Diamantino — if Sean Baker and James Ransone had been european. i think Abrantes/Schmidt and Carloto Cotta bring it. it’s basically a flawless movie because at any point it’s exactly like Diamantino. anybody can adore Diamantino and nobody wants to be one of the sisters. although props to the sisters for being who they are. his own face on the pillows. his mini-motorcycle. this guy. asexual. what a character. is it that in the end they’re dead and that’s heaven i couldn’t really tell or wasn’t paying enough attention
Wild Strawberries — Victor Sjöström as the lead. you guys, Bergman is “acing it.” and it’s so richly human. so tender and fragile and poetic and musical, which is spoken about. it’s both classic and contemporary which is the sweet spot. i rewatched it twice in a row because i really wanted to savor it. two dream sequences. he goes to sleep alone, that’s how the movie ends (although her door is open if he needs anything lol). released the same year as The Seventh Seal, this follows Smiles of a Summer Night, Sawdust and Tinsel, and Summer with Monika. it’s different than the darker and more serious Bergman, this the Bergman who reappears in Fanny and Alexander. he’s always utterly human but sometimes warmth and magic are involved. this movie deeply touches me and is a top-shelf old-man movie, alongside The Last Laugh, Umberto D. and Ikiru
Buffet Froid -- it's an example of the kind of thing in which to be better it'd have to be a different movie. it's perfectly what it is. so it's a situation in which to like it more i'd have to be in its mood, like with Shirley. my reaction depends on my level of bleakness, and right now my bleakness isn't so low. if so this movie would be hilarious. it's deadpan, macabre, and lightly nihilistic. nihilism as nbd. nihilism as the normal. the whole urbanization leads to alienation leads to a detached sense of feeling alive thing. they want the sound of birds and i want more elastic narrative and aesthetic possibilities. but all the notes it hits are properly tuned, you know. his own father as a lead actor, so sweet