Random 10: Random Films for Comment - Week 25

I wish I could comment, but I've seen none of these.

the I LOST MY HAND!!! I LOST MY BRIDE!! JOHNNY HAS HIS HAND! JOHNNNY HAS HIS BRIDE! scene in moonstruck is the best depiction of self pity on film ever. if only cage hadnt maed that kind of acting his schtick. actualy im not sure here if cage is great or if the movie around him is bad. possibly both.

I've been wanting to see "Chronicle of a Summer" since college. Eric, please give us a review.

I will surely put down some thoughts. It's playing here all weekend.

Wow, I completely missed "Two Or Three Things..." the first time I read this through. Probably the hardest film by Godard from his wonderful late 60's period (hard to comprehend, hard to find), but it's one of the most rewarding. The crosscutting reminds me a lot of his "Sympathy for the Devil" and it's one of his most sedate and meditative films of the middle years. You can definitely see the push towards the later "essay films" and video experiments coming through, if not in the form, in the content.

Chronicle of a Summer. First three-quarters of the film, I'm sort of sitting (with a splitting headache, mind you, and not from the film) and waiting for the moment when worlds opened up before me and I understood the genesis of verité and whatnot. In fact, I was sort of questioning the validity of many of the figures documented. Some seemed to be consciously acting, others were struggling to ignore the camera, some strained in a seeming effort to overcome the limitations of their own intellect (not saying anyone was stupid, just that their motives always drove them towards failure of some type)... and then comes the denouement, where (SPOILER, I guess) the entire "cast" is shown the film up to that point and they debate as to the true nature of it's "authenticity" and the inner dialogue I was having becomes the actual subject of the film!

It's achievement is clear, and astonishing. I can't remember the classic final line from Edgar Morin now, but it's one of the most beautifully succinct readings of the film. Self-reflective is scarcely the word for it.

The only thing I clearly remember from "2 or 3 Things" is the big coffee-cup closeup ... that is the one, right?

Woody's "Midsummer" is not a bad "Smiles of a Summer night" rip, total anachronisms aside. Early peak when Jose Ferrer enthuses about showing new bride Mia Farrow "Thomas Carlyle's grave."

Am I the only one who thought "Moonstruck's" major charm was the John Mahoney-Olympia Dukakis subplot? Otherwise it had a sorry case of the cutes. (Shanley wrote a much more intriguing film, "5 Corners.")

Dr Morbius otm w.r.t. Shanley.