ph: Victor Demarchelier
Saturday, March 21, 2015
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Just so thoughts (Claude Chabrol)
Only recently I decided to watch Claude Chabrol's earliest three movies, since I'm not sure whether I have ever seen them before (although in the 70s I did see a nearly complete retrospective). To do so I need to purchase them on DVD, so I did some research about German editions.
It's a popular cliche about German culture that it's 'deep' and 'heavy' and 'dark', and I do enjoy the tweets by @NeinQuarterly and @WernerTwertzog that lovingly and profoundly mock Teutonic culture.
However, cliches always do have a hint of truth in them, and I came to think about that when I found out the German release titles for Claude Chabrol's movies. German distributors in general invent often ridiculous titles and usually are not translations of the original titles. Obviously, there's a notion that the German audience must be specifically addressed in order to be able to attract their intention.
So here they are:
Le beau Serge (1958) ----------> Die Enttäuschten ("The Disappointed")
Les cousins (1959) -------------> Schrei, wenn du kannst ("Scream, if you can")
Les bonnes femmes (1960) ---> Die Unbefriedigten ("The Unsatisfied")
Friday, March 20, 2015
From my library: Slanguage - A Dictionary of Irish Slang
Since I have Irish ancestors and have a special connection to Ireland by investigating our genealogy, visting the country often and quite a few friends there, I also have a large collection of books about the country. This one is - despite being a dictionary - quite entertaining, but then again, I like dictionaries and encyclopedias in general. Alone looking up all the cuss words was worth the buy!
Le beau Serge (1958)
A young man comes back to his home village in France after more than a decade and notices that the village hasn't changed much.
Claude Cabrol's first is a still fascinating, powerful and at times irritating analysis of a small town community.
Halliwell*: "Enjoyable character drama with well observed village backgrounds. Credited with being the spearhead of the 'new wave.'"
Maltin***: "Perceptive examination of the trials of life in a poor farming community and the moral questions raised by how one treats a friend."
Thursday, March 19, 2015
First Lines: Michael Crichton - Sphere
For a long time the horizon had been a monotonous flat blue line separating the Pacific ocean from the sky.
From my library: Kate
It's no secret that I'm a big Kate Moss fan, and I have all the books of and about her. This was the very first one from 1995.
Paris nous appartient (1961)
Curious as to why a young Spaniard would take his own life, a young student visits many of the places frequented by the dead man and learns that the suicide victim was maybe part of a sinister international conspiracy.
Less a mystery than a meandering and hypnotizing (and quite long) investigation into the paranoic and almost ridiculuously apocalyptic mindset of Parisian intellectuals of that time.
Halliwell (no star): "Overlong, often pretentious and frequently amateurish, Rivette's first feature reflects an adolescent despair of the future."
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
New Stuff: La religieuse
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I have been eager to see this movie for so long: a Jacques Rivette with Anna Karina and Liselotte Pulver!
Chinatown (1974)
A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.
Seminal neo-noir thriller, the plot spiraling into ever more darker depths, an instant classic and for both director and its star probably their greatest efforts so far.
What can I add: I'll be rewatching this movie very often!
Halliwell****: "Teasing, complex mystery that uses the conventions of detective stories to explore civic and personal corruption, in the style of Raymond Chandler, but adding a more modern perspective. It is eminently watchable, with effective individual scenes and performances and photography that is lovingly composed though tending to suggest period by use of an orange filter."
Maltin****: "Bizarre, fascinating mystery in the Hammett-Chandler tradition..."
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