Week in Film #8: 2/15/16-2/21/16

Week in Film #8: 2/15/16-2/21/16

Film of the Week: The 400 Blows
   Year: 1959
   Director: Francois Truffaut

       And so Francois Truffaut helped to usher in the French new wave cinema with one of its crowning achievements. Possibly the definitive coming of age tale, this one has a heart that beats, and the rare ability to show that heart without exploiting it. The pain Antoine feels is our pain because we understand it, and we understand him. When you really look at it, he is sort of a little trouble maker, but you can tell where he comes from. Film is the great empathy machine, and it can make you connect with those who are outside your age, among other various sorts of things, like culture, or social class.

       Antoine is cast perfectly, Jean-Pierre Leaud filling the role with a stony solemness that is equally balanced by a boyishness and youth. The actor seems old beyond his years, but also clearly in the throws of adolescence. Its an odd pairing that pays of spectacularly, and I doubt if Truffaut could have found a better actor to play the part. In fact there doesn't seem to be a poorly cast part in the whole movie. Antoine's mother is believable and realistic, his step father showing a kindness of more friendliness than parental connection, his teacher suitably harsh and temperamental. It's almost a perfect storm on all fronts, from direction to acting to cinematography to score.

       I think probably more than any film I've seen this understands and empathizes with the harsh and painfully emotional world of childhood. Many films have captured the spirit of adolescence, from The Breakfast Club to Boyhood, but I don't think any of them can match this in its sheer presence. It feels like growing up does: Joyous. Exuberant. Confusing. Melancholy. Lost. It captures and bottles that feeling of not knowing the way, of that intangible feeling that comes with growing pains. something so hard to define and so hard to find, making it all the more impressive that Truffaut was able to portray it on the screen. The ending is the most evocative of this feeling. It is a perfect visual representation of that obscure feeling that is almost forgotten when we grow out of it. This movie is a memory, the audiences own memory, recalling something that was once felt and lived.

   Rating: A

The Rest: 

Le Havre

   Year: 2011

   Director: Aki Kaurismaki 

       A happy and warm hearted work. Its nice in an age dominated by cynical perspectives to have something of such decent humanity and compassion, without being overblown or sappy. There is some influence from 50s melodrama here, with noir lighting at times and possibly a touch of Tati. It tackles relevant societal issues with a poignant humanism that is both funny and touching. 

   Rating: B

The Long Goodbye
   Year: 1973
   Director: Robert Altman

        It's hard to pin down exactly what makes an Altman film an Altman film. All I know is I know one when I see one. Maybe its the slight zoom thing he does, or his focus on subject matter of the American social landscape, or his sense of characters. Whatever it is it works well, and this is no exception.

   Rating: B+

Shoot the Piano Player
   Year: 1960
   Director: Francois Truffaut

       The only exposure to Truffaut I'd had before this was a few years ago when I saw The 400 Blows (something I remember liking) and Jules and Jim (something I remember hating), but I don't think I was at a maturity to fully appreciate that sort of artistic film. So seeing this is sort of a first impression of sorts of the director, and going off this, one thing is already clear: he is completely infatuated with film. Cinema as a medium of expression and as an art form, as well as just a device made for capturing and performing feeling. He is a filmmaker with a great sense of style and movie making in general, and it shows in his composition, pacing, and all around direction of this magnificently filmed noir. It is made with a confident grip on the craft at hand, showing that Truffaut is virtuoso auteur who knows how to wield a camera to evoke that intangible feeling of cinema itself.

   Rating: B+

WR: Mysteries of the Organism
   Year: 1971
   Director: Dusan Makavejev

       I really have no idea how to rate this. In fact, I'm not even sure what it is I just saw. I don't know if it was awe, or just confusion. Most likely somewhere in between. I don't think it can really be judged fairly by my traditional A-F grading system, because it simply defies proper analysis, as much as it defies categorization or even articulation. Part documentary, part phony propaganda, part musical, part pornography, and, I think, all comedy, as well as a few other things. This is the kind of comedy however that isn't so much laugh out loud, mostly because your jaw is on the floor for much of the viewing, either in something like shock or confusion, but more the kind that hits you on a sort of intellectual plane, or an emotional one. It's humor stems from its absurdity, which is so unique that it is hard to define or describe, but can be called surreal definitely. Is it any good though? Yes, it may even be a masterpiece. Then again, maybe its nowhere near. This is less a review and more a reaction, but this film is less a film and more of a happening, so it seems appropriate.

   Rating: B+

Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys
   Year: 2000
   Director: Michael Haneke

       What an apt title. Especially the "unknown" and "incomplete" parts. It's a series of loosely connected vignettes, most all of which are single takes, focusing one a few different characters and their lives, sometimes intersecting. This is not an easy film to watch, partly because of its depth, mostly because of its unrelenting bleakness. It almost feels worth it, but in the end anything I feel I may have gotten out of it is overshadowed by its weight. It may have been the mood I was in, but I had a hard time finding that connection to the screen that is vital in movie going experiences. I just wasn't in to it. But I've been thinking about it sense I saw it (last night) and part of me feels I should give it another chance. Anything that can stick with you is probably worth something. Maybe a few years down the line I'll revisit this, and hopefully get into it a little more.

   Rating: C+

A Generation
   Year: 1955
   Director: Andrzej Wajda

       The movie is mostly fine, and primarily throwaway and unexceptional, accept for one sequence that is pretty damn impressive compared to the rest of the film. The sequence in question is the murder/suicide of one of the main underground freedom fighters of a revolt against the Nazis in Warsaw, which features a series of great shots and realistic and surprisingly unique use of bullet impacts, both on objects and an arm. Unfortunately the rest doesn't match this quality. It isn't bad, it's just sort of fine. Nothing special, nothing particularly outstanding, just an everyday wartime drama.

   Rating: C

Closely Watched Trains
   Year: 1966
   Director: Jiri Menzel

       I thought of Wes Anderson while watching this. It has the same gentle innocence, reminiscent visual style (albeit in black and white), and thorough sense of humor. This has that, but also a much darker sense to it as well compared to Anderson's work. The young protagonist exists like much young people do: completely absorbed in their own world, while bigger things go rushing by like trains. Its a coming of age tale that ultimately reaches a conclusion that is a encompassing symbol for boys who came of age in the battles of World War II. Fighting, rather standing by ready, as the generals and commanders determine the direction the world takes. Caught in the crossfire and barely even knowing it as the world moves around them. There are more important things on the mind of an adolescent boy.

   Rating: A-

Bridge of Spies
   Year: 2015
   Director: Steven Spielberg

       A sign of a good director is his ability to effectively manipulate the audience into feeling a certain emotion. A sign of a great director is his ability to do it without the audience realizing it. Spielberg is, for me, a good director. At least when he's not making masterpieces such as Jaws and Schindler's List. Which makes it all the more disappointing when I see him directing a movie like this one: solid, but ultimately cliche and overtly sentimental. I know he has it in his power to pull real, profound emotion from somewhere other than John Williams ever present and overbearing score, or from the library of cinematic techniques to grab easy schmaltz in place of something that is more earned. This works fine, I guess, but for the most part I find myself rolling my eyes at dramatic speeches meant to move me, that I can't connect with because of the unshakable aura of faked feeling that pervades through the air in such scenes. It just doesn't feel real to me.

   Rating: C

Room
   Year: 2015
   Director: Lenny Abrahamson

       In contrast to Bridge of Spies, this is something that, for the most part, earns it's emotional moments. It could be said that the very premise warrants such emotional pull, but it is in the delicate execution as much as it is the subject matter. It uses a gentle, yet powerful touch to tell a hard story. The best thing about this one is Brie Larson, who no doubt will win the Oscar for an amazing display of powerful acting.

   Rating: B

Mad Max: Fury Road
   Year: 2015
   Director: George Miller

       The symphony of anarchism as conducted by George Miller.
This is not an easy affair. It is fast, brutal, unrelenting, and so packed with adrenaline and action that it risks capsizing and throwing the entire production overboard. Magically, somehow, Miller is able to pull this all together and deliver one of the tightest, most furious, most chaotic, most visceral action films I've ever seen. And more impressively, it all adds up to something far more than the sum of its parts: a wild enthralling call of feminism in major motion pictures, a study of masculinity in a male dominated world, and an indictment of religious extremism, that also manages to humanize even the most malicious and brainwashed of offenders. A real masterpiece of fury and flame.

   Rating: B+

The Big Short
   Year: 2015
   Director: Adam McKay

       Who ever thought you could make economics so damn fun and engrossing. While I'm not afraid to admit some of it went over my head, I feel I understood more about the American economy than I ever have in regular conversation, or in other films for that matter. The use of meta style fourth wall breaking moviemaking and unique structure make something that could be incredibly dull into something that is easily digestible. By making it interesting, it makes it easier to understand, and by understanding it better it is easier to see how fucked up the whole thing was back in 2008. I was too young to really know what was going on, but I do remember that something was happening. I never really knew the full scope of the recession until after this, and I have to say it left me pretty shocked.

   Rating: B+