Where were you?

I finally got to see The Tree of Life, and it was worth the wait. I sat up front, and I could feel the collective "WTF?" from the people behind me, but that's their deal. The film was so private and emotional, like getting to listen in on a troubled person's prayer to God. While the creation sequence gets the majority of talk, for me it was the middle section that followed Jack's childhood and discovery of the world that stood out to me. The child actors were so fantastic and really made the film.

Before the film, I wanted to see how this film felt next to Tokyo Story, my favorite "how life is" film. For me, the film addresses the same issues of disappointment and questioning and I think they would make for an interesting double feature.

Movie Time

Criterion announced their September titles yesterday, the two above being the most interesting to me. I already have the Madman edition of Les Cousins, but not Le Beau Serge, so I'm happy to get that one. I haven't seen The Phantom Carriage,but it looks good and one I'll try to get if Barnes and Noble has a sale in November.

Criterion also has a channel on Hulu, and it is great. They have a ton of films, many not yet in the collection proper (but hopefully will be). So far I've really liked the Korda films (both Zolton and Alexander) and hope they actually get to DVD at some point.

I actually went to the movie theater this week (!) and saw Midnight in Paris. It was excellent and well worth the trip out (and the really over priced popcorn). The Tree of Life's release date here is still a mystery--the official website said it should start playing here tomorrow, but the movie theater has no sign of it.

Criterion Announcement & Tree of Life

August seems to be a good month for Criterion. Though I haven't seen it, The Killing seems like it will be right up my alley and it has maybe the best cover in the collection. I don't know much about the Eclipse set other than that the director worked with Nikkatsu and is part of the Japanese New Wave (and really that's good enough for me). Secret Sunshine is getting excited reactions, so I might try that one later on. I already have L'Atalante on DVD, but I might be drawn into double dipping on the Vigo set for the other films.

Then, in case that wasn't exciting enough, The Tree of Life finally screened at the Cannes film festival. Reviews are mixed but mostly positive. The negative reviews were expected given Malick's style (the word "pretenious" gets thrown around a lot) but those don't seem to be the norm. Good news.

Cannes Cannes

So, while of the two big euro film festivals I prefer Venice (and their wonderful Golden Lion trophy), this year it seems everything big is opening at Cannes. I've already posted about The Tree of Life, but there are plenty more I want to see (eventually). Here's some teaser trailers/clips that look good to me:

Okay, so that one's in french, but its the Dardennes so it should be good.

OMG Dinosaur

In the middle, two rows after the title (one row under the director credit. I'm really excited to see this. I finally got around to watching The Thin Red Line and it was as good as its reputation suggests. Tree of Life seems to be even more ambitious, but Malick has shown he can pull something like this off). Apparently the film will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, so we'll get to find out then. Here's the trailer to give you a better idea:

What I like the best, or rather what excites me the most, about thie film is that I read an article about the special effects and it said that he (Malick) has been working on this film since the 1970's.

Oh, here's the new official website for the film (with a better picture).