tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349866.post2621905816159829767..comments2023-10-05T13:13:52.933-04:00Comments on The Listening Ear: A Whole Bunch of Filmsweepingsamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11885871104310819374noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349866.post-49694894111761938102010-04-13T21:19:29.755-04:002010-04-13T21:19:29.755-04:00Yes, trying to sum up the Hawks in a short paragra...Yes, trying to sum up the Hawks in a short paragraph did make me leave out the good things - it's a sometimes lovely film, with some interesting moments - a lot of the stuff around the building of the pyramid is pretty good, really. (And that's what made me want to see it - the references in Jose Luis Guerin's "Under Construction" - that pushed it up the queue... that and the orientalism class...)<br /><br />And Woody - I think I tend to like him when he comes closer to the new wave - I've mentioned before, Husbands and Wives is my favorite of his later films; I like those mid-70s films you mention, and Zelig, which might be my second favorite after Sleeper... And there are some moments in the early films where his athleticism comes into play - it's not quite like some of Buster Keaton's films, where he's playing a nerd, but for some reason takes off his shirt and reveals a wrestler's body - but you don't quite expect Woody Allen to be as buff as he was in some of those films, or as graceful a physical performer...weepingsamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11885871104310819374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7349866.post-51394033389068470632010-04-13T10:13:29.607-04:002010-04-13T10:13:29.607-04:00Nice reviews. Those blurbs drive home just how muc...Nice reviews. Those blurbs drive home just how much Kurosawa I still have to catch up on, sadly enough.<br /><br />That Hawks film is an odd one for him, obviously, not the kind of film that's a natural fit for his style, and indeed he seems to be struggling to figure out what to do with this material. It's all very silly and awkward. But there are some amazing sequences, mainly the near-abstract pyramid-building sequences, which really use that wide frame to good effect, exploring the geometry of the pyramid's interiors, the physical processes involved in its construction, the massive crowds of slaves spread out across the whole frame. There's some grand spectacle there, even if the melodrama is pretty substandard and goofy.<br /><br />I love <i>Sleeper</i> too. I'm one of those who much prefers the later work to the much-vaunted "early, funny ones," many of which (like <i>Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex...</i>) aren't even that funny. But <i>Sleeper</i> certainly is, and along with <i>Love and Death</i> is my favorite of the early films. It's such a great tribute to, among other things, the silent comedy of Chaplin; Woody doesn't do slapstick very often but this film shows he's as adept at it as he is at his familiar verbal humor.Ed Howardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18014222247676090467noreply@blogger.com