Pedro Almodóvar (June)

"I don't want to imitate life in movies; I want to represent it. And in that representation, you use the colors you feel, and sometimes they are fake colors. But always it's to show one emotion."

I didn't exactly outline a thesis when I set about this project, but my goals were probably to become a more learned film-lover and to discover new films to love. So far all of the movies have helped to satisfy the former, but not all of them the latter. With Almodóvar, I can say without hesitation that I have found new films to love.

Why have I not seen these movies before? I feel like my friends, my university, and everyone else I can point a finger at has let me down in a tremendous way (except Dusty and Lizzie, who unabashedly love this man). Going into the month of May I had seen two Almodóvar films: Dark Habits (thanks Dusty) and the recent body horror/thriller The Skin I Live In. Seeing Dark Habits first was probably a mistake, because while the movie is fun, it is also campy and not altogether great. I should have had that impression washed away, however, by The Skin I Live In which I loved to pieces. Shame on me for not touting that one to all of my horror movie friends. Anyways, for whatever reason those are the only two films of his I'd ever seen and they aren't very indicative of the rest of his body of work. For this month, I chose five films: Bad Education, Talk to Her, Volver, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and All About My Mother.

Wow. Wowie. Wowza. How much praise can I heap unto these films before my hyperbole destroys the credibility of my reviews? Well, I can't help it. Pedro has done something incredible with his body of work. He tells colorful stories imbibed with a sense of magical realism, and yet the characters are grounded and three-dimensional. He tells stories about people, and it doesn't matter their gender, sexual orientation, age, or socio-economic class. He happens to be touted (rightfully) for telling amazing stories about women and members of the LGBT community, but he never calls attention to their minority status or in any way comes off as preachy. And yet how can you not praise the man for giving voices to all of these characters who are so often-relegated to minor or stereotypical roles? You have to praise him, but at the same time you hardly notice because the characters don't draw attention to themselves in that way. They are just a part of the story, and the stories are complex and engaging. There are passions, violence, romance, revenge, addiction, seduction, ghosts, harassment, murder, food, and family dramas! The stories are like novels, stuffed to the brim with characters whose journeys are filled with twists and turns that are exciting but not implausible. And it all feels so perfectly Spanish! The settings, the language, the food, the culture, the colors... and the compositions are stunning, worthy of being framed. And these films don't shy away from the inherent darkness present in families, in societies, and in Spain. These are often disturbing, traumatic films. And so I love them even more.

I am so happy to have discovered this body of work, and sad that it took me this long to do so. I won't get into the details of each film, they demand to be watched and in my case, re-watched. I will say that Bad Education and Volver particularly tickled my fancy, but even Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown (which I enjoyed the least of the group) was great. There were no misses.

• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) - 8
• All About My Mother (1999) - 9
• Talk to Her (2002) - 9.5
• Bad Education (2004) - 10
• Volver (2006) - 10

I need to say two more things, here in the space usually reserved for a short note about who's up next. One, I just realized that he made those four movies in a row in a 7-year span, and that's frankly unbelievable to me. I would put that up there against any four movies that a director has made in a row as the best 4-in-a-row streak of all time.* And two, I can't express how happy I am that these movies are so much fun to watch! A lot of directors and movies that are well-regarded are also very inaccessible. That's not a knock on them, necessarily- not all movies should be popcorn flicks. Some movies are convoluted, dry, meandering, abstract, absurd, or otherwise not-easy to watch and that suits their purposes and intentions. But these Almodóvar movies are doubly impressive to me that they can be artsy and enjoyable (popcorn-y even) movies at the very same time. Bravo!

Up next is Truffaut!

*Other than Coppola with Godfather, Conversation, Godfather II, and Apocalypse Now. Can't forget about those four. Whoops.

Francis Ford Coppola (May)

"I think it's better to be overly ambitious and fail than to be under-ambitious and succeed in a mundane way. I have been very fortunate. I failed upward in my life!"

Francis Ford Coppola is a difficult filmmaker to write about in the scope of this project. Going into 2015, I had already seen The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and The Conversation. They happen to be three of my favorite and most-respected movies. With this in mind, I had very high hopes for Apocolypse Now (which I had seen parts of here and there) and didn't really know what to think of Rumble Fish, The Outsiders, and American Graffiti (which Coppola only produced).

I watched Apocolypse Now first and loved it. Loved it. It's the best movie I've watched this year with astonishing performances throughout. When you read about the turmoil behind the scenes, it's even more amazing that such a wonderful polished product came out the other end. This film easily could've never made it to print, like another Lost in La Mancha. I haven't gotten my hands on the making-of documentary Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocolypse that Francis' wife Eleanor directed, but I'd like to. In fact, I was so smitten with the movie that I grabbed the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and read it within about 36 hours of finishing the movie. I might catch flak for this, but I preferred the film to the source material.

Anyways, after watching that triumph, I turned to American Graffiti. What can I say about this film? It's a classic, and it always makes me smile to know that teenagers have been doing the same stupid things for about 75 years. The back story to this one (and honestly, the whole story of the Coppola-Lucas-Spielberg friendship) is also quite fascinating, and led directly to the production of Apocolypse Now. I doubt I'd ever need to re-watch this one, but I'm glad I've seen it the whole way through now.

Which leaves us with the two S.E. Hinton adaptations, The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, released in the same calendar year. I don't really know what to make of these movies. They're both decently well-liked, and the former has a truly stellar ensemble cast. I'm glad I've seen the "stay golden, pony boy" line now with my own eyes. But frankly, I found these movies odd, scatterbrained, and often dull. The denim-gangs-getting-into-trouble story was similar in both films, and I was thoroughly confused by the chemically-colored fish in the otherwise black and white Rumble Fish. Mickey Rourke was quite good-looking in his day, though. That's about the highest praise I can shell out for these movies.

• American Graffiti (1973) - 7
• Apocolypse Now (1979) - 9.5
• The Outsiders (1983) - 6
• Rumble Fish (1983) - 5.5

The Coppola name/family is now basically an entire industry in Hollywood, but the patriarch who started it all hasn't made a well-liked movie in about three decades. After making some of the most beloved movies of all time, that's a pretty tough break- sorry Francis. Anyways next up are the fantastic films of Pedro Almodovar!!!

Federico Fellini (April)

"All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography."

Watching Fellini's films is a wild ride through a history of the man, a history of film technique, and history itself. As the above quote suggests, Fellini left a lot of himself in each of his works, but over the course of his life the style of his work changed radically. He came out of the age of Italian Neo-Realism in which films were severely "authentic" in stark contrast to the French New Wave stylizations that would follow. His early films in the 1950's were of this type, including La Strada which was one of my favorites. The man himself might disagree with these characterizations and categorizations, having once said "realism is a bad word. I see no line between the imaginary and the real." Moving forward in time, Fellini would go on to create some of the most beloved films in all of cinema, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, and Amarcord. As expected, I enjoyed these movies as well.

As I mentioned, Fellini started out in realism and then migrated towards more stylized artsy fare. His work can be divided into eras and decade: realism (50s), stylization (60s), and nostalgia (70s). La Dolce Vita was the bridge between the first two groups, and caused quite an uproar upon its release due to its fervent sexuality. The films tend towards the long-side, but they have a kind of necessary momentum to them that fuels them forward from the start to the end. Apparently Fellini filmed chronologically and didn't review his footage before moving on to the next scenes. Ray Bradbury quoted him as saying, "Don't tell me what I'm doing. I don't want to know." His artsier movies, 8 1/2 and Fellini Satyricon are easy to get lost in. There are dreamlike visuals that demand study, but the next scene is underway before the last is clearly understood. In 8 1/2 this momentum works. Many filmmakers have tried to make a "meta" movie about filmmaking (this was Fellini's 8 1/2th film, having made 7 and a short before this), but few have succeeded in making it so dramatic, so complicated, so compelling, and so gorgeous. In fact I can't think of any, other than maybe Contempt which I watched earlier for this same project. On the other end of the spectrum, I found Fellini Satyricon (so named because "Satyricon" had a copyright issue) to be sloppy and extremely difficult to stay engaged with. The visuals are striking, for sure, but the plot and story (mostly just ancient myths) were all over the place. Though it came last, I actually watched Amarcord first. It surprised me with its frank look at religion, sexuality, and other such themes subtly tucked into a bildungsroman story in a small Italian town. It was funny too, which I always appreciate.

I had never seen any Fellini before this project, and now it's easy for me to understand why the man is so highly regarded. He dealt with depression and other demons throughout his life, but he never hesitated to turn the script and camera inward to take a serious and interesting look at himself through the lens of art. He shared this art with the world, and the world is better for it.

• La Strada (1954) - 8.5
• La Dolce Vita (1960) - 8
• 8 1/2 (1963) - 8.5
• Fellini Satyricon (1969) - 5
• Amarcord (1973) - 7.5

Next up is Francis Ford Coppola.