L’Atalante (1933) by Jean Vigo
“It seems so out of control, every frame is beautifully framed but almost everything happening is so shambly and messy and floppy, and falling down, and Michel Simon and his very bad tattoos jiggling on his fat. Everything is shot from above, inside the Atalante, to give the impression there’s no way a camera could even get in there, we know this was a set, there was plenty of room, but Vigo just makes everything so claustrophobic and dirty. It’s one of the smelliest movie, you can almost smell the salt and the oil and the armpits and the cat pee, but it seems to move with a bounce, it reminds me of a cartoon, like a Fleischer, a Popeye or Betty Boop, it has a rhythmic filthy bounce to it, and it is a very simple story. This was very inspiring to me, I love what Vigo does with the frame, closing the frame in, at the top, the bottom, the side, the foreground. You could probably rearrange all the scenes in l’Atalante and the film would still feel just as great, keeping of course the beginning and the end, that’s kind of a miracle, I know when it was restored it someone found a bunch more of minutes, they added it to the movie, it’s wonderful to see them but it didn’t necessarily makes the movie better, and then they took some of them out again, and that didn’t hurt, I don’t know it just seems to be a miracle that keeps producing wonders whether it’s cut up or left all. It’s great”
More information about L’atalante.
Guy Maddin’s body of work is as beautiful as it is confounding and delirious. He incorporates the language of past cinema, with which he is most intimately familiar from his countless hours of film viewing, and combines this with a pre-cinematic sensibility learned from the books he voraciously devours. A man of prodigious intellectual appetites, Maddin’s many interests and obsessions can easily be discerned in his work.
Selected Filmography :
1988 - Tales from the Gimli Hospital
1990 - Archangel
1992 - Careful
2002 - Dracula, Pages From a Virgin’s Diary
2003 - Cowards Bend the Knee
2003 - The Saddest Music in the World
2006 - Brand Upon the Brain!
2007 - My Winnipeg
“Playtime is a very complex film with very different patterns and a groundbreaking narrative, using the progressive disappearance of the character of Mr Hulot. This character, whom we have known since Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, loses his central role a bit more with each new film. In Jacques Tati’s last films, ensemble structures replace the main part played by Mr Hulot. Tati’s work becomes more and more democratic and the character of Mr Hulot almost disappears. The work on the sound is groundbreaking, and so is the work on the picture. I think Playtime is the only real film that fully uses the 70mm format. In principle, 70mm is used as a spectacular “gimmick”, because in the 70mm picture there is space to add many more elements than in 35mm. The work on space that we can see in Playtime offers a brand new syntax of the screen. The problem is that Playtime is a film which is hard to understand on the small screen. There is no place today for 70mm. If you have the chance to see Playtime on its original format you can find many surprises for the eye. In one single frame you can choose between 4 or 5 visual patterns spread out across the large surface of the screen. You can find a sequence with lots of visual effects and metaphors in the upper left corner of the screen, and another one in the lower right corner… Lots of surprises indeed! It’s a use of space completely different, which goes much further than Orson Welles’ work on depth of field, according to me. Because Tati not only uses depth of field, but also a real work on screen surface. It is a bit complicated to explain with words: it is a poetic experience of space totally new and very modern, where spectators have a great role to play as co-directors, since they have to choose between all the visual elements offered to them. This is why Playtime is a film that you can see many times: you rediscover it during each screening.”
José Luis Guerin was born in Barcelona. He started his career directing experimental films from 1975 to 1983, then directed his first feature film in 1983, Los Motivos de Berta. His film received a special price at the Berlin Forum. In 1988, José Luis Guerin directed the Spanish episode of City Life – the other episodes being directed by Reichenbach, Kieslowski, Agresti, Tarr, Sen et Rijneke. City Life was awarded in Berlin, Rotterdam and Montreal Film Festivals. In 1990, José Luis Guerin directed Innisfree, presented in competition at Cannes International Film Festival. In 1997, Tren de Sombras - presented during the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes - obtained the Golden and Silver Melies awarded by the European Federation of Fantasy Film Festivals. Then, in 2001, José Luis Guerin directed En construccion, awarded in San Sebastian Festival and, in 2007, En la ciudad de Sylvia, selected by the 2007 Venice Film Festival. 
Younger brother of filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambéty, whom he worked with a lot on his movies, Wasis Diop, as a musician, gave birth to a sensitive and very diverse work, a true invitation to travel. Whether sampled by Dr Dre & Track-master for “The Firm”, or chosen for the soundtrack of “The Thomas Crown Affair” by John McTiernan with Pierce Brosnan and Nina Simone, or for the films of a master of French cinema like Techiné, Wasis Diop continues his route with integrity and musical talent that make him an artist impossible to circumvent in World Music.
“I’ve seen this film more than six times. And each time it makes me laugh like the very first time. The plot is crazy and delirious as often with the Coen brothers. What’s particulary outstanding in this movie though is the characters. “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges), Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi) embody three attaching and realistic characters while being incredibly dumb! The absolute loser, the nevrotic and the punching bag -three characters we all met in a school yard! Basing their storyline on this trio, the Coen brothers created a unique mix they’re the only ones to know about: realism, surrealism and absurd. Dialogues are fabulous, the dream sequences taken from the musicals of the 70s are perfect ; the direction is simple, consistent and always under control. It’s a very American movie but also very universal, sexy, made up like a good song with a very strong visual aspect. Also, the directors dare everything, like that amazing end when the wind blows Donny’s ashes on the Dude’s face. The punching-bag takes a revenge on Walter, his torturer, but the three still stick together! This is also eventually a film about friendship.” 
