Last Watched

[St. Gloede]

Daguerreotypes (1975, Agnès Varda) Rewatch


Daguerreotypes used to be my least favourite Varda - I simply found it too flat - and with little to grab onto. Seeing it again, in greater quality, I appreciate it more - though it still falls in with her lesser films for me. What I perhaps appreciate the most - besides the wonderful opening and opening credits - read out over a mirror - with each name written into it with beautiful calligraphy - but with the film team visible in its reflection. 

The set-up is pleasant and good on its own - a simple examination of life on the street - and the lives of the small shop-owners. Varda builds a degree of intimacy with them - but most do not share too much of themselves - and this is also where it slowly starts to turn a little flat. There are many great little moments in between, and the mirroring is nice - but it seems even she noticed an issue - choosing to consistently intercut a magic show - held on the street - and with the shopkeepers in attendance. This adds in a lot of the life and variety missing - but the purpose is also a little obvious. All the same, I liked it far more on a rewatch, and I appreciate what Varda tried to do - she largely succeeded.

This was also her first pure feature-length documentary and there are some traces of what she would later do present even here - such as including herself and her life (though her being broadly missing - a mistake in my opinion). 6/10.



Visages, Villages / Faces, Places (2017, Agnès Varda) Rewatch



Faces, Places is one of my all-time favourite films, and it hit even harder now after her death - and knowing it was this close. Seeing the final shot from Varda by Agnès (2019), which she used as her final goodbye - hit particularly hard - and the ending was just as powerful as before.

What makes Faces, Places so spectacular is that it feels all-encompassing - there are simply so many ways to look at it and describe it.  

The easy summary, that it is a collaborative project, between renowned artist J.R. and Varda (her first collaboration) - to travel to villages in France and meet people, take their pictures and make them greater than life is so beautiful just in itself - especially in how they do it. We see marginalized communities, a disappearing mining town, striking dockworkers, hard-working farmers and so many everyday people - all coming to life on camera.



But in traditional Varda fashion, it is also the story of the creation of this project - the act of creating the images, of discussing the project, the people they meet - and simply the act of filming and taking pictures of the event itself - becomes part of the film - and a central narrative - which - at any point over the last decade would be great in and of itself too - added perspective and insight - distance and intimacy - all the things I love - but here it is stronger - as the sense of Varda being ageing, more frail, losing her sight and this perhaps being her last project is absolutely central. Varda is not only the filmmaker - but she is in large part the emotional core - and it is her story - a story of vitality and neverending creativity - of a, at this point 88-year-old woman, with blurry eyesight and a cane still striving to do more.



However, even that is half the story - as the film is also the tale of Varda and J.R. - her co-director - and their unilkely friendship and great chemistry - as these two people, 55 years apart, do this together - and build a strong friendship. An older and a younger artist - being able to hit the right notes - and this once again carries back to the joy of creation. And then, you have the almost invisible narrative - which slowly sneaks up on you - with such a strong emotional climax. 9.5-10/10.

[Umbugbene]

Thanks St. G! And you're right, I glossed over the fortune teller's predictions a bit... she might be correct about the cancer too, just that it doesn't appear so serious by the end.

Someday I hope to go to Paris and retrace Cléo's steps, ideally starting at 17:00 on the summer solstice, and see how fast I can do it. I've never been to Parc Montsouris. Unfortunately the Moorish revival pavilion burned down in 1991.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Setenta veces siete - Leopoldo Torres Nilsson, 1961
Man, woman, interloper... Basically, it's Bela Tarr's version of The Naked Dawn. Available print is beneath contempt.

Nana - Celestino Gorostiza, Roberto Gavaldon, 1944
Not quite a Gavaldon movie, he's still in that one-hand-behind-his-back ass't director niche. Lupe Velez is amazing here -- career best? Esp. recommended to Rischka. Avail. print is about passable, no subs.

[nrh]

Setenta veces siete - Leopoldo Torres Nilsson, 1961
Man, woman, interloper... Basically, it's Bela Tarr's version of The Naked Dawn. Available print is beneath contempt.

no subs, but it's not too bad for a dvd rip, at least based on the kg screenshots...sadly not hoping for subs anytime soon, would love to see it

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Broke with the chronology to watch Sayles' Casa De Los Babys because he was doing a live-streamed conversation/ Q+A about it at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago.

I guess it has the reputation of being a low-tier work, but I dug it a lot. I kept thinking of Tampopo because of the way it would digress but follow its major themes rather than a single cohesive narrative. There's a couple really standout scenes, that I'm almost certain were the major germs of the idea for the film (though he did not confirm this in the Q+A).

As someone who has used his American privilege to live and work abroad constantly throughout my adult life, the ambivalence of contributing to a sort of neo-colonialism, while also doing something that (at least I think) is a good thing on a microcosmic level is something I resonate with.

I also come from a family of international adoption. I have two-foreign born brothers, and while I feel my family is more down to earth than most of the women in this film, my god... every single one of them can be directly mapped onto my parents friends. Taking a brief glance at the reviews for the film, so many called the characters "paper-thin" or "cardboard cutouts" but I feel like that's a misreading. These women are real people. Shallow, a bit dull, some are good intentioned, some are devil spawn, but not particularly interesting in their own right. That doesn't make the characters shallow, that's a reflection of a part of American society. And Sayles wisely widens his perspective to the larger geo-socio-political impacts of these women. Being largely women of means, that impact becomes significant and really interesting when juxtaposed against the way these women can't quite seem to expand their worldviews beyond their own individual experiences.

For me, I thought it was high-tier Sayles. Or at least as good as anything that isn't Matewan so far. When I get to the end of his filmography I'll have to re-evaluate.

[pabs]

This mini concert was great! What a voice she has and what a drummer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kymcob7Dw7c&t=1706s

[St. Gloede]

19 shorts by Agnès Varda



It is pretty incredible and sad that Varda struggled to get another film made after La Pointe-Courte, and that she actually needed to work for the French Tourism Board in 1958 just to be able to create something: but create she did! The two travelogues, or shall we say "ads" are spectacular pieces of art - and at the same time she made the stark and unique Diary of a Pregnant Woman.

While Varda both started and ended her career on full-length films, shorts were a consistent part of her life - and the variety is wonderful. What struck me most was how many of these I genuinely wished she had developed into features - as there truly is so much potential here. I was also struck by how, even in 1958, her early documentary shorts hints at what she would later do - such as the wonderful framing of the locals in Du côté de la côte - I can hardly think of a more Varda style-joke - and yet also, how far away they were.

This election really varies from Varda as a young director eager to just create - to an older director just having some fun - including a 2-minute cat video - which is genuinely great (!).


O saisons, ô châteaux / O Seasons, O Castles (1958) - 20m



Sent to create a document of Les Châteaux De La Loire, Varda does almost everything else. She is captivated by the workers, the area, nature, life, encounters. What could have been a dry documentary is immediately turned on its head - it is comical - but also elegant. She fills the castle with models and shoots in beautiful colour. She captures the sounds and the life - and just has one hell of a time playing with form and conventions - an absolute delight. 8/10.


L'opéra-mouffe / Diary of a Pregnant Woman (1958) - 16m



Diary of a Pregnant Woman is one of Varda's darkest and most visually unnerving films placing you inside a world of poverty and abstracted images. Shot as a silent, this is a visually evocative, experimental and even risque short, complete with the kind of striking nude photography Varda did before entering into cinema. This film was made when Varda herself was pregnant (and struggling to get a second feature made) and shows her not only pouring every ounce of creativity into this work (to the point that the various styles almost seem jarring) but evoking the uneasy sense of the kind of world a woman pregnant is actually bringing their child into. The jarring styles - romance, near surrealist horror and social realism, also complement each other in bringing the complexities of pregnancy and what the journey of bringing a child into the world can mean.


Du côté de la côte / Along the Coast (1958) - 25m



Du côté de la côte is simply glorious, and possibly one of the greatest shorts ever made - not only that, it makes me saddened Varda did not have a longer career as a travelogueist - though I do suppose From Here to There and Faces Places could count.

Shot in stunning colour photography Du côté de la côte is an observational travelogue, filled to the brink with comedy and visual poetry as it dissects trends and behavior in a way that feels incredibly much like the Varda we know today - but with an added air of mystique and elegance - leaving more to the visuals themselves. Varda, of course, started as a photographer - and this can be felt in her other two shorts from this year as well - but here, even more so than O saisons, ô châteaux, the visual story-telling and humour his hit is such a detail-oriented, clever way - setting up contexts and associations with such ease.

Don't get me wrong - this is a very warm film - but in a very different way. It is the light observations - such as the commentary on trendy colours (blue and yellow) which builds up an entire story of windows, houses, designs - before moving on to dresses, hats, swimsuits - and then of course - the contradictions. This is only one example - but the specific observations, and the running commentary (one man, one woman) could not be more spot-on - perfect synergy - and a near-perfect depiction of summer and tourism. 9/10.

*It was also really nice to see some left bank associated names here, for instance, Henri Colpi as the editor (I should sneak in a film of his in the waves challenge), and Quinto Albicocco as the cinematographer (he was the father of Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, and shot his son's films).

*Dedicated to André Bazin.


Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald ou (Méfiez-vous des lunettes noires) (1961) - 5m



This is the delightful short-film from Cleo From 5 to 7, starring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina is a silly, playful silent cinema homage (and more importantly, dire warning against using dark sunglasses). Seeing it again separately I was hoping it may have something extra - but beyond the credits, no. Not that anything else needed to be added, it is fun on its own and tells a complete story. 6/10.


Salut les Cubains (1964) - 30m



And talking about Varda as a photographer ... Salut les Cubains is made up exclusively of still black and white photographs capturing the joy, hope and excitement in Cuba at a time when the revolution is coming to a close and the future seems bright. While in black and white, there are certainly traces of the Du côté de la côte style of an observational travelogue, filled with humour and lightness - though it is also more well-rounded, less overtly comical and tries to paint an actual rather than satirical picture - capturing the spirit of the time. Varda manages just that, and it is a wonderful viewing that could easily have been expanded into a feature. 8/10.


Elsa la rose (1966) - 20m



Elsa la rose was meant to be part of a 2-part project where Varda and her husband Jacques Demy would each do a short documentary on famous authors, married couple (and communists) Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon - with Varda directing Louis describing Elsa and Demy directing Elsa describing Aragon. An incredibly sweet and intriguing idea. Unfortunately, Demy dropped out and Varda made a compromise - where Elsa also has a voice and more focus is places on how they met - though the core Louis talking of his wife - stayed. It is interesting and sweet - but as it stands feels a little light. 6.5/10.


Oncle Yanco (1967) - 18m



In this utterly delightful mini-portrait Varda visits her father's cousin - Jean Varda - after accidentally having been made aware there was a semi-famous painter name Varda while visiting California. They had never met before - and this brief and playful encounter - which takes in the broad bohemian house-boat area filled with intellectuals and hippies - comes off beautifully well. Varda stages her meeting with the older Varda several times, recutting their embraces - clearly enjoying his company - asks playful questions - and gets to briefly soak in the lifestyle. Yet again I feel like we were robbed of a potential feature - especially as Jean Varda, or: Uncle Yanco - has such a wonderfully large personality. 8/10.


Black Panthers (1968) - 31m



*I saw the English language version of Black Panthers - the key distinction being that the French has translators over the speeches/interviews and French V/O. Would be interested in seeing the French version at some point as well - and to get this out of the way as I have been saying it a lot - could and should have been a feature damn it.

Black Panthers is one of Varda's straightest films - documenting the Free Huey marches as the leader of the Black Panther Party faces murder charges. Varda speaks to Huey himself, several representatives of the party, protestors and bystanders. She is not unquestioning, and highlights complexities beyond their narrative - but it is broadly speaking a document of the movement, the anger and the goals of the movement - shot with a lot of clarity, and eagerness to understand and showcase the movement to a world audience.

*It is tempting to contrast this with Godard's footage of the Black Panthers at approximately the same time - almost night and day.


Réponse de femmes: Notre corps, notre sexe / Women Reply (1975) - 8m



This one, about what it means to be a woman - is coated in playful sarcasm where stereotypes, personal experience and hopes are merged into a statement of self-assertion. There are many great moments, though it also feels a little rough and even a little outdated. 6/10.


Plaisir d'amour en Iran / The Pleasure of Love in Iran (1976) - 6m



Short, light but delightful - The Pleasure of Love in Iran does something as bizarre as to try to show the erotic nature in Iranian architecture - coupled with young romantic love (Varda is using two of the leads from One Sings, the Other Doesn't) and it really comes together wonderfully. It is so short that there are really just two key parts/scenes - the erotization - if you can call it that - and a brief moment with the lovers - but both are excellent - leaving it to only fall below greatness as it feels so short and incomplete. 7/10.


Ulysse (1983) - 22m



Unable to stop thinking of a striking photograph she took in 1954 - her fairly famous shot of a dead donkey, a naked child looking at it and a naked man staring out towards the sea in B/W. It made a notable appearance in Faces, Places as well - and it is clear it kept its place in Varda's mind - even this exorcism in place. Varda does not only seek out the subjects of the photograph and interview them of what they remember (one has forgotten everything), she gets one to re-enter the state of nudism - speaks to family - and takes around her photo - and the child's drawing of the event for analysis on the street. It is a fairly light little film, that feels a little conventional, even with all the play.


Une minute pour une image (1983) - Selected episodes (all episodes available?) 26m



I saw the 26-minute version of this series, which is made up of a selected sets of episodes added back to back - which is really not a great way to experience these shorts.

Varda created 170 episodes, with different narrators, including Duras and Montand - and the concept is fantastic. Spurred on by Ulysses she wanted to confront the idea of different interpretations of photographs. To showcase this she lets a photograph stay, without narration, for 15 seconds, then a narrator will say what they see. Only at the end will the photograph, the photographer (+ setting/year) and the narrator be revealed.

This set only has the ones narrated by Varda - though there are co-guests, including her mother. Many of these shorts are great, others are merely good. The main pain point is seeing the intro (which is good) over and over again in such a short time. The original episodes aired as 1 per day - which sounds perfect, and I adjusted for this in my assessment. As it stands I'll give it 7, but if more episodes are revealed I'd love to see more.


7p., cuis., s. de b., ... à saisir (1984) - 28m



Varda at her most experimental? Perhaps! The title 7p., cuis., s. de b., ... à saisir reads as an apartment ad - and that's exactly our starting point - a realtor showing off a massive house - which used to be a hospice, but was converted into a home. Suddenly, the past inhabitants start inhabiting the space, as time is shown to flow together piece by piece. The core is a family living there for a long time, trailing their relationship with their oppressive father from childhood to adulthood - but only with short scenes - while hold hospice inhabitants glean in too. Some never want to leave, others can't wait to get out - and the invisible realtor keeps opening empty room after room. Dreamlike, ghostly and extremely effective. Once again I wish Varda would have developed this into a full-blown feature. 8/10.


Les dites cariatides / The So-called Caryatids (1984) - 12m
Les dites cariatides bis (2005) - 2m



In these two shorts Varda looks at the nude, humanoid pillars holding up grand buildings across Paris. In the first she brings it all to life with humous commentary and observational humour, bringing history and society to life - complete with questioning society's views of nudity on the street - sending a man running naked in Paris (don't worry, no cars crashed). It is utterly delightful and clever. The latter, extremely short, is a cute follow-up with no commentary, and feels like a small companion piece, showcasing extra forms. 8/10 + 6/10.


T'as de beaux escaliers, tu sais / You've Got Beautiful Stairs, You Know (1986) - 3m



A fairly quick effort to humour her local cinametque where Varda mixes their trafficked stairways with famous stairways from film history. The visual quality changes drastically, as access to high-quality prints was clearly poor back in '86 - but it works. It also has a brief appearance by Adjani. 6/10.


Hommage à Zgougou (et salut à Sabine Mamou) / Homage to Zgougou the Cat (2002) - 2m



Yes, this is a 2-minute cat video - showing how Zgougou the Cat takes over every situation, including Varda's laptop - and how she deals with it - not to mention the Zgougou has played in her life. Could this too have been a feature? Yes, actually. Why not?! 8/10.


Le lion volatil (2003) - 12m



Le lion volatil is a cute little film that stands apart from most of Varda's short work as it is largely fiction - but not quite. Varda is right there, thinking of and talking about the famous statue of a lion - a symbol of her part of Paris, with cars buzzing around it - and she concocts a clearly cheap, but playful mini-romance - complete with a throwback to Cleo and some fun comic special effects. It is utterly delightful but feels light. 7/10.

*Zgougou the Cat has a really notable role in this film as well.


Les 3 boutons (2015) - - 11m



Les 3 boutons is Varda's last short, and - shockingly - her last fiction work - creating an excellent anti-fairytale about a girl who would rather have an education than mystique. There is a lot of metaphor here, and it is shot with so much light I could not help but be reminded of Le bonheur. It is formatically experimental and aesthetically simple, sporting the earnest and simplified style of acting we expect from minimalists, coupled with easy digital video and a lead character - a young/teenage girl, Jasmine, who will do her chores/have magical experiences and break the fourth wall - talk directly to us - and tell us something she thinks. I may appreciate it even more on a rewatch. This time I thought a few things seemed a little meandering - but the ending and overall idea is simply so clever. 7.5/10.

*The postman is Varda's real postman - and makes an appearance in Faces, Places as well - as does the painting in the end credits.

[mesnalty]

As for Créatures, you and I seem to be in the minority that actually likes the film. Varda herself was disappointed with it, though I don't know why. Maybe she was overcome by the negative reaction to such a quirky and surreal movie. I think it makes sense if you view it as a study in the ways people try to play God. Michel Piccoli and the man in the tower want to control people like chess pieces, and as a writer he wants to control his characters, but only Catherine Deneuve, in giving birth to a baby, knows the "right" way to "control" life. Again it's a feminist idea, presented fairly I think... and I love all the playfulness.

I'm a fan too! Repped it in a cup a few years back.

[St. Gloede]

Someday I hope to go to Paris and retrace Cléo's steps, ideally starting at 17:00 on the summer solstice, and see how fast I can do it. I've never been to Parc Montsouris. Unfortunately the Moorish revival pavilion burned down in 1991.

That's a beautiful plan, best of luck!

Wonder what film-related sights I would choose to see if I ever go to Paris. A friend of mine did the park from The Aviator's Wife, I would be quite tempted to do the same.

[ole dole doff]

Rohmer in Paris (Richard Misek, 2013)
https://letterboxd.com/film/rohmer-in-paris/

complete film (67 min)
https://youtu.be/s8tH2KY-iaM

Review by Leshia Doucet ↓
Shit like this is why I'd rather die than be called a cinephile.

Review by filmsRlife ↓
blah topography blah blah of blah blah blah rohmer blah

i see, it has devastating reviews, but in my view it was okay.

[rischka]

moon warriors is like a lost tsui hark film and it's pretty great. i mean if you like that kind of stuff! yes there is a kung fu whale

[Curtis, baby]

HAMMETT wim wenders 1982

This movie features Elisha Cook Jr as an old man. It doesn't have much else going for it, but that's ok. Old man Elisha Cook is enough for me.

3/5

[rischka]

have you seen messiah of evil?! best old elisha cook imho

[St. Gloede]

Innocence (2004, Lucile Hadzihalilovic)



Innocence is one of the most thoroughly eerie films ever made, and places you on the edge - entirely unsure of the world you see in front of you - and what the reality of it might be. 

We open with the shot of a coffin - and then shoes and dresses - no faces - first one set, then 2, 3, 4, 5. All are clearly children. The coffin is opened, and a young nude girl, likely around 6 years of age is inside. They dress her, and distribute ribbons - by age. But something has happened. The girl once wearing the ribbon is gone. It is quickly clear that this set of six, operate on a cycle - the oldest leaving (but where to?) and a new, young girl arriving.

They live in a large house, on their own - with almost unseen maids serving them food. If these old women don't serve them - they will be punished - one says. Another later hint that if they try to run away they will be stuck forever, serving girls for the rest of their lives - and we almost believe her. More girls are out there, more houses - all with the same ribbons - and there is a school - run by two almost identical-looking women (Marion Cotillard being one) teaching everything from natural sciences to ballet. 

The idea of escape and what happens is in the air - though there seems to be no way out. A wall surrounds them - but there are no doors. Death is in the air - so is doom - yet the rituals of play, school, practice - and "work" - sets them into an increasingly disturbing routine where you never know if you are even on earth - if it is purgatory - if these girls are sent out to be abused - if one move will get them killed - and all along, the same rituals - the same strictness.

A horror film, certainly, but not one relying on jump scares, sleaze or clear-cut monsters. Almost everything is left to the mind - and the suggestions you get along the way - which you cannot be sure if childlike imagination, lies, myth - or stark reality - but you can't help it. Nothing is as it should be - everything is tweaked slightly wrong - and as we get a closer look at each of the girls, the world becomes evermore strange, evermore scary, evermore bizarre. A near-masterpiece of incredible proportions. 9.5/10.

[Roscoe]

BAD TIMING -- Nicolas Roeg's ugly little film about an ugly little relationship. The impeccably brought off chronological games and flashbacks can't quite do enough to generate much in the way of sympathy or interest in what's going on. Who gives a shit about these two?

[St. Gloede]

Les glaneurs et la glaneuse / Gleaners & I (2000, Agnès Varda) Rewatch



What makes The Gleaner's & I so effective and beautiful, is its ability to start with romanticism, art - the idea of gleaning in the olden times - the paintings people may have seen - the history it is apart of - and then slowly expand the context into modern-day - and a very different world, perspective and usage. We move from idyllic farms to dumpster diving - as themes of unnecessary waste - as well as strong characters - emerge. 

The slow transition is quite wonderful, leading us on a clear string of though: - and introducing first - the most extreme senses of waste - tons of good potatoes dumped because they have the wrong shapes - anyone can be frustrated - then - seeing the people who come to pick them up from the fields - from charities to the poor - we start to follow them - and be emerged into a culture of not simply picking out what is on the ground, but what has been left behind, what has been discarded and what is literally in the trash. 

At the point we see people dragging out food and eating it - big smiles on their faces - we have been entirely eased in. But Varda is not just interested in the dumpster divers - be it for economic necessity or ideological reasons - she is just as taken in by the artists gleaning - and using what others have thrown away to create beautiful art - and to her, these two sides truly stand equal - high art and picking vegetables up from a trash can - both are gleaners - and both get to tell their story.

Environmentalism, social justice, art - the law - the history - everything ties together - and so does art - and Varda's filmmaking in itself. She finds herself gleaning  - picking images - picking belongings. As they glean from the ground or from trash cans - she gleans them - she gleans the takes. This framing makes the film not just effective, but poetical and larger than itself. Varda infuses it with joy and life - genuine excitement of what she may glean - from including a shot of a dancing camera cap to "picking trucks" as she drives by. It becomes a film, truly as the original title says, The Gleaners and the Gleaner. This is where Varda's documentaries always gain a large part of their strength - namely that they are not just about their subject, but about the creation of the film itself, and just how the two are linked. 9/10.



Les plages d'Agnès / The Beaches of Agnès (2008, Agnès Varda) Rewatch



The Beaches of Agnès, more so than any of Varda's other documentaries, put the camera on herself - and tells her story - from childhood to present day. It is a biography, a mix of memories and moments - her relationships, her thoughts, her films - and linking them together.

It is a beautiful tapestry of epic proportions - and with her lovable comic relief sidekick - Chris Marker (yes, really ) - so camera shy a cat is animated in his stead - she lays everything bare. It truly has the resonance and scope to have been her final film, but here, nearing 80, she shows so much strength and vitality - that it is clear it couldn't be.

The framing is simple - she thinks back on her life in the context to the beaches that shaped it - from childhood memories of Belgium pre-WW2, to the protograph of Ulysses she simply cannot let go (she even made a short on it), to her debut in 1955, to LA. Cinema and reality blends together as she sets in to create art - either exploring her own memories - recreating scenes from her childhood - or simply filling a street in Paris with sand and staging it as a beach - with her team taking calls as an art installation.

Just as in her other great documentaries there is a duality between the topic, and the creation of the film - but here, more so - it is not just about her past creations, but her eagerness to create more. We see her play with mirrors on the beach - we see her eagerness to hold the camera - to speak to people - to arrange things a certain way - to do more, more, more. It is this vitality, this artistic explosion - in the midst of a work that already covers more than 50 years of artistic expression - and exploring the full range of human and artistic emotions - that makes The Beaches of Agnès feel large, important - and from one person's life - universal. 9.5/10.

[thoxans]

the freshman (andrew bergman) this one was... weird? idk. it's certainly a curiosity piece, cuz on paper it's really just a safe, shallow, superficial piece of popcorn fluff (not much diff than analyze this or mickey blue eyes or any of those other '90s mafia-related comedies); but there's this constant dissonance always looming over everything from the absolute coup of having marlon brando return to such an iconic (if not his most iconic) character. in that way, the flick becomes a little bit more than the sum of its parts. without brando, it woulda been whatever, just another mob satire; but with the actor, it's more like a total reevaluation/reinvention of our perception of don corleone. and there is a part of the movie (roughly around the middle) where it does seem like it's going to achieve some zany sense of over-the-top self-reflexive controlled chaos (think de palma), but it putters out in the last 20min or so, settling back into barely-above-sitcom-level-quality territory. it's not a great movie. maybe not even a good one. it's just... weird

[St. Gloede]

La bouche de Jean-Pierre / Mimi / Parental Guidance (1996, Lucile Hadzihalilovic)



Parental Guidance is as unsettling as either of Hadzihalilovic's later works, and shows just how well she can enter childhood and, with incredibly simple tools, create a sense of absolute unease from the very first second. The shots are slightly murkier, but the effect, atmosphere and feeling is exactly the same. The angles are the same. The love of shooting bodies rather than heads, or finding the angle just off enough to send shivers down your spine remains - and so does the simplicity. 

Parental Guidance is however separated from the two later works, created over the next 20 years, by its relative realism. The opening text says "France, Today" - and while the films may feel like it is dragging you to hell, there is never any illusion of magic or unknown danger. Rather, the unease comes from real situations and real relationships, it all their unsettling, damaged and disturbing ways. Yes, it is a rougher cut, and the production values are clearly lower - but the extreme sense of unease, and the themes it looks onto - makes this a knockout. 8/10

[Oliuj]

Do you always watch movies in one sitting or do you, because life gets in the way or you're not in the mood, take breaks? Does this diminish the experience?

[ole dole doff]

i am a notorious detour watcher.
sometimes i watch (even a very long) film in one go.
but mostly i watch films with many breaks.
mostly it takes me (from the start of the film till its end) at least twice the time than is the duration of the film footage.
it is not unusual, i watch 1/3 (or 1/2) of a film one evening, second 1/3 (second 1/2) next evening, and last 1/3 another evening.
or f.e. now i am watching a single film almost the whole day (with several breaks full of personal recollection).

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Yeah, breaks are now the norm for me. Alas, perhaps, but c'est la vie - as you say, life intervenes. I generally like ending my evening with half a feature film, and then finishing it with my morning coffee the next day.

[Umbugbene]

I almost always try to watch in one sitting, but if I get sleepy I'd rather pause for a nap than continue watching with reduced attention. One of my peculiarities is that I always aim to finish a film within a single calendar day, because it keeps my diary spreadsheet neater. And yes, this means midnight is a good time to reach me.

[Searchlike]

Lots of breaks, bathroom breaks, dinner breaks, phone breaks, stupid-fly-has-to-die breaks, seismic alert breaks. It doesn't diminish the experience at all, if anything, I'm much more focused on whatever I'm watching and far less likely to get bored.

[Roscoe]

One sitting is ideal. At home, it's not always possible. I do what I can to minimize interruptions when it's something I really want to deal with. But you know, sometimes a guy's gotta run to the bathroom.

[Roscoe]

THE IRON MASK -- Fairbanks' farewell to Dumas, and to his adventure persona, and to silent cinema in general, and a true Fairbanks fan like me is gonna get rather lumpy-throated at film's end. The production is splendid, the filmmaking generally excellent. The story is a hodgepodge of elements from Dumas' D'Artagnan novels, and rather unwieldy. But the fun is fun, and the joy is infectious, and watching Doug show off with his sword is pure delight, and a magic scene of Doug trying to find a private little place to smooch his Constance couldn't be bettered. He's probably truer to Dumas than a lot of others who followed, in that the switch of kings is done mostly for sheer power grab purposes rather than out of the desire to replace a bad king with a good one, and the new king's dislike for his mother (who gave him away at birth) leads to a rather grim subplot.

[ole dole doff]

sometimes i watch a film and i am aware it is well crafted (good storytelling, good cinematography, good editing, good acting, etc., etc.) but i still stay rather aloof (and many times i watch such a film without interruptions in one sitting).

and sometimes i watch a film and i am aware it has (from a solely cinematic point of view) many deficits but somehow or other it triggers a lot of memories/insights (it is highly evocative) or triggers many questions and makes me to search for (new) stuff. then, i usually make many breaks recollecting or looking for things. and then, usually, i also need time during the breaks) to diggest those thoughts/insights the film triggered. if i would continue watching i might watch absent-minded — being still preoccupied within my mind with something else (related to previously seen) and not paying attention to what is going on next in the film.

and as a result, i have many times dilemma about how to evaluate a film.
because it is weird to dismiss a "good" film just because i personally can't relate to it (just because it doesn't bring any personal triggers).
and it sounds weird to eulogize a "mediocre" or "bad" film that however is (somehow or other) highly evocative (to me) and makes me discover new things (that are many times only very vaguely related to the film itself — the film only served as the initial trigger).

i prefer evocative/trigger films (whatever is their objective quality) but then my "film taste" doesn't relate to the value of a film itself but it is rather an issue of my personal (general) mindset and my personal (general) leanings — and the film is then interchangeable with a Proustian madeleine biscuit or whatever else evocative.

however, i am sane enough to understand that with such an approach to the cinema one can't become a serious film critic.
and i appreciate (or even admire) those capable of it — if someone's film criticism is based on some well-thought "objective" criteria, some "solid" intellectual frame (deep-rooted in some lasting academic/intellectual tradition).

[rischka]

i very often take breaks, sometimes to avoid falling asleep, sometimes just to make the film last longer! it's rare i watch anything over 1 hour in one sitting these days

[nrh]

i try as much as possible not to put on a movie if i can't finish it but i took me 5 days to finish 2 movies, each less than 2 hours, this week.

[ole dole doff]

sometimes just to make the film last longer!

yea, this i also sometimes do.
sometimes a film is not such an evocative detour trigger but i still like it a lot and don't want it to end too soon.
thus i am urged to do this and that during the film (making artificial breaks) to savor the movie as long as possible (like savoring very slowly delicious ice cream).

[sally]

i don't know about breaks, but i suck the life out of films. (i prefer succubus to vampire thanks) since i hardly ever re-watch films i need to get it all in first gulp, if i don't understand something (plot, dialogue, why it was shot a certain way that seems like it should be saying something but am just too dense to realise) then i replay from a few seconds/minutes beforehand, often repeatedly till i get it or give up. and this turns out to be required in every single film i watch. i turn every film into fragments just so i can understand it as a whole....

basically i can never go to the cinema again. (even if i didn't hate going what with all the talkative tosspots & chair kickers ruining it anyway)