Resnais

Doing my director presentation on this guy tomorrow night. Chose him after seeing Providence and most of Hiroshima Mon Amour, both pretty different types of films, unlike anything I've seen.

The logical thing was to look at Marienbad next, the one they show you in all the crit studies classes. Unwatchable. 90 minutes felt like 4 hours. Can't sleep? Watch Marienbad.

Then I check out Hiroshima again. Didn't like the final 1/3 as much. I re-thought the movie after Marienbad. Maybe this guy sucks.

Watched Mon Uncle in America, a film he did in 1980. Was enjoying it. Had to stop at the final 1/3 because I had to be somewhere. Just watched the final 1/3. A good example of what Marsha Kinder would call database cinema. Has three overlapping stories, flashbacks, "dream-on" esque inserts, voice over narration by a cognitive scientist, who is also a character. Not unlike Providence, but more accessible. And this was 14 years before Pulp Fiction. The more I think about it, I think this film is pretty frigging awesome.

Watched Night and Fog, a 30 minute documentary about Concentration camps, a film Truffaut calls the "greatest film ever made." Yipes. Completely unsentimental. According to the book jacket, an anti-documentary. Tough to watch. It's more of an essay than a film. I'd call it the anti-Schindler's list.

Check out Muriel and the War is Over, found them both unwatchable and turned them off.

I'll be able to put together an interesting presentation...if the Cahier du Cinema folks say Hiroshima is the first "modern" film, I'd venture to say Providence might be the first post-modern film...couple that with making the best documentary EVER, and having two films on Criterion Collection, I'd say this guy, despite Marienbad, is worth doing a presentation on...