Sight and Sound (2002) Greatest Films Club - Page 85

Lew Crippen · 12-14-2004, 10:42 AM

I am both your father and husband.

Luis Bunuel shows his usual disdain for the church in Tristana, a study of power in relationships. We begin with Don Lope (Fernando Rey), a notorious womanizer taking in and taking advantage of ward, Tristana (Catherine Deneuve) and end with him as an older man and her taking full advantage of him.

A powerful film.

Seth Paxton · 12-14-2004, 08:47 PM

Just touching base here, I have L'Atalante and Day for Night in the house, staring at me, tapping their foot in disgust at my failure to take the time to watch them.

Lew Crippen · 12-16-2004, 07:20 PM

Did you ever hear of a real man having only one woman?

To Sleep with Anger is an almost unknown film today and certainly director Charles Burnett is rarely mentioned as a major filmmaker. But both he and this movie specifically are well worth seeking out.

The movie seems at first a simple depiction of black, suburban home life, but the introduction of old family friend Harry Mention (Danny Glover) gradually turns this from a gentle, humorous view of life to a classic struggle of good and evil for men’s souls.

The film does take some time to develop, but for me at least, interest never flags. An absolute must-see.

Ernest Rister · 12-16-2004, 11:24 PM

"God is dead

A theme in Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s tour de force horror movie."

While I know the revisionism is deeply unpopular, I think this was a subject that the recent "version" of Friedkin's The Exorcist put to bed in a profound way. The forces of demonic power are made apparent precisely to cause people to lose faith, and yet, the exact opposite occurs. Can there be a more "Christian" example than Damian Karras inviting the sin into himself and sacrificing his own life, shouldering the sins of the world and accepting death to achieve the salvation of others? This is why I think Blatty was onto something with his fervent arguments with Friedkin to include the "staircase" scene, where Karras and Merrin discuss the reasoning behind the demonic attack on a little girl. Friedkin was right in that this didn't necessarily need to be spelled out for people, but Blatty was right, too. If the argument is strong enough to provide the basis for a film, surely it is strong enough to be dramatized and expressed openly.

The flip side of Rosemary's Baby is that if the devil is real, then surely the opposite can be true. I personally do not believe that a film that shows the existence of the Devil also expresses the notion that God is dead in the same breath. I tend to think of Rosemary's Baby in Greek terms, like some sort of dark twisted version of Oedipus Rex, where a character is trapped inescapbly by fate, and there is no escaping the final outcome. After Oedipus Rex, Sophocles wrote a follow up for Oedpius that allowed him some measure of redemption (Oedipus at Colonus) - it would be interesting to see a follow up to Rosemary's Baby based on similar ideas.

Brook K · 12-17-2004, 01:05 PM

He was born a pauper to a pawn on a christmas day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war’s begun

While certainly any film portraying Satan in the context of the Biblical book of Revelations has the running subtext that it is preordained that Satan will be ultimately defeated, Rosemary's Baby clearly shows the triumph of the forces of evil within the bounds of the film. Whether the film is a reflection of a modernist philosophy from the time it was made, a fascist allegory, or just a literary adaptation of good storytelling, I don't know. But to me it reflects a world where hope is lost. "Good" has not been vigilent or strong and even the most powerful of human instincts is not beyond the perversions and temptations of evil.

As for Freaks, I certainly don't view it as exploitation and am a fan of the film. However, I also wouldn't place it in the same ballpark as a film like The Bride Of Frankenstein. Freaks has honesty and emotion, but its filmmaking is downright crude in comparison.

I'm really falling behind in my reviews, I owe this thread 4 now.

Lew Crippen · 12-18-2004, 12:11 PM

Orestes has not surrendered his weapons. The war goes on.

Is it possible to make a movie about Greece that goes all the way back to classical times (at least in the names of the characters), that portrays the struggle of the country to be free from pre-WWII to the immediate post war, that has Nazis and Communists, is absurd and tragic, gives us love and betrayal and has a play within a play (and within a play), and still be boring?

The Traveling Players is up to the challenge. For all of the effort of the filmmakers to depict a mythic setting by never letting us close to the characters (except when they are discoursing on political positions for a long, long time), what we see is self-indulgent filmmaking of the worst kind. After four hours the audience cares not who lives or dies or why—or who wins the struggle for Greece’s soul.

Adam_S · 12-18-2004, 03:00 PM

Fanny and Alexander -

OARDVD

DAMN, one of the best films I've seen in this challenge, perido. Just Damn I want to watch this film again to melt into it's effortless storytelling, to drink in all the little things that are going on. Hell I even want to watch the full five hour version. Color me, Blown Away.

The Palm Beach Story -

OARVHS

Favorite Sturges so far, just a perfect whirlwind of Bringing up Baby/His Girl Friday/Chuck Jones screwyness of genre perfection.

Adam

Adam_S · 12-19-2004, 10:37 AM

La Dolce Vita -

OARDVD
12/16/2004

I've already forgotten most of this film, but like 8 1/2 it seemed pretty darn dense, and like most of the other fellini I've seen, the final scene (the big party, strip, whatnot) packs a hell of a whallop as it thematically brings most everything together finally. Meaning the second viewing is probably much improved.

However I disliked wading through a movie that was often as boring and painful as through a certain modernist novel I threw down after 20 pages several years ago, I'll probably eventually read that novel, but I still dislike it, and in many ways I dislike much of this film even though it is incredibly well made from a technical standpoint and full of interesting (or is that unnecessary) complexities thematically--but what do you expect from a film that feels like the first twenty pages of the Great Gatsby?

Well done but terribly offputting.

Adam

Lew Crippen · 12-20-2004, 01:58 PM

We’re going back to the mainland soon.

Both a coming of age story and one about cultural displacement, The Time to Live and the Time to Die is director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s largely autobiographical movie of his youth in post-revolution, small-town Taiwan. This is a quiet movie—one where we get to know each individual character in a three-generation family and one, which will likely not appeal to those who dislike such movies as The Apu Trilogy . Hou is unsparing of himself and his family—a fine, if somewhat uneven movie.

george kaplan · 12-20-2004, 02:48 PM

Although it's not on the S&S list, I just saw Swept Away which is just the kind of horrid film that permeates much of the list. Those of you who like the S&S films I hate, who haven't seen Swept Away should probably do so. You'd probably love it as much as I hate it.