Favorite (four), part sixteen

Just like my other fifteen posts in this series, I want to take a second to single out the highlights of my recent film viewing.  Most I have been glad to finally see, but only very few have stayed with me. This series is my filter for those (and hopefully one or two will be good to someone else, too).

Manoel de Oliveira's The Strange Case of Angelica
My first experience with a de Oliveira film so I can't frame it alongside the rest of his work.  But what I can say is that I found it masterful - one of these late films by a great filmmaker that is deceptively simple (think Gertrud) where the formal simplicity belies a specificity and depth that are the true signs of greatness.  Most shocking to me was the vitality of the editing, always cutting away seconds earlier than expected, to produce a level of restraint so vital to the heavyweight feeling the film ends up producing for the viewer.  I could go on and on about the brilliance of metaphor here, de Oliveira's wonderful visual tics, and a cinema that is as mannered as Hartley's but as weighty as Dreyer's, but I'll wait to elaborate on those things until I have the pleasure of seeing a few more from this great Portuguese filmmaker.


Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home

This should go down as one of the greatest of all Scorsese films and the single best doc on Dylan.  It's moving, incredibly cinematic, and really captures the great one at his absolute, creative peak.  


Fred Niblo's The Mysterious Lady
I can keep it simple here.  Garbo is sexy personified in this very inventive and entertaining early work.  Want to understand the mystique around Garbo - this is a great place to start.


Andre de Toth's Day of the Outlaw

Raw, dark, and artful, there's something absolutely uncompromising about De Toth's work here.  The tone almost makes you think you're watching a horror film, but the pacing and cinematography feel straight out of a European art film.  One of the most unique westerns I have ever seen and simply a key work of any genre.

Modern Directors and Bang for Your Buck

Not usually the type of thing I repost, but I thought it was a very interesting little pie chart.  Want to see what modern director will give you the most bang for your buck, check it out:

http://www.sofasandsectionals.com/directors-budgets

1993: Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma)

1993: Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma)
Cinematic from the very get-go.  And what an opening it is.  Black-and-white, slow motion, voiceover, and what music!  A long take, choreographed, beginning with the camera at a dutch angle.  Sensuous, complex, abstract, graphic, many elements of style all brought into some harmonious balance.  I couldn't pull that off.  Most people couldn't pull that off.  De Palma is some kind of master, huh?

And that's just the filmmaking.

At the root of this, one of my favorite crime films of all time, is also a theme that affects me deeply, the idea that one mistake may trap you forever.  If Carlito had just left Benny Blanco alone, stayed out of his way, all would have been okay.  But he made one blunder and could never quite escape it.

It's the only movie I've ever seen that makes you forget about its ending, so much so that you feel all the more duped when it gets there AGAIN. This one moves me in the highest way at every level imaginable.  I admire it, I love it, and I feel it deeply.  And I know it has its detractors, but chalk me up as one of its biggest fans.  


Other contenders for 1993:  From this year, I still have some things to see.  These include Atom Egoyan's Calendar, Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Puppetmaster, James Ivory's The Remains of the Day, and Eric Rohmer's The Tree, The Mayor, and the Mediatheque.  At some point, I'll need to revisit Jane Campion's The Piano, Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Blue, and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List as it's been too long since I've seen any of them to know where they'd place on this list.  From this year though, I love Akira Kurosawa's Madadayo.  And my closest runner-up is Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence.

4/30/10 I watched Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers.  It wouldn't contend for my top spot.  But like much of Ferrara's work, I sat through much of it thinking it an unmitigated disaster and then emerged with the feeling that it was actually up to something quite interesting.  The first time they try to "snatch" Anwar is particularly strong, as are some of the final moments.   

3/28/11 I watched Tsai Ming-Liang's Rebels of the Neon God.  A very strong debut from Tsai, full of all his usual themes -- urban isolation, water fetishes, and a keen interest in bodily fluids.  What's most shocking at the beginning is how much verve Tsai's style has.  In fact, it feels like he's riffing more on Wong Kar-Wai for awhile here than Antonioni, who would ultimately become his closest influence.  Not as pure and distilled as some of Tsai's later work, but certainly worth a look.

9/19/11 I watched James Ivory's The Remains of the Day.  I like how there are consistent thematic concerns in each of the Merchant/Ivory films I've seen.  There's an interest in a certain old world order, people's inability to express themselves emotionally to one another, and a respect for one's class, no matter the sacrifice or loss of opportunities it might create.  This film is his most daring narratively, but at times the sheer audacity of the endeavor might lead to a little repetition and awkwardness that would have been avoided with a slightly easier narrative.  Still, I have great respect for the team Merchant/Ivory assembled and the clarity of their approach.  

6/3/12 I watched Manoel de Oliveira's Abraham's Valley.  Beautiful, deep, and Rohmeresque but also distancing for me because of the actor playing Ema.  I have more respect and admiration than I do a deeply felt connection to this one.

8/23/13 I watched Andre Techine's My Favorite Season.  Techine's desire to be real, emotional, subtle, and naturalistic are all there.  But whereas I find his next two features (Wild Reeds and Thieves) to go to daring places while always remaining in the right emotional register, this one seems to veer off at times.  It still has some great feel and depth but just feels minor compared to where he would go next.  

1/16/18 I rewatched Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day.  It is somewhat interesting to see how Ramis handles its non-linear narrative but otherwise it's fairly generic in terms of the rest of its design.

12/21/21 I watched Patricia Mazuy's Travolta et Moi.  A film that I have been wanting to see for more than 25 years is interesting and unexpected.  It captures both the feeling of youth on fire but also explores some of the frustration that ultimately fueled the punk rock movement of the late seventies into the early eighties.  

1/27/22 I watched Paulo Rocha's Oliveira l'architecte.  I've still seen very little of the Portuguese's work but I loved Angelica and look forward to taking in many more of his films.  This was far from one of the strongest of the Cinema de Notre Temps series I have seen but nonetheless I enjoyed spending a little time with Oliveira the person.  

7/4/22 I watched Victor Nunez's Ruby in Paradise.  What jumps out at first view is to think about the historical context in which it was made.  It was the height of American indy cinema and "auteurs" working overtime to emphasize their personal style.  Spike, the Coen brothers, Jarmusch, Hartley, Tarantino all came to the medium with heavily mannered approaches.  In fact, it is hard for me to think of an indy filmmaker, at that time, who was working in a more naturalistic way.  

Perhaps it's the fact that Nunez was 48 when he made Ruby.  Whatever the reasons, Nunez distinguishes himself from the rest of the abovementioned filmmakers by his careful attention to place and character and his subdued use of music, sound, and any other aspect of cinematic style.    

10/23/22 I watched Jon Turteltaub's Cool Runnings.  A sports film targeted mostly at young kids.  It has heart and a few genuinely moving moments but overall a bit too broad for my taste.

1976: Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders)

1976: Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders)
Why Robby Muller isn't more of a household name is beyond me?  He's responsible for five or six of the most beautiful films ever made:  Dead Man, Alice in the Cities, Paris, Texas, Down by Law, Breaking the Waves, The American Friend, and Kings of the Road.  Okay, make that eight or nine!


I find that Muller has as great a sensitivity and relationship to nature as any cameraman that has ever worked in the medium.  There's a poetry to the way that he frames the outdoors and a lyricism to the way he lets his camera slowly absorb images that is deep and elemental.   And nowhere is his special gift so apparent, so affecting, as in this early Wenders road epic.  


This one demands patience, but if you can get hooked on its rhythms, it's an incredibly moving tale of friendship, love, and cinema.  It's also a definite desert island choice in these parts.  

Other contenders for 1976:  This is yet another strong year, in my opinion, even though there are a number of titles I still need to see.  These include:  Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alan Rudolph's Welcome to L.A., Eric Rohmer's The Marquise of O..., Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900, Jacques Rivette's Noroit and Duelle, Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein, Francois Truffaut's Small Change, Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses, Larisa Shepitko's The Ascent, Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face, Luchino Visconti's L'innocente, Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, Dario Argento's Suspiria, Carlos Saura's Cria Cuervos, Don Siegel's The Shootist, and Peter Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon.  I need to revisit Sidney Lumet's Network as it's a film I've struggled with in the past.  From this year though, I really like Roman Polanski's The Tenant, Brian De Palma's Carrie and Obsession, David Lynch's Eraserhead, and John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13.  I love Alan Pakula's All the President's Men.  And my closest runner-up is Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

4/11/11 I watched Francois Truffaut's Small Change.  A strange film. Sweet, and at times Truffaut amazes at how he's able to remember and capture some of the aspects and feelings of childhood.  But it seems as awkward and distracted as most young children, and this meandering quality starts to take away after awhile.  


5/13/11 I watched Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot.  An unusual final film from a master.  It's fun, light in many ways, and still maintains much of the great Hitch touch.  Dern is perfectly cast, as is Barbara Harris and Ed Lauter.  


7/22/11 I watched Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses.  The ultimate film on co-dependency.  Incredibly intense and disturbing. Oshima proves himself one of the ultimate "cruel" filmmakers but also one who is unflinching and unafraid to take his subject into every single, possible realm, no matter the risk or daring involved.  Cold and not totally my thing, but I respect the achievement.


8/11/11 I watched Larisa Shepitko's The Ascent.  Incredibly visual, in the way a Tarkovsky film can be.  And particularly affecting when it comes to depicting torture and death.  Ultimately hard for me though to find a real window into it emotionally.  


8/19/11 I watched Luchino Visconti's L'innocente.  Another psychological and claustrophic chamber piece from Visconti.  Not my thing at all, but well done for what it is.  

3/7/17 I rewatched Michael Ritchie's The Bad News Bears.  Ritchie's slacker sensibility is a perfect match with the material.  I don't think this one gets near enough attention and should be in any conversation around the greatest sports movies of all time.

5/14/17 I watched Eric Rohmer's The Marquise of O.  The first period piece I have seen from Rohmer and it is a stunner.  What impresses most is the way that Rohmer uses his incredible talent for distillation to tell a story of transcendence and humanism in the unexpected backdrop of the late 1700s.  Rohmer proves that he learned much from Rossellini and the effects he is able to achieve do not feel terribly far removed from Rossellini's great La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV.

8/14/17 I watched Larry Peerce's Two-Minute Warning.  An interesting cast and a somewhat promising plot are let down by pretty uninspired execution.  

1/12/20 I watched Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky.  May only made four features and I had seen the other three before seeing this for the first time.   In seeing her other work, it was already very clear that May was unusually good with her actors and had this very unique, punchy editing style.  Nothing else May had done creates the sense of dread so palpable here or has this level of realism.  It would rank on my list with any overview of key American New Wave films.  It is unrelenting, powerful and a bit different than anything else I have ever seen.   

4/12/20 I watched Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein.  Only the second or third film I have seen from Losey but what a film it is.  Delon's performance ranks with his very  best and Losey sustains interest and an uncomfortable mood and atmosphere throughout every single shot.  The camera is elegant, as are the locations, the set design and the wardrobe and Losey ends up making a film about the Resistance that might be every bit as powerful as Melville's Army of Shadows.  

4/20/20 I watched Abbas Kiarostami's Rang-ha.  One of the things that's most impressive about Kiarostami is his ability to have retained a childlike wonder with the world.  This film is different than anything else I have seen from him but it's a joy to see for anyone interested in a complete understanding of the Iranian master's career.

8/12/20 I watched Abbas Kiarostami's A Wedding Suit.  The premise is great and Kiarostami's patient, warm approach fully visible.  He lets the events slowly unfold, never really taking the story where you expect it to go.  Devoid of music except in the final frames, Kiarostami is already pushing his cinema to strong points of transcendence.  

Favorites of My Favorites #5 -- David Gordon Green

Within the history of cinema is a history of some extraordinary artistic collaborations.  Some of my favorite include Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro (Director/Actor), David Lynch/Angelo Badalamenti (Director/Composer), and David Gordon Green/Tim Orr (Director/Cinematographer).

Usually, I try to keep away from discussing my contemporaries.  I'm afraid jealousy, the competitive spirit, or something else altogether might cloud my judgment.  David Gordon Green is actually a couple of years younger than me.  But he's long been one of the younger directors that inspires and pushes me to try harder.  He's a great case study, a guy that has made five features to date, starting with the $40,000 George Washington and most recently completing the Judd Apatow-produced Pineapple Express.  He's remained an artist while breaking into Hollywood and has then given back to some of his friends to help their careers, too (serving as a producer on both Shotgun Stories and Great World of Sound).

For me, as he moves forward, his career will tell me, as much as anything, if it's still possible for a young filmmaker to make personal films in Hollywood.

What do I love about David Gordon Green?  The images that he and Orr create are as earthy and lush as any team out there.  Strong arguments for keeping film around a little longer.  And the way they move the camera, steadily and fluidly, are nice alternatives to a medium that seems to be quickly moving towards more shaky, handheld aesthetics.  I also think that, along with David Lynch and Michael Mann, Green has the best ear for sound and music of any American filmmaker.

Some find Green's films slow and frustrating.  I simply think that they have great style and are as poetic as anything out there right now.

DAVID GORDON GREEN (in preferential order)
1.  All the Real Girls
2.  George Washington
3.  Pineapple Express
4.  Snow Angels
5.  Undertow
6.  Physical Pinball (short)
7.  Pleasant Grove (short)

Favorites Update and A Little More Lullaby

A week ago, I started a new series entitled "Favorites of My Favorites" where I list, in preferential order, the films of my favorite filmmakers. So far, I've done an entry on Jean Renoir, Takeshi Kitano, Michael Mann, and Leos Carax.  Next up are Brian De Palma, David Lynch, Abel Ferrara (I already can't wait for the comments on that one), and Jim Jarmusch.  Others as I look ahead will be Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert Bresson, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Woody Allen, Francois Truffaut, Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, George Cukor, Jacques Becker, Orson Welles, Michael Cimino, Maurice Pialat, Wim Wenders, Abbas Kiarostami, Jonathan Demme, Sam Peckinpah, Alfred Hitchcock, Kenji Mizoguchi, Roberto Rossellini, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ernst Lubitsch, Robert Altman, William Friedkin, and Fritz Lang.

I expect the next few entries up in the next couple of weeks.  And then the others will follow throughout the rest of the year.

Also, just in, another really nice piece on The Last Lullaby:

http://dvdlateshow.blogspot.com/2010/01/last-lullaby.html