Recently Watched Films 2016

[Dan Warburton]

Jim Jarmusch, Permanent Vacation, 1980

Very good review http://thequietus.com/articles/16201-ja ... on-article - great Earl Bostic track too!

[jon abbey]

I thought that was unwatchable amateurish twaddle with the only redeeming feature being some nice vintage footage of downtown Manhattan, just my two cents.

[Dan Warburton]

I thought that was unwatchable amateurish twaddle with the only redeeming feature being some nice vintage footage of downtown Manhattan, just my two cents.

It's strange, for sure - but contains all the JJ classic tropes in embryo, don't you think? A bit too Warholian for me, but an interesting historical curiosity.

[Dan Warburton]

Georges Franju, La tête contre les murs, 1959

It's probably not one of Franju's best - but even a minor Franju is a helluva sight better than your usual fare.. Add this one to your My Favourite Films About Psychiatric Hospitals list - not as traumatic as Titicut Follies (hard act to top, that) or sensational as Shock Corridor, and of course nowhere near as melodramatic (in the negative sense of the word) as Cuckoo's Nest, but still quietly disturbing. Nicely underplayed by Mocky and Aznavour, and Pierre Brasseur is at his chilling best, but Paul Meurisse (miscast?) is a bit lacklustre. Never mind - Anouk Aimee is gorgeous, and the Maurice Jarre soundtrack excellent. Funny, I have some major issues with Jarre's stuff, especially the Lean epics, but he was always good writing for Franju. DP Schuftan, say no more.

[Dan Warburton]

Claire Denis, Vendredi soir, 2002

Though it was filmed in 2002, the novel it's based on was probably set in 1995, during a spectacular two-month-long series of strikes that totally paralysed Paris - the traffic gridlock was so intense that I remember cyclists carrying their bikes on their shoulders as they threaded their way across the Place de l'Etoile, no shit.. So not surprisingly when our heroine (Valérie Lemercier) chooses this particular Friday night to move house, she finds herself in one godalmighty traffic jam, picks up Vincent Lindon, who's not exactly trying to hitch a lift anywhere (it'd be faster on foot after all), and ends up with him in a hotel room (ah, Paris!).. It's Denis-lite, but Agnès Godard's magnificent cinematography recalls similar steamy scenes in Trouble Every Day - when it comes to filming the body close up, only Philippe Grandrieux comes close, imo. Gorgeous.

[Dan Warburton]

Mary Harron, American Psycho, 2000

The book really annoyed me, but perhaps I might give it another go. Sure, the detailed descriptions of Pat Bateman's atrocities, rendered in the same kind of flat, almost Sade-like, prose that Ellis uses to enthuse about Whitney Houston and Huey Lewis, aren't on offer here: we see the axe and the mess on the floor afterwards, but mercifully we're spared the mutilation of the two call girls.. And Christian Bale gives the performance of a lifetime, with that vacant grin (modelled, he admits, on Cruise). Unfortunately his descent into madness is somewhat glossed over, and the film speeds to a climax which doesn't happen - the last 20 minutes are quite confusing, even if the ending, like that of the book, is soberly chilling. Good try.

[Dan Warburton]

Georges Franju, Mon chien, 1955

I was trying to find out what Franju got up to during the war, but can't find much online - anyone know of a decent biography? Whatever it was, it marked him for life - like the better-known Le sang des bêtes, this tale of dogs abandoned during the summer holidays (eventually sent to the dog pound and, if not claimed within 48 hours, the gas chamber) has a dark, disturbing holocaust resonance. It's an absolutely awesome short, highly recommended, and to my mind just as good as Le sang des bêtes and Hôtel des Invalides. Go get.

[Dan Warburton]

Robert Bresson, Quatre Nuits d'un rêveur, 1971

See post (old one, recycled) on the Bresson thread

[Dan Warburton]

Perry Henzell, The Harder They Come, 1972

Hey, this is great! A real, cool crime flick - we can't really call it blaxploitation but it has much in common with the genre - with fine performances, excellent camerawork, a coherent plot (not always the case with movies like this) and, of course, an awesome soundtrack. Thoroughly deserves its cult status. (You will need subtitles though )

[Dan Warburton]

Alan Clarke, Horace, 1972

Karagargans will probably have noticed that it's Alan Clarkesville at the moment, with the long-awaited Blu-Ray reissue of all his TV plays. I was particularly looking forward to this one, as I remember seeing it when it came out, or shortly afterwards, at the tender age of ten or so (Or maybe it was the six-part TV series adaptation that came out later, can't recall). But, hell, it stuck with me. Barry Jackson's performance as the mentally impaired (Asperger's?) diabetic Horace is truly awesome - scandalous that he only ever landed minor roles in Barry Lyndon and Ryan's Daughter - and Stephen Tantum, who of course never did anything else in the way of acting, is terrific as the outsider schoolboy who befriends him. The script, by Roy Minton, who also penned Funny Farm and Scum, is as good as the direction. You've heard of Loach's Kes, yes? You should check this out.

[Dan Warburton]

Alan Clarke, Road, 1987

But I'd argue that it was with the arrival of the Steadicam that Clarke really came into his own. Directors as diverse as Gus Van Sant and Harmony Korine have (rightly) raved about Elephant and The Firm - but I'll go out on a limb here and say this is just as good, if not better. It's an adaptation of a play by Jim Cartwright (set in what must be the bleakest semi-derelict housing estate in Northern England - I can't find out where (Blackburn? Bolton?) and I'm sure that it's been demolished since, like the awful Buttershaw estate in Bradford where Clarke shot Rita, Sue and Bob too), which basically consists of set-pieces, mostly monologues bemoaning the terminal decline of Thatcher's Britain. Huh, you say, been there, done that, but there's a power to Cartwright's writing - stylised, for sure, but deeply rooted in daily life and blunt normal speech - that neither Ken Loach nor Mike Leigh have ever achieved. Fans of Leigh's Naked will spot David Thewlis, whose character here could well be the precursor of Johnny (though on the other hand I reckon suicide is a more likely outcome to his plight), but I bet they won't recognise Lesley Sharp's ratty hairstyle and smudged makeup (above). Her monologue here is absolutely stunning (and it drove her crazy - all shot in one long take, she had to do it 16 times before Clarke was satisfied ("stop fucking acting!") and ended up walking about five miles in the process). But the closing scene, watching the desperate reactions to Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" is shattering. A great song, a great play, a great film. More info on the play here http://sdcperformancens.blogspot.fr/201 ... entry.html

[jon abbey]

t's strange, for sure - but contains all the JJ classic tropes in embryo, don't you think?

maybe, I don't have much tolerance for most of his work.

[SqDanceCallingSteve]

Perry Henzell, The Harder They Come, 1972

Hey, this is great! A real, cool crime flick - we can't really call it blaxploitation but it has much in common with the genre - with fine performances, excellent camerawork, a coherent plot (not always the case with movies like this) and, of course, an awesome soundtrack. Thoroughly deserves its cult status. (You will need subtitles though )

Saw this when it came out and reggae was new, at the Rio Theater in Monte Rio (large quonset hut), all of us enveloped in a cloud of Lamb's Bread and cheering on two-gun Jimmy Cliff.

[walto]

Two enjoyable little movies, one slightly disturbing (about young adulthood), the other mostly uplifting (about fatherhood). The first one is nicely unpredictable; the dialogue in the second one, quite incisive and funny.



Apartment Troubles (Prediger/Weixler, 2014)



Fundamentals of Caring (Burnett, 2016)

[Dan Warburton]

t's strange, for sure - but contains all the JJ classic tropes in embryo, don't you think?

maybe, I don't have much tolerance for most of his work.

Aww, ya f**kin' GROUCH Get HAPPY for a change - you've been listening to far too much SERIOUS music, all those bloody sinewaves and fluffy field recordings.. I recommend this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPd_awQuH4o

[jon abbey]

actually I've been rewatching Kiarostami films (just Close-Up and A Taste of Cherry so far), and I already played a Specials song today ('Too Hot'). I watch plenty of mindless crap, but most of Jarmusch just rubs me the wrong way.

but I don't like most films (IHF), I find them occasionally mindblowingly exciting (2%?), often forgettable (70%?), and sometimes irritating (the rest). this is why I don't post here much as I don't have much nice to say generally.

[walto]

actually I've been rewatching Kiarostami films (just Close-Up and A Taste of Cherry so far), and I already played a Specials song today ('Too Hot'). I watch plenty of mindless crap, but most of Jarmusch just rubs me the wrong way.

but I don't like most films (IHF), I find them occasionally mindblowingly exciting (2%?), often forgettable (70%?), and sometimes irritating (the rest). this is why I don't post here much as I don't have much nice to say generally.

The thing is to post about the 70% before you've forgotten them. That's what I do. E.g., On reading your exchange with Dan, I was trying to remember the Jarmusch films I've seen. I think there have been two--Down by Law and something about Cigarettes, but I can't remember anything about either of them except that Tom Waits is in at least one of them.

[Dan Warburton]

Billy Wilder, The Seven-Year Itch, 1955

Amazingly enough, I'd never seen it before, except for the famous subway updraft bit, which isn't all that special after all. There are some amusing bits, for sure, but as far as blonde bombshells go, give me Jayne anytime!



Frank Tashlin, The Girl Can't Help It, 1956

And this one comes with Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Fats Domino, Abbey Lincoln and Eddie Cochran as bonus attractions, plus the ejaculating milk bottle. No wonder John Waters loves it so much - and Tim Burton, who stole Jayne's walk for Mars Attacks!

[Dan Warburton]

Abbas Kiarostami, Copie conforme, 2010

Truly magnificent - this could be Binoche's greatest work, and that's saying something. And (baritone) William Shimell, who Kiarostami met when he directed Cosi fan tutte in 2008 (Haneke subsequently made a film of the same opera, also with Shimell), is very fine. Thank God someone talked the director out of De Niro.
Any further discussion will necessarily involved spoilers, to some extent, but am happy to indulge if anyone else out there feels like it.

[Dan Warburton]

Abbas Kiarostami, Ten, 2002

He makes it all look sooo simple. Shooting a movie inside a moving car.. hats off to Mania Akbari for driving and acting at the same time. If acting she is.. how much of this was scripted, and how much improvised (if that word means much in cinema these days, post-Leigh, post-Lars)? That is her son arguing with her, after all, and much of the story is supposedly based on her life. I have yet to see the documentary making of, but feel free to spoil it for me if you know. Another outstanding work from the late lamented maestro.