should I get Farenheit 451? I love the Antoine Doinel movies, as well as Day For Night, but don't like Shoot The Piano Player or Jules And Jim very much. Which category does this lean toward?
Quote from: SoNowThenI love the Antoine Doinel movies, as well as Day For Night, but don't like Shoot The Piano Player or Jules And Jim very much.
*gasp!*
Allow me to recover from my shock (
Jules and Jim is probably my favorite Truffaut, followed closely by
Two English Girls).
Okay... well, I bought
Fahrenheit 451 blind 'cos it was so cheap and it was Truffaut. And it has Julie Christie. Those are some damn compelling reasons; I've blind bought for much less.
Yes, Julie is a true amazement. Wow.
I'm also curious to see this because Roeg is the DP.
So did you watch it yet?
Unfortunately, I haven't. :( I have SO many backlogged. Probably within the next 1-2 months.
ebeaman blind buys these things so you might ask him how it goes, but since they are mostly criterion, I would rent them through Netflix or something before to save money
What is this netflix I've been hearing about?
Quote from: SoNowThenWhat is this netflix I've been hearing about?
Dunno if it's available in Canada, but go to
www.netflix.com
and see. It's a flat-fee unlimited DVD rent-by-mail service. If you have the time and patience, it's probably worth the cash. I did it for a while but grew tired of the long waiting lists for the titles I wanted. You're better off at the library, probably.
Yeah, they're pretty much getting in everything Criterion anyway. Man, I love the Edmonton Public Library. Rock on!!
But this dvd is only $13 anyway. I might as well just buy it.
Godardian, do you have the Jules And Jim dvd? Is the quality okay?
Quote from: SoNowThenYeah, they're pretty much getting in everything Criterion anyway. Man, I love the Edmonton Public Library. Rock on!!
But this dvd is only $13 anyway. I might as well just buy it.
Godardian, do you have the Jules And Jim dvd? Is the quality okay?
I do. It's not Criterion-level, but I'd say it's more than decent. It's a Fox Lorber DVD release. They did a lot of the Truffauts.
Yes, I'm still kicking myself for not getting the Fox Lorber dvd of Woman Is A Woman. Too bad all their Godard dvds are such shitty quality.
Hmm, maybe I'll give J&J another try if I can find it cheap. I still wanna talk to someone who's seen Farenheit...
Yes, I blind bought Jules and Jim just because of the cover in a very magical time in my life around the time I discovered PTA. It was the first foreign film I ever saw and it remains one the best, it lead to my love of french new wave.
As for Fahrenheit 451 though, I haven't seen it. That's one of Truffaut's that I would rent before buying. I'd bet it's probably not as good as 400 Blows, J and J, Shoot the Piano Player, or Day for Night...I've heard it's not even close.
The best thing you could do is get netflix...it's a dream.
Jules and Jim has been compared to Amelie as a sort of precursor (well, not really precursor but more like forerunner, or like, Amelie was made in the same vein). How accurate is this? Just curious.
i didnt think so. this movie may have been hugely influential in cinema history as far as storytelling and inventing certain techniques like freeze framing and such. but i could not get into it, the main reason being i just did not like the story. Catherine is a huge bitch! and i saw no reason for these guys to keep going back to her. the story didnt move me, i had no connection to the characters and found the whole thing irritating to watch.
there's a clip from jules et jim in amelie, so obviously it was an influence...
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaHow accurate is this?
not very.
they're both in french, and the title is the character's name.. that's all.
My problem with European New Wave films is I watch them..and I am entertained but not amazed, and than I return them. After this, the film has already planted a seed inside me and within a few weeks, I just have to see the film again b/c I have enjoyed it more. It is as if I need a few weeks for them to sink in.
same here. i really want to watch jules et jim and breathless again...
Quote from: SHAFTRMy problem with European New Wave films is I watch them..and I am entertained but not amazed, and than I return them. After this, the film has already planted a seed inside me and within a few weeks, I just have to see the film again b/c I have enjoyed it more. It is as if I need a few weeks for them to sink in.
Yeah, that's a pretty good description of how I feel. I fucking love almost all the new wave films, but it always takes at least 2 viewings. I could barely finish Alphaville when I first saw it, but on second watch I was giggling like a schoolgirl the whole time, just at the fact that I was enjoying it so much. Now, when I think of that movie, I get a huge smile across my face at how much I love it.
The only exception so far has been Shoot The Piano Player, which I have given a couple chances, and just never enjoyed.
Ive seen Shoot the Piano Player twice and each time is less enjoyable than the first
It has nothing to do with both Jules&Jim and Shoot the piano player. In fact, it has almost nothing to do with his other movies. I mean, besides the fact that you can see practically every book he loved (especially Jules&Jim which gets burned a lot of times in the movie...), this is not really a Truffaut film for many of his fans. I'm not one of them and while I recognize that this movie has a really slow pace and is kind of almost dull at times, I really enjoy it each time I see it for so many reasons that I might not have the time to explain them all.
You just have to ask yourself WHY you hated Jules&Jim.
Was it because of the actors ? (In that case, don't buy the movie because the hero is portrayed by Oskar Werner who also played Jules in...).
Was it because of the fact that the movie looked moe like litterature to real cinema to you (Again, one of the aspects that pepople dislike about this one...)
Otherwise, you might just give it a try. (And by the way, Roeg's cinematography is gorgeous as always... Any of you seen his "Eureka" ? i'd like to know if it's worth buying since I loved "Don't look now" and "walkabout' and this movie is due to be released in France at the end of the month...)
i hated julesetjim because i hated the characeters. i didnt see any reason for these two guys to be endlessly pursuing this woman. she was a bitch. they didnt set up any of the characters for you to be sympathetic with, so therefore, i couldnt identify with them and i hated what they were doing. i also thought the story jumped around in such a fashion through time, it was hard to follow where emotionally these characters were even supposed to be. althought it may have been influential as far as the cutting and the freeze framing, i felt it lacked drama to tell an interesting story. (or rather, something i want to watch.)
I watched Two English Girls tonight, and man, it's great! It doesn't have that wonderful in-your-face sucker punch effect that Truffaut's first three films did, but it really was a rather masterful reversal/expansion of the whole Jules And Jim scenario, and it went to places psychologically that I didn't anticipate.
One thing I noticed about it was the narration, which, if my memory serves correct, is the same in many Truffaut films -- the rapid, stacatto male voice that sounds like it's reading passages from a novel. It's always annoyed me somewhat, but at the same time I appreciate what's being said, for the narration is certainly well written. And the style in which its read may in fact be best -- it gets the point across and doesn't really draw too much unnecessary attention to itself (unless you start talking about it like I am right now). So anyway, I was wondering...would his films be better without that narration? There wasn't much that it took care of as far as exposition; it mainly was used for interior monologue. But isn't it better to show than to tell, and don't his images and actors tell an awful lot? It's something that warrants further thinking (and re-watching) for me.
I have only seen Day For Night and Stolen Kisses and I enjoyed both. I watched the Truffaut trailers that were included on the Stolen Kisses DVD-Jules and Jim, Two English Girls, Soft Skin, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run are now on my Netflix list.
funny, actually i was just talking with someone about disliking Jules et Jim and saying that i've seen so many fucking movies since i watched that, ill bet if i watched it now i'd probably like it.
give it another shot
it was said earlier in the thread and even realized by me on a few occasions - French New Wave films seem to have more resonance the second time you view them. i don't know what it is exactly. maybe it's because of their odd structures. the first time you watch it you don't know what to expect at all (i was this way with PDL) and it throws you. then the endings are usually anti-climatic in a way........you usually don't want the ending they have, so it leaves an odd taste in your mouth.........but upon repeated viewings, since you know what happens, you don't linger on it and you appreciate the movie as it is and not as you want it to be. you kind of appreciate the journey and don't focus so much on the destination.