I don’t write about the film, I write about me. I don’t write about the film, I write about the world. No. I write about the film the best I can. I am on a mission to start every sentence with I…from now to the end of eternity. Not quite.
I don’t know what pops up in your reader. You know about the reader? Tell me about the reader, Charles… Yes? And??? Right. The reader writes. Correct!
We are some macro-blogging mofos. Four times I wrote it and four times it autocorrected to micro. And so the stupid hyphen. Just like the titles. Diacritical marks are the first to go in totalitarian societies. Then the dollar words. Soon, all words which might express inefficient, ineffective concepts such as tenderness.
Now we are rolling. Give the anarchist a cigarette!
D’accord…
Allors…
Jean-Pierre Léaud was the Jason Schwartzman of the 60s…or vice versa. And while we might think primarily of Truffaut, here we see Léaud in a truly penetrating role.
Chantal Goya. She plays the ice-cold bitch pretty well…completely meretricious, vacuous, etc.
And then we run into red hypertext “links” for Catherine-Isabelle Duport and Michel Debord.
Yeah, we all know: the children of Marx and Coca-Cola. Could have been. Tarzan vs. IBM. Could have been. The ape and the onion. Mercury Rev.
Well, yes: it could have been. Today. Particularly dreary. All week. Usually I embrace it. Pretend like I’m Liam Gallagher in Manchester. But not today. Not this week. Only shadows in the night gets it right.
It’s a bummer. I’m too old to be young. Too perverted to be romantic. Too romantic to live. Etc. Etc. Etc.
And yes: I catch the aspect ratio. I yell Trotskyite. Not really, but parallel. I detest the cowardice…when I myself am a basket-case. It’s ok. We are human.
We remember Marx and Coca-Cola, but we forget James Bond and Vietnam. We forget the military-industrial complex.
Let me tell you how it happened. I lay down as always with my sea-foam-green (eau-de-nil) headphones ready to continue my reflection on the great oeuvre. And my computer doesn’t cooperate. It’s as if I have conjured the spirit of JLG. The sound outraces the picture. Chaplin-fast to Notre Musique-slow. The waves come crashing in. Ingmar is hijacked and ridiculized.
Translation: my computer won’t play the disc. After 15 minutes of relatively good play, it jerks and stops and pauses and reloads in an endless loop. It’s like as a kid with that De La Soul CD…I’d physically pick up the player an inch and let it drop down. Somehow it would catch. It was just that disc. No, not this time.
I have cared for this film like a child. It is one of many baby Jesuses in my Jodorowsky stable. Manger.
And so I traveled far to rewatch this. Fifteen paces maybe. 15. So what?
Et allors?
Pauvre Wikipedia. Lion-wannabe. Quick! Call Tim Rice and Elton John. Pathetic.
Yes, she keeps abreast of the pop charts. Cashbox. And he likes her type of breasts. Why not say it?
And isn’t there anything else you like about me? Well, Miss 19, there’s not much more to like. A Big Mac and a pair of Nikes and you’re happy.
Yes, Seymour Glass. I’m sure he just backed up too far on the balcony…trying to get all two of them in the picture…in Florida…like Richard Manuel.
Duport eats a bananafish. Marquis de Sade. Such a perfect day. Cassis and mineral water. And Orangina for Marlène Jobert. Perhaps. Who cares.
You can tell a redhead even in black and white. She should have been more famous. Eva Green’s mom.
yé-yé all day long
Mozart
the orchestra is fantastic
clarinet concerto
middle movement
Paul. Again with the Paul. It started tentatively in Vivre sa vie. And then Paul Javal. Contempt. In the name of the father. And now again without Christian name like Le Chiffre. James Bond and Vietnam. Same complex. Inferiority. Military-industrial.
With that I am at 666 words. Ed Sanders decides to consult Harry Smith on how to levitate the Pentagon. Exercise the demons. Nothing like a demon with love handles. Give ’em a good workout.
B-A-C-H. Psychotic fugue on the Mashed Potato. Dee Dee Sharp.
What other kind of fugue is there?!? Jonny Greenwood would surely tell you it’s reversible. Amnesiac.
ménage à quatre
bullshit
intellectual parlor games
Wikipedia
I know. I know. Hawaiian. Quick! Vite!
caméra-couteau
probing, probing
like Tony Parker
pass the goddamn ball
I’m not sure you want to know. I am a lip-reader. Baudelaire. Au lecteur. Samuel Fuller. Les Fleurs du mal. No one under 18 admitted. Strictly no admittance. 778 words and I haven’t gotten to the film.
-PD
I do not understand how do you write by feeling the movies like that, my dear Earthling friend:)
I don’t understand either. Cinema is a mystery 🙂
But, cinema is becoming more mystery with your words:)
Maybe so. Some films are easier to write about than others. With Jean-Luc Godard films (my favorite) it is very difficult to find a way of expressing how I feel about the film. I don’t want to simplify his complex films because I feel that would not do them justice. Maybe times I must try to make up a new mode of expression to match his further explorations in each film.
You are the best, because, for example, I don’t watch the Jean-Luc Godard movies, but because of you I will watch:) Is there any advise of yours for me, which I should start Jean-Luc Godard movie?
I think you would like Alphaville because you are not from Earth. It is of the genre we earthlings call science fiction 🙂 Thank you for the compliment!!!
And thank you too for your advise and writings:)
Your reviews always want me to check out the film, which is what a review should do, right. Unlike traditional reviews which retell the story putting their own deadly boring spin on it. I don’t understand half of the stuff you say due to my own ignorance and cultural differences, but the other half is hilarious, honest, authentic, and good writing. Thanks! Too funny on the disk, hate it when it happens. . I just got a film at the library wanting to see it, bring it home, the case is empty. .
Thank you so much! That is very kind of you. I am always trying to think of new ways to engage readers. I’m honored that you read and appreciated this piece. It means a lot to me that you took the time to do that. Thank you! –Paul
I have not seen this one therefore thanks to you I will look for it and see it. Nice review.
Thanks dude! It’s a good one.