Euphoria #7
“There are so many bits in ‘Boogie Nights’ that do it for me but
…how about the ‘Modern Love’ bit from ‘Mauvais Sang’?”
This example of Cinema Euphoria comes from Leos Carax’ MAUVAIS SANG and is the suggestion of genius comedy writer Graham Linehan (everybody in the UK knows FATHER TED, and the masses are now catching on to his current hit THE I.T. CROWD, but those of you elsewhere in the world, check ’em out! T.V. Euphoria awaits.)
Graham was super enough to plug this blog on his blog, with the result that my stats went through the roof. I hope some of you newbies will stick around and maybe even nominate some euphoric moments of your own.
Anyhow, it’s been generations since I saw Carax’s flick, but nobody who has can forget this delirious moment. Graham wrote:
“I love everything Carax has done with the exception of Pola X (or as I call it, ‘Pola eccch’).
MS is pretentious from time to time but it has moments that just make my heart THUMP inside my chest, Modern Love is just one of many.
No, my official vote is for when the baby comes round the corner with Alex in the same film.”
Since I don’t have a copy of the movie here, but some thoughtful person had already posted Modern Love on VousTube, that’s the clip I’ve embedded. Time I resaw this film.
Seeing Denis Lavant move about in a celebratory fashion (to use a phrase from Colin McLaren) will doubtless remind many of you of THIS (which is my addition, not Mr. Linehan’s):
Two-for-one Euphoria at Shadowplay!
Striking how many euphoric movie memories involve various forms of dance, a medium modern filmmakers have tended to either neglect or screw up hideously (Lars Von Trier, I’m talking about YOU), but which, addressed properly and with sensitivity, seems to have the greatest capacity for injecting happiness directly into the viewer’s heart, sort of like Travolta does to Uma in PULP FICTION, but in a more caring way.
Keep ’em coming!
shadowplay 
January 3, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Please please include Anna Karina’s dance in Vivre Sa Vie. Which never fails to fill me with joy. Just look at her face!!!
January 3, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Ah, JLG and AK were great dance partners.
OK, I’ll DO IT. Watch out for a piece tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by.
January 3, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Adore Leos Carax! Yes, even “Pola X” (which stands for “Pierre ou les ambiguities — Tenth Draft”) His “Les Amants du Pont-Neuf” is an absolute masterpeice, and he’s very entertaining in Godard’s ultra-bizarre “King Lear.”
I do hope he gets another crack at filmmaking.
January 3, 2008 at 7:41 pm
You’d think the French would give him another shot.
I haven’t seen Godard’s LEAR but I was amused by Molly Ringwald’s perplexity when she discussed it later in interviews. I suspect the folks at Cannon were pretty baffled too!
January 4, 2008 at 3:34 pm
It’s very funny. Godard is more bizarre than ever in it and the now-unavoidable Julie Delpy is charmant.
The first time I met Leos Carax was during the press tour for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He was trailing after Juliette Binoche like a small whipped puppy dog. No one had any idea iof who he was except me. A few years later I ran into him in the lobby of the Chateua Marmont (where else?) and he invited me to a special screening he was having that night of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf in the big theater at Universal. Every so often I run into him at Book Soup on Sunset. he is perpetually triste.
January 4, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Aw! Somebody needs to cheer him up and give him a movie. In that, we’re not so different.