26 July 2006

Quelque fois...

Sometimes, a film, no matter how good or bad it may be, just cannot connect with me. Today, I received Cassavetes' Opening Night and Maurice Pialat's Loulou in the mail from Netflix, popped Loulou in (which I had seen years ago), and promptly pushed the stop button twenty minutes in. It had nothing to do with the quality of the film, but my particular mood. I just couldn't bring myself to get into a Cassavetes-esque film after watching an actual Cassavetes film. Plus, how many times do I have to see Gérard Depardieu as the rugged French tough guy? And how many times do I have to see Isabelle Huppert slapped? Don't get me wrong, I could watch Huppert get slapped 'til the cows come home... but not today. So I did what I had to do: I sealed the envelope up and dropped it in the mailbox. Maybe another day.

2 comments:

Eric Dienstfrey said...

10-4 Buddy. I watched all of Loulou and it didn't do much for me. In fact I was pissed at it while watching it. It's one of the reasons I decided to remove the other Pialat from my queue, which I did finally re-add.

Opening Night however was my first Cassavetes and it changed my life.

Should I watch Pialat as I would Cassavetes, or should I forget the comparison?

reassurance said...

I certainly don't think one should look at Loulou the same way one would look at Opening Night, but they have a lot of similarities, though I'm not familiar with either of them enough to really go into any detail.

I haven't completely dismissed Pialat, as I was rather fond of À nos amours.