Cinemascope

steven spielberg's version of the j g ballard semi-autobuigraphy is ste in the shanghai of the japanese invasion and the second world war.

tree of life . 

gorgeous to watch absoultely. the ambitions of the film are incredible. like tarkovsky- to take everyday life and turn it into something philisophical profound. except here i did not get much except for meditations on christianity, darwin, family and death. no quite the masterpiece it wants to be.

more video art than film. zidane the footballer through many many cameras in one match. no voiceover- just him and the ball.

three episodes where a blonde little girl reveals herself ot be destruction itself. like an atomic bomb. could any other country have imagined the destruction of hong kong in such a simple swish. it disappears. the second episode takes a war machine and makes it come alive eating its crew; while the third is a dramatic departure into the future.

anime again. this time it stars samuel jackson as a cool dude samurai looking for revenge. he wears the headband that allows him to challenge the evil samurai who killed his father.

twilight of the dark master . tsunami is the hero trying to save the earth from the evil dark lord. lots of sex and violence.

the underworld and the earth have come to a truce that some evil terrorists want to destroy. women turn into spiders as the world is saved by a noir detective from an american film (almost) and his hot demon partner. half blood is the answer.

tokyo city has embedded within it sites full of explosive potential. the dragons of heaven fight the dragons of earth over domination of the world. terrific animation.

not the osamu tezuka animation- instead a dreamy watery world of orientalist sexual innuendo. lovingly drawn.

pedro almodovar's funny short inspired by an oscar wilde story where a father sacrifices his son for a dance from the seductress salome.

something like a war. classic documentary on gender and birth control. women speak of their bodies and control by the state and by men.

amit dutta's unfortunately flat film on a 1700's rajasthani artist. over composed and stilted- he rearranges the paintings in symmetrical immobility. wide angle vistas and a sound design that echoes the music and lets the birds twitter incessantly.

an encounter between the city and the wild. the primitive being the tribals that brings out repressed sexual desire in the all concerned. beneath all of our sophistications we stay primitive.

one after the other. in a trance of dumbledore and hogwarths. playing quiddich. the third got dark very suddenly and stayed there for the rest of the films. not really that fantastical- for real otherworldliness go to anime.