martijnterhaar

But I remember us riding in my father's boat* Her body tanned and wet down at the reservoir At night on them banks, I'd lie awake And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take Now those memories come back to haunt me They haunt me like a curse Is a dream a lie if it don't come true?

Or is it something worse?

So yeah, Sommaren med Monika is basically like the Bruce Springsteen song 'The River'. Or Blue Valentine with the gender roles swapped. Or the other way around, because Bergman's film predates the two. Anyway, it's a simple, social-realist story: boy and girl fall in love, have a great summer of love, girl gets pregnant, and then it all falls apart when adult life gets in the way. It has a co-writing credit by Per Anders Fogelström, which as far as I know is pretty unique for a Bergman-film.

It's told extremely well though. Harriet Anderson (Monika) and Lars Ekborg (Harry) have great chemistry as an onscreen couple. The gender role reversal with Monika as the impulsive spitfire and Harry as sweet and serious, was pretty surprising for a 1953 film. Bergman finds a good balance, in which he does not absolve Monika of her impulsive and egocentric behavior, but also takes into account the constant (sexual) abuse to which she is exposed, the unrealistic image of relationships that she has (Hollywood!) and her total lack of other options than 'housewife'.

It's also a black and white Bergman film with Gunnar Fischer as the DP, filmed in the Swedish summer light, so it's absolutely gorgeous.

* I changed this from "brother's car" to better match the film.

Kurosawa summer continues with this 1963 police procedural.

While by now I am under the impression Kurosawa's style of directing his actors will prevent me from ever becoming a true fan, High and Low was by far the least bad film in this regard for me so far. Nobody went for the full 1910s variety show comic relief or mustache twirling villain style. And where I hated every minute Toshiro Mifune was on screen in Seven Samurai, in High and Low he is just a bit too shouty. I did like Tatsuya 'Japanese Alain Delon' Nakadai as the lead detective and Tatsuya Nakadai as dective 'Bos'n'. Kurosawa also gets pretty good performances out of the child actors.

Still no denying of Kurosawa's visual mastery, though. The first part of the movie is like a play, all set in one room and here Kurosawa uses his trademark foreground/background mis-en-scene to full effect. However, like in Ikuru the best moments come when we go on a night out, when the undercover cops have to track the kidnapper. The film is worth watching for this part alone.

The police procedural part of the movie is really good too. I always like a detective movie where it seems like the police are doing some actual, systematic detective work and for that this is a great movie.

An unfortunate thing that has to be mentioned is that near the end, High and Low takes a nasty pro-death penalty turn. The depiction of heroin addicts as a sort of rabid zombies is also far from tasteful. And now that I'm at it: Kingo Gondo, be nicer to your wife!

So London suffered from a plague of mime flash mobs in the 1960s?

After I was introduced to him with the masterpiece La Notte, Antonioni keeps disappointing me. L'Eclisse was still good, but mainly just a lesser version of La Notte. However, L'Avventura and Blow-Up were a slog.

Like L'Avventura this movie seems to assume all women are masochists who get turned on by getting humiliated. Of course, you might get lucky with your douchebag act one time and find someone who is into that, but in Blow-Up the absolute asshole of a main character Thomas has about a 100% hit rate.

That's the other thing: the main character Thomas, who is in almost every scene, is not somebody you want to be around longer than necessary. He is not only an a-hole, but also an idiot.

Fortunately it is a paranoia thriller that is under two hours long, so at least that aspect is somewhat entertaining. However Antonioni often gets distracted and the film takes detours that go nowhere, like the entire propeller plot. I get the feeling Francis Ford Coppola saw this film, liked the central idea, but not the execution and went on to make the masterpiece that is The Conversation.

Finally, there is the look of this film. On one hand, it gives a nice image on London as this capital of a former empire in decline, with young people partying among the ruins and former splendor. But it is also shot in an unknown to me process called 'Metrocolor', that has really ugly, drab colors.

You do get a performance of the Yardbirds line-up with both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, so that's something.