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September 2, 2008
Recent off-site writing, part 3:
All I Need From "The Dark Knight"
“Diary of the Dead” (Romero, USA, 2007)
Quote of the day
Notes on storytelling in “Immortal Love” (Kinoshita, Japan, 1961)
"Sukiyaki Western Django" (Miike, Japan)
"On Fire" (Simon, France, 2006)
Small details in a conceptual nightmare
"Untamed" (Naruse, Japan, 1957)
Lost & found, ghosts of the cinema
NYAFF08: "Shamo" (Cheang, HK/China)
NYAFF08: "M" (Lee, South Korea)
All I Need From "The Dark Knight"
“Diary of the Dead” (Romero, USA, 2007)
Quote of the day
Notes on storytelling in “Immortal Love” (Kinoshita, Japan, 1961)
"Sukiyaki Western Django" (Miike, Japan)
"On Fire" (Simon, France, 2006)
Small details in a conceptual nightmare
"Untamed" (Naruse, Japan, 1957)
Lost & found, ghosts of the cinema
NYAFF08: "Shamo" (Cheang, HK/China)
NYAFF08: "M" (Lee, South Korea)
June 23, 2008
Recent off-site writing:
Sad Vacation (Aoyama, Japan)
Strawberry Shortcakes (Yazaki, Japan)
New York Asian Film Festival, 2008
Speed Devil
Georges Franju and the Terrible Waking Dream
Image series: “Like hostages, their cries hold no hope.”
Link of the day (April 3)
At the cinematheque: “Judex” (Franju, France, 1963)
The small differences between 1997 and 2007
Sad Vacation (Aoyama, Japan)
Strawberry Shortcakes (Yazaki, Japan)
New York Asian Film Festival, 2008
Speed Devil
Georges Franju and the Terrible Waking Dream
Image series: “Like hostages, their cries hold no hope.”
Link of the day (April 3)
At the cinematheque: “Judex” (Franju, France, 1963)
The small differences between 1997 and 2007
January 18, 2008
The Best of 2007
Most humbly submitted, my favorite films that were given a theatrical run of at least a week in the United States in 2007:
Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul, Thailand)
There’s not much to add to this film that I didn’t say in my original review, except how overjoyed I am to have found a filmmaker that makes works as eccentric, experimental, and surprising as they are gentle, caring, and warm-hearted. As much as I love someone as groundbreaking as David Lynch, it is rare to see a filmmaker push a similar degree of cinematic innovation and embrace it in the warm humanism one might find in a film by Jean Renoir.
Colossal Youth (Costa, Portugal)
My find of 2007 was Pedro Costa, and this was my first gateway into the filmography of one of the world’s most distinctive, talented, and important filmmakers. Costa here returns to the Lisbon slums that have served as his cinematic focus since Ossos (1997), and this new feature retains the collaborative aspect of his style he started after that film. The filmmaker uses autobiographical inspiration and creative input from his non-professional cast, but here swerves away from his “purer” documentary version of this style, In Vanda’s Room (2001). This swerve makes Colossal Youth a subtle departure, one that contains a quality of the mythic and mysteriousness that moves subtly closer to genre cinema, and suggests a social-realist ghost story if there ever was such a thing. A more tremendous, visionary, literally haunting film one is unlikely to top in the near future.
Triad Election [Election 2] (To, HK/China)
Prolific neo-studio director Johnnie To improves upon his original Election (2005) with this contemplative, distancing view of Triad violence, Chinese politics, and the gangster genre itself. To’s criticism is spread far and wide, and his glorious widescreen photography and chilled stylization results in a magisterial genre film that cuts deeply into its own romantic and political roots.
The Host (Bong, South Korea)
Perhaps 2007 is the year of the resurrection, or at least re-assertion, of excellent, self-conscious genre cinema. The Host, like Triad Election, is a conventional thing done right, done consistently, done with an assured self-knowledge, and done with a captivating blend of craftsmanship and artistry. Its political allegory is less interesting than its genre roots in social insight through horror and thrills, tearing down and building up a dysfunctional family, and showing yet again Bong’s talent in both unexpected dramedy and his Imamura-like love for the downtrodden losers of the world.
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai, Taiwan)
The jumping off point for Tsai, who returns to his pair of erstwhile lovers from What Time Is It There? (2001) to confront the difficulty of tender, human intimacy and love in a world of commodified sex and desire, not to mention the usual urban melancholy of alienation. The finale is one of the most complex and masterful evocations of the ambiguity of this modern existence.
Ratatouille (Bird, USA)
Pixar’s first studio film; in other words, the company’s first film that isn’t an event, it’s just another of their products. And under Brad Bird’s writing and direction, a small, almost-nothing of a movie turns into something elegant and graceful, inspired in motion and color, in character and in humanism. The plot and themes tread the hoary and the convoluted, but if there ever was a more lovely result from such conventional and/or confused material I would be very surprised.
Regular Lovers (Garrel, France)
I think I first saw Garrel’s inconceivably beautiful revision of the May ‘68 cinematic myth in 2005, but thankfully such a personal, idiosyncratic work was finally released theatrically in the U.S. this year. Even though he has been working since the 1960s, Garrel is one of the most criminally underseen and underappreciated directors in the world. Every scene, every image aches with memory, with personal investment and personal experience. Watching a Garrel film like Regular Lovers is like listening to a veteran finally tell you about his time in war after decades of silence. Each moment has to be savored.
No Country for Old Men (Coen/Coen, USA)
I don’t quite understand the nay-saying around this film, a film whose precision and craftsmanship are often being derided as over-planned and artless. In this day and age where mainstream American cinema is eons away from the craftsmanship that was at the very least a default during the studio era, the Coens’ hyper-meticulous skill is all the more welcome. And, to supply a ridiculous pull-quote, this is the Coens’ least condescending film yet! Of course, craft and a lack of the usual glib tone is not what makes the film great. What makes it great also moves beyond the specifics of the film’s morality and ambivalent portrayal of evil. Getting down to it, for me this film is a beautiful gem of the spectral, of negative spaces filled with menace, long-gone wisps of longing, and a muted, fated sense of impending apocalypse. In my mind, ultimately the power of all films derives from abstractions (both emotional and intellectual) created by the form, and the Coens have accomplished a very rich film of terrifying abstractions.
We Own the Night (Gray, USA)
I can understand this film flying under people’s radars, as Gray’s terrific 2000 film The Yards did for me. But to ignore this director would be a crime; he is without a doubt one of the most talented of American filmmakers, and this work of tremendous sincerity and melodrama is working on an entirely different wavelength of cinema than the rest of Hollywood. It has the drama and interest of a 1930s gangsters film, and the heart, soul, and earnestness of the most personal of art cinema.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, USA)
A visually gorgeous film that one may think covers its pretensions towards revising Westerns, and commenting on celebrity identity and the nature of re-telling history with Roger Deakin’s immeasurable photography and crystalline air. But that would be missing the evocations of its fabulous cast, Casey Affleck’s Malick-like performance of a dreamer, the weight of menace and the impending crash of fate emanating from Brad Pitt’s meta-fame, and the half dozen other actors here who Dominik pulls great performances from. It turns the film away from its formal powers (a bit slim and underdeveloped compared to its pictorialism) and puts the emphasis on characters, and the weight of the film’s more grandiose themes mentioned above on the characters. It is an unexpected shift and an entirely welcome one.
A late addition to this list might be Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, but I'm still sitting on that strange film and it is too soon to tell.
All additional films I liked, including those which did not receive a theatrical release in 2007, repertory films I saw in theaters, and favorite films I saw on video, can be found here.
Most humbly submitted, my favorite films that were given a theatrical run of at least a week in the United States in 2007:
Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul, Thailand)
There’s not much to add to this film that I didn’t say in my original review, except how overjoyed I am to have found a filmmaker that makes works as eccentric, experimental, and surprising as they are gentle, caring, and warm-hearted. As much as I love someone as groundbreaking as David Lynch, it is rare to see a filmmaker push a similar degree of cinematic innovation and embrace it in the warm humanism one might find in a film by Jean Renoir.
Colossal Youth (Costa, Portugal)
My find of 2007 was Pedro Costa, and this was my first gateway into the filmography of one of the world’s most distinctive, talented, and important filmmakers. Costa here returns to the Lisbon slums that have served as his cinematic focus since Ossos (1997), and this new feature retains the collaborative aspect of his style he started after that film. The filmmaker uses autobiographical inspiration and creative input from his non-professional cast, but here swerves away from his “purer” documentary version of this style, In Vanda’s Room (2001). This swerve makes Colossal Youth a subtle departure, one that contains a quality of the mythic and mysteriousness that moves subtly closer to genre cinema, and suggests a social-realist ghost story if there ever was such a thing. A more tremendous, visionary, literally haunting film one is unlikely to top in the near future.
Triad Election [Election 2] (To, HK/China)
Prolific neo-studio director Johnnie To improves upon his original Election (2005) with this contemplative, distancing view of Triad violence, Chinese politics, and the gangster genre itself. To’s criticism is spread far and wide, and his glorious widescreen photography and chilled stylization results in a magisterial genre film that cuts deeply into its own romantic and political roots.
The Host (Bong, South Korea)
Perhaps 2007 is the year of the resurrection, or at least re-assertion, of excellent, self-conscious genre cinema. The Host, like Triad Election, is a conventional thing done right, done consistently, done with an assured self-knowledge, and done with a captivating blend of craftsmanship and artistry. Its political allegory is less interesting than its genre roots in social insight through horror and thrills, tearing down and building up a dysfunctional family, and showing yet again Bong’s talent in both unexpected dramedy and his Imamura-like love for the downtrodden losers of the world.
The Wayward Cloud (Tsai, Taiwan)
The jumping off point for Tsai, who returns to his pair of erstwhile lovers from What Time Is It There? (2001) to confront the difficulty of tender, human intimacy and love in a world of commodified sex and desire, not to mention the usual urban melancholy of alienation. The finale is one of the most complex and masterful evocations of the ambiguity of this modern existence.
Ratatouille (Bird, USA)
Pixar’s first studio film; in other words, the company’s first film that isn’t an event, it’s just another of their products. And under Brad Bird’s writing and direction, a small, almost-nothing of a movie turns into something elegant and graceful, inspired in motion and color, in character and in humanism. The plot and themes tread the hoary and the convoluted, but if there ever was a more lovely result from such conventional and/or confused material I would be very surprised.
Regular Lovers (Garrel, France)
I think I first saw Garrel’s inconceivably beautiful revision of the May ‘68 cinematic myth in 2005, but thankfully such a personal, idiosyncratic work was finally released theatrically in the U.S. this year. Even though he has been working since the 1960s, Garrel is one of the most criminally underseen and underappreciated directors in the world. Every scene, every image aches with memory, with personal investment and personal experience. Watching a Garrel film like Regular Lovers is like listening to a veteran finally tell you about his time in war after decades of silence. Each moment has to be savored.
No Country for Old Men (Coen/Coen, USA)
I don’t quite understand the nay-saying around this film, a film whose precision and craftsmanship are often being derided as over-planned and artless. In this day and age where mainstream American cinema is eons away from the craftsmanship that was at the very least a default during the studio era, the Coens’ hyper-meticulous skill is all the more welcome. And, to supply a ridiculous pull-quote, this is the Coens’ least condescending film yet! Of course, craft and a lack of the usual glib tone is not what makes the film great. What makes it great also moves beyond the specifics of the film’s morality and ambivalent portrayal of evil. Getting down to it, for me this film is a beautiful gem of the spectral, of negative spaces filled with menace, long-gone wisps of longing, and a muted, fated sense of impending apocalypse. In my mind, ultimately the power of all films derives from abstractions (both emotional and intellectual) created by the form, and the Coens have accomplished a very rich film of terrifying abstractions.
We Own the Night (Gray, USA)
I can understand this film flying under people’s radars, as Gray’s terrific 2000 film The Yards did for me. But to ignore this director would be a crime; he is without a doubt one of the most talented of American filmmakers, and this work of tremendous sincerity and melodrama is working on an entirely different wavelength of cinema than the rest of Hollywood. It has the drama and interest of a 1930s gangsters film, and the heart, soul, and earnestness of the most personal of art cinema.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik, USA)
A visually gorgeous film that one may think covers its pretensions towards revising Westerns, and commenting on celebrity identity and the nature of re-telling history with Roger Deakin’s immeasurable photography and crystalline air. But that would be missing the evocations of its fabulous cast, Casey Affleck’s Malick-like performance of a dreamer, the weight of menace and the impending crash of fate emanating from Brad Pitt’s meta-fame, and the half dozen other actors here who Dominik pulls great performances from. It turns the film away from its formal powers (a bit slim and underdeveloped compared to its pictorialism) and puts the emphasis on characters, and the weight of the film’s more grandiose themes mentioned above on the characters. It is an unexpected shift and an entirely welcome one.
A late addition to this list might be Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, but I'm still sitting on that strange film and it is too soon to tell.
All additional films I liked, including those which did not receive a theatrical release in 2007, repertory films I saw in theaters, and favorite films I saw on video, can be found here.
September 18, 2007
The New York Film Festival is without a doubt my most looked forward to film event of each year. For the last three years I have been privileged enough to have been granted press access to the festival, and have tried to live up to that privilege by providing considerable in-depth coverage (for 2004, parts I, II, III, and IV; for 2005 click here; for 2006 click here). This year the Film Society was again kind, but my work schedule sadly prevents me from attending almost every single one of the press screenings. As such, I have had to purchase my own tickets, which in interest of frugality has required me to avoid all the wonderful films that already have distribution. As it is, I plan on seeing the following at the festival, but mostly at public screenings so my coverage will undoubtedly lag behind that of the regular press:
Alexandra (Sokurov, Russia)
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien, France)
In the City of Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin, Spain/France)
The Man From London (Béla Tarr, Hungary/France/Germany)
No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
The Romance of Astreé and Céladon (Eric Rohmer, France)
Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea)
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/The Netherlands)
Useless (Jia Zhangke, Hong Kong)
And in the avant-garde sidebar:
Pitcher of Colored Light (Robert Beavers, U.S./Switz.)
Eniaios IV “Nefeli Photos” reel 2 (Gregory Markopoulos, Greece)
Memories (Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki and Eugène Green, South Korea)
Alexandra (Sokurov, Russia)
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien, France)
In the City of Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin, Spain/France)
The Man From London (Béla Tarr, Hungary/France/Germany)
No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
The Romance of Astreé and Céladon (Eric Rohmer, France)
Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea)
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/The Netherlands)
Useless (Jia Zhangke, Hong Kong)
And in the avant-garde sidebar:
Pitcher of Colored Light (Robert Beavers, U.S./Switz.)
Eniaios IV “Nefeli Photos” reel 2 (Gregory Markopoulos, Greece)
Memories (Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki and Eugène Green, South Korea)
August 16, 2007
The line-up for the 2007 New York Film Festival has been announced, and here it is (with apologizes to Acquarello, whose formating I copied). Stars indicate titles I am particularly excited to see.
Opening Night:
The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson, US, 2007; 91m, screening with Hotel Chevalier, Wes Anderson, US, 2007; 12m
Closing Night:
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud, France, 2007; 95m
Centerpiece:
*No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen, US, 2007; 122m
Retrospective:
Blade Runner: The Definitive Cut, Ridley Scott, US, 1982/2007; 118m
Hamlet, Sven Gade & Heinz Schall, Germany, 1920-21; 110m (Piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin)
*The Iron Horse, John Ford, US, 1924; 132m
*Leave Her to Heaven, John M. Stahl, US, 1945; 110m
Underworld, Josef von Sternberg, US, 1927; 80m (Accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra)
Special Event:
Fados, Carlos Saura, Spain/Portugal, 2007; 92m
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965, Murray Lerner, US, 2007; 80m
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream, Peter Bogdanovich, US, 2007; 238m
Sidebar:
Joaquim Pedro de Andrade Retrospective
Feature Films:
*4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Christian Mungiu, Romania, 2007; 113m
Actresses, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, France, 2007; 110m
*Alexandra, Alexander Sokurov, Russia, 92m
The Axe in the Attic, Ed Pincus & Lucia Small, US, 2007; 110m
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Sidney Lumet, USA, 117m
Calle Santa Fe, Carmen Castillo, France, 2007; 163m
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel, France/U.S., 2007; 112m
*The Flight of the Red Balloon, Hou Hsiao-hsien, France, 2007; 113m
A Girl Cut In Two, Claude Chabrol, France, 2007; 115m
*Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara, Italy/US, 2007; 96m
*I Just Didn’t Do It, Masayuki Suo, Japan, 2007; 143m
I’m Not There, Todd Haynes, US, 2007; 136m
In the City of Sylvia, José Luis Guerín, Spain/France, 2007; 90m
The Last Mistress, Catherine Breillat, France, 2007; 114m
*The Man From London, Béla Tarr, Hungary/France/Germany, 2007; 132m
Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach, US, 2007; 93m
Married Life, Ira Sachs, USA, 2007; 90m
Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project, John Landis, US, 2007; 90m
The Orphanage, Juan Antonio Bayona, Spain, 100m
*Paranoid Park, Gus Van Sant, US, 2007; 85m
*Redacted, Brian DePalma, US, 2007; 90m
*The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, Eric Rohmer, France, 2007; 109m
*Secret Sunshine, Lee Chang-dong, Korea, 2007; 142m
*Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, 2007; 142m
*Useless, Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong, 2007; 80m
Opening Night:
The Darjeeling Limited, Wes Anderson, US, 2007; 91m, screening with Hotel Chevalier, Wes Anderson, US, 2007; 12m
Closing Night:
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud, France, 2007; 95m
Centerpiece:
*No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen, US, 2007; 122m
Retrospective:
Blade Runner: The Definitive Cut, Ridley Scott, US, 1982/2007; 118m
Hamlet, Sven Gade & Heinz Schall, Germany, 1920-21; 110m (Piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin)
*The Iron Horse, John Ford, US, 1924; 132m
*Leave Her to Heaven, John M. Stahl, US, 1945; 110m
Underworld, Josef von Sternberg, US, 1927; 80m (Accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra)
Special Event:
Fados, Carlos Saura, Spain/Portugal, 2007; 92m
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965, Murray Lerner, US, 2007; 80m
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream, Peter Bogdanovich, US, 2007; 238m
Sidebar:
Joaquim Pedro de Andrade Retrospective
Feature Films:
*4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Christian Mungiu, Romania, 2007; 113m
Actresses, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, France, 2007; 110m
*Alexandra, Alexander Sokurov, Russia, 92m
The Axe in the Attic, Ed Pincus & Lucia Small, US, 2007; 110m
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Sidney Lumet, USA, 117m
Calle Santa Fe, Carmen Castillo, France, 2007; 163m
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel, France/U.S., 2007; 112m
*The Flight of the Red Balloon, Hou Hsiao-hsien, France, 2007; 113m
A Girl Cut In Two, Claude Chabrol, France, 2007; 115m
*Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara, Italy/US, 2007; 96m
*I Just Didn’t Do It, Masayuki Suo, Japan, 2007; 143m
I’m Not There, Todd Haynes, US, 2007; 136m
In the City of Sylvia, José Luis Guerín, Spain/France, 2007; 90m
The Last Mistress, Catherine Breillat, France, 2007; 114m
*The Man From London, Béla Tarr, Hungary/France/Germany, 2007; 132m
Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach, US, 2007; 93m
Married Life, Ira Sachs, USA, 2007; 90m
Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project, John Landis, US, 2007; 90m
The Orphanage, Juan Antonio Bayona, Spain, 100m
*Paranoid Park, Gus Van Sant, US, 2007; 85m
*Redacted, Brian DePalma, US, 2007; 90m
*The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, Eric Rohmer, France, 2007; 109m
*Secret Sunshine, Lee Chang-dong, Korea, 2007; 142m
*Silent Light, Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, 2007; 142m
*Useless, Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong, 2007; 80m
April 18, 2007
I am currently experimenting with a blog-style format for the site, which allows readers to comment on any content posted, includes an RSS feed, and also allows several different kinds of writing (screening log, reviews, anything else) to all appear on the same page. I have very little skills in graphic design, php, or CSS, but I've tried to make the site seem as visually similar to the d+kaz main page as possible. The address for the blog is www.d-kaz.com/blog.
February 11, 2007
This month, at New York cinemas:
A mini-New York Film Festival in Film Comment Selects (Feb 14-27); New French Cinema (Feb 28-Mar 11); a short bit of Béla Tarr (Feb 23-25); a scattering of the work of Ennio Morricone, a lot here (Feb 2-22), and some there (Feb 1-7); and an immense, thankful retrospective of the recently passed Imamura Shohei (Mar 2-29). Just as vital for this uninitiated viewer will be the Museum of Modern Art's large series on Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.
January 29, 2007
Today I am starting what I hope to be a new series of posts of either screen captures of a film or actual clips. The first entry is titled "Selection from Les Biches: screens of a murder", and will be followed by one more series from the same film. I have yet to decide if I'm always going to include text along with the images.
And, because I couldn't find a place for them, here are two shots from the film I particularly like, the first because it evokes Lang's Mabuse figure, both in iconography and in composition:
And the second because it reminds me of a combination between Magritte's The Lovers (1928) and a gender reversal of one of Munch's variations on The Kiss (1887). And yes, the shot was this dark on the DVD:
And, because I couldn't find a place for them, here are two shots from the film I particularly like, the first because it evokes Lang's Mabuse figure, both in iconography and in composition:
And the second because it reminds me of a combination between Magritte's The Lovers (1928) and a gender reversal of one of Munch's variations on The Kiss (1887). And yes, the shot was this dark on the DVD:
January 15, 2007
In the past I have not linked to online articles on film that I found enjoyable or insightful because the net is quite full of them and sites like Greencine Daily do a far better and far more thorough job. But I would like to at least temporarily break that rule and link to Christoph Huber and Mark Peranson's impressive Cinemascope auteurist article on the films of Tony Scott, focusing on the qualities of his most recent release, Déjà Vu. The very existence of the article, and of Huber and Peranson's acute reading of the film, highlight what has always been a problem for me with film criticism. It is, essentially, and perhaps simplistically, to be found in the difference between praising a film for its thematic evocations and praising it for its overall cinematic construction. Now, obviously any given film's evocation(s) is entirely based on the formal orchestration of its parts, but I also believe that just because a film says something worthwhile does not make the film worthwhile.
A case-in-point is Scott's film, which, while constructing a fairly interesting scenario based on cinema, time, death, and the way human psychology, romanticism, and scientific materialism seek to understand, overcome, and perhaps prevent the tragedies that fill our lives (and particularly our current era), is not a good film. Of course, the trouble is that my problems are all evidence-less subjective opinions. I feel that, in the film, character is almost non-existant and the acting is poor (there goes the depth of the psychology), that the heavy emphasis the middle of the film places on simply explaining its cool gadgetry in a mindnumbing boring computer room, and later a conceptually fascinating but poorly directed bi-ocular chase sequence forfits any of the seriousness or gravity which the film tries to attach to technology and surveillance. Finally, on the whole, Scott fails to effectively direct the drama of the film, leaving things like Washington's infatuation with the dead girl and the final confrontation with the villain very trite. I have yet to be able to rectify this gap between the film I don't like and the potential for the meaning coming from it.
A case-in-point is Scott's film, which, while constructing a fairly interesting scenario based on cinema, time, death, and the way human psychology, romanticism, and scientific materialism seek to understand, overcome, and perhaps prevent the tragedies that fill our lives (and particularly our current era), is not a good film. Of course, the trouble is that my problems are all evidence-less subjective opinions. I feel that, in the film, character is almost non-existant and the acting is poor (there goes the depth of the psychology), that the heavy emphasis the middle of the film places on simply explaining its cool gadgetry in a mindnumbing boring computer room, and later a conceptually fascinating but poorly directed bi-ocular chase sequence forfits any of the seriousness or gravity which the film tries to attach to technology and surveillance. Finally, on the whole, Scott fails to effectively direct the drama of the film, leaving things like Washington's infatuation with the dead girl and the final confrontation with the villain very trite. I have yet to be able to rectify this gap between the film I don't like and the potential for the meaning coming from it.
December 31, 2006
As always, under the Reviews menu on the left, one can find the Notables section, which is continuously updated through-out the year, and includes a more complete list of what I saw and loved each year, including "old" films from the repertory circuit and on video.
As has become routine on this site, there is a fairly large amount of theatrical releases from 2006 that I saw but did not write about. This may be from lack of time or lack of interest, but I feel I should at least indicate what major films I saw but failed to talk about. These will be listed in order of preference:
L'Iceberg (Abel, Gordon, Romy, Belgium)
Forsaken Land (Jayasundara, Sri Lanka)
The Ister (Barison/Ross, Australia)
The Decay of Fiction (O'Neill, USA)
Half Nelson (Fleck, USA)
An Inconvienent Truth (Guggenheim, USA)
The Descent (Marshall, UK)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Verbinski, USA)
Changing Times (Téchiné, France)
Babel (Iñárritu, USA)
Thank You For Smoking (Reitman, USA)
Our Daily Bread (Geyrhalter, Austria)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tykwer, Germany)
The Good German (Soderbergh, USA)
Crank (Neveldine/Taylor, USA)
I Saw Ben Barka Killed (Le Péron/Smihi, France)
Odete [Two Drifters] (Rodrigues, Portugal)
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