tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post6537440366561553734..comments2024-03-15T04:08:16.172-04:00Comments on Only the Cinema: Before the RevolutionEd Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-70102908114583647552014-08-23T23:59:02.945-04:002014-08-23T23:59:02.945-04:00NB : I met once Allen Midgette on occasion of a sp...NB : I met once Allen Midgette on occasion of a special morning screening of "Prima" at the Lincoln Center, in 1996 (we were only three spectators in the theater, including Susan Sontag, who was a very good friend of BB—she wrote about "Prima" in her book "Trip to Hanoi"). The funny story is that Midgette left the place right after his part was over in the film. I&#Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10095492347489032433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-64863265607798144152011-02-25T23:28:00.145-05:002011-02-25T23:28:00.145-05:00Joel, you're totally right: this film has such...Joel, you're totally right: this film has such passion, such an urgent need to communicate, to make films, and it's all the better for it even when Bertolucci goes over the top. He's not afraid to take risks and that doesn't always pay off, but it's his boldness and his youthful energy that make the film so invigorating. As David says, it was an experience at the time, Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-2413628275333051862011-02-25T22:30:17.559-05:002011-02-25T22:30:17.559-05:00I wish more young filmmakers (actually, I wish the...I wish more young filmmakers (actually, I wish there were more young filmmakers to begin with, but that's another story) had the recklessness of Bertolucci in '64 - the willingness not to bother being "tasteful" or "thoughtful" with their mise en scene but rather to dive in headfirst and embrace style as the essence of cinema - not in the flashy, slick look-ma-I'Joel Bockohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-48479114131387108242011-02-24T18:23:34.626-05:002011-02-24T18:23:34.626-05:00Here's Allen Midgette's big scene in the f...<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTIU8zcS_A&feature=related" rel="nofollow">Here's Allen Midgette's big scene in the film</a> Agostino is in love with Fabrizio and knows he can't have him -- hence his despair. Was his death an accident or a suicide? That's the great mystery. But as he walks off in this scene sobbing "Perda! Perda! Perda!" ("Lost! Lost! DavidEhrensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11016905507543736049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-12120216693156330462011-02-24T18:06:01.569-05:002011-02-24T18:06:01.569-05:00That's a very nice Wonders in the Dark piece a...That's a very nice <a href="http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/the-saturday-matinee-before-the-revolution/" rel="nofollow">Wonders in the Dark</a> piece about the film.<br /><br />I was 17 when I first saw it back in 1964. In those days I saw the films I loved over and over again. Like <i>Breathless, Before the Revolution</i> seems to me less a film than an actual event in my DavidEhrensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11016905507543736049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-78543637473289762992011-02-24T18:00:32.178-05:002011-02-24T18:00:32.178-05:00Bernardo is STILL very French. The extras on The L...Bernardo is STILL very French. The extras on <i>The Last Emperor</i> DVD find him speaking French frequently. <br /><br /><i>The Dreamers</i> is of course all about the French. He was in Rome making <i>Partner</i> when May 68 broke out, and he always regretted he wasn't there to experience it. Gilbert's novel gave him an opportunity to re-create it. There's a significant difference DavidEhrensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11016905507543736049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-2651704078957419412011-02-24T16:31:22.045-05:002011-02-24T16:31:22.045-05:00Nice, I didn't even realize there was a DVD ve...Nice, I didn't even realize there <i>was</i> a DVD version, I saw it via download. Good to know it's available, although it's a shame there's no proper US DVD. The film deserves to be as well known as the iconic 60s films of Antonioni, Godard, Resnais, etc.Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-78699670009428423532011-02-24T16:26:54.867-05:002011-02-24T16:26:54.867-05:00Ha! Yes indeed Ed (and David) on that Godard assa...Ha! Yes indeed Ed (and David) on that Godard assasination target! Geez.<br /><br />Well I most assuredly look forward to reading that slated Conversations piece!!!<br /><br />This is the DVD version to own, methinks:<br /><br />http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BEFORE-REVOLUTION-Bernardo-Bertolucci-DVD-NEW-/140491405266?pt=UK_CDsDVDs_DVDs_DVDs_GL&hash=item20b5f0b7d2Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-1735288290948760992011-02-24T16:13:59.063-05:002011-02-24T16:13:59.063-05:00Sam, thanks for the kind words. I agree this is a ...Sam, thanks for the kind words. I agree this is a near-masterpiece, a really great film with so much going on, from the Morricone score to the working through of the French New Wave influences to the giddy stylistics both overpowering and informing the bleak story. I'm not sure Bertolucci ever quite got past his fascination with the French, as <i>Last Tango in Paris</i> (the subject of a Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-75123921842143946602011-02-24T16:05:40.068-05:002011-02-24T16:05:40.068-05:00"For all the verve of its style, the film is ..."For all the verve of its style, the film is a dark vision; it's a film about idealism made by a young man obviously already tinged with his own streak of cynicism. The film's arc is relentlessly downward, as embodied in the treatment of Fabrizio's fiancée Clelia (Cristina Pariset) at the beginning and end of the film."<br /><br />And therein lies the bottom line with this Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-85122658329276626842011-02-24T10:22:18.084-05:002011-02-24T10:22:18.084-05:00True. It also underscores Gina's loneliness an...True. It also underscores Gina's loneliness and isolation. The scene where she discovers a little girl alone in her walled house (who throws stones at her and sings a mocking song) is vey tellling in this regard. it's almost like a falshback to Gina as a child, and the fact that this meeting upsets her so emotionally underscores that fact.<br /><br />Fabrizio loves her -- and abandons herDavidEhrensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11016905507543736049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-83562064006102251732011-02-24T09:50:02.692-05:002011-02-24T09:50:02.692-05:00Oddly enough, Allen Midgette keeps popping up in m...Oddly enough, Allen Midgette keeps popping up in my viewing lately between Bertolucci and Godard. He always makes an impression, even when he's kind of used as a barely glimpsed little sight gag as in <i>The Spider's Stratagem</i>. <br /><br />Agreed about the emotional power of the finale in this film. That final shot is just overwhelming - so dark, so sad, and also so bitterly funny, Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-13804794144536443042011-02-24T09:35:09.629-05:002011-02-24T09:35:09.629-05:00Here's one of the film's best scenes, usin...<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUkFTFIhK-o" rel="nofollow">Here's one of the film's best scenes, using a Paoli-Morricone song.</a>DavidEhrensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11016905507543736049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3296479421292377391.post-79590125752471453512011-02-24T09:33:24.195-05:002011-02-24T09:33:24.195-05:00Yes he was just 22 -- a year older than wunderkind...Yes he was just 22 -- a year older than <i>wunderkind du jour</i> Xavier Dolan is today.<br /><br />As for cultural influences I've always thought of Bertolucci as France's most interesting Italian filmmaker. Pasolini was his teacher, but Godard was his master -- until he turned against him with <i>The Conformist</i>. The phone number of the professor that Trintignant is assigned to kill DavidEhrensteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11016905507543736049noreply@blogger.com