so anybody wanna talk about this? for those of you who complain about too much new director stuff, this is for ya.
so I went on a bender of french films this week. watched my first Varda, Rohmer, and Chabrol.
Happiness by Varda
Chloe in the Afternoon by Rohmer
les bonnes femmes by Chabrol
all good films, none struck me as being brilliant, but all quite thought-provoking and good.
Varda had the most exciting style, and some great shots. Chabrol was more composed, but still some wonderful set-ups.
What Rohmer lacked in punch, he certainly made up for in storytelling. His had the most clarity and held interest the easiest.
all had great acting, though Chabrol's was deliberately more caricatured than the others, who stuck heavily to realism.
Anyway, please discuss some other films by these folks. I'm hungy to see and hear more about them.
What a wonderful, prolific time for movies (France 1959-mid 70's).
I've seen just a bit of Rohmer and I really like his films.. but how about Louis Malle? I've seen his "My Dinner With Andre" and I loved it. Not a french film, of course but he's one of the directors of that era.
Isn't My Dinner with Andre just two people talking over dinner? Seems rather uncinematic. I always see it at the library but haven't rented it.
Ah, yes, the premise doesn't look promising on paper, but give it a try and let me know what you think.
There is not a single cutaway in the movie? Wow, I never knew that. That's crazy.
I've always wanted to check out some Rohmer and Chabrol...Melville too. I'm such a fan of Godard and Truffaut, it seems essential to look for more. I've been obsessed with My Life To Live in particular, I gotta buy that...Anna Karina is a godess.
Quote from: SoNowThenVarda had the most exciting style, and some great shots.
Agnes Varda is a fuckin treat...I found out about her because she was married to Jacques Demy ("Lola" 1961), with his one and only real gem of a film..it got me interested enough to find out more about him-leading me to discover her anyway. I believe she scored some of his early musicals as well....Including her own film "Cleo From 5 to 7"...I've only seen that & "The Vagabond" but they are both truly great films, i think Cleo From 5 to 7 exceptionally.
Quote from: ebeamanThere is not a single cutaway in the movie? Wow, I never knew that. That's crazy.
I've always wanted to check out some Rohmer and Chabrol...Melville too. I'm such a fan of Godard and Truffaut, it seems essential to look for more. I've been obsessed with My Life To Live in particular, I gotta buy that...Anna Karina is a godess.
So true. No wonder Godard became such a force in world cinema, look at the muse he had.
Definitely see as much Melville as possible, Ebs. He's all about pure fun filmmaking.
I didn't really get the Chabrol flick I watched at first, but then I read a review on it at www.culturevulture.net, and it really put it in perspective.
I'm a big Bunuel fan, so I'm gonna count his "The Exterminating Angel," "Diary of a Chambermaid," "Belle de Jour," and "Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" as part of the New Wave.
I also have a healthy fascination with 60's French actresses:
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I like Bunuel too, but he has nothing to do with the French New Wave.
I love the operas of Truffaut, specifically The 400 Blows, okay I admit I only made this post because I wanted to see my new av and sig
Quote from: mutinycoI like Bunuel too, but he has nothing to do with the French New Wave.
I bet my Dad can beat up your Dad.
When i think about french directors always come to my mind the (i guess) most famous trio:Godard, Truffaut and Tati, but i consider the masters of Noir Films Clousot, Melville, Bresson,Chabrol and Dassin the best on it ....all their movies are a real class of cinemathography , direction and invention...
Like Riffi, the steal sequence is a master piece...or pickpocket and Le Samourai...
Quote from: CinephileI've seen just a bit of Rohmer and I really like his films.. but how about Louis Malle? I've seen his "My Dinner With Andre" and I loved it. Not a french film, of course but he's one of the directors of that era.
fucked murphy brown, and during that dan quayle controversy she wanted him louis to stuff potatos up her ass, she said so in " vibe" magazine
Well if that was true, I guess it isn't so unbelievable since she has ventriloquist 'brothers'.
Quote from: SoNowThenAnyway, please discuss some other films by these folks. I'm hungy to see and hear more about them.
What a wonderful, prolific time for movies (France 1959-mid 70's).
You should try Jean Eustache's movies. He was an amazing filmmaker of imediate post-New Wave, with an amazing life, friend of Rohmer, Rivette and Pialat, made one of his movies with non-used reels of Godard's
Masculin-Féminin (I don't know the english title, sorry...), died by his own hand in 1981...
You have to watch all of the films he made. Personnally, I loved
Une sale histoire.
Here are some links in english language about him (for those who don't know him). Hope you'll enjoy.
http://www.frenchculture.org/cinema/festival/eustache/
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/11/eustache.html
http://www.filmlinc.com/archive/programs/11-2000/eustache/eustache.htm
sounds interesting, I will definitely check him out...
...merci.
For SoNowThen: As much of a fan of Stanley Kauffmann I know you are, I thought you would like to see an excerpt from his original review of "Cleo From 5 to 7" in which he says, under his own belief, the rules one has to follow in making their own French New Wave film:
1.) Get a good cameraman. The worst of these films is interestingly, if not beautifully, photographed.
2.) Get a story. This is less important. Your story need not be gripping or valid.
3.) Cast the female lead with a photogenic girl, not necessarily an actress. Be guided by the soulful expressions of high-fashion models.
4.) Lay it on. "It" is the New Wave repertoire of stunts, camera techniques, and cutting. Examples: Use freakish faces for minor characters (this is candor). Use a little nudeness (this is maturity). Include long walks through a city, preferably Paris; just long, pointless walks - to show that you are as free of plot contrivances as Antonioni. Dwell on such bizarerie as street performers who swallow and regurtitate live frogs or push hatpins through their biceps (this shows how ugly life is and how you are facing it). Let your microphone record snatches of irrelevant conversations at neighboring cafe tables (this wraps your story in a naturalistic web). Retain the footage where passers-by stare into the camera (thus you prove that you "stole" your film from the street and that you wear rue with a difference). Do not omit Resnais backward jumps (cutting back to a moment just passed), as this expresses a mystique about time. Have your heroine sing a torch song, July Garlanded with Angst. And if you can work in some silent-film burlesque, a la Malle, you will demonstrate both your superiority to and your respect for early movies.
As you can guess, Kauffmann generally mocked The French New Wave. SoNowThen knows I'm not giving any opinion, but presenting him with a gift of writings from my favorite critic.
~rougerum
If Stanley Kaufmann ever smiled, his face might crack.
I'll tell you my problem with this: when you try to make a film, nothing will ever be perfect. Some mistakes might end up interesting, some might just end up as mistakes. But critics who nitpick everything.... I mean, what is their function?
GT, I liked you better when you actually gave opinions. Have you watched any French New Wave films and enjoyed even a part of them? Tell us about that.
I haven't seen enough French New Wave films to comment on the whole thing generally. My location is secluded and basically would force me to buy $40 criterion dvds just in order to see them. The French New Wave films that I have seen, I have already commented on in more specific threads. And what I posted is general mocking, Kauffmann's arguments for specific films go deeper than just "nitpick" everything. His arguments are more for the fundamentals of French New Wave.
~rougerum
I'm taking a European New Waves Film Class and here are the films that we will be watching for the French New Wave section include....
...And God Created Woman (DVD)
Elevator to the Gallows (16mm)
Breathless (16mm)
Les Bonnes Femmes (35mm)
Hiroshima mon amour (16mm)
Vivre sa vie (16mm)
Quote from: SHAFTRLes Bonnes Femmes (35mm)
The more I think about this one the more I wanna see it again. Very interesting. The compositions especially made it so great, even though the camera rarely moved, the frames chosen were just fucking fantastic.
You get to see Vivre sa Vie on film? You are lucky. What a wonderful experience that was seeing for the first time (and each time after...).
I'm definitively going to check out Robert Bresson's bleak world vey soon (Mouchette and Au hasard Balthazar).
Does anybody know him, or does someone have any reflections about his work?
He was some kind of member of the New Wave, but different than Godard or Truffaut.
Much more serious, I guess. Much more in the league of Ingmar Bergman and Tarkovsky, both in ideas/ thoughts (very spiritual, religious questions, etcetera) and visuals (more like Bergman, I guess).
Bresson's world should be very difficult to get into. Much concentration is required, not for everybody...
I would love to see those films!!
Links:
Bresson (http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/24/bresson.html)
Bresson (http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/robert-bresson.com/)
Bresson (http://www.hal-pc.org/~questers/BRESSON.html)
Bresson (http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/bresson.html)
By the way:
for New Wavers like Truffaut and Godard, Jean Cocteau was an early example and influence for the likes of Truffaut, Bresson, etcetera!
Check out Orphee (1949) especially: highly magical, poetic, surrealistic...special.
Cocteau was a poet more than a director...
Definitively search for that, if you like both the New Wave as the surrealistic stuff of Bunuel, Fellini...!
Cocteau (http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~lenin/Jean_Cocteau_Index.html)
Cocteau (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cocteau.htm)
Cocteau (http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/30/jeancocteau.html)
I watched another great Rohmer movie last night, The Collector-Girl. It makes me even more excited for the upcoming couple Criterion releases of his moral tales. Here's an article about the movie:
"Most people admire the sheer obstinacy of Eric Rohmer, who continues to make rather donnishly talky films, generally grouped together under a vague theme, long after his sort of very French and certainly intellectual cinema went out of vogue.
Not everybody likes them. They are sometimes thought just too damned civilised. But a good many older critics, and certainly older cinema-goers, still find them a blessing among the crude clatter of Hollywood and the often boringly predictable 'art' of many of Rohmer's European contemporaries.
The Six Moral Tales form probably his most famous series. Most would vote for My Night at Maud's or Claire's Knee as the best of these variations on the theme of a man committed to a woman but deflected by a chance meeting with another. My favourite, however, is La Collectionneuse, the freshness of which makes up for its lack of sophisticated perfection of form. And Haydee Politoff's bikini-clad young collector of men, who is the fulcrum of the drama, adds an erotic frisson even Claire's Knee didn't manage. Rohmer's camera fixes on her as she walks, bronzed and half naked along the beach, as if to see if he can analyse not just her body but the nature which leads her to sleep with a different partner each night, virtually without thought or more than momentary pleasure.
The real central character, however, is Adrien, the good-looking but decidedly solemn intellectual who decides that he will not be seduced, much as he would like to be, but instead will wait for the English representative of true love briefly seen at the start of the film. He shares a St Tropez villa with the temptress and a rather more immediately likeable painter (Daniel Pommeruelle, a real-life artist). Rohmer analyses his three leading characters rather as if they were moths flying a little too near the light of desire. It's nothing like a conventionally romantic or erotic film, but its hazy aura of summer in the south of France gives it at least an air of romantic and/or sexual expectation.
What Rohmer is on about, of course, is the way human nature plays the game of love, with hesitation, subterfuge and often perversity. He has constantly returned to that theme ever since, with films as full of dialogue as most nowadays eschew it. The moral dilemmas are interior but the film-making is precise and objective. There is irony to spare, but little overt comedy and no parody.
Rohmer has said that his films reach out only to the small minority prepared for the cinema's less spectacular pleasures, and he certainly adhered to the tenets of the critic and writer André Bazinmore more than his fellow critics and film-makers with the influential New Wave Cahiers group (who in the end rejected him as reactionary).
Whether he actually is sometimes tiresomely old-fashioned is a moot point. Certainly he has more in common with Renoir, the old master of French cinema, than either Godard, Truffaut, Rivette or Chabrol. His point, well-made in La Collectionneuse as in all the Moral Tales, is that the secret dilemmas of individuals are as important as those of 'the people' or the state. But if that seems obvious, the films themselves seldom are. They are variations on a theme that almost seems to have a musical dimension - fluent, sometimes surprising and always intriguing to listen to if seldom powerful enough to rip your emotions apart.
Drama, for Rohmer, is made up of a number of frequently small incidents which culminate in an inevitable denouement. There are many kinds of film-making but Rohmer's would be very difficult to beat within the confines of his chosen metier."
(from The Guardian)
That Autumn thing from a couple of years ago, though... blandness. Would love to see that DV period thing that came out last year, though.
I just watched My Life to Live and I really loved that film. I really dig Godard's early stuff. The story might not impress me that much, but I still find myself enjoying the films just b/c of Godard's ability to just show how good he really is.
Also I saw Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes. I enjoyed both for different reasons. Les Bonnes Femmes surprised me and I loved how crazy it was. Hiroshima, Mon Amour is the closest thing to film as poetry.
French Director Rohmer in Frail Health
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French film director, Eric Rohmer (83), holds the Golden Lion career achievement award he received during the 58th Venice Film Festival, northern Italy, Sept. 7, 2001.
BERLIN - French director Eric Rohmer canceled a planned appearance Friday at the Berlin International Film Festival because of frail health, his producer said.
Rohmer, 83, had been expected to present his new spy thriller, "Triple Agent," a story of espionage and intrigue in pre-World War II Paris that had its world premiere in Berlin and is competing for the Golden Bear being awarded Saturday.
"He has terrible back pain and can neither sit nor stand," Rohmer's producer, Francoise Etchegaray, told a news conference. Rohmer's doctor advised him not to attend, she said.
Rohmer, known for leisurely explorations of human relationships in films such as "Claire's Knee" and "Pauline at the Beach," relied on words - not action - in his latest work. It is based loosely on the case of a former White Army Russian general who worked as a double agent for Stalin and spied on anti-communist Russian exiles in Paris.
The film got a lukewarm reception from the Berlin audience, but Greek actress Katerina Didaskalu, who plays the spy's wife, said dialogue can tell an exciting story.
"The characters of Eric Rohmer talk a lot, but we do the same," she said. "It's a very human thing to talk ... and I believe that's action, too."
If he dies (or when, I should say), cinema loses a giant. I'd not watched any Rohmer until midway through last year, but since then it's been a monthly thing -- a very special treat.
I strongly urge those who haven't, to go check out some Rohmer flicks. Nice, slow, talky, simply presented yet anything but simple.
any jacques rivette fans? i saw Out 1: Spectre today. i'm gonna go ahead and put in my top ten of all time just because i'm sure i'm one of very few people in the world that have seen it and because it's french and it's four hours long.
i've only seen two of his films--this and La Belle noiseuse--but he is, for me, one of the most fascinating filmmakers, ever. i will kill to see Celine and Julie Go Boating and L'Amour Fou, especially the latter.
Quote from: samsong on April 24, 2006, 12:14:43 AM
Celine and Julie Go Boating
The only Rivette film I've seen. It's definitely worth it, if you can find it. In some ways it's almost a philosophical precursor to Mulholland Drive, the way the characters and the story and even the "reality" of the story world metamorphose throughout the film.
i saw Celine and Julie Go Boating today.
Quote from: samsong on April 25, 2006, 07:35:46 PM
i saw Celine and Julie Go Boating today.
!
How? Old videotape?
the library had it. they also have The Nun and Joan the Maid: The Battles and The Prisons so hopefully i can watch those before i go home.
Rivette retrospectives are bubbling around the world right now.
So I've seen his first five films, uncut, finally. And when I say "uncut", I mean I made it through the massive (12hr 45min) mutherfucker that is Out 1.
It may be weird (and totally out in the dark) to say, but L'Amour Fou is unquestionably the masterpiece of this lot. And I would bring La Religieuse in a close second.
Anyway, it occured to me (for the third straight time in a row now) watching Celine And Julie tonight, that at about the 1 1/2 hour mark of all his long movies, you want to break Rivette's fucking nose... but then when you stick it out, as the last half hour is wrapping up, you're really really sad there's not more movie to go. This guy is unquestionably an essential filmmaker, too bad more stuff isn't available on dvd...
As a final aside, Juliet Berto is his Anna Karina (disregarding the fact that he did use Anna, and that Bulle Ogier is the most-repeated actress). Berto is a firebomb -- pure and simple. Thank you for the extended topless shower scene, Jacques. Thank you.
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i just bought this magnificent Chabrol film
One of the most interesting new wave films i've yet to see. I initially thought i'd throw this one at GT to get his opinion but after a search it seems he hasn't seen it (or at least he hadn't in 2003)
I could definitely see the comparisons to Hitchcock that always seem to pop up in literature or reviews about the film and i'm hoping Macguffin has at least seen it (it seems SHAFTR is the only one)
This has one of my favorite endings ever. The tortured girl staring directly into the camera and smiling for the last few seconds instantly reminded me of magnolia
spoily:
the various bits of mise-en-scene referencing the stalker's evil side (the bat at the zoo, the 666 on his license plate, and obviously the close-up of his horrendously sinister cackling grin) were great
i'd recommend this to anyone
Quote from: squints on October 02, 2006, 11:57:13 PMI could definitely see the comparisons to Hitchcock that always seem to pop up in literature or reviews about the film and i'm hoping Macguffin has at least seen it (it seems SHAFTR is the only one)
Sadly, no. The only Hitchcock comparison films I've seen around that era are by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
I've seen Les Bonnes Femmes, and--while I don't know how "Hitchcockian" I'd really call it, though it would have to be much more thematically than stylistically--it is very well worth checking out if you get the chance.
The Pacific Film Archive is having a Rivette program running from Nov. 2 to Dec. 16th.
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_programs/jrivette/index.html
For all you New York people, the Museum of the Moving Image is having a Rivette retrospective. I saw Celine and Julie Go Boating and Paris Belongs To Us yesterday, and plan on seeing a few more in the next couple of weeks, including Out 1.
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Paris Belongs to Us
Friday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 11, 3:00 p.m.
Céline and Julie Go Boating
Saturday, November 11, 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 12, 4:30 p.m.
Jacques Rivette, The Night Watchman
Saturday, November 18, 2:00 p.m.
The Nun
Saturday, November 18, 4:30 p.m.
Duelle
Saturday, November 18, 7:30 p.m.
Jean Renoir, The Boss
Sunday, November 19, 2:00 p.m.
Noroît
Sunday, November 19, 4:30 p.m.
Up/Down/Fragile
Friday, November 24, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 25, 6:30 p.m.
La Belle Noiseuse
Saturday, November 25, 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 26, 6:30 p.m.
Joan the Maid
Sunday, November 26, 2:00 p.m.
Le Pont du Nord
Saturday, December 2, 2:00 p.m.
Love on the Ground
Saturday, December 2, 5:00 p.m.
Wuthering Heights
Saturday, December 2, 7:30 p.m.
L'Amour Fou
Introduced by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Sunday, December 3, 4:30 p.m.
Out 1
Saturday, December 9, 2:00 p.m. Episodes 1-4 (396 mins.)
Sunday, December 10, 2:00 p.m. Episodes 5-8 (347 mins.)
Merry-Go-Round
Saturday, December 16, 3:00 p.m.
Divertimento
Saturday, December 16, 6:00 p.m.
Friday, December 22, 7:30 p.m.
Out 1: Spectre
Sunday, December 17, 2:00 p.m.
The Gang of Four
Sunday, December 17, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 24, 2:00 p.m.
Secret Defense
Saturday, December 23, 2:00 p.m.
The Story of Marie and Julien
Sunday, December 23, 6:00 p.m.
Friday, December 29, 7:30 p.m.
Va Savoir
Saturday, December 30, 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 31, 5:00 p.m.
i just got back from L'Amour Fou. it was like seeing Au hasard balthazar for the first time, in that it changed my outlook on cinema and LIFE. probably the best movie i've ever seen... after Au hasard balthazar... and Playtime... and...
i drank from the cineaste's holy grail (Out 1, in case you didn't know) and it was scrumptrulescent.
i'm a faggot.
Quote from: samsong on December 11, 2006, 01:41:26 AM
i drank from the cineaste's holy grail (Out 1, in case you didn't know) and it was scrumptrulescent.
i'm a faggot.
make sure to use those exact same words when you come out to your parents.
Bay Area folks, the PFA Rivette retrospective has returned.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
2:00 p.m. Out 1, Episodes 1–4
Sunday, June 10, 2007
2:00 p.m. Out 1, Episodes 5–8
Sunday, June 17, 2007
3:00 p.m. L'amour fou
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
7:00 p.m. The Gang of Four
(sort of) newly opened gallery of modern art in brisbane is trying honorably to bring a little culture to this town. various retrospectives hav screened throughout the year, like all of osamu tezuka's films and shorts, buster keaton (upcoming), and right now over the next couple months they're having an extensive french new wave program.
included are films pre- and post-new wave. as well as films from the 90s which are being touted as "new new wave". i don't think i'll hav time for those new ones unless someone can tell me they actually exist and it's not just some label being given to good french movies of the last 15 years. the dardenne bros are not included in this New New Wave.
here's the program (http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/cinematheque/current_programs/breathless_french_new_wave_turns_50). i've already missed a few i should have seen, but luckily the best are still to come. that is all those Rivette epics mentioned so far in this thread (out 1, l'amour fou, uncut. as well as millions of truffaut, 5 or so Rohmer (not the complete moral tales), Chabrol, Resnais, and godard. check out the program and tell me if you envy me. makes those piss weak festivals listed above look like crap huh.
celine et julie vont en bateau is not showing but i can find it at my library. if there's some hidden gems in that program like les bonnes femmes for example, that i wouldn't immediately think are must-see, do tell.
look around the 4 subsections, they hav pics and synopses.
I'd never heard of this before, but it sounds awesome, and probably isn't available on dvd: Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes (Le Père Noël a les Yeux Bleus).
Sounds cool (a little like Sartre), and also probably very hard to see otherwise: The War Is Over (La Guerre est Finie).
You could probably get this from a local library on vhs, but it is one of the first New Wave movies I ever saw, and is really interesting (plus the accompanying Black Panthers interview will probably be something to see): Happiness (Le Bonheur).
Out 1 is a monster... do it if you have the time and energy (and you will need TONS of both). But the two must-see Rivette's are, I must repeat, The Nun and Crazy Love.
I've always wanted to see The Mother And The Whore but have never found it. I assume you have. Maybe you could go to the showing with a Hi8 handicam, sell the tape to a chinese guy, who will in turn sell it to me?
One other thing that I just thought of (and never posted about at the time) -- one of my best viewing experiences of 2007 had been Rivette's "Gang Of Four". I think I'd consider it his #2 best of all time, and it seems to be a perfect summation of what he was reaching for in Paris Belongs To Us and Out 1; that blend of unexplainable mystery, repeated performance of subtle variations (watched, critiqued, and performed by the characters as "themselves" and as "characters"), and road-map of Paris. I guess that sounds like EVERY Rivette movie, but for some reason I group his work into two sections, with The Beautiful Troublemaker, Crazy Love, The Nun (artists and their passions, or some such thing) on one side, and Gang Of Four heading the second column of nearly everything else.
Anyway, it's available on disc (perhaps out of print but still up for purchase at a reasonable price), and looks quite good. Well worth seeking out.
Quote from: SoNowThen on September 16, 2007, 01:59:36 AM
I'd never heard of this before, but it sounds awesome, and probably isn't available on dvd: Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes (Le Père Noël a les Yeux Bleus).
Sounds cool (a little like Sartre), and also probably very hard to see otherwise: The War Is Over (La Guerre est Finie).
You could probably get this from a local library on vhs, but it is one of the first New Wave movies I ever saw, and is really interesting (plus the accompanying Black Panthers interview will probably be something to see): Happiness (Le Bonheur).
Out 1 is a monster... do it if you have the time and energy (and you will need TONS of both). But the two must-see Rivette's are, I must repeat, The Nun and Crazy Love.
I've always wanted to see The Mother And The Whore but have never found it. I assume you have. Maybe you could go to the showing with a Hi8 handicam, sell the tape to a chinese guy, who will in turn sell it to me?
there's so much to discover in this program., thanks for the suggestions! i'll check em all out cos, hey, it's free anyway..
i don't hav a problem with sitting for hours watching something, i think i'm good at it, so i'm looking forward to the Out 1 behemoth. mad love is pretty hefty too and so's the mother and the whore, so i'll work out my technique during them. i'll also be watching various films by Chris Marker, including La Jetée and if i'm not sick of long movies by then, Grin Without A Cat (at 240mins, it might seem like nothing after those others.)
didn't think about varda after i missed cleo from 5 to 7, or post-marienbad resnais, but since you mentioned em i think i'll give em a go.
oh and i'm sure the screening of whore will be so empty i could easily get away with taping it. .. but i won't.
Quote from: SoNowThen on September 16, 2007, 06:29:23 AM
One other thing that I just thought of (and never posted about at the time) -- one of my best viewing experiences of 2007 had been Rivette's "Gang Of Four". I think I'd consider it his #2 best of all time, and it seems to be a perfect summation of what he was reaching for in Paris Belongs To Us and Out 1; that blend of unexplainable mystery, repeated performance of subtle variations (watched, critiqued, and performed by the characters as "themselves" and as "characters"), and road-map of Paris. I guess that sounds like EVERY Rivette movie, but for some reason I group his work into two sections, with The Beautiful Troublemaker, Crazy Love, The Nun (artists and their passions, or some such thing) on one side, and Gang Of Four heading the second column of nearly everything else.
Anyway, it's available on disc (perhaps out of print but still up for purchase at a reasonable price), and looks quite good. Well worth seeking out.
haha yeah so basically all rivette. sweet.
Good God, FREE?! This is an amazing event. I've been consistently shocked (in a good way) over the last few years at the kind of support Australia seems to give to art cinema. Is this the place to be for up-and-coming filmmakers, or is there just a really solid support system, and academic appreciation for, classic cinema?
Even if it's just the latter, that's fantastic.
Also, please post about whatever Marker you see. I think some dates have already passed, but it's a wonderful opportunity to take in as much of him as possible. I just watched Sans Soleil a few months ago and it was so damn solid and mind expanding. So, yeah, give us a little xixax live journal or something, if you have time, P.
Quote from: SoNowThen on September 16, 2007, 01:16:51 PM
Is this the place to be for up-and-coming filmmakers, or is there just a really solid support system, and academic appreciation for, classic cinema? .
not the place for newbie filmmakers unfortunately. this seems to be a fluke somehow that the french embassy is giving unprecedented support to this retrospective.
wish i had time to review everything i've seen, here's a recap (so far):
resnais - guernica, night and fog, hiroshima mon amour, l'année dernière à Marienbadamazing amazing amazing. on a technical note, i love his films because they have the most understandable french out of everything else i've seen at the festival. it's great as i can stop focusing on the subtitles and fall into the rhythm of the language itself and the images, which elevates marienbad to an unforgettable masterpiece. it's not as powerful thematically as hiroshima or even night and fog, but that lack of jarring context allows for a deeper immersion into the trance that his films excel at.
ah i can't be bothered to continue right now, here's a list anyway:
truffaut - shoot the piano player, the soft skin, antoine et collette, stolen kissesthe prettiest girls. period.
chabrol, demy, de broca, godard, molinaro, vadim, dhomme - the seven deadly sinsi have to mention how SHIT this collection was, as per the well established trend among short-film collections from established filmmakers. when one of the two redeeming specks of celluloid are by godard, you know something is wrong.. in his (sloth) lemmy caution is about to bang a broad but can't be bothered cos he is too lazy to get dressed afterwards. the other highlight was chabrol's (lust, i think), yeah it was lust, which featured a dead ringer for josh hartnett and some playful camera work.
godard - contemptthis probably has been mentioned before in some reputable journal of opinion, but while watching this i couldn't help thinking of bardot's character and her own real life homophobic politics. for those unaware, bardot is a total gay-hater. and in this movie she stops loving her husband because she sees him as less of a man. in the context of the film, her french writer husband is laid back and ponderous and placed in sharp contrast to the overt masculinity of jack palance as a loud american movie producer with a fast car and grand gestures. it's such a mature film in some ways, i particularly admired the way she never said the reason she hated him until very near the end of the film, and somehow it carried the weight of all the coldness and "contempt" i guess with which she had been acting up to that point.
ri-fucking-vette - mad love, Out 1 episodes 1 2 3 4, (The Nun screening has been postponed)OK.. i'm gonna talk about l'amour fou here and OUT 1 in that other thread about long movies which i'll link at the bottom of this post.
l'amour fou is.... long. it's two scenes basically, actors rehearsing and a relationship in trouble. if i hadn't read up on wikipedia about the play they were performing i would have walked out of there a goddamn heartbeat. formally, the extreme length (252mins) was entirely justified by the scene where the main dude, who btw looks distractingly like Steve Martin, cuts his clothes up that he's wearing and in the process really hurts himself. that scene could not have been possible in a shorter film, it would've been too much. you share a level of exhaustion with the characters throughout and their actions seem less ridiculous because of it. all the violent stuff was handled well also, i don't think it was mysoginistic at all like this old lady was trying to tell me after the screening. it wasn't cassavetes or anything. i loved the relationship stuff but have absolutely no patience for watching actors rehearse. which brings me to OUT 1..
follow this link for my review of Out 1 directed by jacques rivette's massive balls that are so big that he can't summon the strength to yell CUT. (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=4896.new#new)
still to come:
chabrol -the good girls,
godard - a woman is a woman
rohmer - la collectioneuse, my night chez maud, baker of monceau, suzanne's career, nadja a paris.
demy - lola, umbrellas of cherbourg
eustache - the mother and the whore
marker - le fond de l'air est rouge (grin without a cat), the astronauts, la jetee
resnais - muriel/the time of return, la guerre est finie. oh and i saw
Sans Soleil, and it was scrumptulescent. very much in that headspace right now. it helps that i like cats.
i also forgot to mention
LA HAINE --- RECOMMENDED HIGHLY TO EVERYONE. i didn't see it coming, that's all i'm gonna say.. tout va bien, tout va bien..
Quote from: squints on October 02, 2006, 11:57:13 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fec1.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB00004WMMO.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg&hash=78c359aeba1ce723bf22e3b273830f39e4533021)
i just bought this magnificent Chabrol film
One of the most interesting new wave films i've yet to see. I initially thought i'd throw this one at GT to get his opinion but after a search it seems he hasn't seen it (or at least he hadn't in 2003)
I could definitely see the comparisons to Hitchcock that always seem to pop up in literature or reviews about the film and i'm hoping Macguffin has at least seen it (it seems SHAFTR is the only one)
This has one of my favorite endings ever. The tortured girl staring directly into the camera and smiling for the last few seconds instantly reminded me of magnolia
spoily:
the various bits of mise-en-scene referencing the stalker's evil side (the bat at the zoo, the 666 on his license plate, and obviously the close-up of his horrendously sinister cackling grin) were great
i'd recommend this to anyone
boy what a stupid movie. maybe i just don't like the new wave, cos this was just plain stupid. i couldn't stomach the overracting, i couldn't stomach the episodic structure of the plot. the only redeeming feature of this was the attractiveness of the bonnes femmes. everything that happened in one scene rarely had any consequence or relevance to another. even the dramatic developments within each scene fizzled out or became void by the time a transition came along. everyone was completely awkward and unbelievable.
what i'm trying to say is: i UNrecommend this to anyone. i feel like i'm violating myself somehow by watching all these supposedly great movies. is this what cinema was meant to be? gimme a break. gimme ANYTHING. this felt like a step backwards for cinema in general.
in other news.. i also saw:
rohmer - baker of monceau, suzanne's career, nadja a paristhese were much better, except from the audible groan from some douche bag in the back of the room at the end of every movie. i would say i really appreciate rohmer's style. there's something real about his endings (at least to the above titles) that doesn't annoy me at all. nadja a paris was my fave, what a brilliant little movie.
ok sorry GT, i'll explain a bit more: brilliant because it was not excessive, brilliant because it was tight, and true, and funny, and insightful. insightful because it revealed a character through images and dialogue that did not exist in the same time and place but came together succinctly in meaning. it was cool and fresh, it moved things forward. i could believe this belonged to a "new wave".
coming up: la collectioneuse, my night chez maud.
dreading: any movie anyone here has ever recommended.
Quote from: Pubrick on October 29, 2007, 04:18:59 AM
Quote from: squints on October 02, 2006, 11:57:13 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fec1.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FP%2FB00004WMMO.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg&hash=78c359aeba1ce723bf22e3b273830f39e4533021)
i just bought this magnificent Chabrol film
One of the most interesting new wave films i've yet to see. I initially thought i'd throw this one at GT to get his opinion but after a search it seems he hasn't seen it (or at least he hadn't in 2003)
I could definitely see the comparisons to Hitchcock that always seem to pop up in literature or reviews about the film and i'm hoping Macguffin has at least seen it (it seems SHAFTR is the only one)
This has one of my favorite endings ever. The tortured girl staring directly into the camera and smiling for the last few seconds instantly reminded me of magnolia
spoily:
the various bits of mise-en-scene referencing the stalker's evil side (the bat at the zoo, the 666 on his license plate, and obviously the close-up of his horrendously sinister cackling grin) were great
i'd recommend this to anyone
boy what a stupid movie. maybe i just don't like the new wave, cos this was just plain stupid. i couldn't stomach the overracting, i couldn't stomach the episodic structure of the plot. the only redeeming feature of this was the attractiveness of the bonnes femmes. everything that happened in one scene rarely had any consequence or relevance to another. even the dramatic developments within each scene fizzled out or became void by the time a transition came along. everyone was completely awkward and unbelievable.
what i'm trying to say is: i UNrecommend this to anyone. i feel like i'm violating myself somehow by watching all these supposedly great movies. is this what cinema was meant to be? gimme a break. gimme ANYTHING. this felt like a step backwards for cinema in general.
in other news.. i also saw:
rohmer - baker of monceau, suzanne's career, nadja a paris
these were much better, except from the audible groan from some douche bag in the back of the room at the end of every movie. i would say i really appreciate rohmer's style. there's something real about his endings (at least to the above titles) that doesn't annoy me at all. nadja a paris was my fave, what a brilliant little movie.
ok sorry GT, i'll explain a bit more: brilliant because it was not excessive, brilliant because it was tight, and true, and funny, and insightful. insightful because it revealed a character through images and dialogue that did not exist in the same time and place but came together succinctly in meaning. it was cool and fresh, it moved things forward. i could believe this belonged to a "new wave".
coming up: la collectioneuse, my night chez maud.
dreading: any movie anyone here has ever recommended.
I'm glad you wrote about the Rohmers, Pubrick. I've had the Rohmer Moral Tale Series on standstill for a while and I've been looking for a good initiative to start watching them. With school and personal writing cluster fucking my life, I think I'm going to start watching the films anyways. I'll try to post my thoughts on this thread.
It's good to question the "classics" - even those of independent and foreign cinema. Parker Tyler once said to be "the 'useful' critic of Independent Cinema is to be one who obeys blindly, a propagandist rule of order". He was referring to classic works that were meant to be accepted first and studied second. Questioning their merit usually doesn't come into play.
Squints is correct to assume I hadn't seen his film in question. Claude Chabrol has been on my radar, but not in my interest (as of yet). I use to just watch film film film at a record pace, but I'm slowing down and wanting to both experience and know the new films and filmmakers I take on. One day for Claude Chabrol, but just not today.
And yes Pubrick, you did well to explain yourself. The explanation gave me my genuine excitement in the first paragraph. Now that Pubrick took me up on my general recommendation for explanations in all reviews, I don't feel like a singular voice on the board. Next week when I'm accosted for being too negative, writing too much and carrying an authortative tone, I'll feel like my old happy self, haha.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on October 29, 2007, 04:58:32 AM
I'm glad you wrote about the Rohmers, Pubrick. I've had the Rohmer Moral Tale Series on standstill for a while and I've been looking for a good initiative to start watching them. With school and personal writing cluster fucking my life, I think I'm going to start watching the films anyways. I'll try to post my thoughts on this thread.
And yes Pubrick, you did well to explain yourself. The explanation gave me my genuine excitement in the first paragraph. Now that Pubrick took me up on my general recommendation for explanations in all reviews, I don't feel like a singular voice on the board. Next week when I'm accosted for being too negative, writing too much and carrying an authortative tone, I'll feel like my old happy self, haha.
glad i could help you procrastinate!
i should note that nadja a paris is not part of the moral tales. and is only really exceptional in being the first pairing of Rohmer with Nestor Almendros. it's an extra in the moral tales box set, on the same disc as Suzanne's Career according to the criterion site. but i think what i said about it could be said about the baker girl. it's first and foremost a love letter to paris. collectioneuse and maud will be the clincher. tho i wish claire's knee and love in the afternoon were showing, they aren't, so i'll hav to find them on dvd/video somewhere to get some series-closure.
Each and every movie in Rohmer's long career is a masterpiece. In context of his (massive) output, he has gotta be one of the most consistent filmmakers ever.
Did France's 'New Wave' shoot its cinema?
PARIS (AFP) – Fifty years after France's "New Wave" raised a storm at Cannes with Francois Truffaut's iconic arthouse "The 400 Blows", some critics believe the cult school of cinema has stymied French film.
The term "new wave" was first coined in 1957 in the nation's press as a general reference to the new generation. But it quickly came to refer to the upcoming auteur film-makers and critics known as the "Cahiers du Cinema" group, in reference to France's learned cult film magazine.
It was also in the mid-1950s that Truffaut, then a young writer for the Cahiers who also directed "Shoot The Piano-Player", attacked the great French film-makers of the time -- Claude Autant-Lara or Marc Allegret -- as a bunch of "bourgeois people making bourgeois films for the bourgeoisie".
Thanks to technical advances in the late 1950s -- lighter cameras and increasingly light-sensitive film -- he and cohorts Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, brought a fresh breath to movies, shooting outside in natural settings with trimmed-down budgets and crews, and no stars.
For some movie-lovers, Godard's "Breathless", Resnais' "Hiroshima Mon Amour" or Chabrol's "Bitter Reunion" (aka Le Beau Serge) were no more than a passing trend, but for others they epitomized a cultural revolution turning cinema on its head.
Today some academics would argue that Truffaut's 1959 "400 Blows", which won a prize at the Cannes film festival that year, is not that very different to the traditional-style movies criticised at the time by the rebel directors.
And some critics claim that by raising the New Wave to the status of a national cult, the film establishment in the long term has undermined the emergence of fresh new talent on French cinema screens and on the festival circuit.
Critic Michel Ciment, who heads the rival magazine to the Cahiers du Cinema, "Positif", said in an interview that the New Wave film-makers "represent one of the key international movements in the history of film, much like Neorealism or the German Expressionists".
The historical importance of the school was illustrated by the fact that its main proponents continue to make films even today, he said. Resnais for one, who turns 87 this year, has a movie in competition for Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or this month.
And Rivette, Godard, Chabrol, Agnes Varda and Chris Marker too are still making movies 50 years on.
"But the mythology has become dogma and has left a pernicious legacy," Ciment said.
"A whole generation of young film-makers have been trained to believe that plot no longer matters, that you can improvise a shoot, use non-professional actors.
"Yet Truffaut and Chabrol used star actors and professional screenwriters, as well as the best cameramen and set specialists they could find on the market."
Ciment said many of the well-respected critics at the Cahiers du Cinema over the decades had waged war against France's more mainstream film-makers such as Claude Sautet, Alain Cavalier, Louis Malle or Bertrand Tavernier.
"They've been almost systematically demolished," he said.
Film historian Marc Ferro agreed, saying "the New Wave has exercised a form of terrorism against other film-making styles."
"They were iconoclasts who carved out a place for themselves, but their descendants are still on the attack today."
Earlier this year, the influential monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique carried a piece by writer Philippe Person asking "Do we have the right to criticise the New Wave?"
Person said the New Wave's taste for using non-professional actors and its love of navel-gazing autobiographical fare had alienated filmgoers, who came to believe that auteur cinema was necessarily amateurish and boring.