Just Say Oui

Every year the rising of post-Winter temperatures has become synonymous to me with France -- and why wouldn't it when France has brought us so much cinematic hotness a la Louis Garrel? But in this particular instance it's actually because FLC's annual fest "Rendez-Vous with French Cinema" arrives in March, and so the association's become a subconscious one after all these years. (This year marks the fest's 30th, so it's been running the entire time I've lived in NYC.) I'm feeling hot, the air is hot, and the screens are hot with, yes, Louis Garrel & Co. The fest runs for the next 10 days and you can check the entire line-up at the link above -- Garrel is in Quentin Dupieux's new movie (he's the surrealist mastermind behind movies like Deerskin and Rubber) The Second Act...

... which also stars Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon and is about a group of actors trying to make a movie they have no interest in making -- things apprently, as is Dupieux's wont, get meta and more meta from there. I haven't seen that one but I have seen a couple that I recommend -- I was taken aback by how lovely I thought Koya Kamura's film Winter in Sokchu was, which is about a French artist (Roschdy Zem) staying at a small hotel in a seaside Korean village where a woman (Bella Kim) who's never met her French father works. A terrific film, sweet and sad and well worth seeking out. Kim is incredible in it.

I also saw François Ozon's latest called When Fall is Coming, which is a typically twisty little thing about personal guilt and familial relationships that get blown up in ways you won't expect. It reunites the director with his Swimming Pool actress Ludivine Sagnier for the first time since that big hit of theirs, but it's really more of a showcase for actress Hélène Vincent. Oh and of course there's a hunk on hand (played by Pierre Lottin) because Ozon never lets us down on that front. 

Fresh Hot Innocence

If y'all follow me on Twitter (and if you haven't muted the thread, which I wouldn't blame anybody for doing) I have been maintaining a thread there of all of my physical media purchases since pretty early in the pandemic -- it is a very very long thread and really wretchedly materialistic but it's one of the coping mechanisms to "stay sane" (ha) that've helped me over the past few years. The point here being that I buy shit tons of physical media -- way more than my New York City sized apartment can really handle, and I will easily die beneath the towering stacks of books and movies and vinyl records one day, and I have come to terms with that. (As an aside I have mentioned this before but I do sell a lot of the stuff I don't want anymore on eBay, and things are constantly being listed there -- I listed a killer stack of new movies just yesterday! -- so please help me out and go buy some shit to stave off my imminent burial by DVD.) 

Anyway that exceptionally long paragraph was all my lead up to some big Physical Media Nerd News for today -- two of my favorite movie-releasing labels, MVD Group and Altered Innocence, have joined forces! Altered Innocence in particular, which focuses on queer films, has been a big fave -- they were a partner with the website Vinegar Syndrome until a couple of months ago, where I snapped up copies of their everything every time they announced something new. (Sidenote: right now you can buy some amazing shit on their own website. Knife+Heart, baby!) And they've got two big announcements on their upfront docket -- they're dropping Bertrand Mandico's truly out-there queer surreal fantasy adventure She is Conann on May 7th. This movie is wiiiiild.

And then on June 25th (drum-roll please) they're releasing Ozon's Transgressive Triple: Sitcom, Criminal Lovers, and Water Drops on Burning Rocks -- and it sounds like this is a box-set? That's not clear in the press release -- whether they're together or individual releases -- but either way these are three films of Francois Ozon's that've been extremely difficult to see here in the U.S.; I was able to find a used DVD of WDOBR last year, but none of them have hit blu-ray here before. This is very exciting news for those of us who prioritize queer cinema and physical media and are you know just wildly cool people, like me. ETA wait, we now have clarity!

It is indeed a box-set of the three films, and you can pre-order it right now for the low low surprisingly low price of $32 from the fine folks at DiabolikDVD, where they have an exclusive limited edition slipcover! You can also buy it without the slipcover for 27 bucks but where's the fun it that? You're not a real physical media nerd until you start worrying about slipcovers. Okay all of that said you can hit the jump for the brief but exciting original press release:

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Double Lover (2017)

Paul: Whoever desires without acting produces decay.

Jeez what a line of dialogue. Perfectly purple prose for a perfectly purple movie. I gotta re-watch Double Lover again soon -- just superbly classy trash. Excellent work from our birthday boy Mr. François Ozon who's turning 56 today! Happy day, Ozon! And this presents us with the perfect excuse to share the trailer for his next movie -- The Crime Is Mine stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Rebecca Marder, and Isabelle f'ing Huppert, and it's being released here in the U.S. on Christmas Day. It's a 1930s-set screwball comedy about an actress pretending she murdered a creepy producer just for the tabloid infamy it grants her.

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2022

Well I didn't plan on doing this today but what the hell -- seize the moment and such. Unlike last year, where I still haven't shared my favorite movies of the year, that is. That's right -- I'm just going to go ahead and give you my favorite movies of the year 2022 right now, right this moment. Wham bam let's just get it done. I've made it pretty clear here and elsewhere that my hatred for lists and awards has truly gotten the best of me -- ranking something as individual and personal as art as "the best" within a broad context has become nonsensical to me. I don't really even see the use of it anymore.

That said, individually I do find it fascinating -- seeing a single person's favorites, that is. Groupthink obliterates the outliers and quirks of individuality (which is how shit like Green Book or CODA ends up winning a Best Picture prize) but if there's a writer or friend whose opinion I trust I wanna see what they liked, as a singular person, in hopes that they'll direct me to something I might not have paid attention to. See John Waters' list at ArtForum every year -- I've gotten more out of those than any Oscars ceremony ever.

Anyway since I'm a member and/or a writer for a few places where I have had to submit my favorite movies of 2022 a few times already I did make this list awhile back, and I've had it sitting here staring at me. So why not share it? I don't know that I'll ever have the time to do a great big slew of "Golden Trousers" awards like I was doing a decade ago -- with a full-time real-life job AND writing regularly for two other websites AND keeping MNPP itself going my time is thin gruel right now y'all. But please, enjoy this much, if you care to!

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2022

20. Soft & Quiet (dir. Beth de Araújo)
-- my review here -- 

19. Everything Everywhere All At Once (dir. The Daniels)
-- my review here -- 

18. Close (dir. Lukas Dhont)
-- my review here -- 

17. Pearl (dir. Ti West)
-- my review here -- 

16. White Noise (dir. Noah Baumbach)
-- my review here -- 

15. Brian and Charles (dir. Jim Archer)
-- my review here -- 

14. Peter Von Kant (dir. François Ozon)
-- my review here -- 

13. The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers)
-- my review here -- 

12. The Eternal Daughter (dir. Joanna Hogg)
-- my review here -- 

11. Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells)
-- my review here -- 

10. Mad God (dir. Phil Tippett)
-- my review here -- 

9. Please Baby Please (dir. Amanda Kramer)
-- my review here -- 

8. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (dir. Laura Poitras)

7. Tár (dir. Todd Field)
-- my review here --

6. Living (dir. Oliver Hermanus)
-- my review here -- 

5. Great Freedom (dir. Sebastian Meise)
-- my review here -- 

4. Benediction (dir. Terence Davies)
-- my review here -- 

3. Decision to Leave (dir. Park Chan-wook)
-- my review here --

2. Bones and All (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
-- my review here -- 

1. Flux Gourmet (dir. Peter Strickland)
-- my review here -- 

------------------------------------

Runners-up: Fire Island (dir. Andrew Ahn), The Inspection (dir. Elegance Bratton), Holy Spider (dir. Ali Abbas), Bodies Bodies Bodies (dir. Halina Reijn), Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund), Three Thousand Years of Longing (dir. George Miller) A Wounded Fawn (dir. Travis Stevens), Dinner in America (dir. Adam Rehmeier), Women Talking (dir. Sarah Polley), Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (dir. Anthony Fabian),  Alcarràs (dir. Carla Simón), Pleasure (dir. Ninja Thyberg), The Banshees of Inisherin (dir. Martin McDonagh), Watcher (dir. Chloe Okuno), The Cathedral (dir. Ricky D’Ambrose), Resurrection (dir. Andrew Seaman), The Quiet Girl (dir. Colm Bairéad), Nope (dir. Jordan Peele), Satan's Slaves 2 (dir. Joko Anwar), After Yang (dir. Kogonada)

So there that is! Go watch all of those movies, please.

And on to 2023 we officially move...

5 Off My Head - Holiday Heavy Hitters

Per usual I did nothing over the break but watch movie upon movie upon movie. (I also binged the final season of His Dark Materials and the full run of Fleischman is in Trouble -- the latter is astonishing and is deeply recommended; it's the best thing I watched over break, period.) But what else am I supposed to do, leave the house? Interact with people? Please. Who you talkin' to? Anyway you can as ever keep track of my watching pursuits by following me on my Letterboxd, but because I'm banging my head against the wall today trying to get myself back into the state of writing mood, let's make a list! Those are fucking easy. 

The 5 Best First-Watch Movies

I Watched Over My Winter Vacation

Return to Seoul (2022) -- I hate that I don't have the time or the place to write a proper review for this one because it deserves all of that effort -- maybe if/when I get to my "Best of 2022" list we'll be talking it properly. Just know it's very much worth seeing out, and it's literally mind-blowing that this is the first performance from actress Park Ji-Min, who gives one of the great performances of the year here. I think this is still being rolled out? It's not streaming anywhere yet? So find it when you can. Maybe once it hits streaming I will write more. A real rewarding little marvel of a character piece.

Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000) -- This is one I always felt ashamed to admit I'd never seen when the subject came up, but that shame grew into a panic when Francois Ozon's Peter Von Kant (reviewed here) came out earlier this year -- knowing that Ozon's very first film was also deeply entrenched in Fassbinder-dom (it was based on an un-produced play by RWF) I knew I'd best hop on it already before I'd dashed all my reputation to pieces. You can see chunks of other finished Fassbinder products herein -- it especially made me think of Fox and His Friends and In a Year of Thirteen Moons, although it's far less devastating than either of those movies. There's a lightness and a broadness to this that's definitely more Ozon's than it is Rainer's, but as ever the place where those two minds meet is an utter delight to me.

10 Rillington Place (1971) -- A truly fucked up true-crime serial killer story about the British murderer John Christie, who strangled a bunch of people and buried them in the walls and back-yard of his flat. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the man behind Red Sonja and Soylent Green, this movie in now way shies away from the awfulness of its story and vibe, especially in its phenomenally unsettling lead performance by Sir Richard Attenborough as Christie -- I will never ever be able to watch Jurassic Park the same way again.

Be My Cat: A Film For Anne (2014) -- I really wanted to watch a found footage horror film that I'd never seen before a couple of days ago, so I googled around and saw this movie, which I had never even heard of before, on a list of best ones. Thankfully it is on Tubi (sidenote: literally everything is on Tubi) and holy f'ing hell y'all this movie is insane. I knew the basic premise going in but am loathe to give it away if you'd prefer to watch something unspoiled, and I think this would reward that instinct. So just trust me -- if you're ever looking for a new spin on found-footage and are cool with staring into the abyss of wackadoodle obsession, have I got a thing for you. 

Dot Com For Murder (2002) -- Make no mistake, this movie is absolutely fucking awful. Just wildly inept on every level. And that is of course the appeal -- I have no doubt that's why Arrow is putting out a fancy blu-ray of it on February 7th (pick up your copy right here!) and that's what finally put this gem before me, as I was sent a screener. Of course the Gaylords of Darkness, the interweb's premiere nonsense podcast, have been hyping this movie for years now -- I'm happy to say they were right to obsess. It's ecstatic trash. Up there in the pantheon of so-bad-they're-greats. Get drunk, get very very drunk, and enjoy ye nude internet fingers for yourself!

---------------------------------

What did you watch and love over the holidays?

The Only List That Matters

Some cineastes are drooling over Sight and Sound magazine's new "Greatest Films of All Time" list dropping today (Jeanne Dielman, holla!) and good for them, but even better, even more important -- John Waters dropped his annual Top 10 Movies of the year list at ArtForum! Read it right here. As always it's a trough of deliciousness, including two count 'em two François Ozon movies, that one with all the cock-sucking, oh and a lil' movie about Timmy the Cannibal too! I've seen all but three of these movies and second the seven I have seen. John gets it.

Put Away Those Bitter Tears

My review of François Ozon's playful re-do of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, titled Peter Von Kant, went up at Pajiba over the weekend -- click here if you missed it. If you only know him from this movie you might not recognize actor Stefan Crepon as he is photographed above because in PVT he's got a gigantic mustache and is very mannered in his hilarious spin...

... on the assistant role (which was played by Irm Hermann in the original film). He also walks away with the entire damn picture, if you ask me. And I don't say that lightly -- Denis Ménochet is terrific in the lead role and Khalil Ben Gharbia (photographed alongside Stefan below) is incredibly sexy in the role of Ménochet's wanton and cruel love interest. But I am Team Karl forever.

The Bitter Tears of September

Finally some news on one of 2022's most anticipated movies of yours truly -- François Ozon's ode to Rainer Werner Fassbinder called Peter Von Kant is getting released here in the US on September 2nd! And we've got a trailer and a big batch of images to share too. I've already talked about this movie a bunch before here on the site, which isn't a surprise given my affection for Ozon and my obsession with Fassbinder. This is my peanut butter meeting chocolate moment! (And if you missed the Warhol-inspired poster I really recommend you check that out.) 

Peter Von Kant, borrowing its title and apparently much of its plot from Fassbinder's classic queer play and film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, stars the great Denis Ménochet as the titular Peter, who here is a man (gasp) and a Fassbinderian film director. From what I gather it's an attempt to look at the director himself through the lens of one of his most self-critical works. I can't say, I haven't seen it! And I haven't read any reviews because I haven't seen it. I'm keeping myself as fresh as I can be until then. I'm not even going to watch this trailer, but maybe you will:

The film will be released in several cities on September 2nd -- namely New York  at the IFC Center, Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal, as well as theaters in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle. And then it will branch out from there as these art-house movies have a habit of doing. If you'd like to stare at more images from the movie, including more looks at Denis' co-stars Isabelle Adjani, Hannah Schygulla, Khalil Gharbia, Stéphane Crépon, Aminthe Audiard, plus a second Warhol-flavored poster, then you can go ahead and hit the jump right now...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Tenant (1976)

Stella: Why don't you take your tie off?

You look like you're choking to death.

Trelkovsky: I found a tooth in my

apartment. It was in a hole.

I love the constant streams of non-sequiturs in The Tenant, don't you? I've seen that movie half a dozen times at this point and it still manages to disorient me with every view. Anyway a happy 67th birthday to Isabelle Adjani today! I know she works plenty but I feel like I myself haven't seen her in a movie in awhile, so I'm pretty excited to see her in François Ozon's next one, the Fassbinder-riffing Peter Von Kant. I mean I'd be excited to see Ozon riffing on Fassbinder no matter what but Isabelle being there's a plus! Here's an image of an album cover (via) involving Isabelle's character: 

The Lost Summer Boys

I went looking for photos of Lost Illusions actors Vincent Lacoste and Benjamin Voisin because that César-winning movie -- I shared the trailer right here -- is out this weekend here in NYC (at Film Forum) and in L.A. (at the Royal) as well. But instead I found the above image (via) of a bearded Voisin with his Summer of 85 co-star Félix Lefebvre and... uhhhh... obviously I had to take the bait. Man I loved Summer of 85 -- I wrote up thoughts back when at this link -- y'all have seen that by now right? I think it's one of Ozon's best and sexiest films, which is saying plenty obviously. (And coincidentally Amazon has the blu-ray on sale for 24 bucks right now!) Anyway I can't speak to Lost Illusions yet because I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but by all accounts it's a very good movie, so if you're in the neighborhood clearly go stare at the cute French boys! What better is there to possibly do? The Jurassic movie blows! Here's your alternative -- be adventurous, with the French boys.

Boys Licking Boys

Whoops I saw this over the weekend, last weekend, and then forgot to post it come Monday -- the first poster for François Ozon's forthcoming Fassbinder-riff called Peter Von Kant has arrived, itself a very obvious riff on Andy Warhol's famous poster art for Querelle, which I'll share down below in case somebody's never seen it before. PVK stars hot French bear Denis Ménochet, Isabelle Adjani, and actual legendary Fassbinder collaborator Hanna Schygulla, and is being sold as a sort of gay-male version of RWF's film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, just with Ménochet playing a version of Fassbinder himself? I know people have seen and have reviewed the film already since it premiered at the Berlin Film Fest back in February but I have avoided all of that, I just don't want to know until it's sitting in front of me. We need to have things to look forward to!