ROMANCE SCREENING

"But I still thought it might be seen as progressive in America, especially because its rare confluence of cinematic taste, literary intelligence, and hard-core sex might undercut the crippling puritanism of our movie codes, which usually equate eroticism with porn, sleaze, and stupidity rather than, say, art, health, and intelligence."
-Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

"In her solemn, sexually graphic ''Romance,'' Catherine Breillat explores the nature of a woman's need for male attention and erotic love. Though many of her film's insights might be obtained from back copies of Cosmopolitan plus a smattering of the Marquis de Sade, watching it is a memorable experience for several reasons. Not least of these is its blunt, hard-core frankness. It's doubtful that the film's intellectual aspects would command the same attention if the camera did not make the actors' genitals as familiar as their faces."
-Janet Maslin, NEW YORK TIMES


Suggested Secondary Screenings:  EYES WIDE SHUT (Stanley Krubick, 1999) and LAST TANGO IN PARIS (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)

THE PIANO TEACHER SCREENING

"There is an old saying:  Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it. THE PIANO TEACHER has a more ominous lesson:  Be especially careful with someone who has asked for you."
-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN TIMES

"Once one expereinces Mr. Haneke's own sadistic tendencies toward his audience, one is left with a sour taste in one's mouth, and little else."
-Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER

"Retraint is this movie's mystery and its miracle. No matter how gruesom it is, mercifully, it's always holding back."
-Wesley Morris, BOSTON GLOBE

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  BELLE DU JOUR (Luis Bunuel, 1967) and THE NIGHT PORTER (Liliana Cavani, 1974)

SITCOM SCREENING

"A pet rat sets off a chain reaction of debauchery in a prim and proper nuclear family in SITCOM, a sort of 'Mouse Hunt meets the Marquis de Sade'... promising in outlets that relish notoriety and aren't obliged to shy away from jaunty depictions of homosexuality, bisexuality, S&M, incest..."
-Lisa Nesselson, VARIETY


"SITCOM is a clever little movie that demonstrates the advantages and limitations of cleverness alone."
-Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE


"SITCOM, which is sardonically filmed with the snappy look of a television comedy, has a sour streak that eventually poisons its humor. Mr. Ozon pushed the limits of shock value much more effectively with the carefully measured violence of SEE THE SEA than he does with this frontal assault."
-Janet Maslin, NEW YORK TIMES

BAISE-MOI SCREENING

"Despite some game performances from two lead femmes, this hard-core pic is a half-baked, punk-inflected porn odyssey masquerading as a movie worth seeing and talking about."
-Lisa Nesselson, VARIETY

"It alternates between between graphic, explicit sex scenes and murder scenes of brutal cruelty.  You recoil from what's on the screen.  Later, you ask what the filmmakers had in mind.  They are French, and so we know some kind of ideology and rationalization must lurk beneath the blood and semen... BAISE-MOI is more of a bluff.  The directors know their film is so extreme that most will be repelled, but some will devise intellectual defenses and interpretations for it, saving them the trouble of making it clear what they want to say."
-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

One of recent cinema's most controversial texts, BAISE-MOI is an unapologetic display of graphic violence and explicit sex.  The audacity and effrontery of the film has led to violent debates and drastic censorship.  It is a film made very much in the punk mindset.  Quality is sacrificed for raw emotion.  It has upset many for its blurring of art and pornography as well as its association with exploitation.  Like the French New Wave before it, BAISE-MOI manages to unite low and high culture forms.  Porn and philosophy make an uneasy marriage in the film.

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED (Kirby Dick, 2006), THE PORNOGRAPHER (Bertrand Bonello, 2001), DESTRCITED (Various Directors, 2006), and THELMA AND LOUISE (Ridley Scott, 1991)

NOE AND FASHION

Agnes B, a French fashion company, helped finance Gaspar Noe's first feature film I STAND ALONE (as well as being specifically thanked at the end of TROUBLE EVERY DAY).  There is an undeniable connection between the themes of the New Extreme and high fashion, especially European fashion magazines.  It is a really interesting collision of art and commerce, similar to cinema itself.  Here a a couple examples of the intersection of fashion, cinema, and the extreme through Gaspar Noe.  Earlier we watched a few of his music videos where he honed some techniques and probably picked up a pay check, and these offer a similar glimpse at Noe's methods.  The first is an avant-garde/experimental set of shorts staring super model Eva Herzigova and the second is a cologne commercial staring Vincent Cassel.

IRREVERSIBLE SCREENING

"An integrated work whose form clearly mirrors its content."
-Rick Groen, GLOBE AND MAIL

"Noe's summation is an ideological sucker-punch from a filmmaker who gets off on abusive relationships."
-Wesley Morris, BOSTON GLOBE

"Is there a point to this spew, a cry against the mongrel violence of men? Or is Noe merely a sadist who enjoys inflicting ugly, pitiless images on his audience?"
-Edward Guthmann, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

One of the most controversial and infamous films, IRREVERSIBLE continues Gaspar Noe's attempts to alienate his audience.  Based on the premise that 'time destroys everything,' IRREVERSIBLE employs a backward narration that reimagines the genre of the rape-revenge film.  Combining images and sounds that irritate and trouble, Noe assaults the spectator.  Now a cult film, its original release united debates over its sexual violence, censorship, and artistic expression.

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  5x2 (Francois Ozon, 2004) and MEMENTO (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

SEX IS COMEDY SCREENING

"There are insightful moments about the delicate relationships between a director and her cast, and about the mind games that go on both behind the camera and in front of it."

-Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER

"It's refreshing to see this side of Breillat, a self-reflective artist whose evident anger over the sexual state of the world doesn't entirely subsume her, or her humanity."

-John Anderson, NEWSDAY

"A rigorous and bracingly charming movie about moviemaking."

-Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE

Perhaps the least extreme of the films we will watch, SEX IS COMEDY is a commentary on what it means to represent sex on screen from the perspective of the actor and the director.  In this meta-film, a Breillat surrogate must work with two young actors as well as her crew to capture a moment of raw intimacy and intensity.  The director employs numerous and often contradictory strategies to achieve her goal and edges the border of exploitation, sadomasochism, and touches on issues of consent.  How far must one push oneself or others in the pursuit of art?  This is the central question of Breillat's film and her cinema overall.  As we continue with her work, a fascination with the obscene, that which should not be seen, will continue and SEX IS COMEDY is an excellent text that Breillat provides to explain her method and motivations.

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  IRMA VEP (Olivier Assayas, 1996), BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1971), DAY FOR NIGHT (Francois Truffaut, 1973), CONTEMPT (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963), BROKEN EMBRACES (Pedro Almodovar, 2009), THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS (Lars von Trier, 2003) and H STORY (Nobuhiro Suwa, 2001).

THE PRETTY THINGS ARE GOING TO HELL

Here is David Bowie's 'The Pretty Things are Going to Hell,' which appears in FAT GIRL during the drive.  The lyrics are prophetic for the the film and speak a lot about the edge and crossing over, which is an interesting and important concept in Breillat's work as well as the New French Cinema of Cruelty in general.

CORAL GABLES ART CINEMA

In the following weeks the Coral Gables Art Cinema will be screening a few films of interest.  These features exhibit some of the best recent Queer and Extreme films.  If you haven't been the Coral Gables Art Cinema is a great new venue on Aragon in Coral Gables across from Books & Books.

Gregg Araki's KABOOM: Starts March 25

The latest from Queer auteur Gregg Araki, KABOOM debuted at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.  Infused with queer desires, youthful angst, and a post-apocalyptic humor, KABOOM is extreme in its form and content.  The film will convey a similar tone as some of Francois Ozon's work in the merging of horror and comedy.  Also look for Roxane Mesquida, star of FAT GIRL and SEX IS COMEDY, who crosses from the French Extreme to American film.

Also check out Araki's THE DOOM GENERATION (1995), MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2004), and SMILEY FACE (2007).

Francois Ozon's POTICHE: Starts April 1


Francois Ozon does another 180 from his previous film in POTICHE.  Set in 1970s France, POTICHE manages to explore communism, feminism, and the family in a kitschy, campy, and entertaining way.  Starring two of France's biggest stars, Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu, Ozon shows his ability to operate in mainstream cinema without losing his auteurist viewpoint and managing to subvert while entertaining.

Also check out Ozon's WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS (2000) and 8 WOMEN (2002) as well as Jacques Demy's THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1962).

Xavier Dolan's HEARTBEATS: Starts April 8

Now considered the wunderkind of Francophone film, Xavier Dolan's follow up to I KILLED MY MOTHER is having its South Florida theatrical debut.  Dolan earned a standing ovation at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival for his first film and is experiencing equal praise for HEARTBEATS.  Dolan's work personifies the potential of queer cinema and its continued importance in cinema.

Jee-woon Kim's I SAW THE DEVIL: Starts April 15

Part of a renaissance in South Korean Cinema, Jee-woon Kim has produced artful and entertaining genre films that question the limits and benefits of genre. His work, as well as the larger body of South Korean works, manages to engorss both audiences and film critics while grossing big at the box office.  The film concerns a secret agent seeking revenge for his wife who was murdered by a serial killer, played by Min-sik Choi of OLDBOY.

Also check out Ki'm's A TALE OF TWO SISTERS (2003) and THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008) as well as Chan-wook Park's OLDBOY (2003).

FAT GIRL SCREENING

"I was kind of mad at the way things had this arbitrary development ... That's what happens in real life... I thought a lot about this movie after I saw it -- days afterwards, a week afterwards."

-Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER

"FAT GIRL is uncompromising and unforgiving, but ultimately more self-destructive than any of its characters."

-Jay Carr, BOSTON GLOBE

"There is a jolting surprise in discovering that this film has free will, and can end as it wants, and that its director can make her point, however brutally."

-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Catherine Breillat has described this film as a story about "a soul with two bodies."  FAT GIRL is a frank exploration of sisterhood and adolescent sexuality that has shocked audiences and enraged censors.  Revolving around the complicated relationship between Anais, a twelve-year-old ugly duckling, and her gorgeous older sister Elena, FAT GIRL is uncompromising, brutal, and unflinchingly honest.  The tension between Anais and Elena grows when Elena meets Fernando, an Italian law student, who seduces her with promises of love while Anais bears witness to the corruption of her sister's 'innocence.'

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  BLUEBEARD (Breillat, 2009), A REAL YOUNG GIRL (Breillat, 1976), MOUCHETTE (Robert Bresson, 1967), BABY DOLL (Elia Kazan, 1956), LOLITA (Stanley Kubrick, 1962), and AMERICAN PIE (Paul Weitz, 1999) [Just kidding, sort of, it might make a really great comparison paper.]

 

HALF WAY DONE!

Since the films in this class can make you want to scream, enjoy your spring break with some of these titles:

THE RED BALLOON

AMELIE

HEARTBREAKER

L'AUBERGE ESPAGNOLE

RUSSIAN DOLLS

DAY FOR NIGHT

A WOMAN IS A WOMAN

PARIS JE T'AIME

These are free of extreme violence, brutal sexuality, and, most importantly, free of any animal cruelty.  Have a good spring break.

L'HUMANITE SCREENING

"Bruno Dumont's flawed masterpiece ... You probably won't feel comfortable when HUMANITE is over, but as you leave the theater you will feel more alive than when you entered."
-Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES

"Ought to be seen, because it's a work of moral and spiritual mystery as stubbornly challenging as GONE IN 60 SECONDS is morally anesthetizing."
-ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

L'HUMANITE begins with the epitome of the abject, a corpse.  Investigating the rape and murder of an 11 year-old girl, Pharaon De Winter struggles with himself and the harsh realities of the world.  Directed by Bruno Dumont, the film is symbolic and contemplative as it presents the landscape of the body and the body as landscape.  Paralleling the investigation, De Winter becomes intertwined in a bizarre love triangle between himself and his neighbors Domino and Joseph.  De Winter witnesses a similar crude brutality between Domino and Joseph as he tries to find a murderer.  Inbetween police procedural and avant-garde meditation on humanity, L'HUMANITE won three of the biggest prizes at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  MOUCHETTE (Robert Bresson, 1967) and TWENTYNINE PALMS (Dumont, 2003).

INSIDE SCREENING

"I leave you to discover, through covered eyes, the gut-splattering delirium to come."

-Nathan Lee, VILLAGE VOICE

"For those who like their blood by the barrelful, INSIDE is just the ticket.  Awash in red liquid that drips, oozes, spurts and pours, pic restarts the French gore genre with an over-the-top sadism sure to please fans of schlock horror."

-Jay Weissberg, VARIETY

"INSIDE is an instant modern classic en francais, along the lines of HAUTE TENSION, IRREVERSIBLE, and DANS MA PEAU.  Don't miss it."

-Staci Layne Wilson, HORROR.COM

A prime example of the new extreme horror genre currently making its way out of Europe.  Taking gore to a new level, these films are often linked to American 'torture porn' like SAW and HOSTEL, yet different.  Not an 'art film' like TROUBLE EVERY DAY or IN MY SKIN, but not artless by any means, INSIDE shows a parallel movement in French Cinema toward the extreme.  Despite their obvious differences, there are numerous similarities in theme, the permeability of skin, and form, techniques used to cinematically express pain, to the previous films under analysis. 

Suggested Secondary Screenings:  MARTYRS (Pascal Laugier, 2008), THEM (David Moreau and Xavier Palud, 2006), FRONTIER(S) (Xavier Gens, 2007)

ABJECT POP CULTURE

Lady Gaga's latest music video for BORN THS WAY abounds with abject imagery, from monstrous birth to altered human bodies.

TROUBLE EVERY DAY (1966)

Claire Denis named her film TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) after a 1966 Frank Zappa song of the same name. Released on the debut album FREAK OUT! by Zappa's band The Mothers of Invention, was written in 1965 as Zappa watched the Watts Riots. The riot lasted 6 days in Los Angeles, which killed 34 and injured over a thousand.  It ranked as the largest riot in Los Angeles until 1992.  The themes of racial and social injustice as well as violence pertain to Denis' body of work as a director and her experiences in colonial Africa.

TROUBLE EVERY DAY SCREENING

"... a film that is profoundly disturbing, yet hauntingly unforgettable."

-John Anderson, NEWSDAY

"Nothing Denis has made before ... could prepare us for this gory, perverted, sex-soaked riff on the cannibal genre."
-V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST

"Purposefully shocking in its eroticized gore, if unintentionally dull in its lack of poetic frissons."
-J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE

"A hysterical yet humorless disquisition on the thin line between sucking face and literally sucking face."
-Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Emphasizing mood over narrative TROUBLE EVERY DAY is an erotic modern-day horror story about a man and woman separated by thousands of miles, yet united by an insatiable taste for human flesh.  An American couple honeymooning in Paris shifts to a horror story when the groom is unable to control his libido for sex and violence.  He has come to Paris in search of an elusive doctor studying his particular ailment, which coincidentally afflicts the doctor's own wife.  Divided between his pure bride and the doctor's carnivorous wife, the man's impulses turn to a disturbing sexual violence.  An abstract horror film with a mysterious illness, a mad scientist, and cannibals, TROUBLE EVERY DAY eschews traditional narrative and either reinvents or destroys the horror genre in the process. 

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  WHITE MATERIAL (Denis, 2009), BETTY BLUE (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986), NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (George Romero, 1968)

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Since skin has become such a prominent feature in the films we have been studying, I thought this report on a book covered in human skin would be interesting.  The book, covered in the skin of a convicted murderer, is currently on display as part of a history exhibit in the United Kingdom. 

The book in question is an 1852 edition of THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN MILTON.  The text is an example of anthropodermic bibliopegy.  Most common in the 18th and 19th centuries, the process was often used to bound medical texts.

If only Esther could have figured this process out. 

Here is the article.

BONELLO SHORT

The following is a short film Bonello did with Asia Argento, a star and director associated with the New Extreme, titled CINDY: THE DOLL IS MINE, which played at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.  The film is clearly referencing the work of Cindy Sherman, an artist associated with abject art, and the self-portraits that she is known for.  Bonello and Argento, who worked together in ON WAR (2008), problematize gender by casting Argento in a stereotypically feminine role of performer and a stereotypically masculine role of artist.  Like male and female are challenged in TIRESIA, CINDY: THE DOLL IS MINE questions femininity and masculinity in relation to the roles of performance and artistic creation and the relationship between performer and director.

TIRESIA SCREENING

"Full of powerfully emotional scenes, even if it's almost entirely untouchable -- obtuse, bewildering and almost agonisingly slow."

-Rich Cline, SHADOW ON THE WALL

"The overall intention remains inscrutable, despite the strong presence of the performers and Bonnello’s attempt to will significance into the material by holding each shot over a glacial time-span."

-TIME OUT LONDON

"Intense, intriguing, beautifully framed and intellectually challenging, TIRESIA defies easy categorisation (much like its principal character)."

-Anton Bitel, EYE FOR FILM

In a film movement linked by the connection between transgression and transcendence, Bertrand Bonnello's TIRESIA stands out as one of the New Extremes most difficult, frustrating, and rewarding works.  A film that demands you meet it more than half way as well as requires a fair knowledge of Greek mythology, TIRESIA is steeped in classical traditions as well as modernist filmmaking.  Following the imprisonment of a pre-op transsexual prostitute and her subsequent blinding and gift of prophecy, the film touches on the abject and issues of fate.  As an in-between body, on that challenges preconceived order, such as gender, Tiresia, the character, and TIRESIA, the film, are an interesting addition to transgender film.

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  TRANSAMERICA (Duncan Tucker, 2005), HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001), ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (Pedro Almodovar, 1999), XXY (Lucia Puenzo, 2007), BOYS DON'T CRY (Kimberly Peirce, 1999)

ABJECT ART

Following the publication of Julia Kristeva's POWERS OF HORROR, in which she outlines her theory or theories of abjection, numerous artists emerged experimenting it what became labeled as abject art.  It is an interesting movement that parallels a lot of the themes we are seeing and will see in this course.  In 1993 the Whitney Museum in New York created the exhibition Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art, which combined numerous artists producing work in the 1980s and 1990s.  The art often denotes an interest in the body or corporeality and especially transgressions of the body and our sense of cleanliness and propriety.  Abject artists toyed with ideas of censorship and obscenity:  what is deemed inappropriate for display and discussion.  Often noted for a feminist context, a challenge to patriarchal social order, abject artists such as Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, Paul McCarthy, and Carolee Schneemann, provoked audiences and changed the course of modern art. 

(Birth-Bourgeois-1994, Untitled-Sherman-1992, Cunt Scum-Gilbert & George-1977)

Assignment:  After briefly researching Abject Art, find a work that is part of the movement or you think ties in with the movement.  Simply explain why you are interested in that particular work and how it ties into some of the issues we have been discussing in class.  Due Tuesday March 1st.

The remaining films we will screen will have a noticeable preoccupation with the body and the intertwined experiences of desire and disgust.  These films stress the fragility of the body as well as our own fascination and fear of transgressing boundaries in context of violence and sexuality.  Below is a music video for the Klaxon's TWIN FLAMES, directed by Saam Farahmand, which touches on the abject through an orgy of conjoined bodies.  It is a video that is haunting, disturbing, and strangely beautiful: in essence, abject. 

MORE DE VAN

Since IN MY SKIN, De Van has worked on television projects and directed her second feature film DON'T LOOK BACK (2009).  The film marks a major development in De Van's career.  First, rather than appearing before the camera, De Van casts two highly commercial and internationally known actresses:  Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau.  Second, the film debuted on a massive international stage:  the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.  The film deals with many similar issues as IN MY SKIN:  identity, perception, and alienation.  De Van is currently working on a television film.

"DON'T LOOK BACK begins promisingly. Seemingly obsessed with surfaces, the camera restlessly searches for hints and clues among the fragments we see, even before we know there's a mystery."
-Peter Brunette, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

The film made it abroad through IFC's On Demand in a special section called Midnight Movies.  It is currently available on Netflix Instant Streaming.

Jeanne a writer, married, with two children - starts to see unsettling changes in her home. Her body is beginning to change. No one around her seems to notice. Her family dismisses these fears as the result of the stress of having to finish her next book, but Jeanne realizes that something far deeper, far more disturbing is taking place. A photograph at her mother's house sends her in search of a woman in Italy. Here, transformed into another woman, RosaMaria, she will discover the strange secret of her true identity.

IN MY SKIN SCREENING

"Inescapably gripping... a harrowing portrait.  A remarkable debut film."
-Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Riveting.  Chilling.  Draws from the body horror of David Cronenberg and the feminine paranoia of Roman Polanski's REPULSION."
-Scott Tobias, THE ONION

"A body horror tour-de-force.  Witty.  Beautiful, Terrifying."
-Dennis Lim, VILLAGE VOICE

"A gorgeous, uncommonly assured and provocative debut unsettling.  Arresting."
-Mike D'Angelo, TIME OUT NEW YORK

IN MY SKIN ranks as one of the most powerful directorial debuts in recent years.  Previously the cypher Tatiana of REGARDE LA MER, Marina De Van, director and star of IN MY SKIN, delves deep into the mind of Esther, a corporate analyst.  After suffering a deep gash to her leg during an accident, Esther becomes fascinated with her own skin.  What begins as caresses, tugs, and pinches soon unravels into cuts, slices, and ruptures.  Esther transgresses her own skin and begins to experiment with self-cannibalism and auto-eroticism.  Despite its graphic and sometimes disgusting imagery, IN MY SKIN is a fascinating film that has a quiet beauty and touches on the connection between transgression and transcendence. 

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  REPULSION (Roman Polanski, 1965), CRASH (David Cronenberg, 1996), and MARTYRS (Pascal Laugier, 2008)

THE FLU SEASON

The Theater Department is presenting THE FLU SEASON this weekend.  It's a really interesting play in relation to Brechtian theater techniques that we talked about in class.  The play also has an interesting take on the failures, ambiguities, and power of spoken words, in the same many of these films deal with language or images.  Also, the play has an interesting reflexive commentary on the spectator's relationship to the play itself and a fascinating take on the idea of narrative decomposition or deconstruction akin to a film such as WEEKEND.

"A chronicle of love and no love, of interiors and exteriors, of weather, change, entry-level psychology, and time; but, oh, lo -- what chronicle isn't?"

The time is almost Winter at the Crossroads Psychiatric Retreat Center, and the Flu Season follows the budding romance of Man and Woman. Written by Will Eno, the play explores the themes of change, duality, language, and more in an evening of what can surely be considered a "wa...r of words' literal meanings and their contexts (of which there are many)."

Feb. 17, 18, 19 @ 8PM
Feb. 19, 20 @ 2PM

SIGN UP SHEET LOCATED IN GREEN ROOM CALL BOARD

OZON SHORTS

Francois Ozon began his career making short films.  First he used a Super8 video and shot silent films using friends and family.  He continued making shorts during film school and after graduation until REGARDE LA MER.  Even with his impressive output, he makes a feature or two each year, he has returned to the short format.  Looking over his short films, it is easy to see that he is working through his technique and thematic interests.  From watching his feature films, one can see that these shorts are often the genesis of his ideas that he revisits again and again.

The first is LES DOIGTS DANS LE VENTRE (translated to 'Fingers in the Throat or Belly') made in 1988.  A young woman wanders through Paris spending most of her time eating all the junk she can: in a fast-food, out of a tin can and so on. She steals some more food in a supermarket, meets a friend who gently caresses her belly in the street, then goes back home where she makes herself vomit in the toilet. She is then ready for the family dinner.  The film touches on the abject, especially Kristeva's comment on food and bodily fluids, as well as showcases Ozon's perverse sense of humor.

Ozon - Les Doigts Dans Le Ventre
Uploaded by Morpheus51100. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

The second, X2000, made ten years later, is more abstract and surreal.  A man groggily awakes from an apparently wild New Year's Eve party to find both slumbering party guests and unexpected activity. 

Ozon - X2000
Uploaded by Morpheus51100. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

REGARDE LA MER SCREENING

"Profoundly unsettling!  An impressive new filmmaker with a flair for implicit mayhem... owes strong debts to Chabrol and Polanski."
-Janet Maslin, NEW YORK TIMES

"Ozon may be a new master!... Think Rohmer meets Hitchcock!"
-Armond White, NEW YORK PRESS

"A menacing masterpiece!"
-Dennis Dermody, PAPER MAGAZINE

As James Quandt sees it, REGARDE LA MER is part of Francois Ozon's 'immature' period.  Despite this dismissive assessment, the film brought a new attention to Ozon's work as he transitioned from a short to feature filmmaker.  The film's disturbing story and infamous images should not overshadow Ozon as a true cinematic talent that communicates volumes through is frames and use of montage.  REGARDE LA MER centers around a young mother living with her infant daughter in relative isolation and the mysterious backpacker that interrupts their idyllic surrounding.  The film touches on Kristeva's notion of the abject as a disruption of system, identity, and order.  What unfolds during this terse 52-minute film is a violent exchange of identity that leaves the spectator restless, breathless, and disrupted.

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  PERSONA (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) and BLACK SWAN (Darren Aronofsky, 2010) 

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY

If you are interested in earning extra credit (especially before the midterm exam), you can attend the special screening of THE FLYING ACE as part of Communication Week.  You need to attend the screening, obtain a slip from the box office, and then write a short response to the film/discussion on the blog.

The film follows The Flying Ace, a veteran World War I fighter pilot who returns home as a war hero. Ready to restart his life after the war, he regains his former job as a railroad company detective. His first case concersn the recovery of a stolen satchel filled with 25,000 dollars from the company payroll, locate a missing employee, and capture a gang of railroad thieves. The film stars Lawwrence Criner (as Capt. Billy Stokes, The Flying Ace), Kathryn Boyd (as Ruth Sawtell, the love interest), and Steve Reynolds (as ‘Peg’ Reynolds, Stokes’ one legged assistant).

The film, produced by the Norman Film Manufacturing Company based in Jacksonville Florida, showcases the illustrious film history of Florida. The company ranked among the three leading producers of race films during the silent area, along with Lincoln Motion Picture Company (Nebraska) and the Micheaux Film Corporation (Illinois). The historical importance of this piece of film and Florida history has been confirmed by the Library of Congress, which recently restored the archival 35mm print of THE FLYING ACE.

The film will be introduced and discussed by Rita Regan, the Director of Community and Educational Outreach for the Norman Studios Silent Film Museum in Jacksonville, Florida. A historian and educator, Ms. Reagan is a community activist in historical preservation and youth issues, primarily in the Springfield Historical District. She has been deeply involved with the preservation of the Norman Studios since 1995.

AFTERSCHOOL AFTER-SCREENING Q+A

Here is Antonio Campos discussing AFTERSCHOOL following its screening at the New York Film Festival with Lisa Schwartzbaum, film critic for ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.  It is in two parts posted on YouTube, which is interesting considering the subject matter of the film.



CHANTAL AKERMAN -- GODMOTHER OF THE NEW EXTREME

Antonio Campos cites Chantal Akerman, and especially her seminal film JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (1975), as inspirational on AFTERSCHOOL.  Akerman came to campus in Fall 2009 when she exhibited Chantal Akerman:  Moving Through Space and Time at the Miami Art Museum (MAM).  JEANNE DIELMAN... is considered a masterpiece of structuralist and feminist cinema (although Akerman would argue against that label) and The New York Times called it the "first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema."  Operating on the idea of "boredom," mentioned by Catherine Wheatley in the FUNNY GAMES reading, Akerman is rigorous and demanding of the spectator.  The film unflinchingly documents the quotidian details of a Belgian mother during her domestic duties and her somewhat surprising interludes as a prostitute.  Static camera shots, duration that express the oppressive weight of real time, seemingly laconic editing, and a distant camera manage to build a suspense unique to cinema.  JEANNE DIELMAN... is about waiting and waiting and waiting for something unknown and shocking.

Here is a great essay on JEANNE DIELMAN from Ivone Margulies, a leading Akerman scholar and a participant in the University's colloquium on the director.



AFTERSCHOOL SCREENING

"Unsettles without illuminating, marred by narcotic pacing and a blank lead performance."

-Justin Chang, VARIETY

"It's both a supremely controlled exercise in form and tone and an intriguing exploration of the ways new technology intersects with age-old questions of dominance, control and individuality, particularly in the school setting."

-Andrew O'Hehir, SALON.COM

Similar to the themes of DEMONLOVER and the pacing of CACHE, AFTERSCHOOL is a deconstructed thriller examining the possible effects of new media's impact on young minds.  For centuries society has been question its relationship to entertainment and violence and AFTERSCHOOL continues this interrogation through the YouTube generation.  No one would argue that Campos is navigating new territory, but his direction is assured and thought-provoking.  In his first feature film Campos demonstrates a degree of clarity lacking in most debut filmmakers.  He is a perfect example of an American filmmaker inspired by and in conversation with the New European Extreme.  Haneke is a notable influence on Campos as both seem preoccupied with the effects of the new media landscape and its own preoccupations with violence.  A more disturbing version of Catcher and the Rye, AFTERSCHOOL taps into the fears associated with new media and the negative aspects of its interactivity.

Suggested Supplemental Screening:  BENNY'S VIDEO (Michael Haneke, 1992) and ELEPHANT (Gus Van Sant, 2003)

COMMUNICATION WEEK 2011

It is already Communication Week.  Here is the schedule of events.  Make sure you attend some of the events, a lot of work goes into getting visitors to the University and student support ensures that such events continue. 

Tuesday -  Maggie Drayton is speaking about her experience with the Miami Short Film Festival and her recent visit to the Slamdance and Sundance Film Festivals.  The event will be held in CIB 3055 from 6:15-6:45 pm followed by a screening of Oscar-Nominated Shorts at the Bill Cosford Cinema.

Wednesday - Gaspar Gonzalez will talk about producing a documentary.  The event will be in CIB 4051 from 10:40 am -12:00 pm.

Thursday - The Cosford is holding a special screening of THE FLYING ACE, an silent race film produced in Jacksonville, FL with an introduction and discussion with film historian Rita Reagan.  The film begins at 7:30 pm at the Bill Cosford Cinema.

And don't worry because no events conflict with our class, so you don't have to miss class.

THE FIRST EXTREME

There is an undeniable trend toward the extreme in 1960s and 1970s cinema around the globe.  Here is a short list of some of the most infamous films in history as well as some directors that have always navigated the extreme in cinema.  This is by no means definitive:  If you think of some more films, please add them.

THE SILENCE (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

RED DESSERT (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)

WEEKEND (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)

THE HOUR OF THE WOLF (Ingmar Bergman, 1968)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (George A. Romero, 1968)

REPULSION (Roman Polanski, 1965)

PERSONA (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)

MADEMOISELLE (Tony Richardson, 1966)

BELLE DU JOUR (Luis Bunuel, 1967)

I AM CURIOUS – YELLOW + BLUE (Vilgot Sjoman, 1967-68)

PARTNER (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1968)

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)

PINK FLAMINGOS (John Waters, 1972)

LAST TANGO IN PARIS (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972)

THE HOUSE ON THE LEFT (Wes Craven, 1972)

THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE (Jean Eustache, 1973)

MAITRESSE (Barbet Schroeder, 1973)

HI MOM (Brian De Palma, 1973)

LA GRANDE BOUFFE (Marco Ferreri, 1973)

SWEET MOVIE (Dusan Makavejev, 1974)

THE NIGHT PORTER (Liliana Cavani, 1974)

JEANNE DIELMAN (Chantal Akerman, 1975)

SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (Pasolini, 1975)

THE MIRROR (Andrey Tarkovskiy, 1975)

CHINESE ROULETTE (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1976)

ERASERHEAD (David Lynch, 1976)

A VERY YOUNG GIRL (Catherine Breillat, 1976)

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (Nagisa Oshima, 1976)

SUSPIRIA (Dario Argento, 1977)

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (Ruggero Deodato, 1980)

L’ARGENT (Robert Bresson, 1983)

ASSAYAS SHORT -- PARIS JE T'AIME

This short film from PARIS, JE T'AIME (2006) shows Olivier Assayas' softer side.  It tells the story of an American actress and her French drug dealer.  Despite a palpable desire between the two, they are hesitant to act on their impulses, perhaps they do not want to mix work and pleasure.  A drastic shift in tone from DEMONLOVER, Assayas' short demonstrates his love for fluid camera movements, cinema, and incomplete or open narrative structure.  Even this film manages to incorporate an suspenseful ending that leaves the audience hanging, wondering what will happen next.

DEMONLOVER SCREENING

"I was struck by the complete lack of morality."

-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"Expect DEMONLOVER to become a midnight-movie staple in the coming years. And expect shards of it to roil your dreams for weeks."

-Ty Burr, BOSTON GLOBE

"It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed."
-Manohla Dargis, LOS ANGELES TIMES

With DEMONLOVER, Olivier Assayas turned his filmmaking 180-degrees following his stately costume drama SENTIMENTAL DESTINIES (2000).  The film explores the back-door dealings of a large French communication conglomerate intent on purchasing the rights to a Japanese animation company specializing in Internet pornography.  Technology, torture porn, and transnationalism dominated the landscape of DEMONLOVER, a film that gleefully eschews coherence.  So many double crosses it is hard to keep up and several half-ideas drifting around, DEMONLOVER forms a fascinating commentary on our modern times and our increasing emphasis on the body as commodity. 

Suggest Supplemental Screening:  BOARDING GATE (Assayas, 2007) [The film feels like a companion piece to DEMONLOVER, they seem to be operating in the same cinematic world]

The film also stars Asia Argento, daughter of Dario Argento (the Italian horror master), who is often associated with the New Extreme as an actress (BOARDING GATE, THE LAST MISTRESS) and as a director (SCARLET DIVA, THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS)

HANEKE SHORT -- LUMIERE AND COMPANY

Here is a selection from the omnibus film LUMIERE AND COMPANY (Multiple Directors, 1995) from Michael Haneke.  The film celebrates the centennial anniversary of the Lumiere Brothers' first film by asking 40 internationally renowned directors, such as David Lynch (BLUE VELVET, MULHOLLAND DR.), Spike Lee (CLOCKERS, INSIDE MAN), Zhang Yimou (HERO, RAISE THE RED LANTERN), and Michael Haneke (FUNNY GAMES, CACHE), to make a short film using the Lumieres' first camera.  Each film could not exceed 52 seconds, use synchronized sound, utilize more than three takes.  The process and result yields some interesting comments on the nature of cinema and the parallels between the Lumiere Brothers and contemporary filmmakers.  Haneke manages to touch on many of his own interests involving media, violence, and spectatorship in a much more condensed version.

CACHE ASSIGNMENT

"CACHE encourages us to look -- and then to look harder."

-Robert Denerstein, DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"Contraian that he is, Haneke does a much finer job forcing questions than providing an answer."

-Lisa Kennedy, DENVER POST

"I pity the French Cinema because it has no money.  I pity the American Cinema because it has no ideas." 

-Jean-Luc Godard

The lack of resolution in CACHE can be maddening and exhilarating in equal doses.  Either way, it would be difficult to argue that its lack of resolution is not premeditated and appropriate for the subject matter.  This is a two part assignment developed from the above quotes.  The first part:  after watching the movie determine who you think is sending the videos with your reasoning.  The second part comes from the purposed remake of CACHE, once rumored to be directed by Ron Howard.  Just write a short paragraph explaining what changes you think might be made to make CACHE a Hollywood film or a Ron Howard film.  Feel free to to take this in whatever direction you would like, you could even write out a description of a scene you think might be added or comment on what you think would be removed from the film.  This is just an opportunity to creatively explore some of the specifics and ambiguities of the film.  DUE 2.10.11-THURSDAY.

CACHE SCREENING

"But that word, 'fear' -- a fluid haze, an elusive clamminess -- no sooner has it cropped up than it shades off like a mirage and permeates all words of the language with nonexistence, with a hallucinatory, ghostly glimmer.  Thus, fear having been bracketed, discourse will seem tenable only if it ceaselessly confront that otherness, a burden both repellent and repelled, a deep well of memory that is unapproachable and intimate:  the abject."

-Julia Kristeva, POWERS OF HORROR

Before remaking his own FUNNY GAMES, Michael Haneke made CACHE, his masterful French thriller about repression, memory, and guilt.  The Laurents, a bourgeois family, become terrorized by anonymous surveillance videos of their home.  Operating both inside and outside the genre of the thriller, Haneke creates an aura of suspense and hanging dread by constantly playing against audience expectations.  Metaphorical and meta-cinema, CACHE avoids easy answers and provides spectators numerous avenues of exploration and investigation. 

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  BENNY'S VIDEO (Haneke, 1992), LOST HIGHWAY (David Lynch, 1997), and HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (Alain Resnais, 1959).

HATE AND STRESS IN THE BANLIEUES

I STAND ALONE and MAN BITES DOG seem to be both very much of their time as well as timeless.  They, to differing levels, are interested in questions of urban alienation and nationalism.  I STAND ALONE is asking, "What is French?," "What is it to be French?," and "What does it matter?"  Whereas MAN BITES DOG is constantly commenting on culture from the color of brick to loneliness in high rise apartments.  Made in between MAN BITES DOG and I STAND ALONE, Mathieu Kassovitz's LA HAINE (HATE, 1995) tackles similar issues of violence, ethnic and class tensions in Paris and its banlieues.  Inspired by Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee, Kassovitz creates a masterpiece of urban frenzy that remains tense as well as providing interesting social commentary on contemporary France in the 1990s.

"The film is not about its ending. It is not about the landing, but about the fall. HATE is, I suppose, a Generation X film,whatever that means, but more mature and insightful than the American Gen X movies. In America, we cling to the notion that we have choice, and so if our Gen X heroes are alienated from society, it is their choice--it's their lifestyle. In France, Kassovitz says, it is society that has made the choice."
-Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

Violence in the banlieues continues to be a source of concern in contemporary France.  The music video for Justice's STRESS courted controversy when it was boycotted by several television stations.  The argument against the video was that it perpetuated racist stereotypes, while others have argued that it is a critique of the French media's portrayal of the banlieues.  The video was directed by Romain Gravas (son of Costa-Gravas), who has specialized in controversial music videos and directed his first feature SHEITAN in 2006.

MOCKUMENTARY TO THE EXTREME

Telling the story of a search for a lost group of documentary filmmakers, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (Ruggero Deodato, 1980) delves deep into the Amazon rain forest.  Much of the film is composed of "discovered" footage from the lost crew that depicts savage behavior from those you might not suspect.  This is considered one of the most extreme films committed to celluloid and created great controversy during its release.  Upon the film's release, its director was arrested and charged with obscenity and the film was banned in several countries.  The uproar surrounding the film stemmed not only from its graphic violence and sexuality but also the rumor that actual deaths were filmed.  Thus CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST was considered a snuff film, a film that depicts an actual death for exploitative purposes.  CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is widely considered an example of an exploitation film, a film that markets lurid material to get its audience normally regarded as obscene and gratuitous, while some critics have considered it as a strong commentary of savagery in modern western culture.  Now infamous, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST is ranked among the most controversial films ever made.  Famed Italian director Sergio Leone wrote to Deodato stating, "What a movie! The second part is a masterpiece of cinematographic realism, but everything seems so real that I think you will get in trouble with all the world."

MAN BITES DOG SCREENING

"A deeply compelling, if ultimately confused, indictment of screen violence as entertainment, one that continues to shock and confound."
-James Kendrick, Q NETWORK FILM DESK

"It starts out as murderious black comedy.  Then, by making the violence increasingly unbearable, it turns the moral barrel on the audience.  It's a cruel trick, but that's the movie's rather tenuous point."
-Desson Howe, WASHINGTON POST

Part-mockumentary and part meditation on screen violence and audience complicity, MAN BITES DOG won the International Critic Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.  It follows two documentary filmmakers, Andre and Remy, who discover an ideal subject, Ben.  Charismatic, witty, and intelligent, Ben has one slight flaw... he is a serial killer.  Andre and Remy begin by simply documenting Ben's crimes and words of wisdom, but as the project continues they become increasingly entwined with the material they are filming.  The film stunned audiences and ignited controversy concerning screen violence and has become a scathing satire on the media violence and a meta-commentary on the thin line between observer, participant and accomplice. 

Suggested Supplemental Screenings:  RESERVOIR DOGS (Quentin Tarantino, 1992), NATURAL BORN KILLERS (Olivier Stone, 1994), GIMMIE SHELTER (The Maysels Brothers, 1970), and THE BRIDGE (Eric Steel, 2006)

GASPAR NOE'S MUSIC VIDEOS

Noe has often spoken about the limits of feature-length narrative cinema and tests out many of his techniques in the short format, such as music video.  These projects often allow him to focus on the image.  Despite there uniquness, there are certainly overarching themes and signatures that are at work in his feature films as well. 

"With a short [film] you are allowed to do whatever you want. It's like if you have a girlfriend and she tells you that you can do whatever you want. That's very exciting."

-Gaspar Noe

JE SUIS SI MINCE
by Arielle.

INSANELY CHEERFUL
by Bone Fiction.



PROTEGE-MOI

by Placebo.

Warning this video features explicit sex.  The song is a French version of Placebo's PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT.  The translation was done by Virginie Despentes, a French novelist and filmaker.  She is the director of BAISE-MOI, which we will watch later in the course.  It shows a working relationship between Despentes and Noe, as well as a possible link between the song and themes associated with these directors and the New Extreme.

"There is no line between art and pornography. You can make art of anything. You can make an experimental movie with that candle or with this tape recorder. You can make a piece of art with a cat drinking milk. You can make a piece of art with people having sex. There is no line. Anything that is shot or reproduced in an unusual way is considered artistic or experimental."

-Gaspar Noe

I STAND ALONE SCREENING

“Fiercely intelligent.  Cinematically sophisticated… the most disturbing film of the decade.”

-Amy Taubin, THE VILLAGE VOICE

“Stunning… A rigorous cinematic intelligence at work… harrowing, sensational.”

-Gavin Smith, FILM COMMENT

“Phenomenal!  The confidence and gleeful skill of Gaspar Noe are the undeniable hallmarks of a major filmmaker in the making.”

-Andrew Johnson, TIMEOUT NY

I STAND ALONE (1998), Gaspar Noe’s first feature film, follows an embittered nameless butcher who is alone in the world.  Unable to find love or a job, the butcher is willing to place blame on everyone but himself.  Filled with hate, this racist, misogynist unemployed ex-con rages against the world with a short temper and death wish.  Rather than shy away from this abominable character, Noe unflinchingly enters the mind of this troubled being.  A sequel to CARNE (1992), Noe’s earlier short, I STAND ALONE is a cornerstone of the New Extreme in both content and form.  Its characters and form of cinema can only be described as cruel. 

For more information on Noe.

Suggested Supplemental Screening:  TAXI DRIVER (Martin Scorsese, 1976), FALLING DOWN (Joel Schumacher, 1993), and LA HAINE (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)