16th Five Films, 2007
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The Big Heat (Fritz Lang) as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective at Walter Reade Theater. Gloria Grahame gives one of the most enthusiastic peformances that I've ever seen here. She gets almost all the good lines and visibly/audibly savors every one. Hollywood has produced its share of possibly unintelligent beauties who try to play smart by keeping quiet, but Grahame seems a clever sort playing this hilariously self-aware ditz with great relish. Her death scene, like the whole role, is touching because it's just slightly different from what you'd expect, yet perfectly fitting. She's a perfect foil for both the sadistic Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) and the almost comically determined (Glenn Ford). Ford (The Asphalt Jungle, Superman) seemed to me the absolute worst part of the picture, delivering almost all of his lines as growling threats.
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The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer) at Anthology Film Archives. A big, multi-generational turnout for this one. Missed just the first minute or so of the image (background music was playing) due to some projection problem or other. The print looked pretty good (it's in their collection), though the intertitles were weirdly off-center. Odd that the sets were apparently quite expensive (according to iMDB) since for most of the time only a blank wall is visible behind the face of the character, with nothing but close-ups for most scenes.
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The Wendell Baker Story (Luke & Andrew Wilson) at the AMC Empire 25 for a Stylus review.
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I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang) at IFC. I fell asleep during about four consecutive lengthy shots in the first half hour, but it started to gel later on when I figured out the connections between the characters and static shots carried more emotional impact. The intensity built really powerfully toward the end, climaxing in the final shot of the three main characters floating into view at a glacial pace on top of the ever-present mattress.
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Garden State at home on VHS thanks to Charles. I found Zach Braff and Natalie Portman to be less attractive than in their other roles, though maybe that's just because I so rarely watch movies on tape anymore. Neither the writing or the directing seemed particularly inspired, though I did enjoy the post-party body-writing gag, particularly when it reappeared in the doctor's office.
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The Big Heat (Fritz Lang) as part of the Lee Marvin retrospective at Walter Reade Theater. Gloria Grahame gives one of the most enthusiastic peformances that I've ever seen here. She gets almost all the good lines and visibly/audibly savors every one. Hollywood has produced its share of possibly unintelligent beauties who try to play smart by keeping quiet, but Grahame seems a clever sort playing this hilariously self-aware ditz with great relish. Her death scene, like the whole role, is touching because it's just slightly different from what you'd expect, yet perfectly fitting. She's a perfect foil for both the sadistic Vince Stone (Lee Marvin) and the almost comically determined (Glenn Ford). Ford (The Asphalt Jungle, Superman) seemed to me the absolute worst part of the picture, delivering almost all of his lines as growling threats.
+ + +
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The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Dreyer) at Anthology Film Archives. A big, multi-generational turnout for this one. Missed just the first minute or so of the image (background music was playing) due to some projection problem or other. The print looked pretty good (it's in their collection), though the intertitles were weirdly off-center. Odd that the sets were apparently quite expensive (according to iMDB) since for most of the time only a blank wall is visible behind the face of the character, with nothing but close-ups for most scenes.
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The Wendell Baker Story (Luke & Andrew Wilson) at the AMC Empire 25 for a Stylus review.
+
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I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang) at IFC. I fell asleep during about four consecutive lengthy shots in the first half hour, but it started to gel later on when I figured out the connections between the characters and static shots carried more emotional impact. The intensity built really powerfully toward the end, climaxing in the final shot of the three main characters floating into view at a glacial pace on top of the ever-present mattress.
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Garden State at home on VHS thanks to Charles. I found Zach Braff and Natalie Portman to be less attractive than in their other roles, though maybe that's just because I so rarely watch movies on tape anymore. Neither the writing or the directing seemed particularly inspired, though I did enjoy the post-party body-writing gag, particularly when it reappeared in the doctor's office.
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Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2007
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