dp
Don Juan (1926) 7/10: Famous primarily as the first feature with some scenes of synchronized sound (though all claims of firstness when it comes to sound are bound to get one in trouble), the film is a pleasant enough costume swashbuckler. Suffers in comparison with the contemporaneous and similar Fairbanks productions, and it’s overlong, but kinetic enough, especially in its final reel, to maintain interest.
Waxworks (1924) 8/10: Paul Leni’s expressionist anthology film often shows up in histories of the horror film, but only the very brief final segment about Jack the Ripper proves prophetic of the genre’s turns and mood, otherwise we get treated to highly stylized fantasies of not-particularly-Middle-Eastern exotic eroticism and a lighthearted tale of torture and betrayal in Ivan the Terrible’s Russia. A film wherein style is content and vice versa.
Coco Avant Chanel
4/5
Coco Avant Chanel
4/5
dp
Eternity and a Day 8/10
Pandora’s Box 8/10
I started watching Gertrud, and I’m not far enough to rate it, but here’s my observation so far. The characters, like in Ordet, always talk to each other while holding their heads completely still with rigid expressions staring into space, and always talk at the same beat. I’m not sure what Dreyer sees in this style.
Also, this is the highest TSPDT ranked film I have never seen. After this the mantle falls to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
It was something of an experiment Jirin.
You can read about it here:
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Gertrud: the moving word By James Schamus
dp
Yes it does.
Does every damn post in here get posted twice?
Fixed.
“It was something of an experiment Jirin.”
A theatrical experiment Jirin, we can discuss it better together because most film critics fail to see it was based on a famous theatrical work and it has to be examined in those terms.
Most film critics are biased when it comes to theatre anyhow…
JIRIN: I thought you rated Eternity higher than that? or am i confusing you with someone else? or have you downgraded it?
8/10 seems about right. maybe 7.5.
I watched Two Lane Blacktop last night. Finally! And i was kind of disappointed. I can see why some prefer this to Easy Rider—it’s certainly more low key, and the themes are more ‘universal’, less time specific—but i certainly disagree with them. Easy Rider has better performances, and i just overall vibe of it, even if it’s far less subtle.
6/10
Warren Coates is great!!! I’ll admit that!
@Joks
But I don’t think Two Lane’s greatness lies in the performances, though. Did you see the thread on the film? I’d be interested in discussing the film with you there.
@Jirin
Many of Dreyer’s films resonate with me, but his very formal and stiff style—both in the terms of the camera and the acting are not necessarily aspects of his films that I love. FWIW, Gertrud was slow going for me initially, but I ended up liking the film.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Director: “Joe”)
3.5/5
I see there’s a thread on Boonmee, a film I almost saw in theaters but got in an accident on the way to it. I finally saw it on demand the other day and it was exactly what I expected: very slow, methodical, almost nonsensical. I didn’t quite get it all but I liked it alot.
I rented Hobo with a Shotgun but I haven’t watched it yet and I should be getting Lebanon, PA from netflix today.
JAZZ: sure, it’s a thematic driven film, that is defined more by the style and the moments where little things about the characters and their situation are revealed. But the performances, except for Oates, took me out of the film because the rest of it was so obvious anyway. If i want a film about people whose lives are in a perpetual loop from either lack of awareness, fear etc etc, i’d much rather watch something like Five Easy Pieces.
The ideas didn’t resonate with me, and i thought the actors had no screen presence whatsoever. And don’t even try and tell me that ‘presence’ isn’t important either. Presence is almsot everything in these sort of movies. A huge part of Antonioni’s success in the alienation films is due to the Vitti effect ;-)
If the film was centered more on Oates, i would have responded to it more, but i understand his secondary status in the narrative, because he is ultimately what the younger characters in the film will end up being.
…i thought the actors had no screen presence…
Joks, the film is called Two-Lane Blacktop.
Just sayin’ ….
^^i’m not a car fan either Robert, so it’s a lose lose for me ;-)
And the movie isn’t shot from outside the car for 90 mins either! ;-)
Pursued 1947
DIR Raoul Walsh
SCR Niven Busch
CAST Teresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith Anderson, Dean Jagger, Alan Hale, Harry Carey Jr., Clifton Young
Niven Busch’s version of ‘the stranger’ with a heavy dose of redemptive violence – carried out by the women.
4/10
“Doing Time on Maple Drive” (1992). The treacly melodramatics are in full flower in what may well be the worst made-for-TV movie ever made. A gruff ex-military man and his delusional wife look on blankly as a closeted son attempts suicide, a pregnant daughter tries to abort behind her husband’s back, and another son drinks himself into a nightly stopr. As black comedy it might have worked.
@Joks
I’d never seen Eternity and a Day before.
Gertrud 8/10
It’s weird, even though the film has that awkward staging like they’re constantly posing for photographs, and everybody talks exclusively in sweeping operatic statements, the film has a way of endearing itself to you emotionally.
I have a very similar reaction, Jirin—especially towards the end of the film. There are some lines of dialogue and sentiments expressed that really resonated with me.
Winnie the Pooh, the most words and wordplay inclined picture since the doc Derrida.
These characters perfectly embody the different aspect of a child’s (Christopher Robbin’s) mind. The hand drawn animation is downright tranquil. Eeyore is funny and though Tigger is mostly wasted (though his sequence with Eeyore is the highlight), I think the voice cast is stellar and the themes are awesome (the Owl that everyone follows, leads everyone to get rid of their stuff to prepare for a horrible happening and the uncertain donkey is left behind).
Grade A (one of the best of the year so far)
Le Cercle Rouge 10/10 A+
… I’ve come to Melville late, and what a treat it is. This really is a film noir in color — colors that I want to paint rooms.
[Army of Shadows is equally good.]
… sorry, this posted twice, and I can’t determine how to delete this one.
Film Socialisme Jean-Luc Godard ?/10
I’m going to have to wait till I do a little reading and see it a second time.
Waerdnotte
Bad Education (2004)
Written and Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Looks good, tastes good, feels good. Bernal is superb in the lead role.
8.7/10