October 2008

OCTOBER 08

* Hostel (Roth, 2005) 6.5
Hostel still exhibits a sober sort of plangency with its cinematic decor - from an ambitiously layered script, to a sober eye for cinematography, to moments of earthy, depressive gravity that pepper the film - but this second viewing (after three years since seeing it on its opening weekend) revealed the flaws in the film lies in Roth's callow sense of dramatic pacing. The film has sparkling moments of sensitivity, but they often seem too short, too concise. Instead of being woven into the film, they are just glimmers of the dramatic sense Roth has as a director, scattered smack in between moments that are rote and expositional. He doesn't realize that a great film breathes even the most purely utilitarian scenes with some ascendant aesthetic/dramatic sensibility united with the thematic core of the film, and thus creating a unified "great" whole - which Hostel is not, unfortunately. And he doesn't know how to give a buffer to his attempts at grace to allow them to breathe and proliferate with meaning. This makes the film just sort of sloppy. Its going from restrained to loud-mouthed, or emotionally striking to emotionally mundane, in the split of a second, and it is often really frustrating. I am still a relative proponent of the film, though, despite the new evaluation.
* May (McKee, 2003) 8
Damn good filmmaking, really frickin' sophisticated sometimes.
Chloe in the Afternoon (Rohmer, 1979) 9
Claire's Knee (Rohmer, 1978) 7.5
* Cat People (Tourneur, 1942) 8.5
Cat People's dialogue is dynamite. Upon this re-watch, I was actually kind of underwhelmed by Tourneur's directing (still great, though, probably just the 'Re-visiting with too-high expectations' effect), but the dialogue really never lets up. Really political and sociological, and its play with psychoanalytics is really "with-the-times." The only thing that (still) bugs me is that I just can't fathom Oliver being that patient with Irena, half a year past their wedding. Thankfully, the screenplay comes to the rescue, giving Oliver a moment to express to Alice (who came off as utterly shameless this time around) his irrepressible attraction to Irena's "foreignness," despite their considerable lack of intimacy.
My Night At Maud's (Roher, 1974) 7.5
* The Curse of the Cat People (Von Fritsch and Wise, 1943) 8.5
I can understand why someone wouldn't like 'Curse.' Plot-wise it is kinda "blah," nothing really happens, and its point of conflict with the old woman and her daughter is just really vague in an off-the-wall sort of way... but the film's just too fucking magical. To wit, it's magical, touching, ethereal, and damn beautiful to look at. Plus, its elevating of imagination and fantasy (and the dark and sad kind, even) over a general sort of traditionalism is a major plus for horror film fans like myself. This idea is presented with livid and arch beauty in the Christmas scene, where the dark specter sings the French carol Il le ne, le divin Enfant - with her fey, foreign lilt - in counterpoint to the self-satisfied singing of Shepherds Shake Off Your Drowsy Sleep by a flocking group of comfortable Anglos inside.
* Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) 8.5
* Dawn of the Dead (Romero, 1974) 7.5
The Ascent (Sheptiko, 1977) 9
Synecdoche, New York (Kaufman, 2008) 6.5