Xixax Film Forum

Will be the Opening film at Cannes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On4v1gNJkrE

Clearly not subtitled, "The Story of a Mouseketeer".

First song from the film. I keep getting it in my head over the past few days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di3mNRymKZg

that's Russell at the beginning of course. Adam enters at 1:06

Wright's doc covers all sorts of songs and, you know, if they're doing their thing lots of people should have lots of different favorite songs, but this is both one of their most well-known songs and a particular favorite of mine, for those new to Sparks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8dqCQ2MHfQ

Advertisements for the doc have started to appear so they're further on my mind these days. Here is information I've previously mentioned

The Sparks song in Holy Motors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKM0_1pFo14

The Sparks song with the voice of Carax

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

The Sparks song with a director who I'll let you guess

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi8C51cJVhQ

it evokes feelings closest to Pola X among other Carax movies, in other words it's dark. and Sparks didn't write a dark musical, this is what Carax made it. which Carax meta references. it's a movie about a downward spiral and I felt myself going down with it, sometimes in an impressive way, in other words grand cinematic statements, along with bits of humor here and there

it's the kind of movie watching experience in which because I didn't quite anticipate how the movie would feel I do want to see the movie again

Carax in person is a pretty big deal

https://americancinematheque.com/now-showing/annette/

TUE AUGUST 10, 2021
7:30 PM
ANNETTE

Free
Aero Theatre | Q&A following with Leos Carax, Sparks, and actor Simon Helberg

Attendees with RSVPs will be admitted on a first come, first served basis until the theatre reaches capacity.

I'm not an American Cinematheque member, but that's frkn cool ~

I became a member a month or so ago...but I have no idea who any of those people are!   :lol:

You should watch Lovers on the bridge! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101318/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

One of my all time favorites.

And Sparks! Come on.

I just watched the THE SPARKS BROTHERS a week or so ago, so claims of unhipness can no longer be levied against me.

I don't think you'll like Annette, other Carax movies, or any Sparks music, but it's a big deal event and you can like those. other notable people will also be present as guests, is my guess

that movie you were once able to find for me, thanks again, Ticket of No Return, is going to be on the criterion channel next month, via, yes, Linklater. also To the Ends of the Earth will be, and I remember you, somewhat hilariously, said "life just feels too short these days" about finishing that movie

This isn't a spoiler but is the police station track an actual Sparks song? It's not on soundtrack

Listen, I'm posting this with a Dancer In The Dark avatar, so hopefully it's clear that I'm up for an unconventional musical. But this feels lifeless.

I think there are two good scenes in the movie: Adam Driver acting out the tickling episode on stage, and the orbital shot around the conductor. Outside of those precious few minutes of vitality, this film is a dull, motionless slog.

Carax's poor direction is largely to blame, but I think the biggest problem is the thing that should be the centerpiece—the lyrics. It's mind-numbing sixth-grade-level prose. It's as though Sparks realized they couldn't write good lyrics for a musical, so they decided that repeating a line five times might give it the illusion of meaning. The concepts are imaginative, but the execution... is just not.

In the spirit of generosity I was hoping to learn that the movie was intentionally bad, and maybe this was meant as some kind of savage takedown of opera or musicals, but that really doesn't seem to be the case. Certainly it's meant to be funny and off-the-wall, and there are some vague flirtations with parody, but nothing that ever coalesces. Rather, it seems the intention is more of a generalized "we're not interested in doing your typical Hollywood musical." (The interviews with Carax and Sparks are a bit nauseating.)

The movie-musical elements, which should have some sense of fun to them, usually lack any joy or kineticism. The breaking-into-song moments clearly attempt to evoke a feeling of surprise but fall flat. I think the problem is a specific shortfall of the compositions—there will often be a Grand Canyon-sized gap in the lyrics as we listen to the dull backing track and wait for the singers (or non-singers, in many cases) to re-join. The film constantly kneecaps its own momentum where it clearly intends to excite.

It's a shame, because some of the tunes are very catchy and compelling. They just don't have lyrics to match it. I wish they'd admitted that early on. Good writers exist, it's okay if you have to hire one.

The final "big emotions" scene did not land for me. I see what they're going for, and I want it to work, but it doesn't. I just don't understand why they didn't do a few more takes.

Quote from: Jeremy Blackman on August 28, 2021, 04:13:38 PM

I think there are two good scenes in the movie: Adam Driver acting out the tickling episode on stage, and the orbital shot around the conductor. Outside of those precious few minutes of vitality, this film is a dull, motionless slog.

Pretty much. I was happy, at least, to see Adam Driver acting with all his body: that's when he shines, in my opinion, and what Girls exploited perfectly. In Marriage Story, he's just standing there. Tall as hell. I don't get it. That guy can be great. (That said, I love him in Paterson where he barely moves. Maybe Driver is just a mystery.)

I like the Brechtian introduction. There's a lovely post-credit outro, too.

Finished watching this just like fifteen minutes ago so it's still fresh on my mind and first impressions. Its libretto sometimes irked me with the repetitive scheme - but as it's part of the structure of basically every track it settled into a rhythm for me by the midpoint. To me it's an ambitious reach of tone, all of it hinging on an interior immersion; to want to have that comedic layer that's attached to the character's interior be voiced as plainly as opera while creating representative spaces on the soundstage, spaces that are sad and at odds with its humor.

For that to work you'd definitely have to be invested in its synthesis of forms. That stadium scene, for example. . Worked for me as a mythic musical. Not EVERY track but more than like I can stomach Andrew Lloyd Weber. It's not Sondheim but it's endearing; is what it is. Very whistle-able. 

Annette's design reminds me of Jan Švankmajer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMqDoqAVz3I
This deleted scene has more life in it than the rest of the movie combined. Poor choice to leave it out.

My review was unnecessarily mean, so I went back to soften and edit and clarify a few things. It's still mean, but hopefully less vitriolic. I think my reaction to the first half (which is MUCH worse) carried through a bit too strongly.

For a movie called Annette, the puppet appears ninety minutes into the movie, after a painful slog, yeah. Nobody gives a shit about that "love story". Not even the actors. I don't get it. Even the fall and rise of Driver is artificial. They wrote "rise and fall" in a piece of paper and went with it without writing scenes or songs. And it lasts forever. The moody guy writing his motorcycle: it looks like a Carax ad. If I had spent years finding a way to design a puppet, I would introduce it earlier in the movie.

But Carax has never been great at narratives: Holy Motors is my favorite of his movies—one that I genuinely love—because it constantly jumps from one fun idea to the other. All the other movies are more or less of a narrative slog, the story is always a pretext. He isn't willing to get rid of it completely, and therefore the result is worse than no story at all: a dumb and weak narrative. The Sparks are just worse than Carax.