Cinemascope
for my own referenceSunday, March 18, 2012
film list 2 - 18th march 2012
never
let me go, mark romanek - without the slow burn of the book, but
still a spooke slow take on that terrific novel. somehow the mystery is gone by
the aura remains. we know almost immediately about the fate that awaits the
three main protagonists - but they get to know later. the images are faithul
otherwise to the book.
tinker
tailor soldier spy, tomas alfresdon - another one of my
favourite novels into a film- an stunningly adapted. gary oldman's smiley
especially. though we never really see either annor karla- they naturally
mirror each other as the ghosts who shape the mans life- and london is
stunningly grey, bureaucratic and beautiful.
all
watched over by machines of loving grace, adam curtis- the trilogy
of documentary films with his trademark random connections and convincing
arguments- this time connecting ayn rand to 2008 market collapses; cybernetics
to bucky fuller; and trouble in the congo to the hunt for source of the aids
virus.
once
upon a time in anatolia, nuri bilge ceylan - the rolling hills
of anatolia where the search is on for a buried body. sudden flourishes of
things happening on the edge of the main action open out vistas of such beauty
that it is breathtaking. meanwhile inside the moving car conversation continues
discussing mondane matters of family and love.
visage,
tasai ming liang - i can generally take long self indulgent films- but this one
tested even my patience. i read somewhere that the film is supposed to be
tracking a taiwanese film director as he tries to make a film on salome in
paris. each little episode is gorgeously shot with tsai ming liang madness of
sudden songs and gay subtext. mirrors in a forest and songs in a freezing room.
megamind,
tom mcgrath - hilarious anti-hero hero megamind, the arch nemesis of the one
and only metro man finally defeats him only to find his life hollow and without
meaning. so he makes another hero instead...
Labels: animation, documentary, hollywood, taiwan, turkey
film list - march 18th, 2012
spring
summer autumn winter, kim ki-duk: a parable about growing up,
innocence and our relationship with nature. an abandoned child is raised by a
monk living in a boat that floats on a lake. time cycles and life cycles
intertwine.
the
Burmese harp, kon ichikawa: music in a time of war. a
man who turns into a monk when faced with the horrors of war.
wr:
the mysteries of the orgasm, dusan makayev: mad intercutting
between fiction and documentary footage- some crazy sexuality, revolution and
violence surrounding the theories of wilhelm reich who wrote the mass
psychology of fascism
children
of heaven, majid majidi: iranian expertise in making the
quotodian profound. a pair of lost shoes in a poverty stricken family.
suzhou
river, lou ye: it is amazing how much the riverfront has
changed since the film was made. warehouses and derelict builldings form the
background of this love story of love lost and found in mirrors- and video.
characters slip in between one another,
from
prada to nada, angel garcia: yeesh- yet another retelling
of sense and sensibility but this time in a rich los angeles hispanic home. the
girls are pretty and so are the boys.
the
fountain, darren arnovsky: i should have liked this but the
profound meditations on love and death left me cold- as did the special
effects. motifs repeat across the three different time zones- the mayan (?),
the current and some strange future with floating men and a tree of life
the
birds, alfred hitchcock: if there is one thing i remember
being even stranger than the killer birds it is strange mother son relationship.
something odd about that and truly terrifying. and then the famous schoolyard
sequence and the gas station that explodes.
ikiru,
akira kurosawa: a bureaucrat when he learns of his impending death does
something good - for a change- turns a dump into a garden. lovely soft film
mission
impossible 4, brad bird: in his first live action,
animated director makes cruise even more of a cutout. thank god. who goes to
see mission impossible for more than that? the burj sequence is rocking. but
most of the rest is a colour by numbers action film.
that
obscure object of desire, luis bunuel: poor frustrated obsessed
man. desperate to get laid and constantly laid off. the exlplosion at the end
is random and is really the only way the film could end.
throne of blood, akira
kurosawa: terrific retelling of macbeth. strange goin ons in the woods and a
evil lady macbeth- fantastic sequences- especially the death by a torrent of
arrows.
the
refuge, francois ozon: the refuge is a house on the beach
where a greiving girlfriend mourns for her dead lover (who dies of a drug
overdose) in the company of the gay brother of her lover.light weight
seriousness.
jeanne
dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 bruxelles, chantal akerman: a
demanding 3 hour opus that repeats in cycles the routines of everyday life of a
middle aged housewife. she also doubles as a prostitute to earn a little more
money. when unexpectedly a client manages to get her to climax- she kills him.
woyzeck,
werner herzog: set in a provincial small town, woyzeck is a soldier who
suspects his wife of having an affair with a drum major. murder follows.
a
separation, asghar farhadi: terrific new iranian family drama
about a family coming apart when a cleaning lady loses her child when pushed by
the man of the house. highly recommended
agneepath,
karan malhotra: framed like a terrific graphic novel- an old fasioned drama in
a spanking new avatar. i miss these films. everyone is good but is overshadowed
by the fantasitc set peices thorugh the film. the hanging, the ganpati festival,
the mad end.
the
phantom of liberty, luis bunuel: like an exquisite corpse of
unrelated ramdom encounters. follow one story and lead into the next.
absolutely brilliant- the architecture jokes are the best- the one with the
porn photos of historic buildings or the shitting table.
potiche,
francois ozon: playful and fun, gerard depardieu and catherine deneuve in
romantic comedy about a rich housewife taking over her husbands business when
he falls ill.
the
skin i live in, perdor almodovar: the new almodovar has
very little of his madcap humour when he is looking at strange sexual
obsessions. the skin metaphor is beaten to death when a man transforms the
rapist of his daughter into his wife.
drive, Nicholas Winding Refn -
new hollywood seeped in a lurid los angeles but rendered in love. neon at night
as our stuntman and driver for hire for robberies falls for a lovely married
neighbour and her kid. gorgeous to look at- especially the night shots.
the turin horse, bela tarr -
from the story of nietzsche seeing a horse being whipped by his owner we follow
the story to the pastoral home of the horse who lives with his owner and his
daughter. the long takes, the rhythm of everyday life in the house is broken
suddenly when the horse refuses to eat. the water then runs dry. catastrophe
approaches from over the hill. but there is no escape. the storm refuses to let
up. the crises of modernity is on the horizon. faith in the predictable is
over. god is dead.
baran, majid majidi - an encounter
between the afghan refugees taking shelter from the war in tehran and a
construction worker who falls in love- of sorts with a girl playing a man to
keep the household running.
the forsaken land, vimukti
jayasundara - the first sri lankan film i saw. set on the edge of the war-
where an unmarried woman waits with her brother and his wife- for salvation.
from the ravages of the landscape torn by the residue of what happens when
brutality strikes. random murders, loneliness and the breakdown of the family.
india song, marguerite duras - the
heterotopic landscape of the world of the colony sequestered away in the middle
fo an unknown world- in this case made stranger by the fact that the house in
which the film is supposedly set looks like notihgn in calcutta. a lonely wife
of a diplomat has mmultiple affairs with many mne- they all bleed into each
other. the film wraps itself in a haze of ennui. in long self indulgent
nothingness. ghosts emerge from memory and history.
the man from london, bela tarr - bela tarr's mystery murder story- like a graham greene novel. in the dreary town a watchman watches a man being murdered from his tower at night. he finds a suitcase full of money and tries to buy the affections of his daughter. the man from london is a shrewd investigator who comes to the city to find the killer.
the milky way, luis bunuel - an older route of pilgrimage is turned into the central spatial narrative from where spin out bunuels random free associational takes on christainity and religion. stories follow each other randomly as times are juxtaposed one over the other. jesus christ makes some guest appearances.
Labels: bollywood, france, germany, hollywood, hungary, iran, japan, korea, serbia, spain, sri lanka
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