This goes to an experience I had awhile back, watching Summer Hours in a packed Highland Park theater.
Assayas' "return to form" (after Boarding Gate, maybe, but am I the only person who admired Clean?) fits very well into the "cinema of quality" and the audience loved it's Merchant/Ivory sense of a very material old world succumbing to the modern age.
Then there is the last five minutes.
The audience I was with, primarily well off and middle aged reacted to the scene with gasps of horror.
Then there is the last five minutes.
The audience I was with, primarily well off and middle aged reacted to the scene with gasps of horror.
Actual gasps!
People where Tsking out loud, and i didn't even know anyone outside of kindergarten teachers actually "tsk'ed"
The scene to them was almost like a rape scene. And what was this rape? A bunch of teenagers have a party in an old (I'm sorry "classic") family villa. They smoke some pot, drink some beer and listen to french hip-hop, which by the way comes as a shock on two levels: 1) After a very quiet film, this really disrupts the mood that Assayas has created over the past ninety minutes and 2) French Hip-hop is not nearly as bad as I thought it was.
The audience treated this as if it was a desecration of old world values and not for what Assayas meant: This is just a house. A container of experiences, and this experience is the most vital in the film since the opening scene because it is about living and not commodification.
These kids were not putting graffiti on the wall or wrecking the place. It reminded me of a very similar scene in Cold Water, or several scenes in Irma Vep (actually, is there anyone who films a party better than Assayas?). The scene is integral to the film because it shows the concrete value of what is being passed on and not just the monetary one.
What is funny is they reacted the same way when a maid "accidently" is bequeathed a valuable vase. Is it ironic that she doesn't know the value of the vase or that she will actually use it as a vase, as opposed to an object d'art?
The Highland Park audience preferred to identify with the vase.
Oh well. Great Incredible String Band music at the end too.
The party scene from cold water:
1 comments:
that's an amusing reaction from the audience. the audience at the ny film festival seemed indifferent.
i'd say that both robert altman and jonathan demme are also superb at filming parties. i loved the rehearsal/wedding in rachel getting married - even if it rambled. it was beautifully directed & alive.
Post a Comment