Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Camera Buff (1979)

Wry look at the the art of filmmaking and its inherent voyeurism, as expressed by a factory worker who buys a camera to film his newborn daughter and, at the behest of his superiors, starts a film club at work, with positive and negative consequences. Well-observed and rather startling in its unforced elegance, with modest acting that gets results better than a showier or more emotional style would. The focus of the work shifts so subtly (from the act of filmmaking to the filmmaker himself) that the final shot, in which the man attempts to begin a re-engagement with his own life in the only way he has available to him, carries an unexpected emotional force. Elements of political satire peek through too in the guise of the factory owner and his growing unease with the man's films. With all these riches, how could this not be one of the best films about filmmaking I've yet seen? I need to see more Kieslowski, I think.

Grade: A

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home