Bresson, Stillman again; _Pina_

[septimus_...@q.com]

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
between those two (horses' eye in huge close-ups,
reminiscent of the memorable roles animals play in
_Au Hasard Balthazar_ and even _A Gentle Woman_),
the sudden, uncontrollable relapse into _L'Argent_
-like bloodlust ... they are all part and parcel
of Bresson's grim universe. What is missing is any
possible trace of transcendence. The roundtable
knights, especially Lancelot, try to be honorable
for a while, but murder is in their every fiber;
they may name-drop the Christian God but only worship
queen Guineveve's shadow. That, and the pagan
full moon, which balefully foreshadows their deaths
at an Agincourt-like chivalry apocalypse.

Watching the infighting, treachery, and vainglorious
jousting of the knights, I am reminded of the French
Foreign Legion's pointless exercises in Claire Denis'
_Beau Travail_. In that sense, Arthur, Lancelot,
Guinevere, and Gawain are some combination of Denis
Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin, and the African
woman in Denis' film. Any sense of pre-9/11 military
purpose, of the search for a Holy Grail, is hopelessly
lost.

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Speaking of Claire Denis, the most beautiful nighttime
Paris I've seen on film since her _Friday Night_ and _No
Fear, No Die_ has to be Bresson's _Four Nights of a
Dreamer_ (which of course preceeds those films, but is
only recently screened in the U.S.). You could almost
say this is a psychologically probing film about the
lead actor, a painfully shy painter who falls in love
with every woman he sees on the street and cannot do
anything about it. He sublimates his feelings into his
paintings and into gothic romance novel he dictates into
his tape recorder. But his routine is so repetitive and
obsessive, and his words are so sparse, that he easily
qualifies as a Bresson regular. There are also plenty
of long-haired hippies playing guitar on each of the four
nights, anticipating _The Devil, Probably_. Isabelle
Weingarter, who plays the fickle young girl, has a
relatively long career, making her almost unique among
Bresson "models."

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I like _Damsels in Distress_ even more the second time.
Having gotten over the surprising revelations about
Violet (Greta Gerwig, who looks a bit like Chloe
Sevigny in _The Last Days of Disco_), she now distinctly
reminds me of Edward Clement's imperturbable Upper
Westsider who anchors _Metropolitan_. She is immensely
self-aware and winningly self-critical (a trait she
shares with Rachel Weisz's character in the other great
film of the year, _Deep Blue Sea_). In fact everyone
in the film manages to eschew histrionics and mind their
good manners even under extreme duress. In the end, the
kindness and gentility, the complete lack of meanness,
are what distinguish this film from other comedies;
it will stay in my mind for a very long time. The Rose
character, who has few lines, is nevertheless a scene
stealer; the regal Megalyn Echikunwoke is an actress to
watch out for. Carolyn Farina, who plays the much loved
Audrey Roget in _Metropolitan_, turns in a cameo as a
waitress in a "Motel 4." She has aged and her role is
hardly as glamorous as the one in _Last Days of Disco_,
but it is really good seeing her.


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_Pina_ I saw for the first time, and only in 2D, but
the big-screen experience is rewarding. The film starts
inauspiciously, lingering for more than 15 minutes on
an extended sequence of an ensemble modern dance
(something to do with _Rites of Spring_?) that is just
like every other modern dance I've seen. Fortunately,
the rest of the dance sequences in the film are far
more innovative, especially those in _Cafe Muller_.
Wim Wenders shows that he has exquisite taste once he's
away from the bad influence of Hollywood (he has a
tendency to be star-struck by American actors and
forget about the mise-en-scene). Here the film is mostly
about the dancing; he resists talking head sequences,
at most allowing each member of the Pina's company to
have short voiceovers during their routines. (Some of
the dancers decline to say anything and let their
movements express reverence for Pina by themselves.)
I find it especially touching that some of the dancing
takes place in Wuppertal in Westphalia, Germany, where
Wenders shot _Alice in the Cities_ almost 40 years ago.
The light-rail is instantly recognizable; the place
doesn't seem to have changed a bit. In that sense,
_Pina_ fits in with the "retread" theme.