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Reviews
The Graduate (1967)
Searching and finding oneself
A movie about the coming of age, and a disenchanted college graduate wondering about his future and trying to escape the predestined path his parents want him to follow. The movie shows his idle life through in his eyes lost in his thoughts, in the cross fading, the close-up shots, and Simon and Garfunkel songs. The hesitating young man becomes a self-confident man after having an affair with a mature woman. When he falls in love with her daughter, the life he seeks eventually becomes obvious to him.
Pierrot le fou (1965)
Poetic in its spontaneity, technical in its purpose.
Godard is a pioneer in unstructured French movie-making. Despite the progress of a classical and chronological plot in Pierrot Le Fou, the way the story is told and the movie footage are quite novel. The story is told by two characters, cartoon inserts and literary references are as important as the scenes, Belmondo directly addresses the public, and the party in the beginning of the movie is shot like a moving fresco. The music has an abrupt ending, in such a way that one gets confused with the limits of the movie's reality and the fiction's reality. The result is a poetic movie shot in poetic light, and highlighted by poetic dialogues, but movie-making becomes a technical and intellectual reflection rather than a memorable and moving story.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Struggling for one's personal life
Dr Zhivago is not a hero and doesn't strive to become one. He lacks strong will and doesn't like to make decisions. He yearns for a life on his own terms as a physician and poet, and his childish innocence helps him get through the Bolshevik revolution. But the ruthlessness of history always seems to get to him, while he continuously tries to escape it. Unlike the opportunist Komarovsky who loves the pleasures of life, and the fanatic Strelnikov who is committed to his ideology, Dr Zhivago loves - as simple as that.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
A dive into the psyche of a man surrounded by magnificent landscapes
The movie is focused on the character of Lawrence of Arabia rather than the chronological events. The scenes are spectacular, such as the approaching silhouette of a camel-rider, the raids on the Turks, and the boat in the dunes (actually in the canal of Suez). The colors of the desert, from vivid yellow to dusty white, follow the evolution of Lawrence's psyche throughout the movie.
La dolce vita (1960)
Pioneer of modernity and extant topics
There is no real plot throughout the movie. We follow Marcello Mastroianni as he wanders from place to place in a magnificent yet decadent Rome, spoiled by civilization excess. Paparazzis are also present throughout the movie, and reflect on the the way the media exaggerate the reality and dignify otherwise pointless events.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
An absurd wartime comedy with a hilarious Peter Sellers
This wartime comedy is built on the contrast that rises from serious situations and absurd behavior - the US president small talking with the Soviet premier over an imminent airstrike, the sign that says "Peace is our profession" at the assaulted airbase, and many other details such as "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" The main characters are caricatured - Dr Strangelove is a physically diminished but brilliant former Nazi scientist, the anti-imperialist Soviet ambassador happens to be a spy as well, the US bomber pilot talks with a harsh Midwest accent and wears a cowboy hat. This coarse self-mockery is tempered by the sharp and exquisite dialogues of Peter Sellers who plays three roles - a phlegmatic British military, the US President and Dr Stangelove - and George Scott as a bold and gross American General.
Mort d'un pourri (1977)
A mesmerizing atmosphere to dive into
Stan Getz's Bossa Nova music matches perfectly Alain Delon's melancholic eyes and nostalgic gaze, and suits the busy Paris nightlife in the seventies. Michel Audiard's dialogues are as punchy as always ("Order and disorder are two plagues that threaten humanity. Corruption disgusts me, and virtue gives me chills"). It is the kind of movie where one can hear the pictures and see the music, as Godard would put it.