Category: classic

Two quick notes, on television series, one of which deserves your attention: Continue reading Action/Comedy

I saw this French film, Le Souffle, about a delinquent teenage boy abandoned by his father and packed off by his mother to the countryside to live and work on his uncle’s farm. The film’s ability to conjure up the hormonally-induced fever dreams of adolescence (an uneasy mix of primitive violent impulses, rural ennui and sexual desire) is quite palpable and the black and white photography was nice to look at. Anyway, don’t go searching for the film as it is only available on a Region 2 disc, but I bring it up because some reviewers compared the film to the work of Robert Bresson (I’d probably argue Jean Cocteau seeing as the film drifts into surreal, often homoerotic territory but that’s another story). I had never seen a Bresson film and while picking up a novel at the library, I came across a DVD for Bresson’s, L’argent, which was released in 1983 and was Bresson’s final effort. I decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about. I’m glad I did as this is a terrific yet brutal condemnation of human capriciousness. If you have seen any of Michael Haneke’s films—particularly 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance or Code Unknown—it will be self-evident that Haneke studied L’argent very closely. Continue reading L’argent

Okay, so I’m going to riff inadequately on a stray revelation Gio noted in her last Da Vinci post–and I’m not sure where/if I can go with it–but I just watched Sang-soo Im’s The President’s Last Bang, and it’s the most effective piece of political filmmaking I’ve seen in a while. Continue reading Political Text

i have never quite liked classic italian cinema — fellini, visconti, rossellini, de sica, you name ’em. i don’t think there’s a lot of people in italy who like them, but i may be generalizing what is the case in my family and the people of my region (italy is an extremely diverse country, to an extent that is probably hard for americans to comprehend). hollywood movies have always worked better in italy than italian movies. my mother, an educated woman, will simply not watch italian movies, however well done, inspiring, or american-like they are. she will barely watch any non-american movie, period. i suspect she may not be alone. Continue reading the leopard

How I love thee – let me count the ways. I enjoyed this film so much more than Blow-Up, which I recently re-watched (though I hardly dislike Blow-Up, just in comparison).

That last scene; the camera somehow leaving the bars on the hotel room window and turning around to show the hotel; that long, long shot… It is as astounding as (if not actually directly influenced by) the opening shot of Touch of Evil, but of course in Antonioni’s style; not a single word by the characters can be overheard. Even Maria Schneider’s last line, which is so key to the film, is barely perceptible.

I didn’t listen to the commentary by Nicholson, except for that last shot, in which he does indeed explain one of the most famous and puzzling shots ever put down, supposing that Anonioni wouldn’t mind. So it’d be worth renting just for that I think. He also says that it was shot that way because Antonioni “didn’t want to film a death scene.” Continue reading The Passenger (1975)

I know Jeff can (will!) pipe up about his appreciation of this, too–and I’m curious what others would/do/will think. But I think this is a fantastic film, with a distinct visual and narrative sensibility, and Phil Morrison should (will!) be a big name in American film in the next few years.

Plot in one line: rich Chicago art-gallery owner heads South with her husband to woo a strange folk artist, and stays a stretch with hubby’s family, who seem–at first–like a glorious gallery of absurdist Southern caricatures. Continue reading Junebug