Review of Control Room (2004) by Water C — 28 May 2005

I wrote a long review of [i]Bresson's [/i][b]Pickpocket[/b] but accidentally erased it. oh well...see it. get it off netflix when it becomes available on dvd. my tape copy of it is ludicrous. [i]more later[/i]...

[b]L'Argent[/b]. magnifique. the only other post-Pickpocket Bresson film i've seen was [b]Lancelot of the Lake[/b] which L'Argent is easily on par with. both films are immaculate. if you're into Bresson that is. see [b]Diary of a Country Priest[/b] and if you like that, go from there. [i]more later...[/i].

[b]Fat Girl[/b]. more french weirdness. no wonder the brits and us hate 'em. I thought it was pretty funny though and could relate on a similar level to the fat and ugly protagonist who has absolutely no romantic delusions nor outgoingness. it's representational and abstract though. I don't think twelve year old girls talk as fluid and brilliantly as they do, regardless of her unbelievably shitty social construction she is forced into war with. the ending scene was very surprising, as was the pacing during this film's entirety.

[b]Control Room. [/b]sad and confusing. I didn't really like that pompous overweight ex-bbc journalist however. the producer for al-jezeer (sp?) was insightful and interesting, partly because he made a comment about wanting to switch over to [i]Fox News[/i] and partly because he is an Iraqi and seemed to be in great pain. a very conflicted person, which to me, was precisely what the film was about: objectivity.

[b]The Clearing[/b]. I don't know. really bad casting choices. Robert Redford is getting to old to be putting out wanna-be morality-sentiment films like this. scratch that. he's in his prime. I mean...mann's not even that good.