Last week's movies
Posted 11-17-2014 at 07:41 AM by oeccscclhjhn
Before Sunrise (1995), Richard Linklater
Whiplash (2014), Damien Chazelle
The Sheltering Sky (1990), Bernardo Bertolucci
La promesse (1996), Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Floating Weeds (1959), Yasujiro Ozu
Movie of the week: Whiplash.
Floating Weeds. Working my way through Yasujiro Ozu's filmography. While most of his films are in black & white, Floating Weeds is one of five he did in color. As soon as I found out Roger Ebert did the commentary on the Criterion Collection disc, I moved it to #1 in the queue. Here is a sample. You may recognize Machiko Kyo as she was in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (Samurai's wife) and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (Lady Wakasa). And Chishu Ryu, an Ozu regular (the father in Tokyo Story), makes an appearance. So far, I've seen Late Spring (1949), Late Autumn (1963), Tokyo Twilight (1957), The End of Summer (1961), Equinox Flower (1958), Tokyo Story (1953). I'll have several Ozu films in my Netflix dvd queue for some time to come. Just learned of the Noriko trilogy - so Early Summer moves to #1 in my queue.
La promesse. Continuing my exploration of the Dardenne brothers filmography. Nothing slowing me down - only anticipation for the next (The Kid with a Bike, The Son). So far, all of them deal with a young person, most times a kid, going through life, making decisions, important, life changing decisions - sometimes in a split second, and you say to yourself what would I have done? And the ever present There but for the grace of God, go I. I like that they, like Bresson, use mostly unknown actors. Both the boy and the father make their acting debut in La promesse. And, like Jia Zhang-Ke showing us China, or Aki Kaurismaki Finland, or Corneliu Porumboiu Romania, the brothers introduce us to Belgum.
The Sheltering Sky. Almost 18 years after the Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris controversy, I wonder if many still hold that grudge - almost a I'll never forgive you that Roman Polanski grudge, which may or may not reflect in their reviews - who's to say? I have not seen LTIP, yet. I also read (after seeing the film) that in 1988, the author rewrote into the novel's preface (I have not read the book) "the less said about the film now, the better". I also saw a photo of Paul Bowles in a NYT review (was looking for the film review and first stumbled onto the NYT book review - then it clicked - he plays the Narrator in the film!. For some reason, I do recall the film's cover art (taken from a poster?), and figured it out - genius (the artwork idea, not me figuring it out). Roger Ebert says the film resembles A Passage to India and Picnic at Hanging Rock. I can see the parallels. Learn something new every day: Campbell Scott (played the reporter in Big Night), who plays the friend Turner, is George C Scott's son.
Whiplash. Stars J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser (Mad About You), and Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now 2013). A directorial debut for Damien Chazelle. IMDB says this was 107 minutes - 1 hour 47 minutes - if asked, I would have sworn it was at least 2 hours, and not because of any pacing issues - the film is tight, with a linear storyline that seems to alternate between full bore on the track of the Daytona 500 and everyday life - throwing in a few streets of San Francisco hills for an emotional rollercoaster effect, while blindfolded, as you get little warning of the ups or downs - or sideways. A full bore example includes a whip pan between J.K. and Miles, back and forth, with a breathless intensity. You'd think the adrenaline would spring you out of your seat and out of the theater at the end, but the music glued me to my seat and through the entire credits. I even searched for a certain cd online when I got home.
Before Sunrise. My third Richard Linklater film (who hasn't seen Dazed and Confused?). For some reason, I threw Before Midnight (2013) into my queue a couple weeks ago. An interesting experience, watching the first of a director's trilogy after seeing the third, 18 years apart. Immediately I noticed the refinement apparent in Midnight - the perfect framing in the signature walk and talk dolly shots (David Katz And Oliver Lunn, grolschfilmworks.com/), and the long takes. Plot wise, I didn't see anything earth shattering that I missed in the first - though maybe the second may present an argument to see them in order.
filmtreelog
11.17.14
Whiplash (2014), Damien Chazelle
The Sheltering Sky (1990), Bernardo Bertolucci
La promesse (1996), Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Floating Weeds (1959), Yasujiro Ozu
Movie of the week: Whiplash.
Floating Weeds. Working my way through Yasujiro Ozu's filmography. While most of his films are in black & white, Floating Weeds is one of five he did in color. As soon as I found out Roger Ebert did the commentary on the Criterion Collection disc, I moved it to #1 in the queue. Here is a sample. You may recognize Machiko Kyo as she was in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (Samurai's wife) and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (Lady Wakasa). And Chishu Ryu, an Ozu regular (the father in Tokyo Story), makes an appearance. So far, I've seen Late Spring (1949), Late Autumn (1963), Tokyo Twilight (1957), The End of Summer (1961), Equinox Flower (1958), Tokyo Story (1953). I'll have several Ozu films in my Netflix dvd queue for some time to come. Just learned of the Noriko trilogy - so Early Summer moves to #1 in my queue.
La promesse. Continuing my exploration of the Dardenne brothers filmography. Nothing slowing me down - only anticipation for the next (The Kid with a Bike, The Son). So far, all of them deal with a young person, most times a kid, going through life, making decisions, important, life changing decisions - sometimes in a split second, and you say to yourself what would I have done? And the ever present There but for the grace of God, go I. I like that they, like Bresson, use mostly unknown actors. Both the boy and the father make their acting debut in La promesse. And, like Jia Zhang-Ke showing us China, or Aki Kaurismaki Finland, or Corneliu Porumboiu Romania, the brothers introduce us to Belgum.
The Sheltering Sky. Almost 18 years after the Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris controversy, I wonder if many still hold that grudge - almost a I'll never forgive you that Roman Polanski grudge, which may or may not reflect in their reviews - who's to say? I have not seen LTIP, yet. I also read (after seeing the film) that in 1988, the author rewrote into the novel's preface (I have not read the book) "the less said about the film now, the better". I also saw a photo of Paul Bowles in a NYT review (was looking for the film review and first stumbled onto the NYT book review - then it clicked - he plays the Narrator in the film!. For some reason, I do recall the film's cover art (taken from a poster?), and figured it out - genius (the artwork idea, not me figuring it out). Roger Ebert says the film resembles A Passage to India and Picnic at Hanging Rock. I can see the parallels. Learn something new every day: Campbell Scott (played the reporter in Big Night), who plays the friend Turner, is George C Scott's son.
Whiplash. Stars J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser (Mad About You), and Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now 2013). A directorial debut for Damien Chazelle. IMDB says this was 107 minutes - 1 hour 47 minutes - if asked, I would have sworn it was at least 2 hours, and not because of any pacing issues - the film is tight, with a linear storyline that seems to alternate between full bore on the track of the Daytona 500 and everyday life - throwing in a few streets of San Francisco hills for an emotional rollercoaster effect, while blindfolded, as you get little warning of the ups or downs - or sideways. A full bore example includes a whip pan between J.K. and Miles, back and forth, with a breathless intensity. You'd think the adrenaline would spring you out of your seat and out of the theater at the end, but the music glued me to my seat and through the entire credits. I even searched for a certain cd online when I got home.
Before Sunrise. My third Richard Linklater film (who hasn't seen Dazed and Confused?). For some reason, I threw Before Midnight (2013) into my queue a couple weeks ago. An interesting experience, watching the first of a director's trilogy after seeing the third, 18 years apart. Immediately I noticed the refinement apparent in Midnight - the perfect framing in the signature walk and talk dolly shots (David Katz And Oliver Lunn, grolschfilmworks.com/), and the long takes. Plot wise, I didn't see anything earth shattering that I missed in the first - though maybe the second may present an argument to see them in order.
filmtreelog
11.17.14
Total Comments 0
