August Film Journal
Nights of Cabiria* (Federico Fellini, 1957)
North by Northwest* (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
The Ten Commandments* (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956)
Hiroshima mon amour* (Alain Resnais, 1959)
Dial M for Murder* (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)
The Beales of Grey Gardens (Albert Maysles and David Maysles, 2006)
Vertigo* (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse, 1969)
Gone with the Wind* (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Notorious* (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
I, Claudius (Herbert Wise, 1976)
The Puffy Chair (Jay Duplass, 2005)
Rear Window* (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
L'Enfant* (Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, 2005)
*repeat viewing
theater viewing
Labels: film journal (2007)
posted by Diane @ 2:27 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
Conducting your own Hitchcock retrospective, are you? My university's library has the complete Hitch on DVD, so I'm thinking of doing something similar in the near future. Do you have any observations to share from the 5 films of his that you watched in August?
I just watched 'Hiroshima' for the first time several months ago - quite a difficult, stunning film. I need to track down more of Resnais' works.
- Andrew
Hi Andrew! Great to see you here.
Yes, I have been holding my own little Hitch retrospective, mainly as a build-up to Vertigo and Rear Window, which I was lucky enough to see at a historic theater here during a summer film series.
The biggest surprise for me was North by Northwest. I saw it several years ago and really didn't care for it. This time, I was enthralled. What a fun and exciting picture! I'm still kicking myself for missing it when it was part of the film series last summer.
Notorious and Rear Window are both favorites of mine. I've seen Hitch criticized for making soulless, cold films—Notorious, with its theme of redemption, doesn't fit that description at all.
Rear Window is such a classic. That film set is one of my all-time faves, and the cast is stellar. And then there's the idea of "rear window ethics"—fascinating considering Hitch's love of voyeurism and how he makes the audience into voyeurs.
It had been several years since I last saw Dial M for Murder. I just wanted to see how it held up for me, and it held up very well.
I think this was my third time to see Vertigo, and I can now safely say that I love it. I've tried to think of another example where Hitch used anything like the surreal effects and animation that he included in Jimmy Stewart's nightmare sequence. Brilliant stuff. And Bernard Herrmann's score is among my favorites. I also love the symbolic use of color.
Have you already seen all of these? I'm guessing you'll be revisiting them when you check out the films from your library. Have you ever seen Shadow of a Doubt? It's another favorite of mine and one that I should rewatch before long. And there are several others I want to see again soon, too.
I agree with your comments about Hiroshima. I see you have Muriel in your Netflix queue—it deals with some of the same themes. For me, anyway, it proved more challenging than Hiroshima.
Does anyone care for any of Hitchcock's later films? My library has a few, but since watching Frenzy a few years back, I've avoided them.
I recently watched Marnie and was surprised by its measured pace. It moved much more slowly than I'd expect from a Hollywood thriller nowadays. Of course those modern thrillers are just working from an amped-up version of Hitchcock's paradigms, but it was odd for me to try to slow my "movie metabolism" down for a genre that I associate with brisk storytelling. I suppose everything seemed in order back when the movie was released, and the movie doesn't waste time; it's just playing at a less caffeinated tempo.
I've seen all of the Hitch films you mentioned, but most of them I've not seen for a decade or more. I watched only 'North by Northwest' in recent months, and while I'd always enjoyed it, seeing it again after reading David Bordwell's comments on Hitch's style (in his text 'Film Art') enhanced my appreciation still further.
Now, I'm thinking it might be fun and enlightening to see Hitch's films while reading Truffaut's book about him.
I envy you the opportunity to see 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' in such a setting as you describe - what fun!
In answer to your later question: up until now, I've shied away from late Hitchcock such as 'Frenzy' and 'Family Plot,' since I've read few favorable comments on them. I suppose I'll give them a try eventually, though.
-Andrew
Aaron: I guess Marnie is the most recent Hitchcock that I like.
I recently watched Marnie and was surprised by its measured pace. It moved much more slowly than I'd expect from a Hollywood thriller nowadays.
Have you seen Zodiac, Aaron? It moves away from the stereotypical Hollywood thriller's pace, as well. Of course, many folks seemed to have a problem with its length. Sigh.
Andrew: I need to track down that Bordwell text. I would also like to get my hands on the Hitchcock book by Chabrol and Rohmer. I think it's out of print, and my library's copy is missing. I want to say that one only covers early Hitchcock, though, so some of his best works (in my opinion) may not be included.
By the way, Andrew, have fun at TIFF!
I haven't seen Zodiac, but it sounds like something I need to check out. I heard a snippet on NPR, and with its thoughtful, atmospheric whydoneit style it sounds like a better From Hell movie than the From Hell movie. That's one of my things lately; identifying movies that do a better job encapsulating the virtues of favorite books than the official film adaptations of those books do. Bad Education is a better Lolita adaptation than either Lolita adaptation, etc.
Nerd? Yes.
Does anyone here have an absolute favorite Hitchcock film? I find it hard to narrow it down to one.
No absolute favorite film, but a favorite Hitchcock decade: the 1950s.
Have you seen "The Wrong Man"? That one's often overlooked, and it's been years since I watched it, but it's quite good, encapsulating some of Hitchcock's frequent themes.
Now, when's your De Palma festival going to begin? ;)
I can't wait to watch "Zodiac" again. Stunner.
Hi, Christian. Yes, I have seen and enjoyed "The Wrong Man." Wasn't there an A&F discussion on that one? I need to see it again.
You know, I think the only De Palma films I've seen are "The Untouchables" and "Carrie." Are you a fan, Christian, or are you just kidding with me? Any recommendations? Has anyone here seen "Obsession"? I've heard it's an homage to "Vertigo."
I'm eager to see "Zodiac" again, too (despite my problems getting through a couple of scenes toward the beginning). I think the director's cut comes out next year. Even given the film's length, I found it so absorbing that I was a bit sorry when it was over.
I'm a huge De Palma fan, Diane, but I don't care for some of his more well-regarded films, while I enjoy some of his supposedly less personal films ("Mission Impossible," "The Untouchables," and most recently "The Black Dahlia"). Thing is, as you probably have heard, he made his career ripping off Hitchcock. I like most of what he did with Hitch, but I like to think I understand how upsetting it is to many Hitchcock admirers.
"Body Double" seems to be the film that divides critics and fans -- the pinnacle of Hitchcock theft, while pushing the boundaries of R-rated exploitation to new heights at the time. It's a wildly uneven, and, I think, distasteful film. But as easy as it is to mock, it's an exercise in style that's hard to ignore. Not one that I like to go back to, but whenever I do stumble onto it on TV (not frequently any more, since I haven't had cable for years), I have a hard time turning it off.
"Obsession" I've seen. It's a total rip of "Vertigo," including the score, IIRC, but Hermann scored both, so if it's a ripoff, the composer is ripping off himself. (The score was nominated for an Oscar is the main thing I remember about the movie).
Actually, Christian, I'm almost totally ignorant when it comes to De Palma. I once checked "The Black Dahlia" out from the library, but I didn't get around to watching it. Part of my hesitation was due to the fact that I once saw a photo of the Black Dahlia's body in a book, and it took me ages to get that image out of my head. But perhaps I missed a good film.
And I wasn't even aware of his tendency to rip of Hitchcock.
I watched "Lifeboat" the other night and greatly enjoyed it. That's another one that I found boring years ago. I guess I should rewatch "Rope" at some point, since I remember disliking it last time I saw it.
I haven't seen any Hitchcock other than Marnie in a while, although Psycho was an obvious precursor to the kind of horror movies I suddenly enjoy, so I should give it a rewatch.
I'm not a DePalmaologist, but I remember thinking his The Fury was dopey fun, like a macabre R-rated Escape From Witch Mountain.
Last night I saw Teorema, and it reminded me of The Sacrifice; they'd make a good double feature. Delight your friends by making them watch two depressing films about religion, sex and shattered lives.
Hmm...you know, I don't think I've ever seen a Pasolini film.
You should probably avoid Salo, Diane. My favorite DePalma is Hi, Mom! with DeNiro.
Netflix makes it easy to avoid Salo by not carrying it. I suppose I'll try it someday, but while I want to see more Pasolini I plan to see the gentler ones before tackling the rough ones. Teorema has a lot of adult subject matter but leaves the indelicate stuff to the imagination. I was astonished to read that the story started with Pasolini speculating about What would happen if Jesus returned today.
No kidding about Salo, Jeremiah. It's featured in my 1001 films book, and the photos there are enought to put me off it.
I used to have Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew in my Netflix queue, but I see Netflix now lists it with an unknown availability date. Weird, since they used to have it.
Several flicks got bumped from my regular queue to the Saved list. I guess those are flicks they only have a few copies of, and those copies got lost or ruined, and Netflix ain't hoppin' to replace them. Boo!
Diane, would you be annoyed if we used your blog as an ad hoc Sidewalk discussion board? I'm curious about what people want to see. I usually go to all the local stuff I can catch since the other stuff is more likely to pop up on Netflix. Reigning Nail's entry is at 6:30 on Saturday, right?
Feel free to discuss Sidewalk, and yes, that's the correct time.
I picked up a Black & White over the weekend in the hopes that I would find the usual pre-festival reviews/recommendations. Instead, I was told the paper didn't receive enough advance screeners for the editors to do a write-up. ???
Looks like Sidewalk has a blog this year:
http://blog.al.com/sidewalk/
Not enough advance screeners? Come back Jambor, all is forgiven!
Hey, it was great to see all ya'll at the festival! Jerimiah and Jason, thanks for the DVD. It was a perfect apertif to the festival itself. I love what you guys are doing and can't wait to see what you develop next. I'd be really interested in learning about your ensemble cast. That would make a dope website feature; bios of your regular performers.
We had our very own Sidewalk board reunion there, didn't we?
I had a lot of fun at the festival this year, though I'd gone into it without a lot of excitement about the lineup. It was nice to be pleasantly surprised. I ended up dropping a couple of films (totally forgot about one of them, actually) and didn't see as much as I did last year, but, overall, I was pleased. Titles will be up once I get a chance to post my September film journal.
Diane, you need to head over to the Sidewalk board itself and start posting reviews. Actually no one needs to, but I did. Beats working.
If you want to be cool like Jeremiah you should give a glowing review to the worst single film you saw, just to make me twitch.
That was not a fake review. I really did love the humor in Shrinks. It was much better than that horrible cartoon.
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