Notes from a Determined Hermit

dimanche 30 avril 2006

Safe Conduct; It All Starts Today
Bertrand Tavernier's two films give us a closeup glimpse of what it was like trying to live in the occupation of Paris during WWII (Safe Conduct) and, separately, what life is like as a teacher among devastatingly poverty-stricken students in France today (It All Starts Today).
In each film, the events and details portrayed come from the eyes, hearts, and pens of those who were there, and are brought to the screen, to life and to us by acclaimed French director Bertrand Tavernier.
Tavernier tells us in his commentary on It All Starts Today that he received thousands of letters from schoolteachers applauding the film and affirming that the film got it right.
These are great films. Make sure you see them.
6:58:13 PM

United 93
In David Denby's review of the film United 93, he notes that
Greengrass's movie is tightly wrapped, minutely drawn, and, no matter how frightening, superbly precise. In comparison with past Hollywood treatments of Everyman heroism in time of war, such as Hitchcock's hammy "Lifeboat," or more recent spectacles, like "War of the Worlds," there's no visual or verbal rhetoric, no swelling awareness of the Menace We All Face.
In other words, in a world in which heavy hands seem to be constantly gilding all the lilies within reach, pointing at the same ideas, repeating the same words and phrases, underlining and emphasizing ad nauseam, and thereby making movies that are nearly unwatchable for their ponderous emotional overworking, leaching out the innate nobility and genuine heroism with near-hysteric overlay and spin, this time we watch ordinary people rise to greatness without being told how and what to think about it all. Denby tells us that Greengrass "made all the right choices" with
a dynamic use of the camera. It's handheld and thrust into the tumult, yet somehow--and this is the essence of Greengrass's art--we see what we need to see.
At last. For once. A film, perhaps, showing us something close to the thing itself, which needs no gilding.
11:00:16 AM