This is much better than Makavejev’s previous movie, which was rather overwrought — it seemed like he wanted to have everything in there. This is much more relaxed; perhaps he realised that he could make more than one movie before the state came down on him or something.
Was Makavejev religious? I think I detect some christian damage here.
This is really good. It’s totally digressive in a totally compelling way — each scene leads naturally into the next.
I almost gave this a ⚅ because it’s kinda brilliant? It’s aaalmost a work of genius? But there’s a couple of sequences that don’t quite zip, so:
Love Affair, or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator. Dušan Makavejev. 1967.
Ozu is mixing it up! This character is placed mid-shot as usual, but he’s not staring into the camera! He’s looking slightly to the left of the camera!!1! OZU IS INNOVATING!
Oh, right, hi, welcome back to the Late Ozu Box Set Live Blogging Experience.
I think Ozu has the most movies in the Criterion Eclipse series — twelve films? I enjoyed his early movies a lot, but the first one on this Late Ozu box set seemed… scattered? This is another two and a half hour family drama thing, I think.
I mean, it’s Ozu’s thing — but it does feel like he’s not really making an effort in these scenes: Just doing the same shot over and over again.
And the thing is that the shot works — when the actors are compelling. The guy here isn’t really.
I’m really digging this movie, cats. It’s kinda funky? I mean, there’s a lot being left unsaid, and there’s a lot being said obliquely. It’s like… a melodrama, but shifting between subtle and forthright at the drop of a hat.
The liner notes on the DVD talks about this movie being “sordid” and how Japanese audiences didn’t much like it, but… it’s not at all? It’s depicting these characters, making their best choices, and not judging them. It’s, like, really humane?
Wow, this is a snappy film. After watching so many slow French and Japanese movies, it’s overwhelming.
Makavejev’s name seems extremely familiar — I feel like I should know who he is, but I don’t, really.
Very chaotic.
This movie looks great. The shakycam is a bit hard on my stomach, though.
It’s an uneven film — there’s brilliant, striking scenes here, and then there’s jokey anecdote asides that are… fun? But altogether, it doesn’t quite gel, I think.
This started off really well, with lots of zip and pep. It’s still amusing, but it’s gotten a bit bogged down? We’ve been introduced to three fake ghosts and one real, and several other people, so we’ve kinda lost track of the initial characters.
It’s dark, see?
This is a most amiable movie — very pleasant to watch. But it does plod along when it should be doing snap-snap-snap hi-jinx at times. The liner notes mention Blithe Spirit, but it really suffers in comparison: While this has a pretty good premise, they really needed somebody like Noel Coward to step in and make the repartee better.
The ghostly special effects are great, though — and done practically, with two identical sets and optical effects.
Ozu’s Tokyo Story is officially the best movie ever (you don’t get more official than the director’s poll at Sight and Sound). Well, at least it was in 2012 — in a week we’ll find out what the new winner is.
This is the first film on the Late Ozu box set, but it’s not that late — we’re starting off three years after Tokyo Story, after all.
All the films on this box set seem to be two and a half hours long, so *gulp*.
This starts off very placidly indeed…
We’re fifteen minutes in, and it’s still unclear what this is going to be about. I like it. It kinda reminds me of Éric Rohmer’s approach to filmmaking, but I guess the influence is going in the other direction.
Kitten! This movie has it all.
And I still have no idea what it’s about. I’m starting to worry that something horrible is going to happen, just as a contrast to all this non-drama.
Very careful with the lighting.
Uzo sure loves this exact framing — a single person in the middle of the shot, talking straight to the camera (but really the other person sitting on the other side of the mat).
*gasp* Is this the only scene in the film where the camera isn’t stationary?
Yeah!
OK, my mind started wandering, and I lost track of what’s been going on. Er… I don’t think a whole lot? It’s about a guy having an affair, and being kinda unhappy about it, as well as being unhappy about being a salaryman.
The performances are lovely and stuff, but there really doesn’t seem to be any reason for this movie to be this long. It’s not like Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles where the slowness is an important part of the film — instead this just doesn’t seem to… move along.
