Rohmer and Maud

When asked to respond to Bazin's question (What is cinema?), Rohmer says something to this effect: it is the art of space. His film seem to deal with space not as a geographic thing but as an area between people that deserves consideration.

WEEK-END

What's logic? Capitalism leads to cannibalism? The end of cinema? What?

Alpha 60

Poetry transforms darkness into light in a computer controlled society at war with art, thought, and love (Andrew Sarris).

Contemptuous

This film takes on myriad subjects, not the least of which is BB, her image, and "woman" more generally. In the crucial scene early in the film as JLG frames her nude body in the blue, white, and red of the French flag, to the overall manner of love and obsession that fills the film, JLG seems to take on so many subject that one could argue that the film finally falls apart to some degree. Hm.

Pierrot

Pierrot le fou is a film that showcases all of JLG's machinations: criticism of society's acceptance of the status quo, the impotence of revolution, the challenges of living life. What say you?

(not) MY LIFE TO LIVE

There's a sense of irony and contradiction in the title of this film, as indicated notably by the scene in which Nana is told by the pimp that she has to accept anyone who has the money to pay. The clinical (rather than romantic or melodramatic) way in which this scene is presented (pimp in VO with mismatched shots of Nana in various stages of "dates") flattens the work of prostitution to an object of study, so far as to drain it (prostitution) of any feeling or drama. Why does this film use prostitution in this manner? From PRETTY WOMAN I learned that it's fun to be a prostitute, that they have limits (no mouth kissing; that's saved for love), meet billionaires and have the same travails as other couples. Plus, the johns always are hot like Richard Gere (who hasn't found the right arm-candy woman who will just let him be!!!), the world (store managers) accepting of them, and that they turn down pigs like that played by George Castanza (because that's creepy). I am so confused.

Masculin Feminin

A cinematic essay rather than a film (with story, narrative, etc), this film presents some nice topics for thematic discussion and some points of investigation into cinematic operations. What you think?

OK OK Now for THE PIANO PLAYER

After unintentionally dising (dissin'??) Jules and Jim, I offer this space for reaction and thoughtful engagement with Shoot the Piano Player.

Shoot the Piano PLayer

A real introduction to the often contradictory styles Truffaut forwards. In what ways can you talk about Shoot the Piano PLayer?

Truffaut shorts

Well? What sorts of claims can you make about these films? I don't want to suggest things here so that you feel free(r) to make claims on your own and not to merely expand on mine.

400 BLOWS

Oh yeah. Using the camera to tell story: opening scene's flowing camera allowing action to happen rather than be constructed. Using framing devices to tell about character: as when Antoine is in the jail cell after they bring in the prostitutes; the film's final shot. Using editing to divulge more psychology than words can do on their own: scene with the unseen psychologist in the detention center.

Truffaut's 400 Blows truly does work along with Astruc's maxim that the camera (and its other mechanics) can be a pen.

Oh yeah.

le beau Serge

You can post something here about le beau Serge.

And, for next Monday, you can watch, on your own, any other film by Chabrol (not just those listed on the syllabus). Cool, eh?

HIROSHIMA

Here's a place for you to respond to the film for tomorrow's class.

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD

Feel free to post about the film here. I 'may' do so myself tonight.

Vadim and BB

As we come to Roger Vadim we find a filmmaker once again in stark contrast to those around him (or her). Varda stands out from Melville, who stands out from...Vadim, it takes no time to figure, remains apart from both of these folks and, it should be noted, from others associated with the FNW. Except, that is, in his quality of freedom, his overt enjoyment of subject/story. We will see a similar love when we meet Truffaut. We cannot underestimate the influence Vadim had in terms of a sensualism (as a form of freedom) heretofore missing from dominant French cinema (a similar claim can be made about American cinema as well: though filmed in an alluring way, Ingrid Bergman probably wouldn't be called sensual, in a cinematic sense, it seems).

Remember a time before Coors Light commercials for twins or Brittany Spears or Gone in Sixty Seconds in which sexuality (or its cousin sensuality) wasn't a center piece (rightly or not) of commercialized entertainment, back to a time of Roger Vadim and his cinematic body, Brigitte Bardot. In 1956, Bardot came as a role model for many girls tired of the misleading puritanism forwarded in dominant culture/society (by the cinema du papa, for example, in its formula of beauty equals guilt, a still prevalent phenomenon today, one might argue).

How might one respond today to BB in terms of philosophical or political engagements?

Bob le Flambeur

Notice the title: it's in French, so the film, like the rest this semester, is in French (as in, in the original language, not dubbed).

More importantly... About Melville I will claim that he is quite an artisanal filmmaker, paying attention to aesthetic qualities even while filming outside the studio system on a small budget. Heavily influenced by American B-films, he uses the art of film in a way to investigate the human condition. We watch characters in Melville's films doing things, things that are real life; and, his camera spends the necessary time watching these actions: brushing teeth, getting dressed, practicing breaking into a safe, etc. In a real way, as we will see in a few clips, Melville's cinematography explores environments (and the people who inhabit those spaces).

For further viewing, check out le Samurai, le cercle rouge, and un flic.

Cleo

Let's talk about how the film presents Cleo as an object in a way that mirrors (to use a word that also has literal meaning in this instance) the way she sees herself and others see her. We can all see how this film does this. Let's point out such in class. That is, stay focused not solely on the story elements but on the filmic aspects as well.

Breathless

As we will discuss this week, the FNW folks wanted a cinema that departed dramatically from that offered by dominant French cinema. As the Neupert chapter makes clear, these filmmakers hoped to dismantle the industry by producing films that were profoundly self-aware (in opposition to the bourgeois studio cinema that masked its craft and pretended to be up-to-date but was actually stifled in tired retreads).

Breathless achieves this aim in a recognizable fashion. Through its elliptical editing (jump-cuts), asynchronous sound, non-standard narrative grammar, and partially developed characters who often act against themselves, the film presents almost every major tenet the FNW wanted to forward. Though its stylistics (issues of editing, cinematography, etc) are often frustrating to audiences at first glance ("this dude makes crappy films"), further study finds that comment like this actually says more about the speaker's subject position than it does about the film. That is, we have been trained through repetition to "know" what a (good) film should look like (fluid, eg) and what it should contain (recognizable characters engaged in the world in manners consistent with their character traits, eg). Though some of the stylistics may look familiar in some way (elliptical editing is not that rare today), we cannot underestimate the radicality of this film in 1959.

The Breathless Bummer

Egads. I hope I didn't use foul words yesterday in my frustrations for the screening room mess. Regardless, I *think* we got the problem fixed. Well, we can hope so.

Try to watch the film on your own. Our library has a copy, Netflix has it streaming, you can get it at good rental stores, and it is probably findable online somewhere (any suggestions?). It is foundational to the FNW and is referenced in MANY upper-level film courses.

In the next day or so, I will write an entry here (about the film) that should serve as an example of those we should all submit.

initial post

just a trial to see if it's running