Cinema loves cinema

Cinema loves cinema. It's never more apparent than when a film comes to a halt for a dance scene that revels in stopping time. There's nothing better to my mind.

from: A Bande a Part (d: J-L Godard)


from: The Conformist (d: B. Bertolucci)


from: Surviving Desire (d: Hal Hartley)


from: The Ordeal (d: Fabrice du Welz)


from: Incredible Rumour (d: Kin-Yip Ho)


aside: This stream of thought reminds me of a recent conversation where a filmmaker who had been responsible for making some of the coolest films of the 90s was lamenting the lack of 'cool' in films these days. There is nothing as cool as a killer dance scene that is not an inherent part of the narrative but simply a precise expression of the rhythm or emotion or swagger of a film.

These are three of the coolest:

from: Head-On (d: Fatih Akin) - one of my all time favourite films - "punk is noooot dead"


from: Vivre Sa Vie (d: J-L Godard) - also one of my all time favourite films. incredible precision in exploring hope, ambition and misery.


from: Beau Travail (d: Claire Denis)

(nb - Denis also created an amazing dance scene in 'US Go Home' but this only seems available on print and there are no DVDs etc... it kills me... I'd love to see this film again...)