MDM - cinema

Appreciated finally getting to see "Peter Hujar's Day" which is a good film even before being a really good film about a photographer living the photographic life.

It plumbs the currency of chattiness, chummyness, and the competitive climate of the 70s NYC art scene in a way that a few dozen docs might miss, all of which feels ancient when compared to our tech-turbocharged world.

Two solid performances, a script based on a transcript (always a personal favorite creative limitation) and a smart presentation from director Ira Sachs.

The film gets at Hujar's obsession with photographic detail and excellence, as much as his push-and-pull with art world success (and smoking).

Such a small, quiet movie, bite-sized and authentic. Great backstory as to how the film was made, too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hujar%27s_Day

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzp8uw-t-eA

Fun small moment in "Running on Empty" (1988), Judd Hirsch, Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix dancing to "Fire & Rain" on the radio while celebrating mom's bday, while lil' bro air-guitars in the kitchen.

I've recently returned to a trio of films by Trân Anh Hùng that I haven't seen since the 90s, and each film is packed with such visual intensity that is quintessentially cinematic, which feels rare in today's movies made for small screens, where so much visual detail is rendered or dithered or erased and re-written by software.

Hung went to film school in Paris, which may explain his attention to detail and the degree to which he luxuriates over the surfaces of Ho Chi Minh city, but it's the little things that he gets so right; where to put the camera, how to let the camera tell a story as impactful as the plot itself, and how to move the camera through a series of simple movements to gain a greater understanding of who these characters are.

I never studied film, but I'm seeing examples like this less and less as movies have transitioned away from a business of art into a business of content, the goal of which is to win the second-by-second battle to capture and keep your attention from glancing down at the glaring notifications of your phone.

Resonating with what Gerwig says about Demy’s artifice.

Wild to see "The Bear" going all-in on '74-era Cassavetes with Jamie Lee Curtis as the Gena Rowlands-type.

Watched "Navalny" last night, which, like "Fire of Love," made it from the shortlist into an actual Oscar nom slot, and while the film is a decent compendium of an awful situation, it also highlights how much of the story/drama played out in near real-time, via Navalny's own YouTube channel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navalny_(film)

Which reminded me that the greatest acting performance of 2022 actually occurred in late 2020, when Navalny cold-called each of his Bellingcat-discovered assassins, and pretended he was a Kremlin official, needing to understand how the assassination plot went sideways.

Navalny is so convincing, one of the assassins gives-up the details of the plot, while Navalny's Bellingcat researcher and lawyer sit beside him, dumbstruck.

Overview from BBC in 2020:

There's a docu-crossover of sorts between Navalny's phone call and Joshua Oppenheimer's brilliant scenes with the two gangsters in "The Act of Killing," where they proudly reenact the methods and tactics of their 60s-era death squads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Act_of_Killing

Asif Kapadia, who made the incredible doc about Ayrton Senna, also put together a 2019 effort for HBO on Argentinian striker/midfielder Diego Maradona, which I rewatched last night after the World Cup.

The film is an archive heist, where never-before-seen footage (found in trunks) from earlier failed documentary efforts paints a difficult picture of a very troubled soccer genius.

I still can't believe this clip above, which appears briefly in the film, and returns in the credits, where Maradona is juggling the ball off the heel of his foot with his shoelaces untied.

Insightful dataviz from NYT about the changing sands of the film canon, including the rise of Akerman & Varda over time (plus appearances from Marker & Weerasethakul).

Can't help but recall the screening I helped organize of Akerman's #1, "Jeanne Dielman..." what a quiet revelation.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/02/arts/sight-and-sound-best-movies-of-all-time.html

Didn't realize that Robert Altman's "Secret Honor" in which the recently departed Philip Baker Hall plays Nixon in a one-man monologue, is available via Amazon & Apple.

Fascinating performance, especially when considering what another "un-indicted co-conspirator" ex-President might be ranting about within the confines of his office's four walls.

Hall's power, and the stage-play framework of the film reminds me of Roger Guenveur Smith in Spike Lee's "A Huey P. Newton Story" which deserves a re-watch right about now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Honor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Huey_P._Newton_Story

Loved this Norweigan film for its structure, and for my viewing partner's ability to accurately predict all of its American rom-com tropes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Person_in_the_World_(film)

Spent a snowy weekend afternoon revisting "Rivers & Tides" which is 20 years old now and still seems to hold all the answers.

Great to watch it with an under-10 viewer, too, and then to see the film's (and artist's) motif repeated in her brother's hair.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_and_Tides

There are some astonishments in the new "9/11: Inside the President's War Room" but mainly in the smallest details - especially how the Bush admin (Cheney et al) crowded into the bunker beneath the White House to such a degree that everyone started yawning because they'd overtaxed the oxygen/Co2 system of the place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ema_(film)