SCREENING LOG - 5/8/2006-5/14/2006

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White Nights (1957, Luchino Visconti)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050782/
TSPDT #851
It's often referred to as the key turning point in Visconti's career, from neo-realism to a more expressive mise-en-scene (though that doesn't necessarily account for SENSO). I find it interesting that the same Dostoyevski story provided Bresson with what I, having just seen it, think is HIS key turning point, FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER. It's incredible just how different their visions come out even when workin on the same source material -- both are very intimate and romantic meditations on the virtue of eternal love in a modern world of uncertainty. They seem to work in opposite directions: Visconti takes a stylized Cinecitta candy shop replica of an Italian town and shoots it literally, while Bresson takes real life Paris settings and chops them into fragments of images and sounds.
YES (#10 for 1957 between NIGHTS OF CABIRIA and WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?)

No End (1985, Krzystof Kieslowski)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086961/
TSPDT #852
yes

Night of the Shooting Stars (1982, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084422/
TSPDT #853
YES (#4 for 1982 between CHAN IS MISSING and SANS SOLEIL)

Carmen aka Gypsy Blood (1918, Ernst Lubitsch)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0008950/
yes (#6 for 1918 between SHOULDER ARMS and MOONSHINE)

Kaidan aka Kwaidan (1964, Masaki Kobayashi)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058279/
TSPDT #854
It's a beautiful film to be sure, but in a way more studied than felt. The treatment of the horror narratives felt detached, and I didn't feel invested in the characters. The narratives themselves feel rather slight and don't gain resonance for me upon further reflection. I liked the first and third ones the most, but the first one doesn't come close to UGETSU. I'd be curious to hear your and others' admiration for the film.
yes

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995, Aditya Chopra)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112870/
yes (but far below expectations for the most popular Indian film of all time)

Besieged (1998, Bernardo Bertolucci)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149723/
Rosenbaum #576
mixed

The Lair of the White Worm (1988, Ken Russell)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095488/
From Ken Russell I've only seen WOMEN IN LOVE, which I guess is as highbrow as he gets? (THE DEVILS is high on my to see list). I wasn't expecting so much camp, and the pacing was often ponderous. Sammi Davis was annoying, Hugh Grant kind of gave me a way in -- his acting has this smarminess to it that manages to be charming and offputting at the same time. I think Coppola did a better job of weaving together the gothic and the campy in DRACULA, though Russell gets the upper hand in eroticism and psychedelia. It definitely had its great moments, mostly involving Amanda Donohoe. I like what she has to say about spitting on the crucifix, which you can find in her IMDb bio. Incidentally, I think this would make for a great Harry Potter movie.
mixed

Saving My Hubby (2002, Hyeon Nam-seob)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0333526/
The humor was so broad as to be offputting for the first half hour, likewise Bae Doona's childish carrying on; it was quite a shock to see her so overstated. I like her more when she gets purely physical - it gets kind of Run Lola Run-like when she's going through the urban maze. I have to say though that I found it ver hard to believe that the baby never cries once while being jostled on her mother's back through half of downtown Seoul. I think the ending was when the film suddenly revealed a social agenda -- when the mother hugs Bae as if she knew what Bae had to go through, suggesting it is (allegorically speaking) what all Korean women go through. In this sense the film is kind of like a Taming of the Shrew narrative, how a girl becomes a woman through submission and suffering. What does it mean for an actress like Bae to be placed in this role? I don't think she is given the same leeway to be herself despite what she has to go through, not like what you see in BARKING DOGS -- I think the role really constricts her in her ability to express anything spontaneous -- the most we get are these tantrums at the beginning that don't quite feel right coming out of her, they're too generically petulant. I'd like to tease this out more and put it in the article. The weird thing is that right after the borderline tragic embrace between Bae and her mother in law, the film does a 180 and shows her being a successful volleyball player -- it's almost as if she's back to living her former life, but it doesn't connect with the domestic disarray we just witnessed. Serious issues that the film takes so long to recognize as significant are stuffed back in the closet.
mixed

Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971, Robert Bresson)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067641/
TSPDT #855, Rosenbaum #577
YES (#2 for 1971 between MCCABE & MRS. MILLER and SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG)

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