This just made my millennium. L’âge d’or Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1930 • France Starring Gaston Modot, Max Ernst, Lya Lys Poetic, absurd, erotic, visionary, and scandalous, L’ÂGE D’OR showcases the incomparably obsessive cinematic imagination of Luis Buñuel at the beginning of his career and the celebrated surrealism of Salvador Dalí at its peak. In 1930, following their short-film triumph UN CHIEN ANDALOU, Buñuel and Dalí created an hour-long avant-garde tour de force that’s both an aesthetic avalanche of boldness and a withering attack on a society that elevates pious morality over sexual freedom. As scorpions battle, partisans (led by famed surrealist painter Max Ernst) stumble, and the forces of middle-class righteousness repeatedly interrupt two neurotic lovers, L’ÂGE D’OR delivers a gleeful fever dream of Freudian unease, bizarre humor, and shocking imagery. Skewering everything from Catholic piety to sexual fetishism, the film provoked riots, was denounced by Mussolini’s ambassador, earned its backer a threat of excommunication, and was banned by the French police—all within two weeks of its release.
Tonight ....”Red Sun” from 1971 starring Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, Alain Delon & Ursula Andress. Spaghetti Western meets Samurai flick.
Tonight.....”The Westerner” 1940. Starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. Directed by William Wilder
More classic Bunuel: The Phantom of Liberty Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1974 • France Starring Michel Piccoli, Jean-Claude Brialy, Monica Vitti Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Buñuel’s surrealist gem THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY. Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals as chips, and police officers looking for a missing girl who is right under their noses, this perverse, playfully absurd comedy of non sequiturs deftly compiles many of the themes that preoccupied Buñuel throughout his career—from the hypocrisy of conventional morality to the arbitrariness of social arrangements.
Last night I watched "Chinese Roulette" by Fassbinder. Certainly an interesting, if ultimately (to me) disappointing film. Anyone have a suggestion for another Fassbinder film to check out?
Part way through this now - very odd and interesting. Paris Belongs to Us Directed by Jacques Rivette • 1961 • France Starring Betty Schneider, François Maistre, Giani Esposito One of the original critics turned filmmakers who helped jump-start the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette began shooting his debut feature in 1958, well before that cinema revolution officially kicked off with THE 400 BLOWS and BREATHLESS. Ultimately released in 1961, the rich and mysterious PARIS BELONGS TO US offers some of the radical flavor that would define the movement, with a particularly Rivettian twist. The film follows a young literature student (Betty Schneider) who befriends the members of a loose-knit group of twentysomethings in Paris, united by the apparent suicide of an acquaintance. Suffused with a lingering post-World War II disillusionment while also evincing the playfulness and fascination with theatrical performance and conspiracy that would become hallmarks for the director, PARIS BELONGS TO US marked the provocative start to a brilliant directorial career.
I watched this on Fandor a few years ago and I liked it just as much the second time around. Museum Hours Directed by Jem Cohen • 2012 • Austria, United States Starring Mary Margaret O’Hara, Bobby Sommer, Ela Piplits Acclaimed experimental filmmaker Jem Cohen applies his singular vision to narrative in this mesmerizing tale of two adrift strangers who find refuge in Vienna’s grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum. Johann (Bobby Sommer), a museum guard, spends his days silently observing both the art and the visitors. Anne (Mary Margaret O’Hara), suddenly called to Vienna from overseas, has been wandering the city in a state of limbo. A chance meeting sparks a deepening connection that draws them through the halls of the museum and the streets of the city. The exquisitely photographed MUSEUM HOURS is an ode to the bonds of friendship, an exploration of an unseen Vienna, and the power of art to both mirror and alter our lives.
Indeed. Columbus Directed by Kogonada • 2017 • United States Starring John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son, Jin (John Cho), finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana, a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library. As their intimacy develops, Jin and Casey explore both the town and their emotional baggage: Jin’s estranged relationship with his father and Casey’s reluctance to leave Columbus and her mother. With its naturalistic rhythms and empathy for the complexities of families, the debut feature from Kogonada unfolds as a gently drifting, deeply absorbing exploration of the ways physical space can affect our emotions.
Songs My Brothers Taught Me Directed by Chloé Zhao • 2015 • United States Starring John Reddy, Jashaun St. John, Taysha Fuller The stunning feature debut from Chloé Zhao (THE RIDER) is a sensitive, lyrical depiction of life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation featuring a remarkable cast of nonprofessional indigenous actors from the community. With an eye for moments of everyday wonder, Zhao charts the bond between a preteen girl (Jashaun St. John) and her older brother (John Reddy) who, despite the poverty, alcoholism, and resulting apathy that have ravaged their community, find meaning in their tribe’s rituals and vanishing traditions. The director’s documentary-like approach yields a raw, authentic neorealist portrait graced with gorgeous panoramic cinematography of the Great Plains.
Tonight....”Atlantic City” (1980) with Burt Lancaster & Susan Sarandon. Had to catch it since it’s dropping off at month end. I hadn’t seen it since it was first released and it’s held up better than I recalled.
A really good film. I was disturbed by the docent in the museum talking about Bruegel. She seemed so self-righteous and nervous, even angry. It was unexpected.
I wound up watching all three films in Fassbinder's trilogy on women dealing with WW2 and its aftereffects - "The Marriage of Maria Braun", "Lola", and "Veronika Voss". All very good films with layering, depth and complex characters. And no Hollywood endings here - one conclusion even satirizes them. Triple thumbs up.
That is my favorite scene in the film. An art historian, to generalize, would probably have a sense of superiority over a tour group, she did seem nervous speaking to the group, and that guy checking his phone while I was speaking would annoy me as well. Anyway, it is a terrific film. And check out Columbus it is a very good film as well.
That is not cool at all. I watched it right after MH because they where combined as a CC double feature.
Fantastic! The Ear Directed by Karel Kachyňa • 1970 • Czechoslovakia This paranoid surveillance thriller unfolds over the course of a tense, turbulent night in the life of Ludvík (Radoslav Brzobohatý), a Communist party official, and his wife Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová). Returning home from a party one evening, the pair discover that their house has been broken into and bugged—and that the state may be listening in on their every word. A number of Ludvík’s colleagues have already been terminated in an ongoing purge: could he be next? Completed in 1970 but banned for twenty years, THE EAR masterfully evokes the ever-present sense of dread that defines life under authoritarianism.
Loves of a Blonde Directed by Miloš Forman • 1965 • Czechoslovakia Starring Vladimíra Pucholta, Vladimír Menšik, Ivan Kheil With sixteen women to each man, the odds are against Andula in her desperate search for love—that is, until a rakish piano player visits her small factory town and temporarily eases her longings. A tender and humorous look at Andula’s journey, from the first pangs of romance to its inevitable disappointments, LOVES OF A BLONDE immediately became a classic of the Czech New Wave and earned Milos Forman the first of his Academy Award nominations.
Last night......Aguirre, The Wrath of God 1972 W/Klaus Kinski ....Directed by Herzog I hadn’t seen this in decades, maybe 30 years. I’d forgotten what an amazing film it is. Kinski is just mesmerizing every time the camera is on him. Yes, his movements are stylized yet they fascinate. There is a deliberation to them that works inside the man he depicts. He moves like he is crippled at times, like Richard III. And his eyes convey everything from intense resoluteness to an overwhelming sadness at the core of Aguirre. He becomes statuesque in many shots. And the soundtrack by Popol Vuh is just so perfect. I will watch this again before it leaves at the end of July.