Weekly Viewings From The To-Watch Pile #3

Warning – The music video Orphans you can see if you following the link contains real life violence that may upset and disturb people either by seeing it or how it is presented. The reason I have not included the YouTube video on this post isn’t because of the content but, considering the varying tones of the small reviews, that it would seem inappropriate for me to present it in the context of this written piece.

 I also want to add that I am that I am just about to start my final year of university. This, and the time it takes to get to and from the campus, the possible workload etc. may affect the number of posts I am able to do in a week.

Camille 2000 (Radley Metzger, 1969)



From http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/news/films/grindhouseuniverse/camille.jpg

‘Marguerite, a beautiful woman of affairs, falls for the young and promising Armand, but sacrifices her love for him for the sake of his future and reputation.’ - From IMDB 

Lacking the intrigue in the beginning of it that made the director’s 1970 film The Lickerish Quartet interesting immediately, this English language film (which makes no sense for me being set in Italy) is an erotic drama with little sex or drama worth caring about. It doesn’t look great aesthetically or in cinematography, the acting is generic on the verge of being wooden, and moments of artistry come off as pretentious and hiding the dullness of the film. The only interesting thing about it is that a particular camera technique – where it goes in-and-out of focus on a group of flowers near a bed where the main female character is having sex – was used with exact framing with red apples by the director Anne Biller in her sexploitation debut Viva (2007), but that is not enough to sit through this.

1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)

From http://thames2thayer.com/political_cinema/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/1900_bloodyolmo_alfredo-1024x640.png

‘Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock (Depardieu), the other born to a land owner (de Niro). The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants' eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.’ - From IMDB

An epic five hour long period piece which wears it liberal heart on its sleeve and shows its fascist characters, personified by Donald Sutherland’s psychotic Attila, as one-dimensional villains. This film does suffer from two problems I find with historical pieces. First, in attempting to be historically accurate to the period as much as possible, it does lose the ability of being expressionistic or even glide into the fantastical that the best films (The Thin Red Line (1998), Andrei Rublev (1966), even Amarcord (1973) etc.) can. Secondly, even though this has moments of character development, the viewer is almost distanced and viewing them through a plate of glass, as part of a completely different time period, rather than seeing the world from the characters’ eye view themselves (again, unlike the best of these films). The decision to make the film in English, dubbing individuals in English in places, and starring Robert De Niro, Sutherland, a surprisingly young and thin Gerard Depardieu (dubbed as well) and other non-Italian actors, is questionable too. Not only is it about Italian, but there are numerous uses of Italian words and songs that makes the decision redundant. Despite these problems, Bertolucci nonetheless deserves some credit for trying to do something different with the conventional genre, bringing things in that would never be allowed in most historical films now – such as De Niro’s character snorting cocaine with his uncle and his lover – that add a more realistic layer to the proceedings.

The American Soldier (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1970)

From http://billsmovieemporium.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/theamericansoldier03.jpg?w=400&h=315

‘Ricky is a cold-blooded German-American contract killer. After serving in Vietnam he returns to his home town of Munich to eliminate a few problem crooks for three renegade cops. He inspects his old neighborhood with his childhood accomplice Franz Walsch, and pays a short visit to his mother and doting brother. When Ricky asks the hotel clerk for a girl, one of the cops sends his girlfriend Rosa. However she falls for the killer.’ - From IMDB

In the beginning, this shows aspects of Fassbinder of significance. The film is well made, with crisp and striking black-and-white photography, and interesting use of music, and has things of fascination. From what few works I’ve seen, he at least seeps his early work with pop-culture references, very like Jean-Luc Godard’s work, usually American iconography like Batman and a lot of pinball machines. Also, while wanting to avoid instigating anything considering Fassbinder’s life story, I cannot but notice how common it is for women to be slapped or backhanded by men in what I’ve seen so far. The American Friend as a film is less interesting, a minimalist crime work with some character scenes of notice but anaemic for the most part.

Content (Chris Petit, 2010)

From http://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/uploads/images/header/image1382.jpg

‘Between a deceased father and a young boy, Chris Petit wonders and wanders through concepts of the past and self-identity.’ - From IMDB


Re-evaluating this ‘21^st century ambient road movie’, my opinion of this has changed drastically from a mess to a gem from the moment the alluring, ambient music and sounds making up the score is first heard. In his middle age, and nearer death, Chris Petit is trying to find himself, looking at the world around him. As TVs become smaller, the Internet becomes part of our outer face, and the buildings (in Britain anyway) becomes blander, he suggest that we have become aimless, wandering and trying to find ourselves. A German actor, as a sender of illicit emails, muses on life and the desires people pour out online while YouTube clips, from early Lumiere films to confessions, are played. Numerous scenes are camera footage in cars passing on motorways and roads which, as Petit describes in the beginning, feel as if one is drifting in a dream state. Like the darkened roads of David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997), they lead to nowhere; the only difference between them is that Petit’s roads and their surroundings are, depending on if you agree with him or not, exceptionally ugly. From the roads to the Kennedy assassination, to Pokemon and German guilt on eBay, this is a warning that we as people have become complacent and ignorant of the past and present as conformity and lifelessness reign, exemplified in the claustrophobic ‘New Towns’ in Britain which have high suicide rates that are hushed up.  This is a great work, but one (as of the 20^th September 2010) that is difficult to see, having only been screened at the 2010 Rotterdam Film Festival and once on British primetime TV. If you can find it, watch it, maybe watch it again months later like I did a second time.

Orphans [By Teenage Jesus & The Jerks] (Ivan Lerner, 1978)

Can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTt2ScrvU-A

‘Directed by porno trade mag editor Ivan Lerner in 1978, Orphans cuts together Vietnam footage that almost captures the violence of the music of Teenage Jesus & The Jerks.’ - From MUBI

Cutting together horrific footage – Vietnam, gun violence, beatings and other atrocities – with the slow and unnerving rock song, this is an uncompromising music video which forces you to look at the brutality. It should be seen even if you hate the song for what the images are trying to say.