Les Demoiselles ont eu 25 ans. Agnès Varda. 1993. ⚅

This docu was included on the Criterion bluray of Demoiselles, and is about both the movie and the celebration Rochefort did 25 years after the movie.

It’s really good, but it’s Varda, so that’s no surprise. It’s a really loving portrait of Demy at work: Watching him work is a lot of fun, because he’s the opposite of the psycho auteur director you often see in these things. He’s funny, friendly; really concentrated on getting the film made; professional, but never neglecting the “merci” to everybody.

This being Varda, we also get a lot of shots of random people and their thoughts about it all. It’s really amiable and interesting.

The Young Girls of Rochefort. Jacques Demy. 1967. ⚅

I was like… is that Gene Kelly? It can’t be Gene Kelly! It’s just some French guy that kinda looks like Gene Kelly. I mean, he doesn’t even look that much like Gene Kelly. Is that Gene Kelly? And then he danced a bit, and yup it’s Gene Kelly.

Anyway!

This is probably a less personal movie than the Umbrella one, but it’s fantastic. It’s got better tunes, and incredibly enough, it looks even better: It’s got the best set design ever. Every scene is a delight to look at.

It’s also a much more traditional movie: It’s got a clockwork logic where it’s obvious that everybody’s going to end up with each other. It’s got I don’t know how many star-crossed lover pairs, and you root for every one of them, and the movie delivers.

So it’s more traditional… but it’s still unique.

It’s so much fun.

Point Break. Kathryn Bigelow. 1991. ⚄

I’m usually liveblogging these things, but I couldn’t this time. I was just too into the movie to do more than take a pee break.

I don’t think there’s many movies that are more… just what they aim to be… than this movie. It’s totally on point: Envision a coked-up distillation of all undercover cop movies ever, but with surfing, and this is it. It’s got everything: The mismatched pair of cops; the angry sergeant or… whatever he was… giving them a hard time; the love story entangled with the villains; the show-downs; the…

It’s all those clichés: But perfectly made. In addition, there’s a bunch of skydiving and surfing scenes. There’s not really any plot to get in the way of the sheer rush of watching pure, unadulterated idiocy: It’s the perfect movie that sums up Reagan’s 80s better than anything else.

It’s so stupid! I love it!

And I haven’t even mentioned the sick action cinematography and editing: That chase scene (on foot, even!) has to be the best one ever. It’s all so perfect: The pacing, the stupid dialogue, the casting, the line delivery. It’s all flabbergasting: You can only sit there and take it in in slack-jawed wonder.

Now, despite all that, it’s not totally perfect. It sags a bit in the last… third? Last quarter? I mean, it’s fun all the way through, but the moronic grin I had on my face for the first 90 minutes kinda wilted for a bit and I started thinking a bit about fixing Emacs bugs again, but only for short stretches.

And… I’m guessing Swayze did all his own stunts and Keanu… didn’t?