#coeursfideles

[daniellesdarrieux]

I'm freaking out a bit. I just realized someone I liked a lot left while I was away the past two/three weeks??? where is she????

[maximiliani]

coeursfideles said: Von trapp child

I would 100% wear the curtain lederhosen Friedrich wore.

[yukiovsky]

coeursfideles said: i do want to see the film, since i do like pierre niney (de la comédie-française) but i always lol when i see that title since it makes it seem like he’s friends with molière or something!

Yeah, I understand. When we learn theatre at school and we’re talking about La comédie française or when we were watching theatre when I was younger, La comédie française was (for my generation) basically old men who were talking loudly with a bunch of old-fashioned words and very french expressions and everybody was happy with that. Now, since Pierre Niney and Laurent Lafitte, it seems cool to be a member. But they still have a kind of divine cinéma-théatre aura lol, like “even if they’re acting in a bad film, it worth it!”

[yukiovsky]

coeursfideles

said: you  can’t forget “de la comédie française”

It’s true ! Actually, that’s why I like the actors from La comédie française because everyone say their name with “de la comédie française” most of the time they’re rolling the “r” weirdly as bourgeois people from the XIXth century lol ! Anyway, I don’t know if you have seen the trailer but it seems cool, for a french film I mean. Well ! ( and I like Ana Girardot...)

[halfwaythruthedark]

coeursfideles said: what have you seen?

I just saw The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything yesterday (late night rant here). Today I was going to see Boyhood, but I lack any motivation except the fact that it's probably going to sweep everything and I like Ethan Hawke, soooo I am going to finish Last Days in Vietnam instead. I wish Citizen Four and most of the foreign films noms were available to stream, too ... I'm excited to see them.

Edit: and of course, I've seen a few others on the Best Picture list, plus Ida, and a lot of things that are up for minor awards. My favorite movies of last year aren't up for much, with the exception of Selma, which at least is up for Best Picture. 

[halfwaythruthedark]

coeursfideles said: i love 50s bombshells, like marilyn, sophia loren, jayne mansfield,diana dors, but i also prefer the audrey type

Can't quite put my finger on why I dislike those three as a type--or what they share.... because Sophia and Marilyn are completely a different type in my head. But I suppose there are a quite a few ways to be a bombshell, even in the studio era. 

[ozu-teapot]

Toby's opinion overrides any criticism tbh

Yes! Popol Vuh indeed!

[halfwaythruthedark]

Jean Renoir's "The River"

coeursfideles said: filmantidote.com/the-riv… i wrote this a while ago

Very well said (!).You definitely helped me sort through conflicting personal reactions to the story. Specifically: "Colonial nostalgia vs. explicit colonialism" "exotica caged" "exploitation of stereotypes" "a westerner may easily accept the idea of a nation full of happy Hindu peasants and no one else" and "by and for Westerners." All of these I agree with, and I love your comparison of Awaara's dream sequence with Harriet's story sequence, with your delineation: *Awaara's is an "internal vision." 

Internal vision is what I expected this film to lack utterly to begin with. I went in with such lowly expectations overall, that of course I was bound to appreciate some of it. I expected an explicitly racist text, and I got an implicitly racist text [yay?]. Yes it's totally a wish-fulfillment of colonial harmony--and yet, it's interesting [for me] to think how this vision might have been told differently in 1951 than 1941. Melanie is the primary element that I think has been "released" a bit from the aging colonial grip of the story. She rejects an alliance with Captain John (thank God, what a bore), basically saying that the two needed to go their separate ways. If this isn't a metaphor for Indian independence, I don't know what is. What's fascinating is that the film, either because of the source material, or because of internalized stereotypes of the filmmakers (which they apply to ALL the characters, in my opinion, not just the Indian characters), declined to explain "why" Melanie is reluctant, other than some throwaway generalizations about "Oriental" women. But I think when you watch a colonial narrative and come out respecting the non-colonial character the most (even if you don't understand her reasoning) ....when you come out feeling that the "exotic" female is in fact the reasonable female, that is worth noting. I'm not ready to pat the filmmakers on the back for it, as the actress might be responsible as much as the director. But I do think watching this film in hindsight is to see baby steps of decolonization taking place, steps one doesn't need to credit the filmmakers for, but can find significant nonetheless. 

This film as a whole is stuck in time, so of course it's natural to reduce it to story and universal themes and discount the objectionable treatment of people and place. Most people are going to feel uplifted by the cultural elements on display (Diwali, Radha's dance, river boatmen life) and never question what's missing (i.e. complexity, social problems, political life, individual and collective agency, etc. etc.). Like you said, "holes" everywhere. Obviously, I don't find it even remotely satisfying as a "cultural" narrative...the idea is laughable. Unfortunately, most people, like you say, will read it as a film masterpiece, and not only will NOT read its flaws and strengths from either a historical perspective or from post-colonial theory, but WILL be satisfied with it as a cultural narrative. That's the problem with mixing a little bit of someone else's culture into your message to make it more exciting and "universal."--and it's the bane of international cinema [rather than national cinema], in my opinion. 

*Golly, Awaara's got far too much over The River, it's almost unfair to compare the two, lol. You really went for the jugular with that.