IMITATION OF LIFE

Raya has left a comment in my blog here:
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/10/eternal-suffering-of-humanity.html

This is my reply:

I just saw a short documentary about Lou Castel. It’s called INTERVIEW (2003, Jeanne Faust, A+). I’m not sure if it’s a real documentary or not. It is about a woman who wanted to interview Lou Castel, but Castel did not cooperate at all. He just frowned at her in front of the camera all the time, and never tried to answer her questions. It is funny but serious at the same time.

I have seen only five film directed by John Cassavetes. They are:

(in roughly preferential order)

1.FACES (1968, A+)

2.SHADOWS (1959, A+)

3.GLORIA (1980, A+)

4.LOVE STREAMS (1984, A+)

5.MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ (1971, B+)
I can’t stand the hero of this film.

--I’m not an expert on Cassavetes or Garrel, but I think they both make films which capture the truth about life or essence of life very well. They both make films which don’t belong to normal film patterns. I feel as if they create the characters first, then they let the lives of the characters control the structure of the films, whereas other filmmakers just use normal film structure, and create characters whose lives would fit very well in that normal structure. This kind of filmmaking (the film structure control the characters) would not let the characters really “breathe”, really “live”, unlike Cassevetes or Garrel who let the characters control the film structure.

As I’m obsessed with making lists, I think I’d like to make a list of films which makes me feel that their characters really breathe, really live, or are very life-like.

FICTIONAL FILMS/STAGE PLAYS WHICH SHOW ME “LIFE”

(in alphabetical order)

1.ABIGAIL’S PARTY (1977, Mike Leigh)

2.THE ALL-ROUND REDUCED PERSONALITY – REDUPERS (1978, Helke Sander)

3.AMOUR D’ENFANCE (2001, Yves Caumon)

4.BERLIN CHAMISSOPLATZ (1980, Rudolf Thome)

5.LE COEUR FANTOME (1996, Philippe Garrel)

6.EVERYTHING’S FINE, WE’RE LEAVING (2000, Claude Mourieras)

7.FACES (1968, John Cassavetes)

8.FORGET ME (1994, Noemie Lvovsky)

9.THE GREEN RAY (1986, Eric Rohmer)

10.HIS BROTHER (2003, Patrice Chereau)

11.I AM A SEX ADDICT (2005, Caveh Zahedi)

12.JEALOUSY IS MY MIDDLE NAME (2002, Park Chan-ok)

13.LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER (1998, Olivier Assayas)

14.LENA’S DREAMS (1997, Gordon Eriksen + Heather Johnston)

15.LOULOU (1980, Maurice Pialat)

16.MY SEX LIFE…OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT (1996, Arnaud Desplechin)

17.UNA NOVIA ERRANTE (2007, Ana Katz)

18.PAS DE SCANDALE (1999, Benoit Jacquot)

19.SOMEONE TO LOVE (1987, Henry Jaglom)

20.SOME SECRETS (2002, Alice Nellis)

21.THE THINGS OF LIFE (1970, Claude Sautet)

22.TRASH (1970, Paul Morrissey)

23.A WEEK’S VACATION (1980, Bertrand Tavernier)

24.WILD BEES (2001, Bohdan Slama)

25.YARM PLOB 2 (2007, Jarunun Phantachat)
This is a Thai stage play about three female friends talking to each other for an hour long in late afternoon.

--I think I like this kind of films very much. I wish I could see all the films recommended by Ray Carney, who seem to be an expert in this kind of films.

You can view the list of films recommended by Ray Carney at:
http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/indievision/other.shtml

--Though I love the films Ray Carney love, I also love the films Ray Carney hate. That means I always agree when Carney praises some films, but usually disagree when Carney criticizes some films.

--Excerpts of Ray Carney’s writings:

http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/newsevents/movsked.shtml

“Films like What Happened Was and Faces and Mikey and Nicky and Wanda make the work of Jonze and Anderson and Solondz and Lynch look like Sesame Street. They don’t rely on shock tactics and surprise revelations. They don’t need special effects, narrative tricks, or revelations to make things dramatic. The characters don’t have to have deep, dark secrets in order to hold our interest. “


http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/carncult/orfilms.shtml

“Life is mysterious, but its mysteries are entirely different from the mystifications in L.A. Confidential, Blood Simple, Blue Velvet, or Psycho. Their mysteries are shallow. They can be cleared up with a few words of explanation. Their puzzlements are trivial–matters of fact and event, of who did what to whom. Make a film about real mysteries, mysteries that don't involve facts but feelings–like the mystery of who we are, the mystery of why we do hurtful things to ourselves and others, the mystery of why the effects of our actions can be so different from our intentions, the mystery of why we can never see ourselves as others see us.”

–Excerpted from Ray Carney, "The Path of the Artist," Part III, MovieMaker, Issue 38 (Spring 2000).