Dogville: The movie, Dogville, with Nicole Kidman-she is great, but movie was weird to say the least. Dogville was a typical San Francisco movie, but I had read lots about it- kind of hyperbole, symbolism, metaphor all wrapped up in one.
The movie is set in a small town that shows all the stereotypes of man's inhumanity to man. There are acts of total violation of hospitality in the Biblical view of kindness to the stranger among us. (I think these acts are a precursor to Abu Ghraib prison abuse in Iraq) Amazing.
I suffered through the first part of it but it picked up, but not much until the end. The whole town abused Nicole, named Grace: sexually using her to the max.
Let me say again: this movie is big time weird.. I'm amazed how most movies make women so docile in simply accepting what men, who are stronger, are capable of doing: rape and the deed was done throughout the middle of the long, three hour movie. In this case, it was done with a kind of banal disregard which showed truly how sorry all men are; not quite that simple, but the movie was so complex and hard to explain. I know you're hanging on every word here.
Nicole Kidman is one of these people who can look great under any circumstances, like she just stepped out of a "bandbox," so to speak: perfect makeup, clothes dirty but clean, lipstick on perfectly; and, the weird thing, you don't notice how unlikely this should be. The criticism of Nicole that I love, in the movie, Cold Mountain, was that she looked too great to be deprived of a bath and all the goodies of the civil life even back then.
This movie is unlike any you would have ever seen, honestly. It really is a parable. The movie "set" is not real houses, etc.; you always see "the set" from the top and houses, etc., are in outline.
For most who are not high intuitives, the movie would be truly a waste of time. I, on the other hand, could sit around for hours and talk about the meaning. Most couldn't.
All the men in the town, these supposedly decent men, end up taking turns forcing themselves upon Grace. Her one love is too busy philosophizing or examing it all; you can't view it as a story really.
In the end, her Dad comes and gets her. He is a gangster with all his henchmen and they kill everybody and burn the town at her request.
I'm telling you this as you do not want to see this part even if the movie shows up somewhere on the screen or dvd.
Grace also kills the man she loves as she says, "There are some things that you have to do personally." This is at the very end while three-fourths of the movie has been taken up with the town abusing her. Interesting to say the least.
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The Pianist
With Memorial Day just past, it seemed appropriate to see The Pianist again. Very moving movie. Literally about the life of brilliant pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman.
Caught up in WW ll amid the cruelty of the Nazis, Szpilman was kind of a national treasure and eventually spared death by hiding out, aided by friends wanting to preserve his gift; even assisted by a German officer.
The movie was directed by Roman Polanski who won the Academy Award for it. What makes the movie so poignant is that, Polanski, literally lived the life as a young boy in the Poland during the war. (Polanski is still in exile. He allegedly had sex with an underage girl and before he could be charged, as I remember, fled the country. Not good.)
Regardless, a great movie. The Warsaw ghetto in Poland where the movie was portrayed housed 360 thousand Jews who had been striped of all their possessions and herded into this hell.
The great thing about DVDs is often the "extras." Within these extras you can hear the comments of those who put the movie together; the actors get a sense of it all and aren't just acting. Polanski says he made the movie to get at the truth of the horror of the times. In my view, he definitely succeeded. There's even a couple of clips of Szpilman as an old man playing the piano.
Polanski's research led him to some of the actual archival footage. Horrific things going on. Man's inhumanity to man. Somebody was behind the camera--who was doing the filming? The Nazis, of course, recording for posterity's sake the awful horrors they were fostering on their fellow human beings. How can we understand? Well, Polanski and this movie at least pulls back a little of the curtain.
One interesting thing that came out; in fact, I think there's been a movie about it. The Jews actually staged an uprising--this was told in the "extras" of the DVDs. It was toward the end of the war and the Russian troops were just across the river from Warsaw but would not help--the Jews died.
I'm really glad that Adrian Brody won the Oscar. I mean, we are talking about one homely dude but great actor and kisser superb--have you ever seen a better one that he laid on Hallie Barry at some award show(think it was MTV Movie Awards but not sure). A kiss like that will carry a man a lifetime!
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Respiro Know how when you rent a video especially if you don't know it, you definitely want to read the blurb on the back.
Naturally, you expect the writer to give a glowing mini review; but, you also expect some semblance of what the movie is about. Some accuracy.
The foreign film, Respiro, doesn't even come close to the mark. It bills itself as a paradise in the Mediterranean with a bunch of quirky characters, much like those seen in movies like Shirley Valentine.
Instead Respiro is a weird commentary on a mother with probably a "bi-polar" condition. Her swings in mood go from calm to manic in milliseconds. She has two sons, a fisherman husband, and a daughter. From time to time she loses it and has to be given a shot of some sort to calm her down.
Robert Ebert calls this movie a "triumph." Of what is my question and did we see the same movie. It has won awards: Critics Week, Telluride Film festival, and Toronto.
There were overtones of abuse, hints at emotional incest, and of all things, a type of gang warfare. I never got it.
Himalaya-A terrific movie for understanding another culture.
Absolutely beautiful and very moving--kind of a test between old and new. In the end, all are happy and in today's world, no small thing.
Set against some of the most spectacular scenery ever seen on film, Himalaya tells the story of a generational struggle for the leadership of a tiny mountain village between its proud old chief and a headstrong young caravaner.
The balance of power shifts uneasily as they make their annual salt trek across the Himalayas.
Director Eric Valli is a photographer and an author whose work is regularly published in National Geographic, Geo, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and Life.
Valli has been living in Nepal since 1983 and his first journey through the Dolpo (northwest region of Nepal) dates back to this period. He wrote several books about this country before shooting HIMALAYA in 1997.
In 1992, he was awarded the Gurka Dakshin Baho award from His Majesty the King of Nepal for his body of work on the country. (last 4 paragraphs taken from Amazon)
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| DVD MOVIE REVIEW:TOGETHER BY MARILYN O'KEEFE |
TOGETHER is a foreign film with subtitles but a remarkable and sweet movie. Take a dishwasher who finds a small abandoned baby on a park bench, (in Asian countries where there is never any promiscuity--there is no such thing as a child born out of wedlock). Oh yes, we know there's no promiscuity--it is simply the culture and why you have baby orphanages in places like Korea, Hong Kong, China. Consequently, this is not such a rare occurrence.
So, here this baby is found. The father, unmarried, raises him in the poorest of circumstances, but his love for the child is overwhelming. Beside the found child is a violin. The hapless poor man knows that this is a sign that the child must play the violin. So, the course of the movie is set: a lifetime of the adoptive father seeking to provide for the found son the best of opportunities to learn the violin. He sacrifices, the boy becomes a prodigy.
The story is seeded with characters whose lives are both touched and enriched and changed through the efforts of the father: the prostitute who befriends the boy, the boy who sells the violin to buy a coat for the prostitute, the teacher who has lost his way, but in teaching, cleans himself up, the polished teacher who is looking for the gifted genius with heart, the peer who is jealous but finds her way through example. And, in the midst of it all, the father, wearing the same silly cap, but whose passion for this son is like an umbrella over all. See this movie, it will make you feel good.
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| DVD MOVIE REVIEW:The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie by Marjorie O'Keefe |
The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie
This is one of those "character" driven movies that kind of sticks with you. Early on, you pretty much figure out where it's going. but the characters are so powerful. I loved it and still listening to the music: soft and soothing and on the screen before opening credits are these gorgeous flowers opening before your eyes.
Mrs. Richie is a little daffy, talks to her flowers and her dead husband (here is a little mystery-don't quite know about him. She acts like he was this great husband, but daughter who has minor role, indicates he split when retarded son was born. Later, died in the war and makes a surreal appearance at the end of the movie). Mrs. Richie is played by Gena Rowlands, who is great. She has two retarded kids, as we say in California, mentally challenged, but adorable-their actions, love and care for each other and their simplicity is a big part of the picture.
Without giving away the plot, a troubled kid, Charlie is forced by his school to work for Mrs. Richie or be kicked out of school as he was with a guy who stole her purse.
The movie is a basic story about Charlie's transformation with a twist. Did I say this was a character driven movie--it truly is. Charlie's homelife is a mess; an angry Dad, Mom an alcoholic, older sister who is thrown to the wolves, and small brother who gets little or no attention-all stemning from the Dad believing that the mother was once "unfaithful," the old loaded word. Turns out Charlie, as a little guy, when asked by his Dad if another man had been with his Mom, thinking his dad wanted to hear him say "yes", says yes there was another man. And, all of their dysfunctionality stems from that one event. Charlie has a really messed up family, but through Mrs. Richie, Charlie's life is salvaged.
A good and sweet movie and watching the flowers open and the listening to the music is worth it-underneath the obvious, however, are cords of originality in a movie. Rent and ponder.
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| DVD MOVIE REVIEW:Till Human Voices Wake Us by Kelly Thomas |
Till Human Voices Wake Us is a good and surreal kind of flick.Sure it didn't do much play in theaters; too pensive for one thing. Young boy loses his bestfriend a girl and feels responsible. Dad is very distant. Boy becomes a shrink--Dad dies and Boy now a Dr. himself comes back home to bury the father. Here, he meets strange woman who is a amnesiac. The movie has all the symbolic issues of water, love, renewal, pain--a scrabble game which spells out "Bury Me."
A closing of life's chapters for him, played out as a supernatural romance. In the end, all is resolved. He takes the flesh and blood and buries her by casting her out in the same river where she disappeared. It is done, he metaphorically buries his love.
Great acting, pensive; if you are prone to playing video games and watching Terminator, this is not a movie for you.
If you want to think about life, death, and be kind of nostalgically sad for any reason, This movie might do it for you. Helen Bonham Carter is a great actress alive or dead. I think I'd also order a six pack and a pepperoni pizza.
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