movies
Paris
This was a French film I saw in the V.O. with Spanish subtitles. In a way it was kind of sappy and hackneyed (young man thinks he is going to die and newly appreciates life) but it was actually good. It doesn't always do the obvious thing. There was some interesting ambiguity left regarding the main character. The trailer is here but I have to warn that it is a pretty terrible trailer and makes the movie seem realllllly corny, but you can hear the soundtrack. The best part was the scene in which the professor was dancing for his young lover, which was hilarious and made me laugh for a few minutes in the theater.
One part makes the viewers think that a minor character has died, and then you later find out he hasn't. It seemed manipulative and unnecessary.
Si La Cosa Funciona
This was the dubbed version of Woody Allen's "Whatever Works." In Spanish his catchphrase is "If The Thing Works." It was terrible and made worse by the dubbing.
Inglorious Basterds
I liked this much more than I thought I would. I really like how the director embraces the medium and genre. The dialogue is, of course, great. I doubt that Spanish people could really appreciate it, both for the language used and for its references.
Obviously the themes of the movie remain problematic but I certainly enjoyed it as a movie.
Pineapple Express
This was way funnier than I expected. The dialogue is hilarious and perfect. I was thinking that this movie wouldn't be funny at all if dubbed or subtitled because if you simplified the dialogue there would be no humor left. The ending was unnecessarily epic.
Don't Look Now
This is a movie from the 70s directed by Nicholas Roeg. I had never heard of it, but I guess it is kind of well-known (I base this off of wikipedia). The director did some interesting things with editing between scenes and he had a lot of interest in symbolic or allusive images and colors. The font used in the titles and some of the music is really corny and terrible.
I can say that a lot of the parts of this film were quite thrilling. One part in the end was really ridiculous (the climactic scene). I actually said "what" out loud in the theater. I don't know if you should consider that a good thing or a bad thing. All the scenes and vistas of Venice are honestly a good reason to see this movie. Subtitles, as usual, didn't really capture the original language. In English he says about a bishop, "I don't think he gives an ecclesiastical fuck" but the Spanish subtitles were like "I don't think it's important to him."
Transmission (Adas)
This is a Hungarian movie that I saw at the film festival. In the movie, all the "screens" (monitors, tvs, computers, etc) have stopped working, with the result that little technology works. However, this element doesn't play as important of a part as one would expect. The entire plot of the movie could have probably worked without it. The movie was too slow paced. It was a bit bored. I kept on thinking that there was some philosophical aspect of the movie that I was missing or failing to grasp (it's probably true).
Low Lights (Artimos šviesos)
Lithuanian movie. A unhappily married man meets an old friend, who takes him along on his habitual hobby of "night drivings" (it's just what it sounds like). Meanwhile his wife randomly goes out too and steals a ferrari from some eurotrash. Then they meet up. Well, that's the whole plot. The soundtrack was good. I feel like parts of this movie could have made a good music video. Once again, it was pretty slow-paced. Or, to give a more positive and probably more accurate description, it was a movie that made you wait.
She, a Chinese
This one I can give a wholehearted recommendation. The director was named Xiaolu Guo. It was about a girl from a small Chinese village who emigrates to London. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but that is the basic subject. It's interesting for its plot but also for its depiction of China. There were like chapter headings before various parts of the movie with aphoristic titles in all caps. "EVERY MOTHER WANTS HER DAUGHTER TO BE HAPPY," "SOMETIMES THINGS ARE EASIER THAN YOU THINK," "SPIKEY HAS A MEETING WITH DESTINY," that kind of thing. I liked the director's aesthetic in this sense. Her musical choices were good too. The movie ended with the title splashed huge across the screen.
Once Upon A Time Proletarian
This was directed by the same woman as above. She filmed it during her spare time while in China filming She, A Chinese. It's just portraits of different people in today's China, paying attention to the social and economic changes. Once again, she ended the movie by having the title fill the screen.
This was a French film I saw in the V.O. with Spanish subtitles. In a way it was kind of sappy and hackneyed (young man thinks he is going to die and newly appreciates life) but it was actually good. It doesn't always do the obvious thing. There was some interesting ambiguity left regarding the main character. The trailer is here but I have to warn that it is a pretty terrible trailer and makes the movie seem realllllly corny, but you can hear the soundtrack. The best part was the scene in which the professor was dancing for his young lover, which was hilarious and made me laugh for a few minutes in the theater.
One part makes the viewers think that a minor character has died, and then you later find out he hasn't. It seemed manipulative and unnecessary.
Si La Cosa Funciona
This was the dubbed version of Woody Allen's "Whatever Works." In Spanish his catchphrase is "If The Thing Works." It was terrible and made worse by the dubbing.
Inglorious Basterds
I liked this much more than I thought I would. I really like how the director embraces the medium and genre. The dialogue is, of course, great. I doubt that Spanish people could really appreciate it, both for the language used and for its references.
Obviously the themes of the movie remain problematic but I certainly enjoyed it as a movie.
Pineapple Express
This was way funnier than I expected. The dialogue is hilarious and perfect. I was thinking that this movie wouldn't be funny at all if dubbed or subtitled because if you simplified the dialogue there would be no humor left. The ending was unnecessarily epic.
Don't Look Now
This is a movie from the 70s directed by Nicholas Roeg. I had never heard of it, but I guess it is kind of well-known (I base this off of wikipedia). The director did some interesting things with editing between scenes and he had a lot of interest in symbolic or allusive images and colors. The font used in the titles and some of the music is really corny and terrible.
I can say that a lot of the parts of this film were quite thrilling. One part in the end was really ridiculous (the climactic scene). I actually said "what" out loud in the theater. I don't know if you should consider that a good thing or a bad thing. All the scenes and vistas of Venice are honestly a good reason to see this movie. Subtitles, as usual, didn't really capture the original language. In English he says about a bishop, "I don't think he gives an ecclesiastical fuck" but the Spanish subtitles were like "I don't think it's important to him."
Transmission (Adas)
This is a Hungarian movie that I saw at the film festival. In the movie, all the "screens" (monitors, tvs, computers, etc) have stopped working, with the result that little technology works. However, this element doesn't play as important of a part as one would expect. The entire plot of the movie could have probably worked without it. The movie was too slow paced. It was a bit bored. I kept on thinking that there was some philosophical aspect of the movie that I was missing or failing to grasp (it's probably true).
Low Lights (Artimos šviesos)
Lithuanian movie. A unhappily married man meets an old friend, who takes him along on his habitual hobby of "night drivings" (it's just what it sounds like). Meanwhile his wife randomly goes out too and steals a ferrari from some eurotrash. Then they meet up. Well, that's the whole plot. The soundtrack was good. I feel like parts of this movie could have made a good music video. Once again, it was pretty slow-paced. Or, to give a more positive and probably more accurate description, it was a movie that made you wait.
She, a Chinese
This one I can give a wholehearted recommendation. The director was named Xiaolu Guo. It was about a girl from a small Chinese village who emigrates to London. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but that is the basic subject. It's interesting for its plot but also for its depiction of China. There were like chapter headings before various parts of the movie with aphoristic titles in all caps. "EVERY MOTHER WANTS HER DAUGHTER TO BE HAPPY," "SOMETIMES THINGS ARE EASIER THAN YOU THINK," "SPIKEY HAS A MEETING WITH DESTINY," that kind of thing. I liked the director's aesthetic in this sense. Her musical choices were good too. The movie ended with the title splashed huge across the screen.
Once Upon A Time Proletarian
This was directed by the same woman as above. She filmed it during her spare time while in China filming She, A Chinese. It's just portraits of different people in today's China, paying attention to the social and economic changes. Once again, she ended the movie by having the title fill the screen.