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Thread: the LAST FILM YOU'VE SEEN thread

  1. #1051
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    I didn't say that Louis was "like" Dr. Borg of Wild Strawberries. They are indeed "utterly different people". What I wrote was: "Louis reminded me of the Professor in Bergman's Wild Strawberries re-examining his life". Basically while watching L'Intrus I thought of Wild Strawberries (something that simply happened in the course of watching Denis's film) because both protagonists are men of advanced age who experience an event that propels them to re-examine the lives they have lived. They are not alike; they are engaged in a similar project or task.

  2. #1052
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    When you talk about the two together in that way you make us think you're comparing them. All you're saying now is that your implied comparison was unnecessary, which was also my point. It would have made sense if you then said how different they were otherwise, so as not to sound unperceptive. Trebor isn't even most of the time "examining his life." He is active in the extreme, while the famous Dr. Borg is contemplative.

  3. #1053
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    Jacques Doillon: Petits freres (1999) Netflix DVD.

    You, Oscar, have previously listed Doillon's LE PETIT CRIMINEL as one of your favoites of 1990 and RAJA as one of your favorites of 2004, and we have had a brief exchange on RAJA, which I watched on DVD last year. PETITS FRERES shows what they mean when they say Doillon excels at working with children. The cast here is primarily in the 11-15 age group and Talia, who gets dubbed Tyson because she's such a tough, scrappy girl, runs away from one Paris ghetto to another, on to the Projects (Cites), because she can't stand her stepfather, who attempted to sexually abuse a girlfriend. She falls in with a boy named Ilias and his mates and her pit bull gets stolen by older boys to use in fights.

    Nothing much happens except for Tyson's hunt for Kim (her "pit") and Ilias' on-and-off wooing of her, but over time a lightness and natural rhythm develop so you almost forget you're watching a movie and feel you're just following these kids around. Toward the end, in a kind of mock wedding and farewell to Talia/Tyson, who has decided to enter a foster home with her sister as the best alternative to two untenable situations, a kind of magic happens. This is very different from RAJA.

    There is a beautiful review of this by Pierre Murat in Telerama in French.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-19-2009 at 11:29 PM.

  4. #1054
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    [Originally posted by Chris Knipp
    You, Oscar, have previously listed Doillon's LE PETIT CRIMINEL as one of your favoites of 1990
    I listed it as one of the important films released in 1990 that have never had a theatrical or video release in the US. I base that listing on festival awards, available reviews and director filmography. I haven't seen it but wish to do so very much.

    ... and RAJA as one of your favorites of 2004
    Yes and I also love Ponette. I enjoyed Petits Freres too.

  5. #1055
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    My mistake in saying LE PETIT CRIMINEL was a "favorite" of yours. I misread the search item. It obviously fits in with the subject matter of PETITS FRERES, but it is not available on Netflix.

    I got bored watching PONETTE a couple years ago with some friends and we watched something else instead. Of course now I'm curious and I've put it on my Netflix list but they don't have it on hand. I now have fron Netflix MON ONCLE (Tati) and LADY CHATTERLEY (Pascale Ferran), both of which I have seen before. My Netflix queue is uninteresting at the moment. Any suggestions?

  6. #1056
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    Yvan Noel: En tu ausencia (2007). Netflix DVD.

    The director says for this first film he gave his all, sold his house, and spent $500,000 to make it with mostly non-actors in a beautiful part of Andalucia. Noel is good with the camera, with landscape, with improvisation, and with music, which he composed (he plays guitar). He uses simple elements, a mysterious man arriving with a broken-down car, a 13-year old boy missing a father, a flirty girl, a nosy postman--but the drama becomes quite complicated.

    I'm not sure all the missing plot points get filled in, or, conversely, if all the last-minute tragedies are necessary, but the ambiguous situation of the boy bonding with the man and the suspicious villagers feels original.

    The director came to Spain (from where?) and settled in Andalicia 13 years ago to study Flamenco guitar. He has a recording studio, composes and plays multiple instruments, and also teaches music and drama in schools. The young actors in the film including his talented teen star Gonzalo Sanchez Salas, he trained in acting workshops for months before shooting the film.

    The film was in some festivals including Vancouver (2008) and Palm Springs (2009) but went straight to DVD in the US. It would be nice if Noel is able to make more features. This one seemed promising to me; it has an individual feel to it.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-26-2009 at 01:14 AM.

  7. #1057
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    Mousehunt

    Saw this at a friend's place yesterday.
    Wasn't really keyed up to see it, but it surprised me.
    It's a really funny and visually appealing film.

    The story is about these two guys (Nathan Lane and another actor I've never heard of) who are brothers who are looking to take over their dying father's string factory. It's set in the 20's (I think) and they also take over an old falling-apart house with a mouse living in it who takes no prisoners.

    They set up many many mousetraps that the mouse always seems to avoid, and he even leaves the pit from one of the olives that was bait. His brother is incredulous: "He left the pit!"
    Nathan Lane explains to his brother how mice have no sense of irony: (paraphrasing) I don't think he's sitting in a smoking jacket enjoying a cognac and giggling to himself "I left the pit!"

    A series of zany mishaps occur at the house while the two brothers renovate the house and work on making the factory profitable. They hire Christopher Walken (Caesar the Exterminator) to root out the pesky mouse, and he's got more gear than a ghostbuster.
    He's so good at catching mice that he can tell by their droppings whether or not the mouse is male or female. And he even eats one and notes "a calcium deficiency" in the mouses' diet.
    Hilarious.
    And the scene with "Catzilla" made me laugh hard.

    Gore Verbinski directed (he did the Pirates of the Carribean trilogy) and it is very kinetic, with great production design, camerawork, costumes, sets and special effects. I really enjoyed it.
    I don't seek out these types of films but my friend had the DVD and so we checked it out.
    Great movie. Very entertaining.
    Last edited by Johann; 06-21-2009 at 01:57 PM.
    "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd

  8. #1058
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    What I like about the DV feature En Tu Ausencia are the picturesque location shots of Andalucian spring just after sunrise and just before sunset.

  9. #1059
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  10. #1060
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    I don't think I have expressed my admiration for Noah Baumbach in this forum. I have recently watched MISTRESS AMERICA and THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES. I find the films of this son of film critics unusually consistent in their excellent dramaturgy, allusive richness, and their emotional resonance. Baumbach excels at representing characters associated with academia, NYC, the struggle to make art and to develop healthy, sustaining relationships. I find it important to post about his films because they are seen by a very small audience, especially when one considers that his casts always include famous actors such as Greta Gerwig and Ben Stiller that should attract a larger audience. His last feature, THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES is one of those "Netflix productions" that barely, if at all, was released in theaters. I've written about MUDBOUND recently, another film that suffered the same fate and that remains grossly under-appreciated.

  11. #1061
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    BAUMBACH AND BERGMAN.
    True, Baumbach's audience is small, unless you count 2012's Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, which he wrote the screenplay, which grossed over $200 million. Ingmar Bergman had a small audience in his early US Janus releases, if big for an arthouse director. It has gathered numbers over the years because Bergman's films are classics worth watching again and again. Not that I'm comparing him to Bergman, but Baumbach will gather numbers over time too. Yes, Meyerowitz Stories is a Netflix release with little theatrical exposure but thereby more people are seeing a Baumbach movie.

    The Meyerowitz Stories - I reviewed it at the time - is a warm, mature work that shows a lot of growth and change over the dry, brittle wit of The Squid and the Whale and I'll stand by saying it's "scattershot" but, for Wes Anderson's principle writer, his most Wes Anderson film. But being warm and mature doesn't always make for the most effective art, and The Squid and the Whale is more memorable, I'm afraid.

    I hope you're checking out my Rendez-Vous with French Cinema reviews. I suspect you are since you have seemed to be one of my most faithful readers. Thank you!
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-07-2019 at 07:02 AM.

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