Now on DVD
Now Playing: The Beguiled / Twentynine Palms
Not that these films have anything to do with each other, but I've seen them both recently and I thought I'd write a little about each one.

THE BEGUILED (1971, Don Siegel) is one I'd seen before, back when I was still living in the dorms and trying to educate myself. All I knew back then is that it was Clint and the director of DIRTY HARRY making another film together, so I checked it out. I was taken aback by how dissimilar it was then, so I wasn't sure what to think, and only in retrospect was I able to appreciate what a solid piece of work it was. But watching it again, seven-odd years down the line, knowing basically what I was in for, what shocked me was the sheer nerviness of it. Siegel and his cast turn the Southern girls' school into a veritable pressure cooker, largely on the basis of the characters rather than a conventional plot. The girls' inner conflicts become almost tangible here, with their education insisting on ladylike behavior but their deeper urges drawing them to the man who has suddenly entered into their midst. The capper is that the film takes place during the Civil War, with Eastwood playing a Yankee deserter, so the girls and their headmistress (Geraldine Page) could and really ought to turn in their captive, but have various reasons to wait before they do so. Eastwood's characer is enigmatic by design, with the audience learning a bit more than the girls do (he tells them pious lies to seem like a nice guy, as we see him committing atrocities in flashback), which makes his character surprising. But the performance that really sets the tone for the film is given by the late Elizabeth Hartman, as a virginal teacher who becomes consumed with lust and jealousy after Eastwood arrives. Also, the amputation scene is a classic. Rating: ***1/2.

I can't help but think that TWENTYNINE PALMS (2003, Bruno Dumont) would have been more effective for me had I seen it on the big screen. After all, Dumont's last film, HUMANITE, was hypnotic in the theatre, and his latest film is just as languidly paced with the same commanding visual sense. However, it wasn't to be, so I had to make do with DVD. Even if I had seen the film on the big screen, however, I still would have to admit that it's not as good a film as its predecessor, simply because what we see isn't as compelling. Compared to the damaged Pharaon of HUMANITE, the central characters in this film are pretty ordinary, the main distinguishing factor being the communication gap between them. Katia (Katia Golubeva) speaks mostly French and her boyfriend David (David Wissak) is American, occasionally speaking French with her in his flat American accent that makes most of what he says to her sound insincere (not his fault, really). Together they visit the titular town, presumably to do some location scouting, but mostly to have sex and explore the surrounding desert. Twentynine Palms is one of those archetypal desert towns that have sprung up since the advent of highways- little settlements that exist so that people can stop for gas and a meal, or to get away from the big city for a weekend. Most of the film consists of Katia and David driving, walking in the desert, having sex, swimming, and so on. Some awesome moments though- David's rant punctuated suddenly by Katia's whispered "je t'aime" springs to mind, along with their fight in the middle of the street at night. Still not sure what to think about the film's two twist endings, which I won't go into here except to say that the hetero-guilt angle is a little played out nowadays. But the final shot is a kind of masterpiece, demonstrating the tendency of people to get hung up on trifling matters when there are larger tasks that need done. Overall, I'd say the film works, at least as a human zoo exhibit in which the subjects are placed in an archetypal environment (the town never seems quite real) and have to figure out their place in it. Would have to see it again to get a better read on it though... Rating: **1/2.