Faces (1968)

Saw Faces (1968), a black and white film in the style of a French new wave film: middle-aged men in suits talking endlessly about relationships.  Unlike French new wave, this film does have some clear-cut dramatic stakes: we're seeing a marriage end rather abruptly.  After the announcement is made that they want a divorce, we follow the fallout for the two characters.  Both are avoidant and miserable, seeking comfort in night clubs and prostitutes as they celebrate their new freedom, try to grapple with their new lives.

The film consists of about 4 or so scenes.  They all involve drunk people laughing uproariously and joking and bickering and eventually bearing their souls, but this is the tension about this film for me: that the soul bearing is very interesting and poignant, but the scene keeps going on.  The soul-bearer becomes ashamed and must be wheedled back into a good humor.  Drunken belligerent men must be honeyed and kidded out the door.  The scenes wear on like a party that's dwindled down to four guests.  And there's interesting stuff to be had at the tail end of a party, but it's a little bit of a slog being there.  There's also a few times I totally lost the thread.  I couldn't tell if the smash cut was a dream or a memory or a flash-forward or what.

So the film is slow but interesting and is shot in a very naturalistic style which allegedly influenced Robert Altman.  It's a deep look at the culture of the 60s with its corny jokes and "boy I tell ya"s.  It made the strange dialogue of old plays a little more comprehensible to me.  It was a little too slow for my poor addled brains, but it was an adventure anyway.