70's Film Marathon #5: Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby feels like an anomaly in this marathon. Sure we have the tracking shots and quick cuts, the destructive personalities of the wife and husband, but it's more like the those airport novels of Dan Brown, and not that it's schlocky, but that it's all about one thing. It's all about the conspiracy. Why are all these neighbours and doctors acting so strangely, why is Rosemary feeling awful, and what, what, is going on with this baby? Why do they want her?

Polanski's film is more reminiscent of the films of Von Trier then any of these counter-culture films that have come before in the marathon. The breakdown of Mia Farrow seems pulled straight out of Antichrist(Although, taking into account time and importance of the two films, it would seem more proper to say Antichrist is more reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby, but I digress)

Coming into Rosemary's Baby I had someone say that they were interested to hear my take on the movie and said "I wasn't really scared by it, more disturbed". But you have to go into Rosemary's Baby thinking that way. This is not a scary movie, but a movie that leaves an impression on you. I couldn't let that final moment out of my head.

Polanski's camera starts off flowing. When we first enter the house, it's moving through the house with elegance, floating through it like a dream scape. We later figure out this is more of a nightmare, but the cinematography never loses that dreamlike landscape. But the cinematography stays anonymous, it's never a factor that completely comes into play.

The acting is remarkable. Mia Farrow is so delicate at the start and she gets torn about by the events but never loses that delicate touch she has, which makes her performance all the more devastating. She feels like the exact opposite to Jeanne Morreau in Jules Et Jim, where that character is all personality, Farrow is all about situation, and how her innocent character is exploited. John Cassavetes is suitably strange as the husband, but it's Ruth Gordan who steals the show as the absolutely terrifying next door neighbour(and even Charles Grodin from Midnight Run has a small appearance!)

Verdict: Rosemary's Baby really worked for me. It's a devastating portrait of the disintegration of a woman and the people who exploit her for their own gains. when put like that, Rosemary's Baby can mean so many things.

What I've been listening to: Sep.20th

I've decided that having a music review blog is useless, because I'm not a music reviewer. However, I am listening to a lot, and this will hopefully be a weekly post to keep track of it.

Reptilia-The Strokes: The big song at the moment, the one I can't stop listening to. I love Is this It, but Reptilia is better then those songs(except for maybe Trying Your Luck). The Strokes just know how to create awesome guitar riffs that aren't meant to rock hard(Which they do) but are just there to be great music. Reptilia is one of their best songs.

Dots and Dashes-Dealership: I'm always listening to this song. Unfortuantely I can't find the mp3 anywhere(it's availible on Myspace though). But this song is so deceptive. It looks like cheery pop at the start, good cheery pop, but it takes a left turn by the end. And I love left turns. Dealership aren't the best band but I hope their next album has more songs like this.

Papa Won't Leave You Henry-Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds: Probably Cav'es second best song, behind Carry Me, Papa Won't Leave You Henry is so raw and ferocious that you can't turn it off. It's brilliant, beautiful, destructive, and so much more. I'm always in aw of what Nick Cave can do.

Surfer Rosa/Doolittle-Pixies: I downloaded both of these and it's so hard to choose which is better because they are so different in tone and style but are both incredible. Those Pixies are so inventive. However, you know the phrase Sophie's choice? I'm gonna change the phrase to Pixie's choice.

When Doves Cry/I Would Die 4 U-Prince: Totally awesome, though these are the only two songs I've really listened to on Purple Rain. I should listen to more of it.

Knives Out-Radiohead: Radiohead are god, I'm declaring it here. But I haven't been listening to them much recently and so I went back through their albums and was presently surprised by how good they really were. And Knives Out was the song that really went from solid Radiohead to now being one of my favourites. It's like a dark, idiosyncratic version of Seeing Other People by Belle and Sebastion. And I respect that.

Cosmic Dancer-T. Rex: Brilliant.

70's Marathon #4: The Graduate

The opening scene of the Graduate scares me to my very core. We see Benjamin Braddock, the ever brilliant Dustin Hoffman, in his room after he has graduated college, obviously avoiding something. He gets pulled by his parents downstairs to meet a large groups of adults looking to wish him congrats on his award.

As a teenager, there is nothing that scares me more then socialites.

Maybe this is the reason that Ben is so attracted to Mrs. Robinson. Compared to the drawl of neighbours and parent's friends, Mrs Robinson is a character straight out of Truffaut's Jules Et Jim. While Truffaut's oblique and oblong camera angles are somewhat an influence on Nichol's style here(but not incredibly), the biggest rip is the destructive Mrs. Robinson very much influenced by Jeanne Moreau's Catherine.

This is not to say that The Graduate feels like a rip off of Jules Et Jim, but the influence is felt. But the colours and style are different. The Graduate's Ben is the real card up the sleeve, a neurotic, strange, yet relatable character. This is not a figurehead for a revolution, nor should it be, but Braddock has a quality to him that sets him apart from the old hero's of Grant and Stewart. He's not heroic. He doesn't know what he's doing. and he's not head strong. He's self lacerating and never sure of himself. The choice he makes will haunt him.

The construction was another part of the film I enjoyed. While I believe Nichol's art direction, his colours aren't great, his unconventional camera angles were great, and I always loved to watch him keep twisting his angles, trying something new. Shots of the reflection of a table showing Mrs. Robinson's entrance to turn up to see the actual image of the duo, the iconic shot of Mrs Robinson putting her tights back on, and the great long POV of Ben in the scuba suit.

And, of course, the soundtrack's pretty good too.

Verdict: What else is there to say about The Graduate? Those socialites still scare me.

70's Marathon #3:Bonnie and Clyde

"This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow...We rob banks." Clyde Barrow(Warren Beatty)

Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn's 1967 gangster classic, is the first American film in my marathon, and I'm having trouble trying to talk about. Up until this point, gangster films involved Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart scowling with trench coats and Tommy guns. While Tommy guns are present in Bonni and Clyde, the Clyde gang were not criminals. they were ordinary people who committed criminal acts.

CW Moss was a kid, one who was brought into the parent hating, society attacking world inhabited by Bonnie and Clyde. They were the younger generation, the ones who were against governments and institutions. They were rock stars. they played with the banks, the institutions. On the other hand, we have Buck Barrow, played by Gene Hackman, and Blanche, a role for which Estelle Parsons won an Oscar. Buck seems to be torn between the two sides, but Blanche is 1950's suburban housewife, the opponent to the likes Of Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde is a beautifully shot film. For the first time in Hollywood history, here we had a colour film that wasn't a glorified, brightly light Vertigo-esque world. the gorgeous sepia tones(although My favourite colour is sepia, so I may be biased) create a new landscape. Here is a world that has not been seen before by Hollywood. this is not fantasy, this is reality.

However, I had some problems with Bonnie and Clyde. As an instigator, as a revolution starter, it's perfect. But on reflection, it has some problems with it. It takes a lot of time to get into the world of these characters and, for me at least, to understand the emotional reality. You have to look beyond what could have easily be looked at as a fun romp and watch the characters form the outside. But for the first 45 minutes all it is IS a fun gangster on the run, with comedic moments like when they take a bank which had closed down three weeks earlier. Tensions rise, but never hit a head until what I'm going to call the fantastic "circular grassland shootout scene" not the end scene, the shootout before that. It's a great scene, where the consequences of the gang's actions become apparent.

Two scenes stick out for me. The final scene, cut quickly, is already in the record books and I endorse everything said before and don't have anything else to put into the conversation. the second scene is the one that contains the quote I used above. I love that moment because you can see the tangible delight on Beatty's face when he utters those words. It makes up for any other bad acting he does in the movie, which isn't to say he's bad, both him and Dunaway are fine, but they were different performances then I expected, and will need further examination before I form a proper opinion.

Verdict: As a revolution starter, it's brilliant. As an actual movie, it can leave a bit to be desired.

70's Marathon #2:Jules Et Jim

It's very interesting to try and compare the differences between the two famous french new wave filmmakers, Godard and Truffaut. Both started out their filmmaking careers by burning any form of New Hollywood form for making movies. Then they went in different directions. Godard preceded to do all he could to give the middle finger to the establishment. Now, this could easily turn into a filmmaker who is really only studied by Film historians and critics as one who turned film language on it's head. But, as I talked about when I reviewed Breathless, that was not the case at all. But I'm getting off point. Truffaut burned the rulebook, but instead of consciously trying to screw Hollywood filmmaking, he was creating his own rules and it was always in the service of the story. In a movie like The 400 Blows, Truffaut was not cutting deliberately to hide the camera, but neither was he jumping disarmingly.

This is also the case for Jules Et Jim. Truffaut's camera is not as flashy as Godard's, but is also very stylish, with quick pans and long shots. You get something like the race on the bridge, which goes from shaky tracking shot to shaky close up. The camera feels put in strange places, which feels pre-ominous. But Jules Et Jim, for me, is more about the story. More compelling then 400 Blows or Breathless, Jules Et Jim is about two friends, one who meets a women who conspires to destroy them both.

I don't mean their friendship, I mean literally destroy them. Catherine is a fantastic character, because she is such an enigma. She is constantly shifting between Jules Et Jim, her mind cannot focus on one of them. When we meet her, she is friendly, interesting and exciting, but that changes when she gives birth and her and Jules settle down in a cabin in nowhere. Her true emotions are hidden by this language she employs and her surface emotions. Jeanne Moreau plays it to perfection, and it is amazing to watch her tear apart these two friends, inside and out.

The story is much heavier and much more complex then the other two New Wave movies I have seen. Both Jules Et Jim are intellectuals, and not very different. Jules is a German who is not very good with women, and he becomes infatuated with Cathrine first. Jim is someone with many girlfriends, but most of them are very plain and, while seemingly nice, very ordinary. They are not Catherine. Oskar Werner and Henri Serre are both very good in their roles.

Truffaut's camera is masked more here then in 400 Blows, and much more then Breathless. But a new style of filmmaking is evident here as much, such as the short, sharp trakcing shots around the statues on an island where the two friends are looking for a specific statue. You can see the influence on the films I have seen from the new hollywood period of filmmaking, and it will probably show up in the multiple other films I will see in the marathon.

I am going to be happy to have a change of style, but I did love these New Wave films. and Jules Et Jim is one of the best.

Verdict: Fantastic. The story is deeper then in the other two new wave films I have seen, and is so compelling that you have to see Jules Et Jim.