Some Documentaries to get away from fiction...

Last few weeks I spent some time with non-fiction

In Equality for All (won awards)


Herzog's Happy People


Mystery Files Series from Smithsonian On Vinci, MarcoPolo, JoanofArc, AlexanderTheGreat
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/series/822/mystery-files/140534/leonardo-da-vinci


A documentary about "Catcher in the Rye" author Salinger


More on the Vanishing Bees - More than Honey (must watch)



And the famous controversial Black Fish

Paul Schrader's Mashup

Almost 40 yrs in business, it seems clear film making/screenwriting is his passion. He wrote many articles in film magazines and books about Japanese films.

A great article on how PS came into Martin Scorsese projects
http://sabotagetimes.com/reportage/you-talkin-to-me-scorsese-de-niro-keitel-and-foster-on-the-making-of-taxi-driver/#_

He wrote Obsession for Brian De Palma &&  Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ & Bringing Out the Dead for Martin Scorsese && The Mosquito Coast for Peter Weir.

I had seen American Gigolo not knowning the director and this season I saw
Cat People - interesting remake of 1942 movie with same writers.


Affliction- a good drama (won Oscar)


 I liked the way the events progressed in Dominion (Exorcist prequel)

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters ( Music by Philip Glass)


Semi-Documentary style  - Auto Focus 


The Canyons   - not sure if this was made along the lines of "Mishima and Auto Focus", but couldn't appreciate it.

Though his movies fall is so varied genres, I  feel his life events and situations reflects/manifests in his works. Somehow it seems to tend towards artists who live with a different taste/cause and both succeed and fail in it. 

Sam Fuller's Narrative Tabloid

Movie watching has become a seasonal itch to me. Everything in short voluminous doses.

A chain of clicks skimmed me through Fuller's biography and hooked me to his movies and his life experience as journalist, crime reporter, war infantry, screenwriter, director....

I had seen the White dog before and loved it. I recollect vaguely Shock Corridor as well.. before knowing who the director was.

This season i watched  - I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, Pickup on South Street, Crimson Kimono, Naked Kiss. I started with his initial films and moved on. His editing is quick and fast like an army officer commanding. It's his style of 'truth searching'. A screenwriter/filmmaker can learn a lot from his style.

I must admit i never go into war movies till I saw his. 
Merrills Marauders

The Big Red One ( It is a must watch if you loved Thin Red Line or Saving Private Ryan)


There are lots of SF passionate interviews on the web.
Tim and Tarantino check out Sam's garage 


Jim Jarmusch with SF in Tigrero


I still need to check out his Steel Helmet and others...revisit the same movies again.

Pusher Trilogy

Nicolas Winding Refn made a good record of movies from 2008-2012 ( Drive, Only God Forgives, Valhalla Rising, Bronson) but his earlier trilogy Pusher I (1996) , Pusher II&III (2004/5) is very refreshing and complete even today.

Completely from the drug pusher/dealer point of view and their lives- we see "life" as-it-is  .. very humanistic and interesting. With drugs -  always a "deal" gets botched up, but here 'we' are set up into a thrill ride from the start whether you like it or not..

like the drug itself... you will want more and more... (Pusher II... Pusher III).. and the music will not let you stop it.



Zlatko Buric (Milo) got an award for Pusher I and he will take it all the way to Pusher III.

Aleksei Balabanov's Russia

Aleksei Balabanov had made more than a dozen films in the past two decades. He died recently in May 2013 and had won "best director" for Me too(2012). His Gangsters are cool, play their music for us (may not gel with the images), have great sense of reality and humor. They walk the walk and talk the talk. Most of his movies have images/music of American artists and food. His movies are about broken journeys, people hunting people, bloody killings without any melodrama...

Florian had done a Phd thesis on his films to study Russian culture. His book - Path of Blood: The Post-Soviet Gangster, His Mistress and Their Others in Aleksei Balabanov's Genre Films should be a great read. His brief interview is available  

 
His Popular Brother series  (Part 1 and 2) is about a "robin-hood' like gangster who is fearless and super cool with his own "samurai" like code. You will be waiting for new tracks as the movie progresses and the character searches for a particular CD (Nautilus Pompilius - Wings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mTTMmt-hs)


The Shocking 'Cargo 200'..


The very funny and memorable characters (by famous actors) in Dead Man's Bluff...


 Trailers are badly made ( & without sub-titles) compared to the movies.  Youtube does have some of his movies in full length.

The Place Beyond the Pines

As a student of Stan Brakhage, Derek Cianfrance images do impart a different experience - esp. when the motorist rides through the pines or the cemetery.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2011) has a very good story that spans generations. In a way like Bourne we have our imprints seeded long back...

Who is  .. that guy?
He is yours...

 

 

William Friedkin

40+ years since The Exorcist and The French Connection, William Friedkin is still making movies. The following are some of his movies since...

The Brink's Job (1978) - A true comedy robbery - was Oscar nominated for Set/Art direction and has great lines with some slapstick. It is more like reverse of the "chain of events going unplanned". It snowballs to your favor.


Cruising (1980) - Al Pacino as a gay undercover cop in 80's remains more of a cult status now. The movie was based on a novel and has a good ending . It was voted for worst movie/director and would have made some profit if it was remade appropriately now.


Jailbreakers (1994) - had good structure with interesting characters. Tony is hot tempered & madly in love with Angel - He goes the distance and lands up in prison, Angel is a jailbird herself contained in a wealthy family. 
http://www.imdb.com/rg/s/1/video/screenplay/vi4123305497/

Jade (1995) was based on thriller by Joe Eszterhas(writer for Basic Instinct, Show girls) but Friedkin changed it completely. It was not innovative.


The Hunted (2003) has Tommy lee and Del Toro, the hunter-hunted psychological chase starts very interestingly & the hunt drags a bit near climax but ends very well.


The Bug (2006) - The movie starts well as the characters are revealed and like AshJudd we start to believe what the paranoid drifter says. By mid-movie we don't believe "whatever he says" like she does - that's where the bugbite seems trivial.


Killer Joe(2011) - Bug screenwriter wrote the story and the style/mood/acting/music all gel-up nice - like a Tarantino flick. We don't question 'reality' here till he we realize some common-sense would have helped.


I haven't got a chance to look into his other works yet. I am sure it will re-surface again.