Movies in the last two weeks
Clue. This was one of my Christmas presents and it's one of those comedies I could watch again and again. The characters are fun, the pacing is great and the jokes run the gamut from low to high brow. My favorite character is still Mrs. Peacock. Nostalgia and personal bias bring this up to 8/10.
Charlotte and Veronique, or: All the Boys are Named Patrick. Godard's first film and an excellent short with which to start our French New Wave course. Lightweight approach to dating, with cute plays in the dialogue from phrases reappearing. Nothing with an impact, because it's exactly the lightness of this film that gives its appeal. 8/10.
Eraserhead. The first movie by David Lynch and already it's a submersion into his style. There's unclear dissolution between dream and reality, with reality being almost unrealistic. This movie had a striking detail for evoking visceral reactions from the textures within the film. Some things were downright gruesome, simply because that unimpressive film prop had taken a weight of meaning during the film. It's a film of grotesquery that may turn some away from marriage and child-rearing. Yech. It's a drastic change in life and this movie emphasizes the "drastic". 8/10.
The Passion of Joan of Arc. Dreyer's masterpiece from 1928. It got mentioned heavily in our avant-garde class even though we didn't see it. Now that I've seen it, I know why. The direction in this movie is strikingly beyond its time. 1928? Really?? With such close-ups and the characters not being centered in the frame? With the sharp angles to create emotional tension and senses of superiority/inferiority? The intense feelings stirred through cuts and motion in the torture room??? Besides the direction, the story also holds up well with age. Can anyone truly defend themselves against religious onslaught? Almost any response can be skewed by the judges to be either impious or arrogant, both being outrageous offenses, despite that most practitioners would sink immediately under such questioning. The judges are no more than bureaucrats, looking for the technically appropriate detail in her responses that will justify their punishment. Joan is both an unphased receptacle for their viciousness and a lost person, in a striking mixture of confusion, sadness and undirected purposefulness. Before giving the rating, let me say that this movie was one of the most exceptional cases where watching at the PFA made a remarkable difference in experience. It was a restored print, on a large screen with audience silence (no one forgot to turn off their cell phones!), with a live pianist doing the accompanying score. This is the way a silent movie is meant to be watched and it's so wonderful being able to attend PFA's showings. The movie is hands down 10/10.
And God Created Woman. The first full-length movie we saw for New Wave, despite not being a New Wave film. In fact, it's a very mediocre film, famous primarily for the sizzling debut of Brigitte Bardot. There's some scenes that are worth noting, like the wedding dinner and Bardot's wild samba dance, but otherwise it just plays lip service to the thin plot while waiting for another opportunity to feature Bardot's sex appeal. The flatness of the rest of the movie makes it seem like the whole project was not well thought out by the director. The provocative scenes have variety of interpretations because of disorganization rather than intent. If you want to see why Bardot was a star, this is a necessary viewing, but otherwise you aren't missing much. 6/10.
Charlotte and Veronique, or: All the Boys are Named Patrick. Godard's first film and an excellent short with which to start our French New Wave course. Lightweight approach to dating, with cute plays in the dialogue from phrases reappearing. Nothing with an impact, because it's exactly the lightness of this film that gives its appeal. 8/10.
Eraserhead. The first movie by David Lynch and already it's a submersion into his style. There's unclear dissolution between dream and reality, with reality being almost unrealistic. This movie had a striking detail for evoking visceral reactions from the textures within the film. Some things were downright gruesome, simply because that unimpressive film prop had taken a weight of meaning during the film. It's a film of grotesquery that may turn some away from marriage and child-rearing. Yech. It's a drastic change in life and this movie emphasizes the "drastic". 8/10.
The Passion of Joan of Arc. Dreyer's masterpiece from 1928. It got mentioned heavily in our avant-garde class even though we didn't see it. Now that I've seen it, I know why. The direction in this movie is strikingly beyond its time. 1928? Really?? With such close-ups and the characters not being centered in the frame? With the sharp angles to create emotional tension and senses of superiority/inferiority? The intense feelings stirred through cuts and motion in the torture room??? Besides the direction, the story also holds up well with age. Can anyone truly defend themselves against religious onslaught? Almost any response can be skewed by the judges to be either impious or arrogant, both being outrageous offenses, despite that most practitioners would sink immediately under such questioning. The judges are no more than bureaucrats, looking for the technically appropriate detail in her responses that will justify their punishment. Joan is both an unphased receptacle for their viciousness and a lost person, in a striking mixture of confusion, sadness and undirected purposefulness. Before giving the rating, let me say that this movie was one of the most exceptional cases where watching at the PFA made a remarkable difference in experience. It was a restored print, on a large screen with audience silence (no one forgot to turn off their cell phones!), with a live pianist doing the accompanying score. This is the way a silent movie is meant to be watched and it's so wonderful being able to attend PFA's showings. The movie is hands down 10/10.
And God Created Woman. The first full-length movie we saw for New Wave, despite not being a New Wave film. In fact, it's a very mediocre film, famous primarily for the sizzling debut of Brigitte Bardot. There's some scenes that are worth noting, like the wedding dinner and Bardot's wild samba dance, but otherwise it just plays lip service to the thin plot while waiting for another opportunity to feature Bardot's sex appeal. The flatness of the rest of the movie makes it seem like the whole project was not well thought out by the director. The provocative scenes have variety of interpretations because of disorganization rather than intent. If you want to see why Bardot was a star, this is a necessary viewing, but otherwise you aren't missing much. 6/10.