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SCREENING LOG
-8/23-8/29, 2004
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Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974, Thom Andersen)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071454/
Silver (#12 for 1974 between THE MYSTERY OF KASPAR HAUSER
and THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY)
Stuck on You (2003, Peter and Bobby Farrelly)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338466/
I think STUCK ON YOU is one of the very best buddy movies
I've ever seen; it may even be the apotheosis of the buddy
movie. I love how they took such a loaded, taboo topic and
let it feed their creativity. I thought it was hilarious from
start to finish, but also touching and sweet in a way only
the Farrelly brothers know how to pull off. I think the Farrellys
are one of the very few film artists in America who have a
genuine and inspired understanding of community -- and I much
prefer their sense of community: similar to Howard Hawks,
it's one that takes inspiration from weirdos and values their
idiosyncrasies as a contributing factor to community, as opposed
to, say, the fear-mongering xenophobia of M. Night Shyamalan.
GOLD (#12 for 2003 between GOODBYE LENIN and FINDING NEMO)
Collateral (2004, Michael Mann)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369339/
Silver (#11 for 2004 IMDb releases between BAADASSSSS! and
KILL BILL VOL. 1)
Eternal Love (1929, Ernst Lubitsch)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019852/
Silver (#10 for 1929 between QUEEN KELLY and DAYS OF YOUTH)
Angele (1934, Marcel Pagnol)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024830/
GOLD (#4 for 1934 between L'ATALANTE and A STORY OF FLOATING
WEEDS)
Le Corbeau (1943, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035753/
GOLD (#6 for 1943 between RED HOT RIDING HOOD and SHADOW
OF A DOUBT)
Ninotchka (1939, Ernst Lubitsch) Second Viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031725/
Silver (#10 for 1939 between JOUR SE LEVE and THE 400 MILLION)
Point Blank (1967, John Boorman)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062138/
Silver - As brilliant as it often was, there was something
empty at the center of this film that didn't sit well with
me. Maybe that's the point of the film, a man searching and
climbing to achieve his objective and finding nothing, in
a city and a state of existence that have no center but just
keep looping back towards certain motivating traumas that
will never be resolved or recompensed. I think it's for these
reasons that Thom Andersen skewers the film in his movie LOS
ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF as a film that operates with the assumption
that Los Angeles is an amalgamation of floating Nothings ("People
who hate Los Angeles love POINT BLANK" he gripes). Incidentally,
Tom Cruise's character in COLLATERAL spews some POINT BLANK-ish
maxims on Los Angeles ("Everything's so fragmented and detached
here. 3 million people and no one knows each other") but I
think his character amounts to a false guru -- Mann's direction
of Los Angeles reflects a more attentive and connected attitude
towards the city.
Thinking about this some more, for what it is, perhaps POINT
BLANK is a better film than I thought (though based on its
reputation I thought it was a better film going into it than
I did coming out). But it's vision of humankind, as suggestive
as it is, is also unforgivably bleak and it's only a few years
before we get to its nephew CHINATOWN. As far as the fragmented
narratives of 1967 go, I'll take TWO FOR THE ROAD first and
then BRANDED TO KILL over this one.
Kagaaz Ke Phool (1959, Guru Dutt)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052954/
I didn't think KAGAAZ was up to the same level as PYAASA,
or at least I enjoyed it less. PYAASA was so lush and it seemed
to accumulate in waves of tragic destiny. KAGAAZ was more
of the director visualizing and dramatizing his own demise
onscreen, something like ALL THAT JAZZ with more melodrama
and less Felliniesque fancy. Maybe it was the heavy melodrama
that made it hard to take at times, it just seemed to relish
in its own self-pity... but he did some great things with
expressive lighting and staging (it's interesting that, as
in PYAASA, the audience onscreen is always depicted as a faceless,
fickle mob). Silver (#12 for 1959 between 400 BLOWS and SOME
LIKE IT HOT)
The Candidate (1972, Michael Ritchie)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068334/
GOLD (#7 for 1972 between THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE
and THE MERCHANT OF THE FOUR SEASONS)
Les Diaboliques (1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046911/
Where I find Clouzot lacking is his ability to generate genuine
empathy for his characters -- they all come across like mice
in a maze, the maze being his tautly crafted narrative. If
one wants to draw comparisons to Hitchcock as most people
do, having just seen three Hitchcock movies the week before
last I think Hitch is far and away more genuinely interested
in human psychology than Clouzot -- Clouzot's interest seems
to be more narrative than psychological, which is fun for
afficionados of yarn-spinning but for me it amounts to so
much clever formalism. Which I guess is why I prefer LE CORBEAU,
because it seems more interested in psychologies, or at least
more complex and tentative psychological instability (with
vivid sociological implications relevant to its period) than
the creeping feminine hysteria of DIABOLIQUES (which I suspect
reflects a certain degree of misogyny on the part of his maker
-- I wonder what his marriage to the co-star must have been
like, judging from his treatment of her in this film it mustn't
have been pretty). The other thing I liked too about both
films was the world-weary, saucy dialogue... I don't know
how much insight it gives into the characters per se but it
added zest to the proceedings and its seductively bleak and
hardboiled tone puts the viewer in the right frame of mind
for what's to come.
Silver (#15 for 1955 between SHREE 420 and MR. ROBERTS)
"Beijing 2008" segment of the Olympic Closing Ceremony
(2004, Zhang Yimou)
DISQUALIFIED DUE TO EXCESSIVE TACKINESS
Final Medal Standings Hitchcockia - 3 Gold U.S. - 2 Gold,
5 Silver, 1 Bronze France - 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 1
Hot Blonde China - 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, 1 Bomb Le Republique
Misanthrope du Clouzout - 1 Poison Pen Gold, 1 Waterlogged
Silver Lubitschistan - 2 Silver Hong Kong - 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
Italy - 1 Gold U.K. - 1 Gold Canada - 1 Silver India - 1 Silver
Australia - 1 Bronze with an assist from Japan Austria - 1
Bronze Sweden - 1 Tormented Bronze Thailand - 1 Bronze
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