|
SCREENING LOG
-5/17-5/23, 2004
Back to 2004 Index
A Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000, Hong Sang-soo)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253378/
I got confused with this movie halfway through and wasn't
sure what I was seeing, and after rewinding and playing through
it a second time, I still wasn't sure. One thing I kept thinking
was "Korean Rohmer" though Rohmer hardly ever takes up a woman's
voice (though I'm not entirely convinced that this film does
either). I'd be interested to see what DFC makes of it if
he wants to see it. Your user comments say that you watched
this several times to gain appreciation of it, and I suspect
I'd have to do the same, and it may reveal its riches over
that course. But after a couple of viewings I can't say I'm
encouraged enough to invest more at this point. What I would
like though is to see more of Hong's movies as his voice is
quite distinctive, if a bit elusive. mixed
The Girl Can't Help It (1956, Frank Tashlin)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049263/
yes (#9 for 1956 between WRITTEN ON THE WIND and INVASION
OF THE BODY SNATCHERS)
Godzilla (1954, Ishiro Honda)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049263/
I actually wasn't at a YES immediately after seeing it, but
as time has passed the images have really stayed with me as
well as the haunted quality of it all, the lingering nightmare
effect you expect of a quintessential good disaster flick,
or a David Lynch movie. Like Lynch it has a strange camp undertone
to it (the sets, for instance, and the "oxygen destroyer")
and yet it takes itself so seriously, as it should given the
nightmare of radioactive holocaust it (re)envisions. YES (#4
for 1954 between ANATAHAN and JOHNNY GUITAR)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Sergio Leone)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087843/
YES YES (#2 for 1984 between YELLOW EARTH and STRANGER THAN
PARADISE)
A Simple Story (1978, Claude Sautet)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075975/
yes (#9 for 1978 between MAN OF MARBLE and THE BUDDY HOLLY
STORY)
The Silence (1963, Ingmar Bergman)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057611/
I'm of two minds with this. On the one hand I couldn't help
but think it was derivative of (or, being polite, inspired
in part by) Antonioni's trilogy what with the endless wandering
through the empty spaces of this existential haunted house..
though Bergman certainly brings his own domestic anxieties
to bear on his characters. But whatever the case, I found
this film exceptionally gripping, and for me what raised it
above the standard Bergman fare is a genuine sense of wonder,
in a haunted house sort of way (as much Fellini as Antonioni),
particularly evoked in the little boy. The boy's sense of
wonder, fear and discovery really worked for me, the same
way it works in FANNY AND ALEXANDER, as a welcome counterbalance
to the plaintive self-pitying angst and overdrawn push-pull
between overt frigidity (Thulin) and overt sensuality (Lindblom)
in the adult section of the film. In other words, a shining
instance where dazzling form trumps predetermined meaning.
YES/yes (#6 for 1963 between MURIEL and THE BIRDS)
Back to 2004 Index
|
