This is a really good point. There’s such diversity in film these days that coming up with a definitive list like this is an exercise in futility. For my own part, for every post-Bressonian molasses-slow film I might come across and love, there’s something like The Black Dahlia or I Know Who Killed Me (or Southland Tales, for that matter) that might throw a monkey-wrench into my critical standards. These days, how the hell do you judge what will last?
Whoa – I thought I was the only one who liked “I Know Who Killed Me”. The director definitely was a Kieslowski fan, don’t you think?
absolutely - one of the more delightful films this decade to allude to Veronique - and of course that color scheme!
Huh. Please explain. Black Dahlia and Southland Tales were two of the most horrifyingly unpleasant movie experiences of my life. And I had NO plans whatsoever to subject myself to IKWKM. Now, as someone include Showgirls in his lifetime topten list, I’m wiiiiiiide open to unconventional takes on unpopular movies. But I will need clarification on these titles please.
Are you aware of other movies this decade that have “Veronique” as a reference? I only ask because it’s one of my favourite movies, and Kieslowski is my favourite director, and I’m always on the lookout.
To make my post seem more on topic, maybe I can add “Dekalog” to the list?
Inland Empire is certainly among such films, if we’re talking about doubled characters. I might also say Mulholland Drive but I don’t find it nearly as audacious as IE.
Black Dahlia is just a sordid, thoroughly unpleasant treat - for me, the blend of inept performances and totally professional and brilliant ones somehow came together perfectly. I think it’s one that requires a few viewings, because the plot is admittedly convoluted, but I can’t imagine any cinephile not being thrilled by Fiona Shaw’s final scene toward the end.
Southland Tales - yeah there’s a lot of stupidity to it, but I like the way it bucks convention with all these absurd performances, its general self-indulgence. And “All These Things That I’ve Done”!
As for IKWKM, it’s another one superficially full of stupidity, but somehow the film fights past the director’s attempts to render it as a dumb teen-oriented thriller and achieves genuine art on a few occasions. In particular, I love one scene with Lindsay Lohan smoking on a bus at night as her fingers rot off. Perfect pop surrealism.
Yes, for me the least horrible part of BD was the operatic melodramatic drag queen camp of Shaw’s climactic scene. But it felt like pure camp, not applied: unintentional. ST, I may never know, because I’d rather feed my face to weasels than undergo that again. But I’m curious to watch IKWKM now, through a Kieslowski lens. Will report back.
IE was a favorite for me, more than MD, but TDLoV never occurred to me. I’ll have to keep that in mind next time I live through that.
cool! I didn’t expect much of anything from IKWKM at first, but a friend of mine who deliberately rejects critical standards told me what a pleasure it was, and I was amazed to find that he was pretty much right.
As for Shaw’s scenes, I have no doubt that she meant all that to happen, given that she’s a great actress elsewhere. Even so, as Sontag pointed out, pure, unintentional camp is the best kind!