Recently Watched Films 2019

[Dan Warburton]

Jean-François Stévenin, Passe Montagne, 1978

Screenshots above come from this article http://www.dvdclassik.com/critique/pass ... e-stevenin which is excellent, but in French. As is the film of course, which we saw at the cinema (ha! for once!) followed by a live debate with Stévenin and his master editor Yann Dedet, and - sorry to disappoint you - not subtitled and quite possibly not even subtitleable: I've been living in France over half my life and my wife's French but that didn't stop either of us being totally lost in the local Jura dialect. And it doesn't matter! As Stevenin said in the post-film debate, you could watch Scorsese's Casino dubbed into Chinese without subs and it would still make perfect sense.
The story, as such, is as follows (a DeepL translation of the first paragraph of the article linked above): "Georges (Jacques Villeret), a Parisian architect, crosses the Jura with other members of the firm where he works. With his Mercedes making a fuss, he refuses to abandon his car in a garage and lets his colleagues return to the capital on their own. Witness of the scene, Serge (Jean-François Stévenin) suggested that he take his vehicle to the garage where he works. They leave the highway and go down into the mountains to a remote place. Serge invites him to share his place while he receives the parts and makes the repairs. The days go by. Serge takes his time, not seeming really determined to let his guest go. A little nervous at first, Georges finally lets himself be carried away, tasting more and more of these improvised holidays, these days torn from everyday life. They scour the surroundings, lost restaurants and mountain paths, argue, reconcile, get drunk, confide in each other. And Serge one day reveals his secret: a large wooden bird that he has patiently made and with which he intends to fly over the valley...."
But that hardly goes any way to capture the magic of this great film. Love it.

[henriq]

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, La gabbia ("The Trap"), 1985

Wow. I was expecting a rather cheesy softcore giallino, but this is an absolutely top-notch erotico-psycho(logical) thriller. Laura Antonelli is quite simply superb, but Florinda Balkan, Blanca Marsillach and poor old Tony Musante are on great form. I say "poor old" Tony Musante, but you might not think that way about him at the beginning of the movie.. But wait until he runs into the next door neighbour.. Add a very fine Morricone soundtrack, cool decor and I can't for the life of me figure out why it polled a measly 5.1 on IMDb. This is definitely up there with Fatal Attraction, Play Misty for Me and Basic Instinct. You like femmes fatales? Check this one out

As you say, WOW. Excellent. And is that not the same Paris gare (Austerlitz?) that Depardieu steps out of in the opening of Schroeder's Maitresse?

[henriq]

Nicolas Philibert - Être et avoir (2002)

This made quite a splash when it was released, both in my native Sweden and pretty much all of elsewhere, and rightly so: it is absolutely lovely. You could probably write at some length about the genealogy of Philibert's style, but there really is no need, the proof is right in front of us. There is a quiet exactness to the emotions and drama captured here, in this documentary about a small country school in the Auvergnes. A style mimicking and taking it's lead from the teacher himself, Georges Lopez. One wonders if this was something planned from the beginning or if the director was led down that path during the shoot, but Lopez commands everything here, the film as well as his classroom. There is an unsentimental authoritarianism at work here, if we can call it that: a stern economy governs how the teacher deals with his wards, be it with teaching, comfort or sympathy. Even the little three year old crying for his mom - it will tear your heart out - gets the requisite amount of care and attention, nothing more: if he's not comforted completely, that is as it may be, mais ça suffit. Lopez never loses his temper, raises his voice, gets mean or nasty to the kids, a beauty to watch. Fascinating to see, also, for a non-French viewer like myself. Emotions, tantrums, challenging and testing authority was given a lot more space in the classrooms of my youth, but you get a sense of something more machinic and paternal at work in the French system. Love the tortoises too!

[Dan Warburton]

Watched this again after seeing a documentary on Delon on French TV the other night (poor bugger - always sad to see people who don't know how to grow old..), and I haven't changed my mind from what I wrote here eight years ago -

Jean-Pierre Melville, Un Flic, 1972

The opening bank robbery on the windswept Vendée coast is terrific, beautifully paced, edited, lit - that wan, pale blue Melville made his own in Le Samouraï and Cercle Rouge (did he steal it from Tati? Compare Mon Oncle and Play Time.. and note that Tati's son and daughter are part of the crew here on Un Flic..) - but you eventually discover that it has almost bugger all to do with the rest of the film, other than provide a clue to Delon, here playing a sadistic and unlikeable cop (but to all intents and purposes still playing Jef Costello from Le Samouraï )as to the identity of one of the criminals. Of course it's all totally unrealistic stuff - who the hell would be wearing snap brim fedoras and driving a Buick in a godforsaken tacky French holiday resort in 1972? - but it hardly matters. However, I don't think Melville intended his viewers to laugh, and unfortunately that's what you do when you see the piss poor model train and helicopter in the robbery that forms the film's centrepiece. I'm sure he was seriously trying to compete with a similar heist in Gérard Oury's Le Cerveau (1969 screwball comedy with David Niven, Bourvil and Belmondo.. fun stuff), but the result is simply laughable. Screenplay is thin, too.. Melville never was a chatterbox, but the friendly relationship between Delon and suave gentleman-cambrioleur Simon (who, of course, runs a nightclub, complete with the director's beloved dancing girls) is only hinted at, and the girl they both share, played by la Deneuve, is a mere thumbnail sketch. The film's pretty misogynistic in fact - there are only four women in it and none of them is depicted with any great sympathy.
Worth it for the first half hour, but Melville fans are likely to be disappointed by the rest.

[henriq]

Watched this again after seeing a documentary on Delon on French TV the other night (poor bugger - always sad to see people who don't know how to grow old..), and I haven't changed my mind from what I wrote here eight years ago -

Jean-Pierre Melville, Un Flic, 1972

The opening bank robbery on the windswept Vendée coast is terrific, beautifully paced, edited, lit - that wan, pale blue Melville made his own in Le Samouraï and Cercle Rouge (did he steal it from Tati? Compare Mon Oncle and Play Time.. and note that Tati's son and daughter are part of the crew here on Un Flic..) - but you eventually discover that it has almost bugger all to do with the rest of the film, other than provide a clue to Delon, here playing a sadistic and unlikeable cop (but to all intents and purposes still playing Jef Costello from Le Samouraï )as to the identity of one of the criminals. Of course it's all totally unrealistic stuff - who the hell would be wearing snap brim fedoras and driving a Buick in a godforsaken tacky French holiday resort in 1972? - but it hardly matters. However, I don't think Melville intended his viewers to laugh, and unfortunately that's what you do when you see the piss poor model train and helicopter in the robbery that forms the film's centrepiece. I'm sure he was seriously trying to compete with a similar heist in Gérard Oury's Le Cerveau (1969 screwball comedy with David Niven, Bourvil and Belmondo.. fun stuff), but the result is simply laughable. Screenplay is thin, too.. Melville never was a chatterbox, but the friendly relationship between Delon and suave gentleman-cambrioleur Simon (who, of course, runs a nightclub, complete with the director's beloved dancing girls) is only hinted at, and the girl they both share, played by la Deneuve, is a mere thumbnail sketch. The film's pretty misogynistic in fact - there are only four women in it and none of them is depicted with any great sympathy.
Worth it for the first half hour, but Melville fans are likely to be disappointed by the rest.

Oh yeah, that ass ugly miniature, that he keeps shooting forever. You want to look beyond it, but it's impossible. A terrible lapse of artistic judgment.

[Dan Warburton]

Oh yeah, that ass ugly miniature, that he keeps shooting forever. You want to look beyond it, but it's impossible. A terrible lapse of artistic judgment.

Yes, what on earth was he thinking of? Was he really strapped for cash and couldn't afford a real helicopter (though there is one in the scene when they land after the robbery, albeit briefly)? As this article https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/un-flic/ puts it, "there’s a distinct vein of misanthropic defeat coursing in this film that’s encoded into empty gestures and portrayals of people who appear to only be going through the motions". Anyway, if you thought Un flic was under par, wait until you see this - well, don't:



Michel Gast, J'irai cracher sur vos tombes, 1959

Boris Vian, whose incendiary little novel this was an adaptation of, actually died during a projection of the film - which gives you an idea of how bad it is. No, really. Read the book - it's dated but it's still good - avoid the film, unless you want to see a young Claude Berri pissed off his head. A young Jean Sorel too. Nice looking girls, jazz score far too loud and used totally inappropriately. Apocalypse Now Redux fans will recognise Christian Marquand, who plays the angry young man mulatto hero (and he doesn't look mulatto either, but that's not a problem: Vian's hero was blond). But you can give it a miss, honest.

[Lao Tsu Ben]

Holy Smoke, Jane Campion, 1999

Though I like a film that strives to stay out of well-trodden paths and does not lend itself to easily to analysis, I have to admit that those who deem Holy Smoke a mess, noticeably because of its shifts of tones, are rather in the true. In that respect, allow me to quote these on-the-point comments from a letterboxd review (a website which I never browse, contrary to imdb, and perhaps I should, dunno) :

It's pretty difficult for me to write anything about "Holy Smoke" for one simple reason: nobody knows what kind of movie is, including its director. Is it a satire of modern family, the power of cults and sexual politics? Is it a genuine love story between two unconventional and strong-willed individuals? Or is it a campy sex comedy?

At the beginning, Campion seems to suggest that she is making a satirical comedy about beliefs and such, but it turns out to explore the sexual confrontation between an independant young woman (Kate Winslet) and a leery and macho old guru-like type, unable to put a lid on his desires. While there is room a-plenty for ambiguity, and the film predates in not too simplistic a way the gender wars that are waged today, it ends up feeling ridiculous and relying mostly on cheap shots.

[henriq]

Yes, what on earth was he thinking of? Was he really strapped for cash and couldn't afford a real helicopter (though there is one in the scene when they land after the robbery, albeit briefly)? As this article https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/un-flic/ puts it, "there’s a distinct vein of misanthropic defeat coursing in this film that’s encoded into empty gestures and portrayals of people who appear to only be going through the motions".

That might be on to something. Didn't Melville die soon after the release? Maybe he couldn't be buggered to perform, at all. But just something, anything, a bit of montage, a tense Delon in a a studio somewhere, and you might remember that film with something beside disdain. As it is, it is truly awful.

[Piano Mouth]

Holy Smoke, Jane Campion, 1999

Though I like a film that strives to stay out of well-trodden paths and does not lend itself to easily to analysis, I have to admit that those who deem Holy Smoke a mess, noticeably because of its shifts of tones, are rather in the true. In that respect, allow me to quote these on-the-point comments from a letterboxd review (a website which I never browse, contrary to imdb, and perhaps I should, dunno) :

It's pretty difficult for me to write anything about "Holy Smoke" for one simple reason: nobody knows what kind of movie is, including its director. Is it a satire of modern family, the power of cults and sexual politics? Is it a genuine love story between two unconventional and strong-willed individuals? Or is it a campy sex comedy?

At the beginning, Campion seems to suggest that she is making a satirical comedy about beliefs and such, but it turns out to explore the sexual confrontation between an independant young woman (Kate Winslet) and a leery and macho old guru-like type, unable to put a lid on his desires. While there is room a-plenty for ambiguity, and the film predates in not too simplistic a way the gender wars that are waged today, it ends up feeling ridiculous and relying mostly on cheap shots.

Oh wow, forgot about this one. My ex was really into Kate Winslet after Titanic and had to watch and was really into every single Kate Winslet movie ever made including Holy Smoke and Quills and some other ones. She was also very annoying and reminds me of Amanda Palmer, my ex that is.

If you watch one short film this year:

A Loaf of Bread by Jan Nemec is a masterpice.

[Dan Warburton]

Ingmar Bergman, It Rains On Our Love, 1946

Not bad as debut features go, but http://www.ingmarbergman.se/en/producti ... s-our-love

[Dan Warburton]

Stuart Gordon, Re-Animator, 1985

Bloody good fun, with bloody being the operative word - trying to read the complete Lovecraft in small doses, but I don't think I've got as far as "Herbert West, Re-Animator" yet, looking forward. Plenty of juicy trivia over at IMDb which I won't bore you with.

[Dan Warburton]

Leo Hurwitz, Dialogue With A Woman Departed, 1981

It's on YouTube if you've got 3h45 free, or its eternally freeleech over at KG. Long and far too enthusiastic blogpost here https://charactersonthecouch.com/film/l ... 1972-1980/ Basically, Leo's wife, film editor Peggy Lawson, died in 1971 and he spent the next eight years working on this undoubtedly deeply felt but fatally overlong tribute to her life and concerns. Old family photos are fine by me, but not over and over again.. And much as I like Bach's Musical Offering, that gets too much airplay too. As Leo and his wife were both dedicated political activists, you can also bet there are images a-plenty of, wait for it: Hitler, Auschwitz, VE Day, Nuremberg, McCarthy, Castro, Mao, Nixon, King, Vietnam, Kent State, Malcolm.. No prizes for guessing what pictures are accompanied by Billie singing "Strange Fruit". Problem is - and I don't want to sound horribly cynical and curmudgeonly - we've seen so many of these images so often they've become almost as banal as the Coca Cola ads and street signs Hurwitz uses as punctuation marks. When you see footage of cops beating the shit out of peaceful protesters, or burning monks, or jackbooted Nazis smashing shop windows, there's only one thing you can think. "We live under a ruthless system that numbs the soul", runs the quote - that, alas, is a rather apt description for the film.

[Dan Warburton]

Guy Gilles, Nefertiti, la fille du soleil, 1995

Gilles was fighting AIDS and eventually lost, but that's no excuse for a really awful film, a sad way to end the director's career. If you were half-tempted, as I was, to check it out just to see Ben Gazzara play Pharaoh, don't. He's dubbed. Avoid.

[Dan Warburton]

Fernando Fernán Gómez, La vida por delante, 1958

A delight! (And free forever over at KG of course) Similar comedy subject matter explored a year later by Marco Ferreri and Rafael Ezcona in El pisito and El cochecito (maybe they stole the idea of the tiny car from Gómez), with the director and Analia Gade as the lovestruck young couple. The scene above is especially hilarious, as the magistrate investigates three differing accounts of Josefina's car crash, the third told by a witness with a pronounced stutter which Gómez uses as a filmic device. Fresh, funny, hasn't aged a bit. Check out.

[Dan Warburton]

Chris Marker, L'héritage de la chouette, 1989

Magnificent 13-part (each episode just 25', ideal for your commute) documentary series on various aspects of Ancient Greek civilisation and its lasting influence on the world - mainly talking heads extracts from interviews with scholars, poets, philosophers, theatre and film directors (Angelopoulos, Kazan..) and composers (Xenakis, of course) More details here https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/arts ... arker.html - out on DVD now but still freeleech at KG

[Piano Mouth]

Chris Marker, L'héritage de la chouette, 1989

Magnificent 13-part (each episode just 25', ideal for your commute) documentary series on various aspects of Ancient Greek civilisation and its lasting influence on the world - mainly talking heads extracts from interviews with scholars, poets, philosophers, theatre and film directors (Angelopoulos, Kazan..) and composers (Xenakis, of course) More details here https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/arts ... arker.html - out on DVD now but still freeleech at KG

I saw a few episodes of this, tres bien.

[Dan Warburton]

Roman Polanski, Tess, 1979

Recently got back from a week in a quiet gîte at the northwest end of the Cotentin peninsula, which looks remarkably like Wales or Ireland (it's so close to the Channel Islands my cellphone thought it was in the UK). Not surprising then that Mr Polanski, not being able to film his Thomas Hardy adaptation in Dorset for reasons we all know, chose this part of France for most of the filming locations. Apart from the hilariously bad model of Stonehenge at the end - almost Spinal Tap bad - he almost gets away with it. As Hardy adaptations go, it's competent and correct, including most of the novel's key plotpoints and lines (except Alec d'Urberville's becoming a Methodist priest, but that's not important), but it lacks the magic of Schlesinger's Far From The Madding Crowd or the BBC short story treatments Wessex Tales. Maybe it's the lack of A-list actors, though Leigh Lawson is a convincing cad as Alec, and Peter Firth the perfect nondescript pompous pillock as the insufferable Angel Clare.. That was Hardy's point, I suppose, having his poor unfortunate heroine bounced between two equally unappealing men, but the landscape and social context were also important players in Hardy's novel - the descriptions of the combine harvester and the windswept wilds of Flintcomb-Ash stuck with me as much as the story itself when I read it as a kid - and Polanski unfortunately just skims over them. Landscape as backdrop is not what Hardy had in mind. Then again, Roman is obviously as in love with the gorgeous Nastassia Kinski as we all are - and, has to be said, apart from a rather dodgy accent at times, she does give a fine performance as the Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. But as films go, it's a bit meh. Book's a whole lot better (they usually are)

[Dan Warburton]

François Truffaut, Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent, 1971

Also shot in the Cotentin peninsula substituting for Wales. Based on another novel by Henri-Pierre Roché, author of Jules et Jim. As I wrote here before years ago, it's a similar love triangle story, except this time it's two girls and a guy (the "Continent"). I'd forgotten how good this was, really much better than J&J imo. Jean-Pierre Léaud, who was described by Truffaut somewhere as the best actor of his generation (and I don't think FT had his tongue in his cheek), is absolutely terrific here - along with La maman et la putain this must be his greatest performance, and Yann Dedet's masterly editing catches every sideways glance and twitch of the lips. It's as if you can see him thinking, wonderful. Goes without saying that any film shot by the mighty Nestor Almendros is a thing of beauty. But let's hear it too for the two British actresses, Kika Markham and Stacy Tendeter, who deliver beautifully nuanced performances. The closest Truffaut ever got to Rohmer. Probably my favourite Truffaut, come to think of it. Have you seen this one, Henrik mon ami?

[Dan Warburton]

Marc'O (Marc-Gilbert Guillaumin), Les idoles, 1968

The two user reviews at IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0228418/re ... ef_=tt_urv couldn't be more different, but I find points to agree with in both of them, interestingly enough. Sure, Marc'O skewers the cynicim of Pop As Product, though not as brutally as Peter Watkins in Privilege, and some of the music is really wild (watch out for Gong's Didier Malherbe in there..), not to mention deliberately fucking awful. Personally, I can't resist a line-up that includes Pierre Clémenti (awesome: Sid Vicious avant l'heure!), Jean-Pierre Kalfon and Bulle Ogier, not forgetting Bernadette Lafont as a pop star nun. (And as you probably know, that dire prediction actually came true https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0e8Uve7cJU)

[Dan Warburton]

Jérôme Boivin, Baxter, 1989

Talking dog? Cute.. Well, no - we get to hear Baxter the bull terrier's thoughts, but they're not the things you probably want to hear. I won't mention what befalls the little old lady, his first owner, or the Hitler-obsessed teenage boy he ends up with, and before you ask, yes, the baby above is in trouble. Very original comedy horror outing, well cast and well written (Jacques Audiard, figures). Dark.