#151 - Traffic

 

#151 is an Oscar Award winning film by Steven Soderbergh with three entangled stories about the drug war in America and Mexico.   Steven does an excellent job of filming each story in it's own way - I think even with different film stock - using colors to divide the stories that revolve around two competing drug cartels trying to get their product to the US

It's a great story, and I remember seeing it 20 years ago before I really knew what cinema was doing or how it worked - (I can't remember if it was in the theater or not) - Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones do a great job in their stories, and Benicio del Toro didn't even speak Spanish when he got the role that won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. 

There's a lesson here, but there's also a great story and it's one that I imagine looks phenomenal on the Blu-Ray - I was unable to get official disks but it looks like there's 25 deleted scenes, and a lot of great backstory about how things were filmed.   Glad to see it's still in print even if it's not on the Channel right now.   

It's a nice break from the real art-house stuff occasionally to get one of the more contemporary US films in here, so it washed down easy and was an enjoyable re-watch 22 years later.

#150 - Bob le Flambeur

 

finally! - #150 - for this one we have a French heist film that has shades of what will become the French New Wave.   A bit of humor and energy to this one.   Bob (the Gambler, for translation's sake) is just what he says - a man who lives by chance and a two headed coin.   He gets an idea when down on his luck for a heist, and well, the story will have to tell itself.

This one is OOP in Criterion but I found it in Kanopy.  It had a nice vibe and flow, with lots of outside Paris shots which I always adore.   

Our standout here is Isabelle Corey, who plays the young female interest that helps move a bit of the plot along.   This is her first film, and we'll see here in "And God Created Woman and then show up in a number of Italian films.   She sort of owns every scene she's in, and really seems like someone added just to have one beautiful young woman, but hey, sometimes that's what we need.

The film seems to have a touch of influence from American Gangster films.   Not Noir, but definitely we have a gangster element as Bob used to be a heist guy but has a code that makes him hate pimps, which gives him that element of likability and makes us root from him.   

This is also our first exposure to the director, Jean Pierre Melville.   He has done some films I've been eager to see, and look forward to seeing him again.   As stated, he does have an influence on the French New Wave scene to follow and I'm looking forward to further updates from this director

#149 - Juilet of the Spirits

 

Number 149 - AKA Holy crap I finally got this done - I don't think I've done an in-order release in months - as usual, this was facilitated by the spouse being out of town but I think it still took a restart and 3 viewings.

I've made no secret of the fact I'm hit or miss with Fellini although I find Giulietta Masina (his wife and longtime collaborator) enjoyable in any film.   I guess this was Fellini's first color film, and the one after 8 1/2.   There's a lot of stuff said and implied here that Fellini is acting out here.   Some say he's projecting his own desires for a mistress and affair in here.   In fact, I think it's the same mistress from 8 1/2  - same actress, that is.

It's an interesting story about a bored housewife who after a seance, begins having increasingly and bizarre spiritual visions.   Near the end it starts to become a colorful horror story, with the director clearly relishing the new palate he can paint with - All I can really say is, it was somewhat entertaining but I felt overall plot and direction a bit vague.   I think Ebert said that this is considered his last great film and the decline starts from here with the exception of Amacord.   I confess I have yet to find any fault with this statement having seen at least 5 of his films now in the first 149.   That's probably more than any other director up to this point except maybe Kurosawa.

Anyhow I hope to ramp things back up again - we have some interesting documentaries coming up, some french heist films, and I think I can probably start up again without the twitter account which I felt compelled to delete because of the douchebag that bought Twitter.

This is mostly for my own thoughts anyways.

RB