Days of The Week (Films Watched August 27 – September 2)

A quiet week thanks to a few nights out, but on the upside at least everything I watched was a first-timer!

I better make September count because between travels and playoff baseball, I know that October will be an extremely low tally. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

#52FilmsByWomen continued this week with EVE’S BAYOU directed by Kasi Lemmons.

EVE’S BAYOU came with a bit of a pedigree to it, since back in 1997 – the year of TITANIC and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL – Roger Ebert named this movie the best thing he’d seen all year. Now Mister Ebert and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye (for instance DARK CITY in 1998, CRASH in 2005)…but still, having anyone you respect put something in your bag and say “watch this” comes with great promise.

Watching EVE’S BAYOU, I found myself needing to get into a late 90’s state of mind. Then, as now, there wasn’t exactly a glut of films by women of colour. Then, as now, there wasn’t exactly a glut of films about women of colour. Then, as now, there really wasn’t a glut of films about women of colour directed by women of colour. So a film like EVE’S BAYOU was a beautiful thing merely in the fact that it existed. That it is as good as it is just makes it that much more beautiful.

However, watching it today as was the case with THE PRINCE OF TIDES, I couldn’t help but be caught up in how it got “Very 90’s” at times. The sombre voiceover is present, as is the dodgy flashback footage. Now, at least Lemmons captures her American south with far more panache than Barbara Streisand.

There’s a lot of legacy at play inside of EVE’S BAYOU – the story intrinsically one that has deep roots in the past, which is deeply apropos for a story in the south. It’s a part of the world where legacies tend to intertwine like vines wrapping around a house, and become hard to discern where fact blends into fiction. These stories are the sorts of things one’s mother would tell them…or grandmother…or aunt. So perhaps to that end it’s fitting that this is one of the few stories I have come across written, directed, shot, and edited by women.

It has a great hold of the spirit of this community, and the subtleties of what brings them together…and tears them apart. I was actually a little bummed to discover that Lemmons had only directed a few features since then…since the world needs more storytellers like her.

Here’s the week at hand…
Screenings
THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS – More on this melodrama tomorrow
Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
SNOW CAKE – I could only imagine living in a small town and having Alan Rickman drift through…
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE – Don’t put this on at nine on a weeknight thinking “oh, this will be short”
EVE’S BAYOU – Is it me, or is Branfor Marsallis “very 90’s”
THE RIOT CLUB – In a world where Lad Culture is a thing, this movie feels really…icky
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS – The cast in this movie, you guys!

Boxscore for The Year
165 First-Timers, 100 Re-Watched
50 Screenings
265 Movies in Total

How’s about you – seen anything good?