[Sandy]

Important to note the part in [ ] was added last. I was going to make a counter-point and ended up doing exactly what I noticed Sandy did.


One of the things I like most about La Cérémonie is it struck me as a blank enough canvas for the viewer to bring their own reactions to complete the picture. [Your last paragraph reads more judgmental than you usually get about movie characters, which I take to be a reaction to what they ultimately get up to together.

It was that, coupled with the horrendous things they had done in their pasts (abject abuse and murder of a daughter / burning a house down with the employer inside). When the pieces all came together, i was both judge and jury!

I was going to write about how I was a more casual observer, but what I put down was this...]

Jeanne over-complains about everything like she's the great righter of wrongs, but I've seen that in life and accept that as part of this character. Sophie is more passive-aggressive, easily manipulated by Jeanne, though for much of the movie I thought it was an act of liberation not one of control. Until the end, they're a couple of misfits looking to scratch out a little happiness. Jeanne rails against the haves, while Sophie behaves like she quietly suffers under them, even though they're good to her.

Very specific in their characteristics. Fascinating to watch.

My new mantra is that Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire are two of the most under-appreciated masters of their craft. Equal to the women from our Great Actresses Marathon

We did really well on that marathon, didn't we?

I've only sen Sandrine Bonnaire in this film, but Isabelle Huppert is always consistently superb.

[Sandy]

The Emigrants



Sharing horizons that are new to us...
Workin' together day to day...
So much of life ahead
We'll find a place where there's room to grow  -- Carpenters

Snippets of this song keep creeping into my consciousness as I watch the Nilsson family eek out their lives simply and stoically. There is nothing new to be told here, in fact it is as old as the hills; human and natures' interaction, relationship and survival. It's so old that for modern eyes, it is beyond our real understanding. What does it mean to literally wrestle sustenance from the earth, only to find it's not enough? How do you mentally prepare yourself for inhuman conditions for an interminable amount of time, going to god knows where, with only a hope of finding a location which will provide the foundation for a lifetime of more arduous work?

I feel weak and powerless right now, but that's a reflection on me in comparison. The film is full of unimaginable strength, both outward and internal. Infuse me with a bit of it and I can do just about anything! Perspective is the kick-start which films provide. The story is still unfolding by the end of The Emigrants, so onward I go to The New Land. "We've only just begun."

[PeacefulAnarchy]

I should also see if I can get to La ceremonie, and a couple of others, but this'll do for now

Slap Shot 7/10
What's Paul Newman doing in this seemingly low brow 70s comedy? I've watched it and I still don't know, though he's definitely not out of place. It's a strange film that doesn't know if it wants to be silly fun or sports drama and if you're going in hoping for one or the other you're bound to be disappointed, but the balance it strikes is reasonably effective. Newman is certainly a big part of that, able to make you empathize with aging past his prime hockey player in a movie that never really bothers caring about its dramatic stakes. The drama is mostly there to give the characterizations context, but it's enough to keep things moving and the silly antics liven things. I enjoyed it, but other than a few scattered moments it doesn't seem to be something that'll stick with me.

[MartinTeller]

In college I roomed with three hockey players and, man, did they love that movie.

[Sandy]

The Ice Storm



"By default, most of us have taken the dare to simply survive. Exist. Get through. For the most part, we live numb to life - we've grown weary and apathetic and jaded... and wounded."
 -- Ann Voskamp

An adult version of spin the bottle. This is the answer to unbearable lethargy. Another answer is shoplifting, or pitting brother against brother, or honing in on a friend's wife. How many dysfunctional answers can this town come up with before they are forced to snap out of it? I get it. Consumer suburbia conflates with war weariness into a shiftless torpor.

The only one who bypasses this is Mikey, but he's so far removed from the collective morass, he is indecipherable to them. There is another. He's not entirely removed, but just enough to observe and with the help of comic book wisdom, Paul gives voice to the situation. "For some people, the negative zone tempts them. And they end up going in, going in all the way."