Movies for the week
Movies for the week
(02-18-2008)
The World(2004, Jia Zhangke)
Undeniably beautiful and beautifully made, this film follows small scale drama in the midst of a cheesy amusment park, filled with miniature replicas of world wide landmarks. (One character points out that their World Trade Center still stands tall in their Manhattan skyline.) The movie's themes of constricted self-contained worlds (on a personal and larger social scale) made my skin crawl. The characters are trapped, both physically and emotionally, and burdened with disillusion and anomie. I felt trapped - exactly what the director wanted, but not emotions I want. I had a similar response to Tokyo Story - I could recognize its mastery, but shirked from its themes of responsibility and family, just like in real life. Oh, and The World's animated flights of fancy made the story even more depressing. Pretty stunning, even if I didn't like feeling anything I felt.
Daughters of Darkness(1971, Harry Kumel)
What's weird about this film is that it succeeds both as art and exploitation. It's one of the many films I've picked up because of murdermystery, and it's now one of my favorite "euro-sleaze art films" - and one of my favorite films of the last year or so. Stunningly lush in every sense of the word 'lush,' from the visuals to the actors to the music to the underthemes of violence and domination bubbling in every relationship. I screened this with La Belle Captive and thought about how easy it is for other people to digest complicated themes and experimentation if a little sex is added (Sullivan's Travels mentions the same thing).
Grin without a Cat(1977, Chris Marker)
Until recently, I was totally intimidated by Marker, but now that I've seen a bunch of his films, he's less of Perfect God. This film, however, was amazing. Marker has a sharp and incisive mind and this movie is a long essay about the heady idealism of the revolutionaries of the 60s and 70s, and the roots of their decline. It's not a film like other films, but some sort of new genre: the film-essay. It's similar to Sans Soliel, not as great, yet Marker's analysis of the decline of the revolutionary hey-day and the ideology of the time is so damn smart.
Return to the 36th Chamber(1980, Chia-Liang Liu)
I showed Enter the 36th Chamber to my friend and he became obsessed. For a few weeks he kept mentioning the film and how great it was. I told him there were two sequels, and he got excited. I warned him that the second movie was a comedy and that Gordon Liu (the hero of the first film) stared in the film, but didn't play the same character (in the first film, Liu played San Te, the creator of "The 36th Chamber") but instead played a goofy con artist who ends up sneaking into the Shaolin Temple and studying under San Te (played by another actor). It's one of the funnier kung fu comedies of the time and Liu has great comedic timing. The Chinese, like us, rely a little too much on broad juvenile humor (like fart jokes and stupid looking prosthetics) but it's a damn good comedy with fantastic kung fu. (And Gordon Liu's character inadvertantly learns Scaffolding Kung Fu!)
Electroma(2006, Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo)
A movie from Daft Punk. I had low expectations, but it's remarkably well made and very inventive and experimental. That said, I always thought Daft Punk's masks were cheesy, and I continued to think that as I watched the movie, so I kept getting distracted and knowkced out of the film, but there's a couple of fantastic scenes (one kick ass stark white scene that I think was done with green screen) and the movie works. (BTW, I read that the Daft Punk crew researched cinematography by reading the last 300 issues of American Cinematographer. I thought that was a cool way to learn.)
Gold Diggers of 1933(1933, Mervyn LeRoy (chor. Busby Berkley))
I loved this film. So smutty and funny. I'm not a fan of musicals, but the choreography is incredible and the songs are hilarious. The song and dance numbers exist in the real world - they are almost always on stage, and the movie follows a bunch of theater people during the Great Depression, trying to put together a show. The film specifically follows a bunch of hard-up actresses who decide to boondoggle a couple of blueblood assholes. It has the famous "We're in the money" song, and an even funnier track about "Pettin' in the park." There's a lecherous baby, a dance piece on roller skates, a song sung in Pig Latin, lots of sex, and side-splitting laughs.
Sullivan's Travels(1941, Preston Sturges)
So far my least favorite Sturges. It's super funny until the third act, and the ending is simply cloying and annoying. I screened this with Gold Diggers of 1933 since the fictional director (named Sullivan, of course) is a rich and famous director who made hits like "Ants in the Pants 1933" and "Ants in the Pants 1935," rifs on Gold Diggers of 1933 and Gold Diggers of 1935. The director, Sulilvan, makes fluffy comedies and wants to make a serious drama. He decides to travel the country disguised as a homeless man, meets the stunning Veronica Lake, and comedy, hijinxs and drama ensues. On of his producers tells him that social commentary goes down easier with sex and laughs, but Sturges needed to take that advice. He needed to ditch the treacly preaching for more sex and laughs. BTW, you Coen Brothers fans should take note: O Brother Where Art Thou? is the name of Sullivan's dream film: the serious drama about the plight of the common man.