Hostel & My Live To Live

Hostel is actually a fun little sick film. Not in any way scary. But it had lots and lots and lots of gratuitous nudity. Good for Eli Roth. I still don't like fingers being amputated, or Achilles tendons' being cut, or anything like that, but it was actually pretty watchable. Didn't need to see it on a big screen, but that's ok. The Miike cameo was also a nice touch, considering how much his movies influence Eli Roth. As for the NY Times review that said that this is one of the most misogynistic movies ever made (which is actually a major reason as to why I didn't see this in the theater), what the hell was Nathan Lee watching? And is this the Nathan Lee I went to school with? Probably not, but this movie wasn't misogynistic at all, really. It actually just hates every character equally, although there's a special hatred for the ugly American stereotype who just wants loose and easy foreign women. I was a little disappointed by the fate of Kana, because I felt that was a little too "I just want another severed head on screen". I am not sure we really got enough of a feel for her character as to why she'd want to do that. We never get the idea that she's vain, and that is exactly what that look at herself suggests. At least the movie was brutally violent to every single character in it. Who doesn't have at least a torture or a death scene? That's right, no one. About the best thing I can say for the film is that, while the ending is a little too pat, it actually is a worthwhile follow-up to the 70s horror films it so clearly loves, but without the misogyny that dominates those films.

My Life To Live suffers from my having seen it after Band of Outsiders and Masculin Feminin, which borrow either a scene or structure from this film. It's pretty good, but my favorite scene, where Nana goes dancing around the pool hall was done better in Band of Outsiders, still my favorite Godard film. And while I'm a sucker for a good dance sequence, it wasn't enough for me to put the film up there with his other works. The camera movements are sometimes a little too self-conscious, a little too "hey, I'm moving in 360 degrees and then back". It detracts slightly from it. I just prefer other Godard's, even if a bad 60s Godard is better than most others at the top of their games. And the DVD is probably the best Fox Lorber DVD I've seen, but that isn't setting the bar very high.