Elevator to the gallow

There is no doubt that Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is a very stylish film with a great score from Miles Davis, and a Mercedes 300 SL. The plot is so so, not much happening mostly about atmosphere, with some very good actors. The Jeanne Moreau voice-over is quite ridiculous though and a good chunk of the dialogue of a bit lame. Fun to watch though.

Free Cinema 1

So the birth of the English New Wave, a bit of a let down really. i watched the first 2 short films (O Dreamland, with the very annoying launghs, and Momma don't allow). No dialogues just images and sound, interesting but not particularly amazing.

Toni

I saw this film when I was very young late at night in a hotel room as part of the Friday night Ciné-Club program, and I was very impressed by it. It is great Renoir, anticipating neo-realism by about 10 years. What it most remarkable is the complete lack of sentimentality (or melodrama) and the harshness of the characters. Great film!

Gold Diggers of 1933

Another let's a put a show together, at the time of the depression. Dick Powell provides the funds to put the show together and most of the actors from 42nd Street appear again. There are a few great choregraphed scenes at the end of the film that are stunning.

Murmur of the heart

Was expecting the worst from Le souffle au coeur, but it was quite pleasnt, in particular the first half. The second half drags on a bit and I don't think the last scene was necessary at all, apart from the shocking factor. Most of it is a charming sentimental education in the early 50s.

42nd Street

The first film from the Busby Berkeley box was a bit disappointing as I expected more grandiose musical numbers. There are great ones, but only at the very end. the story is ok, a let's put on a show together.

Takeshis'

Proof that watching films on DVD is not the best way to watch films, it can't beat the cinematic experience. I will have to rewatch it in a few years time. A very brilliant film though.

Othello

From the Criterion LD. There are great sets from Trauner and the movie is well shot, but the story is a bit dull and lacks pace.

Driver

A big chase at the beginning, and another big car chase at the end. In between, terrible acting by Ryan O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani, and a so so plot, Bruce Dern is ok. Very disappointing.

Avril

Otar Iosseliani's first film, a medium-length film, that is without dialogue for about 30 minutes, then the young couple argues (but it is not translated, so it sounds like rather meaningless bickering, the amazing bit is that they have different clothes in every shots! Very surreal.

Mr Arkadin (Corinth version)

The version found by Bogdanovitch (Cravate Boy), allegedly the last one Orson Welles worked on. A very complex story, and not surprising there are so many different versions. It is confusing, the main character is not played by the best actor, but it is pure Welles, with some amazing scenes.

Love before breakfast

A quite charming little romantic comedy with Carole Lombard but nothing more.

The Ipcress File

Watched it again for the second time in a few months, still great mostly because of the performance of Michael Caine and the dialogue and Guy Doleman as Colonel Ross. A very low key spy film, made by the Bond team in a very different style, probably a more accurate reflection of what spies do (filling forms).

Rendez-Vous

A dark romantic film, with a good sombre atmosphere but ultimately the actors got on my nerves quite a bit, partly because of the dialogues and the whole pretentiousness of the thing.

Casino

Grandeur and decadence in Las Vegas. De Niro is all restrained (and looks constipated), Pesci swears and beats people up like mad, Sharon Stone drinks and takes drugs, back home the old timers eat pasta. The soundtrack is amazing and the film a modern classic.

The last temptation of Christ

Because it is Easter. Scorcese's film is a true masterpiece, Dafoe is awesome in playing a very human Jesus, with all his doubts, hesitations, lack of certainty, in a story that his so far away from the official story, but makes it much more interesting, and not all blasphemous.

Mon Oncle

We went to see the exhibition on Modernism at the V&A and I decided to have another look at Mon Oncle with its amazingly modern house (used at a bourgeois sign of success as opposed to the almost socialist idealism of the modernist movement of the 20s and 30s). A very charming film (although I fell asleep in the middle).

Aki Kaurismaki

Documentary by Guy Girard about Karismaki, long interviews with Aki and some of his actors. Particularly revealing, the man is like his films and seem to have had similar life experiences.

King Kong (2005)

The first hour is dreadful, the second one is quite fun, the third one i fell asleep as it was full of more boring CGI effects in NYC. Way too long, bad dialogues and acting, the original wasn't that great and the remake does not improve over it.

Naked

As expected, a pretty bleak and unpleasant film. However, extremely powerful with very powerful performances.

Young Mr Lincoln

After watching all these giallos, it is strange to go back to old fashioned Hollywood. Henry Fonda plays Lincoln in his early years as an attorney. It is probably a minor classic, all really predictable and classic.

The fifth cord

Wow! Grittier, less glamourous than other giallos, this is a great one. Less twists and shocks, but a wonderful cinematography by Storaro and direction by Luigi Bazzoni. Franco Nero is the washed up journalist who turns up suspect when several occur and he has no alibi.

I hired a contract killer

Filmed in London in 1990, in English with Jean-Pierre Léaud as the clerk who loses his job and hires a contract killer to kill himself, but then finds love. Typical Kaurismaki style and story. He found amazingly depressing locations around London.

The Black Belly of the Tarantula

Another highly stylised giallo, this time from Paolo Cavara, featuring an amzing score from Morricone (kind of musique concrete), and some cool photography, using locations around Rome. Some pretty girls are murdered, the male lead is not too good, and the ending is quite ridiculous.

Thumbsucker

A quirky film from Mike Mills. A great cast, including Keanu Reeves as a philosophical dentist, teens on prescription drugs taking part in debating contest supervised by Vince Vaughn (once again very good), about relationships (with parents, others, ect). I really, really liked it.

La Matiouette ou l'arrière pays

A fantastic 45 minutes made for TV film directed by Téchiné, based on a play by Jacques Nolot. Nolot plays the hair dresser stuck in a small town in the South-West, visited by his brother who left 10 years ago to go to Paris and became an actor.

Intimate Lighting

Ivan Passer's first film, nicely shot by Miroslav Ondricek is a classic example of the Czech new wave. It is quite sweet and amusing, but not amazing with a particularly loose story.

Johan van der Keuken

A very good portrait of JvdK with excerpts from films, discussing his career and his philosophy.

The Man without a past

Markku Peltola is a great actor! This got the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2002, and is way better than Broken Flowers which got the same prize last year. Again a bittersweet story that is wonderfully told and nicely stylized.

Amsterdam Global Village

At 3 hours and 50 minutes, this is a bit long and a challenging viewing. JvdK follws a bunch of people around Amsterdam between November 94 and June 96, most are immigrants from poorer countries (some at war). Very well frame and shot, but a bit dry.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

I watched the cut known as 1988 Turner Preview Version and consider it the best Peckinpah film I have seen by far. Coburn and Kristofferson are superb, Bob Dylan and his score too, the cinematography is beautiful and the pace/mood of the film dark and lyrical. A great film.

Death walks at midnight

The best of the 3 Gialli by Luciano Ercoli (again with Susan Scott and Simon Andreu), with a great plot and style, set in Milan, with a killer with mad sunglasses and an iron fist, surprising twist, good score, all the ingredients of a good giallo.

Vivre avec les Yeux

A very documentary from Ramon Gieling on Johan van der Keuken at the time of 'Fotostudio...' mixing film extracts, interviews of various friends and artists (including Robert Kramer) and JvdK at work with Mr To Sang and co, to explore the way he works.

The ballad of Cable Hogue

A very odd and lose western from Peckinpah, just done after Wild Bunch, and couldn't be more different. Revenge, romance, the end of the West (it is set in the early 20th Century), a comedy, an allegory with biblical refferences. The end result is very weird and difficult to like on first viewing.