Kick-Back Friday: September 2010 Archives
In the absence of a decent KBF recommendation this week, I'm recommending the "Vitamin B-Movie" blog, a new blog dedicated to measuring the sustenance, or lack thereof, provided by some really, really bad movies. Critic and ersatz nutritionist Laura analyzes films that should never have been greenlit on the basis of their crappy acting, low-rent SFX, sugar content, and thin-plot fiber.
Mmmm, empty calories.
DVD cover for Megapiranha starring Tiffany and Barry Williams. Oh. My. Gawd.
Le Samourai (1967): High on Jean-Pierre Melville.
Jef Costello (a very young Alain Delon) is a chic, icy hit man who finds himself caught between the police and his employer. Melville swings his emphasis from character analysis to cat-and-mouse thriller and abruptly back again, but the incessant tweeting of Costello's pet bird provides a plaintive thread of continuity.
The deliberate shabbiness of Costello's cold-water flat, which contrasts nicely with his sartorial precision, is highly reminiscent of the house interior where an informant is murdered in Melville's Army of Shadows; but a quick check reveals the work of 2 different designers. Conclusion: The stylized delapidation is all Melville.
I'm not sure how Jean-Pierre Melville does it, but the director is somehow able to build tension and emotion in the most unhurried series of shots. Part of his success lies in the faces of his actors, including Lino Ventura and Simon Signoret, who have the intangible ability to engage while doing very little. But Melville also capitalizes on his actors' gifts by thoughtfully sewing together still, or very nearly still, frames to authenticate a moment. Case in point is one scene in Army of Shadows (1969), a stark, uncompromising story of French Resistance leaders, in which two thrown-together "patriots" on a bench conspire silently, or nearly so, to kill their German guard and escape a Gestapo interrogation.
