Les Cousins -- Chabrol

Started by SoNowThen, April 23, 2004, 09:13:41 AM

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SoNowThen

I saw this last night. Came out in '59, and is just as good, if not better, than 400 Blows and Breathless. I'm blown away. Chabrol takes his love of Hitchcock and applies some of his more aggressive camera work to a somewhat regular-joe type story of party kids going to a Paris university. THIS MOVIE, more than any recent film about people my age, gets it. It gets it so good, it's scary. And there's no cop out, like there would be in a young adult movie of this nature today. We either have the sellout commercial shit that always ends too sweetly, or we have some grunge tipped thing that deals with suicide or some subversive sex blah blah blah. Les Cousins gives us the best of both worlds, creating -- at least in my mind right now as it stands -- the best "young adult" film I have ever seen.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

cron

Where did you see it?  Are there (Criterion) plans for a DVD?
context, context, context.

SoNowThen

I wish. I'll be emailing them asap to request it.

Nah, I was lucky enough to find an old-as-hell copy in my library. I'll be burning it to dvd tonight, however, to tide me over...
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

SHAFTR

I've seen Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes, it was good.
"Talking shit about a pretty sunset
Blanketing opinions that i'll probably regret soon"