Trans-Europe Express.
Alain Robbe-grillet and his associates sit on a train and begin to discuss ideas for a new film. As they begin to formulate an idea for a crime film the film cuts back and forth to the film they are plotting. At points the film and 'reality' intersect. Jean-louis Trintingant in character enters the carriage and they acknowledge him.
The film takes the traditional structure and formula of the crime movie and dissects it with far more skill and intelligence than the massively overrated A bout de souffle. Plot points and character motivation change as the film progresses and the team back-track over stuff thats illogical. A really sadean streak runs through the film as well with Trintignant's character and his femme fatale mistress.
I have to confess to not having come across Robbe-grillet's stuff before. I'm glad I did as he's really quite a marvelous film-maker.
Successive slidings of pleasure.
A young woman is suspected of murdering her roommate. She's taken into custody into a convent. There she is interrogated and begins to use her wiles to seduce her captors. The film seems stuck inside the main characters head. Given that the main character seems to be a lying sadist the film plays as some kind of dark sadean nightmare that flashes back and forth through time and has some genuinely weird and perverse imagery and ideas. In many respects its a world away from the deconstructive black and white world of Trans-europe, yet its themes and imagery mark it as the work of the same director. I suppose its arguable that the film deconstructs the murder mystery from within the psyche of the suspect so in that respect its approach has some similarities to trans-europe.
Really glad I picked these films up. Given Tim Lucas has been working on some audio commentaries for the BFI set, I will most likely double dip.
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