365 films a year challenge: blog log (and then some)
◍
❝
JC: You’ve always insisted on questioning, even in your own films, the nature of cinema.
JLG: And I always will, because I think that communication is going from one place to another - moving from, say, New York to Telluride. To me, being a human being is being between two places. It’s the movement that’s important, not remaining in one place. As a moviemaker, I feel as if I’m living more than I’m moving. that’s why I think there’s no difference between my life and my movies. I’m existing more when I’m making movies than when I’m not. That’s why someone might say to me, “You have no personal life; I can’t have a relationship with you. When we’re making love you’re suddenly saying, ‘What a beautiful shot I’m thinking of!’ It’s like a painter only speaking of colors.” But I think what I’m doing is the only thing I can speak of - creation.
I think I’m looking for love, but through work. Even when I’m on a line to buy a ticket, it’s a horror for me just to wait. In my work, I try not to make things so horrible. I love to work, but I’d like to work to love. People try to separate love and work, but I don’t think it’s possible.
— November 27, 1980 Rollingstone Magazine. Johnathon Cott interviews Godard (via charlottebobcats)
◍
What’s interesting about Midnight in Paris is everyone always says “Oh thank god it wasn’t Woody Allen playing Woody Allen but rather Owen Wilson playing Woody Allen” but then when you think about it, people are constantly talking about how Owen has like a really distinct style that he never really strays from and yet they attribute him with playing a different character in Midnight in Paris and like what.
◍
Put quite simply, Menno Meyjes’ A Matador’s Mistress says it itself – “One must be a little bit in love with death.” The film itself revels in the idea, from the repeated shot of the side of the building in which Adrien Brody’s coy mistress (played by Penelope Cruz) lives which has painted on it “Viva la muerte” to the dazzling shots of a bull coming dangerously close to Adrien Brody, A Matador’s Mistress can’t help but be in love with death. However, A Matador’s Mistress is dark without being overbearing. While we witness the couples’ bliss before their downfall, everything has a slight edge, making the film on the offset contemplative but not to the point where we stop rooting for the main character just because we know his fate. Unfortunately, we do know his fate, an acceptable fault on the part of human nature.
avant▻
