The Silver Screen Oasis

I liked Elevator to the Gallows, it inspired me to search out some more Malle movies.

I'm going to have to look for The Lower Depths, I can't imagine enjoying it after seeing the play some years ago, it was the most depressing play I've ever seen, slow moving and dull with no redeeming moments. One of those you fidget through.

I read the play and it reads much better. The one you discuss seems as if it has some humor to help you through the despair.

The Japanese version was more despairing, so much so I didn't see the resemblence at first. The humour helps, without it it wolud be hard going. I think to that death isn't seen as something to be dreaded, there is a character who talks of the voyage to death and makes it seem pleasant.

Last night, the local revival house showed a 16mm print from France of LA BELLE EQUIPE (Julien Duvivier 1936) aka THEY WERE FIVE. Some working class stiffs win the national lottery. Five of them decide to use their shares to restore a run-down chateau and convert it to an inn for others in the working class. Bad luck and competing love interests become obstacles to their dream.

The film is subject to at least two readings: a male bonding melodrama, and an allegory of the difficulties facing the working class as Fascism is on the rise. Not the top Duvivier that I've seen, but apparently it was extremely popular at the time. Duvivier and Charles Spaak (PANIQUE and LA GRANDE ILLUSION among many others) co-wrote the script. The highlight was watching the star, the wonderful Jean Gabin. One source credits this as the film that made him a star.

(no English subtitles)
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That sound like I film I'd like to see Owen.

I forgot to mention that last Monday my sister and I finished watching an absolutely disappointing French film starring Juliette Binoche titled "Copie Conforme" (2010) (Certified Copy), a French-Italian co-production that earned good reviews in Chile but that was screened in Cinemas for a little period of time. The film directed by the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami is a rather boring, pointless and ultimately pretentious movie whose main asset is Binoche's charm, beauty and talent.

I very much liked Certified Copy. It's been a little while since I've seen it, but I found it very thought provoking as it asks quite a lot of questions about art and love. Like Linklater's Sunrise/Sunset films, it essentially is just two engaging people talking (with plenty of beautiful scenery for the eye) and the best thing is that the film doesn't answer all of the questions it asks.

Kevin, I liked "Sunrise" and "Sunset" (they are both very, very good), but "Copie Conforme" is too far-fetched. I like Art-House cinema, but in this case the director went too far, in my opinion, in its philosophic wanderings. What annoyed me specifically was that it did not make sense that during the first half of the film the leading characters were total strangers and afterwards they were a 15-year-married couple. I like things being left untold or unsolved....and it like watching Surrealistic films, but this movie was head-over-heels IMO; and the ending .....Well, my sister and I had long anticipated watching this film and our expectations were high.

Spoilers

I think the film purposely blurs the line between reality and illusion. It begins with the two apparently meeting for the first time and building some kind of relationship as they talk with each other. (This is where I was reminded of Linklater). At the restaurant, the waitress assumes they are a married couple and then--they are! This abrupt change momentarily takes the viewer out of the film (ala Godard), and as the second half continues, we are left with the questions: which half is real? Have they been married for years or are they strangers? Can they be both? Is that the same thing?

My wife also looked forward to seeing the film; she fell asleep within the first twenty minutes.

MichiganJ wrote:Spoilers(ala Godard)

You nailed it. I'm not fond of the Nauvelle Vague.

I watched Matador my first Almoldovar movie, I think he's someone I need to hit my stride with, I'd put it on when the kids had gone to bed but not asleep and the first scenes were of a delicate nature, so I turned the movie off and had to wait until I was sure they were asleep, then I watched it, interesting starring a young Antonio Banderas, will definitely watch more of his movies.

I like very much Almodovar and I've seen all his films, but they are definitely only for adults and some of his earlier films (ie: "Labyrinth of Passions" (1982) and "Pepi, Luci Bom and other Girls of the Sort" (1980)) are extremely raunchy and raw.

My favorites are "What Have I done to deserve this?" (1984), "Dark Habits" (1983), "Women on the Verge of a nervous Breakdown" (1988), "High Heels" (1992).

Yesterday I watched Brancaleone alle crociate (Brancaleon at the crusades, 1970) a hilarious comedy by Mario Monicelli with Vittorio Gassman. The storyline reminded me of the maddest Monty Pythons plots. Brancaleone da Norcia (V. Gassman) is a dishevelled Middle-Ages knight riding a yellow horse. He first appeared in the equally hilarious L'Armata Brancaleone (1966, M. Monicelli) where he faced various mad adventures. In this sequel, he decides to join the Crusades to the Holy Land. And the whole film shows a succession of adventures and misadventures for this silly and clumsy knight. I really wonder if Terry Gilliam didn't get some ideas from the Monicelli pictures. But, behind the buffooneries, the film was making some pointed comments at intolerance and religious bigotry. We get a fight between to would-be popes and poor Brancaleone has to walk over live embers to decide whether his pope is the 'real one' according to God. Gassman chews the scenery with gusto, but it's a hoot. Definitely worth visiting!

This sounds way better than the movie I recently watched at my friend Veronique's request. I should have watched Brancaleone alle crociate! Well, she knew who John Ford was before I needed to describe him, so I took her word on this movie.

CalledLes Visiteurs or Just Visiting, this was an OK low comedy, made special by the ever talented Jean Reno, who seems to be able to lift even the most patently ridiculous films to a new level. It's about a very noble knight who travels forward in time in order to redeem himself for a mistake in his own past. It was funny, if you like a lot of jokes about bodily smells and functions. Reno remained hilariously single-minded and serious while the knockabout stuff was left to his valet or servant, Christian Clavier, who gets the last laugh, so to speak. It's very predictable, though there are a couple of spins in the plot that work well, like the ending, which is funny but rather cruel. I would say there was nothing remarkable about it, except for Reno and the exceptionally good translation of the subtitles.

Ann, I saw "Brancaleone's Army" in 1987, and the first thing I thought of was "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Thanks for reminding me of that enjoyable film.