Mon Oncle

Mon Oncle (1958)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050706/]

The Gist:

Mon Oncle is my first Tati film, and it was interesting enough to warrant me to write my paper on a comparison between Tati and Renoir (which seems a little counter-intuitive but I have a good in for it). Tati's films are minimalistic, the sets insanely complicated which provoke silent-era esque gags that serve the greater function for social commentary (specifically how the modernist technology is essentially killing our individuality, and how it's a plague on society, etc). In any case, Mon Oncle is a bitter sweet film that challenges the viewer and allows them to actively engage with the image.

Red Beard

Red Beard (1965)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058888/]

The Gist:

Red Beard is a great late stage Kurosawa flick that explores the character arc of a young egotistical doctor under the tutelage of the wise, gruff head doctor of some poor inglorious clinic in rural Japan. This gruff doctor is Red Beard, who is played by long time Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune. This is actually the last time the two would work together as well, and you see Mifune finally achieve the role of patient yoda figure instead of the impetuous youth he had played in many of his previous roles with the director. Finally, the structure of this film is pretty great, widely episodic, with a flashback of a dying patient that could be its own movie. My only complaint is that film feels a little nostalgic at times, a little conventional, and doesn't take some risks that could have made it harder to watch but better poetry in any case. But for the most part they are just small quibbling points, and the intelligence of composition and the way the narrative is weaved together is frequently complex and moving. This is top form Kurosawa and deserves a rank among his best films.

On Another Note:

The fight scene pictured above was weirdly random, brief genre mixing. It came out of nowhere... Kind of great, really.

Retro-Viewing: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/]

The Gist:

So I already mentioned that I had seen the film before in Boston, but I did want to take the opportunity to see it again. I have to say, this film is an honest contender for my favorite of the year (I think the only film that can potentially beat it out at the moment is A Town Called Panic). It's just so fascinating, it manages to be a movie about so many things all at once. It's a film that captures the beginnings of street art movement and subsequently street art's assimilation into mainstream commercialism. It's a film about both Banksy and Thierry as individual personalities. And finally it's a film about the nature of art, and the implications of art's relationship with society, how the ravenous consumption of art changes it into something else. Of course, I find it appropriate that Thierry's “Mister Brainwash” was making direct references to Andy Warhol, and that Banksy referred to him as the true successor to Andy Warhol in a lot of ways, because the ideas of Warhol really are expounded upon in Thierry's work. I think if there's any chance that the film is a fake or a partial fake, it has something to do with that inherent connection to Warhol. Not only are the artistic sensibilities of Thierry linked to the man, but the exploitation of promotion and commerce are completely in line with what Warhol was doing in the art scene as well. Either the connection is one of those bizarre coincidences (because through the film you get the impression that Thierry is not fully aware of the extent of that connection between him and Warhol) or it's a clever ruse concocted by the filmmakers. I tend to believe that the film is a legitimate non-fiction effort, agreeing with a reviewer at the Boston Globe who noted that the film was too perfectly weird and bizarre to have ever been made up. However, if there was hoax involved in the film, I would think that it was only involved with the Mister Brainwash gallery and that the rest of the film (and Thierry's character in particular) was real. I can believe that Banksy cleverly set up the gallery as a way to provide a narrative punch to the film, a statement about the art scene. However, Thierry feels to real for me to think he was a character. In fact, all of it feels pretty real to me, on an instinctual level. That's just my opinion though.

On Another Note:

The Gist is that long because I saw this again for an extra credit assignment for my doc class and had to write a one-page response and I figured I would just post that here. Also the picture isn't from the film itself, but from street art found by Banksy at Sundance on the day of the film's premiere (kind of cool).

Week Three

New Queue:

Mon Oncle (1958) - check

Hands on a Hard Body (1997) - check

Red Beard (1965) - check

Retro-Viewing:

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) - check

La Bete Humaine

La Bete Humaine (1938)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029957/]

The Gist:

La Bete Humaine is the fourth film in my current expedition of Renoir's filmography, and it settles itself just barely lacking the qualities of a masterpiece. I say this a criticism really, because the second half of the film achieves moments of such poetic depth that I have to shake my head and wonder why the whole film couldn't have been this way. I think, in the end, it's because the script is straight-jacketed by its source material. The set-up is well done, but lingers too long, going over details that are important to the book (the main characters mental disorder) but are ultimately unimportant in the grand scheme of the film's narrative. Specifically with the mental disorder, or whatever that really is, it shouldn't have been in this film. It seems like it's needed, but if you see the film imagine it had started with the scene on the train and then chose to prolong certain aspects of the romance. It works pretty well in my head, anyway, I'm just saying. Oh, I haven't really said what the film is about have I? It's about a guy who is enamored with a girl who is trapped in a marriage with a jealous murdering husband and then the guy and girl have an affair and the film goes from there. Well, that's sort of it anyway. I don't want to spoil anything but you (and by you I mean no one because I'm sure no one is reading this) should see it. It's a pretty damn good film with an absolutely beautiful final third of screen time.

Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp (2006)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/]

The Gist:

Jesus Camp could pass for one of the most unsettling horror films I've ever seen. As it stands, it's merely a documentary about the extremism of evangelical Christianity in our country and the indoctrination of the youth into that staid and potentially dangerous set of beliefs. Here we a Christian summer camp take the shape of a cult, spouting nonsense in the same vein as Muslim extremists waging their holy jihad. It's all stupidity, and it would be ridiculous and something to laugh off if it wasn't so god damn (heh) terrifying in its practical implications on our society and our future as a nation and as a human race. Anyway, my opinions about the Christian Right and subsequently this specific film are pretty clear at this point, ne?

Cleo from 5 to 7

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055852/]

The Gist:

Cleo from 5 to 7 is about a woman named Cleo (obviously) who is waiting for medical results that will tell her whether or not she has cancer. The whole film is imbued with a sense of doom, since it opens with a tarot card reading that makes predictions both to the characters death and to the "talkative man" she meets near the latter half of the film. She wonders around Paris in a sort of dejected, petulant daze, but when she does actually meet the man the film shifts into a gentle poetry. The film becomes more about how the people we meet and our interactions with them shape our lives and give our lives meaning. It's beautiful New Wave stuff.