Updates to the site have been slow the past week, but that’s because I’ve been temporarily focused on an article I’m writing for the online journal Senses of Cinema regarding the career of Krzysztof Kieslowski (see my blog entry for May 28). As such, I’ve had the pleasure of revisiting his earlier features Personel (1975), Camera Buff (1979), Blind Chance (1982), and No End (1985), as well as various books and documentaries. A new Region 2 DVD box set in France includes the latter three films as well as The Scar (1976), but without English subtitles. Stay tuned for my finished piece, hopefully to be published in Sense‘s July-August issue.
In other news, I managed to screen Facets Multi-Media’s new DVD release of Lars von Trier‘s adaptation of Carl Dreyer‘s script Medea (1987), based on the Greek play by Euripides, and I’m also writing a piece on that film for CarlDreyer.com. The DVD offers an abysmal video transfer, grainy and dark, but von Trier’s work largely adheres to the letter of Dreyer’s scriptóeven though the film seems more concerned with visual effects and melodrama than Dreyer’s nearly palpable studies of the human spirit.
Luckily, Facets fares better with their DVD release of MiklÛs JancsÛ‘s Electra, My Love (1974), a striking and unique adaptation of another story by Euripides, which fits snugly into JancsÛ’s usual political themes of social revolution and the overthrow of tyranny. The Hungarian filmmaker’s slow, mesmerizing camera movements and zooms weave throughout mind-boggingly complex choreography involving hundreds of actors, folk singers, dancers, animals, and elements of the landscape. A visual pageant of the highest order, the filmówhich takes place in a single barren fieldóis definitely not for all tastes, but offers plenty of rich metaphorical material to delve into. When King Aegisthus is overthrown, he kneels on the ground with a net draped over him. Like a cross between a Greek chorus and a maniacal circus act, the film utilizes long camera takes and enigmatic dialogue that slowly builds to a powerful dramatic statement. The DVD is full-frame (not widescreen), but the print used is clean and vivid.
Lastly, there’s been some great conversation happening on our Discussion Page. Drop in and let us know what you’ve been watching lately! I’m hearing good things about Finding Nemo…