Peter Hedges (writer/director from Pieces of April - 2003) has his handheld, sort of verité style, with plenty of room for great work by Julia Roberts and his real life son, Lucas Hedges Lucas Hedges plays Ben, the son of Roberts, a recovering drug addict. There a fascinating  web of lying (by Roberts character as well). Lucas Hedges downplays some of the drug addition tropes and clichés and that’s refreshing. He is a fine actor and that confidence comes through. There’s more meat on the bone for Julia Roberts and her full range of emotions are on display. Ben

Shot simultaneously with 1966’s Made in U.S.A. (one by Godard during the morning, one in the evening) this is much more in Godard’s cinematic essay style than Made in U.S.A.’s postmodern take on genre. Godard’s movement away from character-driven stories (though he never cared much for plot) to essay doesn’t have a clean break—but if you did point to one film, at least so far in my study, it would be 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her Like all of his previous color films—Godard has these lovely large flashing red, white and blue titles It is really

For Godard’s 12th feature he takes on updating The Big Sleep- making it his own of course with a splattering of cutaway collage-- it is self-reflexive and highly referential. The Big Sleep is famous for not only being a great film—but for being an incomprehensible plot—perfect for Godard’s subterfuge Godard taps Anna Karina on the shoulder to be his Bogart—she’s sublime, she’s brooding, whiskey drinking, gun twirling, all in her trademark heavy blue eye shadow and a colorful sweater. Like WKW would do decades later with Chungking Express and Fallen Angels- Godard shot Made in U.S.A. at

One can view Jean-Luc Godard’s unprecedented run through the sixties as postmodern genre revisionism. He tackled the gangster film (Breathless, Pierrot le Fou), the musical (A Woman is a Woman), science fiction (Alphaville) and so on—the first that really sticks out from that mold is Masculin Féminin- Godard’s 11th. I think you could view it as the first in his new hybrid essay format- though the cutaway style still has much in common with Pierrot Le Fou from the year before It has a very slow start. Jean-Pierre Léaud (in his first non-cameo collaboration with Godard- he’s in Pierrot

Berlanga’s 16th film and it starts with just pages and pages of title card prologues (not a good sign usually if you have to explain that much) Still, it is clearly made in the Placido (1961- his best work) tradition breakthrough style—it is auteur cinema-- a roving ensemble comedy, political, capturing frenetic dialogue in longer takes One example is at the 34-37 minute mark, there are at least 14-15 people talking, a total of 40 or more in the frame in one shot, characters usher each other around blocking each other—dialogue flying Literally uses toilet humor- haha, and it

The third and final film in Berlanga’s National Trilogy (The National Shotgun, National Heritage) Like almost all of Berlanga’s work, it is a political satire- I see some Altman but probably more Armando Iannucci. “No one in our family has ever worked and it was worked out great” in a long take that goes from the 5-minute to the 9-minute mark Berlanga does not like to cut, the camera will sit in a medium shot for 3-4 minutes at a time, some characters will usher others back and forth, rapid-firing dialogue (again, not as witty as it was in

Pierrot le Fou is Godard’s ninth (9th) archiveable film, fourth masterpiece, sixth film with wife (divorced in 1965) and muse Anna Karina, third film with Jean-Paul Belmondo. It is also his third film in color (all three masterpieces actually) making up an unofficial trilogy of red, white, blue splattered films (A Woman is a Woman, Contempt). This sort of recap of Godard’s run to date in 1965 may be better served on Godard’s page, but it is worth noting that for many great auteurs—nine archiveable films (seven worthy of being in the top 10 of their respective years) and

Berlanga’s 12th film – a satire on the aristocracy It has a slow start, after a flat opening twenty minutes, highlighted with a flatulence joke—it seems like Berlanga was a shadow of his former early 1960’s self, but there are enough traits here to recognize this as the auteur behind Placido (1961) Longer takes - just like Placido (nothing five minutes or more, but still a higher ASL- average shot length) loaded with Berlanga’s dialogue (not half as witty as it was in the 1950’s or 1960’s). Characters walk and talk in the frame- often moving out completely, Berlanga

Godard’s work in the sixties can largely be seen as postmodern genre revisionism—and Alphaville is no exception. It is a reworking or deconstruction of the science fiction genre—but it has far more in common with a Bogart hard-boiled detective film. Godard’s love for these films bleeds through. Godard's ninth film, his debut just a few years earlier in 1960 Godard’s world building futurism in Alphaville is really just Paris 1965 at night—bleeding lights, modern architecture—and the making of the film should be an instructional how-to book on creating a film on a budget – especially expressionism

Berlanga’s seventh film, and it is clearly auteur cinema and the same creative mind behind Placido. Berlanga’s 1961 effort was the story of a devastating one-day struggle for Placido--- this is a struggle that takes years to crush Nino Manfredi’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Black and white photography like the rest of Berlanga’s work, political—this is his widest frame though like many filmmakers in the 1960’s. This is aspect ratio: 1.85 : 1. Berlanga’s uses deep focus here like Wyler. At the 16-17 minute mark the sister-in-law in deep focus. A great portrait at the picnic in three different

A peculiar, paced love story – dare I say romantic comedy. Alexandra Borbely stars as Maria and Geza Morcsanyi as Endre in this work by Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi A marvelous opening—trees in the winter, two deer, one male and female. These would represent the dreams of Endre and Maria They work in a slaughterhouse- or a meat processing plant. Great frame of the janitor through the doorway—Enyedi has a penchant for these doorway framed shots Maria is a shy woman, almost paralyzed by her introverted nature—and Endre is handicapped only has the use

Michael Pearce’s Beast (it is Pearce’s debut, and he wrote it) feels refreshingly unpredictable without feeling unearned. Starts with a carefully arranged mini-montage of shrines, there has been a series of murders in this small island community Beast features strong early performances from 2020 standouts—Jessie Buckley leads (she’d go on to be in I’m Thinking of Ending Things) and supporting her is the charming Johnny Flynn (from 2020’s Emma). Geraldine James plays Buckley’s overbearing, strict, bitch of a mother (acting as prison warden in this lovely designed golden, sterile house) and Olwen Fouéré is superb in her one intense