I haven't written extensively in my blog lately, not since New Years. I've been busy with some various projects and just making a living which has kept me away these past couple of weeks.
In my spare time, I've have found time to watch some movies, most of which I have never seen before and some I have revisited after a long time. On the top of my list I recently watched Werner Herzog's "Aguire The Wrath of God" and his version of "Nosferatu" both of which I haven't seen in years, it reminded me I have been neglecting Herzog in my movie watching.
Of the new films I've viewed, I took time to visit my local video store and rented some films that have been on my must see list for quite some time. The first was Jim Jarmusch's "Limits of Control", a film that has polarized even the most faithful Jarmusch fan. For me the film was Jarmusch channeling the strangeness of David Lynch while keeping with his usual minimal approach. I felt very much the same I was when I first watched Lynch's "Inland Empire", it was a film that was challenging and trying to sit through, but I was fascinated by it at the same time.
Next was a film I adored, "Summer Hours" a french film concerning three siblings who must decide what to do with their mother's estate after she has died. I was thinking about the film even days after I had watched it, it reminded me of one of my favorite films of all time "Tokyo Story" and again reminded me of the key line in that film "Life is disappointing". I hope to talk more about "Summer Hours" in more detail in the coming weeks as well as some of my other favorite movies of 2009. Of course Oscar season will soon be upon us and that will mean time it will be time for "The Absolutely, Positively, No Doubt About it Best Films of 2009 list, which will be revealed in the coming months. The reason I wait is so I can have more time to see some films that I haven't gotten a chance to. Some films on this personal list include "Precious", "An Education", "A Single Man", "The Headless Woman", "Gomorrah", and "Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans" just to name a few.
Back to more movies I've seen recently. I'm delighted to say I've seen three films by three of my favorite filmmakers I had never seen, they are Fritz Lang's noir "The Big Heat", John Ford's "The Wagon Master", and Howard Hawks' "Air Force". All three show these directors at the height of their powers. "The Big Heat" may be Lang's most famous film noir he made in America and I have been dying to see it for a long time. I really didn't know much of the story going into it and found it very exciting and gripping. The key performance for me was Gloria Graham as a gangster's mole, it's a funny, yet tragic performance that should've garnered her an Oscar.
Ford's "The Wagon Master" was a pleasant surprise, it's a very Fordian western with two appealing leads by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr. as Horse Traders who hitch their saddles to a Mormon wagon train. The main conflict of the film revolves a family of outlaws who threaten to disrupt the peaceful wagon train. The film reminded me very much of Ford's "My Darling Clementine" in the way he paces the film. In many ways it's very laid back and focuses more on camaraderie and romance between the heroes rather than violent gun battle with the outlaws which is finished off very quickly as if Ford just put it there to serve the conventions of the genre.
Finally Howard Hawks' "Air Force" is one of the best World War 2 movies I've seen. Filmed in 1943 right in the middle of the second world war Hawks' film focuses on a group of men who pilot a B-17 bomber. The film begins on the eve of Peal Harbour, as the men get ready to take off to Hawaii. While they're in the air, the attack is happening, and in a great scene we see the men hearing it over the radio powerless to do nothing. The film is very blunt and direct with its message but this also transcends the usual propaganda war movie that was usually made at the time. This is Hawks' tribute to the men who flew the B-17 bomber but I think this was also his revenge film for Pearl Harbour. As the captain of the plane says at one point "we have a lot to get even for." The film is a bit hard to take with its depiction of Japanese, but what I found interesting was Hawks doesn't shy away from showing the face of America's enemy and showing them die in sometimes horrific ways. This film probably more than any other one puts me in the shoes of what Americans must've felt like after Pearl Harbour, they were angry, they were hurt, and they wanted to get even.
So that's about puts you up to date as to what I've been doing, tune in for more and Happy New Year.
This is a little different from my director of the month series I used to have, instead this is an on going project, think of it as if I was in real film school and had to write a thesis this is what it would be. Over the past two years or so I've been discovering the cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski and like I was with Yasujiro Ozu before, his films have had a very personal impact on me. Keislowski's films deal very much with coincidence, and fate, they are philisophical which is probably why I find them so fascinating.
