Dillinger Is Dead (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

It's a waste of time talking about the structure of this film or what it means... I saw it just a short while ago and it totally knocked me out. On the face of it, it sounds like the most boring premise ever... no one would want to watch it based on that. Yet it captivated me from beginning to end... and I'm often impatient these days with most things I see.The look of this film is excellent. It was shot in the actual apartment of a very famous pop art/painter (1969), and it is a convincing and compelling 'set' in contrast to, oh, let's say Godard's tableaux, which often seem so contrived. It could have been shot yesterday, but for a few outdated appliances. Even better is the uncredited soundtrack that plays practically non-stop in the background throughout most of the film. It really adds to the scenes and augments the action, but not too obviously.The motive of the film is very much of its time, though... again, it is saved by following entirely poetic impulses.This is a disturbing film that seasoned viewers who appreciate Lynch, Bunuel or Imamura would welcome. You have to drop your expectations of logic and let the impressive talent of the lead (Piccoli) guide you through the weirdness... it's not as deliberately maddening as some self-indulgent art films, but it definitely takes you out of the ordinary.

A Marcusian critique of Marcuse, a Godardian critique of Godard, a meta-metadiscourse on late 20th century life and our representation of that life (to ourselves). Maybe the best summing-up-the-Sixties film I've ever seen.

Criterion hit the mark again. We follow a man who can cook, who goes to a daily existence of a job and returns home and watches TV, cooks and goes to bed. The man stumbles on a handgun purported to have belonged to John Dillinger in a storage compartment he has in his quarters. We are taken through his feeling it necessary to dismantle the gun, clean the pieces and reassemble it. As this is being done, he comes across newspaper clippings and a video tape which he finds he must watch. He paints the gun red and plays with it by putting the assembled gun's barrel in his mouth. He then decides to put an end to his dull, daily existence. He murders his female companion and disposes of the body and attempts to begin a new life away from where he currently resides. He meets a goal he hadn't envisioned. Does the spirit of Dillinger exist in the handgun?

This is one of the laziest, sloppiest, most pretentiously precious "art" films to emerge from the decade of the sixties (and that's saying something). The acting is terrible, the dialog couldn't be more banal, the camera work is inept, the story telling non-existent... The projector scene alone made me cringe for about twenty minutes (seemed like twenty hours). At first I was embarassed for everyone involved in this picture but eventually I just got angry that so many critics have praised this kind of film for fear of not being considered "hip". Supposedly there's a "statement" being made about bourgeois values and the emptiness of modern life and (fill in the blank). Either that or it's just some idiots making a lousy movie. This is straight from the Godardian school, with an overshadowing sheen of "cool" that supposedly renders such slapped-together junk immune to criticism. I don't care. Not even Godard at his worst is this bad.

Stop calling this kind of movie a masterpiece.....Another artsy- fartsy movie yes !!! Somewhat interesting for the way it was filmed, and for the lighting ,but not a memorable one.

This is in my top 10 of Criterion movies. I was mesmerized by this. Very colorful, beautiful, fluid piece of art. Without much dialogue and a minimal story line, Ferrari and the charismatic Piccoli have created a rich work. I felt a complex range of emotions that have remained with me since watching this. Also, there's just something cool about it. No reservations giving this 5 stars.