New reviews added on 10/15/05
New reviews added on 10/8/05
In brief, so far I’ve seen L’Enfant/The Child by the Dardenne Brothers. I’ve seen them all (La Promesse, Rosetta, Le Fils and now L’Enfant) so I can say in comparison, I liked this one a lot. They are Belgian and film in their hometown somewhere in Belgium in a very naturalistic way about teenagers and the impact of family on them.
Bubble
I also saw the first in a series depicting small-town America by Steven Soderbergh called Bubble. I liked it a lot. You could tell he used non-professional actors but they were cast well. They had interesting looks and somewhat flat demeanors that still conveyed something. This one was set somewhere in Ohio at a doll factory. It was a twist on the love triangle angle with unrequited love, jealousy and rage all playing a role.
Upcoming reviews
Let me refer you to the schedule of the 2005 New York Film Festival and I will add on as I see more.
Next up are most of the Asian films and a handful of others. I’m looking forward to the Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Three Times) and that one with Cillian “Batman Begins/Red Eye/28 Days Later” Murphy in which he plays a lost trannie. I will write more later!
Okay, let’s see if I can quickly review what I’ve seen so far before my marathon Saturday (I have 3 movies today – I know, do I have a life?). First off, though it was not at the festival, I just wanted to say how good A History of Violence is starring an excellent Viggo Mortenson and rest of cast (Maria Bello, Ed Harris and William Hurt were all great). David Cronenberg did a stellar job. It is based on a graphic novel just like Sin City but this worked out much better I thought.
Breakfast on Pluto
Cillian Murphy plays a transvestite son of a preacher (Liam Neeson) in this Neil Jordan-directed film based on a book. Cillian is in almost every scene and is so interesting to watch. He was there in person and was well-spoken and very charming. His natural speaking voice is lovely. We are used to hearing either an American accent or a British accent from him. But he is indeed Irish. So far, Breakfast on Pluto was the most consistent movie I’ve seen at the festival.
Through the Forest
All French movies should be 65 minutes long! The director (Jean-Paul Civeyrac) said in his intro that he met the actress (Camille Berthomier) and became fascinated by her face, her voice, her movements, etc. and was inspired to write this movie. I can see why as she looks like a doll. The movie is 10 shots long and had some interesting elements although I did find myself counting down the shots.
Okay, I ran out of time and steam. I just took a break and realized I must be off. More to come…
Added on 10/15/05
Let me just quickly run through what else I saw and what impressions these movies made on me:
For the first 45 minutes, I thought maybe I was finally watching a contemporary Korean movie that I thought was okay. I mean, I liked Untold Scandal and Chungyang and they were made recently though set in the past. Anyway, I haven’t seen Oldboy though it is a cool title and others seemed to like it. Technically, Park Chanwook did an interesting job. I guess I thought it wasn’t very cohesive. David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence was so tight and concise, more effectively delivering the same message about violence that Lady Vengeance seemed to be striving to do. But the audience went wild for it. They gave the director a standing O at the end. It was as if they had never seen a Godard, Wong Kar-Wai, Takeshi Kitano or Seijin Suzuki movie before. I’m okay with people being derivative. I don’t think it’s always a negative. But this one just didn’t do it for me.
Okay, I didn’t really understand what was going on exactly in this movie because I’m not completely up on Korean politics. But it was fresh. I could tell that much. The filmmaker, Im Sang-soo, was an interesting character. He had a lot to say about US politics in his intro and during the Q&A. His main point was, he didn’t set out to make a farce but the facts of this presidential assassination (of Gen. Park Chung-hee) by the head of the Korean CIA in 1979 were so ludicrous, it just naturally fell into the form of a political satire.
Three Times
I was looking forward to this new one by Hou Hsiao-hsien. He has a fantastic name. It sounds like his work – shimmery. I’ve seen most of his work that has shown in the US, not all. He just has this way of approaching love, relationships and human nature that is so luminous though at times bittersweet like in Flowers of Shanghai. Sometimes there is plain sweetness to it. Anyway, I liked the first story the best. The other two had interesting elements to them but they didn’t hold together as well for me. But I can’t fault a master for experimenting with his craft.
This was my favorite movie that I saw at the festival. It held my interest from beginning to end and made a whole lot of sense despite the endless digressions which were apparently emulating the structure of the “unfilmable” 18th century novel Tristam Shandy. It was really funny and clever but not in an obnoxious way. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon were hilarious in the film and during the Q&A. I was glad to see Michael “24 Hour Party People” Winterbottom lighten up a bit after “9 Songs.” I never saw 9 Songs though I liked the concept of a relationship being scored like that. But I like certain things to be implied in my movies. I don’t need the next step visually spelled out for me. Anyway, I digress. I highly recommend Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.
I would say if you are an aspiring cinematographer, you should see this movie. It was shot beautifully. But it was very moody. I really liked parts of it but I thought the non-Asian actors didn’t quite hold up. They just seemed so unnatural. I didn’t see Aleksandr Sokurov’s one shot movie Russian Ark but heard it was really good. So maybe see that one over this one. But seriously, this guy has an amazing eye. I’ll concede to that.
I did not like this movie until it was completely over and I was hit with the realization that it perfectly captured the heartwrenching, migraine-inducing emotions that two people in a dismally failed relationship experience. That said, do you really need to watch something like this dissected under the microscope in real time on film? If you do, this movie is for you. It was based on a short story by Joseph Conrad entitled The Return. So, if you prefer your agony in the form of literature, you know where to go. Aside: The director of this film, Patrice Chereau is guilty of traumatizing me by showing me a little too much on film in Intimacy. It was a pretty good movie but I’m good with subtlety. No need to be explicit on my account.
Good Night, and Good Luck
This movie opened the festival and is open nationwide now so I will just throw it into this mix even though I saw it outside of the fest. I think George Clooney did an admirable job. It looks great. At times, I thought, this story is a little skewed but then I would remind myself, it is based in fact. This really happened. People really said and did these unbelievable things. It was a wise and effective decision to incorporate real footage of McCarthy rather than have an actor play him because it emphasized the horror of it all.
Serenity
So the irony of my Joss Whedon fandom is that I still haven’t seen Serenity while non-Buffy, Angel, Firefly fans of my kith and kin have. But people seem to be digging it. The dialogue is supposedly very enjoyable and the action is fun. Yay, Whedon and Co.
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