DOGVILLE (2003)

Like some kind of Biblical fable about a secret angel showing it's weakness to a group of humans in order to judge their compassion DOGVILLE is the story of a frail woman, Grace (Nicole Kidman), who wanders into the small "town" of Dogville in need of help.  I say town in quotes because its only got like 15 people living there, all on one street.  Anyway, Grace is penniless and looking for shelter.  The townsfolk, somewhat reluctantly, take her in and even after it's discovered that she's wanted by the Law they keep hiding her.  To earn her keep she does odd jobs for citizens of Dogville.  Then things start to take a more sinister turn. 

Before you take it upon yourself to watch DOGVILLE you're first going to need to gird your loins.  The runtime is nearly 3 hours and that's just ridiculous because this story could have easily been told in less than two.  Next (and this is the biggest thing) is there isn't an actual town or sky or trees or anything.  The entire movie is filmed on a single "black box theater"-style stage with the imaginary street and houses and plants and everything drawn out on the floor.  Outside of a few minor set pieces (a desk, an organ, a bed, etc.) the entire film is in your head.  That's an interesting experiment, but it gets old quickly and just comes off looking cheap and pretentious.  Next is the camerawork that seems, by the way it's always teetering around and never standing still, to be taken by somebody wearing Google Glass.  After that is the editing which is just all over the place.  I don't even have any idea what was going on there...was it taken from multiple takes with absolutely no consideration for continuity or flow?  One moment a person will be laying down (cut to the next angle) and literally 0.0001 of a second later they're sitting up.  It happened so flagrantly that it had to been on purpose.  The acting by the impressive cast was good for the most part, but there were a few that seemed not up to their normal standards, so I'm guessing once again: the stiff acting was done intentionally for some kind of artistic reason?

I didn't dislike DOGVILLE.  I'm all for filmmakers taking chances and trying something new, but a lot of the stuff that went on here went right over my stupid little head.  I did take issue with the excessive run time.  I liked the story (even though I didn't really understand what the point of the whole thing was), but it was just too long-winded and the characters too unbelievable.  That last act took forever and how dumb could that main guy be?!

Interesting watch for the braver film lover, but I think most people will be totally unamused.

LOVE AFFAIR; OR THE CASE OF THE MISSING SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR (1967)

LOVE AFFAIR has the same naturalistic, almost documentary, feel to it that I liked so much in Dusan Makavejev's first film MAN IS NOT A BIRD. At the beginning we're given a short lecture on sex and then introduced to a very cute switchboard operator, she meets a guy on the street, then we see her corpse being pulled out of a well and taken to the morgue where they do an autopsy (off camera). Next we're back with her on her first date with the man.

Makavejev's style is very unconventional, but absolutely genius.  He's all over the place with the story, with pictures and text on the screen, with an almost news footage-style report about rats invading Europe in the 18th century, with a sex expert talking about eggs and giant penis statues and then, most shockingly, the main character suddenly, nearly at the end of the film, turning and directly addressing the audience!  And yet with all of these unusual things going on...it all works!  How the Hell did he do it?!

As much as I liked MAN IS NOT A BIRD I like LOVE AFFAIR; OR THE CASE OF THE MISSING SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR even more.  Makavejev's ability as a filmmaker has grown, the acting is stronger, the editing tighter, the photography is magnificent, the story more engaging and Eva Ras' body just won't stop!  LAOTCOTMSO is definitely not for everybody, but the ones who are willing to give it a chance will be in for a treat.  Recommended.