i am curious...

just call me the believer: argento's "inferno"

2011-10-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

i am a recent dario argento convert. i caught "inferno" (1980) at the castro theatre the other night -- it was my first argento film on the big screen and it was shown on film which was nice. i've only seen "phenomena" (1985, starring a pubescent jennifer connelly), and "opera" (1987) which is maybe one of the grossest horror movies i've ever seen, but also one of the coolest. "inferno" is the second in the "three mothers trilogy" and i've yet to see "susperia", which seems to be the argento film you hear about most -- i've read that "inferno" is inferior, but whatevs -- i thought it was fucking great. if you only watch films for a good narrative, then i wouldn't recommend argento at all. but if you like intense colors and interiors (i want to live in an argento film -- from what i've seen, some of the my most ideal living spaces are created in his movies) and intense/erratic metal, prog rock/electronic music, then you will be satisfied. the whole point of me blogging about this isn't really to discuss the merits of argento's oeuvre, but to go on a limb and connect one of my favorite musician's stuff to argento. i could totally be TRYING to see a connection between john maus and dario argento -- and my thought isn't totally original: lots of maus' reviewers, especially of his most recent "we must become the pitiless censors of ourselves" (2011) have drawn a connection between his style and that of the music heard in argento films. and it could totally be a coincidence that his song "tenebrae" shares the name of an argento film (that i've yet to see, but is high on my list -- if only to see if there's an explicit connection). john maus is a pretty academically minded dude, and maybe he poo-poos horror films, even ones as cool looking and over-the-top as argento's. i am going to believe that he doesn't and surmise that maybe somewhere along the line he went through an argento phase. or maybe it's just that people in my age group who like john maus' records (who is also in my age group) also find argento films appealing for similar reasons that we find maus' music appealing.

verdi's "nabucco" is featured in "inferno" and the second i heard the music i thought of john maus' "opening" (mp3) from his "songs" record (2006) which i guess you could say is just a tribute to religious organ music or whatever but the first minute of "nabucco" reminded me of it nonetheless. see + hear for yourself:

not surprisingly, maus lists a bunch of classical pieces as what he's into listening to during an interview for pitchfork a few months back. after listening to the original soundtrack, i realized that it's "the library" (mp3) song that sounds like maus' "opening" specifically -- similar organ-intro feel.
in addition to verdi, argento uses kieth emerson for the score of "inferno" -- here is an example & a pretty good montage of scenes from the film:

be sure to listen all the way through -- this is one of the most rockin', over-the-top religious songs i've ever heard in a film. i don't care if argento fans say it's not as good as the usual music by goblin -- i think it's genius!! check it & enjoy: "mater tenebrarum" by godfrey salmon & keith emerson
and another mellow electronic pop track: "elisa's story" by keith emerson

and again, i can't help but hear similarities to john maus -- not the opera necessarily, but the overall style i guess feels similar to... i dunno, almost any of his songs really, but "don't worship the devil" comes to mind or "too much money" (mp3) off of "love is real" or even "believer". okay, i think i should end this probably unconvincing comparison..... i will leave you with this hopeful anthem

also, the onion's AV club just did a cool piece on the giallo genre -- the list of films is overwhelming, but i am going to do my best.

soderberg's 'contagion' -- perhaps the best unwitting ad for hand sanitizer?

2011-09-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

saw 'contagion' last night and i woke up around 5 a.m. because i had to pee and then i had that creepy feeling that maybe i had been having a bad dream and felt kinda scared :\
i never really think of myself as susceptible to this sort of thing and feel that i was desensitized at an early age (watching 'poltergeist' on HBO at like 8 -- it was the '80s -- will do that, i believe). i have a half morbid fascination, half intellectual curiosity with apocalypse-ism (there must be a fancypants academic term for this out there somewhere) and i guess the possibility that the millions of surfaces i touched just even going to the movie theater last night could lead to deathly infection if there was an outbreak is fodder for an eerie feeling in the middle of the night.
what i like about the film is that it isn't overly sentimental, and there was only really like two semi-hokey parts where i felt the music was a little overly emotional or that soderbergh's attempt to remind us of random-acts-of-human-kindness were a tad bit contrived -- which is a pretty good achievement, i'd say. the film maintains an icy, eerie vibe and remains mostly objective about the ins and outs of how a pandemic might go down these days.
the film begins on "day 2" and it isn't until the very last few scenes that the events of "day 1" are revealed and the process of how the disease got its start is illustrated for us step-by-step. i was drinking wine in the theater, so i even missed the most overtly 'political' message -- maybe the only political message in the film -- and it wasn't until i was discussing the ending with my friend (i was sorta sad and offended that the disease originates in china -- i feel like they are always the villain in these sorts of scenarios) and she pointed out that blame is actually placed on the U.S.! sadly, i am sure i am not the only one who missed this detail in my typical tipsy, air-headed sunday-mental state. we see a bulldozer with the logo of the north american company that the patient zero (gwenyth paltrow plays the marketing exec who goes to china representing this company) works for cutting down banana trees where the bats hang out. we know from early-on in the film that the disease stems from an unfortunate encounter between a bat and a pig. as the tree is bulldozed, the bat's home is compromised and he flies into a pig farming building and hangs in the rafters and either poop or something he was eating falls (can't remember which, sorry) and the pig beneath him eats it and is then sold to a farmer in a little cage -- it's all very depressing and ripe material for a PETA supporter. then we see the chinese chef where paltrow's character, beth, was having dinner handling the raw pig meat asked to step away from the kitchen and so he wipes his hands on his apron (he doesn't wash them! perhaps the film's primary moral message is for cleanliness) and then goes to meet beth, shakes her hand, and then we already know that both chef and exec are dead two days later......... all because an evil U.S. corporation displaces a bat. the film has come full circle in a very dickensian ending -- we get our just desserts for exploiting their country in the first place. i'd argue that the other point the filmmakers are suggesting is that our planet is over-populated, which is another reason these meetings between two unlikely animals takes place. exactly how overly-populated we are is made clear when we are shown how the disease spreads from city to city and each time a new city is introduced their population number is noted as well as the name of the city (i.e. san francisco, population -- i think they lied and said we had 3 million people living here and i think it's more like 800 thousand). when half-way through the film we learn that 26 million people have died it is a pretty mind-boggling figure, for me anyway.
there is a tradition of this sort of apocalyptic film, of course, but what it instantly reminds me of is albert camus' novel the plague -- one of my faves, of course -- which is told from the perspective of an algerian doctor who lives in a city where an epidemic is caused by diseased rats. the novel serves as a metaphor for war, as well, and i read it in 2005 or '06 when we were fully at war with iraq. i had also been reading a three-part series on global warming in the new yorker during that time. needless to say, the novel scared the shit out of me and seemed even more relevant probably than when it was written in 1947.
i would recommend 'contagion' -- it's really good for this sort of timely genre fare. you might not wake up thinking about end-times in the middle of the night, but the film certainly does a good job illustrating the way fear spreads, anyway.

kill yr idols.....

2011-06-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

really? a movie about a girl in love with a boy named thurston called 'daydream nation'? i'm skerred. but obviously i have to see it. i am just concerned that this film is probably really crappy and made by a psychotically obsessed sonic youth fan from canada. but... i kind of love that girl from 'the house bunny', kat dennings. actually i just love 'the house bunny'.

confusion is next - sonic youth

Genius of Love: The Sweet, Sweet Fantasy of 'Thor'

2011-05-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

I want Thor to be my boyfriend. Chris Hemsworth looks like a Viking crossed with Kurt Cobain!
Also this movie is really fucking good: it is a sexy, surreal, psychedelic paradise. I can't wait to see what happens next -- hope there's a sequel where we get to see Thor as a totally ruling boyfriend & mystical master of the universe.

Fantasy (ft. ODB) - Mariah Carey

Everyone Else

2011-05-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was trying to catch up with the best films of 2010 but didn't actually get to see before the awards. Luckily Maren Ade's 'Everyone Else' was on Netflix instant watch. It is one of those films my brain keeps wandering back to, so I figured it was worth a mention on my blog. EE is a film about the power dynamics of a relationship.... About the insecurities we sometimes feel about ourselves, how we worry our significant other perceives us, or feels we aren't quite living up to their expectations of a partner in the long view.... and ultimately comes down to finding a way to carve out a relationship that isn't oppressed by a bourgeois definition of itself -- a fairly tricky thing to navigate, as Ade explores. I became rather smitten with Lars Eidinger who plays Chris and enjoyed watching Birgit Minichmayr who plays Gitti, his girlfriend. My favorite remark about 'Everyone Else' comes from my friend Miriam who writes:
'[...] there is new math here: figuring how long her club "cool" trumps his square bourgeois inheritance as the couple transitions from their classless twenties towards their invested forties. Also unexpected were the lovingly rendered shots of a young man's bald spot and his soft and bony, sloping frame. Ah yes, this was a film made by a woman. A film of a couple laughing together and watching each other move from behind, from a few paces back.'
(Miriam also writes about 'Everyone Else here)

Have to include pics of the lovely Lars, of course...

"American Gigolo" -- finally it has happened to me

2011-05-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Not sure how I hadn't ever seen "American Gigolo" (1980, Paul Schrader) -- it's been on my list -- but it's on Watch Instantly right now and it might be my new favorite movie. It looks so good & sounds so good. I suppose I first loved Richard Gere as a teen watching "Pretty Woman", but Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" is on my top five favorite films of all time. Gere is hella foxy and also dresses hella amazing -- I guess this movie marks the rise of Armani... Watching him picking out his outfits, getting dressed, getting undressed, walking around looking debonair is so satisfying -- not in some annoying hetero metro dude way, but instead, in an 'everybody loves a sharp dressed man' way. As a kid I remember hearing "Call Me" on the radio, but I guess I never realized that the song wasn't written by Blondie, but, rather, by Giorgio Moroder. "Call Me" isn't even the best song in the movie -- the soundtrack while Richard Gere is cruising around making gigolo calls sound like awesome '80s synth, driving/cocaine songs.

Have to say, sorta glad that AG ends happily -- you just end up liking him so much, and even the crazy-eyes lady he falls for starts to grow on you. (Also, how cute is her outfit in the above scene?!)

hecka meta -- wes craven's SCRE4M

2011-04-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

not to be a spoiler or anything, but this is the best part of the entire film and maybe my new favorite quote in a movie:
Look around, we all live in public now, we're all on the internet. How do you think people get famous anymore? You don't have to achieve anything! You just got to have fucked up shit happen to you.

chris & cosey's "raining tears of blood"

wes craven's SCREAM 4...

2011-04-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

TECHNO-HORROR? i love it when new-ish technology becomes one of the selling points for next-gen version genre... let's go! opens april 15th.

They're Back: Battle Los Angeles (2011)

2011-03-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

I suppose I had to see this film. I knew it wouldn't be good, and it wasn't. Basically "Battle Los Angeles" is like "District 9" but without any of the possible metaphors that "District 9" was working with, or any socio-political critique.... Except that which was probably unintentional by the makers of "Battle LA." Like the fact that the aliens who have invaded Earth are doing so to get our NATURAL RESOURCES. The film is like one giant ad for the Marines, and, as a result, they entirely miss the opportunity to look at water as a fleeting resource or what it's like to be pillaged for a resource (something the U.S. routinely does) as a sort of critique of our role in the Middle East -- that's because they are too busy giving us gratuitous fighting scenes with lame dialogue and continuously reminding us of the heroism of the Marines. Ugh, so gross. I guess Aaron Eckhart was good (i.e. believable) and I suppose it's always entertaining to see the likes of Ne-Yo in a big budget action film. Both my movie-going companion and I agreed that the droids and spaceships, etc, are pretty generically what droids/spaceships/aliens look like these days...so I am thinking this film will look HELLA dated in a few years. Okay, I guess this is what you expected, but I cannot help but look at these futuristic, sorta-apocalyptic pictures for the potential cultural implications and critique they give us. I totally owe my friend who bore this viewing experience with grace.

"we are back" by LFO

it's the end of the world as we know it

2011-03-11T19:46:00.001-08:00

for the past few months, i watched a lot of futuristic, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic films. i am a little bit obsessed. some were better than others, but all were worth while i suppose. this entry is how i will hopefully remember which ones i saw. what am i missing??

1971

1990

1995

THE FUTURE IS THE MINI DISC

1997

2006

my favorite.... but i probably watched this over a year ago...

2009

haze exterior... polaroids by andrei tarkovsky

2011-02-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

i have the flu :(

these photos by tarkovsky are lovely though...

thanks to my friend who posted them initially:
http://www.diphotos.net/JJ/Tarkovskij/Web/li.htm

fitting tunes: "love fade" and "haze interior" by tamaryn

OCD: Twin Peaks' Denise Bryson - Stars Feature at IGN

2011-02-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

best part about season two twin peaks are the cameos:

OCD: Twin Peaks' Denise Bryson - Stars Feature at IGN

showgirrrllllzzz

2011-02-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

POOL SCENE

AFTERGLOW

2011-01-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

i've been watching skits from this all morning on ifc.com
pretty funny -- the setting is PDX, but the themes are universal, mang

pineapple express

2011-01-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

finally saw this. i watched it with my cat. best friendship scene evz:

the theme song by huey lewis is heinous. but david gordon green is an awesome director! this film just rounds out my appreciation for him. and reminds me that i am stoked to see the new terrence malick film when it finally comes out.

peace! i leave you with a song from my favorite bad bitch
"blazin'" by nicki minaj (with kanye)

paul verhoeven rules

2010-12-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

...Seriously, Paul Verhoeven might be my new favorite director. I've got to see "RoboCop" and "Starship Troopers" stat! I have been on a sci-fi futuristic film kick, and had been told I should see "Total Recall" (1990) and it blew my mind it was so perfectly campy and good to look at. "Showgirls" is one of my favorites, and I recently revisited "Basic Instinct." He may take himself too seriously at times, but Verhoeven seems pretty under-appreciated all in all.

I was pretty into the theme music. Enjoy.

i heart ryan o'neal

2010-11-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

watched peter bogdanovich's "what's up doc?" (1972) and arthur hiller's "love story" (1970) and have realized that i love ryan o'neal. he is so dreamy. i liked "what's up doc?" much better than the sappy sad sucker "love story" (although it looked cool and ali macgraw is always lovely).

the spectacles are really working for me in "what's up doc?"
.... further proof of his crush-worthy-ness....

oh, and how awesome is madeline kahn!... in her cinematic debut:

o'neal in another all time favorite, stanley kubrick's "barry lyndon" (1975)

Less Than Zero (1987)

2010-10-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Less Than Zero was maybe my FAVORITE movie for a long time when I was pretty young -- I was only eleven when it came out, and I am guessing I didn't see it right then, I was probably more like twelve or thirteen. Either way, it made a huge impact on me, sort of like seeing 'The Blue Lagoon' did when I was pretty small: these movies were sexy or attractive in a way I hadn't really seen before and shaped my perception of sex at the time for sure. The scene where Blair (Jami Gertz) & Clay (Andrew McCarthy) are fucking at his parents house in a red-lit hallway on Thanksgiving is pretty classic.
I loved the movie so much, and I was pretty obsessed with Robert Downey Jr., that I read the book by Bret Easton Ellis that the film was supposedly adapted from soon after. The book is nothing like the movie -- the book is far more straightforward in tone and nihilistic, whereas the movie is total late '80s rich kid melodrama. Both the book and the movie made an impression as my experience with the sort of lifestyle illustrated by them was almost zilch.

I got a hankering to watch the film again a few weeks ago, and it's not really a great film or anything, but it is sooooooo good at depicting late eighties. Robert Downey Jr. is, as usual, fucking GREAT as Julian, their friend who has turned into a junky over the course of a semester and aspires to be a night club owner.
My two favorite scenes in the film: One in the beginning where RDJr smokes some crack off to the side of the room at this party and then breaks out dancing; and then the one where Blair is in the woman's restroom and she pulls out a vile of coke and is about to do some, thinks better of it, and then pours it down the drain and these two girls next to her look at her with disgust and say, "Ugh, what a waste!!"

Did I mention that this movie looks soooooooooo good ?
Oh! and also that JAMES SPADER plays Julian's asshole drug dealer? YES!!!!!!!!

I'm Still Here

2010-10-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Casey Affleck's film "I'm Still Here" is totally a hoax and also quite possibly the best critique of celebrity and modern times I've ever seen. I haven't laughed so hard, or loud, in a dark, fairly empty movie theatre maybe ever. I want to be friends with these dudes.

Pretty Baby: I love you once, I love you twice, I love you more than beans & rice!

2010-09-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Home sick today and watched Louis Malle's "Pretty Baby" (1978). I've seen many of Malle's films and consider him to be one of my favorite directors, mostly because he made one of my favorite films, "Murmur of the Heart" ("Le Souffle au Coeur"). Both films share a pubescent lead, on the verge of understanding his/her sexuality. And of course because of their very young age, don't really understand sexual relationships even after they've lost their virginity. Both protagonists' first sexual experiences are with adults much older than themselves, and in "Murmur" the experience is incest.

Scene from "Murmur of the Heart"

and a bathing scene from "Pretty Baby"

"Pretty Baby" isn't really all that enthralling despite its turn-of-the-nineteenth century whorehouse setting. It mostly just looks cool (especially the clothes and hair!!). Not that Brooke Shields' performance isn't good -- it is. But the way her story is told doesn't feel especially heart-wrenching or overwhelming emotionally. In the reviews I've read "languid" is the term that came up over and over to describe the pace and style of the film.

Malle used the illustrious Sven Nykvist to film "Pretty Baby" and I am beginning to wonder that my love for Bergman might be more precisely a love for Nykvist -- he was a genius cinematographer!

The proof is in the pudding:
From "Persona" (Bergman)

Nykvist with Tarkovsky

Nykvist with Woody Allen

jane campion's bright star /\/\/\ let's move to the country

2010-09-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

I liked this movie.
It had the nicest cello and violin playing throughout....
I guess I am a sucker for this sort of thing.

Man oh man, Keats was a damn good Romantic poet.

A Thing Of Beauty

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hour; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
The passion poesy, glories infinite,
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast
That, whether there be shine or gloom o'ercast,
They always must be with us, or we die.

Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
Will trace the story of Endymion.
The very music of the name has gone
Into my being, and each pleasant scene
Is growing fresh before me as the green
Of our own valleys: so I will begin
Now while I cannot hear the city's din;
Now while the early budders are just new,
And run in mazes of the youngest hue
About old forests; while the willow trails
Its delicate amber; and the dairy pails
Bring home increase of milk. And, as the year
Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
My little boat, for many quiet hours,
With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
Many and many a verse I hope to write,
Before the daisies, vermeil rimmed and white,
Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
I must be near the middle of my story.
O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
See it half finished: but let Autumn bold,
With universal tinge of sober gold,
Be all about me when I make an end!
And now at once, adventuresome, I send
My herald thought into a wilderness:
There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress
My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed.

John Keats

greed is good $$$ it's a cruel summer

2010-09-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

I just watched Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" (1987) for about the third time in the past year with some friends who had never seen it. So when I heard Stone was working on a next-generation "Wall Street" (which opens 9/24), I was pretty excited and I instantly understood why he would do so at this particular moment. I can only really guess at where he might take his latest capitalist 'greed is good' vision, but the 21st century certainly offers up much heinousness for critique.
Okay, but in addition to cultural critique, let's just talk about how fucking late '80s this movie looks. There are giant phones, long ugly limousines, lots of bleach blond hair with wings and puffy bangs and tons of distressed decor. And it's kind of amazing. It's downright inspiring. When the whole electro-clash thing happened about eight years or so ago, I was so NOT into the whole '80s fashion revival -- I guess because it seemed like the worst parts of eighties fashion were being revived. But late '80s and early '90s fashion is feeling TERRIBLY good to me these days.

"Bananarama" by Bananarama was released in 1984, but is also a part of the long list of things inspiring me lately in terms of clothes, hair, makeup, music & film. I kind of wish I had blond hair lately too.....
Bananarama "Cruel Summer"
Paul Verhoeven's films "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls"
Richard Kelly's totally underrated, misunderstood, & villified "Southland Tales"
Moby
Tom Tom Club & Talking Heads
John Maus
Geneva Jacuzzi
Turquoise, my fave color
David Lynch
Beverly Hills 90210, forevs really
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sarah Michelle Gellar in general -- I fucking love her!
"Wall Street" (1987), Daryl Hannah and her characters crazy fucking remake/remodel of Bud Fox's (Charlie Sheen) flat
Beach houses
OMD
hairspray
FUTURE MUSIC

the apartment

GENEVA JACUZZI

songs for you by geneva jacuzzi
"Do I Sad?"
"Gray Wave City"

SOUTHLAND TALES ....post-post-post-post modernism at its finest....
and some songs for you by Moby from the soundtrack
"look back in"
"chord sounds"

Invitation To Love //\\ Twin Peaks

2010-08-31T21:37:00.001-07:00

TOTALLY INSPIRED BY....
THE WOMEN OF TWIN PEAKS

I just finished season one of "Twin Peaks" -- revisiting, of course, as I have probably watched the series at least about four or five times. But I guess it seems like I am catching more of the nuances now that I am a bit older..... like how amazing the soap opera withing the soap opera is, "Invitation to Love" -- some of my favorite moments are of characters watching this soap and then the following scene will be something totally melodramatic and soap-like, but just more believable and at the same time, over-the-top. I LOVE David Lynch. He is a freakin' genius.... Although I still haven't seen "Inland Empire."

P.S. I also LOVE Kyle McLaughlin & am looking forward to the second season, even though, if I remember correctly, it get ridicks and maybe unwatchable!

Coco Before Chanel

2010-07-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

Watching Coco Before Chanel makes me want to eat only ice cubes and learn how to sew. I want Peter-Pan, flap style collars on EVERYTHING!
Isn't Audrey Tatou lovely?

my favorite, coco 1929

maybe the most classic shirt ever -- the striped sailor

and the lovely lady herself

greenberg

2010-06-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

i'm feeling like my life is a lot like this movie today.

i love greta. i relate to her character maybe too much.

greenberg will probably be my favorite film of 2010. i have been re-estimating noah baumbach ever since watching it. i've decided he's genius at telling stories about selfish people.

james murphy of lcd soundsystem does the soundtrack for the film, and although i am not a huge fan of his band, the instrumental stuff sounds a lot like brian eno and is pretty radical: enjoy:

'sleepy baby' by james murphy

'photographs (piano)' by james murphy

'another ballad for heavy lids'

2010-05-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

guess i haven't much been feeling like talking about movies lately. could be because i broke my glasses :(
i've been watching movies, but the best movie i've seen lately is 'greenberg.' not sure if it's still in theatres, but you should watch it.
what i am feeling like doing is watching lots of stars of the lid videos because i got to see brian mcbride (of stars of the lid) play at the hotel utah last night. i was tired, slightly hungover, and generally not all that stoked on being at a show on a sunday night, but it turned out to be well worth it.
here are some pics i took (on the way to the show and then at it). turns out that brian mcbride is kinda dreamy, as i felt the need to walk up to him and thank him for playing for us.

here are some nice videos i found on youtube for you to chill out and enjoy.

(neither video is official, but whatevs i like them and thank you to whomever made them)

on the beach

2010-04-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

downloaded the Beach Fossils LP and stole pics from my mom on easter sunday. this one goes with my beach theme. and also this song is taking me there today:

"golden age" by beach fossils

simpler times: covered wagons, vans, and sedans

2010-03-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

i like saturdays because i get a big coffee. i don't want to subject my coworkers to an even more intense me, so i save large lattes for the weekends. a lot of good things come out of drinking big coffee, like pooping and blogging... in my case are they are pretty much the same thing. a good thing about this saturday in particular is getting to finish reading the new Bull Tongue Top Ten List by byron coley and thurston moore. i miss getting to read the paper version of The Onion very badly, and i still read it occasionally on line but it's not really the same. but i am glad that at least arthur magazine sends me an email every time the new bull tongue comes out. this is only their second installment since sonic youth finished their tour, i guess. i am glad that i got to finally see them play, but i missed reading bull tongue while they were gone. i guess getting to see thurston moore being sexy as hell and totally awesome and exactly how i had imagined on stage made up for it. while i was watching them play i kept having these weird beavis & butthead thoughts that went something like this: "heh, heh, heh. they [thurston moore & kim gordon] are married. they've done it in like every single position for a really long time. they have a kid. heh heh heh." also i had a crush on mark ibold when i was like nineteen and went up to him once at brixton academy or whatever that venue is called and i think i said something about being from santa rosa. i am sure this was a really important moment for him. i miss being nineteen and being able to walk up to people you idolize and say stupid shit. anyway, i am thinking that next time sonic youth goes on tour we should really help bull tongue by organizing a wagon train mail delivery system. i would feel bad for the horses, so maybe more of like a wagon train concept only in like an ugly box-shaped car like that scion or whatever it's called and painted brown w/like a sunset scene on it to look like a wagon train scene. byron coley would drive this ugly wannabe wagon train car and then he would catch up w/thurston and they would sit in the car or something and review hella stuff whilst drinking jameson's. i wonder if they even like whiskey? then they would quickly type everything up on their laptops and we would never feel any interruptions even though sonic youth is on tour. plus, i am guessing that thurston maybe misses byron coley and is glad to see him once a month on the wagon train.
i picture it looking like a scene from Days of Heaven, kinda like this:
only i stole this photo from some people who actually do wagon train revival and travel via covered wagon for fun.....

REMEMBERING PLAYLAND

this week i saw a documentary on Playland At The Beach, San Francisco, CA. i happened to have gone to sutro baths and fort miley a few days before and we were driving past the windmill by the beach and my mom was like, "playland used to be here" and my sister and i had no idea what she was talking about. \
anyway, the documentary is not all that grand but it's fun to look at the pictures of old timey sf and also some of the interviewees are amusing. thank you to my friend that invited me and also to hockey haven on balboa for getting me kinda drunk on their apple, whiskey drink that they made especially for the movie premiere.

35 SHOTS OF RUM
last week i saw claire denis' "35 shots of rum" at the red vic. i had read that this movie was one of the best of 2009 and i would agree. it's been a while since i left the theatre feeling confident that i had just had a really great movie-viewing experience -- you know, where you can't really find any flaw with what you have just seen and it's a relief, because normally yr mind is obsessing on a detail or something that you know was not quite right... i have never seen any of denis' other films, though i have heard that "beau travail" (1999) is really good. about a half-hour into "35 rhums" (french title) i tapped my friend on the shoulder and said "everyone in this movie is so attractive" -- but it's not just the actors -- the film opens at dusk, or early evening from a train-drivers' perspective (if i remember correctly) and there is a contrast between the orange-ish glow of random lights in some urban, industrial part of paris (i think?) and the blue night sky that persists throughout the film. the complimentary blue-orange color scheme isn't overbearing and kitschy, but rather subdued and adds another thematic-holding layer. i won't say much more about this film, except that the relationship between the two most central characters, a father and daughter, is honest and beautiful. like everything else in "35 shots of rum," the film deals with subway train drivers as a sort of fringe-community, and having second-class citizen status without heavy-handedness, which makes it, i would argue, a much more effective statement. and lastly, i like any movie where two people get in a van or vw bus or whatever, and then drive somewhere else, and then sleep on the beach because it just seems like the nice way to be.

AWAY WE GO
i really like this movie, but at the moment i sorta loathe sam mendes: what kind of dirt bag cheats on KATE WINSLET?!!! well i guess it might just be a rumor and they are divorcing amicably. but all of the sandra bullock business this week certainly makes one think about the implications of the "curse of the oscar"... it is still a sad state of affairs where male ego is threatened by female achievement.
anyway, i really enjoyed sam mendes' "away we go" and forgot to mention it in my favorites of 2009 list. like "35 shots of rum," this film has a sort of subdued pace. it is about a couple deciding where to move to raise the baby that they are expecting. they decide to go to several different cities where they have friends or family and get scared away by almost all of said friends and family. i'm getting antsy, so i am just going to quote this allmovie.com reviewer, perry siebert, who writes, "Away We Go is a small film, the kind of gem that's easy to crush with hype or overpraise. But, the fact is that few movies deal with feelings this profound with as much restraint as Mendes and his crew display here. Everything about the movie -- from Ellen Kuras' beautiful, understated cinematography to the subtle, engrossing lead performances by Krasinski and Rudolph -- is designed to sneak up on you emotionally, leaving you deeply touched, even though you'll never see it coming. And that's a good thing: it makes the film get better and better as it goes along, and continue improving the more you think about it. "
forgot to mention that maggie gyllenhal is so perfectly irritating as the main dude's new age obsessed sister -- it's worth it to watch just to balance out her "crazy heart" performance this year...
and don't worry, it's not as depressing as last year's "revolutionary road"....

songs for traveling, love, & the beach:
"on the sunny side of the ocean" by john fahey
"oh! sweet nuthin'" by the velvet underground
"desert sand" by beach fossils
"let's rock the beach" by real estate

i got you back today

2010-03-18T22:08:00.001-07:00

thank you to best buy for fixing my camera that i accidentally submerged in water:

thank you for this song i love it:

"sunflower river blues" by jack rose

fuck me, i'm twee!.... some highlights in oh-nine

2010-03-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

I have titled this post after the chorus from Tullycraft's song "Twee" for a few reasons, I suppose, but primarily because if I had to pick my favorite film of 2009, it would definitely be Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". The Oscars were Sunday, and it mystifies me that in expanding the Best Picture awards from five to, now, TEN nominees, Anderson's film was sadly absent. Granted, I am writing this post slightly without having seen a few of the nominations. I was going to try to make it to see Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" before Sunday, but never made it. I could give a rat's ass about "The Blind Side"; and I suppose there is a part of me that would like to see "Avatar" just out of curiosity, but my best friend says it's a movie for progressive, professional white males... ha! That comment sort of raises my curiosity a bit more.
Sure, I really, really liked "District 9" -- I even think it is one of the better films of the year -- But Best Picture? Certainly, "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" deserves to be on a list that includes both "The Blind Side" and "District 9" for christ's sake. I am sure "Up" is quite good, but I doubt I'll get to it as I tend to only watch animated films because someone suggests going to the theatre and I am drug along, or because I am hanging out with children.
Anyway, here are some things I liked about some of the movies I saw this year, with some songs for you to download, as well. love, sarah

THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Film Comment's Kent Jones writes perhaps the BEST summation of Wes Anderson's new film and works to date in the November/December issue. [Unfortunately, you can only read Jones' piece in the actual magazine, but I will say that if you don't read this magazine on a regular basis and you like film, then you need to start doing so as soon as possible.]
Jones articulates some of the reasons why "FMF" might be getting the shaft by the Academy (aside from the Best Animated Feature category - a serious dis!) in the opening paragraph:
"Fantastic Mr. Fox will undoubtedly provoke a lot of chatter about the inevitability of Wes Anderson turning to animation, as well as a flurry of musings over the distinctions to be made between his new adaptation (from a beloved Roald Dahl children’s novel) and his previous, strictly original films (in the end, the difference is negligible). There’s no doubt in my mind that the words “clever,” “quirky,” “cool,” “twee,” and “arch” will be employed by someone, somewhere, ironically and otherwise. And another Wes Anderson movie will come and go, its surfaces examined down to the minutest detail, its emotional underpinning impatiently and perhaps even proudly overlooked."
Well, I say without any irony that I am most definitely 'twee' and I use the term in the indie-pop sense as I don't see being twee as a negative thing. Wes Anderson is totally TWEE! If you like his films, you have to admit to possessing a slight amount of twee-ness inside of you. That said, and Twee-ism aside, the real meat of Jones' article is that Anderson is, very much to our misfortune I would argue, becoming one of those filmmakers that the supposedly hip will, as Jones writes, "proudly overlooked". Because we recognize Anderson-isms -- they are, of course, easily identifiable -- it becomes easy to only value his films in this superficial manner and, as a result, easy to miss the depth of his films. It is a total bummer that some folks who normally admire Anderson probably missed seeing "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" because they figured it was just another Wes Anderson movie only animated.
Well, too bad, so sad will be their reaction if they do get around to seeing it, I guess.

"Twee" by Tullycraft

THE BEACHES OF AGNES (LES PLAGES D'AGNES)
Ahh, this film is a gem! And if you've seen it, you know that my love of it constitutes further proof that I am twee.... Agnes Varda is the CUTEST! She is amazing -- and I can only iterate that I use 'cutest' and 'amazing' without any hyperbole. Her latest is a sort of wandering memoir of her life in film and how the ocean has always been central to her life. Beaches + Film = what better way to look at one's life than with these two themes? Or to examine how they have intersected, et cetera. There is much to delight in the way of French New Wave history and her long relationship with filmmaker Jaques Demy. "The Gleaners & I" (2000) is an all-time favorite, and "The Beaches of Agnes" is yet another reminder that I need to investigate Madame Agnes' career more thoroughly.

"Deep Waters" by Dirty Three

A SERIOUS MAN
Welp, it's too bad this movie didn't win Best Picture. I haven't seen "The Hurt Locker", as I've mentioned before, and I'm sure it's good (although I've heard it's pretty unrealistic in terms of how the bombs are actually disarmed). But I wonder if the Academy is just sick of how amazing the Coen Bros are.... I think this film is under-appreciated because most won't 'get it', which I am guessing is beside the point. It is my understanding and bias that general American moviegoers (fuck it, Americans in general) are uncomfortable with ambiguity and are dismissive of any sort of loose end; it's like playing Apples to Apples with someone who only goes for the literal translation of a word again and again.

"Today" by Jefferson Airplane

JULIE AND JULIA
Until I saw "A Serious Man" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" I thought "Julie & Julia" would be my favorite film of the whole year. I don't care that it's a light comedy or that some argue Meryl Streep didn't do Ms. Child justice, or that the Julie character was annoying. I liked it. And more importantly, I looooove BUTTER!

THE WHITE RIBBON
Michael Haneke's film should have killed it at the Oscars last night. Well, actually it was the only Foreign Film nominated that I saw. So fuck me I guess.
If you don't enjoy movies that are a metaphor for something else, then this film might not be for you. But this is one of the nicest looking films I've seen in ages. Stupid "Anti-Christ" wishes it was this movie -- Haneke could have dedicated this film to Tarkovsky and it would have made a heck of a lot more sense. It's no wonder that all the critics in the best of 2009 and the the aughts in Film Comment were creaming their pants over this movie.

CRAZY HEART
Another film that should have been nominated for Best Picture. Yes, we've all seen "Townes Van Zant: Be Here to Love Me" and countless other documentaries and fictional recreations of the drug/alcohol addict musician, artist, etc. But that doesn't make this film any less good or entertaining. I loved it! And Jeff Bridges totally deserved that Oscar for Best Leading Actor last night. The songs don't even suck! Dude, Colin Farrell doesn't even suck, if you can believe it. He is appropriately cast as a country rock star sell-out with a ponytail!!

"Bowery" by Bill Callahan

UP IN THE AIR
Speaking of selfish men who somehow get it together in the end and realize life only has meaning when shared with others (to quote Chris McCandless from Into the Wild who was talking about Leo Tolstoy).... I don't necessarily think this was the best movie of the year or anything, but I have a soft spot for assholes, I suppose. Give me your self-obsessed, emotionally vapid shit-bag and I will probably find a way to defend him. Of course, George Clooney plays this part to a tee. I love anything he does, so... And Vera Parmesan or whatever looked fucking amazing last night, so you should see it for her, too.

PRECIOUS
You should see this movie. Yeah, it's sad, but it's the least offensive film I've seen starring mostly African-Americans in the leading roles in ages. And that's not to say that films about African-Americans can only be good or realistic when the characters are poverty-stricken. But let's face it, so many of films about race relations come off as cheesy looking back("Crash" anyone?), or just downright offensive (like that ridiculous "Bringing Down the House" -- maybe the worst movie Steve Martin has ever made). Plus Monique is incredible -- you fucking hate her guts -- another well deserved Oscar. All of the teens that Precious goes to school with are totally realistically portrayed -- the dialogue is spot-on. Oh and, Mariah Carey -- enough said.

I LOVE YOU, MAN
I love this movie -- it's fucking hilarious. The best part about this movie, aside from how hard you will laugh once it gets going, is that the overarching point of the film is about having healthy relationships. Paul Rudd's character has never had a best dude friend because none of his other girlfriends have ever let him. This film iterates the need for folks in relationships to have their own lives and friends and places importance on those friendships that you have outside of your relationship. And it does so without making women look like hysterical, demanding psychos, and without making the best-friends look like total losers who have nothing better to do than meddle in their bff's relationship issues. Dude, plus Paul Rudd is maybe the dreamiest actor ever. Oh, and this movie forces you to admit that Rush's "Tom Sawyer" is a really good song -- no shame, man.

THE INFORMANT
Yes, it's Matt Damon like you've never seen him playing a sort of idiot master-manipulator FBI informant. I don't think anyone really saw this movie, and that's too bad. I haven't seen "Invictus" yet, and I'm sure it's good, but I'm thinking Damon should have been nominated for this movie instead.

AN EDUCATION
I've already blogged about this one, but shit yes Peter Sarsgaard is the perfect sexy jerk character and seeing him sitting w/Maggie G. last night reminded me of this fact -- even if he is pretty much bald. Carey Mulligan is great in
this film, and I'm excited to see what she does next.... I think "Wall Street II" -- that will be awesome -- the first one RULES and we are in need of another dramatic capitalist critique film.

Okay, there are tons of other films from this year that I've been wanting to see. I've already blogged about my other two favorite movies this year that happen to be Horror flicks -- which reminds me: why the fuck doesn't the Academy have a genre-based best picture section. They took the time to honor great horror films for like a five minute montage, but they don't have a category for one of the most important film-types in terms of understanding humans from a psychological, or social standpoint. Anyway, Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" would be in my top three films of the year. And "House of the Devil" was excellent. Surely these two films alone being made in one year merits an Oscar category???
Gonna try to see Claire Denis' "35 Shots of Rum" this week.... "Bright Star" is on my Netflix queue. And despite an initial refusal to see "Inglorious Basterds" I want to see it, now, too. I'd like to see the newest Almodavar film -- always a safe bet in terms of quality entertainment.

But jesus the world could have maybe done without Lars Von Trier's "Anti-Christ"... and I think I've said this before, but I even love Von Trier. Other totally overrated films include:
TWO LOVERS -- that guy is fucking pathetic if he thinks Gwenyth Paltrow is going to date him so why was this movie even made -- so that loser dudes could see themselves represented on the silver screen??? Again, I even love the artist formerly known as Joaquin Phoenix -- seriously, even chubby and bearded he is a fox!
IN THE LOOP -- maybe I just don't get it but the humor in this movie is so obnoxious. I love pee & poop humor, but this film has that certain brand of British humor that I can't stand.... and I can't remember this stupid movie well enough to describe exactly what that is. Forgive me.

Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (2008, Matt Wolf)

2010-02-23T21:44:00.001-08:00

thank you to adam for showing me "Wild Combination" and the world of arthur russell.

just realized that someone put "nobody wants a lonely heart" on a mix for me a while back, but i had never really heard this genius man!!! ugh, so much music out there and even when you think yr with it, yr probably missing really important stuff.
anyway, this documentary made me cry & there are lots of nice cassette tape & vinyl & waves images (really wishing i had taken more film classes so i could insert the appropriate term instead of "images"...). now i am obsessed w/downloading some of russell's albums -- just got "world of echo" (whoooweee, amazing stuff), and i will share some tracks with you, dear reader.
xo
"that's us / wild combination" from "calling out of context"
"eli" from "love is overtaking me"
"let's go swimming" from "world of echo"

iran

2010-02-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" By Way of Ti West's "The House of the Devil"

2010-01-29T15:07:00.000-08:00

i am bored, so i am going to blog about the movie i saw last night at the red vic called "The House of the Devil" (2009). it is really good! it is a total throw-back horror film set in the 1980s when (the film claims) there was a rise in satanic cults or at least the belief that satanic cults were on the rise. west uses the classic vulnerable babysitter plot, and even though there are numerous clues that samantha, the babysitter, should NOT take this job in a huge, creepy house in the middle of nowhere, on the night of the eclipse, she does and we know that she is, thus, doomed. the actress who plays sam is excellent, jocelin donahue, and like the reviewer at AllMovie.com points out, the film is heavily reliant on her performance since much of the film is setting up her character before she gets to her actual job. the film is extremely well done -- it does not come off as kitschy, but rather a true homage to the genre. but i have to note that one of the things i like best about west's film is the soundtrack! and this probably sticks out for me because i saw another film this week at the red vic, as well, in which the soundtrack kept yanking me out of the movie because it was so annoying -- spike jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" (2009). jeff grace does the score for "the house of the devil" and it is appropriately drone-y and creepy and not distracting at all (except when making mental notes about how good it is).....

unlike karen o & carter burwell's score for WtWTA that tried to be soooo childlike w/excited shouting and such that it just sounds like a more orchestrated, more obnoxious arcade fire. i even like carter burwell who i became familiar with when he did the music for "before night falls" (julian schnabel, 2000). karen o is great, but i guess i just don't really ever listen to her band. i heard that they got together in some big house for an entire month and worked on the soundtrack for the film, just watching it over & over. normally i would think this would be a great approach, but sheesh, i think it's a bit overwrought, and that's too bad. the best song in the film, imho is the song that plays during the scene where the monster, carol, shows max this amazing village that he made out of sticks (a la andy goldsworthy anyone? pretty amazing shit, really). jonze's film is really well done in all other aspects and that is almost surprising given that when i first heard about the project i was somewhat horrified at the thought of adapting sendak's book -- i had the completely unoriginal reaction that i think most people who are familiar with the book had given the brevity of words in the work. i am a preschool teacher and i have easily read the book over a hundred times & i basically have it memorized. the kid who plays max, max records (hmm, is that really his name?!) is perfectly cast and adorable; the monster creatures look amazing -- the whole film looks amazing; and jonze & eggers have done an excellent job at adapting the book in such a way that i think sendak would totally approve of. i recently went to the contemporary jewish museum's sendak exhibit, and apparently he was very interested in illustrating the darker emotions that children have, and jonze & eggers are definitely on point as far as i can tell.
so, i guess that's why i am so annoyed w/the soundtrack -- the film is a nearly perfect adaptation.

donahue in "the house of the devil"

and the adorable max

sometimes i like to cook

2009-12-12T10:45:00.001-08:00

i made some stuff that i was pretty stoked on the day after thanksgiving. my definition of a perfect day:
pedicure,
wholefoods trip,
cooking whilst listening to music for several hours,
eating a little bit of finished product (and even sharing with others)
whilst watching 'felicity' and drinking wine

yes!

you can make this amazing pennsylvania-dutch style stuffing ... recipe

and yams with balsamic and maple sugar -- good stuff! ... recipe

"cooking a way to be happy" by eat skull

the fairest of the seasons: happy birthday mimi!!!

2009-12-12T08:53:00.001-08:00

i just have to give props to one of my oldest & best friends for yet another amazing movie list -- this time the theme is movies to watch at christmastime. i love season themed mixtapes and movie watching sprees!!!

THE DISCERNING PERSON'S GUIDE TO UNDERRATED CHRISTMAS MOVIES
by miriam bale, a true winter lady, xoxoxo

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, Robert Altman)

2009-12-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

not sure how i missed this one, but i never had seen it. amazing looking -- perfect for wintertime viewing -- it will make you want to listen to leonard cohen and get cozy! and sheesh, warren beatty has never been handsomer!

here's the trailer and some pics to get you in the mood....

sonic youth's top ten criterion collection flicks

2009-11-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

+

another awesome film list -- this one's from sonik tooth: they list their favorite criterion films here !!! two of them are my favorites too ("days of heaven" and "ali: fear eats the soul"! the rest of them i either have been meaning to watch, or, now, plan on watching.

The Young Victoria -- coming soon woohoo!

2009-10-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

omg, i forgot to mention that i CAN'T WAIT to see this movie starring Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Education (2008)

2009-10-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Saw "An Education" over the week-end and really liked it. I mostly went to see the lovely misses Mulligan and Pike in eyeliner and bouffant hairdos, and the film turned out to have more depth than I expected. The film is about Jenny's (Carey Mulligan) 'education' -- she is working towards her A-Levels in high school and it is her dream, and her parents', to get into Oxford to study English Literature. Of course the film was not tough for me to relate to (although I was never nearly as bright as Jenny seems to be for a 16-17 year old). Jenny's English class is studying Jane Eyre when the film begins, she's a bit of a francophile, and she's dating a adorably gawky, pure boy with ruddy cheeks and puffy lips. But, one day while waiting for the bus in the dumping rain, a handsome man in a fancy car offers her a ride in a clever manner (Peter Sarsgaard as David) and suddenly Jenny is going out to swinging jazz clubs and hanging out with his glamorous friends. High school pales in comparison to the life that David introduces Jenny to and she begins to question the value of getting a university education before long.

The film is set in 1961 London, and, as one review I read noted, it is a pre-Beatles England (or world, for that matter).
As the film progresses toward the dramatic crisis/climax, the meaning of what life was like just before the Beatles slowly struck me, especially when Jenny confronts her English teacher,Miss Stubbs, played by the always striking Olivia Williams (who you will remember as the hot teacher in "Rushmore"), and her head mistress, played by Emma Thompson (yet another fave!!). Jenny begs them to explain the ultimate reason she should go to college to study English, and neither education enthusiast can give Jenny an adequate reason why a woman should choose a uni degree over marrying well. In 1961, women were still very much fighting for equal rights, so it isn't really surprising that neither of Jenny's educational role models can give Jenny a definitive or inspiring reason not to drop out of high school to marry a seemingly successful David (it'd be tough to resist the charms of Mr. Sarsgaard). A lot happens in the U.S. and England between 1961 and "Beatles '65".

Needless to say, Jenny does the right thing, even though she learns the painfully hard way. I definitely teared up during the last twenty minutes of the film. Oh I almost forgot to mention how awesome Rosamund Pike's character, Helen, is as the girlfriend of David's business partner -- she expertly plays a total airhead with the stupidest looks on her face that would give the lady who likes soup and to talk or not talk at all from "Best In Show" a run for her money.
When I got home my roommate pointed out that the talented Mr. Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay and acted as executive producer of the film. I'm pretty sure Hornby adapted the film from a memoir, but I can't remember the details from the credits. Oh, and also, the soundtrack is pretty ALRIGHT, UPTIGHT!!!

Rosamund Pike brilliantly ditsy

good morning

2009-10-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

i suck really bad at doing this blog right now. it's probably because i keep watching a lot of premium cable miniseries, like "dexter" and "mad men"... i saw "julie + julia" and thought it was really cute. i also really really liked "district 9."

the best movie i've watched lately though is ozu's "good morning" (1959):

i guess it's essentially about commercialism in suburban japan, but the film follows these two little boys who are brothers and who take a vow of silence until their parents finally break down and buy them a television set. there's a lot of excellent satire of gossipy, petty neighbors. but the best parts of this film are the little boys interacting with each other, making fart jokes. for me, fart jokes never get old. and the other best thing is one of the final scenes where the littlest brother who is sooooo adorable and chubby-faced and wearing his jeans really high waisted plays with a hula-hoop -- seriously one of the cutest scenes involving children in a movie in the history of cinema in my opinion. ooooh and also this film has the nicest contrast of colors -- aqua blue and red everywhere!!
i haven't seen any of ozu's other films, but this one seems like a good introduction, even though i've read that this film is unlike his others.....

baa baa moo moo baa baa baa

2009-08-18T14:20:00.001-07:00

i watched a ridiculous and sorta fucked up horror movie from NZ about zombie sheep that turn people into sheep zombies. probably the best last ten minutes of a grody horror movie i've ever seen and worth watching just for the ending if yr into this sort of thing.

a really good movie list

2009-07-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

well, not that i have seen very many of them, but my talented friend recommends these:

http://1linereview2.blogspot.com/2009/07/miriam-bale.html

Andrew Davies: I love you!

2009-07-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

So this summer I have become addicted to the "Watch Instantly" feature on my Netflix account and using it to watch as many 19th century adaptations as possible. But I haven't actually read the books that these mini-series are based on, and so I don't know if I am necessarily equipped to critique them. I will say that they are highly entertaining and well made and it may all be owed, perhaps, to Mr. Andrew Davies, the man who adapts these literary 'masterpieces' for the BBC (and even the big screen -- i.e. "Bridget Jones' Diary", etc) screen. I did an independent study with a professor at SFSU who specializes in 18th century lit & 'film as literature', in which I looked at representations of the 18th century on screen and read the books that they were based on. Thus, I am no stranger to Davies' contribution to the genre, and have definitely had problems with some of his adaptations (Defoe's "Moll Flanders" comes to mind here). For the most part, though, I am beginning to think Davies is a bit of a genius in the period adaptation department -- the master, perhaps.... perhaps the primary rival of the Merchant-Ivory team, but for the mini-series set? For a Davies filmography go here (it is a rather impressive list).

It all started when I watched "Daniel Deronda" (2002) based on George Eliot's novel. I have always wanted to read it because I love The Mill on the Floss, but also because I am interested in the 19th century position of the Jews in England. I had a professor as an undergrad who specialized in Victorian Jewish lit. Again, I must remind you of my disclaimer above -- I have not read DD -- but I think the series is a very good one, primarily because the leads are great and interesting to look at. Hugh Dancy plays Deronda, and Romola Garai is captivating as the female lead, Gwendolen Harleth. She is so pretty that I hope to see more of her.

Then I watched the adaptation of Dickens' "Bleak House" (2005) featuring the lovely Gillian Anderson (as Lady Dedlock). I believe BH was one of Dickens' last novels and written intentionally in the mystery/sensation novel style that was so popular in Dickens' lifetime. There is, of course, Esther Summerson (played EXCELLENTLY by Anna Maxwell Martin), who is of mysterious parentage; and all of the characters that represent the seedier side of London that Dickens was so fond of; all of his usual themes, including class, child labor and the young poor in general; and of course a thoroughly evil villain. BH features another lovely blond actress, Carey Mulligan, who plays the beautiful and somewhat naive Ada Clare. The adaptation is well filmed and acted and is wholly delectable.

But my absolute new FAVORITE period miniseries has got to be "Wives and Daughters" (1999), which is based Elizabeth Gaskell's last and unfinished novel. PURE GENIUS! I can't wait to read the book. The funny thing is that right before classes ended this semester, one of the women who works in the English department gave me the Norton edition of Mary Barton and she said that I had to read it and would love it. I am just waiting until I can finish some other projects (namely, this little thing called a thesis).

Anyway, WD is about Molly Gibson whose mother died when she was young, and her father is a doctor who is devoted to her. Until, as all young women must, Molly leaves home to visit a family where the mother is ill. Of course Molly falls in love with one of their two sons, Roger, a biologist who is supposedly less accomplished than his elder brother. While Molly is away, her father decides to marry Hyacinth, a sort of lady in waiting to the richest woman in the county, and Molly gets a new step-sister in the bargain. I won't spoil it for you, but it is sooooo good. Justine Waddell is amazing as Molly, and Anthony Howell is very handsome as Roger. Also stars the lovely Rosamund Pike (who was in the craptastic Keira Knightly version of "Pride and Prejudice") -- another blond like the aforementioned other two, who I would like to see more of. Watch it on Netflix or rent it today!!

Rosamund Pike of "Wives and Daughters" and Carey Mulligan of "Bleak House" starring together in the upcoming "An Education"

show cats' / 'objectified' / 'drag me to hell'

2009-07-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

i think i have a new favorite documentary: The Standard of Perfection - Show Cats !!!

'show cats' is basically a real-life 'best in show' (christopher guest) only with cats. the doc is about a few different show cat breeders who are gearing up to go to some fancy pants competition in austin, texas (if i remember correctly). if you like cats and/or documentaries about crazy people, 'show cats' is for you. i found this film and its subjects inspiring -- i don't think i want to be a show-er of cats, but i aspire to be as dedicated as these people are to something someday and cats seem like the most worthy option at the moment.

and another documentary that i made it to yerba buena center for the arts -- 'objectified' -- new film from the dude who did 'helvetica', which i still haven't seen. i recommend 'objectified' if you have any design-nerd tendencies, or are just curious about what's behind every-day objects -- (most) of the designers interviewed in the film are really inspiring.

japanese designer naoto fukasawa in his studio (i liked his philosophy about design best)

also really good -- perfect amount of horror/suspense and camp:

i really like this alison lohman -- raimi's film would not have worked without her -- she is good!

notes on the year punk broke

2009-05-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was recently reminded that I had never actually seen the music documentary by David Markey "SONIC YOUTH: 1991, The Year Punk Broke" and since I've recently seen the light that is the Sonik Tooth and love Kurt Cobain (rather, I was obsessed with him in high school), I figured I'd rent it. I should note, I loved "Goo" in high school and still have my cassette tape copy, but I never really listened to anything else even though I had friends who loved them -- I bought "Daydream Nation" at least twice in my life and both times did not get it at all and then finally decided to try it again when I saw on some blog that I could download it for free and suddenly i totally understood "teenage riot" and wondered what the fuck was wrong with me before. But I have to say that since this revelation, it is "Sister" that I like best so far and a very wise friend named Connell told me this would be true and he was right.

Anyway, YPB is only available on vhs, so I am lucky that no one stole the copy at my video store. It's crazy that Nirvana hadn't really blown up when this documentary was made. What I like about the film is that I was expecting more of a narrative, interview style documentary and instead it's mostly just concert footage and the bands acting silly in front of a camera or walking around with the camera and a microphone. I don't think there is one serious statement made by anyone in this film. Difficult to analyze, really, and not really worth it, so I decided to get crazy (for me) and just take notes while I watched it and ate kettle corn. Here they are:

people act so funny when cameras are around.

thurston is such a ham/front man -- i had no idea.

remember when hipsters wore old man pajama shirts out in public? (j mascis is wearing one on stage)

funny how much the crowd is into Dinosaur Jr. not me. too wanky.

whoa. remember Babes In Toyland?? what was that all about?

"school" by nirvana -- so good.

"Dirty Boots" also sooo good.

jeez, i want to see sonic youth at the fox theatre. wish i had more $$$

did they have to keep replacing kurt's guitars and the drums every time he dove into everything? sheesh. seems extravagant and self-indulgent in this day and age.

thurston is so cute. i like his hair. so cute with glasses!

omg, courtney love is SOOO annoying.

lots of triptastic '90s camera effects. the black and white is nicely done.

i should have drank some beer while watching this.

remember when you used to go to the record store to purchase tickets??

whoa, the ramones sound like crap.

omg. the nineties. kim gordon is putting lipstick and mascara on nirvana.

thurston is so fucking funny.

fucking shit, "expressway to yr skull" is, like, the best song ever.

pic i took of thurston hanging out of the hotel window from my television:

Now I want to see another Markey movie called "Desperate Teenage Lovedolls"....

in defense of cuteness obsessshions

2009-05-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

i haven't been watching anything due to obsession with cuteoverload.com

wait, i take that back. i saw "i love you, man" (starring paul rudd -- waaaay cute) on mother's day and laughed harder during a movie than i think i ever have before (i was literally stomping my feet -- my sister was embarrassed) and also i went to see "adventureland" -- also very cute and good and i love the main kid from that one movie that i liked only okay called "the squid and the whale."

but this is what i'm into watching lately:

sorry i don't know who took this adorable f-ing photo

all i can seem to bring myself to watch are videos of kittens falling asleep, etc.
see fer yrself:

will resume once life is less hectic and thus requiring less escapist entertainment.

oh also........

looking at all of this cute stuff reminds me of when i went to see the yoshitomo nara exhibit at the san jose museum of art a few years back. i like his stuff even though it's pretty pop (which sometimes annoys the crap out of me) and commercial. but in real life, his paintings are large and so pastel and dreamy.
this article by sharon mizota about the exhibit helps explain both nara's appeal, i think, as well as why cuteness matters so much to some of us:

"Although they recall his own youth, Nara's images subvert conventional depictions of childhood as happy, simple and carefree. In the context of Japanese pop culture, they can also be seen as a critique of the extreme idealization of childhood known as kawaii. Kawaii is popularly used to describe anything cute, sweet and childlike. Exemplified by characters such as Hello Kitty and Pokemon, the cult of kawaii is commonly understood as a reaction to the extreme pressures that accompany adult life in Japan: a demanding school system, inflexible workplace hierarchies and highly conventional expectations for behavior and comportment.

Kawaii, along with more violent fantasies such as those played out in pornographic or sadistic manga (comic books), operates as a pressure valve. Idealized notions of childhood offer a small, nostalgic escape from the restrictions of adulthood.

The kawaii phenomenon is especially poignant (or perhaps just a sign of denial) in a society in which children are "growing up" faster than ever. The practice of enjo kosai, or casual teenage prostitution, received widespread media attention in the '90s. Brutal attacks and murders by children are also on the rise. In June, an 11-year-old girl lured a fellow student to an empty classroom and killed her with a box cutter.

In light of such tragedies, Nara's angry-yet-cute kids don't seem so far-fetched. By combining the visual language of kawaii—extra-large-sized heads, bulbous bodies and ineffectual limbs—with a seething and barely suppressed rage, his images both offer and deny escape. Despite their cartoonish quality, they embody an unpleasant truth: childhood is not the innocent, perfect playground we like to envision, but a hotbed of resentment and frustration."

xo, sarah

I Am a Cinematographer

2009-04-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

I am sort of obsessed with Swedish people or at least Swedish movies, but I am far from an expert on them or anything. But I wanted to see Everlasting Moments because it's a Swedish film and because it's about a turn-of-the-century woman who wins a Contessa camera and almost hocks it, but instead she is encouraged to try her hand at photography.
This is a really pretty film to look at, which I guess goes without saying given the subject matter. I have never seen any of the director's, Jan Troell, other films, but Troell has been a screenwriter, director and cinematographer since the 1960s and has made a bunch of films -- including one called The Emigrants (1971) starring Bergman's darlings, Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow.
Everlasting Moments is essentially a sort of family drama genre film, and the story isn't necessarily anything new. The Larsson's are poor; the father, Sigge (played by Mikael Persbrandt) is an alcoholic, fond of the ladies, a bit of an ego-maniac, but often good natured; Maria (played by Maria Heiskanen) is his wife and she is devoted, uses what spare time she has to do sewing for rich families to make extra money, loves her children (there are like FIVE of them), and even loves her husband despite his tendency to blow up at her when he's drunk and hit her. Maria is enchanting and so lovely to watch that I didn't really mind that I was watching a story I've seen before. Her photographs, once she finally pulls out the camera, are so haunting and show such clear-sightedness that I was eager to see what would become of her. Maria makes a friend in the man who runs a portrait studio - he helps her use her camera and gives her supplies for developing her photos even though she doesn't have any money. As they gradually get to know each other, it is clear that he, Sebastian Pedersen (played by Jesper Christensen), is in love with Maria and wants to save her, but Maria has too much pride and sense of duty to leave her husband. She never explicitly tells Mr. Pedersen that she loves him back, but I would argue that it is clear that she does. The development of their friendship is most gripping aspect of the film as it coincides with Maria's growth as a photographer. Everlasting Moments definitely has the feel of a smaller, independent drama, but one worth watching.

Oh I am a cinematographer by Palace Brothers.

it's a hard life god makes you live

2009-04-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

not really, though, because i got to go to this show..... here's a video i took of the bonnie 'prince' billy in santa rosa at the church on orchard street. it's not great quality as i was drinking a lot of tecate and also am obsessed w/W.O. so most of it is me focusing on his face as close as i possibly could. the "woohoos" at the end are me, too.... hee hee hee

"hard life" live performance by bpb from sarah mccoy on Vimeo.

and here's a pic i took to give you a better idea

p.s. thank you to adam for telling me where to go to post a video <3

ode for kelly reichardt

2009-03-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to write about watching Wendy + Lucy and Old Joy now for about two months. I had always wanted to watch Old Joy because I am a pretty big fan of Will Oldham, but I ended up seeing Wendy+Lucy first. I have loved Michelle Williams since she was on Dawson's and I think my need to see W+L was intensified because I happened to be re-watching the WB series that really started her career in 1998. In the theatre I kept thinking how much she's grown up and has improved as an actress. She was never bad, in my opinion, on the Creek, but she just seems so young on the show.

Wendy + Lucy is about a girl who has scraped together enough money to try and make it to Alaska to find work (and you get the feeling, although it's never explicitly stated, that she maybe just wants a change), but her car breaks down in Oregon. The film is shot in Portland, but the specific town is never mentioned, and the terrain that we see her cover looks like it could be any larger medium-ish suburban city. To make things worse, she gets caught nicking some cans of dog food (presumably to make what money she has last), then arrested (in one of the best scenes in the film), and her dog goes missing. Williams' performance is restrained and I've read that some critics didn't like her restraint in the film -- this is not a melodramatic film -- it's quiet and simply follows her few days spent trying to get her car fixed and find her dog -- exactly the kind of film that I could see some viewers not having the patience for.

You'll probably want to skip this paragraph if you don't want to know the ending... but I like that Kelly Reichardt uses her own dog, Lucy, to play Wendy's dog. And I think that more than anything else, W+L is a sort of meditation on the relationship a person has to his/her pet, and how that type of relationship is related to growing up. Wendy is forced, in my opinion, to leave Lucy behind in what appears to be a safe home once she realizes that she is pretty much out of money and that her car is beyond repair. Of course the film is more complex than this, but Wendy's choice to leave Lucy behind is an emotionally intense one. One of the more subversive layers is that Wendy is a woman traveling alone and when she loses her dog and car she is completely vulnerable. When she tries to sleep outside by the train tracks, she is accosted by some creepy drunk dude, and though nothing happens to her, she is clearly lucky. If it weren't for the security guard outside of the store she breaks down in front of, she'd be REALLY screwed. The security guard is played by Walter Dalton and he does a fantastic job playing an older man who is the only person Wendy really meets that is empathetic to her situation and also willing to go out of his way to help her out as far as he is able. As we increasingly become alienated from pretty much everyone around us, the small friendship they develop is rather remarkable.

Wendy + Lucy is easily one of my favorite films of 2008 (right up there with Synecdoche New York, Let the Right One In, Iron Man, the Batman movie, and Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the World ). I can definitely see why it earned Film Comment's Best Film of 2008 in their critic's poll.

Okay, but now for what is now one of my favorite films of all time!! The film Miss Kelly Reichardt made in 2006 - OLD JOY !!! This film is genius! It's hands-down one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. Thank heaven for my amazing local video store, Lost Weekend on Valencia street, because they just happened to have a few extra copies and sold me one for ten bucks.

Old Joy feels like your life when you decide to go for a day trip hiking or camping or something and you smoke pot and listen to good music in the car and look at amazing trees.... the best times in my life are like this and look a lot like Reichardt's film. I'm taking this Literature and Ecology course right now, and I swear my professor should take something off of her syllabus and replace it with this film.

Old Joy is about Mark and Kurt, two old best friends who haven't seen each other in a while and spontaneously decide to go find this hot springs a few hours away and just take a break. Mark, played by Daniel London, is married and expecting a baby and seems to live a pretty quiet life, with liberal political views and I think he talks about doing some volunteer work with a non-profit or something. He's a good guy, but seems a bit stressed and wound tight. Kurt is his direct foil, a free-spirit who has clearly rejected a more normative existence and has purposely strayed from attachments. Old Joy has elements, of course, of the classic 'buddy' film, and also the 'road' movie. The film is based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond and he co-wrote the screenplay with Reichardt and you can buy the book - it looks like this:

If you are at all interested in watching this film, or have seen it and liked it, I recommend reading the New York Times article because Reichardt and Oldham do much more to illuminate the film than I ever could. In fact it's so good, and affected me so much that I almost don't want to write about it - at least not till I've watched it a few more times. But the soundtrack is really lovely and by Yo la Tengo. And a very wise friend of mine suggested that one way of reading the film is by seeing Kurt and Mark as representations of a divided self -- we all have a bit of Mark and Kurt in us, and it's difficult to negotiate the two inclinations in a way that feels truly balanced. The other thing I'd like to add is that we can all go to the hot springs they go to in the film! A place called Bagby Hot Springs near Oregon City. This movie will definitely make you want to drive to Big Sur ASAP or move to Portland or hike the Appalachian Trail or do whatever it is you have been yearning to do.

In the immortal words of Edward Abbey (from his book Desert Solitaire, I believe):
"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards."

I'll leave you with that and also some mp3s - a song by Yo la Tengo from Old Joy and also a song of of Bonnie "Prince" Billy's new record "Beware" -- a kind of haunting track called "There's Something I Have To Say."

Why I don't like "Slumdog Millionaire"

2009-03-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

After reading an excellent critique of Danny Boyle's Best Picture winner "Slumdog Millionaire" by Mitu Sengupta on AlterNet, I feel the need to vent a little bit about this film. Or rather, I think you should read Sengupta's article, and just know that I agree with her entirely -- the film is totally a sham and made me feel uncomfortable when I was leaving the movie theatre, and that feeling only increased once I had more time to digest it. When I was filing out of the cinema, some dude behind me was like, "Jesus, India looks like a real hell hole" or something to that effect. Then my friend complained about the heroine, saying that she is really boring and lacked any real depth, and I was like, yeah - she's just vulnerable and pretty, thus we do not need to know anything else about her - and oh yeah, she is essentially the epitome of male fantasy as a result. But what really irritates me isn't the film's lame, shallow characterization, but the fact that it is so wholly unrealistic that it's success can only be somewhat damaging - at least in terms of viewers' perception of India, and the poor in general. And of course the overall message of the film is precisely the type of bullshit that, especially, Americans want to believe right now -- it's okay that people are suffering because the film provides us with the fantasy of escape tied to wealth. The mentality of the film is directly in line with the thinking, in my opinion, that has gotten us (North Americans) into the mess we are currently in -- just another band aid solution that doesn't actually force any real change or progress.
The only good message I found in "Slumdog" is that it privileges various types of intelligence -- I like that Jamal surprises everyone with his knowledge (he lacks any formal education), and that might help to subvert some small aspect of the negative perception of the poor and, as Sengupta writes, "patronizing, colonial and ultimately sham statement" that the film makes.

how am i not myself?: Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York"

2009-02-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

I think I have finally figured out my favorite movies of this year, and I couldn't have done that without watching Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut "Synecdoche, New York." I want Gus Van Sant's "Milk" to win the best picture award at the Oscars, even though I am sure the academy will go in for Danny Boyle's feel good movie "Slumdog Millionaire," which I just am not that crazy about. But in my heart of hearts, I think that "Synecdoche" is my favorite film of the year, and every bit as good, if not better than 2004's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which Kaufman wrote as well. (A close second is probably "Let the Right One In" or "Wendy and Lucy.")

Anyway, "Synecdoche" will not be the easiest movie for some -- I had been told that it was difficult to follow what is going on in the film, and I guess I can see how if one were in the wrong mood, or impatient, this movie would seem like a bad acid trip. The film is about Caden Cotard (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) who is married to an artist (Catherine Keener) who tells him that everyone is disappointing, especially the closer you are to them, and then takes off to Berlin w/their four year old daughter to get some space away from Caden. Throughout the first half of the film, we see Caden as a total hypochondriac who thinks he's dying and has every type of disease. And then he wins a fellowship grant for a lot of money and decides to put on a play in this huge building that is basically a small version of his life where the actors never really stop acting -- the play is just ongoing -- and people are playing Caden and all of the various people in his life.... it's a bit bizarre and surreal sounding, I realize, and probably even head-y or pretentious sounding, but I guess trust me that it isn't. I would say that "Synecdoche" is, rather, neurotic and painful -- about the pain of existence and being inside of one's head, perhaps, too much. If you could imagine yourself living out some day dream where everything is screwed up, only you keep going all the way to that conclusion, which would be your death, then that is essentially the experiment that is Kaufman's film.

Caden has a weird infatuation with the box-office girl (Samantha Morton) named Hazel, who is persistently pursuing him, and when his wife leaves him, he can't go through with having sex with her - maybe because she's too into him, maybe out of guilt, maybe because he senses that their connection is too overwhelming, or some combo, but she ultimately becomes his assistant in directing the big play and they don't finally resolve their relationship until the very end of his life. Their relationship makes me think that this film isn't necessarily all about love and romantic relationships, like "Eternal Sunshine," but Kaufman seems to be pointing to missed opportunities and living out the consequences of not seizing the day. Michelle Williams is excellent as the self-involved leading lady, as well as bits from some of my all-time favorite actresses - Diane Weist, Emily Watson, Hope Davis, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

When you watch "Synecdoche," it's impossible not to think of "Eternal Sunshine" as they seem like bookends, or companion pieces. The Red Vic Movie House played "Eternal Sunshine" last week in preparation for "Synecdoche" and I was reminded once again of the brilliance of Gondry's film. One of the major connections to both films, for me, are the soundtracks, both by Jon Brion (who has also done the music for "I Heart Huckabees" and "Magnolia"). I especially love his piano tunes for both films.
And I also couldn't help but be reminded of the WB's Felicity - the episode where Felicity goes to a clinic to erase heart-break - in the style of The Twilight Zone - called "Help For the Lovelorn."

You can watch the "Synecdoche" trailer here.

And here are some songs from Jon Brion for your audial pleasure.

<3 purchase <3

2009-01-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

have to recommend this lil' film journal from little otsu! have to recommend going into little otsu!

and here's an awesome song for contemplation by stag hare called born into magic

"les 400 coups" (1959)

2009-01-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

a nice song to listen to while you read this post providence by sonic youth

okay, maybe you wouldn't think to categorize truffaut's 'the 400 blows' into a winter film theme, but it works. yet another film that i went into freezing, and then went into the cold again.... when you are cold it's hard not to notice little antoine doinel's checked jacket that he dons pretty much throughout the whole film. i hadn't seen this film in years, so i got pretty excited when i saw it was coming to the red vic. and it was like watching it for the first time -- similar to my commentary about ashby's "harold and maude", "the 400 blows" is such a classic that it almost seems pointless to talk about in the blog arena. but i just can't resist it. this film is so beautiful, every single shot is beautiful. i'm not really an expert on french new wave cinema, but sheesh -- they made some of the nicest films to look at. anyway, it's clearly christmas time when antoine spends his first night away from home and steals the bottle of milk
and it looks like it's freezing when he is finally sent to the juvenile detention center. this movie just reminds you of how youths are constantly misunderstood by adults (please forgive the cliche) and repeatedly not given the credit they deserve when they make an effort. i never was sent to juvenile hall or anything, but i distinctly remember being told year after year on report cards that i needed to "apply" myself better. i still feel like i don't really know what that phrase means. antoine certainly does not fully comprehend why he's in so much trouble in the scene where he is being interviewed by the psychiatrist at the "observation center" -- this is one of the most poignant of the entire film. and it is absolutely heart-wrenching when he is looking out the back window of the juvenile police truck....
anyway, if you haven't watched this film in a while, i recommend that you watch it again while it's still cold outside. 'the 400 blows' is somewhat autobiographical, and i am reminded that i never did finish the antoine doinel cycle...
antoine (jean-pierre leaud) in "stolen kisses"
and i totally forgot how amazing the scene is where the young children are watching the puppet show -- classic!

i also will take up some space w/pics from some of my favorite coming-of-age films....

"murmur of the heart" (fr."Le Souffle au Coeur") -- dir. louis malle (1971)

"my life as a dog" -- dir. lasse halstrom (1985)

"lucas" -- dir. david seltzer (1986)

"au revoir les enfants" -- dir. louis malle (1987)

"lilya 4-ever" -- dir. lukas moodysson (2002)

"let the right one in" -- dir. tomas afredson (2008)

2009-01-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

more wintery movies....

saw the swedish zombie movie "Let the Right One In" over the weekend at the parkway theatre in oakland. it's really good. the theatre was freezing inside so the viewing environment went nicely with the all of the snowy swedish landscapes. let the right on in is essentially a movie about friendship or love or whatever you want to call it, and particularly how we all make decisions about what we'll put up with in a relationship or friendship. in oskar's case, he has to decide whether he likes the girl next door, eli, enough to fully accept the fact that she is a vampire. the film could almost be put in the coming-of-age category -- one of, or rather, probably my absolute, favorite themes in film.... think lukas moodyson's "lilia 4-ever" (2002), another one of my favorites, but not nearly as depressing -- thrilling, instead. the whole film is well acted, and one of my favorite scenes is when oskar is rocking out in the living room while he waits for eli to change her clothes.... it's adorb'. this is surely one of my top picks for 2008.

the kid who plays oskar, kare hebredent, is lovely to watch and does a pretty amazing job expressing so much of the pain of growing up and being twelve.

eli looking very vampire-ish, or should i say, 'vamp'

perfect holiday movie watching

2008-12-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

i was feeling pooped tonight and watched "the royal tenenbaums" and i've decided that it's the best christmas-time movie because it's pretty melancholy and is about family... but about family also in a melancholy way. all of the red and pink is so nice. and if you've ever read john irving's hotel new hampshire then you totally 'get' the weird brother + sister thing (even if they aren't related in the movie). i bet wes anderson & owen wilson read that book -- irving is totally east coast. i've been listening to lots of nico lately as well as classical music and the vince guaraldi trio xmas cd so the soundtrack to this film is like my life right now. i love luke wilson as a john mcenroe-esque character.... tennis players are hot.
i guess there are lots of christmas-y movies to choose from, and "the royal tenenbaums" isn't technically a christmas film, but i recommend revisiting it some holiday season.

here's nico's "the fairest of the seasons" to get you in the mood.

Summer With Monika

2008-11-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

someday i will have seen every single ingmar bergman film. i am not even close. but it was nice to see his 1951 "Monika" ("Sommaren Med Monika") on the big screen after seeing the cover for a long time in the video store. i think "shame" and "scenes from a marriage" are still my favorite bergman films, but this was a really, really pretty film. it's about a girl, monika, who is bored, doesn't have the greatest home life, and works in a grocery-type store where she gets sexually harassed by the gross men she works with. then she flirtatiously asks this cute, sensitive, and also angst-y boy, harry, for a light and before you know it, they are in love and projecting all of their romantic ideals onto one another (like anyone young and in a new relationship does, i guess). when harry's father goes to the hospital and monika's dad slaps her they decide to go live on harry's dad's boat for the summer. their summer is spent idyllically in nature without obligation, just sort of cruising around (much how i envisioned pacey and joey's summer to have been on "dawson's creek" way back when)... and it's all going so nicely that you just know it will end badly. and it does, sort of, but i won't spoil it for you. apparently the actress who plays monika, harriet andersson, was in a bunch of bergman films -- and now that i know this, i want to see them because she is pretty captivating -- she's no liv ullman, but she's good.

monika:

monika + harry:

another good film i saw last week is "Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback" (2007). i didn't really know about this band at all before watching the documentary, but i went with a friend who had and so i think it could be entertaining for fans & non-fans. part of why i probably like the film so much is because i hadn't heard the monks before and they were so good. the footage of them banging on a guitar was super awesome and they were definitely ahead of their time (especially as i see this technique used all of the time now at experimental-noisy shows). it's too bad they didn't hold out a little bit longer because i think if they could have gotten into the nyc scene & hung out with the velvet underground, they could have become popular in the U.S.

the documentary itself seems a little long in the beginning, but i guess it's necessary to show how they all met in the army while stationed in germany during the cold war, and how they ended up going from a pretty typical sixties pop-ish band called the torquays to being packaged into an "anti-beatles" outfit with monk haircuts. i was lucky to be at a showing where eddie shaw, one of the members, was at the theatre to intro/outro-duce the documentary. he seems like a nice, down to earth guy and he said that he was grateful to have experienced playing in a band professionally in his life... and i think he wrote a book about it all... anyway, it's good and you should watch it if you are so inclined.

watch the trailer:

:(

2008-10-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

my psychedelic clips did not load for me so i had to delete them. it was the best youTube mixtape ever!

"I Know Where I'm Going" (1945)

2008-09-17T08:52:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that I rented this movie mostly because I like the title, and the picture on the cover of the Criterion DVD of the actress, Wendy Hiller, who looked really Scandinavian to me (turns out she's just British). I liked this movie, but while I was watching it, it kept reminding me of a movie that I think I like better (maybe because of the pacing -- I'd have to watch both again to really be able to compare/contrast) called "Bringing Up Baby" (1938, Howard Hawks) and of my bff who really loves both of these films. The best thing about this movie is the social commentary, or rather the moral/ethical rhetoric via the choice for Hiller's character, Joan Webster, to marry a rich industrialist dude, or the man who truly fires her up, Torquil McNeil (played by Roger Livesey), but has only a modest income as a naval officer. The rich industrialist, Sir Robert Bellinger (Norman Shelley), has moved into this castle on the Isle of Mull but it seems he has displaced some of the older inhabitants (who I am guessing can no longer afford to live there -- if I understand this correctly) who are Torquil's relatives! Joan overhears a conversation on public transportation about her fiance that doesn't paint him in the most generous light, and she is eventually forced to choose between her nouveau riche fiance, or the real deal: Torquil who is funny, admired, & wears a kilt throughout most of the movie! Duh, after nearly losing her life at sea, she finally realizes that she should marry for love. The second best thing about this movie is how nice it looks in the Scottish sea-side village.... not sure if this is a trademark of the director/producer/screenwriter duo Powell & Pressburger, as I have yet to really mine their films (please recommend away if you have gone through a P&P phase).

my favorite still from this film of a girl walking with herded animals of some sort:

ooh, a nice little montage:

"Mutual Appreciation" (2005)

2008-08-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

Maybe you were/are curious about this movie, too?

I saw "Funny Ha Ha," Andrew Bujalski's debut film, a few years back at the Red Vic and liked it a lot, but a friend recently watched it and told me she thought it was like a "student film".... I guess it sorta had that feeling, but mostly it just seemed like a film that one's friends could have made about their lives. "Mutual Appreciation" retains that friend-quality, but doesn't seem quite so student-film-ish. Buljalski's second film is shot in black and white, and could be described as a lo-fi Woody Allen or Whit Stillman (director of one of my all-time favorites, "Metropolitan") flick.

"Mutual Appreciation" is about this indie rock kid, Alan (played by Justin Rice, in real-life band called Bishop Allen), whose band just broke up, so he moves to Brooklyn and decides to go it alone despite his need for a drummer. Rice kinda looks like a young Bob Dylan, and one of the girls that he ends up making out with uses this comparison as her come-on -- it's understandable -- he's pretty cute and reminds me of boys that I was twitterpated over when I was like twenty-one.

I don't want to spoil the plot for you.... but apparently Alan and his best-friend's girlfriend, Ellie (played by Rachel Clift) end up having a bit of underlying sexual tension between them. I use "apparently" because I felt like this tension between them comes out of nowhere. They have one kind of moment, but it doesn't seem like they are totally vibe-ing or flirting or anything to me.... The film's plot-apex happens when Alan & Ellie utter their mutual attraction out loud. Ultimately, nothing really happens -- everyone pretty much gets over it and there isn't any dramatic conflict between Alan and Ellie, or even Ellie and her boyfriend, Lawrence (played by Bujalski himself). On one hand, I kind of like that there isn't any real conflict and yet the audience isn't bored at all -- this is a pretty good film. On the other hand, I am always suspicious of the wimpster-ish, playing down of emotions that seems like an integral part and unavoidable cliche of any indie-scenester-ish production.

Plot-spoiling complete. I will say that if you were curious about this movie and had an inkling to see it, then please do, as I don't think you'll be disappointed or feel like you just wasted an hour and a half of your life. The acting is well done, the cinematography is nice, none of these characters are annoying (even though they totally have the potential to be in a film like this), and the plot is fairly believable.
Pretty good review of this film (read: much more articulate than this one) here.

Tarsem Singh's "The Fall" (2006)

2008-07-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

I first found out about Tarsem Singh because he went to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where my ex-bf went, so of course we felt compelled to watch his first film, "The Cell." I remember liking "The Cell" okay, but being bothered by the scenes where J-Lo is watching "Fantastic Planet" in her panties -- pretty unbelievable characterization in my opinion. "The Fall," however, is amazing. And it seems that this second film is going to be mostly unseen this summer, which is unfortunate. Maybe some folks read Nathan Lee's negative review of it in the New Yorker - also unfortunate. He claims "The Fall" is boring. I would have to disagree, and, feel, in fact, that it is enchanting. And a reviewer for AllMovie.com agrees with me.
My friend who went to see it with me commented that "The Fall" is something like a cross between "The Princess Bride" and Terry Gilliam's "Time Bandits" (which I have never seen, but now want to). The film moves between an infirmary in old-timey L.A. where a little girl named Alexandra is recuperating and a visual representation of an "epic" story that another patient is telling Alexandra as she is imagining it. The telling of the story is the "Princess Bride"-esque part, and the story being told, I am guessing, is the Gilliam-esque portion. The little girl who plays Alexandra, Cantinca Untaru, is the cutest little thing I have ever seen -- I wanted to eat her up throughout the whole film! The other patient, played by Lee Pace, is in the hospital because he works as a cinema stunt-man and has lost the use of his legs because of a fall..... and Alexandra is also in the hospital for falling while working as a fruit picker in an orchard. It is just now dawning on me why the movie is called "The Fall" -- Pace's character, Roy, and Alexandra both become friends because they have both gotten injured from falling while on the job. duh! I think there may be a deeper, less obvious reason, or reasons, for Singh's title, but clearly I haven't thought those possible readings through yet.
Untaru is Romanian in real life, but her nationality in the film is never explicitly mentioned. I don't think I have ever seen Pace in anything else, but he is excellent as well. I don't really want to give too much more away about this film. But it is definitely worth seeing, and as soon as the credits started rolling I knew it would be one of my favorite films of 2008 (right up there with "Iron Man"!!!). Speaking of the credits -- they are also impressive -- Singh has broken down the production credits by country and the film was shot on location in over 18 countries! It also remains free of any CGI, which is also worth mentioning and impressive given the film's fantastical nature. You can watch the trailer here.

these pictures do not do this film justice -- it just needs to be watched on the big screen...

the cutie:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and Videodrome (1982) on cable

2008-07-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

I just discovered OnDemand and was cat-sitting over the weekend and watched "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Videodrome." I coulda sworn I've seen "Videodrome" before, but it was probably so long ago that it doesn't matter. It is good that I do not have cable at my house or I would OnDemand all day long. The chances are that you have already seen both of these movies, so I'll be brief. "Invasion" is super cool if you live in SF because you get to see the Ferry Building circa 1978, and another bonus is Leonard Nimoy as a weirdo psychiatrist. The movie is about these web-type things that invade earth and turn people into clones if they come into contact with them and they get all gross and cocoon-like right before their real body dies (if I have it right -- the process gets kind of confusing). My favorite part of the movie is the pods that clones hatch out of -- I guess they are kind of dated as far as special effects go, but they look pretty awesome. And I normally don't really care for Jeff Goldblum all that much, but I liked him in this (it's a smaller roll). And the last scene with Donald Sutherland making this weird scream because he has become a clone is classic.

Both "Videodrome" and "Invasion" end in that way that doesn't really resolve any of the problems suggested by the rest of the film's narrative implications (concerns about technology, the way we live now, global warming, the nature of reality), but they are both so awesome that it didn't end up bothering me. "Videodrome" is a sexy movie. Debbie Harry is sexy. And James Woods is sleazy sexy (that's how he comes off -- I do not find him attractive.... Or do I??) I particularly liked the fact that Renn (Woods) is constantly handling Beta tapes -- It's been a while since I've seen the superior, but (eventual) less popular tape. I don't really know how I feel about David Cronenberg. I think I like him. Okay, I definitely like him -- I just had to think about some of the great movies he's made, like "To Die For," "Dead Ringers" and I liked "Eastern Promises" pretty well. Watching "Videodrome" makes me think I should see some more of his earlier films, like "Scanners" and "The Deadzone." Anyway, if you haven't seen it, here's the "Videodrome" trailer:

Basically the movie is about this dude who works for some small TV station that specializes in softcore porn and horror movies and he discovers a pirate, snuff channel and then it starts fucking with his real life. And then you get to see a lot of cool '80s-ish horror special effects.
Like this:

bergman's "shame" & antonioni's "the passenger"

2008-04-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

i think i start almost every post this way, but bergman is my favorite director. i have other favorites, but he's tops. watching his 1968 film "shame" solidified bergman's no. 1 position. "shame" is the second in a trilogy, ("hour of the wolf" and "the passion of anna" being the other two), and although i've only seen "the passion of anna," i can definitely say that "shame" is superior from what i remember. max von sydow and liv ullman play a couple who were both professional violinists at one point, but now farm lingonberries. they live in a rustic, almost shack of a house in an unnamed countryside that is beginning to be affected by war. i don't really want to say more than that -- this film is ultimately a downer, but it's so appealing visually and i was completely taken in by their relationship dynamic and the psychological intensity of their situation (their home being invaded by soldiers, etc) -- and unfortunately the film is not fresh enough in my mind to be anymore specific than that.

i watched "shame" and antonioni's "the passenger" (1975) together, and i can't say i really liked the latter. it looked cool, jack nicholson is almost always interesting to watch, maria schneider is captivating as a free spirit type that he hooks up with, and the gaudi architecture scenes are cool to look at..... that's about it. oh, and the last scene is known i suppose for being a really long continuous shot. but i can't say i'd watch this movie again. it's no "blow up," "zabriskie point," or "l'avventura."

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

2008-04-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

I feel about Christian Bale like I feel about George Clooney -- I'll watch anything with him in it. I've loved him since he played Laurie (sp?) in the remake of "Little Women" (starring Winona Ryder). And I like Westerns, typically. I didn't know that "3:10 to Yuma" is a remake, which it is, but it's really great - I say this without having seen the original, though. I don't really like Russell Crowe all that much, but the film is still good, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I didn't see the other big western this year w/Brad Pitt, but I hear it stinks, so.... Again, this is yet another film (like "Persepolis") that makes the fact that "Juno" was nominated for Best Picture extremely frustrating. I'd say it's ten times better than that piece of crap WB-dialogue shit (I even LIKE some WB shows that are no more, like "Dawson's Creek" and "Felicity") that would have sucked way worse if it hadn't been for the adorable George Michael (I forget what his real name is, but I think he's eternally George Michael to me). Which brings me to note that I watched this film double-feature style with "Superbad" -- also really funny. Who is that SNL dude -- he is so funny -- that plays one of the cops. You've probably already seen "Superbad" but I'm recommending it if you haven't. I couldn't believe that some boys actually talk like those two kids, but I guess they sometimes do... which made watching the movie with my mom awkward at times.

one of the best films of 2007 is, in my opinion, "Persepolis"

that awesome cop & snl dude, bill hader (he might be the new michael ian black for me)

2008-04-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

omigosh! i still haven't been able to talk about the academy awards and adaptation! or how i don't think i really 'get' "last year at marienbad"! i can't wait till summer!

burtynsky & dylan

2008-03-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

i've seen a lot of movies in the past few weeks, but haven't had time to record them all here, so i'm going to do a quick style recap.... this may prove to be problematic since i tend to ramble...

first off, i was pretty impressed by the documentary on edward burtynsky's photography called "Manufactured Landscapes" that focuses on burtynsky's work in china where he takes photos of the humongous factories (which, in the film, look strangely beautiful), and around the three gorges dam that i think might be completed by now (and incidentally has displaced millions of people who lived around the river -- they don't have anywhere to go, as far as i know). in the film burtynsky is seen as a sort of unassuming environmental activist whose approach is appealing in his aim to allow audiences to judge for themselves when confronted with his images of the ways in which we are devastating the earth in our consumption of resources; he talks about how some of the people who come to his shows can appreciate his photos purely aesthetically, but if he can influence them to think about his work from an environmental conservationist viewpoint, then so much the better.
jennifer baichwal's documentary has affected me along the same lines as malle's "god's country," varda's "the gleaners and i" or "my achitect" (the documentary on architect louis kahn). "manufactured landscapes" is subtle and beautifully filmed -- and now i am curious about baichwal's other films: one on the writer Paul Bowles called "Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles" and another called "The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia."

pic from the three gorges area in china (above)

pic from cover of one of burtynsky's books of photography -- i think taken in the US or Canada near a coal mine

the other documentary i watched recently was "The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-65" directed by Murray Lerner (2007) and is I believe airing on PBS right now (but i saw it at the red vic movie house here in sf). the great thing about this documentary is that it is essentially footage of bob dylan singing, often with joan baez, at three years' worth of newport folk festivals, without any interviews or narration -- just dylan playing -- which, for me, is refreshing given the recent films about dylan. he looks so beautiful and YOUNG, particularly in the '63 and '64 performances, and finally looks a bit more mature when he goes electric and gets booed until coming out for an acoustic song or two. the film brought me to tears a few times - watching dylan sing "blowin' in the wind" with the freedom singers, baez, and peter, paul & mary felt particularly charged for me. the performances signify a particular moment in history that, for me, automatically inspires a lot of emotion given the civil rights movements, etc, and also makes me think a lot about the state of the world now -- all of this is communicated to a contemporary audience without narration or interview clips, simply through listening to dylan's lyrics and watching the audiences at the festivals. the effect is powerful in its subtlety.
here is a clip (many of which are available here):

welp, that's all for now. my next post will be concerning the 2008 oscars and the year of adaptation.

2008-01-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

Surrealism And Science - The Weird World Of Jean Painleve [1926]

"L'Hippocampe" (1934)

"Acera ou le bal des sorcières" (1972)

If you can get this vhs or the DVD import (I believe?), I recommend it highly. There are about nine short documentaries, and about seven of them are on sea creatures. I can't really find much about him, but Senses of Cinema has a pretty good overview of his work. There is also a book called Science is Fiction: the Films of Jean Painleve
I never knew that with seahorses the male seahorse carries the babies (what looks like millions of them) and then gives birth to them (in this funny, spasmodic way). Youtube has one of the documentaries, which I'll post, on mollusks. One of my favorites is the one the ends concentrating on the spirographe (that's French term - I am not sure what they are called in English). Painleve's documentaries on these fascinating creatures are humorous and beautifully filmed; and the music is so good -- usually psychedelic or jazzy & great -- I recommend renting/buying these in your near future.

More Malle!!

2007-12-26T20:56:00.000-08:00

God's Country

louis malle

"God's Country" is one documentary in a series by Louis Malle that the Eclipse branch of the Criterion Collection series released several months back. All of the documentaries sound intriguing, but particularly, to me, one called "Vive Le Tour Human Trop, Humain Place de la Republique" (1972) about the Tour de France. "God's Country" (1985) is a documentary about the people of Glencoe, Minnesota during the the late '70s and '80s. Malle's focus develops around the farmers of Glencoe who are struggling against the rise of corporate farming (? at least I think that's how you'd refer to the big-industry farmers). One particularly engaging interview is with a young-ish, single, professional woman who acts in her spare time -- a rarity in Glencoe, as she describes being in the minority having chosen to be single in a small town. I recommend this documentary over "Vernon, Florida", for instance, which feels exploitive much of the way through Errol Morris' filming of the eccentrics he encounters. Although it is probably impossible to get around some of that obnoxious, invasive journalistic style that typically dominates these sorts of documentaries, Malle sincerely connects to the people he interviews. That connection is reinforced when he returns several years later (early '80s) and is reunited with the families and folks he got to know the first time around. And, of course, the films looks pretty.

"Kurt Cobain: About a Son"

2007-12-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

I liked this movie. Other people will not, do not, whatever. "About a Son" is essentially audio of interviews with Kurt Cobain set to pretty scenes and footage of Washington, mostly from Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle. I find this approach far less offensive than Todd Haynes' stupid Bob Dylan mash-up -- the two have been compared, I believe.
What I like about Schnack's film is that it's almost a memorial to Kurt Cobain, and doesn't feel invasive because the audience is just listening to him talk about his life, rather than watching a documentary with an agenda ( a la "Kurt and Courtney" directed by Nick Broomfield). I loved Kurt Cobain when I was in high school - I was obsessed with him and I still have a sweater-box with all of my pictures that I used for a collage above my bed and all of the first Nirvana magazine covers - including the infamous Vanity Fair article. He was an amazing person, and listening to him talk just reminds you of why he was so popular and mourned to such an extent when he died. His voice is so rad - whiny and kind of nasal-y, and he eloquently describes what it was like to grow up with divorced parents, being a loner, disgusted with humanity, and really wanting to find some way of connecting with others (i.e. punk rock). What's great about the audio footage (?) is that there is an evident maturation of Kurt C. and he is aware of it - he's aware of how he's grown and he begins to feel much less angst ridden by the end of the film. This makes his suicide that much more sad and problematic. But what I feel is beautiful about Schnack's film is that it doesn't try to figure out why he did it - we'll never know, and we don't even have to right to know (as Cobain says himself) - instead it celebrates what a great person and artist Cobain was through simply listening to his self-conscious and intelligent musings on music, his environment, and the larger world. If you are a fan, you aren't really going to learn anything about Cobain that you didn't already know, but it's probably been ages since you heard an interview with him, especially one that lasts for two hours, and is visually stimulating, even soothing at times.

"The Nun"

2007-11-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

Jacques Rivette directs this adaptation of Diderot's 1760 novel La Religieuse -- and as far as I know it's faithful to the text apart from the ending. Anna Karina plays Suzanne Simonin who is forced to stay in a convent because her parents supposedly do not have enough dowry money left for her to marry. In reading Kevin Jackson's essay "Carnal to the Point of Scandal: On the Affair of La Religieuse" in the book Eighteenth-Century Fiction on Screen, I learned that the release of Rivette's film was delayed due to controversy concerning the content from the Catholic church -- a woman who hates being a nun, and who then is hit on by her mother superior was considered a negative portrayal of the life I suppose. Apparently dropping off one's daughters at the local nunnery if you don't have much money to sell her off to a potential husband was a common practice in the eighteenth-century.
Anyway, the film is good, new-wave-ish, and there is some pretty great stuff done with color - the first half of the film looks really blue and then the last half, particularly when she is presenting her case to the head-honcho church dudes, is mostly red contrasted with bits of blue. I watched it on VHS and we had some tracking issues which resulted in a psychedelic 3-D glasses type viewing. But we wanted to know what happens to poor Suzanne, so we watched it flickering & fuzzy anyway. True to the eighteenth-century trope, it doesn't end well; Suzanne is ultimately punished for her transgression.

Suzanne (Anna Karina) being punished

Sad But True

2007-11-24T23:46:00.001-08:00

You have to see this movie. It's funny because it's true. Or is about to be.

"Michael Clayton"

2007-11-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

I love George Clooney. I don't even know why really.... I can't help it - he's just a good actor and seems like he's a pretty cool dude. I watch just about any movie with Clooney in it. Even movies I would typically detest like "Oceans 11." And usually I am not disappointed, with his performance at least, which is probably why I keep watching any movie starring George Clooney. I liked him on "ER" and then I loved him in "Out of Sight." Anyway, "Michael Clayton," directed by Tony Gilroy (his directorial debut, I believe), is a good film and Clooney is good as a former District Attorney turned "fixer" for a fancy-pants law firm. The film is essentially like a cross between "The Firm" and "Silkwood"; a sort of out-of-the-courtroom suspense thriller where the firm is representing an evil corporation of the same ilk as the Montsano corp. Tilda Swinton plays the corporation's "fixer" essentially, and Clooney and Swinton finally go head-to-head in the grand finale. Tom Wilkinson is brilliant as the firm's whistle-blower character. It is comforting to see a film like "Michael Clayton" because it not only places itself nicely in the tradition of the corporate exposal films (like "Silkwood" and "Erin Brockovich"), but also serves as a less overt social political critique. We may have been meaning to read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and watching films like "Michael Clayton" reminds us to.
Tom Wilkinson w/Clooney in "Michael Clayton"

Tilda Swinton

Ryan Gosling + Paul Schneider = my idea of heaven

2007-11-24T22:53:00.000-08:00

Once I realized that both Ryan Gosling AND Paul Schneider were in "Lars and the Real Girl" I saw it the next day. I have been a fan of Schneider since David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls" and of Gosling since I guiltily watched that cornball movie "The Notebook." I was expecting more of a straight forward comedy about a more "normal" dude who orders one of those "real" dolls. But it's actually more of a dark comedy, or maybe more sweet than anything else. I recommend it. You don't have to race out to the theatre or anything, but it's worth watching, particularly because the characters portrayed in the small town that Lars inhabits are pretty hilarious and genuine seeming. Ryan Gosling does a great job playing Lars, a loner who clearly has some emotional problems because he would rather have a relationship with a doll than the cute new girl at the office (Kelli Garner). Paul Schneider plays his older brother, who also suffers some communication defects from their mother dying during Lars' birth, but who is living a fairly normal life with his pregnant wife, played by the lovely Emily Mortimer (I love her!). Another notable character is the family doctor/psychologist played by Patricia Clarkson.

New Film From the Coen Bros.

2007-11-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

"Many of the scenes in "No Country for Old Men" are so flawlessly constructed that you want them to simply continue, and yet they create an emotional suction drawing you to the next scene. Another movie that made me feel that way was "Fargo." To make one such film is a miracle. Here is another." -- From Roger Ebert's review in the Chicago Sun Times.

Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss in "No Country For Old Men
Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurgh
Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Tom Bell

I can't remember off the top of my head all of the movies I've seen this year. But it doesn't matter because I am sure that "No Country For Old Men" would be my favorite even if I could. A friend recommended it to me, and I read on-line that the dialog is superb, and it is. There is just the perfect balance between sharp comedy and suspense in this film -- just when you can barely stand the tension, the Coen brothers' gift for wit provides relief, albeit from the words of Cormac McCarthy. Read the Ebert review if you want more of a plot synopsis. The only thing I really have to contribute is that Josh Brolin is amazing - and amazingly attractive in his eighties cowboy duds - and that this film feels more like a western than a straight up suspense thriller. Or maybe just the right amount of both.

old post that i never finished...

2007-08-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

I have seen a LOT of films in the past few weeks - a cramming of sorts till school started. I am going to attempt to write about them all, but some obsess me more than others.

Like "Becoming Jane", the extremely fictionalized movie about Jane Austen and her supposed affair with an Irishman, Thomas Lefroy. I can't really do justice to this subject, but these folks have: The New Yorker, and The New York Times. I will say that it is mildly insulting that Anne Hathaway plays Jane Austen when I am certain there are hundreds of lesser known British actresses who could have done the job. Hathaway gives a good performance - don't get me wrong - but it is annoying nonetheless. The dude who plays her love interest, Mr. Lefroy, is worth the $10 alone - the one redeeming part of sitting through a cheesy, hollywood biographical account of Austen that tries to cram all of her novels into one movie - but not even her novels - more like the film adaptations of her novels! James McAvoy is pure sex. And his hair is kind of awesome even though it's obviously over-done. Oh, and I forgot - his nose is amazing; it is so interesting, though I doubt you will be able to tell from these pics.

A film that I am happy I trekked to the Berkeley PFA for is Abbas Kiarostami's "Five" - essentially five "long shots" that he takes, I am guessing, along a sea shore in Iran. All five are lovely, save one, which although I 'get' what he's trying to do with observing people walking past the ocean, it gets a bit boring in comparison with the other four single-shots. Also, he uses DV, which kind of annoyed me at first, but then I began to realize how the five shots (vignettes, essentially) benefit by this choice. The first one serves almost as an introduction for the remaining four, as it immediately forces you to just slow down and watch this piece of wood floating along the shore. The third shot is my favorite; Kiarostami films dogs playing in the distance on the beach and we watch the sun going down. As it is shot with DV, the light from the sun gradually obliterates the shoreline and dogs and they become black specs and the rest of the screen turns bright white. Meanwhile, the ocean keeps rolling in, and the rolling foam forms a snake-like line that moves across the screen. I cannot do it justice. It is gorgeous, and painterly, and you just have to see it - but on a large screen. The fourth is just ducks waddling by, but it is hilarious and awesome. And the fifth rivals the third. In his grand finale, Kirostami films a pond at night, and at first you can't even tell what you are watching. The screen is black, with this white wiggling, oval-shaped looking orb. And the sound is intense - maybe ducks or frogs but the wiggling paired with the weird yelping is almost sexual in its rhythm. Eventually you realize that you are watching the moon being reflected on the water. A storm breaks, the rain comes, and then stops, and the croaking begins again. Again, I cannot do it justice. I have never seen any other Kiarostami film before, and now I must!

#4

#5

"Harold and Maude"

2007-07-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

I vaguely remember that I loved "Harold and Maude" in high school, and as a result, I have been somewhat dismissive of the film because of that. Working in a video store for five years, I kind of despised the "alternative" types who would come in on a Friday or Saturday night headed straight for the CULT section to rent "Harold and Maude." I have lived in San Francisco for the past three years, and the Red Vic Movie House seems to present Hal Ashby's cult classic relentlessly - it seems it's on a six month rotation or something. But I was tipsy at a friend's house and we watched H&M and I realized that there's a reason everyone loves this movie -- it's fucking genius. It's filmed perfectly! It has a good message! (carpe diem! damn the man!) Cat Stevens rules! Older woman/Younger man = yes, please! Even if she is 79 years old. Especially if she's a bohemian and he's a goth - actually he's more of a Moth? Anyway, it's playing tomorrow at the Red Vic, yet again, and this time I'm tempted to go see it on the big screen. And I realized that I need to get my stupid "L Word" third season over with so that I can see some of Ashby's films that I've never gotten around to - like "Shampoo" or "The Last Detail," and maybe even revisit "Being There."

"The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"

2007-07-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

Luis Bunuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" is one of those films that I always thought I should watch and had been recommended to me.... But I must be missing something, because I don't really understand why. The film won the 1972 Oscar for Best Foreign Film, but I think his satire of the entitled class must have been much more biting in 1972. The film looked really nice, but my suspension of disbelief kept being ruptured by the weird shot-from-above camera angle making it feel like I was watching a play -- only the dialogue was not really interesting enough to warrant this choice. And I am sure Bunuel was playing with something analogy to these people who fail repeatedly to dine together and the stage, but I guess I just didn't get it. At one point one of the actors dreams that one their dinners is part of an actual play only none of the guests can remember their lines.... again, I fail to see the implications of this..... The unfortunate part of this viewing experience is that now I am not sure if I want to explore other Bunuel films. Well, I guess I will try "Diary of a Chambermaid" and give him a second chance.

And the good part of this story is that in the same week I watched "Harold and Maude" for the first time in over ten years............

Fassbinder Obsessed!

2007-06-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched Fassbinder's "Effi Briest" (1974). About half-way through the film, I started to think it must be based on a novel, and it turns out I was right. Fassbinder's film is based on the novel by Theodor Fontane, published in 1894, and is considered one of the greatest German novels of all time. The subject is the eternally fascinating Victorian/19th Century 'fallen woman' -- made explicit by Effi's constant reference to swings and swinging and falling at the beginning of the film. "Effi Briest" is shot in black and white and is beautiful, although different from the other Fassbinder films I have seen, which tend to be brightly colorful. Like Madame Bovary (1856) and Anna Karenina (1873) before her, Effi is married off at 17 to a Baron twice her age, and we all know what happens when a beautiful young woman marries an older dude. The film is beautiful and somber, and even though we know that Effi must die (from some sort of mysterious nervous condition) true to the fallen woman trope, the blame does not seem to lay entirely on her shoulders, but is shared by her parents. And the sensitive viewer(/reader) will understand that even more to blame are the social structures in place at the time. Fassbinder's use of mirrors would be obnoxious, because the characters are scene in mirrors in pretty much every scene, often repeatedly within a scene, if it didn't look so fucking cool. The use of mirrors could even be seen symbolically as representing the social strictures of the time, or the way in which people were (and still are, really) boxed in by their roles, and how individuals must constantly confront issues of identity. And I thought Hannah Schygulla was excellent as Effi, not to mention many of the other actors that Fassbinder cast in so many of his films (Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann). This film only solidifies my obsession and desire to see every Fassbinder film ever!

More Catching Up

2007-06-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

School's out & so I've finally had time to catch up on some of the indie-blockbusters that I missed before the Oscars.... Like "Little Children" directed by Todd Field. I remember not being crazy about "In the Bedroom" when it came out, but I definitely liked this film - all except the ending. Kate Winslet's character, Sarah, plays a mom who is frustrated with her suburban mom existence - suggested in part by the fact that she never finished her doctorate in English Literature. She ends up having an affair with Brad, played by Patrick Wilson, who is also in an unsatisfying marriage. Wilson is HOT. I was not expecting this - I guess because dudes who could potentially play ex-quarterbacks don't really appeal to me. But he is excellent and easy on the eyes. I have long been a fan of Winslet's and think she is one of the loveliest actresses in film today. Anyhow, they are both terrific, portraying each of their different brand of selfishness and romantic idealism perfectly.
What bugs me about the ending is that one minute they are gathering their belongings to meet up and run away together, and then the next events occur that force them to realize nothing of the sort will happen. Fair enough. We are left with Winslet realizing how irresponsible she has been behaving toward her daughter when she almost loses her in a park at night, Wilson trying out a trick on a skateboard that results in his being taken off in an ambulance, and both events lead them to realize that running away is not an option. The problem I have is that up until this point, we have been convinced that each has serious relationship problems that need addressing and may even be un-resolvable. Winslet clearly needs an outlet for her literary pursuits, and a husband who is not obsessed with internet porn-stars. And Wilson's character is stuck with mega-bitch, controlling wife, played by Jennifer Connelly (one gets the feeling her real-life character is not far off), who seems to demand that he become a lawyer in order for her to feel her family fits an ideal that her mother seems to require. Both seem reasonably miserable in my opinion, and a simple bump on the head or scare would not realistically fix their problems. Perhaps I demand too much from an ending - ambiguity I am fine with, but not ambiguity framed unrealistically.
I can, for the most part, forgive this flaw because the over-arching theme, or lesson to be learned is that children are always subject to their parents whims, for better or worse. This message shines through, not only with Sarah & Brad's affair, but also in the subplot in which a convicted (and released after 10 years prison time) child molester moves into their community. He is played by Jackie Earle Haley, an actor I haven't ever really heard of. When he is released, he ends up moving in with his mother into his childhood home, and their relationship is portrayed in such a way that we understand his mother's indulgence may have been a potential contributor to his deviance. Overall, "Little Children" is a great film exploring suburban dysfunction along the same lines as "The Ice Storm" or "Happiness".

Okay, I also saw "Year of the Dog" and "Waitress" in the theatre recently. Both are terrific. If you love dogs, or want a better understanding of dog-obsessed/animal rights folks, then Mike White's "Year of the Dog" is the film for you. Molly Shannon is excellent, as well as Laura Dern, Peter Sarsgaard, and John C. Reilly. I am a pretty huge fan of "The Good Girl" and White is on-point once again.

I am a huge "Felicity" / Keri Russell fan, so of course I had to see "Waitress" and I was not disappointed. Cheryl Hines from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" co-stars and she is brilliant as usual.

"The Third Man" -- the film and the novel

2007-05-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

I watched this movie for school, and both the film and Graham Greene's book were assigned, and in a way I made a mistake in reading the book first.... Actually I should have just waited a good two weeks before watching the film, but it's school, so I was under the gun.
Anyhow, the book is excellent - even though it was intended for a film. In the preface, Greene explains that he felt he had to write the story first as a novel and then the screenplay, which I think he collaborated on with Carol Reed. The Third Man, the book, is written in such a way that you end up picturing how you think the movie will go (since he tells you that it's going to be a film) - which is great, but kind of sets you up for a tad bit of disappointment watching the film.

On the Criterion DVD, Peter Bogdanovich does an intro for the film that contextualizes "The Third Man" nicely. There are two versions of the opening of the film, in which the narrator/voice over is British for the British version and American for the American version. I watched the American version in which it is Martins, the protagonist, who sets up the scene of Vienna after the war with a montage showing the rubble and ruins of the city and scenes of people with various goods explaining the black market that was thriving at the time (the film was released in the US in 1950). In the British version, I understand that it is Reed's voice and that he goes on much longer talking about the sad state of affairs in Vienna, but with an ironic tone. There is definitely irony in the novel, but the use of the zither for the music - happy go lucky sounding in some of the most somber scenes was a bit jarring for me and maybe too ironic. I guess my experience of reading the book was that it had this mysterious, noir tone and there would be humorous scenes or moments, but overall it was sort of dark and that comes across visually in the film, but not as much in the characters - especially not Joseph Cotten as Martins. I like Cotten's performance, but again, he seems less distraught over Harry Lime's death than I pictured while reading the book. Orson Welles as Harry Lime, however, is spot on and exactly as I pictured him (although I am pretty sure I already knew Welles was Lime in the film, so maybe that's why I had less trouble with his character). The first scene when we finally see Lime/Welles is amazing: he is standing in a darkened doorway and suddenly a light goes on above him and we see his face and he is smiling so slyly and looks so charming, despite the fact that we know he is not a good person - it's a great moment - one of the best in the film, in my opinion. The film is beautiful - especially the last scene in which Anna is walking down a long drive with tall trees lined on both sides and Martins is waiting for her, and she shines him, and just keeps on walking. In the novel it is suggested that Martins and Anna end up together, and the last lines are: "Poor Crabbin. Poor all of us when you think of it."
Both endings are somewhat sad, but the book ending reminds me very much of the final line in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises where Lady Bret, the romantic interest, proposes that she and Jake, the protagonist, could have had "such a damned good time together" to which Jake cynically replies, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
In the film, Anna's ignoring Martins is much more believable because she is portrayed strong, and devoted to Lime - even though she knows he has done evil things (running a Penicillin racket), she remains loyal to him to the end, resenting Martins for cooperating with police and consequently causing his death. Anna's presence in the novel isn't as strong, but in the film we get a real feel for her, perhaps because we see her, we witness her grief visually, and know that she will not compromise her feelings for Lime.
We are reading a small book by Rob White that examines the film closely; the book is from a series from the British Film Institute and I highly recommend checking them out - I read the one by Peter Barnes on Lubitsch's "To Be or Not to Be" and it enhanced my understanding and appreciation for the film immensely.

Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins

Welles & Cotten

Alida Valli as Anna

a semester's worth of movies

2007-04-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

in pictures.....

commune

Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be

"Stranger than Fiction"

Fassbinder's "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul"

Lacombe, Lucien

2007-02-18T23:33:00.000-08:00

i love louis malle! i guess this is only the third movie i have seen by him (the other two are "Murmur of the Heart" and "Au Revoir Les Enfants") but "Lacombe, Lucien" is just as good. The film starts out with Lucien, a young man who doesn't belong, during WWII with the German occupation of France, and it seems all he does is injur animals and you start to wonder if he is sociopathic. But as the film progresses it seems Lucien is just trying to assert his manhood in a typical coming-of-age way and his aggression is probably tied to the fact that his dad is in prison and he has no father figure. The French resistance won't accept Lucien into their army saying he is too young, so he sort of accidentally falls into working for the German army and gets to feel tough finally. He is also introduced to a Jewish woman named France who is hiding out with her family.

All of this is worth watching just to get to the end where Lucien and France with her very old grandmother end up escaping to an abandoned house in the country - it is absolutely lovely, and filmed brilliantly with lots of saturated color and Lucien & France roll around in the hay (literally) and lounge around the grass during dusk. Of course, it can't end happily. I read online that Malle was criticized so much for this film that he emigrated to the US - the French audience was upset that he portrayed both sides, French & German, in a poor light. The actor who played Lucien, Pierre Blaise, was killed only a few years after the film was made in an automobile accident. It is a shame as he is really good in the role and extremely easy on the eyes.... something about the mixture of rebel and farm boy - oooh la la.

Lucien in the country

Pan's Labyrinth (Gearing up for the Oscars)

2007-02-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I will be able to submit my faves for 2006 (although I hardly know if I have seen everything worth seeing) before the Academy Awards on Feb. 25th. "Pan's Labyrinth" is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and the idea of a fairy tale for adults interested me - especially one from Mexico (not really sure why, but it seems N. Amer. is saturated with this type of film as it is). In brief, if you have any desire to see this film, do, and see it while it's in the theatres as it is visually stunning - it feels like you are watching a child's nightmares at times and the villain is the epitome of evil - and the acting/casting is superb. Although I can't say I liked it as much as Scorsese's "The Departed," which is the best film of the year in my opinion, "Pan's Labyrinth" is definitely Oscar-worthy.

Danielson: A Family Movie (or, Make a Joyful Noise HERE)

2007-02-01T19:31:00.000-08:00

It's taken me a while to get to writing this, but last weekend I was fortunate enough to catch the documentary "Danielson: A Family Movie (or, Make a Joyful Noise HERE)" at the Red Vic Movie House (well, most of it - I missed the last five minutes). You probably already know about this documentary and the band, and I guess I knew a little bit about both also before going, and that Sufjan Stevens would be in it (a motivator - he is a pretty handsome dude). I love pretty much all music/musician/band documentaries, regardless of whether or not I am all that into the music made by the subject of the film, simply because I love music and find the people who make it fascinating.

If this is starting to sound like a disclaimer, it's not.

I liked this documentary, although I feel it could have been about ten minutes shorter (or maybe I just had to rush off so time was more of an issue). And I even like Brother Daniel, the primary focus of the film (he is Danielson and sometimes accompanied by the Famile), and found him interesting for the same reason most front-men or artists are interesting: they are typically total ego-maniacs and definitely beat to the sound of a different drum. Faith and being Christian has a profound affect on Daniel, and even leads him to focus on songwriting as a primary occupation, and so with the help of his brothers and sisters (literally - his real bros and sisters) and then with some help from his Christian Brothers, like Sufjan, they find a place in the indie rock scene. Unfortunately for Danielson, the band's faith (in part because they sing about God) is constantly attacked or at least a point that the band is forced to discuss and defend. This is true of the documentary as well, I felt. On one hand, the director J.L. Anderson is documenting the history of the band and Daniel, in which Christianity is a huge part of the story, and on the other, by the end of the film, you begin to feel like his faith is still being defended instead of just made reference to. I started to feel bad for Brother Daniel because it seemed people can't accept that he is a Christian and makes music, and because he feels his talent is owed to the Lord, it ends up showing through in the music. But it did feel at points, by the director continuously showing interviews with audience members, fans, and interviewers about the God thing, Anderson kinda wouldn't let it go either. Don't get me wrong, it's still worth seeing, but it did start to feel repetative at points - and maybe this is because his faith isn't really all that much of an issue for me. I like music that has gospel elements and I was in a choir for most of my school life, so I am used to music being about God.
Anyway, if you were ever curious about Sufjan's role in the Danielson Famile, you get a good understanding of it from the film, but again, I almost feel Sufjan's presence in the film started to overshadow the Famile's at one point - probably the fault of the director and/or editors.

"brother sun, sister moon" & "la collectionneuse"

2007-01-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

school starts tomorrow, so i am cramming in as many films as possible before my life is all books....

"brother sun, sister moon" 1973
...is a film that rented fairly often when i worked in a video store (well, in a sort of cult fashion), that six years ago seemed the epitome of hippy dippy that i assumed i couldn't get into. and to a certain extent, i still can't - but not because of the hippy-ness. the first forty minutes or so of this film consists of corny flashbacks with francesco (who becomes saint francis of asissi) covered in what looks like a shroud, cheese-cloth type coffin where he feverishly recalls his guilty past as a soldier and average dude. lots of this film is just plain hokey, and at points becomes increasingly hokey with the addition of the music by donovan, but then at other points donovan's music compliments the landscapes of francesco's inspiration to live monastically, totally sustained by his natural environment. cinematically, "brother sun, sister moon" is lovely, and not totally consumed with tedious biographical accuracies that to me, aside from the weird beginning, works, given francesco's obsession with the wonders of nature. and the ending in which he visits the pope to be certain that he hasn't made a mistake in his devout expression made me cry because francesco's character is so pure, he forces you to remember, or rather, understand and maybe agree with his outlook and choices..... like when you were a kid wishing you were a nun or maria from "the sound of music."

also worth mentioning is the pure hotness of francesco's BFF, bernardo, played by leigh lawson.
once again, i am feeling inspiration for a blog devoted to films with men with beards. any suggestions?

"La Collectionneuse" 1967

so, this is the predecessor for "claire's knee" in eric rohmer's "six moral tales" and almost as good. once again, i found myself totally relating to every character's motivations and predicament in this film about three people rooming in a villa that belongs to some rich dude for five weeks. two men and a woman named haydee (pronounced kind of like heidi) who is portrayed as loose, thus collecting men. the main character, adrien, is played by patrick bauchau who has one of the most amazing noses i have ever seen. adrien thinks he has haydee pegged throughout the film, and he is duped a few times which makes the film entertaining throughout. i highly recommend both "claire's knee" and "la collectionneuse" for anyone interested in psychologically realistic films (my personal fave - for film and books). and also because the location (st. tropez maybe?) is gorgeous and filmed beautifully.

ooh, and i just found a cool article on the "six moral tales" if you would like to check it.

the nose...

and lots of sunbathing...

the dreamlife of angels

2007-01-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

this is a film that i had meant to watch when it first came out, but never got around to. i had always heard good things about the french actress elodie bouchez, and now would like to watch her first film "wild reeds", a coming of age film that won a bunch of awards. "the dreamlife of angels" is a film about friendship between two sort of lost girls - the subject matter isn't anything new and neither is the style of the film, but it is done well and both elodie bouchez and natacha regnier are excellent... kind of reminiscent of maybe an arty-er "me without you."

the lovely miss bouchez

fear of fear

2007-01-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

i am on a roll - 3 movies in 2 days. it's raining so i figured i watch a movie a friend leant to me, fassbinder's "fear of fear" (1976 - the year i was born, woohoo). fof centers around margot, played by margit carstensen, a housewife who has just given birth to a second child and begins to fear that she is going crazy. fearing that she is going crazy, she has repeated anxiety attacks, which fassbinder illustrates visually by using a watery effect so that we see through margot's eyes, her world going somewhat droopy or wiggly (it kinda reminds me of something in "donnie darko"). i was entirely sympathetic with her anxiety as i felt she must be bored out of her mind - her husband is consumed with mathematics homework and she seems only happy when swimming.

i wouldn't say it's a brilliant film, but it's definitely good and worth watching because it looks great (some really nice shots, like when margot drops her vallium onto the floor of the bathtub, as well as fassbinder's use of mirror shots of margot throughout the film) and would be of interest for those persons concerned with how women & insanity are represented in art. i did find it funny that margot goes to see three male doctors, all whom either tell her she needs more rest and/or prescribe her drugs -- reminiscent of the victorian "rest cure" often prescribed to women, a subject explored in the book The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, and also prescribed to Virginia Woolf in real life. at the end of the film, margot is sent to a mental hospital and ultimately given a sleeping therapy, but is shown only with a female doctor who is reassuring and tells her she needs to start earning her own money and getting some hobbies (ahem, shall we say "a room of one's own"??). granted, her female psychologist also prescribes what seems to be anti-depressants to margot, but nonetheless, it is the woman doctor who truly understands margot's illness and is able to cure her.

i am thankful to fassbinder for this feminist touch because at first i had my worries about how he would handle the "insane" margot after watching "why does herr r. run amok?" a few months back. herr r. ends up killing his wife & family who seem dull and oppressive to him throughout the film. phew! not the fate for our margot!

the search continues

2007-01-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

i have decided to enter the blogging world. it's a tad bit strange, but i decided that the world of myspace groups wasn't for me, and i need an outlet and even a way to remember what films i watch. it won't be too formal, and totally subjective.... i guess that's what blogs are.
so here it goes.

i have been on a search ever since watching ingmar bergman's "scenes from a marriage" to find films that look similar and have a similar effect on me. sfm is lovely to look at, not only because liv ullman is a beauty, but also because bergman seems to use a pastel palate (or rather, i guess, his cinematographer) that is dreamy and appealing to me.

i had seen other bergman films, but in black and white, so i watched a few more, but found ultimate satisfaction in rainer werner fassbinder's "why does herr R. run amok?"
it's a pretty disturbing film in the end, but looks amazing.
eventually i was led to maurice pialat's 1983 "a nos amours" ("to our loves"). sandrine bonnaire's honest performance is captivating and she plays the role of a girl coming-of-age and learning how to love brilliantly. she is also gorgeous, which makes the film all the more fun to look at.

and the story reminded me a lot of one of my favorite films of all time (well, not that long as i only first saw it two years ago) - louis malle's "murmur of the heart" ("le souffle a coeur"). i think the ending of this film would creep a lot of people out, but i liked it and felt that malle is not simply trying to shock the audience with his exploration of teen angst and a kid's interesting (?) relationship with his mother. benoit ferreux is adorable as the angst ridden son.

my local video store clerk assisted me in selecting two films to sate my appetite for dreamy pastel colors in eric rohmer's fifth film in his "six moral tales" called "claire's knee" and a soft-core lesbian vampire film "vampyros lesbos". although i always enjoy '60s/'70s campy soft-core films (like russ meyer's "the immoral mr. teas"), i wasn't as crazy about "vampyros lesbos" as i was the rohmer film. a few years back i watched "chloe in the afternoon" which rubbed me the wrong way.... i suppose because i get tired of the whole male-temptation-to-cheat as a theme in films. but "claire's knee" is so awesome because the whole film revolves around this man having discussions about love and his deciscion to marry a woman after dating her off and on for six years. he becomes enchanted with a young woman's knee, but figures out how to satisfy his desire while remaining true to his fiance and himself. it is pretty awesome and sorta reminds me of a good woody allen film, like "annie hall".
here is a pic of the bewitching knee:

"vampyros lesbos", for me, was saved by the cute, swedish actress ewa stroemberg. not that there weren't a lot of hilariously cheesy moments, but i should have been with a friend drinking beer & watching this, instead of alone eating yogurt.

here is a pic of the enchanting ewa:

okay, that's all for now. more to come.