Random Thoughts

This is cheery.

And really good. Could this be a Kobayashi movie that doesn’t suck? *crosses fingers*

I’m watching this and my brain is like “this is kinda good innit?” and then yet another ridiculous scene happens. Kobayashi is trying so hard to make a movie with an intriguingly complex plot, and mostly succeeds? Like most of the scenes really work in this context? But then there are random scenes where you feel like the actors are phoning it in and it all deflates.

But it’s also out of time — it’s one of those noir movies where everybody has three agendas at the same time — but it’s from 1962!

The Inheritance. Masaki Kobayashi. 1962.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

This is the final movie on the Louis Malle box set (which is, I think, the second-largest Eclipse box set after the first one, which was all of Bergman’s early movies).

Malle’s earlier documentaries have been pretty hit or miss, but they all felt very organic? This one doesn’t. The previous ones have been, like, “Malle goes somewhere and films the people he meets”, but this one is has a theme, and was commissioned by HBO. So Malle here is meeting a bunch of emigrants from all over the world (immigrating to the US), and it’s… OK?

It’s not a typical TV documentary, but it’s optimised for TV: You get a couple sentences from each person, and then it’s a jump cut to somewhere else, and Malle does voiceovers throughout.

But it looks nice.

This is in-credibly boring.

Trey controversial!

The first 70 minutes of this is very standard. But the last 20 minutes, the film gets real nerve, and kinda works? So this is probably too harsh:

… and the pursuit of happiness. Louis Malle. 1986.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.

Hey, it’s been a couple of weeks since I watched a movie from Criterion’s Eclipse series, and it’s mostly been because I haven’t really been impressed with either of the two box sets I’m watching: The Louis Malle one had one fantastic movie, and then the rest have been, to use a technical term, “ehh”. And the Kobayashi films have been really disappointing.

But here we go.

One problem with the other Kobayashi films is that they’re so … schematic. I mean — “Here’s This Problem”. This may well turn out to be that way, too, but it starts off better.

OK, I was wrong. This looks great, but it’s just as didactic as his other movies. This time, it’s about a neighbourhood where Everybody Is A Character (But Poor), and they’re being evicted. I’m guessing it’s going to end in a tragedy, because Capitalism.

So again, while everything Kobayashi is saying is correct, it’s just doesn’t work well as a movie.

O… kay.

Kobayashi is trying so hard. So hard.

I just don’t understand these ratings, so I’m probably wrong and all of these Kobayashi movies are amazing.

As with the previous movies, the technicians at Shochiku are amazing — this looks amazing, from the sets to the lighting to the cinematography. And some of the performances are compelling. But I don’t think it works as a movie, so:

Black River. Masaki Kobayashi. 1957.

This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.