Blindspot 2012: Bande a Part

Band of Outsiders

Directed by Jean Luc Godard (1964) Starring: Anna Karina, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur

There’s a tiny part of me that’s regretting loading my Blindspot queue with a ton of foreign films, since it’s harder to multitask when watching a movie on the second to last day of the month, when I’ve still got homework to get done.

However, one of Jean Luc Godard’s early classics did not skate by me last night.  I managed to give it my whole attention.

There’s something very fun and kinetic about the French New Wave.  It takes a lot of its elements from love of the Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s and they tend to be conscious that what’s happening is a movie.  At the same time, there’s the feeling that a shoe’s about to drop and a character is going to start waxing poetic about an existential crisis.  Bande a Part doesn’t have too many scenes like that, but there is an omnipresent narrator who reveals the character’s thoughts every so often.

After meeting young Odile (Karina) at an English class, Franz (Frey) and Arthur (Brasseur) find out that a lodger at her house is holding a lot of cash in his wardrobe.  They get close to Odile and convince her to help them.  Arthur seduces her while Franz feels lonely in Paris, and Odile keeps switching between helping and resisting.

To be honest, Bande a Part is a pretty uncomfortable story.  Two older, rather emotionless men flit around a young woman and seduce her in order to gain her money.  While certain scenes feel like Odile knows what she’s getting into, there are double the times when it looks like she’s about to get date-raped.  This might be cultural and generational differences, but I’m still drawing the line: It ain’t okay.

Structurally, it feels like a novel ran into a B-movie and left the narration behind, occasionally having moments that are very sensitive about the context this story is appearing.  Those are the moments that remain interesting –  the literal moment of silence, the dance scene, the constant switching between chairs at the table.  These make the French New Wave style feel like the influential movement film history tells us it is, but it’s bogged down by non-characters.  And that’s probably part of the style as well.

As much as I love the kinetic energy of running through the Louvre and dancing in a cafe, I can’t say I didn’t get distracted from the film.  After awhile, I started thinking about Jason Wu’s New Wave-inspired line from Target, which made me wonder: Was the French New Wave a statement of style over substance in art?

A Little More Homework: Blindspots 2012

In joining Ryan and James, I’ve decided to clear up some missing films as apart of my New Year’s Resolutions.  A lot of my list are understood to be capital-c Classics, but a few have been sitting near the top of my Netflix queue for too long without earning my full attention.  So once a month, I will write a blog post about these films – adding a little more work to my filmic syllabus, but hopefully getting me back into the swing of blogging again.

NIL BY MOUTH

GRAND ILLUSION

BANDE A PART

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

GOODFELLAS

UMBERTO D.

BORDER RADIO

TRAINSPOTTING

I AM CUBA

HALLOWEEN

PRIMER

THE 400 BLOWS

False Advertisement

My American Independent Film teacher just emailed us our syllabus for the semester.  On the front page it says “Should probably be called New American Cinema.”

Oh.  Now you tell me.

Not that I’m not excited to learn about New American Cinema, which is a rather big hole in my movie-watching habits, but it definitely the likelihood of my predictions by a mile.

The three that I got right: Stranger Than Paradise (1983); Synedoche, New York (2008); The Future (2011)

And as a brief means of defending my dignity, I did get a lot of auteurs right.  We are going to be watching plenty of Cassavetes, a Spike Lee, a Steven Soderbergh, some Gus Van Sant.

The thing is, New American Cinema is different from American Independent if only that the former inspired the latter.  We’re watching a lot more Altman, Scorsese, and Coppola than I would have expected, but really I should have seen at least two Malick films.

Anyway, I’m not gonna bother listing out the syllabus, but hopefully there will be some posts forthcoming under the “Movie Class Film” tab.

The Great Syllabus Guessing Game

In a little over a week, the Fall Semester will be upon me.  I’m currently enrolled in American Independent Cinema and rumor has it that this professor wants our homework to be all movie watching, all the time.  With my handy Directory of World Cinema: American Independent at my side, I think it’s time to play Guess the Syllabus.

I’ve had this professor once before, so I know he likes Anderson, Baumbach and Tarantino (although he also assumes that most college kids have seen at least some of their movies).  He also includes at least a few recent films, so I’m guessing there will be one 2010 or 2011 theatrical release.

Mullholland Dr.

Rushmore

Synedoche, New York

She’s Gotta Have It

Hostel

Boogie Nights

A Woman Under the Influence

Killing Zoe

The Man Who Wasn’t There

The King of Kong

Buffalo ’66

sex, lies and videotape

Lost Highway

Primer

Broken Flowers

Easy Rider

Five Easy Pieces

Stranger Than Paradise

Mala Noche

Pink Flamingos

Shortbus

All the Real Girls

The Station Agent

Before Sunrise & Before Sunset

Go

Slacker

Happiness

Pull My Daisy

Schizopolis

And the 2010/2011 spot goes to… I really want to say The Future, but seeing Holy Rollers again would be super.  And there will probably be a Sofia Coppola spot, so I’m gonna go with “Somewhere”.

Naturally, it would be better if this syllabus took me completely by surprise and introduced a whole slew of American Independents that I’ve never even heard of.  But, y’know, we’ll see.

Jud Suss

In my Jewish/German studies class this semester, part of the syllabus was watching the Nazi propaganda film Jud Suss (1940), which is  really complicated to discuss.  As it was explained in class, it was released in 1940 in order to gear up Nazi-occupied Europe for the Final Solution.  Over 20 million people saw it at the time and it was a hit worldwide, but in retrospect it is disgusting.

It was marketed as a historical melodrama, which was one of the main genres produced by the Nazi film industry.  As much as it’s remembered for propaganda like The Triumph of the Will, Nazi cinema was geared more toward producing Hollywood-style comedies, dramas, and musicals.  Only a small percentage of these products are considered to be anti-Semitic, however Jud Suss is evidence enough that the Final Solution was disseminated  across all media.

Loosely based off the historical figure Joseph Suss Oppenheimer and the 1925 novel, Jud Suss is about how a Jewish money lender becomes the head adviser to the Duke, corrupting him, his duchy, and German women.  While a Jud Suss existed in history, the plot has been twisted far away from fact in order to match up with Nazi ideology.  The opening titles begin with the phrase “Based off of historical documents,” as a way for the Nazis to present this to the public as evidence against Judaism.

All of these facts about the movie puts an important frame of mind for the modern viewer.  It was designed to create violence against Jews in Europe.  The actual plot is more about a historical melodrama, where a villain corrupts a state and a young girl, before being lawfully killed.  There’s a large focus on having the trial be systematic instead of revenge, but the final decree that the film ends on is for forcing the Jews out of their city.

I can’t say it’s not a well made movie though.  Most of the camera work and special effects reminded me of Citizen Kane with their ingenuity.  There are several crane shots that come to mind, just thinking over the technical feats.

It’s important to note that the director Veit Harlan was the only director in the Nazi film production to be charged with war crimes.  It’s also strange to note that Jud Suss wasn’t just a German hit, but a worldwide popular movie.

Some Cast it Hot Episode 7: The Song is You

The seventh episode of Some Cast it Hot is music-themed movies.  Alex, Caitlin, and I discuss The Saddest Music in the World. Our recommendations include The Legend of 1900, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and The Glen Miller Story.

You can listen to Some Cast It Hot here.  You can leave us feedback on any of our blogs or by emailing us at somecastithot@gmail.com

As always, thanks for listening!