Nouvelle Vague - 2025 - France

Nouvelle Vague - 2025 - 7/10

 
He has been writing critical reviews, but now Jean-Luc Goddard is ready to make his own film.
There is a scenario, written by friend Truffaut, and he has recruited another friend, Jean-Paul Belmondo, to play the petty, nihilistic thug.  More, he wants Jean Seberg, a young American, already a star.
What follows is a deep, deep plunge into the making of Breathless (1959).

 
Script, what script?  Goddard seemingly improvises the narrative, then makes extensive jump cuts.
Releasing an influential and audacious masterpiece.
One can view this cold and enjoy the comedy, the  process, the fashions, the look.
Cineastes will be ecstatic, however, as the film namechecks Chabrol, Romer, Rossalini, Melville, Bresson, Gréco, Varda …
The more French cinema one has viewed (especially New Wave), the more you may appreciate.

Itim - 1976 - Philippines

Itim - 1976 - 6/10
AKA - The Rites Of May

 
The magazine is shuttered for summer, so Jun leaves Manila for small village San Ildefonso.
Jun’s doctor father, incapacitated following an accident, exists in a gloomy manor.
Taking photographs during Lent, Jun soon finds himself attracted to Teresa, who is lost in a fog.
Nor is this mere attraction, but the hand of Teresa’s dead sister, Rosa.
Who begins to manipulate her sister, and the couple, for her own purposes.
Photography is dreamlike and hazy throughout, many scenes maddeningly opaque.
Chances are, you will deduce the plot and twists before the end.
Jungle mix of Catholicism, shamanism, superstition and taboos.

The Sorcerers - 1967 - UK

The Sorcerers - 1967 - 5/10

 
Professor Montserrat just needs a subject.  Intelligent, inquisitive, sober.
Once under, he should be able to read the subject’s mind, experience vicariously their day to day.
From there, control the subject.
Alas, wife Estelle has other desires: theft, violence, bloody murder.
The weaker sex?  Fool!  Estelle is soon up to all manner of diabolical mischief.
Even for a dated film, the pacing is slow, and the director lets scenes run much too long.
A pruning would aid this one, although there is a melancholy vibe.