Viewing Log #12: Ply Your Hand Much Lighter [9/14/09 - 9/20/09]

by Ryland Walker Knight

—Misdirection, always.

• Paris nous appartient [Jacques Rivette, 1960] No wonder he didn't get famous right away: this is a bleak bit of minor key orchestration-condemnation. Not only are we pawns, but we're imbeciles complicit in apocalypse as we search for understanding. Such a tragic metaphysical hermeneutics.
  
  
• Woman Is The Future of Man [Sang-soo Hong, 2003] I fell asleep shortly after the dudes get lunch, but, as with the other Hong film I've seen, Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, I dug the patience and the sense of humor. Will definitely finish this one.
  
• The Forest for the Trees [Maren Ade, 2003] Only the first 20 minutes. Couldn't handle it. Adrian is right: sides-of-a-coin with Happy-Go-Lucky. I'm terrified of what comes after what I saw. Maybe I'll work up to it some strong day.
  
  
• La Belle Noiseuse [Jacques Rivette, 1991] Simply amazing. Would love to share more thoughts. But, as is, I'm stunned to silence except for hints. Last time this happened was with Esther Kahn. It's a real phenomenological film: you see thought inscribe itself. RW did a fine job laying out some of the film's mysteries and delights in a recent post you can find here. Makes me think, more and more, that Rivette is the great feminist director—without even aiming for that kind of title or claim. —More smart things from the horse's mouth, translated by David Phelps.
  
  
• Paris nous appartient [Jacques Rivette, 1960] I got through about half before I fell asleep. Just past that walk though the night, into a new cynicism about the structures of this friend group—this network, this complicit pattern of neglect and discretion and secrecy.