Sauve qui peut (la vie)

Godard's return to commercial cinema with famous actors is an interesting take on couples, prostitution, commerce, fear, modern life in big cities, etc and uses a lot of beautiful slow motion shots, to see if there is anything else to see. The prostitution scene in the hotel room, where the bossy customer creates image then sound is classic.

The naked island

Hypnotic is an adjective often used in conjunction with this film, but it's pretty dull really, mostly shots of a man and his wife carying water over this dry Japanese island, no surprise the wife kicks one of the buckets at the end. Beautifully shot but the lack of narrative doesn't help.

My neighbours the Yamada

From Takahata, using a deceptively simple design, although computer generated, to tell short stories about the Yamada and their daily lives. Very good, clever and funny.

Howl's moving castle

Wizards, witches, a few character under nasty spells, in a European country that looks like Switzerland, at war. It is very good, but not among the best Miyazaki and it drags on a little. great design, and use of coulour, as usual.

Scenario de Sauve qui peut (la vie)

I really like the little video pieces that Godard created for the films of this period. As usual this one is both enlightening and confusing, but still 20 minutes of distilled Godard.

La maison des bois - part 5, 6 & 7

The son is killed at the front, the war ends, and the children leave the house, leaving Maman Jeanne alone. It's all quite sad and moving, to conclude this unusual and excellent tv serie.

The Virgin Spring

Rape, murder and where is God? Before embarking on his trilogy of faith where Bergman comes to the conclusion that there is no God, he filmed this tale from the middle age. A very harsh film, very stylised and beautifully shot.

La maison des bois - part 4

There are about 7 scenes for 50 minutes, so they are quite long with a limited number of shots. Not a surprise Pialat retrospectively thought it was the best thing he did. With this he had the chance to take his time. Lots of long scenes with silence (like the last one with the German guy next to his plane that has been shut down).

Billion dollar brain

The 3rd and last Harry Palmer, this one directed by Ken Russell. Nice titles from Maurice Binder, the music is not by John Barry and awful. Most of the film is in icy Finland, and Palmer goes shopping at Stockmann. Apart from that, the plot is not very strong nor interesting, with a crazy Texas billionaire (who sounds just like George W) who has a small army and wants to destroy communism. Communism wins at the end! Only a couple of brief appearances by Colonel Ross, which is a shame.

La maison des bois - part 2 & 3

One of Pialat's favourite director was jean renoir, and the 3rd episodes is heavily influenced by Une partie de campagne with a long picnic scene by the river. Slow but superb, le bedeau cracks me up.

La maison des bois - part 1

Wouldn't be produced by tv channels anymore. The first episode obviously takes time introducing the characters, but shots are very long.

The bad sleep well

The ending is quite frustrating, but it makes sense as a bitter view of a corrupted society that not even the hero can bring to justice. The first long wedding scene is particularly good and the first half is great but then it drags on a bit.

Asphalt

In 1928, silent films were very sophisticated and this one has a very minimum amount of intertitles. The story of a gorgeous girl (Betty Amann, looking like Louise Brooks) who tries to steal a diamond, gets caught, seduces the policeman, who latter kills her big daddy.

Punishment Park

Wow! That's a radical film. Made in 1971, it is a heavy attack on America's policies towards rebels to its current politics and the way it treats minorities and people who do not agree with the government. The result,, a choice between lenghty imprisonment or 3 days in Punishment Park, where 'convicts' have 2 days to walk 50 miles in the heat to reach an american flag while being chased by armed forces, and die. Extremely powerful, and still relevant today.

Pialat shorts

The shorts filmed in Istanbul are very good, with stunning photography by Willy Kurant. There is also a funny one with a young Pialat acting with his then colleagues from Olivetti and a very esoteric one.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Similar in style to Oldboy, a bit less gruesome and grandiose, similar type of musuc and obviously revenge as the main theme. I am not convinced by Park Chan-Wook. He has great visual style, but his content is highly questionable. It works but not particularly pleasant.

Le Garçu

After filming the death of his mother Pialat films the death of his father, in the same village. There are some good bits, in the film and it is evident that it is autobiagraphical and that it was important for Pialat to film his young son. But some of it comes across as a home movie. It is poorly edited, has a wrong rhythm and the soundtrack is plain awful, and looks unfinished. Pialat was fully aware of it and didn't really take part in the editing. A big mess and a shame to end a superb oeuvre that way.

Effi Briest

A very cold film. Not having read Fontane's book, I don't know if it's Fassbinder way of adapting the book or not, although it is very likely. so it is the tragic story of Effi who marries a much older man, has an affair with a major, loses evrything and dies. It is passionless and dry. good but far from being amongst my favourite Fassbinder films.

Major Dundee

The newly re-dited version with a brand new score (it takes a while to get used to it but at the end it works pretty well). Heston leads a motley crew throughout Mexico chasing Apaches and being chased by the French army. There are some conflicts between Richard Harris (who is very good) and Heston, some romance and some fighting. A real epic western.

Chocolat

Claire Denis' first film, set in Cameroon, already bears her style with a minimum amount of dialogue and a lot left to the viewer to interpret and reflects some of the mysteries of Africa and the role of the colons.

Kill!

The last of the mid to late 60's samurai film from the Samurai Rebel box. Directed by Kihachi Okatomo, Kill! is an entertaining Chambara slightly influenced by Spaghetti Western. Tatsuaya Nakadai is very good.

The Island

Pretty good blockbuster. the first half is interesting and very well designed, then we step into full on Michael Bay land, lots of car chases, a few winks and lots of explosions, cars flying all over the place, and so on. McGregor and Johansson are the unlikely blocbuster stars, but work quite well.

Samurai rebellion

Kobayachi mad a painfully slowly film, and absolutly boring and not exciting. Mifune fights at the very end but it omes too late, before that it's long talks and drama, but ultimately very dry. Interesting for understanding Edo traditions, the weight of authority and some beautiful use of a palace's architecture.

The Match Factory Girl

Bought this film from my last trip to Helsinki. My type of film, short, consise but quite rich despite the very little amount of dialogue. Obviously not partly joyful, and in fact quite miserable, but very charming nonetheless as well as thoughtful and sensible.

Qui êtes-vous Polly Maggoo?

Way ahead of its time, William Klein mixes his photographic styles (fashion or not) with part philosophical essay on fashion (and the circus surrounding it), image, the role of the model, age, trends and fairytale (Cinderella). Excellent!

Story of a prostitute

set on the Mandchuria warfront, filmed in beautiful black & white and with some superb editing, a very harsh story about love and honour, hatred, passion. Very Japanese and very good, and quite restraint for Seijun Suzuki, lots of screms though.

L'acrobate

Claude Melki i s Leon the shy lonely bath man, who takes Tango lesson to get close to girls and becomes a champion. Charming and sweet, and a bit sad too. One of my favourite French films of the 70's.

New York New York

Rather flawed, and not particularly entertaining, and over long, Scorcese makes a Hollywood film about the 40's, big bands and musicals. There are some good scenes, in particular towards the end, but overall it is a bit flat and dull (compared with the musicals of the 40's).

Match Point

Utter rubbish! A story about unlikable upper class people, shown in a London to please the yanks and tourists, with terrible dialogues and bad story, no editing, i.e. it lasts way too long. I hadn't seen a Woody Allen film in years, and that one was a mistake, so won't see another for years to come. Extremely annoying, wanted to leave the cinema after 15 minutes.

Le Distrait

The first film directed by Pierre Richard, with the ever awesome and hilariously funny Bernard Blier as the director of an ad agency, influenced by the great american actors, Jerry Lewis and Buster Keaton am sure, and very 70s.

Les Malheurs d"Alfred

Pierre Richard's second film as a director. Very charming and amusing as the very clumsy guy and unlucky who end up a big star on TV and gets the girl. Once again lots of very good supporting actors (typical of French cinema in the 70's) and absurd humour.

Mort d'un pourri

I like these 70's political thrillers, despite some of the messages. This one is particularly stylish (furniture by B&B Italia), with lots of great character actors and particularly thrilling.

Wages of Fear

A story about real men, who have to drive trucks carrying nitroglycerine across 300 miles in South America (in fact all shot in Camargues). The first hour drags a bit then when the adventures strats it gets better, but I am not a big fan.

7 Men from now

Budd Boetticher with Randolph Scott for their first collaboration, and with Lee Marvin as one of the baddies. Scott's wife was killed in an Wells fargo attack, and he is looking for the 7 men who attacked the office and stole $20,000. He helps an 'half-man' and his lovely wife from the east and gets rid of the 7 men along the way. Very tight, 77 minutes, little dialogue and a small masterpiece.

Funeral in Berlin

Overall a good thriller set in Berlin at the peak of the cold war. A fairly complicated plot, lots of twists and palmer is seduced by a sexy Israli agent with a very nice dress. But the dialogues are far less witty than for Ipcress File, thus less good.

Two for the road

More Stanley Donen from 1967, with a very bittersweet romantic comedy. Hepburn and Finney travel through France discussing their marriage and relationship, helped with an interesting use of non-chronological flash-backs (and forward), lots of costume changes and mad sunglasses. A chick flick, amusing at times, but with an overall sad tone.

Beddazled

A 60's pop comedy based on Faust with Peter Cook as the devil and Dudley Moore as Stanley Moon, the cook who works at Wimpy and is in love with Margaret. Stanley gets 7 wishes, getting more and more absurd, the one as the fly is hilarious, especially with the cop saying to Margaret that the vice squad is having a bit of a do tonight. Very funny and a cool soundtrack.

Meetin W.A.

Very rare 20 minutes interview of Woody Allen with JLG, asking him some weird questions mostly about television. Funny looks on Woody's face.

Scandal

Toshiro Mifune is the handsome painter on his Norton motorbike who is involved in a minor scandal with a famous singer (Shirley Yamaguchi) when a couple of paparazzi take a snap of the couple having an innocent chat in a hotel. The editor of Amour, makes up a story and Mifune decides to sue him with the help (or not) of a useless lawyer (Takashi Shimura, who is a bit annoying as the weeping loser). Released in 1950, its theme is obvioulsy still very actual. The beginning is fun, but it drags on and gets a bit over-melodramatic and predictable.

Spione

A mabuse-like baddie with lots of high-tech for 1928 and lots of spies, 2 glamourous women, agent 326 and a bunch of Japanese. It starts very fast and in a very entertaining way then it slows down a bit and is quite ong at 144 minutes, but a pleasure to watch.

Raging Bull

The making off is very interesting revealing that De Niro was really the driving force behind Raging Bull, much more so than Marty. His performance is truy amazing. Even after 35 years it is still a very violent film, both in the ring and verbally. The editing and sound mix are both fantastic.

I am trying to break your heart

A film about Wilco, by Sam Jones, is a superior music documentary following Wilco during the rehearsals and recording of Yankee hotel foxtrot, problems with the record label that drops them and dissensions within the band. Very nicely shot in grainy black & white, and Jeff Tweedy comes across as a nice guy.

Michael

Dreyer's 5th film, done for UFA in Germany, the story of a famous painter and is relationship with his young model who deserts him for a Russian countess and leaves the painter dying alone. A bit stiff and uneventful compared with Metropolis, a few good moments but nothing outstanding.