've seen directed by Mizoguchi, Lady from Musashino is a humanist film of great complexity and formal beauty. The film documents with characteristic economy the changes experienced by the Japanese as a result of their defeat in WW II, the influence of western culture, and rapid urbanization. Extremely moving and thought-provoking.
Who's Minding the Store? (USA, 1963) on vhs
A Jerry Lewis vehicle written and directed by Frank Tashlin with an excellent supporting cast that includes Agnes Moorehead, Ray Walston, and Jill St. John. An entertaining mix of slapstick and satire of consumerism. A perfect palate-cleanser, a cool and fruity sorbet of a movie.
Huge thanks for this Mizoguchi review. I haven't seen this one.
PAL DVD?
That's it.
I'm biting the bullet and going shopping for a fucking multi-region player. Enough is enough.
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
Thanks for reading my journal, J. I've been renting foreign discs from an outfit called nicheflix that specializes in PAL format and NTSC non-region 1 discs. I cannot afford to buy them all, of course. A multi-region player is more affordable than ever. This dvd of Musashino is a barebones disc released in the UK last year. The film is not available in N. America in any format.
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