Oh Puppeteers...

Double Suicide(dir. Masahiro Shinoda)
Japanese melodrama at it's finest? I'm not quite sure if you would label it that, but yeah, the overacting, which could be annoying to some, was simply astounding and lent a melodramatic tone to the film. I guess the acting could be viewed as theatrical since this film is supposed to be puppet theater, but the film is too cinematic to be labeled as theatrical. This film was pretty incredible. It's experimental tendencies were quite audacious, but it's whole puppeteer "gimmick" became a little overused. It's amusing and ingenious at first, but it ends up hindering the finale, at least for me. I'd imagine the conclusion would be more emotionally engaging if there was not as much of it beforehand. The puppeteer aspect did add a fatalistic layer to the proceedings, however. I'd imagine down the line, when the film has settled in my mind and stomach, labeling it a masterpiece, but for now, I'm labeling it a near-masterpiece. I'm definitely going to need to check out some more of his stuff.
***1/2 out of ****

Oh Alain...

White Dog(dir. Samuel Fuller)
I was surprised by how good this was. I wanted to see it pretty much for how ridiculous the concept seemed, but I was surprised by how effective this was as a drama. I remember reading the Great Directors for Fuller on Senses of Cinema and I believe someone said he makes poetry out of ridiculousness. This is the perfect example of this. It was actually intellectual especially the end. I can see theories that the dog represents society, which makes the most sense to me. This could be his best film.
**** out of ****
Le Cercle Rouge(dir. Jean-Pierre Melville)
Watching Heat, I wanted to see another caper film and the fact that Michael Mann is obviously influenced by Jean-Pierre Melville, I decided to put this near the top of the Blockbuster Online queue. Not sure if this is better than Heat, but this is clearly his best film. What amazes me about his films is just the level of detail like how the inspector has a lot of cats and the whole robbery sequence was quite compelling. The ending was kind of a letdown, but thats one of the only flaws I can see with this nearly flawless film. The scenes in the bar were quite astonishing. I loved it.
**** out of ****