Movies, Phantasy
The criticism that I and others have leveled against Woody Allen’s recent work seems to have stung. When Allen moved his camera to London a few years ago, got the same stories transplanted from New York to London. The difference in language seems to have freed Allen. Midnight in Paris only feels a bit repetitive of his previous work. Mostly it is a very clever and cute adaptation of the idea of time travelling. Allen’s alter ego, a writer (Luke Wilson) who feels more comfortable in the past than present suddenly finds himself in the 1920s meeting the great artists of the time. Luke Wilson gives spectacular performance. Taken this 2-hour trip to Paris is worth the price of the movie ticket. Apparently there is a good new documentary on Woody Allen’s work showing this weekend on PBS.Midnight in Paris
Movies, Drama
Some have billed Easy Rider the mother of all road movies. Until the end, it is very difficult to figure out where this journey is leading to and what the whole point of the film it. It starts out in the American West. Two bikers (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) set out to travel east after doing a drug deal in L A, which gives the cash to pay for it. The film covers beautiful landscape of the American Southwest and the hippy culture that started in the 1960s. (If you have never been to America, it would be a nice introduction to landscape.) On the journey the meet people from all walks of life. But there seems no purpose to the journey. Only at the end it becomes clear that the film wants is a philosophical meditation on what freedom really is. I will not give away the surprising final scene.Easy Rider
Movies, Drama
There is a fine line between being a genius and being crazy, so a popular saying goes. It is difficult to know whether Vincent Van Gogh, one of whose paintings is a key feature of my homepage design, became insane only later in life after contracting syphilis or whether the roots of his mental illness lie much earlier in his life and paved the way for his creative genius. Cleary, Van Gogh is an example of the proverb that opened this review. At age 37 craziness fully took hold of him and he shot himself dead. When you take a look at his paintings you realize that, even if they depict something a bit crazy, they are beautiful. For the average mortal, however, craziness is generally not related to beauty but to ugliness and destruction. When we see someone act really crazy, we fear that the person will self-destruct sooner or later. This assumption is what the film Crazy Beautiful plays with.Crazy Beautiful
Movies, Drama
Nothing spreads like fear is a great subtitle. Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment. After living through September 11, SARS, and most recently the Fukushima nuclear disaster, we all have a pretty good sense that our world could suddenly be turned upside down. Many of us might die because of a natural or manmade disaster. Steven Soderbergh is not up to the task of telling us something more about how ours fears than we already know. The movie feels fabricated and is a waste of time. Watching the footage from the March 2011 Fukushima disaster would give you much deeper insight into how fear spreads. The German public became so concerned about nuclear energy that the chancellor Angela Merkel made a full u-turn in her nuclear policy.Contagion—Nothing spreads like fear
Movies, Drama
To get in the spirit of Octoberfest, I watched the iconic romantic musical for a second time in my life. The mountains around Salzburg are still amazing but the film has aged less well than My Fair Lady. Too often you notice that the scene is shot in a Hollywood rather than on location in Salzburg. Our eyes have become too discerning about simple tricks in the art of making movies. There will be a remake of My Fair Lady coming out soon and I would welcome a remake of The Sound of Music. But the audience nowadays for a new version of the Trapp family story may be smaller than the more ageless theme and spectacular writing in My Fair Lady.The Sound of Music
Movies, Drama
I had not seen the poster for the film because otherwise I would have noticed that Two Lovers is not about two people. During the film you realize it is about at least 3, possible 4 people, who are trying to figure out who they want to be with. We all know that this is not an easy question and some of us are a lot better in figuring it out. Two Lovers is nothing like The Lover which indulges in sexy cinematography. Here the existential problem of sorting through all the conflicting impulses is in foreground. The director does not seduce you with romantic landscapes and enticing human bodies but rather uses the rather dreary background of a Brooklyn apartment building to stage a drama of the human heart. This is not a film you have to see but if you do see it, you will agree that it manages to penetrate the human condition much more deeply than your typical romantic comedy.Two Lovers
Movies, Drama
Pedro Almadovar surprises you again with Broken Embraces. Unlike Woody Allen who now makes the same movie over and over again, Almadovar in all his recent films has broken new ground in his quest to lay bare before our eyes the variety in the human experience. During the first hour I wondered where the film was going and feared that Almadovar was following perhaps in Woody Allen’s recent footsteps. But then the movie takes a turn for the expected and pace accelerates, leaving you breathless about the turn of events. Almadovar has constructed a tragic mystery that nonetheless lifts your spirit because you realize that—however fleeting happiness with another person may be—one second of it may nourish you for eternity.Broken Embraces
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