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SCREENING LOG
- 12/1-12/7, 2003
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I watched LATE
AUGUST EARLY SEPTEMBER, PROVIDENCE, CITIZENS' BAND a/k/a HANDLE
WITH CARE, PTU, THE GETTING OF WISDOM, and OASIS. In order
of preference:
Citizens' Band a/k/a Handle with Care (1977, Jonathan
Demme)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076123/
A quintessential "indigenous" movie: I just loved how it
seemed to know its place and people inside out, and how the
CB radio and its attendant dialect was the irreplaceable hub
of these people's interactions, their dreams and desires,
their fantasies and reality (the two states overlap more often
than not). I loved all the characters in all their weirdness
and it was obvious that the filmmakers and actors did too
-- this movie looked like it was a blast to make. The bigamy
issue was dealt with in a refreshingly nonjudgmental way --
I liked the way it was dealt more than I liked Spider's conflicts
with his father and brother, which seemed to reach a tad for
pathos. Finally the film tied its various threads and ideas
together in a way that was unabashedly magical, and it left
me with a big smile on my face.
Oasis (2002, Lee Chang-Dong)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320193/
A reckless ex-con rapes a disabled woman left alone in a
decrepit urban apartment, only to fall madly in love with
her in this wildly uneven but undeniably powerful melodrama.
What would be a blatanly maudlin (if not tasteless) premise
gets smuggled underneath a perfect first hour of composed,
inspired storytelling and breathtaking use of CGI effects
to depict the flights of fancy of the housebound woman (Moon
So-ri, in the kind of performance that would have nabbed her
an Oscar had this been an American film, with all that implies),
while offering a hardnosed but compassionate view of the unlikely
hero (played outstandingly by Sol Kyung-gu with a livewire
unwieldiness worthy of Toshiro Mifune) as he wanders through
his self-made purgatory of violent tantrums and other erratic
behavior. The romance that blossoms during the middle is when
the film hits its sweet spot before getting its feet stuck,
indulging unabashedly in the woman's wish-fulfillments before
bringing her down in an avalanche of humiliations that strive
for the acerbic social insights of Fassbinder's best but come
off as the cheap contrivances typical of von Trier's worst.
The bad taste of the second half still can't efface the lingering
brilliance of the first, and overall the film is a touching
and challenging portrait of two outcasts adrift in a society
incapable of understanding their raw human beauty. #11 for
2002 between THE MAGDALENE SISTERS and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE #12
for new films seen in 2003 between THE MAGDALENE SISTERS and
TO BE AND TO HAVE
PTU (2003, Johnny To)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0250638/
Of the three Johnny To films I've seen (including the wonderful
HEROIC TRIO and the frazzled FULLTIME KILLER) this is clearly
his most composed, dare I say "mature" work. A corrupt cop
skirmishes with a gang and loses his gun, unleashing a bloody
mess over the course of one long night involving two gangs
and two or three police units. To's encyclopedic knowledge
of action movies (demonstrated in FULLTIME KILLER, which referenced
everything from Kathryn Bigelow to Seijun Suzuki) is fully
employed here, with scenes that evoke Sergio Leone (self-delight
in assembling and coordinating antagonistic figures for elegant
showdowns in ritualistic spaces), Michael Mann (use of ambient,
Miami Vice-like rock music to add grace notes to shootouts)
and Takeshi Kitano (a certain aloof, detached view of bloody
beatings and shootings) to name a few. To's brutal depiction
of police corruption bespeaks as much sociological insights
into the execution of justice as Eastwood's MYSTIC RIVER,
though he does so more casually and mostly in conceptual terms,
in line with his assiduous tinkering with the police procedural
genre. #5 for 2003, between RAJA and MYSTIC RIVER #17 for
new films seen in 2003, between HUKKLE and MYSTIC RIVER
The Getting of Wisdom (1977, Bruce Beresford)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0076079/
I'll definitely take this one over PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK,
as I prefer a real story about a real girl dealing with real
girl problems than a poetic reverie that makes a fetish object
out of virgin femininity. The story was a bit rough at times;
at first I felt it rather TV-movie-ish and I didn't hit it
off with the hardheaded heroine, but by midpoint I was settled
into this world and intrigued by this girl's prideful yet
insecure inability to fit into her environment and the things
she had to do to acquire a sense of belonging. There's a sense
of cruelty and brutality and pain at the heart of this movie,
not physical but mental and emotional, that deeply impressed
me and struck me as real. The lesbian story, well I don't
know if you can definitely say that it's a lesbian story (at
least compared to HEAVENLY CREATURES) but I'm sure the scene
in bed was shocking in its time and I had to rewind to see
if they kissed on the mouth or not. But I'm inclined to interpret
the relationship as pre-sexual so that lesbianism isn't quite
an accurate description of what goes on between them.
Providence (1977, Alain Resnais)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0076574/
I watched it twice and got much more out of it the second
time but it still leaves me not entirely enthralled, but impressed
all the same. All the elements for a truly exceptional film
are there: great professional performances (Bogarde's transformation
between his two roles is amazing), a great premise, Miklos
Rosza's rich score that evokes both 40s gothic dramas and
film noirs... but throughout I feel more of a detached observer
than an engrossed one. Part of it is that the characters have
a sardonic quality to them that seems characteristic of British
drama that appeals more to drama queens than to me. Same goes
for the fictive-ness of the characters swimming in Gielgud's
head -- knowing that they're not real I don't seem as interested
in them -- hen their "real" counterparts finally arrived it
was too late for me to be re-invested. The fusion of British
acting and attitude with Resnais' analytical style of narrativity
is interesting. The exploration of the creative process didn't
inspire me as much as I had hoped, but there are some funny
flippant moments that seem all too true of what turns a writer's
mind takes in his process of conceiving (love the scene where
the soccer player pops up in the middle of a love scene).
Of course it took me three tries to get to that conclusion
about MARIENBAD, the only Resnais movie I've seen more than
twice and the only one I wholeheartedly embrace. Maybe the
general rule of thumb with me and Resnais is third time's
the charm -- would probably help a lot if I saw this in a
theater as well.
Late August, Early September (1998, Olivier Assayas)
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0167925/
Had a hard time getting into this one -- the Max Ophuls-on-crack
roving camerawork that was employed so purposefully and brilliantly
in IRMA VEP here seems as frantic and unengaging as it was
in Chereau's THOSE WHO LOVE ME CAN TAKE THE TRAIN -- for me
it just doesn't work, and I am left feeling alienated. As
in THOSE WHO LOVE ME (with which i find myself comparing to
this film a lot) I wish the particular social milieu was as
interesting to me as their particular life struggles and the
narrative strategy in which to depict them (here the story
has an interesting structure breaking itself into chronological
fragments, with key life-changing events left in the gaps,
so we see people at various in-between states), but only towards
the end did I start to settle in. Would a second viewing improve
my opinion? Probably, but do I have the time?
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