Recommended Posts

Just finished...some quick thoughts here. I need to go to bed.

 

I'd argue that the general didn't lose his cool even when it came to the duel. He knew he'd win and after his various plans to try and get Louise over Donati failed, he determined the only way to resolve the issue was to kill him. A very cool and calculating guy for sure.

 

The only thing that annoyed me narratively is that I found it a bit unbelievable that Donati would buy a set of diamond earrings for no reason. Most guys wait until they've met a woman before buying her gifts. Maybe he's just got a secret thing for earrings? And I guess I found all those fainting spells a little insufferable. Could she really die from the shock of Donati's death? Seems a little melodramatic.

 

Technically speaking, there's some impressive camerawork throughout. Lots of interesting (and long) tracking shots...that dance montage was obviously pretty captivating, but there were others in the house and jewelry shop that were impressive.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Tycho, you're already breaking the rules. You were supposed to and I quote « write at least a paragraph by Sunday to get all the boys to the yard », and yet here we are on Monday and all we have is a tub of broken promises. You're like some untrustworthy French lady, all selling earrings and no writing paragraphs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just finished...some quick thoughts here. I need to go to bed.

 

And I guess I found all those fainting spells a little insufferable. Could she really die from the shock of Donati's death? Seems a little melodramatic.

 

Technically speaking, there's some impressive camerawork throughout. Lots of interesting (and long) tracking shots...that dance montage was obviously pretty captivating, but there were others in the house and jewelry shop that were impressive.

 

I agree that the fainting spells and "the death-by-shock" plot are less palatable by contemporary standards, but both are relatively common features of fiction written in or about the Victorian era. The fainting couch or fainting room was a common fixture in upper-class households, and the death-by-shock or something similar is a trope that comes up in a variety of literary forms (seduction novels, blood-and-thunder melodramas, and romantic fiction like Hawthorne).

I'm always interested in the idea of melodrama since it mostly gets used as a pejorative, even though it is so incredibly common. Film critic Linda Williams has argued that melodrama is actually the dominant form of storytelling in American cinema, and I think Madame de... can show how common it is, even in the European art cinema of the twentieth century.

 

I was ultimately most interested in how, like Rodi pointed out, the film has the structure of a farce, but rather than a comedy of errors emerging out of the mobility of the earrings, the films plays this tragically. I wonder how common this actually is, since something similar seems to be going on in The Rules of the Game (sorry Patrick R).  

 

By the way, Patrick R: Any thoughts on what your movie of the week will be? I just wanted to get a head start on ordering it in case it's something that will be a bit harder to find for those of us without Hulu+.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the problem I had with the fainting spells is that I initially assumed they were just something she did to manipulate her husband, but the ending implies that they're real. It undermined the character a bit for me.

 

I actually thought the movie was going to be more of a comedy at the beginning. The scene in the opera house is certainly more lighthearted, especially the bit with the exasperated doormen. The tone gets more and more serious as the story progresses though.

 

Maybe Tycho has been seduced by a handsome Italian diplomat? I hear their charms are irresistible.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the problem I had with the fainting spells is that I initially assumed they were just something she did to manipulate her husband, but the ending implies that they're real. It undermined the character a bit for me.

 

I actually thought the movie was going to be more of a comedy at the beginning. The scene in the opera house is certainly more lighthearted, especially the bit with the exasperated doormen. The tone gets more and more serious as the story progresses though.

 

Maybe Tycho has been seduced by a handsome Italian diplomat? I hear their charms are irresistible.

 

I choose to believe that he is off crusading against the menace of subjective video game reviews.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If Tycho doesn't come in right away to keep to the rules, there will be severe repercussions. One of which is I might pretend-faint to spoil the party mood.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really liked this movie. Personal tastes mean I definitely preferred the first 30 minutes, when it was a social comedy about the frivolity of the upper class, to the melodrama it became, but I think that's definitely the point. Madame De starts the film as a frivolous person (the prelude describes her as "seemingly destined to a delightful, uncomplicated destiny") but love makes her real and three-dimensional.

 

She goes from praying for a successful sale of earrings to praying for her lover's life. From using her fainting as a way to manipulate people to actually being out of control and weak. The same way the same earrings take on different meaning each time they change hands, going from useless and impractical to the only thing she cares about in the world. I think the best melodramas have to have a real honest truth like that in their center to really work, and the idea of love being the key motivational factor of personal growth is a good one.

 

I adore Ophul's camerawork. He uses long takes and tracking shots to emphasize these characters' absurd opulence. That opening shot, those dances, that amazing shot where it pans from her bed to his for the first time and you realize how insane their bedroom is, or when it's tracking him from outside the house and he's closing an endless amount of windows. The decadence is absurd, emphasized by the occasional lower-class character's bemusement at their leaders and bosses (there's a great tracking shot at one of the dances where the camera rushes by a violin player in the foreground sneaking a bunch of cookies from a buffet) and the overly elaborate lives they lead.

 

I honestly think that's the most effective stuff in this movie, so it's a little disappointing that the end mostly ditches the satirical aspect in favor of straight melodrama. But still, good movie. I think it's a weird choice to start a film club on a video game podcast forum but, on the other hand, it's the kind of movie I totally wouldn't have seen on my own accord. Which makes it a valuable choice, for sure.

 

 

If you like this and are interested in seeing other melodramas, I'd recommend two other melodramas: Daisy Kenyon and A Separation.

 

Daisy Kenyon (1947) is kind of a remarkable movie in that it's a melodrama in which every character seems to know they're in a melodrama. Not in a meta way, where it's self-referential, but in that every character seems determined to be rational, logical adults about their situation only to have their desires overwhelm them. It's a really incredible movie about how complicated love is, no matter how hard you try to simplify it. Characters seem to go back and forth between terse, natural dialogue and purple prose, depending on how in control of their passions they are. If melodramas can often seem facile and immature, this movie is like an antidote to that without losing any of the larger than life emotion.

 

A Separation (2011) is an Iranian film that won the Academy Award for best Foreign Film. It follows a couple in modern Iran going through a divorce, and all the lives they find themselves tangled in. It's a movie where seemingly every character is at cross purposes and, depending on how you view the movie, any one of them can be protagonist and antagonist. And yet there is no good or evil. They're all just trying to do what they feel is the right thing for themselves and their families. It's a good example of all the ways the melodrama has changed since Douglas Sirk, and all the ways it hasn't.

 

I don't think either are on Hulu Plus, though. Sorry.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Also, her husband is such an amazing bastard in this movie. So casually above feeling anything about anything, up until the end. That transition from the shopkeeper selling him back the earrings for the first time to him sending his tearful lover away, all while maintaining the same tone is such a good character moment.

 

As for the movie I'm going to pick, I'm still deciding, but I'm definitely going to go with something different. I'm trying to chose between John Ford's Stagecoach (1939), Andrzej Wajda's Kanal (1957) and Seijun Suzuki's Branded To Kill (1967). You know, something with sweet guns.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Patrick, any update on which movie it'll be? I think it'd be good to post the next one around Thursday, since there are people who can't or won't sign up for Hulu and they have to get the films through less... savory means >_> *cough*

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Cool! If you want you can go ahead and make a thread with a placeholder first post so that if anyone watches it early they have a place to post their thoughts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Another one I never heard of, looking forward to it! I love being surprised by films.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Glad. I wanted to pick one people hadn't seen and both Stagecoach and Branded To Kill felt more likely to be familiar. That said, I have not seen Branded to Kill and came close to picking it just for that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay, time to dig through the list. It's tougher than I thought. At the start of it is the choice of either taking something I've seen before that I know will be good (A Man Escaped, for instance), or something unfamiliar, taking a chance on something unproven (but probably worth it because it's on Criterion). I'm edging towards something Japanese, just because that'll be a completely different thing from what we've had before.

 

Also, I'm a little worried that the one-per-week rhythm is a bit much. Already I get the sense people are struggling to keep up and post something meaningful. I certainly have no time this weekend to watch my own damn pick, which will result in barely having watched the film before the next one's in.

 

In short, I wouldn't mind if we did one film per two weeks, starting this moment. Let's allow Kanal to sink in a bit more.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Can I please be added to the list?

Yes. I'll update the official list at some point before your turn.

Also, I'm a little worried that the one-per-week rhythm is a bit much. Already I get the sense people are struggling to keep up and post something meaningful. I certainly have no time this weekend to watch my own damn pick, which will result in barely having watched the film before the next one's in.

 

In short, I wouldn't mind if we did one film per two weeks, starting this moment. Let's allow Kanal to sink in a bit more.

We don't need to cut off the Kanal conversation just because we start another one. The issue with one movie every two weeks is that it will take forever to get through everyone. Remember that you can skip your week if you don't have any time right now, and just move to the bottom of the list.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay, it was a tough call between two Japanese films. One a bona fide classic (so I hope you haven't all seen it yet), and one a samurai epic. It was a toss-up between Tokyo Story and Vendetta of a Samurai. In the end, I went with Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu, so that's the next film. Again, I hope it isn't a cheesy pick, but this one has been on my list for a while and it's the perfect opportunity to see it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh, awesome. Ozu is one of those major blind-spots in my experience because every time I say to myself "You know, you've never seen an Ozu movie, you should really fix that." I get intimidated and watch Friday the 13th Part 3 or some other cinematic comfort food. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now