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L'homme à la valise [The Man with the Suitcase] (Chantal Akerman, 1983)
Mar
11
close quarters
Henri (Jeffrey Kime) and the woman (Chantal Akerman) at a claustrophobically small table, each eating their breakfast. The woman has a baguette, a bowl of coffee, and a cigarette. Henri takes up most of the table with a serving tray holding a whole box of Pelletier toast, a plastic milk bottle, and a coffee pot. He's also manspreading. DP: Maurice Perrimond.
Close quarters: US premiere of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016).
A filmmaker (Akerman) reluctantly hosts a guest (the always imposing Jeffrey Kime) in her already cramped quarters. His increasingly expanding presence in volume, sight and sound are insufferable for the quiet cineast.
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O Território [The Territory] (Raúl Ruiz, 1981)
Apr
2
Nature Day
A man and woman, plus a little girl perched on the man's shoulders, hike through an illusory landscape. DP: Henri Alekan.
Two American families, adults and their children, go on a #HikingTrip somewhere in the south of France. They find themselves increasingly lost, not only in #nature but also in and among themselves.
Supposedly based on a real troublesome event and riddled with much filmmaking adversity, O Território nearly stranded as much as the hikers did. In support, #WimWenders used the same cast for his Der Stand der Dinge (1982), about a film crew's attempt to remake #RogerCorman's Day the World Ended (1955).
In a wonderful, unscripted circular way, Corman was one of the executive producers of Ruiz's film.