pipeoxide

They're not "contes moraux" (moral tales) for nothing! Although the ending I was not overly keen on and would have done differently, the vast majority of Rohmer's film is an absolute delight of sumptuosity and decadent self-reflection (by both narrator / protagonist and director). Paris in the early 70s, such beauty, such a different epoch, as if it had never existed at all. A harrowing contrast to the present. Just like our hero Frederic says when he looks at a young couple kissing passionately in front of him at a café, it's not that we ponder on what we were but rather, what we've become. Indeed. Highly recommended!

While certainly no cinematic chef d'oeuvre, VM is incredibly delicious -- a fog-covered, dimly-lit, erotically-charged work from one of my favorites, Ruggero Deodato. Deodato is an incredible (and incredibly underrated) director. The plot is silly, and there is plenty of cheese, but VM has aged well thanks to Deodato's skill in taking something straight out of Silk Stalkings and elevating it into an almost neo-giallo. Caroit is just right as the naive inspector, and that cast of ladies is juuuust right. VM is a mood film -- something you watch for pure escapism and to absorb the ambiance. It's style over substance here and that is perfectly fine. A sexy time capsule of aesethic pleasures.

Sorcerer is raw - but it is the essence of that word: it presents us with an unfiltered, brutal view of the world. It is the world as it is intended to be seen, stripped of politics, class, norms and standards.

This "stripping" Friedkin conducts for the audience is linked to the subversive nature of this masterwork. We have 4 men who are anti- heroes in the strict sense and maybe something more - they are exemplars of the ultimate cynics of modern society, they are criminals and killers. And once their cynicism - or rather, rebellion - leads them on a path of negating any and all utility they might still retain in their worlds, they flee to a symbolic land, off the grid and beyond the radar of those norms and standards they have already rejected, we see them in a different light. Criminals and killers take another form.

The 4 pariahs in 'our' world (capitalist, Western, etc.) become 4 supermen in the 'other' world (the victim of that capitalist, Western world).

Hence, human nature as a concept is nullified yet also strangely edified and exalted for its uncompromising authenticity in remaining fluid.

Really spectacular piece of work with a perfect cast and soundtrack. Gritty yet majestic.