400 Blows....

Saw it over the weekend at the Festival. wow.

From the opening scene in the classroom, it was like I was living in late 50s Paris.

Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" (1959) is one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent. Inspired by Truffaut's own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a life of crime. Adults see him as a troublemaker. We are allowed to share some of his private moments, as when he lights a candle before a little shrine to Balzac in his bedroom. The film's famous final shot, a zoom in to a freeze frame, shows him looking directly into the camera. He has just run away from a house of detention, and is on the beach, caught between land and water, between past and future. It is the first time he has seen the sea.

Best new movie of the Festival so far...

New film--loved this film!
Protector, takes place in Prague during WWII.
In Protector, writer/director and Czech Lion winner Marek Najbrt observes a couple suddenly divided along wartime lines to pose the question, “Who would you betray to save the one you love?” Hana, an actress, has just been given the role of a lifetime. The ensuing fanfare makes her husband Emil jealous. A radio reporter, he does not cope well with her greater success. But when the Germans invade Czechoslovakia in 1938, Hana is forced her to give up the theater and her dreams due to her Jewish heritage. She falls out of the limelight and into obscurity. Meanwhile, Emil’s career takes the opposite path as the Nazis recognize his on-air talents and make him the voice of their propaganda. Emil has agreed to collaborate with the enemy in the guise of protecting Hana – but he now controls her every move.

As his bargain with the Nazis undermines his self-respect, so his marriage continues to deteriorate. But things are about to get much worse. Late for work one morning, Emil steals a bicycle he finds on the street. Unbeknownst to him, someone has just attempted to assassinate the Third Reich Deputy Protector Reinhard Heydrich – and escaped on just such a bicycle. Formerly in the Nazis’ favor, Emil becomes a suspect – and the couple is now in more danger than ever.

This smart period drama, as stylish as it is dark, is the Czech Republic’s nominee for Best Foreign Film for the Academy Awards in 2010.

Walked to the Film Festival Sunday

Some of the sights...

met Sam at the Festival. watched 3 movies. stopped for schnapps on the walk back that night...

Snowed again in Denver