September 9, 2008: Pierrot le Fou & Tickets

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Pierrot le Fou. Jean-Luc Godard (1965). Let's sing it together now (and to the tune of "Alouette"): "I love French films, pretensious boring French films, I love French films..." and this is a fine example. Godard is, of course, the prototypical pretensious French film maker, but not boring...at least not when Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina are lighting up the screen. This is the new Criterion release--wonderful print, lively colors (so nice to see after years of poor quality art house showings), great extras (although I wouldn't really know since I didn't get disc two from Netflix yet--but they sound great!) Ultimately, the film is a bit of a lark. It's a pop-art criminals on the run picture, full of primary colors, fourth wall breaching, jabbing commentaries on American and European politics and culture, and send-ups of narrative film conventions. The breezy skullduggery plot seems like a cross between Breathless and Le Petit Soldat, but without the former's charm or the latter's seriousness. And tonally and moodwise, the film is like Godard's other early color films--Le Mepris and Une Femme est Une Femme--but without their narrative unity. In the end, it tries to do too much, in my opinion, but then again, all that stuff it does do is also why I like Godard. How about this then: It's just good fun. ***





Tickets. Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, Ermanno Olmi (2005). A remarkable film: a triptych of loosely interlocking stories set on a passenger train travelling across Italy towards Rome, with each director listed above taking the reins for his respective segment. A wonderful collaboration. The stand-out, for me, was Ken Loach's part--the story of three foul-mouthed Scottish lads who, on their way to see a soccer match in Rome, get one of their train tickets lifted by a family of Albanian refugees. The resolution of the conflict is both inspiring and funny, and, of course, lacking none of Loach's usual political punch. ***
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And speaking of trains, when K and I dropped off our friend Nicole at the train station here in Stumptown on Sunday, we let Ian walk all over the place and get his first experience of a train station. It was great--a wide open terminal to cruise around in, good visibility for the parent, and lots of interesting new things to look at. I hate to admit it, but I love train travel so much sometimes it's just comforting to go to the station and hang out--imagine that you're off to some exciting place. It's always a rich sensory experience. So here's five great train movies (or movies with great train sequences in them) to get you in the mood to travel: (1) Murder on the Orient Express. Sidney Lumet, 1974. (2) North by Northwest. Alfred Hitchcock, 1959 . (3) From Russia with Love. Terence Young, 1963. (4) Closely Watched Trains. Jiri Menzel, 1966. (5) The Train. John Frankenheimer, 1964.

Bonus: And five great train songs! (1) "Orange Blossom Special," Johnny Cash. (2) "Rock Island Line," The Knitters. (3) "Midnight Special," Creedence Clearwater Revival. (4) "Driver 8," R.E.M. (5) "(I Heard that) Lonesome Whistle," Hank Williams...Okay...(6) "Train in Vain," The Clash.

Bon Voyage,
JBF