Autoportrait 7

A blog mostly about the films I have just watched

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Pandora's Box

Louise Brooks is an icon and her role as Lulu her best known and at her most iconic here. Men fall for her, but it leads her on a tragic path in the arms of Jack the Ripper in foggy London. The film is not really a masterpiece but there is no doubt that Brooks delivers a great performance.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Superman Returns

Absolute rubbish! It starts well with the original John Williams score, but then it's a pure remake of the original one disguised as a return. There are no surprises, it is quite ugly to look at, the score is awful, and the dialogues appear to have been written by a bunch of 5 year olds. Very disappointed considering how good Bryan Singer did with the X-men.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Waterloo Bridge

A pre-code film, from James Whale, set in London during WW1, not very juicy and actually quite boring, weak story and bad acting.

Ken Park

Larry Clarke and Ed Lachmann show a bunch of kids who are fucked up, but the parents/adults are also well fucked up. Good, but not as fun as Wassup rockers.

Sound of the mountain

Naruse box from MoC finally arrived today. This one is awesome, with a marvelously moving ending.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Seinfeld Season 5 ep 17-22

The last batch of season 5, with the hamptons and the shrinkage being the highlight.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Redheaded woman

A blast! A good pre-code film from the small forbidden Hollywood set, with Jean Harlow as the shameless gold digger, stealing husbands from their wives, seducing old rich men and sleeping with their French chauffeurs, some god doggies too, and nice outfits by Adrian, as this was an MGM film.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Wassup Rockers

A long day in the life of 7 hispanic teenagers from South Central, to Beverley Hills and back, Great style, lots of punk rock and obviously well photographed by Larry Clark. The first half is pure documentary while the second moves into fiction land. One of the best films of the year.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Seinfeld Season 5 ep 14-16

Still funny

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Seinfeld Season 5 ep 10-13

Some more funny ones, including the marine biologist.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The Mackintosh Man

A poor film from John Huston, with Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda and James Mason, who all turned up to get their cheques it seems but didn't really care about the film. The script by Walter Hill is weak, and there is nothing at all to save it stylistically.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

The fallen idol

Baines is the butler of the French Embassy in London, he has an affair with Michele Morgan, and Mrs Baines is being a pain in the ass. The son of the Embassador likes Baines and dislikes Mrs Baines, who finds out about the affair, and falls in the satirs to her death. Starts as a romantic drama and ends as a murder mystery. Very good, for an English film.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Miami Vice

The wrongly called Director's cut. As Mann explains in the documentary, the director's cut is the theatrical version, this is a re-edit. Apparently this cut is easier to understand than the theatrical one, still it is quite confusing (the dialogues are pretty lame and pointless which doesn't help). Amazingly filmed in fantastic locations, Gong Li is superb and Farrell not bad. Quite different from the TV serie though, apart from the powerful cars.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Seinfeld Season 5 ep 3, 5-9

The puffy shirt is always funny, and the non-fat yogurt very good, lots of Newman.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Drowning Pool

Harper is back, a few years later in the mid 70's, this times in Louisiana. A fairly standard PI film, with a familiar story, plus some crazy people from New Orleans. The script was partly written by Walter Hill, and Stuart Rosenberg directed it professionally if not very creatively. It's grittier and more realistoc than Harper, and I liked it much more.

Harper

Sounded good on paper, with good actors, set in LA, and Paul Newman as a private investigator who drives a beat up Porsche 356. It turned out to be rather week, and a film not really knowing if it wanted to be funny or serious, a so so script and feels like an average TV movie from the 60's.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Clean, shaven

Not a pleasant film to watch at all. The first feature from Lodge Kerrigan follows a guy suffering majorly from schizophrenia. A few gruesome bits and a crazy, quasi insane soundtrack, probably a very accuate illustration of what someone with a serious mental disease hears, frightening and powerful.

Peau d'Ane

A very psychedelic fairytale from Jacques Demy, with a good score, and really awesome costumes. It hasn't dated too much though and still very good.