Raising Arizona. Joel Coen. 1987. ⚄

Aaah. The 80s. Remember the 80s? No? Well, let me tell you a story: It was the decade where you could see the poster for a movie, and it had the words “Nicholas Cage” on it, and you didn’t run for your life.

It was a happy age.

[twenty-five minutes pass]

This is such a fun movie. It’s a bit hyper, sure, but it’s got the right tone.

[the end]

I loved the first ten minutes, and then I really liked the next half hour, and then… uhm… there were scenes that I loved? I mean, it’s a really sweet movie, but it’s got stretches where it’s just treading water.

I feel like this could have been The Best Movie Ever if it had been a bit… tighter. It’s got so many good gags, and not a surfeit of plot, so it should be just perfect, and it isn’t.

Céline and Julie Go Boating. Jacques Rivette. 1974. ⚅

The last Rivette movie I watched was the thirteen (?) hour long Out 1: Noli me tangere, which was in partly brilliant, and partly… quite good?

This one is a short movie: Just over three hours.

[forty minutes pass]

This is a lot of fun. I’m guessing the dialogue is mostly improvised, but it has this mysterious, almost… meta character to it: It’s like we’re watching two people who are lying to each other, but both of them are playing along; they’re doing the improvisational “yes, and” thing, but not for this movie: Instead this movie is about these people doing this “yes, and” thing in real life (but scripted).

Or… their realities change based on whatever lies they’ve just told. I mean… “Rue du nadir aux pommes”?

It’s so weird and… thrilling to watch.

[the end]

OK, the plot isn’t at all what I thought it was when we last spoke. It’s much stranger!

It’s… it’s… a kind of ghost story? But really funny? Oh oh! It’s kind of like a seventies Doctor Who series, but French.

It’s really funny, it’s sweet, it’s intriguing. I love it to bits, and now I’m getting all of Rivette’s other movies.