Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1977)

I really must rewatch this film so as to write a proper long-form essay on it. It struck me dead, & since I haven’t viewed it in months, I can only rely on my impressions, jottings, & stills to ramble on about it, inadequately. Jubilee is th first Jarman film I’ve seen, though I’d read a bit regarding his aesthetic/politics prior.

Jarman’s anarchic, gritty-yet-brilliant aesthetic exemplifies my own personal ugly-beautiful, washed-out-Technicolour, fantastique preference. Yes, I’m aware how hard I can be to please, but this film fits it nicely. Underlying this visceral beauty, Jarman injects a serious politic mingled w/ a strangely manic joy. As a ‘punk film’, it never once feels contrived. Ultimately I wish I’d watched it at a formative age, but it still affected me, a weathered cinephile.

I can’t really form cogent thoughts on it, so here are some of my favourite moments in still form:

It may make th cut onto my top 100 o.a.t. list, which I am still crafting. Gutsy, brilliant cinema.

In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)

I jotted these notes immediately after watching, back in March, so these first three entries shall be meandering & nonsensical; I hope to find some kind of writing style that works eventually.

A revisit of In the Mood for Love, which I hadn’t seen since around 2002, when my interest in film was a glimmer of what it would become; I recall falling slam-bang in love with it, bawling throughout. This zeal has waned; I now see flaws dressed up in slickness. Wong Kar-Wai’s cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s artful, crisp compositions feel forced & plastic at times, particularly when th film speed changes (usually slowing to focus on falling rain, or a certain hand movement from an actor) in order to accentuate key details. A quiet, nearly flimsy plot which holds material ripe for cliches (married couples in illicit romances, etc.etc.) is lifted over th trite by stellar art/costume/set design (Maggie Cheung’s cheongsams, th apartment, lighting, etc.etc.) & pitch-perfect performances from Maggie Cheung & Tony Leung which form th emotional backbone of th film. Tony Leung is an absolute dreamboat (take that, Don Draper/Jon Hamm!) smouldering & smoking w/ hair slicker than th cinematography, completely swoonworthy. Also noticed upon this viewing some parallels/nods to Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg, especially during th third act, as hopes for a happy, pat ending begin to recede.

Favourite moment: Tony Leung visits Angkor Wat & whispers his secret into a hole in th ruins.

note: I didn’t screencap this film, so each image links back to original source.

world’s laziest cinephile

So in th past couple months, I’ve neglected film-watching almost entirely, due to various personal roadblocks & general attention difficulties. Needless to say, my own prophecy of never-updating came true yet again. Despite th silence so far, I think I’m finally in a place where I can indulge in film-watching & -writing, & to get myself excited about it, here is th list of films I procured from kg’s freeleech week:

Arrebato (Ivan Zulueta, 1980)
Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Russ Meyer, 1970)*
Birds, Orphans & Fools (Juraj Jakubisko, 1969)
The Blind Owl (Raoul Ruiz, 1987)
Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002)
Cat in the Brain (Lucio Fulci, 1990)
Ceremony (Nagisa Oshima, 1971)
Damaged Lives (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1933)
Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 1975)
Decoder (Muscha, 1984)
Delirium (Renato Polselli, 1972)
Der Todesking (Jörg Buttgereit, 1990)
Diabel (Andrzej Zulawski, 1972)
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Nagisa Oshima, 1968)
Door 3 (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1996)
Dunwich Horror (Daniel Haller, 1970)
Eden & After (Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1970)
End of August at the Hotel Ozone (Jan Schmidt, 1967)
La femme publique (Andrzej Zulawski, 1984)
Four Nights of a Dreamer (Robert Bresson, 1971)
Frightened Woman (Piero Schivazappa, 1969)
Grapes of Death (Jean Rollin, 1978)
The Idiots (Lars von Trier, 1998)
Judex (Georges Franju, 1963)
Un Lac (Philippe Grandieux, 2008)
Ladies of Leisure (Frank Capra, 1930)
L’amour braque (Andrzej Zulawski, 1985)
L’amour fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)
Landscape Suicide (James Benning, 1987)
Left Bank (Pieter Van Hees, 2008)
Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)
Little Mermaid (Karel Kachyna, 1976)
Lola (Jacques Demy, 1961)
Malpertuis (Harry Kümel, 1973)
Manji (Yasuzo Masumura, 1964)
Man Who Left his Will on Film (Nagisa Oshima, 1970)
Marie-poupée (Joel Seria, 1976)
Messiah of Evil (Willard Huyck, 1973)
Morgiana (Juraj Herz, 1972)*
Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981)*
Multiple Maniacs (John Waters, 1970)
Naboer (Pål Sletaune, 2005)
Nekromantik (Jörg Buttgereit, 1987)*
Night of the Hunted (Jean Rollin, 1980)
Night Train Murders (Aldo Lado, 1975)
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (Romano Scavolini, 1981)
Nuit Noire (Olivier Smolders, 2005)
Partner (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1968)
The Party & the Guests (Jan Nemec, 1966)
Peau d’Ane (Jacques Demy, 1970)*
Phantom Love (Nina Menkes, 2007)
La Prisonnière (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1968)
Rock n Roll High School (Allan Arkush, 1979)*
Safe in Hell (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov, 1964)
She Had Her Gun All Ready (Vivienne Dick, 1978)*
The Shuttered Room (David Greene, 1967)
Smithereens (Susan Seidelman, 1982)
Something Different (Vera Chytilová, 1963)
Spell (Alberto Cavallone, 1977)
Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Sergio Martino, 1971)
Szamanka (Andrzej Zulawski, 1996)*
Third Part of the Night (Andrzej Zulawski, 1971)
This Transient Life (Akio Jissoji, 1970)
Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (Shuji Terayama, 1971)
Ucho (Karel Kachyna, 1970)
La vampire nue (Jean Rollin, 1970)
La Vie Nouvelle (Philippe Grandieux, 2002)
Visitor to a Museum (Konstantin Lopushansky, 1989)
When the Cat Comes (Vojtech Jasny, 1963)
Women in New York (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1977
Your Vice is a Locked Room & Only I Have the Key (Sergio Martino, 1972)
Zigeunerweisen (Seijun Suzuki, 1980)

* denotes films I have seen, so there are lots of exciting new ones languishing on my external hard-drive right now! I’m hoping to reboot my film-watching routine, & view at least one film a day again, though three a week might be more realistic.

I have three jotted down blurbs from March which I might post later today, to ease myself into some content. Wish me luck.

Another film blog. Who reads those??

This blog will act as a public film log of sorts, supplementary to my personal livejournal & my not-entirely-dedicated-to-film tumblr. Since graduating with a degree in Film Studies in May 2010, I’ve been itching to write critical essays on film again (perpetual academic.) One of my favourite timekilling hobbies: screencapping films, & occasionally making animated .gifs, so expect a small amount of crossover from my tumblr (which is where most are archived) when I post about a specific film. Hence, all film stills on this blog belong to me & should link back to my blog/tumblr if used. (If a particular still does not belong to me, I will state where it was found; I always give credit/source links, & expect the same courtesy in return.) Cheers to a film blog I’m going to try to update regularly!