Favorite Foreign Films

I miss the discussion and attention to some of these things listed. Here are some mini comments on them.

Akira Kurosawa - Showed in SEVEN SAMURAI how well he could FRAME a shot, even when it appeared many of the actors were improvising in the background to fill the scene. His "frame" masterpiece is RAN.

Jean Luc Godard - BREATHLESS, believe it or not I have to see this again. I don't even remember ever reviewing it for some reason, and never thought it was one of the films that made a difference with Godard's irreverent camera and filming.

Federico Fellini - Both films are no doubt outstanding but they have not aged well at all. But if you really want to get an outstanding idea of what Fellini is about, you MUST WATCH THE FIRST 5 MINUTES of INTERVISTA. It tells you everything you need to know about Fellini.

Ingmar Bergman - The important thing to watch is the number of films with Sven Nykvist. It is not as good when Sven Nykvist was not there, in my book, and some cinematographers tried to extend the the close ups and the faces, but they did not have the touch.

Luis Bunuel - Surrealist to the end. Hard to explain this to a "rock" audience, since "surrealism" in most music is not happening and is very difficult to find and determine. Frank Zappa had a lot of those moments, but he did not stick with them, and likely most of them are in 200 Motels, something that rock fans can't watch or appreciate, considering that it was one of the first to bring video to film!

Jacques Rivette - Mostly for his grace in allowing the actresses to live out their character. However, some folks don't like how so much of his work is "extended" to the point of looking like it is boring. It is anything but! The grandest, and the film most disliked of his, is LA BELLE NOISEUSSE, a film that is 4 hours long, but the great beauty in it, is not the acting or anything else ... is watching a painting being born and finished as a huge painting. Sadly, rock fans hate details, and seeing a hand on the screen doing its brush strokes means that rock fans will skip this film and not appreciate the ART behind it! It is an appreciation of not only one art, but others as well. As the film details towards the end ... it's not a photograph! And we don't know the difference!