Well let's see. Last viewings.
- The Fog of War. Fascinating doc about macnamara and the moral ambiguities of pragmatic politics.
- Men in Black 3. Roughly as enjoyable as the previous two, despite a really weak ending : a very tame "big trauma" supposed to psychologically explain K's style - this was really not needed, and if you feel the urge of doing it (indy hat style), at least dare to do it somewhat convincingly.
- Searching for Bobby Fischer. Overly hollywoodian and melodramatic (heavy handed music, rain during the sad discussions, etc) and full of all the cliches of the genre (karate kid on chessboard) but still interesting, especially if you've been listening to waitzkin in chessmaster's tutorials.
- OSS 117's sequel, the rio thing. Had a few laughs, these are fun bond parodies. The social comment gets a bit heavy handed too, at times (racist characters are funny, but this film has a strong unrequired explicit "also racism is bad mm'kay" aspect to it, that drags it down) and pulls the plot in occasionally boring directions (the hippie stuff). When they keep it at mocking the french conservatism of the 60s, it's still cool. Making it a full lesson on it spoils the fun a bit.
- The Fortress / Special Flight. Two swiss ethno-documentaries on migration and expulsion procedures, and the underlying violence of institutions (beyond their polite and patronizing facades). Highly interesting and informative, brilliantly balanced and somewhat non-judgemental, but still, the camera is very present, making people "act their role" a lot in front of it. Certainly unavoidable, but casts the problem of self-theatralisation over the whole movies. And this goes for all its protagonists, of all sides.
- Betrand Blier's Calmos. First half is quite funny, as an explosion of unapologetic misoginy and some fantasy of deliverance from our (men's) vulnerabilities to women. The second half takes it progressively to more and more insane levels of fantasy and surralism, and loses me on its way. But as a very very one-sided scream of horror in front of sentimental dependancy, it's soothing in a way.
- Porte des Lilas. What's with old french movies and location names? Anyway, a brilliant, cute, healthy little classic featuring George Brassens in one of his rare acting jobs. Very similar to Verneuil's The Secret, in a way, it's a tender view on some kind of marginal life, and the ordinary cost of idealism and humanistic anarchism.
Post edited April 14, 2013 by Telika
