Corpsey
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Summers with Monika: Not the best Bergman I've seen by any stretch, but very good and with at least two, twinned, transcendent moments: 1) Monika smoking and staring down the camera, judging herself or daring you to judge her, who knows 2) Harry staring into the mirror, holding the baby, painfully into visions of the burst bubble idyll of the said summer.
What this film really captured for me was the blissful/doomed naivety of being young, when you can easily dream that life will get better and be wonderful—even if you don't quite believe it, even then. The last film I saw that really hit me in these feels was 'Another Round' with its depiction of a teenage piss up by the lake.
L'Argent: Based on the handful of films directed by him that I've seen, I feel conflicted about Bresson. The staginess and the mannered, unemotional performances, the way he seems to scorn forging an emotional connection between you as the viewer and the characters—all these are turn-offs, but there's also the brilliant way he shoots everything, particularly close-ups on physical actions and procedures.
And in 'L'argent' more than in the others I've seen, I could see that his refusal to take you 'inside' the characters, emotionally, creates a space in which you're forced to interpret. I wouldn't be surprised if Haneke was influenced by this. It's obviously a great concept (taken from a Tolstoy short story, apparently)—the unthinking pretty fraud of some teenagers causing the tragic destruction of an only coincidentally linked man. And the ultimate act of violence (won't go into it here in case people haven't seen it) was genuinely shocking. Definitely hints of Camus' 'The Outsider', here.
Summers with Monika: Not the best Bergman I've seen by any stretch, but very good and with at least two, twinned, transcendent moments: 1) Monika smoking and staring down the camera, judging herself or daring you to judge her, who knows 2) Harry staring into the mirror, holding the baby, painfully into visions of the burst bubble idyll of the said summer.
What this film really captured for me was the blissful/doomed naivety of being young, when you can easily dream that life will get better and be wonderful—even if you don't quite believe it, even then. The last film I saw that really hit me in these feels was 'Another Round' with its depiction of a teenage piss up by the lake.
L'Argent: Based on the handful of films directed by him that I've seen, I feel conflicted about Bresson. The staginess and the mannered, unemotional performances, the way he seems to scorn forging an emotional connection between you as the viewer and the characters—all these are turn-offs, but there's also the brilliant way he shoots everything, particularly close-ups on physical actions and procedures.
And in 'L'argent' more than in the others I've seen, I could see that his refusal to take you 'inside' the characters, emotionally, creates a space in which you're forced to interpret. I wouldn't be surprised if Haneke was influenced by this. It's obviously a great concept (taken from a Tolstoy short story, apparently)—the unthinking pretty fraud of some teenagers causing the tragic destruction of an only coincidentally linked man. And the ultimate act of violence (won't go into it here in case people haven't seen it) was genuinely shocking. Definitely hints of Camus' 'The Outsider', here.
