Tidbits français

Thanks to Gala.fr, I discovered some quotes by the incomparable Miss Béatrice Dalle. She mentioned her admiration for Isabelle Huppert as an actress (of course; the two starred together in Michael Haneke's Le Temps du loup [Time of the Wolf]). And did you ever wonder what makes Mlle Dalle shiver? Pasolini's films. Above is a photo that I accidentally, and amiably, stumbled upon using the Google Image Search of my two favorite screen sirens, Béatrice and Asia Argento (although I do wonder if it's been photoshopped).

Also thanks to Gala.fr, I found some photos of my favorite contemporary French actor, Romain Duris, during his first audition for Cédric Klapisch's Le Péril jeune. He was barely 20 and surprisingly dreadlocked. He would go on to act in five other Klapisch films: Chacun cherche son chat [When the Cat's Away], Peut-être, L'Auberge espagnole, Les Poupées russes [Russian Dolls] and the most recent, Paris.

Back to Pasolini, I found an interesting video entitled Enfants de Salò, which is featured on the French DVD of Salò, of four controversial French filmmakers talking about the impact the film had on them. Gaspar Noé (Irréversible), Catherine Breillat (Fat Girl), Claire Denis (Trouble Every Day) and Bertrand Bonello (Tiresia) each discuss the power of Pasolini's final film and how it reflected on their own work, or at least understanding of the cinema. The film is entirely in French and without subtitles, so non-French speakers beware.

Yay!

I told ya so. I'm glad I got to say that.

Or

So there's a strong rumor going around that Criterion will finally unveil their remastered disc of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom in either August or October. I mean, this is a long standing rumor that's been going on for a couple of years, but I've reason to believe that it may actually happen. And soon. On vera...

Quotables

Me (on Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem): "Neither chamber drama nor horror film, [Requiem] is the holy union of Through a Glass Darkly giving The Exorcist the friendly reach-around."
Me (on seeing Black Snake Moan out of early morning boredom): "Seriously lacking in the sizzle and bang I needed to start my day... and why the fuck couldn't they overdub Sam Jackson's wretched singing voice?"

Customer at video store (on Tideland): "I guess it's official that Terry Gilliam has lost his mind."

On For Your Consideration:
Cindy: "What a disappointment, I know they can do better."
Nathan: "So uninspired, it hurts..."
Mike: "If this is what Guest plans on doing from now on, he may as well go make Almost Heroes 2."



Mike (on He Say, She Say, but What Does God Say?): "My sentiments exactly."
Mike (on Night of the Living Dorks): "It's just a German teenage sex comedy that happens to include the undead."
Mike (on Frankenhooker): "It's as good as it sounds."
Mike (on B.A.P.s): "Hi, Oscar winner Halle Berry, I think this was even less enjoyable than A Hole in My Heart."
Mike (on Running with Scissors): "I'd rather chug cock than have to watch this again."

Chris M. (on Clean, Shaven): "Hey, learn how to shave, you removed your scalp, you weirdo."
Chris M. (on The Gospel According to St. Matthew): "Sexiest Jesus ever represented on film, hands down."

Tom B. (on Jesus Camp): "If you want some McGod, you gotta do some cookin! Dreadful documentary, though."
Tom B. (on his two-star Ghost Rider rating): "An extra star because my girlfriend and I downed a whole bottle of champagne while watching this in the theatre."
Tom B. (on Notes on a Scandal): "Not good, but oh so deliciously cruel!"

Josh (on Half Nelson): "With the death of my beloved Anna Nicole, I didn't think life was worth living any more. But this movie makes it so."

I didn't have the surplus of wonderfully clever quotes as I did last time, but expect to see Requiem and Half Nelson featured on my Neglected Films of 2006 list that I'm working on now.

Funny Games

Sitcom - dir. François Ozon - 1998 - France

Only upon rewatching Pasolini's Teorema, certainly his masterpiece, did I realize how frequent the themes present there have shown up in other films. I mentioned the comparison in my review of the dreadful Angelina Jolie thud, Foxfire, but I think the comparison works best here, with Ozon's first feature, Sitcom. Instead of Terrence Stamp, Ozon gives us a rat, who comes into a bourgeouis family only to disrupt their lives. The daughter (Marina de Van, director of Dans ma peau [In My Skin]) becomes a paraplegic dominatrix, the son (Adrien de Van) turns gay and begins hosting orgies in his room, the mother (Évelyne Dandry) lustfully tries to cure her son's homosexuality by fucking him, and the father (François Marthouret) shoots himself (in the opening scene). And all because of one cute little rat!

No doubt when Ozon was first dubbed the garçon terrible of French cinema, Pasolini, another rebellious cinematic homosexual, came to many people's minds -- though a French John Waters seems more fitting for Sitcom. In Teorema, the destruction of the upper-middle class family came in the form of a beautiful "visitor" (Stamp), but here, our God figure is literally a rat. There's a perverse, disquieting nature to Sitcom, but somehow it's missing the ability to haunt and provoke that Teorema had. Sitcom is played for dirty laughs, and this is where Teorema works better. One of the most crippling elements of Teorema is that it's hard to really allow yourself to laugh at what's going on. Pasolini doesn't play it tongue-in-cheek, but then again, he never really does. I suppose there's a seriousness about Pasolini in either his dark subject matters or his murder that doesn't allow for most people to see his films as comedies, even his more outrageous ones like Salò or Porcile. Teorema is subtly hysterical, and you can't help but feel that Ozon updated it with Sitcom, a Pasolini film as written by John Waters and directed by Claude Chabrol. Enough name-dropping for one evening.

Shocked?

The Guardian, in the U.K., has named the top 10 most controversial films of all time (thank you GreenCine Daily), citing Pier Paolo Pasolini's Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Saló, o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) as the number one. Most of the other films on the list are remembered by their Christian picketing (thankfully neither Dogma nor The Passion of the Christ made the cut) or by their scanadlous sexual or political content. The list is as follows:


1. Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom - Pier Paolo Pasolini - 1975

2. Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone - 1994

3. Crash - David Cronenberg - 1996

4. The Last Temptation of Christ - Martin Scorsese - 1988

5. The Devils - Ken Russell - 1971

6. Pretty Baby - Louis Malle - 1977

7. The Birth of a Nation - D.W. Griffith - 1915

8. Straw Dogs - Sam Peckinpah - 1971

9. Monty Python's Life of Brian - Terry Jones - 1979

10. Bandit Queen - Shekhar Kapur - 1994