31st Five Films, 2007
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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang) at Museum of the Moving Image. See M.
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Duck Season (Fernando Eimbcke) at Walter Reade Theater. Black and white; long, artfully composed shots; restricted setting; small, young cast; subtle but terrific soundtrack (mostly effects rather than the score); a touch of stoner hallucination as magic realism; comedy that's not so much deadpan as just read innocently and blankly, but in a good way. I read about this about two-and-a-half years ago in Film Comment, then missed its week-long run in Seattle last year. Very glad I finally caught it. Hopefully by now Eimbcke's got a second project close to completion.
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Fargo (Coen Bros.) at MoMA. At first I was reminded of the complete and utter nihilism/cynicism of The Ladykillers, among other of their films, which put me off the Coen Bros. for some time, but the final shot reminds you that all the jerks, losers, and brutal morons are just background for the portrait of Frances McDormand's straight-shootin', smalltown, upper-midwestern police chief. It's kind of funny how thin the line between what you might call their comedies and tragedies is. Generally the "tragedies" are completely populated by the brutal morons who wind up destroying each other, while the "comedies" include an innocent who survives by not becoming fully ensnared int he morons' schemes; see also the dude in The Big Lebowski, Tim Robbins' character in The Hudsucker Proxy, etc. One wonders how suggestive this might be either of their worldview.
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3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold) at the Regal Union Square with Charles. A strong western that brings out a lot of what I like about the genre: attention to scenery; reluctant, conflicted characters; a well-choreographed shootout. Mangold avoids getting bogged down in a lot of detail about "what the West was really like," choosing a straightforward story over one that sets about debunking the classic myths. Still waiting for someone to make a light-hearted western, but who knows if/when that'll happen?
Russell Crowe plays his role well, though I'm not still not much of a fan. I generally enjoy Christian Bale more, but even so, I could envision a possibly better movie, or at least one specifically tailored toward me, with other stars.
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The Great World of Sound (Craig Zobel) at Lincoln Plaza. Scott Foundas can synopsize this one for you at Variety. He mentions similarities to Robert Altman as far as the overlapping dialogue and prevalent use of a zooming camera, but I also think this has a similar tone to films about America in the 1970's, e.g. Altman's California Split. Small, slightly selfish hopes for a better life dashed by exploitation.
The one magical moment of the film for me was probably when the camera was flitting back and forth between Pat Healy, as he fully realizes what sort of scummy operation he's involved with, and Tricia Paoluccio, who's earnestly auditioning by singing an a cappella version of Joanna Newsom's "Clam, Cockle, Cowrie." In an interview at The Reeler, Zobel discusses the process of procuring people to audition for what they thought was something like a shot at stardom.
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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang) at Museum of the Moving Image. See M.
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Duck Season (Fernando Eimbcke) at Walter Reade Theater. Black and white; long, artfully composed shots; restricted setting; small, young cast; subtle but terrific soundtrack (mostly effects rather than the score); a touch of stoner hallucination as magic realism; comedy that's not so much deadpan as just read innocently and blankly, but in a good way. I read about this about two-and-a-half years ago in Film Comment, then missed its week-long run in Seattle last year. Very glad I finally caught it. Hopefully by now Eimbcke's got a second project close to completion.
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Fargo (Coen Bros.) at MoMA. At first I was reminded of the complete and utter nihilism/cynicism of The Ladykillers, among other of their films, which put me off the Coen Bros. for some time, but the final shot reminds you that all the jerks, losers, and brutal morons are just background for the portrait of Frances McDormand's straight-shootin', smalltown, upper-midwestern police chief. It's kind of funny how thin the line between what you might call their comedies and tragedies is. Generally the "tragedies" are completely populated by the brutal morons who wind up destroying each other, while the "comedies" include an innocent who survives by not becoming fully ensnared int he morons' schemes; see also the dude in The Big Lebowski, Tim Robbins' character in The Hudsucker Proxy, etc. One wonders how suggestive this might be either of their worldview.
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3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold) at the Regal Union Square with Charles. A strong western that brings out a lot of what I like about the genre: attention to scenery; reluctant, conflicted characters; a well-choreographed shootout. Mangold avoids getting bogged down in a lot of detail about "what the West was really like," choosing a straightforward story over one that sets about debunking the classic myths. Still waiting for someone to make a light-hearted western, but who knows if/when that'll happen?
Russell Crowe plays his role well, though I'm not still not much of a fan. I generally enjoy Christian Bale more, but even so, I could envision a possibly better movie, or at least one specifically tailored toward me, with other stars.
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The Great World of Sound (Craig Zobel) at Lincoln Plaza. Scott Foundas can synopsize this one for you at Variety. He mentions similarities to Robert Altman as far as the overlapping dialogue and prevalent use of a zooming camera, but I also think this has a similar tone to films about America in the 1970's, e.g. Altman's California Split. Small, slightly selfish hopes for a better life dashed by exploitation.
The one magical moment of the film for me was probably when the camera was flitting back and forth between Pat Healy, as he fully realizes what sort of scummy operation he's involved with, and Tricia Paoluccio, who's earnestly auditioning by singing an a cappella version of Joanna Newsom's "Clam, Cockle, Cowrie." In an interview at The Reeler, Zobel discusses the process of procuring people to audition for what they thought was something like a shot at stardom.
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Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007
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