must see films

Michelangelo Antonioni’s red desert with monica vitti

quail eggs anyone?
a troubled monica vitti with british actor richard harris who walked out on antonioni after asking antonioni “why am i walking across the field?” to which antonioni replied “you’re an actor, you don’t question me, you do what i tell you to do”

entire streets, grass fields and buildings were painted to achieve the color

talking about deserts…. this is what you can call a great film, i saw it again tonight for the 4th, or 5th time, and it was as if i was seeing things for the first time. granted i’m rather forgetful, but that’s another story.  the color and composition in this film are rather extraordinary, antonioni is the painter rather than the director in this film. so much pain was taken at the time in 1964 to create the color palette that antonioni was after on this technicolor film, including painting entire stone streets brown, buildings black, trees white, leaves brown, trash gray, earth red not to mention the “gray” fruit… it’s truly a beautiful film, and worth seeing it with no sound just purely as a visual feast, a rothko painting of sorts.
the criterion collection which is only $31.96 (on sale now) includes;

audio commentary by italian film scholar david forgacs (this is quite nice), archival video interviews with michelangelo antonioni and monica vitti and a booklet featuring an essay by film historian mark le fanu, an interview with antonioni by jean-luc godard, and a reprinted essay by antonioni on his use of color plus the usual other crap on such discs. with many thanx to cdc. by dd

CATEGORIES: must see films

Rolling Stones Revisit: 1972’s Exile on Main Street documentary

mick jagger looking at a bob dylan LP

just saw the documentary by french filmmaker stephen kijak.  shot in the south of france during the stones exile tour, accommodated by their private jet and all, due to “unbearable” british taxes, hah! was a great watch and included some amazing-intimate-still-images of a band, too big to call, rock and roll. will try and post some more images later. recommended. by dd

CATEGORIES: must see films

you can’t miss “tetro”


sometimes there are things i don’t understand. for instance, i really don’t get why daddy coppola’s tetro went so unnoticed and so untold about. here is the story: i was in paris a couple of months ago and it was getting released there. critics were totally crazy over the movie saying it’s such a great movie, coppola was interviewed on every radio, tv and so on to talk about it. when i get back here, i checked to see when the us release was to see it again. what i saw was a bit strange, the movie was released eight months before, and it had no press at all, nothing! it was featured in two theaters for two days… what’s going on? that’s a really beautiful movie, gallo is very good, black and white is perfect…you can’t miss that, you know what to do this weekend. by pp’

CATEGORIES: clips, must see films

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP: the criterion collection


two-lane blacktop is a fantastic film from the archives, now available from the criterion collection.  i picked up 3 copies, just to be safe. the issue includes a beautifully printed script book worth the full price alone, plus a whole dvd of additional content like interviews with monte hellman and james taylor. it’s a must see film if you haven’t seen it. by dd

CATEGORIES: clips, must see films