"THE THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT" WON THE MOST VOTES

My eleventh poll ended long time ago. I’m sorry for not creating a new poll as fast as I can. I have been busy lately and there were many more things I wanted to write before I start a new poll. I guess now it’s time I start a new one.

Thank you very much for everyone who participated in my poll. This is the result of my eleventh poll. There are six votes in it, including my vote for FEAR OF HEIGHTS and TO CRY UNTIL EXHAUSTION:

THESE FILMS INVOLVES A MAN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. WHICH FILM DO YOU LIKE?

1.THE THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT (1971, Andrzej Zulawski, Poland)
It got 2 votes or 33 %.

2.ALICE (2005, Marco Martins, Portugal)
+THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON (2004, Niels Mueller, USA)
+L’ENFER (1994, Claude Chabrol, France)
+FEAR OF HEIGHTS (1994, Houchang Allahyari, Austria)
+IMPERATIVE (1982, Krzysztof Zanussi, Poland)
+I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME (1976, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany)
+SHOCK CORRIDOR (1963, Samuel Fuller, USA)
+SPIDER (2002, David Cronenberg, Canada/UK)
+TO CRY UNTIL EXHAUSTION (1972, Jochen Gerz, West Germany)
+WOYZECK (1979, Werner Herzog, West Germany)

Each of them got 1 vote or 16 % .

12.BYE BYE BLACKBIRD (2005, Robinson Savary, Luxembourg)
+DARK HORSE (2005, Dagur Kari, Denmark)
+DREAMS (2005, Mohamed Al Daradji, Iraq)
+THE HEART (1955, Kon Ichikawa, Japan)
+THE MACHINIST (2004, Brad Anderson, Spain)
+MOTHERLAND HOTEL (1987, Omer Kavur, Turkey)
+MY STEP BROTHER FRANKENSTEIN (2004, Valeri Todorovsky, Russia)
+SOOTH: HIS PURE STORY (2003, Patana Chirawong, Thailand)
+STATIC (1985, Mark Romanek, USA)

--The magazine FILM COMMENT, Jan-Feb 2008 has a short review on THE THIRD PART OF THE NIGHT, written by Alex Cox.

--I’m sorry to hear about the death of Kon Ichikawa (1915-2008). I like THE HEART (1955, Kon Ichikawa, A+) very much. I just saw it in January this year. It actually has two men on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I’m fascinated by the character of Kaji (Tatsuya Mihashi). He is a man who is too serious to enjoy life, too serious to live in this world. He is able to live very happily, but he just chooses not to do it. He is a man who sometimes acts or does against reasons or society. This character seems like a real complex human being. He seems like a real very interesting man.

After I saw THE HEART, my friends made some interesting comments on the film. They said that the film is very homoerotic, especially the relationship between Nobuchi and Kaji, and between Nobuchi and Hioki. They think that in fact Nobuchi may love Kaji, but maybe the Japanese society at that time didn’t allow this kind of love to blossom easily. When Nobuchi finds out that Kaji loves the girl (Michiyo Aratama), Nobuchi decides to propose for the girl, not because he loves the girl, but because he loves Kaji and doesn’t want Kaji to get married.

I don’t know if my friends’ guess is true or not. I love this film very much, anyway.