Sunday, September 23, 2012

New York Film Festival: Part One

Slant Magazine's coverage of the 50th annual New York Film Festival has gone live and with it my first two reviews from the fest, taking on a pair of French pictures, the more significant of which is You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, the latest from Alain Resnais. As always, I also contributed the introduction to the feature.

Introduction (Slant)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You Ain't Seen Nothing' Yet! is an elegant endeavor concerning a group of veteran actors (all of whom are playing themselves) who are gathered at a recently-deceased playwright's home to view his will. They sit in a lavish but obviously artificial set that is his screening room and are told they are about to view one of the man's play, titled Eurydice performed by a young cast of actors who are a part of "La Compagnie de la Colombe." While the actors are much too old to play the roles now, they nevertheless begin reciting the dialog themselves, acting it out in the screening room, and eventually, all throughout the playwright's home. The entire thing becomes a smooth and fascinating depiction of nostalgia, age, and life itself.

Ostensibly, there isn't much here to warrant a film, but director Alain Resnais, who is ninety-one years old, instills energy and fuel into the story at hand, almost making You Ain't Seen Nothing' Yet! to be the work of a younger filmmaker. However, the elements dealing with age and love assure this is the work of an older, more experienced soul. consulta en linea medico en linea The film shows the mindset and the captivation of a group of people who just discovered that one of their influences has died and they're watching his swan song. Because of this, they seem to recount their own lives, realize that there time may be soon indeed. They start to channel their younger-selves, become caught up in the moment, and energetically perform the play they once did years back in an impromptu manner. It's like watching your grandparents quote events from their life or sit around the dinner table and talk about things they once did.