Tuesday, February 12, 2019
602 - Clouds of Sils Maria, France, 2014. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Cloud Phenomena of Maloja.
Its harbingers.
The clouds wind up the Maloja Pass.
The so-called Maloja Snake.
Rosa is showing Maria footage from the 1924 silent documentary film Cloud Phenomena of Maloja by Arnold Fanck, with subtitles. Maria's personal assistant Valentine looks on while leaning in the doorjam behind them. She shows interest. She moves forward to get a better look.
The baroque orchestra plaintively plays Handel's Largo de Xerxes underneath.
Rosa explains to Maria, "Wilhelm was fascinated with this film. He used to marvel at the fact that the true nature of the landscape revealed itself in these images."
Rosa is Wilhelm's recent widow. The playwright Wilhelm Melchior.
Wilhelm Melchior gave Maria her first big role twenty years ago. He gave her a career. He made her a star. She has always felt grateful.
So grateful, in fact, that when they hear of his death, Maria and Valentine continue on to Zurich anyway, for Maria to give a speech in his honor and to receive an award on his behalf.
Henryk Wad is present.
Henryk is a man Maria cannot stand. She says. She slept with him when she was 18 and they were working on a film together. But she later felt she was too young to understand what she was doing, and he took advantage. A few years later, she says, they working on a film together again. By the time the third film came around, she was a star and suddenly he was interested
But Maria loved Wilhelm Melchior. He gave her her career. He was a warm and generous man, as well as a genius. She reveals to Valentine, after they have been drinking, that she was in love with him but she knew that their professional, working relationship was too important to risk losing over desire.
If only he had lived.
Valentine has invited hot young director Klaus Diesterweg to meet with Maria.
He meets with her.
He offers Maria to play the older woman Helena this time around and to allow a newcomer to play Maria's original role, the character Sigrid.
The newcomer will be Jo-Ann Ellis, a girl with classical training and a theater background who has just done a superhero movie. She respects Maria Enders and is willing to give up her other commitments to work with her. He says.
Rosa invites Maria and Valentine to stay in the Melchior house, in the hills above the Maloja Pass, while Rosa leaves to grieve away from home and its memories.
Valentine proves to be a good rehearsal partner as well as a personal assistant. She too memorizes her lines. The women speak them during both formal rehearsal times and while going hiking and swimming. They move back and forth between the lines and their own speech so that the distinctions between characters and real people become blurred.
They are living their roles.
And as Jo-Ann arrives to play Sigrid, Valentine transforms into Helena
As the clouds roll by.
Juliette Binoche had her break-out role(s) in 1985 in a movie Olivier Assayas co-wrote. She played Nina / Anne Larrieux in Andre Techine's Rendez-vous.
23 years later she worked with Assayas again, in his ensemble drama Summer Hours (2008). Which we have seen.
Now nearly 30 years after their first movie together, Ms. Binoche is starring in Olivier Assayas' film Clouds of Sils Maria.
Kristen Stewart has had a stellar career in a short amount of time. Everyone knows her as Bella Swan from the Twilight series, but she also had a career as a child actress and has played a wide range of characters in a good number of independent and studio films.
* * * *
I'm sick of acting hanging from wires in front of green screens.
He chose an unknown 18-year old actress.
In two months of shooting he gave me everything I needed to build a career on.
The cockroaches must have taken a later train.
I have to say my first reaction was to turn right back.
I can't deal with this; it's impossible.
So he was like in love with you or something?
Not at all. He was just furious I didn't gie in to him.
Look it up in the internet.
I thought we despised the internet.
But I try to be more elegant today.
The less he understands, the better he is. When he understands nothing, he's excellent.
We had an affair when we were shooting Maloja Snake.
Yeah, I couldn't tell.
I was 18, kind of dumb, and he really took advantage. After the shoot I never heard from him, and it destroyed me.
I'm sure you've run into him since.
We made another film together afterwards.
Which one?
Oh, you don't want to know. Tolstoy adaptation. German producers. Who cares? About ten years later I was famous. Then he was interested. And he kept harassing me, calling me in the middle of the night. I didn't give in, and that he hated, and he made me pay for it every single day of the shooting.
He was really amazing in that one movie, um, what was it called? He plays a Soviet defector with missile codes and s---. Do you know it?
No idea. No, I don't know. Never heard of it.
He's great in it. So intense. Especially in the more physical scenes. That stare. He is like, I like him.
Yeah, I kind of got it.
I mean, as an actor I really like him.
It's great to celebrate his work, especially today.
I played Sigrid in Maloja Snake when I was 18. For me it was more than a role. In some way I am still Sigrid.
That's my point. Sigrid seduces Helena.
And it has nothing to do with being a lesbian, by the way. I've always been straight.
That's not at all what I meant.
Sigrid is free beyond everything, and most of all she is destructive, unpredictable.
I know.
And right or wrong, I've always identified with that freedom. It's a way of protecting myself.
And for you, Helena embodies that opposite?
Helena's 40. She runs a company. She falls head over heels in love with a girl who doesn't love her. And commits suicide. Yes, she's completely the opposite.
But, what is it that attracts Helena to Sigrid if they are so different.
It's obvious. Her youth.
'
If you're telling me I'm Helena's age now, yeah, you're right. It's true. But that doesn't mean I can play her.
The way I see Helena is totally different.
She's not the epitome of order.
Sigrid revives tis hidden violence in Helena.
Was it hidden or tamed? Time's gone by and she can't accept it. Me neither, I guess.
There's no antagonism. It's the attraction of two women with the same wound. Sigrid and Helena are one and the same person. One and the same person. That's what the play is about. And because you were Sigrid, only you can be Helena now.
You know as well as I do that William Melchior had been working on a sequel for years.
Yes, but it was about Sigrid at 40 years old.
No, it was about Sigrid 20 years later became Helena.
So, who's gonna play Sigrid?
The role scares me. The role scares me. I'm in the middle of a divorce. I feel alone and vulnerable.
If you refuse, I understand, but it will be a missed opportunity, especially for William.
I should get going.
I have another reason.
Susan Rosenberg. She played Helena with me. She died in a car accident a year after. It's a superstition. I've always associated her death with a Helena suicide.
She was a lousy actress who didn't understand a thing about the role, and her conventional style of acting highlighted the modernity of your performance. You should be grateful to her.
Helena's love for Sigrid makes her stupid, and blind to what everybody in the audience can see right away. . . .
I think your reading is simplistic. I know Sigrid, and believe me, she's more interesting than that. Yes, she takes advantage of Helena. Yes, she fascinates her, and she knows it. Well, you can decide not to look any further, but I had to because I played her. You're just talking about what's on the surface. The play is about what attracts them to each other, and it's harder to see and it's more profound and truer. The impossibility of their relationship is as cruel for Sigrid.
I'm sure she'll get over it.
What do you know?
Time. Youth. She has her life ahead of her.
Well, Helena's young too. I mean, she's not old. She has her life ahead of her too. But she decides to give it all up.
Helena's not used to be turned down. She discovers her own frailty and she can't accept it.
I had a dream we were already rehearsing and the past and the present were blending together. I'm confused.
No kidding.
He is a sick director. Jo-Ann's a superstar. It pays well.
I don't need the money.
Stay as long as you want. I like the fact that you are working on the part here where it was written.
You promised no ghosts.
Is that the Maloja Pass, right there? The snake?
I was fine with just feeling attraction. . . . Anything more would have endangered our relationship, which my intuition told me was much more important than desire.
Maybe I only remember what suits me to remember.
There are werewolves involved, for whatever reason. - Valentine, played by Kristen Stewart.
I didn't know you at 18, but I'm almost positive Jo-Ann's a lot worse.
I think she probably got jealous of Hollywood trash. TMZ deemed her the A-list actress that dreampt of making it to the Z-list.
You could have told me sooner.
You despise internet gossip.
This is not gossip; it's information.
It's celebrity news. It's fun.
I thought you liked her a lot.
I do. I love her. She's not completely antiseptic like the rest of Hollywood.
You just said she's a self-destructive crazy girl.
I didn't say that.
Sorry, I must have misunderstood then.
She's brave enough to be herself. At her age, I think that's pretty f-ing cool. I think she's got a bright future. In fact, I think she's probably my favorite actress.
Oh. You mean more than me.
No. I didn't mean that.
Defeated by age, by her insecurities.
This poor woman is ready to kill herself before the play even starts. She's using Sigrid as a weapon. That's how.
I'm Sigrid. I want to stay Sigrid!
Sigrid is 20.
I don't care. I know I'm right. It doesn't interest me anymore.
If you find my view uninteresting, I don't really know what I'm doing here. I can run lines with you, but I don't really see the point. You can find anyone to do that.
All I'm saying is that thinking about a text is different from living it. It's nothing against you.
You hate the play and you hate her. You don't have to take it out on me. I'm just doing my job.
I don't know why I should be helping to bring it to life.
I bet you weren't saying stuff like this when you were playing Sigrid.
I was a kid when I was playing Sigrid. I wasn't asking those kinds of questions.
Like Jo-Ann and her science fiction film?
Yeah, probably.
Don't you want to get that innocence back?
You can't get innocent twice.
You can. If you just accepted Helena the way you accepted Sigrid. Obviously, it's easier to relate to strength rather than weakness. Youth is better than maturity. Cruelty is cruel. Suffering sucks. She's mature and she's innocent. She's innocent in her own right. That's what I like about her.
You didn't answer me. You have your interpretation of the play. I think mine's just confusing you. It's frustrating me. It's uncomfortable. It's not good.
Stay.
No, no.
Please, stay. I need you.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Monday, February 11, 2019
601 - Carlos, Part 3, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Monday, February 11, 2019
601 - Carlos, Part 3, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Budapest, 1979.
Carlos and Magdalena set up shop.
Hungary is a socialist nation. They tell him he can receive friends and move about Hungary as he pleases. But he has no right to set up operations there.
He goes to Tripoli, Libya.
He goes to Aden, Yemen.
Syria protects him.
He works with other countries and regimes.
Libya.
Romania.
Nicolae Ceausesu.
He sets up deals.
He smuggles guns.
He makes lots of money.
Until it all come crashing down.
Communism falls.
The Berlin Wall is dismantled.
Carlos must leave Syria.
He goes to Sudan.
He loses his supporters.
He watches as an outsider.
He gets ill.
He is captured.
Nothing lasts forever.
Not the least the life and work of a communist terrorist.
601 - Carlos, Part 3, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Budapest, 1979.
Carlos and Magdalena set up shop.
Hungary is a socialist nation. They tell him he can receive friends and move about Hungary as he pleases. But he has no right to set up operations there.
He goes to Tripoli, Libya.
He goes to Aden, Yemen.
Syria protects him.
He works with other countries and regimes.
Libya.
Romania.
Nicolae Ceausesu.
He sets up deals.
He smuggles guns.
He makes lots of money.
Until it all come crashing down.
Communism falls.
The Berlin Wall is dismantled.
Carlos must leave Syria.
He goes to Sudan.
He loses his supporters.
He watches as an outsider.
He gets ill.
He is captured.
Nothing lasts forever.
Not the least the life and work of a communist terrorist.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
600 - Carlos, Part 2, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Sunday, February 10, 2019
600 - Carlos, Part 2, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Vienna, December 21, 1975.
The red and white tram turns the corner and comes to a stop. Sonderzug.
Carlos and his men get off. He smokes. He walks. He looks around. He wears the black jacket, the sunglasses, the beret, of his uniform.
Is the conference still on?
Yes.
They go upstairs. They unpack their bags. There are six of them. Including Nana.
They enter the conference room and shoot up the ceilings. As well as the first couple men who try to stop them. Carlos shoots one, a Libyan delegate. Nana shoots another.
The world's oil ambassadors lie on the ground below the tables.
Nana shoots a third one.
Youssef straps explosives to the table legs.
Khalid: find Yamani?
Not yet.
Khalid does find Jamshid Amouzegar, the oil minister of Iran.
Carlos finds Dr. Hernandez Acosta of Venezuela. He appreciates the position of his government. "We are on the same side."
Then Carlos finds him: Ahmed Zaki Yamani, oil minister of Saudi Arabia.
Search them all. And confiscate any weapons.
The police get into a firefight in the hallway with a couple of Carlos' men. One of his men gets shot in the abdomen.
"I'm wounded. The situation's under control. One of the cops was hit. The others ran. Joseph is still in position."
"You have nothing to fear. Just sit hear; keep an eye on the hostages, okay?"
The neutral countries in the back to the left:
Gabon, Nigeria, Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia.
The friendly countries in the back to the right:
Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Algeria.
The others are the enemies of our cause. In the center, quick:
Saudi Arabia, The Emirates, Qatar, Iran.
Carlos dictates a letter to a secretary.
To the Austrian authorities,
We have taken the OPEC Conference delegates hostage. We demand that the enclosed communique be read on Austrian state radio and television within two hours, and then at regular intervals every two hours. A bus with curtains at its windows will be provided to take us to Vienna Airport tomorrow morning at seven o'clock.
Carlos' wounded colleague falls to the ground. He has lost plenty of blood.
Belaid Abdessalam, oil minister of Algeria, is a doctor.
There a DC-9 and a three-man crew will be ready to take off to carry us and our hostages to our final destination. Any delay, provocation, or unauthorized attempts to approach us will endanger the lives of our hostages.
Signed,
The Armed Wing of the Arab Revolution,
Vienna, December 21st, 1975.
The secretary goes out to deliver the communique and the letter to the police. Along the way, she lifts the wounded policeman and helps him make it outside to get help.
Dr. Abdessalam says the wounded colleague's wound is serious. He needs to be operated on immediately.
Otto Roesch, Minister of the Interior, Home Secretary, arrives by helicopter.
It seems Qaddafi is furious.
Carlos lets it being
President Carlos Andres Perez.
who nationalized the oil industry as well as the mines.
He redistributed wealth to the needy. Considered education the third world's main weapon.
* * * *
"Sit down. I'm going to kill you. Not yet. You're a smart man, and you know the ins and outs of politics the same way I do. You know that at the end of the day we're just pawns in the game of history. Aren't we? Me, I'm a soldier. I don't have a home, not even a tent. My only mission is to lead my men to victory. Today, I have 40 commando groups around the world, ready to act as soon as I give the order. They are men with determination, and they're ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause and for the final victory. That's who I am.
"As for you, you are a strategist. And the chessboard you played on is as big as the planet. And I totally respect that, because actually you and I have found ourselves many times on the same side. The side of the anti-imperialist struggle and the Palestinian cause. But unfortunately, today, we are not on that same side, because by lifting the oil embargo you betrayed our cause. You sided with Washington.
"There always comes a time for a man to take responsibility for his acts. And that time, Sheikh Yamani, has come for you today. You are going to have to pay for Saudi Arabia's political decisions. And you know what's the treatment reserved for traitors--death. Now you pray. You know what? I'm going to be straight to you, because you and I are men of the same caliber. You and I know that if the Austrian Government doesn't respect our ultimatum, I will have no choice. And with no hesitation, I will execute you personally and throw your body out the window.
"But I also know that a man of your intelligence won't hold that against me, because you know, after all, our struggle very well. You are aware of its greatness and nobility."
"Relax. Only Amouzegar for Iran and Yamani for Saudi Arabia will have to pay. The others will be spared."
"It is now clear for everyone that the crucial Arab cause concerning he Palestinian question and subjected to its consequences is the object of a major plot aiming to legitimize Zionist existence on our land and to consolidate division, weakness, and dissension in the Arab world, and particularly in the region neighboring the occupied Palestinian territory in order to allow the aggressive Zionist state to execute its expansionist projects. In addition to these maneuvers aimed at forcing Arab and Palestinian recognition regarding its legality, the Zionist state . . . "
The doctor who examined your colleague said he cannot be moved. . . . He will die during the journey.
Dead or alive, I don't care.
"Don't you think what the revolution needs is money and not corpses? . . . Your hostages are more valuable alive than dead."
"I am very well paid. I have nothing to gain by sparing these dogs."
600 - Carlos, Part 2, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Vienna, December 21, 1975.
The red and white tram turns the corner and comes to a stop. Sonderzug.
Carlos and his men get off. He smokes. He walks. He looks around. He wears the black jacket, the sunglasses, the beret, of his uniform.
Is the conference still on?
Yes.
They go upstairs. They unpack their bags. There are six of them. Including Nana.
They enter the conference room and shoot up the ceilings. As well as the first couple men who try to stop them. Carlos shoots one, a Libyan delegate. Nana shoots another.
The world's oil ambassadors lie on the ground below the tables.
Nana shoots a third one.
Youssef straps explosives to the table legs.
Khalid: find Yamani?
Not yet.
Khalid does find Jamshid Amouzegar, the oil minister of Iran.
Carlos finds Dr. Hernandez Acosta of Venezuela. He appreciates the position of his government. "We are on the same side."
Then Carlos finds him: Ahmed Zaki Yamani, oil minister of Saudi Arabia.
Search them all. And confiscate any weapons.
The police get into a firefight in the hallway with a couple of Carlos' men. One of his men gets shot in the abdomen.
"I'm wounded. The situation's under control. One of the cops was hit. The others ran. Joseph is still in position."
"You have nothing to fear. Just sit hear; keep an eye on the hostages, okay?"
The neutral countries in the back to the left:
Gabon, Nigeria, Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia.
The friendly countries in the back to the right:
Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Algeria.
The others are the enemies of our cause. In the center, quick:
Saudi Arabia, The Emirates, Qatar, Iran.
Carlos dictates a letter to a secretary.
To the Austrian authorities,
We have taken the OPEC Conference delegates hostage. We demand that the enclosed communique be read on Austrian state radio and television within two hours, and then at regular intervals every two hours. A bus with curtains at its windows will be provided to take us to Vienna Airport tomorrow morning at seven o'clock.
Carlos' wounded colleague falls to the ground. He has lost plenty of blood.
Belaid Abdessalam, oil minister of Algeria, is a doctor.
There a DC-9 and a three-man crew will be ready to take off to carry us and our hostages to our final destination. Any delay, provocation, or unauthorized attempts to approach us will endanger the lives of our hostages.
Signed,
The Armed Wing of the Arab Revolution,
Vienna, December 21st, 1975.
The secretary goes out to deliver the communique and the letter to the police. Along the way, she lifts the wounded policeman and helps him make it outside to get help.
Dr. Abdessalam says the wounded colleague's wound is serious. He needs to be operated on immediately.
Otto Roesch, Minister of the Interior, Home Secretary, arrives by helicopter.
It seems Qaddafi is furious.
Carlos lets it being
President Carlos Andres Perez.
who nationalized the oil industry as well as the mines.
He redistributed wealth to the needy. Considered education the third world's main weapon.
* * * *
"Sit down. I'm going to kill you. Not yet. You're a smart man, and you know the ins and outs of politics the same way I do. You know that at the end of the day we're just pawns in the game of history. Aren't we? Me, I'm a soldier. I don't have a home, not even a tent. My only mission is to lead my men to victory. Today, I have 40 commando groups around the world, ready to act as soon as I give the order. They are men with determination, and they're ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause and for the final victory. That's who I am.
"As for you, you are a strategist. And the chessboard you played on is as big as the planet. And I totally respect that, because actually you and I have found ourselves many times on the same side. The side of the anti-imperialist struggle and the Palestinian cause. But unfortunately, today, we are not on that same side, because by lifting the oil embargo you betrayed our cause. You sided with Washington.
"There always comes a time for a man to take responsibility for his acts. And that time, Sheikh Yamani, has come for you today. You are going to have to pay for Saudi Arabia's political decisions. And you know what's the treatment reserved for traitors--death. Now you pray. You know what? I'm going to be straight to you, because you and I are men of the same caliber. You and I know that if the Austrian Government doesn't respect our ultimatum, I will have no choice. And with no hesitation, I will execute you personally and throw your body out the window.
"But I also know that a man of your intelligence won't hold that against me, because you know, after all, our struggle very well. You are aware of its greatness and nobility."
"Relax. Only Amouzegar for Iran and Yamani for Saudi Arabia will have to pay. The others will be spared."
"It is now clear for everyone that the crucial Arab cause concerning he Palestinian question and subjected to its consequences is the object of a major plot aiming to legitimize Zionist existence on our land and to consolidate division, weakness, and dissension in the Arab world, and particularly in the region neighboring the occupied Palestinian territory in order to allow the aggressive Zionist state to execute its expansionist projects. In addition to these maneuvers aimed at forcing Arab and Palestinian recognition regarding its legality, the Zionist state . . . "
The doctor who examined your colleague said he cannot be moved. . . . He will die during the journey.
Dead or alive, I don't care.
"Don't you think what the revolution needs is money and not corpses? . . . Your hostages are more valuable alive than dead."
"I am very well paid. I have nothing to gain by sparing these dogs."
Saturday, February 9, 2019
599 - Carlos, Part 1, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Saturday, February 9, 2019
599 - Carlos, Part 1, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Mohammed Boudia awakens with his girlfriend and gets dressed for the day.
His car explodes.
Mohammed Boudia worked for the PFLP. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
He was targeted by MOSSAD. The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations. A counter-terrorist unit from Israel.
Which was itself responding in part to the Black September bombings at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
If you have seen Steven Spielberg's movie Munich (2005), then you have witnessed a telling of that story. This story overlaps with that story just a little bit here in the beginning, and follows the action forward and from the point of view of the other side.
Time to replace Boudia.
The leader, Waddi Haddad, brings the new man from Jordan to London to see if he is ready.
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez is the man for the job.
Sanchez hails from Venezuela. He was born in 1949. In 1951 his brother Lenin was born. In 1958 his brother Vladimir was born. His father apparently had a thing for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Sanchez received Communist training first in Cuba and then in Moscow.
He gets his assignment. He goes to London. He informs people that his name is now Carlos.
Carlos is a strong leader. He consolidates power. His early missions fail but he makes adjustments. He goes to France.
The head of Carlos' unit, Michel Moukharbal--Andre--betrays Carlos by fingering him to the police. Carlos gets away by shooting himself out of an apartment.
He retreats to Yemen where at first he lets himself go. But then Haddad makes him go back into training for a new mission he has for him. In Austria.
Carlos now leads a team in Vienna, where they take hostages during the OPEC meeting.
This film is a grand project for Olivier Assayas. It runs 5 hours, 39 minutes, and its characters speak in 8 different languages English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, and Japanese.
* * * *
This film is the result of historical and journalistic research.
Because of controversial gray areas in Carlos' life, the film must be viewed as fiction, tracing two decades in the life of a notorious terrorist.
His relations with other characters have been fictionalized as well.
The three murder on Rue Toulier are the only events depicted in this film for which Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was tried and sentenced.
The Drugstore Publicis bombing is still under investigation.
Paris, June 28, 1973
599 - Carlos, Part 1, France, 2010. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Mohammed Boudia awakens with his girlfriend and gets dressed for the day.
His car explodes.
Mohammed Boudia worked for the PFLP. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
He was targeted by MOSSAD. The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations. A counter-terrorist unit from Israel.
Which was itself responding in part to the Black September bombings at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
If you have seen Steven Spielberg's movie Munich (2005), then you have witnessed a telling of that story. This story overlaps with that story just a little bit here in the beginning, and follows the action forward and from the point of view of the other side.
Time to replace Boudia.
The leader, Waddi Haddad, brings the new man from Jordan to London to see if he is ready.
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez is the man for the job.
Sanchez hails from Venezuela. He was born in 1949. In 1951 his brother Lenin was born. In 1958 his brother Vladimir was born. His father apparently had a thing for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Sanchez received Communist training first in Cuba and then in Moscow.
He gets his assignment. He goes to London. He informs people that his name is now Carlos.
Carlos is a strong leader. He consolidates power. His early missions fail but he makes adjustments. He goes to France.
The head of Carlos' unit, Michel Moukharbal--Andre--betrays Carlos by fingering him to the police. Carlos gets away by shooting himself out of an apartment.
He retreats to Yemen where at first he lets himself go. But then Haddad makes him go back into training for a new mission he has for him. In Austria.
Carlos now leads a team in Vienna, where they take hostages during the OPEC meeting.
This film is a grand project for Olivier Assayas. It runs 5 hours, 39 minutes, and its characters speak in 8 different languages English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, and Japanese.
* * * *
This film is the result of historical and journalistic research.
Because of controversial gray areas in Carlos' life, the film must be viewed as fiction, tracing two decades in the life of a notorious terrorist.
His relations with other characters have been fictionalized as well.
The three murder on Rue Toulier are the only events depicted in this film for which Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was tried and sentenced.
The Drugstore Publicis bombing is still under investigation.
Paris, June 28, 1973
Friday, February 8, 2019
598 - Summer Hours, France, 2008. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Friday, February 8, 2019
598 - Summer Hours, France, 2008. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
What about the grandchildren?
Sylvie is the tall, curly-headed one. She stands out at the beginning of the film. Because she is older and taller than the others. She is starting to grow. She helps one of the little ones when he stumbles.
The kids are walking through the woods. Down the hill. Through the meadow. To the stream. On the beautiful estate owned by their grandmother. Helene Marly.
Helene loves art. And she collects it. Paintings. Drawings. Sculptures. Porcelains. Crystal. Silver. Glass. Vases. Panels. Furniture. Specifically two paintings by Camille Corot. Panels by Odilon Redon. A Louis Majorelle Art Moderne desk and chair. A Felix Bracquemond vase. An Atelier d'Auteuil vase. A Josef Hoffmann armoire. The pieces of a Degas sculpture, kept in a plastic grocery bag, that her sons broke when they were little.
And the work of her uncle. Paul Berthier. His sketchbook. His drawing of the view out the patio door. A couple of his paintings.
Helen is turning 75. And she has her grown children over to the villa for her birthday. Adrienne comes from New York. Jeremie, from China. Frederic, from Paris, ten miles to the South. The men bring their wives and children. Adrienne talks about her boyfriend. And reveals that he is now her fiance.
The family is loving. Warm and generous. Intelligent and worldly. Hard-working and dedicated. They enjoy one another's company. It is good to be together again. To be home.
They have their disagreements. Jeremie works for a sneaker company. Adrienne as a non-corporate does not fully approve of his profession. Frederic has become an economist at the behest of his father. He does not really love it, so he fashions himself an ironic economist and behaves iconoclastically.
Helene radiates with joy as she speaks with her children. She shares her memories and her art with them. She speaks lovingly of her uncle Paul. Perhaps she loved him more than just as an uncle. She speaks to each of her children individually and shows them the pieces she wants them to have when she dies.
But she does not know how to take care of her affairs legally, so after she dies the estate tax will be assessed at the highest possible bracket.
Helene does die. And the children have to decide what to do with her affairs. Her estate. Her effects.
The attorneys get involved. The curators. The auctioneers.
The siblings have to vote. Frederic loves the family home. He wants to keep it in the family. And much of the art. Especially the Corots. To pass it down for generations to come. But Jeremie's job will keep him in China solidly for the next five years. So the house will be of no use to him. He has three children to take care of. He needs the money. Adrienne is about to be married in New York. She sides with Jeremie. Frederic must concede.
The acting and writing are nuanced in their mature restraint. The siblings behave as one believes real people really would do. Not in superficial and petty cliches. But as people who love each other and want the best, but who must acquiesce to the practicalities of life. With compromise. And loss.
Assayas' deftly handles the objects--both as art and as heirlooms. The same pieces function as artifacts in the museum that function as daily gadgets in the home. The housekeeper keeps cut flowers in the vases. Helene writes on the desk, sits in the chair, stuffs the armoire with household clutter. Including the plastic grocery bag with the broken Degas pieces. Which have sat hidden in that drawer for at least 25 years.
The experts debate just as much as the siblings do. What to do with each item? Christie's in New York will tear out the pages of the sketchbook to maximize profit, which is not only gauche but also a loss for the nation. The sketchbook should stay in France. The Art Moderne pieces, as valuable as they are, would only sit in a warehouse and collect mold.
This film is beyond you can't take it with you. Everyone treats that as a given. It is about the memories that the objects carry, their meaning for different family members, their meaning for the public. The two that vote to sell get to take an item or two each with them, items that mean something to them, which their mother promised them. But Frederic, the one who wants to keep everything, cannot keep the one thing he wants most after the home and gardens--the Corots--because there are two of them; they cannot be divided into three; and he cannot afford to buy out the other two.
But in the end it is the grandchildren who are overlooked. As the three children make their decisions and the experts, strangers to the home, come through the house and make their decisions, monetizing things that have no emotional value for them, nobody thinks to ask the generation that would desire it the most.
The siblings have had their time on the estate. They have their memories. They are ready to move on.
But their children have only started their lives. And have had no say in the loss of their childhood.
They have a party. They might as well. The house will be gone within a few weeks. This is their last chance to take advantage of it. Their friends arrive. They play music. They dance. They light up. They drink. They swim.
And just as the viewer buys into the idea that they only want it for their immediate gratification, Sylvie informs us otherwise.
She finds her boyfriend and leads him into the woods. When the others try to follow them, she leads him more deeply. She does not want them to find them. She wants to be alone.
Sylvie looks back at the house and weeps. Her grandmother once showed her the villa and grounds and said this would all be hers one day. Sylvie believed her. She relied on it. It was her life and future. It is all she has ever known.
But now it is gone. Taken from her. Without consultation.
Nobody asked the grandchildren. The ones for whom the future of this property most matters.
Life is fleeting and full of loss. And no one can stop the vicissitudes of time. Even in families.
Especially with families.
598 - Summer Hours, France, 2008. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
What about the grandchildren?
Sylvie is the tall, curly-headed one. She stands out at the beginning of the film. Because she is older and taller than the others. She is starting to grow. She helps one of the little ones when he stumbles.
The kids are walking through the woods. Down the hill. Through the meadow. To the stream. On the beautiful estate owned by their grandmother. Helene Marly.
Helene loves art. And she collects it. Paintings. Drawings. Sculptures. Porcelains. Crystal. Silver. Glass. Vases. Panels. Furniture. Specifically two paintings by Camille Corot. Panels by Odilon Redon. A Louis Majorelle Art Moderne desk and chair. A Felix Bracquemond vase. An Atelier d'Auteuil vase. A Josef Hoffmann armoire. The pieces of a Degas sculpture, kept in a plastic grocery bag, that her sons broke when they were little.
And the work of her uncle. Paul Berthier. His sketchbook. His drawing of the view out the patio door. A couple of his paintings.
Helen is turning 75. And she has her grown children over to the villa for her birthday. Adrienne comes from New York. Jeremie, from China. Frederic, from Paris, ten miles to the South. The men bring their wives and children. Adrienne talks about her boyfriend. And reveals that he is now her fiance.
The family is loving. Warm and generous. Intelligent and worldly. Hard-working and dedicated. They enjoy one another's company. It is good to be together again. To be home.
They have their disagreements. Jeremie works for a sneaker company. Adrienne as a non-corporate does not fully approve of his profession. Frederic has become an economist at the behest of his father. He does not really love it, so he fashions himself an ironic economist and behaves iconoclastically.
Helene radiates with joy as she speaks with her children. She shares her memories and her art with them. She speaks lovingly of her uncle Paul. Perhaps she loved him more than just as an uncle. She speaks to each of her children individually and shows them the pieces she wants them to have when she dies.
But she does not know how to take care of her affairs legally, so after she dies the estate tax will be assessed at the highest possible bracket.
Helene does die. And the children have to decide what to do with her affairs. Her estate. Her effects.
The attorneys get involved. The curators. The auctioneers.
The siblings have to vote. Frederic loves the family home. He wants to keep it in the family. And much of the art. Especially the Corots. To pass it down for generations to come. But Jeremie's job will keep him in China solidly for the next five years. So the house will be of no use to him. He has three children to take care of. He needs the money. Adrienne is about to be married in New York. She sides with Jeremie. Frederic must concede.
The acting and writing are nuanced in their mature restraint. The siblings behave as one believes real people really would do. Not in superficial and petty cliches. But as people who love each other and want the best, but who must acquiesce to the practicalities of life. With compromise. And loss.
Assayas' deftly handles the objects--both as art and as heirlooms. The same pieces function as artifacts in the museum that function as daily gadgets in the home. The housekeeper keeps cut flowers in the vases. Helene writes on the desk, sits in the chair, stuffs the armoire with household clutter. Including the plastic grocery bag with the broken Degas pieces. Which have sat hidden in that drawer for at least 25 years.
The experts debate just as much as the siblings do. What to do with each item? Christie's in New York will tear out the pages of the sketchbook to maximize profit, which is not only gauche but also a loss for the nation. The sketchbook should stay in France. The Art Moderne pieces, as valuable as they are, would only sit in a warehouse and collect mold.
This film is beyond you can't take it with you. Everyone treats that as a given. It is about the memories that the objects carry, their meaning for different family members, their meaning for the public. The two that vote to sell get to take an item or two each with them, items that mean something to them, which their mother promised them. But Frederic, the one who wants to keep everything, cannot keep the one thing he wants most after the home and gardens--the Corots--because there are two of them; they cannot be divided into three; and he cannot afford to buy out the other two.
But in the end it is the grandchildren who are overlooked. As the three children make their decisions and the experts, strangers to the home, come through the house and make their decisions, monetizing things that have no emotional value for them, nobody thinks to ask the generation that would desire it the most.
The siblings have had their time on the estate. They have their memories. They are ready to move on.
But their children have only started their lives. And have had no say in the loss of their childhood.
They have a party. They might as well. The house will be gone within a few weeks. This is their last chance to take advantage of it. Their friends arrive. They play music. They dance. They light up. They drink. They swim.
And just as the viewer buys into the idea that they only want it for their immediate gratification, Sylvie informs us otherwise.
She finds her boyfriend and leads him into the woods. When the others try to follow them, she leads him more deeply. She does not want them to find them. She wants to be alone.
Sylvie looks back at the house and weeps. Her grandmother once showed her the villa and grounds and said this would all be hers one day. Sylvie believed her. She relied on it. It was her life and future. It is all she has ever known.
But now it is gone. Taken from her. Without consultation.
Nobody asked the grandchildren. The ones for whom the future of this property most matters.
Life is fleeting and full of loss. And no one can stop the vicissitudes of time. Even in families.
Especially with families.
Thursday, February 7, 2019
597 - Cold Water, France, 1994. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
Thursday, February 6, 2019
597 - Cold Water, France, 1994. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
The music of the Fall of 1972.
Roxy Music, "Virginia Plain"; Leonard Cohen, "Avalanche"; Janis Joplin, "Me & Bobby McGee"; Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Up Around the Bend"; Nico, "Janitor of Lunacy"; Bob Dylan, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"; Alice Cooper, "School's Out"; Uriah Heap, "Easy Livin'"; Donovan, "Cosmic Wheels."
These are the songs of Gilles' and Christine's youth. That mark their memory in time.
On this night they stand in a mutual embrace. Christine stares into Gilles' eyes as they slow dance by the bonfire, and all their cares melt, thaw, and resolve themselves into a dew. They stand together, and the dark holds no terrors against them. And in this moment they know they will love each other forever.
Their love might not last till morning, but that knowledge is too perfect for them. A thought they could never conceive. What they have now is this moment, and for them this moment is everything.
Gilles and Christine are dating.
Gilles Guersaint comes from an upper-middle class home. His father is successful and wealthy and gone a lot. He loves art and wants to share it with his son. He shows him a Caravaggio. The Death of the Virgin. He had shown it to him at the Louvre. Classical painting is the one way, possibly the only way, Gilles and his father can connect.
While his father is always gone working, his mother is always gone having life experiences. So the 16-year-old Gilles is left to raise himself. He has a nanny who tells him heartbreaking stories of her life under German occupation, but he cannot connect to her.
Christine Huart comes from a different situation. She says her father abuses her. She refuses to stay with him. But he has won custody and will not let her stay with her mother. Her mother is a Scientologist, which in this world is code for hippie. Her mother complains that Christine judges her, but Gilles knows that Christine is really trying to get through to her mother.
Both of them want parents who will spend time with them. Show them some attention. Be a part of their lives. But since their parents are not a part of their lives, by choice, Christine and Gilles must warily make their precipitous way together.
Gilles and Christine talk at the supermarket. He looks through record albums. He hides them in his knapsack. He steals them.
The guard stops Christine, but Gilles gets away. She goes to the police station. He goes to school. For him it is about the same thing.
The Professeur dronely reads excerpts from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions (1782), page 121, a passage that might be deemed too shocking for today's classrooms--with references to Madame Francoise-Louise de Warens' sending of Rousseau to Turin written on the chalkboard. Assayas recreates Francois Truffaut's scene from The 400 Blows as Gilles passes his record collection person-to-person across the classroom. Where Antoine Doinel was there the innocent and unfortunate recipient of the pin-up in the all-boy classroom, here Gilles is the instigator in this coed classroom. The teacher responds aggressively and even violently by physically throwing Gilles out of the class while hurling verbal assaults at him.
His father is exasperated, but tries to be practical. He wants to look through art books together. He advises his son to live like an adult.
Meanwhile, Christine sits at the police station waiting to talk to the chief. When he enters she relates a story regarding the way the interrogator treated her. The Inspecteur is stuck. She has leveled a serious accusation, and he must pursue it. However, she laughs, suggesting she might be toying with them as her one means of power. He informs her that he has no choice but to release her to her father, who has arrived to collect her, and he seems sympathetic to her plight.
Her father sends her once again to the institution. Beausoleil. Beautiful Sun.
When Gilles gets into trouble, his father's response is to tell him not to get caught next time.
When Christine gets into trouble, her father's response is to lock her up.
Chistine escapes and goes to the local rave, where, in the midst of others' drugtaking, she grabs a pair of scissors and cuts her hair. When a couple of girls try to stop her, she stabs one of them in the shoulder and creates a commotion.
But Gilles arrives on bicycle and finds her. He goes to her. She looks at him with hopeful eyes, needing love. His presence is a comforting emollient.
Some kids do drugs.
They pour gas on the grass. They start the bonfire.
As the music plays and the kids dance; as some of them light up and others start the bonfire by dousing the grass with gasoline; as they break windows and drag furniture out of the house to fuel the fire; Gilles and Christine enter their own world. And for a time they are safe, and happy, and in love.
Gilles and Christine kiss
Leonard Cohen sings "Avalanche."
In this moment, as they stand together, holding each other, moving towards the bonfire, as they kiss, one feels for them. It is a moment of fragile happiness, of delicate peace, of transitory hope.
Growing up is painful. Sometimes people find each other, and they comfort each other by sharing the pain and feeling as if they are not alone. Gilles and Christine have no way of knowing that their love is incomplete, youthful, temporary. They are in this moment. In this place. Together. Feeling whole.
She tells him of a place about which her friend has written her. The girl who stopped coming to school. A commune. The girl's father is a painter and has gone there. And taken the family. The girl loves it. And has sparked the desire within Christine. Christine longs to go. And take Gilles with her.
She gives him her ultimatum. Come with me now. Forsake your family. And your money. And your friends. Leave all to be with me. Together. Forever.
He hesitates. She leaves. He calls her back. She comes. He says Yes. They go. They walk for miles. In the cold. Their breaths waft from their mouths like flue fog.
They arrive at the water. The cold water. Where they will consummate their amorous elopement.
Until tomorrow.
When life begins again with a clean slate. A blank note.
And an uncertain future.
Beside the deep, lonely, cold water.
* * * *
--Olivier Assayas--
I needed Caravaggio in the film because classic paintings was something that was important both for me and my father. That's how we somehow connected. I functioned as a painter or a poet. I just put raw emotions on the screen. So I had a sense of reliving my youth. It gave me a sense that cinema had the capacity of making you reexperience moments, emotion, in your life, and now when I'm looking back on it I have this strange feeling like this movie belongs to the 70s. It's like a screen between my actual [experience] of being a teenager and my memories of it. When I think of my teenage years, Cold Water imposes itself on it.
We shot the party scene in five days.
There were no boarders between filmmaking and reality. Those kids were dressed like we were dressed in the 70s, but it didn't feel like a period piece. . . . To me it was still the present.
The shoot is like an art piece, an experience.
They experienced something that's possibly stronger than whatever actually ends up on screen. and ever since I've had this sense that the shoot of a film should not be work. Cold Water helped me realize it.
I wrote those songs into the film. The songs became the narrative. I knew I wanted the dawn with this sense of absolute loss that "The Janitor of Lunacy" conveys. I knew I wanted this peak of energy that the CCR song conveys.
I designed the scene always knowing who was where at what time, and left myself a lot of space to be carried by the music.
The established logic is that you do things faster and faster but here I was constantly slowing things down. A lot of scenes were just very long tracking shots. And I knew I wanted to give myself space to improvise. I spent a lot of time choosing the extras.
I didn't want any actors.
The message is that there is no message. They're rushing to a dead end, really, because we know that the place they are going doesn't exist, which is a little bit what youth is about. And in that sense that's ultimately what the blank note says. He will stay with the question mark. There's no closure there. There is no moral to the story. There is no meaning. The meaning is something he will have to figure out in the future. She leaves on a blank note that will echo through his whole life.
To me, what this film is about is teenage love.
A relationship at that age is something so essential, so important, that all of a sudden it is what makes you an individual. You have to make the decisions that will define your identity, because before that you are just part of the group. You are just one more teenager. But if all of a sudden you become a couple, you have to question yourself, and that's how you grow.
16mm, handheld, non-actors, 4 weeks, no pressure.
Cold Water is a punk rock version of the 1970s.
I grew up in that environment; I had those kinds of conversations with my father.
* * * *
Road to Budapest
Then we heard that the Russians were coming.
The Russian army was full of youngsters from the Caucasus and Mongolia. They were savages. Real savages. I don't know how to explain it.
Very well. Since you cannot read for us, you can tell us what you remember. If you had read it, you would remember.
What is this ridiculous object? It should interest you.
I might have been able to help but it's too late now.
Your father's here for you.
That took an hour of my life.
You don't have to take them, but I'll have to tell Dr. Varennes.
Mr. Guersaint, continue reading.
Remember , which I showed you at the Louvre?
Caravaggio
Mess around but don't get caught.
live like an adult
I can see she's unhappy but I don't know how to help her.
She's only 16! I can't let her go running off!
She wants to be alone.
Maybe it's her way of telling you something. Like pay more attention to her.
She judges me. Well, I'm not giving up my life for her. Just like with her father. Has to be the center of attraction.
I'll live the way I want.
Sorry I got all worked up. She means a lot to me. I don't want to lose her.
Chloe
She didn't vanish. Her dad's a painter. They moved to l an old farm in the Lozere region. The farm's full of artists. They redid the place. It's great.
I want you to come.
I don't have a thing on me.
Neither do I.
We will be all alone, you know. No family. No money. No home. You will have me and I will have you.
I know.
There is no phone or water or electricity.
We will be there by dark.
It doesn't look that far on the map.
It's a winding road, at least 12 miles.
There are no cars on the road, and it will be dark soon.
597 - Cold Water, France, 1994. Dir. Olivier Assayas.
The music of the Fall of 1972.
Roxy Music, "Virginia Plain"; Leonard Cohen, "Avalanche"; Janis Joplin, "Me & Bobby McGee"; Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Up Around the Bend"; Nico, "Janitor of Lunacy"; Bob Dylan, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"; Alice Cooper, "School's Out"; Uriah Heap, "Easy Livin'"; Donovan, "Cosmic Wheels."
These are the songs of Gilles' and Christine's youth. That mark their memory in time.
On this night they stand in a mutual embrace. Christine stares into Gilles' eyes as they slow dance by the bonfire, and all their cares melt, thaw, and resolve themselves into a dew. They stand together, and the dark holds no terrors against them. And in this moment they know they will love each other forever.
Their love might not last till morning, but that knowledge is too perfect for them. A thought they could never conceive. What they have now is this moment, and for them this moment is everything.
Gilles and Christine are dating.
Gilles Guersaint comes from an upper-middle class home. His father is successful and wealthy and gone a lot. He loves art and wants to share it with his son. He shows him a Caravaggio. The Death of the Virgin. He had shown it to him at the Louvre. Classical painting is the one way, possibly the only way, Gilles and his father can connect.
While his father is always gone working, his mother is always gone having life experiences. So the 16-year-old Gilles is left to raise himself. He has a nanny who tells him heartbreaking stories of her life under German occupation, but he cannot connect to her.
Both of them want parents who will spend time with them. Show them some attention. Be a part of their lives. But since their parents are not a part of their lives, by choice, Christine and Gilles must warily make their precipitous way together.
Gilles and Christine talk at the supermarket. He looks through record albums. He hides them in his knapsack. He steals them.
The guard stops Christine, but Gilles gets away. She goes to the police station. He goes to school. For him it is about the same thing.
The Professeur dronely reads excerpts from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions (1782), page 121, a passage that might be deemed too shocking for today's classrooms--with references to Madame Francoise-Louise de Warens' sending of Rousseau to Turin written on the chalkboard. Assayas recreates Francois Truffaut's scene from The 400 Blows as Gilles passes his record collection person-to-person across the classroom. Where Antoine Doinel was there the innocent and unfortunate recipient of the pin-up in the all-boy classroom, here Gilles is the instigator in this coed classroom. The teacher responds aggressively and even violently by physically throwing Gilles out of the class while hurling verbal assaults at him.
His father is exasperated, but tries to be practical. He wants to look through art books together. He advises his son to live like an adult.
Meanwhile, Christine sits at the police station waiting to talk to the chief. When he enters she relates a story regarding the way the interrogator treated her. The Inspecteur is stuck. She has leveled a serious accusation, and he must pursue it. However, she laughs, suggesting she might be toying with them as her one means of power. He informs her that he has no choice but to release her to her father, who has arrived to collect her, and he seems sympathetic to her plight.
Her father sends her once again to the institution. Beausoleil. Beautiful Sun.
When Gilles gets into trouble, his father's response is to tell him not to get caught next time.
When Christine gets into trouble, her father's response is to lock her up.
Chistine escapes and goes to the local rave, where, in the midst of others' drugtaking, she grabs a pair of scissors and cuts her hair. When a couple of girls try to stop her, she stabs one of them in the shoulder and creates a commotion.
But Gilles arrives on bicycle and finds her. He goes to her. She looks at him with hopeful eyes, needing love. His presence is a comforting emollient.
Some kids do drugs.
They pour gas on the grass. They start the bonfire.
As the music plays and the kids dance; as some of them light up and others start the bonfire by dousing the grass with gasoline; as they break windows and drag furniture out of the house to fuel the fire; Gilles and Christine enter their own world. And for a time they are safe, and happy, and in love.
Gilles and Christine kiss
Leonard Cohen sings "Avalanche."
In this moment, as they stand together, holding each other, moving towards the bonfire, as they kiss, one feels for them. It is a moment of fragile happiness, of delicate peace, of transitory hope.
She tells him of a place about which her friend has written her. The girl who stopped coming to school. A commune. The girl's father is a painter and has gone there. And taken the family. The girl loves it. And has sparked the desire within Christine. Christine longs to go. And take Gilles with her.
She gives him her ultimatum. Come with me now. Forsake your family. And your money. And your friends. Leave all to be with me. Together. Forever.
He hesitates. She leaves. He calls her back. She comes. He says Yes. They go. They walk for miles. In the cold. Their breaths waft from their mouths like flue fog.
They arrive at the water. The cold water. Where they will consummate their amorous elopement.
Until tomorrow.
When life begins again with a clean slate. A blank note.
And an uncertain future.
Beside the deep, lonely, cold water.
* * * *
--Olivier Assayas--
I needed Caravaggio in the film because classic paintings was something that was important both for me and my father. That's how we somehow connected. I functioned as a painter or a poet. I just put raw emotions on the screen. So I had a sense of reliving my youth. It gave me a sense that cinema had the capacity of making you reexperience moments, emotion, in your life, and now when I'm looking back on it I have this strange feeling like this movie belongs to the 70s. It's like a screen between my actual [experience] of being a teenager and my memories of it. When I think of my teenage years, Cold Water imposes itself on it.
We shot the party scene in five days.
There were no boarders between filmmaking and reality. Those kids were dressed like we were dressed in the 70s, but it didn't feel like a period piece. . . . To me it was still the present.
The shoot is like an art piece, an experience.
They experienced something that's possibly stronger than whatever actually ends up on screen. and ever since I've had this sense that the shoot of a film should not be work. Cold Water helped me realize it.
I wrote those songs into the film. The songs became the narrative. I knew I wanted the dawn with this sense of absolute loss that "The Janitor of Lunacy" conveys. I knew I wanted this peak of energy that the CCR song conveys.
I designed the scene always knowing who was where at what time, and left myself a lot of space to be carried by the music.
The established logic is that you do things faster and faster but here I was constantly slowing things down. A lot of scenes were just very long tracking shots. And I knew I wanted to give myself space to improvise. I spent a lot of time choosing the extras.
I didn't want any actors.
The message is that there is no message. They're rushing to a dead end, really, because we know that the place they are going doesn't exist, which is a little bit what youth is about. And in that sense that's ultimately what the blank note says. He will stay with the question mark. There's no closure there. There is no moral to the story. There is no meaning. The meaning is something he will have to figure out in the future. She leaves on a blank note that will echo through his whole life.
To me, what this film is about is teenage love.
A relationship at that age is something so essential, so important, that all of a sudden it is what makes you an individual. You have to make the decisions that will define your identity, because before that you are just part of the group. You are just one more teenager. But if all of a sudden you become a couple, you have to question yourself, and that's how you grow.
16mm, handheld, non-actors, 4 weeks, no pressure.
Cold Water is a punk rock version of the 1970s.
I grew up in that environment; I had those kinds of conversations with my father.
* * * *
Road to Budapest
Then we heard that the Russians were coming.
The Russian army was full of youngsters from the Caucasus and Mongolia. They were savages. Real savages. I don't know how to explain it.
Very well. Since you cannot read for us, you can tell us what you remember. If you had read it, you would remember.
What is this ridiculous object? It should interest you.
I might have been able to help but it's too late now.
Your father's here for you.
That took an hour of my life.
You don't have to take them, but I'll have to tell Dr. Varennes.
Mr. Guersaint, continue reading.
Remember , which I showed you at the Louvre?
Caravaggio
Mess around but don't get caught.
live like an adult
I can see she's unhappy but I don't know how to help her.
She's only 16! I can't let her go running off!
She wants to be alone.
Maybe it's her way of telling you something. Like pay more attention to her.
She judges me. Well, I'm not giving up my life for her. Just like with her father. Has to be the center of attraction.
I'll live the way I want.
Sorry I got all worked up. She means a lot to me. I don't want to lose her.
Chloe
She didn't vanish. Her dad's a painter. They moved to l an old farm in the Lozere region. The farm's full of artists. They redid the place. It's great.
I want you to come.
I don't have a thing on me.
Neither do I.
We will be all alone, you know. No family. No money. No home. You will have me and I will have you.
I know.
There is no phone or water or electricity.
We will be there by dark.
It doesn't look that far on the map.
It's a winding road, at least 12 miles.
There are no cars on the road, and it will be dark soon.
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
596 - Jules and Jim, France, 1962. Dir. Francois Trufaut.
Wednesday, January 6, 2019
596 - Jules and Jim, France, 1962. Dir. Francois Trufaut.
Jules and Jim are best friends.
Like David and Jonathan. With no equivalent in love. They enjoy the little things together. They eat at restaurants. They buy cigars.
People call them Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
They are art students in Paris. Jules is from Austria and Jim, from France. While strangers, Jules asks Jim to help him get into the Art Students' Ball. Jim gets him a ticket and a costume. And girls.
The musician. The sweet thing. The pretty blonde widow. Her quiet friend. The professional. Therese. Gilberte.
"I wasn't in love with her. She was both mother and daughter to me."
Their friendship is born. They teach each other their languages and translate each other's poetry.
Jules is short and blond and thoughtful and studious. He has kind and tender eyes. Jim is tall and brunette and outgoing. He follows his instincts.
Catherine resembles the look of the great statue, the bust, with her similar subtle smile.
And her impetuous ways.
The boys have seem impetuosity before.
After all, Jules' previous girlfriend, Therese--come on, come on--could do the locomotion. Or the locomotive, or steam engine, as it were. She would light a cigarette and insert the lit end into her mouth, glide about the room in a circle, and blow smoke out the unlit end like a steam train.
But they have never seen someone jump into the Seine before. While returning one night from watching August Strindberg's Miss Julie (1888), Jules and Jim witness an unpredictability in Catherine that trumps Anita Ekberg's trek into the Trevi Fountain.
And it seals their fate.
"Jim never forgot that jump. . . . His admiration for Catherine struck him like lightning as he blew her an invisible kiss."
The three of them in their youth pursue a life free of social or moral constraint. And in those heady days, it seems they have discovered Eden. Eve with her two Adams.
She dresses like a boy. They go out in public. Sure enough, a man asks her for a light thinking she is a boy. She challenges them to a race. A race atop a pedestrian bridge. That moment is captured on film in space and time.
Joy.
Freedom.
Friendship.
Until life sets in. Marriage. Responsibility. The Great War.
Jules marries Catherine. And then gets conscripted.
Jules is called to fight for Germany, and Jim, for France. They fear that in their fighting they will face each other. Their situation sobers them.
Afterwards, when Jim returns to visit, he finds them residing in a cottage in the Black Forest, with their daughter Sabine.
Things are not as they were. Jules has settled in, and one might even say that he is the one who has acquiesced to the austere and lonely offices of love.
But Catherine has forged ahead with self-absorbed insistence. And has had affairs. She now returns to Jim, as if to force reignition of their former splendor.
Jules relents. A willing martyr to Catherine's happiness. With the notion that having Jim around will keep her from leaving too. He has his books and his poetry to protect him.
But Jim and Catherine are older now and too much alike.
Catherine decides that she can love Jim if he can give her a child. She waits for a time to ensure she is not carrying a child by Albert. Talk about a patron. And then she tries with Jim.
Meanwhile, Jim has Gilberte to fall back on.
But this relationship is doomed. Driven by self-interest and caprice. Adults going through the motions of their expired Bohemian youth.
By the time Catherine locks Jim in an upstairs room and pulls a gun on him, her unpredictability is no longer charming. Or unpredictable.
He gets the gun. He jumps out the window. He throws away the key and runs away.
We are told that in the real-life story she actually shot him.
So much for unbridled moral freedom without consequences.
The final fallout is even graver.
We may observe that Jules and Jim predates Thelma & Louise by nearly 30 years.
And you may guess how it ends.
Yet Jules for all this is "overcome with relief."
Left alone to live as a grown up.
Did seeing Miss Julie affect Catherine the night she jumped into the river? Miss Julie was taught by her mother to submit to no man. She pursues her own devices. She enters into a relationship with Jean that lies outside the limits of her place and time. He tells her of his efforts of self-slaughter. Their nonconformist stance collapses. She takes his razor and leaves the stage.
Francois Truffaut made the movie from a novel he stumbled upon in the bargain bin--the kind your find in a second-hand store. While he was still a film critic and not yet a director. He read it twice a year for the next five years. And knew it inside and out.
He wished films could cover topics like this. A woman who loves two men. Where one man is kind and the other is not. With the idea of being both dramatic and humorous in tone.
The author, Henri-Pierre Roche, lived his life as an art lover. And a patron. He was one of the first people to support Picasso.
After becoming bedridden at age 73, Roche took up writing. He wrote from his memories of the three-way affair he had fifty years before.
"All this must have been painful to live through, but 50 years later it enchants him." - Francois Truffaut.
"It had to be filmed like an old photo album." - Francois Truffaut.
"He divided his life between his love for women and his love for friendship." - Francois Truffaut.
"Their love is a dead end. They can't live together or apart. She takes her life and takes him with her." - Francois Truffaut.
"Truffaut is too intelligent to fall for his characters' malarkey, but he's also too generous to judge them (in other words, he's a major artist). - Chuck Bowen.
* * * *
This film is thoroughly French.
Yet we have seen this subject before.
In an American film in 1933.
Based on a British play from 1932.
Based on a relationship from 1921.
In Ernest Lubitsch's film adaptation of Noel Coward's Design for Living.
Design for Living (1933)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/10/300-design-for-living-united-states.html
* * * *
We have seen Oskar Werner in the following films so far: Max Ophuls' Lola Montes (1955), Martin Ritt's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and Francois Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966).
Lola Montes (1955)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/094-lola-montes-1955-france-dir-max.html
The Spy Who Came in from The Cold (1965)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/10/283-spy-that-came-in-from-cold-united.html
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/02/418-fahrenheit-451-united-kingdom-1966.html
* * * *
I was in love with Napoleon. I dreamt I met him in an elevator. We had a child, and I never saw him again.
I was taught, Our Father who arts in Heaven. I thought it said arts. I imagined my father with an easel painting in Paradise.
She said No, but so gently that I am still hoping.
A sense of relief flooded over him.
* * * *
Franz Hessel (1880-1941) - "Jules"
Henri-Pierre Roche (1879-1959) - "Jim"
Helen Hessel (1886-1982) - "Catherine"
"I think that the erotic was very important to her. It was the center of her life." - Gisele Freund
"She was very chic and elegant and knew exactly what she wanted." - Gisele Freund
"Whatever suited her was important. She didn't care too much whether other people went along. Also, she didn't necessarily treat very fairly the men who were in love with her. One could have held all kinds of things against her, but no one did because she was very charming and very attractive and expressed herself extremely well." - Stephane Hessel, her son
"I think Helen Hessel was very interested in human relationships, and in love in a general sense." - Gisele Freund
"I felt more admiration for my mother and more trust for my father." - Stephane Hessel.
She translated Nabokov's Lolita after she turned 70.
"She was too conservative." - Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohle.
596 - Jules and Jim, France, 1962. Dir. Francois Trufaut.
Jules and Jim are best friends.
Like David and Jonathan. With no equivalent in love. They enjoy the little things together. They eat at restaurants. They buy cigars.
People call them Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
They are art students in Paris. Jules is from Austria and Jim, from France. While strangers, Jules asks Jim to help him get into the Art Students' Ball. Jim gets him a ticket and a costume. And girls.
The musician. The sweet thing. The pretty blonde widow. Her quiet friend. The professional. Therese. Gilberte.
"I wasn't in love with her. She was both mother and daughter to me."
Their friendship is born. They teach each other their languages and translate each other's poetry.
Jules is short and blond and thoughtful and studious. He has kind and tender eyes. Jim is tall and brunette and outgoing. He follows his instincts.
They meet Albert. A patron of the arts. He shows them statues. He shows them slides of statues. One, a bust, stands out to them. Subtly smiles at them. Beckons them. They go to see it. At an outdoor museum on an Adriatic island.
"They stared at the face for an hour. It stunned them into silence. They were speechless. Had they ever met such a smile? No. If they ever met it, they would follow it."
And follow it they do.
Jim's cousin writes. Three girls are coming to Paris. One is German, one is Dutch, and one is French.
Beware the French.
"Catherine, the French girl, was the statue. She had the same smile, nose, mouth, chin, and forehead. As a child, she had been idolized in her hometown during a religious celebration. It started almost like a dream. . . . "
And her impetuous ways.
The boys have seem impetuosity before.
After all, Jules' previous girlfriend, Therese--come on, come on--could do the locomotion. Or the locomotive, or steam engine, as it were. She would light a cigarette and insert the lit end into her mouth, glide about the room in a circle, and blow smoke out the unlit end like a steam train.
But they have never seen someone jump into the Seine before. While returning one night from watching August Strindberg's Miss Julie (1888), Jules and Jim witness an unpredictability in Catherine that trumps Anita Ekberg's trek into the Trevi Fountain.
And it seals their fate.
"Jim never forgot that jump. . . . His admiration for Catherine struck him like lightning as he blew her an invisible kiss."
The three of them in their youth pursue a life free of social or moral constraint. And in those heady days, it seems they have discovered Eden. Eve with her two Adams.
She dresses like a boy. They go out in public. Sure enough, a man asks her for a light thinking she is a boy. She challenges them to a race. A race atop a pedestrian bridge. That moment is captured on film in space and time.
Joy.
Freedom.
Friendship.
Until life sets in. Marriage. Responsibility. The Great War.
Jules marries Catherine. And then gets conscripted.
Jules is called to fight for Germany, and Jim, for France. They fear that in their fighting they will face each other. Their situation sobers them.
Afterwards, when Jim returns to visit, he finds them residing in a cottage in the Black Forest, with their daughter Sabine.
Things are not as they were. Jules has settled in, and one might even say that he is the one who has acquiesced to the austere and lonely offices of love.
But Catherine has forged ahead with self-absorbed insistence. And has had affairs. She now returns to Jim, as if to force reignition of their former splendor.
Jules relents. A willing martyr to Catherine's happiness. With the notion that having Jim around will keep her from leaving too. He has his books and his poetry to protect him.
But Jim and Catherine are older now and too much alike.
Catherine decides that she can love Jim if he can give her a child. She waits for a time to ensure she is not carrying a child by Albert. Talk about a patron. And then she tries with Jim.
Meanwhile, Jim has Gilberte to fall back on.
But this relationship is doomed. Driven by self-interest and caprice. Adults going through the motions of their expired Bohemian youth.
By the time Catherine locks Jim in an upstairs room and pulls a gun on him, her unpredictability is no longer charming. Or unpredictable.
He gets the gun. He jumps out the window. He throws away the key and runs away.
We are told that in the real-life story she actually shot him.
So much for unbridled moral freedom without consequences.
The final fallout is even graver.
We may observe that Jules and Jim predates Thelma & Louise by nearly 30 years.
And you may guess how it ends.
Yet Jules for all this is "overcome with relief."
Left alone to live as a grown up.
Did seeing Miss Julie affect Catherine the night she jumped into the river? Miss Julie was taught by her mother to submit to no man. She pursues her own devices. She enters into a relationship with Jean that lies outside the limits of her place and time. He tells her of his efforts of self-slaughter. Their nonconformist stance collapses. She takes his razor and leaves the stage.
Francois Truffaut made the movie from a novel he stumbled upon in the bargain bin--the kind your find in a second-hand store. While he was still a film critic and not yet a director. He read it twice a year for the next five years. And knew it inside and out.
He wished films could cover topics like this. A woman who loves two men. Where one man is kind and the other is not. With the idea of being both dramatic and humorous in tone.
The author, Henri-Pierre Roche, lived his life as an art lover. And a patron. He was one of the first people to support Picasso.
After becoming bedridden at age 73, Roche took up writing. He wrote from his memories of the three-way affair he had fifty years before.
"All this must have been painful to live through, but 50 years later it enchants him." - Francois Truffaut.
"It had to be filmed like an old photo album." - Francois Truffaut.
"He divided his life between his love for women and his love for friendship." - Francois Truffaut.
"Their love is a dead end. They can't live together or apart. She takes her life and takes him with her." - Francois Truffaut.
"Truffaut is too intelligent to fall for his characters' malarkey, but he's also too generous to judge them (in other words, he's a major artist). - Chuck Bowen.
* * * *
This film is thoroughly French.
Yet we have seen this subject before.
In an American film in 1933.
Based on a British play from 1932.
Based on a relationship from 1921.
In Ernest Lubitsch's film adaptation of Noel Coward's Design for Living.
Design for Living (1933)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/10/300-design-for-living-united-states.html
* * * *
We have seen Oskar Werner in the following films so far: Max Ophuls' Lola Montes (1955), Martin Ritt's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and Francois Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966).
Lola Montes (1955)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/094-lola-montes-1955-france-dir-max.html
The Spy Who Came in from The Cold (1965)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/10/283-spy-that-came-in-from-cold-united.html
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
https://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2018/02/418-fahrenheit-451-united-kingdom-1966.html
* * * *
I was in love with Napoleon. I dreamt I met him in an elevator. We had a child, and I never saw him again.
I was taught, Our Father who arts in Heaven. I thought it said arts. I imagined my father with an easel painting in Paradise.
She said No, but so gently that I am still hoping.
A sense of relief flooded over him.
* * * *
Franz Hessel (1880-1941) - "Jules"
Henri-Pierre Roche (1879-1959) - "Jim"
Helen Hessel (1886-1982) - "Catherine"
"I think that the erotic was very important to her. It was the center of her life." - Gisele Freund
"She was very chic and elegant and knew exactly what she wanted." - Gisele Freund
"Whatever suited her was important. She didn't care too much whether other people went along. Also, she didn't necessarily treat very fairly the men who were in love with her. One could have held all kinds of things against her, but no one did because she was very charming and very attractive and expressed herself extremely well." - Stephane Hessel, her son
"I think Helen Hessel was very interested in human relationships, and in love in a general sense." - Gisele Freund
"I felt more admiration for my mother and more trust for my father." - Stephane Hessel.
She translated Nabokov's Lolita after she turned 70.
"She was too conservative." - Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohle.
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