A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902, FRANCE)

In the beginning...She Blinded Me With Silents (Post 1 of 12)

A Trip to the Moon

Certainly any list like the one from 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die (as well as any academic history of film class) has to begin with George Melies’ 1902 short film, A Trip to the Moon.

The basics of this fourteen minute landmark film can be summarized as "a group of professors/wizards confer to send an space expedition to the moon. A group of space travelers is organized and proceed to land on the moon where they encounter hostiles who take them to their leader. After finding a method of disposing of the moon men by an umbrella touch that makes them explode, they successfully return to earth."

How many movie firsts are in this film? Science fiction, surrealism, a narrative story line, special effects and other innovations often list A Trip to the Moon as its oldest ancestor. Who could possibly say anything bad about a Trip to the Moon? I’ll bet even curmudgeonly film critic David Thompson can’t think of anything bad to say about Melies. In his Biographical Dictionary of American Film, he says,

“Melies needs to be restored to his role as stage conjurer who designed so many of the illusions available to the filmmaker-no longer regarded as the father figure of cinema of the imagination.”

OK, everyone except David Thompson agrees.

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DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY (1968)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH 

 (Post 10 of 10)

David Holzman made a documentary about his life in 1967. Just what is happening everyday in his life. He is obsessed by films and filmmaking as you can tell by the cameras, reels, projectors and movie posters around his apartment. He is also not afraid to tell us what he is feeling even though what he is often feeling involves how he will be feeling as the camera is rolling.

He wants to get insight from his girlfriend, Penny. Penny thinks David is obsessive with his camera and his wanting to film and record anything and everything. When David films her while she is sleeping in the nude, it appears that is the last straw. David loses Penny. He also films a friend who basically thinks David is wasting his time and just from the fact that he is filming someone, the very nature of that leads to the loss of any authenticity. David interviews a woman who may or may not be a drag-queen who likes to talk about very little but sex. David likes to take pictures of the streets and people of New York. He likes to take pictures of his neighbor and tries to determine what her life is about and tries hard to study the routine of her life for meaning. David also takes film of himself from different angles. Is shooting yourself from a different angle going to show you something different about yourself that you wouldn't have otherwise ascertained?

At the end, David goes to a funeral and returns to find all of his camera equipment has been stolen from him. He makes the final entry from his film from a recording booth as he no longer has any equipment. His final reservation:  I wish I could have learned something. I wish I could have figured something. Other ways it could have come out...like Bartleby the Scrivener.

Do we attempting any artistic endeavor or any other type of endeavor for that matter really try to learn something or figure something out? Like David over forty years ago, I too, have been pondering this question. I haven't come up with a satisfying answer yet.

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HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986), AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A SERIAL KILLER (1993), AILEEN WUORNOS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER (2003)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH 

 (Post 9 of 10)

HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER

I decided since Netflix had three films with serial killer in the title that were also in the 1001 book that it was time to tackle a fun, fun triple feature!

After the brightly glowing glee that exuded from the screen from The Young Girls of Rochefort, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer brought me back into the abyss very quickly. Henry is a low budget fictional account of a girl who moves in with her no-account brother and his roommate named Henry, who just happens to be a murder! Though for the record, I disliked the no-account brother much more than Henry.

The fact that it is low budget actually helps with the effectiveness of the film. The characters seem real (which is disturbing in itself.). Some movies I'm glad I saw once and never plan to watch again. I don't plan to watch Henry again and I'm not even sure if I'm glad I saw it at all! But I can't argue that it effected me as a viewer... Even if that effect was to make me feel really depressed...Maybe I'll cue up The Young Girls of Rochefort again before I move on.

Director Nick Broomfield buys information
from Aileen Wuornos's attorney, Steve Glaser
in  AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A SERIAL KILLER 

Well, it looks like The Young Girls of Rochefort isn't on Netflix anymore, so I guess I'll just have to dive into Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer.  Nick Broomfield's documentary is not so much about Aileen Wuoronos as it is about how those around her such as her ambulance chaser lawyer, her born-again friend who wants to "adopt" her and the police department who all use the situation of the seven (known) murders that Wuornos committed to forward their own agendas. Broomfield also puts himself squarely in the middle of the movie, and at times it seems it is a documentary about making a documentary, which is a slant that I did find rather interesting.

I also must admit I did kind of like Wuornos's pot-smoking, guitar playing, TV lawyer, Steve Glaser. Seems like a fun guy to hang out with. Though if I needed actual legal help, I would look elsewhere.

Wuornos comes across as being very self-serving and the contradictory nature of her personality is pretty frightening. Broomfield gets to interview Wuornos at the end of the movie and she actually claims that she killed in self-defense on seven different occasions!

Director Nick Broomfield listens to yet another confession from Wuronos
in AILEEN WUORNOS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER

Aileen Wuornos: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer is Broomfield's follow-up to his first film, where we see the the events leading up to the death sentence carried out on Wuornos in 2003. We learn everything we need to know about the background of Wuornos (frankly, more than we might want to know). Yes, she had a hard life. The way she had to live growing up certainly didn't bode well for her being anything but trouble. The film is quite a forum for her rants and she can't seem to decide if her confessions of self-defense are what she believes or if she wants to die or not. But as we know by the title of the film, she is executed. Bromfield questions her quickly passing a psychiatric test  before being executed as to what one could possibly do to fail such a test if someone so mentally unhinged as Wuornos passed it. Those who see her last rant would have to agree.

Though it was critically acclaimed, I can see why the dramatized film about Wuornos called Monster with Charlize Theron was left off the 1001 list. I mean, just how many movies about this person should you really have to watch before you die?

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THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967,FRANCE)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH 

(Post 8 of 10)

I really didn't know much about The Young Girls of Rochefort, but its time on Netflix was running out and it was on the 1001 list, so I decided to give it a go. I quickly learned that it was from the director (Jacques Demy) of Umbrellas of Chernbourg, the movie where all the dialogue is sung. Rochefort also has much of the dialogue sung and plenty of characters dancing as well. I suppose you could call it a musical, but the feel is a bit different. I didn't like it as well as Umbrellas, but I admit it did win me over, especially when Gene Kelly comes on the scene and begins dancing and speaking French. The plot involves lost loves, unfulfilled dreams and a rather strange subplot about a serial murderer. Other than the serial murderer, it is a bright, vibrant experience. And it does have Catherine Deneuve. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

The next post will be about a less happy film topic.

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L'AGE D'OR (1930, FRANCE) TRISTANA (1970, SPAIN)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH  

(Post 7 of 10)

L'AGE D'OR

Spanish Director Luis Bunuel was described as a "vagabond filmmaker..a director without a country" by film historian Gerald Mast. 

Before seeing this Bunuel double feature, I had only previously seen his film An Andalusian Dog, so I don't know why I was expecting something a little more straightforward this time around. However, The Age of Gold (L'Age D'or) was what came up. And after 69 minutes of women sucking the toes of statues, men having bloody faces for no reason, random orgies, religious desecration, and a Christ-like figure who...I'm not actually sure what he was doing! Anyway, after all that I realized this was another adventure in surrealism. And it does have some strong imagery (including the clerics who appear to have escaped their predicament in An Andalusian Dog) and I may try to see this one again at some point. But I'm frankly ready for some different Bunuel films.

The scholarly film source Wikipedia describes the controversy surrounding this movie, including a riot at a theater during the film's initial run in France in 1930.

Tristana is from 1970 (forty years after L'AGE D'OR for those of you doing the math at home) and is a story of a young lady (the ubiquitous Catherine Denueve) who has a most unhealthy relationship with her Uncle. The complexity of their relationship is the gist of this sad and disturbing film. And it is told in a straightforward manner. 

Interesting that Bunuel has listings in the 1001 book spanning from the 1920's until the 1970's. He and Alfred Hitchcock are the only directors to have films in the 1001 book from all those decades.

TRISTANA

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UP IN SMOKE (1978)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH

(Post 6 of 10)

For those of you scoring at home, Cheech Marin is the one who always seemed to be on uppers and Tommy Chong is the one who always seemed to be on downers.

I first became aware of Cheech and Chong through their record albums such as Big Bambu during the 70's. Their catholic school recording of Sister Mary Elephant is still one of my favorite routines.

Then they started making movies, man.

And if there was ever a movie that defined late 70's midnight movies, it was probably Cheech and Chong's debut of Up in Smoke. I thought it was pretty funny at the time and was popular enough for the team to make several other movies over the next few years whose titles frankly seem to be lost in a purple haze to me. I do remember these later movies had some funny cameos by the likes of Pee Wee Herman, Timothy Leary and Rip Taylor.

After watching Up in Smoke for the first time in decades, I concede it wasn't without its stoner moments, but it also seemed to get old pretty quickly. However, I must admit that seeing this movie straight seemed pretty much the equivalent of watching a 3D movie without the glasses.

Sorry, it wouldn't be in my 1001 book. But I do urge you to listen to Sister Mary Elephant.

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THE COOK, THE THIEF, THE WIFE AND HER LOVER (1989, GREAT BRITAIN)

MOVIES I WATCHED BECAUSE I GOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO NETFLIX AND THEY WERE IN THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE BOOK MONTH

(Post 5 of 10)

The way Peter Greenway's camera flows from room to room of the restaurant managed by the evil Albert (Michael Gambon) where all of the action of this film takes place is pretty breathtaking. The way we go from parking lot to kitchen to dining room where the interacting characters interact reminded me a lot of Alexander Sukorov's Russian Ark. 

But is what we see in this restaurant at all enticing? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Gambon's Albert is one of the most reprehensible and unlikable characters to ever hit the screen and he really plays him to the hilt. Helen Mirren's Georgina is sexy but sad as his put-upon wife and it's no wonder she finds comfort with her bookkeeper lover. The cook really comes into play later as he makes a delicacy for Albert that he will never forget. We also have memorable supporting characters such as a soprano singing waif and Tim Roth as one of Albert's punkish associates. Rarely has such a beautiful film been so ugly. Or is it an ugly film with great beauty? Probably should be on the 1001 list just for its bravado.

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