Auspicious Objects

1. The running time of the average French film is at least three hours.

While taking a course in French film can be a fun and culturally-insightful experience, it can also be a trip to Hell. The syllabus inevitably will include at least one black-and-white film longer three hours, which is horrifying when your class meets at night in a dark lecture hall. Oh, the hours I spent over the semester fighting to stay awake while films were screened that moved at a snail’s pace…Our class had to watch a few such “classics,” but one that comes to mind in particular is the 1945 film Children of Paradise, best summed up by one of my classmates as “a three hour long movie about a mime.” It’s about as engaging as it sounds. The character of Frédérick Lemaître – a narcissistic and headstrong but likable actor on his way to the top – is interesting, but he isn’t given enough screen time to save the film.

2. The French New Wave movement kicked ass.

The term “new wave” gets thrown around a lot these days to refer to a lot of things, but when reading a film studies textbook, it typically refers to the French new wave, a film movement in the ’50s and ’60s pioneered by a few friends who were film-critics-turned-filmmakers. The reason why the French new wave is so important to film history is because the films that came out of it were, well, awesome. Their directors also had the good sense to throw convention to the wind and play around with the medium, leading to strange stylistic touches such as abrupt jump cuts and tracking shots created by using shopping carts as dollies. Perhaps the most well-remembered directors from the movement are founding fathers Jean Luc-Godard (Breathless) and François Truffaut (The 400 Blows).

3. When you say Criterion Collection, you’ve said it all.

Sometimes I wonder why the Criterion Collection isn’t better known by the average DVD-buying folk, being that they’ve been around since the days of Laserdisc and have a pretty varied and prolific output. I’m thinking the relative obscurity of Criterion – at least where I live – is due to both economical and geographical factors. For one thing, most of their DVDs are upwards of $30. If you think that’s a little absurd, you should look at their boxsets (Side note: I recently managed to pick up the brand new Nikkatsu Noir set for $15, thanks to Best Buy RewardZone points – score!). The other problem is that I live in Wisconsin, and most of the people around me are a bit closeminded in terms of the films they will watch. Something I learned from working at a video store for way too long is this: If it is not in English and requires the use of subtitles, they will not watch it. When you factor in that a large portion of Criterion’s catalogue are foreign films, it seems obvious why the average Midwesterner doesn’t know about Criterion. Of course, the Midwest does have it’s share of pretentious film snobs, present company not excluded.

4. Paris, je t’aime isn’t really a French film…but it’s still awesome.

One week in class we ended up watching Paris, je t’aime, a recent omnibus film bringing together the visions of 21 directors. Despite the filming locale, it seems a bit dubious to place this film on a French film syllabus, as people from all over the world contributed to the shorts that comprise Paris, je t’aime; American viewers will probably recognize Natalie Portman and Steve Buscemi, among others. Vincenzo Natali, the man behind Cube, gets in on the act, as does Wong Kar Wai’s cinematographer of choice, Christopher Doyle. The film is a hodgepodge of cultures, blending dialogue in multiple languages and showcasing actors of different heritages, so…is it really a French film? No, of course not. Is it entertaining? It most certainly is.

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