A Propos De Nice (Jean Vigo) ***1/2 - This film reminds me of Dziga Vertov's The Man With a Movie Camera
in that it's simply a montage of images of the everyday and the mundane
but shot and edited together to form something beautiful. Only instead
of the Russian industrial complex, the setting this time around is a
leisurely coastal town. Though I personally prefer the Vertov film,
Vigo's film has more humor, playfulness and naughtiness to go with the
beauty.
Taris (Jean Vigo) *** - I saw this in conjunction with A Propos De Nice.
This is a film Jean Vigo was paid to do and it's basically an
instructional/demo film with champion French swimmer Jean Taris. Despite
that, it's quite fascinating because Vigo's playfulness, humor and
adventurous spirit still shines through. Both films show the promise he
would fulfill in his next (and sadly last) two films which are both his
masterpieces.
Bellflower (Evan Glodell) ** - Two best friends decide to build themselves a badass car with a huge-ass flamethrower emulating the car from Mad Max as they deal with their personal demons. It's a messy mish-mash of a film that is more of a turn-off more than anything. The film's very dark third act felt out-of-place and very jarring and left a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. It feels like the filmmaker wanted to make three different films and he just did it all in the same script. It's promising for a first-time filmmaker but the script definitely needed a rewrite.
Two for the Road (Stanley Donen)
***1/2 - A romantic dramedy which follows a couple in the different
stages of their relationship in a uniquely non-linear narrative,
predominantly set in a stretch of road in the European countryside.
Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn are both magnificent as the couple and
it's their show all the way. The non-linear structure of the film allows
us, the audience, to fully understand all the reasons why they fell in
love, why they fell out of love, the ups, the downs and everything in
between. Though it at times gets repetitive and their characters can be
frustrating and irritating at times, the film still grips you because
through Finney and Hepburn, you're along for the ride. I thought this
would be a bit bleaker but I'm surprised at the amount of humor in it
and how it ends in a hopeful note.
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7 comments:
Jean Vigo sounds like he's really good at what he does. Shame it took me so long to hear about him.
Excellent Round-Up as usual man, some of these films sound like a worthwhile watch to me
Will be checking out "Two For The Road" shortly.
never even heard of these ones but i'll keep an eye out for em
Good round-up. :)
Nice blog following
Bellfellow seems interesting!
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