ANNOUNCEMENT: Bastille Day on VINYL.

by Ryland Walker Knight

No, we're not making a record. At least not a real, live long player. Rather, we're gonna write some essays. Or, simply, assemble some blog posts. My buddy Claire over there may get a little murderous again by looking at Anna Karina in Pierrot le fou. You may remember Jennifer Stewart's contribution to our email chain with Kevin Lee (we talked about desire and the gaze and all that); well, Jen's writing something about Contempt, which is about desire and the gaze (among other things) by her lights. Being a big fan of Claire Denis, I may write about how un-patriotic her movies are; how crucial Agnès Godard is to Denis' success; how her troupe of actors builds an interesting demi-monde of characters across the films she's made; how desire and the gaze may work in her pictures; how cool it is that she's, well, a female director -- and how that bolsters her significance in the Franco-film world specifically and the world of film generally. Or I may write something about Playtime, since I'll be seeing that in 70mm on July 8th or 9th. I'm hoping some of the rest of the gang can contribute but it's summer time and I can't get mad at anybody for enjoying the sunshine instead of the glare of a monitor. And, if any of our beloved, if mostly silent, readers want to offer any Francophilic thoughts on July 14th, let me know, either via links in the comments or via emails. Until then, go see Wall-E on a big screen when you aren't out and about, eating cheese or throwing cake or dancing in the woods or driving into the Mediterranean.