Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


August 2006 activity

Total Log Entries: 61

Total Comments: 60


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Le Samouraï / France / Italy / 1967

Paramount among the many charms of Le Samouraï is how Alain Delon is like the King Midas of cool. He lives in a shit hole of an apartment, with only a pet bird and virtually no furniture, and midway through the film you see how this Spartan manner of living is to his advantage, once the bird alerts him to the presence of a surveillance microphone immediately upon his arrival home one night. (At least, at this point in the film I considered not only how useful a pet bird may be, but that I may have way too much furniture.) Imagine how tedious this scene may have been had he had to rummage through a couch or rug or closet—which brings me to another point: he’s a killer for hire but not chameleonic, what with his wardrobe essentially consisting of a wool suit, a trench coat belted up tightly, and a fedora that he positions meticulously parallel to the floor. He may be easy to spot, but he has the best poker face in the world and a masterpiece of an alibi. It is his charm of indifference and resolute lack of any fear that renders him among film’s most able assassins, and this charm wouldn’t be diminished one iota had he used a pogo stick to depart the scene of the crime.

Full review | Screening log

by Rumsey Taylor | Source: The Criterion Collection DVD
25 Aug 2006 10:12 AM | Submit Comment


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