Othello

[Final Cut] While it's great to see people staring in disbelief at some scenes from this movie again for the first time in the theater, as a native of the Redux version, the seat beneath me was cracking down the middle with the weight of my righteous anger. If Coppola and Co. wanted to work on the fluidity of the plot, they could have cut out the French, whose scene may have some amazing architecture and work with the transformation of the intense evening light, and yet is just a bunch of terrible lines spoken with terrible music. At the same time, getting rid of the rainy camp scene is a great misfortune, as the artificiality and futility of that sequence strikes me as iconic for an illustration of war that was nicknamed "The Bog". I suspect the intention was more that they didn't really want to defend a scene to the contemporary audience that was essentially gang rape with comic relief. The next deleted scene, with Kurtz reading a newspaper article and laconically cleaning off the enthusiastic children around him, is indeed a sequence I fell asleep to twice, but that's more likely due to the protagonist's palpable feverish exhaustion that comes across to the viewer at the end. At the same time, this scene gives another interesting insight into the incomprehensible ecosystem of Kurtz's camp.

What struck me most was how accessible Werckmeister Harmonies is, patiently explaining the magic of cinematic speech to a listening audience. It does it in a minimalist and gradual way, plus it has plenty of time to do it. It is the sheer essence of the film, which for me personally fulfils the value of the Sun around which the rest revolves. My first Béla Tarr.

Three hours of German's no compromises, working the medium as thoroughly as anyone before him and refusing to show mercy to anyone. There's no music, no hope, no guidance, wisdom hangs from the nearest branch (literally) right next to the dogs, and legions of deformed masses wade ankle-deep in enough filth to make me rethink some of my nightmares. A rare case of a film that can't be fully appreciated, even with multiple viewings. It's utterly fascinating to watch the obsessive care taken in working with the setting, props, extras, and space, and while the obvious metaphor of contemporary Russia comes through clearly at first, there's no time or space to dwell on it. I can't wait to see it for maybe the sixth time. The dark side of Russian lyricism, untouched by the sun. EDIT 2021: Sadly, it's still not a film for this day and age of fetishizing audience comfort and celebrating cynical idiocy, but in the context of exploring the possibilities of cinematic storytelling, it's a crucial component that shouldn't be overlooked by anyone who wants to engage with film in general. Fresh from reading the source material, for example, I'm fascinated by how much the adaptation is fundamentally faithful, yet just as difficult to navigate. As with his other films, German is not interested in making us follow the plot, but in making us feel it.

I could probably spend twenty years of my life just watching Alexei German's films on repeat. Untangling each scene in turn, looking for what's related to the main plot line, what's related to the minor ones, dissecting the characters, figuring out what's related to the plot at all, and if not, why it's in the scene in the first place. A total mayhem that ties together none other than a terrifying caravan of anonymous black limousines pulling out of a monumental Kremlin nest. From my personal point of view, Khrustalyov is a testament to the ultimacy of the cinematic medium in portraying a certain zeitgeist, a subjective insight, and the inherent chaotic and elusive qualities of human nature.

I divide my life according to the period before I saw Mulholland Dr. and after.

In retrospect, a project that strongly shaped my future perception of film. A story built on coincidences, flawed characters, natural surrealism, and drive. And the drive is incredible. The first fifteen minutes of the film are practically impossible to sit through. It was an experiment for Tykwer, he himself doesn't think in such formal terms, and the fact that he made Lola in this form makes him a really powerful director. Too bad I don't really like his other films.