Recent reviews (1,025)
The Substance (2024)
I was not too impressed with Coralie Fargeat's previous effort, a revenge movie with a lot of nonsense, although it showed that this French director can impress with her frenetic style and imaginative imagery, but it lacked - well, how else to put it – substance. But The Substance does have plenty of it! What's admirable is that although there's a very simple and straightforward plot practically worthy of an episode of The Twilight Zone, stretching it out to nearly two and a half hours somehow works, and has an incredible pull to boot. It's a compilation of many inspirations: “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, films like Death Becomes Her, Sunset Blvd. and the body horror works of Frank Henenlotter (and after reading other reviews here, everyone can find a little something different in it), and it all holds together very well. The main acting trio of Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid all deliver incredible performances, each of them doing so in a slightly different style. There are some really great, impressive sequences and the final half hour is quite simply the scene of the year! [KVIFF 2024]
After Hours (1985)
Martin Scorsese and his most frantic cinematic ride. This mad odyssey of one night in a hellish New York neighborhood from which there is no escape always cheers me up, disturbs me, thrills me, scares me and warms my heart on repeat viewings. After Hours is a cult classic that, twelve years since I first saw it, this year in Karlový Vary, I was finally able to indulge in on the big screen, where it simply belongs without any doubt! [KVIFF 2024]
Let's Get Lost (1988)
Let's Get Lost is a distinctive documentary portrait of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. All credit to Bruce Weber's direction and especially Jeff Preiss' cinematography – their specific framing, with the camera dancing around people and objects in an absolutely incredible way, adds a whole new dimension to a very hypnotic film accompanied by slow and heartfelt jazz music. You don't need to know anything about jazz, you don't need to know anything about the 1950s, you don't need to know anything about Baker (the documentary pulls no punches with his negative side), yet you'll enjoy this ride, which, although it covers a period of some four decades, feels incredibly holistic and timeless in its style, if you can manage to tune into its relaxed jazz wave. PS. The projected restored version looked and sounded absolutely bombastic. [KVIFF 2024]
Recent diary (31)
KVIFF 2024: Umělecká útěcha od únavy
Ačkoliv jsem na karlovarském festivalu už poněkolikáté a již párkrát jsem si vyzkoušel, jaké je to na něm být více dnů, nebo rovnou po celou dobu jeho trvání, letos snad poprvé cítím po prvních dvou dnech únavu jako po týdnu. Asi za to může nevyspání za předchozích pár nocí a fakt, že jsem si sestavil plán projekcí tak, že poslední mi vždy končí tak hodinu po půlnoci, a než dorazím na ubytování, jsou 2 hodiny ráno.
Nicméně zrovna včerejší promítání filmu Substance se rozhodně v nočních hodinách vyplatilo (pokud máte šanci zajít, doporučuji!) a dnes jsem měl k tomu možnost si trochu přispat. Navíc mi na ubytování nad postelí visí další podnětné umělecké dílo, jako by jich na samotném festivalu bylo málo. A při pohledu na něj mě docela přechází celá ta únava. No, umění má přeci člověka přivádět na jiné myšlenky.
PS. Pokud by někoho zajímal popisek pod reprodukcí, stojí tam: Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by the Horns of Her Own Chastity, 1954. Autorem není nikdo jiný než slavný surrealista Salvador Dalí.
