French films are shit. Porquoi?

La guerre est finie is probably my favorite by him

i really hate this thread title

― Ask Nult What Your Country Can Do For You (Local Garda), Saturday, March 26, 2011 9:30 AM (4 weeks ago

― corey, maandag 25 april 2011 13:16 (2 months ago) Bookmark

Seriously, every time this thread title pops up... ugh

Title could do with a little spell-check.

It significantly contributes to its ugliness, I agree.

Alain Resnais season at the bfi -- can't wait to watch je t'aime, je t'aime. The only ones his 60s films I haven't seen.

Finally got to see that one @ a retro last year...fantastic, and probably the most subtly devastating film he did during the era.

Great! I am missing the men's singles final at Wimbledom tomorrow to watch this. Didn't make a single less than great film in that era so expectations are high.

People can ask the mod for a change of thread title -- doesn't bother me (partly cuz I've met Pete and know it was all tongue in cheek) but if it gets people to stop going on about it.

I rescreened Annie Hall last night and realized: je t'aime, je t'aime + Annie Hall= Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind

BTW, I saw you mentioned Stavisky--it was another one I caught during that retro. A biopic, it's pretty straight-forward film for Resnais, done in that 70s interpretation of the 30s style (think The Conformist or The Sting). Stephen Sondheim composed the score.

Stavisky has a couple of weird magical moments, like when they are visiting the house where Stavisky's dad has committed suicide (iirc)
soundtrack is pretty good though, lush.

Cool! Not sure I'll make to that actually...will try.

'je t'aime je t'aime' is one of his best. And one of the best SF films of all time by that stage, although thee isn't much competition w/the likes of '2001' about.

Really unbalanced season -- Marienbad is good but they are really going for how 'iconic' it is with the number of screenings. Say that as I missed Stavisky.

Mariebad must look gorgeous on the screen tho'. Only seen it on DVD.

Try and see some docs. Maybe one of the later, more straight ones like 'No Smoking'

Stavisky is OK but nothing special really.
I am generally not sold on Blu-Rays but the BR edition of Marienbad is pretty damn tempting.

Saw 'Night and Fog' along with severlal docs yesterday.

In terms of filming the tracking shots of camps, libraries or chemical factories all kinda morph into one thing, man-made, to be filmed by Alain Resnais. There is a measure of control (?) right there.

Cayrol's delivery on 'Night and Fog' is as clinical as the mix of images (colour, B&W and photographs), which really sounds right. Never actor-y (could I watch 'The World at War' after this?), the music is never too for effects and never too distant. Everyone is jumping through hoops and corners to do this thing thought. The partially blank 'who is responsible?' at the end is realy powerful (cf. The Chapman dolls being flogged at the moment).

Raul Ruiz has died.

urgggh. I guess I will go see Mysteries of Lisbon Sunday.

Yeah, I want to see that too.

can we finally change this thread title?

aw damn. i only just saw my first :(. everything i've heard about mysteries has been unrestrainedly positive.

One of the greats. I'm deeply saddened by this. RIP, you beautiful, ungraspable rapscallion!

A great filmmaker. One of my favorites of all time. So saddened by this news.

Damn. Les Trois Couronnes du Matelot is a classic.

have u guys seen - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_in_Paris

i thought it was p cool

Going to see Vivre Ensemble on Saturday, one of two films Anna Karina directed.

omg i didn't know she made films! Please report back

Vivre Ensemble was messy but interesting. It felt a bit like a shaggy-dog American film from that time, Scarecrow or something. There was a half-hour detour to New York that had a great period feel. Jonathan Rosenbaum spoke before and after, and he described the film well: post-'68, post-Godard (with title cards and sections and a 360-degree pan around Karina's bedroom), pre-feminist, highly autobiographical. The kind of thing I love: when the characters were hanging around Central Park, you could hear what seemed to be found singing in the background, and whoever it was, they were doing "Get Together" first, then the Byrds' "Here Without You."

Thanks - might be worth a watch if it ever make its way to the Lumiere

I liked House of Pleasures, which admittedly is a tough sit, esp with an early bit of gore and a late "Nights in White Satin."

trailer looked kinda schlocky to me - though redeemed by the awesome lee moses jam overlaid on top - but i'm pleased to hear you liked it, i might catch

a french film that is not shit = gremillon's 'lumiere d'ete' (occupation-era tragic romance set in provence, eclipse set forthcoming)

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2012/07/16/97001-20120716FILWWW00341-deces-de-l-actrice-tsilla-chelton.php

Tatie Danielle has died.

ilx loves its traditions but someone nix this thread

^^

William Klein season at Tate: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/search?f[]=im_vid_47%3A1862

One for the Left Bank completists I guess..

Again: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/eventseries/william-klein-films-1958-99

Should I see Les Enfants du Paradis?

heh that's a bit conventional for you right

i have never seen it probably because 'theatricality' as a trope doesn't really appeal

maybe worth seeing some earlier carné first

Love it

a must, other Carné too sure.

Techine's Unforgivable from this past year was pretty good esp the acting.

Loved Le Quai des Brumes, and, guff about 'poetic realism' aside I guess that's fairly conventional.

Other thing is I'm watching Rivette's Out 1 which is big on theatre and what's outside the stage...of course what is outside here is v different.

Just don't know if its worth the three hours...xp

fwiw, i loved the new digital print of Le Quai des Brumes, too, but i'm afraid the Enfants du Paradis revival bored me shitless, and i bailed at the halfway point.

Nilmar is right to suggest that it is very 'theatrical' in terms of both performance and staging - 'all the world's a stage' etc etc. it also seems to me to be a film that's quite hard to disentangle from its heroic production backstory.

to love it like gukbe, i think you wld maybe have to great affection for the central clown character, whereas i found him p insufferable.

needless to say, it is not v much like out one - or l'amour fou - which may be a gd or bad thing according to taste

Hors Satan is shit, bcz Bruno Dumont made it.

I thought it was impressive: the cinematography for a start was really well done for sure, but unlike many films it was made to be utterly crucial and integral to the overall scheme. You'd have to go back to Pavese's Devil in the Hills or maybe see Glauber Rocha's bandits in the Brazilian Sertão for parallels. Its as if the environment has such an effect upon their imaginations that they HAVE to act upon it, for good or bad and certainly for righteous ways. The film is mostly dialogue-less, a certainly disquieting one at that.

Other more obvious parallels in French film and w/Dreyer. However this has a realism that completely jars against the 'supernatural' occurences -- Dumont sure is a good catholic, the events made to look as miracles and also given room to be seen as non-miracles...recalling Pasolini.

I suspect the biggest problem is you may need to have watched some of those older films beforehand to get a handle on what's going on, otherwise they could be reduced to nastiness in the countryside w/pretty pictures...whereas you don't need that when picking up Dreyer or Pasolini. Not sure if it stands on its own terms.

From his wiki I see his next film stars Juliette Binoche.

I mentioned Polisse on another thread, which I enjyoed a lot.

Hor Satan is one of those (many) films that I'm glad I saw, afterwards, but found a bit of a trial at the time. Like Peter Greenaway, Dumont says he wants audiences to dwell on the film like someone would dwell on a painting. I find that a hard thing to do on a single viewing, and it's hard to summon up the motivation to take on multiple rewatchings of it.

One thing I did find interesting was the effect the title cast over the whole film. I suppose I assumed "Satan" referred to him, which may well be wrong. I wonder how I'd have seen him if I hadn't known the name of the film.

(which is Hors Satan, not Hor, yes, I know)

Christian iconography was mined to bits in the scenes depicting the manner in which the girl would rest upon the man's shoulder.

Great title...well it depends on how your read the Jesus story - he was a man, after all, capable of kindness but also moments of impatience and cruelty.

Yes. I came out of thinking: "maybe this is actually close to what the historical Jesus was like".

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-jeanne-moreau-85

Maybe a last job in a Bruno Dumont film?

what is Moderato Cantible like?

i'd never heard of it