skip to main |
skip to sidebar
By this point Godard was at the heights of his fame, everything he touched was gold or at least silver. In this film he tackles the oh so confusing topic of love, relationships and males and females. The movie does contain some great scenes like the painting of Peace In Vietnam on the side of the American car or Madeleine's speech about her dreams of having a number one record and a brand new car. Even the random moments when people randomly die and we are told "One Woman, One Man, An Ocean of Blood"...(or something like that...are quite entertaining). For each great moment the film has though, it has an equal moment that just doesn't sit right in the film and partially this isn't this film. The best descriptions I've found of his films, describe them as a car with a loose wheel that is about to fly off, but never does. I give this film an 7/10, for being too serious to take lightly and too light to take seriously.
7/10
Godard's second film, which was banned in France for 3 years because of its neutral view on France's current strugle in Algeria. The film is interesting because it really isn't a strongly anti-Algerian War film like you would expcept from a leftist like Godard. Instead the film is very much Godard trying to use film as a public forum to figure out what his own views on the complex situation are. Besides these positives I found the rest of the film kind of lacking when compared to many of the other films which I have loved by Godard. I give this film a 7/10, because if you love Godard then you will eventually get around to see this and appreciating it, but if you haven't seen Godard before don't start here, its just not his best work which seems obvious under all the pressure he must have been under to follow up the success of Breathless.
7/10
Jacques Rivette brings us a film loosely centered around a production of a play by Pirandello (famous for writing plays about plays), so a film about a Pirandello play already gives this film some depth. The 6 characters in this movie, who are in search of themselves, reminds me of the play and characters in Pirandello's 6 Characters in Search of an Author. The simularities and difference between the charcter's past and present love interests is another fascinating area of this film. Pierre continues to love the artsy type, while Camille continues to love scholars. Us as the audience and the characters themselves keep thinking that they are growing and changing, yet the movie ends where it began on a stage. The characters like a play are doomed to the same fate of continual repetition. There is a lot more depth in this film I could speak on. I give this film a 8/10, since the first 30 min were slow, but the thoughts of the 220 min director's cut makes me drool.
8/10
Another gem from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki, thought I'm not sure if its of the same gem quality as the prior two films I had seen by him, Spirited Away (which just has so much more depth) and My Neighbor Totoro (which just has more creativity). Kiki's Delivery Service does stand on its own though as a brilliant and unique children's anime movie that will also appeal to adults. Everything in the film is what I've come to expect from Miyazaki it just doesn't seem to have the extra spark which the prior two films have. If this had been the first film I'd seen by him then perhaps I would've been more impressed, though I guess for all the stuff I'm saying thats putting the film down I should reassure you that the film is good and worth seeing. I give this film an 7/10, if for the sole fact that it has Phil Harthman doing the english voice over for Jiji the cat, each line he said got a laugh from my brother and I just because it was Phil Hartman voicing a cat.
7/10
Didn't winning the Palme d'Or used to mean something? The last "great" movie that won the Plame d'Or in my opinion was probably Dancer in the Dark, though I know as many people who hate that movie as those who love it. L' Enfant the 2005 winner of the Palme d'Or is just &*#*$#(#. Should I continue. The main characters are uninteresting, the ending is horrible, the story doesn't move you at all (perhaps cause you dont' like the characters), parts of the story seem unmotivated, illogical and done for the sole purpose of being "more dramatic", crucial information isn't given in the story, instead leaving it up to the audience to fill in the information since we've seen a few movies in our life time with similiar depressing story lines. If i want to compliment this movie, I guess there were some good scenes of tense emotion that were drawn out through silence and other cinematic aspects. I give this movie a generous 3/10, because I guess someone out there thought it was ok.
3/10
So I'm still stuck in my Nouvelle Vague rut...this time I bring you a review for Godard's third work, first color film and what many call Godard's first "film." His prior two being just movies I guess. People say this is where Godard finds his style which he progresses on throughout his career (which I have yet to explore), but I'm not sure where you can build from here. This film will definetly not be for everyone (I'm certain of that), though I'm not sure what is going through the mids of the people this film isn't for. The movie is a romance, musical comedy and plucks every string so true. This is a film that is made during a time when you could have fun making a movie, and I'm not really sure how much of that happens anymore. I give this film a 10/10, for making me feel utterly depressed at the current state of world cinema. This is a film that makes you think, laugh and conveys a dramatic story in a creative way, what more could you want?
10/10
Another great French New Wave film, which has been the film rut I have been stuck in recently. This one by Agnes Varda tells the tale of a singer, Cleo, and what she does between the hrs of 5 and 7 as she waits to learn about the results from her biopsy. The story itself is simple being told in almost real time, yet as the movie progresses you realize how complex the character of Cleo is. Also this is a very rich film, for a running time of only 90 minutes, there are so many symbolic representation of Cleo's life and just moments that stick with you as being slightly curious for an audience members viewpoint, yet are probably forgotten by Cleo since it is just a moment in her life and we don't remember every moment in our lives so why should she. I should also note that Corinne Marchand performance as Cleo is extrodinary. I give this film an 8/10, though it could score much higher on furthering viewing do to all its depth, which I feel I have yet to find.
8/10
Lewis Carroll's best known work gets a creepy yet beautiful facelift from Jan Svankmajer the master Czech animator. Combining live action, stop motion, moving skeletons, moving pieces of meat and other bizarre combination a faithful yet imaginative rendetion of Alice in Wonderland is produced. While some people will jump on this movie for lacking well known character from the novel such as the Mock Turtle and the Cheshire Cat or rendering familiar characters like the Caterpillar and Dormouse in ways they haven't seen them imagined before I find these arguments against the movie very weak. I give this film a 7/10, because its like when you have a dream and try to tell someone about the dream, you remember some points from what actually happened in the dream, but some details get forgotten, exagurated and changed around in your mind or at least that is how i see this version of Alice.
7/10
I rarely watch documentaries, yet this has been the 3rd or maybe even 4th (I'll have to check your wall) documentary that I have watched so far this summer and each one has been great. This has been probably my favorite and most balanced documentary so far this summer. Entering the film I knew I agreed with a lot of Nader's politics, yet at the same time also knew that he was a very polorized figures in American politics, though I didn't really know much about this. What makes this film so good is that it really does portray both the pro and anti-Nader's in a positive light. I think Nader would be happy about the documentary if for no other reason that it allowed everyone to equally speak about the issues (which in this case is him). I give this film a 9/10, for portraying an unreasonable man in a reasonable light.
9/10
Another French New Wave film and another raving review, this effort coming from the most well known member of the movement Jean-Luc Godard. This is a film about youth & crime and is described as Godard's film for people who don't like Godard. The film contains at least a half dozen classic cinema moments, from running through the Louvre, to 1 minutes of silence and the madison dance. This movie still seems experimental in many ways to me as it must have in the 60's, showing you how little film has changed since then and how much of a lack of experimentation there is in today's cinema. I give this film a 10/10, because the film was just plain fun, nothing more and nothing less, just a great ride with great characters, a great story and a great story teller.
10/10
If you go and see SICKO and just come out saying "I really want to see another liberal muckracking documentary about how horrible conservatives are/the faults in American polotics" then boy do I have a film for you. Now I never was one of those people that got caught up in the Guilliani hype after 9/11, but then I never really knew what too critize him on until after watching this documentary. Again as I said this is a liberal muckracking documentary so don't go into this expecting to learn all 100% facts, but still the "stuff" the documentary does paint, creates an image of a person I don't want to be my president. The documentary does run way too long at over 2hrs and also doesn't talk much at all about what he did for NY post 9/11, because that might've painted a better image of the man, but still hands down an interesting film that more Americans I believe should see to educate them for the upcoming elections. I give this film a 6/10, because this is a democracy.
6/10
If you don't know the plot to this movie, then I'll quickly fill you in: Sierra Leone + War/Violence + Diamonds + Leo as a smuggler + Jen Connelly as a journalist + Djimon Hounsou as the helpless native who needs to save his family, and then in a nutshell you have the movie. Obviously from the three names I've mentioned the film has a very solid acting core with each doing equally impressive performances. The story does fall into some cliches, but also steered away from some cliches I thought it was going to fall into (especially the relationships Leo forms with Jen and Djimon). Hands down this was really a great movie, that addressed an issue that needed to be addressed and did so in a powerful and moving way. The only real glaring fault I see in this film is that I don't see it having the longevity to last and be remembered. I give this film an 7/10, because people will enjoy it when they buy a boxset of Leo's best films in 20 years and remember this film.
7/10
