Tag: cars

2010 Week 6: Finally finished a book!

Posted by Leo – February 9, 2010

Feb 5 – 11

Film(s) watched:

  1. Le Mans (1971)
  2. Bullitt (1968)
  3. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
  4. The Terrorizers (1986)
  5. The Love Bug (1968)

Book(s) read:

  1. Up in the Air by Walter Kirn

Screenplay(s) read: none

Films:

Le Mans

Director Lee H. Katzin and Steve McQueen trusted that the inherent beauty of racing would be enough to captivate viewers of a feature length motion picture. They were right.  Le Mans is shot like a documentary with minimal dialogue. We are immersed in the race and it’s fascinating. With so few scenes with dialogue, whenever a character speaks, the scene takes on added significance. The poignant scene where the female lead asks McQueen about why racers race gives meaning to all the racing in the entire film.

Bullitt

Unlike the scene with the female lead in Le Mans that elevates the film, the scene with the female lead in Bullitt brings the film down from excellent to just very good. The entire film is about this taciturn cop doing his job. This “girlfriend” subplot doesn’t really belong in the first place. The long scene where she tells him that she doesn’t understand his world is just too on-the-nose to work.

When you talk about Bullitt, you have to mention that famous car chase in San Francisco. And it’s a great chase.

Smokey and the Bandit

One of Burt Reynolds’ many “redneck” car movies. The plot is simple, almost simple minded, but the movie is actually quite entertaining. Jokes are of the low brow type, and some are funnier than intended. As Bandit puts it perfectly, “When you tell somebody something, it depends on what part of the United States you’re standin in, as to just how dumb you are.”

The Terrorizers - directed by Edward Yang

The most “urban” of the three Taiwanese New Wave directors (the other two are Hou Hsiao Hsien and Tsai Ming Liang), Edward Yang is strangely the least known outside of Asia. It’s a shame that only one of Edward Yang’s films is available on DVD in the U.S.. That film, Yi Yi (now available as a Criterion Collection DVD), is a masterpiece epic of everyday life small moments. In fact, most of Yang’s films are about everyday life small moments.

The Terrorizers has a complex, multi-thread, and fragmented narrative and it challenges the viewers to solve the puzzle. It is often (wrongly, I think) compared to Antoinoni’s Blow Up, mainly because each film has a photographer and a mysterious murder. When asked in an interview, Yang brushed aside that notion, and talked about his admiration for the works of Resnais and Pialat, which I actually see greater resemblance to Yang’s style.

The Love Bug

The Love Bug, the first in the Herbie franchise, is a moderately fun Disney movie for kids.

Book:

Up in the Air - a novel by Walter Kirn

Up in the Air, the movie, was one of my favorite films of 2009, and it is actually better than the book. Directed by Jason Reitman from a script by Reitman and Sheldon Turn, the film distills the best quality of the novel and adds subplots and details that actually strengthens the story and the character. Up in the Air, the novel, has a good first 100 pages or so but slowly loses steam.

Pick of the Week:

The Terrorizers – A close one. Le Mans is great but Edward Yang’s The Terrorizers is a masterpiece.

2010:

Total films watched: 43

Total books read: 1 – Yay! finally read a book!

Total screenplays read: 3

2010 Week 5: Too wussy for Korean Films

Posted by Leo – February 8, 2010

Jan 29 – Feb 4

Film(s) watched:

  1. Thirst (Bakjwi) (2009)
  2. Vanishing Point (1971)
  3. The Orphanage (El Orfanato) (2007)
  4. The Innocents (1961)
  5. Flawless (2007)
  6. Not for or Against (Ni Pour, Ni Contre) (2002)
  7. Cannonball Run (1981)
  8. Convoy (1978)
  9. Christine (1983)
  10. Corvette Summer (1978)
  11. Ronin (1998)

Book(s) read: none

Screenplay(s) read: none

Car movies marathon continued. Watched another 6 car movies – one of them brilliant, and one of them absolute crap. Finally watched The Orphanage, after hearing about it for so long.

Films:

Thirst

Thirst has a fresh take on the vampire genre. It is sexually charged, and the moral conflict is deeply felt.  As much as I admire Chan-wook Park‘s craft and imagination, and even though he uses gore for a purpose, and the violence is never just for violence’s sake, sometimes I find it difficult to get through his films.  I know, I’m a wuss. But it is to Park’s credit that he can make his films as much an ordeal for viewers like me as for his characters. It’s quite overwhelming to witness his characters expressing their loath in such extreme (though stylized) violence. Nevertheless,  by the end of the films, I’m always glad that I’ve persevered.

Vanishing Point

The Challenger is an apt car to use to rebel against the establishment. Richard C. Sarafian‘s film documents one man’s almost existential journey without much overt reason nor explanation. But it’s never boring. Cut to the chase, literally, from the get-go, Vanishing Point is one awesome chase film!

The Orphanage

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona from a fantastic script by Sergio G. Sánchez, The Orphanage uses mood and suspense to scare the hell out of me, which is the kind of horror films I like. It puts all those gore-fest “horror” movies to shame. The ending shows the influence of Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), who is the producer of the film, and supplies additional layers to an already rich story. Great film!

The Innocents

After The Orphanage, I decided to watch another creepy horror film that mostly utilizes suspense to scare. The Innocents is an adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Not nearly as scary or as intense as The Orphanage, The Innocents nonetheless manages to create a sense of  schizophrenia.

Flawless

Apart from very good art direction that re-creates 60′s London, the Demi Moore/Michael Caine heist film Flawless is too by the book to offer anything original. Characters lack strong motivation, and their actions are never convincing.

Not for or Against

I’m very fond of Cédric Klapisch‘s Chacun cherche son chat (aka When the Cat’s Away), which shows us the change of a Parisian neighborhood by having us follow the female protagonist’s search for her missing cat. I also like L’auberge espagnole, which is about a group of students studying abroad in Barcelona. Not for or Against is a French heist thriller, which begins with a robber’s rationale of his way of living and ends with a camerawoman living it. Is money that important? Is Klapisch for or against it? I think he offers quite a few clues to his own neutral statement.

Cannonball Run

Cannonball Run was so painful to get through its modest 95 mins. It’s as if nobody on the set even bothered to try. So many stars and such lazy effort that it’s actually offensive. I actually got mad watching this “comedy”. Roger Moore playing Roger Moore is the only semi-decent thing in the entire movie.

Convoy

Not strictly a “car” movie, in fact I think Sam Peckinpah has made a western with eighteen-wheelers. The emphasis isn’t really on character development as on what the characters represent. Similar to Vanishing Point, and many other 70′s American films, the truckers/trucks here are used to symbolize the people’s disenchantment with authority. I love the one beautiful, balletic “truck chase” sequence in the sand in slow motion.

Christine

A straightforward and effective thriller. Fun use of songs. Christine is one badass car.

Corvette Summer

Similar to Christine, the Corvette in Corvette Summer is treated as a romantic object of desire. But unlike Christine, this motif is not explored past one scene. The actions of the characters in this movie are all unreasonably naive to the point of dumbness, even for a 70′s teen movie. Annie Potts is charming, but still not enough to save the movie.

Ronin

One spectacular car chase, and two decent ones. The rest of John Frankenheimer‘s Ronin is quite nondescript. It’s almost like the film exists solely for the car chases.

Pick of the Week:

A tie – The Orphanage and Vanishing Point.

2010:

Total films watched: 38

Total screenplays read: 3

Total books read: 0

schizophreni

2010 Week 4: The El Mariachi trilogy

Posted by Leo – February 8, 2010

Jan 22-28

Film(s) watched:

  1. Interview with a Vampire
  2. El Mariachi
  3. Desperado
  4. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
  5. Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
  6. The Gumball Rally

Book(s) read: none

Screenplay(s) read: none

I began my car movies marathon with two classics. Also, I re-visited El Mariachi and saw its two sequels for the first time.

Films:

Interview with a Vampire

Director Neil Jordon made The Crying Game, which I suspect was the reason he was hired to direct Interview with a Vampire in the first place, so I don’t believe he would be prudish about sexuality on screen. But how come all the obvious sexual potential between, well pretty much all characters in movie, is blatantly ignored? Was the studio afraid that by exploring the sexual attraction between the male vampires or the sexual tension between Brad Pitt’s Louis and Kirsten Dunst’s child/woman vampire would turn away viewers? The picture looks good,  but with an undermined sexual subtext, the actual plot/action is just not interesting enough.

El Mariachi

Desperado

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Watched all 3 movies in the El Mariachi trilogy back to back to back. El Mariachi, made with a now legendary ultra-low budget of $7,000 by Robert Rodriguez (his book: Rebel without a Crew, is a must-read for any aspiring independent filmmaker), is a much better film than the other two multimillion dollar productions. (Desperado especially is a huge disappointment).

In the 1st film, the mariachi is just a musician, but is forced into violence. That reluctance is what makes the film good, and his internal conflict is what makes his actions plausible. But in the two sequels, with Antonio Banderas assuming the role of the mariachi, he’s way too much of a action hero. Killing is his day job, and music has become just an excuse for him to carry around a guitar case. Without the reluctance, the character is one dimensional. I just don’t care about him nor his goals (whatever they are). Granted, Rodriguez has flair with his cinematography and his gunfight choreography. He has shown what he can do with only $7k. But however inventive the action scenes are or however cool they look, the lack of emotional attachment to the characters negates any narrative purpose they might have. And without narrative purpose, the actions are just things exploding, or people getting machine gunned. Rodriguez is a better filmmaker than that. The 3rd installment, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, is better than Desperado. It’s watchable every time Johnny Depp is on screen. But the confusing face-change plot completely derails the movie, and never really recovers.

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

The film has many flaws – there is no character development, the plot is paper thin, the acting is horrendous – but H.B. Halicki‘s distant perspective is actually quite refreshing. The way the Mustang (named Eleanor, and has top billing) tears through L.A. like a wounded and cornered animal does it for me.

Gumball Rally

The granddaddy of illegal cross-country street car racing movies, and sets a formula which pretty much all similar movies follow.

Pick of the Week:

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

2010:

Total films watched: 27

Total screenplays read: 3

Total books read: 0

This is the way to see Paris

Posted by Leo – February 3, 2010

C’était un rendez-vous, single shot, cinéma-vérité. from FootballVanity on Vimeo.

I was a car enthusiast – well, from when I was 8 till 14ish. Not quite legal driving age in most countries. So my automobile experience was pretty much limited to arguing with schoolmates whether the Lamborghini Countach was cooler than the Ferrari Testarossa. It is. Look at it, it’s straight out of an 80′s sci-fi movie! Or when we grew up and made lots of money from doing whatever, would we rather buy a Aston Martin DB5 and be like James Bond, or a Mercedes 300SL Gull Wing? Definitely the 300SL. As of 2010, I don’t have either. Perhaps I should’ve put more thoughts into the “doing whatever” part.

A recent obsession with Top Gear has inspired a still on-going car movies marathon. The little boy in me is having a blast watching fast cars driven crazy fast. So far, Claude Lelouch‘s  8 1/2 min cinéma-vérité short film, C’etait un rendezvous (1976), is topping the lot. In one continuous shot, Lelouch drives his Mercedes 450SEL 6.9 through Paris in insanely high speed, ignoring red lights, disregarding his or anyone’s safety. Unsurprisingly, there was a moral outrage at his method of shooting, and I can completely understand that. But despite the recklessness, or rather maybe because of it, it is an absolutely mesmerizing eight and half minutes. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen for a split second. And like a good short story, it has a great ending that gives narrative meanings to all the driving.

Forget those open top tour buses, this is the way to see Paris.