Monday, September 5, 2022

X



X is the first Ti West film that I didn’t completely dislike. I don’t think he’s a bad filmmaker and I don’t mean to sound so negative but every time I’m done watching one of his films it feels as if I've watched a "sketch" of something that isn’t finished. His work is just boring to me. X was at least fun and had a solid performance from Mia Goth who I am usually a fan of. I guess you can allow X to be just fun if you don’t want to over-analyze things but my brain has a hard time not doing that.

This is one of those projects where the director is clearly paying homage to an obvious specific classic (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) yet downplays it at the same time.

It's funny, because when I framed that up, I wasn't framing that being like, "We're gonna do a [Texas Chainsaw Massacre] - Ti West, btlnews.com


But like - what else would shots like this be in reference to??


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / X

Or this??


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / X


Instead of a group of young Texans in a van on a road trip through the backroads of the lone star state (TCM), we follow a group of Texans in a van on their way to make a porn in hopes of capitalizing on the home video market. There’s also a separate-yet-connected subplot that sets us up for the film’s soon to be released prequel; Pearl. For those looking for an elevator pitch type of a headline - X is essentially Boogie Nights meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

It’s not like Ti West doesn’t acknowledge The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it’s influence on the horror genre but there’s this almost cat-like dodging of admitting a direct influence. West’s semi-regular cinematographer Elliot Rocket (who shot X) even worked with Tobe Hooper on Crocodile!! There’s even an incidental homage to that...


Crocodile / X


This has to a troll on some level, right?


To me, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is at the top of the great slasher movies of all time, and X obviously takes place in Texas and they're in a van and whatever - Ti West, ruemorge.makedonuts.ca


I don’t know why directors do this. Perhaps it’s a little inside game they play with themselves. Or maybe the references are so obvious that they’re sick & tired of answering the same obvious questions over & over on their tiring press runs.

Either way, Tobe Hooper’s DNA is all over this film. What’s interesting is that the visual references to TCM aren’t even so much in the gruesome parts but in the more tame moments…


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / X

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / X

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre / X



Although there are some more traditional jump-scare homages to TCM as well…


The Texas Chainsaw Massacre /
X


West admits he wanted to capture the essence of 1970s Texas in his latest film.

We we’re trying to get Texas right - Ti West, entertainment weekly

The problem with that is X was was shot in New Zealand (mostly due to Covid). Now…New Zealand does a surprisingly ok job of filling in for Texas but when you watch something like TCM (or any early Tobe Hooper film), you can almost smell it. With X, there is no smell. No grit or dirt or anything else that made low budget films from the 70s authentic. It’s just professional actors intentionally overacting with forced thick southern accents because they think they’re doing a Texas grind house homage. My issue with all of these modern-day grindhouse homages (which Ti West has done before with House Of The Devil & The Sacrament) is that these filmmakers have multi-million dollar budgets which, in my opinion, is almost anti-grindhouse. That doesn’t mean a movie with a nice budget can’t reference smaller/lower budget films, but when you’re Quentin Tarantino saying you’re just making a little grindhouse movie with big budget resources and the final product is something sleek-looking - I don’t fully buy it. And that’s kind of the case with X. I say kind of because, once again, this is the first Ti West film that I didn’t completely dislike (I’m actually looking forward to the prequel). It still has a fun tone and some gruesome kills with an appreciation for the art of movie-making. Maybe Pearl will be a step in an even better direction.

Thursday, September 1, 2022

THE SCHOOL OF CHANTAL AKERMAN: AMAT ESCALANTE - PART ONE *UPDATED*


A movie that I rediscovered, because I had seen it when I was sixteen and it was quite difficult for me to see, was Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. When I was sixteen, I was living in Austin, Texas, and every Tuesday the Austin Film Society would show a free film in the university. That was really my film school. I saw this film and I had never seen something like it. I went ahead in my life and kind of forgot about it, and then when I was writing Sangre I came back to it somehow and got obsessed with finding it again and watching it - Amat Escalante, extraextramagazine.com

Jeanne Dielman.../
Sangre


Amat Escalante has always been open about the influence that Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman… has had on his debut feature Sangre

Jeanne Dielman.../ The Untamed

Jeanne Dielman.../ Los Bastardos


It [Jeanne Dielman] served as inspiration for my feature film Sangre - Amat Escalante, enfilme.com

Jeanne Dielman.../
The Untamed


I think there is something there that influenced Sangre especially, but all of my movies. I was happy when Sangre premiered in Festival de Cannes in 2005 because the first headline about it read ‘Jeanne Dielman Makes Tacos. - Amat Escalante, extraextramagazine.com

Jeanne Dielman.../
Sangre


I recently came across a handful of interviews where Escalante cites Jeanne Dielman’s groundbreaking film as an inspiration on his entire filmography yet there were no visual examples in any of the articles (why not just take two screenshots and put them side by side in the article to emphasize the similarity?)

So I took it upon myself to put together a handful of examples (coupled with interview excerpts) of specific moments from Jeanne Dielman that clearly rubbed off on Amat Escalante.


Enjoy…


Whenever we shoot a film, there’s always a shot that we say, ‘oh this is the Jeanne Dielman shot,’ because there’s always someone at the sink washing dishes. It’s a sad anecdote but when we were shooting The Untamed, there’s a scene of a woman washing the dishes and we were filming her from behind. The day after that, I read on the news that Chantal Akerman had died. The day she died, we were shooting and said, ‘this is the Jeanne Dielman shot. - Amat Escalante, extraextramagazine.com

Jeanne Dielman.../
Sangre


I remember for Sangre, one of the most important scenes for me was a very long shot of the guy making his eggs and then eating them. Without wanting to sound pretentious, that part reflected the meaning of the whole movie. That scene was very much about feeling a void – seeing this guy, knowing what he’s going through and the things he’s not able to do as far as loving someone in the proper way, etc. But watching him eating. And in Jeanne Dielman, that movie works with that a lot I feel. It’s not meaningless, it’s not for you to look away, its meaning and its weight have to do with all of those scenes. That’s why I get that they are not such easy movies and they’re not super popular but if you choose to be there and to look at it and live it and experience it, it’s really rewarding. - Amat Escalante, extraextramagazine.com

Jeanne Dielman.../
Sangre


Jeanne Dielman deeply impressed and influenced me - Amat Escalante, BFI

Jeanne Dielman.../
The Untamed

Jeanne Dielman.../
The Untamed

Jeanne Dielman.../
Los Bastardos

Jeanne Dielman.../
Heli

Jeanne Dielman.../
Heli

Jeanne Dielman.../
Los Bastardos

Jeanne Dielman.../
Los Bastardos

Jeanne Dielman.../
Sangre
Jeanne Dielman.../
Heli

Jeanne Dielman.../
Heli

Jeanne Dielman.../ Lost In The Night

Jeanne Dielman.../ Lost In The Night

Jeanne Dielman.../
Amarrdos



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