The Criterion Collection

[captainron_howdy]

Originally Posted by jw007

I'm turning 40 this year. How old are you?

I detest Godard's films myself, you're not the only one!

I'll be turning 34 this year. That's comforting to hear. I've seen a fairly large number of Godard's films, including the ones considered his best & they just don't do anything for me. Some filmmakers just aren't for some people, in our case, Godard is one of them.

[javy]

Originally Posted by captainron_howdy

I'll be turing 34 this year. That's comforting to hear. I've seen a fairly large number of Godard's films, including the ones considered his best & they just don't do anything for me. Some filmmakers just aren't for some people, in our case, Godard is one of them.

But, Every Man for Himself, though.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by captainron_howdy

Oh, btw I friggin hate Godard.....sue me.

[captainron_howdy]

Originally Posted by javy

But, Every Man for Himself, though.

I would give it a chance since you recommend it.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by Arawn

Can Antichrist get some love up in here?

I've only seen a few of his films, and while Melancholia is my favorite, Antichrist is a pretty close second.

[captainron_howdy]

Originally Posted by Namuhana

I've only seen a few of his films, and while Melancholia is my favorite, Antichrist is a pretty close second.

Europa, Dogville, Antichrist, Melancholia, & Breaking the Waves I'd say are my top 5. Can't wait for House that Jack Built.

[javy]

Originally Posted by captainron_howdy

I would give it a chance since you recommend it.

Isabelle Huppert and a healthy dose of perversion is a good mix.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by Rich Pure Doom

Leon Morin, Priest:

The primary flaw here is that it just isn't very cinematic at any point. I'm not even sure how interesting this would be as a play. A woman and a young, attractive priest dance around low-level philosophy for two hours. That's the movie. There is some French resistance stuff but there isn't enough to amount to anything other than window dressing. Apparently Melville's original cut was three hours and contained much more of this element. The love story isn't much better and doesn't amount to anything satisfying for the audience. Not all films have to have a happy ending, but there was something deeply anti-climactic about how the relationship we just invested two hours into ends here.

Leon Morin, Priest is set in 1942-1944 Vichy France, in a provincial town near the Italian border. The film is notable for a number of reasons, including its depiction of what it was like to be living in France during the years of the German Occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime. One thing that is immediately apparent early in the film is that the village is almost entirely populated by women. Most of the men are absent, either in Germany (mostly as prisoners of war or forced laborers), in hiding from voracious German and Vichy press gangs looking to send men to Germany, or in a few cases (very few), off with the resistance.

This reality was typical of many French towns. By December 1943 there were over 666,000 French men (and some women) working in Germany. There were an additional 1.5 million male French prisoners of war, the vast majority of whom were kept in Germany after the 1940 armistice as hostages for the good behavior and collaboration of Vichy France. The six week German victory over France in May and June 1940 had been the result of the greatest encirclement in military history up to that time. France's defeat was shockingly swift, humiliating, and tragic, with far reaching consequences for the world that are still with us today. It would be difficult to find a comparable modern example of a great nation falling so hard or so far so fast.

Melville's film is superbly authentic and true to the times. Deeply nuanced, smartly written, and tightly organized, it presents the details of faith, life, and thought in the enemy-occupied world inhabited by its characters. Leon Morin, Priest is one of the most remarkable films ever made; it shies away from nothing. It shows us the occupiers and the collaborators….and there were a great many collaborators in Vichy and in Occupied France, so many in fact that Melville and similar directors were considered groundbreakers for working this dark unspoken part of France's occupation into the plots of their films.

Nor does Melville shy away from showing us the sheer muscular power of faith. Morin is a shoe-leather priest. He doesn't just sermonize and pontificate, he is an intellectual man with a physical presence, wielding rapier-sharp reason, disarming charm, and genuine humility to pull his charges to their feet and challenge them to look at the spiritual world around them in a time when God is not so much in evidence in France (or in the rest of the world for that matter). He is also a man who struggles with his human desires, who fights to remain true to his higher calling. He is young, handsome, desirable; women find him attractive not least because he is one of the few young men left in town and ultimately unattainable. Melville makes us realize just how much courage and strength is required to walk in Morin’s shoes. Whether or not one chooses to believe in God, Melville makes us see it, feel it, and respect it.

Leon Morin, Priest is a testament to man and his capacity for faith, and the more I watch it, the more I think it is Melville’s deepest, most layered, and mature film. Compared with Melville's other films that have been in and out of the Criterion Collection, it is a much more dialogue driven experience. The story focuses on the relationship between a widow, who is a committed communist and atheist, and a young priest who becomes her spiritual guide along a road she did not know she wanted to travel. The conflicts we see on-screen are internally focused as opposed to external as in many of Melville's other films. They revolve primarily around what it means to have faith and to seek that which is the best in ourselves. The struggles with conscience each of the two leads undergoes give rise to dynamic character arcs, chief among these a smoldering sexuality, as the woman finds herself becoming attracted to the priest. The way this relationship is handled in the film is one of its highlights, restrained and realistic, with no weepy melodrama. The viewer is drawn into understanding the longings and the denials of both characters, and what it means to be truly committed to something larger than ourselves with all of the sacrifices walking that path demands. The film is also filled with rich details and interactions between minor characters that frequently upend preconceptions, giving us a very rewarding recreation of what it was like to be French and to be living in Vichy during the occupation.

In my opinion, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the best films ever to grace the Criterion Collection. It is a shame that Criterion lost the rights and it went out of print in the U.S. Jean-Paul Belmondo as the priest does a fantastic job, as does Emmanuelle Riva as the widowed communist. And in a supporting role as the woman's young daughter, the movie also features Patricia Gozzi, who later starred in Sundays and Cybele and one of my favorite films Rapture. I had no idea Gozzi was in Leon Morin, Priest until I saw her name in the opening credits.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by CQD84

I haven't visited this thread in a few days. Judging from the last few posts, I feel like I've been away on vacation only to come home to discover my house is on fire.

Everyone is pointing their cannons at The Canon. No Auteur is safe.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by captainron_howdy

I'll be turning 34 this year. That's comforting to hear. I've seen a fairly large number of Godard's films, including the ones considered his best & they just don't do anything for me. Some filmmakers just aren't for some people, in our case, Godard is one of them.

Yes, precisely. I've tried hard to "get into" Jean-Luc Godard's work but the director was a rabble rouser of the highest order. I feel like his goal was to "shake up" the establishment with his experimental films on existentialism and Marxism. Of course in his later career, he focused more on humanism and semantic constructions and representation. It's his focus on craft and how he cared more about the jump cut and weird editing that threw me off big time. I was so distracted by his stylistic expressions that I was unable to actually care much about the story (or lack thereof). A movie such as Week-end is so damn exhausting, weird and ridiculous, I'm sorry. I actually wrote an essay about this back in college in one of my film classes, and I have to say that I still find that 8 minute long tracking shot to be so over the top, it basically is all you need to watch to get the gist of that film.

[ravenus]

If we're sharing opinions on Leon Morin, I'll quote mine from long back:

Originally Posted by ravenus

I saw Leon Morin, Priest last night and I'm wishing I hadn't jumped on to this on account of being a going OOP title. I found it a very unsatisfying film - the theological discussions were not hugely interesting, the undercurrent of passion was not sufficiently exploited to make me really feel for the characters, the backdrop of the Axis occupation seemed just that - a backdrop. The film runs rather long and IMO coasts mainly on the charisma of the lead pair (which admittedly is considerable, although I would have liked to see a little more dimension from Belmondo's character). Also, while I'm sure this was not an agenda, the successful conversion of the woman and her daughter to a Christian way of life is a little unsettling to my atheistic thinking (it could be just me, and I'm not a deep thinking fellow).

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by jw007

Yes, precisely. I've tried hard to "get into" Jean-Luc Godard's work but the director was a rabble rouser of the highest order. I feel like his goal was to "shake up" the establishment with his experimental films on existentialism and Marxism. Of course in his later career, he focused more on humanism and semantic constructions and representation. It's his focus on craft and how he cared more about the jump cut and weird editing that threw me off big time. I was so distracted by his stylistic expressions that I was unable to actually care much about the story (or lack thereof). A movie such as Week-end is so damn exhausting, weird and ridiculous, I'm sorry. I actually wrote an essay about this back in college in one of my film classes, and I have to say that I still find that 8 minute long tracking shot to be so over the top, it basically is all you need to watch to get the gist of that film.

To be a hardcore Godard fan, you really need to share his politics. Appreciating a few films here or maybe a handful or two is one thing, but I can guarantee you that most of the academics who write about him extensively and the film buffs who watch everything he puts out are on the same end of the political spectrum as he is.

Not a criticism such, but a fairly consistent observation that I'd be prepared to put serious money on.

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by malakaheso

To be a hardcore Godard fan, you really need to share his politics.

Only for certain eras of his career (i.e. the 70s). Even though his politics are present through most eras you can enjoy his first wave and current era films by simply engaging his (dry) comedic takes on the absurdity of cinema tropes.

[SammyJankis]

So how 'bout those leaflets, eh?

[JMDiaz718]

Hey Criterion, still waiting for the Blu-ray......

[Highfire]

In the past two years or so, I have been majorly distracted by life from keeping up with Criterion related news items. For the past several weeks, I have been making my way through the last 450~ pages as a reeducation This has been a good way to see what exciting announcements I have been missing out on, what titles get brought up every month (more Lloyd & Chaplin!) and all of the fascinating recommendations you guys throw out! I'm enjoying the community here and while I'm not a major poster, I look forward to lurking and dropping in comments here and there.

My Criterion collection is relatively modest at 58 Blu-Rays and 5 DVDs and most of those have not been viewed. With my renewed excitement, I have made it a point to start getting to more of these films.

This past weekend I pulled two titles off the shelf that I had not previously seen. I started off with The Big Chill which I really enjoyed. I loved the chemistry between the cast members. I was entranced by the interplay between all of the characters and I could have followed them for several more hours. The presentation of the Blu-Ray was gorgeous and that soundtrack was top notch.

Next up was Orson Welles' F For Fake. I read snippets of reviews prior to watching the film, but I still was not quite prepared for this film. As Peter Bogdanovich says in the special features, this is less a documentary film and more an essay film about fakery. Welles editing techniques employed here are like nothing I have ever witnessed in a "normal" documentary. The result is fascinating, but it did take me a good portion of the movie to get into the rhythms and understand exactly what was going on. I did really enjoy getting to see Welles as a figure being playful throughout and delving into the subject of who or what actually makes art valuable. I did not love this film upon my initial viewing, but I can see this being much more enjoyable on subsequent viewings now that I know what I am getting into.

I am really excited to go a little crazy during the next Criterion sale to keep this addiction going

[Banned User]

Big fan of Melville and I see Le Cercle Rouge, Army of Shadows and Le Samourai get a lot of attention, but rarely hear anything about Le silence de la mer which is an amazing film. Being his first film and all the history involved with its making is fascinating stuff.

About the only film I don't like by Melville was his Two Men In Manhatten.

[Cremildo]

As far as Melville goes, I regard Army of Shadows as a masterpiece (one of the best Criterion blind-buys of mine) and Le doulos as an excellent film, but Le cercle rouge and Le samourai left me cold.

[thatguamguy]

I'm hoping Criterion will honor Anne Coates and announce "Murder on the Orient Express", "The Elephant Man", and "Tunes of Glory" all in one month.

Or at least "What About Bob?"!

[20th Century Boy]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

Or at least "What About Bob?"!

Isn't this tied up because someone has a personal beef with Dreyfus?