Florida, Béla Tarr, Ice Hockey, and Chicago

Béla Tarr

What is the link between those four things one would ask? Well, it is the author of this blog. Lately, I’ve been having more time to get back to my old habits of watching films from the list I’m ever writing about on this blog. Last week, I watched Bigger Than Life, Ju Dou, and Céline and Julie Go Boating. Thursday, I started digging into one of the most epic works of Cinema since Erich Von Stroheim’s director cut of Greed. It is from Hungarian cult director Béla Tarr. An artist, I am being very careful with my words here since Tarr stated that he is not a filmmaker and he don’t know what he is, I have wanted to watch his films since more than ten years. The availability of his films is one of the many factors that made it very difficult for me to find. Finally, I put my hand on a copy of what is considered as his greatest achievement : Sátántangó. I’ve decided to split my viewings into five to seven parts. Tarr clearly stated that it should be watched as an interrupted seven plus hour experience as a whole. But I have a day job and taking almost an entire day to watch a film isn’t very easy for me. However, I bet that seeing this in a theater without interruptions it should be a one of a kind experience. I’m halfway into the thing and like many observers, the Andrei Tarkovsky reference is obvious and the use of the facial of the actors is clearly from his admiration of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The composition of the frames and the entire cinematography is outstanding. I’ll stop my description here, but I’ll have a review coming as soon as I’ll finish the whole thing.

It also means that until I finish watching Sátántangó there won’t be any new posts. Moreover, I’m going on a trip to Florida getting around Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Cap Canaveral, some Skateshops because it is another of my passions, a Tampa Bay Lightning game and in the same trip my wife and I are stopping in Chicago for a few days more to get around, have a look at the nice architecture, get to a Blackhawks game, and fill ourselves at the wonderful restaurant scene of the Windy city.

That’s pretty much what I’ll be up to in the next days. So don’t get mad if I don’t post regularly for a while but I’ll get back in full force after Easter.

Author Identity Crisis

Who Am I? Where am I going? What is my purpose on this planet Earth? – Mike

Well, it’s been more than three years since I’ve been active on this blog I called Le Mot du Cinephiliaque, first because I consider myself a cinephile and a maniac of films, and lately I’ve been asking myself  those aforementioned questions and who am I kidding with this blog? Probably just myself.

Some readers are constant and some are back even if I’m not that present on their blogs and they’ll leave a heart whelming comment. But I always felt that my posts aren’t as read as I would want them to be. Writing about films is a way for me to express my impressions and feelings about films. I always have wrote the way I want to read about films. Trying to be critical while being informative in my own particular way. Hoping that some day someone will comment and care about my writings. I just hope that I’m not that bad. In writing on a blog, my goal was to put my afterthoughts about a film and keep a diary of my film life. While everyone who writes on the Web writes to get the satisfaction of a « like », a retweet, a comment, etc. I’ve read in a sociological study, that those kind of responses are more fulfilling for some people than actually having sex. Personally, I still prefer sex, but I can understand when I read about deranged like Luka Magnotta who created themselves more than a hundred identities and can’t say what is Internet and what is real life. But I digress. First, I write for myself but also to get in discussions with the readers and commenters. Sometimes, when someone passes by and tell me they saw a film because I recommended it I think it might be the greatest accomplishment for me. Spreading the passion love of films is something I like to be recognized for with my peers.

I’ve continually have been reading about film criticism and film reviews from critics I have in high esteem and I try to take some of their talent and reinterpret and use the lessons. However, I feel like I still have so much to learn and so many films to watch.

You are the blogger you are

Earlier this year I changed jobs and the switch got much of my energy. I’ve posted few reviews in this period, it brought me to let go the hosting of the Classic Chops feature on the LAMB and my sparse pieces for Anomalous Material are still on a very long hiatus.

It brought me to ask myself all those questions. Even thinking of quiting blogging for good. Don’t get me wrong I’m not doing it for the rewards but because it is my passion and I eat movies.  But the few feedbacks and the fewer time to write and watch movies has been a major factor. Plus, the multiplication of blogs, bloggers, and amateur film critics has been expanding and trying to have your own voice and get feedback if we are doing right or wrong is more difficult each day. As it brought me to ask am I just polluting the Web? I think not.

With the community of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Club I found a reason to continue and get back on my film critic’s feet and get myself at the keyboard. Also, the new edition of the 2013 1000 Greatest Films of All Time that I want to cross since almost five years now, is my goal. This quest as my friend Kevyn Knox of the blog The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World called it, is one of the fires that burns inside me and teach me alot about the History of films and its creators and actors. Being at around 550 films seen on this list as I am writing those lines, I set my goal for the end of 2013 for 600 films but I hope I’ll be far more advanced.

I wished that it would exist a Club where we could share those reviews of this list of films. And have discussions about those movies from around the world… However, I haven’t found many enthusiasts of the list. If any of you out there are interested in forming a club in that form please leave a comment and I could get us something on the way!

Finally, I wanted to express the fact that I am back and I will try to do only things that I want with the blog and stop trying to do everything for nothing. Also, I am announcing now that I won’t be submitting LMdC for the 2013 Lammies taking this year as a reformatting year and a way to put more energy in my personal projects: the 1000 Greatest Films list (potential community), snowboarding, music, skateboarding, working on my house, and traveling.

The 13 Best Movies About Music

 As a serious music enthusiast and amateur musician, my life is filled with music. Every kind and every genre possible from The Beatles to Black Sabbath while going into Mastodon, Animal Collective, Santigold, Deltron, Buddy Rich to Bob Dylan I love this sublime art.

To narrow the genres and the infinite possible movies, I choose to pick only movies that have the music as almost a character. So Musicals aren’t really concerned here even if The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is entirely sung. Neither does the Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger masterpiece The Red Shoes is present.

One must add that those are personal choices and are listed only to open a discussion and learn a little bit more about your Music film tastes as for your musical tastes too.

Without much further rambling here are the thirteen best movies about music:

Milestone - 600th Post

 As you are reading the lines of my 600th post, you might have helped this blog to reach the 200,000th pageview of Le Mot du Cinephiliaque #LMdC.

All of this is a work of love for Films, Cinema in general, and writing about the two aforementioned elements that populate this blog.

Just to get rid of the numbers:
600 posts
3 years
57 followers (as I am writing those lines)
200,000 pageviews

In the blogosphere it might not be an outstanding achievement, but I am still very proud to keep this blog running and trying the best I can to promote it and get involved with commenters and other bloggers' sites. As the increasing number of Film sites everyday you have to pick or create yourself a niche to get unique content and a good amount of pageviews. Just like one of my favourite blogger out there Bonjour Tristesse of the blog with the same name, he watches more films than I actually ever will and his foreign/cult film oriented blog is a daily rendez-vous for me.

Finding your niche isn't an easy thing to do. Primarily, I wanted review only current released films and bring some editorials out there. A great example of editorials and articles is John of The Droid You're looking For. The editorials are a thing that takes time, research, and substance. This is one of the main reason why I don't do them as often as I would liked. Since a while I haven't been that much to theaters and I attacked some Classic Films lists that opened my eyes towards many great filmmakers and movies out there. Even if recent releases bring more visits, I tend to review more Classic films than I ever did. So I have not really put Le Mot du Cinephiliaque in any niche. Which makes it harder to get a regular basis of followers.

With all that said, I want to thank anyone who came wandering, commenting, reading, and steal the images on this blog because you are part of the reason why it has gotten an obsession and a pride.

Finally, I would ask you if there's something you would improve or like about this blog that I could considerate and apply? Speak freely!

My Most Wanted List of Films For 2012

Last year circa September, I’ve made a list of films I wanted to watch before the end of 2011. For some reasons I did not achieve the list. While browsing into my Archives I found it and decided to complete it and maybe add one or two titles in the way while scratching the ones I managed to watch. Those could be regarded as my most wanted list of films.

Since were at the middle of 2012 already, taking a look at what might be coming in the next weeks might seem a little bit too optimistic and I’m sure I will add many other films on this list but so far it is pretty much that.

The Servant being my most wanted film.

1. Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1954)
2. Battle of Algier (Gillo Pontecorvo, 196-)
3. Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1927)
4. Husbands (John Casavetes, 1972)
1. 5. The Servant (Joseph Losey, 1963)
6. Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1953)
7. The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
2. 8. Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)

3. 11. Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 19--)
4. 12. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuaron, 2000)
5. 13. Irréversible (Gaspar Noé, 2001)
6. 14. Ali : Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 197-)*
15. Les yeux sans visage (Georges Franju, 195-)
7. 16. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989)
17. Land of the Pharaohs (Howard Hawks, 195-)
8. 22. Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)
9. 23. Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975)
24. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
10. 25. Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 195-)
11. 26. They Live By Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)
12. 27. The Lusty Men (Nicholas Ray, 196-)
28. L’année dernière à Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1958)
31. Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971)
13. L’enfance nue (Maurice Pialat, 19--)

14. Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel, 1950)

15. The Docks of New York (Josef Von Sternberg, 1928)

16. Morocco (Josef Von Sternberg, 1930)

17. You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1936)*

18. Satantango (Bela Tarr, 1994)

19. Gimme Shelter (Maysles, 1970)

20. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)

* R.W. Fassbinder and Fritz Lang are two directors I want to watch more films and especially Lang can come up here many more times.

These viewings have been postponed to October 2012:

9. The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 19--)
10. Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
21. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1975)

29. The Devils (Ken Russell, 197-)
30. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
32. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)

33. I Walked with A Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)
34. Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 19--)
35. The Haunting (Robert Wise, 19--)
36. Doctor Phibes Rises Again (Robert Fuest, 19--)
37. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 19--)
38. Scream (Wes Craven, 1994)

These viewings have been postponed to December 2012:

18. Colossus of Rhodes (Sergio Leone, 196-)
19. Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 196-)
20. Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 192-)
39. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)
40. 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948)
41. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Paul Schrader, 1983)

What do you think of those films? Which one should I watch first? Any other recommendations?

Ten Best Actresses of All Time Relay Race

I didn't thought that my name would come up in this superb relay race. But I must say that I am very glad to have been chosen to put a little bit of myself into it.

Originally conceived by the genius Nostra of My Filmviews, and passed on to me by Bonjour Tristesse, the concept of this blog-a-thon is as follows:

“I’ve created a list of what I think are the best actresses of all time. At the end of the post I, just like in a real relay race, hand over the baton to another blogger who will write his own post. This blogger will have to remove one actress (that is an obligation) and add his/her own choice and describe why he/she did this. At the end the blogger chooses another blogger to do the same. The idea is to make this a long race, so that enough bloggers get a chance to remove and add an actress. We will end up with a list (not ranked in order) which represents a common agreement of the best actresses. It will also mean that those who follow this relay race will get to know new blogs as well!”

Here is a list of the blogs that have participated thus far:

• My Filmviews [Original List]
• The Velvet Café [-Marilyn Monroe +Liv Ullmann]
• Martin Teller [-Natalie Portman +Barbara Stanwyck]
• The Movie Review Warehouse [-Tilda Swinton +Emma Thompson]
• Benefits of a Classical Education [-Julie Delpy +Viola Davis]
• Just Another Movie Blog [-Emma Thompson +Juliette Binoche]
• Film Actually [-Liv Ullmann +Judy Garland]
• Public Transportation Snob [-Frances McDormand +Ingrid Bergman]
• FlixChatter [-Judy Garland +Judi Dench]
• Defiant Success [-Viola Davis +Audrey Hepburn]
• And So It Begins… [-Judi Dench +Gena Rowlands]
• Southern Vision [-Kate Winslet +Isabelle Huppert]
• The Film Emporium [-Gena Rowlands +Kate Winslet]
• Bonjour Tristesse  [-Kate Winslet +Maggie Cheung]

And the current line-up:

Audrey Hepburn

Barbara Stanwyck

Cate Blanchett

Ingrid Bergman

Isabelle Huppert

Julianne Moore

Juliette Binoche

Maggie Cheung

Katherine Hepburn

Meryl Streep

My Removal:

Well, this is a very difficult task because the obvious non-sensical names have been removed and we have the cream on the top of the cream here. All these women deserve their place amongst those ranks. But I had to narrow the perspectives and removed the actress I thought that she can still do even more important roles than what she has done in the past. While impersonating Bob Dylan with so much rightness that the other outstanding performances in I'm Not There seemed pale.

Goodbye! Cate Blanchett

So I remove Cate Blanchett. One of the top names of today. And i stand behind my choices because I think she is probably just a little bit under the other nine actresses here.


My Addition:




Now with my pick, I would say that it was such a head scratcher because I'm not an actor/actress person at first. However, like Bonjour Tristesse mentionned before me I could replace names that were removed previously Marylin Monroe, Liv Ullmann, or Gena Rowlands.



The fun in this exercise is to include fresh names and challenge them with everyone's opinion.


I've decided to go with a great actress and probably one of the most important woman in Cinema History:

Lillian Gish

Here are my reasons why:

First because she was one of the most important leading ladies of Cinema. Having starred in more than a hundred films since 1912 with a career that spread until 1987. Starring in important Silent films of D.W. Griffith like Way Down East, The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms just to name a few and Victor Sjöström's The Wind, Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter,

My love of Silent and Classic Films leaded me to Gish's monument of acting and her superb screen presence.

Well there you have it, I now pass the baton over to Kevyn Knox from The Most Beautiful Fraud In The World. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

What do you think of my choices?

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a Happy Christmas full of joy and great times with your family and friends!

Let's hope Santa brought you many great presents (DVDs, books on Cinema, memorabilias, etc.) to pump you up!

I invite you to share in the comments what Santa has brought to you!

Merry Christmas!

- Michaël

450th post!

New Milestone! 450th post on Le Mot du Cinephiliaque since August 2009. Since I started this blog it was going to be a place where I would discuss and rambled about Films, Cinema, directors, and everything related to it. Well, now it is mostly about movie reviews and a place where I can write some ideas on films I've been watching. It is also a growing passion in writing and disccusing films. Cinema has been my passion for more than a decade now but I've only started writing about it since two years or so. It brought me up to read more and more about the subject, directors, how to review a film, and how to make one also.

Now in December 2011 with more than 77 000 page views, almost 5000 page views per month lately I want to get more and more readers and especially more commenters. Because this is the comments, positive and negative, that motivates me to push myself and to try to write better reviews, watch films I've never seen and /or heard of.

This 450th post is just in time to almost conclude the year of 2011 a plenty one for me since I got married and that I now have a new job it lets me less time to watch and review films. I almost didn't went to the Theaters this year, and my movie watching time has been cut by half. But I don't want to spoil it because I have a post waiting to be published with my film diary of the year 2011.

Thank you all for reading my posts and for commenting rigorously!

Mea Culpa or the review that should have been

As the final day of the Seven Days of Nouvelle vague I was supposed to review Jacques Rivette’s Céline et Julie vont en bateau aka Celine and Julie go Boating. But time got me and I wasn’t able to watch the film in entirely and afterwards to review it. It might seems a little disorganize to postpone this review but I didn’t wanted to write something I wasn’t fully satisfied about and watch a film in fragments. However, I swear to watch it entirely soon and to fully review it. I was very excited about this film that has a cult or a special glow around it being regarded by many as Rivette’s better work. It was his first film I’d seen, one of the many directors I hears and read much about without ever seeing one film!

This list of directors I’ve read lots about but haven’t seen even one film is a thing that I wanted to make for a long time now. But since I’ve seen some of those this year (Peter Bogdanovich, Agnes Varda, Georges Franju, Claire Denis, Joon-Ho Bong, Michael Winterbottom, Gillo Pontecorvo, John Cassavetes, Jean-Pierre Melville) I think it is time to put it down on paper and give it a serious try in 2012 to discover those holes in my cinephile knowledge. It goes like that: (no particular order just my inspiration)

Jacques Rivette
Claude Chabrol
Bela Tarr
King Vidor
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Raoul Walsh
Joseph Losey
Theo Angelopoulos
Claude Autant-Lara
Jules Dassin
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Chantal Akerman
Glauber Rocha
Edward Yang
Mikio Naruse
Victor Erice
Michael Snow
Ritwik Ghatak
Nagisa Oshima
Jean Eustache
Claude Lanzmann
Sam Wood
Ermanno Olmi
Franscesco Rosi
Robert Mulligan
Ousmane Sembene
Shohei Imamura
Emir Kusturica
Luis Garcia Berlanga
Manoel de Oliviera
Charles Burnett
Jacques Becker
Robert Hamer
Sergei Parajanov
Well, many foreign film directors! Each year my goal is to see more films from a multitude of different countries and languages. Do you have any recommandations?

Star reviewer of the Month

Please be ready for this great announcement: Michaël Parent has been named the Star reviewer of the month of August 2011 at 7tavern. This is a platform where I also publish my reviews.

Now it's time for this speech I always make with my bottle of shampoo in the shower. First I'd like to say that I am truly honoured to be the satr of the month, after so many years of struggling through the lower obscure depths of movie blogging, film reviewing, low traffic and few comments I am truly happy to see that the tears and the sweet were worth the reward!

I'd like to thank my girlfriend soon-to-be my wife in 18 days exactly, who always believed in me, my dreams, and who supported me by reading my reviews and being always straighforward and honest. You give me the inspiration and the motivation to surpass myself and be better at what I love everyday!
I also want to thank one of my best friends the filmmaker Christian Audet, with who I can exchange about our common passion: Cinema. Our discussions always put another log into the fire of this love for Films.
My influences are: François Truffaut, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kevyn Knox, Jeffrey Anderson, and many others but you four are great models to look up to!

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who reads my post and don't comment. But an even bigger thanx to the ones who did leave a comment: you all give me the swing to continue this nice little blog that could.

Follow this link if you want to discover more about this wonderful announcement!

Don't worry about me!

Hi everyone! I know it's been awhile since I posted something here but I' ve been at the Internation Summer Festival of Québec for a while now and it's been pretty exhausting: Hollywood Undead, Aaron Neville, Elton John, Cage the Elephant, Girl Talk, Dropkick Murphy's, Yellowcard, Melissa Auf der Maur, Coheed and Cambria, and to come Joe Satriani, Metallica, Dance Laury Dance, Galaxie, Malajube, and Death From Above 1979.

After that I will be driving down south to enjoy a little vacation with my girlfriend, soon to be my wife... Speaking of, we are in the plannings of the wedding due on August 20.

I'll try to make a post about wedding movies around this time to get you all in the mood!

You'll soon read my post for the 50's Monster Mash Blogathon held at the wonderful Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear between July 28 and August 2 <----by the way, this is my birthday!!!

Also, I will do a Redux of the Top films of 1983 for my anniversary.

Well, this is it for now but so more to come keep in touch!

... and what's happening to you all?