3 is a bit more than company

In the past week, I have determined that Henry Jaglom's film are simply not for me. After seeing A Safe Place, I cannot find enough to justify seeking out many other of his films, especially when they are basically Godard films with less content (yeah, think about that statement for a minute). Orson Welles presence isn't even enough to lift the film out of its confusion. Oh, and Tuesday Weld annoyed me to no end.

But on to bigger and better things. Two good films from later in the week: Herzog's Into the Abyss, and I was finally able to double back to view Winter's Bone, thus proving how current I am. Winter's Bone is quite the psychological horror story. A tale of the small town south that is perhaps a bit inflated but nonetheless makes for excellent drama. The central character, Ree, is admirably written and her uncle Teardrop is brought to us by the wonderful John Hawkes who owns the brooding role. I realize this is a short assessment of the film, but the last thing I should comment on is the palette. The dark blues, blackish-purples gave the film the added push in atmosphere that it needed to make it top notch. 

Finally, Into the Abyss is certainly a lesser entry in Werner Herzog's catalog, but that does not keep the film from being a provocative piece of filmmaking. He is in Texas dealing with the capital punishment of a man locked up and awaiting his final punishment for a crime he committed when he was a teenager. What's more is that the film seems to assume his guilt in the crime without ever coming right out and saying it. The closest it gets is in an interview with the prisoner saying that in legal terms, there is no question between guilt and innocence, only about how his sentence will be carried out. It is a bit of an odd experience watching a film like this from a person who is a foreigner. There is a bit of fascination implied on Herzog's part and therefore on the part of the viewer as well about these deep south, modern "hillbilly" types. Having grown up in Texas and at least being proximal to characters similar to those in the film, somehow made the film more tragic for me than I imagine it might have been for other viewers.