March 11, 2004
MORE HSU
Hua Hsu:
The French Connection: Was it FC1 or FC2 that had Hackman and the French guy from the Costa-Gavras films discussing Whitey Ford. "He was a lefty." "You mean a Communist?" "No, he was a Republican."
TheChaseSceneinBullitt wasn't qualitatively better, but it was louder. It's like the Live at Leeds of chase scene—the marks are hit, more or less, but it is so muscular and deafening and oblivion-ish that its momentum overwhelms any logic of technique.
Speaking of the bit part thing: It's not the same as FC, but Tsai Ming-Liang's What Time is it There? acts out its Truffaut obsession with a really great, subtle cameo by Jean-Pierre Leaud.