Don't Think

A recent post by The Passionate Moviegoer discusses the weekly fact that the highest grossing films are entertainments directed toward action lovers or teenagers or children. He then cites the rock dropping ticket sales for films that try to be adult entertainment or, at the least, have intricate or more complex plots ... in other words, "make you think" or engage your brain to follow a plot and be surprised. My favorite part of the post is this ending shot:

Note in Passing:

The weekend that "17 Again" opened, I happened upon Scott Mantz's enthusiastic review of the Efron film on "Access Hollywood." He also had a few positive words to say about "State of Play" but only in passing. (The focus of Mantz's piece was really "17 Again.") He ultimately commented that he couldn't get completely behind "State of Play" because - I'm paraphrasing him now - "you had to pay attention to it too much."

I'm afraid that says it all

This past Sunday I gazed at a local paper touting the big Summer releases. It was not very promising. Maybe two films peaked my interest. Most of the film descriptions included words like "magic", "fantasy", "robots", "CGI hamsters", "Transformers", more Seth Rogen and some Vanessa Hudgins.

Coming Attraction

Splash

I'm a regular reader of Filmbrain's blog Like Anna Karina's Sweater. Recently, he posted a video from a Bernardo Bertolucci film entitled Partner from 1968. It seems it was a largely experimental film on the director's part; mostly influenced by Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her. I've never heard of this film and it's fevered plot is mostly incomprehensible; a New Wave influenced film with doppelgangers, Ennio Morricone music and murder tossed in a film salad of vignettes. You can read about it here and allow Filmbrain to explain it further for you ... my main purpose is to reproduce this video he posted of a scene from the film that absolutely mesmerized me and spurs me to run it over and over. A dalliance between a male and female, resembling a detergent commercial that begins with absolute silence, introduces a pop song to accompany the images, insinuates a sexual potency and then progresses from foamy fun into dark deeds. If only more films today could treat us to such intriguing memorable visual moments.