MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968)

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Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Wednesday, July 2, 2014

GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968)

On anyone’s shortlist of great cinematographers, Jack Cardiff also directed some quality pics. This wasn’t one of them. Very French New Wave, though more voyeuristic Roger Vadim than Cahiers du Cinéma intellectual, with Rolling Stones muse Marianne Faithfull taking on the Brigitte Bardot sexy-number spot by taking off her clothes. (A censored Stateside release was retitled NAKED UNDER LEATHER.) Working at her Dad’s book shop, Faithfull turns unfaithful on her Milquetoast British fiancé when sexy customer Alain Delon whisks her away for lessons in love & motorcycles. It’s ecstacy²! That’s about it plotwise, as Cardiff jazzes things up with blasts of solarized color for a Swinging ‘Sixties psychedelic edge. And it just might work as a Mod mood piece if only Faithfull weren’t so hopeless on screen. Whatever magic she had in real life gets lost in translation. Period detail and unintentional giggles hold some interest, especially a well-placed bouquet of roses that keeps Delon decent before bursting into Red Solarized Sensations when he gets aroused. Oh, Alain! You naughty, naughty beautiful boy!

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Much more fun if you switch to the Cardiff Commentary audio-track.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE