Fave Film Scene Fridays: Dangerous Liaisons

I'm going to skip over the film that is next in line for my next Fave Friday film Scene, "Bob Roberts" in order to talk about my favorite scene in the number ten movie on my fave film list, Dangerous Liaisons. It is a film that I have been a rapt fan of since I first saw it years ago with a great friend of mine as a teenager and have just finished viewing again tonight.

"Her eyes are beginning to close."

There is not one frame, not one move, not one word in this film which has not been calculated to a most intelligent perfection. Everything about it is done masterfully, set design, shots, historical period costumes, music. It is a ballet of wickedness about two very very very bad people who play the most dangerous game of all.

Glenn Close as the Marquis deMarteuil and John Malkovich as Valmont are at the top of their game in every move they make. They meet each other as equals in every scene matching wit for wit and topping one another at every evil turn.

However it's watching Malkovich in this film that always gets to me. He does things so nuanced and clever, so insanely brilliant in this role that I believe them to be yet still unrealized.  With a deadpan, near sickening nonchalance, he delivers a performance that engages you through subtly built up emotional layers to empathize with an absolutely horrible human being. He does something internal that you can actually watch on screen not unlike the method acting process itself as he commences with playing a game he is so well versed in (namely seduction of the deeply virtuous) that he practically does it with hands tied behind his back. By the time he realizes that the line behind which he claims no "illusions"exist is crossed, it is much too late.

My absolute favorite scene in this movie is another completely wordless one, which could not have conveyed it's message more powerfully in any other way. It is the scene in which Valmont realizes he's in love with Madame deTourvel the pious married woman he is determined to seduce. They are all in attendance at an intimate classical singing performance when de Tourvel arrives, and her presence is like something you can feel rising up and driving wedge between the perverse but tight bond between Valmont and de Marteuil. She sits a few seats down from the couple and smiles politely at him. It's like watching him take a bullet. He is nearly undone by her effect on him and astonished possibly that he is even capable of feeling it. Madame deMarteuil watches all of this cooly and with learned dismissiveness as if she is not also reeling from it's affects. Valmont tries to compensate for this momentary lapse by kissing de Martueil's hand as a way of affirm his singular devotion to her, but it's too obvious and for the viewer appears to more strongly declare his genuine affections for Madame deTourvel.

Fave Film Scene Friday: Before Sunset

"I didn't forget about you and it pisses me off"

In the sequel to “Before Sunrise” Jesse and Celine encounter each other once more. When Celine attends a talk Jesse gives in Paris for his first book which chronicles the one day they met nine years ago in Europe they find that much of the magic and intimacy of that chance encounter is still burning beneath the jaded and domestic surfaces of their present daily lives.

There are many moments in “Before Sunset” that I love, so many little sparks and bursts, ebbs and flows that reflect the ease and comfort of their initial back and forth banter from "Before Sunrise." It's like revisiting old friends watching them learn more about one another and re-remember each other all over again. But the scene I love most is in the cab ride when all the shit comes down, when all the pretense is dropped and Celine loses it for a few minutes and lashes out at Jesse for returning and seemingly dangling his marriage and family in her face.  Jesse tells her finally how miserable he really is in his marriage and how even on the day he got married he was thinking of her, how he has a reoccurring dream about her passing him in a train car. “And you go by and you go by and you go by…and I wake up with the fucking sweats….” So much happens in that car ride, it’s almost as if they turn a new corner in their own relationship that begs a whole new question of them in a matter of minutes through sheer, brutal revelation.

Favorite Film Scene Friday (on a Saturday)

My second week doing this and already I've flaked. Well I'm doin it anyway.
My next favorite film scene is from the second movie on my fave list, "Before Sunrise." For a dialogue junky like me, this film is just a parade. And for a person who loves to travel it's got everything I want going for it. There are so many scenes in "Before Sunrise" movie I can call my favorite but the one that really gets to me every single time is one that actually has no dialoge at all.

Jesse and Celine who have only just met hours ago on a train walk into a used record store in Europe and Celine selects an album by Kath Bloom that she likes. She and Jesse go into a listening booth to hear it. What happens in that minute and a half between them is so palpable, sweet and intimate and playful. Whenever I watch it I imagine a range of different things they could be thinking. I imagine the unsaid dialogue that is being exchanged between them as the music and Kath's singing sort of shamelessly exposes Jess and Celines' building affection for one another.

Fave Film Scene Friday: All About Eve

What makes you a woman?

Margo is being driven back to the theater in the city after having spent the weekend upstate with friends Karen and Llyod Richards who unbeknown to her have emptied the gas tank just enough run out of fuel on the way back. They've had it with Margot's bratty bad temper and feel it's about time she learn a lesson by making her miss the first show of a play she's starring in written by Lloyd.

The scene in which Lloyd leaves Margo in the car with Karen to see about getting some gas a few miles ahead is a scene which is perhaps the most somber and lacking in high drama and theatrics of any in the film but it is one of my favorites because it expresses a universal and modern theme of career woman all over America which is that somehow, no matter how much you achieve in this society professionally as a woman, you're still not perceived as being whole or complete without a man. In this particular case of course, Margo totally buys into this idea and longs to have the completion she feels a husband would provide despite the own great personal success. The role of Margo Channing actually mirrors Bette Davis' own life very similarly. As a huge hollywood star she lived to regret the compromise she surely made in her commitment to career over her commitment to her children and failed marriages. But she wanted it all. And like a good friend of mine always says, as a woman you can have it all, just not all at the same time.

Next Friday: Before Sunrise

Favorite Film Scene Friday

 Someone drained the gas tank

Hi film goers! It's been a while. And I've seen some films I love like "Skyfall" and some I'd rather not talk about such as "Django." But I haven't seen any I'd like to go on about at length about for the purpose of a review in quite a while. However, like most avid film lovers I am always watching new films and old favorites  at home; on Netflix streaming mostly. I'm one of those who watches my favorite movies repeatedly and find new things in films I love all the time or just appreciate the ability of a beloved film to repeatedly have the same genuine effect it's had on me from first viewing. Aside from the list of favorite films I have listed in the left sidebar of this blog, there are probably tons of others in my personal collection that I've not even included there.

So that's given me an idea. Every Friday I will post a small entry on one favorite scene from one of my favorite movies. For the sake of order and a little rigor, I will begin with the first film in my fave list and work my way down. I will still review the occasional film if I am moved but this way I will actually be motivated to drop a line here at least once a week.

Film is such a large part of my life but it's a busy life so as much as I think about it I don't always have the time to share my thoughts. I will actually be taking a film studies class this Spring and I am super excited about it to say the least.

So stay tuned to my very first "Favorite Film Scene Friday" this week starting with "All About Eve!" EEEEEEEEE!!!! How will I ever choose one scene?

Middle of Nowhere

Even though "Middle of Nowhere" is only the second feature film I have seen by Duvernay, I have grown very accustomed and fond not only of her signature directorial and cinematic pacimg since "I Will Follow" but also of the quality of compelling emotion and depiction of reality that she is able to get from her actors and actresses. She gets performances from actors that are subtle, complex, personal, intelligent and never alienating. In fact they pull you in deep to very familiar places in a way that makes you feel there is an understanding about this particular journey which is not merely a way to create sensation but that is a very personal endeavor to connect mainstream audiences with cinematic experiences they might generally shy away from.

I also really enjoy "Middle of Nowhere's" film scoring. Duvernay's use of music is so spot on. It never feels heavy handed or intrusive.  For the most part it avoids feeling like a mere device and feels more like an integral piece of the films story and pacing, an indelible emotional link.

I will be seeing this film again next week and maybe even once more. The extended length of it's play in NYC depends primarily on the amount of people who go and see it everyday so I highly recommend that you plan to go see it immediately. Take your friends, family and partners. You will not be disappointed.

Trailer Fan

One of my favorite things to do at night in bed or sometimes even early in the morning before I get up is watch movie trailers on the Trailers app on my iphone. It gives me the illusion that I'm on the inside track of new upcoming movies, and I love that feeling!

For me, a good movie trailer can tell you all you need to know about whether the film is going to be good and whether it's worth seeing. I've been wrong about that before but I'm not usually. There are a couple of trailers I saw last night for movies I definitely plan on seeing.

First up is "Loopers" starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, a young man whom no one ever expected to survive past his childhood role in "3rd Rock from the Sun." But somehow he has resurfaced in the last couple of years in a range of films and has been kicking some serious ass while no one was looking. He is a man of many talents and I mean many. I find him intriguing to watch because I can't really pin him down.

"Loopers" also stars Bruce Willis doing what he does best, being the stereotypical, macho, tough guy, with enigmatic vulnerability, which is what I believe has kept Willis in the game for so long. I can't be objective about Willis though. I have loved him since "Moonlighting" (yeah I said it) and despite what I believe are some seriously odd choices in his personal life as well as some annoying rumors of vague right wing activity, I just have never really stopped watching him ever. He's one of a kind.

Anyway, "Loopers" is right up my alley. Time travel, action, violence,  identity conundrum, Bruce.  Plus Emily Blunt is in it. I love her. Check it out.



Next up is a film with several unknown black performers in it, which I'm always excited about. Plus I'm proud to say that my girl, the talented producer/director/film maker Ava Duvernay is behind it. I really enjoyed her directorial debut film "I Will Follow". I think I remember hearing about this new film coming up the pipeline on her FB page. It's called "The Middle of Nowhere."



The only actor in "The Middle of Nowhere" I'm familiar with is Omari who also starred in "I Will Follow."
The lead actress, Emayatzy Corinealdi and other supporting actors including David Oyelowo are new to me but their work looks substantially compelling so far. There is something in the pacing of the trailer that draws me to it. There is a mood and a lighting to it that I'm unaccustomed to in the promotion of the usual studio packaged "Black" movies, and what seems to me to be a unique telling of a story audiences may be familiar with but from a slightly different angle. I can see Ava Duvernay's signature touches all over it, which may make all the difference in ushering in new genres of Black Films. I'm excited about it.