Twenty seven cops is boxes on the road.
Films Watched November 7 - November 13
Mavis Xu in Christopher Doyle's gorgeous and utterly insane Away with Words.
Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney, 2005) - Well-made, understated film that tackles a good deal of pressing issues with compelling conviction. I was personally less interested in the parallelss between McCarthyism and the War on Terror than in the call for television to pursue its potential as a responsible social tool, but regardless of your angle of approach I think it gives you plenty to chew on. It also looks absolutely gorgeous, and the performances are uniformly perfect, especially for Straithairn, who completely dominates the screen.
The Periwig Maker (Steffen Schäffler, 1999) - Though it may not rank among the very greatest of stop-motion shorts, it has a wholly unsettling atmosphere that lingers in your consciousness long past its strange conclusion, and the animation itself is some of the most proficient I've ever seen. It also gave me a burning desire to read Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year. Watch it here.
Enthusiasm (Dziga Vertov, 1931) - Vertov's first sound film and (I presume) last masterpiece. He arranges sound not as a realistic track of what is happening, nor as a series of effects which "score" the action on screen; rather, Vertov's soundtrack seems to exist as an additional reel of documentation that converses with the imagery to reach a more lucid and rapturous conclusion. Every bit as good as Man with a Movie Camera.
Rosetta (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 1999) - I think the genius here is never allowing the audience a chance to understand all of Rosetta's actions (let alone agree with them) which saves the film from being another story about a put-upon Good Person struggling endlessly to be Good against her oppressive world. As such, the whole film feels much more realistic, and Rosetta is a much deeper and more complex character than one often finds in martyr movies (which this isn't really, but easily could have been). It's also refreshing whenever you can find someone who actually knows what the hell to do with a shaking hand-held camera, and the super-tight close-ups that compose most of the film lend it a very introverted and often panic-inducing intensity.
Away with Words (Christopher Doyle, 1999) - One of the craziest things I've ever seen. For most of the time you're watching it the film makes no sense at all, but there are moments of genuine emotion and beauty, and in retrospect the film actually seems pretty coherent. You get the sense that this isn't Doyle trying to be deliberately weird or delirious, it's a sincere attempt to present the world as it really exists to him. At any rate, it's hilarious and extremely entertaining. And being Doyle, it's also incredibly beautiful. In light of the crazy atmosphere, the pretty images, and the rampant word play, I highly recommend it to anyone who understands the phrase: "Extra college on my children, please, and a glass of fungus." Further recommendation points go to anyone who understands that phrase plus a bit of Japanese.
Father of a Soldier (Rezo Chkheidze, 1964) - Old Georgian travels to Russia during WW2 to see his injured son at a hospital. When he finds out his son got better and was sent back to the front, he throws himself into the army to find him. Not a great film, but still a rather good one. I have a habit/prejudice of being bored by war films (I've never really figured out why) and unfortunately that prejudice affected my enjoyment. But there are still lots of great scenes that will stand in my memory, most notably the old man's attempt to save some German grapevines from being trampled by Soviet tanks.
And for those of you who knew I was going to a screening of La Chinoise and are wondering what happened to it, I am extremely displeased to say that I was thwarted by rush hour traffic.
Mavis Xu in Christopher Doyle's gorgeous and utterly insane Away with Words.
Good Night, and Good Luck. (George Clooney, 2005) - Well-made, understated film that tackles a good deal of pressing issues with compelling conviction. I was personally less interested in the parallelss between McCarthyism and the War on Terror than in the call for television to pursue its potential as a responsible social tool, but regardless of your angle of approach I think it gives you plenty to chew on. It also looks absolutely gorgeous, and the performances are uniformly perfect, especially for Straithairn, who completely dominates the screen.
The Periwig Maker (Steffen Schäffler, 1999) - Though it may not rank among the very greatest of stop-motion shorts, it has a wholly unsettling atmosphere that lingers in your consciousness long past its strange conclusion, and the animation itself is some of the most proficient I've ever seen. It also gave me a burning desire to read Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year. Watch it here.
Enthusiasm (Dziga Vertov, 1931) - Vertov's first sound film and (I presume) last masterpiece. He arranges sound not as a realistic track of what is happening, nor as a series of effects which "score" the action on screen; rather, Vertov's soundtrack seems to exist as an additional reel of documentation that converses with the imagery to reach a more lucid and rapturous conclusion. Every bit as good as Man with a Movie Camera.
Rosetta (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 1999) - I think the genius here is never allowing the audience a chance to understand all of Rosetta's actions (let alone agree with them) which saves the film from being another story about a put-upon Good Person struggling endlessly to be Good against her oppressive world. As such, the whole film feels much more realistic, and Rosetta is a much deeper and more complex character than one often finds in martyr movies (which this isn't really, but easily could have been). It's also refreshing whenever you can find someone who actually knows what the hell to do with a shaking hand-held camera, and the super-tight close-ups that compose most of the film lend it a very introverted and often panic-inducing intensity.
Away with Words (Christopher Doyle, 1999) - One of the craziest things I've ever seen. For most of the time you're watching it the film makes no sense at all, but there are moments of genuine emotion and beauty, and in retrospect the film actually seems pretty coherent. You get the sense that this isn't Doyle trying to be deliberately weird or delirious, it's a sincere attempt to present the world as it really exists to him. At any rate, it's hilarious and extremely entertaining. And being Doyle, it's also incredibly beautiful. In light of the crazy atmosphere, the pretty images, and the rampant word play, I highly recommend it to anyone who understands the phrase: "Extra college on my children, please, and a glass of fungus." Further recommendation points go to anyone who understands that phrase plus a bit of Japanese.
Father of a Soldier (Rezo Chkheidze, 1964) - Old Georgian travels to Russia during WW2 to see his injured son at a hospital. When he finds out his son got better and was sent back to the front, he throws himself into the army to find him. Not a great film, but still a rather good one. I have a habit/prejudice of being bored by war films (I've never really figured out why) and unfortunately that prejudice affected my enjoyment. But there are still lots of great scenes that will stand in my memory, most notably the old man's attempt to save some German grapevines from being trampled by Soviet tanks.
And for those of you who knew I was going to a screening of La Chinoise and are wondering what happened to it, I am extremely displeased to say that I was thwarted by rush hour traffic.