I don't like Woody Allen because I can't identify with his characters.

Now, here's 500 words on the latest superhero movie.

comic book heroes are by definition identifiable. they are drawn with broad strokes, like chaplin or Hemingway. It allows for children of all ages to read them.

and woody allen diehards are insufferable! Like all the fools that actually think Pearl Jam is groundbreaking rock n roll

THE hemingway who wrote about rich white people but in paris, i.e. the new york of the pre-war?

(not all of his books are "the old man & the sea")


i knew things would go to shit once we the ad-hominems began

i tried to laugh it off w/ the wrestling picture, but here we are now

i won't reply to that-- and i hope nobody else does either because then it never ends

with this i'm not saying "you started it" btw.

just saying it's a bad game of ping-pong

Die of AIDS-infected cancer.

oy. guys. wtf. man. no

no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

YES! Brilliant!

And to evollove, yes the La Strada influence is definitely there, but it really worked and didn't feel pretentious at all, the way the La Dolce Vita references did in Celebrity. And because an unsympathetic Sean Penn is always gonna be more watchable than an unsympathetic Kenneth Branagh. And yeah, Samantha Morton's Gelsomina was a genuine revelation. But Sean Penn, fuck yeah!

So I finally really like a Woody Allen film from the 90s!

"Wanna go to the dump and shoot some rats?"

I didn't notice the LA STRADA stuff til it was pointed out to me. Then it was obvious.

Public performer gets it on with mute chick. Leaves chick. Regrets it. Does not win her back. Final scene on a beach.

-----

PS- Die of AIDS-infected cancer.

In your butt.

There's a scene quite early on when Sean Penn's treating Samantha Morton like shit and she just shrugs. That's when the penny dropped and I remembered you making the connection. After that you couldn't miss it.

i'd like to stop pretending that something horrible didn't just happen, so while i'd like to take part in the la strada comparison (the abusive beast guitarist actually has talent, unlike zampano) i'm gonna have to abstain for the time being.

fuck fuck fuck

laters

No. It's just been a long time since I last saw it, and I'm willing to accept that it might not hold up.

Well it does still have one of the best hold ups in any film (ya see what I did there?)

But yeah, I suppose Michael Mann for me is a bit like Christopher Nolan for you. Heat is his masterpiece. I really can't fault it. Although a lot depends on whether people can get over Al Pacino in full-on shouty mode, or Val Kilmer's ponytail. But even if they can't, it's still a long way from sucksville. More like a flawed masterpiece.

ok so now that i've had a day to mourn the latest disasters i'll resume my blabbering because what else can i do

--

watched recently:

VIVRE SA VIE - anna karina is fantastic, but fucking godard and his lectures and weird camera moves take away from the greatness... i still love anna karina, but the average of the whole thing did not equal love. i just liked the sum of the parts.

HOT FUZZ - decent action comedy for a sunday matinée or something. the cast of shawn of the dead but on steroids. goofy shit & lots of movie references occur.

SECOND HAND LIONS - ok tearjerker for boys 2 men. maybe could have been better without the fucking music always trying to prod you to feel this or that.

THE SECRET GARDEN - agniezska holland directed, francis coppola produced, and i turned off the old VHS halfway because very little was happening in this children's super-slow sad fairytale.

Yeah, it has its moments but I've always really struggled to get into Godard. He's always felt a little too self-consciously intellectual. Easy to admire but difficult to really love. The only one I think I like (almost) unreservedly is Le Mepris, and even that probably has more to do with BB than JLG.

:confused:

I have soft spot for Godard. My first love affair with film at the ripe age of 17. Pierrot ranks very high with me because I think Belmondo and Karina add some life to his crankyness. I haven't seen Vivre sa vie in many years. I'm going to revisit it soon.

Recent watches

Ride in the Whirlind - finished off the Monte Hellman set. This one really didn't do it for me. I was way into the Shooting but this one seemed like a throwaway.

Cheyenne Autumn - So..... Ford was visually stunning as always in Monument Valley but this one was a drag. It started out incredible but his attempt to rectify the image of Native American's in film totally missed the mark. Top that off with a totally useless interlude with Jimmy Stewart. This could've been Ford's masterpiece but instead it is one of the worst of his I've seen.

i love alphaville. le mépris was great too, indeed. breathless i liked a lot, no complaints there. masculin feminin does well with/because the theory is done well. the first godard i saw was les carabiniers, which was, at the time, hilarious, and i've rewatched it and still like it-- when they show up their postcards ha ha ha ha ha.

and i did like vivre sa vie but i could have liked it more if he didn't do such "clever" things as have us watch nana as she handwrites a letter to her potential madam. or when nana and a dude are talking at a counter and the camera pans or trucks right and left so hard it cuts people off the frame for no reason in particular.

it's cool to break the conventions of film, but some things (to paraphrase whit stillman a bit, who was probably quoting jane austen) become conventions for a reason. i.e. they work. anyway i'm glad he tried these things, someone had to-- but that doesn't mean that they survive the test of time necessarily.

Funny you should mention that as I watched that last week. Really didn't dig it all.

godard = fart hard

I think Godard was vital in challenging convention, but more as an inspiration for future directors than for the success (or otherwise) of his own films. Woody Allen being a perfect example. He may openly quote Bergman and Fellini but stylistically I'd say he's consistently owed more to Godard than to anyone else.

Or director wannabes.

In my early 20s especially, I'd watch a Godard film and think, "Damn. I wanna get a camera and a bunch of people and make something up more or less on the fly. If he can do it, I can do it. What could go wrong?"

Seriously, has anyone else ever felt the urge to make a film after watching one of his?