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SCREENING LOG
- 6/12/2006-6/18/2006
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Army of Shadows (1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064040/
YES (#2 for 1969 between A TOUCH OF ZEN and SALESMAN)
Pour la Suite du Monde (1963, Michel Brault, Marcel Carriere, Pierre Perrault)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057423/
So the Alliance Francaise was having a monthlong series of Michel Brault films and the keystone was a screening of his first short doc LES RAQUETTEURS, followed by one of his best features, POUR LA SUITE DU MONDE. I had never heard of Brault before, and after seeing his films I'm curious why I hadn't. His filmmaking is certainly a cut above most ethnographic filmmaking as well as cinema verite filmmaking, the two readymade terms I'd use to describe his work. He manages to avoid being overly polished like you see with some ethnographic documentaries (esp. those produced for TV), but he also gives a coherent view of community and event, avoiding the meandering or chaos that can afflict a lot of verite style shooting. Voiceover narration is almost nil, so you get a direct, level, non-condescending or remote relationship with his subjects, whether they be participants in a snowshoeing race in RAQUETTEURS or the modest but vivacious residents of a harbor village demonstrating the lost Inuit art of whale trapping for posterity. His storytelling method, which I found very instructive, is to move through one scene at a time and just bring out the essence of a moment, whether it be villagers working diligently on the trap or engaged in contentious conversation about Quebecois history. Watching the integrity, meticulousness and communal spirit of his filmmaking is not dissimilar from watching an igloo being constructed one block at a time. His charismatic story reflects the charisma of the subject -- so much so that it's quite jarring when we finally see the whale getting caught; and as much as Brault tries to sustain the jaunty mood as the whale is removed from its natural environment and packed into a truck on a one-way trip to a New York City aquarium, I couldn't help feel sad for the poor creature. That uncertain moment aside, it's a great film.
Just as good was the post-screening discussion with Brault joined by his friend Albert Maysles. Maysles ended up dominating the conversation after Brault gave some musings about the technological innovations with handheld 16mm cameras that allowed him to shoot as freely as he did. Maysles went on to promote that spirit of openness and directness to documentary filmmakers in the present: "let the moment speak to you, don't try to impose your own meaning from the start. Otherwise you'll end up like Michael Moore, and that's not art!" Listening to the two of them made for an inspiring evening.
yes
The Tenant (1976, Roman Polanski)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074811/
TSPDT #867
yes
Que Viva Mexico! (1932/1979, Sergei Eisenstein)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079020/
TSPDT #868
YES (#10 for 1979 between MONTY PYTHON'S THE LIFE OF BRIAN and KRAMER VS. KRAMER)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006, Robert Altman)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420087/
yes to YES
From the Jeffrey L. Selznick School of Film Preservation Tenth Anniversary Celebration at George Eastman House:
Tension (1950, John Berry)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041954/
yes
Nothing Sacred (1937, William Wellmann) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029322/
upgraded from mixed to yes
The Birds (1963, Alfred Hitchcock) second viewing
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/
YES (#5 for 1963 between CONTEMPT and THE SERVANT)
Fear and Desire (1953, Stanley Kubrick)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045758/
yes
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