Best of 2007-2008

This is no doubt my favorite modern HHH film. It's a beautiful slice of life in Paris as seen through the eyes of a foreigner, or perhaps from the viewpoint of the red balloon which seems to symbolize the wonder and curiosity of childhood. Of course Hou integrates his theme of history's impact on the present gracefully into the spontaneous, free-flowing narrative. Also similar to Cafe Lumiere the film depicts the interpretation of a foreign culture from one's own, as in how the character played by Binoche runs a chinese-inspired puppet show (a reference to The Puppetmaster) and how the Chinese film student is trying to film a homage to The Red Balloon. The composition and inventive use of reflections make this IMO the most visually accomplished film among his post 2000 films. Binoche does a great job here as well. In one of my favorite scenes a class of schoolchildren goes to a museum with their teacher to see Félix Vallotton's painting "The Balloon." When they are asked whether the painting is happy or sad, one child says that since part of the painting is dark and part of it is light, the painting is both happy and sad. The description sums up the mood of the film.

Excellent stuff. a very dreamy and intimate portrayal of adolescence. Didn't fall into any kind of cliche resolution I was expecting and the film is about much more than its central incident. Love the Nino Rota music and the Scorpio Rising-like 8 mm footage of the skateboarding subculture.

A hilarious film about a 40 year old painter who leaves his wife for Paris after being sought by the police for smoking pot. Wracked by unemployment, loneliness, and idleness, he occupies his time with chasing after local Korean women.

Hong's known for his critical portrayal of male egos and narcissism. Some have aptly described Hong's films as being about "drunk Korean douchebags" and "people getting drunk and looking stupid trying to fuck each other". Here the main character Sung-nam is an awkward, indecisive, and impulsive lump of a man. One particularly hilarious episode in the film illustrates his qualities beautifully. Sung-nam invites his old flame to a hotel to have sex, but at the last second changes his mind and reads to his nearly naked partner a passage from the Bible about how sinners must gauges out their eyes before succumbing to their lust. Later that day he calls his wife and asks her to masturbate to him over the phone. The women lack no human fallacies of their own. During a road trip, the two roommates react bitterly over their competition for Sung-nam, using petty complaints like refusing to pay for the gas as excuses for their jealous behavior. The humor in general works extremely well because it is rooted in stuff like petty jealousies that are completely believable and relatable, even if they can be awkward to watch. To his credit Hong handles all the human relationships with subtlety and in an understated manner.

Since the narrative takes place over several months, Hong adopts a anecdotal, diary-like structure, with title cards marking the progression of dates. Hong's treatment of the Parisian setting with all its daily ambiance of the city reminds me of Rivette, not to mention the Rivette-like length of the film. What's particularly interesting is that the film takes a page out of Luis Buñuel in its deceptive and hilariously surreal dream sequences. There's even a toe-sucking scene inspired by L'Age D'Or. The Buñuel tribute makes sense since both directors were interested in exploring human desire and how social norms clashes with base human instincts.

A sensual, minimalist film about voyeurism. The film makes great use of depth of focus and reflective surfaces and also benefits from an excellent sound design. Guerín's film depicts the tranquil city atmosphere of Strasbourg, where an unnamed man (the romantic dreamer type) sits at an outdoor cafe and watches the beautiful women setting there and sketches their gestures in his notebook, trying to construct a person scribed as "Sylvie". He stalks one of the woman whom he believes is this Sylvie. For such a simple setup this film was really engrossing and in the end it captured the essence of the main character's longing and romantic fantasy (ala Vertigo). Comparing it to Vertigo may be misleading since this is not a mystery nor does it have much of a plot. It's mostly just shots of the man watching and sketching.

A far cry from the international thriller material of Boarding Gate, here it is a drama dealing with dissolution of a family as well as the value people place on objects, both commercial and sentimental. Like Resnais/Marker's Statues Also Die, Assayas shows that some works of art becomes lifeless when removed from the their personal and everyday context. It is almost Ozu-like in its sympathetic portrayal of family dynamics and the passing of generations. I could have preferred more focus on the characters instead of the art objects. I'm not a huge fan of Assayas' handheld, cut-heavy aesthetic but that long take at the end was great.

One of the better films of 2007. The film hits all right emotional notes in its examination of the conflict between religion and human nature. Much credit goes to Do-yeon Jeon, whose emotionally draining performance is crucial for such a role. Lee does a great job of telling the story efficiently and without any cheap melodrama in addition to presenting a critical but not one-sided view on Christianity. If "Forgive thy enemy was one of the commandments then this would have fit nicely as part of the Decalogue. The problems I had were that the killer's motivation (or thoughtlessness) is not quite believable. Also the main character's religious fervor is hard to buy, and the way she denounces God later was silly.

Told like a first person, stream of thought documentary with plenty of nostalgia, but often veers off into bizarre "fantasies". I use "" because some of the weird stuff like the horses and the "What If" part Maddin actually confirms as truth in an interview I read. I liked Maddin's montage style, the throwback cinematic technique, and the pseudo-noirish narration. His often queer little stories are funny and imaginative. The ending is so silly.

If not for the silly supernatural territory that this veers to in the 2nd half it would definitely be one of the better 2008 films I've seen. It is sort of Garrel's take on Resnais' Love Onto Death, without the ponderous and didactic dialogue of that film. Garrel and Lubchansky really make some the most gorgeous closeups that capture every subtle expression on an actor's face. I was surprised at how relatively accessible this was compared to Le Lit de la Vierge or even Regular Lovers, but the film still has Garrel's distinct signature. The film splits the focus on Laura Smet's character in the first half and the effect of her death on Louis Garrel's character in the 2nd half. Also there something odd about the contemporary setting which is undermined by some anachronistic details like Garrel's antiquated camera and the mention of some revolutionary stuff by Smet's character. It's as if these people were still stuck in Paris 68.

Okay, so before the show started they showed this decent/semi-forgettable short called Dust. After the light went back on I heard a voice behind and saw it was Chris Doyle (aka God) dashing up to the stage where he gave an introduction. Doyle was every bit his usual vulgar self as he cursed and joked about looking for a T-shirt with "fuck you" on it to wear it on stage. I was sitting in the 2nd row and when I tried to take a picture he covered his face. :( Before leaving he said that he'll be back after the movie with Wong himself. Liar!

As for the film itself, it was pretty good but I liked the original cut more. Some digital effects and shots of nature were added, and they changed the soundtrack in some scenes. The print looked a lot better than the shitty dvd but there's significant grain in many scenes. I noticed that they used some alternate takes as a result extended some shots while adding a few extra cuts and shots here and there, most of which I thought were not preferable to the original. The overall narrative was more structured and the extra cuts mostly was used to make the plot more clear, which is unnecessary because I didn't find the original hard to understand at all (the only twist with the narrative was its circularity which I loved), plus it made the plot too obvious/repetitive at times. The film is basically a prototype for 2046 but some of the individual episodes doesn't work as well as the latter film.

Reygadas tells his story of a guilt-ridden man who cheats on his wife due to his love for another woman with gorgeous painterly images and a patient eye toward the daily lives of this religious community of Mennonites. Stylistically the film is reminiscent of Dreyer and Tarkovsky. While I have no problems with the film's style and basic story arc, the Ordet-like ending failed to move me, which is weird because the ending of Ordet had me in tears. Whereas in Ordet the miracle is founded in a man's love for his wife, here it is based on the love of the adulteress for the man. I can only attribute this to the lack of empathy I feel for the relationship between the man and his wife nor between him and the other woman. The film doesn't give the sense that he loves her despite his outpour of tears near the end.

Very playful but also quite stuffy and theatrical. I guess Rivette was trying to show how society's romantic rituals are nothing more than theatrics but I don't care for any of its characters. It's like what the Last Mistress would have been if it was focused on the battle of wills between its characters instead of lust.

Argento is a filthy beast. Her masculinity dwarfs that of the androgynous Fu'ad Ait Aattou, with his huge puffy lips and porcelain skin, and it's this presence that carries what is otherwise a average film.