Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Celle que vous croyez / Who You Think I Am (2019) - 8/10. In Atonement, many years ago, it was revealed at the end that the conclusion of the story as presented was a lie; Vanessa Redgrave showed up in an epilogue and told us what the real ending was. Man did I feel cheated. This film avoids that mistake by telling us the real story first (Juliet Binoche pretending to be a younger woman to snag a boyfriend on social media), and only then using a lie as a follow-up. A much more satisfactory way to proceed. But I don't want to talk about the plot, which is adequate, I want to talk about what is superlative, namely, the look of the film. This is the best-looking digital presentation I think I've ever seen. I'm guessing the fact it was shot with the Sony CineAlta f65 has a lot to do with it. Also, it features marvelous locations marvelously used. Funnily enough, I only saw this film because Mrs. J is such a Binoche fan, but I'm the one who ended up really liking it. Now I need it on blu so I can watch it over and over again.

[noodles_leone]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[dave jenkins]

I should also mention the film has a fantastic OST by Ibrahim Maalouf, not his usual thing, I gather, this has mostly piano and strings, sometimes sonically manipulated. I wasn't able to find a CD of it, but I did manage to download the album from amazon on digital. That's OK for now, but if anyone can point me to where I might be able to get a physical copy of the OST, I'd sure appreciate it.

[noodles_leone]

It doesn't seem to exist (yet). It isn't mentioned on Maalouf's website and it isn't on Fnac.com, two websites where you would definitly find it when/if it gets a proper release.

[dave jenkins]

It doesn't seem to exist (yet). It isn't mentioned on Maalof's website and it isn't on Fnac.com, two websites where you would definitly find it when/if it gets a proper release.

Yeah, I looked on Fnac.com before I gave up and bought the download. All his other stuff seems to be out on disc. I wonder what the deal with this one is.

[dave jenkins]

Lamb (2021) - 3/10. Beautifully photographed (using the Arri Alexa Mini with a Zeiss anamorphic lens), Iceland is shown here to great advantage. Unhappily, the story is utterly idiotic. This film should not be confused with the one with the same title released in 2015, or the one with Liam Neeson from 1985.

[noodles_leone]

La vie de J?sus / The Life of Jesus (Bruno Dumont, 1997) - 7/10
This seems to me like a "leftist catholic" answer to Boisset's Dupont Lajoie. Dumont's first feature is a powerful, deeply human and spiritual tale rooted in radical poetic naturalism. The filmmaker never openly juges and rarely comments, eventhough his tenderness for the people depected is obvious. The audience is left alone watching these people live: they're poor, they drive motorcycle, they have deeply usatisfying sex and they're bored to death. Litteraly to death, since the main character is kind of a french Travis Bickle: he's having an existential crisis and cannot understand or put the words on what he's experiencing. But unlike 70's NYC, there is absolutely nothing to do in the countryside of northern France in the 90's. So he more or less consciently tries to kill himself as many times as possible. He's also jaleous, sexist and racist. He ends up sexually agressing and then racially agressing people. But in Marty's movie, the violent actions of Travis are almost random. Here they feel like a tragedy waiting to happen: nothing else might even happen in this time and place. Another big difference with Scorsese' first masterpiece is that Dumont give a true life to the female character. She isn't just a fake path toward redemption like the girl in Taxi Driver. She's also a deeply unsatisfied human being who somehow feels there is more to life than what she can see around her. She's a path toward Grace, but she doesn't have the key. A young muslim seems to be the key for a minute, but there is no escape.

Flandres / Flanders (Bruno Dumont, 2006) - 5.5/10
Dumont's poetic narutalism forgets the naturalism part once those guys go to war. Which is where the movie falls apart. I'd go with Cimino's essentialism (the deeply rooted in realism russian roulette scenes, of course) vs Dumont's one any day. All the scenes in Flandres are amazing though. Once again, a great female character. The movie is, weirdly enough, even more religion oriented than The Life of Jesus.

Humanit? / Humanity (Burno Dumont, 1999) - 8.5/10
Dumont's second feature is the deepest, richest and best one I've seen. It isn't an easy watch, but what a powerful one. Some people call it "one of the most beautiful movies ever" (they're not saying the pictures are pretty: they aren't. They're true though.) and they may very well be right. I'll revisit it later.

[drinkanddestroy]

Interesting that you watched a Demy film recently. Mrs. Jenkins and I saw two on Sunday night: Une Chambre en Ville (1982) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). The first isn't very good but we had to watch it because my wife is a huge Dominique Sanda fan. The second is probably my favorite musical of all time--I've seen it maybe 20 times, but I have to keep returning to it because of the music.

I don't like Lola much. Much better is the one Demy made immediately afterwards, Bay of Angels, with Claude Mann and Jeanne Moreau. You really should see that one--although the dumb happy ending in that will really REALLY piss you off. LOL.

I just watched BAY OF ANGELS. It was absolute shit. Not that LOLA is great, but definitely better than BAY OF ANGELS.

(This will contain SPOILERS)

So this guy (Claude Mann) discovers gambling and goes off to the Riviera, where he meets a degenerate gambler (Jeanna Moreau, bleach blonde  ) they gamble, winning big, losing big, winning big, losing big, end up broke, he loves her, she doesn?t care much about him or anything else other than roulette, and at the end, in one of the most crappy happy endings ever, she falls into his arms. Bullmotherfuckingshit. A waste of culluloid

[dave jenkins]

... and at the end, in one of the most crappy happy endings ever, she falls into his arms. Bullmotherfuckingshit. A waste of culluloid

You have no sense of humor whatsoever.

[dave jenkins]

Or to put it another way:

1962: Godard, with Vivre sa vie, announces cinematic postmodernism (films are no longer only about themselves, they are also about other films).

1963: Demy, in Bay of Angels, gives a shout out to Godard by attaching an extra-genre ending to his otherwise scrupulously observed character study of degenerate gamblers.

1964: Varda, Demy's wife, out-Godards Godard with Le Bonheur, a film that uses advertising images in place of characters.

1968: OUATITW. Leone demonstrates that films do not need to be about themselves at all, they can be entirely about other films.

2021: Drink, utterly clueless, continues to have no idea what happened in cinema 60 years ago.

[dave jenkins]

Or to put it another way:

1962: Godard, with Vivre sa vie, announces cinematic postmodernism (films are no longer only about themselves, they are also about other films).

1963: Demy, in Bay of Angels, gives a shout out to Godard by attaching an extra-genre ending to his otherwise scrupulously observed character study of degenerate gamblers.

1964: Varda, Demy's wife, out-Godards Godard with Le Bonheur, a film that uses advertising images in place of characters.

1968: OUATITW. Leone demonstrates that films do not need to be about themselves at all, they can be entirely about other films.

2021: Drink, utterly clueless, continues to have no idea what happened in cinema 60 years ago.

Or this:

Godard: Characters are constructs.

Demy: Genres are also constructs.

Varda: Characters and genres are both constructs.

Leone: Constructs can be fun!

Drink: When can I get my rocks off?

[cigar joe]

lol

[drinkanddestroy]

2021: DJ need to make excuses for why shitty movies are really good.

[noodles_leone]

Also DJ totally forgot the biggest landmark in the history of Cinema.

2000: The Patriot, starring a well known antisemitic public figure, showed that canonballs do bounce.

[dave jenkins]

The Third Day (1965)  6/10

Ah, here's where you went wrong: you should have watched The Third Secret (1964) instead.

The Third Secret (1964) - 7/10. The First Secret is what we won't tell others. The Second Secret is what we won't tell ourselves. The Third Secret? Hey, no spoilers here! Stephen Boyd plays an American journalist living in London. When his analyst is killed, the newsman is persuaded to investigate the death (officially a suicide). The late doctor's 14 year-old-daughter (Pamela Franklin) is convinced her father was killed by one of his patients, a psychopath pretending to be a neurotic (Ha!). She doesn't know which one it is, but she compiles a list of three suspects, played by Richard Attenborough, Diane Cilento, and Jack Hawkins. However, as the Stephen Boyd character was also one of the doctor's patients, it soon becomes apparent that he is the 4th suspect (but not the Third Secret, got that?), and apparently, he can't account for his actions on the day of the murder. Shades of Black Angel! But these are all red herrings--late in the game it is revealed there is in fact a 5th suspect, and that's the one to watch. Some very good actors speak very highly literate dialog, and they look good doing it in b&w CinemaScope frames. The score isn't bad. A film worthy of at least one re-watch.