22 June 2009

New on dvd

Tuesday: Last Year at Marienbad. Some of you may have been hoping it'd never come out on dvd, but at long last Criterion has issued a two disc set of the screenwriting of that glorious dead end of literature, Alain Robbe-Grillet. If you wonder how much Robbe-Grillet needs Resnais' direction, how much he was indebted to Surrealism, or generally want to lose respect for him, suffer through La Belle Captive. It's also amazing how many great films Delphine Seyrig is in. Can't wait to see the snappy new print.

also: Waltz with Bashir: haven't seen it and I don't like cartoons, but this uses the format to recover historical memory, so I hear.

Last week: Scott Walker: 30th Century Man. Haven't seen it. Not a long time Walker fan, but I have listened to his recent The Drift more than a few times which is like Ray di Palma writing lyrics for a depressed Prague Rock band. That's a recommendation, in case you're wondering.

Bergman Island: Did catch it this past week and enjoyed it, although if you don't like Bergman there's no reason to bother. Candid interview near the end of his life and a limited tour through his abode. What I liked was how he had a Russian fireplace which had a crevice to lie down to the side of the fire, in which he would stare out at the sea and snowstorms. Near the end he attempts to wrap up his spiritual meditations, coming up with something resembling Tibetan Buddhism: he believes in the divine in living things revealed in great art and music.
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2 comments:

Ian Keenan said...

Waltz w Bashir: First of all, the military allows you to use tanks and helicopters if they approve the script, which wasn't going to happen here. As a solution, animation was brilliant and there should be more animated war films. It was interesting to see an animated version of Israeli cafe and domestic life, but I wondered initially if this would have been more effective as live action, switching to animation for dreams and war footage. The 'reason' to make the whole film animated becomes apparent at the end... the film director/ protagonist's self-representation and mindset is suggested to be a fantasy.. as the stock footage is presented at the end. important to the history of war films and and animation.

Marienbad looks quite wonderful and I'm enjoying it more this time around.. not through it yet.

6/24/2009 11:07 AM
Ian Keenan said...

if you're wondering what it'd be like if Faulkner wrote an hour and a half Calvin Klein commercial, you can watch Last Year at Marienbad

7/02/2009 11:52 PM

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