PIÈCE TOUCHÉE/RETROGRADE

Death Grips, latest piece Retrograde seems to be a perfect music video rendition of Martin Arnold's Pièce touchée (one of the greatest films pf all-time).

(Watch in order, 1 -109, about 50 minutes)

Films Seen in March

TOP TIER



3 Women
À propos de Nice
Camouflage
Happy End
Into the abyss
J’accuse
My Crasy Life
Night of the Hunter
Poto and Cabengo
Putty Hill
Reconstruction
Routine Pleasures
Sadie Thompson
The Circle
The Last Command
The Mirror
The Shop Around the Corner
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
Underworld
Une femme mariée
Who Killed Who?
Zero for Conduct

SECOND TIER



A Separation
Egg
Fingers
Gamer
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Tomboy
When I Close My Eyes

THIRD TIER



Forbidden Door
Insidious
Lady of Burlesque
Point Blank

TRASH

50/50
Albert Nobbs
Ides of March
Silent House

NOCTURNO 29

Notes on Ideology/the Classic Realist Text/Cape Fear

1968 and the Leftist turn. [Post ‘68]: Structuralism, structures of ideology, larger structures, not just Hawks vs Ford. Ideology: system(s) of belief: reveal that much “knowledge/belief” in people’s ideas are subjective, we are “dupes,” ideology is a process. Louis ALTHUSSER, ideology not just a system of beliefs but a system of representation (semiotic/signifying systems) We need symptomatic analysis of films . Looking for ideological stae apparatus… Individuals are products. We are shaped, positioned onto ideological structures, we are objects. Every text is going to try and position its audience and we have to fight that. There is a dominant culture and we have to evaluate it. How does ideology work in films? IDEOLOGY AND THE CLASSICAL REALIST TEXT, Althusser [Marxist critic]: “Ideology is a system of representations (images, myths, ideas…) that create an imaginary relationship between individuals and the society in which they live” Dominant styles of dramatic realism can only express the dominant ideology implicit in conventional bourgeois notions of reality. Viewers see their own, uncontrolled ideology. Cinematic apparatus creates a window-like illusion, so cinema is particularly adept as an ideological tool.

Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962)
- END: 1) family, 2) Sam = Max (violence), backs off. Sam wins physically, not because of his values. Justice system not protecting raped women. The law protects Mac not Sam, Max resorts to the law and Sam resorts to violence. Sherriff: “Either we have too many laws or not enough.” Sam has to keep telling his daughter to hide in the woods, she can’t even do that by herself.
Classic Realism & Ideology (Robin Wood)
- Classical realism obscures contradiction in lived reality via Internal coherence and psychological causation/plausibility. Classical realist text tries to efface all traces of the work of the film. The classical text is attacked by Barthes, representational accuracy’s true function is to create “reality effects, “ the illusion of truth. By effacing the signs of production, dominant cinema persuades spectators to take what were mere constructed effects as transparent renderings of the real = especially strong cinema which combines perceptual codes of monocular perspective and 19th century codes of realist fiction → an attack on Bazinian “transparency” in favor of ideological deconstruction. Testing/revealing marks of enunciation or production. Critical results: 1) Steers away from mere thematic analysis, 2) avoids “formalism” of studying narrative or representation as isolated systems, 3) centers cinema in discussion of social formation/cultural studies. WOOD: capitalist ideology: ownership/individualism, success/wealth. Max sells his home to destroy Sam’s. Max doesn’t accept the payoff. Marriage/family (women = property), extensions of ownership. IDEAL male = virile (and/or dependable = dull), IDEAL female = wife/mother.

Point Blank (Fred Cavayé, 2010)

An ordinary Gérard Depardieu looking man gets pushed to the limits when his very pregnant wife gets kidnapped. Despite its incredibly generic plot structure and script the film offers some sort of saving grace in its construction and, perhaps too literal, social commentary. With an incredible sound design, in the hospital scenes you can hear the machines physically keeping people alive, made for the big screen. The pace of the film is ultimately where its merits lie. So brilliantly paced that it'll make non-French speakers forget they are watching a foreign film and reading subtitles (this happened to the person I watched the film with who doesn't watch many films, let alone foreign films). A film that you can't quite dislike because you have no time to. By the time you start watching the film you realize its over and that you were never once bored. Its social critique may be too blunt and literal but it's there. It's always a good sign when the police are the antagonists and the heros of the film are ordinary nobodies and even cultural outsiders (safe cracker). The police system is portrayed as deeply flawed, all the scenes that take place in the precinct are very chaotic and corrupt cops can hid kidnapped women in there and even throw them out of a window (or attempt to) without anyone noticing. Still, the film lacks any sort of directorial style, any sort of advancement of cinematic language, so it's kind of hard to fully endorse.

Point Blank is showing at Ciné (on 35mm) as part the FRENCH CINEMA SERIES. Anyone in the Atlanta/Athens area should definitely make it out to catch some of these fine films, all on 35mm. More coverage on this series this week and next. It runs through the April 5. Other films are: Tomboy, Declaration of War, and The Father of My Children.

In My Skin (Marina de Van, 2002)

Excerpt from a longer paper I wrote:

"This is why the close-ups of the acts of mutilation in In My Skin become so important; by using close-ups a spectator can notice the boundaries of the body and skin that would normally go unnoticed. The boundaries of the skin and body become symbolic as the boundaries within the social and work world that entrap Esther."

J'ACCUSE

"FRANCE/TOUR/DETOUR/DEUX/ENFANTS"

Into the Abyss: A Tale of Life, A Tale of Death (Werner Herzog, 2011)

As always, Herzog is more interested here in his human subjects than what his documentary is actually about, in this case the death penalty. The genius of the film is how through this humanist study it manages to completely condemn the death penalty without delving into the case or justice system. Most documentaries of similar subject matter tend to be incredibly didactic (Michael Moore). Herzog avoids any sort of preaching, as one of the reviewers in the trailer says, he simply looks. All of these people's lives become a reflection on society and circumstances exposing how ridiculous the death penalty is. At the same time it's a film that has to be reflected upon, and perhaps even demands repeat viewings. While the film had this particular effect on me I also believe it could have a completely different effect on someone else. Whether that is a negative or positive aspect of the film I'm not sure. What I am aware of is that the film had a lasting impression on me and it's a film I plan to revisit many times.

Now Playing at Athens Cine on 35mm.

Haneke, 70

Michael Haneke turned 70 today.

Amour with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva as retired music teachers whose daughter, Isabelle Huppert, lives abroad is rumored to be opening at Cannes and we could only hope so. The film centers around how their lives change after Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) suffers a stroke. Expectations are incredibly high not only because this is the follow-up to The White Ribbon but because of the stellar cast.

One of the greatest scenes (the first 6 minutes) in contemporary cinema (from The Seventh Continent):

Gamer (Neveldine/Taylor, 2009)

After having seen Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (my first film from the duo) and garnered some interest in Neveldine/Taylor, seeing the Gamer Blu-Ray for $1.99 at a out-of-business Blockbuster I couldn't resist. With Ghost Rider, a pure franchise vehicle not written by the duo, the filmmaker were clearly restricted. Ghost Rider had its moments of anarchy and insanity yet it was nothing on the level of Gamer. A completely no-holds-barred ridiculous accumulation of half-second shots and insane CGI. And no matter how tongue-in-cheek it is, it also is an outrageous satire of the Internet/Virtual/Gaming worlds. The opening of the film completely sets up the pace: a series of shots that no person could follow, at least not without getting down to frame-by-frame inspection. The shots are so chaotic and edited so quickly that your brain assumes the series of events actually makes sense yet this most likely isn't the case. I'm sure there is no continuity and no sense of cause-and-effect editing. Some of the editing/pace/anti-compositions are almost Mekas/Brakhage like.

From MUBI:

"There are a lot of people out there making "serious" movies that can't direct actors half as well as Neveldine and Taylor can, and people who try for "artful" that couldn't pull of the chiaroscuro of the mansion scene, which puts more or less everyone who's ever cited Jacques Tourneur as an influence to shame. That the scene transforms, over the course of a few minutes, into a song-and-dance number and then a fight (but of course the musical is the ancestor of the action movie), then a bit of sci-fi special effects and finally a confrontation on a basketball court, is just further proof of their impatient genius, which is really indistinguishable from idiocy."
- Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

The song-and-dance routine mentioned above is nothing short of amazing.

Putty Hill (Matthew Porterfield, 2010)

One of the most important American films of 2010. We swift through conversations of different people who knew Cory, a 24 year old dead from an unexpected overdose. The conversations paint a beautiful mosaic of this troubled community in Baltimore. In the process Porterfield also crafts a brilliant exploration of fiction and documentaries. How these different mediums engage and interact with audiences. The ending is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful endings of contemporary American cinema.

As a part of my "Avant-Garde Glimpses in Narrative Cinema" series I posted still from the ending here: trashaesthetics.wordpress.com/AGGINC/puttyhill

The Ides of March (George Clooney, 2011)

A film so embedded in politics that one would think it was a political film. Even with its stars and the fact that it is directed by one of the major figures in Hollywood, I still thought it would attempt to explore some of the darker sides of the political sphere; especially considering Clooney's 'political activism' (which recently landed him in jail). Somehow, though, the film completely eludes any sort of political statement becoming a melodrama centered around an affair (a melodrama about an affair? that sounds original!). Not only does the film fail to achieve any sort of political resonance but it also employs terrible pace (no one I watched it with was "entertained" by any means) and directing that seems straight out of a Directing 101 book. The only scene that seems to have any sort of distinct directorial style is the crucial scene when Gosling's character meets with Hoffman's character to discuss some key events that will guide much of the film's plot. Transformed into silhouettes unto an American flag, the scene works as a visual metaphor where these black, mysterious, soulless creatures are the ones running America.

films, keywords

Random notes on Rohmer's The Aviator's Wife

I found these notes for the Aviator's Wife I must've written a couple years ago while watching.

Future

Been in the planning phases of two video works for the last couple of weeks.

One will be a sort of avant-garde doc or contemplation on Brenez and her current work on what she has termed Internationalist Cinema. Inspired by reading about this with Brenez's recent visit to NYC. It's not going to be a feature length of any means, just almost an explanatory, visually experimental video about these filmmakers, Brenez and Internationalist Cinema. I have vague ideas and images in my head, yet nothing as concrete as the next one.

Inspired after reading "Images of Images" chapter in Raúl Ruiz's Poetics of Cinema. Particularly the digression Ruiz gets into about an imagined utilitarian society that only allows one painting to be painted by all painters and the outcome of three very different painters there. The whole chapter is trying to prove how a copy can be just as interesting, original, different, artistic, etc than the real thing. I have a very specific idea about a segment of this film and it will be someone positioned among different monitors and cameras where at the same time you can see different angles of the same action on screen. More ideas but don't want to give away too much.

Hopefully I will get some time and be able to start working on these. Will be updating as things progress.

http://strugglingon2fronts.com

ps: two completely unrelated but incredible David Cronenberg posts through Criterion:

An incredible 1.5 hour interview with the man himself at the Museum of the Moving Image (sound)

Notes from A Videodrome test screening (images)

Visual Poems in Gance's J'accuse

Watching films like this one truly feels as if sound really did take something away from the cinema. Out of the endless technical and visual feats accomplished in the film, Gance's visual poems still seem like quite a bold, brilliant and purely cinematic choice. When the main protagonist and poet Jean Diaz (Romuald Joubé) is about to tell one of his poems to his mother, a cut that is expected to lead to an intertitle of the actual poem actually leads to a series of beautifully composed shots that evoke a poem. A visual equivalent to written poetry. By doing this Gance is equating the cinema (an art that, especially in 1919, no one took seriously, it wasn't even really considered an art back then) with poetry (perhaps the most esteemed of the arts).

Jean begins to recite Ode to the Sun to this mother:

followed by:

There's a few of these throughout the film. Completely stunning. Watched this in anticipation of Napoleon on April 1.