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Screening Roomby Ari
Agnes Varda’s new wave classic is an odd, but compelling film about a somewhat spoiled French singer whose superstitions and insecurities reach new levels after getting a cancer test. Afraid that the results will confirm her doom, Cleo (Corinne Marchand) travels around Paris to drown her sorrows by indulging in her superficial interests. She buys a new hat, she has her friends sing to her in her posh apartment, she has her assistant attend to her needs. Eventually she sets off on her own journey, and in her isolation and aimlessness, meets someone unexpectedly and has an epiphany of sorts. Varda opens the film with Cleo at a fortune teller, switching back and forth from color to black and white as her future is determined. From then on the film uses crisp black and white photography in that stylish new wave sense. It’s an interesting and singular film, but nothing I responded to on an emotional level. Marchand is both beautiful and distant as Cleo, always engaging no matter how strange or obnoxious I found her. It’s not my favorite film from the new wave, but it’s certainly a seminal achievement.
Lost in Translation - Sofia Coppola
Perhaps my favorite film of this decade so far, Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation is a beautiful little drama about the nature of emotional attachment, not so much about romance as it is the friendship between two lost an lonely souls. Which is not to say it’s devoid of romantic ideas. Lost in Translation is intimately constructed and perfectly acted by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Their on-screen connection is affecting and amusing, from the first night out with Charlotte and her friends, to that classic final sequence where the audience is left outside the private moment between the two characters. It's incredible work by one of the icons of comedy and one of the most appealing new actresses in contemporary film. Coppola and her cinematographer shoot Tokyo and Kyoto with delicacy and wonder. It’s a simple but emotional experience that build and builds and then perfectly concludes. The ending is ambiguous and moving in a way that would put a smile on Antonioni’s face. This was Coppola’s breakthrough announcement as a major contemporary artist, and so far she’s delivering on the promise of this film. She’s an individual, ambitious and highly gifted filmmaker, one of the best working today. |
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