Recently Watched Films 2012

[Dohol]

The Bad Sleep Well is fucking awesome....

[Dan Warburton]

Alex Cox, Walker, 1987

Hilarious Bunuellian anachronisms aside (Zippo lighters, copies of Time and Newsweek, cars and finally a helicopter), it's alarming how much of this story of William Walker's adventures in Nicaragua is actually based in fact (well, the film does begin with a huge banner headline THIS IS A TRUE STORY..). "We made it with the intention of spending as many American dollars as possible in Nicaragua, in solidarity with the Nicaraguans against the yanks' outrageous aggression against a sovereign nation," writes the director in a typically forthright and amusing article on his website http://www.alexcox.com/dir_walker.htm. Not surprisingly, this torpedoed Cox's Hollywood career forever. I love it.

[Dan Warburton]

André Téchiné, Le lieu du crime, 1986

Despite great cinematography and a fine cast (splendid chemistry between Danielle Darrieux and Catherine Deneuve again), the plot doesn't convince, and much of the dialogue, notably towards the end when the story seems to fall to bits, feels unrealistic. Especially disappointing since the screenplay was also written by Olivier Assayas and Pascal Bonitzer, who normally do a good job. As it is, it seems to fall uncomfortably between drama and melodrama, too improbable for the former and too real to be the latter.

[Dan Warburton]

Ken Russell, The Devils, 1971

Absolutely blown away - Russell's greatest and most daring film (easily on a par with Salo, The Exorcist or Caligula or take your pick on the provocative scale), Oliver Reed's best performance without a doubt, stunning sets by Derek Jarman, magnificent soundtrack by Peter Maxwell Davies.. shame the infamous "rape of Christ" scene still hasn't been properly reinserted into the film (and we only get glimpses of it in the bonus documentary on the BFI double disc set - strongly recommended btw, with 40-page booklet too), but there's enough here to keep the Catholic Church fuming for at least a century.

[Dan Warburton]

Steven Soderbergh, The Limey, 1999

Maybe my favourite Soderbergh (though I ought to see Kafka again). Third viewing, standing up well, nice to spot little details this time - Luiz Guzman's Mao Tse Tung T-shirt, Barry Newman's Kowalski sunglasses, that Who song I missed last time. Writer Lem Dobbs had Michael Caine in mind as Wilson, but the Get Carter vibe would have been overwhelming. Casting Stamp was a cool idea, allowing SS to quote directly from Loach's Poor Cow and allude to The Hit, The Collector and Teorema. Love the way this film is constantly looking over its shoulder, not only in the plot (inevitable for a revenge movie, I guess, that return to the past - that said, Get Carter does very well without it) but in the casting (60s icons Stamp and Fonda, but also Joe Dallessandro and Barry Newman) and in the montage itself. You could argue the entire film is a flashback in Stamp's head as he flies home.

[Dan Warburton]

Jean Becker, L'été meurtrier ("One Deadly Summer"), 1983

Isabelle Adjani refused to get her kit off for Buñuel and Godard, but had no problems baring all here, which certainly helped boost box office receipts. But she didn't win a handful of awards for that: it's hard to imagine any other French actress at the time who could have pulled off the role of Eliane so well, that unstable cocktail of little girl lost, steamy sexpot and scheming revenger. Alain Souchon is excellent as her decent but dim husband (happy to report though it's Yves Montand's song that accompanies the wedding and not one of Souchon's own), and the supporting cast is solid: Suzanne Flon, Michel Galabru and François Cluzet (who looks rather scarily like a young Sean Penn). Director Jean Becker handles Sebastien Japrisot's complex tale of rape and revenge deftly, and turns in a commendable thriller. I'd avoid the rather fuzzy and bonusless Nouveaux Pictures DVD though, if I were you.

[Dan Warburton]

Sergey Bondarchuk, Waterloo, 1970

Shot in Ukraine (the exteriors) and featuring thousands of KGB-supervised Red Army extras, this Dino De Laurentiis-produced spectacular cost $25,000,000 and its failure at the box office prompted Kubrick to abandon his own Napoleonic plans. Dino spotted Bondarchuk's skill in War and Peace at orchestrating spectacular battle scenes but presumably underestimated the importance of a decent screenplay. Bondarchuk and Harry Craig's script gives Steiger and Plummer plenty of opportunities to chew the scenery, but we never quite understand what's motivating Bonaparte, or how and why he ended up in Belgium.

[Dan Warburton]

Alex Cox, Straight to Hell, 1987

Written in three days and shot in four weeks on the abandoned set of Chino in Spain with a cast consisting largely of musicians (yes that is Shane MacGowan above, I wonder how you guessed) whose tour of Nicaragua fell through at the last minute, Straight to Hell is either one of the crowning glories of postmodern cinema or an 87-minute self-indulgent sprawling mess. Or maybe both. It's certainly amusing to read how divided opinion is on this one. Parody is the ultimate stage of evolution (decadence?) of a particular artform, but this is a spoof of a genre - the Spaghetti Western - that itself set out to upend the conventions and expectations of a genre. Cox clearly knows his spaghetti (download his UCLA thesis 10000 Ways To Die if you want a good, fresh freshman read) as well as Tarantino - and if Jules in Pulp Fiction didn't come from Sy Richardson's Norwood in Straight to Hell, I wonder where he came from - but instead of getting right inside the genre QT-style and ripping it open from within, Alex is happy to sit on the fence and flick snot at his obscure object of desire. For every great moment - personal favourites include Fabienne (yes, Quentin, Fabienne) cleaning George's motorbike, Karl's song ("salsa y ketchup!") and Grandpa's hand, Carrie-like, emerging from his grave - there's a gag that falls flat on its face. The acting is as deliciously cruddy as the script, and that's fine by me: as one punter over at IMDb puts it, "the people who can't act are given one dimensional roles which is highly preferable to giving someone that has no acting ability a role with weight and importance (Daryl Hannah in Wall Street, Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing)." Even Dennis Hopper (evil real estate oil baron called I.G. Farben haha) can hardly stop himself from pissing with laughter.
But maybe you can have too much of a bad thing, and eventually the unpredictable becomes predictable: when one of the town locals asks to join our three heroes in a Rio Bravo-like standoff with the MacMahons, you know he's going to get shot to pieces, and when Courtney Love runs off with the boss baddie - called Frank, of course - you know she's going to meet a sticky end. But any film that has a heavily pregnant (well, it's a cushion actually) Courtney Love driving off a cliff in a ball of fire is all right by me.

[Dan Warburton]

Alain Resnais, Mon oncle d'Amérique, 1980

Inspired by and featuring the writings (and voice) of neurobiologist Henri Laborit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Laborit, whose work I know nothing of but am now curious to explore, there's enough material here for a whole convention on evolutionary psychology. And cinema: Resnais's weaving together of three life stories, intercut with snippets of films featuring their respective cinematic idols - Danielle Darrieux, Jean Marais, Jean Gabin - and footage of Laborit's laboratory experiments is nothing short of masterly. I got more out of the first fifteen minutes than the entire Tree of Life. That said, the dénouement of the Gerard Depardieu subplot feels a bit contrived, and you do wonder how Nicole Garcia evolved from working class heroine struggling actress to neoliberal yuppie bitch.. but the final seconds of the film more than make up for it.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Philip Kaufman - The Wanderers

I'm surprised - this is a beautifully made movie, and it may even be some kind of masterpiece. Actually, there are a lot of things in it that I like to see in films such as, among many other things, live doo wop, cheerleaders, fights, classroom scenes, a pervading sense of nostalgia, strip poker, football, dumb yet touching youths, a bowling alley, the lovely Karen Allen, and even, surprisingly, some kung fu. I think everyone one should see it. On looking at the screenshot, you wouldn't know he is watching Bob Dylan (or rather, an ill-fated love fading away). The soundtrack is, needless to say, impeccable.

[Dan Warburton]

Jacques Rozier, Rentrée des classes, 1956



Jacques Rozier, Blue Jeans, 1958

The Cahiers crew's seemingly unlimited admiration for Italian neorealism is no secret, but there's as much Vigo (A propos de Nice) as Vitelloni in Blue Jeans, and Rentrée is a joyous, sunlit Provencal take on Zéro de conduite. Instead saying "merde" to your teacher, put a snake in his desk. Shame they couldn't find room in the splendid 5DVD box for Rozier's two later shorts - one 9', the other 20' - Bardot & Godard and Paparazzi, shot in Capri during the filming of Le Mépris.

[Dan Warburton]

Jûzô Itami, Tampopo, 1985

Muito gostoso!

[Dan Warburton]

Jacques Rivette, L'amour fou, 1969

see my post on the Rivette thread elsewhere

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Jacques Rivette, L'amour fou, 1969

see my post on the Rivette thread elsewhere

Don't need to read it, I assume you found it marvelous. Just kidding. I came across this interesting article about Céline et Julie vont en bateau recently (don't mind the autopilot style but I must admit that, save for this quibble, I rather like Armond White).

[Dan Warburton]

That's an entertaining and well-written review, thanks for linking it, Ben. Especially like the "dull narcissism", well put. Of course, I don't agree with a lot of what he has to say - seems like he's using the film as a bat to beat some other demons with - but found the Altman comparison interesting. All the more so since Rivette said some nice things about Altman in one of those reviews I linked in the other thread.
Of course, Rivette is, as my mum would say, "an acquired taste", as are many of the things people post about here. I had no idea though I was so hip and trendy until I read Armond
I wonder what Pauline would have made of L'amour fou (I'm assuming she never made it even a third of the way through), especially since it seems to point the way towards Last Tango in Paris..

[Lao Tsu Ben]

That's an entertaining and well-written review, thanks for linking it, Ben. Especially like the "dull narcissism", well put. Of course, I don't agree with a lot of what he has to say - seems like he's using the film as a bat to beat some other demons with - but found the Altman comparison interesting. All the more so since Rivette said some nice things about Altman in one of those reviews I linked in the other thread.
Of course, Rivette is, as my mum would say, "an acquired taste", as are many of the things people post about here. I had no idea though I was so hip and trendy until I read Armond
I wonder what Pauline would have made of L'amour fou (I'm assuming she never made it even a third of the way through), especially since it seems to point the way towards Last Tango in Paris..

I will not argue the case that pretty much anything seems to be an "acquired taste", which seems beside the point, and perhaps those other demons that you speak about have something to do with that - acquired distaste, I will call it. As it happens, I saw quite a lot of Rivette's films, and liked some of them immediately, especially Céline et Julie vont en bateau (never went to the end of the first one I watched, though - Paris Nous Appartient). In a nutshell, I didn't want to sound disagreeable, even though I'm quite sure that somehow I've lost interest in them (but not in what you say about them).

[Dan Warburton]

Bob Fosse, Lenny, 1974

From the IMDb parental advisory guide: 'Sex & Nudity: a few scenes of topless female nudity, as well as one scene having full female nudity shown. Violence & Gore: there is a car accident, some blood is shown. Profanity: some sexual references, occasional F-words, milder language. Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: People are seen drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes/cigars"
Makes it sound quite harmless, really, doesn't it? But in many ways this is one of the most distressing films you're likely to come across. Hoffman's Bruce is so scarily accurate - particularly in his last harrowing performance stoned out of his mind (Dustin based his one-take verbatim reprise on the tape of the actual performance) - that I had to race back to recordings of the man himself. Add to that superb performances by Valerie Perrine and Jan Miner and Fosse's gloriously lit and superbly edited black and white, and you've got a great movie. And if you don't agree, fuck you ("Never understood that insult, because fucking someone is actually really pleasant. If we're trying to be mean, we should say 'unfuck you!'")

[Dan Warburton]

Louis Malle, Lacombe Lucien, 1974

Malle's recruiting of actor Pierre Blaise, who was working as a woodcutter at the time, reminds me of Bresson and his "models" - and there's that curious Bressonian mixture of flatness and intensity to his performance. Outstanding film, beautifully acted (shots out to Holger Lowenadler and the ever wonderful Aurore Clément) and smartly lit and edited. One of Michel Chion's favourites too - he teaches this in his "Morality in Cinema" class.

[Gaendaal]

Louis Malle, Lacombe Lucien, 1974

Malle's recruiting of actor Pierre Blaise, who was working as a woodcutter at the time, reminds me of Bresson and his "models" - and there's that curious Bressonian mixture of flatness and intensity to his performance. Outstanding film, beautifully acted (shots out to Holger Lowenadler and the ever wonderful Aurore Clément) and smartly lit and edited. One of Michel Chion's favourites too - he teaches this in his "Morality in Cinema" class.

Very much so, yes. A wonderful role from Lowenadler (fine, fine eyebrows as well).

And then Malle went on to make Black Moon!

[Dan Warburton]

Derek Jarman, Edward II, 1991

Jarman's loose but affectionate and skilful adaptation of Christopher Marlowe is, along with Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, proof that a great play can survive low flying jets, Act-Up protest meetings and even Annie Lennox singing Cole Porter. Can't decide what's more beautiful - Tilda Swinton's neck or Tilda Swinton's voice. Now looking forward to Alex Cox's take on Thomas Middleton's Revengers Tragedy, coming soon to a DVD player near me.