Fitzcarraldo

Fitzcarraldo (1982)
a film by Werner Herzog

Delirious. Werner Herzog just as the real life character that inspired this story embarks on making possible a dream, and delivers this amazing story that is shown in the screen as a grandiose vision.

This movie deserves a large screen to contemplate the amazing jungle landscapes and the mind blowing scenes. Pretty often I found myself wondering how we they able to do this? And I'm talking about the movie. There is people going up and down hills, cutting trees, navigating, coordinating activities, a ship climbing up a slope, and these are all real people, no effects, just a lot of hard work and amazing results that look amazing image by image. The idea of putting this movie together is as delusional and fantastic and delusional as Fitzcarraldo's own idea, but it works great, and it delivers all sorts of feeling and an great cinematic experience.

I was impressed by Klaus Kinski. His blue eyes always make me think something unpredictable is about to come and as soon as he shows up in the screen I say to myself: "Oh oh, what is he going to do now". However, this time besides the fear and passion that he inspires he delivers a dreamers, a man convinced of his task, romantic and brutal at the same time. Claudia Cardinale as Molly looks amazing and her character is delusional and sweet. Why is she helping this crazy guy? She seems as bewitched as the tribe of natives and in the end of the movie I was bewitched too.

Trainspotting

Trainspotting (1996)

a film by Danny Boyle

I really enjoy this movie. I really like to watch it again and remember why I like it so much. It is fun and it rhythm is great but it is thoughtful and brutally real at the same time. Real even when a guy can dive into a toilet or sink down in the floor after shot of heroin.

The soundtrack of this movie is great and it seems the images are hovering right in front of your eyes at the rhythm of the tune. The scenes are sometimes brutally tough and hard to see or sometimes funny and ridiculously funny, but they flow together with really dynamic cuts and a pace that delivers a really amusing story.

I really like the interpretations of Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle, they are amazing actor and these roles gave them a lot of freedom to play around. But what really impressed this time was the character of Diane, the school girl that was the voice of reason in the middle of mayhem and reminded me of An Education.

There is not rest in this movie, it keeps going and going and is extremely successful at delivering a story, the story of these social outcasts stuck in their reality, stuck in drugs and violence. However it saves the moralizing tones and the nagging while it delivers shots of crude and tough reality sparkled with lots of humor, an agile cadence, great music and mind blowing scenes.

The French Connection

The French Connection (1971)
a film by William Friedkin

I just recently got to know that The French Connection was a term that was used to refer to the real scheme for smuggling heroin from France into the States during the 60s and the 70s. And that piece of information fixes the only piece of this movie that didn't work for me. This is a really entertaining movie, the kind of movie you watch with friends and enjoy the car chase as much as you enjoy the stereotypical characters in the mean streets of New York.

There is something really stylish about this movie that makes it fun to watch besides the crime fight and the action scenes, and I think it is the way in which the city and its people are also play a role in the movie. It takes a lot of time in the streets to track a drug transaction, and this time is used to show the smoky streets of New York in the winter, the run down alleys, the fancy restaurants next to the convenient stores, and also the people, the 70s style all around the place, afro haircuts, leather jackets, girls with go-go boots and long straight hair, long side brows, and it is not on the actors, it is on the people walking around and that makes the movie fit perfectly in the city and work beyond the smoking guns.

I liked Popeye Doyle, this ruthless cop with his canotier hat, with bad attitude and the amazing crazy look that Gene Hackman gives to him. And I'm not the only one who is loves this role, apparently the owner of the Fried Chicken chain Popeye's named it after this character. I also liked Fernando Rey as the mind behind the deal, although is really dificult to detach him from his character on That Obscure Object of Desire.

Many things have been written about the car chase in this movie, and trust me, it is worth it, it is NY Subway vs. Pontiac LeMans, poles holding the subway line increasing the feeling of speed, old fashioned stunts and if you love cars and dangerous driving, this one is a must.

Au revoir, les enfants

Au revoir, les enfants (1988)
a film by Louis Malle

This movie will break your heart, and it will do it in a smart and beautiful way. It delivers outstanding images that will linger in your memory, it gets to show you great characters and
through the movie you get to make friends with them, then the evil shows up in the form of arbitrary and brutal authority, and if it does the trick, as it did on me, you would save your worst words for the bad guys.

After The Choristes it was hard to get to the top with a French Boarding School story but this one gets to it. The Boarding School gets a great environment for making a thoughtful story about the tough times of the Second World War. In the school people is forming ideas and opinions, they reflect what they learn in their homes but get the freedom to develop their own judgments.
This story doesn't try to moralize and it is its great success that it gets to move by generating ideas.

I like the characters and their relations: the elder brother with strong ideas, the younger brother spoiled by the mum, and the mum that show herself as this bourgeois neglected wife. It was the characters who make the story come together, is their humanity and diversity what makes it so moving and interesting.

I'm pretty sure that with time I'll get to remember many of the images in this movie because of its emotional content and great technical quality. It is not to be missed looking at all the characters laughing while watching Chaplin projected on the ragged screen with live music. It is shocking to see Nazi soldiers aligning kids that are half of their size against a wall. These scenes are still going around my head, and that is what the director delivers: an image, an emotion, a moment that is fixed in his memory and comes back to life in the film.

Spellbound

Spellbound (1945)

a film by Alfred Hitchcock

After watching That Obscure Object of Desire I was 0n the surrealistic track, and it drove me right into this movie. Salvador Dali making dream scenes for a movie. Ingrid Bergman hugging Gregory Peck while he holds a straight-edge razor in his hand. Alfred Hitchcock. These were the reasons why I was excited about watching this movie and found out there was much more to like.

I don't fear to be film-sacrilegious if I say that nowadays Alfred Hitchcock's stories could fit into a CSI -insert-name-of-city- episode. Nevertheless, the fact that they linger in time and they survive now as masterpieces is nothing but the result of a great combination of ingredients, and in this case that ingredient was the amazing blend of images and characters.

This film is a thriller and what keeps thrilled me after the plot was developed and the movie is over are the greatly memorable images. I close my eyes and I see the shinning straight-edge razor, I shake when I remember the image of JB's trauma -unveiled in a ridiculously crafty skiing sequence-, parallel lines on a white background appear everywhere and the shadows in an immaculate bathroom become mind-twisting.

Beside the images I really liked the characters. Although they were stereotypical representations, the roles do the trick and work great putting the story together. Gregory Peck goes from normal person to crazy at 24 frames per second. Dr. Brulov is a cartoon of Freud but I liked his great voice and pace. I'm dazzled by Ingrid Bergman's presence in the screen, she is really beautiful and I love her glasses.

I must confess I didn't find Hitchcock's cameo at first glimpse, he was thinner, he was faster and he was certainly a great filmmaker.

That Obscure Object of Desire

That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
a film by Luis Buñuel

Mala leche. This is the expression that could summarize the sardonic humor and provoking character of this movie. It is easy to check scene by scene the surreal feeling that Bunuel puts on the images. The consuming desire drives the characters while a fly on a martini glass or a bucket of water are loud in the images as the string of a detuned electric guitar on a quiet room.

I really liked the use of two actresses for one of the main roles, both beautiful in their own style, both provocative and deceiving. I was surprised by the way in which there was no need for introduction or abrupt cut in the scenes for one to change into the other, and I was more surprised to see how this effect works even when it is in principle used arbitrarily.

This movie grows on me and I appreciate the background story of the terrorist group and the dark news from the world that the main character finds through the story. This is a movie to generate ideas, to discuss and keeps you thinking about it after it is over. I get the feeling of misogyny and mock of the bourgeoisie but it fits perfectly when I also see the critical view of this story. Critique to what? To everything, it seems nothing is sacred for Bunuel, and that gives a particular allure to his films.

L'amour l'après-midi

L'amour l'après-midi (1972)
a film by Eric Rohmer

Is love decision? Is love renewing that decision? Can still be love after failing in renewing that decision? What are the limits for the love? These were the questions that kept popping in my mind as I saw Chloe in the afternoon, these were the questions I guessed right from the beginning, the questions I foresaw right before the story started to develop.

I tried not to do any research on this movie, and although I new about Rohmer and a distant respect grew on me after hearing about his work and his influence on other directors, this is the first film by him I watched. Without any preconceived ideas, I was surprised at first glimpse to see the nice aged looked on the images, the Parisians from the 70s crowding the streets and the cafés, the nice clothes, the cars, the taxis, all of these details make this story a time machine, a document of the city and the people at the time. If you like vintage and stylish this is a great flick.

Beyond the nice look of the images and the beautiful scenes such as that of Chloe naked on her bed that serves as a poster for the movie or the portrait the protagonist is making of his wife and daughter, there is an interesting story, touching beyond the feelings, reaching a moral fibre that I didn't expect could be reached. I don't like movies with a moral, and luckily this one isn't one, this one works in the other direction, it works deeper and left me thinking and full of questions.

What a great character is Chloe, this beautiful devil in a 70s look, but also how great are the secretaries. I loved the way in which the look so real, so beautiful but developing their own stories in parallel and waiting when the door was opened to put this story in context. I also liked the protagonist in his dilemma, he made this story so vivid but also very normal, as if this was a story told by a friend, full of great lines, full of great images. I keep thinking about it, I would love to hear a girl's opinion this movie, I would like to see how this movie settles in my memory, I think I'll keep this one in mind for a while.