29 January 2006
Metacritic
Looking at the Metacritic site for the highest rated films of 2001, two are tied for the top spot, The Fellowship of the Ring and Werckmeister Harmonies, two films which couldn't be less alike. The first an overblown, turgid mess of adolescent fantasy wish-fulfillment, and the second a masterpiece about faith, superstition, fear, and totalitarianism.
17 January 2006
Naruse
So far I've caught three of the four films shown so far in the Mikio Naruse retrospective. Of the ones I've seen, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs is my favorite. It stars Hideko Takamine as a the chief hostess in a Ginza nightclub, c. 1960. It's kind of a bizarre cross between Douglas Sirk (thematically) and Billy Wilder (stylistically). I hope to write a review.
05 January 2006
I love writing about movies. Sometimes it's quite easy to write about films, or a particular film. I've found that writing about Godard's works is quite easy, probably because Godard is an intellectual using film as the primary medium with which to explicate his philosophy and ideas, as opposed to someone who seeks primarily to entertain or to express emotional content in some way. 
I know that's a gross generalization, but there you have it. In contrast, I can't even begin to describe how I think and feel about Ozu's work, and not just because it's all so subtle that thinking about it too hard almost makes it fly away in the breeze. For as feeble a writer as I, descriptions of Ozu's films become reduced to dry analyses of his unique approach to camera angles, the positioning of actors, 'dead space', and his frequent use of offscreen time in which he propels forward his plots. This is all quite fascinating to those of us with brain defects that predispose us to such things, but I would surmise the mass audience would find more enjoyment reading over the minutes of an urban planning conference.
What prompted this little soliloquy was the jarring of my memory of an older Olivier Assayas film, L'Eau froide (Cold Water) a masterpiece which remains unavailable on DVD w/English subtitles anywhere in the world.
I caught this film a couple of years ago as part of an Assayas retrospective, and the gentle yet insistent quality of the film eventually left me breathless by its end. The genuineness of the writing and the performances and the unobtrusive grace of the photography combined to create a portrait of late adolescent freedom cum desparation that I've never seen portrayed with the same degree of honesty in any other film.
My frustration lies in the fact that the feelings engendered by L'Eau froide are so palpable that I can almost feel them in the same way I'd feel a rock in my shoe, yet I can't possibly find words to describe them. Adding to this frustration is that I know almost as a fact that these feelings must be universal to anyone who was ever a teenager, so why can't I form the sentences that would connect the reader with this film? Is it my inadequacies as a writer, or is it the elusiveness of the subject matter that is the obstacle?
All this is a quite long-winded way of explaining to myself why I'm having so many problems writing about La Regle Du Jeu, which I have long believed to be the greatest movie ever made.
My strong belief in the greatness of that film is built upon my attitudes that it contains as close to the totality of human experience as any film possibly could. Included in its words and images are love, jealousy, grace, compassion, duplicity, weakness, strength, bigotry, and ultimately, forgiveness. On one hand I think that I can't possibly explain all this, but on the other hand, how can I not at least try?
Oddly enough I have no such problems writing about La Grand Illusion, Renoir's other accepted 'masterpiece'.
While I won't deny it's greatness, and even though it has more depth and subtlety than almost every other film ever made, compared to La Regle Du Jeu it's as plan and obvious as a streetwalker. Accordingly I have no problem explaining why I think it's so great. Each character, each event, each major scene, these are all rather obvious metaphors for the state of Europe pre-World War One. That Renoir was able to make this, the greatest of all war films, without showing a single battle, and indeed, without even providing us with even one unsympathetic character, let alone an actual villain, testifies to his majesty among all directors.
In the meantime, my little essay about the Rules will have to wait.
I know that's a gross generalization, but there you have it. In contrast, I can't even begin to describe how I think and feel about Ozu's work, and not just because it's all so subtle that thinking about it too hard almost makes it fly away in the breeze. For as feeble a writer as I, descriptions of Ozu's films become reduced to dry analyses of his unique approach to camera angles, the positioning of actors, 'dead space', and his frequent use of offscreen time in which he propels forward his plots. This is all quite fascinating to those of us with brain defects that predispose us to such things, but I would surmise the mass audience would find more enjoyment reading over the minutes of an urban planning conference.What prompted this little soliloquy was the jarring of my memory of an older Olivier Assayas film, L'Eau froide (Cold Water) a masterpiece which remains unavailable on DVD w/English subtitles anywhere in the world.
I caught this film a couple of years ago as part of an Assayas retrospective, and the gentle yet insistent quality of the film eventually left me breathless by its end. The genuineness of the writing and the performances and the unobtrusive grace of the photography combined to create a portrait of late adolescent freedom cum desparation that I've never seen portrayed with the same degree of honesty in any other film.My frustration lies in the fact that the feelings engendered by L'Eau froide are so palpable that I can almost feel them in the same way I'd feel a rock in my shoe, yet I can't possibly find words to describe them. Adding to this frustration is that I know almost as a fact that these feelings must be universal to anyone who was ever a teenager, so why can't I form the sentences that would connect the reader with this film? Is it my inadequacies as a writer, or is it the elusiveness of the subject matter that is the obstacle?
All this is a quite long-winded way of explaining to myself why I'm having so many problems writing about La Regle Du Jeu, which I have long believed to be the greatest movie ever made.
My strong belief in the greatness of that film is built upon my attitudes that it contains as close to the totality of human experience as any film possibly could. Included in its words and images are love, jealousy, grace, compassion, duplicity, weakness, strength, bigotry, and ultimately, forgiveness. On one hand I think that I can't possibly explain all this, but on the other hand, how can I not at least try?Oddly enough I have no such problems writing about La Grand Illusion, Renoir's other accepted 'masterpiece'.
While I won't deny it's greatness, and even though it has more depth and subtlety than almost every other film ever made, compared to La Regle Du Jeu it's as plan and obvious as a streetwalker. Accordingly I have no problem explaining why I think it's so great. Each character, each event, each major scene, these are all rather obvious metaphors for the state of Europe pre-World War One. That Renoir was able to make this, the greatest of all war films, without showing a single battle, and indeed, without even providing us with even one unsympathetic character, let alone an actual villain, testifies to his majesty among all directors.In the meantime, my little essay about the Rules will have to wait.
04 January 2006
Cannes news
Wong Kar-Wai to head Cannes film festival jury
30 minutes ago
PARIS (Reuters) - Director Wong Kar-Wai will head the jury for this year's
Cannes Film Festival, making him the first Chinese chairman of the panel in the event's history, organisers said on Wednesday.
The Shanghai-born director of "In the Mood for Love" and "2046" won the Cannes festival's Best Director prize for "Happy Together" in 1997.
Wong made clear he saw the job as a challenge.
"Each city has its own language," he said in a statement. "In Cannes, it is the language of dreams. Yet it is difficult to judge a dream, much less compare it to another one."
Wong, who will preside over the 59th Cannes Film Festival from May 17-28, follows in the footsteps of directors such as
Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg.
The president of the 2005 jury, Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica, cast a shadow over the annual cinema extravaganza in the French Riviera resort city last year, saying the quality of movies at the festival had fallen short of expectations.
"There is an old Chinese saying: One can never expect the wind, but should always keep one's window open," said Wong.
"Along with my fellow jurors, I look forward to sharing the dreams created by some of the most gifted talents in contemporary cinema. And our goal will be to keep our windows open as wide as possible."
30 minutes ago
PARIS (Reuters) - Director Wong Kar-Wai will head the jury for this year's
Cannes Film Festival, making him the first Chinese chairman of the panel in the event's history, organisers said on Wednesday.
The Shanghai-born director of "In the Mood for Love" and "2046" won the Cannes festival's Best Director prize for "Happy Together" in 1997.
Wong made clear he saw the job as a challenge.
"Each city has its own language," he said in a statement. "In Cannes, it is the language of dreams. Yet it is difficult to judge a dream, much less compare it to another one."
Wong, who will preside over the 59th Cannes Film Festival from May 17-28, follows in the footsteps of directors such as
Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg.
The president of the 2005 jury, Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica, cast a shadow over the annual cinema extravaganza in the French Riviera resort city last year, saying the quality of movies at the festival had fallen short of expectations.
"There is an old Chinese saying: One can never expect the wind, but should always keep one's window open," said Wong.
"Along with my fellow jurors, I look forward to sharing the dreams created by some of the most gifted talents in contemporary cinema. And our goal will be to keep our windows open as wide as possible."
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