Batch #9

Les Anges Exterminateurs (The Exterminating Angels) DVD [2006]
The second part of Brisseau's trilogy on sexual taboos is a lot more interesting than the third (which I have already reviewed). Weird angelic apparitions aside, the film is about a director searching for a couple of females to star in his film. During the casting, he meets up with two girls who are well up for it, shall we say. Even going so far as to masturbate each other in a restaurant for him. This leads to numerous lesbian sexual encounters where he is the voyeur, taking his role as a director into a new and dangerous realm.

The lesbian sex is very strong in this film, with the girls actually touching each other down below. I think the all-girl threesome scene in the hotel is probably one of the most erotic scenes I have seen in recent years. Apart from this, the film is devoid of the pretensious boredom which would blight the next movie, A L'aventure, at least to a certain degree. The angelic apparitions and the cryptic "radio" voice-over providing a hook to keep you watching.
(4 out of 5)

Karhozat (Damnation) DVD [1987]
This is the earliest film of Bela Tarr which I have had the fortune to watch. It's certainly not as slow as his later epics (read: this is just above snail pace), but it sure shows the brilliance yet to come. It is about a man who is having an affair with a married woman who sings at a local bar. He sees her whenever she is free from the watchful eye of her husband. As much as she tries to push him away, he continues to persue her, confessing his love for her.

The film is obviously black & white and features lots of slow tracking shots, though the speed is slightly different to Tarr circa 2009. Its enthralling from start to end, featuring an iconic scene where everyone is drunkenly dancing together in a bar. Truly magnificent stuff.
(5 out of 5)

Trois Couleurs Bleu (Three Colours Blue) DVD [1993]
I'd never really been interested in this trilogy before, but I decided to watch the one which seemed the most intriguing for me, Blue. I don't know whether I'll get around to the other two, but for now, at least I tried one.

It's about a woman who has to come to terms with the loss of her composer husband and young daughter in a car crash. Despite jumping into bed with a friend of her husband, she runs away from her country house and takes an apartment in the city where she attempts to forget the grief of the accident. She eventually finds out a shocking secret regarding her husband's life and attempts to soothe her pain through music.

Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski tackles this film brilliantly, with intruding close-ups and dramatic use of the classical score (particularly during the "device" where he fades to black in the middle of a scene and then fades back in again ten seconds later). Juliette Binoche is a very intense actress, and also very pretty.
(4 out of 5)

Pure DVD [2005]
When I saw that this was released on Artificial Eye, I assumed that it had to be something special. I'd never heard of the film before, but for AE to be putting it out must have meant that it was something different to the complete and utter dross that we British have been subjecting on the world. Surely?

No. It's another dire, depressing English film about drug addicted mothers and little kids being forced to fend for themselves during this hard time. It's nothing original, and totally shameless in its pandering to the masses approach. It employs all the tired old film-making devices; emotive music and cliched characters. Keira Knightley is massively miscast as a city cafe waitress; although I would like to wank all my semen over Molly Parker's face.
(2 out of 5)