| |
 |
|
|
Movies Forum Index » International Movies Forum » _La Salamandre_
Page 1 of 1
|
| Author |
Message |
| Guest |
 Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:48 pm |
|
|
|
|
At the end of _Alice in the Cities_ I feel that Phillip Winter
finally has a substantial and heart-felt story to write about
for his long suffering publisher. Perhaps the odyssey of
Alice in the various cities would be that story. "La Salamandre"
would be a good title the story about the bad-tempered girl
Bulle Ogier, stuck in dead end jobs, who almost killed her uncle.
The two writers (both actors appeared in _Jonah who will be
25 in the year 2000) are hired to write her story. One is
a professional journalist, the other (his friend whom he enlisted
in the task) a semi-employed day laborer and self-styled
poet. The journalist tries to find out facts about her; his friend
poetically re-imagines her story and gets much closer to the
truth (he guesses her background just from her Catholic
name Rosemonde). One of them will sleep with the girl
before the film is over, the other would have; but their integrity
shines through in the honest way their attempted writing
(ultimately abandoned) reflects each layer of their experience
with her. The screenplay by Alain Tanner and
John Berger artfully investigates the thin line between truth,
llies, fiction, reporting, ethics, and integrity. I haven't
seen the recent slate of U.S. pseudodocumentaries (some
of which are said to be self-reflective or egomanical depending
on whom you ask) but I serious doubt any of them are a
match for this brilliant film. Not to keep repeating myself,
but Charlotte Gainsbourg (in her deglamorized, brittle mode)
would have been perfect in modern films of this kind. Except
such films aren't made any more, not even in Europe, it seems.
And if Alain Tanner is still making great films like this,
no one gets to see them. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| |
|
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Fri Dec 05, 2008 3:07 am
|
|