[8]
The lake is Lake Geneva. The people of the lake are also people of the frontier between France and Switzerland. In 2013, novelist Janine Massard wrote Gens du lac, based on discovered documentation of fishermen from both sides of the lake whose professional brotherhood led to a collaboration in the Resistance during World War II.
(The particulars of Straub's film, as well as its relation to his own previous work with the late Danièle Huillet, can be found in…
[5]
If I were judging this strictly on political urgency, I would up the grade at least a digit. Akin's film has only gotten more relevant since its release. But it has to be said, placing the problem of the far-right's ascendency within the context of a conventional thriller is, at best, a Pyrrhic victory.
"In the fade" is right, because apart from a few key images and plot points, I have already forgotten about this film. And, well, the Nazis have not forgotten about us.
[6]
I miss the old Kiyoshi. The can't-be-sold Kiyoshi. Back in the fold Kiyoshi. That was the bold Kiyoshi. Remember Cure Kiyoshi? That wasn't your Kiyoshi? 'Cause that was my Kiyoshi. Damn, that was fly, Kiyoshi! You came with Kairo, Kiyoshi. That shit was fire, Kiyoshi! Even Bright Future Kiyoshi, that ill repute Kiyoshi. I dug it all, Kiyoshi. So why'd you stall, Kiyoshi? And then that Journey to the Shore? You got some gall, Kiyoshi!
I miss the real…
[4]
If you happen to follow my Twitter feed, you'll know that I've already gotten a bit hot and bothered about this film. In retrospect, it was probably a good deal of energy wasted, or at least misdirected. I tend to forget that useless dreck like The Imitation Game is pimped on every streetcorner around Oscar season by an industry that considers movies as product, not art. Most of the time, that product is slathered in Adam Sandler, and it…
