No rest for those weary from Cannes. I think I’m still feeling the effects from the time difference and just the overall amount of work that goes into covering the Cannes Film Festival, though the number of movies I watched this week certainly contributed to my current state of slugishness.
On top of screenings of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints at home and caught up with the most recent episode of “Hannibal“. Of those I will say I am, first of all, really happy to learn “Hannibal” has been renewed, and I really enjoyed this most recent episode.
Then, over the weekend I watched Larry Clark‘s Kids, which was written by Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers) and Sindey Lumet‘s Prince of the City. Both for the first time and both are quite good.
Watching Kids it made me think of writing something about the films that would make a good list for high schoolers to watch that would get them into watching movies that aren’t strictly studio features. Kids is something I think most high school kids could find some way to relate to. Not necessarily the entirety of the narrative and not necessarily their lives specifically, but I have to believe at least some portions of this film are visible to anyone attending high school. I’m not saying it’s something that needs to be looked at as a morality tale, though that’s definitely in there, but from the perspective of film appreciation, I think the ability to relate to something in some way helps further the conversation and the appreciation of what you’re seeing. For young kids that’s typically tough to tap into, but if you feel someone “gets” you or “gets” what’s going on around you that can have a profound impact. I think it’s pretty safe to say this is a film much easier for anyone to relate to than say, Transformers or The Dark Knight.
As for Lumet’s Prince of the City, this is a film that gets better and better as the lengthy running time goes by. I also watched the 30 minute retrospective featurette on the DVD, on which Lumet talked about the layers to the film from the level of lighting to the progressive mise en scène. I never would have noticed it had he not mentioned it and it only adds to the richness of the production.
Otherwise, I’ve got a busy week coming up and now that I’m back from Cannes and I’m getting back to work on some new features for the site, beginning with the box office prediction game I’m putting together to spice up that area of the site.
Now let’s hear what you watched this week.
