Attention Saint Louis Area Cine- and/or Francophiles

Cinema St. Louis and Washington University's Program in Film and Media Studies are presenting their first French Film Festival this coming weekend, 28-30 August. Screening this year are Rialto's restored prints of Jean-Luc Godard's Made in U.S.A. and Max Ophüls' Lola Montès, as well as a trio of contemporary films: Phlippe Ramos' Captain Ahab [Capitaine Achab], with Denis Lavant, Jacques Bonnaffé, Dominique Blanc, Jean-François Stévenin and Lou Castel; Serge Bozon's La France, with Sylvie Testud and Pascal Greggory; and Pascal Thomas' Towards Zero [L'heure zéro], with François Morel, Danielle Darrieux, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud and Laura Smet. For full descriptions of the films, as well as screening times (they will all play at Washington University's Brown Hall Auditorium), check out Cinema St. Louis' website.

Le Tourbillon

La ronde - dir. Max Ophüls - 1950 - France

Yikes. All excitement I had for Criterion's recent release of Max Ophüls' La ronde came to a screeching hault within the first five minutes. Having seen Roger Vadim's 1964 remake prior, I hadn't expected the Barbarella director to almost mirror Ophüls' film, or perhaps more accurately Arthur Schnitzler's play. So when things played out nearly identically, I think I'd done myself a disservice by seeing Jane Fonda/Anna Karina version before this one. But that wouldn't be as self-punishing as if I hadn't realized what Vadim did right that Ophüls' didn't. Yikes indeed.

La ronde, thus, becomes hindered by the presence of Anton Walbrook as the "Raconteur," the guide through the film's circular structure, grimacing slyly through the sequences and addressing the audience in delicate mannerisms and the occasional lousy song. I found my skin crawling up my arms every time he winked-and-nudged onscreen, conjuring up more of the theatrical apparatus than the cinematic realm. For what purpose does he serve the film? His entire character is thankfully wiped clear of Vadim's version, allowing for the action to flow in more of a sweeping action, keeping the action swift... and if Vadim succeeded over Ophüls in any way, it would have to be here. And "here" is crucial.

I feel a tad reluctant to admit that the fascinating structural examination of bedfellows worked better in Dean Howell's liberty-taking Nine Lives, from 2004. It uses the same approach, following one character through their "romantic" coupling and then following that person's partner as they move to the next person. Nine Lives uses the format in most devestating manners, achieving everything that it should from the lay-out, crafting a haunting, mysterious glimpse into these nine lives. Of course, I'll take Richard Linklater's brilliant Slacker over all three, but it's strange that a little-seen queer film from four years ago proved a better exploration than the works of two respected French auteurs. Yikes.

2008 Progress Report, Part 4

And finally, here's a list of some notable films that finally made their way onto DVD in the United States. By no means is this a comprehensive list, and some of these films have just been announced and not officially released yet. I'm only counting films that had never been on DVD R1/USA prior to this year. October still is wide-open, as well as November and December. Cross your fingers for Warner to re-announce Ken Russell's The Devils for me! I can't take any more heartbreak.

Max Ophüls

Earrings of Madame de..., The [Madame de...] - dir. Max Ophüls - Criterion
Plaisir, Le - dir. Max Ophüls - Criterion
Ronde, La - dir. Max Ophüls – Criterion

Jean-Luc Godard

Chinoise, La - dir. Jean-Luc Godard - Koch Lorber
Gai savoir, Le - dir. Jean-Luc Godard – Koch Lorber
Passion – dir. Jean-Luc Godard – Lionsgate
Détective – dir. Jean-Luc Godard – Lionsgate
Hélas pour moi [Oh, Woe Is Me] – dir. Jean-Luc Godard - Lionsgate

Louis Malle

Lovers, The [Amants, Les] - dir. Louis Malle – Criterion
Fire Within, The [Feu follet, Le] – dir. Louis Malle – Criterion

Derek Jarman

War Requiem – dir. Derek Jarman – Kino
Blue – dir. Derek Jarman – Zeitgeist
Wittgenstein – dir. Derek Jarman – Zeitgeist
Caravaggio – dir. Derek Jarman – Zeitgeist
Angelic Conversation, The – dir. Derek Jarman – Zeitgeist

Patrice Leconte

Girl on the Bridge, The [Fille sur le pont, La] – dir. Patrice Leconte – Paramount/Legend
Hairdresser’s Husband, The [Mari de la coiffeuse, Le] – dir. Patrice Leconte – Severin
Perfume of Yvonne, The [Parfum d’Yvonne, Le] – dir. Patrice Leconte – Severin

The Taviani Brothers

Fiorile – dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani – Koch Lorber
Kaos – dir. Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani – Koch Lorber

Luis Buñuel

Ilusión viaja en tranvía, La [Illusion Travels by Streetcar] - dir. Luis Buñuel – Lionsgate
Nazarín – dir. Luis Buñuel - Lionsgate

From Asia

I Live in Fear - dir. Akira Kurosawa - Eclipse/Criterion
Autumn Afternoon, An – dir. Yasujiro Ozu – Criterion
Ballad of Narayama, The – dir. Shohei Imamura – AnimEigo
Wayward Cloud, The – dir. Tsai Ming-liang – Strand Releasing

From France

Bonheur, Le – dir. Agnès Varda – Criterion
J’embrasse pas [I Don’t Kiss] – dir. André Téchiné – Lionsgate
Beyond Hatred [Au-delà de la haine] – dir. Olivier Meyrou – First Run Features
Nathalie Granger – dir. Marguerite Duras – blaq out/Facets

From Europe

Ludwig – dir. Luchino Visconti – Koch Lorber
Kingdom 2, The [Riget 2] – dir. Lars von Trier – Koch Lorber
Sátántangó – dir. Béla Tarr – Facets
Before the Rain – dir. Milcho Manchevski – Criterion

From North America

Apprentice, The [Fleur bleu] – dir. Larry Kent – Sommerville House
Kiss of the Spider Woman – dir. Hector Babenco – City Lights
When Night Is Falling – dir. Patricia Rozema – Wolfe

From the USA

Boomerang - dir. Elia Kazan - 20th Century Fox
She’s Gotta Have It – dir. Spike Lee – MGM
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains – dir. Lou Adler – Rhino
Lost Highway – dir. David Lynch – Focus Features
Touch – dir. Paul Schrader – MGM
Baby, It’s You – dir. John Sayles – Paramount/Legend
Daniel - dir. Sidney Lumet - Paramount/Legend

Madame / Butterfly

As I'm sure you already know, Criterion announced their releases for September: three films by Max Ophüls, The Earrings of Madame de... [Madame de...], Le plaisir and La ronde. Though it's not on their site yet, Ozu's Autumn Afternoon will be available in September as well. The Eclipse box will be Aki Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy, which includes Ariel, The Match Factory Girl and Shadows in Paradise.

Ryko has listed their September releases as well, which includes a single-disc version of Harry Kümel's wonderful Daughters of Darkness, starring Delphine Seyrig, a new version of Andrzej Żuławski's Possession, with Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, and Vicente Aranda's The Blood Spattered Bride, all from Blue Underground.

Through Severin, two Patrice Leconte films, The Hairdresser's Husband [Le mari de la coiffeuse], with Jean Rochefort, and The Perfume of Yvonne [Le parfum d'Yvonne], with Hippolyte Girardot. Cult Epics will release a two-disc special edition of Slogan, better known as the film where Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin met, with additional interviews with Gainsbourg and Birkin as well as television commercials from the director.

Excitingly, the epic disaster known as Butterfly, starring Orson Welles and Pia Zadora in a well-deserved Golden Globe win, will make its way on DVD on 30 September [all of the Ryko discs will street on this day as well]. Ry Russo Young's Orphans will also be available through Carnivalesque Films.

Paramount will release the animated Chicago 10 on 26 August. TLA will release the animated adaptation of Dante's Inferno, with the voices of Dermot Mulroney and James Cromwell, on the same day. Showtime will release the first season of This American Life, which if you didn't know is the best thing currently on television, on 23 September. And, finally, Zeitgeist will release Jellyfish [Les méduses] on 30 September.

Who Knew?

Who knew Fellini would lend so well to gay pornography? Sure, you knew there was bound to be a not-so-clever homage to the director with a title like 8½, but that isn’t his only pornographic adaptation out there. New York-based pornographer Michael Lucas released last year, La dolce vita -- you guessed it, a hard-porn gay remake of the Fellini classic… and with high production values, too. Naturally, Anouk Aimée’s character was recast as a man, but, as seen above, they still used a woman, and not a tranny, for Anita Ekberg. With all of its decadence, can you really say you're surprised at this? Apparently the homosexual community is in high support of renowned world cinema classics, as La dolce vita isn’t the only film to get a queer update, though the only porn as far as I know. In the past year, remakes of both Antonioni’s L’avventura and Max Ophüls’ La ronde have been released on DVD, entitled Phoenix and Nine Lives, respectively. Though I don’t know for sure, I would imagine that Bergman’s Persona or even Cries and Whispers (though that would be really sleazy) would be ripe for a lesbian porn feature… and though a reworking of the classics would normally irk me to no end, I can’t say I don’t find these films, at least, inspired in their ambitious endeavors.