Let’s talk real estate. My home office is my little sanctuary in our small apartment. Back when I had a roommate (before I got married), this was my bedroom and office and everything space. Once I got engaged and my roommate moved to a new place (thanks to my dear friend P for letting me keep the apartment!), this room became a guest room and the lair from which I send thousands of e-mails, screen thousands of films and write dozens of blog posts. Now that I have a son, the home office/guest room is going to become his bedroom; this summer I will be losing my sanctuary, and with it, the ample wall space that houses my collection of French film posters. Well, he deserves his own room, obviously. But I still dream of leaving these posters up anyway and having the boy grow up in the glow of these images of films he’s never seen, wondering who these faces are, what stories these movies must hold. That has to be better than painting some Disney shit on the walls or taping up unframed posters of some crap NBA players. Right?
Well, there’s not a chance in hell that will happen, but a dad can dream.
In the meantime, the desk is staying put and posters abound. This US poster for Claire Denis’ Beau Travail sits directly over my desk, reminding me both of her greatness and to always try to do “good work”. Of course, the title is ironic in relation to the story of the film, but I like that too; I can revel in the literal meaning while my subconscious remembers what actually happened to Gregoire Colin’s character Gilles Sentain. And, if I may say just one thing about this film; best final scene ever. EVER. Denis Lavant’s solo dance at the disco is one for the ages… That shot will never leave my brain. This photograph on the other hand… I was in a rush, what can I say?
Claire Denis’ new film 35 Shots Of Rum is playing at Rendezvous with French Film and (I assume) COL*COA and then, in the grand tradition of ridiculous foreign sales agents and their insane approach to American grassroots marketing, it won’t play again until someone buys it for distribution in America. So, run don’t walk to catch it… it is a wonderful movie.
As things are locking and loading for the Sarasota Film Festival, I waste more time talking about movie posters…
After yesterday’s clue, it took all of one guess to unlock the mystery reflected in the glass of the Une Nouvelle Vie poster. The poster for Woody Allen’s Interiors was a Christmas gift from my dad, the man who is probably genetically responsible for my obsession with collecting; he collects everything from military antiques from World War II to old 45 rpm records (thousands) to old movie posters, especially ones featuring his favorite movie cowboy, Bob Steele. Somehow, my dad overcame his general distaste for all things New York (including the films of Woody Allen) to give me a wonderful gift.
I actually really like this movie, but I know it is not a favorite for many. Writing in the NY Times Vincent Canby wrote:
“My problem with Interiors is that although I admire the performances and isolated moments, as well as the techniques and the sheer, headlong courage of this great, comic, film-making philosopher, I haven’t any real idea what the film is up to. It’s almost as if Mr. Allen had set out to make someone else’s movie, say a film in the manner of Mr. Bergman, without having any grasp of the material, or first-hand, gut feelings about the characters. They seem like other people’s characters, known only through other people’s art.”
Hmm. I don’t agree with that at all. I know I have written about this before, but for me as a boy growing up in Michigan and discovering Woody Allen’s late-70’s/early-80’s New York City universe as a series of VHS rentals from the local video store, Interiors was an almost impossibly emotional movie; people talk like this to one another?!? They have problems like this? This was also only a few years into my parents’ own divorce, so I think part of me related to the daughters and their attempt to reconcile long-standing issues with a new familial reality. Something in the film struck a chord in me, let’s just say that; I consider this film one of the better of Woody’s dramas (which would reach their apotheosis in Crimes and Misdemeanors and the tragicomic Husbands and Wives), even if it is Woody’s homage to Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (which is another film I think is unbelievably great). I still believe Diane Keaton’s performance as Renata is amazing in this film, the tough, angry middle ground between the bubbly Annie Hall and the neurotic and underhanded Mary Wilkie in Manhattan (still Allen’s greatest film, in my opinion). As a kid, Interiors represented an impenetrable grown-up world and now, as a grown-up living in New York City, it seems more like a look into the exotic neuroses of the upper classes in a society that refuses to acknowledge class distinctions; Interiors shows family guilt as the luxury it is.
This was the third of the posters I acquired in Cannes, and one I think is a gorgeous image. The film itself? Well, I saw it years ago at MoMA. Olivier Assayas’ Une Nouvelle Vie (aka A New Life) was made just one year before L’Eau Froide (Cold Water) but it feels worlds apart. I consider L’Eau Froide to be one of the great films of the 1990’s, but Une Nouvelle Vie itself is a lesser work; yes, it has its charms, but let’s just say there was no L’Eau Froide poster for sale that day. Still, I think the image is striking and again, since I had just moved to New York City when I bought it and I had just begin working in film, the idea of ‘a new life’ remains appealing to me on a lot of different levels. That said, if anyone knows where I can get my hands on a L’Eau Froide poster…
Now, what’s that reflected in the glass? Yet another poster? All will be revealed…
This French poster for Woody Allen’s truly under-appreciated Deconstructing Harry (or, in French, Harry In All Of His States) is probably my favorite of the posters I own. I love the drawings of the characters and the isolated Woody on the right hand side in the red sweater; there is something about this poster that I adore. I picked this up on that same fateful afternoon in Cannes, and I am so glad I found it; I think this poster belongs in an apartment in New York City. I actually re-discovered my appreciation for the film after watching it a few years back. I talked with Arnaud Desplechin about Kings and Queen and he discussed how Susan Morse’s editing style in Deconstructing Harry (the repetition in the opening scene of Judy Davis getting out of the taxi, the jarring cut-aways to specific moments within a single shot, etc) was echoed in Desplechin’s own work (the scene in Kings and Queen when Emmanuelle Devos is crying on the phone from her father’s apartment is one that springs instantly to mind.) Say what you will, I think the hand-drawn quality and the use of color make this a great poster. Love it.
I have a little thing for movie posters. It began back in 1998, when I read an online profile about a man who packs up the cream of his movie poster collection in Paris and sets up shop in an empty storefront at the Cannes Film Festival every year. I grabbed a couple of minutes in the middle of the festival and sought out his shop; it was pretty amazing. You couldn’t walk in and not want to take home some movie history, so I picked up three posters for about $400. Since that time, off and on, I have acquired posters from friends at film companies or, due to some interesting circumstance at work, have had the chance to get my hands on a few things, and now, the walls of our little Park Slope apartment have become a little cramped with posters. This Christmas, I was given a copy of the beautiful new coffee table book called The Art of The Modern Movie Poster and a gift certificate to Posteritati, not only the amazing store and gallery from which a few of my posters have come, but also the home to the collection featured in the book.
And yet, despite us running out of space, I still want a few more. The holy grails for me? This original French poster from 1966 for Au hasard Balthazar (I love this poster and this movie so much) and the amazing Irma Vep poster I saw on the walls at the Zeitgeist offices that looks just like the new DVD cover (only huge… I have this original Zeitgeist poster for this film above my desk and it, and the film, are a personal favorite.)
Anyway, since I am truly buried in work as we lock up the final program for the Sarasota Film Festival (March 27- April 5, 2009), I thought it might be fun to have a seres of posts showing some of the crappy pictures I took of my movie posters. I need to take them down and take better shots, the glare and light reflected in the frames is a killer, but this was a fun way to spend ten minutes one afternoon as I failed to learn how to properly use my new camera lens (better at it now, I suppose…)
So, let’s begin at the beginning, with the original 1963 French poster for Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2, which I picked up in Cannes on my first trip to the poster shop back in 1998. I got this one for a couple hundred bucks and it is now framed and linen backed, sitting above the couch in the living room. Like it? Get your own copy here. More of these in the coming days until we get Sarasota off and running…
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