Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

Rope  (1948)

This blog entry is part of my “movie year countdown”.  To read more about that check out my first Spout filmblog entry.

Rope

I was actually a bit surprised when I started watching this movie that it was in color.  For some reason the images I'd always seen from it were in black and white, and the idea and theme of the movie sounded very dark and noirish.  I also read later that this was actually Hitchcock's first color film.

Maybe I was disappointed because I already had this notion in my head of what this movie would feel like.  Maybe it was acting conventions of the time that I'm not being forgiving of.  But I just didn't have the thrill or interest that I thought would come along with the plot and convention (two people have killed a man and are trying to keep his body hidden during a party while the whole movie is to look as if it was done in real time in one take of the camera).

There was also a comment somewhere (maybe by the screenwriter) that James Stewart was just not right for his role.  I think I agree with that.  He's a great actor and is believable, but he does not portray the character in the way that would be most effective.  He's just not hard and menacing enough.  That's just not Jimmy.

It's not a bad movie, I just felt like there was more potential.  Maybe it should have been done in black and white.

Rating: 7/10

Under discussion:

A Streetcar Named Desire  (1951)

Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey  (1995)

Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey

This was on the DVD with A Streetcar Named Desire.  It has a review of all of the movies in Kazan's film career along with commentary from the director himself.

I'm not highly attracted to Kazan's strict sense of what is necessary for theatre or film.  He likes to boil things down.  He wants to be able to describe a character in one sentence and for that character to have a single motivation.  Not that this isn't an extremely helpful technique, but the fact that he is stuck to it keeps him limited to certain kinds of stories and characters.

A decent documentary if you are interested in the man and his works.

Rating: 7/10

Under discussion:

Blood Simple  (1984)

No Country for Old Men  (2007)

Burn After Reading  (2008)

No Country for Old Men

I saw this movie the day it came out in Chicago.  But there's been so much talk about it since that I'm not sure what to talk about in this blog.  There are so many thoughts and discussions I've had or heard on the film that I feel like whatever I mention I'll be treading ground everyone's already heard or feel like I'm leaving something out.

I will state that I'm extremely biased towards the Coen brothers.  I love everything they've done, so at this point it's hard for me to just not simply love anything they do.  Just knowing they made it puts a gleam around it in my mind that protects it from major criticism.  But I think it's completely justified.

I will say that until I see this movie more times, it's not currently my favorite of their movies, but as it is, it's still a fucking fantastic movie.  I think as their first strict adaptation it has to be evaluated in a different manner as well.

The film has no opening credits, and no non-diegetic music.  This is something that different people may start to realize at different points during the movie.  But once you do, you realize why you feel like the movie has so effectively made you feel like you were kind of just pushed into it without every really getting a hold on anything.

The very beginning is interesting in that it features narration with static shots of sparse Texas landscapes, exactly the same as the beginning of their first film, Blood Simple.  And I almost feel as though some of those shots are of the exact same places.  In this way it's hard to not think that the Coens felt like they were reaching some kind of major milestone or cycle in their career.  Are they now to a place where they can look back to their origins and feel like they've generated a major oeuvre in the cinematic world?

Maybe, but I'm still just as excited for their future works.  I might be even more excited for their upcoming Burn After Reading than I was for this film because it seems like it has all the ingredients for their next cult hit.

And because of this promo photo of John Malkovich in a bathroom swinging a hatchet at Richard Jenkins in a parking lot.

Rating: 10/10