It's been four years since the last review in this marathon (super slow! as advertised) but less than two years since I watched a handful of the dictated films and neglected to write them up. Because I really want to wrap up this marathon within the next year, I'm not going to make the effort to go back and rewatch those films (unless I get the chance to see
Harakiri in 35mm). Instead I've just give them short-shrift here (sorry!), writing reviews from the haziest of memories, and then move on to the remaining 22 dictations. C'est la guerre.
Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
Dictated by EmilianaWhat I remember most about
Don't Look Now is Roeg's sharp eye for the tiniest visual details, both with the camerawork and the editing. The film is so wonderful stylistically that Daphne Du Maurier's (somewhat silly) story became a nuisance after a while — a distraction from Roeg's visual essay on Venice.
I wish I remembered more, but I'm relieved not to feel burdened to try to cultivate the best screenshots fro the film. That would be a most time-consuming task, with a lot of agonizing choices to be made.
Grade: B-
Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)
Dictated by michael xHere's the capsule review I wrote when I added
Harakiri to my
Top 100+ (at #98): "I didn't need the flashbacks. Kobayashi's film is at its best when it's pure chamber piece — a samurai film written by Sophocles after he saw
12 Angry Men." I'm surprised I made no mention of the striking black-and-white cinematography. There aren't many other films — if any — that put stark visual contrast to better cinematographic use. It's a gorgeous film.
Grade: A-
Kanal (Andrzej Wajda, 1957)
Dictated by zarodinuEven though I liked
Kanal overall, it has to be considered something of a letdown for me, given my fondness of the other two film's in Wadja's war trilogy.
A Generation ranks at #88 on my most recent Top 100, and
Ashes and Diamonds came in at #50 on the list before that. The wartime sewers are tremendous visual setting, but something about the story or characters just underwhelmed me. At this remove, though, I couldn't tell you exactly what.
Grade: B-
The Woodsman (Nicole Kassell, 2004)
Dictated by BondoDespite earning the same grade as
Kanal,
The Woodsman is a film that exactly met my expectations. It's a nice little movie with a strong lead performance that decently handles some delicate themes. It never rose above the level or ordinary for me, however. Most of the time I felt like I was watching a made-for-tv movie — one I'm happy to have watched but unlikely to ever revisit.
Grade: B-
Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)
Dictated by 'NokeI've never said this before and I'll never say it again, but I'm sort of glad right now that 'Noke isn't around — because I honestly didn't even remember that I watched
Sans soleil until I checked my screenings log just now. The fact that I rated it a B means that Marker's meditations weren't as mesmerizing as I'd expected them to be. But I can appreciate the irony of a film about time and memory evidently being wholly unmemorable.
Grade: B
It's both funny and sad that four of these five films were dictated to me by Filmspotters who no longer post here.
pixote