SCREENING LOG - 2/24-3/2, 2003

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Last week I watched UZUMAKI , FOX AND HIS FRIENDS, MURDERERS ARE AMONG US, EL, MIKKAEL, SANS SOLEIL and shorts by Charlie Chaplin. In order of preference:

Sans Soleil (1982, Chris Marker)

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0084628

Less a "documentary" than a highly personal series of postcards from the world, Marker's famous film essay on society, technology and a dozen other topics isn't really held together by anything other than Marker's stream-of-consciousness and the inventive use of his images. For most of the time Marker ruminates on Japanese society, with side trips to Guinea-Bissau, Iceland and San Francisco. Marker doesn't so much lay down an argument for anything as recreate his own internal thought process for the viewer to experience as he does. In considering its influence on subsequent filmmakers, I am surprised to find myself thinking of, of all people, Michael Moore, though this film is not nearly as didactic and is a lot more honest about its use of imagery. In fact, there are few films I know of like this one, that make the viewer aware that they are watching images of life, and inspire the viewer to reflect on the difference between the images they are watching and what is being represented by them.

Fox and His Friends (1975, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0072976

Fassbinder stars as a numskull hustler who wins the lottery, only to fritter the money away through an affair with a high-class publisher. The film was way ahead of its time in its honest yet unflatteringly un-romanticized depiction of gay relationships, with an acute awareness of class tensions rarely seen in any film. The unholy marriage of Sirkian ironic melodrama and Bressonian deadpan, Fassbinder's storytelling and style achieve stunningly unique effects: outrageously crass and confrontational yet tightly controlled and profoundly tragic. This film is extremely sensitive to the everyday cruelties and crudities of man, and lets them build steadily to a conclusion inevitable yet devastating.

Mikael (1924, Carl Theodor Dreyer)

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0015136

Is this movie the unrecognized granddaddy of gay cinema? So says critic Armond White, who introduced the screening I attended of this early classic by one of the cinema's most fascinating directors. A prominent artist falls into disarray when his handsome apprentice/inspiration is lured away by a wealthy young lady. The film does strike a coded resemblance to the works of Fassbinder and Todd Haynes, though Dreyer is able to generate a lot more genuine, un-ironic emotion with his characters, which is all the more impressive since the perceptible homoeroticism between master and student is never explicitly addressed. Dreyer's lifelong theme of the impossible quest for ideal love is well in evidence, as well as a narrative that cares less about storytelling than about exploration of character. Trivia: This film served as inspiration for Martin Scorsese and cinematographer Nestor Almendros for the "Life Lessons" segment of the triptych NEW YORK STORIES.

El (1952, Luis Bunuel)

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0045361

In many ways, a film ahead of its time: what else can you say about a movie whose climax involves a man who tries to sew up his wife's vagina? That's the unmistakable genius of Bunuel, though it's evident only in spots throughout this otherwise rather conventionally told (by Bunuel's standards at least) story about a man whose obsessive jealousy and paranoid insecurity ruins his marriage to a beautiful woman. What keeps me from deeming many of Bunuel's films masterpieces is that I often cannot tell whether he is being a profound observer of human frailty or a knee-jerk sophomoric prankster. Perhaps it's a bit of both, but either way, there's no denying the frank incisiveness of his insights.

Murderers Are Among Us (1946, Wolfgang Staudte)

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0038769

An impressive feature, filmed in the wake of World War II, about a doctor whose witnessing of wartime atrocities has turned him into a shell of a human being. The film makes powerful use of real bombed-out locations, capturing them in Expressionist shadows that less resemble Rossellini than full-blown 40s film noir. Despite the preachy conclusion (probably the influence of Occupation forces), the film, almost by virtue of its existence, gives a powerful impression of life in Germany in the wake of wartime destruction. The striking Hildegard Knef, making her debut as the sympathetic soul who rehabilitates the doctor, who would go on to become a major star of German cinema.

Shorts by Charlie Chaplin from 1915

By the Sea

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0005044

The Bank

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0004936

Shanghaied

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0006032

A Night in the Show

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0005812

In 1915 Chaplin left Keystone studios for a more lucrative deal with Essanay, which also allowed him to be freer and more creative with his scenarios as well as his own character development. While these films still feature the raucous slapstick of Keystone, there are also more nuanced and creative turns in the storytelling, and an emerging sensitivity to social class, such as in THE BANK, where Charlie, dressed in his standard black suit, opens the combination to a vault only to pull out a mop and broom to conduct his janitor duties. This was the year that the tramp persona was beginning to take shape, but Chaplin finds room to play with his identity: in A NIGHT IN THE SHOW he even splits himself into two equally boorish characters, the only thing distinguishing them is their social standing: one heckles a theater performance from the front row, while the other launches tomatoes from the balcony, as if to say that bad theater unites all classes in a common purpose. These one-reelers aren't nearly as accomplished as his later features, but they are less sentimental, generally amusing and give plenty of insights into the career development of one of the 20th century's most iconic actors.

Uzumaki (2000, Higuchinsky)

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0244870

Silly but harmlessly fun horror flick about a coastal town beset by a mysterious force that incites obsessions about spirals among the locals. A man kills himself by getting to cozy with a spiraling washing machine; a girl student develops an elaborate spiraling coif, while a boy student grows a snail-shell on his back and starts crawling up walls leaving a trail of slime. You get the idea.

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