Film Log 2009
-: unfinished
4: anything below 5 is not worth it
5: okay
6: quite good
7. very good
8: amazing
9: masterpiece
NOVEMBER
Au Hazard Balthazar - Robert Bresson (1966) 9.0
Breaking the Waves - Lars Von Trier (1996) 8.0++
Blade Runner - Ridley Scott (1982) 8.0
Diary of a Chambermaid - Luis Bunuel (1964) 8.0
A Woman Under the Influence - John Cassavetes (1974) 9.0+ One of the very best films I have ever seen.
Ali Fear Eats the Soul - Rainer Werner Fassbinder 7.0 Not a huge fan of Fassbinder so far
* * * *
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - John Cassavetes (1976) 8.5 Another masterpiece from this brilliant director. This is an exceptional 70's gangster flick that can easily stand alongside the works of Coppolla & Scorsese (if not surpass them in many ways).
Close-up - Abbas Kiarostami (1990) - pretty boring. I liked that part with the cabbie getting the flowers and the can rolling down the street
JANUARY
1. Persona - Ingmar Bergman (1966) 9
2. Sunset Boulevard - Billy Wilder (1950) 8.5
3. Before Sunrise - Richard Linklater (1995) 8
4. A Scanner Darkly - Richard Linklater (2006) 7
5. I Heart Huckabees - David O. Russell (2004) 7
6. I'm Not There - Todd Haynes (2007) 6.5
FEBRUARY
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968) 9.5
2. Wings of Desire - Win Wenders (1987) 9.0
3. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick (1971) 9.0
4. Metropolis - Fritz Lang (1927) 9.0
5. Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese (1980) 9.0
6. Contempt - Jean-Luc Godard (1963) 9.0
7. Wild Strawberries - Ingmar Bergman (1957) 9.0
8. La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini (1961) 8.5
9. Rosemary's Baby - Roman Polanski (1968) 8.5
10. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Bunuel (1972) 8.5
11. Splendor in the Grass - Elia Kazan 8.5
12. Last Laugh - F. W. Murnau (1924) 8.5
13. Eraserhead - David Lynch (1977) 8.5
14. Shining - Stanley Kubrick 8.0
15. Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder (1944) 8.0
16. Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein (1925) 8.0
17. Good, the Bad, & the Ugly - Sergio Leone (1966) 8.0
18. 12 Angry Men – Sydney Lumet (1957) 8.0
19. Usual Suspects – Bryan Singer (1995) 7.5
20. Solaris - Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) 7.5
21. Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa (1950) 7.5
22. The Apartment - Billy Wilder (1960) 7.5
23. Through a Glass Darkly - Ingmar Bergman (1961) 7.5
24. There Will Be Blood – Paul Thomas Anderson (2007) 7.0
25. Do the Right Thing – Spike Lee (1989) 7.0
26. The Silence - Ingmar Bergman (1963) 7.0
27. Throne of Blood – Akira Kurosawa (1957) 7.0
28. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese (1973) 7.0
29. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - John Ford (1962) 6.5
30. Sideways – Alexander Payne (2005) 7.0
31. Léon the Professional - Luc Besson 6.0
32. Bananas - Woody Allen 5.5
33. Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont (1994) 5.5
34. Fellowship of the Ring - Peter Jackson (2001) 4.5
MARCH
1. Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) 8.5
2. Viridiana - Luis Bunuel (1961) 8.5
3. The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman (1957) 8.5
4. Rosemary's Baby - Roman Polanski (1968) 8.5
5. Full Metal Jacket - Stanley Kubrick (1987) 8.0
6. On the Waterfront - Elia Kazan (1954) 8.0
7. Winter Light - Ingmar Bergman (1962) 8.0
8. Some Like it Hot - Billy Wilder (1959) 8.0
9. My Darling Clementine - John Ford (1946) 8.0
10. Eyes Wide Shut - Stanley Kubrick (1999) 8.0
11. Manhattan - Woody Allen (1979) 8.0
12. The Killing - Stanley Kubrick (1956) 8.0
13. Man With a Movie Camera - Dziga Vertov (1929) 8.0
14. City Lights - Charles Chaplin (1931) 7.5
15. Lolita - Stanley Kubrick (1961) 7.5
16. Once Upon a Time in America - Sergio Leone (1984) 7.5
17. That Obscure Object of Desire - Luis Bunuel (1977) 7.5
18. Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean (1962) 7.5
19. Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelley & Stanley Donen (1952) 7.0
20. Rio Bravo - Howard Hawks (1959) 7.0
21. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant - Rainer Fassbinder (1972) 7.0
22. The General - Buster Keaton (1927) 7.0
23. Dogma - Kevin Smith (1999) 6.5
24. The Lady Eve - Preston Sturgess (1941) 6.5
25. Stagecoach - John Ford (1939) 6.0
26. Band of Outsiders - Jean-Luc Godard (1964) 6.0
27. The Wizard of Oz - Victor Flemming (1939) 6.0
28. Gone With the Wind - Victor Fleming (1939) 5.5
APRIL
1. Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941) 9.5/10
2. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick (1975) 9.0
3. M - Fritz Lang (1931) 8.5
4. Decalogue I-III - Krzysztof Kie?lowski (1989) 8.5
5. Blue Velvet - David Lynch (1986) 8.5
6. The Matrix - Wachowski Brothers (1999) 8.0
7. Satyricon - Federico Fellini (1968) 8.0
8. Dr. Strangelove - Stanley Kubrick (1964) [Re-Watch] from 8.0 to 7.5/10
9. Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock (1954) 7.5
10. Un Chein Andalou - Luis Bunuel (1929) 7.5/10
11. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back - Irving Kurshner (1980) 7.5
12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Milos Forman (1975) 7.5
13. Bringing Out the Dead - Martin Scorsese (1999) 7.5
14. American Beauty - Sam Mendes (1999) 6.5
15. Scream - Wes Craven (1996) 6.5
16. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial - Steve Spielberg (1982) 6.0
17. Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi - Richard Marquand (1983) 5.5
18. Deep Impact - Mimi Leder (1998) 3.0/10
MAY
1. The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppolla (1972) 9.5
2. 8 1/2 - Federico Fellini (1963) 9.5
3. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick (1975) 9.0
4. Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa (1952) 9.0
5. Mulholland Drive - David Lynch (2002) 8.5
6. The Shining - Stanley Kubrick (1980) 8.5
7. Safe - Todd Haynes (1995) 8.0
8. Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu (1953) 8.5
9. Aguirre the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog (1972) 8.5
10. Edvard Munch - Peter Watkins (1974) 8.5
11. The Wild Bunch - Sam Peckinpah (1969) 8.0
12. Night of the Hunter - Charles Laughton (1955) 8.0
13. The Great Dictator - Charles Chaplin (1940) 8.0
14. Alien [2003 directors cut] - Ridley Scott (1978) 7.5
15. Point Blank - John Boorman (1967) 7.5
16. Gertrud - Carl Dreyer (1964) 7.5
17. Sullivan's Travels - Preston Sturges (1941) 7.0
18. The Philadelphia Story - George Cukor (1940) 7.0
19. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - Larry Charles (2006) 7.0
20. The Pianist - Roman Polanski (2002) 7.0
21. Grizzly Man - Werner Herzog (2005) 6.5
22. Forrest Gump - Robert Zemeskis (1994) 6.5
23. Halloween - John Carpenter (1978) 6.0
24. Jaws - Steven Spielberg (1975) 5.5
25. Fast Food Nation - Richard Linklater (2006) 5.0
JUNE
1. Persona - Ingmar Bergman (1966) 9.5
2. STALKER - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) 9.0
3. Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese (1976) 9.0
4. Contempt - Jean-Luc Godard (1963) 9.0
5. The Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky (1975) 9.0
6. Annie Hall - Woody Allen (1977) 8.5
7. Rocco and His Brothers - Luchino Visconti (1960) 8.5
8. The Conversation - Francis Coppola (1974) 8.5
9. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene 8.5
10. Hannah & her Sisters - Woody Allen (1986) 8.5
11. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp - Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (1943) 8.0
12. La Notte - Michelangelo Antonioni (1961) 8.0
13. Battle of Algiers - Gillo Pontecorvo (1966) 8.0
14. The Gospel According to St. Matthew - Pier Paulo Pasolini (1964) 8.0
15. Sweet Smell of Success - Alexander Mackendrick (1957) 8.0
16. Jalsaghar (The Music Room) - Satyajit Ray (1958) 7.5
17. The Palm Beach Story - Preston Sturges (1942) 7.5
18. The Lady From Shanghai - Orson Welles (1947) 7.5
19. The Band Wagon - Vincente Minnelli (1953) 7.0
20. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Martin Scorsese (1974) 7.0
21. The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimeno (1978) 6.5
22. I'm Not There - Todd Haynes (2007) [Re-Watch] stays at 6.5
23. Election - Alexander Payne (1999) 6.5
24. The Exorcist - William Friedkin (1973) 6.5
25. Performance - Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg (1970) 6.0
26. It Happened One Night - Frank Capra (1934) 6.0
27. Saw - James Wan (2004) 3.5
JULY
1. Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1979) 9.0 - Jean-Luc Godard
2. Pierrot le fou (1965) 9.0 - Jean-Luc Godard
3. Passion (1982) 9.0 - Jean-Luc Godard
4. The Kid (1921) 9.0 - Charles Chaplin
5. Touch of Evil - Orson Welles (1958) 8.5
6. A bout de soufflé (1959) 8.5 [re-rated, down from 9.0]
7. Weekend (1967) 8.5 - Jean-Luc Godard
8. Nashville - Robert Altman (1975) 8.0
9. Memento - Christopher Nolan 8.0
10. Masculine, Feminine: 15 Precise Facts (1966) 8.0 - Jean-Luc Godard
11. Gold Rush (1925) 8.0 - Charles Chaplin
12. Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom - Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975) 8.0
13. A Woman of Paris (1923) 7.5 - Charles Chaplin
14. Synedoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman (2008) 7.5 [Re-Rated, Down From 8.5]
15. 2 ou 3 choise qui jeu sais delle - Jean-Luc Godard (1966) 7.5
16. Vivre sa vie (1962) 7.5 - Jean-Luc Godard
17. The Pilgrim (1923) 7.0 - Charles Chaplin
18. Alphaville (1965) 7.0 - Jean-Luc Godard
19. Bande à part (1964) 6.5 - Jean-Luc Godard
20. Les Carabiniers (1963) 6.5 - Jean-Luc Godard
21. Une femme est une femme - Jean-Luc Godard (1961) 5.5
AUGUST
1. Dancer in the Dark - Lars von Trier (2000) 9.0
2. INLAND EMPIRE - David Lynch (2006) 9.0
3. In the Bedroom - Todd Field (2001) 8.5
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Michel Gondry (2004) 8.5
5. Talk to Her - Pedro Almodovar (2002) 8.5
6. A History of Violence - David Cronenberg (2005) 8.5
7. The Departed - Martin Scorsese (2006) 8.5
8. 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days - Cristian Mungiu (2007) 8.5
9. There Will be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson (2007) 8.0
10. No Country for Old Men - Cohen (2007) 8.0+
11. Zodiac - David Fincher (2007) 8.0
12. You Can Count on Me - Kenneth Lonergan (2000) 8.0
13. The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson (2000) 8.0
14. Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola (2003) 8.0
15. Ghost World - Terry Zwigoff (2001) 8.0
16. Far From Heaven - Todd Haynes (2002) 8.0
17. In the Mood for Love - Wong Kar-wai (2000) 7.5
18. Cremaster 3 - Matthew Barney (2002) 7.5
19. American Splendor - Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini (2003) 7.5
20. Million Dollar Baby - Clint Eastwood (2004) 7.5
21. Squid & the Whale - Noam Baumbach (2005) 7.0
22. The Queen - Steven Frears (2007) 7.0
23. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - Cristi Puiu (2005) 7.0
24. Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee (2005) 6.5
25. United 93 - Paul Greengrass (2006) 6.0
26. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - Ang Lee (2000) 6.0
September
1. Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky (1975) 9.5
2. Eyes Wide Shut - Stanley Kubrick (1999) 9.0
3. Belle de Jour - Luis Bunuel (1967) 9.0
4. INLAND EMPIRE - David Lynch (2006) 9.0
5. Dogville - Lars von Trier (2003) 9.0
6. 400 Blows - Francois Truffaut (1959) 8.5
7. L'Age D'Or - Luis Bunuel (1930) 8.5
8. Los Olvidavos - Luis Bunuel (1950) 8.5
9. Un Chien Andalou - Luis Bunuel (1929) 8.0
10. Irreversible - Gaspar Noé (2002) 8.0
11. Capturing the Friedmans - Andrew Jawaki (2003) 8.0
12. Mystic River - Clint Eastwood (2003) 8.0
13. Cache - Michael Hanake 7.5 (2005)
14. The Beat That My Heart Skipped - Jacques Audiard (2005) 7.5
15. Artificial Intelligence - Steven Speilberg (2001) 7.0
16. The Incredibles - Brad Bird (2004) 7.0
17. Finding Nemo - Pixar -
OCTOBER
1. Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky (1975) 9.5
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968) 9.5
3. Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick (1975) 9.0
4. Slow Motion - Jean-Luc Godard (1979) 9.0
5. Dogville - Lars von Trier (2003) 9.0 [up from 8.5]
6. Manhattan - Woody Allen (1979) 9.0
7. Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese (1980) 9.0
8. The Virgin Spring - Ingmar Bergman (1960) 8.5
9. Bad Education - Pedro Almodovar (2004) 8.5+
10. Viaggio in Italia - Roberto Rossellini (1954) 8.5
11. 'Vertigo' - Alfred Hitchcock (1958) 8.5
12. Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa (1952) 8.5 [down from 9.0]
13. Letter From an Unknown Woman - Max Ophüls (1948) 8.5
14. Chinatown - Roman Polanski (1974) 8.5
15. Videodrome - David Cronenberg (1983) 8.0
16. Él (This Strange Passion) - Luis Buñuel (1953) 8.0
17. The Trial - Orson Welles (1962) 8.0
18. Dancer in the Dark - Lars von Trier (2001) 8.0 [down from 8.5]
19. The Idiots - Lars von Trier (1998) 7.0+
AUGUST
The Circus (1928) 7.5
City Lights (1931) 8.5
Modern Times (1936) 8.0
On deck: Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight---recommendations welcomed.
August 4
In the Mood for Love - Wong Kar-wai (2000) 7.5
August 5
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Michel Gondry (2004) 8.5
August 6
Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola (2003) 8.0
August 7
INLAND EMPIRE - David Lynch (2006) 9.0
August 8
Ghost World - Terry Zwigoff (2001) 8.0
August 9
Far From Heaven - Todd Haynes (2002) 8.0
August 12
The Queen - Steven Frears (2007) 7.0
August 14
The Passion of Joan of Arc - Carl Dreyer ? Remarkable in every way (except in how watch-glacingly boring it was.)
August 16
The Searchers - John Ford 8.0 (1956)
The Royal Tenenbaums - Wes Anderson (2000) 8.0
August 17
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - Ang Lee (2000) 6.0
A History of Violence - David Cronenberg (2005) 8.5
Talk to Her - Pedro Almodovar (2002) 8.5 Wow. must see.
August 18
Million Dollar Baby - Clint Eastwood (2004) 7.5
August 19
4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days - Cristian Mungiu (2007) 8.5
Cremaster 3 - Matthew Barney (2002) 7.5
August 20
No Country for Old Men - Cohen (2007) 8.0+ subtle mother. almost Kubrickian one might say. I admit I found it laborious to watch at times, yet it really stuck with me afterwards.
You Can Count on Me - Kenneth Lonergan (2000) 8.0
August 21
Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee (2005) 6.5
August 22
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - Cristi Puiu (2005) 7.0
The Departed - Martin Scorsese (2006) 8.5
August 23
There Will be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson (2007) 8.0
August 25
American Splendor - Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini (2003) 7.5
August 26
Flight of the Red Balloon unfinished. wasn't a fan
August 27
Zodiac - David Fincher (2007) 8.0
August 28
Squid & the Whale - Noam Baumbach (2005) 7.0
August 29
United 93 - Paul Greengrass (2006) 6.0
August 30
Dancer in the Dark - Lars von Trier (2000) 9.0 why hello Mr. von Trier. I don't believe we've met.
August 31
In the Bedroom - Todd Field (2001) 8.5
JULY
July 4
Touch of Evil - Orson Welles (1958) 8.5 “My game leg…it’s startin’ to talk to me”. Touch of Evil is one of the most twisted and funniest movies I’ve ever seen. It’s unrelentingly stylistic and massively entertaining. The lighting and photography are spectacular. The opening sequence where a camera crane follows the car around is stunning and delicate; the commotion with the newspapers blowing up and down the street and cars driving by with music blasting; the tension as the car gets stopped and people walk across and we’re never sure when it’s going to blow; and the sick humour of it all as packs of goats roam the streets and hat vendors rush by. Welles is the one of the first directors to make a really masterful use of tracking shots throughout his film, not to mention the pulsating on/off light, which reminds me of Vertigo. Also, I love the use of really long takes without cutting, like when Quinlan plants the dynamite on that Mexican guy. Some of the shots in this film actually remind me of shots from my favourite movies (done years later). The performances are so hysterical and get more absurd as the film unfolds. Quinlan is pretty ridiculous, but the Mexican gang leader is even more of a nut, but then the hotel night guy manager is a total basket case. I think that maybe Quinlan is a closet homosexual who can’t get it up any longer. He used to go over to that woman’s bar and eat her chilli and drink whiskey. Now he’s always sucking cigars and munchin’ chocolate bars. He switched from sweet, sweet juices to phallic objects. Poor guy. I love that piano riff.
July 5
Nashville - Robert Altman (1975) 8.0 Nashville is both a celebration of the magnificent power of art and a cynical exposition of how pathetic the music world can be. The numerous live performances are like tender gifts that touch our souls, moving our hearts with it’s gushing beauty and sending chills down our spine. It certainly gave me an appreciation for country and bluegrass, which I never really had before. Slide guitars and fiddles kick ass. So do religious themed lyrics. However, behind the scenes the musicians are quite ridiculous – selfish and shallow histrionic children running around like monkeys. The extensive cast is like a mosaic of American life. Whites, blacks, hippies, conservatives, people with disabilities – it’s a very multicultural town Nashville. It’s funny, Shelly Duvall’s character, the idiotic hippie slut is paralleled by the well educated pretentious British woman. They’re both shallow and naïve. Culture ultimately does not change who you are. On first viewing my initial impression was: long movie. A bit meandering. A bit rambling. A bit too stream of conscious. Yet full of beautiful moments. For instance, the opening shot (I mean the one after the late night monster derby commercial credit sequence) is subversively brilliant. In one room a rather controlling and authoritarian white guy is singing a song about all the triumphs America has accomplished in order to “last 200 years.” Immediately after, in the very next room, the British woman recounts how difficult it was to convert a Kenyan tribe to Christianity while she watches a Black choir (led by a white woman) singing “Do You Believe in Jesus?” Yes, how did America last 200 years. Hehe. On a side note: isn’t that that old creepy erudite homosexual from Magnolia who hits on Brad the bartender?
July 6
Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom - Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975) 8.0 “There are a thousand occasions when one does not desire a woman’s anus.” Haha! Wow, these nigs certainly know how to live the ‘good life’. Salo is elegantly filmed, generally tantalizing and one of the best oneiric experiences of film, though I thought it could have been significantly raunchier. My favourite part was the girl getting her scalp sliced open and peeled back. It also replaces Satyricon as the movie with the hottest male homoerotic action (settle down fellows, I’m still working on that list). It begins with such a chillin’ relaxin’ toe tappin’ rainy Sunday afternoon old fogey song that just waltz’ along. Probably the only way you can really open this movie, you need to give the audience some kind of rest. It also devilishly and unsuspectingly lulls the viewer under its spell to settle them down. The way Salo was filmed definitely does not exploit or glorify violence and cruelty. There are almost no hand-held up close shots; the camera is always set far back as if it were a spectator on the action. And so we sit looking in on the spectacle, and thus everyone will look upon it in their own way. One might watch gleefully like the Masters surely do, another would see it as unbearable torment like many of the Children do, however most I think will see it as a confusing mixture oscillating between both these vantage points.
July 8
Synedoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman (2008) Caden Cotard awakes one morning (with the taste of death on his lips) to find that everything is going wrong. His daughter is shitting green, the house is falling apart, his body is breaking down and it appears he is losing his mind. It’s a thick and forbidding atmosphere to say the least, but as if that wasn’t enough his wife is not even there to support him, she’s actually taking their child and moving out. The aching sadness of being abandoned by the one you love right when you need them the most is perhaps the most painful moment a man will face. The entire first movement is a nauseously macabre gauntlet of the longest sigh ever uttered and is nearly unequalled in its anguish. I want to say it’s like a Samuel Beckett play, although I’ve never read a Samuel Beckett play so I have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s the kind of stuff that makes me want to go into the woods and think of all the emotionally devastating moments in my life, the things I am most ashamed of and hurt by, and just weep uncontrollably into my hands. That being said, the later movements are actually very moving. There were multiple tender moments that nearly had me choked up. It’s a very moving and rewarding experience (not to mention an epic mindfuck). Kaufman’s directorial debut is a haunting and mesmerizing labyrinthine of intense confusion and beauty. Now I need to go lie down and think about this thing, about life. I need to sleep and to dream. Goodnight
July 9
Synedoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman (2008) 7.5 [Re-Rated, Down From 8.5] Too much editing!
Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard (1960) By my count, the most stunning debut ever.
July 10
Memento - Christopher Nolan 8.0
July 11-21 The Films of Jean-Luc Godard (updates bolded)
A bout de soufflé (1959) 8.5 [re-rated, down from 9.0] A bout de soufflé was a film with an identity crisis, something between a stylish American noir and a searching European art flick. It was as if Billy Wilder was directing a film with Michelangelo Antonioni. It centered on a man and a woman in Paris, both coolly facing a major life crisis. He wanted for murder, she pregnant with his child. The man (Paul) was a minor crook who dressed & acted like an American movie star. The woman was a responsible American student posing as a French intellectual. The tone was youthful but mature; the filmmaking adventurous but sophisticated. It feels about 5 years ahead of its time and it’s not easy to imagine how it came to be filmed in 1959. But despite being highly innovative, Breathless remains one of his most traditionally minded works.
Une femme est une femme (1961) 5.5 A Woman is a Woman was Godard’s first colour production and it is nearly unwatchable. Its most redeeming feature was a wholly uncharacteristic use of sound. Like in many films, music would play in the background while a scene unfolded. The only difference here was that in Godard’s movie, the music would stop and start abruptly and really called attention to itself. It was a jarring effect not without purpose. The music was attempting to signal real, fragile human emotions, moments of tenderness snatched away when the wrong thing is said, moments of clarity trampled by miscommunication. It was interesting but not particularly effective. Anna Karina’s performance as an unfulfilled housewife was agonizing to watch and nearly the entire film consisted of a couple arguing childishly about having a baby. What’s more, the lenses used gave the picture an amateurishly sentimental look.
Vivre sa vie (1962) 7.5 Vivre sa vie combines the graceful despair of Bergman with the compassionate pessimism of Fellini. It contains breathtaking acting from Anna Karina. She is utterly unrecognizable compared to her other work and her performance here totally makes up for her dumb twatery.
Les Carabiniers (1963) 6.5 The Riflemen was a sarcastic and subversive war movie, sort of like an ultra low-budget Strangelove.
Contempt (1963) 9.0 Le Mepris is his most expertly crafted film, or as Godard may have put it, his most “bourgeoisie”, because it was made on a large budget. Contempt has a psychological depth and aesthetic grace rarely matched. Its excellent cast, stunning cinematography, its emotional and intellectual passion, bring it right alongside the finest works of Fellini, Bergman & Antonioni as a textbook definition of “European art film”. There are political interpretations to be had, but Contempt remains essentially a battle between man & woman, order & irrationality, civilization & nature – a war likely to continue.
Bande à part (1964) 6.5 Band of Outsiders put an embarrassingly realistic spin on the Heist movie by featuring poverty-stricken youngsters turning to crime out of impatience. The leader was Arthur, a shrewd amateur with nothing left to lose, who manipulates both his dim mate Franz and the desperately lonely Odile, who is anxious for acceptance. Karina's acting is not drastically different from her more vomit-inducing roles, but here the part suits her. She plays a good brainless dope who is nevertheless sexually alluring.
Alphaville (1965) 7.0 Alphaville was a sci-fi/film-noir B movie with a laughable story and pathetic “special effects”, though it boasted excellent photography and some very imaginative sequences. Of all the ridiculous special effects, the reptilian voiced super-computer was the most absurd. It was another marriage of goofy plots and poetic musings. It is one of Godard’s strangest.
Pierrot le fou (1965) 9.0 On Pierrot le fou Godard finally found his own voice.
Masculine, Feminine: 15 Precise Facts (1966) 8.0 Masculin, Feminin is his most socially relevant work and one of his best films. It was Italian neo-realism copulating with Ingmar Bergman, yet injected with an uplifting joie de vive. The movie was shot entirely in black & white and is stylistically contained. The story was about the inspiring youth in France, the children of Karl Marx and Coca-Cola. It featured the endearing performance of (actor’s name) as a political idealist and romantic lover who pursues (character name), an adorable bubble gum pop star whose fame is rising (played by ?). As the title suggests, it was another meditation on the sexes. The boys were tense, skirt chasing activists burning with the desire to change society and get laid. The girls were more realistic, more mature & more dull. They had less to prove and were content fitting into society, whereas the boys were constantly battling it. It is nearly impossible not to fall in love with the fresh faced cast and Masculin, Feminin is one of his most concise works.
2 ou 3 choise qui jeu sais delle (1966) 7.5 Two or Three Things I Know About Her was a cleverly ironic idea resulting in a stylistic wreck of a film. It used an abundance of language to expose language's inability to fully communicate emotions and was a wispy ode to women in industrialized society. It is possibly his most pretentious - no mean feat for a Godard film and despite being a bit of a bore, it certainly contains a few sequences that average directors will never achieve. The memorable performance of Marina Vlady is one of his most flattering portrayals of women.
Weekend (1967) 8.5 Weekend is the director’s avant-garde masterpiece and contains his most successful “radical” experiments. It’s a sort of road movie concerning a ruthlessly selfish couple who rush across the country to inherit some money from a relative. Not only are they at odds with each other, but the entire society they find themselves in is engaged in destructive combat. Weekend continued Pierrot le fou’s liberation of Godard’s films from the realm of literature and even featured a famous writer being burned alive (somewhat ironic for a director who relied so often on poetry & verbal ranting to get his point across). The experience culminated as a chilling prophecy of the impending nihilism lurking just beyond the idealism of the 60s.
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1979) 9.0
Passion (1982) 9.0
Still need to see: Little Soldier (1963), Everything's Going Fine (1972), Number Two (1975), Hélas pour moi & Le Gai Savoir. Please recommend any other good films of his not listed.
Charles Chaplin
The Kid (1921) 8.5
The Pilgrim (1923) 7.0
A Woman of Paris (1923) 7.5
Gold Rush (1925) 8.0
JUNE
June 1
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene 8.5 Absolutely brilliant. Those Germans make excellent films (not to mention cars, razors & mass murderers).
June 2
Taxi Driver - Martin Scorsese (1976) 9.0 This is a great film, but I'm finally convinced that the ending is just bad. It's always confused me, ever since I first saw it. Why do the papers herald Travis as a hero for murdering those men? Why do Iris' parents thank Travis after he blew a man's brains out in front of her? I've always had a difficult time understanding so eventually I started to think "Aha! It's all a dream, or the power-fantasies of a psychotic!" The part where Travis is in his room saying "Here is someone who wouldn't take it no more...Here is" and the film loops back on itself - that must be where the film breaks from reality. Then, everything that happens afterwords, his bloody attempt to rescue Iris, the media fame, his recovery & return to his job, and finally his snubbing of Betsy at the very end were all in his imagination. This satisfied me. But, I watched the Special Features on the DVD and Schrader & Scorsese explain the ending as being a critique on how the media glorifies maniacs. Yet, I cannot think of any media article that called a sociopath a hero. Maybe I'm just out of touch, or maybe it's just a bad ending(?).
June 3
The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp - Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (1943) 8.0 I gave this film a weary glance before popping it in. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp…? From 1943? “I doubt this is going to be anything special.” Fortunately the film sets a raucous and lively tone from the get-go, with a fairly stylish opening sequence. It’s clear from the first 20 minutes this is going to be funny, delightful & full o’ life. Indeed, it’s very humourous and has a lot of dry wit to boot (“My English is not very much, but my friendship for you is…very much.”). The lead actor reminds me of Peter Sellers or Mike Myers (circa Austin Powers). Actually, the film reminds me a lot of Barry Lyndon, and anyone who enjoys that film should see Blimp. The filmmaking is excellent – the camera movements, photography, performances, costumes, and sets are all very good. There’s even a surprisingly imaginative way of showing how time passes in the film, with a sequence where trophy animal heads pop onto a wall accompanied by sounds of gun blasts, to show Clive has been off hunting. The most surprising aspect of the film is the underlying message and the date it was released (and I thought The Great Dictator was a gutsy move?) I love being surprised. I love it when my shallow judgments are undeniably refuted. I'm excited to see more from this director team.
June 4
I'm Not There - Todd Haynes (2007) [Re-Watch] stays at 6.5 I’m Not There shows how multifaceted a man Bob Dylan is, a chameleon who could be described variously as a: romantic idealist, individualistic womanizer, social activist, nihilistic drug-addict, preacher, irreverent poet, peaceful farmer, left bank bohemian, establishment’s darling and a restless rebel to name just a few. The story of Dylan’s life is not told in chronological fashion, but jumps between different periods, different personas, in order to show Dylan’s life can’t be neatly divided into different eras (“It’s like you got yesterday, today & tomorrow all in the same room.”) The many nods to the 60’s films of Fellini makes a lot of sense considering they came out around the same time as the events depicted in the film and that they also deal with isolation from those closest to you. Furthermore, the fact that Haynes is ripping off the style of Fellini is a metaphor for how Dylan would constantly adopt different musical styles (“It was never about folk songs, protest, social change…just bout jumping into a scene.”) But it needs to be said that I’m Not There isn’t about the life of Bob Dylan, just like the Bible isn’t about the life of Moses or Jesus, but rather it’s about the legend of Dylan. This doesn’t bother me at all, especially if it turns people onto one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. It certainly reminded me how Like a Rolling Stone puts me into a drunken cathartic trance or how that live harmonica solo from Mr. Tambourine Man (circa ’66) never fails to move me. That being said, I get the feeling Todd Haynes has always wanted to make a music video. The film is too uninterestingly subjective, too personal, too indulgent. Though don’t they say that of all the great films?
June 6
The Mirror - Andrei Tarkovsky (1975) 9.0 Tarkovsky’s blonde-haired protagonist is the most beautiful woman ever. The look of god shines in her eyes, the force of the earth pulses through her bones. She’s inextricably bound to nature: her body bursts with nourishment, her soul longs for freedom, her wisdom spies her destiny. Despite her gorgeous hair, slender neck and voluptuous features, she’s more goddess or saint than sex object; the mysterious creator able to breathe life into the most destitute of souls, the indifferent destroyer obliterating the greatest achievements with a cold elliptical gaze. Her sacred earthiness is weighed down by the unbearable sadness of abandonment…(to be cont.) If there is one thing a good film should be it’s – honest. If a film is genuine, you cannot ask for more. And The Mirror may be the most honest, soul bearing film ever.
June 7
Saw - James Wan (2004) 3.5 Pretty bad movie indeed, but I love watching bad movies. It's a nice way to unwind and recoil from the pressures of life and it's fun to giggle at how poorly they are made AND to marvel at how cool some parts of it are.
June 8
The Band Wagon - Vincente Minnelli (1953) 7.0 An excellently produced feel good musical about a washed up actor who returns to the height of fame. The musical numbers are slyly inserted and feel right at home. It must be a testament to my turgid intellectualism that I thought the most interesting part was the modern adaptation of Faust (those brief glimpses of Cordova's pitch were riviting!). After Faust fails, they create a musical that the many-too-many will be able to enjoy (and they lap it up). With Singin' in the Rain and now this, I can no longer say "I don't like musicals."
June 10
Contempt - Jean-Luc Godard (1963) 9.0 Contempt is a fascinating film that is no doubt overlooked. It's essentially a commentary of two issues: marriage & the film-making process. As such, it has many similarities with another 1963 masterpiece, Fellini's 8 1/2. And while it's not quite as accomplished as that work, it's certainly one of the best films of that year, and of the 60's for that matter. The issue of marriage is certainly front and center, perhaps making it the inverse of 8 1/2 (which at it's core was about film-making). The film concerns a classicist-leaning play write who is considering writing a movie script to bring in some extra money for him and his wife. The script in question is for a film directed by an accomplished filmmaker who is at odds with his dim and commercial producer. There is a parallel struggle in both the marriage and the film. In the marriage, the man is seeking security for his relationship, while his wife is starting to fall out of love with him. In the film, the director is striving to make an important work of art, while the producer continually belittles his choices. The play write and director are both very intelligent Apollonian men who try ardently to understand the world. The wife and producer are both very unpredictable Dionysian types (and both are excessively vain & shallow). The use of vibrant colours in the film does much to visualize the continual contradictions. Blue & Red are present in almost every shot, while the colour Yellow is often used as well as Green occasionally. Blue symbolizes contemplation, reflection, order and stability. Paul is almost always wearing a blue tie, he and Fritz sit on blue chairs while discussing the Odyssey in the studio, Camille studies a book of art alone in a blue outfit and headband. Red is power, chaos, domination & perhaps a lack of self-awareness. The producer Jack is a very loud and bombastic man who recklessly drives a red convertible, he wears a red tie while destroying reels of film (like a Greek throwing discus), Camille manipulates Paul in their flat while wearing a red towel, and Paul retrieves a gun behind some red books. The colours do much to draw attention to the oscillations in the characters' lives. Yellow seems to mean acceptance, complacency, while Green (used sparingly) seems to symbolize contempt itself. Camille changes into a green dress before revealing that she no longer loves Paul, that she “despises” him. All these colours can be seen together on a towel in Paul’s bathroom flat and in a painting on the wall. It's one of the most masterfully consistent uses of visual themes in a film. Godard must also be applauded for his combination of capturing archetypal human struggles in a highly experimental film. The opening sequence depicting a woman being filmed by a camera crew is one of the more bizarre intros of all time. The narrator recites the film credits in an unfittingly sentimental voice while the film crew moves along a track towards the viewer, eventually turning the lens onto us in ominous fashion. Just as creepy is the next scene in which Bridget Bardot lies naked, bathed in red light, asking her partner if he approves of her perfect body. He does. He makes an advance on her but; she’s not in the mood. The action goes from red to normal and reveals the blanket she’s lying on is yellow. As she continues asking him about her body, it finally changes to blue. Now, you would think the blatant use of hot & cold lenses to signal a change in the stories’ tone to be downright maudlin, but this scene is integral for hinting at the constant use of these colours to come. The camera work is brilliant. Godard finds many surprising techniques to sustain his images, to avoid making a cut, giving the film an unusually realistic vibe. His jump cuts are well timed. The film score is absolutely beautiful, lush and sweeping strings that pulsate joyful and harrowing tones.
June 11
Election - Alexander Payne (1999) 6.5 Good early offbeat comedy from Payne with some beautiful cinematography. The whole thing basically takes place in a school. Broderick and Witherspoon are great.
June 12
Hannah & her Sisters - Woody Allen (1986) 8.5 This is quite possibly Allen's most multifaceted and touching film, not to mention possessing an absolutely stunning cast.
June 13
STALKER - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) 9.0 STALKER is one of the most strikingly original films ever made. As I was watching I consistently had the feeling that I’ve “never seen anything like this before”. My feelings were even mirrored by the characters in the film who were embarking on a life-altering journey in a mysterious and dangerous place. It’s quite a miracle that Tarkovsky was able to invoke profound feelings of spiritual awakening in people sitting in front of a movie screen. Perhaps the film’s most extraordinary quality is the visuals. Starting in the Stalker’s home, the sepia-toned shots lend an exceedingly grimy look; then once out into the world the style changes to a foggy black and white; and finally when entering the Zone the picture changes to lush colour. This doesn’t even begin to explain how vastly different the visuals are from one setting to the next. This film definitely should have won an award or something. In terms of what STALKER is about, I’m not exactly sure. And while I cannot pretend to have cracked this nut, I can at least offer some initial observations (no matter how random). Firstly, it’s quite ridiculous how the Stalker fearlessly leads the men through a highly restricted area, evading patrolling guards and dodging machine gun bullets; but once inside the Zone he proceeds in a tortuously cautious fashion even though there’s no apparent threat. It’s a jarring dichotomy of suicidal recklessness and extreme religious meekness. It’s very ridiculous, if not in some ways touching. An interesting visual metaphor occurs when insects are seen landing or crawling on the characters’ bodies, as the men themselves are travelling across a living organism far too big to understand. It’s as if their knowledge of the Zone is equivalent to the bug’s knowledge of the human body it’s crawling on. As for the 3 men – what can be said about them? They would appear to be quite different from one another. Writer is an anal-explosive hedonist, a somewhat dopey, unorganized man who is both malicious and affectionate. Professor is a disciplined anal-retentive type, ethical and obedient if not somewhat clingy (my knapsack!). Stalker is surely the most interesting. He often seems alienated by the men’s intellectual arguments. Depending on how you look at it, he could be a bumbling primitive “cretin” or - a mystical seer with a divine gift. I get the feeling that the one probably depends on the other. He’s the dumbest of them, yet also the most profound. Few filmmakers can achieve the kind of overwhelming beauty that Tarkovsky strives for. The sequence in which the 3 men are resting, for example, and Stalker starts telling a story, and Writer has snuggled up to Professor after they’ve been arguing, and they’re both looking up at Stalker with hopeful eyes, Stalker, who has come to bring the lion and the lamb together. It’s breathtaking. Tarkovsky is like Cinema’s best kept secret.
June 14
La Notte - Michelangelo Antonioni (1961) 8.0 I'm getting the feeling Antonioni was way ahead of his time and also probably quite overshadowed by Fellini and granted, while not exactly a film historian, I'm getting the feeling that 1960-1963 was possibly the best years for film ever
June 15
The Exorcist - William Friedkin (1973) 6.5 Not as terrifying as I remember watching it when I was 13 years old (I couldn't even finish it). The Exorcist is decidedly visceral horror film with a little bit of psychological chills thrown in for good measure. It's kind of like the inverse of Rosemary's Baby, which is heavy on the psychology and light on thrills (and is in my opinion, a lot scarier). Rob Ager has made another excellent film analysis, full of remarkable insights I didn't even think about.
June 16
The Lady From Shanghai - Orson Welles (1947) 7.5 Pretty good film, especially that ending sequence, which was deliciously nutty. Welles is quickly becoming my favourite actor of all time. As for director...well, at this point I wouldn't rate him as highly as some others do, but he's up there. Citizen Kane may be the greatest film ever made and I'm excited to see Touch of Evil again.
June 18
The Conversation - Francis Coppola (1974) 8.5 God's Prick and Balls! Coppola is a master!
Jalsaghar (The Music Room) - Satyajit Ray (1958) 7.5 Good film that possesses one of the finest scores I've ever heard. Indian music is very cool.
June 19
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Martin Scorsese (1974) 7.0 Caught bits & pieces on Turner Classic Movies and was rather taken aback by this hysterically funny and endearing early Scorsese flick.
June 20
The Gospel According to St. Matthew - Pier Paulo Pasolini (1964) 8.0 Pasolini evokes the folksy spirit of the Gospels by casting non-actors in all the parts (like a true neo-realist). After watching the film, one cannot picture it working any other way. Even Scorsese's well-made Jesus flick, which used big-time actors, comes off feeling a little fraudulent compared to Pasolini's take. That's not to say the film isn't quite raw in it's production and contains more than a few flaws, but perhaps this is fitting as the New Testament is somewhat amateurishly composed. The directors use of music with his images is absolutely stunning (especially that scene where the dancing woman sells out John the Baptist). If you haven't read Matthew's Gospel, you should definitely check it out - it's a beautiful story. Then, you should definitely check out this film. /end proselytizing
Sweet Smell of Success - Alexander Mackendrick (1957) 8.0 Tony Curtis’ acting swings with jazzy poetics in this tale about the mindlessly destructive competition of big city entertainment columnists.
June 21
Rocco and His Brothers - Luchino Visconti (1960) 8.5 Rocco & his brothers tells the story of a tightly-knit family of hard working peasants who move to the city seeking riches. Their lives are tragically torn apart as their traditional values clash with the chaos of the modern world. Rocco, initially a quiet and unremarkable lad, eventually emerges as the family’s strong backbone (a la Michael Corrleone). The story is brilliantly written and captured in a remarkably believable way. I’m starting to strongly identify with Italian films of the Neo-Realist era of the 50’s & 60’s. They make film making look so easy and are so rewarding to watch – thematically, stylistically, spiritually…truly a beautiful film.
June 22
Performance - Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg (1970) 6.0 To the gas chambers Mr. Roeg
It Happened One Night - Frank Capra (1934) 6.0 You too Capra
June 23
The Palm Beach Story - Preston Sturges (1942) 7.5 Sturges is emerging as one of the greatest directors of the 40's. His Palm Beach Story has a similar structure to Sullivan's Travels, in which the characters embark on a journey of self-discovery, only to retreat back to their previous state at the end of the movie.
June 24
The Deer Hunter - Michael Cimeno (1978) 6.5 Okay Cimino, you get to work in the forced labour camp. But you only get 600 calories a day, so you won't be weeping long.
June 25
Battle of Algiers - Gillo Pontecorvo (1966) 8.0 Battle of Algiers is one of the all-time great war movies because of its uncanny blending of styles. It’s not only a war film; it’s also a thrilling western set in the industrialized world, following the rise and fall of an Algerian street thug who clashes with French authorities. What’s more, it plays like an accomplished documentary at times, exploring the Algerian War as a fascinating phenomenon of 20th century history. It never bothers to peddle a political ideology, nor does it moralize in the expected fashion. It simply uses the events to tell an exhilarating story of Colonialists and Oppressed destroying one another barbarically, and we end up siding with nobody. Instead we marvel at how many innocents they both kill through their equally dirty tactics and how courageous and clever they are in their ruthless schemes for victory.
June 28
Annie Hall - Woody Allen (1977) 8.5 Woody Allen is one of funniest Jews ever and one of the funniest men to ever work in film; his Annie Hall is also one of the all-time comedic masterpieces of the cinema. The movie begins with Allen addressing the camera with some sparse one-liners that appear fairly simplistic on the surface, yet he reveals how they relate to his profound, albeit pessimistic, outlook on life. He then lapses into a free association rant about aging, the drooling socialist, and finally gets to the point: his breakup with Annie. He’s using humour as a way to mask his pain, to avoid dealing with things that are emotionally disturbing to him. He talks to the audience as if they’re his analyst. As he begins recalling his childhood the scenes unfold in a very Felliniesque fashion with funny expressionistic imagery recalling Amarcord. The memories & flashbacks add to the already personal atmosphere, giving us an unusually intimate kinship with the director. His ideas as a filmmaker are quite astounding. That shot where Alvy explains to Max his anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, while the camera is focused on a tree and apartment building with people walking around and the street filled with cars appearing to film nothing until we see the two characters walk in from the corner; as if to show how meaningless our anxieties really are in the grand scheme of things. It’s weird to have someone who can make you laugh so hard, yet crafts films so realistically acted and maturely filmed. Allen’s rapid fire historical/psychological/pop cultural jokes are erudite, witty and ultimately hysterical. He’s a rational Jewish intellectual with an intense self-loathing who comes from a poor working class family. He falls in love with Annie, a quirky, eccentric, spiritual, middle-upper class genteel woman who unabashedly expresses what she’s feeling inside (turkey narcolepsy). Diane Keaton gives a remarkable comedic performance, and is nearly as funny as Allen. The film is roughly divided into two sections, a rise and fall of life and death instinct; comedy preceding tragedy. (This viewing I mostly focused on the first half, but there is more to say on second half in future.)
June 29
Persona - Ingmar Bergman (1966) 9.5 Persona is one of the greatest films of all time and will hopefully be remembered as one of the best works of art in the 20th century. It begins in a very uncharacteristic fashion, showing us strange shocking images we don’t normally see in movies: unsightly close-ups of old people, erotic cartoon character, slaughtered goat, creepy spider, man on fire; as if to say hey, I’m going to show you a different side of life, a side we normally keep hidden. The opening sequence is also a foreshadowing of Persona’s fragmented, and at times surreal, structure. Our story begins with actor Elisabet Vogler, who, while performing on stage one night, realizes her whole life is a lie: a meaningless series of dishonest performances, adopting different masks to suit the moment. Elisabet rebels by refusing to participate any longer in the grand façade and ends up hospitalized. The doctor diagnoses her with a typical case of existential despair and sends her on vacation with Nurse Alma, a hopeful, upbeat and naïve creature who eventually becomes the movies focal point. The two women spend leisurely days by the sea engaged in pleasing activities. They become very comfortable with each other and spend a fair bit of time talking; that is, Alma talks of her own life while Elisabet mutely listens. The turning point, the first turning point, occurs when Alma lucidly recounts her tale of the boy who came inside her on the beach, the infamous “orgy story”; one of the most exhilarating and worst things that ever happened to her, a story of paradoxical duality. Elisabet takes this all in with a cold analytical eye, smoking a cigarette. That night, in a hazy erotic sequence, Elisabet enters Alma’s room and sucks her neck like a vampire, while Alma willingly succumbs. This enigmatic scene shows how all this time Elisabet has been trying to seduce Alma. Elisabet craves to see Alma lose her faith in life’s meaning and excrete the confused desperation she keeps concealed, which Elisabet laps up lustfully. The next morning things have changed between the two women. Vogler has finally put on the deceptive mask she abandoned long ago, and lies lamely to Alma’s face (“were you in my room last night?”). The inevitable cycle has started again, just as the doctor said. Alma then discovers a letter Vogler has written that reveals her looking down on Alma like a child. Vogler has penetrated Alma’s deepest, darkest secrets and chuckled about it in a letter to a crony, like the lustful boys of the beach. It is eventually revealed, after the most confusing section of the film, that Vogler’s illness is attributable not to her disgust at the artificiality of human interaction, but to her guilt over abandoning her son. She could not pretend to love him so gave up the act. We are then faced with a striking image of interposed faces suggesting that these two women are nearly identical. This is an astonishing suggestion, since from the beginning they have seemed drastically different. Vogler - a detached, introverted intellectual with a manly rationalism; Alma – a passionate, emotional extrovert with a feminine unpredictability; yet both these women are constantly in denial of the darker sides of their nature, repressing what they would rather forget. Both of the characters (including the little boy at the beginning) turn to art to distract them from the turmoil in their own lives. It’s a profound statement on the creative process. When we are emotionally restless, instead of facing our problems head on, we divert our attention to other causes in order to purge our daemons (whether artistic, political or scientific). Life is an exasperating escape from what we cannot bear to look at. A flight that never ends. There’s something about the simplicity of Bergman’s masterpiece, the nakedness of the performances, the sparse yet striking cinematography, which is some of the best ever might I add, that really helps the viewer focus in on the essentials of what the story is about. It’s such a wonderfully unpretentious film, despite the rather avant-garde introduction. Persona could quite easily be the greatest film ever made.
MAY
05/01/09
The Shining - Stanley Kubrick (1980) [Re-watch] from 8.0 to 8.5 Been watching this movie all week after reading Rob Ager's analysis of the movie's hidden themes. It's made The Shining endlessly fascinating, even though I had already watched it nearly a dozen times. He has a great one on 2001 A Space Odyssey as well.
05/02/09
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - Larry Charles (2006) 7.0 Hilarious & innovative comedy that plays on the West's ethnocentrism & xenophobia. Not every segment knocks it out of the park, but when it works it's priceless.
05/03/09
Halloween - John Carpenter (1978) 6.0 I love the way this was filmed. The patient lingering camera work is haunting. You don't want to get scared by this movie with it's cliche script, weak acting & lame premise, but it's difficult not to be jolted. I somehow doubt those sequels are any good though.
05/04/09
2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968) Well, I'm making my way through this analysis and it's interesting. But mostly I just love sitting and watching this movie, without even really 'knowing' what I am seeing. I'll be humming The Blue Danube for the next few days.
05/05/09
The Pianist - Roman Polanski (2002) 7.0 I love a good movie about the Holocaust, though why do they always try to make you feel good? Come on, I like my unjust suffering! you don't need to pepper it with feelgoodism that is completely out of place and doesn't represent the experience of the Holocaust & WW2. I dunno, maybe I'm just bloodthirsty, mentally ill & anti-Semitic. But damn, if that isn't one of the sexiest Jewish families I've ever seen. Adrian Brody & his brother are particularly scintillating & his sister is pretty hot too (his mom & Dad are good for old people). I also like how the Germans soldiers were portrayed in a multi-dimensional way, in fact most of the performances are good like that. Good movie, no complaints aside from the feelgoodism...but Palme D'or & Oscar?
05/06/09
Alien [2003 directors cut] - Ridley Scott (1978) 7.5 Excellent sci-fi thriller
05/07/09
Forrest Gump - Robert Zemeskis (1994) 6.5 As far as episodic storytelling goes, this is well done.
05/08/09
The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppolla (1972) 9.5
05/09/09
Aguirre the Wrath of God - Werner Herzog (1972) 8.5 Music by Popul Vuh
05/10/09
Jaws - Steven Spielberg (1975) 5.5
05/11/09
Gertrud - Carl Dreyer (1964) 7.5 With the exception of some breathtaking camera work & stunning visuals, there’s nothing here that couldn’t have been easily accomplished on a theatrical stage. Like the Fassbinder film – Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant – the entire film consists of dramatic & philosophic conversations that reveal the characters’ past & aspects of their personality; in other words nothing “happens.” The (great) ideas are not dramatised and instead are merely talked about. Still, it’s stunning to look at.
05/12/09
Edvard Munch - Peter Watkins (1974) 8.5
05/13/09
Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu (1953) 8.5
05/14/09
Grizzly Man - Werner Herzog (2005) 6.5 Grizzly Man follows the adventures of Tim Treadwell – a good-natured nut with a profound connection with animals. Treadwell captures footage that is both thrilling & heart warming, though the documentary focuses heavily on his eccentric psyche.
05/16/09
Mulholland Drive - David Lynch (2002) 8.5 This is such a wonderful movie, I wonder if it's not a 9? Reason I rate it 8.5 is that I thought it dragged in certain parts. Anyhow, there are so many moments that keep flashing into my mind. Probably Lynch's best movie. Rob Ager is working on an analysis that is looking great thus far.
05/17/09
Ikiru - Akira Kurosawa (1952) 9.0
05/19/09
Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick (1975) 9.0
05/20/09
Fast Food Nation - Richard Linklater (2006) 5.0
05/21/09
The Wild Bunch - Sam Peckinpah (1969) [re-watch] from 8.5 to 8.0
05/22/09
Point Blank - John Boorman (1967) 7.5
05/23/09
Night of the Hunter - Charles Laughton (1955) 8.0
05/24/09
Sullivan's Travels - Preston Sturges (1941) 7.0
05/26/09
Apocalypse Now Redux - Francis Coppola (1979) I have no idea, I loved it and hated it
05/28/09
8 1/2 - Federico Fellini (1963) 9.5
05/29/09
The Great Dictator - Charles Chaplin (1940) 8.0 Wow. I cannot believe he made this movie. Perhaps what makes it all the more shocking is how funny it is. Didn't care for the ending though, felt hastily schlapped together and didn't exactly rouse my patriotism.
05/30/09
Safe - Todd Haynes (1995) 8.5 Egad! Where did this little wonder come from? By Jove, I've found a treasure! Now I'll have to watch I'm Not There again, this time without my Bob Dylan Blues!
05/31/09
The Philadelphia Story - George Cukor (1940) 7.0 Katherine Hepburn is something else - beautiful, sexy, smart, a tomboy...she might be the most beautiful actress ever
APRIL
April 2
Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941) 9.5/10
April 3
Dr. Strangelove - Stanley Kubrick (1964) [Re-Watch] from 8.0 to 7.5/10
April 4
Un Chein Andalou - Luis Bunuel (1929) 7.5/10
April 5
Scream - Wes Craven (1996) 6.5
While by no means a major work of art, Scream is a surprisingly competent & self-reflexive B(+) movie. It’s viscerally shocking, genuinely suspenseful, has a clever script & best of all – the performances are acceptable. I expected this 90’s smash hit would prove itself an embarrassing relic from my youth, instead I find the film has aged well.
Blue Velvet - David Lynch (1986) 8.5
Blue Velvet chronicles the journey of a young man’s Faustian quest for knowledge. The main character Jeffery Bowman hungers to observe and understand the mysterious gritty underworld lurking just beyond his quaint suburban upbringing. Over the course of his adventures, he discovers the confused desperation of Dorothy Valance and the uninhibited tyranny of Frank Booth, which opens his eyes to the darkest sides of human nature & the Patriarchal domination of the world around him. Jeffery ends his exhausting voyage by recoiling from the shocking nature of humanity, preferring to live out his life in mindless complicity, like most of us.
April 8
Barry Lyndon - Stanley Kubrick (1975) 9.0
April 9
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Milos Forman (1975) 7.5
April 13
Bringing Out the Dead - Martin Scorsese (1999) 7.5
In Bringing Out the Dead, Scorsese once again casts his archetypal leading man - the alienated depressed guy who is slowly starting to lose it. This time around, the man is a paramedic named Frank (Nicholas Cage) who is a sort of modern day visionary shaman. His true calling is to vindicate the endless pain & suffering going on in the city by being a witness, while healing people appears to be a secondary task.
Now these are pretty romantic ideals for a medic and they are quickly refuted when he brings the victims back to the savagely crowded hospital, which looks like an 18th century insane asylum. While Frank takes his duty seriously, the staff at the hospital don’t. The doctors & nurses are jaded from seeing the same faces, the same ailments everyday. They’re tired of treating drug addicts who have overdosed or criminals chasing the American dream. The hospital is a cesspool where the worst traits of human nature are collected.
After this Frank & his partner Larry cruise in the ambulance, drinking on the job and heading for some greasy fast food; their blazing sirens and uniforms ensure a sort of priestly superiority over the people on the street, though they clearly have the same poor diets and drug dependencies. Frank’s three partners represent a trichotomy of his personality. Larry (John Goodman) is a complicit social climber symbolizing security; Tom (Tom Sizemore) is a sadistic misanthrope who is in it for the adventure and chaos; and Marcus (Ving Rhames) is a devout Catholic indoctrinated into a simpler, more manageable way of interpreting the world.
Ving Rhames’ character Marcus is also a demagogue who capitalizes on the theatrical nature of religion in order to convert people into his way of thinking. He is a reflection of the pervasive Catholic influence on the surrounding culture and its ability to appeal to our primitive minds in order to maintain patriarchal domination (a theme in several Scorsese films). In one scene, Marcus cruises downtown in the ambulance, looking for young whores while waving a wad of dollar bills. His chasing of women with cash invokes the institution of marriage that is so important in Catholicism, where marriage is an economic transaction enhancing the sexual dictatorship of men and the economic viability of women (not exactly a ‘sacred act’). Frank is on the fringe of this Christian culture because he embodies the true spirit of Jesus by treating everyone as equals, wanting genuinely to help people, and by not judging anyone (fascinating how this is outside the norm). Frank is searching for a woman himself, but he wants understanding, companionship, & peace.
Nicholas Cage is really an excellent actor. He is great at playing a man who’s self is fragmented in two (see Adaptation). At times he is introverted, depressed, withdrawn & at others he is youthful, jubilant, & outgoing, a true Gemini. Patricia Arquette is very beautiful in a tortured girl-next-door sort of way. She’s neither perky nor phony, but genuine, concealing a great sadness behind her compassionate exterior. The supporting cast is uncommonly good, with a surprising performance by salsa superstar Marc Anthony as Joel, a highly deranged & misunderstood fellow.
The Soundtrack is typical Scorsese pop perfection ranging from Van Morrison, R.E.M., Natalie Merchant, Reggae, Gothic Rock, & Punk Music, which is aptly placed and interspersed with an ambient film score. What unites all the different styles on the soundtrack is that the songs are all reactions to the gritty, oppressive surroundings of inner city life.
If Bringing Out the Dead is trying to say anything it’s probably that social institutions like health care & religion tackle rather superficial problems of Man and fail to offer lasting solutions to his spiritual plight. If Man wants to escape from the maze of his predicament, the only way is perhaps to reach out to others and form meaningful personal relationships.
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore
Screenplay: Paul Schroeder based on the book by Joe Connelly
121 min rated R
April 14
Satyricon - Federico Fellini (1968) 8.0
After having made his name as a true original with his neo-realistic films of the 50’s, Fellini’s art progressed into realms of experimental surrealism throughout the next decade with Satyricon being the orgiastic culmination of this trend and certainly his weirdest film to date. The visual style is otherworldly & disorientating like a Bosch painting. The magical visuals compliment the plot, which unfolds in a chaotic Dionysian debauchery of dance, food, drink & sex. The world of Satyricon is bursting at the seems with extroversion; life is a theatre and everyone is performing, whereas the sacred inner world of memories & dreams that guided the protagonists of earlier films (8 ½, Juliet) is gone, replaced by contemplative Apollonian digressions told by poets & storytellers. As bizarre as the world of Satyricon and the Romans is portrayed, one can deduce many similarities with our own culture. For example, the aristocracy lives in decadence at the expense of multitudes of slaves, highlighting the class differences apparent in modern society. Actually, watching this film gave me a sense of how tame and dull the world of ‘civilized beings’ has become, but I suppose it does have it’s perks. Did I mention the film is quite wordy (like its reviewer)? Or that the main characters are two of the most beautiful men I have ever seen? Or that if they ever invented a time machine I would go back to Roman times and get me one of them boy prostitutes and not come back because people today frown upon that kind of stuff (the prudes)?
Staring: Martin Potter, Heriam Keller
Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi Story based on the Petronius Classic
Produced: Alberto Grimaldi
Music: Nino Rota
2 Hours 9 Min
Distributed by: MGM, United Artists
April 15
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial - Steve Spielberg (1982) 6.0
The half-baked moral and philosophical yearnings I deduced from this fine peace of escapist entertainment are really quite a stretch, only a fleeting projection of mine that I will spare thee from (if you want some of those lame projections, see my other reviews). The problem I have with E.T. is that I cannot figure out what interested Spielberg to make it. What I do know is that E.T. the creature is a ridiculously solipsistic portrayal of intelligent life off the earth. ‘He’ makes these whimpering noises like a little child, grunts like a dog, purrs like a cat, and moans like a randy little goat. In other words, the little guy is an adorable, yet wholly unrealistic vision of extra terrestrial life. I assume the intended affect of this rational avoidance is to make the alien easier to relate to. And it works – it’s positively traumatic to see E.T. dying is stark decay. As for the filmmaking, it’s actually quite good. Spielberg’s camera glides gracefully through the sleepy streets of upper-middle class California and as usual, the special effects add a lot. The men who are searching for E.T. are all filmed from a child’s perspective with waist high shots focusing on inane objects such as the jingling keys and the flashlights. The family dynamic is believable, the kid actors are great. But, aside from being entertaining, it left me wondering – what was the point?
Staring: Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Drew Barrymore & Henry Thomas as Elliot
Music: John Williams
Produced: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
Written: Melisa Mathison
2 Hours 1 min
April 16
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back - Irving Kurshner (1980) 7.5 Oddly enough, I was not affected by the Star Wars craze when I was growing up. Mind you, I was very much aware that people loved these films, but because I wasn’t allowed to watch ‘violent’ movies, I hadn’t ever gotten into it. In some ways, I wish I had been into the Star Wars scene, because I would have played an excellent C-3PO or Princess Leia with my friends out in the woods. Anyways, now I’m older and generally sceptical of things that everybody likes, because I often find that they are not as good as everybody says. That being the case, I was surprised by this pop culture phenomenon. Pleasantly surprised. For starters, the film is incredibly effective at creating an engrossing science fiction universe. The intricate detail on the ships, the imaginative aliens and locales, the compelling characters and costumes…Star Wars is one of the great adventure movies. My favourite character was indubitably Hans Solo (Harrison Ford), the individualistic womanizing handyman, who looks like he just stepped out of a Western. Princess Leia, whose panties quickly became damper than a sweatshop workers’ back, is no match for his charismatic charms. Luke Skywalker is a fledgling young person trying to find his footing in life, but he defintinely grows throughout the film. He’s initially portrayed as weak and flaccid, always needing someone’s help (unlike Solo), and thus it’s a surprise when he turns out to be the films hero. Chewbacca is the giant gorilla looking dog thing covered in hair, who communicates through his oft-imitated signature grunt. He’s Hans’ partner or pet, and reflects the primal, emotional, go-with-your-gut instincts that Solo embodies. The pee coloured droid, C-3PO, is like a crudely imagined English stereotype, “oh dear, I’m dreadfully sorry!” He’s always quoting stats and figures and getting in the way, “oh my, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Of course, they never listened to his warnings and always come out on top, as if the irrational, impulsive aspects of man are going to trump the analytical, intellectual side. Who knows, maybe it’s a commentary on American/British dynamics (going once…going twice?). Yoda’s awesome. I want a cute little Yoda doll to sleep with at night (can’t wait for Christmas). The philosophy in the film is pretty cool too, the Force & Dark Side/ Light side. Empire Strikes Back has both a brain & a heart. It’s exciting and a lot of fun to watch. It’s more then just cool special effects and I’m surprised I haven’t seen it until now.
April 17
American Beauty - Sam Mendes (1999) 6.5
April 18
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi - Richard Marquand (1983) 5.5
April 19
Deep Impact - Mimi Leder (1998) 3.0/10
Apparently this is better than Armageddon. Note to self: skip Armageddon.
April 20
The Matrix - Wachowski Brothers (1999) 8.0
April 22
M - Fritz Lang (1931) 8.5
April 23
Decalogue I-III - Krzysztof Kie?lowski (1989) 8.5
April 24
Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock (1954) 7.5
MARCH
March 1
The General - Buster Keaton (1927) 7.0/10
Some Like it Hot - Billy Wilder (1959) 8.0/10
March 2
Rosemary's Baby - Roman Polanski (1968) 8.5/10
In actuality the film may be a supernatural horror film, but I like it better as a psychological thriller. When seen from the point of view of Rosemary's naive psyche, the story becomes even more terrifying.
March 4th
Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean (1962) 7.5/10
This is an epic, captivating film. Who cares that it takes 4 hours to watch - it doesn't drag for a moment.
March 5th
City Lights - Charles Chaplin (1931) 7.5/10
So far, the best Chaplin film I've seen.
March 6th
Rio Bravo - Howard Hawks (1959) 7.0/10
It's a homey, heart-warming film because it doesn't lay it on too thick. The characters are frank & unpretentious, as are the shootout sequences. Overall, a very satisfying film.
March 7th
The Wizard of Oz - Victor Flemming (1939) 6.0/10
A staggeringly impressive production of a remarkably idiotic story.
My Darling Clementine - John Ford (1946) 8.0/10
A must-see Western.
March 8
Gone With the Wind - Victor Fleming (1939) 5.5/10
See above review of Wizard of Oz.
Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) 7.5/10
Stagecoach - John Ford (1939) 6.0/10
How is this film held in higher regard then My Darling Clemintine? I can tell Ford is a great director, but he's also somewhat hit-and-miss.
March 9th
Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) [Re-Watch] from 7.5 to 8.5/10 The Stalker is like a shaman or priest who has the utmost reverence for the mysterious Zone. Stalker is convinced that the Zone punishes those that don’t ‘behave’ and leads the Artist & Scientist on a tedious expedition. It is unclear if his inklings, born of much guided learning & experience, are warranted, or if they are simply primitive superstitions.
Singin' in the Rain - Gene Kelley & Stanley Donen (1952) 7.0/10
A very funny and charming film.
My Darling Clementine - John Ford (1946) [Re-watch] 8.0/10
March 10
That Obscure Object of Desire - Luis Bunuel (1977) 7.5/10
Dogma - Kevin Smith (1999) 6.5/10
March 11
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant - Rainer Fassbinder (1972) 7.0/10
March 12
On the Waterfront - Elia Kazan (1954) 8.0/10
An exceptional film, though I thought the ending was blandly optimistic.
March 13
That Obscure Object of Desire - Luis Bunuel (1977) [Re-watch] 7.5/10
March 14
Eyes Wide Shut - Stanley Kubrick (1999) 8.0/10
Man With a Movie Camera - Dziga Vertov (1929) 8.0/10
March 15
Grand Illusion - Jean Renoir (1937)
March 16
Viridiana - Luis Bunuel (1961) 8.5/10 It’s a thrilling story that bears many striking resemblances to another early 60s masterpiece – Fellini’s Dolce Vita. Bunuel is not quite as playful nor as visually vibrant as the Italian master, yet there are many similarities. This film is decidedly dark, starkly realistic, and utterly amoral. There is imagery & symbolism sure, but it’s less ambiguous, more in your face, stripped down to the bear essentials, which is remarkably refreshing. Viridiana contains a powerful undercurrent of social critique, one that is so relevant and insightful, it’s nearly traumatizing.
March 17
The Lady Eve - Preston Sturgess (1941) 6.5/10
March 19
Playtime - Jacques Tati (1967)
March 20
Manhattan - Woody Allen (1979) 8.0/10 I think it takes a general, though by no means extensive, understanding of philosophy & film history to connect with many of the jokes and appreciate the stylistic nods. It’s doubtful that I would have made the connections even a year ago. For this, I would say the film is quite pretentious and yet that seems to be intentional. The core of the story exposes the inevitable hypocrisy inherent in human nature. Allen loathes pseudo-intellectuals and lambasts them with much indignation, yet he is one himself (and hates himself for it). He’s a shrewd fraud – in one scene he criticizes a woman for letting her intellect control her life (he wants to kiss her). In another, he pushes a woman away with rational foresight of their futures (he’s in love with somebody else). The film is constantly admiring & deriding high culture. It’s probably his funniest and best written film, yet I don’t want to show it to anybody.
March 21
Apocalypse Now - Francis Coppola (1979) : |
Full Metal Jacket - Stanley Kubrick (1987) 8.0/10
March 26
Once Upon a Time in America - Sergio Leone (1984) 7.5/10
Grapes of Wrath - John Ford (1940)
March 28
Lolita - Stanley Kubrick (1961) 7.5/10
March 29
Band of Outsiders - Jean-Luc Godard (1964) 6.0/10
Winter Light - Ingmar Bergman (1962) 8.0/10 My favourite of the 'trilogy' and one of Bergman's best.
March 30
The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman (1957) 8.5/10
March 31
The Killing - Stanley Kubrick (1956) 8.0/10
FEBRUARY
February 6
Shining - Stanley Kubrick 8.0/10
A thematically rich shock of horror about ghosts, isolation, ESP, & rational man's frustration towards emotional intuition. Also a subtle commentary on America's historical "genocide" against natives, blacks, & women. One of the few films that gets scarier the more you watch it.
February 7
Shawshank Redemption - Frank Darabont (1994) 5.5/10
“Prison is no fairy-tale world,” remarks method actor Morgan Freeman in one of the more overrated films of all time. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Shawshank is – pure box office. It is baffling that a film set in a penitentiary can ignore how prison brings out the absolute worst in man. Darabont’s highly regarded mediocrity is a watered down message of unrealistic hope. The only reason I watched it all the way through was to glimpse Freeman and Tim Robbins consummate their intimate longings for one another, which was practically oozing out of several scenes. Suffice to say, I was let down as there was not even a tantalizing inter-racial homosexual love scene on the beach.
February 8
Léon the Professional - Luc Besson 6.0/10
The flicks’ preposterous premise is buoyed by the undeniable chemistry between Leon and Mathilda. Leon is a monk like hit man with a priestly approach to his craft; Mathilda a charming orphan (strikingly played by a young Natalie Portman) who seeks revenge. The baddie is an eccentric pill-popping babbler who loves Beethoven. It is satisfying as neither an action film nor a love story, but it tries genuinely to be both.
February 9
Sideways – Alexander Payne (2005) 6.5/10
Giamatti’s misanthropy is laid out in the opening scenes – embellished by his choice of the dark cake - and it's nice to see a film about someone human. Miles is a reprehensible man balanced by his friend Jack - the yin-yang, light to his dark. This film has an unbounded appreciation for wine; in fact, that alcoholic beverage is more lovable than the great female supports. Not a knockout, but props on the score, the script, & the occasionally well photographed shots.
February 10
Wings of Desire - Win Wenders (1987) 9.0/10
Overwhelming cacophony of our most intimate fears & desires. Most beautifully poetic, charmingly amusing, & inspirational moments of Fellini along with haunting & distraught sentiments of Bergman..filmed with the patient grace of Tarkovsky quite literally sustained for the entire experience.
Usual Suspects – Bryan Singer (1995) 7.5/10
A superbly crafted crime thriller with an intricate plot whose well-rounded machismo cast is balanced by Spacey’s performance.
February 11
Do the Right Thing – Spike Lee (1989) 7.0/10
Inspired story of prejudice, racial tension, and urban life.
February 12
There Will Be Blood – Paul Thomas Anderson (2007) 7.0/10
A parallel narrative to modern American history, that is: religion and oil. It is an ambitious and rather unique film.
Throne of Blood – Akira Kurosawa (1957) 7.0/10
A fine epic myth of ancient warriors too terrified to look into their own hearts.
February 13
Solaris - Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) 7.5/10
The splendor of his images more than make up for the befuddlement of his dialogue (which nearly sabotaged an intriguing story.) Solaris is my first taste of Tarkovsky; I was impressed and I am looking forward to seeing both Stalker & Mirror - as I have heard they are fantastic.
Good, the Bad, & the Ugly - Sergio Leone (1966) 8.0/10
February 14
Bananas - Woody Allen 5.5/10
‘Bananas’ produces its share of laughs through a bizarre fusion of intelligentsia in-jokes and lowbrow humour, but beware - the film making is sloppy.
Splendor in the Grass - Elia Kazan 8.5/10
February 15
Eraserhead - David Lynch (1977) 8.0/10
Absurdly disgusting & disturbing because it is an accurate portrayal of what life feels like.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - John Ford (1962) 6.5/10
February 16
A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick (1971) 9.0/10
February 17
Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein (1925) 8.0/10
Metropolis - Fritz Lang (1927) 9.0/10 Perhaps this will become a 9.5 once the completely restored version is released.
February 18
Through a Glass Darkly - Ingmar Bergman (1961) 7.5/10
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Bunuel (1972) 8.0/10
Bunuel’s bourgeoisie are despicable creatures indeed, showing a severe lack of introspection and emotional conviction. They are interested primarily in fashion, fine food, & personal wealth rather than a person’s ideas – that is, Bunuel’s rich place rigid importance on simulacrums at the great expense of profundity; these could well be the ‘plastic people’. Who cares that their friend is ambassador to a country with one of the most atrocious governments on the planet (and is constantly denying it)? He is eloquent, well dressed, and has ‘proper tastes’. The commoners in the film are far more down to earth & aware of themselves, recounting dreams and respecting one another (as opposed to ducking their guests to frolic in the garden.) The surrealism is subtle and delicate, as it seems the director was able to find ample absurdity in the ordinary lives of the upper class.
February 19
Contempt - Jean-Luc Godard (1963) 9.0/10
A scathing exhibition of contempt for vain attention seeking humans more interested in luxurious profits than expressing and understanding one's feelings & motivations. The struggle between mindless complicity and spiritual conviction is framed in several ways, but what resonates most deeply is the rift between two lovers, which results in repulsive clinging and murderous rage. A wonderful film.
Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese (1973) 7.0/10
February 20
Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa (1950) 8.0/10
Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder (1944) 8.0/10
Exceptional dialogue and great story, on par with Tarantino. The entire cast closely resembles that of David Lynch's Lost Highway (I found this undeniable and quite odd).
February 21
Last Laugh - F. W. Murnau (1924) 8.5/10
A devastatingly humorous film about a pitiful working class man whose shallow persona is crushed when he is demoted from door attendant to bathroom assistant. The pacing is remarkably realistic yet the story is told subjectively from the protagonist’s point of view – this combination of realism & expressionism works completely. The saddest part of the film is the futile attempt of the poor to mimic the lofty status of the bourgeoisie and what results when the farce is up.
12 Angry Men – Sydney Lumet (1957) 8.0/10
A surprisingly poignant chamber, or rather, closet film displaying the importance of independent thought amidst herd mentality. Lee J. Cobb gives a rousing performance as the would-be executioner for the accused – a beady-eyed Kafka-looking mother (reference to The Trial? probably not, but dang, that kid was weird looking).
February 22
The Silence - Ingmar Bergman (1963) 7.0/10
La Dolce Vita - Federico Fellini (1961) 8.5/10
February 23
Raging Bull - Martin Scorsese (1980) 9.0/10
One of the finest films I have ever seen.
Contempt - Jean-Luc Godard (1963) 9.0/10 (2nd viewing)
Watching this again only reinforced what a masterpiece it is. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy Godard.
February 24
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Bunuel (1972) 8.5/10 (2nd viewing)
Fellowship of the Ring - Peter Jackson (2001) 4.5/10
I liked: The score, Bilbo & Frodo, the animation, the photography (NOT the editing, which was WAY too frequent).
I disliked: Everything else. Did not like the way this movie was directed, performances were tacky, story was cliche. I personally believe this to be one of the most overrated films of all time.
February 25
Rashomon - Akira Kurosawa (1950) 7.5/10 (2nd viewing)
February 26
Rosemary's Baby - Roman Polanski (1968) 8.5/10
Rosemary is a housewife hungry for a child to bring to her breast and she's married to a sarcastic handsome young devil. As the plot unfolds we assume Rosemary's illness is attributable to either her mistrust of her husband or her naive psyche warped by a Catholic upbringing & that the fantastic elements will be explained as psychological troubles. What a horrific shock it is then, when the supernatural completely takes over to deliver a shudderingly creepy experience.
February 28
The Apartment - Billy Wilder (1960) 7.5/10
A superb romantic comedy well ahead of its time. Worth another look.
2001: A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick (1968) 9.5/10.0
Without a doubt, the best movie I have seen. After having this in my collection for about 7 years, I'm amazed at how it continually gets deeper after subsequent viewings. This masterwork hit me harder than any film.
Wild Strawberries - Ingmar Bergman (1957) 9.0/10
Wow, I forgot how exceptional this movie is. Bergman really is one of the all time greatest.
JANUARY
January 1
A Scanner Darkly - Richard Linklater 7.0/10
January 2
I Heart Huckabees - David O. Russell 7.0/10
January 3
Before Sunrise - Richard Linklater 8.0/10
January 5
Sunset Boulevard - Billy Wilder 9.0/10
January 7
I'm Not There - Todd Haynes 6.5/10
January 9
Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg 8.0/10
January 31
Persona - Ingmar Bergman 9.0/10
though i like it more now, i wasn't keen on raging bull on first viewing, however i did enjoy it a lot more when i rewatched it few weeks ago. The sound editing and mixing during the fight scenes are amazing
I felt the same way when I saw it a few years ago, but watching it again recently made a huge impression on me. It is such a sober film, it has a simple point to make and does it delicately (but firm). Jake came across to me as man who dislikes mostly everyone, society in general he couldn't give a fuck. He does things his own way, it's always been like that. His independence actually helps him become a great boxer, but it also (paradoxically) causes him a lot of trouble both in the ring & with his family/friends. It's such a sad story as Jake is ultimately doomed to be alone, hating himself. The very qualities that propelled him to fame, are the ones that cause his demise. He is such a contradictory figure, he never lets anyone tell him what to do yet he expects people to obey him. And it hurts so much to watch this unfold because we are very much like Jake in our own way. Other than the story, I also loved the way it was filmed, the performances, the music, the photography, it's such a sincere and genuine film with no pretensions. I agree that the fight scenes are amazing, they add a really great counter-point to the rest of the film. Anyhow, thanks a bunch for writing!
brilliant points about Jake, well put indeed. De Niro in his prime was amazing, its a shame about his recent movie decisions. I think Raging Bull is my fave de niro performance, but he was also great in taxi driver and deer hunter. You a fan of pacino's work ? my fave pacino performance is by far his work in Dog Day Afternoon
"I think Raging Bull is my fave de niro performance, but he was also great in taxi driver and deer hunter."
I agree, Raging Bull is also my favourite de Niro performance. Taxi Driver or Godfather II are a close second. Sadly, I have not seen Deer Hunter yet, though I hope to see it soon.
"You a fan of pacino's work?"
Yes, I think he's one of the greatest actors ever, though I am basing that solely on the Godfather films as I haven't seen much else from him - but his performance as Michael was enough to convince me.
Thanks so much for the nod to Rob Ager. His website and analyses are off-the-hook amazing! The social commentary in "The Shining" is fascinating. Can't wait to re-watch it.
His Shining article has got to be the best analysis of a Kubrick work I've come across. I spent 4 days watching the Shining for at least an hour each day dissecting scenes that I had always thought were uninteresting. And now every time I think about it I start to get spooked (especially the Danny/Bear connection)
Have you only seen the Redux edition of Apocalypse Now? If so, you need to toss that thing and get the theatrical cut. The Redux far longer than the film needs to be, and the added scenes really don't add anything to the film's impact.
I'm glad you mention that, because I was thinking this film was a 9 at times, but I'd probably give Redux a 7.5-8. I'll have to see the original. Definitely a bold film.
So glad to see you give the beautiful 8½ a 9.5 rating, possibly my favourite of all time. Fellini's style is brilliant, even on a superficial aesthetic level every shot just seems so right, and looks so pretty. Guido's existential ennui is so perfectly realised that the identification with the character is absolute (for me anyway). If Marshall butchers Nine (which is very likely) I will be very upset, thought hopefully DDL's performance will give it some saving graces. Even if somehow he pulls a masterpiece out of his ass, having Fergie as Saraghina is inexcusable.
I think 8 1/2 was the first film I watched and thought of the film maker, "He's my brother, my twin, my soul mate. This is the kind of movie I would make." And yet, the more I watched it, the more I realized I couldn't possibly imagine something that conveys the confusion of existence so concisely, let alone capture it on film. It could very well be #1, but personally I'd rather watch The Godfather or Citizen Kane because they're more accessible and equally brilliant.
I haven't heard of Marshall or Nine, though after reading about it - sounds intriguing. Seems like there's a lot of 'talent' queuing up for that one. Fergie would have to eat a lot of veal, I would think, to attain the physique of Saraghina. In any case, if Marshall butchers it, us 'Fellini followers' will be ready to attack him, angry mob style, with chants of "VERGOGNA!"
I love the ending of Taxi Driver, but I admit it is frustrating. It's a case where I think watching the film can give the ending more meaning and multi-dimensionality than listening to Scorsese talk about it. I think the notion of the media (at least, the media that catered to the counterculture of the time) getting behind a vigilante anti-hero was more common in the late 60s/early 70s. After all, isn't that a theme of films like Bonnie and Clyde and Dog Day Afternoon too? Nonetheless, surely you can still see examples of media glorification of violence in today's day and age. But I think it doesn't matter to me whether it's the real world lionizing Travis, or merely his own delusional mind imagining it to be so. I think part of the point of the movie is to blur the line between reality and the delusions of a sociopath, which is one reason I find it so brilliant.
Or, as Roger Ebert puts it: "The end sequence plays like music, not drama: It completes the story on an emotional, not a literal, level... Throughout the film, [Travis's] mental state has shaped his reality, and at last, in some way, it has brought him a kind of peace."
You're absolutely right, artworks speak for themselves and say different things to different people. Good observations on counter culture media, I never thought about it like that (and haven't seen either of those films). I've seen glorification of violence sure, but I cannot easily recall seeing the glorification of a man who killed innocents (that's usually frowned upon). Excellent points in your post. The film definitely still ranks highly.
After thinking it over, I actually can picture maniacs being glorified by the media. For starters, the military comes to mind as wars fought for even the noblest causes always involve collateral damage. The Vietnam War in particular resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and it appears Travis was involved in that war. Also, police officers who exterminate seedy characters while on the job often are hailed as heroes. Cowboys are perhaps the ultimate heroes though they’re racist and trigger-happy. Travis is even referred to as copper, cowboy and killer. The ending suddenly seems a lot less ridiculous and a lot more poignant.
There’s something quite ironic about a highly disciplined man who’s repressed (or shall we say dejected) sexuality explodes into a messy bloodbath. His disgust at the shameless debaucheries of the city arises from his frustrated desires for lust and power. What he hates about the trash on the streets is what he hates about himself. He illegally buys up all the guns he can, pops pills, boozes, goes to porno theatres…then acts indignantly when offered drugs or pussy; a walking contradiction - like Uncle Sam.
When I get a chance, I'll put in some of Pauline Kael's words on this.
Christ, Taxi Driver has become about twice as fascinating as it once was. I never realized just how brilliant it is. Thanks for your response AJ.
OK, here is Kael's take on the ending:
"The violence in this movie is so threatening precisely because it's cathartic for Travis. I imagine that some people who are angered by the film will say that it advocates violence as a cure for frustration. But to acknowledge that when a psychopath's blood boils over he may cool down is not the same as justifying the eruption. This film doesn't operate on the level of moral judgment of what Travis does. Rather, by drawing us into its vortex it makes us understand the psychic discharge of the quiet boys who go berserk. And it's a real slap in the face for us when we see Travis at the end looking pacified. He's got the rage out of his system–-for the moment, at least--and he's back to work, picking up passengers in front of the St. Regis. It's not that he's cured but that the city is crazier than he is." (italics added)
She says this earlier too:
"In its own way, this movie, too, has an erotic aura. And that's what it's about: the absence of sex--bottled-up, impacted energy and emotion, with a blood-splattering release. The fact that we experience Travis's need for an explosion viscerally, and that the explosion itself has the quality of consummation, makes Taxi Driver one of the few truly modern horror films."
Solid insights from Kael. That’s more or less exactly what I was trying to say. However, that’s a stunning observation about ‘truly modern horror films’. Two other 'truly modern horror' films instantly come to mind: Eraserhead (77) & the Shining (80), both dealing with very similar themes as Taxi Driver (76). Eraserhead points out that even a wife and kid (love) doesn’t necessarily lessen your alienation. It's as if having children can be worse than bottling up your lust, as Henry's family life ultimately plunges him over the edge. The Shining then challenges the (Marxist/Rousseau) notion that alienation is the result of living in cities (industrialization) since Jack doesn't become any closer to his family when moving out to the Overlook. Being secluded in the mountains actually brings out Jack's most shocking & primal urges. All those films end with the notion that this is all going to repeat itself again in the future – ‘eternal recurrence’ (well, Taxi Driver & Shining for sure…Eraserhead may be too obscure to speculate). Also, there's a surreal quality in all of them. It's seems like much of what you're seeing isn't 'actually happening'. Is it a fantasy? a dream? a metaphor? Who knows, but I dig that. That's often what life feels like. Existence is mysterious.
Since beating a dead horse turns me on..
I have to admit, it's a deliciously nihilistic thought that if Travis had f--ked little Iris...things would have been a lot better. Isn't that something?. Okay, perhaps that's a juvenile observation and I'm not denying there's "healthier options", but if he would have just indulged instead of clinging to his morals, if he would have had sex with an enslaved, manipulated 12 year old girl things would have been better for all parties. I guess what I'm saying in essence is that he should have sold out. Same goes for Betsy. She seemed to be genuinely falling in love with Travis, until he took her to the porno theater. That's when she got all high and mighty. But isn't going on a "date" a lot like getting a hooker? The girl dolls herself up and you take her out for a movie and dinner and then back to her place to see what happens. You buy her presents, you pay for her food...and why? Because you want to get into the holiest of holes (and because you love her, perhaps). Maybe that's why Travis was so intuitively attracted to Betsy, because she was a lot like him. A bit of a snob, a bit of a prude. Actually, I think that Betsy reminds Travis of his mother and that he's simply acting out his family romance in a new setting. That's why he's so hostile towards Tom because Tom is another man who doesn't deserve her angelic beauty, Tom reminds Travis of his father. I get the feeling like Travis was raised in a very strict household. I base that mostly on his personality, but also on the "cold and distant" letter he sends his parents (a couple of good scouts). It doesn't seem like there is much warmth going on there. Affection can lead to incest and we can't have that. /end pseudo-Freudian rant
Even in the Shining I cannot resist chuckling at the remarkable irony. Jack quits drinking, cleans his act up, starts to self-actualize himself by realizing his dreams of becoming a writer...and ends up trying to kill his family (and eventually freezes to death). If he would have continued on his path in Boulder: sometimes drinking too much, sometimes giving his family a beating, his life would have been better. It's the guilt that really tears him up, Travis as well. Maybe we need to accept our darker sides as part of who we are, maybe that's the only way to keep them at bay. Instead, we set up unrealistic expectations for ourselves. The truth is, Jack doesn't seem very interested in his family. He doesn't really care about them all that much. His wife is a sex object (the old sperm bank) and Danny is a constant hindrance for Jack. But we have this ideal that we're suppose to feel nothing but adoration for our family. The problem is, how do we reconcile the cognitive dissonance that occurs when we start to passionately hate them?
Brilliant observations! You should write an essay about those three films, seriously.
Heh! Thanks man. If I have any more ideas about them, maybe I will do just that.
oh, how quickly love can fade - Dr. Caligari...amazing...? I thought it was funny for the set designs and Caligari's smirk, like Cheney. what was it that did it for you?
The set designs were indeed incredible. It seemed as if every piece of the set was sculpted for aesthetic effect in each shot giving the film a very fairy tale sort of look. It had some of the most stunning visuals I've seen in a silent film, second perhaps only to Metropolis. I was particularly blown away by the acting, which was brilliantly expressive. It might just be that actors in silent films had to give "bigger" performances because of lack of dialogue in order to tip the audience off. In any case, I thought it extraordinary. The story really cracked me up to. This really kind of hackneyed cliche story that eventually turns out to be the imaginings of a madman in an asylum, and Caligari is really just the authoritarian head doctor. That whole idea of human beings mutating normal occurrences into perverse supernatural fantasies because they cannot face the truth is a constant theme in horror movies even up to this day. But I think more than anything, it impressed me for being so "ahead of it's time". I'm not sure it's an essential movie to own, but definitely worth exploring if you're interested in film history.
Nice, Taxi Driver at 9!
Yea, definintely a case of not quite understanding a powerful work of art, discussing it with people who have also experienced it, and reevaluating it. All I can say is that I'm glad you guys took the time to comment.
It might very well be Scorsese's masterpiece. It's like his Lorca, while Raging Bull is his Starsailor. One is a somewhat messy, uber-inspired genius, firing on all cylinders, not caring where it might take us (even Kael found the hallway pan shot to be a too obvious nod to Antonioni, while I agree with Ebert that it was right for the moment, shielding us from the pain of the phone call), the other is a more carefully calculated artwork. Raging Bull boasts a monumental acting performance by De Niro, but Taxi Driver boasts both a monumental direction and performance, imo.
Heh, interesting comparison (I haven't seen Raging Bull enough to comment). I find that hallway shot works on multiple levels. Travis' pointless pursuance of a relationship that has no future is indeed disgusting to the audience (we've all been there), so the pan away from him is quite brilliant. But I also think it foreshadows Travis' eventual disgust of his own tender (feminine) inclinations, which he inevitably tries to kill off.
I always took his training period to be very extreme Catholic cleansing of sin and guilt (like a reprise of Mean Streets), had not considered that to be ridding himself of feminine inclinations. He's a pretty gentle soul, though, he's even that way when he deals with Iris. Is that what you mean by feminine, that he was not assertive enough earlier in the film? That's really interesting way of interpreting his motives in the film. It gives that shot when he busts into the campaign office and strikes the embarrassingly over-the-top kung-fu pose a new twist: like he was proving himself to be a real man.
By feminine I mean sensitive, emotional, caring, dependent etc. It seems like once he's rejected by Betsy he loses touch with that side of himself though it gets reinvigorated when he meets Iris. Also, perhaps his bloody attempt to rescue Iris could be a symbolic quest to save his repressed femininity. I like your thoughts about the kung-fu pose, it also brings to mind his manly posturing while asking Betsy out for a first date "I'll be there to protect you" *flexes his arms*. As for the Catholic influence it's hard to say (knowing little about Catholicism myself), but one of Travis' main problems for becoming alienated does seem to be his morality, which is in stark contrast to the people around him.
I think Catholicism is an undercurrent in most of Scorsese's work. If not there explicitly (as in Mean Streets), it's there in the brutal examination of sin and redemption in most of his movies.
Travis would like us to see him as the only conscientious person in the film, the only one who notices what's wrong and wants to do something about it. The only one untainted by the sin. But he's awfully deluded because he's right there in the middle of it too, isn't he, going to porn theaters? And he's subscribing, without a moment's contemplation, to these outdated forms of masculinity: I'm the protector, the savior, the man who rights the wrong. I know that Schrader based his script on "The Searchers," which has a similar narrative: white man rescues white girl from the savages. There, of course, it was patently racist because the savages were Native Americans. Here, it's a bit blurrier, because he's rescuing her from pimps. But the same dynamic is at play: this girl needs the man to save her.
well, that certainly adds a whole new dimension to his isolation.
I suggest you watch Walkabout before shipping Roeg off to the death camps.
Okay, I'll try anything once. He had me a bit miffed with Don't Look Now, and Performance was very aggrivating to watch. It was very experimental for sure, but I didn't feel like it was working. By the way, my death camps are actually very humane and a lot nicer than most. More than anything, I'm trying to destigmatize them. They attained such a bad rap because of the last century.
I'm so glad to see you loving Tarkovsky, although I was surprised to see the "low" rating for Solaris. I'd say it's his fourth best (top three, in order: Mirror, Stalker, Andrei Rublev) but even then it's a masterpiece.
I understand your remark about Gertrud being very theatrical, but I feel as if you're missing out on the elements that make it such a powerful film. The camera movements are very small and subtle but produce such an impact on the viewer; that effect is impossible to replicate on stage. It's also an extremely expressive film that tends to frequently gaze and meditate. As a whole the film is moving, hypnotic and utterly compelling.
A few suggestions: Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, Max Ophlus' Letter from an Unknown Woman and Satyajit Ray's the Apu Trilogy.
I enjoy reading your log.
Nice, thanks for the suggestions.
The process of rating a film after seeing it once is completely absurd. I need at least 2-3 viewings, if not 4-5, to decide how I really feel about a movie. The log merely reminds me what I thought about a film, and opens a dialogue with others. I'm particularly glad you mention both Solaris & Gertrude, since those are films that intrigued me in many ways, but didn't quite take me there. With Gertrude, my rating was as much ideology as it was stylistic. The main character was basically a femme fatale. A chaotic women living according to her passions, and using her sexual domination to her own selfish pursuits. Personally, I found this annoying (only because in real life it terrifies me.) But in any case, it was a rather masterful film and I would definitely see it again.
I've got a bone to (nit)pick with Persona. Let me first say that I like it a lot... The back and forth, the pulling and the pushing. Its tidal nature ranks it as probably the greatest psychodrama. Bibi Andersson gave a timeless performance (the beach talk in particular stands out in my mind, as I'm sure it does with most). What I take issue with is your last statement, not pretentious!? Then please explain those montages to me. As far as I'm concerned they're Bergman's height of pretension, just him being fatuous. I remember reading the purpose of those scenes (montages, the shot of Bergman behind the camera, etc) were to remind the viewer they're watching a movie. Umm, okay? They serve no purpose whatsoever... no symbolism going on, no evocation of mood, nothing.
Ignoring those sequences then yeah, you're spot on with your review. It's still a terrific film (deserves a place in many "Best Movies" lists), just those parts irk me. I don't find it to be particularly profound; but very, very few movies are as emotional.
It’s pointless for me to defend the film again “pretense”, as it seems both you and I love several films that many people would hasten to label pretentious; I think too often one accuses art of being pretentious when one does not understand it. My mistake was probably using the word unpretentious in my write up. I do feel those montage shots have a purpose, though they would seem very random to someone who doesn’t understand the movie as a whole. To me Persona is about exploring the side of ourselves that we’d rather keep in the dark. But then again, when we think we understand what a movie is about, we can suddenly think of all kinds of ways the imagery is hammering home the “point” every step of the way. But consider some of the images: The opening shot is two phallic objects glowing with heat. Film squiriting out. Erect penis. Silent film of man being chased by spirits/ghosts. Dirt on top layer of snow. Rocks jutting out of water. Sunlight glittering on top of water. Trees (roots extend below surface and sustain the organism). Tips of fence. All these images relate to the idea of a persona and very much to the idea of Freud’s stages of the mind. I see where you're coming from. I've had Persona in my collection for about 5 years, and never quite understood it. I've always liked Wild Strawberries a lot better. But, for whatever reason, it mostly all made sense the other day. And it was quite powerful.
I miss the commentary =(.
The commentary is a most unnatural undertaking for me - I usually record all my thoughts on a film while I'm watching it, mainly because I usually forget most of what I thought of a movie after it's over. But I find that really takes away from the experience. What is most great about a film, you usually realize hours or days after you've seen it. And what makes a movie great is, ultimately, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good or what it's about. The reason I stopped is I just don't feel like writing them these days, I find them to be a bit of a pain. It's more fun and, dare I say, rewarding to just watch the movie.
The Trial was incredible, but I always go back and forth on whether it's among Welles best. Whenever I see it I think "this is a masterpiece" but then I see something like Falstaff and I'm not so sure anymore. It's about as good an adaptation could have been, not just visually but psychologically as well. The amazing thing about it is how good it is considering how cheap it was.
The great thing about Welles is that he never made a bad movie. I guess the closest he's come is Mr. Arkadin. It's way too choppy, but that would have a lot to do with it being taken out of his hands... and the budget was even smaller than the Trial.
I'm glad to see he's coming around for you, though. Although your response to Pather Panchali makes me =(.
I had no idea what to expect going into The Trial. Naturally I was very skeptical and curious to see how he'd handle such a mysterious story and overall I think he did an excellent job. He certainly captured the realistic dream atmosphere of Kafka and I'd say it's one of the few movies I've seen where my appreciation and understanding of the book was increased. The only thing about it, and it's not really a detractor, was the dissonance between how I pictured the story in my mind and how he actually shot it. The locales in particular seemed quite different from what I read. But all the same he made great use of what he had. The Trial is only the third Welles film I've seen proper, the other two being Citizen Kane & Touch of Evil. So if he generally made great films then I guess I better see them all. More than anything, I want to revisit Touch of Evil & Kane. I feel like I haven't fully experienced Welles yet. Watching The Trail made something go off for me.
As for Pather, I found the daily life of poor Bengali's to be sorely lacking in drama. I like me some good Western theatrics. Granted, it was a beautiful film and from what I endured I'd give it about an 8. A good film nonetheless, but I'd better watch it when I'm in the right mood.
Re: Videodrome -- calm down, you crazy canuck!
Great film, but hey you guys have Rush too, so it can't be that bad up north!
Rush is horrible and Canada sucks. Nice try though
You seem to forget Canada has produced the great directors behind classics like Ghostbusters and Weekend at Bernies.
Also James Cameron. And Norman Jewison. And Jack Chambers.
Okay, so it's not much to brag about, but still.
yeah..
*clears throat*
mmm..
*stares dumbly into space*
I mean, we have some amazing artists like Leonard Cohen, the Band, Joni Mitchell. But no one who is an absolutely brilliant artist who you must check out. Although I would now count Cronenberg as someone everyone should see. I was very surprised to see he had written Videodrome. thought for sure he got it from a book or something. He has a lot of good movies though; Naked Lunch, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises..and I haven't even seen most of his films like Dead Ringers, Scanners, Crash or whatever else he did. I would say based on those 4 movies that he is one of the best directors I know of, albeit towards the bottom of the list.
Oscar Peterson, Neil Young, Gil Evans... okay, that's about it.
And yes, Cronenberg is amazing, one of the most consistent directors around. While I don't think he's made any real masterpieces, Crash is still one of the best of the 90's. Scanners is a must-see as well.
Also: watch Abbas Kiarostami. Where is the Friend's House?, Taste of Cherry, Close-Up and The Wind Will Carry Us -- unbelievable. Now he is probably the finest director of the 90's.
Wow, I totally forgot about Neil Young who is quite the pimp. And Gil Evans! I knew I was forgetting some jazz guy. But I don't even really know his music yet to be honest. Abbas Kiarostami...never heard of him but I'll have to check him out. He's Canadian eh?
edit - oh I looked him up and he's from Iran. I'll still look him up even if my knowledge of him was derived from a non-sequieter
I was being patient. Glad you remembered 'Ol Neil.
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Even when I'm drunking I really like reading your film perspective. Cassavetes is the truth. But, stop deleting your commentary!!!
Sometimes I feel A Woman Under the Influence is overstated, but it's quite brilliant.
Also, where in Canada are you from? (I promise not to stalk you. I currently live in Halifax; but have previously resided in Calgary and St. John's).
hehe, you drunk fuck.
I live in Guelph, Ont.
I lived in St. John's for 2 years. Beautiful city actually..all of NFLD is beautiful pretty much.
But ya, Cassavetes is the truth. Excited to check out more from him. And furthermore, I'll delete my commentary if I want to. Don't try to stop me like the doctors. I do it for the children. YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND! ITS YOU WHO IS SICK!!!!!
By the way, regarding A Woman Under the Influence: the performances were definitely extreme. Personally I like performances like that, assuming they are done well. I was incredibly surprised that I wasn't getting tired of the woman's performance as the film went on. I found her continually shocking and hilarious, but I completely understand if other people don't. I just felt like that movie worked on such a deep level almost for the entire experience. I can't really think of another film that is so simple yet cuts so deep in many different ways. I think her performance is one of the best I've ever seen. Maybe the last 1/3 of the film was where it lost a little steam, but that was more a shift in the story's tone I think then an actual mistake on the director's part. Amazing script, some of the best performances ever, surprisingly good film making...this film is like an American art picture and it handily beats the European ones at their own game.
A Woman Under the Influence is definitely one of my favorite movies ever. Gena Rowlands delivers a monumental performance, but sometimes I wish it was a bit more subtle. But this is a really minor point; as a whole, the casting is absolute perfection, every role was integral to Cassavetes' vision. The rhythm Cassavetes develops throughout the film is flawless, and the cinematography is a perfect match for the dense script. It's a major work of art as a whole; honest, thoughtful, poignant and compelling; and one of the greatest from one of the few true masters of cinema.
I will have to look into your Piero Approved recommendation, person whose name I for some reason always read as Call A New York Vegetable. It better be worthy of my town!
New York vegetables are pricks.
Call a New York vegetable, and the chances are good he will respond to you: at least I'm not a Canadian.
You live in Halifax? You must listen to Hampton Grease Band's immortal tribute to that city, where the first radar was to protect!