I guess she just seems like a silly vapid ingenue to me, which doesn't really fit the role she was cast for.

As Daisy notes, she wasn't a silly vapid ingenue in Rachel Getting Married. She was dark, neurotic and fucked up.

Now I want to go home and watch French New Wave movies all weekend! I just saw Breathless for the first time maybe a year ago, and liked it quite a bit more than I'd been expecting. And I saw The 400 Blows in a high school film class and was fairly impressed. Can't remember many others that I've seen, but you all are making me really want to dig deeper into them.

We've been watching some older movies recently, including The Last Picture Show, The Apartment, and Adam's Rib, none of which I'd seen before, all of which I liked, though perhaps TLPS least of all. But the other two were great. Man, Jack Lemmon is just *perfect* in The Apartment. So earnest and goofy and soulful and just a joy to watch. I wish Shirley MacLaine's character was a little more developed -- you never get much of a sense of her feelings for him -- but it still made me happy to see them together at the end.

As Daisy notes, she wasn't a silly vapid ingenue in Rachel Getting Married. She was dark, neurotic and fucked up.

Well, since Daisy didn't say any of that in her post and *actually* just said that she was amazing in that movie, and since I've not seen that movie (nor heard of it), I really couldn't infer "dark, neurotic and fucked up" from "amazing." But -- hey, if she can do it, right on.

You're right, she didn't actually say that. I am actually saying that, though. She was dark, neurotic and fucked up.

I'd be curious to see her Catwoman.

I'm not sure if I should be a bit hurt or not. I meant that she did a really incredible job with a role that was 180 from the fluffy roles she'd been known for, and that to see that movie and not once think, "Wow, Princess Mia is a psychotic bitch!" is pretty impressive.

I haven't seen it, but I heard a lot about it through the Oscar buzz. I wanted to see it to see what all the fuss was about, but it sounded like an incredibly depressing, hard-to-watch movie.

Other New Wave suggestions for P-C:

I would think either Godard's Le Mépris (Contempt) or maybe Alphaville would appeal. Another Truffaut you might be interested in is La Mariée était en noir (The Bride Wore Black).

Personally, I like most of early Chabrol: Le Beau Serge, Les Cousins, and Les Bonnes Femmes.

Directors on the periphery of this movement:

If you like technicolor singing or dancing, try Jacques Demy: Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (singing) or Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (dancing).

For film noir, either Bob le flambeur by Melville (who makes a cameo in Breathless as the famous author) or Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) by Louis Malle would be good choices.

I'm not sure if I should be a bit hurt or not.

I think Tep was just responding to my presumptive tone, which was just poor phrasing on my part.

I love all the people complaining that Hardy can't play Bane. And then going "Bronson? What's that??"

Oh, those noir ones look good. I think I'm good for now! Once I have my French New Wave Weekend, we'll see how I feel about doing more. Heh. I hope this makes me a better person.