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Author Topic: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons  (Read 75848 times)

MartinTeller

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #430 on: February 09, 2017, 10:32:07 AM »
Agreed, it's a relatively weak entry in Bunuel's oeuvre.

goodguy

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #431 on: February 09, 2017, 11:01:17 AM »
Le journal d'une femme de chambre / Diary of a Chambermaid (Luis Bunuel, 1964)

I've been meaning to watch this ever since I saw Benoît Jacquot's film (with Léa Seydoux), but I've been also meaning to revisit Buñuel since forever and haven't gotten very far. I wonder if maybe the source material is to blame, since I found the Jacquot pretty middling as well.

Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #432 on: February 09, 2017, 04:20:32 PM »
Le journal d'une femme de chambre / Diary of a Chambermaid (Luis Bunuel, 1964)

I've been meaning to watch this ever since I saw Benoît Jacquot's film (with Léa Seydoux), but I've been also meaning to revisit Buñuel since forever and haven't gotten very far. I wonder if maybe the source material is to blame, since I found the Jacquot pretty middling as well.

Yeah I haven't heard great things about it. I'm curious, how is Seydoux in it ? Given that Moreau is what makes the Bunuel worth watching, I'm guessing Seydoux couldn't quite pull that off. I'm not sure about the source material, I think it could work if it were more of a thriller.
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oldkid

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #433 on: February 09, 2017, 06:14:00 PM »
Adam and Josh really sold it to me, and you guys are making me doubt them.  Well, I'll put it in my queue and someday I'll have time to catch up with it.
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goodguy

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #434 on: February 10, 2017, 05:59:15 AM »
Yeah I haven't heard great things about it. I'm curious, how is Seydoux in it ?

Hmm, my memory of it is already pretty foggy. Seydoux was pretty captivating, though, and an interesting counterpoint to her character in that other period film she made with Jacquot, Les adieux à la reine.


Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #435 on: February 10, 2017, 01:20:18 PM »
The Lavender Hill Mob (Charles Crichton, 1951)



Adam & Matty's takes (starts at 36:01)

An interesting start to this marathon, as this is more comedy than thriller, which I suppose make sense for the genre : the first heist film that would come to mind to most people at this point would probably be Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven, which doesn't take itself particularly seriously either... somehow I have a feeling this won't be the case for some of the movies that are coming up (I see a Peckinpah in there) though.

I'm stalling here because I don't have much to say about this film. Quite simply, I didn't find it funny, and there's just not a lot more I can say about that. In those cases, what should be silly becomes dumb, and what should be a hilarious escalation - like the scene in which Guinness and Holloway have to go through customs - becomes a painfully exasperating exercise in frustration. The plot here is just irredeemably stupid, and I get that this should not be a big concern, but it's hard to overlook when the film misses on its basic objective.

Alec Guinness's performance is also pretty disappointing to me... he seems to randomly go from "fussy" to "sadistically grinning" without it ever feeling like a full character as much as two ideas of a character performed by the same actor, leaving the audience to connect the dots.

It's not terrible either, and I did enjoy some of its more absurdist touches (going down the Eiffel Tower and the chase in the police museum), but ultimately, an unfunny comedy is never an enjoyable experience.

4/10
« Last Edit: March 13, 2017, 05:14:25 AM by Teproc »
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pixote

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #436 on: February 10, 2017, 01:35:24 PM »
Did you spot Audrey Hepburn?

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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #437 on: February 10, 2017, 01:52:04 PM »
Did you spot Audrey Hepburn?

pixote

Of course, how did I fail to mention that ! I assumed she was just a lookalike actually, but then saw it was really her, presumably before whatever her breakout performance was (Tiffany's ?).
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pixote

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #438 on: February 10, 2017, 01:54:24 PM »
...presumably before whatever her breakout performance was (Tiffany's ?).

Her Oscar-winning starring debut in Roman Holiday!

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Teproc

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Re: A Filmspotter's Marathon of Filmspotting Marathons
« Reply #439 on: February 14, 2017, 01:51:46 PM »
Tristana (Luis Bunuel, 1970)



Adam & Josh's takes (starts at 1:20:19)

First, a disclaimer : I unfortunately watched the French dub for this... about 15 minutes in I checked to see if Spanish was an option (since Deneuve was clearly the only member of the cast not being dubbed), but nope, that was all my DvD had.

This probably didn't help the film, as I had some trouble really engaging with it (especially early on) and I suspect I might have liked it a lot more had I watched it with the correct audio, because Bunuel, now towards the end of his life, is finally allowing for some subtelty in his main characters*. Fernando Rey is not repressed sexually, quite the contrary, and the relationship between him and Deneuve is remarkably complex and interesting... now there's no doubt that our sympathy lies with Deneuve, but as she grows from the avatar of pure innocence into a resentful and vengeful woman, he grows sweeter and more understanding, which allows for an ambiguity that I found lacking in Bunuel's non-silent work until now.

Part of it is also due to Deneuve. I was unsure about her performance in the first half, maybe because "innocent girl" isn't all that interesting a character, but once she starts taking action, first by appropriating Rey's libertine lifestyle for herself, then by becoming a horror movie monster (only slightly exagerating, those scenes of her pacing back and forth in the night are disturbing), Deneuve gets to do some acting and she really commits to it.

Ultimately I still struggled with the film, in large part because of the dubbing (unfair, but it is what it is) but also the film's weird pace. This is an adaptation, and the story takes place over several decades, with multiple time jumps... but Bunuel never does anything to indicate them other than dialogue. Just because it's Bunuel you might say it's a "surrealist touch", but I don't see what purpose it has, other than being disconcerting.

6/10

*I say this having not seen a lot of his greatest films, so maybe The Exterminating Angel and Belle de Jour are filled with subtlety... I'm just basing this on the films in this marathon + Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie.
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