tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1793728792473426877.post5277735093088825825..comments2024-03-22T14:46:02.911-07:00Comments on Cinésthesia: Power trip: "Faust"Mike McCahillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04422740293868518305noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1793728792473426877.post-68460614583538879392012-05-21T19:40:16.895-07:002012-05-21T19:40:16.895-07:00There really may only be one film of his that I do...There really may only be one film of his that I don't have any 'internal variability' of my love for it, because his films are so atypical and so idiosyncratic that it's difficult to reconcile them in their entirety. But, then, that also points to his versatility, and certainly his obstinance - and it is this quality which makes his films so unique and also incapable of suppressing his versatile whims entirely. He's one of my favorite examples of why 'perfection' is so boring! Sometimes you need to color outside the lines. To always have to take films as a whole is dangerous, as it leads to the type of 'plausible, likeable, and inoffensive' nonsense that the commercial studios hold as dogma. Not all experiments need to be successful, but you will always need experiments to get somewhere new. And that, really, is where my excitement stems from with Sokurov, rewatches not excluded in the least. Sometimes you just have to shake your head, laugh, step back, laugh again, and smile before it all comes together. Or doesn't (yet), which is better than... exposition.JeanRZEJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04530242176130470336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1793728792473426877.post-47994365800742081222012-05-21T14:25:42.726-07:002012-05-21T14:25:42.726-07:00Yes, I'm certainly keen to see more - alas, I ...Yes, I'm certainly keen to see more - alas, I was away when the BFI Southbank here in London ran their complete Sokurov retrospective last year, but - as you say - DVD is making more and more of these specialist titles available all the time. He's one of those filmmakers I will always have a good deal of respect for, even if my love of individual films varies...Mike McCahillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04422740293868518305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1793728792473426877.post-32358104252639830512012-05-20T18:52:33.767-07:002012-05-20T18:52:33.767-07:00'if it's possible for a film to be both ri...'if it's possible for a film to be both ridiculous *and* amazing'<br /><br />Sometimes I am of the mind that it is essential. Well, most of the time. But not all of the time, so I understand your trepidation. Ridiculous and amazing is my brier patch, though.<br /><br />Some of Sokurov's early films had a planned DVD release in America by the distributor of Faust, so maybe that will materialize. Whatever the case, I encourage you to seek out Sokurov's early works either through Russian DVDs or as they become available elsewhere, as he's rather astounding. I don't know that someone with such a diverse output will always play directly to your tastes, but you seem to be able to appreciate boldness and he has that in spades - and not of the provocateur type, either, which is so prevalent and tiring. He's wonderfully impossible to pin down.JeanRZEJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04530242176130470336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1793728792473426877.post-4311077145754290132012-05-11T06:03:47.326-07:002012-05-11T06:03:47.326-07:00Hi Jean,
Yes, "Faust" is, indeed, "...Hi Jean,<br /><br />Yes, "Faust" is, indeed, "balls-out crazy" - in a way I wish more cinema would be - and I'm glad we're both roughly on the same page. If I sound in any way guarded or defensive in the early stages of that review, it's partly down to the fact that, for me, much of the early Sokurov you mention remains - like the country the director hails from - unexplored territory; it's also because I'm well aware of the polarising effect the new film has had on several close, respected colleagues. (Perhaps I should be more balls-out in my own writing - but it's the English in me.) At any rate, if it's possible for a film to be both ridiculous *and* amazing, I suspect "Faust" may be it...<br /><br />Mike.Mike McCahillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04422740293868518305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1793728792473426877.post-90275662491695106382012-05-10T23:45:02.242-07:002012-05-10T23:45:02.242-07:00'Yet both filmmakers have come, in recent year...'Yet both filmmakers have come, in recent years, to pursue their own aesthetic to unprecedented extremes, at the risk of leaving their audience behind, nonplussed in one case, shellshocked in the other.'<br /><br />Expectedly, Sokurov's most widely distributed films are his most straightforward ones, but Sokurov is not entering new territory by pushing an aesthetic to unprecedented extremes. His early apex of his fiction/documentary/found footage period is easily the most deliriously monstrous oddity that I have encountered from him (Skorbnoye beschuvstviye). Faust may be another crest, but it only appears tall to me in relation to his latest films, easily the least stylistically divergent and fluctuating of his career. I'd say it's a return to the explorative stylization of his youth, but certainly not a first breach into this sort of territory. Of course, his versatility is what makes him so unique, and also what bolsters his ability to go balls-out crazy like Faust, so I have no problem with you highlighting it, but give the man his due! He's amazingly ridiculous!JeanRZEJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04530242176130470336noreply@blogger.com