Blu-ray Review: Criterion's Vivre Sa Vie (1962) and Summer Hours (2008)

by Tony Dayoub

Were you one of the mob who rushed to buy the movie-only Avatar (2009) disc oh so cannily released on Earth Day? Why would you when it's already been announced that Cameron plans a more extensive edition containing extra footage within a year, and a 3D Blu-ray by 2012? Especially the last one since the science fiction film is so inextricably dependent on 3D immersion to tell its story effectively. In this age of double—and now triple—dips by Hollywood studios in order to maximize the profits they see vanishing as the whole business model of film distribution and release changes, it is gratifying to see one label, Criterion, hone in on films which advance the art of telling a story over productions which simply accelerate the visual technology used to illustrate the bare minimum of a plot. And Criterion usually gets it right the first time, double dipping only in rare cases where a better quality print has been restored for a film in often dire need of such a thing. Two of the most recent examples of Criterion's concern with its product presentation, Vivre sa vie (My Life to Live) and Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été), have only one tenuous tie (they're both in French) but are fully deserving of one's attention over the most recent Hollywood blockbuster.

The Best Films of the 00s: 2009

by Tony Dayoub

2009 proved surprisingly robust in its cinematic offerings. It yielded two films which you'll see tomorrow when I wrap this up with my look at the Best of the Decade. In the meantime, this should prove to be a highly debatable list, as these lists often are when they are created so soon before any serious critical consensus has been achieved. Some reminders: I cannot judge movies I haven't seen, so if you feel a film you like was unjustly left out, it might be that I haven't seen it; also, I've included a link back to the original review for each film.

And now, in alphabetical order, the best films of 2009...

Best of 2008: The 10 Best Films of the Year

Wrapping up this week's Best of 2008 series, I present my top 10 films of the year. While the first half of 2008 was somewhat weak, I managed to find some underrated gems released during that period. And I think that the year in general was not as bad as some other recent ones. It was hard enough to narrow the list down to 10, so I didn't try to rank them in anything but alphabetical order. I also list 10 additional films I feel deserve an honorable mention. You might be surprised at how wide I cast my net in deeming some of these entries as films, but I prefer to be as inclusive as possible. Of course, my list's only requirement is that the film be released in the U.S. (in a festival, at the very least) sometime in 2008. If the title is hyperlinked, you'll also be able to see what I wrote when I first reviewed it which should be interesting as I've only been blogging for about a year. Feel free to post your own list, and agree - or even better - disagree with any of my selections. Che (Roadshow Edition), director Steven Soderbergh - A gutsy attempt to shed light on a polarizing figure, Che is actually two movies that must be seen together. The first part, The Argentine, is surprisingly the more marketable, despite being the one with potential for controversy. Shot like a traditional war movie it depicts Guevara as the hero of Cuba's revolution. The second part, Guerilla, is the more damning and difficult movie. Here, Guevara is a remote and weak character, stubbornly pursuing his lost cause. Together, they give us an understanding of why he is seen as both hero and monster by so many. Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale), dir. Arnaud Desplechin - Desplechin's look at family dynamics is the best film I saw this year. And even though this family shares some disdain for each other, one gets the feeling that they love each other in a way that one can understand only when one is part of such a group. Bitter and warm. Elegy, dir. Isabel Coixet - This is the first time I think I ever saw a sign of the real Ben Kingsley in a performance. And it was truly fascinating to watch. The story of a womanizer and his greatest character flaws - insecurity and possessiveness - was also illuminating. The Fall, dir. Tarsem Singh - Simply the most visually stunning film I've seen since Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Gran Torino, dir. Clint Eastwood - From a response I wrote to a reader's criticism at Some Came Running:

Allow me to reference "The Searchers" in order to make another point, and I preface this by asserting that I am in no way elevating "Gran Torino" to the same class as that classic film. In Ford's film, John Wayne's Ethan Edwards is the protagonist, is a racist, frequently uses epithets against the Native Americans in the film, yet still musters the tolerance to work with Jeff Hunter's Martin - a half-Native American - to pursue his quarry. For about 115 minutes of its running time (and years, in the film), Edwards is committed to killing his own niece (Natalie Wood) simply for being presumably defiled by the Native Americans who kidnapped her. And then in the last few minutes, Martin convinces Edwards to let her live. Happy ending, save for Edwards extricating himself from the life he can't be a part of due to his inherent and unresolved feelings for the Native Americans. The plot remarkably tracks similarly with "Gran Torino". So why can we give Ford a pass for the "bait-and-switch" at the end of "The Searchers"? Or the comic relief that Hank Worden's Mose so jarringly injects into every scene he's in? And why can we be so cavalier towards Ethan Edwards' own racism yet admire his heroism? Is it because the fact that Ford's film is a Western it adds another layer of distance or archetypal reduction to the events in "The Searchers"? Had "Gran Torino" been a Western with Native Americans replacing the Hmong would we even be having this conversation? I found Eastwood to be unusually direct and economical in his storytelling, a relative rarity in his recent films. And I applaud the fact that he trusts us to do the heavy lifting, rather than get anymore on-the-nose than the movie is already accused of being.

In Treatment, producer and developer, Rodrigo Garcia - Yeah, I know... it's a TV series. But its curious format is what made it compelling enough to list along with these fine films. Gabriel Byrne plays a psychologist with marital problems. Each weeknight, the show would follow him with a different patient, except for Friday when he would see his own psychologist (Dianne Wiest) to discuss his relationship issues. If you only cared to follow his sessions with Patient A, you'd only have to tune in on Monday nights; Patient B on Tuesday nights, etc. But for the complete picture, and to really get to know the psychologist, you would watch all week, as one session often impacted others during the week. A series that truly demonstrates what the long form is capable of exploring. Shotgun Stories, dir. Jeff Nichols - Nothing much happens in it... externally. But the internal is what's interesting in this one, and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) acutely conveys so much of the devastation that one man can cause by leaving one family to start another. The Strangers, dir. Bryan Bertino - It is a truly terrifying film in which the camera forces you to be an unwilling accomplice. Not innovative per se, but that perspective has been sorely missed in this age of "torture porn". I'm gratified to see such a style make a comeback. Synecdoche, New York, dir. Charlie Kaufman - This mindbending indie pushes the limits of how far imagination can take you on a limited budget when a writer like Kaufman is given the keys to the car. Wall·E, dir. Andrew Stanton - So many of us were touched by this film, an even more amazing feat once one remembers that the characters are computer generated robots. Honorable Mention: Burn After Reading, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Happy-Go-Lucky, Iron Man, Rambo, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, L'Heure d'été (The Summer Hours), Üç Maymun (Three Monkeys), Waltz with Bashir, The Wrestler For more on the Best of 2008: Best of 2008: Animated Features Best of 2008: Performances and Creative Achievements Best of 2008: Oscar Nominations Open Thread

Movie Review: L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours) - Family Legacies in Today's Globalized Society

by Tony Dayoub



L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours) is a French language film about a family whose matriarch, Hélène (Edith Scob) passes away rather suddenly. Her children, Frédéric (Charles Berling), Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), and Jérémie (Jérémie Renier) all loved her, and each other. But our globalized society keeps them apart. With Adrienne's job in New York, and Jérémie's in China, Frédéric is the one who must assume responsibility for her estate. The house, in the family for generations, must now be sold, reluctantly by Frédéric, and Hélène, niece of a famous artist, had amassed quite an art collection, mostly through inheritance, as well.


One of the byproducts of globalization is the impact it has had on families and art, as we see in this film. Assayas examines the way the house and these art objects hold not only economic value, but sentimental value, for the family, particularly for Frédéric, who is more rooted in France than the other siblings. The other siblings, though still attached to these, are conscious of their inability to transport them into their far-flung new lives abroad. And even the intrinsic value of the pieces, and the house, as historical objects dissipates when removed from the context of the family relationships to the items. This is evident when the committee at the Musee D'Orsay, the museum which takes in the collection, starts to examine each item divorced from the family context, and in the greater context of whether it will attract interest to the collection or not.

Frédéric is the linchpin in the story. He represents the intergenerational crossroads of the family. For him, the family history and roots in France are the most important. We see this in his affection for two Corot paintings that he wants to pass on to his children. We also see that in his mother's recognition that he should be the caretaker of her legacy. But it is most evident in the spiritual inheritance he has left his daughter.

The teen is arrested midway through the film for shoplifting and possession of a small amount of drugs. She doesn't seem to be a criminal type, just participating in carefree shenanigans. When she has a huge party at her grandmother's now empty house, our perception of her as an ignorant youth doesn't change. But in a moment alone with her boyfriend, in the field by the house, she cries as she speaks of a memory of her and Hélène picking fruit there. She realizes that this field which her grandmother said she would pass on to her father, then to her, and on to her children, is leaving the family's dominion. And we have hope that even in the next generation of "global" babies, some sentimental value will still be cherished.

L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours) is playing at the 46th New York Film Festival, at 6:00 p.m. tonight, and 9:00 p.m. tomorrow, at the Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 307-1862

Photo Credit: IFC Films / Fortissimo Films / Film Society of Lincoln Center

NYFF Day 5 - Notes on A Corte do Norte and Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été)

by Tony Dayoub



Today, I saw the visually sumptuous Portuguese language film, A Corte do Norte, by João Botelho. It stars the incomparably beautiful Ana Moreira in an intergenerational family drama where she plays five different women. The cinematography by João Ribeiro is a chiaroscuro delight of vivid colors set against dark backgrounds.


The film itself left me a little cold. With flashbacks and flashforwards further confused by Moreira's multiple roles, it was a little hard to follow what was going on. Judging by the press conference after the film, Moreira and Botelho seemed a little perplexed themselves. Botelho says he adapted it pretty faithfully from a famous Portuguese novel by Agustina Bessa Luis. But he admits having to eject some of the philosophical undercurrent to simplify the plot. Moreira said she had to turn to Botelho often in order to get clarification regarding the differences between each of her characters. The languid pace of the film adds a hypnotic effect to the wonderful visuals. But something was definitely lost in the translation.

I also caught a great new film by Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep), Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été). This was a truly moving and witty film about family, art, heirlooms, and the sentimental values attached to them. I'll have a more extensive review of the film up before it screens tomorrow.

Below is a schedule of tonight's festival events. More information can be found at the festival's web site.

EVENT TITLES
NYFF – Festival main slate film
OSH – NYFF Sidebar: In the Realm of Oshima

SCREENING LOCATIONS
ZT – Ziegfeld Theatre, 54th St. between 6th and 7th Avenues
WRT – Walter Reade Theater, 65th St. between Amsterdam and Broadway, upper level

Tuesday, Sept. 30
4:30 The Sun’s Burial (OSH/WRT)
6:00 Tony Manero, with Love You More (NYFF/ZT)
6:20 The Catch (OSH/WRT)
8:30 Night and Fog in Japan (OSH/WRT)
9:15 The Northern Land/A Corte do Norte, with Surprise! (NYFF/ZT)

A Corte do Norte is playing at the 46th New York Film Festival, at 9:15 p.m. tonight only, at the Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 307-1862

A Corte do Norte Photo Credit: FF Filmes Fundo / Film Society of Lincoln Center

L'Heure d'été Photo Credit: IFC Films / Fortissimo Films / Film Society of Lincoln Center