Movies, Drama
300
300 is different from any movie I had seen before. The closest would be Chinese films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with the magical fighting scenes. Yet these Chinese films still are far from where 300 takes you. For my eyes, the film pushes boundaries of cinema as an art form. 300 tells the story of a historical battle in which 300 Spartan battled hundreds of thousand Persians intent on subjugating all Greek city states. (I cannot tell more without giving it away). ). I typically don’t like brutal, bloody films. But the makers of the film based on graphic novel (never new they existed) prove that even slaughter can be made artful.
Anyone who wants to see a cinematic innovation and is able to stomach some really terrifying carnage, rent 300.
Movies, Drama
Mamia Mia!, this was worse than I had feared. I did not even get a great tour of the Greek islands. I was the first to leave the cinema. Now I was watching people coming out. Women smiled, men looked pained, albeit a bit proud they took their lady to the movies. Cinema, in my view, has rendered opera unnecessary. What makes a great movie is that, unlike opera or its modern incarnation—the musical—, it makes you forget that you are watching a staged reality. The best movies become lifelike. You think you are watching reality. In Mamia Mia! you never forget that you are watching a show. A good playwright like Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) could have managed to write a decent script around the songs of Abba. But Catherine Johnson lacked the skills and produced childish superficial love story. Pierce Brosnan (the former James Bond) is not able to act out his inane role. Meryl Streep does better with hers,Mama Mia!
Movies, Drama
About three years ago I acquired a collection of the best Bob Dylan records. I was surprised how many songs I knew, reminding me just how influential Dylan’s music had been during the past four decades. I am not there is an artistic experiment that manages to be a total failure. Todd Haynes wants to tell the story of Bob Dylan by showing him through entirely different characters, ranging from a young black vagabond kid to middle-aged cowboy. At the end of the film I yearned to simply listening to Dylan’s songs rather than seeing the collage of biographies of different people that are supposed to stand for the life of Dylan. Dylan’s songs tell you more about him than this “art-film”. The one saving grace is Cate Blanchet, who plays one of the characters representing Bob Dylan. She does a much better job than all of the other stars (Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger) who had signed to represent through a role Bob Dylan.I am not there
Movies, Drama
La Vie en Rose is the mirror image of August Rush. Telling the story Edid Piaf’s exotic life, the film easily feels real and authentic. For an ear that grew up on pop and classical music, it is difficult to connect to the French style of singing in the 1920s and 1930s. I could not hear what made Edid Piaf’s singing so extraordinary. By contrast, the first time August Rush touches a guitar to make music, it is apparent that this kid is a genius. You can see and hear it. I found La Vie en Rose to be in a similar league as Ray and Walk the Line. In regard to the superb acting, the most compelling scene takes place on the first date that Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard) has with the boxer Marcel Cerdan (Jean-Pierre Martins). Cotillard task is to show in her face that Piaf, who grew up in a whorehouse and has had a long list of lovers, is smitten with Marcel in a way she had never felt before (a “coup de foudre” as the French would say). Cotillard deserved the Oscar this year for this scene alone.La Vie en Rose
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