Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

[oscar jubis]

Happy New Year to you all. The purpose here is to keep a diary of all my activities related to cinema. I watch a lot of movies and I want to keep track of the ones I watch, where (theatre, video, TV), dvd purchases, etc. Why do it? Because I want to figure out how many films I watch at home vs. theatre, english vs. foreign language, first time vs. repeat viewings, etc. Why post it? Because I'll motivate me to carry it through and most importantly, because I hope the thread will be interactive (I hope to get replies, at least once in a while). My posts here are likely to contain poor grammar and misspellings, what matters to me here is consistency. Comments about films will likely be brief, especially current releases discussed in other threads.

Saturday Jan. 1st
Got home from a party at 2 a.m. and Chelsea asked me to stay up to watch Pretty in Pink on TNT. She liked The Breakfast Club and wanted to watch another Hughes-penned 80s teen flick. An American teen flick dealing with class issues is an anomaly, but it's really all on the surface and Andrew McCarthy is truly horrible. Molly Ringwald was good in this kind of role though. Chelsea and Dylan thought the clothes and hairstyles were awful! The Aviator, A Very Long Engagement, and Beyond the Sea await at theatres. Seen everything else playing.

[oscar jubis]

Sunday Jan 2nd
Midnight viewing of The Man with Two Brains. "Steve Martin's delivery of the line "To the mud, slime queen!" is alone worth the price of admission" (Rosenbaum), which in this case was $5 for the dvd. Cast includes a very sexy Kathleen Turner, the voice of Sissy Spacek and a cameo from Merv Griffin.

[oscar jubis]

Monday Jan 3rd
Turner Classics plays silents at the start of every week (Sundays at midnight). No other channel does. Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates(1920) is the oldest "race" feature in existence. It's about a woman who travels to the South after a breakup, learns about how few "Negro" kids have access to an education, and returns to Boston to raise money to fund a school. Within Our Gates is chock full of character and incident, with choppy narrative and very good comand of film technique. Micheaux's The Homesteader, his first feature, no longer exists. Before Our Gates is available for our viewing because a lost copy with Spanish intertitles was found in Spain and carefully translated back into English. It's included in the "Origins of Film" dvd boxset from the Smithsonian Institution. Micheaux went on to direct several recommended films including Body and Soul, Paul Robeson's debut.

[pmw]

Two things I dont really know much about - race films and the dvd on the origins of film. Thanks Oscar, I will look into both.

That's fantastic that TNT starts out with silent films.
P

[oscar jubis]

No prob. It's actually Turner Classic Movies or TCM. This race movies were made exclusively for Northern blacks. Many have been lost. Prior to last night, I had only seen jazz shorts made in the 30s, "Within Our Gates" was a first for me. The "Origins of Film" includes two of the first features by women directors and intersting shorts. For future research: "Treasures from the American Film Archives", "More Treasures from...", "The Movies Begin" and "Landmarks of Early Cinema". If interested in silents from across the pond, "Cinema Europe:The Other Hollywood. All are dvd boxsets.

Greendale on rental dvd. This is the third or fourth film directed by Neil Young under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey. There's no dialogue, only songs by Young and Crazy Horse which are lipsynched by characters who reside in the titular small Northwest town. Filmed in super-8 and video, the film has a strong anti-Establishment, environmental message. As a filmmaker, Uncle Neil is adequate, but if you're a lefty Young fan like me you'll love it. Makes you feel there's a way out of this Dark Age.

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday Jan 4th

"This whole world is wild at heart and weird on top. I wish we could be over the rainbow." (Lula to Sailor)

I consider David Lynch's first (Eraserhead) and last feature (Mulholland Drive) undeniable masterpieces. Most of the in-betweens are accomplished works that elaborate a singular vision. The one Lynch film I cannot stomach is Wild at Heart. I decided to give it an honest chance on the ocassion of its recent state-of-the-art dvd release (Lynch states in the intro that he went over it frame by frame doing "color check", a 1 1/2 year process).
I'm still convinced this is Lynch at his most literal and tendentiously neo-con. I suggest that whatever it is you like about it has been done better by Lynch before or since. I'm going to let Armond White bat for me, since I rarely get to quote him.
"No matter how inflated with esteem Lynch becomes, his art isn't so great that it transcends vicious, regressive, conservative meaning. His white working-class identification masquerades as chic nostalgia for fifties-era inhibition and repression. As Lula and Sailor wheel across the Southwest encountering gimpy prostitutes, odious mobsters and porn stars, they're haunted by images out of The Wizard of Oz. Lula and Sailor are trying to get back to the way things used to be; they envision a sentimental, Boy Scout, pop-music America. Lynch retreats into the isolation of fantasy and erotic immaturity where adults are unclean, lecherous monsters."

[pmw]

Glad to hear about Greendale. While I havent seen any of the other 3 Young films, I am a big fan of the music (who isn't?) and the message. He's a great dude.

P

[oscar jubis]

Wed. Jan 5th
Rust Never Sleeps, which he directed, and Jarmusch's Year of the Dog are musts for Neil Young (and Crazy Horse) fans. Both include concert footage and much more.

Innocence: Ghost in the Shell 2
Pleasure dolls called gynoids appear responsible for a series of gruesome murders. A cyborg detective and his new partner's investigation lead to clashes with the yakuza and an evil corporation, which apparently has been dubbing stolen souls onto robots. The line between orga and mecha, to borrow terms from A.I., is blurred like never before in Mamoru Oshii's superb sequel. This visually ravishing sci-fi adventure adds philosophy and poetry to the usual techno violence characteristic of the genre. Not quite "the best anime I've ever seen" (J. Hoberman, Village Voice) because of some deficiencies in narrative/storytelling. Also, I wish there was an English-dubbed version to make it easier to get lost on the state-of-the-art imagery. Still, this is quite an accomplishment. Better than Akira or Ghost in the Shell, fanboys.

[JustaFied]

Thanks for starting this thead, Oscar. You've made it through 5 days now...hope you don't burn out (or fade away) as the year progresses. Your film knowledge and appreciation is valued by many here.

I just got off my ass and ordered "Greendale" off Netflix. Also have "Year of the Horse" in my own small DVD collection. Young and the Horse kick ass. My college roommate was an obsessive fan, and so I was introduced. I now consider Neil, Dylan, and the Beatles to be the holy Trinity of 20th century pop music. Rust never sleeps...I'm still livin' the dream.

[oscar jubis]

Very inspirational post Justafied, and thanks for the interest and encouragement. Can't go wrong with Beatles and Dylan (named my boy after him). I listen to music a lot, mostly Rock, Jazz and African Pop. A music thread in the lounge section may be a good idea...

Watched The Five Obstructions on rental dvd tonight. Lars von Trier summoned his mentor Jorgen Leth from retirement in Haiti and challenged him to remake his 12 min. 1967 film The Perfect Human under five different sets of conditions. For instance, the first remake had to be set in Cuba and contain no shots longer than half a second. Trier's stated purpose is to shake Leth out of his detached, clinical style to attempt to conjure up the messy, pained, imperfect human beneath the surface. We watch the directors discussing each obstruction, a bit about the making of each remake, and finally the finished product and Trier's reaction to it. Excerpts of the original short are interspersed. A revealing film about creativity under pressure and constraint, and about the personalities and esthetic proclivities of both Leth and Trier. The dvd contains The Perfect Human in its entirety and director's commentary.

[oscar jubis]

Thursday Jan 6th

"The viewer of a Stan Brakhage film must learn both attentiveness and openness. The viewer needs to be ready to receive a variety of images and rhythms and able to see fast. Most of all, the viewer's role needs to be reimagined; not as a passive receiver but as one who meets the film halfway, actively plumbing the depths of its imagery and the various themes and ideas suggested by its subject matter_imaginatively dancing with its flickering rhythms."
Fred Camper, from the liner notes of BY BRAKHAGE on Criterion.

Window Water Baby Moving (1959)
This shows the home birth of Brakhage's first child. Though it shows the chronology of the birth (mostly via closeup shots), Brakhage disrupts it frequently by intercutting images from before the birth into the ending, inserting diverse feelings at each moment of the process. It's become a personal favorite.
Mothlight (1963)
"What a moth might see from birth to death if white were black and black were white" (Brakhage). Mothlight was made without a camera. Brakhage collaged objects like grass blades and insect parts directly onto perforated tape the same width as 16 mm, from which projectible prints were made. The resulting rapid burst of imagery has a highly controlled musical rhythm.
Other shorts watched include: The Garden of Earthy Delights, a rare 35 mm tribute to Hieronymus Bosch's painting of the same name, and Kindering, featuring Brakhage's grandkids.
Not in the mood tonight for his famous The Act of Seeing With One's own Eyes, shot at the Pittsburgh morgue.

[pmw]

Window Water Baby Moving is really gorgeous. Thanks for bringing it up. If I recall correctly it is sort of bathed in a sepia/goldenroad tone that is quite nice. Nathan Lee wrote a nice review of the dvd in the Times that should be read.

Oscar this is turning into a full blown blog which I think is great. I propose a blog function to the site and will get to work on it right away. Should be able to have something workable by next week.

P

[oscar jubis]

Glad you think so, pmw. I don't know much about blogs though. It's just nice of you to provide me with this forum to document what I watch and how I think/feel about it.

Festival Express
In the summer of 1970, Janis Joplin, The Band, The Grateful Dead and other groups boarded a chartered train in Eastern Canada and traveled west giving concerts at major Canadian cities. Thirty four years later, a documentary of the event was finally released, and what a revelation it is. In Toronto, a group incited people outside the entrance to demand to be let in for free ("it's the people's music"); there were squirmishes that resulted in the near-death of a cop. The promoter agreed to stage a free concert at a park nearby, but press reports of the violence resulted in very poor sales for the upcoming concerts. The promoters decided to absorb the financial loss and let this show on wheels go on. The well equipped (and stocked) CN train provided a perfect environment for the musicians to interact. A mobile commune.

Why do I love this film? Three pieces of evidence; you decide if Festival Express is for you.

*Three months before her fatal heroin overdose, Janis performing "Cry Baby" with such unbridled passion and musical chops that it's all the proof you'll need that she was as talented as Aretha, her only competition. Thing is, Janis was a much more generous, unguarded performer. She'll take your breath away.

*The promoter relates how the Mayor of Calgary walked into his office cussing and demanding that "the children of Calgary pass thru the gates for free". The promoter says something about letting his knuckles do the talking for him.

*During a sort of Haight-Ashbury reunion, members of the Band, The Dead and Janis do a rendition of "Ain't no more Cane" inside a crowded train car. Then Jerry Garcia, at a volume somewhat higher than the other voices and dripping sincerity, says "Janis, I've loved you since the first time I saw ya". Bashful and surprised, Janis hesitates then says: "That's God's cop-out, man!" and breaks into a laugh.

[bix171]

Re: David Lynch. I've been planning to revisit "Wild At Heart" for some time now; I haven't seen it since its original release. I think it's underrated Lynch but not what I consider a masterpiece. Still, I remember Dave Kehr enjoying the distinct contrast in style and color it provides to "Blue Velvet".

I do however consider "Blue Velvet" (a film I've seen only once--on the big screen the weekend it opened, which will be the only place I'll ever watch it: it demands the collective viewing experience) and "The Straight Story" to be his masterpieces. In fact, I think "The Straight Story" is a great place to begin talking about Lynch: it's a near-perfect representation of his dominent themes--the hidden American life, the drawing together and coming apart of individuals randomly selected, the mysteries of eternity and our search for our place in it, all presented with a sense of love and awe of humanity.

Don't ask me why--I wanted to love them--but I think "Lost Highways" and "Mulholland Drive" are warmed-over rehashes of his other movies. Lynch stopped being original to me after "The Straight Story". But this isn't to suggest they were bad films; even his rehashes are well worth watching.

Re: "Greenville". I saw Neil Young perform it in its entiriety in March, 2004. He performed it exactly as it is on the album. He had to: on video displays on the sides of the stage, the film was projected and he sang the lyrics as they came out of the character's mouths. Coming from someone who's "Tonight's The Night" tour of Europe was staged with only a single light bulb (and was called the "Everything Is Cheaper Than It Looks" tour), this was a technically proficient achievement.

"Greendale" the album is one long low-level boogie chug (with an acoustic song smack-dab in the middle) and if you don't normally like him, you'll hate him here. Fortunately, like you, Oscar, I'm also a "lefty Young fan" and I think his anger about the media, the DEA and the rape of the environment is, even at its moldiness, relevant and sincere. He, like Bob Dylan, marches to his own drummer. (Dylan, by the way, after reading "Chronicles", seems almost like an idiot savant in his ability to remember forty year old details about what was on friends' bookshelves or the type of furniture they had, yet he displays a distinct lack of interest of telling us anything even remotely private--LIKE HIS WIVES" NAMES! "Chronicles" is a fun read--I mean it sincerely.)

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for your reply, bix. It's been a while (Ararat) since your posts force me to present an alternative point of view, which I enjoy doing. We've been mostly "on the same page" lately (Kinsey, Sideways, Life Aquatic, Hero, Collateral, Ladykillers).

Re:"Greendale" the music.
Flipping thru my record collection, I find at least a dozen Young albums better than "Greendale". It ain't no "Rust Never Sleeps" or "After the Gold Rush" fer sure! But I don't think anyone would "hate" it, and "low level boogie chug" sounds harsh to me. (I'm still humming "Devil's Sidewalk" and "Be the Rain"). It's still Talbot and Molina keeping time behind Young's lead and like you wrote, he's still sincere and relevant. I know it's not enough. Dylan released his masterful "Love and Theft" at 60. (I'll read "Chronicles" as you recommend). Maybe Young will match Dylan's feat when he reaches his sixth decade.

*There's no denying we have different takes on Lynch. It's been clear since your opening post for the Mulholland Drive thread two years ago. I don't think any of several pro-M.D. posts that followed changed your mind. But if I may be so bold, I propose it's the Lynch film that most rewards repeat viewings. I see why you say the "primary issue here is shifting identities" but I suggest approaching the film from a different perspective. I view it as a variation on Lynch's theme of Innocence Corrupted and a critique of Hollywood's "star-making machinery". But most importantly this is Lynch's highly (unusually?) empathetic presentation of a woman experiencing the painful (and destructive in Diane's case) consequences of unrequited love. Because what we watch for the first 80 minutes is her drug/alcohol fueled, fevered dream/fantasy, it's useful to analyze M.D. as a psychoanalyst performing dream interpretation. Of course I think it's a masterpiece and I don't expect everyone to agree. But I think, with all due respect, that your take on it would expand with a careful repeat viewing from a fresh perspective.

[oscar jubis]

Friday Jan. 7th

Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time
This documentary was shown in NYC two years ago and has been gradually shown at museums and specialized theatres in major cities to universal acclaim. Goldsworthy is a Scottish artist who uses nature's landscapes as a canvas. He paints and sculpts with what he finds in each locale _leaves, twigs, rocks, icicles, flowers,etc. His art requires a deep communion with and intimate understanding of nature and its processes. German director Thomas Riedelsheimer does a superb job of capturing Goldsworthy's creations for maximum effect. It's hard to find words to convey the sheer beauty of these images and the ephemeral quality of the artist's natural manipulations. Now available on dvd along with 7 shorts.

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with TimeThis documentary was shown in NYC two years ago and has been gradually shown at museums and specialized theatres in major cities to universal acclaim. ...

I have watched this movie and given a review some time ago (in another forum). I have to agree that his art/sculpture are interesting.
;)

[cinemabon]

I know what you're up to... creating the largest post on Filmwurld. If you keep this up (so far, so good), it will be. And another thing, very sneaky the way A.I. got in there. Excellent work, Oscar. Your first week of 2005 wasted away watching movies and writing a journal online. What kind of impression are you creating for your daughter?

[pmw]

I found the Goldsworthy doc to be a little bit much. I agree that the images are really nice, but Im not sure I think Goldsworthy is as good as the filmmaker would have you think. An interesting artist, but maybe not a great one...just an opinion. It feels a little precious to me.

P

[oscar jubis]

Cinemabon, thanks. This happened to be a fairly typical week for me. I do watch a lot of films. Other than sports and biking with the kids, I do little else with my leisure time. What has been unusual is that I haven't been to the theatre since 12/31/04 (Bad Education). I wish my Chelsea were a bit more interested in films and writing and less interested in boys and singing :)

pmw, I don't know enough to tell an interesting artist (outside of film) from a great one. I go to the occasional exhibit (last one happened to be mum's) or museum, and I know what I like. But I don't have the background to get into a deeper discussion about art. I am attracted to the "purity" of Goldsworthy's art and his creative process. Maybe his creations lack the necessary social dimension to be great art? (I'm trying pmw).

Saturday January 8th

The brazilian film All Nudity Shall be Punished was shown at Cannes and awarded at Berlin in 1973 but not released in the US. I Love You with Sonia Braga is the only one of director Arnaldo Jabor's films to be released here. Tonight I watched All Nudity... on import dvd. The film is based on a play by Nelson Rodrigues, "the heterosexual Brazilian equivalent of Tennessee Williams" (Amy Irving). It's a mix of sexual derring-do, melodrama and critique of bourgeois hypocrisy that amuses and intrigues, but ultimately fails to cohere into a satisfying whole.

[oscar jubis]

Sunday Jan 9th

Beyond the Sea (Sunset Place Theatres)
Kevin Spacey has been trying to play Bobby Darin since he was 35. Ten years later, he gets to direct (competently), write the script (a bit muddled) and play Bobby Darin from his late teens until his death at age 37. Beyond the Sea imagines Darin in his mid-30s wanting to play himself in his own biopic. The self-reflexive, post-modern approach to the biopic serves to (partly) deflate the criticism that Spacey is now too old to play the part. Spacey obviously identifies with Darin, bears a resemblance to him, and can sing the old standards well (the nightclub scenes make it worth your time). On the other hand, there's no way Spacey can convey the youthful exuberance that made "Splish Splash" Darin's first Top 10 hit. And the recreation of Darin's appearance at American Bandstand (a TV show, youngsters), with barely-teen girls swooning is kinda creepy.

[pmw]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
pmw, I don't know enough to tell an interesting artist (outside of film) from a great one. I go to the occasional exhibit (last one happened to be mum's) or museum, and I know what I like. But I don't have the background to get into a deeper discussion about art. I am attracted to the "purity" of Goldsworthy's art and his creative process. Maybe his creations lack the necessary social dimension to be great art? (I'm trying pmw).

Yeah, im not sure what i know either. But I think youre on to something that bothers me a little ("Maybe his creations lack the necessary social dimension to be great art?"). His work is fairly self-involved and a bit precious....dont know what else to say really. It's beautiful nonetheless. I really enjoyed the movie.

[oscar jubis]

Monday Jan 10th

A Woman of Paris(1923) on TCM.
Charlie Chaplin's debut feature for United Artists and his first drama bombed with audiences who wanted nothing but the Little Tramp. Chaplin protege Edna Purviance excels as Marie, a small town French girl who gets locked out by her stepfather after she goes out with her artist boyfriend Jean. He proposes they elope to Paris, drops her off at the train station and promises to return soon. Jean has a family emergency, calls her but Marie's convinced he has changed his mind about their future together. Marie leaves to Paris, becomes mistress to a rich playboy (Adolph Menjou) and gets accustomed to a decadent, lavish lifestyle. Years later, the still single Jean runs into Marie in Paris.
This extremely moving, beautifully photographed film recalls the best of Ernest Lubitsch. Highly recommended.

[pmw]

This is the forementioned Sunday night silent movie I take it. Thanks for that. I know nothing about the genre. Was Chaplin doing comedy before this particular release? Or was that a later development?

[oscar jubis]

Chaplin was born and raised in Britain where he performed vaudeville until age 21, when he moved to New York. He signed a contract with Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and makes 35 one-reelers in 1914. He moves to Essanay Studios in 1915, where he made 15 films including The Tramp, in which the famous character is introduced, and a brilliant parody of Bizet's Carmen called Burlesque on Carmen. In 1916 and 1917, he makes 12 two-reelers at Mutual Studios where Chaplin is said to have achieved artistic maturity. Titles include One A.M., Easy Street and The Immigrant. In 1919, he forms United Artists with Fairbanks, Griffith and Pickford, but surprisingly he makes his best film of the early 20s for First National (1921's The Kid).

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday Jan 11th

Distant (Uzak) on import dvd.
Writer/producer/cinematographer/director's Nuri Bilge Ceylan's third feature won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2003. Its two non-professional protagonists shared Best Actor honors. Yusuf leaves his village after being laid off and comes to Istambul looking for work. He invites himself to stay a few days at his cousin Mahmut's apartment. Mahmut is a commercial photographer who's still in love with his ex-wife and who once hoped to "make films like Tarkovsky" (he is seen watching Stalker at home before switching to porn after Yusuf retires to his bedroom). Yusuf is unable to find employment or romance in the big city. Increasingly, his presence becomes an irritant to Mahmut. The mostly static camera observes the cousins in carefully framed long shots. Dialogue is used sparingly and music even more so. The themes of regret, disappointment and failure to establish connections are universal. My only complaint is that we don't get to know Yusuf as well as Mahmut, with whom the director obviously identifies. This somber film is not for everyone, but fans of Tsai Ming-liang (like myself) may have a new idol in the 45 year-old Ceylan.

[arsaib4]

I hope you didn't spend too much on it because New Yorker Video is finally releasing the dvd in the U.S. on March 22nd.

[oscar jubis]

Cheap Chinese copy bought on Ebay for $12.32.
Who better to ask? Any alternatives to spending close to $30 each for Lady of Musashino and Life of Oharu and $40 for Au Hasard Balthazar on UK dvd? Any chance of them being released here or in Asia?

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Any alternatives to spending close to $30 each for Lady of Musashino and Life of Oharu and $40 for Au Hasard Balthazar on UK dvd? Any chance of them being released here or in Asia?

I wish I had a better answer for you but unfortunately not too many other options are available right now. Criterion released Life of Oharu on LD so I am assuming that they still own its rights. Same is probably true for Musashino. I've heard that Criterion will release Balthazar later this year now that it's out in the U.K. but then similar things were said last year. Simply put: Criterion needs to drop everything else from their slate and start releasing all the films they can from Bresson and Mizoguchi.

Surprisingly, the Chinese haven't performed those "port jobs" on the Artificial-Eye released discs of Mizoguchi films where they simply add Chinese script to the box and dvd changing nothing else. (How official are those DVDs? I'm not sure since they aren't available anywhere else online outside of Ebay. Do I care? Nope--I bought the "Chinese" AE released The Apu Trilogy for $15, great quality.)

Of course almost everthing from Mizoguchi is available in France. Heck, even the Spanish have released much of his work. Life of Oharu is available for about 12 eur, not to mention couple of box-sets consisting of 5 films each.

http://www.dvdgo.com/product.asp?catgid=0&list=0&prodid=4769&typeproduct=1&dvd=The+Life+Of+Oharu

[pmw]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Festival Express
In the summer of 1970, Janis Joplin, The Band, The Grateful Dead and other groups boarded a chartered train in Eastern Canada and traveled west giving concerts at major Canadian cities. Thirty four years later, a documentary of the event was finally released, and what a revelation it is. In Toronto, a group incited people outside the entrance to demand to be let in for free ("it's the people's music"); there were squirmishes that resulted in the near-death of a cop. The promoter agreed to stage a free concert at a park nearby, but press reports of the violence resulted in very poor sales for the upcoming concerts. The promoters decided to absorb the financial loss and let this show on wheels go on. The well equipped (and stocked) CN train provided a perfect environment for the musicians to interact. A mobile commune.

Just saw this at your reccomendation. Its a great ride. Sort of the first time Ive seen "the kids" from the 70's being protrayed in the wrong (the promoter, the bands and a few commentators were bumbed about how demanding the crowds were).

In a way it was nice to see because they were in fact badgering the cops who seemed pretty under control, and it was in fact a very expensive show to put on (they wanted free admission).

Buddy Guy, Janis, The Band and The Dead partying on a train.
Some genuine musical heros.
my favorite line:

"The worst part was when the train stopped and we'd have to get off"

[Chris Knipp]

I've seen most of the new movies you mention--you're ahead of me in reviewing them here. I haven't seen the older ones. I've seen Rust Never Sleeps and Year of the Horse as well as Greendale, and enjoy all his efforts but consider Young's greatest contribution to films to be probably his music for Dead Man.

pmw's entry:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by oscar jubis
pmw, I don't know enough to tell an interesting artist (outside of film) from a great one. I go to the occasional exhibit (last one happened to be mum's) or museum, and I know what I like. But I don't have the background to get into a deeper discussion about art. I am attracted to the "purity" of Goldsworthy's art and his creative process. Maybe his creations lack the necessary social dimension to be great art? (I'm trying pmw).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pmw's comment:

Yeah, im not sure what i know either. But I think youre on to something that bothers me a little ("Maybe his creations lack the necessary social dimension to be great art?"). His work is fairly self-involved and a bit precious....dont know what else to say really. It's beautiful nonetheless. I really enjoyed the movie.

I saw this some time ago, after it had already been showing for ages in Berkeley and I posted a review of it: http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=74. The thing that's fake about the movie is that everybody but Goldsworthy is mere furniture in it, including his wife and his many assistants. This appeared to be a perfect date movie for fifty-somethings. I watched it patiently. I think it was okay. But why people raved about it I have no idea. Some proclaimed themselves bored to tears. Goldsworthy is like that Indian artist who makes things covered in raw pigment, Anish Kapoor (who got to do an installation in the huge Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London -- rather mediocre, not up to his smaller stuff): Goldworthy's like Kapoor's work is very pretty and impressive, and he has successfully cultuvated an international reputation, bolstered for the average Joe by heaps of lavish art books commemorating his various temporary pieces. If you're doing a searching evaluation, they're both superficial, Kapoor and Goldsworthy, and utterly without content. The film does show Godsworthy's patience with his failures, which is impressive, but it doesn't question enough or delve deeply enough to be interesting as a documentary. It's like a long promo piece.

I too loved Festival Express and the glimpse of Janis Joplin's "giving" quality in her songs, truly an amazing performance and a magical time; but I did not envy them all the drinking.

Want to comment on Beyond the Sea later in more detail. It seems to combine campy fun/deft nightclub performance/mediocre movie/creepy self-absorption in a rather unforgettable way.

[oscar jubis]

*Muchas gracias. 10 Mizoguchis por solo 75 euros? Que viva Espana! Que viva arsaib4!

**Festival Express is extremely valuable as an honest document of an era, partly because of it's willingness to show "the kids from the 70s being portrayed in the wrong"(pmw). Janis steals the show. Never captured on film to such effect, says Hoberman. I watched her two scenes several times; the dvd includes two bonus songs.

Wed. January 12th

Code 46 on rental dvd. Michael Winterbottom's latest film is primarily a romance set in the future. The world is divided in two kinds of zones, one is a highly regulated environment in which people have given up their rights to privacy and personal freedom in exchange for comfort and security. Other areas as simply called "afuera" (Spanish for "outside"). The film opens with titles explaining that code 46 is a law that limits procreation to those who are genetically compatible. Then we are introduced to Tim Robbins as an insurance investigator and Samantha Morton as a woman forging "papeles" (documents) needed to access these secure zones. Code 46 is stylish, compact, and compelling in its examination of the consequences of technological advancements. But it's highly predictable, and the heartbreak doesn't achieve the required impact.

[oscar jubis]

Thursday Jan 13th

A Very Long Engagement (SoBe Regal)
Comments on the film's thread.

Bush's Brain: Who's Really Running the Country?
Agenda-driven doc based on the book by Texan journalists James C. Moore and Wayne Slater. The central thesis is that, more so than Cheney, political consultant Karl Rove is the puppetmaster pulling the president's strings. The film details Rove's political career dating back to 1970 through a combination of news footage and interviews (mostly Republicans). Plenty of evidence is presented to characterize Rove as an intelligent heir to the legacy of Lee Atwater. A winner-at-all-costs with a bag full of dirty tricks. At one point, Slater calls Rove the former co-Governor of Texas and current co-President of the United States. The story of a patriotic Vietnam vet's son who died during the first days of the occupation of Iraq seems manipulative and superfluous.

[arsaib4]

thread:

http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7503#post7503

Potentially, there are a couple of drawbacks to a thread like this. Some might become hesitant to start a new thread if you've already talked about a particular film here, and, say if there was an existing thread on a film and you went ahead and posted your comments here then the next person wouldn't know where to respond. What do you think?

[oscar jubis]

As you'll infer from my previous post, I plan to list all the films I watch here but post any comments on a given movie's thread if one already exists. I didn't realize a Code 46 thread already existed. To prevent this oversight, I plan to use the search feature available on this website. My apologies to Mr. tabuno, Code 46's thread starter.

[Chris Knipp]

We can't all have our personal film diary threads but Oscar earns the right to his by the range of his cinematic interests and the intelligence of his comments, and his not composing full-length reviews of things he's seen as Howard and I and some others do, makes it sensible for him to post shorter reactions.

It's an idea for one of us regulars to chronicle their viewings for a while and let everybody look over their shoulder, so to speak; maybe after a while Oscar can step back and somebody else can come to the fore. Once a thread gets too long, nobody is going to review all of it. That's happening with my own website's movie reviews, and I need an indexing system, but haven't got one figured out yet.

[arsaib4]

I want to go back to this film for a moment if I can. You mentioned Mr. Liang, and rightfully so, as his films certainly popped into my head on a few occasions while watching Uzak--especially Vive L'Amour, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ceylan has watched it a few times himself. I expected Yusuf to break into a house at any moment and start living with people he was following much like what Liang's alter ego did.

Ceylan has spoken about Kiarostami and how much his work has had an influence on him and it clearly shows. Even though he has chosen to foreground the action before the quite, wintry and disconnected Istanbul (far away from the bustling metroplis Yesim Ustaoglu showed in Journey to the Sun--see this film if you get a chance), the overhead metaphorical shots of the industrial wasteland certainly go back to Taste of Cherry. Not to mention the pacing and character develpment.

So, I wanted to like this film more but I just saw too much of what I've seen earlier in various other films. To Ceylan's credit he did end up finding a unique way to close his film on a hopeful note.

[oscar jubis]

*Watching Uzak, the Kiarostami influence doesn't register as strongly with me. Vive L'Amour certainly does. I find that it's Carlos Reygadas' Japon that strongly evokes Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry (not that A.K. would ever have the freedom to include a sex scene).

*The hopeful note at the end of Uzak is rather subtle, isn't it arsaib4? They finally catch the pesky mouse, Mahmut goes outside and it's no longer winter. Cut to Yusuf smoking. Back to Mahmut at the harbor lighting one of Yusuf's cigarettes, which can be interpreted as a sign of acceptance.

*Journey to the Sun is one of about 100 discs on my shelf awaiting their turn.

Friday Jan. 14th

Talked Chelsea and Dylan into going to the Cosford Cinema tonight. This is a beloved space where I learned about silents and classics back in '79-'81, while I was a student at "The U" (of Miami, for those that don't follow football). We watched an animated film from Argentina called Mercano el Marciano (Mercano the Martian). I'll give it a try: Mercano gets stranded on Earth. He manages to hook up an internet connection but his friends back home don't seem interested in coming to get him. Consumed with grief and longing, he creates a virtual Mars in cyberspace where he befriends a nerdy kid named Julian. The kid's dad works for a major corporation. He wants to buy it for profit. The businessmen promise to build Mercano a spaceship. Instead they capture him and extract all types of advanced techno information with the aim of global domination. Julian and a bunch of anarchist hackers come to the rescue. The film is subtitled, the website is not but it contains trailers.
www.mercanoelmarciano.com
(click on "avances")

[oscar jubis]

Sat. January 15th

The latest film from writer/director/editor John Sayles, Silver City, received little attention upon release, grossing barely over a million. I think it's worth a rental, now that the dvd has come out. Silver City is basically a mixture of political expose and Ray Chandler-style murder mystery_it's central character reminicent of Elliott Gould as Marlowe in Altman's The Last Goodbye. John Sayles has a reputation for being able to weave several subplots and numerous characters into narratives with novelistic detail (You must watch Lone Star and City of Hope). He is particularly aware of the interdependency between business, politics and the media. Skills he puts to use in this tale of a man running for Governor of Colorado, which is meant to remind the viewer of Bush II at an early stage of his political career. His campaing manager is clearly modeled after Republican pitbull Karl Rove. Problem is Mr. Sayles seems here too enamored of ready-made styles and over-expository dialogue, despite his good intentions. Silver City will remind you of older, better movies like Chinatown. But the film has plenty to offer in its plot twists, interesting performances (Daryl Hanna, Miguel Ferrer, Kris Kristofferson) and sober political analysis.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
They finally catch the pesky mouse,...

It was also interesting that Ceylan allowed us a brief glimpse of Mahmut looking out his window at Yusuf when he went to dispose the rat; Yusuf makes sure that the rat is dead after he sees bunch of cats hanging around the garbage ready to feast.

I'm not sure if you've seen his 2 earlier films; Kasaba (The Small Town) and Clouds of May, because with Uzak Ceylan concluded this trilogy. It started with the depiction of seasonal changes in rural Turkey as an insight into human behavior and at the end went onto to discuss the merits of family, love, loss, ambition etc. in an urban setting.

It was sad to hear that Mehmet Emin Toprak (Yusuf/Saffret), present in all 3 films, died not long after finishing Uzak.

[oscar jubis]

I haven't seen Ceylan's previous features but I'd like to, very much. While doing a bit of research, I came across this comment from J. Rosenbaum: "Clouds of May, the second feature from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, struck some viewers as belonging to the school of Kiarostami, a mistake they wouldn't make with his masterful third feature."

Sunday Jan. 16th

Warriors of Heaven and Earth, a "noodle western" directed by He Ping, overestimates viewers' ability to absorb and comprehend information during its first few minutes, which include no less than three voice-over narrators. Although somewhat muddled, a narrative emerges involving an imperial agent with a mission to travel west to kill a fugitive general who disobeyed orders to massacre Turk women and children in 8th century China. The plot expands to include ruthless bandits, enemy Turkish troops, a Buddhist priest on a secret mission, a general's daughter, itinerant warriors, etc. But the reason to watch the film is its majestic vistas and the magnificent images crafted by cinematographer Zhao Fei (Raise the Red Lantern, The Emperor and the Assassin). The dvd raises the issue of dubbing vs. subtitles, as both are available here. I make the unusual recommendation of selecting the English-dubbed track so your eyes are free to feast on the pretty pictures.

[oscar jubis]

Monday Jan 17th

Lewis Milestone (born Lev Milstein in Russia) had won two best director Oscars by 1930 for Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet in the Westrern Front. In between, he directed The Garden of Eden(1928), recently released on dvd and broadcasted on TCM. The talented and charming Corinne Griffith plays a girl who's had enough of her uncle's Viennese bakery so she boards a train to Budapest, where she's been offered an audition as an opera singer. Turns out to be all about dancing wearing skimpy outfits. No sob story, she soon gets rescued by a sympathetic rich woman who takes her to Montecarlo, where this romantic comedy takes flight. It's a top notch production in every respect. Milestone got his start making training shorts for the U.S. Army (The Toothbrush!) and directed many well-know films in a variety of genres such as The Front Page, Mutiny on the Bounty, Ocean's Eleven, Of Mice and Men, and my favorite, the Al Jolson vehicle Hallelujah, I'm a Bum!. I've seen it so many times I almost know the lyrics and dialogue by heart.

Part one of Undeniable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, directed by Ken Burns, broadcasted on PBS.

[arsaib4]

J. Rosenbaum: "Clouds of May, the second feature from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, struck some viewers as belonging to the school of Kiarostami, a mistake they wouldn't make with his masterful third feature."

It almost seems like J.R. is chiding the viewers who dismissed Clouds of May as a clone of Kiarostami's early-90's work; and I agree that it's not simply A.K's influence that's omnipresent, but, one can also easily see Tarkovsky and of course Chekhov. So, it's not all or nothing with me in Ceylan's work as I see traces of Kiarostami throughout. Both J. Hoberman ("But Distant is the opposite of visionary mysticism. Its reserve takes on a hard, gemlike quality. The filmmakers to whom Ceylan seems closest in his use of repetition and droll understatement are contemporaries like Abbas Kiarostami and Tsai Ming-liang, both of whom adapted the old-fashioned cine-modernism of Michelangelo Antonioni to urban Asia.") and Geoff Andrew/Time Out ("Not that Ceylan's work could adequately be described as in any way “realist”. Agreed, there is an honesty, an authenticity that serves as a wonderfully sturdy foundation for the artifice he creates, but as with Kiarostami's beguiling blends of “reality” and “fiction”, Ceylan's methods are essentially poetic. Both his narrative and his visual style might be termed “impressionistic”; he favours ellipsis, discreet metaphor, repetition, rhyme and rhythmic flexibility; and he is acutely alert to place and time, as expressed by the seasons, by changes in sound and light, and to how they affect our moods.") have referred to such intellection.

Here's a great website--most likely established by Mr. Ceylan himself. (Links are available to purchase his earlier films on DVD with English subs.)

http://www.nbcfilm.com

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for these reminders. Wasn't Uzak AKA Distant shown in NYC and reviewed in the New Yorker by Anthony Lane last year? Yes, it was, and Land made its grumpiness sound fascinating http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/anthony-lane--distant.html I want to see it.

[arsaib4]

Yep, New Yorker released Uzak here early last year. Unfortunately, it almost made no money in NY and opened in L.A. about 6 months later. Metacritic gave Lane's review an 80.

[Chris Knipp]

I see. Too bad there was no further distirbution.

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday Jan. 18th

Spartan on rental dvd. Shame on you, Mamet! Comments:www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=842

[pmw]

That's funny Oscar. What prompted you to partake in the dvd after such a scathing reaction the movie?! Actually, I would be interested in hearing a director's commentary that tried to decipher the film in some way. What a weird (alas, thats probably too generous) one.

P

[arsaib4]

What I don't understand is the love affair between this film (Spartan) and the editors at "Film Comment." Both Gavin Smith and Kent Jones have raved about it, both included it in their end-of-the-year lists; while mostly everyone else who has seen it is less than pleased. I haven't seen the film but I'm certainly intrigued.

[oscar jubis]

I'd like to read those comments by Smith and Jones. America's best known crit gave it four stars. A couple members here liked it too. I should've read Knipp's review before renting Spartan. Good thing is I didn't really spend $ on it specifically since I payed the $15 for one month of unlimited rentals at Blockbuster. I'll be busier in February with the Miami fest and career-related stuff so I'll cancel the so-called "Movie Pass". Besides, the monthly charge goes up to $25 for subsequent months. Anyway, I truly hated Spartan.

Wed. Jan. 19th

Second viewing of Won kar-wai's 2046. Review: www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8467#post8467

[oscar jubis]

Thursday Jan 20th
House of Flying Daggers at SoBe Regal
Comments:www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1163

[oscar jubis]

Friday, Jan. 21st

Fear and Trembling at the Cosford Cinema.
Alain Corbeau (All the Mornings of the world) brings to the screen this adaptation of Amelie Nothomb's autobiographical novel set in 1991 Tokyo. Belgian Amelie (Sylvie Testud) returns to Japan, where she spent the first five years of her life, with a 1 year contract to work as translator for a big company. Culture clash ensues, as Amelie is forced into a confrontation with Japanese corporate manners. The color of this comedy darkens perceptibly as it progresses, particular in the central relationship of Amelie and Fubuki (Kaori Tsuji), her immediate supervisor. As it's "de rigeur" in this genre, characterizations are usually exaggerated to ellicit easy laughs. Comments such as "it renders its Japanese characters as a bunch od screeching ninnies"(Village Voice) are not baseless. The film does provide at least some insight into a foreign culture though. And the Cesar for best actress given to Ms. Testud is well-deserved.

[oscar jubis]

Father and Son on dvd.

"A sort of erotic puzzle. What they share is well outside the conventional bounds of paternity" (Boston Globe)

"Posits a wildly eroticized filial relationship." "His ruggedly handsome dude of a dad seems scarcely 15 years older". "Outraged by questions of the movie homoeroticism after its 2003 Cannes premiere, Sokurov lectured the press on the dirty-minded preoccupations of the decadent West. Such patriotic defensiveness mirrors the film's." (Hoberman, Voice)

"Unintentional but unmistakeable homoerotic subtext" (Variety)

"Sokurov disavows any homoerotic intent, but it's hard to attach any other theme to the lyrical shots of intertwined male bodies at the beginning (accompanied by heavy breathing), or protracted close-ups throughout (conspicuously few of which involve the son's girlfriend). I prefer Beau Travail." (Rosenbaum)

"I hear the word homoerotic for the second time today. In Russia, it's hard to see such associations. I believe this is the outcome of the impasse facing European society, which is looking for a single element that can be reduced to an interpretation...Tell your friends, colleagues, to be very attentive. Don't try to put your own complexes on to the movie. Let it live! Be kind! Homoerotic? For the movie you have seen, there's no such meaning. In a cruel world, nothing can be accepted but a homoerotic view. I don't see a place for it. I'm not interested in discussing it."
"There's no father, no son, but one human soul that can look at itself in a magic crystal" (Alexander Sokurov, Cannes 2003)

I don't think it's Wellspring's regular practice to reprint a long review on the insert of their dvds. They have wisely included Armond White's long review of Father and Son published on New York Press. It's the only review of the controversial film that I've come across that facilitates one's understanding of what Sokurov is attempting to convey. And just like Mr. White apparently needed the remarks from Sokurov I quoted and others included in his essay to formulate his views, most viewers will need to be educated regarding Sokurov's intentions in order to access the film's mysteries. The images and text more often confound than elucidate. Yes, it's a beautiful, poetic film that must be seen. But it's clearly flawed and it's not the fault of western audiences.
This is the second of his human relations trilogy, and like its predecessor, the film opens with an appropiation from Christian iconography, namely La Pieta. In Mother and Son, it's the son that cradles the parent as the film deals squarely with the son's pain as he anticipates his ailing mother's death. There were no questions about eroticism at its premiere despite the frequent physical contact and tenderness between the characters. But here Sokurov miscalculates and stages the scene in a way that such interpretation becomes practically unavoidable. Why cast a father so young that the son "looks like his younger brother" (Knipp)?, why the heavy breathing and the extreme close up of intertwined limbs?, why do they appear to be naked?, why not film it in medium shot, or show it at a point in the film when the characters have been established?
There are also certain concepts that Father and Son fails to explore. The phrase "A father's love crucifies..." is repeated at least twice, for instance, but your humble viewer had difficulty applying the obvious Christian reference to the characters on screen.
I'm glad there are filmmakers out there like Mr. Sokurov attempting to create films with an original vision, but this beautiful film is less than what its maker intended.

[Chris Knipp]

All I can say is that although this film (seen in a theater, not on dvd) seemed highly affected, murky (in its movement, not in its individual images, which are soft but not unclear), and with all the vaguenesses that you point out, I couldn't get it out of my head for days afterward, and I knew I'd seen something wholly original and memorable. I can't say that I really object to the homoerotic feeling at all. At the same time as I seem to recall noting in my review, we need to acknowledge the validity of Sokorov's dislaimers of any homoerotic element because in Russian culture, as in some others, male-to-male physical contact is conceived differently than in the US, where any suggestion of it can freak people out and make them think it's gay. Rather than thinking the director miscalculated, why not consider that the treatment translates badly culturally? I also think you have to view the film as a meditation on a theme, the whole trilogy presumably to be seen that way. I can connect that with Russian Ark, also a meditation, a ramble, a hypnotic mood piece. "A father's love crucifies" obviously is not to be taken so literally, but to mean that the father of the film smothers his son with love, and hence fixes his son on a "cross" of love. He's 'nailed down" to his relationship with a man who, being older and more powerful than him, dominates him and smothers him, while at the same time his love nurtures him. It made sense to me. It doesn't have to parse or be visualized as some kind of Christ thing. Original and haunting, and, as you acknowledge, beautiful. Also I hate to harp on this, but here is a case where the big screen of a theatrical projection is essential to appreciate the power of the filmmaking.

[oscar jubis]

I am certainly not complaining about the lack of power of the filmmaking and I'm not one to "freak out" over gay subject matter. Original and beautiful indeed, but there are reasons obvious to me that explain why critics and audiences gave a warmer reception to the slower, almost silent Mother and Son. The unintended but unavoidable homoerotic impression left by the opening scene of Father and Son runs counter to Sokurov's objectives. That's why he reacted so strongly to such interpretations at Cannes that his comments verge on homophobic. Besides, Father and Son hints at ideas but fails to fully explore them.

Saturday Jan 22nd

Million Dollar Baby at SoBe Regal
Comments:www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8496#post8496

La Puta y la Ballena (The Whore and the Whale) at Cosford Cinema.
Argentine director Luis Puenzo directed Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck in The Old Gringo and won a Best Foreign Film Oscar with La Historia Oficial, the only film from Argentina to receive such honor. After a 12-year absence, he returns with this expensive Spanish/Argentine co-production. La Puta y La ballena stars Aitana Sanchez-Gijon (A Walk in the Clouds,The Machinist) as Vera, a one-time author with a bad marriage and a breast tumor. Her former editor and lover approaches her with a new commission: travel to Argentina to research the life of an Argentine photographer who was killed during the Spanish Civil War. A chest has been found containing the Argentine's film reel, photographs, and a letter to a chorus girl named Lola. The film expertly weaves two engaging stories happening 70 years apart. Increasingly, we learn of several parallels in the lives of Vera and Lola. This literary, wise, Old World narrative sustains one's interest for well over two hours. The location cinematography (Patagonia and Buenos Aires mostly), performances and production values are excellent. The script includes perhaps one coincidence too many and the symbolism is heavy at times, but overall I recommend La Puta y La Ballena and hope the film gains wider distribution.

[oscar jubis]

Sunday Jan 23rd
Kitchen Stories on rental dvd.
Scandinavian charmer about the relationship that develops between a Swedish Home Research Institute employee and the rural Norwegian eccentric whose kitchen habits he's supposed to document. Deadpan, sardonic and poignant but not at the same time.

[Chris Knipp]

Certainly deadpan is the word. I found this lowkeyed to the point of catatonia, though it was nonetheless watchable. You?
The effect of looking down from on high was the most interesting thing to me, a variation on pov that worked well in a theatrical projection but might get lost on a home screen.

[oscar jubis]

Main theme seems to be the naivete of the institution (SHRI) to expect the observers to supress their human need to socialize. I found the role reversal amusing and the jealousy of the neighbor touching (he moves Folke's little trailer onto the train tracks!). The verbal jab at Swedish neutrality doing WWII was informative. You can live without this movie but I can't think of anyone who'd walk out thinking it was a waste of time or money.

[oscar jubis]

Monday Jan. 24th

Bill Cosby introduced this TCM broadcast of Steamboat Bill, Jr., a well regarded Buster Keaton feature, one of the major gaps in my knowledge of movies. This is only the second of his films I've watched, along with a doc about his stellar career during the silent era and how alcohol and Hollywood screwed him up during the 30s.
A dandyish college boy travels to the banks of the Mississippi to visit his long-lost father, the captain of a dilapidated steamboat. The bearish Bill disapproves of his son and his interest in the daughter of his rival, a banker with a spanking new riverboat. The long, final sequence in which a violent storm literally rearranges the town provides Junior with a chance at glory and redemption. Its power to amaze undiminished by the passage of time.

Time of the Wolf (Le Temps du Loup)
I'll be happy if a single person decides to rent it after reading this post. I realize saying anything about the plot would interfere with the element of surprise and discovery. So I'll just say Michael Haneke (Code Unknown, La Pianiste) directs the great Isabelle Huppert. Horrific, bleak, then rays of light stream through at the end of the tunnel. Has anyone seen it?

[arsaib4]

Yes, I talked a little about Time of the Wolf in the "Favorite films of 2004" thread earlier. A masterpiece in my opinion. I plan to write about it in more detail soon.

[wpqx]

damn how did I not notice this thread?

I know I haven't been active recently but, this has been going on for three weeks

I'm always motivated to do something like this, and had a Last film you've seen thread running on another board, but I constantly forget to add. I appreciate your discipline with this.

All I can really work on is today I watched the extended cut of Return of the King, and am currently going through the supplimental features. This concludes my objective of watching the whole trilogy again, or rather listening to the whole trilogy with director and writer commentary. I still think that ROTK took too long to end, and The Two Towers is still the best of the bunch in my opinion.

[Chris Knipp]

I might have kept Time of the Wolf in my Ten Best Foriegn list as it was at first if I had discussed my lists with you and Oscar before I made them and hashed this out, but there were so many good candidates I moved it down to my Shortlisted, All Categories list. I also have MOOLAADÉ, THE MOTHER, PRIMER , and THE WOODSMAN in the Shortlisted category, so TIME OF THE WOLF is in good company. I guess I just decided it was too hard to watch and follow for most people, but I'm a big Haneke fan and also a big Isabelle Huppert fan--this is really a title I could put in the top list. I really find it hard to rate films I like or limit the lists to ten.

[arsaib4]

Certainly, this film isn't made for casual viewing; but then, none of his films are. Haneke has sacrificed a common central narrative to have the viewer focus on other elements and issues he has put forth. Obviously, the most important one being how the Western world would cope with an apocalypse. I'm not surprised that it didn't make your top list because 2004 was a strong year for foreign releases in the U.S. I'll have a tough time fitting some of them in, but this one will surely be there.

[oscar jubis]

I find Chris Knipp's comment explaining Time of the Wolf's absence from his foreign list interesting: "I guess I just decided it was too hard to watch and follow for most people...". I think this illustrates the difference between making a "Best" list and a "Favorites" list. Both approaches are valid. Basically, the lists I post every year don't take into consideration whether anyone would like the movies I like. I do try to make such observations in my comments about a given movie, and I always try to provide the information one would need to decide on his/her own. I'm not ready to use the "M word" to refer to this movie, but it's one of 2 or 3 European movies in my foreign language top 10, as of today.

Tuesday January 25th

Hotel Rwanda at SoBe Regal.
www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8542#post8542

Au Hasard Balthazar on Import dvd
This film became a personal favorite on the basis of a viewing 25 years ago of a bad print with subpar subs. This 1967 film didn't really had a proper run in the USA until 2003 when it played for two weeks at Film Forum in October 2003.

"The supreme masterpiece by the greatest narrative filmmaker since D.W. Griffith. Bringing together all of Robert Bresson's highly developed ideas about acting, sound, and editing, as well as grace, redemption, and human nature, Balthazar is understated and majestic, sensuous and ascetic, ridiculous and sublime. It would be a masterpiece for its soundtrack alone."
J. Hoberman

"Everyone who sees this film will be absolutely astonished because this film is really the world in an hour and a half"
J.L. Godard

Unlike the Bresson films that preceded it, Diary of a Country Priest, A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Trial of Joan of Arc, their is no central character as such, except the titular donkey. Balthazar is shown from birth to death as he interacts with a variety of people in a small French town. He is a catalyst for action and an inmutable observer of the human condition, as Bresson comes closest than anyone at getting at the essence of what living means. Balthazar provides a unity that a film of such ambition demands, along with formal aspects such as Bresson daringly elliptical editing, and the rhythm between his trademark close-ups and medium shots.
If you've seen a Bresson film you know he is as far from sentimentalism as a humanist can possibly get, mostly because of his insistence on a style of acting that has been called "deadpan". Bresson is said to have instructed his actors to try to sound the same, to not do anything that would make each character more differentiated than necessary. Bresson is not interested in psychology and I wasted a lot of my time in the past looking for psychological explanations for his characters behaviors. Their actions are realistic, but they exist to illustrate a point, to advance ideas about the why and how of humanity.

[Chris Knipp]

I find Chris Knipp's comment explaining Time of the Wolf's absence from his foreign list interesting: "I guess I just decided it was too hard to watch and follow for most people...". I think this illustrates the difference between making a "Best" list and a "Favorites" list. Both approaches are valid. Basically, the lists I post every year don't take into consideration whether anyone would like the movies I like. I do try to make such observations in my comments about a given movie, and I always try to provide the information one would need to decide on his/her own. I'm not ready to use the "M word" to refer to this movie, but it's one of 2 or 3 European movies in my foreign language top 10, as of today.

It's a point of honor for some to have choices that distinguish them from the mainstream. My hope is that the best films will be -- or become -- mainstream, and that the mainstream audience will readily appreciate -- or if necessary learn to appreciate -- the best films. But when I said Hour of the Wolf was "hard to watch for most people," that is a rough approximation of my feelings about it. You can partly understand my opinion from my first two sentences. On the other hand, a movie that strikes me as brilliant and powerful I put on my Best lists, regardless of its chances of reaching any kind of audience. There are ways in which Hour of the Wolf misfired, bearing in mind that as I said I'm a big fan of Michael Haneke. I've mentioned that I don't like limiting lists to ten or any other particular number, thiis was a good year, and Hour of the Wolf is in my runners-up "Shortlisted" category. In contrast to it however I would put for example Haneke's La Pianiste, which had a clarity the newer film lacks, while nonetheless being in arsaib4's words very far from "for casual viewing." Your centerpiece in this discussion is a movie I've not seen, Au hazard Balthazar, though I have seen most of Bresson's work, I haven't seen that one.

As for "Best" lists vs. "Favorites" lists, I consider my "Favorites", insofar as they wouldn't go on my "Bests," to be a matter of personal prejudice--stories that relate to my own experience or satisfy my own fantasies, or represent my obsession with certain directors or actors whether their projects that year are a complete success or not. A "Best" list involves more the concept of shared cultural and aesthetic values, the idea that while "doing your own thing" is fine, we are talking about a public experience, a popular art, a highly accessible medium that, even at its most challenging and outré, can seduce an audience whose size conceivably may grow, and grow, and grow. This is a lot different from conceptual art that is exhibited only in galleries or museums. But it may be that I should see the art house or the foreign-import dvd as the equivalent of the gallery and museum -- accessibility to the few, "the happy few," the select, elite audience. Successes that remain forever in this sphere may be seen as limited successes.

[arsaib4]

C.K "My hope is that the best films will be -- or become -- mainstream, and that the mainstream audience will readily appreciate -- or if necessary learn to appreciate -- the best films."

"Hope" is the key word here, but I wouldn't make my personal list based on that. I have a feeling that films like Sideways andGoodbye Lenin are on your list because of what you said.

I think you guys know where I stand when I talk about films or make my lists. Maybe I need to be more considerate of the mainstream audience...I'm not sure.

Oscar "Au Hasard Balthazar on Import dvd"

So, I guess you went ahead and bought the Nouveaux version; I've ordered mine from Bensons and it should be here soon.

[Chris Knipp]

I hope I have some influence on you and you have influence on me; else we're just baying at the wind.

I wouldn't say I put Sideways and Goodbye Lenin on because of public favor. I do think the former is vastly overrated by now, but I think both are very well made and involving and entertaining and have something to say. I'm more sure Goodbye Lenin has something to say than Sideways, but Sideways is so well acted and containssuch keen social and sociological observation it stands out for those reasons alone.

You're right, though, "''Hope' is the key word here." It's an ideal, not a reality; sometimes the two come together, but not often. I'd give Tarantino as an example of a place where they do come together. He must have something of the zeitgeist in his bones, and so his films have been highly popular, and are great too.

I like your word "personal" about your lists. I would distinguish that from "favorites." (Sure, you can have "personal favorites," but I'm trying to make a fine distinction, here.) You have a deep personal commitment behind your choices of what films are the best ones; hence your lists of what's best are very pesonal, but are also assertions of what's truly best, aesthetically, intellectually, perhaps morally, and not just private "favorites" that emphasize your personal hobbyhorses.

[oscar jubis]

Got lucky arsaib4. Guy from Ohio put a mint copy of Balthazar up for auction on Ebay with a "Buy It Now" price at a mere $16.

Wednesday Jan 26th

Springtime in a Small Town is a remake of a classic of Chinese cinema released in 1948 and directed by Fei Mu, who according to knowledgeable sources was the greatest director in Chinese Cinema and never directed again once the Communists came to power. Tian Zhuangzhuang (Horse Thief, Blue Kite), who directs the remake, was blacklisted himself. This Venice award winner marks his return to cinema after a 9-year absence. It's a chamber drama about a man who returns to his hometown after a long absence ;) to visit his childhood buddy and finds him married to a girl he once loved. Splendid, perfectly modulated performances, careful framing of wide compositions, evocative but restrained score, seemingly a perfect work of art. At least some of credit has to go to DP Pin Bing Lee (A Time to live and a Time to Die, The Puppetmaster, Vertical Ray of the Sun, In the Mood for Love).

[Chris Knipp]

I cited the information about Springtime (2002) in my Purple Butterfly review in the House of Flying Daggers thread, http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1163, but I have not seen the original or the remake.

I wish you'd give the release year of the films that you watch that are not current.

IMDB page on it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332831/

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I wish you'd give the release year of the films that you watch that are not current.

Will do. I'll use year of US theatrical release, if there is one, for recent films, and year of world premiere for "oldies" and films that don't have official distribution.

Thu. Jan 27th
Mean Creek. Came across this indie with a metacritic score of 74 and an Independent Spirit Award for its ensemble of teen actors and decided to watch it with Chelsea (14). Two thumbs up for Jacob Estes debut feature about a group of kids who scheme to humiliate a bully. Script depicts kids realistically, we thought, and at under 1 1/2 hours, it's never tiresome or repetitive. What makes it special are the moral complications and group dynamics that ensue when bully also shows a vulnerable, needy side. There's a perfect little scene of a kid inside a car full of peers smoking weed who insists on abstaining.

[arsaib4]

Sounds like Larry Clark's Bully.

[Chris Knipp]

It's not as harsh and sensationalistic as Bully. It's a pity everybody including me seems to have forgotten it.

[oscar jubis]

Friday Jan. 28th

Exhibition Cut: Film as Found Object at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. Several visual artists have taken existing footage, most of it quite familiar, and manipulated it in every way possible to create something entirely different.

*Omar Fast's "CNN Concatenated" involves the network's talking heads taking turns saying a single word each time, each snippet assembled so that the content of the resulting broadcast is exactly the news the artist wants them to deliver.
*Christian Marclay's "Telephones" npresents clip upon clip of Hollywood stars having phone conversations, along with the accompanying buzzing, ringing, and beeping. From those monster black phones from old movies that relied on this cumbersome form of connection to create suspense_to touchtones_to one-tap cellphone immediacy.
*Even better is Marclay's "Video Quartet", in which four screens lined next to each other show clips of characters playing musical instruments and singing for one to six seconds per clip. At times the sounds and images are complementary, other times the effect is quite the opposite.
*Douglas Gordon's "24-hour Psycho" slows down the film so that it lasts exactly one day and gets rid of the soundtrack.
*Pierre Huyghe's "L'Ellipse" is the only piece that adds footage to highlight the importance of the jump cut. Three screens next to each other. First screen shows a scene from Wender's The American Friend in which Bruno Ganz is at a Paris hospital getting confirmation of his being terminally ill. In the film, Wenders cuts to Ganz at an apartment blocks away agreeing to kill a man in exchange for money so that his family can live well after his death. At the artist's request, the actor, now 21 years older, agreed to be filmed walking from the hospital to the apartment in real time. This new footage is shown on the second screen, thus eliminating the jump cut.
*Another interesting installation shows three Ali fights in which the boxers have been digitally erased leaving spectators watching a sort of shadow play, and a ring that seems to vibrate on its own.

Producing Adults at the Tower Cinema in Little Habana. First of a series of press screenings I will be attending as part of my coverage of the Miami International Film Festival. My deep appreciation to Peter (pmw) for making it possible for me to attend. I will be posting reviews and comments on a festival thread beginning on 2/3/05. Tonight's film is Finland's submission for the Foreign Language category of the Academy Awards.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for all these descriptions. Sometimes these things are better to read about than to actually see. The Ali one sounds very clever...
First screen shows a scene from Wender's The American Friend in which Bruno Ganz is at a Paris hospital getting confirmation of his being terminally ill. In the film, Wenders cuts to Ganz at an apartment blocks away agreeing to kill a man in exchange for money so that his family can live well after his death. At the artist's request, the actor, now 21 years older, agreed to be filmed walking from the hospital to the apartment in real time. This new footage is shown on the second screen, thus eliminating the jump cut.

That is of course the same Patricia Highsmith novel from which Caviani' s Ripley's Game (the actual book title) with Malkovitch the brilliant evil incarndation of Ripley. This piece also makes one think of Before Sunset, because of seeing the actor older than in the original film.

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Cinemabon, thanks. ... I wish my Chelsea were a bit more interested in films and writing and less interested in boys and singing :)

Hmmm,
maybe some day you can have a father and daughter production. You will write the script and direct, while she will "go after" boys in the movie and sing ... ha ha ha

* just kidding *

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Warriors of Heaven and Earth...

This film did not do well in the Chinese community.

Interestingly, the Oscar for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (CTHD) is considered a mixed blessing. Many would want Chinese movies to gain more recognition. BUT, the avalanche of movies attempting to replicate CTHD has turned many off.

We have been watching many good martial arts films, with or without foreign recognition. But suddenly, there are an avalanche of them that is "neither here nor there". ;PPP They do not cater to the taste of the East nor the West.

Nonetheless, the next three martial arts films that Chinese are ANTICIPATING are:
-- Seven Swords (by Tsui Hark)
-- Battle of Red Cliff (by Ang Lee) ... more period than martial arts
-- Kung Fu Hustle (by Stephen Chow) ... more nonsensical comedy and special effects than martial arts

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Kitchen Stories

I have not watched the movie, but I thought the trailer was fun!
;)

Is it one of those movies where the trailer is essentially the best and everything good about the movie? ha ha ha

[hengcs]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
It's not as harsh and sensationalistic as Bully. It's a pity everybody including me seems to have forgotten it.

What do you think about Larry Clark's
-- Kids
-- Bully
-- Ken Park?

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
[b]Springtime in a Small Town is a remake of a classic of Chinese cinema released in 1948 and directed by Fei Mu ...

Hmmm ...
I am keen on watching the 1948 version too.
Any resourceful links? hee hee

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
... First of a series of press screenings I will be attending as part of my coverage of the Miami International Film Festival. My deep appreciation to Peter (pmw) for making it possible for me to attend. [/B]

wow ...
is peter associated with the press or film industry?

[Chris Knipp]

(hengcs)What do you think about Larry Clark's
-- Kids
-- Bully
-- Ken Park?


I knew about Larry Clark much earlier as a famous photographer, beginning with Tulsa. He is out there, bolder than any mainstream director, following his subcultures and his fantasies. What about Another Day in Paradise? I saw Ken Park in Paris in September for the first time. I differ from some on this site in thinking it's probably his most characteristic work. I think Kids has been an influence even on European films. Bully is more brutal and hopeless than Mean Creek. It doesn't give anybody a chance to have moral second thoughts. Most of Clark's people are hell bent on self destruction. They party, get high, have sex, and run their lives into the ground. He's not a liberal. We discussed Ken Park, arsaib4 and I. He thinks as I recall that it's just a pastiche of stuff Clark had shot. I think it has a wider social point of view than any of his other movies. It's a cross section of kids in a deadend low level suburban part of California called Visalia and its subject matter resembles his photography book Teenage Lust.

[oscar jubis]

Saturday January 29th

The Story of the Weeping Camel on rental dvd.
This German/Mongolian co-production mixes documentary sequences with staged ones _these include dialogue that has obviously been scripted. It depicts the daily routine of an extended family of Mongolian camel herders. They are faced with a crisis when a female camel refuses to nurse her albino offspring. The family send two boys to the village to fetch a string musician needed to perform a ritual designed to solve the problem. The boys' visit to the village also serves the purpose of depicting how modern technology is encroaching on the group's traditional lifestyle. Majestic, soothing, and ultimately sentimental.

Lila Says (France, 2004)
Second film from director Ziad Doueiri (West Beirut)
Review will be posted on 2/5/05 (MIFF thread)

Red Dust (UK/South Africa, 2004)
Based on Gillian Slovo's acclaimed novel and starring Hilary Swank as a NYC lawyer who returns to her hometown in S. Africa to present a case to the Truth and Reconciliation Commision.
Review will be posted on 2/6/05 (MIFF thread)

Dig! at the Cosford Cinema
Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance, and generally well-received by critics, Dig! gets my vote for most overrated film of 2004. Director Ondie Timover spent seven years chronicling the diverging career paths of Portland bands The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The doc focuses on the bands' leaders and their love/hate relationship. Both reasonably talented and enamored of old styles, Anton (BJM) and Courtney (DWs) have widely different backgrounds and personalities. Basically, Courtney's band succeeds because he is not a fucked-up, junkie egomaniac with a hyper-dysfunctional family, like Anton. The director strains to paint him as a sort of mad genius but provides no evidence. Both bands basically recycle old glam and psychedelic folk styles respectively. Dig! says and shows everything it has to offer about halfway through its running time. One of my least favorite crits put it perfectly:
"Whether or not you like it depends on how much interest or patience you have for the antics of a self-proclaimed prophet" (Melissa Levine, Dallas Observer)

[Chris Knipp]

My comments on your comments--

Lila Says (France, 2004)

This means Doueri has moved to France? I liked West Beirut a lot and look forward to seeing this and reading your report.

Red Dust (UK/South Africa, 2004)

I either never heard about this or it slipped by and I forgot about it. We'll see if it's ever mentioned in the hype for Swank in the Oscar buildup.

The Story of the Weeping Camel on rental dvd.

I've written about this. You describe it neutrally. I found its mixture of "real" and fictional irritating, but I suppose Flaherty did something similar. Edward S. Curtis's photographs certainly did. It's nothing new, ultimately; just the locale is new. "Majestic, soothing, and ultimately sentimental." I guess you mean the weather and the landscape and the animals are majestic, and for the middle-something audience, yes, soothing, because unchallenging.

Dig! at the Cosford Cinema

This is news to me: I hadn't really heard of it but from rottentomatoes and metacritic I see that you're absolutely right: it's scored really high with critics. I wonder though if it's really going to be overrated by the public too. Perhaps suitable for my as yet unwritten "Don't Wish I'd Seen" list for 2004.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Red Dust (UK/South Africa, 2004)

I either never heard about this or it slipped by and I forgot about it. We'll see if it's ever mentioned in the hype for Swank in the Oscar buildup.



Red Dust was one of the films I saw in Toronto; not a bad effort at all. It is still playing around at different festivals and doesn't have a U.S. distributor yet I think, so it didn't slip by.

[oscar jubis]

Chris, your comments on "Weeping Camel" lead me to think it's a good candidate for your "overrated" list. I agree it's unchallenging, but only a small minority of crits would call anything about it "irritating".
Lila Says will be released in the US by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
I liked Red Dust at least as much as Hotel Rwanda, perhaps a bit more. Chiwetel Ejiofor is as good here as he was on Dirty Pretty Things. Arsaib4 is right, no distributor yet, but I bet that'll change.

[Chris Knipp]

What a meanie I am to kick a Weeping Camel, but I completely saw through it. It is a candidate for my Most Overrated list you're right -- another of my many oversights!

[oscar jubis]

Sunday January 30th
Three films to be shown at the Miami Int. Film Fest. Reviews next week.

Alicia's Names (Spain, 2005)
This debut feature directed by Pilar Ruiz Gutierrez is having its world premiere in her native Santander, Spain on Friday. It's exciting to watch a brand new film, one without an IMdb page, but Los Nombres de Alicia is simply not good.

The Overture (Thailand, 2004)
Musical biopic follows familiar genre formula. Informative, entertaining, even enchanting at times.

Whisky (Uruguay, 2004)
Sober, austere chamber drama won a well-deserved Fipresci (press) award at Cannes.

[oscar jubis]

Monday Jan. 31st

Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime)
The latest black comedy from Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia (Day of the Beast, Perdita Durango) will be a hit with the festival's audience.

Saved! on rental dvd.
Decided to pass on it last summer. Kids talked me into rental. Turned out much better than I expected. Comments:
www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8706#post 8706

[oscar jubis]

Tue. February 1st

Second viewing of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, this time at home. It's a good film I wanted to love for several personal reasons. I experienced a strong sense of connection between myself in my late teens and the character of Matthew, not only his cinephilia but also his personality. I am also intimately acquainted with the bevy of cultural references deployed by Bertolucci. The soundtrack privileges Joplin, Hendrix, and a number of French standards familiar to French film lovers. Clips from French and American films are interspersed throughout, only the one from Robert Bresson's Mouchette was new to my eyes. The Dreamers presents a balanced view of the (mostly) youth revolt in Paris during the summer of '68 and celebrates an intense passion for cinema more common then than now. But given the film narrow focus on the American Mathew and the two vaguely incestuous, enmeshed siblings who embrace him, the richness of character required is missing. Bertolucci's roving camera is as lively as ever though. And the songs and film clips are choice.

Cama Adentro (Live-in Maid)
A co-production of Argentina and Spain, directed by Jorge Gaggero, starring the wonderful Norma Aleandro (Oscar-winnerThe Official Story). Review on upcoming Miami International Film Festival thread.

[Chris Knipp]

Maybe the hip thing to say is that Godard is still challenging us while Bertolucci is awash in nostalgia but I think there is room for both, and -- not that there really is any point in comparing them except that one of "our" local (syndicated) reviewers did this week -- I found The Dreamers more enjoyable and even more thought provoking than Notre Musique .

[oscar jubis]

Yours is clearly a minority opinion. Notre Musique is #6 in both the Film Comment Critics Poll and The Village Voice Critics Poll. The Dreamers is absent from the former and #76 in the latter. I have no opinion since Godard's film hasn't opened here. Quite frustrating for me. Same goes for the universally hailed Moolade.

Wed. February 2nd

Two more films coming to the festival:
Voces Inocentes (Mexico/USA, 2004)
Innocent Voices is a Spanish-language film from Luis Mandoki (Angel Eyes, Message in a Bottle). One wishes a movie dramatizing the use of minors in warfare were a knockout. Not close.

A Way of Life (UK,2004)
Writer/director Amma Asante is the new Ken Loach. I predict she'll win a British Academy award for Best Newcomer thanks to this wrong-side-of the-South-Wales-tracks film. Newcomer Stephanie James shoulda been nominated for her performance. No US distributor yet.

[Chris Knipp]

I am in a minority, yes. I expect to watch Notre Musique again to see if missed a lot the first time, and it is coming to a theater in San Francisco. I did catch Moolaade--in the same theater. I am sure you will enjoy it. It is so full of color and life and so different from anything else one sees, I think that and the important political meaning are the two reasons why it has been rated so highly. Perhaps you will find more artistic value in it than I did.

[oscar jubis]

Thursday Feb. 3rd

Friday Night Lights on dvd.
My son and I are rabid Hurricane football fans so this was an obvious rental. I don't rate Mr. Berg's film as high as Newsweek's David Ansen (#7 in his Top 10) but this is as good as sports flicks get. It's about a high school football team from Texas (of course) during the 1988 season. The game scenes are superb, it's well acted, and presents a balanced view of both the benefitial and detrimental aspects of organized team sports.

The Woodsman at the Sunrise Gateway
www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8741#post8741

[Chris Knipp]

Did you see Gavin O'Connor's Miracle? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349825/ I found this unfashionable sports movie and triumph for Kurt Russell had a lot to like in it, (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=256) and yet the time factor worked against me ( it came out in February) and I forgot it when list-making time came around.

[oscar jubis]

Didn't see Miracle. Thanks for the tip. This time Dylan won't be heartbroken when it's over. It's hockey though...but if it's Russell at his best it'll be worth it. There's no way I'll forget to list any movie for 2005, because of this journal.

[Chris Knipp]

So you're keeping this journal the whole year? It will be the all time magnum opus of FilmWurld! See my review of Miracle--it has real hockey players playing the team members. It's simple and standard but it's very well done. I liked it a lot. My college roommate was the hockey goalie and one of my best remaining college friends was also on the team, so I have that motivation to watch it. But if you like team sports movies, do rent it. I used to be heavily into running as you may remember, so I liked the Steve Prefontaine movie, Without Limits (1998), starring Billy Crudup, and there's another about "Pre," Prefontaine (1997), with Jared Leto (I guess the two coming so close together -- bad planning -- cancelled each other out). A really good running movie is Personal Best (1982), with Mariel Hemingway--have you seen it? It's very authentic in its handling of running, and it's an original story. There has never been a movie made of the rip-snortin' good read gay runner novel, The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren (1976?), which was optioned by Paul Newman, but never filmed. I was deep into running when it appered, and I could almost say it changed my life.

I just looked The Front Runner up on IMDb and it's listed as currently (2005!) being in production, but with no director listed, only the author http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338047/. Well, it's never too late, I guess, but 29 years is a long time to get around filming something that really was in the spirit of the Seventies. If it's done well, it could be the all-time great running movie.

[oscar jubis]

Chris, I read your review of Miracle, that why I wrote "if it's Russell at his best..." Actually, I changed my mind about Friday Night Lights being "as good as sports flicks get". The two films you mentioned directed by Robert Towne, Personal Best and Without Limits, are better than FNL, in my opinion of course. Thanks for the reminder.

Friday Feb. 4th

Second viewing of Before Sunset, this time at home. I'll probably list it below Eternal Sunshine (more original) and The Corporation (more important) but this Linklater/Hawke/Delpy collaboration is the English-language film that gave me the most joy in 2004. Regrettably, the disc has absolutely no extras.

Son Frere, directed by Patrice Chereau (Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, Intimacy) is the anti disease-of-the-week flick. Two brothers who've been distant in their adult years come (much) closer when the oldest is diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and asks the younger, gay one for help. Absolutely no noble suffering, triumph over adversity, or tension-deflecting humor allowed here. Lots of male nudity in non-erotic context, no grim detailed hidden for middlebrow consumption, Chereau and his talented actors (Bruno Todeschini and Eric Caravaca) keep it real. NOT your everyday, tell-your-friends-about-it, date-movie kind of film, but quite an achievement.

[Chris Knipp]

Good--great....I'll have to see Son frère. You have seen L'Homme blessé, no doubt? I thought Anglade was extraordinary in it; I'm not sure he's ever lived up to that promise, but I can see there are a lot of his films that I haven't seen, many of them not having made their way over here. Something like Gary Oldman? who was so brilliant in early films like Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, Criminal Law, and Chatahoochee, but then , though he was in some cool movies like Henry and June and True Romance (one of my favorite cameos), got into playing stock villains. The risk-taking Anglade seems to have become a stock middle class guy. Or am I wrong? ( A complete digression).

[oscar jubis]

I haven't seen Anglade since Queen Margot and Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud, almost a decade ago. He played a small role in Taking Lives. Like you say, he's starred in a couple of films which have not made their way over here. These include Mortal Transfer directed by Beinex (Diva, Betty Blue) and Elective Affinities from the Taviani brothers.

Saturday February 5th

JEAN ROUCH: A Celebration of Life and Film

Tourou and Bitti (France/Niger, 12 min, 1971)
Funeral at Bongo:The Death of Old Anai(France/Mali,1972)
Moi, un Noir (France/Ivory Coast, 1959)
Chronicle of a Summer (France, 1960)
Gare du Nord (France, 16 min, 1966)

Brief Essay on Rouch and films mentioned above at the MIFF thread later today.

[Chris Knipp]

I beg to differ with you on Elective Affinities; that was shown here. Thanks for the reminder that Beineix directed Diva as well as Betty Blue -- the two worlds apart -- Diva a wonderfully playful, charming film, Betty Blue a challenging, absorbing one.

You did not see Anglade in Roger Avary's Killing Zoe(1994)? Perhaps just as well, but it is one of his extreme roles, as opposed to the workmanlike, uninteresting ones like in Taking Lives.

Did you tell me a while ago you'd seen Chéreau's L'Homme Blessé? I can't remember.

[Chris Knipp]

You mean you just got around to watching The Virgin Suicides?

[oscar jubis]

*Chris, I saw Killing Zoe, which predates Nelly, but not Elective Affinities (You recommend?) whose limited release did not include Miami. I watched Anglade's debut L'Homme Blesse on video.

*Chelsea, I guess I didn't include The Virgin Suicides (which I've watched many times) on this journal because I didn't watch it from beginning to end in one sitting this time. You must've seen it at least 4 times! but I was often busy while you were watching it. I practically know it by heart. Maybe there's something to genes, and maybe 2000 wasn't a great year for English-language cinema, but I love it as much as you_I don't think there was a better film in English released that year. Maybe I didn't include it because I'm tired of defending Ms. Coppola at this website. I think she's more talented than Anderson, Payne and others currently in vogue. Virgin Suicides evokes MY 70s and the awe and sense of mystery certaing girls inspire on impressionable boys better than any film in memory. Perhaps the best use of popular music on a film since Goodfellas.

Sunday February 6th

Jaguar (France/Niger/Ghana)
Directed by the great Jean Rouch. An exhilarating film, at once fiction, documentary and allegory about three rural Nigerians who travel to the city of Accra in Ghana seeking wealth and adventure. I posted an essay on Rouch on the MIFF thread today.

[Chris Knipp]

Considering h ow exhaustive you are in your watching, and that Elective Affinities is Goethe + the Taviani Brothers and has Isabelle Huppert as well as Anglade, you may want to watch it for its historical and cultural interest, but it isn't a great film. Did L'Homme blessé have any impact on you?

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for your comments on Elective Affinities. Anglade's performance is superb and Chereau knows how to depict erotic obsession, yet I was dissatisfied with L'Homme Blesse for reasons that I can't quite elucidate at the moment. Will rewatch now that it's out on disc.

Monday Feb. 7th

Nobody Knows at the Gusman
Hirokazu Koreeda's latest film, Japan's submission to our Academy for Oscar consideration, was released by IFC Films in big US markets last friday. It's based on a real event involving gross child neglect that is more tragic and harrowing than the resulting film. Look for my review on the MIFF thread soon.

[Chris Knipp]

To me L'Homme blessé had a deep significance because it captured the restlessness and anxiety of sexual desire in an adolescent boy who's discovering he's gay in a way that struck a very personal chord. I found Anglade's performance absolutely powerful and true. The mood of the movie is absurdly grim and operatic, but that seems right for a naive, self-important youth whose needs define his whole world. I wouldn't expect you or for that matter anybody else to react as strongly to L'Homme blessé as I did. I went to the theater to see it six or seven times. I've never done that for any other movie. I'm sorry my sense of gay experience is so negative, but apparently at the deepest level it is. Another gay story that I found true in the same fatalistic way is "Brokeback Mountain" by E. Annie Proulx (in The New Yorker six years or so ago), which is being made into a movie by Ang Lee starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger--a promising project, I'd say.

[oscar jubis]

It's not difficult for me to understand the impact it had on you. I remember having dinner with Danny, who lived next door during my first year of grad school at Ohio State. It was 1982, and we were discussing Arthur Hiller's Making Love, which, I contended, is not a good film. But Danny felt so good simply about the film getting made he saw it twice, even though it's much inferior to films like Chereau's, released a couple years later (and only in a few cities). The first American "gay interest" film I remember liking is Parting Glances, with a young Steve Buscemi.

Tuesday February 8th

I attended Liv Ullmann's press conference at the Loews Hotel on SoBe. I came of age as a cinephile while her acting career was at its zenith. Growing up, theatrical screenings of the films below constituted some of my most prized moments: The Emigrants, The New Land, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage, Zandy's Bride and Autumn Sonata. Later on I had the opportunity to watch the Bergman films I was to young to watch in the 60s: Persona, Shame, The Passion of Anna and Hour of the Wolf. I remember walking out of theatres with more questions than answers, but changed somehow, and amazed at the power of cinema to pose the great questions.
So you get the idea today was special for me. Ms.Ullmann divides her time between Norway and Key Largo, FLA., where, she stated, she's written her last four scripts. She states she always writes outdoors because nature and sunshine stimulate her creativity. She discussed her relationship with Ingmar Bergman, the transition from acting to directing, how she shot four movies in Hollywood in 1973_none successful at the box office, although she thinks (and I agree) that Zandy's Bride is a great movie, the reunion with Bergman during their latest (and likely last) collaboration Saraband.
At night I attended a tribute to Ms. Ullmann. She was presented with a Career Achievement Award by Fest director Nicole Guillermet, clips from most of her 50 performances were shown, and an she subjected to a probing interview and questions from the appreciative audience. Saraband was screened. Bergmann is back at age 86 with an undeniable masterpiece, not quite a sequel to Scenes From A Marriage although Ullmann and Erland Josephson play the same characters.

During the afternoon I watched a prison drama from Poland called Symetria by writer/director Konrad Niewolski. Reviews of Saraband and Symetria, which will have to get shorter due to time constraints, coming soon on the Miami International Film Festival thread.

[Chris Knipp]

It's not difficult for me to understand the impact it had on you. I remember having dinner with Danny, who lived next door during my first year of grad school at Ohio State. It was 1982, and we were discussing Arthur Hiller's Making Love, which, I contended, is not a good film. But Danny felt so good simply about the film getting made he saw it twice

Yeah, but the movie that mattered was My Beautiful Laundrette, because it's a great movie. As for L'Homme blessé, I don't think other gay men would necessarily be so pleased that it was made. But I may be wrong. I just may consider myself more unique than I am. I'd have to read what was written about the film, but (like Danny in that) I really didn't care. As for Making Love, saying "not a good film" is being too nice. It's embarassing.

[oscar jubis]

Wed. February 10th

Attending both press and regular screenings over a longer period of time has saved me from total burn-out. I mean the fest is only 10 days and there are well over 100 films. It becomes a challenge not to miss anything good and undistributed and have time to write reviews when the film is fresh on your mind. I'm enjoying hanging out at the press headquarters on SoBe. There are tons of like-minded folks from Europe and America Latina to converse, and free grub.

Unconscious (Spain/Portugal/ItalyGermany)
An uptight doctor and his modernist sister-in-law search for her missing husband in 1913 Barcelona and discover a world of tranvestite parties, porno shoots and Freudianism.

Stray Dogs (Iran)
A peek into post-Taliban Iran courtesy of the production company run by the great Moshen Mahkmalbaf. Another of the many films on the schedule dealing with the consequences of war on kids.

[Chris Knipp]

Sounds fun. Lucky you. It is a challenge, though, I'm sure. Lucky it doesn't go on forever!

Quite a pair of films--total contrast. I saw Stray Dogs in Rome in September dubbed in Italian. I rather liked it. Somehow the Italian softened the harshness of the story -- and was curiously logical since the film refers to Ladri di biciclette specifically. You could imagine the ghosts of Zavattini and De Sica hovering in the hills.

[oscar jubis]

Of course when I wrote "a peek into post-Taliban Iran", I meant Afghanistan where the despotic Taliban government ruled. One of my favorite scenes in Stray Dogs is when the ticket booth operator attempts to dissuade the kids from watching De Sica's masterpiece by telling them what a piece of crap it is, but the kids insist on watching it for inspiration. The kids from Nobody Knows have it easy when compared to the plight of these Afghan siblings.

Thu. February 10th

Gunner Palace
Review posted on MIFF thread.

Modigliani (UK/Germany/Italy/Romania/France)
Gorgeous movie to look at, and better overall than I've grown to expect from Opening Night films at the fest. Watched on disc to avoid having to dress up and hang with the rich farts who have to be there because their company/organization is a fest sponsor. US release date is 4/29/05 (Los Angeles) but it's a small distributor so who knows how wide.

[oscar jubis]

Friday February 11th

Three wonderful examples of the "less is more" ethos courtesy of The Miami International Film Festival:

Temporada de Patos Duck Season (Mexico)
Los Muertos The Dead (Argentina)
Dag og Nat Day and Night (Denmark)

[Chris Knipp]

Great. Will you be having an entry that's a roundup with ratings and recommendations of ones to watch for and ones absoutely not to miss at the end of the festival?

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for the interest, Chris. I'll definitely provide a summary with recommendations, including mention of 3 or 4 well-received films with distribution deals I didn't watch (because I was too busy watching other films I may never get another opportunity to watch in a theatre). It may be fun to devise a rating system for the first time in my life, only for festival films. On a previous post, I broke a personal rule by calling Bergman's Saraband a masterpiece after only one viewing. At the least, I should rewatch Fanny and Alexander or Persona for comparison and context before I utter the M word. So how about the following 6 categories: Excellent; Very Good/Must-see; Good; Worth Seeing (at least on video); For Fans of the director/actor/genre but not otherwise worth seeing; Bad. Would something like this be useful to you? I read your nice post on "favorites of 2001" thread and plan to answer when my mind and eyes are less tired.

Saturday February 12th

Familia Rodante Rolling Family (Trapero, Argentina)
Salvador Allende (Guzman, Chile)
Primo Amore (Garrone, Italy)

[Chris Knipp]

This guy I've been going to movies with lately who's more definite about rating than I am says I ought to have them in my reviews. He said he couldn't always tell from my reviews what I thought of the movie. So I was thinking about a rating system for myself. I was thinking of Pass/Fail,' but that's too vague so I suggested to him I might try High pass, pass, low pass, fail. Now I just think I'll skip a formal rating and make a greater effort to make it clear in what I say my opinion of the movie's worth.

With a list, it's just a question of saying how important you think it is for somebody else to see each movie.

I would be happy if you just say if you had a good time watching it, or if you suffered but admired -- how much fun or how much admiration you felt. An actual rating is unnecessary. You can disqualify yourself, like when I might say I like a movie with Ashton Kutcher in it, you know it's not because it's a good movie but that I just like looking at Ashton. I'll go to just about anything with certain actors in them, like anybody else. An admission of bias is of optimum value, but also enthusiasm, which can be contagious. I think that was the virtue of Pauline Kael's reviews, that they exuded enthusiasm, or passion if you want a more highfalutin term.

This is what I have always liked about Johann's posts--his enthusiasm and warmth.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp

This is what I have always liked about Johann's posts...

Btw, where is Johann? not to mention a few other members who used to post here on a regular basis? It seems like me, you, and Oscar are the only members contributing to this site consistently for the last few weeks.

[Chris Knipp]

That is certainly true. I'll see if I can roust Johann.

P.s. I found copies of Son frère and Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train at Blockbuster today. YOu never know what you'll find.

[arsaib4]

Well, they should carry 'em since the films were released here.

[Chris Knipp]

Yeah? Well you may not know Blockbuster. It selects completely randomly in the more arcane areas, and my particular Blockbuster has one of the more unsophisticated clienteles in the area. There are only a handful of French films added each year. So there being two recent ones by Chéreau is somewhat surprising. It would be wishful thinking to expect them to have a wide selection of the French dvd's recently released. For that you would have to go to Real Video.

[HorseradishTree]

Originally posted by arsaib4


Btw, where is Johann? not to mention a few other members who used to post here on a regular basis? It seems like me, you, and Oscar are the only members contributing to this site consistently for the last few weeks.

School's been a bitch. Junior year is everything people said it would be: lots of work with little reward. I frequent this site and rarely post because I don't have the time. But don't worry. I shall return!

[oscar jubis]

Sunday Feb. 13th

Anthony Mann's Man of the West (1958) in glorious Cinemascope at the Cosford Theatre. Classic westerns were meant to be watched on a large screen and this was a treat as one of my favorite Westerns was screened at siesta time. This ain't no Roy Rogers! This is a mature western in the classic mold. Gary Cooper plays a reformed bad guy traveling to Fort Worth to hire a teacher when circumstances force him to confront the wacko uncle (Lee J. Cobb) who raised him and made him a crook. The romance that develops between the married Cooper and a soulful Julie London is quite stirring. Complaint that Cooper was the same age as Lee J. Cobb is valid, and minor. I recommend any Mann western: Man from Laramie, Bend on the River, Winchester '73, The Far Country, and especially, The Naked Spur.

The last film I watched at the Miami International Film Fest : Turtles Can Fly, an Iranian film that won the big prize at the Chicago and San Sebastian Film fest. It's coming to a theatre near you courtesy of IFC Films. Confirmed screenings:NYC, L.A., Bay Area, Detroit, Houston,etc.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by HorseradishTree


School's been a bitch. Junior year is everything people said it would be: lots of work with little reward. I frequent this site and rarely post because I don't have the time. But don't worry. I shall return!

I'm glad to hear that. Junior year in HS is certainly tough, not to mention very important. But the year after is certainly fun!

[Johann]

Apologies, I've been unable to contribute lately much to my dissatisfaction. Believe it or not I do not own my own computer-I'm always using someone else's/a cafe's and it conflicts greatly with my internet activities. I'm always finding myself unable to complete threads...

I'll post more when I have the resources of time and access
in better sync with each other.

Loving the journal oscar. I guess it's your version of "Two weeks in the Midday Sun"?

[Chris Knipp]

Welcome back! I've missed you. Wish you had a laptop to hook up at your local café, man.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Johann
I'll post more when I have the resources of time and access
in better sync with each other.


Good to hear from you Johann, hopefully you'll the find the means to contribute soon.

[pmw]

I too have been out of commission with a very time consuming new gig. Still very much enjoying a good read here at FilmWurld; just not as much writing as id like to be doing. Johann, for gods sakes man...get a computer!!

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
I guess it's your version of "Two weeks in the Midday Sun"?

This version is 56-week long and interactive! Glad to hear you've been keeping up with this, Johann. I owe you (and Howard) an apology. The guy who was going to make the vhs copies moved to NYC with my Comandante and Blind Shaft dvds, two blank tapes, and some dvds he had borrowed from me. Ces't la vie, right? Hope you post whenever possible because you are irreplaceable. As far as the journal, it's helping me comment (and get feedback) on everything I watch without opening a new thread every time. BTW, I wrote a lenghty reply last night and my pc malfunctioned right before I was ready to post. Hate when that happens...Hope I remember half of what I wrote.

Mon. February 14th

I've always wanted to sample classic commercial Bollywood. I'm not talking about "art" directors like Satyajiy Ray and Ritwik Ghatak (check out The Cloud-Capped Star if you get a chance) but films from the 50s and 60s directed by Raj Kapoor, Bimal Joy, and others. Research I've done indicates the following are recommended: Mother India, Two Acres of Land, Jagte Raho and Boot Polish (reviewed elsewhere by H. Schumann who states Kapoor directed, not Prakash Arora as listed).

Tonight I watched Awaara (1951), directed and starring Raj Kapoor, and featuring the sensual and expressive Nargis. A woman married to a judge gets kidnapped by a bandit. She's pregnant but she had yet to tell the judge, who believes rumours that the baby is not his and abandons her. The woman raises her son Raj in the Calcutta slums. Raj is a good student but gets kicked out of school when his low status becomes known. The hungry Raj steals bread and gets sent to reform school. Upon his release, the only option is to join a gang of thieves. His fate will reunite him with the cute girl he loved in school (now a lawyer) and with the father whose identity he is unaware. Close to three hours of somewhat contrived, melodramatic plot, charismatic and emphatic performances, melodious music and singing, cunningly staged musical numbers, and accomplished cinematography. You know if this is for you or not. Please reply if you want to watch or have watched any of the titles above.

[Chris Knipp]

One by Raj Kapoor that was extremely popular in Cairo in the Sixties is Sangam, which everyone saw when I was living there. Including me. The entry below by somebody gives an idea of what I also remember.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058547/.

From Viewer's Comment in IMDb:


One of the best parts of "Sangam" is the honeymoon sequence in Europe, that is - in contradiction to the melancholy and fatality of most of plot - very lighthearted, with some pricelessly lovely and funny moments (Vyjayanthimala dancing in sexy "Western" clothing in a Paris hotel room) - and even a kissing scene (though enacted by non-Indians). The playback singers (Mukesh for Raj, Lata Mangeshkar for Vyjayanthimala, Mohd. Rafi for Rajendra) are great as always, the songs are beautiful.

It's almost four hours long.

[oscar jubis]

Great timing Monsieur Knipp!! This normally sells for over $20 on dvd, but there was a "Buy It Now" on Ebay for $9.98 including s/h. Thanks. Weird that the film was shot in Europe. Will comment upon viewing.

Tuesday February 15th

Oldboy, a film shown at the fest which I already owned on dvd. One of those that's simply escapist fun, but some (Q.T. and Miike worshippers) will love because it's hip, twisted and violent while others call it crap or worthless because they find it offensive (the spineless and squeamish). More comments on MIFF thread.

[Chris Knipp]

Let's be clear that Sangam was not "shot in Europe"; only a half-hour travel interlude of it was, an interlude which broke the monotony of the drama with a period of light entertainment. Typical of the genre I should say. I'd never seen anything like it. The outrageous mixture of genres and moods. We have comedy within tragedy in Shakespeare, but still..... If Kapoor interests you, I'm sure Sangam will be a worthwhile example to have. It was wildly popular in Cairo and had a long run. That was surprising perhaps since of course it was in a language nobody understood. But Ameican movies were also very popular in Cairo, not dubbed but with French and Arabic subtitles (running in two directions: you can go crosseyed trying to read them). Traditional Egyptian movies of the Thirties and Forties also combine drama with musical interludes (and they're very well done and hold up today), but there was nothing in Arabic quite as outrageous and lush with music and melodrama as Sangam. The Cairo audience at this time also loved Zorba the Greek, which was very popular and had a long run. Titles of American films were translated into classical Arabic; hence Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines became "Ha'ulaa' ur-rijaal al-cudhaam fii aaalaatihim at-taa'ira." Priceless.

[oscar jubis]

Damn! That's a lot of "aaas". While Hollywood has always engendered a lot of good feelings toward the US of A throughout the globe, our government has done the exact opposite: murdered thousands of innocents in Vietnam (and Cambodia as I learned from recent docs), supported the burning of entire indian villages ("scorched earth policy" in Guatemala), helped to overthrow democratically elected governments (Chile a clear example), made it possible for Israel to occupy Palestine for over 3 decades in defiance of the U.N., etc. etc. etc. Hooray for Hollywood!

[Chris Knipp]

Damn! That's a lot of "aaa's"!

There weren't meant to be any "aaa's." "aaalaatihim " was a mistake. It should be "aalaatihim." "aa" just means a long "a" sound as opposed to a short one.

There's at least one book on the negative images of Arabs in Hollywood movies, sort of the Arab version of The Celluloid Closet. It's Jack Shaheen's Reel Bad Arabs. -- Interlink, paperback, 500+ pages, July 2001 (ha!) http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,938852,00.html.

The Guardian, typically, has a piece about it you wouldn't find in a major US newspaper. It was covered in the US alternative media, of course; I heard Shaheen interviewed a year or so ago on Pacific Radio. Here's an excerpt from the Guardian piece:

The tragedy" he admits, "is that we've begun to unlearn other stereotypes" - about Blacks, Jews, Native Americans. "But we haven't with this one. And 9/11 took it to another level."

So why is it still acceptable to slander the Arabs? "The stereotype is embedded in the US psyche," Shaheen explains. "I think it reflects American policy in the region. Politics plays a dominant role, especially with the wars." Shaheen takes "the wars" back as far as the Iranian hostage crisis of the 1970s, pointing out that many people in Hollywood cannot distinguish between Arabs and Iranians.


Nor can most Americans. But Kiarostami fans might differ from the norm?

[arsaib4]

Raj Kapoor was/is known as a "showman," some even called him an Indian Charlie Chaplin after a certain film he made. While Indian commercial cinema existed before he came onto the scene, he was the one who brought it to the forefront. He basically introduced the studio and the star system which still exists in India today and his own banner "Raj Kapoor Films" is still going strong.

Some argue that his films (whether he directed or simply produced/starred in them) incorporated the elements that appealed to the masses along with purposefully fighting for social issues present during that time. Having seen some of the films from the greats like a Bimal Roy, or a Guru Dutt, as both worked within the paramaters of "commercial" cinema; I don't particularly see that in Raj Kapoor films. The kind of films he made during that time are still being made today and are justly reviled. Admittedly, the exuberance displayed on screen is contagious but even the most blithe-spirited person can see the sub-par direction, lack of editing skills, cliched characters and over-abundance of "actorly" acting (as Pauline Kael liked to say). Raj Kapoor films shouldn't be ignored but they need not be celebrated either, especially, considering how some of his contemporaries aren't even mentioned when people talk about "classic" Indian cinema.

However, one film I particularly liked is called Mera Naam Joker (My Name is Joker/1970) in which he almost put his own persona to task (not to mention his bank account), needless to say, it was a huge flop but now has become somewhat of a cult classic.

*Boot Polish was only produced by Raj Kapoor, Prakash Arora did direct it.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by arsaib4
even the most blithe-spirited person can see the sub-par direction, lack of editing skills, cliched characters and over-abundance of "actorly" acting

Your opinion has been duly noted. I am no expert on Bollywood or Kapoor but, based solely on my reaction to Awaara (The Vagabond), I disagree. This essay seems more in synch with my viewing experience:
www.chireader.com/movies/archives/2000/0800/000818_2.html
BTW, Did you notice that the teens in Jia Zhang-ke's Platform go to the cinema to watch Kappor's Awaara?

*Chris, you bring up an interesting topic. I read The Guardian's article with great interest. Thanks.

Wed. February 16th

I love the three films written/directed/edited by Christopher Munch that I've seen. Tonight I watched Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day. I wish Munch received some of the attention his contemporaries are getting, lesser directors like Anderson, Russell and Payne. Lisa Alspector captures my opinion about this 1996 film to perfection:
onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/15607_COLOR_OF_A_BRISK_AND_LEAPING_DAY

[arsaib4]

It looks like the article was written by an Indian/American and it's hard for me to believe that given the chance to write about certian films for a publication like the Chicage Reader, a person would be as discerning as possible - some recent articles on Bollywood in the NY Times are a proof of that. Still, I would've preferred to hear your thoughts as none of us here are experts on anything really. It becomes very easy to use other's writing and I think we should avoid doing that as much as possible otherwise it defeats the purpose. I hope this doesn't sound offensive.

Thanks for reminding me about Platform, I had forgotten about that. There were certainly a few "vagabonds" in Zhang-ke's film.

[oscar jubis]

I wouldn't want to make up my mind about the worth of a director based only one viewing of a single film. My own thoughts on that one film can be found on my Valentine's Day journal entry above. Based on this scant evidence and for the time being, I find myself in disagreement with you, most particularly with the bit I quoted from your post. I remain open to the possibility that, after watching more films, I may agree with you that Kapoor's directing skills are "sub-par" and that he lacks editing skills. For now I am offering a link to a piece of writing I found informative and concordant with my preliminary reaction to him. I am offering access to a point of view alternative to yours. I am not willing to dismiss it because it "looks like it was written by an Indian/American".

[Chris Knipp]

If I may put in my two cents, I think I'd view Kappoor as a social and cultural phenomenon, and his movies as popular folk art, perhaps something like African urban pop music today. They are better seen within the context of the culture and not to be judged too harshly on a scale of international "art films." We may err sometimes in thinking that we can judge (even) Kiarostami or Hou or whomever without really deeply understanding the culture and language. Even on French or Italian or German or Spanish films we as Americans may actually have tin ears, culturally, in judging them as a part of their cultures.

Kapoor may not ultimately seem a great international artist, but will be seen as having significance within his own culture. Conversely some movies like Zhang's Hero or House of Flying Daggers, may be made to appeal so much to an international audience that they fail to win unviersal acclaim at home. There are lots of movies that are highly successful within their cultural contexts. For instance, contemporary Egyptian social comedies can be very well done. But they would never make it internationally, though you could always argue that that's Miramax's fault; I'd say it's because you had to be there. The assumption if anybody has it that all films must be judged and appreciated by an international audience to be deemed of lasting merit may be in a curious way ethno-centric.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
I am offering access to a point of view alternative to yours.

This is exactly what I was getting at earlier. The point-of-view of the person being brought in here doesn’t exactly correspond with yours because as you admitted, his knowledge far supersedes yours in this case. In a way you are taking credit for something that doesn’t belong to you by saying "This essay seems more in synch with my viewing experience."

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
For instance, contemporary Egyptian social comedies can be very well done. But they would never make it internationally,...

You just contradicted youself as I recall you saying elsewhere that people "overcompensate" for films like these. Being consistant is something I take pride in.

Films from Raj Kapoor have been praised all over the world and in this case I obviously believe thay they are way overrated but I do recall saying that they are "contagious." I always - perhaps to a fault - consider every film, no matter what its country of origin, equally - and thus, among other things, I consider its cultural importance before giving my verdict. Try to see some of the other work from that era and you'll have a better idea about what I mean. Two of my very best friends/colleages are from the sub-continent and I haven't come across anyone else who has greater knowledge of film history than them. Films of Raj Kapoor and the likes are escapist entertainments and they provide just that to the masses. They are as culturally significant as bland commercial hollywood products.

[oscar jubis]

Thursday Feb. 17th

The Merchant of Venice at the SoBe Regal
www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8916#post8916

Fando y Lis (Mexico, 1967)

Chilean Alejandro Jorodowsky was 38 years old when he made his first film. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia who settled in the small town of Tocopilla in the desert region of Chile. Jorodowsky had three decades of experience in practically all the arts (except perhaps for sculpture) by the time he directed this film, dedicated to "Samuel Rosenberg, a retarded, mongoloid Jewish boy I liked so much I made him my driver and assistant director when I met him". At the time, AJ was a famous and successful theatre director in Mexico. In the commentary, he explains that Samuel died when the joint he'd been smoking burned his bed, Sam's father Moshe gave him $100,000 to make Fando y Lis as a sign of gratitude for the way Alejandro treated Samuel. The film is based on a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal about a child-like couple traversing a post-apocalyptic terrain in search for the mythical city of Tar. It's a highly allegorical, symbolic, visionary work that's influenced by Dali's L'Age d'Or, Jean Cocteau, Andre Breton, Freud and monster movies. At its most coherent, Fando y Lis provides commentary on the state of human civilization and the dependent and sadomasochistic nature of male/female relationships. The film caused a riot and scandal when it premiered at the Acapulco Film Festival. Many including famous Mexican director Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez threatened to kill Jorodowsky. The film was banned in Mexico, the people playing Fando and Lis denounced him. Even today, many would consider the film degenerate, blasphemous and sacrilegeous. The dvd is the perfect introduction to Alejandro Jodorowsky because it includes a feature lenght documentary and the funniest, most entertaining director's commentary I have ever heard. AJ went on to direct cult classics El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Santa Sangre.

[Chris Knipp]

(Originally posted by arsaib4:) You just contradicted youself as I recall you saying elsewhere that people "overcompensate" for films like these. Being consistant is something I take pride in.

"Consistency is the hobgoblin of petty minds"-- Emerson.

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself.
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" -- Whitman.

I'm not so sure I really did contradict myself, though. Egyptian popular film comedies are not "films like these," because they aren't fashionable with the international cinephile set; hence no one is going to "overcompensate" for them -- at least not yet! I was unaware that Kapoor had been praised all over the world. If he is, then his are not "films like these" but films of another sort. If I was talking about overcompensating, I may have been speaking about Iranian films by certain highly regarded directors whose every effort is heralded as a masterpiece.

[arsaib4]

"Life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which the hero should preserve his consistency to the last."--François de la Rochefoucauld

As usual, you prefer to be cheap and irrational. Keep your I'm not sures and may have beens to yourself, I can see through those. I could've made a stronger reply but I'm a better man than you are!

[Chris Knipp]

This is not "life" and it's not a "dramatic scene," it's just a discussion, and I'm sorry you've ended the discussion with a burst of anger and name-calling. Perhaps we should call it a night.

[arsaib4]

I respect eveyone's personal opinion here and expect the same from others; I feel strongly about this and it's not my prerogative to get angry unless I'm forced to do so as I was. I consider it a privilege to be able to share my thoughts here and I take that very seriously.

Peace.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes. I regret any misunderstanding.

[oscar jubis]

Friday Feb. 18th

Assault on Precinct 13 at Regal Palace

This is a remake of the 1976 John Carpenter debut, directed by Jean-Francois Richet (Euro cult film Ma 6-T va crack-er), about a New Year's Eve siege on an old Detroit precinct about to be vacated. I am not particularly fond of the action/crime genre so I was surprised at how much fun I had. I developed a great deal of interest in these characters and found the action scenes thrilling and credibly staged. The plot sucked me in, so to speak. I think it helped that I am a fan of Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo and Ethan Hawke. They and the rest of the cast perform splendidly. I need to be careful not to overpraise but truth is that it's been a while since I've enjoyed a crime/action film so much. The perfectly diagrammed group dynamics and unintrusive social commentary take it a notch higher. It's really hard to establish comparisons to films I haven't seen for years, but I'll say Assault is almost as good as personal faves Bill Duke's Deep Cover ('92), Kitano's Sonatine ('93), and John Woo's Bullet in the Head ('90).

After Midnight at the Cosford Cinema

This 2004 release from Italian director Davide Ferraria won two awards at the Berlin FF_ Don Quixote and Caligari awards, the latter for "thematic and stylistic innovation". It's the type of film crits and buffs can easily overpraise because it's a love letter to the cinema and to a film museum (in Turin, a former sinagogue called the Mole Antonelliana). The central character is Martino, a Buster Keaton-like custodian at the museum who's always accompanied by his hand-cranked camera. Martino lives in a dreamy celluloid world, which Amanda invades when she seeks refuge after an incident at the burger joint where she works. Amanda is disastisfied with her boyfriend Angel, a handsome car thief. Eventually fate will bring them (and Amanda's flatmate Barbara) into closer contact. Ferraria finds very ingeneous ways of mixing snippets from silent films into the contemporary story and paying homage to a variety of filmmakers. You'd be wrong to think this comes off as charming, sentimental and predictable. Its execution is rather eccentric, even experimental. Martino is perhaps too ineffectual a protagonist, too much like a fictional construct utilized to channel Ferraria's deep and genuine cine-love. In fact, none of the characters is endearing or immediately sympathetic. The narrative avoids any predictable turns, but it also lacks an emotional payoff. After Midnight is perhaps only recommendable to a specialized audience, namely cinephiles.

[Chris Knipp]

The Assault on Precinct 13 remake got pretty good reviews from Hoberman and (more so) from Rosenbaum as you no doubt know. That made me go out and see it. I wasn't as thrilled as you were, but it's well done and I too like the actors, including The Sopranos' Drea de Matteo.

After Midnight's star Giorgio Passoti was in Gabriele Muccino's first film, and in his more known The Last Kiss he has the no. 2 male role. This is his first lead but ironically it is somewhat lackluster compared to his Adriano in L'ultimo bacio. This new film is as you say offbeat and moreover does introduce us to La Mole Antonelliana in Turin, the Museo Nazionale del Cinema -- an extraordinary building with a vast central circular hall and dome, and an extensive collection, only recently completed I gather (I haven't been there) of films, books, objects, etc. -- and teaches us something about the former importance of Turin itself as an Italian filmmaking center in earlier pre-Cinecitta' days.

[oscar jubis]

Excellent comments re: After Midnight. The narrator states that the very first movies where more about places than characters. The film is as much about Torino and its wonderful Museo than about its human characters.
I'm still surprised at my enjoyment of Precinct 13. I came home and ordered Richet's Ma 6-T va Crack-er dvd, which at least at one time was banned in France. After watching 13, I snuck into the adjacent theatre and caught the last 50 minutes of Sideways, which is now officially out of my English language Top 10. One more film to watch before I post my lists: The Aviator.

Saturday Feb. 19th
Mar Adentro at the SoBe Regal. Surprised at the small crowd on a Saturday. I hear that the other Spanish film in town (Almodovar's) is still packed after over two months.Comments:www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8952#post8952

[Chris Knipp]

I think La Mala educacion is more crowd-pleasing for obvious reasons than Mar Adentro. I did see Sideways twice, and though I think it overrated, I'll keep it up there among the US best of '04. Are you going to comment further on the Amenabar film or have you already? Would love to see Ma 6-T va Crack-er. As for Precinct 13, maybe you were just hungry for some American violence after all those art films.

[oscar jubis]

Sunday February 20th

"How could my parents have thought that I was anything but a flaming queen?"
Todd Haynes

Films cannot get more autobiographical than Haynes' PBS-commissioned short Dottie Gets Spanked (1993). Six year-old Steven is quite taken with tv star Dottie Frank and her comedy show. He spends his time drawing pictures of her and creating scenarios based on her tv persona. Steven overhears mom's friend talking about how often her daughter needs to be spanked, which makes a big impression on the boy, whose parents disapprove of spanking. He wins a contest to visit the set of The Dottie Show. The show being taped that day ends with Dottie being spanked by her husband. Steven's father tries to steer him towards masculine interests, with no success. His dreams (shown in b&w) reveal a mixture of real life and fictional source material, with domination and voyeurism as prevalent themes. Steven often casts himself in the role of omnipotent king. Steven draws a picture of that scene of The Dottie Show in which she gets spanked. He tries to hide it from Dad but can't. He folds the page and buries it in the backyard.

Todd Haynes (Safe, Poison) provides revealing commentary on this Zeitgeist dvd release. The dreams in the film are his as remembered in '93, the drawings are his drawings with "Lucy" changed to "Dottie", he was called a "feminino" once, etc. Haynes describes himself as being bound by a female subjectivity. He discusses the importance of Freud's essay "The Child is Being Beaten" (which he first read in college) to his understanding of voyeurism, sado-masochism, and power relationships. "It has informed all my films", he claims. I think his film Poison is due for reappraisal after watching his recent films and learning more about him.

[Chris Knipp]

You don't say how you saw this--a TV rerun on cable? I'd appreciate it if you made clear with each film you chronicle what your viewing circumstances were, home/festival/theatrical screening/TV/DVD etc. Is the Miami Film Festival still on? I know that's another thread but you could cross reference them.

I had thought perhaps naively that Haynes was somewhat more reserved about asserting his gay sensibility. This does indeed seem to cast new light on Todd Haynes's outlook.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Todd Haynes (Safe, Poison) provides revealing commentary on this Zeitgeist dvd release.

The commentary was especially recorded for the dvd release (November '04) of this 1993 short film. I don't know whether Haynes has been this revealing before about being gay, about his past, etc. I knew that he was a member of Act-Up. But here, for instance, he openly talks about Jim Lyons (who's edited every Haynes release since Poison) as "my boyfriend for seven years". And he labels himself a "flaming queen". It could be that the autobiographical nature of this little-seen gem made it relevant to discuss these things. I haven't seen Poison since the early 90s, but I bought the dvd a few months ago and I'll be rewatching it soon.

*The festival ended a week ago but I still have to post reviews on about 9 films, report on the awards, and summarize as you suggested.

[oscar jubis]

Monday, Feb. 21nd

The Aviator at AMC CocoWalk
Went to Coconut Grove during the Arts Festival so traffic was a bitch. My concern that the pic would not hold Dylan's interest for 169 proved unfounded. www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9009#post9009

[Chris Knipp]

I don't know whether Haynes has been this revealing before about being gay, about his past, etc. I knew that he was a member of Act-Up. But here, for instance, he openly talks about Jim Lyons (who's edited every Haynes release since Poison) as "my boyfriend for seven years". And he labels himself a "flaming queen".

I said I was naive about his being reserved about being gay. I didn't like Poison at all. I have only liked one of Haynes' efforts, Safe. That makes up for the other ones, though. We have discussed this on the website elsewhere.

You didn't have to tell about the traffic but it is helpful to know where and how you viewed the movies you viewed. You don't want to know about the traffic on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Actually it was light today. Let us know if you take public transportation.

And good luck with your ketchup.

[oscar jubis]

It's comforting to know you're paying attention and having a bit of fun with my entries, CK. I knew you liked Safe but I'm surprised to learn you don't like anything else by Haynes. We do have our taste differences, don't we? and we should be glad. I'm curious about my own reaction when watching Poison again and I hope you can be more specific then about what's wrong with it.

Tuesday February 22nd

The Battleship Potemkin

"Revolutions in form are more important than revolutionary content" (Sergei Eisenstein)

I own several Chinese dvd releases of films directed by Sergei Eisenstein which are the exact replicas of the dvds released in USA at a fraction of the price. The company that puts the out is called Bo-Ying. I plan to re-watch three of his silents. Eisenstein is one of my favorite directors ever. Much has been written and discussed about him, even at this site. (www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=636).
Despite the fact that Potemkin, Strike and October were commissioned by the Communist Party of the USSR, Eisenstein was first and foremost an artist, one whose innovations were informed by a variety of disparate artistic sources. These include: vaudeville, cubism, Elizabethan playwrights, the French theatre tradition of Guignol, and agitprop. With the release of Potemkin, his second feature, he achieves full artistic maturity. It features his dynamic editing, which became known as "Soviet Montage", in which he achieves a sort of percussive rhythm by breaking every action into a hail of shots, cutting from medium shots to close-ups of faces or minute, significant details, and stretching out time by flash-cutting to the action elsewhere within the scene. The Odessa Steps sequence is just as awe-inspiring and heartbreaking as when I first watched this film as a college freshman.

[Johann]

oscar has become a film professor!
It's just as well: your comments are highly educational.

Battleship Potemkin is definitely dynamic, and the "Odessa Steps" sequence is as powerful as you say (after all these years... who says silent films are boring?)

Did you see this at the theatre, or on DVD?

And, how do you underline stuff in your posts?

[oscar jubis]

*Underline by putting "u" between brackets.
*I'm watching Eisenstein silents on dvd (imported cheaply from China).
*I'll be watching October soon. I'll provide a link to the thread you started, and post my comments there. Your essay on October remains the best commentary on an Eisenstein film to be found at this site.
*I agree there's nothing boring about silents, to the contrary. I am very upset with TCM for not showing silents for the past three "sundays at midnight" as they had been doing for years.

Wed. February 23rd

Strike

"In art sometimes, the crudest device works best. Never spare the viewer a direct blow between the eyes." (Sergei Eisenstein)

The auspicious debut (1924) of Sergei Eisenstein is chock full of visual experimentation. Words are inadequate to describe the sheer number and variety of visual wonders the viewer is exposed in this tale of a strike at a factory in Czarist Russia (1912) and the massacre of workers at the hand of the Cossacks. I'll discuss just a few interesting aspects.
* A great deal of this film is quite abstract (not intended to forward the plot) so E. provides structure by means of visual motifs, most prominently circular forms and the use of animal imagery throghout the film.
*Parallel cutting is used prominently. Shots of striking workers having breakfast are intercut with shots of owners and bankers doing same. Shots of Cossacks firing on a crowd are intercut with shots of butchers slaughtering a cow (the animal imagery I mentioned earlier).
*Perhaps the most difficult scene to stage takes place in a four story apartment building. Some shots capture significant action at each of the four levels simultaneously.
*The influence of cubism is most prominent in terms of the multiplicity of angles used to shoot a given scene. Prior to Eisenstein, scenes were only shot from angles that correspond to the point of view of a character. E. wants to show the scene from multiple angles as quickly as possible with no concern as to whether the angle of any shot reflects the p.o.v. of any character.
*The use of "relay narration" or "serial montage", such as glimpses of the insides of several's workers' homes one after the other, each scene only long enough to convey the pain and sacrifice of striking workers and their families.
*The disdain Eisenstein had for naturalism, which he believed to create complacency on the part of the viewer. This is the Eisenstein film that reveals most clearly his theatrical roots (vaudeville in particular).
*If you like understatement, you probably would prefer to watch a film by Eisenstein contemporary Alexander Dovzhenko. As the opening quote makes obvious, Mr. Eisenstein wants to make sure every viewer felt something while watching his movies. He is most definitely not above putting small children and animals in peril to produce outrage. He did it here and in Potemkin, and he was still doing this when he made Alexander Nevsky.

[Chris Knipp]

{Originally posted by Oscar Jubis}
I'm curious about my own reaction when watching Poison again and I hope you can be more specific then about what's wrong with it.
There's a hothouse intense gaynessabout a lot of Haynes' stuff that I as a gay person find icky. Call it internalized homophobia if you like. You get it in the glam rock movie, one of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' many misfires. It explains the preciousity of Far from Heaven. But Safe is just weird and haunting; for that he set the gayness aside -- or transposed it --into a person uncomfortable in her own skin, allergic to the whole environment. That worked for me. It's unselfconscious and universal.

I see you did say how you watched the Russian silents (on cheap dvd's from China, violating US copyright, perchance?), but Johann seems to have missed that. He also missed "B" in the html coding bars above the posting spot. He's tired.

The Russian silents have the same richness of invention and excitement of the Russian avant garde artists that I love and have modeled a lot of my artwork on the past decade. It was a time when "modernism" was alive. A great time to be alive as an artist, especially in Russia -- well, not for long, but for a little while. A time when each artist was at home with his medium, and the media cross-fertilized each other, artists worked in many media -- still photography, theatrical design, film, architecture, furniture, chinaware, posters, and last but not least, painting. Eisenstein is truly cinematic, intensely aware of the visual and montage aspects of the medium. The disdain for realism you mention is typical of the avant garde. Russian film should be seen in relation to all the other arts of the time. A paradox of the Russian avantgardists is that they are very original, yet also highly in debt to Europe (e.g., the cubists, who came earlier in the century), and very much all like each other. Hence Alexander Dozhenko is unlike Eisenstein in not hitting you over the head as much, but rather like him in other respects.

[Johann]

From Videohound 2000: 4 BONES

Zvenigora (the last entry in the film listings by the way)

1928; dir. A. Dovzhenko

-a lyrical revelation in the face of Soviet formality: a passionate, funny fantasy tableaux of 1000 years of Ukranian history, encompassing wild folk myths, poetic drama, propaganda and social satire.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
There's a hothouse intense gaynessabout a lot of Haynes' stuff that I as a gay person find icky. Call it internalized homophobia if you like.

I found this "hothouse intense gayness" in Caouette's Tarnation. I know you have other reasons not to like it, but I wonder if words like "distasteful" and "repugnance" in your comments indicate a similar "icky" response.

Russian film should be seen in relation to all the other arts of the time. A paradox of the Russian avantgardists is that they are very original, yet also highly in debt to Europe, and very much all like each other. Hence Alexander Dozhenko is unlike Eisenstein in not hitting you over the head as much, but rather like him in other respects.

I'm afraid the legacy of the cold war mentality still results in both Eisenstein and Dovzhenko being viewed in America primarily as Soviet propagandists. My view is that they were both too much artists to make good ideologues. Even though many still use the word "propaganda" when commenting about Eisenstein's silents, the party was extremely critical of these formal elements you call "avant-garde". It forced Eisenstein into uneasy exile in Mexico and USA, and a taming of his stylistic flourishes upon his return to USSR.
My experience with Dovzhenko is limited to Earth and Arsenal (wish I could watch the film Johann highlights, among others), but it's enough to consider him Eisenstein's equal. He was not only too much the artist, he was too Ukranian to make a good Soviet_he apparently lived under constant surveillance. I agree with your whole post above, but I have ruminated mostly about what makes them different rather than their commonalities. One aspect that informs all of Dovzhenko's work (from what I've read) is the death of 12 of his 13 siblings before they could reach adulthood.

Thursday February 24

Last Life in the Universe on dvd.

The third feature directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (6ixtynine9, Monrak Transistor) features cinematographer Christopher Doyle (several Wong Kar-Wai films and many notables) and the casting of Japanese director Takeshi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition). Ratanaruang explains in an interview (dvd extra) that that he wrote the script a long time ago and didn't think it was compelling enough. He states the story is thin and illogical. The frank auteur admits that this film got made because he wanted to work with Doyle, Miike, and Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu. They've met at film festivals and kept in touch over several years. Asano plays a Japanese working at Bangkok's Japanese Cultural Center who wants to die because "death is bliss", it's peaceful. Coincidentally, every suicide attempt is interrupted by a surprise event. He meets a Thai sex worker, and eventually the affectless, neat-freak moves in with her, thus forming a 21st century version of "The Odd Couple" (if you're wondering, there's no nudity and no sex). This picture is #40 in the latest Village Voice's Alternative Critics Poll, so it has its admirers. I find anything lensed by Chris Doyle worth watching, but I had difficulty maintaining an interest in anything but the cinematography.

[Chris Knipp]

Eisenstein and Dovzhenko: Of course the long slow decline and repression of the Russian avant garde under the Soviets is a story I prefer to pass over, but the great filmmakers did begin in the great creative aesthetic tradition before they adapted to the repressive propagandists.

Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation: Sure there's a hothouse intense gayness in it, but I don't think I mind that part of it, because I think it's so personal and intimate it seems quite appropriate; the part of it I do mind is the sort of miring in one's own messes, the failure to transcend the grim dysfunctionalities of his family in any way. But I said that this would be an important film and I hope that others will make more positive use of the techniques and approaches Caouette adopted -- and not just produce Tarnation Lite. No, I don't think the hothouse gayness in Tarnation is "distasteful" and "repugnant" at all. And that's different from "icky."

Christopher Doyle with Wong Kar Wai: Let's name them:

Days of Being Wild (which more and more I think is in a class by itself and which has a gorgeous reissue: try to see it in a theatrical screening, I beg of you all).

Chungking Express

Ashes of Time

Fallen Angels

Happy Together

In the Mood for Love

(I didn't mention 2046 because I haven't seen it, but they collaborated on that too. I'm afraid it will not have a theatrical showing for some time?)

In other words, simply Wong Kar Wai's most beautiful work. Without Doyle, Wong Kar Wai wouldn't be Wong Kar Wai. This is the collective cinematic and visual oeuvre of the decade.

And Doyle also did in the same year The Quiet American and Rabbit Proof Fence for Philip Noyce.

[oscar jubis]

Another Doyle-lensed movie I love is Chen Kaige's Temptress Moon.

Friday Feb. 25th

Sergei Eisenstein's October
www.filmwurld,com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9123#post9123

[oscar jubis]

Saturday Feb.26

Bashu (Iran, 1986) on import dvd

Playwright/university dean/director Bahram Beisai directed this drama, the only Iranian film I've seen that deals with racism. Bashu is a 10 year old whose village is under bombardment during the Iran/Iraq war. His family perishes. He manages to escape by hiding on the bed of a truck going north. When he wakes up, he finds himself in Northern Iran where the language and the culture are different. He meets a woman, who's husband is away, living in a farming village with her two small kids. Bashu is much darker than everybody else there. Reluctantly, the woman (Susan Taslimi) shelters him despite the negative reaction of most in the village. Gradually her maternal instincts assert themselves over the uncharitable, racist villagers who call him "charcoal". Social Realism except for the traumatized boy's visions of the ghost of his mother. Doing research on this film, I learned that Ms. Taslimi was a major star in Iran, who wrote the script for Bashu but did not get credit. She was forbidden by the Islamic government to collaborate again with Mr. Beisai and moved to Sweden, where she had a career in television. In 2002, Ms. Taslimi directed her first film: Hus i helvete (All Hell Let Loose), starring Melinda Kinnaman (the "boxing girl" from My Life as a Dog).

[Chris Knipp]

You don't have to of course but I would like it if you told whether you have purchased or rented the dvd's you report watching. I assume in this case purchased, since "import dvd" implies (perhaps?) not watchable on standard US dvd players?

[oscar jubis]

Up to now you can assume that when I write "import dvd" it's a purchase. But today I joined nicheflix, an import dvd rental site. From now on, I'll specify "rental" when it's an import from nicheflix. Bashu is on NTSC format (like ours). Like many Asian discs, the box says "region 3" but it's actually "all region". So this import is watchable on standard US players.

[Chris Knipp]

Sounds like some of us might want to know about Nicheflix but not, so I'm glad I asked. Do many of their offerings require an all region player? I'm assuming that your reason for subscribing to Nicheflix is that it has offerings not otherwise available e.g. not on Netflix?

[oscar jubis]

Works exactly as Netflix. It's based in the US. They have some NTSC region 1 discs, but most of their discs require a "universal player" that can handle both NTSC and PAL formats. Just joined, hope it's worth it. On my queue: Resnais' Melo, Bresson's Mouchette, Mizoguchi's Lady of Musashino and Life of Oharu, Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Tati's Jour de Fete (color version)...

[Chris Knipp]

I take it the reason you have joined (and it is more expensive) is that you get quite a few films not available on Netflix--not available in fact on US dvd's.. And since you have a universal player (I still don't--though I find I can watch European code dvd's on my computer) the other codes aren't an obstacle for watching chez Jubis.

[oscar jubis]

Computers play anything. Nicheflix cost for 3 discs at a time: $25 for 6 weeks, $25 for 4 weeks thereafter. Three discs mailed today (will likely receive on Thursday): Samuel Fuller's 40 Guns, Their First Films: Resnais/Rivette/Godard/Leconte/Melville/Pialat, and Jean Genet's Un Chant d'amour(1950), the first truly gay movie?

[Chris Knipp]

I guess you've exhausted the possibilities of Netflix, or did you never use it? (I haven't--exhausted; hardly used.)

[oscar jubis]

I prefer to patronize local rental shops, especially an independent one in my neighborhood. When they don't have a region 1 disc I want, my brother Eduardo gets it for me from Netflix (I'll be asking him to put Munchhausen on his queue soon). I still have over 100 discs on my shelf I haven't watched though.

Monday February 28th

Ma 6-T va Crack-er, translated as "Crack City" but the most direct and appropriate translation would be: "My Gun goes Bang" on Import dvd.
Jean-Francois Richet (not the sensitive teacher from Truffaut's Small Change but the banlieu-raised French director of De L'Amour and the recent Assault on Precinct 13) directed this cult film released in 1997 and quickly "banned from French screens as a danger to public safety" (Rosenbaum). Documentary-like film follows the daily routine of two trios of "banlieu" residents, most of Arab or African descent. One trio of high school teens who get into fights, steal cars, rob liquor stores, deal small amounts of drugs, try to get laid; and a trio of unemployed 20-somethings who follow a similar lifestyle but also find themselves in a serious turf war with a rival gang. They come together for a riot and a brutal confrontation with mostly white cops. The film is bookended with a hip-hop video in which Virginie Ledoyen carries a big red flag, cradles a baby girl, and handles weapons. The closing credits give thanks to Marx, Engels, and Lenin, among others.

Author and Cinematheque Francaise programmer Nicole Brenez:
"A masterpiece of that most perilous kind of cinema, namely militant, political cinema. Richet finds the means to fundamentally reconcile Renoir and Eisenstein, Max Ophuls and Public Enemy. A call to revolt that returns us to the radical bases of the 1791 Republican Constitution."

Viennesse author Christoph Huber:
"Powerful piece of Marxist propaganda aired here on tv once and is otherwise unavailable. Compared to this, Kassovitz's acclaimed La Haine looks like a feature for The Disney Channel".

[Chris Knipp]

The film is bookended with a hip-hop video in which Virginie Ledoyen carries a big red flag, cradles a baby girl, and handles weapons. The closing credits give thanks to Marx, Engels, and Lenin, among others.

So you're seen it. So are you implying you got this from the local video shop, or from Netflix via your brother?

The formatting sounds like the most blatant "radical chic" -- but also like Godard in his heyday, Godard when he was elegant, provocative, and exciting; an updated hiphop Godard. I certainly want to see it.


"Compared to this, Kassovitz's acclaimed La Haine looks like a feature for The Disney Channel".

Maybe Kassovitz is better as an actor. But he got good publicity with La Haine. A career-maker? And "Ma 6-T va crack-er" got Richet the publicity he needed too.

Instead of just quoting the two critics, why didn't you say how the film struck you? Your description as always is excellent, but this time too neutral.

[oscar jubis]

*Bought the Hong Kong dvd for $8.99. The French one doesn't have English subs.

*The film seems to discourage viewer identification with any single protagonist ("banlieu" kids playing themselves, by the way). Richet regards them as members of an oppressed class and most specifically, as victims of the police. All four features directed by Mr. Richet portray the police as either racist or corrupt, or both. In De L'amour, which I haven't seen, Ledoyen and her Arab boyfriend take revenge on a sadist cop. His debut, Etat des Lieux has a similar bent. (According to Rosenbaum, Richet raised its $20,000 budget by gambling his unemployment check at a local casino).

*Not a single commentary from the pundits I quoted or viewers (IMdb) disagrees with the fact that the film promotes violence as the only solution. Before the final credits appear, article 35 of the Republican Constitution is quoted, which basically states the right of oppressed people to resort to violence. I have a personal reluctance to accept violence as constructive, particularly when these projects where the boys live and schools they attend appear to provide a better environment than their American counterparts. Also, there's evidence here that these kids are at least partly responsible for their plight. The film's stance and its conclusion ignore this evidence. That said, Ma 6-T va Crack-er has value as a document of life in the "banlieu" and features expertly staged action sequences of urban violence.

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday March 1st

Dog Days (Austria,US Theat. dist. in 2003) rental dvd

"Get down on your knees and sing La Cucaracha, you bastard!"

Documentarian Ulrich Seidl's fiction move is a cruelty exhibition involving residents of a suburban community in Austria during a heat wave. One poignant moment_an estranged couple sit on their deceased daughter's outdoor gym under the rain_stands out among a series of acts of abuse and humilliation. A dog and a mentally ill woman amongst the victims. Lots of naked old folks. Non-actors improvised their own dialogue after Seidl provided sketchy scenarios. I know there's an audience for it out there.

Adoption (Hungary, 1975) on region 1 dvd.

A Golden Bear winner at the Berlin Film Festival, Adoption was directed by the prolific and still active Marta Meszaros (the Diary trilogy), who was once married to the great Miklos Jancso (The Red and The White, Red Psalm, Elektra, My Love). Interview with Meszaros: www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/22/meszaros.html
Interestingly, Meszaros claims in this 2002 interview that Adoption was nominated for an Oscar and that she could attend thanks to money donated by some Hungarians living in L.A. My research indicates that Adoption was NOT nominated for an Academy award.

Widowed, financially secure and involved with a married man, 42 y.o. Kata yearns for motherhood. Though having little in common, Kata meets Anna, a rebellious teen now confined to a nearby "institute" after years of parental neglect. With some difficulty, a bond grows between them. Kata allows Anna to use her house to meet with the nice 22 y.o. she loves. They want to marry and Kata intercedes on their behalf. But fulfillment won't come easy for either woman. Meszaros' film is a poignant and candid examination of yearnings for intimacy and self-realization, and a nuanced depiction of a stagnant society. She favors facial close-ups and emotionally intense exchanges reminiscent of the films of Ingmar Bergman. Meszaros is said to be the most prolific female director in cinema history. Her Adoption is a must-see.

[Chris Knipp]

So you bought the Hungarian film dvd? Apparently issued on US dvd recently? Nothing on it on IMDb except two brief viewers' comments. How did you know about this film -- with its difficult to spot title (there are many "Adoptions", if few Örökbefogadáses) -- and why do you say (using Rosenbaum's terminology) that it's "a must-see"? It isn't clear from the description what's special about it, or how it becomes one of her best, if she made so many, or should we see more of them, also?

Ma 6-T va Crack-er has value as a document of life in the "banlieu" and features expertly staged action sequences of urban violence.
Thanks for the further detail on this one with some of your personal feelings, which often you seem to omit. Would you say this has more redeeming social value than City of God? YOu didn't respond to my Godard suggestion so I guess that doesn't relate, for you, and this is far more gritty and "vérité" in its way than any Godard?

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
So you bought the Hungarian film dvd? Apparently issued on US dvd recently? Nothing on it on IMDb except two brief viewers' comments. How did you know about this film -- with its difficult to spot title

Yes. IMdb not always reliable. Viewers not quite discerning. http://half.ebay.com/cat/buy/prod.cgi?cpid=1229034925&domain_id=1877&meta_id=3
East European Cinema has traditionally been ignored in the West, especially USA. Blame the Cold War? I do research. In the process, I learned this Berlin winner was released on disc so I bought it. Will continue to seek out other titles.

why do you say that it's "a must-see"?

"poignant and candid examination.....reminiscent of Bergman"

Thanks for the further detail on this one with some of your personal feelings, which often you seem to omit.

Thanks for your interest, CK. You may be the only person here interested in films/directors few are familiar with. It's hard sometimes given the volume of film I watch and the limited time. But I appreciate and will respond to any prompting from you or others.

Would you say this has more redeeming social value than City of God?

Salles wants to entertain, his City of God involves much younger kids (at times) in showy, gorier scenes that titillate. Salles has no political agenda in mind. Richet's in wrong-headed, in my opinion. Both Richet and Salles ignore the kids' families and the larger social context. Richet's film may more accurately depict the kids' day-to-day routine, but City of God is more fun.

You didn't respond to my Godard suggestion so I guess that doesn't relate, for you, and this is far more gritty and "vérité" in its way than any Godard?

Yes, more gritty and verite, and more agenda-driven, more tendentious. "Richet's kids" don't know who the fuck is Marx or Lenin. What specific Godard film advances the point of view that violence is the only solution to the plight of underclass youth? Maybe I can provide a better answer to your inquiry if I have a clear memory of the specific film you have in mind.

[Chris Knipp]

(Originally posted by Oscar Jubis)
Yes. IMdb not always reliable. Viewers not quite discerning. http://half.ebay.com/cat/buy/prod.c...=1877&meta_id=3
East European Cinema has traditionally been ignored in the West, especially USA. Blame the Cold War? I do research. In the process, I learned this Berlin winner was released on disc so I bought it. Will continue to seek out other titles Actually I was curious not about how you found the dvd of Marta Meszaros' 1975 Adoption but was seeking further insight into your [i]"process" as a sophisticated student of world cinema -- how you found out about this director in the first place, and where. I know you're under pressure just to get the information out because you cover so many films: you need a staff of assistants. (Chelsea may be busy. Other family members otherwise occupied.) Sorry if I seem to keep prodding you, but you see I am paying attention.

Also sorry, I overlooked your phrase "poignant and reminiscent of Bergman" which certainly justifies (if telegraphically) a "must-see" rating.


](Originally posted by Oscar Jubis)
Thanks for your interest, CK. You may be the only person here interested in films/directors few are familiar with. Hardly; but thanks anyway. I do follow this thread closely but I notice it's become the most viewed, so others surely are interested too -- notably the very well informed arsaib4. I am slowly trying to get to know just a few directors Americans barely know but others on this site recommend such as Hou, Tsai, Kiarostami, that Thai guy and those new Latin Americans. I am sometimes resistent: Kiarostami still hasn't grabbed me; Hou has, and Tsai already had, if fleetingly. I'm probably behind others here in actually seeking them out and appreciating them. Your taste and curiousity are more comprehensive than mine and I value those qualities.

Clear and sharp comparison of City of God and Ma 6-T Va Crack-er. Thanks.

About Godard -- I don't know if I had any film in mind though I was vaguely thinking of the politically provocative La Chinoise. Needless to say, Godard doesn't advocate violence. Notre Musique powerfully affirms that. Shall we connect the dots and note it's "interesting" that a director like Richet would go from agit-prop to Assault on Precinct 13? Does he think he's doing good by going mainstream and injecting some subversion into an American actioner remake? What's he doing for the banlieu now?

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Actually I was seeking further insight into your "process"

I have a modest cinema library, and I frequent sensesofcinema and mastersofcinema on the web. Sometimes I browse through ebay for foreign dvds and come across an unfamiliar item and that will spark my research. I learned about Meszaros while reading about her well-known ex-husband Jancso, whose The Red and the White I own and will be watching soon. I liked Adoption a lot and found out a couple of her other films are available on vhs, so I will look for them at my hood's video store. If not there, I'll check if any is available on the web at a reasonable price...

Shall we connect the dots and note it's "interesting" that a director like Richet would go from agit-prop to Assault on Precinct 13?

Yes. What Assault has in common with Richet's French films is the theme of police corruption and the well-done violent scenes. I have no idea about his upcoming projects.

Wednesday March 2nd

Les Choristes at SoBe Regal

Chelsea and I enjoyed it very much. I will never want to become the type of person who can't be entertained by a film like this. I'll point out its limitations only if someone calls it a masterpiece. I'm actually glad it didn't win the Oscar. Chris Knipp's reviews and comments about this film are on-the-money.

La Devoradora (The Man-Eater)

Fernando de Fuentes was the first great Mexican director of the sound era. This 1946 release is not one of his best, but it's still well-done melodrama featuring Maria Felix (French CanCan, Dona Barbara, Enamorada). She is Mexico's most famous actress. Ms. Felix received many offers to work in Hollywood but she turned them down. She said she didn't want to learn English. She is absolutely marvelous in the femme fatale, bad girl parts she usually performed. I rented this at the public library, an under utilized resource for the cash-deprived cinephile.

[Chris Knipp]

...I learned about Meszaros while reading about her well-known ex-husband Jancso. . .

Where? Thanks for the reminder to "frequent" Senses of Cinema and Masters of Cinema online. We should all do that.

I feel you neutralized my remark about Assault rather than ran with it, but it's you who've seen them both, Ma 6-T Va Crack-er and it.

Thanks for backing my up on Les Choristes. I still think there's more to it than American reviewers seem to see. I wish the song had won the Oscar, but, agreed, not the film.

I got my first Hou Hsiao Hsien dvd, Goodbye, South, Goodbye, from the Concord, MA public library while visiting my goddaughter Tanya. A friend of mine gets videotapes at the SF library every week and they have upped the number that you can take out at one time to six. I used to do it too. Have you had trouble with rental dvd's being dinged and having glitches that sometimes stop the film in its tracks? I have.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Thanks for backing my up on Les Choristes. I still think there's more to it than American reviewers seem to see.

Reviews have been mixed. Favorable ones: LA Times, Chi. Tribune, Seattle Post, Toronto Globe, USA Today, Christian S. Monitor. I understand the negativity as a reaction to its submission to our Academy over better films. But I'm not fond of "extremist" criticism that fails to acknowledge the film's modest attributes, and that most readers are likely to find it at least "worth-watching". It's the type of practice that turns casual moviegoers off film criticism.


I got my first Hou Hsiao Hsien dvd, Goodbye, South, Goodbye, from the Concord, MA public library. Have you had trouble with rental dvd's being dinged and having glitches that sometimes stop the film in its tracks? I have.

I've been stopping myself from watching Hou's films over and over again_they give me so much pleasure_ in order to have time to watch films from countries/directors new to me.
I've had that problem you describe with both rental dvds and even a few new discs imported from Asia.

[Chris Knipp]

What do you do for the dvd glitches? Does cleaning the disc help? It did for laser discs, a lot, and does with any where the problem is some object on the surface. But on new Asian ones, are these inbedded glitches?

I think the nasty reviews of The CHorus came in before the Oscar nomination, actually; I agree with you that there is no call for vicious attacks on ANY movie, unless it's really pernicious or monstrously awful. A little film about choir boys? Please. It's not to my mind at all saccherine. These are knee-jerk reactions; and the US readings of foreign films are rarely to be trusted. Even when they're in the ballpark, they contain little perception of all that's there.

[oscar jubis]

*Cleaning the disc only helps when the problem is dust or dirt, not when it's caused by scratches.
*The "nasty" reviews of Les Choristes came before the film's nomination by the Academy but after France designated it as the French submission to the Academy awards. Over 100 films are submitted, one per country.

Thursday March 3rd

Oriana, a Venezuela/France co-production won the Camera d'Or at the 1985 Cannes. It was directed, written and co-produced by Fina Torres (Celestial Clockwork, Woman on Top). I rented the dvd from my public library. Released by Facets video in May, 2004. IMdb (yet again) provides wrong info: the disc is not pan-and-scan but conserves the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and there is no dubbed English track. It's a very good transfer befitting such a glorious-looking film lensed by Jean Claude Larrieu. The framing and lighting of the scenes are reason enough to watch it. The cast is uniformly excellent. The plot has been labeled "latin Gothic" before. Maria's aunt Oriana dies and she inherits the hacienda she visited one summer when she was 12. Maria travels to Venezuela with her French husband intent on selling the place. As she walks through the rundown estate, memories of her visit are evoked. The film flashes back to Maria's visit and to Oriana's childhood and adolescence. A story of forbidden passion and tragic denouement emerges reluctantly, almost as if Ms. Torres was reticent to reveal Oriana's secrets. A solemn and oblique telling of a not unfamiliar story.

[Chris Knipp]

IMdb (yet again) provides wrong info: the disc is not pan-and-scan but conserves the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and there is no dubbed English track.
YOu can, of course, submit corrections to IMDb pages but may not think it worth the bother. I nonetheless despite your disappoval "yet again" think IMDb invaluable as a ready reference on movies and responses to them.

[oscar jubis]

Friday March 4th

I just wish IMbd was better, that's all. The film I watched today on a PAL region 2 came out on NTSC region 1 three months ago. Not according to the "invaluable" IMdb. It was released by a company called Alpha Digital.

Quien Puede Matar a un Nino? (Spain, 1976)

Who Can Kill a Child? apparently had a limited release in the US under the title Island of the Damned. It's acquired cult status among horror film aficionados because it's simply outstanding in every respect. It was directed by Chicho Ibanez from Uruguay and lensed by the great Spanish DP Jose Luis Alcaine (Bad Education, Tasio, Belle Epoque, The Dancer Upstairs). The opening credits alternate with historical footage from Auschwitz, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and other places where millions of children have perished from hatred, war, famine and disease. Then we join Brits Tom and Evelyn on vacation on the coast of Spain. Two corpses are found mysteriously floating near the beach. Tom and Evelyn, who's expecting their third child, sail off to an island in the Mediterranean Sea. The small island is supposed to be tranquil but it seems deserted, except for kids who behave oddly. But, where have the grown-ups gone?
Who can kill a Child combines elements of The Birds and Village of the Damned (an inferior film) and adds subtext that doesn't detract one iota from purely horror genre pleasures. The pace escalates gradually as the film builds up tension. This film is now among my favorites in the horror genre, which include Nosferatu, Dr. Mabuse, Rosemary's Baby, Freaks, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Bride of Frankenstein (horror comedy actually), Vampyr, Kaidan, Audition...
By the way, the original version of this movie is mostly in English because most of the dialogue is between the British couple. The producer, against the director's wishes, released it in Spain with their dialogue dubbed into Spanish. The dvd includes both versions. Horror fans must to watch this film.

[Chris Knipp]

 Que Puede Matar a un Ni&ntildeo?

 Sounds very good. We can all become horror movie fans when there's an excellent example of the genre.


I just wish IMbd was better, that's all. The film I watched today on a PAL region 2 came out on NTSC region 1 three months ago. Not according to the "invaluable" IMdb. It was released by a company called Alpha Digital.

  I understand, about IMDb; I don't think you can rely on it for this sort of information. There is nobody to keep updating it. What I like about it is the ready availablity and cross referencing of large quantity of basic info about movies and movie people, and the highly unreliable but representative opinions of general viewers from all over the world.

   I saw Koreeda's Nobody Knows tonight (Mar. 4, 2005) and it made a strong impression. Was reminded of Do-des-ka-den; Ladri di biciclette; Clément's Jeux Interdits.

[oscar jubis]

I agree with your comments about IMdb.

Saturday March 5th

Cachorro (Bear Cub) at SoBe Regal

This 2004 Spanish film returns for a commercial run eleven months after its American premiere at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Pedro and his friends are "bears", gay men who refuse to shave, diet or exercise. Pedro gladly agrees to care for his 9 year old nephew Bernardo while his hippie sister realizes her lifelong dream to visit India. Bernardo misses his affectionate, flaky mom but gets along splendidly with his uncle. Pedro learns that his sister got arrested in India on a serious drug offense. Suddenly he is forced by circumstance to parent the child and guide him through a difficult period. Complications arise when Bernardo's estranged grandmother, who's son died of a drug overdose when the boy was 4 years old, insists she'd be a more appropriate custodian. Sensitive, gay-positive drama with some very funny moments from director Miguel Albaladejo, fleshing out the short of the same title he directed in 1996. Just like the adult protagonist is not a stereotypical gay character, the issues and themes are developed from a fresh perspective.
Since Cachorro had its official US premiere in November 2004, it qualifies for inclusion in my 2004 Foreign Lang. film. Since, by personal rule, I cannot list over 30 films, this film's inclusion means Sokuro's Father and Son (the 30th film listed) will be edited out.

[oscar jubis]

Sunday March 6th

Conrad Rooks's Siddhartha, his faithful adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse's novel, is now available on dvd. Disc features a state of the art transfer of the widescreen film and an informative, recent interview with Mr. Rooks, who never directed another film after this 1972 release. The beautiful cinematography comes courtesy of Sven Nykvist, taking a break from lensing Ingmar Bergman's films. Siddhartha was a box office success in India, where it was filmed, but failed commercially in the USA. Shashi Kapoor plays the titular young man who abandons the privileged lifestyle he knows to search for enlightment and inner peace.

[Chris Knipp]

Also rare and I think more unusual than the 1972 Siddhartha is Rooks' 1966 Chappaqua, the drug story with Burroughs, Ginsberg, et al. I briefly compared them and wrote a review of Siddhartha on IMDb which you may find interesting:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070689/usercomments?start=1

[oscar jubis]

I liked Siddhartha more than you, Chris. I watched it when I was very young and read the book a couple of years after the film came out. It had a formative influence on me. Content-wise, it's a simplification and its vision is generalized, as you state, but it does convey some of the basic concepts of Buddhism. I found the experience of watching it intoxicating_the locales (some later destroyed during the Indian-Pakistan conflict), the music, the landscapes, the attractive actors, the use of color, the art direction in general. You also find the film "lovely" and "beautiful" but give these aspects less weight than I do.
What I didn't like about your post is the comparisons. I found most of them irrelevant. Basically I don't care that Steppenwolf is "trippier" or that Arabian Nights is more "exotic", because I don't value those attributes for their own sake, and because I don't think they relate to Siddhartha's aim and purpose. I also don't think Rooks was attempting rural naturalism a la Pather Panchali. I'd have to seek out Meetings with Remarkable Men, which you regard as a "more original depiction of a spiritual quest". Dave Kehr calls it "dull, hermetic and not fun" but I've disagreed with him before. The one film that seems more relevant to compare and contrast would be Why has Boddhi Dharma Left for the East?, a Korean film released in the late 80s. I'm currently watching it for the second time and will post about it tomorrow.

[Chris Knipp]

(Originally posted by Oscar Jubis)
I liked Siddhartha more than you, Chris. I watched it when I was very young and read the book a couple of years after the film came out. It had a formative influence on me. Content-wise, it's a simplification and its vision is generalized, as you state, but it does convey some of the basic concepts of Buddhism....Basically I don't care that Steppenwolf is "trippier" or that Arabian Nights is more "exotic", because I don't value those attributes for their own sake, and because I don't think they relate to Siddhartha's aim and purpose. I also don't think Rooks was attempting rural naturalism a la Pather Panchali. Indeed you did like it more than me, and I don't want to spoil it for you by my, to you, off-the-wall comparisons that show I'm seeking something more that isn't there, but the few reviews I can find of the movie indicate those who weren't enchanted find it vapid and pretty rather than enlightening. Mind you, this review of mine is an earlier effort and I might have put my point accross better today. Of course Rooks may not have been seeking rural authenticity -- he probably couldn't -- but if he had achieved it, wouldn't that have made a better film? My feeling was and still is that the conditions under which Rooks worked in India had a neutralizing, standardizing effect on the very unique style and outlook he shows in his earier, rougher, but more unique film, Chappaqua. The Korean film (which I have seen) is another example, and certainly relevant. I'm glad that you enjoyed the filmed Siddhartha, which is worth watching for Nykvist's cinematography (I saw it in a theater by the way) and which faithfully evokes its literary source using authentic locations.

My review again http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070689...omments?start=1

Roger Ebert seems to express a not uncommon view in finding Saddhartha "too pretty" and "too long for the very thin material in the Hermann Hesse novel" and feeling that the actors act too much as if they know they're in a movie http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?.AID=/19730718/REVIEWS/301010329/1023

[oscar jubis]

*I didn't find it "enlightening" either,... perhaps instructive. I see that you find it "worth-watching", if only because of Nykvist. I think Ebert's 2 1/2 stars also translate to a mild "thumbs-up". I think you were already a good writer on cinema back in '02. We're just bound to disagree on form and/or content at times. Couldn't access your Bodhi Dharma comments.

Monday March 7th

Lorna Doone (1922) on TCM
Only the second film directed by Maurice Tourneur (Jacques' father) that I have watched. Recently restored to full length, about an aristocratic girl kidnapped and raised by a gang of thieves who falls in love with a country bumpkin. Not far below Tourneur's The Last of the Mohicans quality-wise. Makes me wonder about his numerous lost and unavailable films of the silent era.

Why Has Bodhi Dharma Left for the East? (South Korea, 1989) on dvd

Art teacher turned filmmaker Yong Kyun Bae did everything except act and compose the score of this film. It had a commercial run in NYC four years after playing at Cannes and Toronto in 1989. Bodhi Dharma had a long gestation period, reports vary between 5 and 10 years. A Zen fable about an old monk (Kiegok) living at an isolated temple in the mountains, the abandoned boy (Haejin) he picked up five years earlier (the last time he visited "the world"), and a young man (Kibong) who abandons his blind old mom to seek peace and enlightment. The languorous pace, the images, the evocative soundtrack, the skeletal narrative, and the riddles and pronouncements work together to induce a state of meditative contemplation and a search for meaning. Rosenbaum states that those looking for drama "will have to find it internally". Certainly your enjoyment of it will depend on what you bring into the experience and your willingness to interpret/translate the images into something of value to you. Plot-wise, we have an old monk making preparations for his death and ensuring his knowledge is passed on to the next generations: a young adult dealing with ambivalence about abandoning his mother for the sake of a personal quest, and a boy learning about life and death, and what to do with feelings of guilt caused by his killing a bird. You provide the rest.

[arsaib4]

First of all, have you seen Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring? If you have, couple of people have brought up Why Has Bodhi Dharma Left for the East? as the film Kim was possibly "inspired" by (although I don't believe that SSFW&S was simply a profound Buddhist tale if that's in fact what Bodhi is), do you see any similarities?

[oscar jubis]

Yes, arsaib. I watched Spring, Summer... twice. I posted a review of it as part of my coverage of the 21st Miami IFF (Feb 2004). I watched it again three months later after both Chris and Howard posted negative reviews here. Howard called it "a bad movie about spirituality". Chris pointed out the director was raised Christian and doesn't "get" Buddhism. He stated that it was a movie about ideas but "the ideas are ersatz". I mounted my defense of the film (in two separate posts) as a reaction to this last comment. Some quotes from my posts:

"A neatly structured, messily ambigious but engaging story illustrating the tension between morals and instincts."

"The resolution seems to imply that isolation and estrangement from the world are not conducive to a good life"

Another central idea of the film is that "the animal within us is ancient and resistant (the power of instincts), especially if the pupil is to be taken as a representational character (representative of the human race)"

I can see how Ki Duk could have been inspired by Bodhi Dharma although perhaps tales about monks and their pupils isolated from the world in lush settings abound in Eastern folklore. The main difference would be the amount of narrative detail and specificity in Ki-duk's compared to the langurous, sketchy, mystical Bodhi Dharma.

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday March 8th

Samuel Fuller's 40 Guns (1958) on rental dvd (PAL)

"This is direct cinema, uncritizable, unreproachable, given cinema, rather than assimilated, digested or reflected upon. I always come away from Samuel Fuller films both admiring and jealous. I like to take lessons in filmmaking"
Francois Truffaut, 1960.

Barbara Stanwyck stars as an authoritative rancher who rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns, hence the title of this 80-minute western from the maverick director. A new marshall arrives, accompanied by his two brothers, to set things straight. The cattle queen develops passionate feelings for him, but her hothead brother and their differing purposes stand in the way.
What an exciting film to watch. Fuller knows how to utilize the CinemaScope frame for maximum artistic expression. Several scenes are unforgettable, such as the one in which the protagonists bond through a tornado. All the evidence needed to explain Nouvelle Vague directors' devotion for Fuller is here. I am convinced Sergio Leone copied his trademark widescreen close-up of a duelling man's eyes from 40 Guns. Fuller eschews voice-overs and expository scenes causing some viewers to feel temporarily "lost" or to feel Fuller favors style over narrative clarity. For instance, it's not immediately apparent that the men riding into town with the marshall in the opening scene are his brothers, and only mid-way through the film do we understand the extent of Stanwyck's control over what goes on in the town. This information is never spelled out and underlined for the viewer, but I don't mean to imply it's a puzzle or a head scratcher. I can't wait to watch The Big Red One at a theatre, and 10-12 other Fullers I have never watched.

[Chris Knipp]

I never even heard of this one. Again you didn't say how or where you watched it, rental or purchase at home I assume? Is The Big Red One actually coming your way? I don't know of a distribution schedule and thought it was gone from screens.

Yesterday on dvd I saw on dvd two movies you recommended and gave my reactions -- "Last Film You've Seen" thread p. 7, bottom.

[oscar jubis]

Jean Genet's Un Chant d'Amour (1950) rental dvd (PAL)

Jean Genet was born in 1910 and abandoned by his mother. He lived with foster parents in a small rural village. His status was changed to "domestic servant" at age 13 and removed from school. He spent his adolescence in and out of prison and institutions. In his early 20s, he traveled through Europe living as a thief, beggar and prostitute. A crucial moment in his life and his artistic development was the support and patronage of Jean Cocteau, who proclaimed him a literary genius. Genet wrote many renowed plays and novels during the 40s and 50s. During the 60s and 70s he focused on political activism, including support of the Black Panthers and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Several of his plays and novels have been adapted for film and television. Two notable films based on his works are Fassbinder's Querelle and Haynes' Poison.

Un Chant d'Amour is the only film written and directed by Genet. It's only 25 minutes long and packs a punch. It recapitulates some of his literary themes and symbols. The film takes place in a prison, each prisoner has his own cell and there is one guard. Un Chant d'Amour focuses on two prisoners: a young French one and an older Arab prisoner. In the opening scene, the Arab fails to pass flowers by attaching them to a cord and swinging it through the window. Each prisoner is seen exploring his body and finding pleasure in self-absorption, but the Arab one strives to make contact and succeeds by passing cigarette smoke through a straw into the young Frenchman's cell. These activities are turned into a peepshow for the guard who gets aroused. He opens the Arab's cell, points a gun at him, beats him with a belt and forces him to perform fellatio. This provokes the Arab to have a rather playful, romantic fantasy in the woods with the young prisoner. The guard's fantasy has a more violent quality to it. At the end, the Arab finally manages to pass flowers from his cell's window into the reaching hand of the younger man. A homoerotic poem stylistically indebted to Cocteau, but the content is Genet's own.

*This dvd was released in the UK (PAL region 2) by The British Film Institute. It includes biographical information about Genet and a running commentary.

[oscar jubis]

I rented these PAL discs from Nicheflix. I received an e-mail on 3/1 stating they had been mailed. They arrived, from Indiana, yesterday 3/8. If discs will take this long to reach me, it's probably not worth it to renew membership at $25 for 4 weeks, after the initial $25-for-6-weeks introductory offer.
*I get the impression that The Big Red One has a type of "gradual", "specialized circuit" distribution. I'll talk to the programmer at the Cosford Cinema, a likely venue for this film. They're showing some Sirk classics later this month, including the seldom seen Tarnished Angels.
*Have you seen Chant d'Amour?
*I'm very happy you watched Los Lunes Al Sol, another example of the excellent films coming out of Spain that deal with social issues: Mar Adentro (euthanasia), Cachorro (Gays raising children), Dame Tus Ojos (domestic violence), etc. I do get the impression that the subtitles fail to translate the brilliance of the script.
*You liked Japon much more. Does the region 1 dvd have the "making of" featurette and interview with Reygadas that are extras on the PAL disc I own?

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
I rented these PAL discs from Nicheflix. I received an e-mail on 3/1 stating they had been mailed. They arrived, from Indiana, yesterday 3/8. If discs will take this long to reach me, it's probably not worth it to renew membership at $25 for 4 weeks, after the initial $25-for-6-weeks introductory offer.


That is one of the reasons why I left Nicheflix after a couple of months. Also, I eventually got sick of watching bad Korean films since most of the items at the top of my queue took a while to get to me, if at all. Overall it wasn't a satisfactory experience so I haven't mentioned the company very often.

[oscar jubis]

Disappointing, eh? Let's see if I get to watch Melo and Mouchette before the 6 weeks are over. BTW, I responded to your question about Spring, Summer... on previous page. Wondering about your take on it.

[Chris Knipp]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
*I get the impression that The Big Red One has a type of "gradual", "specialized circuit" distribution. I'll talk to the programmer at the Cosford Cinema, a likely venue for this film. They're showing some Sirk classics later this month, including the seldom seen Tarnished Angels.
*Have you seen Chant d'Amour?
*I'm very happy you watched Los Lunes Al Sol, another example of the excellent films coming out of Spain that deal with social issues: Mar Adentro (euthanasia), Cachorro (Gays raising children), Dame Tus Ojos (domestic violence), etc. I do get the impression that the subtitles fail to translate the brilliance of the script.
*You liked Japon much more. Does the region 1 dvd have *the "making of" featurette and interview with Reygadas that are extras on the PAL disc I own?

Oscar: Responses to your questions and comments:

*I wish distribution plans were made more public -- assuming the distributors even know what they're doing in advance!

*No, I haven't seen Chant d'Amour. I'm not a fan of Jean Genet, though I loved Edmond White's wonderfully informative biography (http://www.edmundwhite.com/html/genet.htm), which explains all the background of, for example, Genet's early upbringing in Le Morvan.

*I'll watch for the other two Spanish social-issues films (have seen Mar Adentro).

*I didn't check to see if the NTSC Japón dvd contained the "making of" featurette or not, because I was in a hurry to return the Netflix dvd (I'm sharing a friend's Netflix, so I don't want to hold things up), but I think it may have done.

Apropos of the slowness of NicheFlix, Netflix has an especially fast turnnaround if you live in Northern California because the mailing and receiving point is close by in San Jose.

P.s. I sent you a personal email. Did you get it? If not I can resend it. Maybe that email address is dormant.

[oscar jubis]

*Glad you asked, please resend e-mail. Thanks.
*Found out, no thanks to IMdb :) that Japon's NTSC disc contains same extras as the PAL disc. I was actually wrong in calling it a "making of" doc, it's actually Reygadas returning to the village where it was shot. He looks for everyone involved in the film and invites them to the first screening of the film al fresco on a nearby bkb court. Many there have never seen a movie. The doc captures the reactions of those watching the film.
*The director's new film, Battle For Heaven was invited to Venice but "governmental entities" (reports I found were a bit vague) prevented the film from traveling to Italy. Alfonso Cuaron was mighty pissed. The film takes place in Mexico City and depicts three major characters dealings with a corruption so prevalent it's no longer considered immoral. It's been normalized.
*Don't like Genet, uh? I've been wondering whether Chant(1950) is the first openly "homosexual film". It's not an easy term to define. I wouldn't characterize Dreyer's silent film Michael as a gay film for instance. Anger's short film Fireworks (1947) consists of sailors forcibly having sex with Mr. Anger and I read that the title refers to the erect penis. The commentators on the Genet disc made reference to it as perhaps the first.

[Chris Knipp]

I wouldn't say I don't like Genet, just that I'm not a fan. I never got into his books but as I said I read White's long biography --not Sartre's Saint Genet, though.

Interesting about Reygadas. He seems a courageous and original man. I hope people like Cuarón succeed in keeping him from being hushed up.

I sent you the email March 2 to your msn email address. Is it still good? I will send it again.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
I can see how Ki Duk could have been inspired by Bodhi Dharma although perhaps tales about monks and their pupils isolated from the world in lush settings abound in Eastern folklore. The main difference would be the amount of narrative detail and specificity in Ki-duk's compared to the langurous, sketchy, mystical Bodhi Dharma.

I'm glad to hear that, but I was almost sure that it must be very easy for a few to concoct this notion after witnessing a monk and a young boy. I mostly agree with the brief comments you've made. Although, I considered it even less ambiguous than you perhaps did. I saw a unique individual whose personal nature (or genetic make-up) prompted him to rebel against the ideologies he was growing up with. We also saw that he wasn't the most sober and articulate person either (the monk realized that from the very beginning) and he would've caused similar problems even if was living inside a Church or a Mosque or any other religious institution. Kim is a Christian himself so that probably drew some ire from the hard-core fundamentalists but the film ends up being pro-religious actually. If religion tied him (and us) from experiencing life with its ups and downs but when he was lost, it was faith that helped calm the burning fire inside him.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by arsaib4
I saw a unique individual whose personal nature (or genetic make-up) prompted him to rebel against the ideologies he was growing up with.

This rebellion is taken to such extremes that he murders his wife. Part of the reason I saw the pupil as a representational character, as "everyman" is that: "the fact that the grownup acolyte is taken by three different actors means that all these experiences are universal" (Chris Knipp)
Ambiguity? What to make of the fact that sex or lust "cures" the teen girl but leads the pupil to murder? Rather novel, my experience is that it is the repression of the sexual instinct that's more likely to lead to aberrant, anti-social behavior. Was it Rosenbaum who referred to the auteur's sexual attitude as being priggish?

it was faith that helped calm the burning fire inside him.

Indeed. The ambivalence or ambiguity about religion's value comes from the fact that a Buddhist education couldn't keep him from becoming a murderer. Which leads me to conclude Kim Ki-duk has a deterministic/fatalistic view of human nature. (He was going to be a killer no matter what, because of his personal nature or genetic make-up).

[oscar jubis]

Wednesday March 9th

Ahi Viene Martin Corona (1952) on dvd, rented from the public library, no english subs.
Watchable if unremarkable commercial film I rented because of 4 names:
Miguel Zacarias: Highly prolific writer/director/producer/mogul of Palestinian descent. One of the pillars of the Mexican film industry during its golden age.
Gabriel Figueroa: A great cinematographer. Mexico's best.
Pedro Infante: An iconic singer/actor. A Mexican site calls him "the most beloved human being in Mexican history".
Sarita Montiel: Extremely charismatic performer, successful in her native Spain, Mexico and Hollywood (Vera Cruz, Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow, Giant,etc.). Married Anthony Mann.

Charlotte et son Jules (1960)
Godard's 20-minute film was shot following Breathess. Stars Belmondo and Anne Colette. Recommended only to Godard completists. Included in a Korean import dvd I rented called "Their First Films" which collects shorts made by French New Wave directors. I'll comment later on some of them, including a great one from Resnais I want to watch again.

[arsaib4]

"Included in a Korean import dvd I rented called "Their First Films" which collects shorts made by French New Wave directors."

Some info on the DVD is available here (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1069).

[Chris Knipp]

Originally posted by Oscar Jubis
The ambivalence or ambiguity about religion's value comes from the fact that a Buddhist education couldn't keep him from becoming a murderer. Which leads me to conclude Kim Ki-duk has a deterministic/fatalistic view of human nature. (He was going to be a killer no matter what, because of his personal nature or genetic make-up).
I don't think you have to have any particular view of human nature to observe that religious training has not prevented people from killing other people. And religion can have value, for ritual, for art, for moments of serenity, for transcendent experiences of a higher power, for the social structure it provides, without saving mankind from violence. Kim's film is poetic and visual and you can make what you want of it. In my case, I was ultimately unmoved, despite the beautiful scenery. Those who are swept away by it, find different things. It's religio-mystical, but not didactic, or for that matter even clear.

Never heard the term "Godard completists" before. Definitely more polite than "diehard fans"!

[oscar jubis]

Momma taught me to be polite :)

Thursday March 10th

Indeed, few of the shorts on the disc "Their First Films" are actal debuts. What they all have in common, besudes their being French, is that they were all produced by Pierre Braunberger for his Les Films De La Pleiade. Mr. Braunberger produced some of Truffaut and Godard's early features, as well as Godard's favorite French film of the 40s and 50s: Jean Rouch's Moi, Un Noir, an undeniable masterpiece of experimental cinema. I watched the other 7 shorts on the disc today. Godard's and Leconte's are really not very interesting. The other six are very enjoyable, and three are notable: Jacques Rivette's Le Coup du Berger (The Shepherd's Move), the one totally fictional film in this bunch, Melville's 24 Hours in the Life of a Clown, and Le Chant du Styrene, directed by the great Alain Resnais. It's an industrial film in reverse, from shiny plastic objects made to behave as if they are alive, all the way back to petroleum oil and coal. It had to be in color to accentuate the pigmentation process that plastic goes through, with a serio-comic narration full of cultural references. Industrial film as tone poem, featuring the camera movements familiar to fans of Last Year at Marienbad.

[Chris Knipp]

Do you think any of these were censored? I notice the site arsaib4 linked to for "Their First Films" (http://www.koreandvds.com/dvddetail.html?id=14474) has a warning: "Titles produced in Korea are subject to government censorship when it involves nudity and violence. Although the censorship has been lessened over the years, frontal nudity and extreme violence(although rare) are forbidden. Please be careful especially when purchasing erotic movies. When you are worried about censored and deleted scenes of graphic violence and frontal nudity, do not buy from our site." Funny they should say that because I've seen some recent Korean movies that were very violent.

Nouvelle Vague 'completists' would certainly want to see Le Coup du Berger because the cast includes Godard, Rivette, Truffaut, Chabrol, and Jean-Claude Brialy of Le Beau Serge, Elevator to the Gallows, The Lovers, Les Cousins, and many others.

[oscar jubis]

No, I don't think any of these shorts are censored. I have bought hundreds of dvds from Asia, half of which I sold. The only one that was censored was Breillat's Romance (the male's frontal nudity was digitaly censored).
Brialy plays a married woman's lover in Le Coup du Berger. He gives her a nice fur coat and together they concoct a plan to get her to wear it without the husband objecting. The plan backfires in a very interesting way. Godard and the other directors are guests are a cocktail party where the scheme unravels.

[Chris Knipp]

Sounds fun.

I was only half serious in asking if anything was censored. I don't know if one could necessarily know though, if one hasn't seen the film before. They might just clip something out, no? The digital coverup is a giveaway. They do that in Japanese porn.

[oscar jubis]

Friday March 11th

The Red and The White (Hungary, USSR) on dvd

Miklos Jancso's 1967 war film was the first to get wide distribution in North America and one of his best. It's set in Central Russia following the revolution, during the civil war that broke out between the Soviet reds and the Counter-revolutionary whites. Foreigners fought on both sides, including many Hungarians. Even though the film was co-produced by the USSR, the film was banned by the Party. There are no winners and no heroes in The Red and the White. Jancso's characteristically long takes are evident here, although not to the extent of 1969's Winter Sirocco's 13 shots. The action moves from a monastery being used as a garrison, to a hospital on the banks of the Volga river, to a final battle on a hillside that evidences Jancso's masterful utilization of wide frames. The Red and the White conveys with great economy, almost entirely in visual terms, the absurdity of war and the randomness of violence. Jancso's violent scenes are devoid of the kinetic, visceral pleasures that mar and negate other supposedly anti-war films. I sat two feet from the screen in total darkness to attempt to recreate the theatrical experience, because this film deserves to be seen there. Tamos Somlo did the b & w photography. The disc is letterboxed and enhanced for 16x9 TVs, but the print used is quite beat up.

[oscar jubis]

Saturday March 12th

It feels as if the whole world is conspiring to erase the memory of the best Argentine film director, well, the best from the 50s to the 70s. Leopoldo Torre Nilsson had worked as his father's assistant director until he turned 30 and met his second wife, novelist Beatriz Guido, and then embarked on a remarkable directorial career. Many of his best films were adaptations of his wife's novels: The House of the Angel, perhaps the best known. There's little mention of him on the web (nothing for instance, at sensesofcinema). Two of his films played at the Walter Reade in 2001 as part of a Leonardo Favio retro (Favio acted in 2 directed by L.T.N.) Facets Video released Martin Fierro, Painted Lips and The 7 Madmen on vhs in '96. I borrowed Martin Fierro (1968) from the library. It's based on the poem by Jose Hernandez about the miserable experiences of a gaucho in the pampas circa 1850. The film was released in widescreen (2.35:1) but the video is pan-and-scan. The film preserves the narration in verse of the epic poem, but the english subs don't (I thought Anthony Burgess deserved some kind of recognition for the subritles of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Depardieu). Torre-Nilsson's adaptation is faithful to the text, with no attempt to soften or simplify the personality of Martin Fierro, a not altogether sympathetic character_dour, humorless, and racist. I enjoyed the film very much and wish it was released again, along with the rest of Leopoldo Torre Nilsson's filmography. He needs to be rescued from collective neglect and amnesia.

[Chris Knipp]

There are 7.000 listings for Leopoldo Torre Nilsson's name (is it hyphenated or not? not clear) on Google (2,100 in English), not too strong a sign of an actual conspiracy. (I'm sure you mean a dearth of serious discussion or ciitical mentions by well known American writers, though. ) I've put Torre Nilsson on my Netflix-borrowing want list, though I haven't checked yet to see if any of his movies are actually available there. Three of his films are available for sale on tape here http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/browse_list.asp?cid=fo&dept=ARGENTINA&media=v. (not cheap though). I see Nilsson's Painted Lips was co-authored by Manuel Puig, famous here from his novels and the screen adaptation of Kiss of a Spider Woman with William Hurt.
Not clear why you mention Cyrano de Bergerac. Anthony Burgess -- a really prolific dude; I remember he once had to hide the fact that he'd written three novels in one year, because it made him look too facile -- is listed as doing a TV adapation of Cyrano in English, but subtitle-writing for the Depardieu version isn't mentioned on IMDb--or perhaps generally any subtitling of foreign films, another thing you can fault that website for. Authors of subtitles used to be more known especially in the Fifties days when almost every European movie credited the English subtitles to Herman G. Weinberg. I wondered how he could do it. Now subtitling is done by committee, it seems, here and there, and unnoticed. Weinberg does have an IMDb listing, but I'm sure it omits many of his subtitling efforts -- which include Japanese films. How could he do that? Probably a collaboration, under his name.

Needless to say for us foreign film fans subtitling is of great importance and we ought to pay more attention to it.

It's a big advantage to have DVD's where you can add or remove them, and access ones in various languages on the same copy. I find this useful in working on my French and Italian. Especially helpful for a language student: subtitles in the original language of the film for the hearing impaired, and computer software for DVD viewing that permits instant switching or removing of subtitles. I just watched Amelio's Cosi' ridevano (The Way They Laughed), which is in Sicilian dialect, with subtitles in standard Italian, which enabled me to follow the whole movie without having to resort to English.

[oscar jubis]

*I started the post with: "It feels as if the whole world is conspiring...". Those 3 Torre Nilsson films available on vhs were released by Facets. They are not quite his best (yet any film he directed is at least "good") and I don't think any preserves the correct aspect ratio. I cannot recommend them as an introduction to LTN. BTW, he used both surnames to differentiate himself from his dad Leopoldo Torre Rios.
*I mentioned Cyrano as an example of a film in a foreign language with properly translated poetic text. I remember checking the final credits when I saw it in '91 to find out Burgess was the subtitler. Surprise, surprise...he is included in the film's credits at IMdb (full cast and crew).
*I liked your review of The Way We Laughed and I like that movie. I'm very curious about whether you will prefer Lamerica as I do (perhaps my favorite Italian film in decades).

[oscar jubis]

Sunday March 13th

Jacques Doillon is known in America for Ponette, the only film he directed to receive wide distribution. Raja had an official US premiere in March 2004, but it appears to have had a commercial run only in NYC. It's been rescued from oblivion by the organization "Film Movement" as part of their monthly series of quality dvds. (I've posted about this org before, go to filmmovement.com if curious).
Raja is a 19 y.o. orphan living in Marrakesh who catches the eye of a middle-aged rich Frenchman while working in his garden. The melancholic Fred lives alone and seems adrift in his beautiful estate. Raja has a traumatic past and alternates between a friend's apartment and the room where her boyfriend-cum-pimp lives. Raja's relationship with the latter is rather vague and ambivalent, perhaps all her relationships with men are complicated by negative past experience. Her relationship with Fred is further complicated by disparities in culture, language, age and financial status. Actually, I don't recall another film that depicts with such honesty a more complex, hard-to-pin-down relationship as the Raja and Fred's. What each wants and how they go about getting it changes rather frequently. Yet the film never grows tiresome, it's extremely engaging, compelling even. The political subtext is obviously there, but never made explicit. Fred is played by veteran actor Pascal Greggory. Najat Banssalem won an award for Best New Actress at Cannes '04. Doillon's script and direction are truly special. I need to find room for Raja on my list of favorite foreign language films of 2004.

[Chris Knipp]

I lost my reply to your earlier post while editing it, perhaps because your second post popped on and displaced it. It doesn't matter. I definitely like Amelio's work, and if Lamarica -- and Stolen Children -- are better, I may prefer them to Le chiavi di casa and Cosi' ridevano. The latter has left a strong impression, as did Le chiavi di casa before it. There is another Torre Nillsen VHS on that website I cited, which is Chronicle of a Boy Alone http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/product.asp?sku=525150&mscssid=4CQPB5KBJECK9JTN4QKKTFBBTBD1CQ5E but nothing about the aspect ratio of any of them or who produced the tapes in the US either.

So Film Movement is another or your finds. The only one of their films that I've seen is Eric Eason's Manito, which I saw in NYC in the hot summer of 2003 http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=129.

[oscar jubis]

*Lamerica is a must see, Chris. Netflix has it. It draws a parallel between Albanians coming into Italy in the 90s and the Italians who emigrated to "La America" after WWII.

*Chronicle of a Boy Alone is excellent. It's the directorial debut of Leonardo Favio, who became a star as an actor in Torre Nilsson's classics The Kidnapper (1958) and Hand in the Trap (1961). Favio dedicated his debut to Torre Nilsson, but the latter was not involved in Chronicle in any capacity. It's interesting to note that Favio was a Peronista and Lope Nilsson hated the general with a passion.

*I didn't like Manito very much. Like you state in your review it is much inferior to other films with a similar theme such as Raising Victor Vargas.

[Chris Knipp]

So Chronicle of a Boy Alone was misidentified as Nilsson's on that website, which appears to be rather careless about its listings. Wish I had access to some of these S.A. films you've been recommending. I don't have my own Netflix subscription, but you may say I ought to. I've only seen so many DVD's and tapes the past two months because there's so little in theaters. I've been renting French films locally and rewatching my own tapes of Eric Rohmer films, which is very rewarding now that I'm having French tutoring. Saw Downfall tonight and posted a review of it in the Forums. It's the hot title in town now--you had to line up for it at Landmark's Clay Theater on Fillmore Street in San Francisco, where it's having its Bay Area premiere.

I will see all Amelio's films I can get hold of, eventually anyway.

Not all of Film Movement's selections are imperishable classics, but that's not their aim. I thought Manito was worth seeing, but indeed Raising Victor Vargas blows it out of the water.

[oscar jubis]

Monday March 14th

Oscar Micheaux's Body and Soul (1925) on TCM
Paul Robeson made his film acting debut as an escaped felon who fools an entire community into thinking he is a preacher and as his virtuous twin brother. Body and Soul was condemned as "sacrilegeous and immoral" by the New York Censoring Board. Micheaux was forced to make extensive cuts to show it, from 9 reels to only five. The film was restored to 8 reels in 1998. This is the second Micheaux film I've seen this year (check Jan 3rd entry) and while the content is interesting and Robeson is quite a presence, this indie "race" film is technically crude, as evidenced by static camera, non-sensical crosscutting, and takes that run too long to maintain one's interest.

Miyamoto Musashi: Samurai 1 (1954) on Criterion dvd
Part one of the three part samurai epic directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune as an orphaned rogue, a "force of nature" who barely escapes decapitation and is rehabilitated by a monk. Unlike Kurosawa's samurai films of the 50s, this one is in color.

[Johann]

Samurai 1 won an Oscar for best foreign film.
I love this trilogy.

Your journal is striking a nice template for my viewing choices over the next few months, oscar.

I'm just about settled in to my new digs and I'll be picking up a laptop soon so I can post whenever my little heart desires..

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Johann
Samurai 1 won an Oscar for best foreign film.
I love this trilogy.

You are right! Just learned Samurai 1 was the last foreign film to be awarded an Oscar without getting nominated, in 1955. Oscars were awarded to a foreign language film at the discretion of the Honorary Awards Committee. In 1956, the Academy decided to give a foreign language Oscar every year, and to have members pick from five nominees, as continues to be the custom.

Your journal is striking a nice template for my viewing choices over the next few months, oscar.

I hope I'm giving enough info for you decide if a film I write about is one you'd like to watch. On top of my set is a disc awaiting viewing which I bought based on your posts: Greenaway's The Tulse Luper Suitcases: The Moab Story. I imported it from Spain. I know watching this information-heavy film at home is far from ideal, but what's the alternative? I also have the new film from Robert Lapage, La Face Cachee de la lune, which came out only in Canada.

I'm just about settled in to my new digs and I'll be picking up a laptop soon so I can post whenever my little heart desires..

Thanks for the post J. Wish you the best in your new digs.

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday March 15th

Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss... on dvd
www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9483#post9483

I've watched every film directed by Francisco J. Lombardi since his adaptation of Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The City and The Dogs in 1985. He is a fictional filmmaker that incorporates non-fiction materials dealing with current political and social issues affecting Peru. Several of his films have received awards at film festivals worldwide. Besides the abovementioned, I particularly admire La Boca del Lobo (available on vhs as "The Lion's Den" and Fallen From Heaven (1991). His latest film is now available on dvd with English subs. It's called Ojos Que No Ven (What Your Eyes Don't See) and it deals with the corruption and repression pervasive during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori. It's a 2 1/2 hour movie featuring a cross-section of Peruvian society. It depicts how each character plays a part in the country's ills and how each individual is affected by the state of affairs. The film uses real footage taken from the televison news and builds stories around them. If you like John Sayles' novelistic approach to complex political issues then you'll like this movie. Ojos Que No Ven is a bit overlong_ one subplot in particular, involving a nerdy movie buff/law clerk infatuated with his landlady's daughter is silly and totally superfluous. Everything else is quite compelling and instructive.

[Chris Knipp]

If you like John Sayles' novelistic approach to complex political issues then you'll like this movie. Ojos Que No Ven is a bit overlong_

The two go together. Sayles is satisfying at times (The Brother from Another Planet, Hobres Armados, Matewan) but can also be a long-winded bore. It's good to have him around, though, for his progressive political position and his way of maintaining artistic independence for his own directorial efforts.

[oscar jubis]

I'm actually a big fan of Lone Star, and City of Hope (1991) which Ojos Que No Ven resembles in both structure and content. I agree with his politics and I admire his ability to write in Spanish, especially when you take into account that he's not a native speaker.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, his Spanish is impressive. I wonder how Sales learned it so well. I thought Hombres armados was really good. A young Mexican artist friend recommended it to me. I don't agree with you about Lone Star, but at least I watched it. City of Hope was okay. I have not watched his latest films.

[oscar jubis]

Wednesday March 16th

Born into Brothels at SoBe Regal
www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9500#post9500

Written on the Wind at Cosford Cinema
Douglas Sirk's biggest hit as part of a 4 film retrospective of films the German director made for Universal Studios. George Zuckerman's brilliant script, Sirk's expressive and symbolic use of color and impeccable framing, great perfs by Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, and Oscar winner Dorothy Malone add up to something special. Watch it at the theatre if you get a chance. I would certainly not be the first to conclude that Kyle and Marylee Hadley, at a certain level, represent the rotten core of the "American Dream" of wealth and conspicuous consumption, which doesn't mean they're unidimensional characters, or that you can't ignore the subtext and enjoy it at surface level.

[Johann]

Lapage's film played at the cinematheque but I didn't make it to the screening. I was told it sold out.

The Moab Story looks to be loaded with even more esoteric imagery than Greenaway's previous films.
Hope your prepared.
*wink*

Please post your thoughts- I haven't seen it yet and I'm curious about it.

[Chris Knipp]

I think you went a bit overboard on Born into Brothels. You might accentuate the positive a bit more, see what's good about it rather than just what it lacks. You wouldn't criticize My Architect for not being a complete survey of modern architecture, or To Be and to Have for not giving a full picture of modern education in France, would you?

[oscar jubis]

*Will most definitely post comments about Greenaway's film.

Thursday March 17th

I'm glad to hear Robert Lepage's La Face Cachee de la Lune sold out at the Cinematheque, Johann. It's bound to generate more screenings, at least at such specialized theatres. For an artist known primarily for his theatrical works, Lepage is quite inventive in terms of the production of images. The Dark Side of the Moon (English title) is perhaps Lepage's most accesible film because it's funny. The fact that his five films have been recognized by the Canadian Academy, Lepage must have a trophy room full of Genies, has not resulted in any of them receiving wide distribution. I've also seen No and Le Confessional, which takes place in Montreal at the time when Hitchcock was there to shoot I Confess and stars Kristin Scott Thomas. I highly recommend it.
Dark Side of the Moon is a most cinematic adaptation of Lepage's play about two brothers who are opposites in terms of personality, outlook, etc. They feel compelled to reconcile following their mother's death. Both brothers are played by Lapage. It's his most autobiographical work, a FIPRESCI winner at Berlin 2004. I love the way Lepage uses match cuts to transistion from a scene featuring one brother to one featuring the other, and from the present to a flashback. Of course the Genie-awarded screenplay is witty and insightful, but I want to emphasize that Dark Side is a visual treat. Out on region #1 dvd, in French with English subs.

The Tarnished Angels at Cosford Cinema

Like Written on the Wind, this film stars Robert Stack, Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone, and a script by George Zuckerman (adapting Faulkner's novel "Pylon"). The Tarnished Angels takes place in New Orleans during the Great Depression. WWI air ace Robert Shumann ekes out a living on the crash-and-burn stunt flying circuit, neglecting his wife and son to pursue his true love. When reporter Burke Devin shows up to write a story, he is repulsed by Robert's adrenaline-seeking and fascinated by his parachutist wife LaVerne. All the principals seem tragically trapped in the pursuit of dreams that have only brought anguish and despair. Please avoid the pan-and-scan vhs of this dynamic b&w Cinemascope drama. Amazing flying sequences and street shots of the French Quarter during Mardi Gras. Dave Kehr says it's better not to watch it than watch it at home, but if it's your only choice, TCM apparently shows it in the correct aspect ratio from time to time.

[oscar jubis]

Chris,
With you, Schumann, the Academy, and 90% of critics praising and hailing Born Into Brothels, I couldn't help but express the disappointment and frustration I experienced watching it and thinking about it afterwards. I have to admit that I found it "worth watching", if only because it offers a glimpse into the lives of human beings who are often ignored in the industrialized world (love the scenes with kids talking about their lives). Unlike To Be and To Have, what's shown here raises issues the documentarians refuse to tackle or explore. Granted, Born into Brothels is not nearly as innocuous as Oliver Stone's Comandante. Still, can a documentary be "miramaxical"?

[oscar jubis]

Friday March 18th

In a cruel way, it's fitting that End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, never played in more than ten screens at a time during its limited 2004 release. The Ramones, the most influential rock band since the Beatles, never had a Top 10 hit in a career spanning 21 years. The movement they created, call it punk rock if you will, got swept under the carpet by the mainstream media. Outside of their native NYC, their records got played only in college stations and low power clandestine outfits. In the mid 70s, the Ramones injected rock with much needed humor, power and speed. It can be argued that they invented punk rock, which basically means they re-invented rock 'n roll. Their London gig in '75 is considered by many to have singlehandedly inspired the formation of dozens of bands there, including the Sex Pistols and The Clash. It's the Pistols that got the headlines with their antics_the doc makes the case that the US mainstream media got scared of punk rock in general after the first Pistols tour here, resulting in lack of widespread exposure for the Ramones and the Clash.
The first half of this film documents expertly the emergence of punk rock as a subculture and the Ramones' development as a unit made up of most disparate parts. In retrospect, it seems the band needed to adopt a uniform, a logo and a common surname to foster cohesion, to have symbols to remind them of who they were as a unit. Three of the four (or five when drummer Tommy decided to write and produce and hired Marky to play drums for him) have personalities so distinctive it's a miracle they stuck it out for so long. Joey has to be the ugliest, geekiest front man in rock history. Jewish, ultra-liberal, extremy shy, life-long victim of obsessive-compulsive disorder, in love with luv, meets the girl of his dreams...and Johnny steals her. Johnny was a bully, control-freak, self-described right wing nut, who insisted on making the decisions. And then there was DeeDee, a wacko, clownish, heroin addict who used to turn tricks on 53rd and Third and was probably the band's best songwriter.
The second half of the doc transcends the rockumentary genre by exploring their personalities and group dynamics, and how their love of music and their rabid fans was stronger than the contempt, even hate, they felt for each other (During their induction into the Rock'nRoll Hall of Fame, Dee thanked himself, Johnny thanked Bush, and neither thanked Joey, who had just died of lymphatic cancer). I approached this film with trepidation because I'm one of those rabid fans. This film collects a variety of relevant material from a multiplicity of sources and tells their story very well. It adds more recent interviews that shed light into the past. I thought I would find a lot of it redundant, but I have to admit I learned a lot and gained a fresh perspective on the Ramones and their moment in history.

Sittin' here in Queens
Eatin' refried beans
We're in all the magazines
gulpin' down Thorazines
We ain't got no friends
our troubles never end
No Christmas cards to send
Daddy likes men

We're a happy family
Me, Mom and Daddy

Daddy's tellin' lies
Baby's eatin' flies
Mommy's on the pills
Baby's got the chills
We're friends with the president
We're friends with the pope
We' re all makin' a fortune
sellin' Daddy's dope

We're a happy family
Me, Mom and Daddy

[Chris Knipp]

Must have been a nice way to spend Friday for you. Funny I missed it -- it was here, at least for a while -- it's just that they never seemed as sexy to me as the Chili Peppers or Stones or even Metallica, et al. If you'd hyped it last year I'd have gone--I usually catch just about any music documentaries from Neil Young to Yo Yo Ma.

Since you're such a "rabid fan" how come you didn't go out of your way to see it yourself last year -- a pilgrimage to whatever town had it closest to Miami? It seems cruel that you were prevented from doing so. Apparently there are some limitations on your rabidness -- you're not a completely crazed Ramone-head -- though it does show in the fact that you do go a little overboard on some of your claims for the band.

But I'm willing to believe you on most of what you say, if it was just tempered a tiny bit. I wish you had said something more about the filmmakers, though -- whom you don't even seem to mention or credit specifically -- their history, their personal relation to the material, why the film didn't go wider in distribution, etc. Please tell more.

[Johann]

Here in Ottawa on Rideau Street there's a record store called VERTIGO RECORDS, and they have a huge poster of Joey Ramone, with a weird handmade action figure of Joey "at the mic" in front of it, and in big, black bold letters it says:


There are many legends in rock and roll, who push the boundaries, who make an impact.

MOST OF THOSE PEOPLE STILL OWE JOEY MONEY

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Must have been a nice way to spend Friday for you.

Home with the chills and the pills, probably for the whole weekend. Will try to get to a theatre if the fever goes down. Glad I got out to see Brothels and two Sirks before it hit.

it's just that they never seemed as sexy to me as the Chili Peppers or Stones or even Metallica

If you're looking for "sexy", stay away from punk rock. It's partly a reaction against just that.

It seems cruel that you were prevented from doing so.

Unlike smaller cities like Cleveland, Seattle and Austin, Miami is most definitely not a rock town. It's Latin, club music (with a heavy Euro influence), and hip hop that predominate. Because of geography, demographics and cultural issues, Miami is closer (figuratively) to America Latina and Europa than to the rest of the USA. Mostly, it's the rock "dinosaurs" who bring their live sets here. But the Ramones came five times to delight a thousand or so local kids like myself who loved them back. The memories of those five shows are deeply sustaining. No doc can measure up.

Apparently there are some limitations on your rabidness -- you're not a completely crazed Ramone-head

I guess I'm not a completely crazed anything-head. I resist adulation and fandom as much as I can. I try to maintain a critical stance regarding any record or film no matter who is the artist. But it's hard sometimes. The Ramones stood for the celebration of the ugly and geeky inside everyone and for a DIY (do it yourself) aesthetic that resulted in the formation of tons of bands, little mags, and indie record labels virtually overnight. They inspire worship and idolatry for many reasons, including their love of the music and their fans which resulted in constant touring.

you do go a little overboard on some of your claims for the band.

Given who I am, I'm more inclined to idolize Talking Heads because of their art-school persona, or The Clash because of their proletarian politics (of course it's a given I think their music is special). But I've never read any rock criticism that denies The Ramones' position as at least the catalysts of a whole movement. They sort of have influences and antecedents in The Stooges, the New York Dolls, and Lou Reed, but play their debut album and what you hear seems to have been made on a planet of their own. So radically different, so contrarian to what was popular in the mid 70s. I have to recognize that that moment in history may not be accessible with the same meaning and intensity to those who were not teens at that time. I also recognize Loud 'n Fast (and lyrics like the one I posted) is not everyone's idea of good music.

I wish you had said something more about the filmmakers, though

Michael Gramglia and Jim Fields have no previous filmmaking experience (that I know of). They practically did everything themselves in true punk spirit. But don't be afraid, the final product looks quite professional and well made.

Thanks Chris and Johann for your responses and your interest. Sometimes it's hard to gauge how much or how little I should write about anything. I think it's good to be brief and wait for questions and comments, and proceed from there. I also have to strike a balance bet. time at the computer and time watching film. After the post I watched yet another film introduced to me by my Canadian pal. Comments about Valerie and Her Week of Wonders coming up.

[Chris Knipp]

If you're looking for "sexy", stay away from punk rock. It's partly a reaction against just that.No doubt you're right that it is, but you're being a little naive in saying this because people are going to want to sleep with any lead singer of whatever genre or sex and any loud band with young musicians is going to be a turn-on to its fans. People are also attracted to self-destruction and violence, the Sid Vicious type. Or the pathos and doom type, like Trent Reznor or Kurt Cobain. It doesn't have to be conventionally sexy or healthy. It certainly doesn't have to be healthy.

The Clash, the Talking Heads; what about the Smiths? I was wondering because my socialist boyfriend who liked the Clash also listened a lot to them.

I was thinking of the New York Dolls myself when I was reading your post about this movie on the Ramones. I've had one of the Dolls albums since the late Seventies and on the cover they're very sexy in their andrygenous pretty looks and provocative tight pants with bulging crotches. The Ramomes didn't make it in the looks department but they didn't give up tight pants for a neutral art school look like the Talking Heads.

I can see how Miami would let Latin music overwhelm rock.

I actually attended an early Talking Heads concert in San Francisco in the early Eighties when they opened for Lou Reed. I was lured there by a close artist friend who was the mother of Peter Kraemer of Sopwith Camel. Very "art school," as you say. I was left pretty cold but I knew "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" very well and Lou Reed was a cult figure by then even to me. Meanwhile, The Basketball Diaries was out in paperback and Jim Carroll was in the city singing his songs and reading poems.


I also have to strike a balance bet. time at the computer and time watching film. Yes you do and so do we all but time spend at the computer (including review writing time) considerably enriches and even motivates my watching time now.

Sorry you've got chills and pills and hope you get better soon.

[Johann]

Funny you mention Valerie just now oscar.

The best video store in this city has a vhs (duplicate) copy and I was going to make you a tape.

Did you buy the DVD?

[oscar jubis]

I rented Valerie from Nicheflix and saw it twice today. Then Chelsea started watching it and I sat with her for some of it. I think its otherworldly images are permanently imprinted on my memory bank thus I don't plan to buy it. Thanks for the generous impulse to make me a copy Johann. Will write a bit about it later and provide a link to your excellent post.

[oscar jubis]

Sat. March 19th

Jaromil Jires' Valerie and her Week of Wonders on region 1 dvd (Kino). I learned about this film from Johann:www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4102#post4102 Mr. Jires' The Joke is one of my favorite Czech films of all time so I was looking forward to Valerie. It's an altogether different film that speaks volumes about the director's range. It's basically about the dreams/fantasies of a girl during her first menses. It's as if her whole conscious and unconscious had been emptied out and turned into beautifully rendered images. It's a most inter-textual work that mixes medieval mythology, Freudianism, classic fairy tales (Perrault, Grimm), vampire legends, anti-clericalism,etc into a non-linear narrative in which identity and reality are highly fluid concepts. This gumbo is anchored in the character of Valerie, a 13 year old awakening to sensuality and forced to do figurative battle with repressive forces, most prominently the family and the Catholic church. Valerie is a feast for art lovers in general and surrealists in particular. Valerie is not a film for those looking for a clear, linear narrative, and has the potential to offend (an IMdb comment or two use the word "pedophilia", it's definitely anti-clerical and some may argue it's anti-Christian and anti-family but I don't).

Thanks to the British Film Institute for this dvd release of Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel (1945), his follow-up to the better known but not necessarily better Laura. The first half of Preminger's career is extremely consistent at a high level of quality. Most of his films from the 40s and 50s share thematic (love triangles, deception, innocent being framed) and stylistic elements (action largely centered in a few sets, fluid camera work, mostly medium shots no close-ups, no reaction shots). I predict that if you like one of these you'll like the others: Laura, Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Daisy Kenyon, Whirpool and Angel Face. There are enough distinctions among them to watch them all. Preminger's harmony of form and content, mobile camera and objective detachment make him one of my favorite directors of Hollywood's golden age.

[oscar jubis]

In response to CK's earlier post:
*The Smiths were Morrisey and he got better when he went solo. Some adore his witty hypersensitivity. I like it.
*If you have one Dolls album, you have half their official recording output. Some people may actually call them punk because they played relatively fast and wrote about "pills" and "trash". For me, they are simply an amazing, awe-inspiring rock band that came together when glam was in vogue. Those 22 songs they recorded are explosive, brilliant,...If you value virtuosity there's no doubt that David Johansen is a better singer than Joey Ramone or Joe Strummer (The Clash), or just about anybody. And Johnny Thunders was an extremely talented guitarrist who refused to show off (I hate long solos except from geniuses like Hendrix, Verlaine,Clapton).
*Jim Carroll can write but can't sing.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my relatively clueless music notes, Oscar.

I see you know a lot about this stuff. True enough Jim Carroll wasn't much of a singer. I'm impressed by what you say about the Dolls. I wonder if I can find that album....I had no idea.I take it you have no special interest in the Smiths as such.

Sorry I now nothing about Jires or Valerie--another one to get to know...

Speaking of the BFI I'm reading in the BFI-sponsored book on Wong Kar Wai. "In," because I don't plan to read it through, but just consult the chapter for each film as I re-see the films.

Watched Wong's As Tears Go By, which was the first one I ever saw of his in a theater, yesterday in a new DVD from Korea I bought from HKFlix. It seems pretty conventional to me, though it has visual charms, some "classic" Wong sets to be used in some version into the future, and for Wong fans it is essential to study it because the roots of his later ideas are largely there hidden in the conventional material, as well as some of the great stars. Maggie Cheung in this one--you wonder what all the fuss is about, from the way she was then. She has certainly acquired immense glamour charm and sex appeal since the little blank eyed girl she was then. Andy Lau was very young and kind of cool looking. The gangsters' bug-eyed mugging is totally unreal and rather annoying at times. The subtitles in this KOrean copy are terrible. Unlike the earlier HongKong Wong tapes, you can read them, but they make little sense, go by too fast, and there is a mistake in English grammar and idiom in practially every line or phrase. You really can make only minimal sense of much of the dialogue as a result. Pathetic. I should have gotten a better DVD version, assuming there is one. I may write more about this somewhat forgotten Wong Kar Wai film later. Perhaps interesting to contrast it with 2046.

[oscar jubis]

*Not clueless at all, Chris. There's a music thread in the "Lounge" section you should check out.
*I love Jaromil Jires' The Joke:www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7018#post7018
*I look forward to your comments about any WKW film and the book. I watched As Tears Go By again today after you posted about it.

Sunday March 20th

La Escondida (The Hidden One) on Region 1 dvd rental. An accomplished historical epic, in Eastmancolor, directed by Roberto Gavaldon and starring Maria Felix and Pedro Armendariz, set in 1909 during the Mexican Revolution. Disc has easy to read English subs and the print is in good shape for a film made in 1958. What makes this film special is the cinematography by the great Gabriel Figueroa, who lensed a bunch of Luis Bunuel and Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez films and The Night of the Iguana. So the fact that the film's aspect ratio is 2.35:1 and the disc is pan-and-scan is terribly sad. I simply cannot recommend this dvd.

As Tears Go By on import dvd but NTSC all region. This MediAsia disc has grammatically incorrect English subs but the print is decent and the transfer is anamorphic. The fact that Wong's debut is a triad genre picture didn't keep him from imprinting his visual style all over it (bathing scenes in one or two basic colors, the fetishistic use of pop music, slo-mo frames during action scenes...). I loved how WKW inserts a few frames of Lau embracing Cheung as his body twirls from being shot at the conclusion, the briefest of flashbacks. Regarding Cheung's performance, let's take into account the character she is playing. Same goes for Jackie Cheung's over-the-top perf which reminded me of De Niro in Mean Streets and Pesci in Goodfellas. WKW's particular themes and concerns are not manifested here.

[Chris Knipp]

The new Stephen Teo book also focuses on the interiors of the flat in the opening, out of which many more elaborate drab flats ultimately have grown, and I would note the smoky club/restaurant interior, which foreshadows shots in ChungKing Express and Fallen Angels. Yes, we do have to take into consideration Maggie's role, and in that sense it's quite good acting, but I was just noting how ordinary she looks considering the beauty and elegance she has acqired and her sophistication in a movie like Assayas' Clean. The music isn't the kind Wong uses later, but he does use it similarly to later films. I wouldn't go so far as to say flatly "particular themes and concerns are not manifested here," because actually lots of them are there; it's just that the overall effect is more ordinary, and the "triad" as you call it genre predominates. But Wong kept the crooks and hit men -- and cops -- into his more distinctive films. That's the interesting thing. I'd say the subtitles are worse than ungrammatical and if this is the best DVD I hope a collected Wong edition comes out with completely new and better subtitles on As Tears Go By. The meanings were just garbled over and over again.

Hoberman wrote that Days of Being Wild was the film where Wong Kar Wai first became Wong Kar Wai, or words to that effect, and the interesting thing would be to watch that after watching As Tears Go By and see what happens. (Well of course everything changes so I don't know offhand how you make the comparison.)

But in my viewing experience the one I saw right after As Tears Go by in the same theater the same day in a double bill was Ashes of Time, and that threw me for a loop. It had all the wild gorgeous visual stuff as well as the quirky calendar schemes and recollections in voiceover, and I hadn't the faintest idea what the plot was. Actually I hadn't the faintest idea what was going on in either movie, but I knew I was going to go back for more at the first opportunity. It was love at first sight and "the heart has its reasons which the reason does not know."

[oscar jubis]

I estimate I've seen Ashes of Time about six times. I'm convinced it will one day be properly restored and subtitled. It was also love at first sight for me.

Monday March 21st

Henry V (1944) on Criterion dvd.
This is the version directed and starring Laurence Olivier, which was intended to inspire patriotism on British audiences during WWII. The first half hour or so is a play-within-film as we experience what it must have felt to witness a performance of the play in 1600. This adaptation emphasizes humor and renders the king heroic by 20th century standards. It's still Shakespeare but purists will prefer Kenneth Branagh's darker, more faithful adaptation. Olivier's version is more accesible and entertaining. The treatment and production values reminded me of The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn.

A Hard Day's Night (1964) on dvd
Watched Richard Lester's stylish b&w early Beatlemania showcase with the kids. Felt nostalgic for those years before we all got so jaded and cynical, but I know there was a dark side to them. Society was changing so rapidly in the 60s. You best believe we sang along.

[oscar jubis]

Tuesday March 22nd

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) on rented import dvd

Jacques Offenbach, a German Jew, died four months before the premiere of his first opera (as opposed to operettas or musical comedies) in 1881. After their success with The Red Shoes, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger decided to adapt it to the screen, incorporating two ballet sequences written especially for this film and featuring Moira Shearer. The film mixes operatic staging with cinematographic devices to create a visually opulent experience for the viewer. The score was recorded first with the mise-en-scene subservient to it, driven by the music. Every aspect of production exemplifies the highest levels of artistic refinement, most notably the Oscar nominated art direction and costume design. Hoffmann is a poet who regales tavern patrons with stories of his infatuations with three different women: a Parisian ballerina, a Venetian courtesan, and a Greek opera singer. All three tales feature elements of fantasy and result in disappointment for the lovelorn Hoffmann. I found The Tales of Hoffmann lacking in terms of dramatic impact. Perhaps the episodic nature of the opera and/or the fantastic and comedic aspects dissipate its emotional intensity. Don't the great operas move you to the verge of tears? Opera buffs would have a better answer. My idea of great opera films is something like Verdi's La Traviata directed by Zeffirelli or Bizet's Carmen directed by Francesco Rosi. The Tales of Hoffmann delights, entertains, dazzles with its visual and aural inventiveness, yet I was not completely satisfied.

[hengcs]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Thanks for backing my up on Les Choristes. I still think there's more to it than American reviewers seem to see. I wish the song had won the Oscar, but, agreed, not the film.

Hmmm ... I hope too ...
Actually, I also hope they let the kids sang LIVE!
;PPP

[hengcs]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
... But in my viewing experience the one I saw right after As Tears Go by in the same theater the same day in a double bill was Ashes of Time, and that threw me for a loop.

Hmmm ... when I am free, I will write sth about these two movies.
;)

[Chris Knipp]

Another movie I saw when it was new and I was very young with major impact on me. I had the positive response you did, without your reservations. No reservations, whatsoever. I had no preconceptions about opera. This being French opera, it's naturally different. I loved the separate styles of the sections, which emphasized what we'd call the art direction. I was simply swept away by it. I don't think we have this kind of hand craftsmanship today; it's so much digitally assisted and so technical. I was deeply impressed by some of the main actors/dancers, whose names I can't come up with right now. I was also entranced by the music, of course most of all by the barcarolle which is the most famous moment in the piece.

[oscar jubis]

Chris, I just want to clarify/restate that I would grade the film "A-", that after watching it I returned to certain passages that are too wonderful to watch only once, and that I was deeply impressed with every aspect of the production. I found my lone reservation is not unique to me.
"Without dramatic grounding Powell's voluptuous visuals seem empty" (Dave Kehr)
"Emotionally underwhelming" (J. Overbeck)
"Not a single moment will Tales of Hoffmann move you to laughter or tears" (BritMovie site).

*It's sometimes frustrating to live in a "B" market for films. I want to go to the cinema yet none of the films playing here now compels me to go. Head On and Downfall have not opened yet. Inside Deep Throat seems quite suitable for home viewing and will play on HBO. Is The Upside of Anger good enough to justify the expense? It seems to be the best reviewed film playing here that I haven't seen.

[oscar jubis]

Wednesday March 23rd

Ivan's Childhood (1962) on import dvd.
My second or third viewing of Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature, also known as My Name is Ivan, is an adaptation of a WWII story by Vladimir Bogolomov. The project was offered to Tarkovsky when pre-production was already underway. He had little time to make any changes to the script he deemed necessary. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice FF. Ivan's Childhood the only one of his features that is not a "head scratcher" in the sense that there's little open to interpretation, yet his visual style, his fractured concept of time, the primacy of the natural landscape and water imagery were already in evidence from the outset of his career. The film is concerned with a boy whose childhood was stolen by war, and the tensions experienced by the soldiers who become his surrogate family. Scenes at the war front are contrasted with idyllic pre-war scenes that may or may not be Ivan's dreams or memories. Toward the conclusion, Tarkovsky artfully incorporates newsreel footage from the days immediately after Germany's defeat, providing added historical context and a sense of closure that his subsequent six features don't provide so concretely.

[oscar jubis]

Thursday March 24

We drove to the suburbs where a new multiplex was showing almost every Oscar-nominated film for a buck to celebrate its opening. I had seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind twice during its theatrical opening, once with Chelsea who came home and became a member expressively to write about it. Dylan was only 10 at the time, perhaps too young to make sense of it, so today was his first time watching it.
My appreciation and admiration for ESOTSM increase with every viewing. It's not only my favorite film of 2004 but after looking at my lists of favorite films from the last few years, I've concluded that, in my opinion, this is the best Hollywood film since at least Scorsese's Kundun ('97) or Jarmusch's Dead Man ('95), assuming those are "Hollywood films". Chelsea described the plot and the basic message of the film a year ago. Subsequent viewings reveal a variety of viewpoints on aspects of the pursuit of happiness via romantic relationships that are quite insightful. That such material is presented in such a novel and engaging fashion, without didacticism, managing to incorporate humor and poetry is indicative of the unique talents of Oscar-winner scriptwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Gondry.
In case anyone reading didn't watch it at the theatre, there's always dvd. I hope you have a home theatre system with a state-of-the-art speaker set-up. One of the most accomplished aspects of ESOTSM is the layering and editing of sound, particularly during the scenes in which the protagonist is undergoing the memory-erasing procedure, when different things are happening simultaneously at the conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels, and the sound design allows the viewer to tell them apart. I will watch it on dvd for the first time soon to listen to the commentary provided, from Kaufman and Gondry I believe. I have avoided specifics regarding plot and its interpretation to avoid contaminating your own response. I would recommend multiple viewings of this masterpiece.

In these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing melancholy reigns;
What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.

(Excerpt from Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard")


Samurai 2 on Criterion dvd.
Second of three parts of the Samurai trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune and directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, who may not be Kurosawa but, by the evidence of this film and the reviews of others, deserves to be better known. His The Rickshaw Man won the Golden Lion at Venice, and others such as Incident at Blood Pass (Mifune also) and Chushingura are recommended and available on dvd. I've neglected Inagaki long enough, I'm enjoying this trilogy as much as Kurosawa's period films (excluding Rashomon).