Thursday September 15th
2046 (China/Germany/France, 2004) at Regal SoBe
My favorite undistributed film of 2004 provides the most pleasurable theatrical experience of 2005.
The Wayward Cloud (Taiwan/France, 2005) import dvd
Thursday September 15th
2046 (China/Germany/France, 2004) at Regal SoBe
My favorite undistributed film of 2004 provides the most pleasurable theatrical experience of 2005.
The Wayward Cloud (Taiwan/France, 2005) import dvd
Friday Sep 16th
Tokyo Twilight (Japan, 1957) Import dvd
Yasujiro Ozu was one of the most consistently excellent film directors. This rarely screened gem, was his last black & white film. It's another superb family drama focusing on relationships between parents and their adult children. What makes Tokyo Twilight unique is the uncharacteristically "heavy" or "dark" themes. Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara are featured again as father and daughter. (Spoilers) He is a banker whose wife abandoned him and their three young children 20 years ago. The oldest daughter has moved back home with her 2 year old daughter because her husband is alcoholic and abusive. The youngest daughter won't tell anyone that she's pregnant and that her boyfriend fails to take responsibility. Their mother is rumored to have returned to Tokyo to renew family ties. Subtle yet emotionally poweful drama with excellent performances by Ryu, Hara, and newcomer Ineko Arima as the rebellious and conflicted young daughter.
The Old Dark House (USA, 1932) dvd
Outstanding horror/comedy/romance from British director James Whale (Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man) featuring Charles Laughton, in his American debut, and Boris Karloff. The Old Dark House was lensed by Arthur Edison, whose credits include Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and other classics of the Golden Era. The Old Dark House is characterized by carefully planned static compositions and fluid editing, with less camera movement than subsequent Whale films. Somehow this old film manages to be creepier AND funnier than the many "haunted house" movies that followed. Marred by a single plot development at the conclusion, meant to satisfy perceived audience expectations.
Last edited by oscar jubis; 09-21-2005 at 10:53 AM.
Saturday September 17th
Moon of Avellaneda (Argentina, 2004) at Cosford Cinema
The title refers to a sports and social club, a meaningful and important place for a whole community which is, like Argentina, experiencing economic woes. The club is a metaphor for the country in director Juan Jose Campanella's follow up to the well-received Son of the Bride. Moon of Avellaneda is the third collaboration by Campanella, screenwriter Fernando Castets and actors Ricardo Darin and Daniel Fanego. This team has managed again to make a film that strikes a perfect balance between comedy and drama, between personal and social problems, between nostalgia and realism. Darin and Fanego play modern quijotes with inner demons and relationship problems who fight to reject a generous proposal to turn the decaying club into a casino. Here's hoping a distributor will recognize the quality and obvious commercial potential of Moon of Avellaneda.
*The following shorts are part of a dvd released by Film Movement titled: "Art of the Short Film". It's worth renting mostly because of the two animated Oscar-nominees.
Death Dealer: A Documentary (USA, 2004) 16 min
A death angel (Henry Rollins) allows a film crew to document his morbid, daily routine. Darkly funny mockumentary.
The First Three Lives of Stuart Hornsley (USA, 2004) 30 min
A science teacher uses his time machine to travel to the past and change his destiny. Poorly paced and inconsequential.
Das Rad (Germany, 2003) 9 min
Hew and Kew are two animated rocks who witness, over centuries, the development of human civilization. Poignant ending implies Earth will outlive humans. Oscar-nominee.
Mt. Head (Japan, 2003) 10 min
A stingy man eats cherry pits only to find a tree growing in his head. Wildly inventive animation. Oscar-nominee.
Sangam (India/USA, 2004) 24 min
A nostalgic, new immigrant from Calcutta befriends an Indian-American in a NYC subway car. Visually attractive, well acted, but ruined by a poorly conceived script.
Inja aka Dog (S. Africa/Australia, 2003) 17 min
Contrived drama involving a black youth, his dog, and a white landowner. Oscar-nominee.
Sunday Sep 18th
My Best Enemy (Chile/Argentina, 2005) at Cosford Cinema
In 1978, Chile and Argentina were on the verge of war over three disputed Beagle Channel islands. Alex Bowen's film concerns a Chilean patrol unit that gets lost in the poorly defined border between the two countries, in the flat and desolate Patagonia region. They encounter an Argentine unit sent to patrol the same area. Since war has not been declared, they manage to negotiate a tentative, fragile accomodation based on need and mutual survival. Friendship blossoms under the most extreme circumstances. But how long can it last?
My Best Enemy was filmed on actual locations, and sides with the common men imposed upon by the military dictatorships that ruled both Chile and Argentina. Governments that exploit nationalistic sentiments for purposes of greed and vainglory. My Best Enemy is thus quite commendable, besides being engaging and nicely photographed. Yet the message lacks the impact of films like Fuller's The Steel Helmet or Malick's The Thin Red Line, for instance. Moreover, the characters are archetypes, not unlike those from John Ford's The Lost Patrol. My Best Enemy is not great, but it's a good movie that will not get the distribution it deserves.
Oscar, it's too bad you aren't here because while everything else is going on at Lincoln Center in the films, there is a Latin series. Of course I can't cover it.
Do you mean the Latin Beat festival that just concluded at the Walter Reade? This festival was also presented here, at the Cosford. I watched and reviewed 5 of the films including Moon of Avellaneda from the director of The Son of the Bride, and El Perro from the director of Historias Minimas. I liked the new films more than the earlier ones from both directors, but they have not been picked up for distribution. Not yet. Next month I'll be posting on a Chilean series. If you haven't seen it, rent The Holy Girl by Lucrecia Martel when you return home.
Monday Sep 19
Sometimes in April (USA/Fra/Rwanda, 2005) dvd
Tuesday Sep 20th
The Constant Gardener (USA, 2005) at AMC CocoWalk
Wed. September 21st
Born to be Bad (USA, 1950) TCM
Nicholas Ray (Bitter Victory, In a Lonely Place, King of Kings) was one of the best American directors of the Golden Era. Between 1947 and 1962, he made several masterpieces. Many others came close. Born to Be Bad is merely good. Joan Fontaine, who played helpless victims in films like Rebecca and Suspicion, is cast against type as Chistabel, the small town girl of modest means bent on getting rich at any cost. She sets her sights on millionaire Curtis (Zachary Scott), who's engaged to Donna (the very beautiful Joan Leslie), but lusts after stud Nick (Robert Ryan). Ray's direction is quite dynamic and the cast is excellent, but the characters need more shading and the resolution is Hollywood-predictable.
Thur. September 22st
I Heart Huckabees (USA, 2004) dvd
"A Zen monk once told me: if you're not laughing you're not getting it"
(David O. Russell)
I couldn't totally grasp this film from director David O. Russell after watching it at the theatre last year. I listed it under "honorable mention" at year's end because of its boundless ambition and originality. But I needed a second viewing to form a solid opinion: I Heart Huckabees is one of the best films of 2004.
Huckabees is teeming with incident and bursting with ideas. Moreover, like previous Russell films (Spanking the Monkey, Three Kings), it finds humor where others fear to thread. This one's a bitch to review. I have yet to find a single critic who comes close to addressing what's in store for the viewer. Every review seems to focus on a few of its conceits, characters, incidents and ideas because it seems almost impossible to digest it all in a single viewing. It's basically a farce about the political activism of characters undergoing existential crises, characters wrestling with the big issues of identity, consciousness, and one's place in the large scheme of things. But somehow, it's funny and moving. There's Albert (Jason Schwartzman) who thinks public readings of his awful poems are the best strategy to combat suburban sprawl. Albert's nemesis is Brad (Jude Law), the golden boy of the Huckabees chain, whose involvement in Albert's Open Spaces Coalition is calculated to boost his employer's public image. Dawn (Naomi Watts), Brad's girl and Huckabees' spokesmodel, rebels against being Brad's status object and the store's marketing tool. But perhaps I Heart Huckabees' most memorable character is Tommy (Mark Wahlberg), a firefighter full of pentup aggression, pained by the government's response to 9/11 and our dependence on oil.
How do you make a humorous film about philosophical and political issues? Russell's brilliant conceit is having these characters consult a duo of "existential detectives" (a hybrid of psychotherapist and guru) played with gusto by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin. They emphasize an idealistic, universal interconnectedness, "focus on the big picture" existential view. Their opposite, a sultry French nihilist played by the ultra-talented Isabelle Huppert, has a business card that promises "cruelty, manipulation, meaninglessness". The two opposing camps battle for the souls and minds of Albert, Brad, Dawn and Tommy most amusingly. Oh, and there's a Sudanese refugee and his adoptive, SUV riding, Bush-loving, Christian family; and Shania Twain as herself, and a lot more.
I Heart Huckabees is not squarely an issues-and-ideas film, Russell provides quite a bit of backstory to Albert and Brad, who emerge as more dimensional than characters commonly found in farcical comedies. Both are exposed as people whose behavior is dictated by motives beyond their immediate awareness. As a matter of fact, all four of the major characters undergo significant development. Their transformations are the substance of a film that goes full-blast with eyes wide open into uncharted territory.
I'm glad you've formed a more positive opinion of this film now. It seems to be a film about which people have strong reactions either way. On another thread here, Johann tears it apart. My opinion of the film: lukewarm. I want to see it again (I've seen it twice so far) to betermine determine if I can put myself more firmly into the "pro" or "con" camp.Originally posted by oscar jubis
But I needed a second viewing to form a solid opinion: I Heart Huckabees is one of the best films of 2004.
My feeling on this film is that it's brilliant at times but flat at others. And the times it's flat are frustrating because of the potential to be better. The basic philosophical battle in the film (Hoffman vs. Huppert) is, dare I say it, rather flaky and irrelevent to the overall story. Maybe because I'm a pragmatist, or maybe because so few films dare to venture into such territory, but I found the sharpest scenes to be those that directly took on issues faced in our society today. The dinner scene with the wholesome All-American family (with the African orphan) is ingenious. It's a perfect incapsulation of the "blue state" frustration with "red state" mentality - hard working, good intentioned people with hopeless ignorance and naivete about the realities of the world.
Again, what I've said before on these threads is that Russell manages to create an absurdist tale reflecting the absurdities of the society we live in today. The remaining question is whether all the pieces in the film's puzzle fit together in such a way to make it a "brilliant" film. I'm dying for a filmmaker today to take head-on the subject matter of American society and life (ala Altman's brilliant and still relevent masterpiece Nashville from 30 years ago), and in my mind Russell hasn't quite made it there yet.
Originally posted by JustaFied
On another thread here, Johann tears it apart.
Yep. Too much pinot noir? Too much late Fellini? Perhaps. Is it wishful thinking on my part to predict he'd see the light after a second viewing? I was glad to find it at #8 on the Village Voice's Critics Poll.
The basic philosophical battle in the film (Hoffman vs. Huppert) is, dare I say it, rather flaky and irrelevent to the overall story.
A dialogue late in the film between Albert and Tommy indicates they found a way to accomodate both viewpoints, to strike a balance between them. Yet, as you imply, the script doesn't really allow for the exposition and confrontation of the tenets of either philosophical approach. My suggestion is not to regard the philosophical battle abstractly but to see it only as it relates to Albert and Tommy. Their dissatisfaction with the state of things creates polar tendencies within them: narcissism (Tommy's violence, Albert's inflated self-regard) and disengagement vs. altruism and engagement. In my opinion, the "existential dicks" and Huppert's nihilist are primarily plot devices and conduits. They make it possible for the film to dig into Albert and Brad's pasts, serve as a way to get Tommy and Albert together, and facilitate getting inside their heads (not unlike the portal in Kaufman's Being John Malkovich).
I found the sharpest scenes to be those that directly took on issues faced in our society today. The dinner scene with the wholesome All-American family (with the African orphan) is ingenious. It's a perfect incapsulation of the "blue state" frustration with "red state" mentality
Russell gets my respect merely for attempting to articulate "the deep divide". I found the scene quite effective, but not more so than many others, including the scene in which Tommy's wife leaves him and takes the kids.
The remaining question is whether all the pieces in the film's puzzle fit together in such a way to make it a "brilliant" film. I'm dying for a filmmaker today to take head-on the subject matter of American society and life (ala Altman's brilliant and still relevent masterpiece Nashville from 30 years ago), and in my mind Russell hasn't quite made it there yet.
I Heart Huckabees is no Nashville. We might have to wait a while for another film like it. It's not a perfect movie like Before Sunset. It's not neat and its puzzle doesn't fit together the way Eternal Sunshine does. But it's more daring and ambitious than anything made in the USA in 2004. Even though not completely successful, even if Russell hasn't quite made his masterpiece, I Heart Huckabees achieves enough to merit inclusion into a list of best films of 2004. At the minimum, Russell deserves credit for creating a narrative full of good-natured humor that asks the right questions. Of course, this is only my subjective opinion.
Friday Sep 23rd
Torremolinos '73 (Spain, 2003) at Cosford Cinema
This period comedy was an audience favorite when it had its American premiere at the 2004 Miami International FF. Writer/director Pablo Berger milks the wide differences between open-minded Scandinavia and the repressed, behind-the-times Spain of the early 70s. A Spanish publishing company agrees to produce amateur porn to be sold exclusively in Scandinavia. On the verge of being fired because of low sales of encyclopedias, a traveling salesman (Talk to Her's Javier Camara[/i]) agrees to film himself having sex with his wife (Candela Pena from Take My Eyes). She becomes a porn star in Scandinavia and complications ensue. Ms. Pena won Best Actress at the MIFF and the film received four Goya noms. The funny Torremolinos '73 celebrates sex and pays homage to Ingmar Bergman, then ends on a poignant note. Worth seeing.
Sat Sep 24th
Curse of the Cat People (USA, 1944) on TCM
Not a great movie like many others produced by Val Newton in the 40s, but a good, sort-of sequel to the excellent Cat People (1942). Builds a creepy narrative around a father's disapproval of her lonely daughter creating imaginary friends and her obsession with daddy's dead ex-wife. Psychologically sound characterization of a child's inner world.
Oseam (South Korea, 2003) dvd
Animated, loose adaptation of buddhist fable based on a novel by Chae-bong Jeong. A sentimental tale about an orphan "Dennis-the-Menace-type" and his blind sister who take shelter in a monastery. A plot contrivance or two result in the boy ending up alone on a mountain-top retreat where he attains nirvana. Animation is fine but not spectacular.
Sunday Sep 24
La Chinoise (France, 1967) PAL dvd
Godard was quite prescient about the events of May 1968 with this film about a summer in the lives of college students who've formed a Maoist group. They debate, discuss, and plan a leftist revolution in a series of episodes, most set in a bourgeois apartment. Godard may have agreed with half of what they say, but he depicts them as naive, confused, out-of-touch with reality, and deserving ridicule. This is topical cinema and the political specifics are dated. It's Godard and it's only 90 minutes long, but this fan was bored during the middle third. Watch Weekend instead.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (USA, 1944) on Turner C.M.
My favorite movie by my favorite writer/director of comedies, Mr. Preston Sturges (Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve). I've lost count how many times I've seen it, and I've posted about it before. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is deliriously inventive and wildly unpredictable. William Demarest, Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton are excellent. It's a miracle Sturges got this one past the censors.
I forgot to say thanks for the Vigo posts oscar.
I printed it off.
I am the biggest fan of this journal, even if I haven't laced it with my warped comments.
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
Gracias! I'm glad YOU like it. Johann, d'you think Vigo had any inkling as he was dying at age 29 that guys born many decades later would love his films so? I mean, he was dead when L'Atalante premiered officially, and few thought much of it and the shorts until years later. There will be film buffs born in this century who'll understand his early death was a calamity. I had never seen his first film, the short A Propos de Nice, until this year. It's an amazing piece of work, but L'Atalante remains my favorite.
Monday Sep 26
The term "art movie" and "art house" are misused these days to refer to commercial films outside the mainstream, often American independents or films in which a language other than English is spoken. When I've used these terms I put them under quotations because I believe the "art" designation should be used to refer to films made for entirely artistic purposes. What I consider true art movies are usually called "experimental" or "avant garde" nowadays, even though they may utilize technics and approaches that date back to the silent era.
Today I watched Vol I of a dvd set called AVANT GARDE: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA of the 1920s and 30s. Most are the property of Raymond Rohauer, a film collector from Los Angeles. These shorts range from entirely abstract to elliptically or obliquely narrative. Several are either based on poems or advertise themselves as poetic_the made-in-Paris films of the American Man Ray and the Russian Dimitri Kirsanoff achieve a high degree of lyricism. Most of the films in the collection reflect the movements in the fine arts in vogue during the 20s and 30s: Surrealism, Cubism, Dadaism, and representational painting. The dvd set is a region 1 release and it's available at Netflix and other rental outfits.
MAN RAY: The Return to Reason, Emak-Bakia, L'Etoile de Mer, Les Mysteres du Chateau du De
DIMITRI KIRSANOF: Mists of Autumn, Menilmontant.
ORSON WELLES: The Hearts of Age
MARCEL DUCHAMP: Anemic Cinema
HANS RICHTER: Rhythmus 21, Ghosts before Breakfast.
WATSON/WEBBER: Lot in Sodom
VORKAPICH/FLOREY: The Death of a Hollywood Extra.
VIKING EGGELING: Symphomie Diagonale
JEAN PAINLEVE: Le Vampire
FERNAND LEGER: Ballet Mechanique
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