June 2002 Archives

I watched the first of 10 short movies that comprise The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieslowski's opus magnus about life. Each of the 10 is loosely based on one of the Ten Commandments, and this is is about not believing other images in God's stead.

In this case, it is about a father raising a boy who is around 10 years old, maybe a little older. His wife, or perhaps ex-wife, while not dead, is not involved in the raising of the child. The implication, at least in the first viewing, is that she is in a mental hospital or something. The man, a college professor, is raising the boy to be a rational person, and they use computers, albeit old DOS ones, quite a bit. The film opens with the boy using something like Mathematica to solve a word problem.

It is set in an gray apartment complex, where, I guess, all the other films in the series are also set. So main characters from each film drift in and out of the periphery of the other films. It is shot in a cold, realistic fashion, with a stranger who shows up at various points in all the films. It is obvious the boy is very bright, and the father cares for him very much. As does the father's sister, who has him over every now and then, and is the religious influence. She wants to have the boy start taking religious lessons at her church, which the father is perfectly willing to let him do.

Filmed in the winter, against a slate gray sky, drifting specks of snow, and below zero temperatures, the boy gets a pair of skates for Christmas. Actually, he gets them a week early, as he has uncovered their hiding place. After careful calculations on the computer, the father says the ice is thick enough and it is okay for the boy to go skating. Tragedy soon follows, and the horrible conclusion is starkly filmed, and beautifully acted.

Reading the review in the book The A List, it says that the ten films peak with films 5 and 6, so I can hardly wait. Decalogue I was an amazing tour de force, done in only about an hour and incredibly moving. As the father to two little girls, perhaps I'm more susceptible to things happening to kids, but even still, I think it is an amazing harbinger of things to come, and I can hardly wait to see the rest of them.

The Anniversary Party is a good serio-comic ensemble movie about a couple's sixth anniversary party. Joe (Alan Cumming) and Sally (Jennifer Jason Leigh), after a troubled year, are throwing a party to celebrate their sixth year of being married, and are inviting some close friends, as well as a troublesome neighbor couple. As most of the people are both acting as movie people, and are really good actors, the parts are played to perfection by people you either know (Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Kline, for instance) or just recognize (actors like Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Beals). There's some pleasantly unexpected twists and turns, along with some laughs and some real squirming moments, when embarassing dramas are unfolding.

Written, directed and produced by first-timers Leigh and Cummings, and acted with friends, The Anniversary Party is fun to watch and often surprising. Just when you think it is getting too smarmy, the action picks up and the story gets dark, coinciding, probably not coincidentally, when the drugs get rolled out. Ecstasy isn't all it cracks up to be, I guess. One thing to be aware of is the almost excessive using of the f-word, particularily at the begining of the film. Perhaps it is an early attempt by the neophyte writers to establish credibility, but a little would have gone a long way here.

All the acting is solid, but I especially liked the real life couple Kline and Cates, who, along with their real life children, ground the picture on a bedrock of reality. While I don't agree with the Maltin review that says the kids almost steal the picture, they are really endearing and the scenes of domestic felicity between the four come across as truly heartfelt. Cates in particular has several nice scenes with Leigh, trying to explain how a solid marriage and being a parent work. Also, Mina Badie as the wife of the fractious neighbor has a real sweetness about her that counterbalances her wonderfully sour husband played by Denis O'Hare.

The DVD is excellent, although some of the lighting changes don't come across very well. It was all filmed on digital video, as the nice little documentary from Sundance Channel explains, and it has some clever angles and shots. The commentary track by Leigh and Cummings is pretty solid, with some good background. Leigh explains how the project came about, and how she used it as therapy for herself, coming off a break up of her own. This movie is definitely worth a rental, perhaps even a purchase.

Terry Zwigoff, the director of the wonderfully bizarre documentary Crumb, came out with his long-awaited followup movie Ghost World 7 years later. A tale of two teenage girls, new high school graduates, and how they try to adapt to all the challenges life now throws at them. Very honestly told, with an endearing quirkiness, as you would expect if you had ever watched Crumb, it still boils down to a story of teen angst, and the confusion of those years. And honestly, they are ones I'm glad I don't have to do myself again, although I'm sure I'll get to live them vicariously through my daughters, in some future years I'd rather not think about right now!

Enid (American Beauty's Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson from The Horse Whisperer) are two high school chums who spend their time dissing all of their classmates, and are planning on moving out of the house and sharing an apartment. Grace goes to work at the local Starbucks, much to the dismay of the more anarchist Enid, who casts about for something to do next. Enid keeps her Milquetoast single parent father under her thumb, and then runs into Steve Buscemi's Seymour, a loser with the ladies kinda guy upon whom the girls play a tasteless prank. Enid feels bad and eventually befriends Seymour, as she pushes him to see more women. But when he does get attached, Enid loses him, and loses Grace as well, who is adjusting much better to the "adult" world.

It's all acted very well, and there are quite a few amusing scenes. Illeana Douglas has an amusing turn as the high brow summer art teacher, spouting platitudes that deserve, and get, groans. And life is a bore, as any teenager will tell you, and nobody understands them, again as any teenager is sure to point out. And so poor Enid finds it hard to adjust, and she just goes away in a very strange sequence. While it's nice to see a "real" teen movie, one that attempts to get at the heart of the wildly unreasonable teenage psyche, once you're past that stage, most of us would rather move on. And when you realize just how vapid most teenage concerns are, it's hard to really take a movie about these same concerns all that seriously.

I also had a problem with the very beautiful Ms. Johansson as an outcast. Her blond good looks make her look more like one of the insiders, while Thora Birch played the outsider perfectly, with her large black glasses, funky outfits and wild hairdos. It would have been better if they had started Rebecca (even her name is normal) out more punk looking, with spikey hair and wild clothes, and then as she gradually entered the mainstream, slowly adjust her look too.

The DVD is very pretty, shown in single-sided wide-screen, but nearly devoid of any extras. There are some deleted/alternate scenes, but I didn't watch any of that, nor did I watch the music video. The soundtrack was excellent, with a wide range of sounds, from Bollywood musicals to hard core punk, blues and pop. Worth a rental, if you're interested in a wry, ironic look at how today's teen sees the world.

Dancer in the Dark

I enjoyed the picture, although not without some reservations. I'm not sure I can completely buy some of the plot points, especially about the murder itself and how it came about, as well as the retrial. It all seemed a little too neat in the way it tried to move the plot along, even if it didn't make sense. The musical numbers were pretty unexpected, and, like watching figure skating, you always held your breath waiting for disaster to strike Bjork while she daydreamed.

The DVD was pretty and the documentary on the "100 Cameras" was very interesting, in that they shot the musical sequences with 100 Sony DV cameras, carefully positioned. I listened to a little of the commentary, but didn't find it all that enlightening.

Lagaan, nominated for the 2002 Foreign Language Oscar, is an Indian film set during the British occupation of India in the 1800s. Lagaan is the tax the rulers place on the peasants, and it has just been doubled. In this time of drought, things look pretty grim for the people. Then they are challenged by the occupying British soldiers - win a match of cricket and the lagaan is canceled for 3 years. Lose, and it is tripled. Of course, the bet is accepted and the race is on to learn the "Whitey's" game.

Lagaan is one of those movies I rented (from DVD Overnight) knowing very little about, besides picking it to win the Oscar. And it turned out to have a couple of surprises. The first of which is that it is one of those stealth musicals, in that I didn't know at all they were going to break out in singing. I was first tipped of when I noticed credits for lyrics and choreography! But the music was fascinating and memorable, especially for a foreign flick.

The other surprise was its length. I knew I was in for a long movie when it broke for an intermission! It turns out the movie is 225 minutes long, or nearly 4 hours! But it was a worthwhile four hours, all in all. The acting is pretty solid, especially by the two leads, Gracy Singh in her movie debut and Aamir Khan, who has a long list of credits to his name. The cinematography is wonderful and the dances are a mesmerizing look at a different culture.

The movie did have a number of problems, though. In many ways it is a paint-by-numbers love and "big game" movie, with all the standard elements, for better or for worse. A love triangle, treachery by the spurned paramour, unrequited love, the underdog pulling out the victory (I suppose I should say "spoiler", but you have to know they win in the end, right?), and even social justice when an Untouchable is called on to be the last member of the team - all the parts are there, albeit done very well. And the fact the whole movie turns on a cricket match, with all its mysterious rules, makes it a little hard to figure out, for an American audience anyway. While there is some explaining of the rules, due to the fact the Indian team has never played it before, there is still much left unsaid and so some of the climatic moments during the game are weakened as a result. I suppose it is only right that a very long movie wrap itself around a very long game - three days to play the life or death match.

Other problems include a pretty bad transfer to DVD, replete with film scratches and artifacts. And the subtitling choices were odd in that even the scenes played out in English were subtitled, which was disconcerting. And of course I imagine the songs were much more poetic in Hindi than in the English subtitles, so as soon as I figured out the gist of the song, I turned the subtitles off and just absorbed the wonderful rythms and exotic voices.

But in the end it was a nice way to spend four hours. The characters were memorable enough that you could keep them separate in your mind, which can often be a problem with foreign films. There is an overwhelming use of color, with reds, yellows and oranges saturating your visual sense. And, like I said, the songs are all fun to listen too, and they complement the movie perfectly. And it prompted us to have a wonderful Indian dinner last night!

Robert Altman's 1975 movie Nashville is a bona fide classic, and is one of the greatest ensemble movies of all time. It makes many favorite lists, including Roger Ebert's and the National Society of Film Critics' "The A List". It also had a couple of hit songs on its film track, including two by Keith Carradine, who wrote and sang I'm Easy and It Don't Worry Me. A very influential movie, I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to seeing it again, just to make sure I can follow all the intertwining story lines.

There really is no one main story in Nashville, just a lot of story lines, where all the major players show up at the climatic ending scene. For those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, I won't spoil the ending, although it really isn't too much of a surprise when you think about it. All kinds of excellent actors play a part in the movie, including Ned Beatty (the sweaty local political operative), Lily Tomlin (Ned Beatty's wife, mother of 2 deaf kids, and a singer of gospel), the aforementioned Keith Caradine (a low-down womanizer), Karen Black (a popular country and western singer), and Henry Gibson (the biggest singer in Nashville). They all have their story to tell and their parts to play in the country music capital of the world. They all end up at the crescendo act in the end.

The DVD is done well, with an excellent transfer and a nice wide screen picture. There's an interview with Altman, that we watched and found pretty interesting, plus a film length commentary, which I haven't done yet, but hope to in a future viewing, as I'm sure he'd have lots of interesting things to say about the story lines. The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1, but the speakers don't really get much of a workout.

One interesting thing to note is that nearly all of the songs were both written and performed by the actors themselves. Altman felt this would get them into the mood for playing C&W singers. This means the songs really don't feel all that authentic, but rather a folksy C&W, like I'm Easy sounds. And it can be hard to follow all the characters (24 in all!), which makes a repeat viewing almost a requirement. But the acting comes across as very authentic, and Nashville seems to be captured perfectly. I'm looking forward to watching this again.

Crash, a movie by David Cronenberg, is a disturbing, erotic, and yet ultimately pointless look at some self-absorbed nihilists (are there any other kind?), out getting their kicks with car crashes. Cronenberg managed to drag in some really good actors (players like Holly Hunter, James Spader, and Rosanna Arquette), but the film seemed very disjointed and it never found its voice for me.

Crash centers around a sexually charged couple: he's a film producer, she's taking flight lessons, and they both will sleep with whoever is handy, then talk about it later. But he gets into a car accident, hitting the car driven by Holly Hunter's husband head-on, sending her husband flying through the window and slamming, head first into Spader's front seat. As Spader weaves in and out of consciousness, he glances at Hunter in the other car, just as she exposes a breast. And yes, it is that odd! I'm not sure what the point of that was, except to somehow bind the two into a secret society of crash lovers, in more ways than one.

Indicative of a lack of inventiveness, strange in a movie so bizarre, is the fact that James Spader's lead character is called "James Ballard", using his own first name along with the author of the novel it was based on last name. Character motivations were completely missing, and it ended on an even more bizarre note, with Spader forcing his wife's car off the road and then making love to her while she lay sprawled out of the wreck!

I watched the NC-17 version, and I suppose it might be interesting to see what kinds of cuts were needed for the R rated version, also included on the DVD. The actual film was pretty nice looking, although there weren't any real memorable shots. Debroah Unger, who played Spader's wife, was new to me, and I thought did the best job of a bad lot. In general, not a recommended movie!

Ahh, Casablanca... What more can I add to all the paens that have been written, and all the odes of love that have yet to be written? I can say it is one of my all time favorite movies, and is the one I've seen the most. A conservative estimate would be that I've seen it 50 times, quite possibly up to twice that number. And to all those people who wonder how someone can watch a movie that often, I refer you to Roger Ebert's wonderful review in his book The Great Movies, where he compares watching Casablanca with listening to your favorite music CD - just a nice evening with a comfortable friend.

The serpentine story of a disillusioned saloon owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who meets an old flame, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), who, it turns out, is the wife of a Resistance leader, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). After much twisting and turning, they all try to do the right thing, and it ends with one of the most famous lines in film history: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.".

My favorite character, actually, and the one I would most like to play in the sequel, is Captain Renault, the Louis in the above quote, played most wonderfully by Claude Rains. While something of a slimeball, he's a happy-go-lucky one, who knows what he likes and what he can do, and is happy with that. He has some good lines ("I'm shocked, shocked to find out gambling is going on here!", and "I like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me."), and in general comes out smelling like roses, as you would expect to happen with someone like Captain Renault.

The DVD is simply spectacular. I've watched all kinds of incarnations (although, sadly, I've yet to actually see it in the movie theaters), including the excellent video, but the DVD is liking watching a brand new movie. The filmmakers went to great lengths to have all kinds of action happening in the background, and you can finally see it. The "colors" are gorgeous shades of black and white, and the sharpness is eye-popping. It also includes a nice little documentary, as well as trailers for Casablanca and many other Bogart and Bergman films, including the Casablanca sequel, Passage to Marseilles.

We spent some time last night dissecting Rick's motivations, and to see when he gets over being bitter and finally gives Ilsa credit for doing the right thing. It takes a couple of incidents for him to figure it out, but while he is pissed, he's got some wonderfully poisonous lines, like "Did you leave me for Laszlo, or was there someone in between.... or aren't you the kind that tells?" and "I saved my first drink for you.". But the nice sub-plot of the young Hungarian couple (notice they are in several crowd shots before that, and are also trying to get a visa while Ilsa and Victor are visiting Capt. Renault) resolves itself through the "honest" roulette wheel, reminding him that perhaps somebody did love him that much. Ilsa then visits him and explains to him just how complicated life can be. So much has been written about the happenings on the Casablanca set (too much, I think, robbing the movie of some of its magic), but the fact that Ingrid Bergman didn't know the ending (heck, no one knew who she would end up going with until the last takes), gives her confusion some real credence and adds a special poignancy to the visit in Rick's apartment. It is a fun line of investigation and one that I'll certainly visit again with my friend who introduced me to the Casablanca drug. We watch it together quite often, and I'm sure more mention of this all-time classic will happen in here.