From Bergman to Bokanowski to Brother Justin

top: Bergman's The Seventh Seal
bottom: Bokanowski's L'Ange

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top: Bokanowski's L'Ange
bottom: HBO's Carnivale

False Aging (Lewis Klahr, 2008)

"...first I wanted new experiences, new faces, new surroundings..."



"He looked at me eyes wide and plainly said, Is it true that I'm no longer young?"




"Gee wouldn't it be funny if I died in this dream before I could make another one up."

Curiosity Killed - An Image Gallery (Meme)

I will admit that I've been out of the blogger loop for a couple of weeks now, having been caught up in the kind of random endeavors and commitments that real life is known to throw at you from time to time. I've been doubling back and catching up on my blog perusal the last couple of days however, and have enjoyed an exciting meme that's been floating around. It seems the meme was started by MovieMan0283 from The Dancing Image, which was itself inspired by Stephen's Gallery of Images at his site Checking On My Sausages. The meme's rules are as follows:

1. Pick as many pictures as you want - but make them screen-captures. These need to be moments that speak to you that perhaps haven't been represented as stills before.

2. Pick a theme, any theme.

3. You MUST link to Stephen's original gallery and the gallery at The Dancing Image.

4. Tag five blogs.

This meme has put to good use the sharp eyes and creative edge that characterize so many excellent bloggers, and while making the rounds of my favorite sites, I noticed that, lo and behold, Hans at the wonderful Quiet Cool has tagged me to participate. I am always down for some screencap fun, and it was a treat to rack my brain for a spell and see what (if any) worthwhile contribution I could make to this chain.

While I admit that I'm a dog kinda guy, I've nevertheless always found a great mystery and beauty to cats. Their distinct physical features and piercing alertness have made them a ripe subject for cinematic expression of all sorts, even from the earliest days of the medium. Here I've presented six examples that depict these enigmatic creatures in separate, unique visions: as an exaggeratedly sinister and imminent threat from Stan Brakhage; as an abstract digitalization from Chris Marker; as a symbol of intoxicating, predatory romance from Apichatpong Weerasethakul; as a feral, threatened prisoner from Jacques Torneur; as a thoughtful, passive observer from Dusan Makavejev; and finally as an ominous, slinky shadow of impending doom from Edgar G. Ulmer.



The following five are now tagged:

Carson @ Are the Hills Going to March Off?

Shubhajit @ Cinemascope

James @ Out 1

Jeff @ Filmscreed

Andrew @ The Kinodrome

Un homme qui dort (Georges Perec & Bernard Queysanne, 1974)

You are just a murky shadow, a hard kernel of indifference, a neutral gaze avoiding the gaze of others.

The title of Bernard Queysanne and Gerges Perec's 1974 haunting masterpiece, Un homme qui dort (based on Perec's novel of the same name), translates roughly to "A Man Asleep", and that is an accurate description of the sole character in this beautifully fractured tale of alienation and isolation. The character is a man 25 years of age (Jacques Speisser), living alone in a cramped, lonesome Parisian apartment. We never learn his name, and we never hear him utter even a single word of dialogue. We simply view him going about various chores and activities that seem to take on a ritualistic importance: making a cup of Nescafe, reading, brushing his teeth, playing solitaire, attempting to fall asleep, piling dirty laundry into a basin of murky water, avoiding contact with friends and family so that a pile of crumpled letters accumulate near his door, and on occasion, trudging outdoors for a trip to the cinema or the diner. The film's opening segments contrast this unnamed man indulging in these repetitive routines with exterior shots of inhabitants in the city systematically going through the motions of every day life, and it becomes quickly clear that we are observing a human all but completely removed from the rhythms of society, marching to the beat of his own drum. The only words spoken in the film are done so by a female voice-over, who reads strikingly poetic passages from Perec's novel that convey the various emotional turmoils and anxieties felt by the nameless protagonist, as the character continues to avoid all contact with family and friends, and interaction with society in general as he slips further and further into this solipsistic void.

Un homme qui dort is shot in gorgeous black and white by cinematographer Bernard Zitzerman, and the film more than once recalls the work of Alain Resnais; with its classy compositions and gliding camera and enigmatic voice-over, and especially with its use of high contrast black and white in the latter part of the film, which is used to further give the outdoor scenes an alien quality, so foreign does the nameless hero feel walking the streets of his very own block. It is also fascinating how the camera methodically pushes in and out on the man in moments of contemplation, as though he were a specimen of loneliness under some giant existential microscope, whose very existence is on the verge of dissipating at any moment. The music in the film is sparse but used effectively, alternating between a high-pitched ambient tone that crescendos arbitrarily without warning, and an urgent clicking gallop, punctuated by harsh bangs on a piano. This disconcerting and distressing soundtrack only heighten the overwhelming sense of angst and disquietude that accompany the continuous shots of the young man and his vacant, lifeless stare, as he embarks on one lonesome, meaningless endeavor after the next.

There is no traditional narrative here, no backstory, no indications as to what could have possibly gone wrong in this persons life, or if anything ever went wrong at all. There is only the shell of a man, withdrawn, cut-off, sitting around and waiting until there's nothing left to wait for. By the end of the movie, the character is indulging himself in various delusions and launching into venemous, misanthropic speeches comparing humans to monsters, before a final bleak voice-over seems to suggest that nothing has been learned here, and that the character may never find peace, may never find a compromise, a possible means of actually living his life, as opposed to sleepwalking through it, as long as he is giving himself to these conditions. Un homme qui dort is a powerful experience for anyone who's ever felt like cutting themselves off from the world completely, for anyone who's just wanted to totally disappear from everything. It's a terrifying yet beautiful glimpse into a sad, sick life not led, and a piercing call to arms against neutrality and indifference. To disappear from the world is not difficult; to disappear from yourself is an entirely different matter, and this is a film that recognizes that with a deep, aching conviction.

Plundering Barnes & Noble for Criterion

Don't forget to stop off at your local Barnes & Noble, where today they started the first of their bi-annual 50% off all Criterion standard & blu-ray discs. It's a hell of a bargain, one any ardent cinephile would be remiss to not take advantage of. The sale is both in-store and online, so if there's not a store located nearby, you can still get the offer through their site.

I've just come home from my own haul, which as you can see above, saw me walking away with Renoir's The Rules of the Game, Kiarostami's Close-Up, Antonioni's Red Desert, Yates' The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Soderbergh's Che, Fellini's 8 1/2 (which I've still for some ungodly reason yet to see, that will change soon), Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, Wajda's Danton, and the special edition of The Killers which contains both Siodmak's classic version as well as the '64 Don Siegel version. All of this for just under $200, and with a batch of gift cards I've been sitting on for some time, I laid out about $100 even cash for all of these. Just can't beat it. The sale runs through August 1 I believe, so there's plenty of time to act. This is a perfect opportunity for all film lovers to beef up their libraries, so take advantage while you can.