A strange follow up to Summer Hours in my Assayas double feature, Boarding Gate, which was released the year before Summer Hours, feels like it was made decades apart from Assayas’ next film. While I didn’t come close to liking this as much as Summer Hours, I did appreciate it, and thought it was good for its genre(s). There are two, centerpiece conversations between Asia Argento and Michael Madsen that are great to watch, mainly because Argento is so good in the scenes, and Madsen is able to prevent himself from distracting from her. A couple of times during the first scene between the two, when the Argento first appears, I thought of the audition scene from Mulholland Dr. ‘Acting is reacting’ I said to myself. Argento reacts amazingly. Madsen is Madsen. spoiler I was glad when his brains got blown out..end spoiler.
I am catching on that Assayas thinks globally in his work. Characters escape trouble, hopping from country to country, and there are characters in the film that flip flop from speaking one language to another who I couldn’t believe spoke the languages they were speaking (and some should’ve stuck to one language). The film also seems to flip flop from genre to genre, and it seems divided into very distinct chunks that are nothing like the rest of the film. The film is worst when it felt like I was watching an episode of CSI and best when Argento speaks for a long time. I look forward to Late August, Early September for more delicious seasonal studies.
I’ve been meaning to revisit Late August Early September, as it’s the only Assayas film I took nothing from. And I’m DYING to see L’Eau froide which is a real pain in the ass to get ahold of.