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La collectionneuse [The Collector] (Éric Rohmer, 1967)
Jul
18
Someone's all bundled up*. No list of summer films is complete without Éric Rohmer.
“I even tried not to think. I was face-to-face alone with the sea, far from cruises and beaches, fulfilling a childhood dream put off year after year. I lost myself completely in the play of shadow and light, sinking into a lethargy heightened by the water. That state of passivity, of complete availability, promised to last much longer than the euphoria of one’s first summer dip into the ocean. I could easily see myself spending a whole month this summer this way.”
– Adrien
An art dealer and his writer friend plan to spend the summer together in a villa on the Côte d'Azur. A young woman, a collector of sorts, disrupts their retreat.
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La Chambre verte [The Green Room / The Vanishing Fiancée] (François Truffaut, 1978)
Mar
17
Julien Davenne (Truffaut). DP: Néstor Almendros.
“Our past doesn't belong to us.”
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Cockfighter (Monte Hellman, 1974)
Mar
15
Frank Mansfield (Warren Oates) holding up a reluctant, wildly flapping white rooster. DP: Néstor Almendros.
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Beaubourg, centre d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou [Beaubourg] (Roberto Rossellini, 1977)
Jan
31
1977
Rossellini on site. DPs: Néstor Almendros, Jean Chiabaut & Emmanuel Machuel.
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Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
Oct
7
1916
The Amarillo Dispatch reports on President Wilson's October 7 visit to the town of Panhandle. DP: Néstor Almendros.
– Here he is!
– There he goes!
– That's the president of the whole country.
– Ohh!
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More (Barbet Schroeder, 1969)
Sep
7
Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) and Stefan (Klaus Grünberg) tripping in Ibiza. DP: Néstor Almendros.
“I had imagined this journey as a quest. I finished my studies in math. I wanted to live. I wanted to burn all the bridges, all the formulas, and if I got burned, that was okay, too. I wanted to be warm. I wanted the sun and I went after it.”
– Stefan
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L'enfant sauvage [The Wild Child] (François Truffaut, 1970)
Nov
14
Young Readers Day
Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron (Jean-Pierre Cargol), reads letters from a board under supervision of Dr. Jean Itard (Truffaut). DP: Néstor Almendros.
One of the most elaborately recorded “feral child” cases is that of the Wild Boy of Aveyron. In the year 1800, after few fruitless attempts to bound him to civilisation, a young boy left the forests of Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance and settled in. The child's primal appearance and lack of speech labeled him an idiot. However, in the era of Enlightenment, the question of nurture versus nature was a pressing one. Studies on Victor began.
“I'm glad that you came home. Do you understand? This is your home. You're no longer a wild boy, even if you're not yet a man.”
– Dr. Itard
Truffaut explores L'enfant sauvage right when the idea of the noble savage seemed to lock on with counterculture. With #Truffaut as Victor's tutor Itard in front of the camera, directly guiding amateur child actor (and “gipsy”) Cargol, the film not only reimagines Victor's fate, but reenacts Western presumed enlightenment over The Other.
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More (Barbet Schroeder, 1969)
Aug
22
Munchies
Druggies Estelle (Mimsy Farmer) and Stefan (Klaus Grünberg) eating straight from a jar of honey and picking crumbs out of a loaf of bread. There's Coca-Cola product placement and half-eaten foods everywhere. DP: Néstor Almendros.
– You know what's really awful?
– No, tell me.
– Getting hooked. It's the end. But, if you only take one shot every once in awhile. Its no different than an occasional drink or cigarette.
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Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)
Aug
7
Alberta Heritage Day
Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) walking through golden fields towards a small pavilion. DP: Néstor Almendros.
Quintessential Americana. Filmed in Canada.
“The sun looks ghostly when there's a mist on a river and everything's quiet. I never knowed it before.”
– Linda
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Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait [General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait / No One Can Run Faster Than a Rifle Bullet] (Barbet Schroeder, 1974)
Jun
9
National Heroes Day Of Uganda
Schroeder in tuxedo interviewing General Idi Amin Dada Oumee. Even in the context of the scene, Schroeder just came from a gala event, the tuxedo is a statement of assumed superiority. DP: Néstor Almendros.
It's easy… no lazy to put this documentary away as a failed Idi Amin propaganda project. In 1974, German-Swiss Barbet Schroeder, privileged son of a diplomat, already knew more than enough about how to select framing and manipulate timing. The result, Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait, is a prime example of the neo-colonialist gaze.
“You film. Film helicopter.”
– The General explaining a director's one and only task
Amin, clearly not speaking his native language, tries to explain his plans for #Uganda. The camera (Spanish cinematographer) moves in on his gesturing hands, then a jump cut (French editor) to soldiers who – instructed in English – seem unsure of what is asked of them. When (in the copy I watched) people speak in Swahili, no translation is provided and the portrayed are little more than undeveloped, exotic backdrop. Everything seems to be a joke to Schroeder: the air force's MiGs, Amin and his higher-ups joining tribesmen in dance, even the President's children are used to exemplify the stereotype of the overly virile, primitive African male.
Amin was, as Schroeder is, a product of Europe's Scramble. With the difference that, although bloody and despicable, Amin's strategy was not to embolden the West's moribund empire.