Thursday, September 8, 2011

So I Almost Kind of Sort-of Dated an Axe, er, Switchblade Murderer

*Sigh* French film and I just do not agree with each other. Most. Boring. Films. Ever. Seriously. Have you read the summary for The Butcher? Sounds interesting, right?! Nope. French directors seem to have the uncanny talent of making everything more boring than anything I've ever encountered. And, remember, I read student papers for a "living" so I read damned boring stuff all the time. I always think we've watched a MILLION French films for this project but, no, we've only watched a handful; they're just so boring they count for like twelve each.

I don't even want to talk about this one. But I will say that the strange cat sounds right around the "let me in to explain why I'm a killer" scene REALLY upset Mo.

So, the book says that we should watch this film because it's a sudden departure from Chabrol's (the director's) earlier films in which he "was . . . the cruel portraitist of the French bourgeoisie, drawing with dark ink and a ferocious sense of humor the complexities lying beyond the moral common law . . . " blah blah blah. But with this one "when Chabrol seemed to be quite obviously in the grip of History, he took an incredible step back, to get . . . a broader comprehension of the world as a whole, beyond good and evil" by "merging two genres that seem to exclude one another, the murder story and the romance."

Um . . . so Chabrol never saw any film noir? Or Hitchcock?

And, we get to watch a second Chabrol film at some point in this little game.

Now, Tracy, the only interesting thing I could manage from watching this film:

Death is not an option. Which French film from this project would you rather live in?
A. Last Year in Marienbad
B. La Captive
C. Wages of Fear
D. The Butcher

2 comments:

  1. Oh, GREAT. More Chabrol. Can't wait until the Truffaut shows up. Barf.

    Hah! Let's see--I'm going to go with A. LYiM. Despite the excruciating prospect of having the same tedious conversation over and over again, I liked the clothes, and the manor house seemed swank. You?

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  2. God they're all so boring it's hard to choose. Sigh. I guess D. The Butcher because there was good food and cute clothes.

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