Lawrence of Arabia, the way it was meant to be seen

It's been, years, since I last posted, and the desire to post has lessened with each of those passing days and months and yet, sadly, my desire to make flawless and well-thought out posts has not; a mean combination. As such, I promised myself I would do this one quick and dirty.

My return to posting has been motivated by none other than my re-watching of Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen at Bytowne! When I was first getting into classic cinema I always lamented about not getting the opportunity to watch three films on the big screen: Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Lawrence of Arabia.

The funny thing was that at the time I wasn't even a big fan of the film and yet still recognized that this was the type of film that could only be experienced in a darkened cinema. I first watched the film around 1999, the beginnings of my cinephilia, and at the time I found it boring and tedious. A few years later and the DVD-era had arrived and it was only a matter of time before a newly-restored fully uncut 222-minute version of the film was released on DVD. I decided to use this occasion to give the film another whirl. This time around, things began to crystallize, I started to realize that this wasn't simply a beautifully shot film with some boring obligatory biography/plot chunks spliced in, but an incredibly intimate character portrait, the complexity of which was beyond my comprehension during my first viewing. I happily purchased the DVD and devoured some of my favourite scenes over and over the only way I could, on my 27-inch television.

And then, last week when I realized that it would be playing again at Bytowne (for 3 days only!) I made sure that I was going to be there. And you wouldn't believe how disappointed I was when I thought that I was going to have miss it for one of my best friend's bachelorette party! I have to admit that some excuses briefly went through my head. Thankfully, I got the date's mixed up and I didn't have to make that decision in the end.

And so, as for this third and latest viewing: wow! I suppose its effect is evident enough in that it got me posting again after almost two years! Far and away my most satisfying viewing, visually and mentally. As for 4 hours being a long time? It wasn't long enough for me!

Even as I write this post days later, I'm still trying to figure out how Lean managed to make a film that was both supremely epic in its grandeur and scope and yet so psychologically complex. Before watching it I would have honestly thought that to mix such - seemingly - opposing elements in a single film wouldn't work well and to do either one well would be downright impossible. And yet, Lawrence performs both beyond just about any other film in history that has concentrated on just one. No wonder it had to be four hours long!

Epic, in every conceivable way.

2001: A Space Odyssey! In theaters! Again!

Had to document it before I forget. Last Saturday, got to see Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey for the second time in my life on 35mm at the Bytowne (how lucky am I?!).

Krystle came with me and was - luckily - the catalyst for going again. She still had yet to see a Kubrick film and I told her, well, if you're going to see 2001 at all, this is the way it was meant to be seen: on a huge screen, in a darkened theater, Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra blaring at you!

Had to drop off the road bike for maintenance at Pecco's beforehand and ended up running late. We parked and ran to buy our tickets and fortunately made it inside just as the overture was finishing up. Since it's played over a completely black screen, we couldn't see a thing. Knowing that perhaps the greatest film opening in history was about to come on, I tried to hurry us into some seats in the front once we could see. Well, we made it to the front but couldn't find seats in time so we ended up crouching in the aisles for the intro. Ah, even those circumstances weren't able to ruin my love of that opening!

Dawn of Man: Wow, so many more details you can see on 35mm as compared to a 27-inch television screen. Beautiful. Without even trying to be pretentious, I can 100% honestly say that I don't remember the still shots in this section passing by so quickly. What a difference a few years make I guess. When I first watched it I think I started getting antsy after about the third "nature" shot which seemed to last an eternity. This time around, there was never enough time to appreciate each one. I think I've now seen this movie 6 times.

Sure you watch movies without speaking to other people, but there's something incredibly special about watching a trance-like film such as 2001 with a group of other people in the dark. In my mind, that is part of the magic of watching these types of films, that a couple hundred people can be completely silent while the also silent images of Frank hurtling through space or HAL terminating the life support systems are projected.

I love this film. What a trip indeed.

And You Call Yourself a Cinephile?!

There's definitely a direct correlation between how deep you get into the study of film as an art and the overbearing pride and pretentiousness of the critics involved. Everyone loves to believe that they know it all. I'm no different.

Therefore I found it extremely interesting when I happened upon cinephile Andy Horbal's interesting little exercise over at his blog. Using the list of the 1000 Greatest Films Ever Made (from They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?) he compiled a list of the top 50 films he had not yet seen. Not a bad idea at all. This subculture could sure use a reality check with a bit of humility on the side.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had at least seen the top 15 films on the list. This spurred me to compile my own list. Only upon doing this did I realize how exponentially worse things got as I progressed past the 50's or 60's. Long streaks of unseen films. Oh well. This is the whole point of the exercise isn't it?

Final count was somewhat disappointing: 39 unseen films out of the top 100. That said, lists are lists and the attempt to mathematically compile them to produce any sort of master is always bound to fail. But enough of my own disclaimers, here it is in all of its anti-glory (preceding number indicates its ranking):

16) L'Atlante
24)
Les Enfants du Paradis

28) Sunset Blvd.
34) Persona
38) Andrei Rublev
41) Ordet
47) Ugetsu Monogotari
48)
400 Blows

49) Contempt
52) Night of the Hunter
55) The Wild Bunch
58) The Conformist
59) La Strada
61) The Mirror
62) Fanny and Alexander
64) Greed
67) Rio Bravo
69) Sherlock, Jr.
71) Playtime
72) L'Age d'Or
73) Ikiru
74) All About Eve
75) Voyage in Italy
76) The Apartment
77) Viridiana
78)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God

81)
Pierrot le Fou

82) Man with a Movie Camera
83) Blue Velvet
84) Nosferatu
85) The Leopard
87) Once Upon a Time in the West
89) Sansho Dayu
91) Last Year at Marienbad
95) Letter from an Unknown Woman
96) King Kong
97) Amarcord
99) Stagecoach
100) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Rules of the Game!! Rules of the Game!! 35mm Restoration!!!

At long last, I'll get to see one of the greatest films ever made in history on the big screen and in the best theater in all of Ottawa! A newly restored 35mm print of Rules of the Game, Jean Renoir's 1939 masterpiece is coming to the Bytowne in February. Religiously found on every respectable best-of-all-time film list. It's the only film to have made it on every single edition of Sight & Sound's critics poll taken once a decade, coming in 10th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd. Wow! Can you say timeless indeed?

Just seeing the few snippets of the film shown during the trailer (before Volver) had me jumping up and down in my chair, giddy with anticipation. Perhaps the most efficient way to describe my excitement would be to say that I gave Volver a full four stars, and yet the highlight of my night was still simply being able to watch that trailer in a darkened theater, and having its memorable images overwhelm me all over again. If that's an indication of anything, I can't imagine how excited I'll be come opening night, watching this masterpiece along with all the other hardcore Rules/Renoir fans. (Official re-release site with higher quality trailer)

The Year in Review (2006)

Well, now that I've made this effort to try and write more regarding my film-viewing experiences, it seemed to make sense that I join the masses and make some sort of year-end review. Of course it won't be any sort of conventional press top 10 seeing as how: a) I don't want to just restrict myself to just 2006 films, b) I didn't even see that many 2006 films, and c) there definitely aren't ten 2006-release films that I saw that deserve to be on any sort of best-list. All the following lists are in no particular order. And on a sidenote, while two of my three 2006 films were officially released in 2005, they were for all intents and purposes 2006 films, and since they both showed up in many other critics' 2006 lists, I figured I was justified in leaving them there.

THE NUMBERS

I watched 64 films this year, my most since 2003 when I was still at Carleton taking film studies classes. This certainly came as a pleasant surprise. About 1/3 of these were 2006 films, which I'm pretty happy about, seems like a good number for balancing staying in touch with the present state of cinema while still focusing on catching up with 100 years of past cinema!

THE GENIUS OF MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI









My highlight of the year has to be my voracious watching of the films of Michelangelo Antonioni. So many of these films would have been on my year end list that I figured I really should just make a separate section for them. In January, I had the opportunity to see the theatrical re-release of The Passenger. What an indescribable experience it was to be able to take in that last breathtaking shot in a darkened theater! This would inspire me to immediately watch La Notte (which had been sitting at home unwatched for weeks). The framing in this film is just about the best I've ever seen. I was on a roll now, and was definitely getting that same giddy sense of anticipation that I had experienced while blitzing through and discovering the works of Stanley Kubrick and Jean Renoir. Next up was Blow-Up, yet another bona-fide masterpiece. And perhaps most surprising of all though was Le Amiche which may not bear his characteristic auteur-ish qualities but which doesn't change the fact that it's a beautifully complex melodrama, one of the best films I saw all year long and one that I would proudly put up alongside the rest of his best. Without a doubt, right up alongside Kubrick as one of my favourite filmmakers of all-time.

THE BEST OF THE PAST (watched in 2006)
(not including any of the aforementioned Antonioni films, all of which would have made this list)

George Méliès Shorts (Landmarks of Early Film #2)
I admittedly got this DVD more out of historical obligation. But I can honestly say that I treasure it now just as much for its entertainment value. Méliès stuff has withstood the test of time. You would think that short films shot 100 years ago from a single angle on a single set would be pretty boring, but ironically in Méliès' case it's just the opposite! His shorts are a feast for the eyes, and not just because of his famous camera tricks. His films are like meticulously choreographed dances with layers upon layers of action happening all at once in the same scene! I literally watched The Hilarious Posters 3 or 4 times consecutively in order to observe all the characters separately. Because the camera never cuts or moves, there is no principal action and you're eyes aren't forcibly locked onto any particular thing which allows them to be wonderfully overwhelmed when the mayhem ensues! There's no need for any patronizing contextual disclaimers ("it's great... for its time), Méliès stuff might be historically significant but it's also a real joy to watch!

The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
Wily old Bunuel and his inimitable irreverent humour. Overall I didn't find the actual satire of this film as effective as That Obscure Object of Desire or Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, (except of course for the classic dinner scene on the toilets!) but it's still undeniably funny and unmistakably Bunuel!

Back to the Future Trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990)
OK I'm cheating. I'd seen these before this year but never appreciated them the way I do now. The trilogy as a whole works together so wonderfully with the recurring characters and situations. The first one though is definitely a head above the rest in terms of its entertainment value and the clever writing, not to mention the fun Oedipal bits. 1.21 Jigowatts!!!

Mission to Mars (2002) (original review)
Thank goodness for a select few dissident film critics otherwise I would never have even considered seeing this film. It has changed the way I view the separation between pop and art in cinema. I truly believe that 10-20 years from now, once people have been removed from the moment this film will be re-assessed as a masterpiece and hopefully De Palma gets his well-deserved due.

THE BEST OF 2006

The New World (2005)
Exactly how Malick managed to squeeze this unapologetically arthouse film into so many mainstream theaters across North America continues to pleasantly baffle me. By the time I got around to watching it, there were probably only about 20 people in the theater, and by the end of it only about half remained. This film is more poetry than it is prose, both in terms of its dialogue and its visuals. There's really only 3 characters to speak of: Smith and Pocahontas, and the land itself. Just as important to Malick as the characters themselves is capturing a sense of the time and the place which they inhabited.

United 93 (2006)
Haven't had such a harrowing film experience since In the Bedroom. The suspense is there right from the beginning since we all know exactly how everything is going to end. To paraphrase Hitchcock, if you surprise the audience, you have them for 5 seconds, if you let them in on the secret and maintain suspense, you have them for an hour. Greengrass miraculously manages to make a very slick fast paced film without having to resort to anything fancy formalistic devices beyond a shaky camera. His confidence in the material selling itself (which it does in spades) is admirable. On the flipside, he also manages to straddle that line between empathy and sympathy for the passengers themselves just as well.

Three Times (2005)
Starting with that first beautifully choreographed billiard scene with Smoke Gets in Your Eyes playing I knew I was going to love this film. With the majority of films which employ this silent and languid-paced style that Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films do, there always seems to be an air of pretension and the characters slightly wooden, even in some of the great ones. What continues to impress me about Hou is how he's able to employ this style and yet his characters are able to come off as completely human. Hsu Chi is both fantastic and gorgeous to boot!

THE BEST OF THE REST

OK, so Bon Cop, Bad Cop wasn't absolutely one of the best films of 2006 but it deserves to get a very special mention because it's probably the most entertaining Canadian film I've ever seen. Anyone who knows anything about the state of Canadian cinema knows that it's a miracle that we even made a mainstream film that managed to claw its way into theaters, and even more of a miracle that it was actually entertaining! And while box office receipts usually mean nothing to me, having it finally kick out Porky's as the highest grossing Canadian film in Canada meant the world because it actually meant that Canadians were watching a Canadian film! Incroyable! Let's hope that we can keep the ball rolling and have this just be the beginning of a new era for our film industry! Won't say much more since I already put all my patriotic thoughts to a journal entry awhile back.

And here's the best of the rest: fantastic films I saw this year which didn't quite make any of the lists, but all deserve a special mention nonetheless

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) (review)
Marie Antoinette (2006) (review)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) (review)
Little Children (2006) (review)

To Have and Have Not: They Really Don't Make Em Like They Used To

The two of you are going to take a beating until someone uses that phone. That means one of you is going to take a beating for nothing, and I don’t care which of you it is!

I was on the mag trainer the other day and had run out of TV DVDs to watch so I decided to pop in To Have and Have Not which I hadn't watched in ages. Everytime I do this with an old beloved classic there's always a small part of me that's afraid it won't be nearly as good as it was before. Well, you never have to worry about that too much with a Howard Hawks film, much less a Howard Hawks film with Bogey and Bacall! Man, I love this film.

Even forgetting all the usual and obvious stuff about how Bogart and Bacall are amazing together, I'm always blown away by how much more sophisticated Hawks' mis-en-scene was compared to just about anyone, past or present. That man sure knew his craft!

The New, The Old, and The Ugly (aka Lynch, PTA, and TV)

Man oh man, for a guy who reads film stuff all the time I sure am surprised that I didn't even know about David Lynch's new film Inland Empire coming out apparently soon until I read about it in the New York Times (click the pic) from good old Manohla Dargis. Anyways, I'm really excited to see it, which is something I haven't been able to say as often as I would like to these days. Actually I took a few seconds to look over the list of new films that came out this year which I saw in theaters and, with the exception of Little Children, I didn't really make much of an effort to see any of them. They were all mostly just going to see movies with friends (which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy any of them, The New World and Three Times were both great works of art) I should really remember to get in more Lynch films. Despite the fact that I was blown away with Mulholland Drive and Lynch's indisputable unique point-of-view as a filmmaker, I haven't yet seen anything else by him since (rented Blue Velvet a few times but never got around to watching it).

While waiting to use the computer, decided to check out a few scenes from Magnolia, as it had been on my mind lately since watching Little Children and mentally comparing the melodramatic qualities of the two films. What started as just watching a scene here and there turned into going through the entire movie and stopping at great and memorable scenes - which comprise about half the frickin movie! Man, I remembered Magnolia being superb but not this good! How I wish I could have experienced this film in the theaters!

People who complain about how American cinema is dead need to shut up, sit down, and pay attention to one Paul Thomas Anderson. He could single-handedly carry American cinema on his back. What a beautiful, moving, daring, spiritual film this is. This man has not only yet to make a bad film, but yet to make a film that wasn't an absolute jewel. People - including myself - need to stop our prideful and snobbish habits of looking elsewhere for great filmmakers, we've got one right here and he's one of the very best not just of our time, but ever! And that's a statement I'm not too worried about making: Even if PTA were to stop making films today, I can count on one hand the number of other filmmakers oeuvres that I would trade for Sydney, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch-Drunk Love.

Anderson for me also scores huge points for perhaps being one of the few art filmmakers out there who appears utterly human and without pretensions in real-life. Looking and listening to this skinny young dude joke about his love of Adam Sandler or Terminator 2, you'd never believe him capable of crafting films of such emotional and humanistic profoundity. I think I have a crush on Paul Thomas Anderson.

Last, and certainly not least, I caught a bit of the show Day Break tonight and got drawn in. I've resolved to download some episodes and check them out. What a great premise! I haven't made an effort to follow any non-poker TV shows since probably high school so this is a big deal for me. We'll see how this one goes, hopefully it's good.

Robert Altman (1925-2006)

Today, Robert Altman died at the ripe old age of 81.

Up to this point, I've only ever seen three of his films: Nashville, which I found utterly boring. The Player, which I thought was very good, but could have been better. And finally, Gosford Park, which is a masterpiece! So it's quite a mixed bag in terms of my opinion of his work. But today none of that really matters.

This should be a sad day for anyone who truly loves cinema. I still can't believe that he made Gosford Park when he was 76! Talk about mourning not just for a man who was once great, but was great right till the end. No doubt, had he lived a few years more he would of kept on making films because he loved it so much.

Whether or not you loved Altman's films or the man himself (as he always made sure to speak his mind), it's impossible to overstate what he contributed. As long as he was around everyone could be sure that there would be at least one true maverick filmmaker around in America. For anyone who loves interweaving storylines, ensemble pieces, overlapping dialogue, you can thank Altman. For anyone who loves the works of Paul Thomas Anderson or Wes Anderson --whom by no coincidence of course are considered two of America's best and brightest filmmakers -- you can thank Altman.

Being a huge follower of the late Pauline Kael, who was an early champion of Altman before all the other critics hopped on the bandwagon, I had to take notice of him. Statements such as not being able to be friends with anyone who didn't like his McCabe & Mrs. Miller were incredibly bold even for someone who made as many bold statements as she did. She talked about Altman being a filmmaker who could seamlessly blend pop & art into his films. I'm not sure I ever quite understood what that meant until I recently saw Mission to Mars by Brian De Palma -- whom of course was another favourite of Kael's whom she described as being able to accomplish that same mix -- and finally my understanding caught up to my knowledge. And now that I get it, I realize how incredibly difficult it is to pull this off and how incredibly brave one has to be to try it.

I guess if anything good can come of this, it's that when word of Altman's death starts spreading to people, that maybe a few of them might be persuaded to check out one of his films. Speaking of which, I'll have to be finding me a copy of McCabe & Mrs. Miller soon :)

Bon Cop, Bad Cop: Most Popular Homegrown movie in Canadian History!

Well, last week it became official. Bon Cop, Bad Cop became the all-time Canadian box office leader among films made in Canada (finally overtaking freakin' Porky's). It should be a proud moment for all Canadians. We finally made a truly entertaining movie! It's a shame that most people outside of Ontario/Quebec won't get to - or just won't - watch it. It really is their loss, because it's every bit as fun as any of the better mindless Hollywood blockbusters out there.

I'm gonna get a kick out of all the cultural analyzation that goes into how this film became popular by the Nationalists because I think for the most part it's not true. I definitely enjoyed it more being a proud Canadian cinephile who's always been rooting for Canadian cinema and who also "got" the cultural references in the film, but this film was great mostly because it was just a well-executed summer movie. I mean in reality it's not like it was all that different from say Rush Hour, just replace the black-chinese guys with the anglo-franco guys. The great scenes anyways (the autospy guy, the initial finding of the body and quibbling over who takes it, the bar fight, the house of weed fire & subsequent boss yelling scene, etc.) all have nothing intrinsically Canadian about them.

That's not to take anything away from it, personally to me, none of that stuff matters and it really shouldn't to a film that's main purpose is to be entertaining. We already have a long tradition of art films as it is, that isn't our problem, our problem has always been making films that ALL Canadians want to see. This film isn't the saviour of both art and mainstream Canadian cinema, but it is the saviour of the one that needs it the most: the mainstream side. I hope that it makes even bigger stars out of Colm Feore and Patrick Huard, who both deserve it. And I hope that this film marks the beginning of a whole new era of Canadians being able to see their own homegrown films in their local cineplexes instead of at tiny little arthouses. I look forward to the next time I can walk out of Silver City after watching another entertaining Canadian movie and be able to say "it was great, but it sure was no Bon Cop, Bad Cop."

Plots explained: Mulholland Drive & The Big Sleep

For some reason, just thought of these links again. The Big Sleep one is just a good refresher, while the Mulholland Drive one is superbly written and demonstrates some real in-depth analysis. Just reading it again has me itching to re-watch the movie:

Understanding "The Big Sleep"
Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask about "Mulholland Drive"