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Manon (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1949)
After I saw Manon, I mean the moment after Manon ended Molly said, "that was ridiculous." Later on in the week I caught myself talking about Manon in that way that you find yourself talking about a film but you don't exactly know what it is you want to say. I knew that it affected me. I knew I didn't exactly like it. I knew that it had tremendous ( Read more... ) -
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
This was lovely.
I will watch this again. -
Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993)
Yeah I watched Sleepless in Seattle. Why? Because at the last Canzine I took part in a zine challenge where participants were asked to recreate a hollywood film on the spot in a form of indie publishing. This was the only film on the list that I hadn't seen ( Read more... ) -
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010)
Alan Greenspan moved to stop the only attempt to regulate derivatives. Congress then bans regulation. This is a very insane way to have a debate: one person brings up an valid point that makes the majority uncomfortable. The majority stifles that voice and then moves further to ban all dissenting voices ( Read more... ) -
Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque (Jacques Richard, 2004)
I am sure I have spilled all kinds of digital ink gushing about Henri Langlois. So instead I will focus on a new curiosity that this film revealed through the words and passions of Langlois himself: the films of Jean Vigo ( Read more... ) -
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
I confess that I hadn't seen The Fly until this past weekend ( Read more... ) -
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Oliver Stone, 2010)
I was going to expend this entire entry going on about how insufferable Shia LaBeouf is but after skimming his Wikipedia page I kind of feel for the guy. He got kicked out of a Wallgreens and a drunk driver smooshed his hand. -
Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004)
I couldn't help wondering what if Arika Kurosawa were still alive. What would he have done with resources allotted to Troy? One look at the clunky special effects in Dreams leaves no doubt that he would have loved CGI. Fields and fields of CGI men marching along. I think what's off putting about them is that they all have exactly the same walk. ( Read more... ) -
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
The central question here (as in Rebecca and Psycho) is can someone from the past, someone dead, take possession of another person? Hitchcock means to ramp up the mania of a tortured-past-affecting-the-present to manic proportions. In conversation with Truffaut, Hitchcock said that when Scottie is in love with someone he believes to be dead, when ( Read more... ) -
Monsieur Hire (Patrice Leconte, 1989)
Sometimes you find the perfect film for your mood. This was a pitch-perfect french film: rooftops, cruelty, longing, blood. Sandrine Bonnaire is excellent as always. It was also striking to see André Wilms (who spoke at the TIFF Q & A) in the opening shot, barely recognizable, 20+ years younger ( Read more... )