Kinsey (2004)

I watched Kinsey a few years ago. It was dubbed into German and I remember falling asleep at some point. But Kinsey is not really a bad film, even though it tends to give a too simplified idea of what scientific research is. Kinsey's research is portrayed as either being about the extremely (yes, it ends up as a caricature) clinical observation and analysis of facts or it was politically or personally liberating. The movie hints at some substantial questions (what does it mean to conduct research on sex as if it were a neutral form of behavior that without friction lends itself to statistical mappings) but regrettably Condon's film doesn't dwell on that. It dwell, unsurprisingly, on the human interest of the story.
The theme of Kinsey is far more interesting than the way it is shaped into a movie. This is a mediocre film with little originality in it. Yes, we've seen a thousand portrayals of men who go through with their projects no matter what (an inner c-c-calling - a million gall wasps, tons of interviews, all that stern dedication!). Yes, we've seen the guy who energetically fends off criticism and doubt, battling enemies, making new friends, by doing his thing. And, finally, yes, we've seen this Great Man with a supportive wife at his side ("a model of warmth and understanding", as one famous critic has it). A few stereotypes there, sure. But still, there are not many films that ask questions about the role of science in society and the impact of science on how we understand ourselves.
If you want to see a better film by Bill Condon - watch Gods and monsters (with Ian McKellen). That's a film with some originality at least.
... Well, it is at least good to see Liam Neeson perform in a better movie than Rob Roy.
Excuse me, it's time for the daily dose of van de Velde.

Città violenta (1970)

For a boring evening like this, an action movie with Charles Bronson is not the wrong solution. Violent city is gritty, the kind of gritty you expect from a gangster movie made in 1970. What is striking about it is how slow it is. During the first half of the movie, barely a word is uttered. A sense of foreboding in the air. We follow an endless car chase, a guy waiting in a bush, a race car circuit. For an action movie, this is kind of weird. Beyond that, this is nothing out of the ordinary. A hitman hooks up with his old girlfriend. Revenge is to be taken on those who set him up in the first section of the movie, comprising a car chase, a shootout. But who set him up? The rest of the story revolves around mobsters, seedy criminals and power games. Sergio Sollima is the director of this slightly misanthropic action movie and Ennio Morricone made the music. Not bad, but sexist as hell, and uneven in quality. Some great scenes made this film worth its 90 minutes.

Roma, città aperta (1945)

No, I wasn't blown away by Rome, Open City (1945). I was too tired when I watched it and what occupied me most during the first hour was trying not to snore too hard. Yes, there were some good scenes capturing ordinary life in a war-stricken city. Yes, the scenes were shaped in an interesting way, often with a sudden change of frame. Yes, it was fun to watch a stern, lesbian (or something) Nazi. But no, I wasn't much impressed. I hold Germania anno zero as a much better film.

The Crossing Guard (1995)

The Crossing Guard is immediately recognizable as a Sean Penn movie; Bruce Springsteen on the soundtrack, grimey streets, no-nonsense cinematography. And it has a lot of themes typical for a Sean Penn movie, too. Troubled males, remorse, redemption. John has served time in prison for having run over a girl, Emily, while drunk-driving his car. He is released and the father of the child, a man torn to pieces by grief, tries to kill him but there are no bullets in his gun. The story revolves around John and Freddy, the father, building up tension before their final rendezvous. Luckily, The Crossing Guard does not focus entirely on revenge, there are too many movies out there that do. It's more a film about people locked within grief. This is not a terrible film but not a particularly original one either. Jack Nicholson's debauchery, his grinning face, his tortured demenour, isn't that convincing. We get it, Freddy is depressed. Freddy drinks. Freddy hangs out in strip joints. But Freddy remains a caricature of what grief is. One of the most embarrassing (for Mr Penn) moments in the film is when Freddy brings home a girl from one of the joints and she plays him a song on her cheap synthesizer. Stripper with a heart of gold! C'mon! Penn should cut down on his use of clichés. Indian Runner is a much better achievement than this is, even though these films have lots in common.

(By chance, Anjelica Huston acts in both of the films I watched tonight. She is good in both.)

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

I am not a dedicated fan of Wes Anderson (though I like most of his films) but I found The Life Aquatic strangely moving and strangely melancholy. As usual it's a smart film with deadpan dialogue (it's a smart movie but also a slow movie). The story prides itself with tons of quirks and odd characters, among them the guy who performs David Bowie songs in Portugese. Beneath all this is a quite simple story about affection and loss. This film won me over for several reasons. There were a couple of beautiful scenes involving underwater creatures, it has Bill Murray who once again plays this weary kind of person whose greatest self-expression is a sigh. But I never really understood what troubles this guy. And Life Aquatic has some goofy moments that work just fine, and some that are just too much on the slapstick side of what kind of humor I can stomach. And by the way, this is one of those rare movies in which I don't hate Cate Blanchett's mere presence.

Don't come knocking (2005)

You know what? Films about men who are afflicted with Deep Problems should be restricted to a Dumb & Dumber slapstick comedy formula. There are too many dramas in the world about silent, raging men into the soul of whom the viewer is invited to take a deep, fascinated look. Usually these film heroes ride cars on the lonely highway and usually they have weatherbeaten faces in which we are to count the years as in a log. Without exception, these existential heroes have issues with Women. The existential hero runs away from something. It tends to be some girl with blond hair who works as a waitress in Montana.

Don't come knocking is not Paris, Texas even though these films have lots in common. The guy who just has to disappear. The guy who flees his past. The open road. The glaring neon lights Etc. You immediately recognize this as a Wim Wenders film, from the first frame onwards. He's established his own style, right. But what Paris, Texas has and what Don't come knocking lacks is restraint. The latter film has too much neon, too many 360* camera turns, too much haunting guitar plucking for its own best. These things have now degenerated into clichés. Wim clichés.

The leading man of Don't come knocking is Sam Shepard. He plays an actor who just has to run away from the movie set to deal with his past. He is the eternal troublemaker who starts to feel he has wasted his life. He visits his mom. He tracks down the girl he made pregnant. She is a waitress in Montana ... He wants to be reconciled with his rock n' roll lifestyle indulging kid, but the kid is more interested in being an eternal troublemaker. Just like his old man.

Wender's film was perfectly watchable but it is a failure in several ways. His characters are over the top and appear to be paper dolls rather than real people, the acting is not good and the soundtrack is used in a much too aggressive way. There are a few good scenes, though. One of them involves the waitress. She is not going to make up with the man who left her 30 years ago. She delivers a long speech about why this is impossible. It's a rather good speech even though the delivery by the actress is completely embarrassing. Without it, the film would have become far more sexist than it is now. Another great scene is shot in a neon-drenched hellhole Casino where Sam Shepard staggers around in drunken frenzy.

Martha (1974)

I re-watched Fassbinder's Martha today on a crappy VHS tape. It's a brutal but interesting film. What hit me this time was the significance of one of Helmut's lines. He says something to the effect of him wanting Martha all for himself, that he be Martha's entire world. What I realized when I watched the film the second time is how repressed Martha's understanding of herself is. She lives a life in which everyone expects her to be clingy and needy and she has learned to get used to the cold shoulder. (In that, the film poses question about resistance and the meaning of "willing" submission.)

Blackboards (2000)

Samira Makhmalbaf is the director of Blackboards /Takhté siah (2000). It's a simple, yet politically conscious, film much in the same style as the two other films I have seen by her, The Apple and At five in the afternoon. All three films showcase great acting and many poignant scenes, driven by very simple, close-to-life dialogue. In Blackboards, the main characters are two teachers, Said and Reeboir, who trudge the craggy border area of Iran and Iraq. The story takes place during the Iran-Iraq war. They look for students whom they can teach how to write. They are Kurds and what we get a glimpse into in this film is Kurdish people who have fled their homes, and who intends to return. The teachers hooks up with a group of elderly people, and another group of children carrying goods on their backs. They persist in offering them their services, as teachers and in Said's case, guiding the group of elderly people to the border. The film mostly depicts their perilous journey among the hills. They are in constant fear of border military who aims gunfire at them. Makhmalbaf really has an eye for people and social interaction. She creates amazingly intimate scenes by elucidating the specific occasion. An ailing old man needs to pee but is unable to do that, other men carrying him by each arm and encouraging him to pee. Said approaches every kid he sees with the question, "can you read"? The kids are smart and do not trust this stranger. Suddenly, Said is married to a woman in the group. The woman is not interested. What is atypical and great about Blackboards is how quickly and successfully it manages to introduce its characters. But not by painting with broad streaks, by means of dramatic entrances or eccentric behavior. Characters are established in sensitively written dialogue, in which everything is of importance, even annoying repetitive questions and even things like peeing and eating nuts.

La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)

This is yet another silent movie that has an inventiveness to it that most contemporary films lack. Dreyer experiments with angles and perspectives, with light, with close-ups and frames. In contrast with most movies, this is an overwhelming cinematic experience. There is no need for 3D glasses to lend depth to the images. The passion of Jeanne d'Arc is a stunning movie about heresy, divine revelation, faith and religious hypocracy, about psychological blackmail and one individual against an institution in which nobody speaks for themselves, in their own name, but in the name of tradition, even in the name of God. Dreyer strips away the political background and if you ask me, that is not a problem. He makes his own Jeanne d'Arc and I find the film's relation to the "real" Jean D'arc uninteresting. Dreyer made a good decision when he based the film exclusively on the trial documents and the excecution of Jeanne d'Arc. (I remember being unimpressed by Luc Besson's action-packed movie from the late 90's that starts with images of the English destroying Jeanne's village and raping the women etc.) What everyone remember Dreyer's film for is his unique images of the human face. And it's not the close-ups in themselves that have this striking effect. The story itself takes place in the expressions of these faces, against the backdrop of minimalist, but carefully structured sets. No trinkets.
What is rather surprising about this film is the strong anti-institutional message. The representatives of the Church are depicted extremely harshly, as blabbering cowards, puffed up by self-righteousness.
(According to Wikipedia, Cat power made music for several screenings of this film in 1999 ... I am quite curious what kind of music she made ...)

Le testament du Docteur Cordelier (1959)

I must confess I had seen no film by Jean Renoir prior to watching Le testament du Docteur Cordelier. That's embarrassing. I have a strong doubt that this movie is not considered a peak in the Renoir ouvre. Actually, this take on Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is quite funny, but not so much more than that. The scenes in an urban setting are great. And it is always entertaining to watch another movie that pokes fun at eccentric psychiatrists & psychologists. I couldn't stop thinking that the violent scenes might have had an influence on the perspective on violence in A Clockwork Orange. The Hyde character is a mix of Chaplin and Alex in Kubrick's movie, swaggering, spastic, an embodiment of movement. The physicality of this character is rather fascinating to watch - and the idea of "violent impulses" that is evoked here. This was perhaps even the most interesting aspect of the film, the physical transformation Jekyll - Hyde.

I will watch some other Renoir film soon.