Sunday, July 15, 2018
Latest Mixtape
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/03L2jHfQ6aicq4eJzmYGi6?si=TL0aa1CPRv26Zcu-5Jxoeg
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Favorite (four), part fifty-three
Just like in my other fifty-two posts in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing. Most of the films I have been glad to see but only very few have stayed with me. This series is my filter for those and my hope is one or two will be good to you as well.
Zachary Treitz's Men Go To Battle
The kind of imaginative lo-fi work that makes me rethink my normal skepticism around low budget digital filmmaking. It feels like the cinematic equivalent to something Will Oldham might author. It is quiet and earthy and comfortable just being pure and unadorned. The acting is tremendous, and its restraint from using much light or music refreshing. As strong of an American micro-indy as I have seen since Blue Ruin.
Frederick Wiseman's Law and Order
Aside from Wiseman's complete formal discipline, what might be most impressive about his work are the moments he is able to capture. Whether it is the angry father at the end or the belligerent juvenile early on, the characters he finds in the scenes he shows us feel so raw, so real, and so rich it is like we have never seen humans going through real emotions on film before. It is such pure cinema, Wiseman's work, and such a successful approach. For anyone that wants to see moments deflected exactly as the artist found them, without any fluff and without any fear that the sheer moment would have enough heft or interest on its own, these are hours full of reward.
Kasper Collins' I Called Him Morgan
An unusually absorbing doc that not only gives us Morgan's greatness but also gives us other dimensions like a deeper understanding of jazz as black classical music or of the human capacity to forgive even in the midst of great anger. Collins' most impressive achievement might be his ability to take a paucity of Morgan footage and supplement it with shots of skylines and nature without making it all feel like hollow re-enactments.
Peter Kunhardt's King in the Wilderness
Kunhardt's style is nothing remarkable and the music can be overdone and cloying at times, but Kunhardt reveals sides of King's life that adds dimensions to my understanding of him. Most remarkable to me was the idea of non-violence as the more radical response, as compared to retaliation, to hatred and racism. According to King, "...if you're really going to be free, you have to overcome the love of wealth and the fear of death."
Summer (Kirill Serebrennikov)
7/4/18 I watched Peter Kunhardt's King in the Wilderness. Kunhardt's style is nothing remarkable and the music can be overdone and cloying at times, but Kunhardt reveals sides of King's life that adds dimensions to my understanding of him. Most remarkable to me was the idea of non-violence as the more radical response, as compared to retaliation, to hatred and racism. According to King, "...if you're really going to be free, you have to overcome the love of wealth and the fear of death."
7/14/18 I watched Morgan Neville's Won't You Be My Neighbor? Fred Rogers' life makes for a fascinating film and Neville gets into so much of what makes the story unique and provocative. My only complaint is I wish there were more interviews from kids, like myself, who grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the way they experienced the show as compared to Rogers' ultimate vision and philosophy behind it.
7/27/18 I watched Serge Bozon's Mrs. Hyde. It is a strange film and I am unsure all that Bozon is after but it features yet another tremendous performance from Huppert and visually it all feels incredibly clean and clear. It is, I guess, a little in the line of The Nutty Professor, but it takes that format to address the deep racism issues facing France at the moment.
8/24/18 I watched Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Schrader has always seemed like someone on the brink of imploding. He doesn't come across as one of these guys that easily shares his feelings or is often at peace. And his greatest characters all embody the same brooding nature that, unchecked, could become dangerous. I haven't seen all of his work but I am a huge fan of American Gigolo and Affliction and this is perhaps my favorite of all of his films I have seen. Hawke is perfect in the role and Schrader gives us moments that previously I would not have thought him capable of.
8/25/18 I watched Lucrecia Martel's Zama. To be honest, it was one of these films I felt like I missed, like I was just not smart enough to understand. It reminded me of Herzog's Cobra Verde and while the filmmaking, the acting, the colors, the sound were all extraordinary, I just never found my emotional way in.
8/30/18 I watched Tim Wardle's Three Identical Strangers. A pretty fascinating tale. Not always told in the most artistically impressive manner, perhaps, but compelling and certainly does not go where you might expect.
9/4/18 I watched Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman. Spike is totally in his element and his passion and talent come through in ways that I haven't seen in his work in more than twenty years. I found it messy, uneven and raw, as in akin to an early draft that still needed an editor's touch. But I also thought it the closest American film I have seen in the 21st century to the spirit of the daring and uncomfortable batch of great indies that first burst on the scene in the early to mid eighties.
9/10/18 I watched Andrew Bujalski's Support the Girls. Bujalski's intellectual mainstream film is smart, impressive but not always fully compelling. Bujalski makes the strongest cinematic metaphor yet for the Me Too movement and proves to me for the first time that he might actually be able to make something subversively great from within the Hollywood system.
10/13/18 I watched Damien Chazelle's First Man. I was a huge fan of Chazelle's last two features but this one left me quite cold and indifferent. It seemed very uninspired and had very little to offer in terms of a new voice or feel to an old, stodgy Hollywood genre.
11/2/18 I watched Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind. Some incredible sequences, certainly, but the editing was frustrating and ultimately defeating for me. As much as I love Welles, I could not rise to love this one.
11/3/18 I watched Kitao Sakurai's The Passage. A delirious short film that ran short on interest for me way before it ended.
11/20/18 I watched Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? McCarthy was quite good but the filmmaking just felt awkward at times and as though it needed either a little more formal or narrative inventiveness.
11/21/18 I watched Ethan and Joel Coen's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Some of the filmmaking, as can be expected, is sublime and a few of the episodes rise to great heights. But it all feels a little overlong and ultimately left me feeling unfulfilled.
11/24/18 I watched Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You. It's great to see a number of audacious films emerging directed by African-Americans. Just in the last twelve months, just to name a few, we have had Get Out, BlacKkKlansman and now this fiery work. It feels more strident than fully realized but it's admirable to see where it goes and how little inhibitions it has in going there.
12/2/18 I watched Julien Faraut's In the Realm of Perfection. A film about my favorite sport and my second favorite player of all time is very French (read: minutely analytical). It was interesting but not near as compelling as I had hoped.
12/7/18 I watched Hong Sang-soo's Claire's Camera. One of the few films by the great Korean director that really did not move me. It felt like we were once again in his special world but without the deep poetry or relatable characters like there are in his best work.
12/8/18 I watched Bing Liu's Minding the Gap. Most impressive is the skateboarding footage and a few of the montages. The subject matter is fairly worthy, the filmmaking a little less so.
12/15/18 I watched Alice Rohrwacher's Happy as Lazzaro. The first film I have seen from the young Italian filmmaker is impressive. The best way I can describe it is a welcome concoction of Kiarostami's feel for the land, Lynch's ability for rupturing time and early Van Sant's poetic feel for the rough and marginal. Based on this film, Rohrwacher is full of talent and tough to categorize. I am very excited to see what she does next.
12/30/18 I watched Amy Scott's Hal. Another documentary, like the recent one I saw on Arthur Russell, that makes you immediately want to dig further into the subject's body of work. As a long time fan of Ashby, Shampoo for instance might be in all time top ten, I have always been curious to learn more about the filmmaker. Having seen this doc, which I cannot recommend highly enough to any fan of Ashby, I now can't wait to go back and watch all seven of his films from the seventies.
1/2/19 I watched Jean-Paul Civeyrac's A Paris Education. It's unfortunate that it is shot on digital black-and-white because if it had the cinematography of Garrel's Regular Lovers it would find a place in my small pantheon of truly cherished works. But even as is it's pretty special. It captures some of the poetry of Paris and what the formative years feel like at the fac. That is, time as your captive and endless amounts of it for sitting around among peers, taking walks and formulating dreams for undoing the previous generation's misguided efforts and hopes. The end has a narrative device so brilliantly utilized by Demy in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Kazan in Splendor in the Grass, Rohmer in My Night at Maud's and to perhaps a slightly lesser degree Chazelle in La La Land. And even though the device is familiar, Civeyrac uses it in a way that feels fresh and new. By fast forwarding with Etienne, it is not a particular romance that he is forced to reckon with but an entire view of the world and of himself.
1/6/19 I watched Jack Bryan's Active Measures. The content is extraordinarily informative, even if the filmmaking is not always at the same level.
2/20/19 I watched Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters. While most people were raving that this was Kore-eda's best (and I am a fan!), I found it all a little messy, forced and rarely as strong as some of my favorite work by him like Still Walking.
3/9/19 I watched Lee Chang-dong's Burning. It has some great restraint and maintains a consistent mood throughout but there is something in his cinema that leaves me a little cold. I loved Poetry but related deeply with the main character. This time that was not the case.
3/9/19 I watched George Tillman Jr.'s The Hate U Give. It has some real power but also could have greatly benefited from greater shape and restraint. The lead performance by Amandla Stenberg is extremely impressive.
7/14/18 I watched Morgan Neville's Won't You Be My Neighbor? Fred Rogers' life makes for a fascinating film and Neville gets into so much of what makes the story unique and provocative. My only complaint is I wish there were more interviews from kids, like myself, who grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and the way they experienced the show as compared to Rogers' ultimate vision and philosophy behind it.
7/27/18 I watched Serge Bozon's Mrs. Hyde. It is a strange film and I am unsure all that Bozon is after but it features yet another tremendous performance from Huppert and visually it all feels incredibly clean and clear. It is, I guess, a little in the line of The Nutty Professor, but it takes that format to address the deep racism issues facing France at the moment.
8/24/18 I watched Paul Schrader's First Reformed. Schrader has always seemed like someone on the brink of imploding. He doesn't come across as one of these guys that easily shares his feelings or is often at peace. And his greatest characters all embody the same brooding nature that, unchecked, could become dangerous. I haven't seen all of his work but I am a huge fan of American Gigolo and Affliction and this is perhaps my favorite of all of his films I have seen. Hawke is perfect in the role and Schrader gives us moments that previously I would not have thought him capable of.
8/25/18 I watched Lucrecia Martel's Zama. To be honest, it was one of these films I felt like I missed, like I was just not smart enough to understand. It reminded me of Herzog's Cobra Verde and while the filmmaking, the acting, the colors, the sound were all extraordinary, I just never found my emotional way in.
8/30/18 I watched Tim Wardle's Three Identical Strangers. A pretty fascinating tale. Not always told in the most artistically impressive manner, perhaps, but compelling and certainly does not go where you might expect.
9/4/18 I watched Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman. Spike is totally in his element and his passion and talent come through in ways that I haven't seen in his work in more than twenty years. I found it messy, uneven and raw, as in akin to an early draft that still needed an editor's touch. But I also thought it the closest American film I have seen in the 21st century to the spirit of the daring and uncomfortable batch of great indies that first burst on the scene in the early to mid eighties.
9/10/18 I watched Andrew Bujalski's Support the Girls. Bujalski's intellectual mainstream film is smart, impressive but not always fully compelling. Bujalski makes the strongest cinematic metaphor yet for the Me Too movement and proves to me for the first time that he might actually be able to make something subversively great from within the Hollywood system.
10/13/18 I watched Damien Chazelle's First Man. I was a huge fan of Chazelle's last two features but this one left me quite cold and indifferent. It seemed very uninspired and had very little to offer in terms of a new voice or feel to an old, stodgy Hollywood genre.
11/2/18 I watched Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind. Some incredible sequences, certainly, but the editing was frustrating and ultimately defeating for me. As much as I love Welles, I could not rise to love this one.
11/3/18 I watched Kitao Sakurai's The Passage. A delirious short film that ran short on interest for me way before it ended.
11/20/18 I watched Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? McCarthy was quite good but the filmmaking just felt awkward at times and as though it needed either a little more formal or narrative inventiveness.
11/21/18 I watched Ethan and Joel Coen's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Some of the filmmaking, as can be expected, is sublime and a few of the episodes rise to great heights. But it all feels a little overlong and ultimately left me feeling unfulfilled.
11/24/18 I watched Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You. It's great to see a number of audacious films emerging directed by African-Americans. Just in the last twelve months, just to name a few, we have had Get Out, BlacKkKlansman and now this fiery work. It feels more strident than fully realized but it's admirable to see where it goes and how little inhibitions it has in going there.
12/2/18 I watched Julien Faraut's In the Realm of Perfection. A film about my favorite sport and my second favorite player of all time is very French (read: minutely analytical). It was interesting but not near as compelling as I had hoped.
12/7/18 I watched Hong Sang-soo's Claire's Camera. One of the few films by the great Korean director that really did not move me. It felt like we were once again in his special world but without the deep poetry or relatable characters like there are in his best work.
12/8/18 I watched Bing Liu's Minding the Gap. Most impressive is the skateboarding footage and a few of the montages. The subject matter is fairly worthy, the filmmaking a little less so.
12/15/18 I watched Alice Rohrwacher's Happy as Lazzaro. The first film I have seen from the young Italian filmmaker is impressive. The best way I can describe it is a welcome concoction of Kiarostami's feel for the land, Lynch's ability for rupturing time and early Van Sant's poetic feel for the rough and marginal. Based on this film, Rohrwacher is full of talent and tough to categorize. I am very excited to see what she does next.
12/30/18 I watched Amy Scott's Hal. Another documentary, like the recent one I saw on Arthur Russell, that makes you immediately want to dig further into the subject's body of work. As a long time fan of Ashby, Shampoo for instance might be in all time top ten, I have always been curious to learn more about the filmmaker. Having seen this doc, which I cannot recommend highly enough to any fan of Ashby, I now can't wait to go back and watch all seven of his films from the seventies.
1/2/19 I watched Jean-Paul Civeyrac's A Paris Education. It's unfortunate that it is shot on digital black-and-white because if it had the cinematography of Garrel's Regular Lovers it would find a place in my small pantheon of truly cherished works. But even as is it's pretty special. It captures some of the poetry of Paris and what the formative years feel like at the fac. That is, time as your captive and endless amounts of it for sitting around among peers, taking walks and formulating dreams for undoing the previous generation's misguided efforts and hopes. The end has a narrative device so brilliantly utilized by Demy in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Kazan in Splendor in the Grass, Rohmer in My Night at Maud's and to perhaps a slightly lesser degree Chazelle in La La Land. And even though the device is familiar, Civeyrac uses it in a way that feels fresh and new. By fast forwarding with Etienne, it is not a particular romance that he is forced to reckon with but an entire view of the world and of himself.
1/6/19 I watched Jack Bryan's Active Measures. The content is extraordinarily informative, even if the filmmaking is not always at the same level.
2/20/19 I watched Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters. While most people were raving that this was Kore-eda's best (and I am a fan!), I found it all a little messy, forced and rarely as strong as some of my favorite work by him like Still Walking.
3/9/19 I watched Lee Chang-dong's Burning. It has some great restraint and maintains a consistent mood throughout but there is something in his cinema that leaves me a little cold. I loved Poetry but related deeply with the main character. This time that was not the case.
3/9/19 I watched George Tillman Jr.'s The Hate U Give. It has some real power but also could have greatly benefited from greater shape and restraint. The lead performance by Amandla Stenberg is extremely impressive.
5/28/19 I watched Christophe Honore’s Sorry Angel. I am not sure
of the exact explanation but in the last ten years an overwhelming majority of
the top-shelf French films have focused on homosexual characters. Making that statement I am referring to films
that include Saint Laurent, Blue Is The Warmest Color, Stranger by the Lake, BPM (Beats per Minute) and now Honore’s
latest. Perhaps there is more tolerance
now among the producers or distributors.
Perhaps this is an area where courage, talent and vision still feel
fresh and powerful. Hard to say what
accounts for this recent tendency but regardless Honore impresses immensely
with his intimacy and fearlessness. The
performances are full of life and the filmmaking natural yet stylish. It is a grand work.
9/4/19 I watched Kirill Serebrennikov's Summer. A film that could have just as easily been called Les Inrockuptibles is full of the musical obsessions and spirit at the core of the French magazine. No surprise therefore that it ended up at the very top of the magazine's 2018 year-end list of best films of the year. Its rigorous, bold filmmaking is impressive, as is the heart it creates around its three main leads. The substitution of unrequited, restrained love for 80s Soviet politics is also impressively smart. I question the choice of using the three animated moments of fantasy - "Psycho Killer", "The Passenger" and "Perfect Day" - as they undermined the effectiveness of the rest of the film for me. But otherwise it was a surprisingly powerful effort from a filmmaker I look forward to continuing to watch.
11/16/19 I watched Hu Bo's An Elephant Sitting Still. As much as I push for formal rigor and as much as I seek it out in the work that I support, is it possible for a film to be rigorous to a fault? I believe so. I think there is a line that can be crossed where a film (or anything for that matter) becomes so strict in its style that it becomes claustrophobic and nearly lifeless. I applaud the elegant movements of the camera, the wonderful faces and hairstyles, the way Bo keeps some of the most disturbing moments off-screen (e.g. the death of the dog), and the way he suggests that out of focus might be a style the cinema has not explored nearly enough. But in the end the nearly total gray palette numbed me and I finished the experience with admiration but with little engagement emotionally.
11/30/19 I watched Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey into Night. In terms of sheer mastery of camerawork, lighting and film style, Gan's latest film ranks with the very greatest works of the last ten or so years. In this group I would include Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin, James Gray's Ad Astra, Raoul Ruiz's The Mysteries of Lisbon, Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Miguel Gomes' Tabu, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is The Warmest Color and Bi Gan's previous film Kaili Blues. Its narrative is more difficult to follow than the other films in this group and it really asks you to surrender to the undertow of its atmosphere and to let it just take you on this labyrinthine journey. It had me thinking of Tarkovsky and Lynch and at some point I would be interested in revisiting to try to better understand where I have just gone.
12/17/19 I watched Bruno Dumont's Coincoin and the Extra-Humans. I was a big fan of Dumont's first part of the Coincoin series, Li'l Quinquin. There is also much to admire here, although it never seemed as satisfying as his earlier entry. Perhaps Dumont would have benefited from a couple of more hours to go further and deeper.
1/12/20 I watched Christopher Makoto Yogi's August At Akiko's. The acting is wonderful and I commend the filmmaker for sustaining an unusual, consistent mood throughout. But I didn't really feel like it ultimately paid off or amounted to anything.
1/14/20 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Monrovia, Indiana. Not my favorite of Wiseman's films but it is very true to his career-long interests and is another successful kaleidoscopic look at what our communities look, feel and sound like in today's world.
2/29/20 I watched Hong Sang-soo's Hotel by the River. One of Hong's darker films both visually (black and white) and thematically. Not top shelf Hong, as the lightness of his work is one its strengths but still worth a viewing for any fans of Hong's work.
5/29/20 I watched Francesco Zippel's Friedkin Uncut. Interesting look at the director for anyone, like me, that is a big fan of his work.
7/6/20 I watched Hong Sang-soo's Grass. By now, I've seen quite a number of Hong's films. Here's what I believe I've seen so far - Woman Is the Future of Man, Tale of Cinema, Woman on the Beach, Night and Day, Hahaha, Oki's Movie, List, In Another Country, Nobody's Daughter Haewon, Right Now, Wrong Then, Yourself and Yours, On the Beach at Night Alone, Claire's Camera, The Day After, Grass and Hotel by the River. I would place Grass in my upper tier of favorites. It has all of Hong's regular elements - playfulness, simplicity, wordiness and moderness. But what it also has is humor, which shows up in powerful ways in most of Hong's very best work.
9/4/19 I watched Kirill Serebrennikov's Summer. A film that could have just as easily been called Les Inrockuptibles is full of the musical obsessions and spirit at the core of the French magazine. No surprise therefore that it ended up at the very top of the magazine's 2018 year-end list of best films of the year. Its rigorous, bold filmmaking is impressive, as is the heart it creates around its three main leads. The substitution of unrequited, restrained love for 80s Soviet politics is also impressively smart. I question the choice of using the three animated moments of fantasy - "Psycho Killer", "The Passenger" and "Perfect Day" - as they undermined the effectiveness of the rest of the film for me. But otherwise it was a surprisingly powerful effort from a filmmaker I look forward to continuing to watch.
11/16/19 I watched Hu Bo's An Elephant Sitting Still. As much as I push for formal rigor and as much as I seek it out in the work that I support, is it possible for a film to be rigorous to a fault? I believe so. I think there is a line that can be crossed where a film (or anything for that matter) becomes so strict in its style that it becomes claustrophobic and nearly lifeless. I applaud the elegant movements of the camera, the wonderful faces and hairstyles, the way Bo keeps some of the most disturbing moments off-screen (e.g. the death of the dog), and the way he suggests that out of focus might be a style the cinema has not explored nearly enough. But in the end the nearly total gray palette numbed me and I finished the experience with admiration but with little engagement emotionally.
11/30/19 I watched Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey into Night. In terms of sheer mastery of camerawork, lighting and film style, Gan's latest film ranks with the very greatest works of the last ten or so years. In this group I would include Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Assassin, James Gray's Ad Astra, Raoul Ruiz's The Mysteries of Lisbon, Bertrand Bonello's Saint Laurent, Miguel Gomes' Tabu, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is The Warmest Color and Bi Gan's previous film Kaili Blues. Its narrative is more difficult to follow than the other films in this group and it really asks you to surrender to the undertow of its atmosphere and to let it just take you on this labyrinthine journey. It had me thinking of Tarkovsky and Lynch and at some point I would be interested in revisiting to try to better understand where I have just gone.
12/17/19 I watched Bruno Dumont's Coincoin and the Extra-Humans. I was a big fan of Dumont's first part of the Coincoin series, Li'l Quinquin. There is also much to admire here, although it never seemed as satisfying as his earlier entry. Perhaps Dumont would have benefited from a couple of more hours to go further and deeper.
1/12/20 I watched Christopher Makoto Yogi's August At Akiko's. The acting is wonderful and I commend the filmmaker for sustaining an unusual, consistent mood throughout. But I didn't really feel like it ultimately paid off or amounted to anything.
1/14/20 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Monrovia, Indiana. Not my favorite of Wiseman's films but it is very true to his career-long interests and is another successful kaleidoscopic look at what our communities look, feel and sound like in today's world.
2/29/20 I watched Hong Sang-soo's Hotel by the River. One of Hong's darker films both visually (black and white) and thematically. Not top shelf Hong, as the lightness of his work is one its strengths but still worth a viewing for any fans of Hong's work.
5/29/20 I watched Francesco Zippel's Friedkin Uncut. Interesting look at the director for anyone, like me, that is a big fan of his work.
7/6/20 I watched Hong Sang-soo's Grass. By now, I've seen quite a number of Hong's films. Here's what I believe I've seen so far - Woman Is the Future of Man, Tale of Cinema, Woman on the Beach, Night and Day, Hahaha, Oki's Movie, List, In Another Country, Nobody's Daughter Haewon, Right Now, Wrong Then, Yourself and Yours, On the Beach at Night Alone, Claire's Camera, The Day After, Grass and Hotel by the River. I would place Grass in my upper tier of favorites. It has all of Hong's regular elements - playfulness, simplicity, wordiness and moderness. But what it also has is humor, which shows up in powerful ways in most of Hong's very best work.
9/24/20 I watched Rob Garver's What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael. It's a pretty uninspiring doc on one of the most inspiring film critics in the history of cinema.
3/14/21 I watched Marina Zenovich's Robin Willliams: Come Inside My Mind. I enjoyed it mostly for all of the footage I had never before seen. It is entertaining but not as deep as I would have liked to go.
5/31/21 I watched Jonathan Sutak's Dons of Disco. An interesting perspective on pop stardom even if none of it fully engaged me.
6/3/22 I watched Betsy West and Julie Cohen's RBG. Gives you a decent look at the person RBG was. Worth a watch if you know little like I did and have interest.
2/20/23 I watched Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Asako I & II. The third film I have seen by the great, young Japanese filmmaker and by a mile my least favorite. It feels air tight where the beauty of his other two films is how much life has seeped into them.
4/20/24 I watched Joseph Dorman and Toby Perl Freilich's Moynihan. Incredibly educational doc about a guy I wish I had known more about when I worked alongside him in 1991.
5/6/24 I watched Sophie Huber's Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes. A wonderful look at the iconic jazz label.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Dragnet Girl (1933)
An interesting next film for Ozu that's as close to a genre film as I have seen from him. Perhaps, it is his entry into the gangster arena that by 1933 included The Public Enemy, Scarface and Little Caesar.
In this ongoing exploration of Ozu, I have focused more on tracking the evolution of his style rather than his thematic interests. Here though it is interesting to see him taking on themes and ideas as diverse as the criminal with a conscience, the absence of the parent and the struggle for civility in a corrupt, criminal world.
Formally, a few quick notes I would like to mention. Signs pointing back to Western culture are once again abundant, whether it's movie posters for The Champ or All Quiet on the Western Front, Victrola record players, fight posters for American boxers such as Jack Dempsey or American quotes hanging on walls in different locations. It is also interesting to see that, like I have noted in some of the immediately preceding films, there are a number of tracking shots that Ozu seemed to abandon later on his career. I also noticed at least one crane shot, which is the first I have seen in his work. By this point in his career, Ozu's shots are also notably seeming to last a little longer and filmed mostly tatami-style. And, there are a few of what would become signature ellipses for Ozu.
In this ongoing exploration of Ozu, I have focused more on tracking the evolution of his style rather than his thematic interests. Here though it is interesting to see him taking on themes and ideas as diverse as the criminal with a conscience, the absence of the parent and the struggle for civility in a corrupt, criminal world.
Formally, a few quick notes I would like to mention. Signs pointing back to Western culture are once again abundant, whether it's movie posters for The Champ or All Quiet on the Western Front, Victrola record players, fight posters for American boxers such as Jack Dempsey or American quotes hanging on walls in different locations. It is also interesting to see that, like I have noted in some of the immediately preceding films, there are a number of tracking shots that Ozu seemed to abandon later on his career. I also noticed at least one crane shot, which is the first I have seen in his work. By this point in his career, Ozu's shots are also notably seeming to last a little longer and filmed mostly tatami-style. And, there are a few of what would become signature ellipses for Ozu.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Latest mix
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/61nofBhglLrG497YEHCKLy?si=2mo4xKa5Th-btB66oUa-IA
Monday, June 4, 2018
Favorite (four), part fifty-two
Just like in my other fifty-one posts in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing. Most of the films I have been glad to see but only very few have stayed with me. This series is my filter for those and my hope is one or two will be good to you as well.
Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies
Not for the faint of heart, this edgy, unflinching documentary is the debut from master documentarian Wiseman. It is more raw, still to this day, than most anything coming out of the American independent cinema. Wiseman may not be unheralded, but with each of his films, for me his import only grows. His films get inside their subjects, burrowing deep, like a Bresson or a Dreyer.
Luis Bunuel's The Phantom of Liberty
One of Bunuel's most free-flowing and "liberated" films is pure and unpredictable fun. There are a number of all-time great moments but for me it was the unconventional dinner party and the final sequence at the zoo. Bunuel's key themes are still there - anti-establishment, anti-Catholic church, surrealistic flights of fancy - but the contemporary setting gives them a lightness and impact that I have rarely felt while watching his work.
Hong Sang-soo's On the Beach at Night Alone
Proof yet again that Hong is one of the cinema's great simplifiers. He is able to take all of life's complications and reduce them down until what is left are only his favorite things - women, smoking, drinking, nature, cafes and conversations. If there is a filmmaker today churning out more consistently interesting works, I have yet to find him.
Yasujiro Ozu's Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?
One of his films I have never heard about and it comes immediately after one of his more famous works, I Was Born, But... Like its predecessor, what is noticeable is Ozu's development into a very complex emotional filmmaker. The final fifteen or so minutes, in particular, show Ozu's range as an unflinchingly brutal realist and a deeply searching realist. In fact, I cannot recall a more emotionally uncompromising scene to date in Ozu's cinema than Tetsuo and Saiki's final encounter. For films about the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood or even for films about the meaning of friendship, Where Now Are the Dreams Of Youth? deserves to be a part of the discussion.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Woman of Tokyo (1933)
Not a very memorable Ozu effort, this short film, if nothing else, continues his formal progression in a forward manner. There are almost no movements of the camera and an abundance of tatami shots. There is none of the playfulness of his previous work and the only real allusion to Western culture is when Ryoichi and Harue go to the movies to see If I Had a Million.
In its study of social mores, it feels closer emotionally to a Mizoguchi film. A curious, almost perplexing work, but regardless, I am excited to see where Ozu goes from here.
In its study of social mores, it feels closer emotionally to a Mizoguchi film. A curious, almost perplexing work, but regardless, I am excited to see where Ozu goes from here.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Where Now Are the Dreams Of Youth? (1932)
The first time I am back to working my way through Ozu in chronological order since March of 2017.
It is one of his films I have never heard about and it comes immediately after one of his more famous works, I Was Born, But.... Like its predecessor, what is noticeable is Ozu's development into a very complex emotional filmmaker. The final fifteen or so minutes, in particular, show Ozu's range as an unflinchingly brutal realist and a deeply searching humanist. In fact, I cannot recall a more emotionally uncompromising scene to date in Ozu's cinema than Tetsuo and Saiki's final encounter.
Some formal elements that I noticed are Ozu's reliance on tatami shots but not entirely, some tracking shots and a predominance of shorter takes compared to where his cinema would eventually end up in the latter part of his career. It would take a second viewing for me to confirm, but I think I noticed Ozu shifting to longer takes during a couple of the more emotionally important moments.
A few other small observations. Again, there is a scene that features an American film poster which was surprising to me, as I thought by this point in his career that Ozu had let go of any Western influence on his work. There were also a couple of exterior shots as Tetsuo rode in a car. I cannot recall a previous shot of this type in Ozu's cinema. And, like I Was Born, But..., there is an underlying playfulness and almost silliness that exists that seems to disappear from most of Ozu's later work.
Interesting to note that it would not be until 1936 that Ozu would make his first talkie, possibly the latest of all adopters. Also, of note, it dawned on me that unlike Mizoguchi I am not sure Ozu ever made a film that was period or not set in present day.
For films about the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood or even for films about the meaning of friendship, Where Now Are the Dreams Of Youth? deserves to be a part of the discussion.
It is one of his films I have never heard about and it comes immediately after one of his more famous works, I Was Born, But.... Like its predecessor, what is noticeable is Ozu's development into a very complex emotional filmmaker. The final fifteen or so minutes, in particular, show Ozu's range as an unflinchingly brutal realist and a deeply searching humanist. In fact, I cannot recall a more emotionally uncompromising scene to date in Ozu's cinema than Tetsuo and Saiki's final encounter.
Some formal elements that I noticed are Ozu's reliance on tatami shots but not entirely, some tracking shots and a predominance of shorter takes compared to where his cinema would eventually end up in the latter part of his career. It would take a second viewing for me to confirm, but I think I noticed Ozu shifting to longer takes during a couple of the more emotionally important moments.
A few other small observations. Again, there is a scene that features an American film poster which was surprising to me, as I thought by this point in his career that Ozu had let go of any Western influence on his work. There were also a couple of exterior shots as Tetsuo rode in a car. I cannot recall a previous shot of this type in Ozu's cinema. And, like I Was Born, But..., there is an underlying playfulness and almost silliness that exists that seems to disappear from most of Ozu's later work.
Interesting to note that it would not be until 1936 that Ozu would make his first talkie, possibly the latest of all adopters. Also, of note, it dawned on me that unlike Mizoguchi I am not sure Ozu ever made a film that was period or not set in present day.
For films about the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood or even for films about the meaning of friendship, Where Now Are the Dreams Of Youth? deserves to be a part of the discussion.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
My latest mix(tape)
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/6OvZVsJHCw1NNcxDGmBcWK?si=JVZQkeUdTqGDSPXP7WJ2mg
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Favorite (four), part fifty-one
Just like in my other fifty posts in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing. Most of the films I have been glad to see but only very few have stayed with me. This series is my filter for those and my hope is one or two will be good to you as well.
Edward Yang's Taipei Story
Stillness and quiet reign in this early Yang film and a memorable, brooding performance by the masterful Hou Hsiao-hsien. Makes me want to run down all of Yang's work as he seemed to excel in the same vein as Hou when he chose to stay contemporary rather than period.
Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth
I thought I had seen Hartley's debut, but it turns out I never had. It has to be one of the most stylistically assured debuts in the history of cinema. Hartley's films are heavily musical, rhythmic in their mood and editing, but not in the way Hollywood uses wall-to-wall music to provide most of the surface emotion. Hartley's music is his primary tool for carving out his special cinematic world. While there may be no known adjective, it is as distinctly "Hartleyian" as David's world is Lynchian. The acting, the locations, the framing, the almost Bressonian dialogue delivery combined with 80's Godard unique feel for the ellipsis immediately announce a very singular auteur. This is a startling debut.
I thought I had seen Hartley's debut, but it turns out I never had. It has to be one of the most stylistically assured debuts in the history of cinema. Hartley's films are heavily musical, rhythmic in their mood and editing, but not in the way Hollywood uses wall-to-wall music to provide most of the surface emotion. Hartley's music is his primary tool for carving out his special cinematic world. While there may be no known adjective, it is as distinctly "Hartleyian" as David's world is Lynchian. The acting, the locations, the framing, the almost Bressonian dialogue delivery combined with 80's Godard unique feel for the ellipsis immediately announce a very singular auteur. This is a startling debut.
Bi Gan's Kaili Blues
Gan's ability to move a camera is startling. Almost every shot is magical in the way it uses both space and time. The locations are consistently among the most interesting and cinematic I have seen in a very long time. Meanwhile, Gan's choreography of the long take immediately announces him as one of the next great filmmakers in the tradition of Hou Hsiao-hsien or the Romanians. To read that Gan was in his twenties when he made this film is beyond comprehension.
Susan Seidelman's Smithereens
Susan Seidelman's Smithereens
A great post-punk portrait of early 80s NYC that features an extraordinary use of The Feelies' Crazy Rhythms. it feels more like a Rivette or 80s French film in its looseness and in its "road movie" within one city approach. Paired on Filmstruck with Jarmusch's Permanent Vacation this double feature is a great introduction to the American indy film proliferation that would soon follow.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Mixtape 3 of '18
I still like the craft of making mixes about as much as any creative endeavor. Keeps my curating and editing skills from completely rusting out.
Here is the URL to my most recent mix:
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/2TJNPytM6eC4Rk1nmUuuz2?si=loH5JT-oQzyXUC4HDSibog
Here is the URL to my most recent mix:
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/2TJNPytM6eC4Rk1nmUuuz2?si=loH5JT-oQzyXUC4HDSibog
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Mixtape 2 of '18
I still like the craft of making mixes about as much as any creative endeavor. Keeps my curating and editing skills from completely rusting out.
Here is the URL to my most recent mix:
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/0LcyRcOS1EgmvMwOu4BFwV?si=BXEFYw6ATSuUxfdj5Ulukg
Here is the URL to my most recent mix:
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/0LcyRcOS1EgmvMwOu4BFwV?si=BXEFYw6ATSuUxfdj5Ulukg
Monday, March 26, 2018
Favorite (four), part fifty
Just like in my other forty-nine posts in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing. Most of the films I have been glad to see but only very few have stayed with me. This series is my filter for those and my hope is one or two will be good to you as well.
Miguel Gomes' Arabian Nights
At this point no one in world cinema seems to deserve the title as Godard's closest successor more than the Portuguese filmmaker. He possesses Godard's feel for music, sound, voiceover, politics, nature, playfulness and poetry. His cinema is constantly unpredictable, formally daring and seemingly capable of wowing us at any given second. The visual paasage from the first time we hear Rimsy-Korsakov's lyrical score ranks as the most powerful use of music I have heard in cinema in many, many years.
Eric Rohmer's Nadja in Paris
A little known short by Rohmer is yet another great installment in the tremendous Nouvelle Vague body of work from 1958-1965. It is ten minutes or so of pure voiceover but Rohmer announces early his extraordinary skill for capturing women and the streets and people of Paris.
A little known short by Rohmer is yet another great installment in the tremendous Nouvelle Vague body of work from 1958-1965. It is ten minutes or so of pure voiceover but Rohmer announces early his extraordinary skill for capturing women and the streets and people of Paris.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady
One of the more challenging works I have seen in a while and I am not positive I fully grasped all that "Joe" is doing. The second half of the film is very unexpected and is as abstract and elusive as the first half is palpable and clear. But it is that second half rupture that is still haunting me, pushing me for a quick revisit in the very near future.
Charles Burnett's My Brother's Wedding
Charles Burnett's My Brother's Wedding
In its subject matter, it could be looked at as an African-American Mean Streets, Pierce resembling Keitel's character and Soldier that of De Niro. As different as Burnett is from Scorsese, both filmmakers have a special talent at bringing an over photographed city to life in ways we have never seen. In fact, I would go so far as to call the combination of Burnett's first two features the most singular vision of Los Angeles the cinema has yet produced. With rhythms as unusual as Hal Hartley and acting as steadfastly noncommercial as Rossellini, Burnett represents a key marker in the neorealist timeline that history should do its best to remember.
Monday, March 19, 2018
Mixtape '18 style
I still like the craft of making mixes about as much as any creative endeavor. Keeps my curating and editing skills from completely rusting out.
Here is the URL to my most recent mix:
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/6kSYFypJAgfnl80lpkGyx6?si=W8JXHDSvReCm_Jw-qZAjYA
Here is the URL to my most recent mix:
https://open.spotify.com/user/mynuitchezmaud/playlist/6kSYFypJAgfnl80lpkGyx6?si=W8JXHDSvReCm_Jw-qZAjYA
Sunday, March 4, 2018
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