It's a bubbe meise...LIU.
I have a friend who thinks this is a great movie. Or that there is something great about it. The progression from the tropics of Ile de la Réunion to freezing snowy Switzerland - or should we call that a degeneration? Well, in either case, I got to read up on Environmental Determinism - read IMDb and you can learn things! Well, at least sometimes...
Where was I? Oh yeah, I have a friend who thinks this is a great movie. Or that there are great things about it. Well, I guess there are some. I mean, I'm a real sucker for Nouvelle Vague referencing: Arizona Jim, Johnny Guitar, Renoir's La Marseillaise...that kind of stuff. And the shape - shifting blonde. Like in Vertigo. The Environmental thing is audacious - L'Amour Fou, in spades! Lots of efficiency, scenes doing double - duty in a jump - cut kind of way. Ridiculously French Movie Elegance, rivaling Ava Gardner movies and things like that, but with its own cultural specificity.
But ultimately, I feel like the elegance and the directorial interjections don't really speak to each other, and don't really add up to so much. The film feels strenuous, and not in a way that I find so rewarding. I think that one of the ideas is that, underneath all of the movie conceits, there is a kernel of painful truth about the anarchic craziness of love and passion. Well, that might be so. But I think there are many films that make that point - can I say "better"? OK, I will! I'd like to say "more artistically", or "in a more penetrating way", or "more clearly", etc...But "better" will do for now.
I have a friend who thinks this is a great movie. Or that there is something great about it. The progression from the tropics of Ile de la Réunion to freezing snowy Switzerland - or should we call that a degeneration? Well, in either case, I got to read up on Environmental Determinism - read IMDb and you can learn things! Well, at least sometimes...
Where was I? Oh yeah, I have a friend who thinks this is a great movie. Or that there are great things about it. Well, I guess there are some. I mean, I'm a real sucker for Nouvelle Vague referencing: Arizona Jim, Johnny Guitar, Renoir's La Marseillaise...that kind of stuff. And the shape - shifting blonde. Like in Vertigo. The Environmental thing is audacious - L'Amour Fou, in spades! Lots of efficiency, scenes doing double - duty in a jump - cut kind of way. Ridiculously French Movie Elegance, rivaling Ava Gardner movies and things like that, but with its own cultural specificity.
But ultimately, I feel like the elegance and the directorial interjections don't really speak to each other, and don't really add up to so much. The film feels strenuous, and not in a way that I find so rewarding. I think that one of the ideas is that, underneath all of the movie conceits, there is a kernel of painful truth about the anarchic craziness of love and passion. Well, that might be so. But I think there are many films that make that point - can I say "better"? OK, I will! I'd like to say "more artistically", or "in a more penetrating way", or "more clearly", etc...But "better" will do for now.