"N. a pris les dés..." (1971) Director Alain Robbe-Grillet
#Alain #Robbe-Grillet had signed on to produce two different films using the same footage, with different editing, but with the scenes ordered differently so as to build two completely different stories. The first film produced was thus Oltre l'Eden (L'éden et après), while the second was N. a pris les dés...
N. a pris les dés... is in fact the anagram of the original title of the first film, L'éden et après, but it tells the story from the point of view of the male protagonist, who becomes the narrator off-screen, rather than the protagonist feminine, Violette (Catherine Jourdan).
This time the inspiration comes from Ingmar Bergman's 1968 ′′ Hour of the Wolf ′′ set and the protagonists, definitely more photos (igenic) than us are: #Liv #Ullman & #Ingmar #Bergman himself.
The hour of the wolf, as the protagonist Johan explains, is that hour between night and dawn when so many people die and are born, when sleep is deepest and nightmares are most vivid. In fact, the images in the film are particularly raw and violent, in black and white sometimes burnt to enhance ambiguity.
Johan can't live in the real world, but he can't even take refuge in his imaginary world because this is populated by disturbing presences, which hurt and "devour" him.
The set is #Sam #Levinson's 2021 ′′ Malcolm & Marie ′′ and it was the first film to be completed after the outbreak of the #COVID-19.
The film was shot during the pandemic and, overall, offers a metaphor for relationships during the lockdown. The story takes place entirely inside their home, over the course of an evening or so, and runs the gamut of emotions – tension one moment, tenderness and love the next. They are trapped in that house, in that evening, in their heads and in their perception of the other. They argue, tell each other cruelty, apologize and then start over. It becomes clear that these characters love each other, as much as they hate each other. It's a roller coaster on an island you can't escape. It's the relational lockdown.
PS. (The color version just because we liked it more)
Luckily he had a sock with a hole in it and we laughed. The first photo version 2019, the second 2021.
The set is "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" (yes the Italian title sucks so you'll catch it in English) from 2004 by #Michel #Gondry.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind tells us about love from its most painful perspective: the end. But if it is true that the thought that love is not necessarily eternal is capable of disturbing every lover, it is equally evident that "forever" is not said to be the most important thing: we love because we cannot do without it, we love even though we know it will end.
PS. Even though it was included in the 73rd place in the list of the best films ever, I fell asleep twice out of two watching it and @alicebaraldi (yes the one with the holey socks) considers it, I quote, "a pippone with two hands"
Walking into the bathroom with light and camera while a woman is showering might not be a great idea.
The set is "À bout de souffle" (Breathless) from 1960 by #Jean-Luc #Godard
À bout de souffle is at the same time an essay on the aesthetics of the nascent Nouvelle vague, a cinéphile gesture of love for classic cinema and one of the most important pieces of the linguistic renewal of cinema in the 1960s.
#Susan #Sontag compared the subversive impact of this film on traditional cinematic language to that of the works of #James #Joyce and #Igor #Stravinsky on their respective disciplines. The insistent homage to #Humphrey #Bogart, and the initial dedication to #Monogram, a small American house that produces B-movies, as well as the obvious references to the American detective story of the fifties, in this perspective are the equivalent of the melodies of the Russian tradition that resurface in radically renewed rhythmic and tonal structures in Le sacre du Printemps or Petrushka.
ps. Yes, this time around a brick but, come on, how beautiful is the scene?
The set is "Nightcrawler" (The Jackal) from 2014 by #Dan #Gilroy
Jackal: who steals in places left unsupervised. Who cynically takes advantage of the misfortunes of others. Nightcrawler is the term used in journalistic jargon to indicate freelancers who roam the city of Los Angeles at night in fast cars tuned to police radios. Armed with expensive cameras, freelancers rush to the scene of local news events and film images to be resold to local TV stations or major networks. Traffic accidents, house fires, murders, assaults and cases of human suffering, which represent a certain source of income for them.
“The image you must have in mind of our news is that of a half-naked woman with her throat cut running down the street looking for help”
