Week in Film: 10/31/16-11/6/16

Week in Film: 10/31/16-11/6/16

Film of the Week: La Notte
   Year: 1961
   Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

       L’Avventura may be more well known, but I honestly think this is the better film. Actually, by quite a bit too, although I need to see the other again. That feeling of emptiness is so much more expanded on in this from the previous in Antonioni’s loose trilogy. Not only the best of this director, but one of the best things I’ve seen this year.

   Rating: A

The Rest:

The Silence of the Lambs

   Year: 1991

   Director: Jonathan Demme

       Essentially flawless. This doesn't make it an all time great for me (although it is a great film), but it does make it in that rare breed that sometimes mingles, sometimes doesn't with those select few in my own list. There are many all time great films that aren't perfect (something like "Lawrence of Arabia"), as well as "perfect" or near enough movies that aren't in my top 50 or so (like this). There is not a performance, shot or moment out of place. Nothing to fault.

   Rating: A-

Kwaidan
   Year: 1964
   Director: Masaki Kobayashi

       I think of a Japanese Mario Bava. A closer relative would be “House,” although this is nowhere near as wacky is that film. It has an artificiality that I like, a way with it’s images that gives it an unreality but not fakeness, which is my main problem with the (admittedly little) Bava I’ve seen. Haunting at it’s best.

   Rating: B

Black Girl

   Year: 1966

   Director: Ousmane Sembene

       Those moments of glory, moments of beauty, moments of transcendence. I’ve called it pure cinema before. Moments of clarity, of honesty, of truth. I’ve had a difficult time deciding how to grade this, teetering between B+ and A-. It has a couple of those perfect moments. Is it enough? There are things that don’t quite work, but when it does work, it becomes profound.

   Rating: B+

Ride in the Whirlwind
   Year: 1966
   Director: Monte Hellman

       Pretty weak stuff. Something just felt… off. Not like unsettling or anything purposeful, but just kind of incompetent. Something in the dialogue, something in the cutting is just awkward.

   Rating: C

Antoine and Colette
   Year: 1962
   Director: Francois Truffaut

       Nice to see Antoine as he matures. It’s no “400 Blows” though, not that it was trying.

   Rating: B-

Lola
   Year: 1981
   Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

       Lesser Fassbinder, and the weakest link in the BRD trilogy.

   Rating: B-

Veronika Voss
   Year: 1982
   Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder

       And now the best of the BRD trilogy, and one of Fassbinder’s best period (from what I’ve seen). Captures that 50s melodrama feel, but also a Hollywood just a little before that era as well.

   Rating: B+

Tristana
   Year: 1970
   Director: Luis Bunuel

       Little touches of Bunuel’s signature surrealism work perfectly for this tale of corruption and moral erosion. Not his best work, but pretty good nonetheless.

   Rating: B

Alice
   Year: 1988
   Director: Jan Svankmajer

       Incredibly disturbing. Not for kids, unless you’re looking to traumatize someone.

   Rating: B

Mr. Arkadin
   Year: 1955
   Director: Orson Welles

       There are only so many times you can tilt a camera before it gets gimmicky. This is Welles usually wonderful style overripe and unfocused. Kind of annoying, really.

   Rating: C

Suzanne's Career
   Year: 1963
   Director: Eric Rohmer

       Just as inconsequential as “Bakery Girl of Monceau.”

   Rating: C-

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
   Year: 1975
   Director: Volker Schlondorff, Margarethe von Trotta

       Relevant today as I’m sure it was then.

   Rating: B

Ikiru
   Year: 1952
   Director: Akira Kurosawa

       Reminded me of “It’s a Wonderful Life” for some reason. Maybe it’s the snow, and the redemption. Takashi Shimura is excellent. This is not Kurosawa’s best film, but certainly some of his best work at moments.

   Rating: B+

Ordet
   Year: 1955
   Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

       Knowing it as being often considered one of the greatest films ever made, I was expecting more. No, that’s not quite right. It was what I expected, I suppose, but I expected to have a different reaction. Maybe it’s because I’m not religious, but I found myself unaffected, indifferent. I must admit there were surely moments of brilliance, it is a very good film, but not enough for me to put it in my personal canon.

   Rating: B

Medium Cool
   Year: 1968
   Director: Haskell Wexler

       Kind of a mish mash of things that work and things that don’t so much. Cool 60s score though.

   Rating: B-

High and Low
   Year: 1963
   Director: Akira Kurosawa

       Very few directors had their craft so perfected like Kurosawa’s is. This guy really knew what he was doing with a camera, and it shows from the first moments to the last. Mifune is great as always, showing more range than he seems to be given credit for.

   Rating: B+

Killer's Kiss
   Year: 1955
   Director: Stanley Kubrick

       Even at such an early age, with his first “real” movie (he disowned “Fear and Desire,” and for good reason honestly), Kubrick proves he really knows how to shoot something. Having a background as a photographer payed off pretty well for him.

   Rating: B