Vitro Nasu

L’avventura
Moderate Cantabile

Jeanne Moreau and Jean Paul Belmondo in Moderate Cantabile directed by Peter Brook, an adaptation of a story by Marguerite Duras.

A selected list from films competing for the Cannes Festival 1960

L’avventura, The Virgin Spring, Kagi,
La Dolce Vita, Moderate Cantabile,
Never on Sunday, Sons and Lovers, Le Trou.
Henry Miller was a jurist (Henry Miller blog post here).
(What a line up! The previous year, Hiroshima Mon Amour and The 400 Blows blew everyone away.)

1960 was the year of fountain, spring, woods, boats and island. There was also suicide, rape, a disappearing woman, voyeurism, and don’t forget the gang of paparazzi making their cinematic debut.

And the winner of the Palme D’or is! (Click to find out.)

L’Avventura and Kagi received Special Jury Prizes, and The Virgin Spring received a special homage award. Jean Moreau and Melina Mercuri both received Best actress awards.

See the striking image from The Virgin Spring

The rape scene in the forest is of an almost unbearable brutality. I’ve never seen anything like it. But the film is more poetic than realistic, and very pure, almost chaste, in spite of the rape. From Henry Miller blog

The Virgin

Ingmar Bergman was heavily criticized for being stuck in morality fables, i.e. The Seventh Seal. After this medieval tale, The Virgin Spring, Bergman entered a new, more experimental phase of film making, with films like Persona and Scenes From a Marriage.

Ang Lee says that when he first saw The Virgin Spring as an 18-year-old in Taiwan, it “dumbfounded” and “electrified” him. He stayed in the screening room to view it a second time, and “life changed afterward”. (see him on youtube)

Henry Miller himself was partial to Kagi (An adaptation of a Tanizaki novel directed by Kon Ichikawa.) But he was a good team player and went along with the rest to vote for La Dolce Vita.

Sons and Lovers was Jack Cardiff’s best film. Dean Stockwell played against such heavyweights as Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller.

Helen Mirren has said “The first movie that caught my imagination was L’Avventura, by Antonioni. Until then I had seen only Rock Hudson-Doris Day movies”(Via)
See Helen here on youtube.

More on Jean Moreau and Henry Miller, read here.

Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada
(See the beautiful Futon without a sheet and the haircut by her cruel villagers of Nevers. We will not tolerate haircut in Nevers, never, ever.)
“Hiroshima Mon Amour” is 47 years old.
Here is a reaction from today’s young viewer.
“You kind of get the feeling that Terrence Malick lifted his entire style from the opening and closing 15 minutes of the film.”
I thought lots of imagery from Hiroshima Mon Amour drifted into Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation”. She was smart enough not to mention the theft instead saying something about Wyler’s “Roman
Holiday”, Antonioni, and Wong Kar Wai.

(Two years prior to Hiroshima Mon Amour, Hollywood made “Sayonara.” That tradition of the Asian awfulness style continues today with “Memoirs of a Geisha”)

Saw Hiroshima Mon Amour last week courtesy from my local library. Was first introduced to the text of M. Duras from a French class at the college. Everything came together well for this film, the director, the script, the acting, a remarkable masterpiece.

Resnais is a cubist. I mean that he is the first modern filmmaker of the sound film.
— Eric Rohmer
You can describe Hiroshima as Faulkner plus Stravinsky.
— Jean-Luc Godard

We’ve already seen a lot of films that parallel the novel’s rules of construction. Hiroshima goes further. We are at the very core of a reflection on the narrative form itself.
— Pierre Kast

“In July 1959, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Pierre Kast, and other members of the editorial board of Cahiers du Cinema convened a roundtable on Hiroshima Mon Amour. Godard called it the first film without any cinematic references; Jacques Rivette said its rupturing of rhythm likened it to contemporary classical music; all members agreed on its status as a cinematic watershed. With his first feature, Alain Resnais created the thing they had all been looking for: a truly “modern” film. Fortunately, this illuminating discussion is included with Criterion’s new high-definition transfer DVD. ” (From Popmatters)

A look at voice-over narration: Manic Depression Mon Amour – Chris Cheng

Nice photos from the film and a photo of Emmanuelle Riva today.

“At 76 years of age, Riva demonstrates that she has lost none of her beauty or intelligence. She remembers events of over 40 years with precision and enthusiasm, and reflects on the film’s longevity and meaning with great insight. For example, she explains that her character’s double love, with the Japanese man in the present and the German soldier in the past, places her in an emotional temporal limbo.”

In Japan this film was released as ‘A Love Affair of 24 hours” without referencing Hiroshima.

Marguerite Duras previous post

The above image is from here Great photos by Hélène Bamberger from this page, you see her study and a photo of happy Duras with Yann.
Margruete Duras was born on April 4, 1914. Duras was an Aries/Tiger, the righteous daredevil.
I have not seen the recent film, Cet Amour-La “Love’s Nudity” by Lars Iyer on Duras, here.

Eric Rohmer was born on April 4, 1920.
“This sense of the unknowable emphasizes Rohmer’s understanding of the world as profoundly complicated. People are called upon to make choices whose consequences they cannot know. They have to deal not only with their own desires but also those of others. Desire is never simple. It is mixed with fear—often the fear of making the wrong choice.”

Thinking of Catholic Church these days? Here are some films to rent.
Magdalene Sisters , the DVD disc contains an interesting documentay of the real life corrupt Irish Laundry hellhole for unlucky young Irish women.
Amen by Costa-Gavras.
“Statement”, Michael Caine delivers another great performance .
“The Nun’s Story” by Fred Zimmerman. In this film Audrey Hepburn plays a character most like herself according to her boyfriend who lived with her.
“La Religieuse” by Jacques Rivette, starring Anna Karina.

“The Black Robe” and two films starring Gael García Bernal “Bad Education” and “Padre Amaro”.

Pain, Trauma and Finding Oneself

The Photo shows Marguerite Duras at 15 years. Sarraute, Duras, Truffaut, and Louise Bourgeois are four French geniuses whose childhoods are well documented. Exploring the links between childhood experiences and the later emergence of creative genius are some of the following:

Louise Bourgeois – “My childhood never lost its magic, never lost its mystery, and never lost its drama.”