ROIS ET REINE; PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST; A SCANNER DARKLY; SEVEN SAMURAI; BLOW-UP; WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR; CLERKS II; MONSTER HOUSE; PITFALL; LADY IN THE WATER; AN INN AT OSAKA; L'ECLISSE; SCOOP; FAMILIA; MIAMI VICE; BEYOND THE CLOUDS; TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE LEGEND OF RICKY BOBBY; LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE; ZABRISKIE POINT; THE LIFE OF OHARU; THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS; THE STRATOSPHERE GIRL; THE ILLUSIONIST; SNAKES ON A PLANE; HALF NELSON; QUINCEAÑERA; LADY AND THE TRAMP; CINDERELLA; WHISPER OF THE HEART; ALICE IN WONDERLAND; PINOCCHIO; HANA; THE UGLY DUCKLING AND ME; DUMBO; HULA GIRLS; REPRISE; THE JUNGLE BOOK; LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS; THE CAT RETURNS; BAMBI; IDIOCRACY; SLEEPING BEAUTY; INNOCENCE; FEARLESS; DREAMLAND; THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP; RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES

ROIS ET REINE

Saturday, July1st, 2006

The movie i saw Saturday night was Rois et Reine. We start off meeting Nora, a woman in her 30s, whose first 'husband' died, leaving her pregnant. She had another long relationship, but is now with a third, rather rich, man. We follow her down to her father's place, where the son, now 10, is staying. We soon find out the father is very seriously ill. There's a second daughter, the kind who run away, but is constantly begging for money. Then we switch to another storyline, this of a man, a violist, being committed to a psychiatric hospital (Catherine Deneuve is his doctor) and his crazy lawyer. It's halfway into the movie before we understand how these two stories are connected.

The movie swings wildly from mood to mood - sweet when we first meet Nora, hilarious slapstick with the committed man, tragically sad with the father's illness, even a touch of magical realism with the boy's father, and then a lightning bolt of hostility that comes the least expected direction. Actually, there's two, but the one is perhaps less shocking. And a third revelation that i thought was just a dream. However, the movie doesn't seem unneven or unnatural, just part of life. It does call into question what we believe others think of us.

There's an interesting motif regarding Leda and the Swan (a.k.a. Zeus disguised), which is what the print Mora gives her father is about.

Many reviewers chose it for the number one movie of last year. I really enjoyed it, but the revelations were so stunning i need to see it again to truly understand what was going on.

The two leads are really familiar, but neither has been in any movie i've seen. Weird.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST

Friday, July 7th, 2006

"I was nothing more than an almost innocent bystander."

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was pretty enjoyable, although the pacing was off, because it's really the first half of a two-parter, even though it's 150 minutes long. It takes forever to get going.

I like Bill Nighy, recognisable even under the squid face.

I know it's only a movie, but the East India Company would have no authority in Jamaica, certainly not outranking a royal governor. I should take notes when i see movies. There was a great quote i wanted to use, spoken by Keira, something along the lines of all the men taking out their swords and having a go at each other. You get the idea.

******************************************

Speaking of Pirates (seen for the third time), the quote was about the men "taking out their swords and banging away at each other," which is much more suggestive. Did anyone get Sparrow's joke about his hand, about his not being blind?

"Damn you, Jack Sparrow!"

A SCANNER DARKLY

Saturday, July 8th, 2006

What does a scanner see?

The movie i saw was A Scanner Darkly, which was interesting. Took me a while to figure out what was going on. It's set in the near future, a little step closer to a police state (originally written in the Nixon era, it fits well into the post-911 paranoia), and centres around a cop (Keanu Reeves - befuddlement suits him) and a group of drug-addled losers (including the hilarious Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson). I need to see it again, knowing what i know now.

"This is a world getting progressively worse. Can we not agree on that? What's on the dessert menu?"

SEVEN SAMURAI

Monday, July 10th, 2006

"Haven't you ever seen anyone cut firewood before?"

The movie i saw was the classic Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai), the original modern action movie. I saw Ran a very long time ago, when i wasn't able to get anything out of it, so practically speaking this is first time i've seen a Kurosawa movie. I didn't realize how long it was - we actually had an intermission. It's the full-length restored version. I thought the audience was laughing at some inappropriate parts. I found it interesting for the conventions it defied - the eventual ease between the samurai and peasants, the samurai who was born a peasant, the romance. I think the heart of the movie was Kikuchiyo's long rant about the farmers.

"Since it's impossible to kill them all... I usually run away."

One thing that i find odd with a 'first' is that for its reputation, it doesn't seem very radical now, but that's because it's influenced so many others, and i've seen the influence before the original (not applying just to this movie).

Compared to modern martial arts movies, it's very grounded in reality - there's no floating in the air or walking on bamboo poles, or even overpowering swordmanship. You can't imagine any of these samurai would be able to take on a hundred others, like Lone Wolf could. Most of the literature on samurai gives them almost superheroic skills.

I can't say it grabbed me emotionally, in the way other movies might (eg. 2046, or Three Times), since i can't really identify with the samurai's mindset (in fact, i think the 'honour' system is rather despicable, along with the caste system). I have more sympathy for the peasants, but less empathy, and wish they were less passive - a view shared with Kikuchiyo, whom i think was the most interesting character.

BLOW-UP

Friday, July 14th, 2006

"I *am* in Paris..."

After that, i walked around the area a bit - i took photos of the AGO's construction from the north side (Dundas Street). I would've liked to have taken photos from inside. I continued walking along Dundas, and got some shots of old Chinatown. I took some down Spadina as well. I have to edit them, so posting pics will have to wait.

I had supper at Jules, and chose the croque-monsieur, and then remembered i've had their croque-monsieur before, and wasn't impressed. And also, they only put fries on the plate. Usually if you order fries or soup, they have a bit of salad too. The chardonnay made me care less, and i was reading my book on 'lost Christianities'. Oh, and dessert was the yummy lemon crepe.

The movie i saw was Blow-Up, which i saw a couple of years ago (was it two? yikes!). Sometimes resources just aren't available for movies. I was looking for shots of certain scenes, but found mostly broken links.

I wanted a better shots of the floozies (The Blonde and The Brunette) - you can't even see the pink tights.

This is a better (colour) version of the shot i used for my last review).

Also, i wanted a quote, from the painter in the movie, the one who talked about making images, and then providing meaning for them, which is what the story of the movie is all about.

WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR

Sunday, July 16th, 2006

I went to see Who Killed The Electric Car, a documentary about the birth and death of the California Zero Admissions law, and the electric car projects it engendered. Essentially the car companies (who saw the electric as a threat to their current business, including parts and maintenance) and the oil companies (for obvious reasons) killed it, with the collusion of politicians (especially the Bush administration). Most of it focussed on GM's EV1.

Something was up right from the beginning, despite the dedication of the engineers and others on the project. First, you couldn't buy one, you could only lease. Second, to do so, you had to go to this rigorous application process (including, weirdly, celebrities such as Mel Gibson), with long waiting lists. Third, when they killed the program, they cancelled all the leases, and then destroyed them all - they refused to sell.

Since then, the car companies and governments (Bush & Schwarzenegger) have been touting hydrogen cars, and, in fact, billions of dollars of tax dollars have gone to the automakers and oil companies, purportedly for hydrogen fuel cell research. It's very expensive, and has a low energy efficiency. Electric cars cost about the same as regular cars, although they never went into mass production, and pretty cheap to maintain (fewer moving parts). They're very clean, and cleaner even if the electricity is produced using coal. Another advantage of electric cars is that you can juice up at home.

"I thought it would be like this backup car, because the range sort of sucked and I didn't know much about electric cars. Within two months, that thing turned me around -- I just couldn't believe what an advanced piece of machinery it was."

The US is more dependent than ever on foreign oil.

CLERKS II

Friday, July 21st, 2006

That guy's being awfully forward with that donkey.

Ie went to see the movie, Clerks II. I thought it was actually pretty funny. A lot better than Jay & Silent Bob the movie. It's also probably the grossest of them all. The sentiment is pretty sloppy, but Jay is there to keep things in perspective.

"That look was so gay I thought Sam was gonna tell the little hobbits to go for a walk so he could saunter over to Frodo and suck his cock. Now *that* would have been an Academy Award worthy ending."

MONSTER HOUSE

Friday, July 21st, 2006 7:10 pm: Das Haus... Lebt!!

The movie i saw was Monster House. It was okay. Not good, just okay. The facial animation is simply ugly, just like in Polar Express. Stop using mo-cap for faces! It's awful. The character behave stiffly, and the plot needed some work. There were some fun things in it, and it's a great idea, but it wasn't developed enough.

A nice shot - too bad it never appeared in the movie.

PITFALL

Saturday, July 22nd, 2006

The movie i saw was Pitfall (Otoshiana), 1962, by Hiroshi Teshigahara (unfortunately, the Antonioni was sold out). It's the story of a deserter who works under the table as a miner. He's sent to this ghost town for a job, but is murdered by a mysterious man in a white suit. There are two witnesses - the miner's son, and a woman, the last living person in the town. Events spiral out from there, including the miner waking up, very upset he's been killed. The movie grabs you, even though its view of life is selfish and futile. It's also pretty eerie at times. It's not a funny movie, but there are moments: turns out your afterlife is exactly the same as you were at the moment of death, so if you were hungry, you will be hungry for eternity.

"Owie! Owie! Owie!"

LADY IN THE WATER

Sunday, July 23rd, 2006

I went to see Tramp In The Damp (a.k.a. Skank In The Tank, Floozy In The Jacuzzi), by M. Night Shyamalan. I enjoyed it a lot more than i thought it would. It does remind me a lot of a kid's fairy tale, although with the suspsense pushed up a notch (maybe to the same level we need to feel like we did as kids). I liked the idea of people accepting the idea of a 'real life' fairy tale so easily (just like in kids' books), and people having to figure out what their Role should be. Particularly funny was the film critic, who, at one point, was critqiuing his role as it happened.

"This is like a scene out of a horror movie ".

AN INN AT OSAKA

Wednesday, July 26th, 2006

This was the first Cinematheque lecture i've been to: "Arthur Nolletti, Jr. on Heinosuke Gosho". Nolletti was an interesting speaker, and apparently an important writer on Japanese cinema. The talk preceded the movie we saw, which was An Inn At Osaka (Osaka no yado). Wow - i don't think i've seen a movie with so little info about it on IMDB. It was about a man exiled from the main office for defending an underling. He ends up living in a hotel, which reminded me a lot of Maison Ikkoku. There were lots of funny bits, although it was mainly a drama. He becomes affected by the women around him, mostly hotel staff, and mostly poor, including a single mother who's son is away at school, a woman with a leeching boyfriend, a sake-loving geisha who has a thing for him, and a teenaged girl whose tailor-father's death makes her desperate. The movie is about the obsession with money, and how it destroys our humanity.

I found absolutely NO images from the movie online at all. I've had to scan this image from the Cinematheque magazine.

L'ECLISSE

Friday, July 28th, 2006

The movie i saw Friday was Antonioni's L’Eclisse. I can't say it really grabbed me - being a romantic, i tend to prefer people who reach out for love, rather than mock it. Also, i didn't really empathize with the lead. None of which is to say it wasn't good, or i didn't like it - i just didn't love it. Just as an aside, i liked Riccardo's art sense (very modern, even for now) more than Piero's (and i'm guessing he chose nothing, it was all just from the family).

I found her boyfriend (Alain Delon) to be prettier than her

I wonder if this scene was considered as racially offensive in the 60s as it appears now?

SCOOP

Saturday, July 29th, 2006

The movie i saw was Woody Allen's Scoop. My reaction was mixed - i enjoyed it overall, but it felt like two movies going on - one, a serious movie, involving murder mystery and wealthy English people, and a comedy, involving two goofball Americans. It was almost painful to see the incongruity Woody doing his schtick with the English lords and ladies. I think they should've played up the comedy, making their investigation goofier, slapstickish, or something. Same thing with the ghost - i expected him to be more of a comedy device.

Uhhh... make that two scoops.

The trailers were odd, because we saw two more movies that are about stage magicians, one The Illusionist, starring Ed Norton, and Jessica Biel looking a lot like Scarlett Johansson, and the other, The Prestige, starring Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson.

FAMILIA

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

The movie i saw was Familia, which is a Quebec movie about mixed up families (no idea why it's not called Famille). It focusses on this single mother with a serious gambling problem, the kind who keeps imposing on people until the can't take anymore (and really brings herself low), her daughter, who's growing up a little too fast, her sister-in-law, a control freak whose marriage is on the fritz, and who is being imposed upon, and her daughter who becomes influenced by the other, older daughter. Now that i think of it, they aren't sister-in-laws, because the father never married her. Anyway, it was pretty good, funny, dramatic, and even shocking in a place (dramatic and funny at the same time).

The two girls - i liked how their relationship developed.

The lack-of-control freak, and the control freak.

I thought i recognized her - she's been in lots of American TV shows - here her character revolves around her relationship with the control freak.

MIAMI VICE

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

Miami Vikki

I snuck out for a late hot dog lunch at the cinema, and decided since i was there i'd see a movie. Miami Vice has been getting good reviews. In fact, the critics on metacritic liked it more than the 'users'. Usually the general audience rate movies higher than the critics do - not surprisingly, since viewers are choosing to see it, and presumably it was something they were interested in. Maybe the critics were just surprised it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be. It was okay i guess. I found it hard to understand what they were talking about - i guess mumbling is more 'real'.

Okay, you hang back and look all black second fiddle, while i get all Colin Farrelly here...

BEYOND THE CLOUDS

Thursday, August 3rd, 2006

I saw Beyond The Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole, which scarcely looks like real words), by Antonioni, 4 main stories linked by bits starring John Malkovich as a filmmaker. It was a lot of fun (even in its 'arthouse' cliches), and fairly erotic.

I believe the last one is Irene Jacob, my fave, looking different here, and perhaps the only young woman not to bare her self. Anjelica Huston had a funny tiny cameo.

TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE LEGEND OF RICKY BOBBY

Sunday, August 6th, 2006

"I wake up... and I piss excellence!"

...essentially doing his George Bush character

Sunday i went to see Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which was pretty funny. I thought Anchorman was a little weak, in terms of JPM (jokes per minute), but this measured up. To give you an idea, two of the scenes from the trailer, the one where Ricky and his best buddy are discussing how things are like peanut butter, and the one with Jean Girard in a big bath, shaving his legs, saying, "I'm coming to get you, Riki Bubi," are not actually in the movie. How can you not laugh at a French Formula-1 turned NASCAR antagonist who has Andy Richter as a husband and who drinks macchiatos and reads Camus while racing?

"And now ze matador shall dance with ze blind shoemaker."

LITTE MISS SUNSHINE

Monday, August 7th, 2006

Another movie about winners and losers

Yesterday i saw Little Miss Sunshine, starring Steve Carrell (America's number one Proust scholar under suicide watch), Toni Collette (his sister), Greg Kinnear (her would-be self-help guru husband) and Alan Arkin (his drug-snorting foul-mouthed father). Their little girl has won a spot at the Little Miss Sunshine contest, and they go on the roadtrip to hell. There's also a son who no longer speaks, and wants to fly jets in the air force. Everyone plays it straight, it was dark, and funny as hell.

Just trying to drive there is funny.

The young beauty queens are creepy.

ZABRISKIE POINT

Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

You say you want a revolution

I spent a lot of yesterday reading The Everlasting, and i'm still only 3/5 done. I was it reading during supper at Queen Mother Cafe, where i had the herb-crusted chicken supreme for dinner. The chicken was good, and i could hack the veggies (asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower), although not the mushrooms (which supposedly part of the sauce, but were big mothers), and definitely not the orzo... The orzo was weird - at first i thought it was big grained rice. They tasted fine, but the texture almost made me gag. They were so soft, not at all like pasta, it was like little wroms going down my throat. Whatever happened to al dente? Also, just ginger ale - i think i've been drinking too much lately (at least paying too much).

The movie i saw was Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (music by Pink Floyd and Grateful Dead), which was his take on 1960s student radicalism. I enjoyed it. As a romantic, he's sympathetic to the students, who seem from today's perspective to be something of a joke (privileged university students spouting outdated slang and Marxist lingo, speaking approvingly of China and Cuba, advocating violence). In contrast, the 'establishment' people seem ordinary and harmless - except they're part of the critique which is as relevant today as it was then: unchecked consumerism, destruction of the environment (building suburbs, lawns and golf courses in the desert, which explains places like Phoenix and Las Vegas today), and of course, the other, violent side of the establishment: the overzealous police and military.

Although he's sympathetic, i don't think Antonioni totally buys the radicals' methods. The real story is about a young man, who can't carry out the violence in his agenda, but has no problem stealing a plane (down with capitalism, man), and a young woman searching for truth on the open highway, although she's on a work errand. Make love, not war, is the message, although the dust seems a bit of a problem to me.

What the heck is going on with these hippies?!

The leads, who had the same names as their characters, actually lived the lives of their film to some degree:

Mark Frechette
Donated his $60,000 earnings from Zabriskie Point to a commune.
Tried to rob a Boston area bank; sentenced to 15 years in prison. "There was no way to stop what was going to happen. We just reached the point where all that the three of us really wanted to do was hold up a bank. And besides, standing there with a gun, cleaning out a teller's cage - that's about as fuckin' honest as you can get, man!"
Died at age 27 in weight room in prison with a 150-pound weight bar pressed against his throat. Ruled an accident.

Daria Halprin
Dropped out of University of California, where she studied Anthropology, to make Zabriskie Point.
After the film, she lived in a commune with her Zabriskie Point co-star Mark Frechette.
1972 married Dennis Hopper, divorced 1976,1 child
Now teaching movement-based healing arts at Tamalpa Institute, California

Kathleen Cleaver
1967 married to Eldridge Cleaver (minister of information for the Black Panther Party), divorced 1987, 2 children

THE LIFE OF OHARU

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

On Thursday, i saw The Life of Oharu, (Saikaku ichidai onna, literally Life of a Woman by Saikaku), set in the height of the Edo era, by Kenji Mizoguchi, from 1952. It starts off with a 50 year old prostitute, seeing the face of her lover (Toshiro Mifune) from when she was a teen. It then jumps back to when she was a lady of the imperial court, daughter of a nobleman. She fell in love, but he was a samurai not a nobleman (some reviews call him a 'lowly retainer'), so it brought shame on both of them. We then watch her decline in society, a cruel case of one step forward, then two back each time. Women are exploited, traded and abused in a male-dominated society, "bought like a fish on a chopping board", it's a critique of the dehumanizing obsession with 'honour', clan and status in traditional Japanese society (which was also blamed for Japan's involvement and destruction in WWII). Beautifully told, depressing as hell.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

The movie i saw Saturday was The Secret Life Of Words. Odd, it's IMDB title is Spanish - i know the director is Spanish, and it's funded by Spanish agencies, but it's entirely spoken in English. It's a very good movie.

The story starts off at an oil rig, and we see a fire, and two men caught in the fire. Then it switches to some factory in Ireland, where a woman named Hanna, played by Sarah Polley, is forced to take vacation. Hanna has problems - partial deafness, eating the same thing for lunch and dinner (rice, apple, chicken), doesn't smile, and phones a woman named Inge (Julie Christie) but says nothing.

While on vacation in some dreary place, she overhears someone needing a nurse for a short period, and she volunteers, having been a nurse in her home country (we don't find out what that was until much later). She's flown by helicopter to the oil rig, where she has to take care of an American named Josef (played by Tim Robbins) with very serious burns, until he's stable enough to fly (the other worker was killed in the blaze). There are a few other characters (although most of the rig's crew is gone now) including the chief, who knows some people need solitude, a chef whose work is unappreciated by workers who want burgers and chips, a oceanologist who keeps to himself, a goose who was the pet of the dead man.

But the story revolves around the relationship between Hanna and Josef. Hanna says almost nothing (not even her name). Josef, who is temporarily blind keeps talking to her. Polley and Robbins are great. Most of his work is done just lying in bed, most of hers is with saying nothing. We eventually learn more about the fire, and much more about Hanna's past.

"He doesn't like to be with the others. He's a loner, too." "There are many of us."

THE STRATOSPHERE GIRL

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 11:13 pm: Fuku!

Monday evening i went over to L&R's for a visit. She and i watched The Stratosphere Girl. I actually bought it, based on a recommendation. It's about a girl who's just finished school, and wants some excitement, so she goes to Japan and works under the table as a 'hostess', and then gets caught up in the story of another missing foreign-born hostess. It wasn't as connected to comics as i'd thought (hoped?) - her work actually looked more like life drawing. It didn't finish too well - still, it was interesting. The dancing in underwear scene at the end was a little dodgy.

What a strange way to read kanji.

Awesome fuku! And that's Kato from the Pink Panther movies.

THE ILLUSIONIST

Saturday, August 19th, 2006

The movie i saw was The Illusionist, which i thought was pretty good. They maybe rushed the last 'illusion'. A dawning realization i think needs a little more time. You'll understand if you see it.

Wheeeee-ooooooo-wheeeee!

I was right - baby got back (and it turns out, baby got front too).

SNAKES ON A PLANE

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

ophidians on an aircraft

I saw Snakes On A Plane. Bleagh.

"I've had it with these mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane!"

HALF NELSON

Thursday, August 29th, 2006

I saw Half Nelson yesterday. It's the story of the relationships between a white inner city high school teacher with good intentions and a serious drug problem and one of his 13-year-old female students whose life is surrounded by drug-pushers and users. I thought it was great, a different take on the 'inner-city teacher' motif (it's almost a genre). Plus, most of the soundtrack was by Broken Social Scene - can't go wrong there.

“Second chances are rare. You should really try and take advantage of them.”

QUINCEAÑERA

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

kin-say-an-yehr-a... i think...

The movie i saw was Quinceañera (called Echo Park, L.A. in Britain), an interesting and likeable movie about a girl coming up to her big 15th birthday party and finds herself 'miraculously' pregnant, and runs away from her religious father to live with her kindly great-uncle and another troubled cousin, this one gay and a bit of a troublemaker. Not only did it play on the traditional vs modern mores angle, but also on the poor Latino locals vs the incoming gay yuppies gentrifying the neighbourhood.

"You live in a whole other world, don't you?"
"No, you do."

LADY AND THE TRAMP

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

The Stuck-up Bitch and Street-Trash Pimp

Last night i saw Lady and the Tramp for the first time. I've seen bits and pieces before, but never the whole thing. I was actually more familar with the Scamp comics when i was a kid, and i didn't remember the setting being so... precious, though that may be the adaptation, or it may be my memory. Overall, it was pretty enjoyable. You can really tell how the hound's recover was an add-on, and he really was meant to die. Also, the Siamese cats scene was incredibly racist (not to mention anti-felinist), and kind of out of place (they were never seen again).Are we to assume Lady and Tramp got it on that night? For shame!

"We are racist caricature if you prease!"

CINDERELLA

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

Cinderellie!

This afternoon, instead of seeing Crank, i watched Cinderella, another one i hadn't seen in full, and another movie promoting an anti-felinist agenda (in this case, over farm vermin, which cats are supposed to get rid of). I knew the fairy tale of course. I enjoyed everything about it, except the Prince, who was a total non-entity - they didn't even bother to name him (didn't even call him 'Charming'), and i was surprised they didn't actually show Cinderella and the Prince speaking for the first time. We don't know what drew him to her. Really, they lost the opportunity to have the Prince interact with his father, and he should've been along for the trying on of the glass slipper. To me, it undermines the whole movie - the mice were more interesting.

In the evening i watched Ella Enchanted, which is a fun take on the tale.

"Okay, i'm only a plastic doll - did you notice a difference?"

Bibidi! Bobidi! Buu!

WHISPER OF THE HEART

Monday, September 4th, 2006

"If You Listen Closely"

The third movie i rented was Whisper of the Heart, a Studio Ghibli movie, which says almost everything about what you'll get, which is a lot more genuine feeling, a young female lead, a lot of quiet time, and a love of the sky. It's a little different, in that the fantasy elements are kept to a minimum, and it has an urban and contemporary setting (for when it was made), and it's more of a simple love story than most Miyazaki/Ghibli films. I like how it starts off with a mystery (the bookworm finding all her books have been previously taken out by one other person). It did a great job on touching the fears we develop in adolescence, of not knowing what to do, and what we're 'worth', fears which at least for some of us, stay with us into adulthood. It'd be interesting to read the original manga it was adapted from.

I'd started with the Japanese track with subtitles, but tired an switched back to English, but was too lazy to turn off the subtitles, and it was interesting to see how different they were, in some cases changing the meaning of the moment.

I also like Miyazaki's pro-cat attitudes.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Monday, September 4th, 2006

Feed your Head!

Last night i watched Alice In Wonderland. It was a lot of fun. The ending seemed a bit abrupt - not much reaction to her dream. Odd to see Alice obviously getting high (and forgetful) on the hookah pipe - you find things in old stuff that you just wouldn't think should be there. For another example, the bonus disc had the first Walt Disney TV show, and it had Edgar Bergen (the world's worst ventriloquist - used to have a radio show, if you can believe it). Charlie McCarthy (the dummy) was making suggestive comments to the actress who voiced Alice (and she was only 12 at the time)! Weird and creepy.

"...in my world, the books would be nothing but pictures."

The Walrus and the Carpenter went walking hand in hand.
"If only," said the Carpenter, "the law would understand."

PINOCCHIO

Tuesday, September 5th, 2006

"I'd rather be smart than be an actor."

Tonight was Pinocchio, which was also a lot of fun. My only complaint would be, as with a lot of the classics, was that it felt abbreviated. Funny, Geppetto and Jiminy never meet.

"And this is the plant's sexual organs, Pinocch."

"That makes two that grow bigger."

Pinocchio was a happy lad since the day he lost his strings,
He could walk and talk and fly...
"Do anything i try... "
He can dance, sing a song, play a flute...
"Do anything i try..."
But, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never,
Never should he ever tell a lie.

HANA

Saturday, September 9th, 2006

Film fest 1

This morning i saw the first movie of the Festival, Hana yori mo naho, billed as HANA. It's the story of a young ronin who aims to fulfill his dying father's wish for vengeance. We meet him in a Tokyo slum, where he becomes involved in the life of the residents as he waits for news on the whereabouts of his intended victim. It's set in the peaceful early 1700s, when samurai really had nothing to do. I really enjoyed it, it's a lot funnier and sweeter than the premise indicates. It's from the same director who made After Life and Nobody Knows, two other great films.

Turning shit into ricecakes.

The director was there to introduce his movie (he seemed rather shy), although i didn't stay after for questions, because i had other places to go.

THE UGLY DUCKLING AND ME

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

Film fest 2

This morning i saw my second movie of the Festival, The Ugly Duckling and Me, billed as Den grimme ælling og mig on IMDB (although the version i saw was in English - i do like 'grimme' for 'ugly'). A smartass take on the Andersen tale, it stars a rat on the run, who aims to get rich by using the ugliest duckling (who believes him to be his father) as a freak in a carnival show. It reminds me of Hoodwinked, in that the character designs are wonky, the modelling, rigging and lighting are not polished, but they focussed on making a funny script. In some places it's actually a little too scary for very young kids, and has jokes that kids won't get (like the 'surly teen' bit). It has a similar sensibility to a European animation i saw last year, in that they don't shy away from characters smacking each other around. It had a few weird bits, like chickens looked like chickens, but the female duck characters actually had boobies.

The ugly baby duckling stage..................................and the ugly adolescent duckling stage.

I think i saw Billy Connolly walking around the Manulife Centre. I had lunch at 7 West - i should've gone upstairs, where i'd more likely see a star or two. I had tried at 7 am to get tickets to see a movie called Paris, je t'aime, but they never went on sale. I wonder how they sold out without ever being on sale?

DUMBO

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

It's Jumbo, Jr, thanks.

This afternoon i watched Dumbo. It was pretty sweet, especially the tender relationship between Dumbo and his mother. Again, it felt abbreviated at the end - what i like about Rudolph was the reindeer didn't love him at the end, they felt bad because of how they treated him in principle.

But how practical was that elephant pyramid? The circus should be charged with animal cruelty.

Ringmaster: Climax...
Timothy Q. Mouse: You are now getting that climax.
Ringmaster: Climax...

Interesting that the crows were obviously black, as were the only humans to help set up the circus.

HULA GIRLS

Monday, September 11th, 2006

Today i had a day off and was able to get in a couple of Festival films.

The first movie (at 9:15) was a Japanese movie called Hula Girls, based on a true story of a coal company in the 1960s that tries to save a far northern mining town by creating Hawaiian Centre, a tourist destination. The story revolves around a dancer brought up from Tokyo to train local girls to hula dance, and the girls themselves. Most of the mine workers (parents of the girls) are hostile to the plan (in the belief it would somehow aid the mine's closure), and the fashionable teacher isn't too happy about being in a hick town either - it's the girls who are enthusiastic. Mostly sentimental and funny, it does have its sad and serious moments.

REPRISE

Monday, September 11th, 2006

The second movie i saw was Reprise, a Norwegian film about friendship, love, selling out and growing up and becoming an adult. The story revolves around two young men who want to become writers. Although it's a serious movie (one of the characters has a mental breakdown), it's also quite funny. It starts off with the two imagining their future - both getting book deals at the same time, moving to Paris, getting poetically suicidal French girlfriends. The director plays around with our sense of time, often cutting back and forth between two scenes, and sometimes we're not sure in which the conversation is taking place, and much of the story is told in flashbacks, sometimes to scenes we skipped over, sometimes back to various points in childhood, and even forward into imagined futures. It reminded me of Scott Pilgrim in a few places - same age bracket, one character a lot like Young Neil.

Publishing assistant... huh!

Girlfriend, stolen from a rocker.

The two leads.

THE JUNGLE BOOK

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006

Last night i watched The Jungle Book. I think i've read some reviews that didn't think too highly of it, but i thought it was a cute little story. The girl was a little too flirty for her age (and my cynical sense of human wondered whther he'd get rejected for being the wrong caste, end up ). The character animation was fabulous - none of the 30s/40s rubberiness, no rotoscoping stiffness.

Okay, i can see three of them as Beatles, but the bald one seems more like one of their dads.

LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS

Saturday, September 16th, 2006

I saw my final Festival film today. I had tried to get in to see Paris, je t'aime, and though there shows last Saturday and this Saturday, tickets never went on sale for the general public. I woke up early this morning, to get online to order a ticket, and no luck.

The movie i saw was Love and Other Disasters, a British romantic comedy (which seems to be a particular genre in itself). It veered between taking itself seriously, being a parody, and being a kind of metafiction - a character says she doesn't want to become like a character in a movie recalling her past while violins play, while she recalls her past and violins play. It wore its influences (Breakfast At Tiffany's, Notting Hill) on its sleeve - actually, on its forehead, becoming part of the plot. It starred Brittany Murphy, the pseudo-Golightly, whose feeble hold on an English accent was written into the story. The characters have such fun in their roles you can't help but have fun too. It will probably get a commercial release - watch for Dawn French in a hilarious bit as a relationship therapist, and a couple of amusing big-star cameos (shades of The Player and The Spy Who Shagged Me).

Why is there a gay man in my shower? Oh, right - it's his apartment

THE CAT RETURNS

Saturday, September 16th, 2006

Today i watched was The Cat Returns (Neko no Ongaeshi), another Studio Ghibli animation, a sequel of sorts to Whisper Of The Heart. It doesn't have the spark of Miyazaki's greats, but it's head and shoulders above the average animation these days (see Everyone's Hero), and perfectly entertaining. Actually, the obnoxious cats really had me laughing. And it's nice to see a different ending to the school-hunk crush. My only complaint: Anne Hathaway was miscast as the lead - she has too much maturity and confidence in her voice. I had to switch to the Japanese version, even though i was tired.

But the cat came back the very next day.
Yes, the cat came back. They thought he was a goner,
But the cat came back. He just wouldn't stay away.

BAMBI

Sunday, September 17th, 2006

"Bambi... Yep, I guess that'll do all right."

I watched Bambi. It was okay. Stuff just kinda happened. I mean, Bambi was sad when his mom was killed, but after that, he seemed okay. He oddly stayed the same size from his birth in spring until late winter, and then in the few months before actual spring, he grew full-sized. It's a lot like Lion King in many ways. Actually, the animation was gorgeous, and the cute little character stuff was great.

"Yer really gonna regret that name when yer grown up and want to lead the herd, huh, Bambi?"

Part of Disney's homosexualist agenda. There's no indication his partner was female, by the way.

IDIOCRACY

Monday, September 18th, 2006

Cuts a little too close to home...

Tonight i saw Idiocracy. It's a bit of a mystery that it wasn't promoted very much (cinema.com doesn't have a listing?), and has had very limited engagements, considering it was created by Mike Judge. It's a bit of a stretch to call it satire (it's more spoof), but it is funny. An experiment gone wrong, two people from now end up unfrozen 500 years in the future, where stupid and vulgar is king. A world where the courts are like Springer, Fuddruckers ends up as Buttfuckers, a gangsta is President, advertising is everywhere, and where reading and writing are for fags. Suspicious people might think the movie got buried because it takes shots at Fox News (and the movie is distributed by Fox), Starbucks, Costco and Carl Jr's.

"I would like to go to Starbucks." "We don't have time for a handjob."

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Tuesday, September 20th, 2006

Last night i watched Sleeping Beauty. It was pretty good. Maybe too much of the Fairies, not enough of the supposed protagonists, Aurora and Phillip. The Queen was a non-entity - obviously, a story not written by a mother. As much as i complain about Disney's animated stories for the past decade or more, they do better with characters. Although Maleficent was amazing.

"Oh, they're hopeless. A disgrace to the forces of evil." - Maleficent on the Bush administration

"C'mon baby, I'll pull out in time."

INNOCENCE

Thursday, September 21st, 2006

L'École

On Thursday i went to see a special showing of a movie at a local library. The other attendees where mostly very, very old. Kind of weird.

Anyway, the movie i saw was a French movie called Innocence. On the face of it, it's about an all-girls boarding school in the woods, where the girls aren't allowed to leave or have any outside contact. There are only two housekeepers and two teachers, and the only lessons they seem to take is dance and natural history. There's not a lot of action, as we follow the girls around, first one of the newest, freed from a coffin (with no explanation of how she got there), then one of the middle girls, hoping to be specially chosen by the headmistress, and then one of the eldest, who leave the residences at night on a secret mission. Most of the time the girls are alone, and are free to play.

The movie has a dream-like and unsettling feel to it, partly due to the fear (some of the threats are real), and partly due to semi-erotic feel of some scenes. Of course, that's an adult's interpretation, and i think the point is, from the girl's point of view, there's nothing sexual about any of it. An allegory about childhood (specifically girlhood), it's a bit of an cross in some ways between The Prisoner and Revolutionary Girl Utena.

"Obedience is the only path that leads to happiness."

FEARLESS

Friday, September 22nd, 2006

Last night i saw Fearless (lame name), a 'wu shu' action movie, apparently Jet Li's last martial arts movie. It's very loosely based on the real life Huo Yuanjia (Huo Yuan Jia is the movie's name in Chinese). It's about someone who knows how to fight, but needs to fix his heart. The villains were fairly cardboard, but i enjoyed the storyline about the main character.

"Did someone call for a doctor?"

DREAMLAND

Saturday, September 23rd, 2006

Yesterday i saw the movie i'd tried to see last week, Dreamland. The main character is a girl who lives in a puny trailer park in the desert, dreaming of being a poet, and of going to university - she has many offers, but doesn't want to abandon the ones she takes care of, her father, who hasn't been able to leave the site since his wife died a few years earlier, and her best friend, a girl who dreams of becoming Miss America, but is in the early stages of multiple sclerosis. A hot new guy comes to town, whom both girls are attracted to, but starts dating the friend, which sets things into motion.

I enjoyed it - sometimes maybe it tries too hard to make its characters seem interesting, and we know where the story is headed, but i still found it engaging, and the cinematography was beautiful (although not enough to make me want to move to some trailer park in the desert).

Dig the cinematography.

I thought i recognized the lead (Agnes Bruckner), but i haven't seen her in anything, although she kind of looks like Piper Perabo or Jessica Paré. I didn't think i'd seen her friend, Kelli Garner, but she was Thumbsucker, The Aviator and an episode of Buffy, and she reminded me of someone, but i can't place whom.

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

Today i saw The Science Of Sleep (La science des rêves, The Science of Dreams in French), a movie by Michel Gondry, who also made Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. It's very much in the same vein, although it deals with the boundary between dreams and reality, rather than memory and reality, and the beginning of a romance, rather than the end. I enjoyed it a lot - i like Gondry's sensibility.

"Tonight I'll show you how dreams are prepared, love, friendships, relationships. All those ships."

RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES

Sunday, October 1st, 2006

The movie i saw Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Qian li zou dan qi, by Yimou Zhang, who also made Raise the Red Lantern (which i haven’t seen), Hero and House Of Flying Daggers. A taciturn Japanese man discovers his estranged son is very sick in the hospital, but the son refuses to see him. His daughter-in-law gives him a video of the son’s work, a documentary on Chinese folk opera, and decides to go to China to complete the work, to film a performance by a certain singer in a remote part of China. He discovers the singer in question has been jailed 3 years for assault, but this doesn’t deter the father. He even gets the Chinese authorities to allow a staging of the opera in prison, only to have the singer break down as he’s about to perform, and we discover the singer has a son whom he hasn’t seen.

The movie plays off a number of related themes, such as the father-son dynamic, the estrangement vs community contrast, and father’s reserve vs the singer’s emotionality, rural vs urban. Interestingly, while most of the main characters are male, it’s the females who enable communication between the men, and when those females are absent communications have broken down. The male translator isn’t really capable of doing the job, and where language isn’t a barrier, communication often falls into bickering.

"Six against one is not a fair soccer game."