Movie Night: Movies
August 22, 2011
Before Night Falls (2000) directed by Julian Schnabel
This is one of the finest movies ever made. Ostensibly it is a autobiography of the Cuban Poet and Novelist, Reinaldo Areneas, who was persecuted in Cuba for his homosexuality and his counter revolutionism (after all, if the Revolution has happened, all is perfect and there can be no more revolutions, only counter revolutions).
He left Cuba in 1980 during one of Castro's purges and the Mariel boat lift and he died of Aids in New York City in 1990 with a little help from his lover.
But this movie is really about the mind of a poet and artist and how that mind operates. It is dreams and hallucinations and images and subtext and metaphors. Everytime that I watch this movie, I find something more in it. As my viewing companion said, "This is truly a talking PICTURE with an emphasis on PICTURE."
Watch this movie without the subtitles and listen to Mr. Bardam recite Mr. Areneas's poems in Spanish, that is a truly poetic experience.
Mr. Bardam is a very good actor. He can act in any language because of his powerful physicality. He uses his body and his image to convey more than the words can. This man knows how to use his body so subtlely and yet convey such universality with it.
Marvelous.
July 12, 2011
City of Life and Death, 2009, directed by Lu Chuan, Chinese
In 1931, the Japanese Army invaded Manchuria and started one of the many smaller wars that led to World War II.
In 1937, after it had invaded and won Shanghai, the Japanese Army then captured the capitol city of The Republic of China, Nanking, and committed a well documented (by Western Observers) host of atrocities in the city.
This is a movie about the aftermath of the Japanese Army occupation of Nanking. It is much like Schindler's List but not as constrained and narrowed on one group of people and their actions and compromises to secure the greater group's safetly. This movie takes in a wider array of people in a city and their actions and their fates. One of the saviors of the Nanking people was a Nazi named Rabe and the ironies grow stronger and crueler.
It's a story of the sacrifice of the few for the many and the Christian imagery is strong in a Chinese movie. You will weep.
July 7, 2011
The Devil and Daniel Webster, directed by William Dieterle, 1941, starrng Walter Houston, Edward Arnold,Jane Darwell, and a host of Great Old Hollywood Character Actors
The beginning of the film and the last 10 minutes are very good. The middle is a bore.
The beginning and end of the film are taken almost directly from the Stephen Vincent Benet short story, The Devil and Daniel Webster. The middle of the story is about Unions: not the Union of the United States but Labor Unions. This film might be instructive for Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida.
June 30, 2011
Fresh, 1994 directed by Boaz Yakin Life and Chess can be very similar. You can win and take the other guy's KING, if you are willing to play the game and take your losses.
This is probably why Bobby Fisher gave up the game and took up the CrAZy. Too much Real Life and not enough Abstraction.
June 14, 2011
The Bakery Girl of Monceau, 1963, Erik Rohmer
Sweets are Great Treats, but there are only so many of them that you can eat before you begin to crave the Meat and Potatoes.
June 9, 2011
Sita Sings the Blues, 2008, directed and written by Nina Paley, songs sung by Annette Hanshaw
MEN! They are Irrational Creatures. And they make very Poor Gods.
May 12, 2011
Penny Serenade, 1941, Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, directed by George Stevens
What does a Woman Want in a Man? Money or Sex? Or Cary Grant?
March 23, 2011
Eraserhead, 1977 Written (if you can call it that) and Directed by David Lynch
Adapted from a Bible Verse and which one might that be, you ask? He didn't say. He doesn't know anymore about this film than you do.
March 4, 2011
The Red Shoes
The Archers, 1948, Directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
What do Men Want in a Woman? Some Creature of Fantastical Abilities to fulfill their every desire. You only get ONE Mother, Guys.
January 27, 2011
Pinky
20th Century Fox, 1949 The Good Old Days....of Segregation.
Pretend that People can just be ignored.
December 8, 2010
Romeo and Juliet 1936, George Cukor directed, Herbert Stothart composed, Adrian and Oliver Messel costumed, MGM/ Thalberg production
November 17, 2010
Letter From an Unknown Woman, 1948, Joan Fontaine and Louis Jordan, Directed by Max Ophuls, Universal Pictures
October 16, 2010
Nosferatu, 1921, German, Directed by Murnau
October 9, 2010
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Directed and Written by Jacques Demy, 1964, French
September 8, 2010:
Hallelujah
MGM, 1929, directed by King Vidor
June 4, 2010
The Innocents, 1961 directed by Jack Clayton, starring Deborah Kerr, adapted from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Movie Night Movies, Parte Deux