Cinematheque
aug 2009
Rohmer
1968
One of the moral tales – and again , the message is indistinct. I think it may be Rohmer’s intension to bring out subtle, ambiguopus moral situations in contrast to the typical moral situation which involves and unambiguopus rule and a simple, applicable situation. In this case, it is the question of young, unmarried French persons, in 1968, over the age of 30 (at least some of them) – and catholic. As the lead character himself says – he treats his persaonl life and his religious morality entirely separately.
It is a movie of clever talking people, and romantic and sexual tension. Our hero is caught between his ‘morality’ and the opportunities before him. But it is difficult to tell – it appears his concern to remain true to his own feelings of love and romantic affection have more sway than his religious background, when it comes to the offer of a night of pleasure.
So a delicate little film, and very nice to watch.
Chabrol
2007
Cinematheque, Aug 2007.
Late Chabrol, and highly developed, as expected. The death as we expect from the late films is less gory, and more startling and effective. And – there is a whole story surrounding it. The music is by, I assume, his son, and written by the daughter.
The characters are wealthy, and drift – they do not live by principle, but on passion. I’m not quite sure what it was ‘about’. The characters are of varying ages, so we can see the passions spread across the demographics. However I don’t think that’s the point. It was perhaps about love, as the characters show a fidelity to love independent of puritan physical proofs; even when they hate each other for what they have done, the characters do not flinch in standing by the strongest emotion of the heart. It’s admirable, even when the actions of the actual characters are not.
The characters are beautifully cast, and the camera work, with great mise-en-scene and great depth of field close-ups, is superb. In all, it’s so well crafted, and retains Chabrols slightly twisted, but certainly engaging and penetrating view.
The old goat still has it.
Claude Chabrol
1958
His first film. Now I hate to spoil it, but there are not multiple murders in this film.
It’s very good. A young man returns to his Rural hiome town; but he is now something of an urban sophisticate. His old best friend is a young drunk, and the passions of the rural environment are raw and unbridaled. They are ‘animals’ – and as his friend points out (the drunk friend) – it’s normal, for them. So it’s a good contrast study, of the urbanite who returns home, and in a way fits in as he always did. A Tarzan story, in rural France, but backwards, as he returns to his primevil roots.
I don’t like that lead actor – I believe he is Jean-Claude Brialy, but he works in this roll, except in the scene where he is running, which makes you want to punch him in the face, as usual.
Went to both films that night (Aug 2009), ran into Darren at the second, which was Chabrol’s newest film, LA FILLE COUPÉE EN DEUX (A GIRL CUT IN TWO).
Jacques Tati
1949
viewed at Cinemateque, Aug 2009.
I thought I’d seen a Tati before, but was not sure. Now I’m sure. It’s slapstick, and looks like it’s from 1930. Now I like physical comedy, but this is heavily over-emphasized (like the early dramatic transitions from silent to sound film) and has no clever angle or subtlety to counterbalance the ‘blockheaded-ness’ of the physical aspect. It’s the three stooges, done by some other three guys. Not so good. The audience, though, liked it. I guess they knew what they were in for. I myself don’t think it’s funny to watch a person flail around in the air for 2 minutes to try and hit a fly, and then to have a cyclist go by and watch him flail around in the air as the fly has transferred to him. There’s nothing funny in that, at least the way Tati does it. It’s just ’signs’ of comedy, without the comedy itself. But I was glad to see it, so I cross him off my list of ‘film makers to look out for’.
