lemon burn

My recent viewing log

Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard):
Hated Because of Great Qualities
It was certainly different than the Godard's film I became familiar with, but never the less, it was great. Again it seems Godard loves to play with self awareness, the colors are almost nightmarishly vivid (probably alluding to the seemingless assumed beauty of the protagonist's life, but deep down isn't very stable), the actual story (a film about a film), and small tidbits here and there (the narration of the roles, the sound pausing in the theatre, the tint changes of the opening bed scene). But all in all it was a completely unexpected approach to a "mainstream film". As his usual style he plays up on casual moments that don't help the story in the action department, but rather the emotional. Camille is probably one of the most intriguing characters that graced the screen under Godard's earlier directing. Paul's suffering is powerful and the title is more than appropriate for the range of feelings the characters go through.
Although sometimes the film dragged to showcase it's breathtaking beauty, it was a nice departure from the film's I'm used to by him.

Mystic River (Clint Eastwood)
Loved Despite of Great Faults
ugh. Penn's method acting masculinity was the major downfall for me. The dialouge was overly heavy-handed, and the shots were uninspired and just pedestrian. The film became a chore halfway in. The only actors I could tolerate were Tim Robbins and Laura Linney. The emotional ambiguity that it was trying to achieve lost all purpose and meaning.Obvious oscar bait, if only it could do it correctly like "The Hours". Needless to say, the teaser and trailer were better than the actual film.

The Matrix Revolutions (Brothers Wachowski)
Universal Soldier
eh. As the second was overdone and a bit heavy-handed, this one was undercooked and vague. Although I give it merit for susprising me with the terrific Zion battle scene, the rest of the film was just the rephrasing of limited dialouge mistaken for profundity. The final battle with Smith was anti-climatic and melodramatic (I don't know how the accomplished such a feat). And the whole thing felt as if I were back in fifth grade watching "Dragon Ball Z". I was pretty disappointed to find that agent Smith doesn't become a super sayan. Also, Keanu continues to show us he is emotionless as a 5 year old girl ubstages him in every scene they share without breaking a sweat. The rest are silent convincing themselves it will pass them as sagely. The ending isn't directly a cop-out, but it certainly won't satisfy many. A moderate ending to a trilogy that shouldn't have existed.

Memento (Christopher Nolan)
Speak, See, Remember
Wow. Very rarely does a film set a riot in one's mind. The films central message of perception and optimism towards humans memories is a powerful one, for in truth the trait that seperates us from animals is that humans forget pain. Brilliantly made, structured, written, acted, just about everything. The ambigious nature of the film will have you perplexed, disturbed and trying to remember undistorted memories (which in case, don't exist). In this case the story doesn't matter, for it changes one's mind and thoughts. "Ignorance is bliss" and this film proved it.

Decalouge: Volume 1 (Kryzstof Kieslowski)
If You're Feeling Sinister
The was very good.
It may seem slow near the beginning, but that's just to garner connections for a very moving, emotional, and ultimately sad pay-off. The film accelerates it's subject matter ("thou shalt have no other gods before thine") with such a touching and warming grace that the end is almost unexpected, yet entirely, the pieces are given with such a subtle pace so that it wouldn't be so unexpected, on the contrary, it should be predictable. It just wok on so many levels, Keislowski knows when and where to pull the right strings.
The second, although...
I appreciated it thematically, but alot of it's attempts seemed lost on me, they were either too subtle (which came across as being vague) or they were too minimalist. Simply it is about a doctor who has an extreme power of a women's choices (involving the death of another human being), thus he is able to play god. Keislowski was a bit more ordinary with his cinematography and seemed as if he wanted to concentrate more on the performances. Yet most the time many of the scenes would run too long a la dramatic pauses. It had a redeeming ending, and it's message became clearer, yet I didn't feel as if it were a good pay-off for the establishment of it was, as I said before, lost on me because it was too drawn out. It left much more to be desired.

Ran (Akira Kurosawa)
Ave, Lucifer
Another great Kurosawa. This man knows how to keep his audience engaged, not once in this near three hour epic did I feel bored, or my thoughts drifted from the screen. The cinematogaphy is awe-inspiring as well as the beautifully choreographed action scenes. Kurosawa adapted Shakespeare's tragedy gracefully. Although I was never bored, I felt it could have been shorter, but that's about the only complaint besides the lack of character development in the minor roles (which really isn't necessary). Kurosawa was truly a master of his craft, and this intricately woven tale is a brilliant example.

the rest
disturb. no. fine. sure.

Full review of "Elephant" should be done soon. What a magnificent film it is.
posted by Justin at 7:20 PM