Movies in 2026 239

 

Un Carnet de Bal (Julien Duvivier, 1937)

Last night I once again delved into the Julien Duvivier collection on the Criterion Channel, and once again I was not disappointed. Un Carnet de Bal didn't feel quite like some of Duvivier's classic poetic realism films, but it was still quite good. Marie Bell stars as Christine Surgere, a recent and young widow who fells that life now has no meaning, while also coming to grips with the fact that she'd been lonely her entire married life. She decides to pursue men who had signed her dance card on her first ball when she was sixteen years old, beginning an odyssey populated by old (hopeful) lovers, played by a legion of famous French actors: Harry Baur (as Alain Regnault), Pierre Blanchar (as Thierry Raynal). Fernandel (as Fabien Coutissol), Louis Jouvet (as Pierre Verdier), etc. You see this structure fairly often as told from the male perspective, so it was interesting to see it told from a woman's perspective. Her discovered former dance partners - romanticized in her memory and imagination - are leading very different lifestyles, some quite life-affirming and some quite disturbing. The ending is both redemptive and more than a bit disturbing. Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 238

 

Any Number Can Win (Henri Verneuil, 1963)

The other night I rewatched a film that showcased the alpha and omega of French cinematic cool: Jean Gabin and Alain Delon. They starred together (in, I think, for the only time) in the classic heist film Any Number Can Win. The film focuses on Mister Charles (Gabin), a wizened and world weary criminal just out of jail, and his impetuous young partner (Francis Verlot), who try one last big score. It ends badly, mainly because of some bad luck (as had haunted Mister Charles on his two other failed scores) but mainly because of the headstrong carelessness of Francis. The ending is classic, and is the relationship between these two legendary French actors. Highly recommended.

Chipmunk Waffle Waffle Chipmunk

 All relationships - immediate family or friends or with your significant other - all have their own language, developed organically over time. Janet and I will often ask each other, "So, are you getting in the box?", which is a reference to the classic Italian film Mafioso. It essentially means, are you in or not? - or have you been drawn into something against your will? If you're not in on the formation of the linguistic shorthand it sounds like gibberish. Back in college my friends, when discussing beautiful women, would say, "She's some of it," which eventually evolved into "She's most of it," or "She's a remarkably high percentage of it." I don't think any of us remember who came up with the phrase - or, for that matter, exactly what "it" was. For years my Champlain friends and I would always say "phrasing" whenever anyone said something, unintentionally, which could be interpreted sexually. This was a direct reference to the TV show Archer, and we used the term faithfully, even folks who had never seen an episode. Recently, on one of my Thursday sleepovers at Kevin's, we were talking about the Minnesota radio station that Kevin loves (the one that has the They Might Be Giants marathon, that Kevin fixes his schedule around - like a true fan, he takes the day off from work to listen). Kevin will email them quite a bit, and they sometimes respond online, and I'm always telling him that I can foresee this as his post-retirement gig. Anyway, he was telling me about the teenage daughter of one of the station's biggest supporters, who will share emoticons as reviews of restaurants and movies (probably trying to help the terminally uncool older folks become slightly more cool). One of them was to type in Chipmunk Waffle Waffle Chipmunk, which was, at least at that moment, the highest ranking you could get. This quickly became shorthand between us on a text chain to affirm our support for a proposed plan.

This picture could stan in for a lot of the Thursday night excellence - watching the Phillies or CFL or listening to music. I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss this guy.

I have no idea why Chipmunk Waffle Waffle Chipmunk equates with highest approval rating, but it has become a standard means of communication - at least between two old dudes.

Movies in 2026 237

 

The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 1956)

For years I've heard of Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon but had somehow never seen it. Thankfully, the Criterion Channel never gives up on the exhausting chore of educating me (again, growing up in Indiana is hard to overcome). Last night I was finally able to watch it, and what a treasure it is. It tells the story of a young boy (played Lamorisse's son Pascal) who discovers a beautiful red balloon, who follows him around Paris. So many adults and other jealous children try to take the balloon away, and in the end finally destroy it. This leads to all the other balloons in Paris arriving and flying Pascal away. It's an extraordinary allegory of a child's innocence and hope and attraction to beauty, in the face of a cold materialistic world. There's also definitely a spiritual theme playing itself out. Essential viewing.

Movies in 2026 236

 

Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer, 1983)

I know I've admitted before that I'm not that huge of a fan of French New Wave, which is probably more of a testament to my total lack of sophistication. The significance of the French New Wave is undeniable, but I simply go back and forth of so many of the films - loving some films from Jean-Luc Godard and Agnes Varda and Francois Truffaut and Jacques Demy and Alain Resnais, but also being left quite cold by others. Essentially, maybe I'll just fall back on the tried and true, I respect their work immense, but I just don't consistently like it. Similarly, I've been slow to come to the works of Eric Rohmer, and he, I think more than the others, is almost a day to day reflection of what kind of mood I'm in. Sometimes I think, "Please, for the love of god, will you just stop talking," and other days I'll think, "He's really sharing some essential truth here." Last night I re-watched his 1983 film Pauline at the Beach, which I liked a lot more than my first viewing. It focuses on fifteen year old Pauline (played by Amanda Langlet) who tries to figure out life and love and sex, and also why all of the actual adults in the film are such assholes. I would definitely recommend it.

Movies in 2026 235

 

They Were Five (Julien Duvivier, 1936)

I'm definitely enjoying the Criterion Channel's Julien Duvivier collection this month, although I've already seen several of his films. The other night I watched his 1936 film They Were Five, starring Jean Gabin (playing Jeannot), Charles Vanel (as Charlot), and Raymond Aimos (as Tintin). It's a story of five friends, down on their luck, who win some money and decide to open a restaurant on an island, both to make some money but especially as a symbol of their friendship. I think it's a bit too easy to read the film as misogynistic today, mainly because their plans and friendship is torn asunder by the women in their lives, but I think it's more of a statement on the strength and fragility of male friendship - that is, the flaw is within them. Plus, there's a whole deeper allegory going on here abut the rise and fall of the Popular Front, although a failure to take it to that allegorical depth will not damage your enjoyment of the film. Gabin is, as always, fantastic. I didn't know much about Raymond Aimos, who sounds like a very interesting character, who never forgot his friends, organized food drives, and opened up a restaurant to feed hungry children. Nevertheless, he was shot and killed, maybe just accidentally, by a Resistance fighter during the chaos of Paris being liberated. They Were Five is definitely recommended.

The Actual Last Trip to the Whammy Bar

 Last week I posted on what I feared was going to be our last trip to the Whammy Bar, our Friday night tradition. As it turns out, there was one last trip (we're flying out Wednesday, inshallah) as my great friends Kevin and Kerry came out. 

There have been so many goodbyes, which has been both good and bad for my heart. Kerry asked me what I was most looking forward to, and what I should have said is, "An end to all the goodbyes." The ones with Gary and Ali may kill me.

Movies in 2026 234

 

The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988)

I know this is a blasphemous statement, but I'm not really that big of a Martin Scorsese fan. I appreciate his films, but I don't know if I actually love any of them. I've never made a list, but I'm not certain he would make my list of top five greatest American directors. However, this may simply be an issue of a purely personal subjective taste, because I do respect him quite a bit. I especially appreciate his attempts to break away and try different things, such as his adaption of The Age of Innocence. Another example of this was his ambitious attempt to  tackle Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ. I had not seen it since the year it came out, and my re-watch the other night left me feeling much the same way: it's both an over-criticized but also over-praised film. The people who criticized it for being blasphemous (and probably never saw it, for that matter) clearly missed the point of the film. It's a spiritual reflection on the unique nature of Jesus's nature and also of faith itself. At the same time, I think it misses far more than it hits, and I suspect that a lot of the critical praise was a response to the criticism from religious fanatics. It's worth watching, and it has some lovely moments.

Movies in 2026 233

 

Zabriskie Point (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970)

I took a flyer on a film the other night that doesn't have a particularly good reputation (which has never stopped me in the past): Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point. I've seen it described as the worst film ever from a director of genius. I don't know if I'd go that far, although it was pretty dreadful, long and mainly pointless. It's hard to reconcile this film with absolute classics like L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, and Blowup. It's full of no name actors giving no name performances of uninspired lines. I'd give it a pass if I were you, although it's received a little more love the last few years from critics.

In the Pit

 Last Friday we attended our fourth, and final, CFL game of the season, heading up to Ottawa for a much too short stay. I had seen a game at Ottawa with my friend Sanford years ago, but my return visit had waited way too long. It was a notable trip because 1) Erik joined a small circle of my friends who have attended games at more than one CFL stadium, and 2) Kevin tied me for seeing a game at his 8th (of 9) CFL stadiums. The REDBLACKS are really bad this year, although they're fighting yard (just seriously undermanned), but a good time was had by all. One end of the stadium was missing, replaced by a huge pit. We thought that maybe they were expanding the stadium (it only held 25,000, which is not the smallest CFL stadium, but pretty close), but instead they removed 2500 seats (still not the smallest CFL stadium at 22,500, but getting closer), but instead they're carving off the space for a new arena for the women's hockey team. One of the things about seeing a game in Ottawa, which is cool, is that they are very mindful of the space in a beautiful downtown so they're not tearing anything down to build parking lots (how Sanford and I ever found a place to park last time is a mystery lost to time). Anyway, the space for the new women's hockey arena (and I'm glad they are getting one) had to come from somewhere. It left a huge pit just beyond one of the endzones, and kicks would fairly routinely clear the fence and enter the pit, the ball disappearing.

When a kick would sale over the wall the crowd could cheer, but if a kick would hit the wall and bounce back the crowd would boo. Like I said, the REDBLACKS are pretty bad, so the fans were looking for something to cheer.

If a ball would disappear, the scoreboard would lead a chant of "In . . . The . . . Pit," followed by a song called "in the pit."  Classic CFL.

Movies in 2026 232

 

Pepe le moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937)

The Criterion Channel is currently featuring a Julien Duvivier collection right now, which gave me a chance to rewatch his brilliant and highly influential 1937 film Pepe le moko, one of the highlights of the French poetic realism movement (several other examples of which were featured earlier this year). It stars the immortal Jean Gabin, which is really all you'd ever need to know if you're deciding whether to watch a film or not. He's a French criminal who would really love to get back to Paris, but he's trapped in the winding backstreets of the Algiers casbah. As long as he's ensconced there he's safe, but if he's drawn out then things get much more dangerous. His life is made much more difficult by Inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux), who lives in the casbah, and who Pepe knows he should kill, but who he lets live because of his peculiar code of honor - and also because of the two women competing for his attention, Gaby (played by Mireille Balin, whose real life story would make a great novel about France's complicated relationship to World War II) and Ines (Line Noro). Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 231

 

Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2007)

The other night I was finally able to convince Janet to watch Craig Gillespie's wonderful 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl. I had been pushing it for a while, but after Janet and her friend Jana watched Project Hail Mary the other night she was in the mood for another Ryan Gosling movie. I am always wont to opine that it was Lars and the Real Girl that convinced me that Ryan Gosling is actually a very good actor, and I'll stick with that. It really is a great movie, and one that I didn't bother to watch in the theaters because I, thankfully incorrectly, thought that it looked like a one note sex comedy. It's actually a layered film about loss and love and community. It's also a film that makes me cry every time. Gosling gives a wonderful performance, totally against type, as the bumbling and painfully introverted Lars. Patricia Clarkson (who I believe knows a good script better than any actor alive today) gives a lovely performance as Dr. Dagmar Berman, who helps hold everything together. Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider play Lars's sister-in-law Karin and her husband Gus (and in many ways the film is as much about Gus's story arc as it is about Lars's). Kelli Garner is funny and heartbreaking as Lars's would-be girlfriend Margo, and my students (I routinely showed this film in class when we discussed Feminist and Queer theory) rooted for Lars and Margo so hard. It's only sad when I think that Gillespie never came even remotely close to directing a film this good ever again. Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 230

 

Carita de Cielo (Jose Diaz Morales, 1947)

I blew through the Criterion Channel's Rumberas collection (again, that odd, but utterly enjoyable, mishmash of film noir, social commentary, and off the chart musical) when I watched Jose Diaz Morales's 1947 movie Carita de Cielo. It starred Maria Elena Marques and Antonio Badu, although it's mainly, and rightly, known for being Ninon Sevilla's (the greatest star of Rumberas films) first movie. She has two illogical in regards to the plot - but amazing - dance routines. It's amazing how sexually charged her performances were, utterly unlike anything you would have seen in US films at the same time (or for years to come). Beyond her performance the film is forgettable, and it doesn't have any of the social commentary which sparks the other Rumberas films in the collection. Still, it's Ninon Sevilla, FFS, so you might give it a watch.