Le Souffle au Coeur (Louis Malle, 1971)
That montage in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers set to Britney Spears’ ‘Everytime’ distilled not only the movie but the past 13 years of American popular culture.
Showing posts tagged Film
Le Souffle au Coeur (Louis Malle, 1971)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961): the party scene.
Top 3 Films and Why (asked by isay)
Mandatory disclaimers: my favourite 3 films =/= what I believe are the 3 “best” films ever made. Also they change constantly.
1. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise (Luis Bunuel 1972)
This movie is funny and alarming and above all true. I watch this and every time it feels like I’m fully awake and traversing the most vivid nightmare I’ve ever experienced. I don’t know whether the fact this movie so successfully scares/bores/intimidates/comforts me is a sign of Bunuel’s genius or the total domination of a particular ideology within the global middle classes. Probably both.
2. Mulholland Dve (David Lynch, 2001)
This one turned me on to “alternative” cinema for the very first time, and for that reason alone it will forever be up there (despite the fact I think Lost Highway is Lynch’s true masterpiece). I saw it when I was 14/15ish, after reading a review in Empire Magazine, and it was a revelation. I guess it was the first movie I ever watched where I was conscious that so much of what drew me into the film were exclusively ‘filmic’ things: the soundtrack and Naomi Watts’ performance and the way Lynch captures nighttime LA (freakishly: those panoramic shots of the city at night are incredibly discomforting). Also the first time I watched it the plot was so incomprehensible that its opacity added to my enjoyment of the film instead of detracting from it. Plot’s overrated. It took me a long time to learn that.
3. The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)
It’s become sort of fashionable to bag The Graduate but I think that’s a symptom of mainstream culture’s desire to forget the late sixties ever happened. I remember watching it for the first time in the university library four years ago and being blown away by the melancholy Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack, the Northern California locations, and that final excruciatingly help/hopeless look between Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross. Of all the elements in the movie I think the affair between Hoffman and Anne Bancroft is the least interesting. Plot wise it’s a mess but who cares when the music and the acting and the way its shot are all so unique?
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What about other tumblrers? I would love to hear what gets you going, filmic wise!
ily bette davis.
Our Private Lives (Denis Côté 2007)
San Francisco: Scene of the Crime.
I have long wondered why my five flights of stairs are mysteriously more difficult to climb than other people’s. There can be no doubt that they would be less difficult if I didn’t live there, if I did not expect to find my double, whom I would really like to lose, at the top of them. Jean Baudrillard.
Stills from The Wind of the Night (Philippe Garrel, 1999)
