Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Blogging is one of those activities which started out as a real boon for many of us, but it's recently become a chore. This is the end of award season in the movies, and some of us have become overwhelmed with going to screenings, looking at screeners, etc. and it's hard to find a through-line to all of this cinematic viewing.

And if, like me, there's a tendency to try to think about what's on view, it makes it extremely difficult, because there's the constant shifting of focus. In the last week: John Boorman's "The Tiger's Tail", the Argentine film "The Mugger", Michael Almereyda's notebook "Paradise", Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" (was glad i went to that screening, because the only time i saw that film was when it was screened without subtitles; subtitles helped, since it's a narrated film over a miscellany of images; the beginning, with the preponderance of soft-core footage of topless young women, reminded me of the inherent sexism of so much French theory), then screeners of Chris Eigeman's "Turn the River" (i persist in thinking Famke Janssen is potentially a major actress who hasn't found the right vehicle yet), Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou's "Take Out", and Alex Holdridge's "In Search of a Midnight Kiss". Also: finally saw Chabrol's "La Ceremonie" as well as his "La Route de Corinth" (Netflix). Then went to a screening of Wadja's "Katyn" which i missed at the Tribeca Film Festival, but it's opening at Film Forum.

I invited Carey Lovelace to the screening of the Guy Debord, and was glad i did, because it's the kind of intellectualized work that needs to be talked about and discussed with friends afterwards. It's the talking afterwards that completes "The Society of the Spectacle" as a theatrical experience. It's also a little more rhythmically organized and (because of the inclusion of certain film clips, etc.) more dramatic than other Debord films that i've seen.

Well, now onto today's screenings: Ferreri's "Dillinger Is Dead", which i saw in 1970, but not since, and wonder how it will seem....

1 Comments:

Blogger joe baltake said...

Daryl- Don't ever stop blogging. Your stream-of-consciouness musings are invaluable and hugely entertaining.

3:59 AM

 

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