May 31, 2009
In the Realm of the Senses
If you think of the Criterion Collection the way I do — as something of an ongoing film education — then In the Realm of the Senses is probably the first film by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima you’ll ever see. It’s certainly his most famous project, and in that respect, it’s a logical place to start. The Criterion guys have even made the introduction easier on audiences by featuring a new commentary by Japanese film scholar Donald Ritchie on both the DVD and Blu-ray editions that functions more as an overview of the director’s career than a direct essay on the film itself.
But as luck would have it, the release coincides with a traveling Oshima retrospective organized by James Quandt of the Cinematheque Ontario, which helps put the film in context. And a good thing, too, because In the Realm of the Senses is an extreme case — the story of an amour fou between a hotel owner and one of his maids that builds to strangulation, S&M and the most personal of keepsakes (perhaps the only art film capable of challenging Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist in the genital-mutilation department) — and I’d hate to imagine going through life thinking all of Oshima’s films were like that.
Continue reading "In the Realm of the Senses"
Posted by Peter Debruge on May 31, 09 at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2008
I survived Berlin Alexanderplatz
When the Criterion Collection released German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz as an elaborate seven-disc boxed set last November, The New Yorker magazine wasted no time in declaring it “the DVD event of the year,” going on to suggest, “The thirteen richly textured episodes and their epilogue are best savored one at a time.”
Two friends and I took their suggestion, meeting each weekend to “savor” an episode of Fassbinder’s almost-16-hour magnum opus. Some have managed to stomach more than that in one sitting (some arthouse screenings have been known to divide all 940 minutes over two or three nights), but no matter how hard we tried, one-at-a-time was the only way to go. We simply couldn’t muster the stamina to endure two episodes of depressing German cinema in a row, and in some cases, we required several weeks to recover between sessions.
Continue reading "I survived Berlin Alexanderplatz"
Posted by Peter Debruge on August 15, 08 at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2007
Performance
Say what you will about Premiere magazine, but I'll miss it. It was the first movie-mag subscription on which I invested my hard-earned allowance, and it introduced me to Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's Performance, a gangster movie that broke all the rules. When his name turns up on his employers' hit list, East End tough guy Chas (James Fox, then England's top movie star) shacks up with retired rocker Turner (Mick Jagger, making his acting debut), their identities slowly bleeding together. Think Bergman's Persona on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.
Performance caught my attention in the magazine's "100 Most Daring Movies" roundup (October '98). Visit Premiere today in its now-online-only form, and you'll find a new list, "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies," full of predictable entries: Bonnie and Clyde, Boys Don't Cry and so on. Back in 1998, drunk on the idea of discovery, I went through that "Daring" list film by film, and the entries blew my mind, but none to quite the degree that Performance did. For my money, it is the most dangerous movie ever made.
Continue reading "Performance"
Posted by Peter Debruge on March 18, 07 at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
August 28, 2006
Six Moral Tales
Eric Rohmer's films are a subtitle-lover's dream. While Cahiers du Cinema colleagues Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut searched for ways to strip their films of all unnecessary dialogue, Rohmer did just the opposite, embracing conversation and narration as a window into the interior lives of his characters. In "Six Moral Tales," Rohmer's first and best known cycle of films, the helmer invites auds to judge a man's character according to how his actions measure against his words. Happily, Criterion has provided plenty of material to help auds develop a thorough appreciation of Rohmer's illuminating sextet.
Continue reading "Six Moral Tales"
Posted by Peter Debruge on August 28, 06 at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
Mixed Blood
Paul Morrissey's Mixed Blood remembers New York City at its roughest, depicting an underage drug war every bit as brutal (if not necessarily as stylish) as City of God. Gothamites who bemoan the city's ongoing gentrification need only revisit this 1985 indie for a change of heart. Conceived as comic satire, pic's graphic depiction of violence and addiction may not faze viewers today, but as a historical snapshot, it's staggering — especially as time has blurred the line between Morrissey's sense of dramatic exaggeration and his verité style. On DVD, the effect is enhanced by a 25-minute slideshow narrated by Morrissey.
Continue reading "Mixed Blood"
Posted by Peter Debruge on March 13, 06 at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2002
Scratch
Your average milquetoast moviegoer doesn't give two licks about hip-hop history, and who can blame 'em? From where they stand, rap ain't music, graffiti's a misdemeanor and the sound of a needle scratching vinyl curdles the blood like fingernails on a chalkboard. It's hard to imagine a greater sin than, say, taking a classic Robert Johnson Delta Blues album and tearing it up on the turntable. That is, until you hear what Mix Master Mike can do with that baby.
Posted by Peter Debruge on September 17, 02 at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2001
Dark Days
(out of four)
One of the amazing things about New York is how, exactly, it is that people manage to live in the city. For instance, I stow away in a windowless, basement-level room roughly the size of a closet. I have friends with illegal sublets all over the city, and there was once a time when squatters living in abandoned East Village apartments could actually claim the rooms for themselves.
In the words of the inimitable Jeff Goldblum: "Life finds a way." That much is immediately clear from Dark Days, easily the best film of 2000. The modest black-and-white documentary tells the story of a dozen or so "homeless" men and women who convert an underground Amtrak tunnel plunged in darkness into a makeshift campfire community. Director Marc Singer heard stories about these strange tunnel denizens and set out to find them for himself. It's crucial to note that Singer isn't a filmmaker so much as an interested observer. After living with these forgotten souls for some time, he finally picked up a camera, hoping that making a movie about them might help them secure decent housing above ground.
Posted by Peter Debruge on September 25, 01 at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2001
Salesman
(out of four)
After pornography, Christianity just might be America's biggest business. That's not what religion is about of course — pushing candles and statues, relics and rosaries, bumper stickers and Bibles — though these days Christianity and capitalism seem to go pretty much hand-in-hand. Watching Albert and David Maysles' landmark 1969 documentary, you can't help but wonder whether there might be a separate circle of hell devoted to Bible salesmen. After all, these are the guys who make their living hustling the world's number-one bestseller.
Posted by Peter Debruge on September 4, 01 at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)