Weekend Film Review

This past weekend I was more or less bedridden. Not the best of feelings. No early morning runs. No chance to go out and see any of the Films at the Indianapolis International Film Festival. No Crew game on TV. Colds suck.

However, I did watch two movies during this time. Bob Le Flambeur and amazingly also The Man.

First to Bob Le Flambeur, this movie is phenomenal. In the Jean Luc-Godard bio that I am reading there is a small mention of the director Jean-Pierre Melville as an influence on Godard. It's of course true, as Godard even gave Melville an extended cameo in Breathless. Bob Le Flambeur tells the story of a gambler who plans an enormous heist on Grand Prix Day at a casino in Paris. There are many striking similarities between this and later heist movies like Ocean's Eleven. While watching this I thought this film either directly or indirectly influenced a great amount of films I love. At times comedic, at times noir-ish, this is a just a great film. Some have complained that Bob's character is too cold to relate too, but I didn't see that at all. We still have this at home via Netflix and I hope to watch it with my roomate when he sees it before we send it back. this is also going on a wish list for DVD's to own. Fantastic stuff.

The Man, well sometimes you just need a dumb comedy. And truth told, even though my roomate told me before that he liked this movie I still was skeptical when he brought it back from the video store. That said, company was over, popcorn was made and Evan Williams Bourbon in the glass I decided to watch it. Truth told I laughed much more than I anticipated. Sure it's a pointless film. It's not important in the grand scheme of anything. But, you could just got the feeling these guys had a good time making this movie and it showed. I really don't have much to say about this other than that. I guess I just have a little blurb here so the record can show I do watch films other than French New Wave or Criterion Collection. Sure I am a snob, but even snobs need a break every once in a while.