Amateur (1994) Directed by Hal Hartley

Astrid:
In my opinion Hal Hartley is a kind of a sacred cow and a comfort food in our (movie) relationship. Amateur was the first Hartley film I saw in 2002. The setting was romantic – the film a taped from TV VCR (forever lost after this one last viewing). I was young, in love and impressionable. Oh boy, did the movie leave a mark. The last five minutes of the film were imprinted on my memory as living moving images. Nothing else remained. I have had dreams about those last minutes.

Moving on to 2013: As faith would have it, Nick made it to a DVD store in London on the day that Amateur got its rerelease (on DVD this time). A week later we sat on our uncomfortable sofa in an unusually warm May evening and relived the film as best we could. Although I sort of loved it, I now also saw some flaws. Time is cruel sometimes. I was no longer the young maiden in love, ready to eat anything my handsome lover feeds me, but the woman who had seen most Hal Hartley movies a couple of times, had a degree, a baby and a husband.

Interplay between over-the-top drama and dead-pan realism is sort of the heart of Hartley. Fantasy takes place in reality and vice versa. For some reason, this time I was bothered by the fantasy and yearned for more believable or tangible backing for the plot. I wanted more from the characters. That said, Isabelle Huppert is devine as a nymphomaniac nun who has never actually had sex and Elina Lowensohn is sensual and clumsy in a beautiful way. It's Martin Donovan who doesn't have as great a time on screen as on Trust for example. This movie was made in 1994 – watch it for the genuine 90s look and be...well, positively surprised.

Nick :
The memory can be deceptive. Before we watched Amateur, I was telling Astrid how it had been close to 12 years since I watched this Hartley gem and that I considered it his best picture. Afterwards, I was ready to revise that. Amateur was made in 1994 and I've watched this at least 20 times. I think it's a modern classic. But this was over familiar material to me, so trying to invest something new in this film was hard. Watching the film in 2013 revealed some glitches and problems (minor ones). There is a great soundtrack to this movie (Pavement, PJ Harvey, Red House Painters, MBV) but it's mixed so low, it's as if Hartley can't decide weather to use the music or not (so its lack of presense feels like a compromise and then a distraction). Some scenes have dated a little. But lets be honest for a moment, these are minor quibbles. The last Hal Hartley movie I watched was the Henry Fool sequel, Fay Grim, which was a real disappointment (and probably ripe for re-appraisal from me). I was going into this apprehensively. As Hartley explains in the extras, Amateur is  about a man who can't remember who he is, but whose past has an unbearable consequence on his future.

Isabelle Hubert plays the ex-nun who is now trying to write soft-porn for a living (although she's still a virgin). Hartley regular Martin Donovan wakes up on a  cobbled street and can't remember his name or anything about his life. Elina Lowensohn plays the famous porn star. We also get wired accountants (a superb Damian Young), hit men, torture, Parker Posey and over protective police officers. There is a deep humor and a laconic sense of style in Amateur. Hartley contrives the most ridiculous scenarios then lets us care and feel emotive to the characters. So this is smart, funny, sexy, sad inventive cinema. Then there's the dialogue :
Thomas : How can you be a nymphomaniac and never had sex?
Isabelle : I'm choosy.

Seeing Amateur with a slight distance, I can see that this is in many ways Hartley's mainstream movie. But then that's not really saying much, as this is still left-field fare compared to most. There are bold statements here and juvenile humor adding to a sleek refined noir, which is new for Hartley. Amateur hangs with an atmosphere that only Hartley can create and it is a feeling I've missed. Maybe it is not at the level of Simple Men or Henry Fool or Trust, but it runs those close. It's possible that I'm not doing Amateur justice enough. This is quirky original cinema. It also has one of the great endings of recent times, unexpected and moving. Recommended and then some.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) Directed by Derek Cianfrance

Nick :

Ryan Gosling is becoming the Aryan hunk of a man it's OK to like. He tends to play these violent, well meaning psychos it's acceptable to fall in love with (usually adorned with a designer t-shirt). There is a gruffness of personality he shares with Steve McQueen and a young Clint Eastwood. Gosling doesn't say much in his films and when he does, it isn't the smartest dialogue. But still we end up rooting for the dastardly hick. It's that magic some actors have that they can communicate so much with a shrug, a long eyelash look or even an air of indifference. Gosling is drowning with such esoteric charisma that even when playing such a veritable self-obsessed shit as Luke, his character in The Place Beyond The Pines, we root for him and with him. He dominates this film in so many ways that The Place Beyond The Pines could be a hymn to that quality, that magic that Gosling has as an actor that we can't really put into words.

But I would be selling The Place Beyond The Pines short If I was to concentrate just on Gosling. This is great cinema (in that it looks good and should be seen on the big screen), The Place Beyond The Pines is filled with an emotional richness and connect that films rarely deliver. Malik would love to move you this much, but his technique and GOD get in the way. Although more epic than Derek Cianfrance's previous picture Blue Valentine, it's the little details and observations that really pull you into this picture. It's a ridiculous scenario where Gosling's motorcycle stunt man find's out he's fathered a child, tries to change his ways to be near his son and suffers tragic consequences that will bear influence on so many lives 15 years on. 

But Cianfrance's gift to us here is that as much as he gives us the loveable rogue that is Gosling he also offers his antidote, the unlovable straight guy Bradley Cooper. The fact that we learn to care about Cooper's young cop with ambitions (Avery) and get involved in his plight shows the skill of the storytelling and amazing performances (Ray Liotta (scary) and Eva Mendes give great support). This pulls us in even when Cianfrance offers us an impossible twist. When the kids grow up and we get to the second generation, it's welling up time. Mike Patton's score moves in key scenes. As a father who has lost a father The Place Beyond The Pines had extra clout. I related to some of this. Family – it's the ties that bind for better or worse, it's the things that shape you that you don't even acknowledge. The Place Beyond The Pines hit my raw nerves with it's simple beauty. Don't miss.

Astrid:
It doesn't happen a lot nowadays that a movie has a profound effect on me. It happens even more rarely that it's a film about fathers and sons. Women hardly figure in this story and yet, I was slightly changed after seeing this one (and in tears already at 30 minutes in). The Place Beyond the Pines works as a story and as cinema. It is like an old-fashioned movie where the story is what really matters while amazing acting happens and you almost take it for granted...The camera does not merely record here, it narrates and the soundtrack helps along nicely too. It's like a Clint Eastwood film from his directing period or a 1970s film with a great big budget but all the daring still left into the outcome.

Derek Cianfrance must be a genius. His film before this was Blue Valentine, another heart-breakingly good movie from the recent years. Ryan Gosling appears in both movies and after seeing this second one I have to begin to admitting to his great presence and scope as an actor. The role he plays in The Place... is in no way flattering or cool: a youngish man who goes from one bad life choice to even worse self-destruction while his attempt is to do good. Yet, Gosling can play a jerk so that his intentions seem genuinely good and his Eminem-look amazingly stylish.

People's lives unravel in uncontrollable and unimaginable ways. Generations change and while from one perspective very little changes with them, from another view point it seems that everything is different for the son of a father (for better or for worse). Living is an incredible fragile treasure and having a family is both brilliant and hellish. All of our lovely attachments make us forever vulnerable and possibly miserable too (just look at the happiness economics). The Place Beyond the Pines is full of wonder. I'm going to watch it again soon.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Directed by David Fincher

Astrid:
A paragraph about how I don't get Daniel Graig: So I don't like James Bond and I was not impressed when Daniel Graig became the newest Bond...indifference was my non-reaction. Daniel Graig is hot according to a lot of hetero women and a lot of hetero men. Especially the men I think, because somehow they think of Steve McQueen (and I don't get him either). Ok, so simply he's not my type – as in nothing ticks, or to put it more clearly: he looks like a catalogue model in the monthly catalogue the big and fancy department store keeps sending us over here. Nothing moves.

Sometimes, very rarely, I like to challenge my jumpy self and watch something that will haunt me for the next days – and especially the nights. On most days there is no way I would watch The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but I was (secretly) fascinated by the film already years ago when it hit the cinemas. I guess that the original Swedish book by Stieg Larsson was somewhere in the back of my mind (although I had never read it). So I submitted myself to this movie and was horrified and on the edge for many nights. It demanded my full attention and  I could not drop the plot even in my sleep (but kept trying to figure out who the murderer was).

Rooney Mara was the real star of this film. I loved her. If I was a lot younger I would have loved her fanatically. She was extremely intelligent, strong, hurt, abused, sick, smart, sexy, imperfect and perfect at the same time. Her character was much like an animated superhero on her motorbike, yet she wasn't a super hero at all. I felt safe throughout the horrors of the film knowing that she would figure it all out and she would revenge. She did it all while the leading male character was busy looking like an add...
he was the candy, she was the action – and that right there is subversive still in 2013 Hollywood-land.

Nick:
I was surprised Astrid was enthused to watch this. It's the kind of film she flatly refuses to engage with. Neither of us have read the books or seen the Swedish version of this. Depending on whose opinion you trust, the original is superior or a terrible travesty. David Fincher brings a cinematic quality the original lacked and so on and so on. I knew nothing about this other than it had some Goth overtones (Reznor did the Soundtrack) and some highly sexualised posters I'd seen on Tumblr. The late Stieg Larsson's Millenium series of books (TGWTDT is based on the first of these) have been hugely successful. The original Swedish title of this book Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women)  gives us clues about the tone of David Fincher's film.


Yes, one could argue that Rooney Mara (excellent) playing the disturbed computer hacker and almost super-hero-like outcast Lisbeth Salander is a genuine heroine of our times. But I found her character's victimisation hard to take and her general seedy back-story was cliche ridden and typically male in execution. The way Fincher directs a central rape scene is too stylised. Personally I found the weaker male character,  journalist Mikael Blomqvist (a wimpy, at times helpless Daniel Craig) far more interesting as the film purposely de-masculates our current Bond actor. If any real subversiveness occurs with this film, it's here.

Otherwise, TGWTDT is a very good, stylised thriller which manages to have great central performances. It's tense as hell – or leads you to believe so. The film has heavy nods to Silence Of The Lambs and even Blow Up. But Fincher reminds us who's at the helm with the look and atmosphere. One last feeling I got from the film was one of brevity and lightness despite the dark subject matter (rape, murder etc.) TGWTDT never quite delivers it's promise. But that's ok. It's a soft and enjoyable disappointment.

Le Havre (2011) Directed by Aki Kaurismäki

Nick :
I'm ashamed to admit that we have reviewed over 250 films on this blog in the last three years or so, and here is our first review of a film made by a Finn. This tells me more about myself than any slight against Finnish cinema. I have shown Finnish film the utmost prejudice (an ironic statement considering this picture). As much as I love and try to support the Finnish music scene (and boy, have I tried!), I've had  an almost near loathing for the state of Finnish film. In this sense, I'm not even talking about Aki Kaurismäki, a director who I know is great. I have just not seen enough good films made by anyone else who's Finnish that have made much of an impression on me. If people could recommend some recent delights at the bottom of this post, I'd appreciate it and will check them out.

Le Havre meanwhile, surprises on many levels. It's not the interior design (classic) or the slow pace (involving), the simple storytelling (revealing) or just the amazing look of this film (I'd expect nothing less from Aki). Le Havre ultimately deals with misplacement, the other, the outcast, the foreigner and having faith in the one you love understanding what you are doing. And it deals with race. Honestly. That Kaurismäki brings us this now is really prescient. To me, this is a message to Finland. Le Havre shows us compassion, tolerance, understanding. It's a message we need to take in right now, right here.

Le Havre is also funny and tender. The performances are perfect. There is an old school classicism to many of the scenes. Nothing is forced. The references to Finland are everywhere, from the first shot featuring a Nokia wellington, to the Fazer chocolate and so on. So the location maybe France, but it could easily have been Kotka too, so identifiable is this film as Kaurismäki's work. He's convinces me here on many levels . I'd also have Little Bob play my charity event every time. Kaurismäki seamlessly melds the art with the heart. Is it enough to say he IS Finnish cinema right now? This is moving and Le Havre is masterful.

Astrid:
So we live in Finland, but in many ways Nick and I have created a bubble where national borders and culture don't always correlate at all. It's the story of a girl who wanted to get out of here and a man who thought he could pick up Finnish by ear only. It's the story of an everyday life without TV news, The Guardian newspaper as our main source of info about the world events and a lot of discussion on topics relating to what's happening all around the world – not just in our yard. In fact our location has been a little bit ignored by us two.

Like we never watch Finnish movies. We rarely listen to Finnish records (and hey, we make them and help make them in a lot of ways...). I don't read enough literature from Finland and so the list goes on...
And then there's Le Havre, a showstopper that makes us wonder what we've been missing out on.
Le Havre is both universal and specific to Finland simultaneously. It's a fairy tale and a comment on reality. It discusses displacement, it shows what diasphora means now. The movie has  a lot of qualities that could be named Finnish, yet it could be from anywhere, because it's that good. You watch it for its story not because you might see a Laitila bottle in the background (sometimes something Finnish becomes a curiosity that's fun to recognize when abroad even though it has no real value).

As an artist Aki Kaurismäki is someone who changes his perspective and lives beyond the stereotypes of nationality (although he sometimes strengthens the stereotypes too). He sees the human individual as a victim of systems and ideologies. He is left-wing too, and someone who spouts out opinions as if they are the absolute truth. He's the Finnish Morrissey in some funny and unfulfilling way. But what ever you want to think of his character, Le Havre is one of those movies that will survive and become a classic in time.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) Directed by Wes Anderson

Astrid:
I have become the kind of adult who belittles the life experience and understanding of children and teenagers. I always promised myself that would never happen... It's so easy to forget that children's feelings and their lives are just as meaningful, complex and emotional as mine – if not more so. Everything is still vivid and new then (even when the know-it-all teenager tries to convince me otherwise). Someone said somewhere once that at 17 human beings are their smartest and most capable. Maybe so, but we don't like to admit stuff like that, not us liberated adults who think we are forever young and full of potential. (BTW: I have also become so old that no one asks me for ID when I buy two beers on a Friday evening, not even though the law recently changed and they have to ask for ID from everyone under 30!)

Moonrise Kingdom is very romantic. At the heart of this romance are two lovers who barely have made it to their second decade of life. They are the re-imagined Bonnie and Clyde, or maybe more like Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Pierrot Le Fout.

moonrise kingdom 2012

pierrot le fou 1965

Moonrise Kingdom, like all Wes Anderson works, deals with childhood alienation, the difficulty between adults and children, the absence of parents, or their imperfection if they are there. The film discusses the fragility of what could loosely be called family. But the perspective is forever emphatic to children, even when it presents them as totally capable of both deliberate cruelty and passionate love.
I am dying to rewatch this with a real-life 11-year-old and see how it goes down. This was truly a nourishing and inspiring movie.

Nick :
We finished watching Moonrise Kingdom the day of Thatchers' death. I can't even bring myself to mention her first name. Some of my Finnish friends and acquaintances can't quite understand why people are giving it so much attention. One could point to the rampant greed and entrepreneurial zeal that has gripped so many in Finnish society. The privatisation, the need to 'deal' with the 'immigration problem'. The severe swing to the right, the 'I'm all right Jack - fuck you' mentality so prelevant among the YOOF. I could go on. It's called Thatcherism and Finland in 2013 is drowning in it, having it large. Let's add sexism, racism, homophobia and get the fuck out of dodge.

It's the levels of modern living and a lack of tolerance where there is only one opinion that is valid, the one with a capital C: conservatives thrive. The bastard offspring of Thatcher, promising you a better life while dismantling your health service (hello Blair, Cameron), waging wars on lies (how Maggie would be proud), her influence is everywhere and Meryl Streep can fuck off too. That was my youth and I want it back. RANT OVER.

Wes Anderson rules and Moonrise Kingdom is another one of his splendid pictures of the ruling middle classes, stylistically shot. The period detail is exquisite and the soundtrack featuring that modern beat combo Benjamin Britten is of the highest order. Anderson remarkably hires the wonderful ACTION MAN Bruce Willis amongst his plentiful cast and convinces him to keep his shirt on. I love Bruce. In Wes's world we're all still 10 years old and in love and doing something for someone has virtue because we're not all cynical. I wish I lived there everyday and Francoise Hardy soundtracked my dreams.

Trainspotting (1996) Directed by Danny Boyle

Nick :
Just as we finished watching Trainspotting last night, my twitter feed lit up with news that members of Blur and Oasis (with Paul Weller in tow) had performed together for the first time ever. Since those animosity days surrounding the Britpop wars between the two bands, this was a very cuddly, middle aged conclusion to a onetime nasty rock'n'roll feud. We've all moved on from the mid-1990's when the Union Jack was omni-present and presented as some vestige of cool. Looking back now – New Labor, Britpop and that sense of hope that surrounded those times has nowadays dissipated into an embarrassing memory of falsehood and shattered optimism. British flag waving has never seemed so disillusioned. Who would have thought that Blair would become a war mongering Tory sympathizer (Thatcher MKII)? Oasis, who won the Britpop war, would become a bargain bin favourite at jumble slaes, a band no one admits to liking now. Losers Blur (and especially Damon Albarn) have become an enduring British institution and arguably one of the most memorable UK bands ever. And Danny Boyle would direct the Olympic ceremony.

If there is one film that ties itself to this period (much more than Irvine Welsh's book does) – and specifically a moment of British youth culture of the time – then it's Trainspotting. Many a student dorm would have been furnished with a Trainspotting poster. After many years since watching this, it all came back to me. The semi-glamorous idealisation of heroin chic, the Britpop soundtrack peppered with some Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. The juxtaposition of idealistic junkie humor and the grim reality of being an addict. Trainspotting HAS dated. It's actually hard to think that people took this film remotely seriously at the time. Looking back at Trainspotting you realize what a ludicrous character Begbie is –and how badly played he is by Robert Carlyle. It's worse than pantomime. Actually, all of Renton's (a passable Ewan McGregor) friends are so poorly scripted/developed they are left withering in this hollow film. As Trainspotting deals with drug addled cliché after cliché I'm shocked I used to rate this.

There are moments that still work. The opening scene (which has passed into folklore) still has a compelling energy, mainly thanks to Iggy's Lust For Life. Some of this film is funny in a very adolescent way. Boyle keeps the action moving and the energy levels high. But a film that wants to show the hard hitting Edinburgh drug scene of the time has a soft, made-for-TV underbelly and runs out of fizz with half an hour to go. Trainspotting has nothing left to say in the end other than 'conforming is probably best for you'. The film looks cheap, with little imagination on how it's been shot. I'm being hard on the film, but maybe it needs another 10 years distance from now before it starts to work again. Movies are like this. Boyle has gone onto win Oscars while McGregor got to be a Jedi Knight. Trainspotting wants to be Definitely Maybe, but we mostly get Be Here Now.


Astrid:
If my memory serves me right, I saw Trainspotting pretty soon after it came out. I was so impressed I also read the book. It's also possible, that I read the book first (with the movie poster on the cover) and saw the film later...In any case, I remember thinking that 'getting' Trainspotting was somehow important and almost crucial to my existence. Blaah, how melodramatic can life get when you are a teenager? I wish I could turn time back and tell my younger self to relax. I would add that this is really not an important movie to get, it's not that fantastic and if it makes you feel so bad and sad and lost, don't bloody well read the book too...

OK, too late (I wasted my time and now I'm here watching this masterpiece again), but at least this time Nick was kind enough to fastforward past the bit where the dead baby shows up in a hallucination and there's something sick about an eye (I'm not sure cause I didn't look that way).
Admittedly, Trainspotting was kind of laugh-out-loud funny a couple of times, but most of the time it just showed up the 1990s as not so cool, aesthetically pathetic and otherwise dull and depressing. Yes, Ewan was very skinny. But like I've said before to Nick, can he really claim that Britpop was such an amazing innovation? Is the 1990s really worth feeling all retromaniac about? And boy was it depressing to watch the depiction of drug addiction. It's just so sad.

Culturally it now seems that the 90s represented the last true huffs'n'puffs of the white male overload (for want of a better description right now). Since then movies, music and art in general have made a little bit more space for different colors, different takes on gender and sexuality and so on. Trainspotting  looks dated now and I can see clearly that I did not really have any one or anything to identify with in the film so no wonder it was such hard work growing up. As a cinema experience Trainspotting was very faulty and as social commentary it appears confused. Goodbye, I won't be watching you again.

Fashion & Violence

Astrid:
L'Amour Fou (2010), Valentino, the last emperor (2008), Lagerfeld Confidential (2007)

Karl Lagerfeld as a young lover

Valentino pushed out of his own company

Yves Saint Laurent A True Fucking Artist

So guess what: I'm watching a lot of crap on streaming services (the legal ones) alone. Like when Pablo sleeps or is falling asleep I'm hooked on a dumb series called Life Unexpected. But before I got seriously addicted on that one, I went through a fashion phase. I felt strange sympathy and caring for these luxury boys with their Marrakech lovers and marble table tops and a million meters of silk. I yearned for the freedom to create and overrule everybody else's needs. Oh to be a male genius of the 20th century – a fashion designer. 

I began with L'Amour Fout and fell in love with Yves. Now I want to own vintage Saint Laurent clothes in ridiculous flowery silk or in anything really. Yves became the prisoner of his own ridiculous success, which entombed him already in his early 20s. He followed Christian Dior at the Dior house before starting his own line. Yves was a tragic character. So unhappy, so loved and so privileged. I don't need to feel sorry for these guys. Yet, I nearly cried when his life partner sold all their art in a Christies auction some years after Yves passed.

Valentino represents the kind of fashion that's just way too red and classic and tanned for my liking.
Through the documentary I did develop an appreciation for the amazing seamstresses who make the dresses by hand. I also felt for the poor orange tanned Valentino who was so old-school he believed he could stay on in his company which he created when the marketing suits took over and decided it was time to sell the logo on what ever you can and disregard the art of haute couture.

Karl Lagerfeld hides behind his sunglasses, his high collar and his armor of silver and steel, but then his sharp tongue pulls you in. He is clearly very intelligent and very fucked up. I like that he looks down on fashion and designing and takes up all other kinds of art forms as well. He plays, changes and acts like a big kid. But what the hell happened to him that made him so frightened to open up? What is he hiding under that uniform hardness? Look at that old photo on the beach. Karl gazing at me much like Marilyn Monroe. No wonder I found the pic on a site called Instant Boner...
(A sidenote: why is it that the clothed image of a woman has been defined by a gay male view for so long?)

Nick:
Django Unchained (2012) Directed By Quentin Tarantino

Since our son was born, something has drastically changed about our viewing habits. Astrid tends to watch a lot of stuff during the day (when there is a spare moment). I watch a lot of movies after everyone has gone to bed. I was watching some stuff from Netflix (which remains Astrid's domain), but I'm more of a DVD man. So we now watch a lot of movies at different times. Django Unchained I went to see with a friend on a rare night out. It's the first Tarantino movie I've looked forward to in a long time. Quentin was born to write and direct a Western and a Spaghetti-loving one at that.

The many influences that crop up in Django Unchained have been well documented since the film's release (and a recent article in Sight & Sound is a good place to start if you're interested). But just to say – the well used Morricone music in the movie is offset with some direct nods to Spaghetti Western The Great Silence and a nice cameo from original Django Franco Nero. Tarantino adds dollops of Blaxploitation movie attitude to the mix combined with his usual convoluted dialogue. Christopher Waltz is becoming THE Tarantino actor, the relish and skill with which he admonishes his lines here (as the conscientious bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz) being one of the highlights of the film. Jamie Fox plays our (anti-) hero with the required cool (especially with some of the outrageous costumes he dons). Special mention to Leonardo DiCaprio who plays villain Calvin Candie with a nudge and a wink, but never descending into pantomime. The violence is often gruesome and the humor is thick (Django Unchained has a sense of fun, sometimes). So far so good.

Now come the problems. Django Unchained is too damn long. Tarantino has lost the ability to streamline. Instead of getting a super-funky-head-full-of-steam-creamy-pasta-of-a-movie, at times Django Unchained feels like you're at a disco trying to boogie to the latest Mariah Carey power ballad on a three legged donkey (yeah that sluggish!) Throughout the film QT tires to discuss race, but in the most whitey, simplistic manner. He shows us awful acts of racism, but can never properly delve into the motives. All he offers as a solution is slick retribution. Despite these (quite major) faults this is the best Tarantino picture in along time. At times the screen is filled with inventiveness that only Tarantino can do, moments that take the breath away.