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Beuveurs tresillustres, & vous Verolés tresprecieux (car à vous, non à autres sont dédiés mes escriptz)

alcofribas/thing/films

seen (not so) recently
at the 2003 san francisco film festival
at the 2002 san francisco film festival
jung (war) in the land of the mujaheddin (2001) fabrizio lazzaretti, alberto vendemmiati
documentary about the civil war in northern afghanistan in 1999-2000 and an italian surgeon who is there to set up a hospital to treat mine victims. spends time with people in villages that suffered attacks from the taliban, with emphasis on the situation for women. covers a p.o.w. camp of captured taliban soldiers who talk about the religious convictions that led them to fight.
the subject was too much for me to spend time thinking about film or documentary methods. i still have to make myself look when there's sick-out stuff on the screen, like gore in a horror film, or, in this case, close-up footage of wounds people got from landmines.
no man's land (2001) danis tanovic
a good movie to see about the war in bosnia. it played at the sf film festival last year, and i skipped it. not sure why, maybe because i thought it would be back. seems like the listing in the program said something about a comedy about u.n. peacekeepers trapped at the line. the comedy is usually pretty subtle, and most of it is just how things keep getting worse.
monster's ball (2001) marc forster
well, this was pretty good. i didn't get billy bob thornton as the hot head, and i kept thinking how that chocolate ice cream was probably gross. with a plastic spoon? i don't think so. maybe one of those little cartons of malted chocolate ice cream with the wooden spoon? that, i like.
la vie est tranquille [the town is quiet] (2000) robert guédiguian
saw this before at the sf film festival. saw it again at the theater. hopefully it'll be back again in a month or two. about class and politics in marseille. i'd go just to see ariane ascaride.
iris (2001) richard eyre
iris murdoch and her husband john bayley when they first met, and as iris looses herself to alzheimer's.
i love jim broadbent, and kate winslet, and i like judi dench. aside from that, and some good scenes on both sides, i wasn't so interested. not sure what was missing. i liked the shots in the water, and the early clothes and the late apartment, hugh bonneville, and jim broadbent at the friend's funeral.
ni niebian jidian [what time is it there?] (2001) tsai ming-liang
lee kang-sheng's father dies. he and his mother mourn in their apartment. they have a huge fish in a tank. he sells watches on the street and shiang-chyi chan wants him to sell his own, a dual-time watch that she can take on her trip to paris. her trip is show, along with lots of clocks and lush colors.
extra good. liked it a lot, the mom, in the intercut sex scenes. the clocks were something too, and the theme of the difference in time and the seperation between people, that was something. watch out for the sound on chewing scenes.
mulholland drive (2001) david lynch
liked it, i lliked it. could have done without the little people and the box with the weird key. i liked naomi wolf a lot, and ann miller, the red cabaret, hmm. fancy.
at the 2001 chicago film festival
at the 2001 mill valley film festival
not at the 2001 toronto film festival
roozi khe zan shodam [the day i became a woman] (2000) marzieh meshkini
this was good to see. it took me an hour to get out to see this 12 noon screening and i was a few minutes late. liked these three stories a lot and the way they played off each other.
dayerah [the circle] (2000) jafar panahi
really liked the camera and the engaging story about outlawed women on the move in the streets of tehran. didn't see this at the festival, since i expected it would be back soon. i also liked panahi's white balloon. i'll need see this one again.
plaster caster (2000) jessica villines
documentary on ms. cynthia plastercaster herself and her craft of casting hampton wicks. interviews with cynthia, danny and margaret doll rod, eric burden, wayne kramer, etc.
liked this one, especially danny and the earlier stuff on paul revere and the raiders, the jimi hendrix experience, and all that. cynthia is charming and i enjoyed how she casually drops a lot of discouraging lines about past failures to her already nervous subjects.
at the 2001 san francisco film festival
shadows (1961) john cassavetes
should have called this one faces. so many of them.
memento (2000) christopher nolan
liked this movie, but underneath the novelty editing, the plot seemed one-dimensional, and resorting to dialogue and/or monologue to make every point explicit seemed a bit overbearing.
still thinking about these
in the mood for love (2000) kar-wai wong
bad ma ra khahad bord [the wind will carry us] (99) abbas kiarostami
experience of an outsider in a remote villiage, waiting on the death of a matron for an exposition of the funeral rites.
le petit voleur (99) erick zonca
a young man tired of low paying work seeks a life in the criminal underground of orléans.
totò che visse due volte [toto who lived twice] (98) cipri/maresco
a beautifully filmed and played collection of tales about prostitutes, messiahs, and mafiosos.
marat [killer] (98) omirbaev
financial pressures lead a man into the hands of organized crime in the newly reformed kazakh economy.
rushmore (98) wes anderson
an extra-curricularly ambitious student and a millionaire compete for the love of a widow, with songs by creation, the kinks, etc.
pecker (98) john waters
a young photographer's baltimore smacks the new york art world around a bit, exposing the beauty of their shared human limitations.
la vie de jesus [life of jésus] (97) bruno dumont
a powerfully brutish rendition of camus' l'étranger played out by non-actor youths in northern france.
he liu [the river] (97) ming-liang tsai
a young man gets a rash from a swim in a city river. he and his father live in and out of taiwan's bath houses.
mei li zai chang ge [murmur of youth] (97) cheng-sheng lin
two girls from different ends of chinese taiwan meet and kiss a lot.
tabutta rovasata [somersault in a coffin] (96) dervis zaim
portrayal of a life of poverty in istanbul. a resourceful man poaches peacocks from the site of a former crusader's castle.
zendegi edame darad [and life goes on] (91) abbas kiarostami
the director travels to the site of a previous film, now suffering from a recent earthquake, in search of his lead actors.
idi i smotri [come and see] (85) elem klimov
ww ii german soldiers herd a villiage of russians into a building and slaughter them.
cafe flesh (82) rinse dream [stephen sayadian]
surreal cabaret porn in the aftermath of world war iii where fallout has created sex negatives who can only watch.
jubilee (77) derek jarman
adam ant in post-nuclear holocaust england, where only the new wave kids and artists have survived
la maman et la putain [the mother and the whore] (73) jean eustache
a young man's weaknesses are exposed as he seeks an additional lover after losing his first.
il conformista [the conformist] (70) bernardo bertolucci
a man accepts orders to kill those he loves and respects. it's all for some good reason, i'm sure.
multiple maniacs (70) john waters
divine's life in a murderous circus of freaks is disturbed by her cheating husband, sparking her transformation into true movie monster.
vixen! (68) russ meyer
the wife of a canadian bush pilot torments her husband, her brother, and his american friend who is courted by cubans to defect.
baisers volés [stolen kisses] (68) françois truffaut
antoine doinel stumbles through a few jobs, and a one-sided relationship with his upper-class girl friend.
simón del desierto [simon of the desert] (65) luis buñuel
simon stylites is tempted by the devil (sylvia pinal) in the desert, and then a nightclub with the music of the sinners.
alphaville (65) jean-luc godard
lemmy caution visits alphaville from the outlands to thwart an autocratic government's plans for war against humanity.
mudhoney (65) russ meyer
some young opportunists try to get something off an old hand. i don't exactly remember, but it was funny
bande à part [band of outsiders] (64) jean-luc godard
two young french man plan a theft with a woman on the inside that they know from school.
blonde cobra (63) ken jacobs
study of a young man's image. it's been too long.
le mani sulla città [hands over the city] (63) francesco rosi
a city official fights corruption in building contracts and safety inspections.
ivanovo detstvo [my name is ivan] (62) andrei tarkovsky
a boy fights at the front and acts as a spy in this idealized look at the russian front lines in ww ii.
vivre sa vie [my life to live] (62) jean-luc godard
anna karina plays a young parisienne whose search for self-sufficiency leads her to prostitution and a bit of philosophy
la dolce vita (60) frederico fellini
marcello is a society page reporter with a longing for better things, pursuing women and artistry
le salaire de la peur [wages of fear] (53) henri-georges clouzot
gritty suspense film based on big oil companies' exploitation of labor and lives that come cheap.
puce moment (49) kenneth anger
glamorous hollywood with a beautiful room and a series of fancy dresses.
the lead shoes (49) sidney peterson
english and american ballads the three ravens and edward and a diving suit.
mother's day (48) james broughton
a portrait of a family, framed around the powerful identity of the mother
la regle du jeu (39) jean renoir
a weekend of hunting at a country mansion shows off french society before ww ii.
la grande illusion (37) jean renoir
french pows continually plan escapes from german prisons.
atalante (34) jean vigo
a new bride from a small villiage starts life on her husband's barge, experiencing a new world of ports and salesmen
fall of the house of usher (28) watson/webber
short abstract film based on the idea of the poe short story.
film info
cahiers du cinema
film comment
imdb
film and video sources
kino international
new yorker
international film festivals
venice august 29-september 8, 2001 schedule
toronto september 6-15, 2001
new york september 28-october 14, 2001
chicago october 4-18, 2001
berlin february 6-17, 2002
san francisco april 18-may 2, 2002
cannes may 2002