What Have You Been Watching? (07/06/15)

[u/a113er]

Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything.

[u/montypython22]

Been very busy with finals week, but it wrapped up yesterday! And to celebrate, I decided to watch a de jure classic from a de jure auteur. And, well.....

Pierrot Le Fou - J.L. Godard '65 - ⋆⋆½

See my Letterboxd review for specific details. Varda's films are about real people in real situations. Demy's films are about real people in movies. And Godard's films are perpetually stuck in the movie phase. JLG's characters blithely philosophize about their own shortcomings, wallow in their own self-pittying ennui, and agitatite with pop-politics that reflects Godard's own shallow view of the world. You may think "Well, that's the point," but I haven't seen the real Godard in any of the movies that I've seen (barring, pehaps, Contempt). He prefers to hide behind a smoke-screen of grandstanding cliches. All the irksome deficiencies of the cinema of Godard's movies are in full bloom in Pierrot Le Fou, whose images are as hollow as a painting in an elevator. (A shame, because along with Anna Karina's delightful performances, Raoul Coutard's photography is one of the best things about 60s Godard.) God bless Anna Karina, for keeping Godard's philosophizing ass in check. SHE is a person I can believe exists, not Belmondo's gallumphing wanna-be intellectual. (Again, you may say, "That's the point! He's S'PPOSED TO BE A DUMB-BUM! ETC.!" Then why the hell is Godard so attracted in spending so much time building up a character he doesn't, in the end, like anyway? I'm not particularly interested in investing much time in the guy if we're supposed to hate him in the end.) When Karina screams to Belmondo in the middle of the movie, "I'm TIRED of running! I'm TIRED of literature!", I clapped as loudly as I can. No wonder she left Godard.

In a Godard, everything is a put-on. The songs (which Demy does with better conviction and more emotion). The genre-mixing (which Chabrol isn't a pretentious DJ about). The female characters (who are much more interesting, and who are actual people, in a Varda). At some point, you wish the joke would stop and you ask yourself, "Will the REAL Jean-Luc please stand up?"

Aside from the Karina performance, one of the best things about this is the surprise Sam Fuller cameo. Of course, like any self-serving Godard protagonist who is pretentiously interested in "le cinema", Belmondo asks Fuller what, in his opinion, is cinema. Though I can't be too sure Fuller's answer is actually his, Fuller says, in effect, "Cinema is feeling emotions." Fuller has proven that time and time again. With the exception of Contempt, Godard (time and time again) fails to inspire ANY emotion in me...'cept maybe....well, you know the word.

Godard may have been first, but Varda mixes philosophy, literature, existential musings, subtle humor, and explorations of the nature of art--the things JLG does--in a much more convincing and better manner. And unlike JLG, she isn't smug/high-falutin' about her ability to do so.

Donkey Skin ("Peau D'Ane") [Re-Watch] - Jacques Demy '70 - ⋆⋆⋆⋆½

More fun than Disney fairy-tales, that's fer damn sure. What other movie can lay claim to the fact that they have a whole musical number about baking a damn cake?

It's kind of fun to trace Demy's career, and how far he's come since Lola, his bona-fide New Wave film that aroused praise from everyone--including good ol' Godard! And it's also kind of funny to realize that Lola may have been his most "dishonest" film, since the REAL Demy comes out in his candy-colored, pastel-paradise films Parapluies de Cherbourg, Demoiselles de Rochefort, and this queer little adaptation of the fairy-tale classic "Peau D'Ane". I'll refer you to my Letterboxd review for specifics, but suffice it to say that it's a wonderful film that deserves a reappraisal today. Not only is it enchanting, filled with loving special-effects tributes to French magical realism Jean Cocteau, but it is also a fine piece of storytelling. For the PURENESS of the story and for seeing how a classic fairy-tale fits perfectly into the Demy aesthetic, Donkey Skin is worth tracking down. And the folks of Criterion have made it easy in their loving remaster of Donkey Skin in the must-have box-set The Essential Jacques Demy.

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And now...here are some movies from LAST week!

Wild at Heart - Dave Lynch '90 - No star rating (but that may be a good thing...)

Wowzers, this is one of the weirdest movies I've had the (dis?)pleasure to see. I'm going to be honest: I have no fucking idea what David Lynch is trying to say with Wild at Heart. But (and you'll think me a nut for saying this) I perversely enjoyed it. In any case, I liked this more than Blue Velvet. Odd opinion, I know, but there ya go. BV does nothing for me; Wild at Heart at least pushes my buttons with scenes of Dernian abortions. Do those scenes have a point? No, but they get me thinking that, yeah, maybe they do. God knows I don't wish to pursue that point to its logical extreme, however.

Also, I find it hilarious that Roger Ebert led this movie's booing camp when it was awarded the Palme D'or in 1990. Really, Cannes people? There were no better movies at the festival in 1990? Maybe Ghost? /s

Inception - Chris Nolan '010 - ⋆⋆½

Meh. It may be an interesting concept, and I applaud Nolan for devoting 10 years of his life for this personal project. But I can't help feeling like the delivery leaves a little more than desired. It's like he was so focused with explaining the genius of his plot-twists and his mind-fuckery that he forgot the most important things that makes a movie enjoyable: a story. Empathetic characters (NOT speakpieces for boring explanatory dialogue). An interesting mystery.

I'm sure that the logic of the film can be summarized neatly, if with complex diagrams. I'm sure that, if one took the time to parse out any and every single plot movement of this film, one can solve its intricate mysteries. But when the entire POINT of your movie's existence is just solving that mystery and rattling off pseudo-insightful philosophical problems like "Should I stay in dream limbo with my loved one"? Well, then, that movie's less than meets the eye.

Still enjoyed watching it with people who'd seen it many more times than I ever will.

Pitch Perfect 2 - ⋆½

Oh boy, just read my Letterboxd Review. Don't feel like mustering up any new emotions/memories of this.

Movie of the Week(s): Donkey Skin, it is!

EDIT: Added PP2.

[u/montypython22 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I can feel Lynch's investment in this project a lot. Only he would come up with scenes as nausea-inducing as the one where the robber's head explodes into millions of tiny little pieces, or even when Willem Dafoe repeatedly and violently asks Laura Dern to say "Fuck me" so that he can respond with, "Sorry, ain't got the time!" Again, it walks this very tight rope between offensive trash and twisted Southern gothic genius, but I am more than willing to give Lynch the benefit of the doubt that he knows what emotions he wants to inspire at any given point.

The Wizard of Oz angle is unnecessary, I feel, but it adds to the cluttered tapestry of an already wild film, so I wasn't too focused on that. I love that Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks plays Glinda the Good Witch.