SCREENING LOG - 1/23/2006-1/29/2006

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The Year of Living Vicariously (2005, Amir Muhammad)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446510
yes - my introduction to Malaysia's hottest director -- not sure what I think about the structure of the film but I love the split screens.

Le Pont des Arts (2004, Eugene Green)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410466
YES (#9 for 2004 between HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and PRIMER) - Ozu and Bresson reincarnated as a middle aged American-born Frenchman with a flaming romantic streak. This is exactly the kind of movie that appeals to me these days.

Cache / Hidden (2005, Michael Haneke) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387898
YES (#1 for 2005)

Manderlay (2005, Lars von Trier)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342735
no - Worst Lars Von Trier movie I've seen. I know you loved this movie, and you know that I loved DOGVILLE (though now I'm afraid of what I think if I saw it again -- no I know it's a brilliant film, what he does with deep focus mise-en-scene in DOGVILLE is genius, and hardly anywhere to be found in MANDERLAY, as if he ran out of new ideas for how to use the soundstage gimmick). It just seemed so obvious that he had an axe to grind with pretty much everyone in the movie. I thought the actors gave it their best but they just couldn't overcome Lars' overwrought misanthropy. I was willing to give him the benefit of a doubt for daring to say things about race that very few films bother to explore (the last one being Spike Lee's BAMBOOZLED, which unfortunately shares a lot of this film's flaws -- as if to say interesting things about race one has to have a chip on one's shoulder the size of Alabama). But then the end credit sequence came on and I felt like puking over the entire screen.

The Servant (1963, Joseph Losey)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057490
TSPDT #814
YES (#5 for 1963 between CONTEMPT and SHOCK CORRIDOR) - this quite possibly goes down as my favorite of the British New Wave entries

Cries and Whispers (1972, Ingmar Bergman) third viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069467
upgraded from mixed to YES (#8 for 1972 between THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE and THE CANDIDATE)

Le Monde Viviant / The Living World (2003, Eugene Green)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364526
yes - this movie kicks SHREK'S lime green ass!!!

Toutes les Nuits / Night After Night (2001, Eugene Green)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217100
yes - would probably make Phillippe Garrel nauseous, but quite confident of itself -- like Rohmer at his best, Green loves his characters like few directors out there today

Eureka (2000, Shinji Aoyama)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243889
yes - Too reminiscent of KINGS OF THE ROAD at parts to earn unqualified distinction, especially with the running time - but quite a few of the long takes are stunning in their pictorial power.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932, Mervyn LeRoy) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023042
yes - Strikes me as RAMBO made by New Deal liberals. Histrionic even by 30s standards, but some moments are undeniably powerful.

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