The Classics

I've seen a couple of Alain Resnais films, his last to be released (Coeurs) and his earliest (Hiroshima mon amour). I've been quite cool on both, seeing things to admire but not a lot to love, so seeing as I am back on lovefilm online rental I had one of his more celebrated films, Last Year at Marienbad, near the top of my list for old foreign movies. I cannot express how much I regret doing that as the film is probably the biggest conceit I've ever had the misfortune to see.

Plot? Forget it, doesn't have one, deliberately so. The problem with that is it fails to engage you intellectually. Character? Forget it, doesn't want it, deliberately so. The problem with that is it fails to engage you emotionally. Good acting? Forget it, doesn't need it, deliberately so. The problem with that is it fails to engage you as entertainment. This is a film, and Resnais never ever lets you forget that you are watching a film (hence the deliberately bad over-theatrical acting at times), the editing and camerawork draw attention to themselves, deliberately so. So what is this film saying? Nothing, other than this is a film. It's a deliberate mind-fuck, it asks questions the filmmakers have no intention of answering, it creates situations they have no desire to let you know when or even if they took place. Why? Because they can. It's complete nonsense and a gargantuan waste of time. The opening reel is quite literally pointless and adds nothing to the film, most of the film could be watched on double speed on your dvd and you wouldn't miss a thing, it's a complete vanity-fest and an utterly risible one at that. That said though I cannot wholely not recommend it as I realise there may be some David Lynch-type fans out there who enjoy being toyed with mercilessly and meaninglessly. If that's your thing, dive right in, but frankly it's intellectual counterfeit money of the worst possible kind.

From there the only way was up and I moved onto another filmmaker I'd seen a couple of films from (well, 2 and 1/3rd - Blow Up, Zabriskie Point and Eros) - Michaelangelo Antonioni. The film was L'Eclisse. It starts off with a very uninvolving scene of Monica Vitti (attractive in the way real women are) leaving her man. I can really see why Ingmar Bergman was so unimpressed with her as an actress, labelling her "terrible", even if I don't agree as she's the opposite of his conveyorbelt of theatre trained powerhouse dramatic actresses. The film, like all the other Antonionis I've seen was interesting in parts but meanders along and doesn't really tell a story or have any focus whatsoever. This is a real shame because he has had an obvious influence on filmmakers I like (this film had shots/moments that recall Before Sunrise and 2046). It turned out I'd seen the end before (in Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy) but in the context of the film it doesn't have the effect it does as a stand alone scene. This is the real problem with him, he has moments but no idea how to string them together, he's very hit and miss with scenes in his films and it makes them extremely difficult to get immersed in or passionate about.

One filmmaker you could not say that about when he's on form is Wim Wenders and I got hold of Alice in the Cities. This is absolutely a film to see if you liked Paris, Texas as the broad plots are similar (an enigmatic man is pretty much silently on screen for 20 minutes before embarking on a journey to return a child to its mother) and they're both beautifully shot. The difference here is that the man we follow is not the child's father and the child is a girl, not a boy. There are other subtle differences, Paris, Texas has all those Sam Shepard monologues towards the end so there's much more in the way of character and back-story, whereas here the relationship between the girl and the man is more emotionally involving.

I enjoyed this film greatly, the cinematography is absolutely beautiful (I'd expect nothing less from Robby Müller), the acting is so natural and light. My only problems with it are purely technical plot problems (How would a man get on board an international flight with a child who isn't his? Why can he not afford gas but can buy drinks and ferry tickets? etc.) but I realise they have a story they want to tell and cheat a little to get there. Highly recommended though, one of the best films I've seen from the 70s (although I make no secret of my disdain for that decade that's still very high praise) with a child performance to die for.

So lastly and my final "classic" of the bunch is Luchino Visconti's debut Ossessione. This has been remade (or more accurately re-adapted) by Hollywood twice as The Postman Always Rings Twice and both the Lana Turner and Jessica Lange versions underwhelmed me and had me assuming it was the subject matter that prevented me from getting on with the story. I'm very glad to say that is not the case because this version is an extremely good film. Mostly well acted (Massimo Girotti has a touch of Brando about him, but sometimes Clara Calamai gets too theatrical for the medium), the style, mood and pace of the film is spot on. It doesn't fall into the traps of sensationalism or exploitation or cheap characterisation the Hollywood versions do and feels very authentic and natural - really worth checking out.