On top of seeing 42 on Monday, I also watched Brian De Palma‘s The Fury and Luis Bunuel‘s The Exterminating Angel, both for the first time, this week. I also watched the second episode of “Hannibal” on NBC, which is definitely keeping my interest and I started watching Jean Luc Godard‘s Weekend, but as of typing up this post I hadn’t gotten past the first 16 minutes or so and the endless car horns… my God, they never stop!
As for The Fury, I was (and still may finish) working on a post talking about it, but my biggest comment was that I wish anyone working on the X-Men franchise of films would look to that film for inspiration. While it’s a film about a kid with telekinesis, the father (Kirk Douglas) that wants to get him back and a girl (Amy Irving) who’s coming to terms (or not) with her own powers, it doesn’t do it in a way that focuses on the powers as much as it focuses on the human struggle to control them and what happens when we stop treating people different than the “norm”… differently.
The X-Men franchise, even the good installments, have all focused on the powers to far greater degrees and hit the human vs. mutant angle so hard you can’t help but begin to grow numb to it. I didn’t think The Fury was an overall great film, but it definitely was worth the watch… if only for that crazy finale where a kid that was just flying somehow manages to fall to his death… explain that to me please.
As for Bunuel’s Exterminating Angel, I’ve been meaning to see this film ever since it was referenced in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and with the recent passing of Roger Ebert, I clicked over to Hulu’s collection of his “great” movies and noticed it was right there… I watched.
Personally I can’t say I share Ebert’s enthusiasm for the film, but I will say I prefer it to probably 95% of the films being released today. Today you’re simply going to be hard-pressed to get something like this. Today’s world of filmmaking is diluted (particularly on the studio level) to the point the films being released may not offend, enlighten or challenge anyone. Shame.
