Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) on Criterion DVD for the first time. The first 20 minutes of this 201 min. long movie were sheer torture as Akerman's mise-en-scène (static camera angles, no music, lengthy shots, etc.) became clear; I just didn't know if I could take three more hours of THIS. Then around the hour mark something clicked when I realized I was fascinated by the way Jeanne was folding papers and lenin in the exact same way/pattern. Minor deviations from established routines (a dropped utensil, a light left on in an empty room, etc.) felt like a gun going off in a quiet library. By the third hour I was literally thinking of the million different ways the mounting cracks in Jeanne's everyday routines around her home could doom her. "Jeanne Dielman" is a triumph of turning the discarded moments from most narrative films (the stuff screenwriters don't even bother thinking about) into a cinematic world of its own. I loved the static cameras not tipping us at all about how Chantal felt one way or another (very Ozu-like but in a disquieting and discomforting way). When Jeanne first does a reverse-camera shot from across the kitchen I literally screamed 'Holy S***.' The movie's title isn't just the movie's title or the location in which 90% of the "story" takes place. It's the whole of this character's life since her previous routine (hinted at in infrequent, cold conversations with her son Sylvain) went away, the only thing in her life she can lean on. This makes the finale all the more powerful because the last couple of scenes are lengthy-enough to make us contemplate (just like Jeanne is) what will become of her and those around her when the routine stuff that used to be taken for granted resonates for its absence in the lives of those it used to affect.
Akerman asks a lot of her audience, some of whom may not be physically/emotionally ready for this type of movie. Those with the patience and tenacity to stick through it will be deeply rewarded with a movie that's both traditional and completely avant-garde. There are lengthier movie epics ("The Human Condition," "Gone With the Wind," etc.) but none as intimate and confined to as small a cast, physical space and human dimension as this one. "Jeanne Dielman" is packed with lengthy-enough scenes that allow one to imagine what it's static shots and minute attention to detail would look like in high-def Blu-ray. And that, my friends, makes me a sad panda that my first experience with "Jeanne Dielman" had to be a compressed-to-fit-in-one-disc DVD. On a BD disc (or a 35mm screening, whichever's closest) this already-strong experience's immersion would increase tenfold, especially if you manage to ignore the obvious hints of where things are headed toward the end. Master-freaking-piece!
MST3K KTMA-05: Gamera (1988/1965) on DVD for the first time. An odd-even-by-KTMA-standards early “MST3K” episode with a single riffer (Joel) in the theater, which at least proves how needed the bots are for the human host (Joel or Mike) to bounce off from. Jokes are so sparse and infrequent that a hearty laugh from Joel when the scientist mentions Gamera’s “special organs that operate like a hydro-electric plant” (!) qualifies as a highlight. Ted Turner gets slammed pretty hard in the host segments for his then-crusade to colorize old movies and it was neat to see how Gamera’s flying turtle effect was done by simple hand-drawn animation in the first movie (instead of the ‘elaborate’ effects used in latter ‘Gamera’ movies). Even kind and gentle Joel begins to tire of Kenny’s turtle-loving antics, taking some mean swipes at the annoying on-screen kid as the movie unfolds. I can only imagine the abuse The Brains unleashed on this flick (and Kenny) when they got a second chance to do it right in MST3K's official season 3 ragging of the same movie. This one is definitely only for the diehard MiSTie completist.
). So I ended up going with the English track. There's no win, since I hate dubs.
Definitely a fun little film i would pick up if i saw it for 5 bucks or less. Apparently i wasn't the only one, in the US it went from limited release to DVD.
