Die Dritte Generation

Eddie Constantine plays the owner of a large computer corporation. The credits are incredible, a great menacing almost electronic score from Peer Raben, while the green letters appear on screen, over an office room, with a TV, VCR and white old school computer (well it's 1979 after all) . The film follows a group of terrorists (a Fassbinder all-star cast), who seem to have no ideal or aim. It is not the easiest Fassbinder film to watch (there is a lways a TV on in the background, saturating the soundtrack, and none of it is subtitled), nor his best, but very rich nonetheless.

Heaven can wait

A rich, charming film about love, aging, death, family with a wonderful cast including Charles Coburn as the grand dad, and the great Eugene Palette as the Texas king of meatpackings, being very grumpy. Ameche and Gene Tierney age and die, and Lubistch mise en scene showing the passing of time remarkable.

To live and die in LA

Continuing my favourite American films of the 80s serie. Actually, this pales slightly in comparison with Year of the Dragon. Still Friedkin's last great film is still cool and dark, despite the crap last 2 scenes. The chase is great, the Long Beach area an unusual setting for a film in LA and Willem Dafoe is a great bad guy. More bad hair styles and bright 80s colours. Great appearance from the actress who plays Daphe in Frasier.

Year of the Dragon

Cimino at his peak, violent, dark, controversial. Downtown New York is beautifully shot, the whole film is really operatic for lack of a better word, Mickey Rourke on top form. It is still one of my favourite films of the 80s, and it hasn't aged badly, apart from a few dodgy haircuts, magnificent, moving and violent.

Le Mans

Since it was Le Mans this weekend, I got the dvd with L'Equipe, and a very interesting article on the making of the film. The fist line of dialogue happens after 36 minutes, this makes it an experimental film, right? So yes it's a bit dull, car racing and all that, but the race is well shot, and the film I believe captures the experience of Le Mans, even though I have never been there. The ending is kind of gripping, obviously done in a hollywood style. McQueen still had guts producing this film, with no real plot, only pro drivers, and a good score from Michel Legrand.

L'Intrus

My favourite film of the year so far. Although I must confess I didn't get the whole thing and the story is a bit puzzilng, I think that Denis want the audience to figure it out themselves. Michel subor is once again amazing, and the way Denis shots his aging body truly moving. A great score from Stuart Staples, mostly guitar riffs, with a bit of trumpet here and there is great. Denis and Agnes Godard shot nature like no one else but Jean-Luc Godar can at present.

Weekend

Godard's apocalyptic vision of the decay if the bourgeoisie, social classes and tribes, full of car crashes and tracking shots. It starts with Mireille Darc recalling an wvwning spent with a couple in a pornographic way, and ends with canabalism. Mireille Darc screaming in desperation when she finds out her Hermes handbag is destroy in a car crash in which a few people have died sums it up quite well.

Au hasard Balthasar

The first time I saw Au hasard Balthazar, I was largely unimpressed. That was a few years ago. After watching several Bresson in the last year or so, revisiting Balthazar properly was a revelation.

La Cienaga

So here we have a bunch of crazy Argentinians, drinking lots of wine with ice, the main character Mecha is a serious piss-head, she falls over a broken glass by a filthy pool, her husband is useless and dyeis hair, her sons spend time in the forest shooting stuff with nasty looking dogs. Some other family members pop in and talk. It's hot, so more wine with ice is being served. Sod all happens, but Lucrecia Martel's tight framing and moving camera really convey the sense of beoredom, failure and heat. Not pleasant, but challenging.

House of Bamboo

Fairly basic film noir, in Scope and colour, remarkable for being shot on location in Japan (one of the first shot in Japan after the war). Fuller shots a large chunk of it as if it was a documentary, with glimpses of daily life in post-war Tokyo, and some wonderful shots. Also interesting for the depiction of the cultural differences between Americans and Japanese.

A face in the crowd

The story of a redneck who becomes a mega star in this new media that was television in 1957. The main character is absolutly annoying, but Andy Griffith (whom i have never seen before) delivers a great performance. It's fascinating to witness the impact of TV on advertising and vice versa, as well as the power of TV already used to help work on the image of politicians to seduce the masses. Obviously, Lonesome Rhodes becomes greedy and lose his humility and respect for his audience, which I bet is still the case of popular TV figures today.

Desordre

An early Assayas film from the mid 80's, fairly dramatic with an opening murder scene and the suicide of one of the main characters, a scene at Le Gibus, then a failed trip to London, with the Woodentops live at the Marquee, and finshing in New York, a few good actors (Belvaux and Chicot), a bad one in a funny way (Daho), and Stanczak, who I felt was not credible as the leader of a rock group. MAde me think of a Techine film, not bad but not great.

Antonioni: The eye that changed cinema

Superb documentary on Antonioni, with lots of old tv interviews, speeches at film festivals and on the set of his films in chrnological orders. The man was deep and intelligent.

Western Union

Superb Fritz Lang western, with Randolph Scott, having to deal with a bunch of indians, and a bunch of baddies, who are fighting the progress of the construction of the Western Union telegraph line. Robert Young is ok as a tenderfoot from the East. The scene where he turns up in a brand new cowboy outfit is hilarious, followed by some redneck giving him a crazy horse to ride. The ending is particularly remarkable since Scott dies and there are some incredibly nice shots.

A Generation

Andrej Wajda's first film about a group of young communist resisting the nazi in Warsaw in 1942, was surprinsingly not too didactic nor full of propaganda, and very much inspired by neo-realism. The cinematography by Jerzy Lipman is very good, and the chase scene ending up with the suicide in the stairs of one of the main protagonist is truly fantastic. Roman Polanski has a small role, his first on screen, and many key crew members were straight out of the famous Lodz Film School.

Rebel without a cause

Probably one of the first Holywood film with disfunctional families and their impact on teenagers, trying to find themselves, define their place in relation to their parents and their peers. The film two main settings are the famous Griffith Observatory and the Getty house that was used in Sunset Bvd. Another mightily moving film from Nicholas Ray.

I am a fugitive from a chain gang

Great social drama in a true 30's Warner style. Paul Muni comes back from WW1, gets a bad deal, spends a tough time in a chain gang, escape, becomes successful as a civil engineer, gets caught, escapes again after a wicked chase, and ends up having to hide for ever.