Vikings in Flanders
Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)
directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen onscreen at the Manor Theatre
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)
directed by Don Coscarelli
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
directed by Alan Gibson
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Let's briefly rehash that conversation we've had and agree that casting someone as beautiful as Adèle Exarchopoulos betrays a filmmaker's claim to universal truths. Her mouth might be smeared with spaghetti sauce or she might be sobbing in her room alone, but she's never less than "actress pretty." Let's also agree that the sex is not "frank" but comical (if broadly relevant). Would this be the hit it is if the movie were about two young men? Would I have gone to see it? I like to think so but it's a question worth asking. My Blue is the Warmest Color is your Les Cousins Dangereux.
But first, Phantasm IV. What's the closest example of a creator-controlled franchise that continues to receive funding but on terms so paltry that not making the movie seems like the obvious choice? Coscarelli does what any sensible person would do in moments of crisis: he heads for the desert. It felt as if at least one out of every four scenes was a clip from Phantasm, but Coscarelli repurposes the footage he needs to produce a feature-length cut as a testament to male friendship in the face of past betrayals.
Not that Reggie is denied the opportunity to say "blow me" before firing a shotgun through the roof of a police car to dispatch an undead officer, or to reiterate the point that "some cops can be real assholes" ten seconds later. Phantasm IV provides no answers for any of its mysteries--not really. Coscarelli is content to let Reg and Mike and the Tall Man drift forever out of time, like the wind they hear when it should be quiet inside the car. But it isn't that the series is inconclusive, or stretched merely to accommodate the possibility of some future sequel. Rather, the quest that these characters embark upon is a circular one made of memories they cannot get back to or escape. You connect Reggie Bannister to Eric Rohmer (because that's what I want to do with my time) through the last scene of Perceval le Gallois, when Perceval rides into the forest alone.
In Dracula A.D. 1972, vampires can be drowned in "clear running water," so Peter Cushing starts a shower and kills one of Christopher Lee's lesser minions. I like the elemental aspect of supernatural creatures and I like it when bodies of water function as barriers of protection (like the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burial Ground in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow). But Gibson's narrative is much more topical, evidenced in the bathtub/overdose routine. Cushing gets to be the hero, even if Dracula can't be bothered to leave the decrepit churchyard where he is brought back to life or to claim even a single bride.
Hammer productions always aim for that conservative middle ground between salacious and inoffensive, and I think this might be the last of them I watch for awhile. I try be an Anglophobe whenever possible so I'll talk about the French instead.
For one thing, I hadn't sat through a three-hour movie in forever. I rarely sit through a 90-minute movie at home without pausing it for food or to put the kettle on the stove (or read trivia about an actor or get a snack for the dog). I don't like long movies, as a rule, because my favorite movies tend to do more with less. I checked my watch after the first hour of Blue is the Warmest Color, and again every twenty to thirty minutes until it was over. The time did not pass quickly but it felt good to spend it sitting still in front of a big screen.
Criticisms of Blue is the Warmest Color are more or less correct, but the point of the movie, to me, was to convey the sense of loss that a person who loves someone deeply feels when that love is not returned--or more to the point, when it was once returned, but is now diminished.
Adèle and Emma break up on unequal footing: Adèle feels lonely and wanders, but Emma falls in love with someone else. The moment when Emma confronts Adèle over her infidelity is a great scene not because of what they're fighting about (we never even learn, for example, if Emma actually cheated on Adèle with Lise) but because Adèle must come to terms with the extent of the pain Emma's indifference has inflicted at the exact moment that Emma cuts her off completely.
There is no closure for Adèle because Emma will always be a part of her. Other movies have made that argument about love, but it is not a tidy conclusion. Blue is the Warmest Color does not put Adèle through the ringer just to be cruel, but she is not happy in that final scene. She is very beautiful but it's a good movie anyway.
directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
seen onscreen at the Manor Theatre
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)
directed by Don Coscarelli
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
directed by Alan Gibson
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Let's briefly rehash that conversation we've had and agree that casting someone as beautiful as Adèle Exarchopoulos betrays a filmmaker's claim to universal truths. Her mouth might be smeared with spaghetti sauce or she might be sobbing in her room alone, but she's never less than "actress pretty." Let's also agree that the sex is not "frank" but comical (if broadly relevant). Would this be the hit it is if the movie were about two young men? Would I have gone to see it? I like to think so but it's a question worth asking. My Blue is the Warmest Color is your Les Cousins Dangereux.
But first, Phantasm IV. What's the closest example of a creator-controlled franchise that continues to receive funding but on terms so paltry that not making the movie seems like the obvious choice? Coscarelli does what any sensible person would do in moments of crisis: he heads for the desert. It felt as if at least one out of every four scenes was a clip from Phantasm, but Coscarelli repurposes the footage he needs to produce a feature-length cut as a testament to male friendship in the face of past betrayals.
Not that Reggie is denied the opportunity to say "blow me" before firing a shotgun through the roof of a police car to dispatch an undead officer, or to reiterate the point that "some cops can be real assholes" ten seconds later. Phantasm IV provides no answers for any of its mysteries--not really. Coscarelli is content to let Reg and Mike and the Tall Man drift forever out of time, like the wind they hear when it should be quiet inside the car. But it isn't that the series is inconclusive, or stretched merely to accommodate the possibility of some future sequel. Rather, the quest that these characters embark upon is a circular one made of memories they cannot get back to or escape. You connect Reggie Bannister to Eric Rohmer (because that's what I want to do with my time) through the last scene of Perceval le Gallois, when Perceval rides into the forest alone.
In Dracula A.D. 1972, vampires can be drowned in "clear running water," so Peter Cushing starts a shower and kills one of Christopher Lee's lesser minions. I like the elemental aspect of supernatural creatures and I like it when bodies of water function as barriers of protection (like the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burial Ground in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow). But Gibson's narrative is much more topical, evidenced in the bathtub/overdose routine. Cushing gets to be the hero, even if Dracula can't be bothered to leave the decrepit churchyard where he is brought back to life or to claim even a single bride.
Hammer productions always aim for that conservative middle ground between salacious and inoffensive, and I think this might be the last of them I watch for awhile. I try be an Anglophobe whenever possible so I'll talk about the French instead.
For one thing, I hadn't sat through a three-hour movie in forever. I rarely sit through a 90-minute movie at home without pausing it for food or to put the kettle on the stove (or read trivia about an actor or get a snack for the dog). I don't like long movies, as a rule, because my favorite movies tend to do more with less. I checked my watch after the first hour of Blue is the Warmest Color, and again every twenty to thirty minutes until it was over. The time did not pass quickly but it felt good to spend it sitting still in front of a big screen.
Criticisms of Blue is the Warmest Color are more or less correct, but the point of the movie, to me, was to convey the sense of loss that a person who loves someone deeply feels when that love is not returned--or more to the point, when it was once returned, but is now diminished.
Adèle and Emma break up on unequal footing: Adèle feels lonely and wanders, but Emma falls in love with someone else. The moment when Emma confronts Adèle over her infidelity is a great scene not because of what they're fighting about (we never even learn, for example, if Emma actually cheated on Adèle with Lise) but because Adèle must come to terms with the extent of the pain Emma's indifference has inflicted at the exact moment that Emma cuts her off completely.
There is no closure for Adèle because Emma will always be a part of her. Other movies have made that argument about love, but it is not a tidy conclusion. Blue is the Warmest Color does not put Adèle through the ringer just to be cruel, but she is not happy in that final scene. She is very beautiful but it's a good movie anyway.
posted by NPK at 9:47 AM
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