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SCREENING LOG
- 8/12-8/18, 2002
Back to 2002 Index
I watched STORY OF THE LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS, THE BIG PARADE,
MAMMA ROMA, DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, OUR HOSPITALITY, shorts
by Godard and Truffaut, LA NOTTE, SHERLOCK JR., I'M GOING
HOME, FLESH AND THE DEVIL, EXISTENZ, , TRISTANA, STRIKE and
TIME OF THE GYPSIES. Since this is three times the normal
number of films I'll see in a week, I'll divide them into
three general tiers of of preference:
First Tier:
Diary of a Country Priest (1950, Robert Bresson) second
viewing
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0042619
Perhaps this is drawing too much of a parallel, but to appreciate
Bresson's films about how grace enters and changes the lives
of their characters is very much like experiencing that grace
firsthand: it doesn't happen all the time and when it does
it comes almost despite our will. The mystery of these stark
yet life-affirming moments happening despite human effort
is what lies at the heart of this masterpiece, chronicling
a young sickly priest who struggles with both an unruly parish
and his own sense of doubt, until salvation comes in a moment
of sudden, blinding brilliance. This is a film that, like
its tragic hero, needs no defense, only understanding; while
other films dilly-dally with the melodramatic ups and downs
of life, this one is resolutely concerned with finding the
answer to the ultimate question. As a result, it fulfills
the ultimate promise of cinema: it completely redefines the
way in which we see the world. On the surface, it may amount
to a recruiting ad for martyrdom, but quite to the contrary,
the suffering protagonist is hardly lionized (he's downright
inept in some cases), and the things that happen to him are
largely beyond his control, or anyone else's, and yet we continue
to struggle to keep it together. What happens in this film
is full of a mystery both spiritual and secular, to which
the characters and the viewer interpret in their own way.
Taken on its own terms, it is a truly exceptional achievement
in the history of film.
Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (1939, Kenji Mizoguchi)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0032156
It is interesting that Japanese masters Kenji Mizoguchi
and Yasujiro Ozu are most famous for their 1950s work, which
demonstrate a relative uniformity in their respective techniques,
when their earlier work seems more radical, and for that reason,
conceivably better. But while the animated style of Ozu's
1932 I WAS BORN BUTÉ throws his later, more reserved films
into startling relief, this early work by Mizoguchi goes the
other way: this film about a struggling young actor who defies
his family to marry a devoted geisha is even more reserved
than his later work. The camera angles he uses in this film
are simply brilliant: whether emphasizing the space between
characters through distorted angles or wide shots, or willfully
obscuring our view of them by shooting through window screens,
he finds numerous visual counterpoints to illustrate his themes
of social inequality, the human impulse to judge others, and
the sanctity of the rights of the individual. Over 60 years
old, this film was one of the few surprise newcomers in the
recent Sight and Sound critics poll, and yet it practically
shouts out "who's your Daddy?" to every practitioner
of the long-shot long take, from Antonioni to Tarkovsky to
Hou. An absolute masterpiece.
Sherlock, Jr. (1924, Buster Keaton) second viewing
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0015324
A film projectionist who moonlights as an amateur sleuth
daydreams himself into a detective movie to solve his own
real-life problems. Though this film isn't as lyrical or consistent
as THE GENERAL, it is astoundingly adept at exploring the
line that divides cinema from reality, utilizing special effects
that build upon the achievements of Georges Melies. Inventive,
touching and incredibly funny, this film single-handedly mounts
a case for Keaton as a preeminent Surrealist artist of his
era.
Strike (1922, Sergei Eisenstein)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0015361
This chronicle of a 1912 workers strike in Russia that ended
in a disastrous massacre was Sergei Eisenstein's first feature-length
production, yet to me it seems every bit as accomplished as
his widely recognized masterpiece BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. Sure,
it's not the subtlest film ever made, but how many Eisenstein
movies are? I was floored by the intense energy and visual
creativity Eisenstein pours into his polemics. Eisenstein's
montage has been lauded to death, but what amazed me just
as much was the stark mise-en-scene, one unforgettable image
after another, revealing a visual density that Eisenstein
would recover for his final masterpiece IVAN THE TERRIBLE.
This is rhetorical cinema at its finest.
Time of the Gypsies (1989, Emir Kusturica)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0097223
My latest foray in the wild, wooly Yugoslavian world of
Kusturica did not disappoint in the least. The story of a
small-town Gypsy boy who gets mixed up with the wrong people
straddles the lusty humanism of his earlier WHEN FATHER WAS
AWAY ON BUSINESS and the over-the-top spectacle of his masterpiece
UNDERGROUND. As such, it resembles Fellini, though to me it
feels more potent for its social insights, and it gradually
builds dramatic steam towards a genuinely moving climax. Kusturica's
films easily entertain with their deranged energy and incessant
invention, but it's their heart at the center that fills the
madness with purpose.
Second Tier:
I'm Going Home (2001, Manoel de Oliveira)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0283422
The 93 year old Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal's most famous
director, had his biggest international success to date with
this chronicle of an aging French actor's life after his wife
and son are killed in an accident. The film basically uses
two modes to tell the man's story: first are the deadpan documentary-style
moments that capture his everyday activities, from buying
a new pair of shoes to playing with his grandson, which must
be actively interpreted for their subtext to be found. Then
there are the three performances (two on stage, one on film)
we see him give, placed at key moments in the narrative. A
robust opening performance as the King in Ionesco's EXIT THE
KING contrasts sharply with a weakened Prospero in THE TEMPEST
performed a year after the tragedy. His final performance
is for a film version of Joyce's ULYSSES, and while it's patently
absurd that a French actor would be asked to play Buck Mulligan,
the actor's attempt to take on this role (perhaps as some
kind of suicidal challenge to himself) is both hilarious and
moving. De Oliveira's direction is both relaxed and immensely
knowing, matched by the incredible lead performance given
by Michel Piccoli. The literary references make the film especially
rewarding for fans of the theater.
Tristana (1970, Luis Bunuel)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0066491
Fernando Rey is a duplicitous wealthy old man who seduces
his innocent young ward (Catherine Deneuve), leading to an
entangled affair between them. The themes of sexual politics
among the middle class are Bunuel's bread and butter, and
Bunuel handles them with his most reserved and assured level
of skill, leading to moments of uncanny brilliance. Though
the film has its share of surrealist elements (dream sequences
and a Freudian severed head and leg figure prominently), I
took the most pleasure out of watching the everyday scenes
play out with a hilariously subtle matter-of-factness. Rey
is delicious as the huffy bourgeoisie; it's great watching
him unblinkingly contradict himself from one moment to the
next. Deneuve's subtle evolution from an fresh-faced girl
to a controlling lady is amazing to behold.
Our Hospitality (1923, Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0014341
Buster Keaton returns home to the South, where his family
has been engaged in a longstanding feud with another family;
Keaton falls in love with the other family's girl, which complicates
the family's plans to kill him. Classic Keaton comedy that
exploits its setup brilliantly, but the crown jewel in this
film is the climactic stunt that must be seen to be believed.
The Big Parade (1925, King Vidor)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0015624
John Gilbert plays an American soldier who finds both love
and tragedy while serving in France during World War I. For
better or worse, this is the archetypal Hollywood war movie,
the one that launched a thousand cliches about zany soldier
life, cutesy soldier romance, horrific soldier combat, and
unappreciative soldier families back home. The good news is,
this film delivers those goods with such unbridled naivete
that its finest moments (the farewell scene between soldier
and girl; the soldier's reunion with the girl) are no less
moving than they were eight decades ago.
Mamma Roma (1962, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0056215
Anna Magnani is a reformed prostitute who brings her countryside
son to live with her in the city, only to go back to her old
ways in order to support him. In some ways this can be seen
as a stripped-down version of ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, and
it's interesting comparing how Pasolini approaches his working-class
heroes differently than Visconti. Pasolini's style is not
as grandiose (save the overly symbolic ending) and doesn't
try to prettify his characters' behaviors or their world.
He's also a lot more sensitive and generous to his female
characters, most notably with Magnani's whore with a heart
of gold (indeed her character may have a little too much salt
of the earth). He still allows himself some brilliant stylistic
moments, such as a couple of long takes that track Magnani
from the front as she walks the streets talking to random
passers-by. This is both the earliest and the least academic
Pasolini film I've seen, and it's interesting seeing how his
work evolved from this point onward.
Third Tier:
Existenz (1999 David Cronenberg)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120907
Jennifer Jason Leigh is a game designer who takes a group
of test users into the ultimate experience in virtual reality;
a subversive element emerges that threatens to destroy the
game and also calls into question what is virtual and what
is real. There seems to be a lot going on in this film, even
though Cronenberg takes a rather light tone with the ideas
presented. His signature theme of regressive addiction to
sex with organic machines is realized with fascinating images
and scenes; he does with video games with he did with cars
in CRASH. But the ending seems to me one plot twist too many
and rather unexceptional in a year where half of the movies
seemed to have such twists. On the other hand, the ultimate
sense of virtual entrapment kind of works as a reproval of
THE MATRIX's brand of audience-friendly virtual revolution.
La Notte (1961, Michelangelo Antonioni)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0054130
Marcello Mastroianni is a disillusioned writer and Jeanne
Moreau his disillusioned wife whose relationship comes to
a crisis point after attending an all-night party. The one
thing that keeps me from embracing Antonioni's movies is the
upper class milieu of his stories --as much as I appreciate
how Antonioni exposed the existential emptiness of the bourgeois
success we all aspire to, there's something kind of duplicitous
about presenting these gorgeous men and women and la dolce
vita in which they inhabit only to show us how shallow
it all is. Still, there's no denying that he does it with
an assured sense of storytelling. Mastroianni and Moreau are
terriffic, though for me the true standout is Antonioni regular
Monica Vitti, who this time mixes her wounded deer looks with
some beguiling smiles.
Flesh and the Devil (1926, Clarence Brown)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0016884
Why is it that the three biggest actresses of the late 20s
got their break by playing oversexed vamps? There was Dietrich
in THE BLUE ANGEL, Brooks in PANDORA'S BOX, and before them,
Greta Garbo as a glorious she-devil in this story of two buddies
turned into bitterly jealous enemies by her presence -- and
of course it's all her fault. Still it's an engaging story
in spite of the mysogyny; Garbo's otherworldly beauty defies
our ability to judge her until the evidence of her evil is
all too obvious; the innate nobility of her features adds
complexity to the lasciviousness of her character. John Gilbert
is also quite good as the hero, and the direction has occasional
moments of Murnau-esque brilliance.
Godard/Truffaut shorts
All the Boys Named Patrick (Jean Luc Godard, 1959)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0051102
Two girlfriends are picked up separately by the same conniving
young man, and talk giddily about their experiences without
knowing that they're discussing the same guy. Written by Eric
Rohmer, it's a breezy mix of Rohmerian content with Godardian
panache, and the result is a mixed bag: not quite as invested
in its moral dilemma as Rohmer's own films, but kept lively
by how Godard lets the girls idle away their moments listening
to records and comparing their crushes to movie stars.
Les Mistons (Francois Truffaut, 1957)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0050714
Truffaut juvenilia at its most soft-core: a group of boys
form a crush on a young lady, watching her skirt go up while
playing tennis and smelling the seat of her bicycle. Retribution
comes when the lady's boyfriend meets a tragic death, to which
the boys all hang their head in sorrow. But the whimsical
soundtrack and knowing voiceover gives it all the air of respectability,
a cheap trick that many art-house softcore flicks (the most
recent being MALENA) have borrowed over the years.
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