The wedding crashers

Above average US comedy, not too gross, for once with some funny bits and good acting from all, even Will Farrell as a funeral crasher!

Metropolis

One of the most famous silent films, probably not the greatest but very modern and captivating, greart sets (some built, others painted) and fab acting in particular Brigitte Helm, the dance scenes are phenomenal and trance-like.

Morocco

The second Sternberg/Dietrich film after Blue Angel and the first for Paramount, in a Morocco filmes in Hollywood, with wonderful shadows and light. Gary Cooper is the handsome legionaire, but unfortunately he is not very good. The ending is quite beautiful with Marlene joining the small group of moroccan women following the legionaires in the desert and leaving behind Aldophe Menjou and his Rolls, but not the best one from Sternberg.

Fantasy Island - Pilot

CJ's favourite TV show from the late 70's, Mr Roarke, Tatoo, the plane the plane, smiles everyone smiles. I also watched it when I was little. A good Aaron Spelling production, which could be remade by Hollywood. The pilot is a bit long and one of the story is a bit weak, but there is Victoria Principal...

A very long engagement

Here we have Amelie during the Great War. Same over use of green colours, same way to introduce small and big characters in a quirky way and the annoying Audrey Tautou looking for her fiancé who seem to have died in the trenches. Big yawns.

La Marche de l'Empereur

Mega-cute documentary with lots of penguins and their babies. The narration is so-so and the music is a bit naff too, but overall it is quite moving and amusing and beautifully shot, even though there a few annoying under-water CGI shots.

Breaking news

A good idea to have the role of the media as the key theme but Johnnie To makes a film in the style of Luc Besson and his team of bad directors, instead of matching Woo or Hark. Lots of shooting around and split screens but overall it is not very good. J-P Dinnet dans son intro declares that the opening long one-shot scenes in one of the three best in the history of cinema, what a joke! It looks like it has been filmed by an amateur.

Grand Hotel

An all star, ensemble cast from MGM including Garbo and a young Joan Crawford, is still disappointing. There are 2 Barrymore, and I already can't really cope when there is one, and Lionel is really annoying. A tedious story, over acted, the last half hour is ok, but but really enough to redeem it.

Anna Karenina

Another Garbo film, this time directed by Clarence Brown, a reliable director for MGM, but not a particuliar genius. Garbo again does not strike me as a great actress, and she has a terrible hairdo. the first 40 minutes are quite dreadful but it picks up after, and ends up in a big drama.

L'intrus

Second viewing and it is still my favourite film of the year. I still didn't get the whole thing but I really like the way Denis wants 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 cinematography. Denis and Agnes Godard shot nature like no one else but Jean-Luc Godar can at present.

Ran

Kurosawa's version of King Lear is quite magnificient, if a bit slow. The 3 battle scenes are awesome, in particular the first one with no actual battle sound but only the great Toru Takemitsu score. Great use of colours and great actors illustrate this great drama.

Kenji Mizoguchi: the life of a film director

Kaneto Shindo's documentary on Mizo San is a series of interviews with clooborators, both technicians and actors filmed in a 70s, with lots of memories about probably the greatest director of all time, a bit long but very good.

King Kong (1933)

The original was alreadyy a big blockbuster with emphasis on special effects and big scenes and little plot. The skills used to bring Kong to life are obvioulsy low tech but it works remarkably well. Fay Wray screams a lot.

Batman Begins

It started rather badly, didn't make much sense, amd I'm not a big fan of Liam Neeson, shame he is the main baddy, Crane is much better. But the advent of Batman is very well done, and there is a great supporting cast. Despite some cheesy bits, it's probably the best blockbuster I have seen for a while (with Sin City).

Gate of Flesh

Seijun Suzuki gives a taste what Nikkatsu roman porno will be a few years later, in theis story set in post-war Tokyo with Joe Shishido surrounded by 4 crazy prostitutes wearing brash colours and being very loud. The film is clear anti-US and is probably a fair, if stylised description of the era. Actually not much happens for a Suzuki film, so it is a bit disappointing, until the big scene at the end where one of the prostitute is being tied up and seriously whipped.

Seven Swords

Awesome beginning, very dark and violent in very muted colours and flashes of red, with the baddies looking like techno goth, a bit strange for a film set around 1600. And the fights at the end are also very good. At just over 2h30, no surprise it drags on a bit in the middle, there is a bit too much CGI, and the score is quite awful, but Tsui Hark films superbly, even in slo-mo.

The Brown Bunny

I stilll find the ending devastating and sad. After one hour of driving with a few songs here and there. Gallo filmed it like a home movie with great film grain and really hypnotic.

The 40 year old virgin

Not very subtle and gross as most US comedies are in this century. Some of it is modereatly funny, and there are titties on display (!), but it drags on for too long, full of clichés and predictable.

Forbidden games

Written by Aurenche & Bost, the arch-enemies of François Truffaut and representing 'la qualité française', it's a very classically filmed French with a sad story with 2 little annoying kids and a melancholic music. I liked it when I was little, I don't like it so much now, not terribly bad, nor terribly good.

Bigger than life

Magnificient Nick Ray film in glorious Cinemascope. The American Way of life goes bezerk, James Mason (who produced the film) gets hooked on Cortisone, turns into a complete psycho, wants to become god, almost kill his son, but the family is saved at the end. Dark and twisted for a Hollywood film.

Shoot the piano player

Truffaut's hommage to American cinema in particular film noir, but in fact mixing genres, starting noir, then moving into comedy (the first half hour is almost hilariously funny, with a peak around the Bobby Lapointe song), the romantic comedy and quite sweet (Aznavour's character like Truffaut is shy), a long flashback in a Hollywood style, to end up on a very dramatic note.

S'en fout la mort

Is the name of a fighting cock. Claire Denis (and Jean Pol Fargeau) always come up with very unusual and fascinating stories with a minimum amount of dialogue, and shot near Rungis in a night club that looks like it is over a motorway. The training of the cocks is shot like a choreography, and the whole film with hip hop, reggae and jazz mixed in is quite hypnotic.

Nénette et Boni

Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau and Agnès Godard in Marseille, filming a pizzaiolo and his pregnant sister, their father (the excellent Jacques Nolot), Vincent Gallo as the baker, whose wife in the object of Boni's fantasies, and score by Tindersticks. Denis films the characters very tightly and the film is superb.

Million Dollar Baby

Not as bad as I expected it to be, even quite good. It's a big drama and filmed by Eastwood in a classical style, but an honest film, as opposed to most Hollywood drama.

The Store

As part of the Jeff Wall exhibition, Tate Modern is showing a few Frederick Wiseman films. So we went to see The Store, taking place in a Neiman Marcus in Dallas, in 1982, so lots of big glasses and nice hairdos. The marketing techniques are already fairly sophisticated and the wealthy customers have bad taste. Very good.

Un film parlé

Simple yet unusual film from Manoel de Oliveira, where a history teacher from lisbon goes on a cruise with her young daughter across the Mediterranean to go meet her husband in Bombay and at the same time visits many of the historical sites she talks about to her student. Catherine Deneuve, Stefania Sandrelli and Irene Pappas eat at the Captain's table (Malkovitch) and have deep conversations about civilisations, politics, philosophy and life in general, until a terrorist attack happens.

La vie de famille

Jacques Doillon in summer 84 takes Sami Frey (very good but not particularly likable) and the 10 year old daughter of his screenwriter on the road between Cassis and Madridto illustrate the distance between parents and children, they make a film along the way, and end up have an honest discussion via a video camera. Very strong scenes and touching, and amusing scenes with a clever story telling via the film that they make on video.

Hammett

I believe Wenders first experience in making an American film was difficult, the shooting and editing was a pretty messy affair and the film was not a great success for Zoetrope. Although the San Francisco or the 30s is nicely recreated, the story is firts quite confusing and the ending fairly typical. Pleassnt to watch but that's about it.

Critique de la separation

I know nothing about Guy Debord. My first tate is this short 17 minute film (or anti-film), basically Debord reading his stuff over various images (moving or still) and commenting on society. when he mentions change and statemen/politicians, it's actually still relevant.