Letterboxd 5019o Maxime Renaudin

Stage Struck 6q69i 1925 - ★★★★½

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 06:56:43 +1300

4v291o

[Underrated #4]

(extracted and edited from a longer piece I wrote for the Allan Dwan Dossier edited by Lumière in 2013)

I cannot help but feel wildly ecstatic when immersed in the dynamics of the Fairbanks series. Yet, I must it that I would trade any and all Fairbanks films for Stage Struck or Manhandled (1924). Beyond Dwan's unparalleled ability to design spaces where movement seamlessly aligns with thought, the Swanson series reveals a deeper aspect of his cinema: a quiet quest for intimacy. This intimacy emerges in rare moments when the drama pauses, and the screen captures the pulse of the world itself. In Stage Struck, Dwan, free as a shooting bird, offers a serene and harmonious flow, framing the ordinary joys of an ordinary girl.

One scene, where Jenny and Orme shell peas together, is particularly thrilling. The comings and goings between the kitchen and the dining room are elaborated in the most efficient and simple way (though the striking close-up of Swanson's face peeping through the serving hatch is arguably an unfortunate choice that disrupts the balance of the scene) as if for the sole purpose of introducing the subsequent non-event, when the swirl of half-lies dissolves into the knowing tenderness of a blissful moment. Orme’s gentle gesture when he takes a seat to Jenny in the shelling party stands out for its refreshing spontaneity. The minute that follows is disarmingly simple, fading into a murmur of awkward smiles and artless confidences, free from any superfluous embellishment. Here, Dwan’s artistry lies in his refusal to impose a commentary on what is shown, imprinting his signature instead through a profound absence of artifice.

This rejection of spectacle is not merely a choice of subject matter; it is embedded in Dwan’s unique way of seeing and showing. For example, while the shooting schedule coincided with the Water Queen’s arrival in town, Dwan resists exploiting the photogenic potential of such a production value beyond its dramatic function. Mostly seen in the background—as in the irresistible six-legged walk along the riverbank, where it marvellously fills the frame behind the trees—the boat is never shown off or played like an ace in the hole. Dwan digested it, as he digests them all. Dwan knew how to put everything in front of his camera in a receptive mood, through shared availability in a territory of trust, with Dwan as Hospitaller-in-Chief. His precision and economy of representation illuminate the simplest gestures, imbuing them with universal resonance.

Among all Dwan films, Stage Struck is one of those that marry in the most delicate way the functional paradigm (the grammar of film) and the cosmic one (when a tear may echo the whole universe).

Please watch again and reconsider.

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Our Lady of the Assassins w1f2j 2000 - ★★★★½

Mon, 2 Dec 2024 13:52:38 +1300

[Underrated #3]

This is a truly unique film.

For its radical amorality (which does not imply any relativism here). Barbet Schroeder takes everything for granted: (homo)sexuality, age difference, violence. No judgment, no explanation, no remorse. Things are simply as they are, unremarkable, undenoted. Wilmar touches Fernando’s hair at night just as Reagan touches Stanwyck’s in Cattle Queen of Montana. Murders are depicted in a heavily edited, unspectacular manner, stripping away fascination. Moreover, the camera work puts us at an equal distance of Alexis/Wilmar and Fernando, asg their perspectives the same weight, as from those who are about to die.

For its fragile heterogeneity. For much of the film, Alexis/Wilmar and Fernando (Germán Jaramillo, in nearly every frame, outstanding) wander the streets of Medellín in what feels like an unbroken conversation – a single, continuous shot, moving from place to place. The film flows like an angry river, propelled by Fernando’s logorrhoea, carrying along the saints and the sinners, the living and the dead, the haters and the lovers. Holy statues in a pool hall, drug dealers in a cathedral, beggars kneeling to receive sacred sweets – all collide in this surreal tapestry. The high-definition video image and elaborate colour palette contribute to the film's hallucinatory mood.

For its bitter tenderness. For its laughter and tears. This may be Barbet Schroeder’s most emotional work. Alexis/Wilmar and Fernando are as naked as one can be, free from categorization, strangers to their own appearance. Doomed and vulnerable, they share moments of intimacy as if detached from the outside world, as if these moments were their last. And indeed, they are. Fernando collapses in the church nave like the dying bitch lying in the gutter awaiting the final bullet. He silently draws the curtains as a final cut.

La virgen de los sicarios, it’s Edgar Ulmer (The Black Cat) filming Vertigo, with Fernando searching through a burning city for the double of a dead angel among muñecos.

Please watch again and reconsider.

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Blind Date 2r1c2d 1987 - ★★★★

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 13:12:21 +1300

[Underrated #2]

I'm genuinely baffled by the low rating on this one, currently averaging below 3 stars, with three-quarters of reviewers rating it even lower. This might just be the most underrated title (relatively) on my list.

Is it a question of "funny or not funny"? I don’t think so. Personally, I find this piece frequently funny, if not hilarious – and I should it that I enjoy the Pink Panther series from beginning to end.

Stating the obvious (perhaps worth repeating), albeit briefly: few directors can manage to control chaos with such mastery and elegance, using widescreen depth through long and/or elaborate takes. This film, although rather simple (essentially romcom material, when compared to some of his more personal and/or ambitious films of the decade), has it all. Yet, it remains largely unnoticed (although enjoying a fair amount of success at release I believe).

The wide sweeping lateral shot following Willis as he rushes, bumping his way into his office. The unusually long walk-and-talk scene with his colleague (TV did not invent anything), where the latter does all the talking while unease grows with every ing second. The warm, cozy lateral shot in the music studio, where Willis and Basinger are framed as if in miniature. Nothing programmatic here, but clever and elegant ways to convey the panic, discomfort or tenderness.

Unnoticed? Like the golf balls when reaching unintended targets; or Willis bumping into someone in the dark background of his office corridor; or Basinger suddenly reappearing behind Willis’s back to steal his drink; or Basinger mimicking his sobriety test only to fail the one-leg-stand.

I can rewatch, again and again, the morceau de bravoure near the end (the night before the wedding), where Edwards's comic genius is on full display. It’s a seven-minute, multilayered symphony of gags, perfectly timed, with doors opening and closing and bodies crossing windows in synchrony. Déjà vu? Perhaps, but where else would you see it done like this, if not in a Blake Edwards movie?

Some say they sense discomfort watching late Edwards (I do not), when the moralist appears to take a stance on stage; this pretty modest film doesn’t make a case for that. I cannot understand why one would not genuinely enjoy this Keatonesque, elegant and very well-crafted piece of visual comedy.

Please watch again and reconsider.

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It Happened on July 20th 342r13 1955 - ★★★★

Sun, 3 Nov 2024 15:12:09 +1300

[Underrated #1]

A column of panzers advances toward Berlin. It will not succeed; we already know this—it happened on July 20, 1944. When the column confronts the inevitability of its failure, the tanks, one by one, turn back through the mud and the dust. The manoeuvre is laborious, the ground ominous, and the lengthy shot captures it all. Pabst shows us this disaster consummated in its most trivial form. Rossellini created dozens of similar shots; Godard dreamed of it all his life. It happened on July 20th, and July 20th is now.

No, Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s talent did not suddenly fade in 1932 — a legend born of misunderstanding when people searched in vain for the naked body of Louise Brooks and perpetuated out of laziness, in the discomfort surrounding Pabst’s return to Nazi .

This ultra-dry short feature proves the opposite. Lean, grey and straight, with not an inch or second wasted, without bright or witty spots, with no smiles or tears, no glamour but uncertain glory. From checkpoint to checkpoint, from the situation room to the communication room, from headquarters to barracks, Pabst shows us a chain of events where words do matter, and where actions have consequences. From decision to action, and from action – or absence of action – to reaction. The column of panzers moves back indeed, when, under Newton's third law, conflicting orders from conflicting minds make any change an impossible dream.

Please watch again and reconsider.

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Best 50 of the 1980’s 2m34p

Mon, 12 May 2025 02:35:55 +1200

White Dog

My Case

Alexandria Again and Forever

Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company

The Big Red One

Le Pont du Nord

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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Best 50 of the 1930's 3c6d28

Mon, 3 Feb 2025 04:45:13 +1300

No need to say it's a work in progress.
Individual ranking would change each time I revisit the films.

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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Best100 5n5x2v

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 08:24:05 +1300

This is a work in progress. To build this list, I simply extracted all films I rated 4,5 or 5 (not that many), and made a few difficult choices, with two (arbitrary) rules: no more than 2 entries by director and no film after 2000 (we'll see in a couple of decades).