He Lost It at the Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism

FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM (Gerald Peary, US, 2009, DigiBeta, 81 mins.) [amelie] Patricia Clarkson narrates Gerald Peary's brief, yet illuminating survey of film criticism in the United States. While recounting the history of the form with movie clips and review excerpts, the Boston Phoenix veteran solicits comments from a range of writers. Stanley Kauffmann (The Nation), for instance, credits silent-era poet and critic Vachel Lindsay (1915's The Art of the Moving Picture) for recognizing "that the arrival of film was a key moment in the history of human consciousness. It was going to change the way people thought, dreamed, and fantasized." And he was right; it has. Peary profiles other early voices, like Robert Sherwood, who went on to write the Oscar-winning movie The Best Years of Our Lives; James Agee, who penned The African Queen; and Bosley Crowther, who signed his own death warrant when he panned groundbreaking pictures like Bonnie and Clyde in The New York Times, paving the way for tougher-minded talents, such as rivals Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris. From there, Peary moves on to television and internet voices, from Roger Ebert to Karina Longworth, now head critic at The L.A. Weekly. Other speakers include A.O. Scott (The New York Times), Kenneth Turan (The Los Angeles Times), Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly), Richard Schickel (Time), and Wesley Morris (The Boston Globe). Like a lot of first-time filmmakers, Peary could've organized his material better (cut a few comments, expanded others). Astute viewers will also notice that he must have initiated the project nearly a decade ago as he includes Manny Farber, who has since passed away, and Ebert, who has since lost the ability to speak (after a battle with cancer), but there's plenty of good stuff here for anyone interested in film. [poster] For the Love of Movies opens at the Northwest Film Forum on 2/18. Director in attendance at 8pm. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave. between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill. For more information, please click here or call 206-829-7863. Images from SFGate.com (Bruno Calvo/Miramax) and JonathanRosenbaum.com.

Police, Adjective: Police on My Back, Part Two

POLICE, ADJECTIVE / Politist, adjectiv 
(Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 113 minutes)

Click here for part one 

As the walking and cigarette smoking continues, Cristi also follows a young woman who might be Victor's girlfriend and maintains contact with Alex (Alexandru Sabadac), an informant who hangs out with the two. At home, the cop argues with his schoolteacher wife, Anca (Irina Saulescu), about love songs. She appreciates their lyrical allusions; he doesn't understand why people don't just say what they mean. 

After four more days, Cristi's supervisor, Anghelache (Vlad Ivanov, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), orders a sting operation. Cristi doesn't want the arrest on his conscience, but Anghelache doubts that Cristi even knows what "conscience" means, so he makes him look up the word in the dictionary and read it aloud. If Cristi refuses, he's off the force. 

The way Anghelache sees it, it doesn't matter that Victor isn't dealing; sharing an illegal substance with others still counts as "distribution." So, Cristi makes a choice. Whether or not it's the right or correct one depends on your definitions of "right" and "correct." 

Cristi's moral quandary, in concert with Porumboiu's patient camera work, brings Béla Tarr, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and even Tony Richardson to mind--specifically The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner--except it's actually a black comedy in disguise. And while I appreciated his feel for the everyday life of a dogged professional, I could've done without the Tarr-like scenes of Cristi eating, which go on longer than necessary. 

The director's emphasis on surveillance also recalls Michael Haneke's Caché, since we're constantly watching someone, except we know who's doing the watching and why--in Caché, we know that someone is watching Daniel Auteuil, but the culprit remains a mystery. Police, Adjective, which never feels as eerie as Haneke's work, is a procedural without guns and car chases, but rather laws and correct--if outdated--grammar. 

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****  

Police, adj: police power, police corruption, police state. 
--Merriam-Webster   

Police, Adjective plays the Varsity Theater through Thurs, Feb 11. The Varsity is located at 4329 University Way NE. For more information, please call 206-781-5755. Images from Bonjour Tristesse and IONCINEMA.COM.

Police, Adjective: Police on My Back, Part One

POLICE, ADJECTIVE / Politist, adjectiv 
(Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 113 mins.)   

Nothing happened for three hours.-- From Cristi's report on Victor

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** 

Corneliu Porumboiu's Cannes Jury Prize-winning film, his superior follow-up to 12:08 East of Bucharest (SIFF '07), isn't a thriller, but it starts out like one as an unidentified man follows an unidentified teenager around an unidentified Romanian town. The title suggests that the former is a police officer and that the latter is a suspect, but the man could just as easily be a predator or a private eye. That ambiguity proves riveting.

There's no dialogue, no intertitles; just ambient sound as the men walk and smoke, walk and smoke. As it turns out, Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is an undercover cop with a soft heart and a stern demeanor. Victor likes to smoke hashish, and the police have found him out. To Cristi, the operation is a dead end. He's been tailing the kid for awhile and knows he isn't dealing. Nor has he been able to determine who's selling him the goods. THC may be illegal, but Cristi doesn't want to put Victor away for seven years. 

Click here for part two   

Police, Adjective plays the Varsity Theater through Thurs, Feb 4. The Varsity is located at 4329 University Way NE. For more information, please call 206-781-5755. Image from Artforum (still from a color film in 35mm).

A Town Called Panic: Watching the Pictures Go

 A TOWN CALLED PANIC / Panique au village
(Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, Belgium/France, 2009, 75 mins)

 

 

"Sitting 'round at home...watching the pictures go."--the Buzzcocks

I can't think about this film without hearing the Jam's "Town Called Malice." That said, the two have little in common, except they're both a lot of fun.

A Town Called Panic begins and ends with a hand-drawn credit sequence, but most of the movie consists of stop-motion activity. During the first few minutes, images of Gumby and Pokey, Saturday Night Live's Mr. "Oh no!" Bill, and Bob the Builder danced through my head, but then I got sucked into the story and most other stop-motion animations faded away.

The feature springs from the 2000 TV series of the same name, which Aardman Animations (Wallace & Gromit) released on DVD, and centers around the adventures of the archetypical Cowboy, Indian, and Horse. 

They appear to be made out of plastic, although I'd imagine it's actually clay, plasticene, or another malleable substance. If their facial expressions never change, the film itself is in constant motion. The figurines move quickly, but the story is easy to follow, and there isn't enough dialogue to create subtitle-reading fatigue, though younger viewers may feel differently.

The three friends share a roomy house in the country next to Farmer Steven (Benoît Poelvoorde, Man Bites Dog, Coco before Chanel). If Indian (Bruce Ellison) and Cowboy (Stéphane Aubier) are swinging singles, Horse (Vincent Patar) carries a torch for Madame Longray (Jeanne Balibar, Va Savoir), a sweet-natured music teacher with a long red mane. He's so enamored that he signs up for piano lessons to bask in her presence. (Because the movie is in French, the trio is literaly listed as Indien, Coboy, and Cheval.)

But first there's a birthday to celebrate. And that's when trouble begins...

As a gift, Indian and Cowboy decide to build a barbecue pit, but a technical snafu turns an order for 50 bricks into...50 million. 

The resourceful fellows construct the device and hide the bricks before Horse gets home, at which point a wild party ensues. Then, during the night, their house sinks--and collapses. While trying to put it back together, someone keeps stealing the walls. Who would do such a thing?

In attempting to solve the mystery, the trio falls through the Earth's core to the other side, where they land in an Arctic research center shaped like a giant penguin. Along the way, they find the culprits while evading selfish scientists, swordfish-wielding sea creatures, and a lava pit. Now Indian, Cowboy, and Horse must figure out how to get back home with the walls.

Though some might describe Indian and Cowboy as stupid or childish, they're more naïve and impetuous than anything else. All of the characters, to quote the press notes, speak "as if they are filled with laughing gas"--and it's even funnier in French. Better yet, Cowboy and Indian are semi-permanently affixed to display stands, but they still wobble about quite well.

By the end, the three recover the walls and Horse gets back in time for his piano lesson with Miss Longray. To say how would spoil the fun, but I like the way the filmmakers mix scales: Indian, Cowboy, and Horse brush their teeth with human-size implements, while Steven starts the day with a towering slice of Nutella toast, even though all four are only a few inches high.

According to Indiewire, A Town Called Panic is "the first full-length stop-motion animation to screen at Cannes." If the film's figures are cruder than those of Fantastic Mr. Fox, it's just as enjoyable, if more anarchically silly.

 

A Town Called Panic opens at the Varsity on Fri, Jan 22. The Varsity is located at 4329 University Way NE. For more information, please click here. Incidentally, Benoît Poelvoorde probably remains best known in the States for Man Bites Dog. Suffice to say, the feisty farmer he voices here is far less chilling than that film's unrepentant serial killer. Images from OutNow! and the IMDb. Jan 28 update: the film has been held over through Feb 4.

Movies for Music Lovers: 2009 Edition

Note: The links lead to my Amazon, SIFF, Siffblog, and Video Librarian reviews. George Clooney voices a fantastic fox. Second Runners-up: 21. The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh) 22. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen) 23. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze) 24. Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders) 25. Tie: Big Fan (Robert Seigel) and The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky) 26. The Silence of Lorna* (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) 27. Humpday (Lynn Shelton) 28. Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski) 29. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) 30. The Merry Gentleman (Michael Keaton) * Also known as Lorna's Silence. Either way: she isn't very talkative. Runners-up: 11. Fantastic Mr. Fox* (Wes Anderson) 12. Up in the Air* (Jason Reitman) 13. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt) 14. Goodbye, Solo (Ramin Bahrani) 15. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel) 16. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis) 17. Tony Manero (Pablo Larraín) 18. Medicine for Melancholy (Barry Jenkins) 19. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas) 20. Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke) * Clooney one-two punch. I liked Men Who Stare at Goats, too. Anthony Mackie takes a shot The Tops: 1. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow) 2. Il Divo (Paulo Sorrentino) 3. Precious (Lee Daniels) 4. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas) 5. Public Enemies (Michael Mann) 6. Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog) 7. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp) 8. Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone) 9. Hunger (Steve McQueen) 10. Bright Star (Jane Campion) Top Documentaries: 1. Stranded (Gonzalo Arijón) 2. Soul Power (Jeffrey Levy-Hinte) 3. The September Issue (C.J. Cutler) 4. Tyson (James Toback) 5. Audience of One (Michael Jacobs) 6. The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins (Pietra Brettkelly) 7. RiP! A Remix Manifesto (Brett Gaylor) 8. Invisible Girlfriend (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin) 9. Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner) 10. The Queen and I (Nahid Persson) Carol Channing Top Rediscoveries: 1. Skidoo (Otto Preminger) 2. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda) 3. Model Shop (Jacques Demy) 4. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls) 5. Dillinger Is Dead (Marco Ferreri) 6. Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto) 7. Phase IV (Saul Bass) 8. The Rain People (Francis Ford Coppola) 9. So Long at the Fair (Terence Fisher) 10. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (Paul Mazursky) Top DVDs: 1. Magnificent Obsession - Criterion Collection (Douglas Sirk/John M. Stahl) 2. Philippe Garrel x 2: I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar/Emergency Kisses 3. Made in USA (Jean-Luc Godard) 4. The Exiles (Kent Mckenzie) 5. Careful (Guy Maddin) Worthy of attention: (500) Days of Summer, Adventureland, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Broken Embraces, Ché, Coco before Chanel, Cold Souls, The Country Teacher, Duplicity, An Education, Endgame, The Firm Land, The House of the Devil, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus*, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, Inglourious Basterds, Lemon Tree, Me and Orson Welles, The Messenger, The Missing Person, Moon, Séraphine, A Single Man, State of Play, Stella, Sunshine Cleaning, Telstar, Trucker, and Two Lovers. * Opens at the Metro Cinemas on 1/8/10. Missed (or haven't seen yet): The Beaches of Agnès, Bronson, Coraline, The Cove, Crazy Heart, The Damned United, The English Surgeon, Everlasting Moments, I'm Gonna Explode, Julia, Liverpool, The Maid, Next Day Air, Night and Day, Of Time and the City, Passing Strange, Police, Adjective, Pontypool, Ponyo, The Road, Still Walking, Somers Town, Sugar, Tetro, Three Monkeys, Tul- pan, Unmade Beds, Up, Whip It!, The White Ribbon, and World's Greatest Dad. Click here for the 2008 edition Agnès Varda plays...Agnès Varda Endnote: Cross-posted at AndMoreAgain and Facebook. Images from Reel to Reel, Way of the West, Action Movie Reviews, Channel 4, Minnesota Public Radio (Fox Searchlight Pictures), and Film Forum.

World in Your Eyes: 35 Shots of Rum

35 SHOTS OF RUM / 35 Rhums
(Claire Denis, France, 2008, 35mm, 107 minutes)

"I have the feeling I'm going to work often with you, because there is something in you that is so calm, that gives me, helps me to create a character with you. You're a mysterious guy."
--Claire Denis upon meeting Alex Descas

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Taxis and trains hurtle though the night, lights flash and fade, reflections appear and disappear. In the play of burnt orange and acid green against black, cinematographer Agnès Godard channels Edward Hopper, but with movement and music by the Tindersticks. Gradually, two faces come into focus: a train conductor (Alex Descas) and a college student (Mati Diop).

Thus Claire Denis sets the scene for 35 Shots of Rum, her ninth feature. Never one to tell when she can show, it transpires that the two disparate characters are father and daughter. Their harmonious home life indicates that they've been living without a mother figure for some time now.

Gradually, Denis introduces their extended clan: Gabrielle, a chain-smoking cabbie (Nicole Dogué), and Noé (Grégoire Colin), a cat-loving computer technician. The former has eyes for Lionel, the latter for Jo. Lionel prefers single life. "We have everything here. Why go looking elsewhere?"

Meanwhile, René, one of Lionel's fellow conductors, has just been made redundant. Denis hints that the same could happen to him: best enjoy the life he has while he can.

Later, when Gabrielle's car breaks down as the four are en route to a concert, Lionel's coolness towards her becomes more clear: he sees her more as a friend or a relative than a romantic interest, but Josephine may be more frightened of her feelings for Noé than uninterested or unattracted.

A series of losses, both big and small, force father and daughter to reassess their cozy, if unchallenging domestic arrangement--I have to admit that I saw one of those losses coming from a mile away, and still haven't decided whether it's one of the screenplay's weaknesses or not.

35 Shots isn't one of Denis's mind-fuck movies like The Intruder, but something more intimate, like Nénette et Boni or Friday Night (all of which feature Colin, a Modigliani painting come to life). It's the rare Parisian entry that eschews moneyed intellectuals and banlieu dwellers for regular working class folk. It is, in fact, the closest she's come to social realism, though Godard's impressionistic camera work prevents it from crossing that line.



Further, Denis populates the picture with characters of color, and never presents the situation as an issue, just a fact of life. Of French and Brazilian descent, she grew up in West Africa, an influence that has seeped into many of her films, especially Chocolat, No Fear, No Die, and I Can't Sleep.

Lionel is black, Josephine is biracial, and the worlds they occupy, the conductor community and the anthropology department, are mixed--as is their neighborhood, which is located just outside Paris. Inspired by Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring, Denis's main concern is the relationship between father and daughter. Most movies that depict such closeness end in tragedy; father dies, daughter dies, or some evil interloper comes between them.

Denis has little interest in that kind of scenario. Lionel and Josephine love one another, but can't lean on each other forever. As some point, they need to move on, to create new communities for themselves. The result marks one of Denis's smaller films--and one of Descas's best and most subtle performances. He spends more time looking and thinking than acting or talking, but sometimes that's more than enough: his eyes speak volumes.

35 Shots of Rum plays the Northwest Film Forum 11/6-12. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave between Pike and Pine on Capitol Hill. For more information, please click here. Images from Daily Plastic and Floating World.

Love Me Some Highway: Melvin Van Peebles' Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-Itchyfooted Mutha

CONFESSIONSOFA EX-DOOFUS-ITCHYFOOTED MUTHA (Melvin Van Peebles, 2008, USA, Digi-Beta, 99 minutes)  

Makin' your own bed ain't no guarantee it's gonna be comfortable.--Melvin Van Peebles 

***** ***** 

On August 21, Melvin Van Peebles, the man behind 1971's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, one of the top-grossing films of all time, turned 77. Filmmaker, actor, producer, playwright, painter, composer, novelist, astronomer, activist, raconteur, and cigar aficionado: Van Peebles has seen, done, and possibly smoked it all. 

A reimagining of his 1982 Broadway play Waltz of the Stork, Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha recounts an eventful life, the regrets amassed, and the lessons learned along the way. In his September 9 introduction at the Northwest Film Forum, Van Peebles, according to a friend, clarified that although he shares biographical details with the character—like a Chicago birthplace—it isn't a self-portrait.   

Instead of casting younger actors to play Itchyfoot from 14 through 45, the septuagenarian tackles every age, which isn't as awkward as it sounds, since he narrates the entire time; it might actually present more of a disconnect for baby-fresh faces to attach themselves to his honeyed growl, like a warped version of The Wonder Years with Daniel Stern voicing Fred Savage.

Below right: better run through the jungle...

In the first act, Itchy travels from Chitown to New York. On the way there, he witnesses a mob hit and almost drowns. Once he washes up on the shores of the Hudson, he spends his days listening to the blues and poring through the travel books at the library. 

As loose-limbed funk plays in the background (William "Spaceman" Patterson served as music supervisor), black and white footage commingles with color stock, and montage meets musical interludes. It isn't always easy to follow what's going on, but it's easy to lose yourself in lines like, "That light at the end of the tunnel could be a freight train comin' the other way" and "The [Big] Apple ain't all that malevolent, but it can be a bitch."

To earn his keep, Itchy drifts through a series of menial jobs, discovers sex, and gets busy with a variety of honeys until he meets Rita (Stephanie Weeks), a classy sorority girl, but then the wanderlust returns and he joins the merchant marines—another biographical detail—through which he meets biddies eager for male companionship and pirates out for blood (son Mario Van Peebles, director of the docudrama Baadassss, plays their captain). 

After 11 years at sea, he continues to travel, carouse, and dance his way from Africa back to the Apple. 

Rambling, amateurish, artistic, funky, and funny, Van Peebles' seventh film—not counting shorts—will exasperate some viewers as surely as it will delight others. To these eyes and ears, Melvin Van Peebles' picaresque way with words and puckish personality makes the whole damn trip worthwhile.

Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha continues at Northwest Film Forum through Sept 14. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave between Pike and Pine. For more information, please click here. I took the photo of Van Peebles at the top. Other images: Hammer to Nail (Cullen Gallagher liked it; The Village Voice's Nick Pinkerton did not) and Rotten Tomatoes.