60 Years of Cannes

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. Among the filmmakers who are attending Cannes this year, a few of them had had their films shown on Movie Night. Steven Soderbergh (Bubble) is having a world premiere for Ocean's Thirteen. Gus Van Sant's (Paris, Je t'aime) Paranoid Park is of the twenty films in competition. Wong Kar-Wai's (In The Mood For Love) English-language debut "My Blueberry Nights" is the opening film for the festival. The film features Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Stratharim, Rachel Weiz and Tim Roth (plus Chan Marshall of Cat Power?).

Again, I'm trying to report faster than criterion.com on related filmmakers. My last attempt was announcing the death of Robert Altman.

To answer Rory's question after every movie night:

If I am not mistaken, I'm going to pick for the next movie night.

I know it's just Monday, but let's play a little guessing game here.

Guess what movie will be picked for the next movie night?

Hints:
1. It is said to be the precursor of the French New Wave, if not the first French New Wave film.
2. It is black & white, made in 1955.
3. The director had a cameo role in an early Godard film.

I'll reveal the answer on Friday.

5.14.07 Movie Night

Ladies and gentlemen:
You are invited to attend a screening of the 1939 Jean Renoir film "La Grande Illusion" at the apartment of Rory Crossin. Pizza and beverages will be provided.

I've been meaning to select this film for a while. Basically my last few picks have all been films directed by highly regarded directors which I have read a lot about but have not yet had the pleasure of seeing.

My address is 764 International Blvd. Apt # 51. The zip code is 77024. My phone number is 713.447.8748. Parking is kind of tricky so call me if you have any questions.

See you on MONDAY evening.

5/6 Hearts and Minds

It's been a while since I've chosen a film- I think this is actually only the second or third time that I have. I chose Peter Davis' Hearts and Minds for a couple of reasons. I've been wanting to watch a documentary and I recently read the book Bloods, which is a collection of black Vietnam veterans' oral accounts of their experiences in Vietnam. Not only did they deal with the atrocities of the actual war, but they also delt with racism from their fellow soldiers and the knowledge that they were fighting for a country that was not fighting for them. It was a great book, and I wanted to learn more about the war and the events surrounding it, including its ties to the Cold War. Hearts and Minds seems to encompass all of that and more, and appears to be the most widely acclaimed documentary of the war. If any of you have already seen it please let me know because I can always pick another- I've got months of not choosing anything to make up for.


A landmark in documentary feature films, this Academy Award-winning documentary is an insightful critique of the US's cataclysmic involvement in Vietnam. The film exposes the duplicitous nature of the American government, obsessive in its quest to squelch Communism and advance its own imperialist agenda, documented here in a media-savvy trail of propaganda ranging from archival footage, excerpts from press conferences, newsreels, and clips from jingoistic Hollywood war pictures. Director Peter Davis also uses damaging interviews (including disturbingly racist comments from US soldiers and General William Westmoreland), pop music from the period, and material he shot himself in Vietnam to create an indelible visual essay against war. Eschewing narration, the film has a cinema verite style, which gains its power from juxtaposition and the severity of its images. Released only two short years after the January 1973 agreement that brought home U.S. troops, the film stands as one of the strongest films condemning the war and the America's involvement in it. HEARTS AND MINDS's title derives from a now-infamous speech given by former President Lyndon Johnson in which he stated, "The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live there."

20 Films (edited)

My annually revised all-time favorite films list has finally arrived... I found it impossible to narrow it down to 10, and the only way I managed 20 is by limiting myself to two films per director (hence the exclusion of Stolen Kisses) and no films under 10 years old (hence the exclusion of The Celebration, Rushmore, and films from the 21st century)... I also left out silent films

Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles)
The Bicycle Thief (1948, Vittorio De Sica)
The Third Man (1949, Carol Reed)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Robert Hamer)
Rashomon (1950, Akira Kurosawa)
Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)
Paths of Glory (1957, Stanley Kubrick)
Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
The 400 Blows (1959, Francois Truffaut)
Jules and Jim (1962, Francois Truffaut)
My Life to Live (1962, Jean-Luc Godard)
8 1/2 (1963, Federico Fellini)
Dr. Strangelove (1964, Stanley Kubrick)
The Battle of Algiers (1966, Gillo Pontecorvo)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967, Milos Forman)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974, John Cassavettes)
Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese)
Amadeus (1984, Milos Forman)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985, Tim Burton)
Fargo (1996, Joel & Ethan Coen)

(edited: as I read back over this I realized I completely missed Wild Strawberries)

Scheduling

Cinematheque Houston Citizenry,

It seems the best way to go about addressing our scheduling issues would be to tackle it in a two-pronged manner.

First, we should have movie night EVERY OTHER SUNDAY. In my opinion, this should coincide with Rory's work schedule so that he can attend.

Second, we should have movie night EVERY OTHER MONDAY. The best way to do this whilst still carrying out our first objective would be to have the Monday movie nights on the Mondays that do not immediately follow a Sunday on which we held movie night.

Does this work for everyone?

Favorite Directors

It is always difficult to summarize all the movies we like into a list of 10. How about a list of favorite film directors? My basic criterion here is I have to watch at least 3 of the directors' films and I enjoy most of their works a lot. Here's my top 10 list and please post yours:

Orson Welles
Akria Kurosawa
Stanley Kubrick
Yasujiro Ozu
Federico Fellini
Francois Truffaut
Hayao Miyazaki
Jim Jarmusch
Wong Kar-Wai
Takeshi Kitano

I didn't put Martin Scorsese, even though I love Taxi Driver and Raging Bull a lot. His other movies are good too but I lost interest in his recent stuff. Godard is great, but sometimes he's too style-over-substance. Wes Anderson is on the bubble.... I don't watch enough David Lean, Kenji Mizoguchi and John Cassavetes movies, but I'm certainly interested. Other honorable mention: Pedro Almodovar, Hal Ashby, Michel Gondry, Edward Yang, Takashi Miike and probably more.

(next time, we'll talk about our favorite living/working directors)

Directions to Jason and Jennifer's for all attending parties

5115 Jackson #2

From Montrose: Left on Binz, Left on Jackson.
From 288: Exit Southmore, right on Southmore, right on Jackson, first house on the right.

This is my number: 979.235.7576

C'era una volta il West

Spaghetti Western DELUXE.

Director:
Sergio Leone

Writers:
Dario Argento (story) & Bernardo Bertolucci (story) ...

Release Date:
21 December 1968 (Italy)

Starring: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards and CHARLES BRONSON

Never eat spaghetti on a first date.

conflicting schedule

Due to my new work scedule I will only be able to attend Movie Night every OTHER Sunday. This coming Sunday (4/29/07) will be the first I will not be able to attend due to this new schedule. I am trying to get a more agreeable schedule but until then I was wondering if we might be able to possibly change Movie Night to a different night on the weeks when I can't attend on Sunday. I don't want to inconvenience you but perhaps we could work something out that would work for everyone. What do you think?

4/22: Czech New Wave Trilogy, Part I

For my next three picks, I've chosen a trilogy of Czech New Wave films. Hopefully it'll be a fun adventure into the oft-overlooked "other" 1960s movement (the one that happened outside France).

Part I: INTIMATE LIGHTING (1965)



I chose Intimate Lighting as the first installment mostly because I've wanted to see it for quite some time and I can't hold out any longer. It was written by Ivan Passer and Jaroslav Papousek, Milos Forman's co-writers on Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball (both of which have been featured for movie night). It was also directed by Ivan Passer, who would later follow Forman to the USA to make films here (although obviously not as successfully). Intimate Lighting is often cited as one of the masterpieces of the Czech New Wave, and Milos Forman calls it one of his favorite films of all time.

Because Criterion Collection has decided, for some stupid reason, not to release Intimate Lighting on DVD, it's only available on VHS (the VHS was put out by Criterion Collection in 2000 - why not just put it out on DVD?). This means we'll have to watch it over at my place. Hopefully that's not a problem for anyone.

Czechoslovak New Wave Trilogy
Part I: INTIMATE LIGHTING (1965)
Part II: LEMONADE JOE (1964)
Part III: THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (1965)

4/15 - Paris, Je T'aime

Tonight, we're screening "Paris, Je T'aime", which has not been not officially released in the United States yet. Here's a description from imdb:

Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers will bring their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Each director has been given five minutes of freedom, and we, as producers, carry the responsibility of weaving a single narrative unit out of those twenty moments. The 20 films will not appear in the order of the arrondissements, from one to twenty, but rather, in a pertinent narrative order, initially unknown to the audience. They will be fused together by transitional interstitial sequences, and also via the introduction and epilogue sequences of the feature film. Each transition will begin with the last shot of the previous film and will end with the first shot of the following film, and will have a threefold function: 1) The first is to extend the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, 2) The second is to prepare the audience for the surprise of the next segment, and 3) The third is to provide a general, comfortable and cohesive atmosphere to the feature film. The delightful and brief interludes of these transitions will enable the viewer to slide from one world to the next, featuring a recurring and unexpected character. This mysterious character is a witness to the Parisian life and helps create a continuous narration. It appears both in and in-between the films. In addition to the information these transitions will provide about the city and its people, their tone will be intentionally light often referring to famous scenes easily attributed to the history of Paris cinema. Similar specifications will be followed by the composer who will supervise the musical fusion between the films and the transitions as he creates the musical score of Paris, je t'aime. Considering the common theme of Paris and Love, the fusion between the films and the transitions, the fast pace of a fluid and complete storytelling, Paris, je t'aime will not be just another "anthology" picture. It will be a unique collective feature film that will constitute a two-hour cinematographic spectacle whose original structure will make for a dramatically different experience for its global audience. Written by Emmanuel Benbihy

La Strada/ Inland Whatever

As much as I've anticipated to see La Strada, I was still surprised by it in a nice way. It is heartbreaking and unique. Gelsomina is such a special character (looks & personality), she makes it impossible for the movie to be ordinary. The ironies in the film also make it very memorable.

I watched David Lynch's Inland Empire with Rory the other day. It is 3 hours long and it does not make any sense. Yeah, I fell asleep a couple times in the first 40 minutes, because I was tired and the movie is incomprehensible (as expected). It is 10 times more confusing than Muholland Drive. 90% of the time, the characters in the movie do not know what's going on. And from interviews I read, the lead actors (Laura Dern and the other dude) did not know what the movie is about when they filmed it. So basically, anyone who said the movie makes any sense is bullshit. I wouldn't mind watching parts of Inland Empire if it is 15 minutes long, as a short film. Yet having a 3-hour-long feature film with that kind of flow is unacceptable. Besides the "mind-bottling" nature of the movie, the constant influx of new characters only makes it more difficult for anyone to watch. However, the movie is so ridiculous I refused to go use the restroom in the middle of it because I did't want to miss any of the crazy shit. My only compliments would go to the haunting sounds of the film and how versatile Laura Dern was. Yet how dare so many critics (and even just random people on netflix) have such high praise for this movie. It is incomprehensible, purposely confusing and repetitive. Those out-of-focus super close-up shots got on my nerves too.

DVDs from Criterion that I have yet to watch

As you guys know, I've somehow befriended a gentleman who works for the marketing company that represents our favorite film publisher. When he can, he sends me the titles that I ask for, and even sets up interviews with the directors (like William Greaves). He also sends me films that I don't ask for and wouldn't usually be interested in, because (I think) they're films that are mostly ignored by the reviewers who do "New Release" columns, and this marketing copany has extra copies laying around.

Anyways, because I'm a bad person, I haven't watched some of the films he's sent me. I don't really want to show them for movie night, but I thought that maybe we could all watch them together, or someone could come watch them with me, or whatever. I just think it could be another element to Cinematheque Houston; Criterion titles that Austin owns but hasn't watched yet.

If y'all are interested in getting together sometime and checking them out, let me know!


The titles:



"At once a compelling piece of anti-isolationist propaganda and a quick-witted wartime thriller, 49th Parallel is a classic early work from the inimitable British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. When a Nazi U-boat crew, headed by the ruthless Eric Portman, is stranded in Canada during the thick of World War II, the men evade capture by hiding out in a series of rural communities, before trying to cross the border into the still-neutral United States. Both soul-stirring and delightfully entertaining, 49th Parallel features a colorful cast of characters played by larger-than-life actors Laurence Olivier, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook, and Leslie Howard."





(Not yet released!) I actually plan to write about this one for my column, so it would be interesting to get everyone's criticisms and interpretations to help shape the article.

"Seamlessly interweaving archival war footage and a fictional narrative, Stuart Cooper’s immersive account of one twenty-year-old’s journey from basic training to the front lines of D-day brings all the terrors and isolation of war to life with jolting authenticity. Overlord, impressionistically shot by Stanley Kubrick’s longtime cinematographer John Alcott, is both a document of World War II and a dreamlike meditation on man’s smallness in a large, incomprehensible machine."

a review

Needless to say, "Naked" was probably the most disturbing film we watched at movie night. The film is beautifully shot and the music was haunting, but there is a lot about the film that makes me think over and over. There are all these "whys" and "what the" in my head. I found myself agreeing a lot with the following review I read from netflix:

"This film is beautifully shot, beautifully scored, and pretty well acted. That being said, I'm a little disapointed that more people aren't more critical of it. The main character is a completely self concerned, self righteous "lost boy" who wanders around London berating nearly everyone he comes into contact with and abusing any woman who allows him into their bed (as well as those that refuse to). He is highly inteligent with a keen ability to smell weakness and shut down anyone with his impossibly witty, stabbing banter. More than a couple of his monologues/rantings, however, devovle into cinematic masturbation (or filmmaker self indulgence). All the female characters in the film are completely weak-willed, ineffectual creatures who allow themselves to be abused both mentally and physically and then ask for more. At the end of the movie I was left asking myself what the point was supposed to be. Unfortunately there is no point. There is just a lot of beautifully shot ugliness which many critics labeled "social realism" and gave it high marks. I expect more. I expect that if you're going to open a movie with the main character raping a young woman that some profound social commentary or point should be made about this guy and his behavior. I listened to the directors commentary after watching the movie to see if he was trying to do something which I missed, but no, he wanted to do exactly what it seemed he was doing: introduce a totally depraved character committing one of the worst acts and then gradually show that he's actually a very complicated character. What? Complexity of character in no way justifies or explains the kind of behavior we see in the film. This is a movie which grapples with some serious subject matter but fails to follow through and attach a meaning to all of it, to give it a purpose. I would go so far as to say this is irresponsible film making. For instance (and most notably), what is this movie saying about violence towards women?"

Fellini for you

In my continuing effort to expose myself and the group to films we have not yet seen by great directors, I decided to pick "La Strada" by Fellini this week. I am most likely going to pick Jean Renoir's film "Grand Illusion" next so you may want to hold off on watching it until then. Here is the Netflix synopsis:

Italian auteur Federico Fellini helmed this powerful rumination on love and hate, the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film in 1956. This restored version (introduced by Martin Scorsese) tells the story of gentle Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), sold by her mother to the bullying circus performer, Zampanò, with whom she falls in love. When a clown, Il Matto (Richard Basehart), wins her heart, a doomed love triangle inevitably develops.

4/1: Naked

"Mike Leigh’s brilliant and controversial Naked stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming, eloquent, and relentlessly vicious drifter on the lam in London. Rejecting all those who would care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself into a nocturnal odyssey through the city, colliding with a succession of the desperate and the dispossessed, and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances from Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge and Lesley Sharpe, Leigh’s panorama of England’s crumbling underbelly is a showcase of black comedy and doomsday prophecy, and was the winner of the best director and actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival."
-Criterion

We're repainting the studio, so it will be at my apartment this Sunday.

Also, on an unrelated note, my contact in the Criterion Collection's marketing department said he would send over a copy of the new "Early Bergman," the first title in the new Eclipse line. So, when that comes, maybe we can watch it together. ALL 5 DISCS.

3/25: F for Fake

after much deliberation, I've decided to choose the following film for 3/25. location TBA.



F FOR FAKE
1975, a film by Orson Welles

it's unlike anything I've ever seen... Orson Welles's last completed film provides an eccentric avant-garde study of reality, truth, and illusion as well as an interesting critique on the idea of expertise...

"Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles’s free-form documentary F for Fake, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career—the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles himself. Charming and inventive, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema."
-criterionco.com

fake democracy

I have a lot of ideas for movie night this week and I find it difficult to pick one. So I'm going to ask for your opinion, your preference-- so I can ignore you. Please don't say "anything is fine" or other similar responses.

My first though is "Paris Je T'aime", a collage of shorts made by 18 different directors across the world, including famous names like Alfonso Cuaron, Oliver Assayas, the Coen brothers, Tom Tykwer, Alexander Payne, Christopher Doyle and Gus Van Sant (asshole). All the shorts are love stories happened in the City of Lights-- a tribute to Paris' reputation as a romantic city. I got that DVD when I went to China, the movie won't be released here (U.S.) until May.

On the other hand, I always thought about picking Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog. Stray Dog is one of Kurosawa's earliest masterpiece (1949). In this movie, you can also see a very cerebral performance by Toshiro Mifune, who is famous for being the wild crazy samurai in features like The Seven Samurai and Rashomon. Stray Dog is a thrilling film noir about a cop who is finding his lost gun. You can never get enough of Kurosawa, right?

Yasujiro Ozu, another great director who has not been featured on Movie Night. What a crime! I've been thinking about picking Late Spring for a while.

so, now, tell me what your opinion

The film I am selecting for this Sunday is a 1927 silent film called Sunrise, which I have been looking forward to seeing for a while now. I have read a lot of good things about it but, unfortunately, Netflix does not offer it. Luckily, Rob Arcos @ MOViES ordered it for me and now we can decide for ourselves if it lives up to all the critical acclaim. Below is a synopsis of the film from Netflix:

Director F.W. Murnau's emotional odyssey stars George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor as a country couple whose marriage is threatened when O'Brien falls prey to cosmopolitan temptress Margaret Livingston's feminine wiles. Imbued with an intoxicating ambiance in style and substance, the lyrical silent film -- which is, by turns, quixotic, blissful, sensual and terrifying -- chalked up Academy Awards for Best Actress (Gaynor) and Best Cinematography.