Weekend Netflix

Occasionally I wonder if I really believe that film is an artform--most particularly when I stumble upon something like Dracula 2000--but Truffaut re-assures me. This film covers enormous narrative territory and features a rather complex trio of central characters, but Truffaut is unafraid of getting off-track; I found the moments when story and chronology and dialogue cease--the glimpses of Jules, Jim, Catharine and Sabine at play--some of the most satisfying aesthetic experiences I've had. This is not to say the film is uncontrolled or loosely structured by any means, but at times (as in Fellini's films) we are treated to lavish moments of quiet as Jules and Jim and Catharine hike up a mountain, or the three of them play a spontaneous game called "Village Idiot" with la petite Sabine, or as they take lingering bicycle voyages, and these scenes awoke in me profound resonances--shared experiences I had in common with the characters--that said so much more than any amount of dialogue or voice-over. I participated in Jules et Jim rather than merely watching it.



Another film not afraid of quiet and open space! Wim Wembers' uncluttered and mysterious flick got under my skin; Dean Stockwell and Harry Dean Stanton are marvelous, Nastassha Kinski is sublime. Fave line of dialogue:

Stockwell: I thought you was scared of heights?

Stanton: Not scared of heights, just scared of fallin'.



This cute post-post-modern retooling of George A. Romero's zombie mythos works well; we're back to zombies as implied social critique, and to the shambling, dim-witted monsters after the ferocious quick cannibals of 28 Days Later, etc. The film manages to spoof other zombie movies but is more than a satire; in Romero's world the zombies themselves lampooned the herd mentality of modern capitalist societies, here the victims/heroes are cynically deconstructed as well and reflect back on the audience some uncomfortable truths. Not wholly successful, but definitely worth a peek.