tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post4742205582564777661..comments2023-11-22T09:11:01.567+00:00Comments on George Szirtes: Arthouse: NorthforkGeorge Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-64251905593035813422010-01-07T11:18:31.090+00:002010-01-07T11:18:31.090+00:00Should be a full stop after tour, and Thatre is Th...Should be a full stop after tour, and Thatre is Theatre : )<br /><br />Avant garde possible has a hyphen.A. N. Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00605112552228814421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-88182932843891915982010-01-07T11:16:53.016+00:002010-01-07T11:16:53.016+00:00I once saw Ronaldo and Clara, Bob Dylan's self...I once saw Ronaldo and Clara, Bob Dylan's self-directed narrative film of the Rolling Thunder tour, It was showing at the Film Thatre Stone-on-Trent when I was eighteen. It's just under four hours, and staying in the cinema remains the most avant garde gesture of my life. <br /><br />I remember cycling home in the dark afterwards, without lights, which had, of course, been nicked during the four hours, thinking what an utter utter Philistine population the rest of Stoke-on-Trent was compared to me.A. N. Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00605112552228814421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-87329320219246354752010-01-06T17:32:46.383+00:002010-01-06T17:32:46.383+00:00I like the idea of appreciating in absentia, as if...I like the idea of appreciating in absentia, as if to say, 'He wasn't here. He loved it.' <br /><br />But then there is - I hesitate to extend the list - Abel Gance's Napoleon that I have never seen right the way through at a sitting but which was shown on TV in a few episodes, in the late 70s, I think. Five and a half hours in one available version, and dizzyingly beautiful. Watching it in parts was bliss.<br /><br />It was Kevin Brownlow who restored the film, Gance was still alive (just) and when shown in its restored version, 6,000 people packed the hall.<br /><br />Apparently the film was supposed to be even longer. Heading on towards nine hours, I read somewhere.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-6873607647287562092010-01-06T15:12:59.252+00:002010-01-06T15:12:59.252+00:00Speaking of seven hour (plus) movies, I once sat t...Speaking of seven hour (plus) movies, I once sat through Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's 'Our Hitler', when I was living in San Francisco for awhile in 1982. A 'collage' film, it 'straddles the line between fiction and documentary'. We did consider leaving during the halfway break, but went back (perhaps because we had nowhere better to go). Parts of it were interesting, particularly a longish interview with (and/or) voiceover by one of Hitler's servants (I think, maybe from the Wolf's Lair). Then there is Warhol's 'Empire State', which seems much more of an idea than a film; like the silent piano (and similar kinds of avant set pieces), it can probably be best appreciated in absentia.Mark Granierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09899629187771913398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-32457831233163553692010-01-06T14:54:18.010+00:002010-01-06T14:54:18.010+00:00Well, yes, Natasha Kinski. The thing is you don...Well, yes, Natasha Kinski. The thing is you don't in fact see a lot of her in the film, and maybe it is only as the lost object of remembered desire we want to see her, and remember her afterwards...<br /><br /> 'The lost object of remembered desire' - now there's a fine phrase. Someone ought to coin that.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Natasha Kinski... where was I?<br /><br />Foster, your spelling is atrocious! You will come round to dinner soon.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-10276758225361166472010-01-06T14:03:07.054+00:002010-01-06T14:03:07.054+00:00'...Channel switch...'
: ) I put one of t...'...Channel switch...'<br /><br />: ) I put one of those in every sentence I ever write.A. N. Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00605112552228814421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-29709519492024562212010-01-06T14:01:27.719+00:002010-01-06T14:01:27.719+00:00I love Paris, Texas too, and I don't think it ...I love Paris, Texas too, and I don't think it has nothing to do with Natasha Kinski. It's quite conventional though, isn't it, in narrative terms? (Is it a quest narrative?) And also falls into the 'alternative' or 'independent' catagory rather than 'arthouse?'<br /><br />I've never been able to sit through Wings of Desire, not if there's a cnahhel switch button to hand.<br /><br />I used to like Eric Rhommer's improvised movies, when I was a jeune flanneur. Nothing ever happened, which suited my stoned mind.A. N. Authorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00605112552228814421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-22929075711603377702010-01-06T12:45:26.164+00:002010-01-06T12:45:26.164+00:00I don't know 'Hidden' Mark. I seldom f...I don't know 'Hidden' Mark. I seldom find myself at a cinema nowadays, though, in my desired alternative life as a flâneur, I would spend a lot of time there. <br /><br />I don't mind films trying my patience, it's just that my patience is not guaranteed. The first time I saw Wings of Desire, I found it puffed up, over mystical and generally drenched in self-conscious gloomy lyricism. The second time was better. The melancholy of the trench-coated Teutonic angels seemed less mawky, more justified. <br /><br />Try Béla Tarr's The Werckmeister Harmonies. Distinctly arthouse (or art house) and easier on the seat than his Satantango, that runs to about seven and a half hours.<br /><br />But even when such films don't work, when they are bombastic or dull or childish or mad, I'm glad they're still there buzzing away in people's heads, gathering earnest commenters in cramped bedsits.<br /><br />Oh, and Paris, Texas is a brilliant film. I've seen it about three times and my opinion of it hasn't changed.George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-17835247230947236942010-01-06T12:29:57.510+00:002010-01-06T12:29:57.510+00:00'Art house' films are, as I understand it,...'Art house' films are, as I understand it, those which are, at least initially, outside the commercial mainstream. This would include many films I love, including the remarkable 'Hidden' (or 'Caché'), which is one of the best films I have seen in quite some time. Weirdly enough, the same director, Michael Haneke, is responsible for the misbegotten, sadistic 'Funny Games' (which he actually remade in English!). <br /><br />'Hidden' became something of a cult movie, as did 'Wings of Desire'. I loved Wenders' 'Paris, Texas', but I went to see 'Wings' with my cousin and we both walked out somewhere near halfway. As far as I recall, we both found it much too self-consciously stylised and dreary (even the children playing in the streets seemed weighed down with angst). Not that any film actually needs to be (god forbid) 'upbeat'; a film can and should be as downbeat as it needs or wishes to be, but 'Wings' tried my patience in a way that films by (say) Bergman never have. There was only so much I could take of earnestly philosophical, seriously Teutonic angels in trench coats. That said, I haven't seen it in about 15 years, so maybe I'll try it again one of these days. Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' is another film that bored me to tears (a far cry from 'Andrei Rublev'), as did <br />Lars von Trier's 'Dogville'; 'Antichrist' is one I probably won't be sampling.Mark Granierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09899629187771913398noreply@blogger.com