Still-Standing

Lighnin' and Ramblin'

Lightnin' is a ham, and I like that.

I had a ticket to see Ramblin Jack last fall and it was cancelled, I hope I get the chance again.

Ghosts

Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana

I've long been a huge fan of Aki Kaurismaki, his films have always seemed to be entirely expressive of some part of culture that no one else can touch.  He makes movies that are formulaic in the best sense of the term.  The dead pan, the rock music, the old cars, the down and out, all of these things are staples and present themselves like old friends to the viewer.  Unfortunately, most of the world does not share my zeal for Kaurismaki's work and so it isn't always easy to track down.

Recently, however, I was able to get my hands on a few more titles via the UK and I was reminded of everything that is great about Kaurismaki.  Take Care  of your scarf, Tatiana (1994) was particularly great, it follows a group of four road trippers around who are having a barely (or maybe hardly) enjoyable time.  The plot centers around an emotionally mute coffee addict who is accompanied by an equally stone-faced mechanic/alcoholic/'rocker' on an aimless road trip.  The two men pick up a pair of foreign tourists that need a ride and then proceed to act entirely indifferent towards them for the bulk of their trip.  It is equally beautiful and absurd.

What is interesting about Kaurismaki's work is that the more of his films you watch the more they seem to inform each other.  Like Yasujiro Ozu, the continual similarity in plots, characters, scenarios and cast, begin to blur the line of where one film ends and another begins.  Though from the outside this might seem like a drawback it has the opposite effect.  With both Ozu and Kaurismaki the repetition translates to a continually growing harmony in their work.  All of the films are pulling in the same direction, each with their own unique inflection on a similar theme.

Below is the opening scene of Tatiana, the entire film is up on Youtube.

If you have yet to see any Kaurismaki, here is where you should start (in no particular order):

Man Without a Past - 2002

Drifting Clouds - 1996

Lights in the Dusk - 2006

The Match Factory Girl - 1990

Shadows in Paradise - 1986

Rodeo

Pedro Costa

A few years ago I remember reading about Abbas Kiarostami and his shift to digital film making.  He talked about how the accessibility and freedom of the digital camera could enable a lot more people to make movies. He made the comparison that the digital camera to a filmmaker was now closer to being like a pen for a writer.

The ideas that he presented were interesting to me but I didn't think on it too much until recently.  I began watching some films by Pedro Costa and realized that I was seeing the embodiment of Kiarostami's digital ideal.  One film in particular, In Vanda's Room (2000), left the kind of impression on me that took time to decipher. Something about the look of the obvious digital footage removed the distance from the people that I was watching, the textures and smells of the room were nearly perceivable. Through the digital medium Costa has been able to strip away a further layer of distance from his subject matter.  In Vanda's Room goes beyond the documentary influenced film, existing somewhere in between genres and aesthetic styles.

It makes digital cinematography feel like it is something completely separate from black & white and colour film. For me this is what is exciting about digital, the opportunity for a new aesthetic, not using it to mimic film.

There is a quote at the beginning of the trailer below that says that 21st century cinema begins with In Vanda's Room (Shigehiko Hasumi), though this statement is probably going a bit too far (almost worthy of a trademark Godard quote) I don't feel like it is completely unfounded.

I'd like to make movies like the old days