Description:
Non-American art films.
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Bresson, Stillman again; _Pina_
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I don't remember having seen _Lancelot du Lac_ on
the big screen, and it has been at least 10 years
since I saw it in any format. Watching it in
Seattle's Northwest Film Forum again, I realized
it is a quintessential Bresson masterpiece. The
ambient sound made by man and beast, the sly analogy... more »
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_The Kid with a Bike_, _Queen to Play_
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Two picturesque titles for films that remind me of other films. _Queen to Play_ is about Sandrine Bonnaire's Helene, a housewife, pliant, self-effacing chambermaid at a hotel, transforming herself into a cool, confident chess champion through the mentorship of a disreputable recluse Kroger (Kevin Kline). She gets interested in chess for the first time when she spies on a glamorous hotel guest play with her lover. She asks Kroger to teach him, soon surpassing him on account of her natural talent (a fantasy, obviously -- chess takes years to master). Kroger is old, grumpy, and at times nasty and humiliates people. At its best, the film evokes Hal Hartley's _Henry Fool_, where a garbage man is inspired by an enigmatic mentor to become a Nobel Prize caliber poet. Ultimately _Queen to Play_ doesn't have to courage to go too far, but its has its moments and its share of visual flair; the last image of Bonnaire sailing to Paris, spreading her arms on the railing, not only suggest she finally gets to spread her wings, but recall an image in Bonnaire's cinematic debut _A Nos Amours_. Why do I keep thinking that the film's young director Caroline Bottaro will soon be offered a Hollywood assignment?... more »
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_Alias Betty_, _Barcelona_
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A couple of retreads. I finally found the time to rewatch one film by Claude Miller. _Alias Betty_, based on a novel, raises some really disturbing class and race issues. The heroine, a novelist who has found sudden fame, lost her son to an accident; her almost-psychotic mother (played by Nicole Garcia), who hit Betty and disfigured her hand as a child, snatched one up in the street as replacement. The kid's mother is a promiscuous bar tender who probably beats him and doesn't seem too upset he is gone. The might-be father is a gigolo also engaging in real-estate fraud, while her live-in boyfriend is an unemployed African immigrant. The upper-middle class lady ends up with the kid, and her horrible upbringing by negligent, self-centered parents ensures she will be a great mother (I think). We are all supposed to root for her, and yet. What save the film are two things, Claude Miller and Sandrine Kiberlain. Miller's long history of dealing with surrogate parent/offspring relationships assures us this is not a story of convenience; in his best films, the best (sometimes, only) parents are foster/substitute parents. _Alias Betty_ may well be his greatest film. Such a light, cool, confident touch he has. The film is literary without being sarcastic, snobbish, or misantropic (I'm thinking of you, Woody Allen); even Mathilde Seigner's whorish real-mother character gets more than her share of empathy. The film begins with a bird on a window sill causing a tragic death and ends with a bigger bird (a 747) whisking mother-and-adopted-son to safety too. I only noticed that this 3rd time I saw it. As for Kiberlain -- what can one say. She is utterly mesmerizing; the slightest tilt of her head conveys more emotion than most actresses express in their lifetime. After Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche, no French actress can touch her.... more »
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Claude Miller (1942-2012)
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I thought I saw Claude Miller's obituary in the
New York Times, but I when I searched for it again
it cannot be found. His last 3 films (after _A
Secret_) have not been released in the U.S. yet.
Among his films I've seen, I've generally not been
taken with his more celebrated work (_The Best
Way to Walk_, _The Little Thief_, _A Secret_).... more »
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_New Orleans, Mon Amour_
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New Orleans Mon Amour_ was shot a year after Katrina.
Unlike director Michael Almereyda's previous films, this
is shot in a verite style, on high definition video,
seemingly improvised and with numerous non-professional
actors, although a night scene with the main actor
Christopher Eccleston retains the signature low-def,... more »
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Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas-Ft. Worth,... more »
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_The Dust of Time_; Neil Jordan
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Theodoros Angelopoulos is not a popular director in more ways
than one. There is little mention of his recent death in a
car accident, even by the premier art house cinema web sites.
He may once have won the Palme d'Or (_Eternity and a Day_)
and the Silver Bear (_Weeping Meadows_), but his last film... more »
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