movies of June
I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow, so movies are earlier this month.
13 movies, from 1949-2009. All new, mostly subtitled(!).
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) - Sharply satirical, but then it gets sadder and more elegiac. I know WWI satire is a dime a dozen, but this has a very specific conceit that makes it work better than, for example . . . Sassoon. (Sorry, Siegfried.)
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009) - So the good things in this movie are really good. The bad things are terrible.
Dostana (2008) - OH ABHISHEK, how can I resist you when you pull those ridiculous faces? Anyway, Dostana makes all these KJo references, but not to KHNH (that I noticed), which I thought was ridiculous. (Although, I appreciated, "Gabbar Singh was totally gay." Sholay is not about the deep, male love between Gabbar Singh and his cronies, is all I will say. But the meta bits are some of the great parts of this movie, as is true of Bollywood generally.) It has a good heart, I guess? And the humor mostly comes from the fact that three people who are fairly lukewarm on the issue of gay rights have suddenly been pushed into a position where they have to embrace the identity, or embrace someone else's identity. It's a movie, and a comedy, so of course they find themselves opening up. It's basically a morality play, I think. The music is not very good.
A Fei zheng chuan (1990) (Days of Being Wild) - Oh Leslie, so lovely. I kind of want to request this movie for Yuletide, because I'm pretty sure there needs to be thorny sex between Leslie Cheung and Andy Lau's characters. But this is definitely minor Wong Kar-Wai, albeit in a very interesting way.
¡Atame! (1990) (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) - So compared to, i.e., Lust, Caution, the sex is not terribly graphic. And actually, I think the sex scene is very, very, clever and intelligent, and works very well. I would put it on par with the sex scene in My Beautiful Laundrette. It's an interesting, clever, mischievous movie . . . that is possibly triggering.
Omkara (2006) - Bollywood does Othello! It's really . . . raunchy. And it feels authentically Shakespearean, despite the translation into contemporary Indian underworld terms. It's really good - the music too - and all in shades of grey, which is good. I enjoyed it and would recommend that you check it out if you are interested in Shakespeare. (Saif Ali Khan is amaaaaazing as the Iago analog.)
Einayim Petukhoth (2009) (Eyes Wide Open) - Interesting. It's really quite lovely - uses silence very well - but the rough edges didn't feel fully on purpose (I mean: it felt like the people behind the movie didn't have any idea either, which is a problem) so I couldn't endorse it wholeheartedly. But it's quite interesting.
Hum Tum (2004) - OMG, what is this, premarital sex in a Bollywood movie?!?! OH BUT I HAVE A PROBLEM. RANI, RANI, RANI: This movie predates Baabul and does the same things way better (even with stupid, annoying cartoons: why? also, why are they white?) so why did you have to make Baabul? Ugh. But Hum Tum is lovely. <3
Beau Travail (1999) - Easy to watch, difficult to figure out. I mean, I got the Billy Budd thing, and I would definitely rather watch this than read BB. Basically: I'm intrigued. But I don't know where to start.
Ying hung boon sik (1986) (A Better Tomorrow) - Everyone in this movie is so young! It's weird. But, anyway, this is justifiably a classic of the genre/a trendsetter. It's both a great deal of fun and really sad.
A Man of No Importance (1994) - This movie is incredibly banal, but Rufus Sewell is beautiful. He can almost redeem it.
Gam chi yuk sip (1994) (He's a Woman, She's a Man) - Delightfully like a classic 1930s screwball/Twelfth Night story. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially Carina Lau, who is really really very good. She steals the show.
The Queen of Spades (1949) - I only like movies when Anton Walbrook has a mustache? Not sure, but anyway, it didn't work for me. Maybe I was in the wrong mood.
This entry was originally posted at http://themis.dreamwidth.org/20019.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
13 movies, from 1949-2009. All new, mostly subtitled(!).
Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) - Sharply satirical, but then it gets sadder and more elegiac. I know WWI satire is a dime a dozen, but this has a very specific conceit that makes it work better than, for example . . . Sassoon. (Sorry, Siegfried.)
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009) - So the good things in this movie are really good. The bad things are terrible.
Dostana (2008) - OH ABHISHEK, how can I resist you when you pull those ridiculous faces? Anyway, Dostana makes all these KJo references, but not to KHNH (that I noticed), which I thought was ridiculous. (Although, I appreciated, "Gabbar Singh was totally gay." Sholay is not about the deep, male love between Gabbar Singh and his cronies, is all I will say. But the meta bits are some of the great parts of this movie, as is true of Bollywood generally.) It has a good heart, I guess? And the humor mostly comes from the fact that three people who are fairly lukewarm on the issue of gay rights have suddenly been pushed into a position where they have to embrace the identity, or embrace someone else's identity. It's a movie, and a comedy, so of course they find themselves opening up. It's basically a morality play, I think. The music is not very good.
A Fei zheng chuan (1990) (Days of Being Wild) - Oh Leslie, so lovely. I kind of want to request this movie for Yuletide, because I'm pretty sure there needs to be thorny sex between Leslie Cheung and Andy Lau's characters. But this is definitely minor Wong Kar-Wai, albeit in a very interesting way.
¡Atame! (1990) (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) - So compared to, i.e., Lust, Caution, the sex is not terribly graphic. And actually, I think the sex scene is very, very, clever and intelligent, and works very well. I would put it on par with the sex scene in My Beautiful Laundrette. It's an interesting, clever, mischievous movie . . . that is possibly triggering.
Omkara (2006) - Bollywood does Othello! It's really . . . raunchy. And it feels authentically Shakespearean, despite the translation into contemporary Indian underworld terms. It's really good - the music too - and all in shades of grey, which is good. I enjoyed it and would recommend that you check it out if you are interested in Shakespeare. (Saif Ali Khan is amaaaaazing as the Iago analog.)
Einayim Petukhoth (2009) (Eyes Wide Open) - Interesting. It's really quite lovely - uses silence very well - but the rough edges didn't feel fully on purpose (I mean: it felt like the people behind the movie didn't have any idea either, which is a problem) so I couldn't endorse it wholeheartedly. But it's quite interesting.
Hum Tum (2004) - OMG, what is this, premarital sex in a Bollywood movie?!?! OH BUT I HAVE A PROBLEM. RANI, RANI, RANI: This movie predates Baabul and does the same things way better (even with stupid, annoying cartoons: why? also, why are they white?) so why did you have to make Baabul? Ugh. But Hum Tum is lovely. <3
Beau Travail (1999) - Easy to watch, difficult to figure out. I mean, I got the Billy Budd thing, and I would definitely rather watch this than read BB. Basically: I'm intrigued. But I don't know where to start.
Ying hung boon sik (1986) (A Better Tomorrow) - Everyone in this movie is so young! It's weird. But, anyway, this is justifiably a classic of the genre/a trendsetter. It's both a great deal of fun and really sad.
A Man of No Importance (1994) - This movie is incredibly banal, but Rufus Sewell is beautiful. He can almost redeem it.
Gam chi yuk sip (1994) (He's a Woman, She's a Man) - Delightfully like a classic 1930s screwball/Twelfth Night story. I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially Carina Lau, who is really really very good. She steals the show.
The Queen of Spades (1949) - I only like movies when Anton Walbrook has a mustache? Not sure, but anyway, it didn't work for me. Maybe I was in the wrong mood.
This entry was originally posted at http://themis.dreamwidth.org/20019.html. Please comment there using OpenID.