Best Movies of 2019 so far

[Chris Knipp]

For 3 FACES under Rotten Tomatoes on Goggle it says In Theaters‎: ‎Mar 8, 2019 limited.

A New York Times piece by Randall Stross from eight years ago argues that in the solitary, small screen viewing predominating now, we've simply come full circle; it was like that at the beginning. I personally don't get involved much in cinema history. My interest is in individual movies, taken one at a time. For that reason I'm glad there's now a decent new documentary about our most important film reviewer, Pauline Kael. You can watch it online, alone, on your little screen. The trouble is that at this point the people who remember reading Kael's reviews in the magazine are literally dying out. If you weren't there you don't know what it was like. It wasn't about the opinions. It was that it was stimulating and very rare to encounter such passion and quickness of intelligence focused on movies.

Re: THE SOUVENIR as I've often said, I do not think that one's pleasure in seeing a new film depends on knowing nothing about it. I know this is widely believed. It does not apply to the arts in general. The most knowledge you bring has a lot to do with your appreciation, along with the taste and common sense you already have. I'm a longtime student of literature, comparative literature and English literature, where you approach a read by learning as much about it as you can, not by maintaining a blank mind. Well prepared as I was for THE SOUVENIR, it was still surprising and fresh every step of the way. I still saw everything from Julie's semi-blind point of view. The film is dominated by her point of view. It's still a shock at the end to realize how blind she was.

The big screen is still always the defining experience and I have great big screen experiences (as I mentioned, especially the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln center) in my head all the time as the ideal. As for the audience, first of all, we're not necessarily more alone watching on a small screen at home, we could be less so. We're usually alone - together - in the movie theater. The audience varies. My best memories are new movies watched in a full house with a crowd that is totally excited about it. That actually happens only rarely. When the audience is sparse, that opens up the possibility for people to be assholes, to talk, to make noise. If they're shoulder-to-shoulder twith strangers intent on the screen, people shut up.

For the best audiences, go to Paris. Not always but generally there in a theater you can hear a pin drop, it's the civilized standard and love of cinema that prevails. I've enjoyed this for decades. It greatly enhances the experience of movie watching that here in my suburban California cineplex can be diluted by inattentive popcorn munchers. I've been told this by a friend who lives in Paris too who growing up lived in many countries and is half Swedish. She said nobody can touch the French for attentive, respectful, silent movie watching.

I'd agree he said/she said closeups work better than panoramic outdoor action shots in a small-screen format but I guess my background as an artist helps me watch a small screen and imagine a big one. A beautifully composed image can be appreciated even postcard size. Statistics on shot length or closeup frequency don't interest me that much, frankly, or seem relevant to the individual films I see.

I have examples from classical music that show how you first encounter great art can vary hugely and still be an equally tremendous experience. Two of the most momentous musical introductions of my youth were 1. first hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony played over the radio on the family radio-phonograph in the dining room; 2. Hearing the Berlin Philharmonic live in a concert hall conducted by Herbert von Karajan play Beethoven's Seventh. Sonically and technically those two experiences were worlds apart. Yet for me, they were equally life-changing.