Anti-Climacus

Adventures in Cultural Consumption, an ongoing series:

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: I know, based on Metropolitan, that I wasn't supposed to like this, but I have to admit I liked the increasingly twisty 'narrative,' including the end. I am also on board with the notion that middle-class values function mostly as a screen for indiscretions and vices carried out all the same (see also T.S. Eliot's pre-marriage relationship with his wife/secretary). Nothing in this world will ever convince me to watch Un Chien Andalou, but I may have to spend a little more time on Buñuel than I expected I would.

Babies: My Durham birthday celebration ended with a screening of this documentary for reasons that it would be hard to explain (but they made sense, trust me). Very cute if you like babies. Likely to bore otherwise. No narration in a documentary (and little dialogue) will do that.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold: Its twist was that it twisted twice, but well executed all the same.

Sweet Smell of Success: I love Burt Lancaster, better here than anywhere else. And Tony Curtis as a bad guy (fact: I am reasonably certain the first movie I ever saw him in was The Defiant Ones, so the "Tony Curtis plays a bad guy" novelty never existed for me). I once knew and was briefly interested in a girl whose favorite film was Night of the Hunter. I took this, not unreasonably, as a sign it'd be better to stay away from her. This is similar: it's unquestionably great but I'd be worried about anyone who really liked it (in the same way I wonder about people who really like Breaking Bad).

Paths of Glory: Out of sheer bloody-mindedness; I realized I think of Stanley Kubrick approximately what the pretentious guy in Annie Hall says about Fellini: I think of Kubrick as primarily a technical filmmaker, who is more focused on (negative) imagery than any sort of narrative core. And the first hour and twenty minutes bored the pants off me: I'm not very interested in anti-war movies in which the people who like war are all avaricious and evil and the people who oppose it are all noble and humble. But that last scene--six or seven minutes that were actually ambiguous and all the better for it. That said, Grand Illusion is a better movie on the same theme.