thoughts about Boogie Nights.

Boogie Nights is one of Paul Thomas Anderson's early films. Is it as good as There Will Be Blood, probably not. Yet it is a very entertaining film. I watched it for the first time tonight and it flew right by. I read the screenplay yesterday and it was a very quick read. Especially the first fifty pages or so. The action, the story, and the characters make it compelling to read and watch. I so wanted to know what was going to happen to Dirk Diggler. Was he going to get killed? Was he going to OD? He was an interesting character. The whole film is interesting. I don't think there has been a serious film made about the adult film industry. I saw a documentary about the porn industry a few years ago. It made me look at the adult industry differently. And this film brings up those issues in a dramatic narrative. The drug problem is obvious, the other problem that affected the adult industry during the years of the film doesn't get mentioned, and the problem was HIV/AIDS. Many adult performers died of not only cocaine overdose, but HIV/AIDS. It's a recurring problem in the adult industry. Recently there has been some legal cases about whether the adult industry should be regulated more. For example having adult performers be tested for STDs and have women where goggles during performances.

So far there hasn't been a resolution. In the next year a committee in CA will rule about what measures the adult industry should be required to take to stop the spread of STDs.

Well, back to the film. The film is rather straight story about a kid with a "donkey dick" who is discovered by Bert Reynolds' character. He becomes a big star and his ego gets the best of him. He falls from stardom to poverty. The film makes quick work of his decline. Several pages and scenes are omitted from the film. There is little mention of his time as a male stripper or his corvette being wrecked around a pole. Perhaps it would have been more exposition for the scene where they try to rob the guy with fake coke. I felt like that scene is just kind of added on similarly to an early Tarrantino film. It's entertaining, but I felt the scenes to build up that scene should have been built up more. It makes more sense.

I will watch the film again before I write the critique for the paper. Perhaps I'll get a big idea? Maybe not.

thoughts about Son of Saul

Son of Saul is a holocaust film. It is not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination. It is similar to Schindler's List in many ways. Both films depict the horrors of the concentration camps. Perhaps even more so in Son of Saul. The main character goes through several near death situations until he is finally killed.

The story is strong, but it is the style of the film which is most entrancing. The camera is totally subjective. It follows Saul around Aushwitz past dead bodies, fires, incinerators, everything. Somehow he maintains his composure. I guess he felt numbed to it all after getting there and realizing what was going on. At times I felt like it was a first person shooter game you could find on the PS4. Anyway it was excellent.

The holocaust should not be taken lightly. It was something that killed 4 million Jews. And there have been people who denied the Holocaust ever happened. Those people should see this film. With the rise of authoritarianism in Eastern Europe this film is more informative than ever. It should be a warning sign, to the leaders in those countries about what horrors can happen if power is left unchecked.

Good film. I liked it immensely.

Thoughts about Standing Tall at the French Film Festival at Lincoln Center

This film was another French film about adolescent life in France. It follows a young man who had no father figure and who's mother was reckless. He starts out in a home and ends up turning it around apparently with the birth of his child. I guess it would end alright. But who knows? Wouldn't his problems come back? Perhaps he really was over his issues, yet I detected that they would come back.

Catherine Deneuve plays a, what in America we would call a family court judge who is on the case of the juvenile dilinquent. She tries everything, but nothing seems to work. Only when he finds love and has a child does he seem to calm down. Yet, I thought the film got to wishy washy, too melodramatic. I could see it playing on TV or something, but it wasn't such a good film. It was personal. In fact the film made me recall somethings in my own adolescence that I hadn't thought about in years.

The film has a lot of melodrama. I couldn't believe that this kid was so out of control. Then I remembered a friend of mine from graduate school who deals with kids like the one from the film. I'm sure glad I didn't go into special education. I wouldn't have been a very good counselor. My friend said he often took punches from crazy kids. The kid in this picture was definitely out of control. I guess I just found it hard to believe some of his emotions or actions. I don't know how it could have been made better. It just seemed to go on forever with no end in sight.

Bang Gang from the French Film Festival at Lincoln Center

This film was shocking in it's portrayal of youth gone wild. On thinking about it later I thought to myself it is somewhere between traditional softcore porn and hardcore porn. During the film two people got up to leave and exited the theater. I was eager to see how it would end. Eventually it reached the point where the lead actress, who reminded me of Helena Bonham Carter, got sick and had to go to the doctor. It eventually it was revealed that all the lude behavior by the young adolescents caught up with them. They were diagnosed with syphilis and a few got pregnant. Not to mention their parents were disappointed. It was a display of pure youthful energy gone wild. I was entertained, but I felt dirty while watching the film. I wondered if this was a true story or something someone made up?

The performances and production were spot on. I wish I had been this free when I was sixteen. It makes me recall my sexual activity when I was 16. Which I can say was nowhere nea r these kids level of pleasure. Plus they were doing cocaine and smoking way too much. But I guess your only young once, right?

This was an interesting film. I liked it for it's brashness. For pushing the envelope further about adolescent sex activity. I mean it isn't illegal to show some of the scenes if the actors were still minors? I don't know. The crowd was mostly older people. Which makes me sad about film culture's future. If there aren't many young people going to the movies than what does the future hold for film? Perhaps it's just the venue and the film. Lincoln Center is pretty high brow for film. The theater was big enough for about a 100 people. And the film was French and in subtitles.

Well I liked it immensely and it was a great film to start off my French Film Festival visit to Lincoln Center.