In <3F725F49.D01DC0CC@millenicom.com> septimus <septimus@millenicom.com> writes:

... have you (or anyone) seen _Cold Water_? Has
it played yet? I am always curious about it because it has
such a high reputation and is never officially released in
the U.S.

I haven't seen it. But it was shown here in New York just last
weekend.

Incidentally, that other record holder of waste footage -- Terrence
Malick himself -- is rumored to be making a new film at last.


With _Zero Degree_ fresh on my mind, I saw _Lost in Translation_.
The extended night scenes where Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannson (sp)
are having a really good time are the best part of the film, really
well shot, exhilarating, and authentic. The rest feel fake and
cliched, at least to me. I'm not fond of Japanese culture, but
making fun of Japanese customs and TV shows is so trivial;

Maybe I don't get Sophia
Coppola, but she doesn't seem to have much depth. Nevertheless she
got a lengthy, glowing write-up in the NYT magazine, and on a per
screen basis _LiT_ is without question the best attended film last
weekend.

I'm not surprised, after enduring the parade of grotesques (headed by
Kathleen Turner) and just vaguely silly caricatures in _Virgin
Suicides_. By the way, I don't know if anyone has ventured to compare
this film with Mehrjui's _Bemani_, about Iranian girls who commit
suicide for reasons that are much too clear.

Godfrey Cheshire compared _Virgin Suicides_ to Malick (_Badlands_ in
particular) in his original review. There is that dreamy quality...

Her support doesn't seem to be very broad-based, at least at 10 p.m.
in the East Village where there were two people in the audience for
_Virgin Suicides_. (I wondered what the projectionist would have done
if we had both walked out, but of course I wouldn't have been there to
find out.)

Except for the breathtaking "bonfire" sequence, I didn't enjoy _Cold
Water_ when I saw it years ago; the camera is like a bug crawling up,
down and across the characters' clothing, making for oppressive
viewing.

I'm not surprised, after enduring the parade of grotesques (headed by
Kathleen Turner) and just vaguely silly caricatures in _Virgin
Suicides_.

This is probably a film you have to accept
whole and entire -- parade of caricatures and other flaws --
or not at all. Unfortunately I felt disconnected from it in the
first 10 minutes and never caught on. I guess Kirsten Dunst tossing
her precious vinyl record is supposed to be a big emotional scene,
but it left me cold.

Really! I didn't know there was a re-release of _VS_.

In <21405c39.0310010701.5f77fb95@posting.google.com> monterone@draac.com (monterone) writes:

I'm not surprised, after enduring the parade of grotesques (headed by
Kathleen Turner) and just vaguely silly caricatures in _Virgin
Suicides_.

Are you thinking of just the parents, or do you think other characters
are caricatures? They seemed plausible to me. I wonder if that's
a defence? If there really are people like a character, does that
make a bizarre or shallow or superficial character a good
character?

I do think the parents were shown some understanding: notice how
they encourage the girls when they want to protect the tree.
Andrew Sarris had an interesting point of view, locating the source
of the tragedy more in the community than in the parents' oppresive
behavior:
http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=2789

Paul

In <21405c39.0309280935.1de6d6f7@posting.google.com> monterone@draac.com (monterone) writes:

Except for the breathtaking "bonfire" sequence, I didn't enjoy _Cold
Water_ when I saw it years ago; the camera is like a bug crawling up,
down and across the characters' clothing, making for oppressive
viewing.

I almost always dislike that sort of handheld camera movement. It was
a fad for a while in TV series and commercials, and it annoyed me.
However, Assayas does it about as well as anyone, and in at least
a few scenes his camera evokes the sense of intimacy and honesty that
all the other wobbly cameras try for and fail to achieve.

This reminds me of the hand-held camera work in _Late August, Early

In <21405c39.0310031335.44cfbdb7@posting.google.com> monterone@draac.com (monterone) writes:

I didn't realize those older Observer reviews were still online! Do
you agree with his point? He doesn't really seem to back it up (not
untypical of Sarris) and I would have to go back to the film to check
it out.

I'm not sure... I've seen the film only once. I should see it again.
The film does emphasize the class divisions in the town, but when
I saw the film (before reading Sarris' review) I didn't make the
connections Sarris did, and I didn't see the film as a sociological
study. The girls were fragile and everything around them seemed
inhospitable to their survival: the bizarrely overprotective parents
and the cold and materialistic town, but also the loving gaze of
the boys all seemed to injure them. In a way the film seemed more
like a metaphor for the fragility of beauty than it did a
character study.