All dressed up and nowhere to go.
That would be the the defining statement of this, the last day of 2005. I am wearing the fancy pants and hell the rest of the ensemble. Its not often you'll find me in a suit, but i do rather enjoy spiffing up sometimes. Besides- now is the time for writing and i believe that dressing the part is a crucial element to this charade.
Therefore I am in a grey pinstripe suit. I have a bottle of an excellent scotch, the time for lesser drinks is over. This is for real real time. Not for play play. The cider that i drank earlier just served to kickstart the liver. Cursed thing. I'll make you pay, you and your backstabbing pancreas friend.
My friends have utterly failed to entertain me this evening, as usual. The options for action are rather lamentable:
And so it begins.
To be perfectly honest, I am extremely out of practice with any sort of real critical thinking. The long years free from college have caused an pleasant amount of atrophy to occur.
So franklyI'm not entirely sure WTF this movie is really about. I suspect that it is an allegory about the struggles that France as a coutnry went through in the 60's. Not being a history buff, I am unable to talk nicely about the timing of the troubles in Algeria, and social unrest in France in general.
I DO know that one of the driving forces of the French new Wave was a strong need to politicise and make relevant cinema in a larger socail context.
Working backwards in time. I found that this movie could have easily been a Altman film. The now, almost trademark technique of overlapping dialogue, perhaps owes a nod to this film. As we Cléo throughout our picturesque tours of Paris, we are almost bombarded by numerous dialogues. The majority of which express horror or sadness at the situation in Africa. She is, of course, oblivious to it all.
The very beginning of the movie reveals the outline of the narrative. A blond woman, a star. An illness, death and or rebirth, a new young love. Through these broad strokes, we follow Cléo. Learning of her coming "death" she worries. Will she become ugly? It will be ok, as long as she doesn't lose her beauty. She meets up with her assistant and a café afterwards, and begins to have a breakdown. Her friend, defines Cléo for us. She is a good person, but like a baby. She needs to be taken care of.
The movie then takes us along as spectators as she grows out of babyhood and begins to accept responsibility for her own life. This parallels the growing military presence in Algeria, until finally at the end of the movie, she has accepted her fate, and makes a concious decision to find out her fate. Along the way, she meets the young love fortold in the beginning. He is obviously a soldier on his way to Algeria, and he has only a short while before he must leave.
Thus the director attempts to bring together the foreground narrative, and the metaphorical subtext. Cléo finds out that she does indeed have cancer, but the doctor is positive that with 2 months treatement everything is ok. She is strangely relieved to know that she is really sick. It confirms her feelings were correct and now that it is acknowledged she can finally relax. In the same way we are to assume that France is going through some very serious problems, but we can look forward to a time when things will look up again.
Ima stop now, I could talk about the quirks of the editing, such as the rather odd reliance on jump cuts, and the artificial use of black in white. Especially in contrast with the rather stunning opening sequence of the Tarot cards.
BUT.
It is now 2006. And the ..... mmmmmmmmmmmrrrrrrrrmr
Therefore I am in a grey pinstripe suit. I have a bottle of an excellent scotch, the time for lesser drinks is over. This is for real real time. Not for play play. The cider that i drank earlier just served to kickstart the liver. Cursed thing. I'll make you pay, you and your backstabbing pancreas friend.
My friends have utterly failed to entertain me this evening, as usual. The options for action are rather lamentable:
- Drink- Yep
- Masturbate- sure did
- TV- ermmm uhhhmm meh
- Sleep- Well eventually sure. WE DO LIEKS THE SLEEP
- Clean Room- you must be joking
- This thing. That I'm doing right now. Awww crap bored already...
I had such incredible plans for a movie review... Sadly They didn't work out. The booze... well I drank it all and although I was at the correct level of nega-sobriety, my best friend laziness called me a bitch and planted my ass firmly on the couch for the rest of the night.
What follows now, is something that well... If it works I deserve some sort of medal. I am going to mentally go back in time and try to recreate my drunken state. HOW?! How will i achieve this incredible feat? My friend, the answer is right in front of us. Each and everyone has this capability. But it takes years of training. Dedication. Strict avoidance of the bad things.
And so it begins.
To be perfectly honest, I am extremely out of practice with any sort of real critical thinking. The long years free from college have caused an pleasant amount of atrophy to occur.
So franklyI'm not entirely sure WTF this movie is really about. I suspect that it is an allegory about the struggles that France as a coutnry went through in the 60's. Not being a history buff, I am unable to talk nicely about the timing of the troubles in Algeria, and social unrest in France in general.
I DO know that one of the driving forces of the French new Wave was a strong need to politicise and make relevant cinema in a larger socail context.
Working backwards in time. I found that this movie could have easily been a Altman film. The now, almost trademark technique of overlapping dialogue, perhaps owes a nod to this film. As we Cléo throughout our picturesque tours of Paris, we are almost bombarded by numerous dialogues. The majority of which express horror or sadness at the situation in Africa. She is, of course, oblivious to it all.
The very beginning of the movie reveals the outline of the narrative. A blond woman, a star. An illness, death and or rebirth, a new young love. Through these broad strokes, we follow Cléo. Learning of her coming "death" she worries. Will she become ugly? It will be ok, as long as she doesn't lose her beauty. She meets up with her assistant and a café afterwards, and begins to have a breakdown. Her friend, defines Cléo for us. She is a good person, but like a baby. She needs to be taken care of.
The movie then takes us along as spectators as she grows out of babyhood and begins to accept responsibility for her own life. This parallels the growing military presence in Algeria, until finally at the end of the movie, she has accepted her fate, and makes a concious decision to find out her fate. Along the way, she meets the young love fortold in the beginning. He is obviously a soldier on his way to Algeria, and he has only a short while before he must leave.
Thus the director attempts to bring together the foreground narrative, and the metaphorical subtext. Cléo finds out that she does indeed have cancer, but the doctor is positive that with 2 months treatement everything is ok. She is strangely relieved to know that she is really sick. It confirms her feelings were correct and now that it is acknowledged she can finally relax. In the same way we are to assume that France is going through some very serious problems, but we can look forward to a time when things will look up again.
Ima stop now, I could talk about the quirks of the editing, such as the rather odd reliance on jump cuts, and the artificial use of black in white. Especially in contrast with the rather stunning opening sequence of the Tarot cards.
BUT.
It is now 2006. And the ..... mmmmmmmmmmmrrrrrrrrmr
posted by legion at 10:26 PM
1 Comments:
FINALLY!!!
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