This is one of those iconic films that manages to come to the attention of pretty much anyone interested in film. It's been on my radar since my adolescence, when it was always conspicuously prominent for some reason at the local movie rental place. Maybe it wasn't conspicuous and I just gravitated toward it? I don't know. But as an adolescent, I knew I couldn't ask to rent it and by the time I was in my teens it just seemed intimidating.

I finally decided to stream it this morning, though, after almost watching it yesterday afternoon. Typically, I prefer to watch amoral films about sexuality later at night, but since the premise of this one is that Séverine is a daytime prostitute, it seemed appropriate to watch during the daylight hours.

There's quite a lot here to enjoy and appreciate. There are several surprises throughout, including that jarring first scene. Initially, I thought perhaps it was going to be one of those things where the film starts at the present and then jumps backward to explain how we got there. I was somewhat relieved when it turned out to be a sordid daydream. That set the tone for the rest of the film, and I was mostly satisfied with its consistency.

[By far the, strangest scene has to be the older guy who hires her to lie in a coffin as his deceased daughter. Seriously: WTAF?!]

I enjoyed the performances, too. Every person in the film felt authentic; Catherine Deneuve is rightly praised for her terrific turn as Séverine. Whole volumes of praise have been written about her work here, and I'll defer to those. I will say that what I appreciated most is the subtlety of her performance. Her surreptitious facial reactions and her body language imbue the character and the film with a great deal of depth.

One of the hardest things about adapting literary work to film is that interior thoughts are very difficult to put on screen. Really, the only way is through voiceover and that's often a very cumbersome technique. Deneuve's performance here stops just short of narrating Séverine's internal thoughts while still conveying them. We know what she's thinking and feeling, but only because we're in on it with her. It's the voyeuristic equivalent of sharing an in-joke in front of other people.

I also particularly enjoyed Pierre Clémenti as Marcel; simmering in every shot, imposing yet captivating. Credit also to Geneviéve Page for her meticulous and cool Madame Anaïs. Even when she's off-screen, she sets the tone for everything at the brothel, and by extension, the entire film.

Despite some rich characters and several genuine surprises along the way, <I>Belle de jour</I> suffers in the end from feels like a rushed finale. We're headed toward problems with Marcel all along, and he's clearly a bad apple, but shooting Pierre and then being shot himself? It happens so quickly that it feels as though we're now mindful of the clock and need to wrap things up. It's not even the sequence itself that's the matter for me so much as the editing. It's unclear whether Marcel knew Pierre would come by soon, or if it was a crime of convenience. It's too abrupt and tidy for my liking, particularly after the first hour and a half was spent exploring things so off the beaten path.

I also feel a bit cheated out of the story of Séverine & Pierre's relationship. I feel that too much was told, not shown. Séverine appears frigid, but why? What is the basis of their relationship? It's clearly not sex, so what then? It would have given me a greater sense of the context of Séverine's self-exploration had I better understood her life before we meet her - and if we'd checked in more intimately on her and Pierre throughout the film.

I rarely think of how to recast a film and rarer still do I think of such things while watching, but this time through I couldn't help but come up with some contemporary cast choices:

Séverine Serizy - Jeri Ryan
Pierre Serizy - James Marsden
Madame Anaïs - Samantha Bond
Marcel - Cillian Murphy or Benicio del Toro

My mom's brother, my Uncle Stuart, drowned as a teen a few years before I was born. Growing up, I heard often that I was a lot like him in personality and in interests. A few years ago, my grandfather cleared out a crate remaining at his house containing my uncle's record library. I didn't get the records; I'm too low on the totem pole for that. But I did go through and write down a list of every album he left behind and it's been a goal of mine to listen to all of those albums to see what I might learn about him through his taste in music.

The two bands most heavily represented in his library were The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. I've heard he loved them both, but favored the Stones. I grew up without a lot of exposure to the Stones. Mom listened to the oldies station, but in my youth they focused on the music of the 50s and early 60s. I was introduced to "Paint It, Black" in the 80s because it was used for the opening credits of the TV show, <I>Tour of Duty</I>. My dad, a Vietnam veteran, watched it. By then I wasn't really going for the biweekly visitations very often so even that exposure was minimal.

That's pretty much the context in which I came to this documentary, which I checked out on Criterion DVD from the Oldham County Public Library this afternoon. Directors David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwern kept the narrative focused and engaging. A lot of music docs kind of meander, often unsure how to balance on-stage performance footage with behind-the-stage moments of candor. <I>Gimme Shelter</I> is not harangued by those uncertainties. From start to finish, this doc is concerned exclusively with the frenzy that erupted at the free show at the Altamont Speedway that culminated in the stabbing death of a concert-goer at the hands of a Hells Angel.

The editing is taut, the footage candid and <I>Gimme Shelter</I> never stumbles. It's one of those perfect zeitgeist works. Even without the unfortunate notoriety of the killing, the kind of access afforded the filmmakers ensured that this was going to be a fascinating look at not just a popular rock band on a hot tour, but a microcosm of the entire counterculture movement. The montage of the audience waiting for the show to begin suggests that the full footage could easily constitute an intriguing film all its own. (A woman gave birth, for crying out loud!)

I came away from <I>Gimme Shelter</I> with a much greater understanding of the infamous concert; prior to this, I was only peripherally aware of it. Moreover, though, I found myself wondering what my uncle would have had to say about it as someone who surely would have wanted to be in attendance himself. It's not at all the kind of scene where I ever pictured him. In my mind, he's always holed up in his bedroom either illustrating or reading something. The idea of him at an event like the Altamont concert is almost laughable...except that then I think of some of the places I've been and the things I've done and I'm reminded in a new way that he and I really are/were/would have been kindred spirits.

<B>The Criterion Collection DVD</B>
The film is compelling by itself, but the bonus content on the Criterion Collection DVD is top notch.

<B>Audio Commentary</B>
Documentary commentaries are rare, and for good reason: anything the documentarian wishes to say ought to be in the film. The passage of time, however, invites Maysles, Zwerin and Goldstein to try to place the film in its proper context - whether as a document of the concert, of the social zeitgeist captured on film, or even the place of <I>Gimme Shelter</I> in the annals of documentary films.

The appeal, then, is not to glean more about the content of the film - explored in depth throughout the Criterion DVD's generous other bonus content - but in this perspective of those who made it, making sense of just what they made. Zwerin, we learn, was the one who proposed editing the film around the notorious killing. Cutting back and forth from the road to the Altamont concert to the aftermath imbues the film partly with its structure, but also with its soul. Zwerin notes that had they simply put it together as a series of chronological events, when it was over, audiences would wonder just what they'd seen. Structuring it this way, however, gives the film its dark focus. We know from the outset that we're going to bear witness to the calamity.

As commentary tracks go, this is one of the stronger ones I've heard. There aren't many lulls or ramblings. Some information is extraneous because I'd already heard about it elsewhere in the bonus content, and not every tidbit of insight is as intriguing as the rest, but on the whole I was kept engaged. It certainly added to my understanding and appreciation of the film, and that's the objective of every commentary track.

<B>1969 KSAN Radio Broadcast</B>
Four hours of radio time on KSAN were dedicated to covering the concert, originally conceived as a tie-in to the good times. When things went south, however, the call-ins became a treasure trove of primary source recordings from firsthand witnesses and key figures from critic John Burkes to photographer Jim Marshall, and two members of the Hell's Angels. Particularly fascinating is the call from Sonny Barger, a member of the Oakland Hell's Angels, a firsthand witness and participant in some of the day's escalating skirmishes. That call is not found on the Blu-ray Disc release of the film. This is easily among the compelling bonus features in the entire Criterion library.

<B>Outtakes</B> (22:02)
The highlight here is a shot of Mick Jagger caught up in the energy during a recording/mixing session of "Little Queenie," absentmindedly dancing along to the music.

<B>Images from Altamont</B>
I'm not a big fan of stills galleries on DVDs, and I confess that while Bill Owens and Beth Sunflower snapped some great photos, I still found myself unable to really connect with their work on my TV screen the way I could in a book.

<B>Maysles Films Trailers</B>
The original trailers for <I>Gimme Shelter</I> didn't do much for me, though the re-release trailer was a bit more attention-getting. <I>Salesman</I>, however, really piqued my curiosity and I've added it to my ever-growing To See list. <I>Grey Gardens</I> seems...weird.

<B>Filmographies</B>
Another DVD feature I never really cared for: text pages of filmographies. Not much to say about these lists of the works of both the Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin. Today, I'd just hit IMDb.

<B>Restoration Demonstration</B>
It isn't particularly technical, but this brief demo does a great job showcasing the before & after work of film restoration. It's the kind of thing that wouldn't make a DVD today because we've seen similar contrasts in commercials for DVD releases and theatrical re-issues often enough that Joe Sixpack gets it now: the original masters have faded and the new prints look gorgeous. Still, it's a truly impressive demo to behold and well worth the few minutes.

<B>"The Rolling Stones, Altamont and GIMME SHELTER"</B>
The DVD I checked out from the Oldham County Public Library is missing the 44 page booklet, but fortunately The Criterion Collection website archives the essays. Like the film and other bonus content, it runs the gamut from firsthand witness testimonials to retrospective criticism of the events and the film itself. One of my favorite passages is from Stanley Booth's essay, <a href=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/104-gimme-shelter-the-true-adventures-of-altamont>"Gimme Shelter: The True Adventures of Altamont"</a> -

<I>The violence at Altamont, being completely unexpected, came afterward to seem inevitable. The assassinations of the sixties had aged us—we who were, as the seventies dawned, still under thirty—but they had been random, isolated events that didn’t involve the rock-and-roll generation. Altamont was nothing we could shrug off, and somehow we all lacked the will to rise above it.</I>

The other essays are well worth reading, but I think Booth's was the strongest. I was also quite partial to Georgia Bergman's < ahref=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/105-gimme-shelter-snapshots-from-the-road>"<I>Gimme Shelter</I>: Snapshots from the Road"</a>.

<B><I>Gimme Shelter</I> entered my Flickchart at #251/1414</B>

The ending just seemed like a cynical mean spirited twist, I wonder if it wasn't suppose to be intentionally tongue in cheek by being so dark.

I checked out this DVD from the library when I picked out <I>Gimme Shelter</I>, solely on the fact that it featured the late Sir Alec Guinness. I didn't even read the synopsis on the back of the DVD package. I have read Guinness's autobiography and both of his published journals, but whatever discussion he may have made about this film in those pages failed to resonate with me. I came into this film knowing literally nothing about it. It was great fun watching him in the eight roles of the D'Ascoyne family. Some of the makeup was particularly effective; I had to look twice when I first saw him on screen as The Banker to be sure that was him.

I enjoy a nice black comedy, and that's precisely what <I>Kind Hearts and Coronets</I> is. I did briefly become concerned once we meet Edith D'Ascoyne that there would be some attempt to persuade us that the family isn't really bad, just misunderstood; that kind of thing. I was relieved (because I'm a terrible human being!) that no, the film does <I>not</I> attempt to sell us on any message of making peace.

For this year's challenge, I've already watched <I>Spoorloos</I> [<I>The Vanishing</I>] and earlier this summer I watched all of <I>Downton Abbey</I>, so it was fun to combine the serial killer with the British class system. I'm not an Anglophile per se, though I'm familiar enough with British social history that I can follow along with most stories set there.

I was fortunate that the library had this on DVD as it is presently out of print and not available to stream on HuluPlus.

<B>The DVD</B>
<B>American Ending</B>
The on-screen text introduction informs us that an extension was tacked onto the ending of <I>Kind Hearts and Coronets</I> because of film standards in America that insisted "crime cannot be shown to pay." When I saw the actual ending added, though, I could only roll my eyes. The original, proper ending ought to have been entirely sufficient. Only we Americans have to have everything spelled out for us. Morons.

<B>Original theatrical trailer</B>
Despite what many have come to believe, spoilers have been part of trailers longer than the last five years. It is with that knowledge in mind that I do not watch trailers on DVDs until after I've watched the film. There are some spoilers in this trailer, though at least they omitted pretty much everything about the deliciousness of the twisted relationship between Louis and Sibella and the machinations of their relationship.

<B>Photo Galleries</B>
Yawn. Nice photos, sure, but photo galleries are second only to filmography lists as the most boring bonus feature on a DVD.

<a href=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/414-kind-hearts-and-coronets-ealing-s-shadow-side><B>"Ealing's Shadow Pride"</B></a>
I did not find in Philip Kemp's essay anything particularly informative about <I>Kind Hearts and Coronets</I> that I hadn't already observed for myself, but what I <I>did</I> find was some interesting insight into director Robert Hamer and the nature of Ealing Studios. I knew the name of Ealing, but nothing of its history or storytelling aesthetics. Also, I found it helpful to learn about the source material, Roy Horniman's novel, <I>Israel Bank</I> and why some of the changes were made in the course of adaptation.

<B>Disc Two: The Supplements</B>
The two bonus features are a feature-length documentary about Ealing Studios and a 70 minute radio program featuring Sir Alec Guinness. Given that these are tangential to the feature, I'm electing to skip them right now since I have to return the DVD to the library today.

Another one of the Big Ones that's been on my radar for years, <I>The Third Man</I> also has the distinction of being on the short list of great films that actually lives up to its hype and reputation. I'm always a bit intimidated by films with this kind of reputation and prestige, because I worry when I'm not enamored with them that the fault lies with me rather than with the film.

Of course, the very first thing that struck me was Anton Karas's zither music! That was not at all the score I had anticipated for this film, and I absolutely loved it. So much so, in fact, that I've gone to Amazon and bought <a href=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ZBYX1G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005ZBYX1G&linkCode=as2&tag=libeegalf rat-20>"The Third Man Theme"</a> and am playing it as I write this review. No wonder Criterion included this in their <a href=http://www.criterion.com/explore/110-great-soundtracks>Great Soundtracks</a> themed section!

As a longtime Bond fan, what struck me most was how influential this film clearly was on <I>The Living Daylights</I>. I'd heard about the relationship between the two, of course, but it's not the same as actually seeing both films, is it? Even the setting of Vienna, and that Ferris wheel, were clearly selected for the purpose of evoking <I>The Third Man</I>...though Bond clearly had the better time in the Ferris wheel!

The downside to seeing and enjoying a film of <I>The Third Man</I>'s stature is that there's nothing left really to be said. If I had hated it, or even been bored by it, there would be an opening for me to focus on what didn't work for me. There's not much satisfaction to be found, however, in merely echoing decades of praise penned by critics more articulate and observant than me.

The Criterion DVD is chock full of bonus content, including two commentary tracks. Being that I only have one more day with it, I don't know that I'm going to even try to explore the supplements right now. We're halfway through the challenge as of tomorrow and I'd like to get to more films, particularly after having only just watched the entirety of the <I>Gimme Shelter</I> DVD.

<I>The Third Man</I> entered my Flickchart at #144/1416