News You Can Bruise for 2016 November

(2) Wed Nov 02 2016 22:41 October "Film" Roundup: October was a Krzysztof Kieslowski month at the museum, so we saw a lot of his stuff with a few other things mixed in. Kieslowski is Sumana's favorite director, whereas I had seen one of his films. Tons of new stuff, many new favorites, some duds... it's all in a Film Roundup's work!

• Film (1965): Or as Wikipedia calls it, "Film (film)". I make the decision on a case-by-case basis whether to review shorts, so don't look for consistency. Instead, look for post-Sunset Boulevard Buster Keaton doing Samuel Beckett's version of a Buster Keaton movie. Like Dali/the Marx Brothers, it's a conceptually satisfying matchup (the great surrealists! the great existentialists!) but one that's spoiled by a lack of mutual admiration. Groucho didn't like Dali's screenplay for Giraffes on Horseback Salad, and he was correct--it sounds like a disaster. Beckett had tried to get Keaton as Lucky for the American production of Waiting for Godot (and it's even possible Waiting for Godot was inspired by a Keaton short) but Keaton turned down the part because he didn't 'get it'.

  Film isn't a disaster and it even has some really good gags, but if you don't 'get' Waiting for Godot you certainly won't 'get' this movie, even if you're the star.

• The Double Life of Veronique (1991): I saw Blind Chance (1987) a couple years ago, and it was pretty decent, so although this movie disappointed me I didn't write off Kieslowski's entire oeuvre because of it. It starts off pretty good, and then the romance subplot kicks in and both Sumana and I lost interest. On the plus side, I believe this is the first film I've seen that shows a Minitel terminal. (It doesn't get used.)
• Safety Not Guaranteed (2012): A fun date movie. Good laughs, good chemistry between the weirdo characters, is okay with leaving a couple things unexplained. Recommended.
• The Scar (1976) and Short Working Day (1981): Although I'm not impressed by Kieslowski's storytelling when it comes to romantic love, when it comes to talking about work, I think he's right up there with Billy Wilder. These are awesome socialist-noir films about the impossible job of being a middle manager in a planned economy. Their protagonists are forever squeezed between the Workers and the Party, unable to make anyone happy. Maybe it's all a metaphor for filmmaking or something slight like that, but the sheer number of films Kieslowski made about work makes me think he finds it really interesting. I'm gonna give Short Working Day the nod, because it's shorter and has more action. But they're both good.
• Shin Godzilla (2016): First, I gotta say I did not like this Godzilla design. Did not like how dinosaur-like it was. I say: classic Godzilla all the way, 90s Godzilla an acceptable substitute. Also mystified by this movie's attempt to retcon "Godzilla" as an English word. But whatever. Like all the Godzilla films that aren't completely silly, this one's about the humans, not the monster, and it's solid.

  A long time ago I suggested that the The West Wing should do an annual Halloween episode: a noncanonical story about an alien invasion or zombie attack. Well, here it is! This is a Godzilla movie done as an episode of Veep. Lots of walk-and-talk, lots of government incompetence on display. It was kind of corny but definitely closer to the original Godzilla than to the silly stuff in its emotional resonance.

  I saw this subtitled, and although I prefer subtitles in general, I gotta say a dub might be better here. There are a gazillion charaters in this movie and each is introduced with a caption giving their name, organization, and position within the organization. Some of these people are only in the movie for one shot! The same thing happens for every military unit we see, each distinct piece of hardware fruitlessly deployed against Godzilla, etc. So you have to read all that, and keep it separate from the dialogue subtitles that are on screen at the same time.

• Dekalog (1989): This is a famous series of ten made-for-TV movies, roughly modelled after the (Catholic version of the) Ten Commandments. Its IMDB rating is a near-unbeatable 9.1, meaning if it were classified in the movie list it would be the third highest-rated movie ever. But it's classified as a TV show, so it's tied for 19th place with True Detective. I'm gonna say we saw half of the Dekalog: we saw 1, 2, 9, 10, and A Short Film About Killing (a.k.a. "5: The Extended Cut"). A lot of them show how a miracle can ruin your life—a pretty solid concept.

  None of the Dekalog films we saw were "bad", but IMO the Dekalog films dealing with romantic love (2 and 9) are merely "pretty good", whereas the ones that deal with other emotions (1, 5, 10) are some of the best filmmaking I've ever seen. There's a lot of talk about A Short Film About Killing, and it is quite the punch in the gut, but I want to put in a good word for Dekalog 10 ("Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Stuff").

  Going in to the 9-10 double feature, I was thinking "Do we really need two films about coveting different things?" But I was wrong: we do! A flim about coveting your neighbor's wife is a romantic-love movie, which we've established I don't think Kieslowski does very well. Whereas coveting your neighbor's stuff... it's not a work movie, but it's close, and Kieslowski nails it.

  We had some fun coming up with the previews they must have run on Polish TV when Dekalog was airing. "A ten night television event!" "You'll cry, you'll cry some more!" But Dekalog 10 has a different emotional arc than the other films in the series. It's about two brothers whose lives are almost ruined by a miracle, but because they fundamentally love and trust each other, they make it through the Kieslowski gauntlet with only minor damage. I guess you gotta end the series on a happy note.

• Tampopo (1985): Saw this movie with Ashley Blewer (it's one of her faves) and absolutely loved it. So fun and good-hearted. Starts with a cool fourth-wall-breaking intro of the sort you used to see in American movies in the 1950s. One of the best of the year for me.

  Caution: this movie is not for faithful readers of doestheturtledie.com and doestheoysterdie.com. The turtle scene was pretty rough for me (real turtle, fer sure) and doesn't do anything for the film as a whole. I created my own "Phantom Edit" by closing my eyes when it became clear the turtle was gonna get it.

• Three Colors: Blue, White, Red (1993-1994): Gonna cover the trilogy as one item because I want to publish this entry and move on. All three films are really solid. The ending of Red was cheesy in the same way as the ending of Blind Chance, so points off for that. I'm going to give the prize to Blue, even though White is a comedy with the actors from Dekalog 10 playing brothers again! As always, it comes down to Kieslowski's treatment of romance. It seems superficial and kind of petty in White. Whereas his treatment of the aftermath of spousal death (Blue) brings nightmares to vivid life and his exploration of telecommunication and surveillance (Red) seems downright hip for 1994.