Sixth Reel: Hungary + Japan + France + Canada = O_o?
"What a rotten film. All we meet are crazy people."
- Roland, Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
*points to above quote* Does anybody still fail to see how awesome this guy is? (Not Roland, Godard, obviously.) I love a director who can let their own characters laugh back at them. A man who can compliment and poke fun at his work at the same time looks good in my book.
So if it's not already obvious, said above quote is from one of the films I saw today, which is my second ever seen Godard film (the first was À bout de souffle, if last week's post didn't already indicate). One could say it's an awful lot like Michael Haneke's Funny Games in its whole tearing down the bourgeois system and its seeming to want to rape the audience of all cleanliness through its shocking scenes and that I'd be a bloody hypocrite if I liked this film and not Funny Games, but... I do! Yes, there are similarities in the aspects I just mentioned, yet... at the same time they're completely different. In the above paragraph, I said that Godard seems to poke fun at his work a little, and it's true; it shows in this film! I can't entirely explain it either, 'cause examples I can think of on the top of my head can also apply to Funny Games, but if you were to watch the two films back-to-back, I think you'd know what I mean, even you can't put your finger on it either. Week End raises questions for the audience about their society whereas Funny Games criticises them for it... one could argue so does Week End, yes, but it does it in more a "can't you see what's wrong here?" way as opposed to a "how DARE you let yourself be raised by this disgusting lifestyle!" way. I hope that makes at least a little bit of sense to others reading this. Like I said, it probably makes more sense when you've seen the two next to each other... though I'd advise watching Week End AFTER Funny Games, for the sake of experiencing a much more pleasant evening.
Speaking of Funny Games, my Haneke journal entries are now uploaded onto my dA account, so any of you who haven't done so already can give them a read. Here's the first one, and the other five's links are listed in the description. I'd warn you all of how disturbing Haneke films are to read about, but seeing as you've been reading these entries, I think you already know.
Last week I've come to the official decision that Michael Winterbottom, the director we're studying in the second half of our directors course, is a much preferred director for me than Haneke. We watched his film Wonderland last week and literally in the second scene I was appreciating the film ten times more than I've appreciated a single one of Haneke's (again, not to say that the latter's films aren't good, but Winterbottom's definitely seem to be more my cup of tea). I felt this way for mainly two reasons:
1. The music is gorgeous and yet another example of a soundtrack that I wish was easier to find,
And
2. SHIRLEY HENDERSON IS IN IT.
For those of you who don't know, one of the TVO programs that practically raised me was Hamish Macbeth (yes I know that's quite the adult show to be watching at the age of six XD), in which Shirley Henderson played one of the main female roles. She and Robert Carlyle have been two of my admired actors ever since. So naturally, seeing her in a Michael Winterbottom film raised my appreciation for the film immediately higher than the other Haneke films. (Now I know Juliette Binoche was in a couple of Haneke films, but here's the key difference between Haneke and Winterbottom: An actor kind of loses all his/her charm whenever he/she's in a Haneke film XD)
The Canadian Cinema film for today was Sam and Me... I feel down every time I have to admit that a Canadian film isn't as interesting to talk about as a European one. Don't think that this means the film was bad or unenjoyable or anything; I just don't have near as much to blabber about it as the other films I watch. This was a film about a friendship between the old and the young, the Jew and the Indian, the advantaged and the disadvantaged... you know, multicultural just like almost all the other Canadian films we've seen, surprise surprise XP I'm really trying not to degrade multiculturalism or anything by saying that, but in Canada the topic is about as surprising as finding out you need to go to the bathroom after drinking an entire bottle of orange juice. But the film really was enjoyable, seriously. I need to stop unintentionally insulting this poor film >_>
Other major news is that I got to sit down and watch my recently-received copy of Only Yesterday with Ry and ShadowF... 'cause they wanted/needed to see it, 'cause I needed to make sure everything was technically working, and 'cause I wanted a consensus on whether or not it's a good film to present at the Thursday night screening... yeah, did I ever mention that I was asked to present a film at one of these screenings? Well Only Yesterday is the film I've picked, and the two viewers both liked it a lot and are under the impression that it's an ideal choice for my week. So really the only question is which week I'm presenting the thing and... whether or not the grads will enjoy it. Crossing my fingers on that one.
I should get going now, 'cause I've just been informed that dinner's ready and I have French work and an essay on the French New Wave to work on. Yeah... it really doesn't surprise any of you that I'm writing an essay on the French New Wave, does it. If I can't write an essay on the auteur theory, why not write an essay on the movement that created it? XP
- Roland, Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
*points to above quote* Does anybody still fail to see how awesome this guy is? (Not Roland, Godard, obviously.) I love a director who can let their own characters laugh back at them. A man who can compliment and poke fun at his work at the same time looks good in my book.
So if it's not already obvious, said above quote is from one of the films I saw today, which is my second ever seen Godard film (the first was À bout de souffle, if last week's post didn't already indicate). One could say it's an awful lot like Michael Haneke's Funny Games in its whole tearing down the bourgeois system and its seeming to want to rape the audience of all cleanliness through its shocking scenes and that I'd be a bloody hypocrite if I liked this film and not Funny Games, but... I do! Yes, there are similarities in the aspects I just mentioned, yet... at the same time they're completely different. In the above paragraph, I said that Godard seems to poke fun at his work a little, and it's true; it shows in this film! I can't entirely explain it either, 'cause examples I can think of on the top of my head can also apply to Funny Games, but if you were to watch the two films back-to-back, I think you'd know what I mean, even you can't put your finger on it either. Week End raises questions for the audience about their society whereas Funny Games criticises them for it... one could argue so does Week End, yes, but it does it in more a "can't you see what's wrong here?" way as opposed to a "how DARE you let yourself be raised by this disgusting lifestyle!" way. I hope that makes at least a little bit of sense to others reading this. Like I said, it probably makes more sense when you've seen the two next to each other... though I'd advise watching Week End AFTER Funny Games, for the sake of experiencing a much more pleasant evening.
Speaking of Funny Games, my Haneke journal entries are now uploaded onto my dA account, so any of you who haven't done so already can give them a read. Here's the first one, and the other five's links are listed in the description. I'd warn you all of how disturbing Haneke films are to read about, but seeing as you've been reading these entries, I think you already know.
Last week I've come to the official decision that Michael Winterbottom, the director we're studying in the second half of our directors course, is a much preferred director for me than Haneke. We watched his film Wonderland last week and literally in the second scene I was appreciating the film ten times more than I've appreciated a single one of Haneke's (again, not to say that the latter's films aren't good, but Winterbottom's definitely seem to be more my cup of tea). I felt this way for mainly two reasons:
1. The music is gorgeous and yet another example of a soundtrack that I wish was easier to find,
And
2. SHIRLEY HENDERSON IS IN IT.
For those of you who don't know, one of the TVO programs that practically raised me was Hamish Macbeth (yes I know that's quite the adult show to be watching at the age of six XD), in which Shirley Henderson played one of the main female roles. She and Robert Carlyle have been two of my admired actors ever since. So naturally, seeing her in a Michael Winterbottom film raised my appreciation for the film immediately higher than the other Haneke films. (Now I know Juliette Binoche was in a couple of Haneke films, but here's the key difference between Haneke and Winterbottom: An actor kind of loses all his/her charm whenever he/she's in a Haneke film XD)
The Canadian Cinema film for today was Sam and Me... I feel down every time I have to admit that a Canadian film isn't as interesting to talk about as a European one. Don't think that this means the film was bad or unenjoyable or anything; I just don't have near as much to blabber about it as the other films I watch. This was a film about a friendship between the old and the young, the Jew and the Indian, the advantaged and the disadvantaged... you know, multicultural just like almost all the other Canadian films we've seen, surprise surprise XP I'm really trying not to degrade multiculturalism or anything by saying that, but in Canada the topic is about as surprising as finding out you need to go to the bathroom after drinking an entire bottle of orange juice. But the film really was enjoyable, seriously. I need to stop unintentionally insulting this poor film >_>
Other major news is that I got to sit down and watch my recently-received copy of Only Yesterday with Ry and ShadowF... 'cause they wanted/needed to see it, 'cause I needed to make sure everything was technically working, and 'cause I wanted a consensus on whether or not it's a good film to present at the Thursday night screening... yeah, did I ever mention that I was asked to present a film at one of these screenings? Well Only Yesterday is the film I've picked, and the two viewers both liked it a lot and are under the impression that it's an ideal choice for my week. So really the only question is which week I'm presenting the thing and... whether or not the grads will enjoy it. Crossing my fingers on that one.
I should get going now, 'cause I've just been informed that dinner's ready and I have French work and an essay on the French New Wave to work on. Yeah... it really doesn't surprise any of you that I'm writing an essay on the French New Wave, does it. If I can't write an essay on the auteur theory, why not write an essay on the movement that created it? XP