Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 120

rich_d · 03-04-2008, 09:46 AM

The Double Life of Veronique, Kieslowski - 226

Liked it but didn't love it. Cinematography was terrific. Irène Jacob was outstanding in the lead (and easy on the eyes). The score was fine too.

I love films with themes around duality. Just didn't really connect as a story.

Intrigue ... go visit her dad ... intrique ... go visit her dad ...

The ending was blah too. More like Kieslowski didn't have an ending.

So, overall I found it to have some really interesting moments and ideas but just not enough to really be on a top film list.

I do think that the cat and mouse game with the puppeteer seems a very likely source of inspiration for the like scenes in Amelie. And both uses of the idea were quite well done.

Btw, is Kieslowski the first to do use a green filter throughout an entire film?

I know Hitch used a heavy green palette in Vertigo and To Catch A Thief but it was only certain scenes. Are there other filmmakers I'm overlooking?

Welcome back Lew!

**HTF Ads**

Holadem · 03-04-2008, 04:16 PM

I tried to watch Veronique, but the Netflix disk skips and freezes at the worse possible moment, smack in the middle of that pivotal concert

. I skipped a bit past it, but was so annoyed that I just stopped. That sequence is too powerful to skip.

Otherwise, I can't say I connected with what I saw as a whole by then. A bit dissapointed (love Kieslowsky), but I will wait to watch the whole thing before judging.

--
H

Adam_S · 03-04-2008, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Kind words indeed George—thanks.

I’m planning on returning to being a contributing member of society.

Huzzah!

Brook K · 03-08-2008, 11:19 AM

So Lew's back to class up the joint?!

Finally started on the list again. Planning on renting something from the library every couple of weeks or so until I exhaust their S&S movies.

#304 The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939, Kenji Mizoguchi)
The tale of the son of a famous Kabuki actor who falls in love with the family wetnurse. Before he had been content to skate by on the reputation of his father, but inspired by the woman, rededicates himself to the craft of acting. Of course the relationship is scandalous to the family, not only is the woman a family servant, but she is older than her son and they fear she is a golddigger as well. The family sends her away, but the son persists meeting the woman and is eventually disinherited by the father. Now penniless, he sets out into the world as an itinerant actor.

Mizoguchi takes this story of forbidden love and infuses it with his unique visual style. His camera generally stays far away from the actors, giving scenes that might be hysterical or trite in the hands of another actor, a more somber, contemplative tone. One feels the constrictive nature of tradition bearing down on the characters, despite the camera generally staying at wider angles. The effect doesn't mute the actors emotions, they are simply focused in a different way, providing a powerfully moving experience.

But the film has more to offer than just romantic drama, being as this is a film set in a world of actors and Kabuki, there are healthy doses of humor and character in the interactions of the actors. We get to see portions of Kabuki plays which add to the visual splendor of the film while also letting the audience experience the development of the main character's acting abilities. Mizoguchi skillfully weaves these elements together to deliver a stunning film. - A

Adam_S · 03-09-2008, 08:07 AM

Decalogue:

8 - 10 of 10

An aging professor meets her English translator and together they pose an ethical delimma to their class. How could a catholic couple in WWII use a sin of false witness to justify overriding their duty as christians to charitably shelter and hide jewish children? But there is much more to their relationship and the ethical delimma than seems on the surface. The best acting of the lot so far.

Adam_S · 03-09-2008, 08:09 AM

I remember I liked Story of the Last Chrysanthemum quite a lot, unfortunatley my review in this thread is barely even that. Glad you also liked it Brook, hopefully it'll appear on DVD in an eclipse set this year.

Martin Teller · 03-09-2008, 01:17 PM

#281 - Baby Doll

Not nearly as riveting or powerful as Streetcar Named Desire -- another meeting of Williams and Kazan -- but it's definitely watchable and entertaining. As you would expect, it's very raunchy and suggestive for its time... though not quite as daring as its reputation

Spoiler:

. The comedy is well executed, particularly due to Eli Wallach's charming performance, and I found Archie Lee (Karl Malden) to be a fascinating character. The brutishness and rage of Stanley Kowalski, but with a heaping dose of frustration and ineffectual uselessness thrown into the mix. He's a born loser and he doesn't know it. Rating: 8

Adam_S · 03-12-2008, 06:52 AM

Decalogue:

9 - 9 of 10

Superb.

A surgeon entering late middle age finds out he's impotent and conclusively absolutely will never be able to get it up again. Naturally this thoroughly shakes him and makes him question the basis of his love for his younger wife. She professes his love for him still and he questions her if she's had or is having or plans to have an affair, to which she answers in the negative. but the next day he answers the phone to a strange man asking for his wife, a man who won't leave a message but will call back later. The man becomes suspicious and begins investigating his wife and discovers she has been carrying on an affair. But as she fears her husband may discover it she breaks it off. He wonders what he has left to live for.

Wonderful story and script, superb cinematography and great acting.

Adam_S · 03-16-2008, 12:48 AM

The Music Room - 4 of 10
#208 - 35mm - 3/15/08

The cinematography and direction are gorgeous, the performances are good and the art direction is excellent. The music... well if you really love non-western music this is for you, it's more intense (and more of it) than Yellow Earth even. the diagetic music was simply very overpowering in almost every scene it was featured in (about 60% of the film). Some of the underscoring was quite beautiful though, same type of music, just not as aggressive. ultimately it's fairly boring and more than a little tedious though.

An old man hears music wafting across the hills while lounging on the roof of his mansion. When he discovers that it's the sacred thread ceremony of a crass new-rich fellow it launches him on a long reminescence (which isn't apparent until the reminescence is over an hour and fifteen minutes later) that begins with his own son's sacred thread ceremony, and how his lavish spending there, and in particular on the music for the ceremony started his proud family's slide into bankruptcy. He is too proud to borrow money from the crass new-rich fellow (a usurer) so he slowly sells off his wife jewelry to fund his lavish lifestyle. Eventually his wife and son go on a trip to see his wife's dying father (or mother I can't remember), and the crass new-rich fellow decides to hold a house warming party and invites the old man. The old man decides to put the crass new-rich fellow in his place and claims to holding his own party on the same day, and naturally this forces the crass new-rich fellow to cancel to avoid offending the old man. the old man summons his wife and child and spends more of his ever decreasing wealth on a celebration culminating in a concert in his music room. They are due to return on a houseboat, but there is a storm on the day of their return and both are killed. how sad. The man sinks into a depression and becomes a recluse, end reminescence.

The crass new-rich fellow comes by to invite the old man personally to the opening of his new music room, with the best musicians in india. The old man refuses and the crass new-rich fellow mocks and attempts to humiliate the old man. Hearing the concert waft over the hills the old man decides to have the same musicians at the reopening of his own music room the next night and spends all his money on them to once again put the crass new-rich fellow in his place. then the lights go out in the music room and on the old man's life.

This was a double feature with Charulata, I'd intended to stay, but this film dragged on for so long (theoretically it's 100 minutes) I didn't think I could sit through a second one that was even longer, even though the story sounds much more interesting. Plus I'd missed my workout and skipping the second film let me get one in before the gym closed.

Brook K · 03-16-2008, 01:57 PM

Wow...I loved The Music Room, preferred it to any of the Apu films even. Classical tragedy of hubris, failure, and regret. I suppose it helps that I enjoy that style of Indian music. I was even watching on a craptacular DVD, I'd love to get the chance to see it on film like you did.

Holding my positive review of Where is the Friend's Home? until I get around to seeing Life and Nothing More.

re: Chrysanthemum's...given what I saw on the Janus VHS, I hope they go the full blown Criterion restoration route with Chrysanthemums instead of putting it on Eclipse.

re: Baby Doll....I thought that's exactly what was so provocative/transgressive about it, that it WAS about people not having sex (that and Carol Baker was smoking hot)...about a woman's ability to sexually dominate and control men even in a society where they are overtly powerless. Hand in hand with that idea is Malden's portrayal of a man driven insane by not getting any. The power of man's natural need for sex, that drives them to submit to women or compromise themselves ala a certain former governor, has rarely been shown on film the way it is in Baby Doll. That's without even delving in to the racism elements of the piece, where Eli Wallach's character is someone the white men will do business with, but he can never be their equal.

Lew Crippen · 03-16-2008, 03:37 PM

For me not better than the Apus that I consider to be filmmaking of the highest order.

I am looking forward to your comments on [i]Where is My Friends Home?]/i]—another film I loved.