Oscar's Cinema Journal 2005

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Warriors of Heaven and Earth...

This film did not do well in the Chinese community.

Interestingly, the Oscar for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (CTHD) is considered a mixed blessing. Many would want Chinese movies to gain more recognition. BUT, the avalanche of movies attempting to replicate CTHD has turned many off.

We have been watching many good martial arts films, with or without foreign recognition. But suddenly, there are an avalanche of them that is "neither here nor there". ;PPP They do not cater to the taste of the East nor the West.

Nonetheless, the next three martial arts films that Chinese are ANTICIPATING are:
-- Seven Swords (by Tsui Hark)
-- Battle of Red Cliff (by Ang Lee) ... more period than martial arts
-- Kung Fu Hustle (by Stephen Chow) ... more nonsensical comedy and special effects than martial arts

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
Kitchen Stories

I have not watched the movie, but I thought the trailer was fun!
;)

Is it one of those movies where the trailer is essentially the best and everything good about the movie? ha ha ha

[hengcs]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
It's not as harsh and sensationalistic as Bully. It's a pity everybody including me seems to have forgotten it.

What do you think about Larry Clark's
-- Kids
-- Bully
-- Ken Park?

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
[B]Springtime in a Small Town is a remake of a classic of Chinese cinema released in 1948 and directed by Fei Mu ...

Hmmm ...
I am keen on watching the 1948 version too.
Any resourceful links? hee hee

[hengcs]

Originally posted by oscar jubis
... First of a series of press screenings I will be attending as part of my coverage of the Miami International Film Festival. My deep appreciation to Peter (pmw) for making it possible for me to attend. [/B]

wow ...
is peter associated with the press or film industry?

[Chris Knipp]

(hengcs)What do you think about Larry Clark's
-- Kids
-- Bully
-- Ken Park?


I knew about Larry Clark much earlier as a famous photographer, beginning with Tulsa. He is out there, bolder than any mainstream director, following his subcultures and his fantasies. What about Another Day in Paradise? I saw Ken Park in Paris in September for the first time. I differ from some on this site in thinking it's probably his most characteristic work. I think Kids has been an influence even on European films. Bully is more brutal and hopeless than Mean Creek. It doesn't give anybody a chance to have moral second thoughts. Most of Clark's people are hell bent on self destruction. They party, get high, have sex, and run their lives into the ground. He's not a liberal. We discussed Ken Park, arsaib4 and I. He thinks as I recall that it's just a pastiche of stuff Clark had shot. I think it has a wider social point of view than any of his other movies. It's a cross section of kids in a deadend low level suburban part of California called Visalia and its subject matter resembles his photography book Teenage Lust.

[oscar jubis]

Saturday January 29th

The Story of the Weeping Camel on rental dvd.
This German/Mongolian co-production mixes documentary sequences with staged ones _these include dialogue that has obviously been scripted. It depicts the daily routine of an extended family of Mongolian camel herders. They are faced with a crisis when a female camel refuses to nurse her albino offspring. The family send two boys to the village to fetch a string musician needed to perform a ritual designed to solve the problem. The boys' visit to the village also serves the purpose of depicting how modern technology is encroaching on the group's traditional lifestyle. Majestic, soothing, and ultimately sentimental.

Lila Says (France, 2004)
Second film from director Ziad Doueiri (West Beirut)
Review will be posted on 2/5/05 (MIFF thread)

Red Dust (UK/South Africa, 2004)
Based on Gillian Slovo's acclaimed novel and starring Hilary Swank as a NYC lawyer who returns to her hometown in S. Africa to present a case to the Truth and Reconciliation Commision.
Review will be posted on 2/6/05 (MIFF thread)

Dig! at the Cosford Cinema
Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance, and generally well-received by critics, Dig! gets my vote for most overrated film of 2004. Director Ondie Timover spent seven years chronicling the diverging career paths of Portland bands The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The doc focuses on the bands' leaders and their love/hate relationship. Both reasonably talented and enamored of old styles, Anton (BJM) and Courtney (DWs) have widely different backgrounds and personalities. Basically, Courtney's band succeeds because he is not a fucked-up, junkie egomaniac with a hyper-dysfunctional family, like Anton. The director strains to paint him as a sort of mad genius but provides no evidence. Both bands basically recycle old glam and psychedelic folk styles respectively. Dig! says and shows everything it has to offer about halfway through its running time. One of my least favorite crits put it perfectly:
"Whether or not you like it depends on how much interest or patience you have for the antics of a self-proclaimed prophet" (Melissa Levine, Dallas Observer)

[Chris Knipp]

My comments on your comments--

Lila Says (France, 2004)

This means Doueri has moved to France? I liked West Beirut a lot and look forward to seeing this and reading your report.

Red Dust (UK/South Africa, 2004)

I either never heard about this or it slipped by and I forgot about it. We'll see if it's ever mentioned in the hype for Swank in the Oscar buildup.

The Story of the Weeping Camel on rental dvd.

I've written about this. You describe it neutrally. I found its mixture of "real" and fictional irritating, but I suppose Flaherty did something similar. Edward S. Curtis's photographs certainly did. It's nothing new, ultimately; just the locale is new. "Majestic, soothing, and ultimately sentimental." I guess you mean the weather and the landscape and the animals are majestic, and for the middle-something audience, yes, soothing, because unchallenging.

Dig! at the Cosford Cinema

This is news to me: I hadn't really heard of it but from rottentomatoes and metacritic I see that you're absolutely right: it's scored really high with critics. I wonder though if it's really going to be overrated by the public too. Perhaps suitable for my as yet unwritten "Don't Wish I'd Seen" list for 2004.

[arsaib4]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
Red Dust (UK/South Africa, 2004)

I either never heard about this or it slipped by and I forgot about it. We'll see if it's ever mentioned in the hype for Swank in the Oscar buildup.

Red Dust was one of the films I saw in Toronto; not a bad effort at all. It is still playing around at different festivals and doesn't have a U.S. distributor yet I think, so it didn't slip by.

[oscar jubis]

Chris, your comments on "Weeping Camel" lead me to think it's a good candidate for your "overrated" list. I agree it's unchallenging, but only a small minority of crits would call anything about it "irritating".
Lila Says will be released in the US by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
I liked Red Dust at least as much as Hotel Rwanda, perhaps a bit more. Chiwetel Ejiofor is as good here as he was on Dirty Pretty Things. Arsaib4 is right, no distributor yet, but I bet that'll change.

[Chris Knipp]

What a meanie I am to kick a Weeping Camel, but I completely saw through it. It is a candidate for my Most Overrated list you're right -- another of my many oversights!

[oscar jubis]

Sunday January 30th
Three films to be shown at the Miami Int. Film Fest. Reviews next week.

Alicia's Names (Spain, 2005)
This debut feature directed by Pilar Ruiz Gutierrez is having its world premiere in her native Santander, Spain on Friday. It's exciting to watch a brand new film, one without an IMdb page, but Los Nombres de Alicia is simply not good.

The Overture (Thailand, 2004)
Musical biopic follows familiar genre formula. Informative, entertaining, even enchanting at times.

Whisky (Uruguay, 2004)
Sober, austere chamber drama won a well-deserved Fipresci (press) award at Cannes.

[oscar jubis]

Monday Jan. 31st

Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime)
The latest black comedy from Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia (Day of the Beast, Perdita Durango) will be a hit with the festival's audience.

Saved! on rental dvd.
Decided to pass on it last summer. Kids talked me into rental. Turned out much better than I expected. Comments:
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/show...8706#post 8706

[oscar jubis]

Tue. February 1st

Second viewing of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, this time at home. It's a good film I wanted to love for several personal reasons. I experienced a strong sense of connection between myself in my late teens and the character of Matthew, not only his cinephilia but also his personality. I am also intimately acquainted with the bevy of cultural references deployed by Bertolucci. The soundtrack privileges Joplin, Hendrix, and a number of French standards familiar to French film lovers. Clips from French and American films are interspersed throughout, only the one from Robert Bresson's Mouchette was new to my eyes. The Dreamers presents a balanced view of the (mostly) youth revolt in Paris during the summer of '68 and celebrates an intense passion for cinema more common then than now. But given the film narrow focus on the American Mathew and the two vaguely incestuous, enmeshed siblings who embrace him, the richness of character required is missing. Bertolucci's roving camera is as lively as ever though. And the songs and film clips are choice.

Cama Adentro (Live-in Maid)
A co-production of Argentina and Spain, directed by Jorge Gaggero, starring the wonderful Norma Aleandro (Oscar-winnerThe Official Story). Review on upcoming Miami International Film Festival thread.

[Chris Knipp]

Maybe the hip thing to say is that Godard is still challenging us while Bertolucci is awash in nostalgia but I think there is room for both, and -- not that there really is any point in comparing them except that one of "our" local (syndicated) reviewers did this week -- I found The Dreamers more enjoyable and even more thought provoking than Notre Musique .