“I don’t know how to kill Harold Crick.” –Emma Thompson
I watched the American film Stranger than Fiction tonight, a good piece of metafiction but not as good in its mix of lightheartedness and tragedy as Waiter by Warmerdam, which premiered a month earlier in 2006.
If you’re into Kaufmanesqueness, Stranger Than Fiction, Waiter and von Trier’s The Boss of It All have been must-see films in 2006/2007.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdr_FRp3RWs&]
Gas-s-s-s (1971) – Roger Corman
I’ve talked about my love for “small smart films” and Roger Corman directed and produced lots of this variety.
I was reminded of Gas-s-s-s when I did my unusual westerns post. In a reversal of “sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me” there is a most memorable scene in this countercultural film in which the protagonists participate in a “shoot out” where no bullets are shot as the only ammunition is yelling out the names of famous cowboy actors like Gene Autry, Tom Mix, James Arness, John Wayne and so forth, the more macho the actor, the more likely the kill. “John Wayne!” inevitably administers the coup de grace.
In the particular scene above, books by are used as fire logs. When the girl protests, the man brings in. What? This is Jacqueline Susann and there is more Harold Robbins outside!
Brilliant postmodernism avant la lettre but please proceed with caution if you’re only into ‘serious’ films.
Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYdYIISecWE&]
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrRLrJb01T8]
Matalo! (Eng: Kill Him!) is a 1970 western film directed by Cesare Canevari, considered one of the most violent and original spaghetti westerns. Released in France as Matalo and in Germany as Willkommen in der Hölle.
Other unusual westerns include:
“He swore he’d never touch her again and then she whispered his name and he was lost” -film tagline
“When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse. ” —Ethics of Human Bondage or the Strength of the Emotions, Spinoza
I believe my first exposure to radical Dutch enlightenment philosopher Spinoza was via Gilles Deleuze or via the “perishable monuments” of Thomas Hirschhorn which I discovered in Germany at documenta in 2002.
Via Guy de Maupassant and William Somerset Maugham‘s Of Human Bondage I discovered this bit on human bondage.
In the 1660s, the Dutch philosopher Spinoza writes, in his Ethics of Human Bondage or the Strength of the Emotions (a part of his Ethics), that the term “bondage” relates to the human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWUV5dFseXo&]
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) – Michael Winterbottom
I’m not in to war films per se. But Welcome to Sarajevo (especially the first half before they leave Sarajevo) is a clever commentary on the mediatization of war. Watch out for a stellar performance by Woody Harrelson.
Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.
The pervert in Little Children
I watched Little Children yesterday evening. Little Children = Madame Bovary + suburban postmodernism, it is an attempt to create the “Great American Film” (see Great American Novel) in a tradition which started with American Beauty and Magnolia; ultimately the film is pretentious but proficient.
Kate Winslet shines as Emma Bovary and the “new Paul Newman” is as useless as the worst of Emma’s lovers. Given the choice between the Great American Film and the “Small American Film” (think Fast Food, Fast Women and Denise Calls Up), I’ll choose the latter.
Nonetheless, this is the best film adaptation of Madame Bovary since Chabrol‘s literal interpretation starring Isabelle Huppert, and I was amused with the book clubbers debating the sexual practices described in Madame Bovary (specifically, whether a vague reference to a “shameful” sexual act implies that she has anal sex). The sex scenes are as hot and steamy as The Postman Always Rings Twice. The film is recommended but I’m not going to count it as a World Cinema Classic.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCpyqiee-Z8]
El Topo (1970) – Alejandro Jodorowsky
“El Topo is not a Western, it goes further than any Western … El Topo is not a religious film, it contains all religions … This film is bloody… El Topo is miraculous and terrible … El Topo is monstrous and cruel”
This slightly overrated curio premiered exactly 37 years today at the Elgin, New York.
Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfZhGUFuvgk]
Miami Blues (1990) – George Armitage
“With only bottles of spaghetti sauce…”
The main character, Fred Frenger, played by Alec Baldwin, fits the profile of a psychopath. His girlfriend is Jennifer Jason Leigh. Very violent and terribly funny. Based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.
The song in the background is “Spirit in the Sky.” Listen to it here.
Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.
My previous “gratuitous nudity” (#4) post featured images of an Italian seventies film on frotteurism. Today, we will explore candaulism and introduce you to one of the most beautiful Italian actresses: Laura Antonelli, here in a film by Pasquale Festa Campanile (The Libertine) , a filmmaker who has celebrated sexuality throughout his work, but especially in the 1970s (see Psychopathia Sexualis in Italian Sinema). The film is called Il merlo maschio [1] in Italian and Secret Fantasy in the USA. Check Laura, she is simply splendid.
Please note the Man Ray themed woman-as-violin on the poster.
If you like this film, you may also enjoy Femina Ridens.
Previous entries in this series.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNGvlWHQCwc]
Elevator to the Gallows (1957) Louis Malle
The Miles Davis score to Elevator to the Gallows was recorded 50 years ago. It has been described by jazz critic Phil Johnson as “the loneliest trumpet sound you will ever hear, and the model for sad-core music ever since. Hear it and weep.”
Previously on this blog: As she stalks through the night …
![[1]](http://www.pagine70.com/vmnews/archivio/merlomaschio.jpg){kind=link}
