groaningbitch
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| Name | Veronique Kwak |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| I'm From | CA |
| Member For | 303 days |
| Last Login | Tue. Jul 8 |
| Profile Views | 4205 |
| Age | 25 |
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| Movie: | most film noir, gangster classics and cult horror in black and white...such as Born To Kill, Double Indemnity, The Last Man on Earth...etc. |
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| Actor: | JOAN CRAWFORD, Ann Dvorak, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Ida Lupino, Jean Gabin...etc. |
| Director: | Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, Martin Scorsesse, Jean Renoir....etc. |
| Quote: | Mother of mercy, is that the end of Rico??...."Little Caesar"......most men are turnips!....."Born to Kill" |
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once i discussed the issue that why people get stuck with the enthusiasm of films so much with a friend, he answered becuz it's something larger than life, at least larger than yourself...i guess just like bertolucci's dreamers in 2003...seeking something transcending you or beyond you to consume your wanton youth....it's an everlasting inquiry you constantly wonder and renew about yourself....as for my destinated remark toward myself....a shattered dreamer who craves for peace of mind in black and white vision with every negative misanthropic ambition to recluse from the world....it's like you used to eat spicy food for excitement for creativity...now you finally realize plain dishes have more enduring taste...
generally...i know pretty much of everything of contempory avant-garde director and i've seen most of the classics like raging bull or taxi driver or blue velvet...etc...but i deliberately conpartmentalize those things out of me to shelter in some ancient space to smear off my callous sensationalism.....i guess i shot enough shits....so long. |
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Frankenstein
Unrated
"frankeinstein" along with "dracula" have been listed as the legendary horror phenonmenon in the 1930s, and they saved lots of theaters from going bankrupt then, and they're the saviors of box office as long as they're double-featured together. it shall be the myth of 1930s.
lots have been said about frankenstein, even its dismissed scriptor robert fortley who got fired becuz of his support for bela lugosi has been mentioned. mae clarke, the woman who gets hit by james cagney with grapefruits in "public enemy", plays the finacee of dr. frankenstein after her copperation with james whale in the original "waterloo bridge"
ignored by some, frankenstein does have something deeply profane within its ideology. "frankenstein" daringly suggests the possibility of creating life without natural course that is the best target bombarded by puritanical american society then, and the fragmented outlook of frankenstein is the symptom of modernism, a half-baked state of man-machine stumbling along to demonstrate the contaminating sin of industrialization. homoeroticism as well as autoeroticism is also suggested in it since dr. frankeinstein chooses to create life in the abscence of female, and dr. frankestein exclaims "it's alive" when the monster arises to life, his excitement seems to border on sexual ecstacy, and then he marvels "with my own hands!!!!" the masturbatory insinauation is reeking everywhere. besides the course of "making life" with his hunchback assistant seems to appeal dr. frankestein more than endearing his finacee's bedroom.
and the subliminal purpose for the existence of deformed monsters like frankenstein is the phobia toward disfiguration after wwi. audience needs some surrogates to suffer from their suppressed subconscious fear so flicks like "frankestein", "dracula" even tod browning's "freaks" could occupy a space in this decade.
True Romance
R
"true romance" is another hallmark of 90s neo-noir subculture since tarantino rises up with "pulp fiction"...the story of "true romance" is the creation of tarantino's slacker reveries, and the result squeaks outloud as the memoir of a screwy geek's phallic fantasies as well as a naively twisted american dream with good sense of obscene humor. despite it's helmed by director tony scott, the tarantino spirit is reeking relentlessly.
an elvis presley fanatic who indulges himself in comics and cantonese kung-fu flicks discovers true love from a hooker (who insists calling herself "call girl") working for only 4 days with 3 clients. the hooker doesn't get tedious with the geek's endless chattering on elvis but feels amused instead. then the geek decides to kill the hooker's pimp to do her justice but accidentally elopes with a suitcase of cocaine. so they attempt to make a fortune for themselves out of it by heading hollywood for a whole big sale in spite of the involvement of ferocious mobsters.
tarantino once remarks in an interview, if he shows a girl the things he loves, she better f***ing like it! same goes for the scenarios of "true romance"...christian slater's character even wears a leather jacket with the flag of "repubic of china"(which is my country) on his back in the prologue of performing his chivalry while his ex-hooker wife is staring at the tv with early hong kong flick starring Yun-Fat Chow (that i've seen in childhood as well) as if he was the bruce lee reclaiming the pride of china with his magnificent kung-fu as well as his elvis-styled sun glasses. an abitrary don quixote lives in his fantasyland.
one element of the taratino formuli would be the pastiche of postmodern orientalism resulted from watching too many cantonese movies in adolescence, he devolpes an everlasting juvenile fetish over some oriental formalities without absorbing the meaning or he just misuses them willfully as his peculiar sort of humor, such as the jap samurai sword appears in "kill bill" and "pulp fiction". one cannot help but wonder he's just a deviant westerner over-obssessed on such matters with self-abandoned narcissism.
the pinnacle of hilarious brass would probably be the confrontation between dennis hopper and christopher walken, and the abusive joke is on sicillions being half-black (but it seems funnier to use the "ni" word) since their female ancestors have been ravished by the moors so much.
the aspect of its deranged american dream would probably the protagonists' careless naivete to sell the coke then get rich, and apparently the flick is more in a romancist's angle since they make it and it also gratifies the audience's testerone with enough provovations of violence, profanity and a titilating blonde bombshell who seems dumb enough to utter "you're so cool!" all the time to stimulate your libido. wouldn't that be an ideal boyish dreamland? being a never-do-good then suddenly, boom! you get everything and a hot chic! but who would say it's no fun despite it's obviously impractical and far from reality? ha.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Unrated
"the count of monte cristo" is the first sound flick adapted from dumas' masterpiece. and it shows the versatile scale of the 39 steps legendary actor robert donat's potentiality for swashbuckler gendre, and also it is donat's first collaboration with hollywood. undisputedly robert donat's version is the best ever on screen.
"the count of monte cristo" is alexander dumas' classic tale of chivalric avengence. donat plays dantes who has been wrongly accused of treason, and he vows to revenge due to the loss of his youth and his one true love, then he discovers the treasure of monte cristo so he purchases himself a status to cast doom to those who have mistreated him maliciously. it has the essence of swashbuckler as well as the confrontation of good and evil, but it's dubbed with a sense of solemnity instead of the errolesque frivolosity which populates in this gendre.
the movie remains faithful to dumas' book and robert donat does have the knightly presence of enigmatic count and his elegance oozes from the sword duets and every suave phrase of his. the story is handled concisely to catch up the proper pace without over-sentimentalized melodramaticity despite its apparent tint of romanticism.
eccentricly the mere approach for this flick to occur to people's sight would be the cameo in "v for vedentta" which is natalie portman's recent flick of dystopic graphic novel. "the count of monte cristo" becomes the parallelling comparison to the disfigured pratagonist's ruin of wretched betrayls.
robert donat's accomplished performance in monte cristo earns himself an opportunity to take the lead in "captain blood" which leaves to errol flynn later. but donat turns it down becuz of his disdain for hollywood and his reluctance to shoot the production inside united states. donat is also one of hitchcock's fav leading men and hitchcock has scheduled three flicks in a row for him: "the 39 steps"," the secret agent" and "sabotage" but donat could only be in one due to his asthma illness and his dilemma of multi contracts. donat shall be one of the most talented, handsomest and mostly underused actors in britain who could have achieved superstardom. but he's tragically forgotten, so is his "count of monte cristo".
The Lost Boys
R
"the lost boys" is joel schumacher's 80s occult classic before he steps into the rehash of "batman forever" which demystifies the batman legend (previously composed by tim burton) with his overdosed commercial gayety.
the flick begins with the backset tone of "people are strange" which is a classic the doors song, and this bizarrely ethreal tune anchors the idiocyncratic atmosphere of "the lost boys"...jason patric plays the loner kid michael who gets entrapped into the snare of vampires when his family moves to santa carla in california. it barrows the scenario of james dean's "rebel without a cause" that a bunch of mistrayed young motorcyclists indulge in the thrilling abandon of violence and adventures while our rebel protagonist is longing for the girlfriend of gang lead, trying to snatch her attention away by passing the daring ordeals proposed by the gang as a lost boy in search of peer identification. a disorientated ground for kids with hippie parents as one character's name is star.
the story background fits well with the theme of "people are strange" and peculiarly the vampire shell does have a portrait of jim morrison as their spiritual guidance. a group of lost boys dive into the recognition of stylistic dissonance on their metal outfits, spiky hairdos and leather jackets. (my compliment belongs to kiefer sutherland whose hairdo is the coolest. and jason patric somehow resembles jim morrison with his shaggy hair.)
"the lost boys" is well foreshadowed with the pastiche of an adolescent delinquency and hard-core vampirish goth, but it goes campy when the story starts to get involved with the frog vampire-slaughtering brothers in the comics store. then it flops into a brass celebration of nerds and geeks, especially the scene of "death by the stereo" is particularly juvenile and corny.
the 80s was the dacade when jason patric and kiefer sutherland still possess some potentiality of supernova with their boyish looks and edgy spunk. unfortunately director schumacher chooses style over substance, so "the lost boys" ends up being a excellently shot two-hour music video with the epitome of 80s pop culture. but somehow it's worthy of praises for its campy value. and the song "people are strange" divulges as the sour implication of vampires with a sardonic kind of black humor.
Angels with Dirty Faces
Unrated
under the influence of moral code, "angels with dirty face" is helmed by versatile michael curtiz as the sanitized gangster flick without misogynism and abusive malevolence. it's tinted with a light of benevolence while cagney is the admirable mobster with a heart of gold against humprey bogart's crooked lawyer in his 1930s villainy.
the story is about two juvenile mugs who diverge the paths of their seperate lives after one of them gets caught in the train thievery. of course, cagney would be the incorrigible one(rocky sullivan) who accomplishes his notorious career of crimes, and pat o'brien would be the meek goody-goody priest(father jerry) who always preachs without effects. uncannily the child actor who plays the young rocky resembles cagney well and also his poise while saying "don't be a sucker!"
to add up some wholesome elements in it, the dead end kids are put into the picture as the conductment for juvenile delinquency, but these adolscent hoodrums are only willing to be bossed around by shrewd cagney. it leaves some dilemma for father jerry who is eager to rescue the kids from rocky's bad influence, later jerry even askes rocky to annihilate the ultimate pride of his mobster prestige by faking cowardice in the gas chamber to reform the dead end kids.
the moralistic inference is what hinders the pleasure of "angels with dirty faces" despite you could still watch cagney swear like a machine gun and kicks around like a walking phallis, but the lack of brass could be a spoiler even the flick still remains dynamic with cagney's untamed machismo. ann sheridan as rocky's love interest is like another decorative vase there to enhance the lead then nothing more.
but the gas chamber scene is handled with top-notch suspense where you witness the trembling shadow of a struggling man, and the intensity of violence is rendered wondrously without graphic gore. you may inquire whether rocky frightens at last or he just performs an altruistic act to salvage the kids. come what may, the stance of father jerry is like a judgemental bourgeois who wishes to deprive the gangster of everything he possesses, even his last bit of pride, to serve the pretentiously righteous social course. this is the hegemonic comprimose forced by the moral code, expressed soundly in "angels with dirty faces".
The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort)
G
"the young girls of rochefort" is the dynamic french musical classic with a fairly young angelic catherine deneuve. and it is restricted to people who have an acceptance to the cliched parisian naivete of french romanticism. the storyline is delineated with an innocent stroke of ever after fairy tale which could be mindless but exquisitedly cherographed and the music is brighteningly melodic.
how about the story? absolutely corny and it's about "love"(amour) again. it's about two female ingenunes who seek for the ideal dream lovers. it shows its fatalistic belief in love and bond arranged in the heaven that is not a topic suited for cynist. but it's so contrived to the histrionic pretense that is meant not to be taken seriously for relaxation. but the stage effects of backset, constumes and techicolor tones are well-adjusted and that makes it highly watchable and warmingly cute if you disregard their smug poise to sing and dance on the streets and exclaims "i'm in love!" and this silliness requires the leads who are charismatic enough to sell it, catherine deneuve and francoise dorleac would be in this niche with their looks and light-weighted voice.
it is amazing to see deneuve kicking her leg, holding her girlish hat in musical then stripped off naked as the masochist in "belle de jour" which is also released in 1968. "the young girls of rochefort" proves the diverse caliber of catherine deneuve.
Veronique's Favorite Movies
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1.
Born to Kill (Lady of Deceit)
Unrated
a story enhanced by murder and deceit. and the best thing in this movie shall be claire trevor's performance as the ambitious, complicated seductress who is in eternal struggle between the crave of peace and security and the longing for strength, excitement and corruptness. naturally this ambivalence is anchored by her choices of men: the rich loyal fred and the shrewd ferocious sam(lawrence tierney). besides the warobe of miss trevor in this movie is dynamically femme fatale to delineate the iceberg women with the coldest surface and rottenest inside. one of the pleasure for the film noir aficinados is the savor of its dialogues of cynical wisecrackers which reflects the simmering irony of life. and this one shall have one of the best scripts. for example. "life is coffee, the aroma is always better than its actuality"....besides it's also the best chance to take a glance over the young lawrence tierney (one of the coolest original tough guys)whose youthful dashing looks matches his razor-sharp toughness.
2.
The Killers (1946)
Unrated
the best applauded movie adapted from hemingway's short story. (hemingway claims so.) also the crucial overnight success for burt lancaster and ava gardner. it was said that "the killers" is the film noir version of citizen kane, especially its posthumously introvert angle to tackle the lethalness of a woman who tunes the golden harps. (her weapon shall be love.) there're plot twists interwined together with the refreshing swift-paced move. lancaster gives a sympathetic portrait of a gangster romanticist who would sacrifice everything for the flaming passion. gardner's screen time is limited but impressive, a woman with the deadly charm which could take a man with one icy-cold glimpse. you can't help but captivated by her southern belle feline voice. there's also some otherworldly ethrealnss beneath her hell-cat sexy looks. perhaps most film noir pieces are demonstrating how un-worthy it is to devote your love to that she-devil. but it takes a real man or an original tough tough guy to embrace her in his bossom on the perils of becoming her tragic prey.
3.
Rebecca
Unrated
a popularly recognized fair flick that almost classic fans would adore. the leads are striking creatures, especially the youthful laurence olivier with his gorgeous looks and suave manners. (even he plays an elder man with some dark secret around the corner.) joan fountain has the charm of virtuous lady-next-door that appears mostly appropriate to what the role requires. the castle-like mystic canvas setting is breath-takingly eerie where hitchcock actually demanded to re-build in america despite the story geographically holds in europe. the most successful strategy applied would probably be the abscence of rebecca, if rebecca trully graces the screen with her presence, it would de-mystify the central allure of this movie. the best acting would be from judith anderson who plays the spinster housekeeper who worships rebecca, and her performance is a mixture of self-inflicted obessession, ruthless indifference, severe repulsion and torn frailty. anderson is a fine actress who constantly gives her best in supporting or trivia roles in various movies. the lyrical romanticism between a tormented man and his redeeming female savior is gently touching as they embrace together to confront the evil haunting power of "rebecca." it is said that hitchcock considered employing olivier again in "the paradibe case" (instead of gregory peck) as the love-struck lawyer falling for a beatiful mysterious muderess which was a role originally assigned to greta garbo for her comeback. eventually peck turned to be one of the worst miscast in the movie and garbo disappeared from silver screen for good. and audience would never know how wonderfully "paradine case" would sizzle with laurence olivier and greta garbo.
4.
They Drive by Night
Unrated
a neglected classic directed by raoul walsh (who also handled the ultimate james cagney gangster classic "white heat"), a star-studded flicks with good wisecrackers from its appealing cast. it's a story about a pair of trucker brothers(raft and bogart) who take the risk of having everything expropriated by the scrivener just to strive for the chances to rise high...then with a twist, everyone seems to obtain what he/she desires at the first place except the dame (lupino) who has an intense crush on george raft's character, consequent with murder, un-requited love and heart-twenching insanity. the first issue with this movie is that it's departed into two gendres of storylines which have been re-blended into one piece: social drama and meldromatic noir. it could be deemed as one flick before humprey bogart's crippling accident. a quaint social drama which discusses the bloody grimness about the prole trucking business, the labour and sweat from the working men, also emblemished with the pleasant romance between raft and ann sheridan, particularly their witty flirtation about "red means stop"...and sheridan utters her quick wits as the dainty waitress whom the customers drool over. lack of his usual mystic aura, bogart still gives a nice performance of a tough trucker even it's not quite riveting, and raft is quite in the right niche of his ambitiously clever truck leader with charisma. the three of them all inspire audience's empathetic approval of their hardship and occupational dignity..a peacefully cozy scenarios with likable characters that shelter you in an easefully relaxed atmosphere.... it all works harmoniously until the emergence of the sharp-tongued spunky ida lupino takes the spotlight from everyone who turns out to be lackluster compared to lupino's deliriously edgy performance as the love-struck rich wife who desperately craves for raft then disposes of her own husband to facilliate herself to court him, eventually ends up in a straitjacket. no one could ignore her running-amok scene in the court room that sets her overnight reputation. this twist transforms the whole flick into a semi-film-noir which is quite uneven. besides it's dealt with thick melodramaticity..(accordingly it was recycled from the plotline of bettie davis' "border town" with paul muni from warner bros.....) but the arrangement of lupino's doom is a bit too coincidental just to deliberately grant audience a crowd-pleasing happy ending. sketchily "they drive by night" is a well-acted movie which is a bit un-usual and deserves more credits and applauds toward today. and it has enough social topicality and flamy dramatization to keep your interests throughout the whole flick. it's worthy taking a view in holiday just to shift into a congenial mood.
5.
Red-Headed Woman
PG-13
jean harlow's notorious sex farce in the 30s that originally enraged the moral code...(barbara stanwyck's "baby face" was released next year. all tales about material girl climing toward wealth by sex )...as i discussed in "baby face" review. the femme fatale stereotype is "gluttonish sensuality and sex appeal" which is attributed to red-headed woman....she's utterly mercenary and she would not pull back once she's determined to claim what she desires...once her appetite is tickled, she wants more and more and more..the loothole of greed could never be fulfilled....always un-content and un-grateful, and her misdemeanor is purely out of avarice. (bad without a cause.)..stanwyck's babyface utilizes men more out of a revengeful hatred toward their exploitations...generally red-headed woman is a flat character for comic relief without the grim complexity of stanwyck's babyface. unlike babyface which could be deemed as a social satire about a ghetto girl's eager angst to clander to the top in search of power, harlow's reddish circe is more like a ridicule of sex such as the scene she's trapped in the phonebooth and the absurd connotation of sadism & masochism as harlow remarks "do it again! i like it!!!" when the man slaps her facecheek...the first 30 mins, she illuminates her lecherous glitter to pierce audience's eyesight...miss harlow's wardrobe looks its best as the red-headed woman is still on wrong side of the track, later the glamour of flashy ornament is a bit redundant. it offers what the audience wants, it serves you with a shamelessly joyful happy ending for the bad girl to get her way. in a nutshell, jean harlow definitely gratify your mental libido with pleasurable orgasm, then she incarnates into sex itself.
6.
Anna Christie
Unrated
the first garbo sound flick adapted from eugene o'nell's cynical story about a prostitute. garbo plays low-life women in the burgeoning period of her sound stage such as susan leonix: her rise and fall, later she's got more polished into those roles of tragic divine creatures such as camille, mata hari, anna karenia, queen christina and the ballerina in grand hotel...etc....anna christie might reflect the ambivalent gender-ambiguity on the real life garbo with her babbling men-hating remarks. "oh! men! all these men! i hate them! " that concides with the mannish side of garbo that manifests severe grittiness. as the one man who captures her heart emerges, she represses her mannishness into oblivion then she transforms into the affectionate ingenune who yearns for love at any cost that is the pattern of my so called "garbo cinema romances" except garbo's breakthrough into sound with her husky idiocyncratic voice and her innovative presence. the movie's aestheticism is mainly attributed to its elaborated dialogues with the craftmanship of master eugene o'nell, tinted with literature catharsis full of human-concerned pathos toward its characters. of course, the proper casting is also one of major factor which adorns the movie. as garbo utters "gif me a visky, ginger ale on the side, and don' be stingy, baby, " anyone would turn around and drawed by this raw magnetic androgynous voice then observe upon her statuesque facial contour with awe.
Veronique's Movie Scrapbook
Veronique's Talk
View All (4005)
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I recommend you see...
Akira
by Lisaposted 4 minutes ago -
I recommend you see...
The Skulls
by JackLaced with horribly clichéd secret society mumbo jumbo and unintentionally funny homoerotic undertones, "The Skulls" is a laughable thriller about a pre-law Yale student (Joshua Jackson) so shallow and ambitious that he's willing to throw over his best friend and the girl he loves just to be accepted in an underground campus club of power-hungry blue bloods.
The Skulls, you see, are an indomitable, clandestine handful of the country's social and political elite -- all Yale men -- who the movie tells us founded the CIA among other ominous undertakings. Members are members for life. They get branded and paired up with other members as "soul mates." They live by a musty, leather-bound, 200-year-old book of rules. They cover up each other's scandals.
When this brotherhood accept new members, money is deposited money in their bank accounts, they're given expensive cars, tuxedos (which are worn to frequent Skulls dinner parties), nice wrist-watches, nights with call-girls in a Christian Dior gowns, and -- most importantly as far as young Luke McNamara (Jackson) is concerned -- they pay their conscripts' tuitions and see to it they get into the law school of their choice.
But above all, they keep each other's secrets. So once Luke is in -- following an funhouse initiation ritual so ridiculously cabalistic and ostentatious it's reminiscent of "Phantom Of the Opera" -- he finds himself in a tight spot when The Skulls murder his now-estranged best friend, a campus paper cub reporter looking to expose them.
Caught in a slow-witted, collegiate retread of "The Firm," Luke realizes (a bit late) that The Skulls aren't such a swell bunch of guys after all and has to run for his life while looking for a way to blackmail himself out of the organization and bring the murderer to justice.
Got all that?
Helmed by journeyman director Rob Cohen (Daylight, Dragonheart) and aimed squarely at easily entertained teenagers with eight bucks to burn, "The Skulls" isn't a bad idea for a movie. But when Cohen started casting weightless heartthrobs like Paul Walker (Varsity Blues, She's All That) as Jackson's well-to-do rival, and Wonderbra hotties like Leslie Bibb (TV's "Popular") as his scholarly arm ornament, it became a project with plenty of looks but no brains.
Most of the movie's budget seems to have gone into presentation. It's well-paced and edited, the photography is crisp, clean and exciting and the sets are ludicrously spectacular. The Skulls meet in an ceremonial underground chamber lined with marble pillars, and even Luke's 400-square-foot dorm room has vaulted stone ceilings.
But the characters are deadly dull and the Swiss-cheese scenarios so frequently laughable that the crowd at the preview screening -- enlisted by a local top 40 station, the picture's target audience -- couldn't stop snickering through the whole show.
Without a single moment of genuine suspense and with a climactic confrontation that seems to ignore many of the plot revelations, the movie's biggest problem remains that its main character is fundamentally unlikable because he's so utterly selfish, turning his back on his friends until he needs to be rescued.If you look up the word "Rubbish" in the dictionary, there's a picture of this there.
posted 44 minutes ago -
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Outstanding review of Frankenstein. I did not know that Fortley was fired over his support of Bela. VERY interesting. As much as I love that film I do think that Bride... is even better (more of Whale's true genius shines through - perhaps he was more relaxed?)
posted 16 hours ago -
I recommend you see...
The X-Files - Fight the Future
by DanielleIt starts off with a boy falling into a pit and being attacked by hundreds of small, slug-like creatures that crawl into his eye sockets and over his eyes. More people enter into the pit in an ill-fated attempt to rescue the boy, and they wind up being knocked unconscious (or put into a deep sleep) like the boy. The bodies are all transported to a hospital, and that same hospital later blows up after Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) are unable to stop an implanted terrorist bomb from detonating inside a coke maching. But then Mulder is told by a mysterious man outside a bar (Martin Landau) that the bomb was never attempted to be defused. It was all an elaborate cover-up to hide the bodies of the pit victims. Mulder shrugs off the old man at first before he realizes that the man used to be a friend of his father's, and that he has some interesting true stories to tell. As with the series, the acting is first-rate. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson know their roles so well, they probably don't have to work very hard at being in character. Much the same can be said of the stellar supporting cast. If you?re a fan then you have probably no doubt already seen the movie.
Hey, you should really see this!
posted 17 hours ago -
I recommend you see...
Solaris
by DanielleSnow: "How much sleep ya need, Kelvin?
Chris Kelvin: How much sleep?
Snow: Yeah. Um, how long ya think you can go without sleep?
Chris Kelvin: Depends.
Snow: Well, when you do go to sleep... I find I sleep much better with the door locked."
Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) has come to Solaris for answers. Still broken and disconnected from the death of his wife, Kelvin is going through the motions, investigating the puzzle of what happened to the crew of the Prometheus, what drove one man to suicide and the survivors to the edge of madness. But when Kelvin's dead wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone) awakens beside him, he will discover that the greatest mysteries of all lie within our own memories and desires. In Solaris, Clooney is forced to stretch as he never has before, and without much expository dialogue to cover him. Facial expressions, gestures, even body positions allow Clooney to carry much of the film's emotional weight in fairly subtle fashion. The film's second act is strong, driven by the characters and their jumbled memories of Rheya's earlier, tragic demise on Earth. Jeremy Davies delivers a solid performance as Snow, one of the demented crew members who clearly is troubled and is hiding a secret from the others. What makes this a great movie is that it stayed true from the beginning. There were no monsters, cheap thrill scenes or excessive sub-plot points so typical of the sci-fi genre. The camerawork was well done and the music was consistent with the tone of the film.Hey, you should really see this!
posted 17 hours ago -
I recommend you see...
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
by LisaAdam Sandler has finally achieved his apparent goal of worst film he has ever made. Slowly but surely his films have gotten worse. This one really does hit the bottom. I was really shocked when I started watching it, at just how terrible and unfunny the whole thing was. The plot was obviously predictable right from the very beginning. Sandler's performance just seemed forced and very over the top in parts. The rest of the cast were annoying. The only part of the whole film that actually made me laugh was when he was banging the old women in the next room and the bottles were falling off the selves behind behind Alec Mapa's character but it was more the reaction on his face that made the scene funny rather than anything else. Not a film I would recommend. A complete mess that should be avoided at all costs.
A warning, not a recommendation.
posted 17 hours ago -
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I recommend you see...
Bright Star
by SancarRomance & Desire
In The Portrait of a Lady, several critics disliked the opening credit sequence, or 'prologue', of contemporary teenage Australian girls discussing the thrill of their first kiss and their romantic aspirations for future relationships. (29) Their open and frank tone was considered to be at odds with Isabel's repressed desire, and the 20th century setting unsettled purist fans of the period film. (30) But this opening preface is in fact the key to Campion's interpretation of James' novel; it illuminates her own fascination with Isabel's journey from stubborn independence, to entrapment, through to self-awareness. The girls' voice-overs narrate instances of feminine desire: the ?exquisite? moment before a kiss as a head comes towards you, the excitement of another body in contact with your own, the ?mirror? that is to be found in a lifelong partner. Early in the film, Campion visualises Isabel's sexual desires in a fantasy sequence, (31) when Isabel imagines her three suitors lying in bed with her, kissing and caressing her face and body, or looking on with desire. Campion is explicit about Isabel's desire for this physical contact. Hence, the significance of her first 'real-life' kiss that we see ? as opposed to her fantasies ? when Osmond declares his love for her in the shadowy depths of the catacombs. Despite the marriage proposal of Lord Warburton and the persistence of her American suitor Caspar Goodwood, up to this point we have not witnessed a kiss between Isabel and these men. The combined effect of the fantasy sequence and the prologue's voicing of feminine desire is to invest Osmond's kiss with a life-changing force. Isabel's desire for Osmond's touch ? which remains present throughout even their most brutal confrontations ? is the catalyst for a startling reversal, in a woman who claimed she would ?probably never marry?. Whereas The Piano stages the liberation that comes from a woman's desires, The Portrait of a Lady reveals the dangers of that desire, the seduction that leads to entrapment in a loveless marriage. In this sense, it has been described as an ?anti-romance? and a reverse narrative of the erotic journey to fulfilment undertaken by Ada in The Piano. (32)
It is worth recalling Campion's sceptical and cautionary portrayal of romance in An Angel at my Table, when the romantic longings of Janet are stirred by the attentions of an American history professor, Bernard (William Brandt), holidaying in Ibiza. We witness Janet's discovery of her sexual desire and erotic self-expression, most openly when she swims naked before Bernard, shedding the shyness and self-consciousness we have come to associate with her. But no sooner has Janet glimpsed a new, more confident self through her first sexual relationship, when Bernard declares he is returning to America, dismissing their relationship as simply 'a holiday romance'. Janet is crushed, and the specifically female perils of sexual desire are demonstrated in her discovery that she is pregnant, followed by a traumatic miscarriage. The lesson learnt is that romance is risky, and that sex distracts Janet from her 'real' purpose, her writing. (33)
Campion's fascination with the darker side of romance is demonstrated by her declared passion for the Gothic literature of the Brontës. (34) Her films suggest she is acutely aware of the risks of romance, the dangers of desire, (35) for women in patriarchal society: while Ada is successful in achieving romantic union with Baines (Harvey Keitel) in The Piano, it comes at significant cost ? the loss of a finger and two attempts at rape by her jealous husband. Indeed, we can assume Ada has already discovered the 'costs' of romance in raising Flora (Anna Paquin) without Flora's father.
PJ (Harvey Keitel) and Ruth (Kate Winslet)
In Campion's two contemporary films, Sweetie and Holy Smoke, the seductive pitfalls of romance give way to the considerably unromantic negotiations of sex. In Sweetie, Kay and Louis's (Tom Lycos) courtship may initially appear 'romantic' in its abandonment of logic to the forces of fate and destiny, but the film spends little time on their romance, preferring instead to chart the slow disintegration of their relationship into frigid frustration, typified by Louis's suggestion over pizza that they make appointments to have sex (needless to say, this approach is unsuccessful). (36) In Holy Smoke, sex becomes a bargaining chip between Ruth and PJ. Perceiving the weakness at the heart of his machismo, Ruth seduces PJ in an attempt to reverse the power structure implicit in her position as a cult follower in need of 'de-programming'. Their first sexual encounter is successful in arousing PJ's emotions, thereby rendering him vulnerable, while leaving Ruth unsatisfied by PJ's perfunctory love-making. In contrast, their second sexual encounter, with PJ on his knees underneath Ruth's skirt, suggests a weakening in Ruth's resolve, as the camera focuses on her ecstatic pleasure. This lowering of her defences through sexual satisfaction allows PJ to convince Ruth that she has been cruel, but instead of Ruth falling in love with PJ, she becomes disgusted at her own manipulations of him and she flees the hut. Now PJ assumes the feminised, pathetic position of delirious lover. (37) Campion is merciless in her depiction of a lovesick PJ, stumbling across the desert in a red dress and lipstick, finally collapsing and hallucinating images of Ruth as an Indian goddess. 'Romance' never looked so ridiculous, nor have its power relations been so cruelly exposed.
The themes of madness, ambiguity and desire are central to Campion's films. Her work has generated an extensive body of critical discussion, which is all the more remarkable when one considers she has released only five feature films to date. Campion is a director who inspired critical comment and analysis even before she made her first feature. (38) At the time of writing, Campion's current project is an adaptation of Susanna Moore's novel In The Cut (1995), due for US release in January 2003. Starring Meg Ryan and produced by Nicole Kidman, the film's plot deals with ?murder, sadism and sex?. (39) As a story that continues Campion's uncompromising exploration of female erotic empowerment and masochistic desire, (40) In The Cut may well again inspire debate and controversy.
My thanks to Dr Jeanette Hoorn and Alan Hopgood for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this article.Hey, you should really see this!
posted 23 hours ago -
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In the Cut
by SancarAmbiguity
The essence of Jane Campion's films lies in ambiguity, in the opening up of narrative possibilities. Sue Gillett captures this perfectly when she notes that Campion's films are frequently concerned with what is unseen or unsaid. (25) This very openness of meaning lends power to the themes and issues (un)expressed, where the audience is left to interpret the information they are given ? or the lack of it. Campion is not interested in telling her audience what to think or how to respond. Indeed, the ambiguity in Campion's films is the catalyst for the critical debate her work inspires.
There is much about Sweetie's past that is unseen or unsaid. A key example of this ambiguity is the bathroom scene in Sweetie, where Kay pauses outside the bathroom door, left ajar, and sees Sweetie washing her father in the bath. As Sweetie 'accidentally' drops the soap, she playfully fishes around in the water near her father's groin, humming occasionally as she does so. Campion then cuts to a shot of Kay in bed, pulling up the sheets and blanket close to her chin, staring tensely at the ceiling. Throughout there is a subtle but ominous undertone on the soundtrack. The scene is less than 30 seconds, but its presentation is so haunting that it casts a shadow over the remainder of the narrative, especially in the subsequent scenes between Sweetie and her father, Gordon (Jon Darling). While this is the only scene of intimate physical contact between Sweetie and Gordon, the implication of an incestuous relationship is supported by Gordon's indulgence of Sweetie's unrealistic career ambitions and his fear of upsetting her.
Campion again employs ambiguity to suggest an incestuous relationship in The Portrait of a Lady. When Isabel first meets Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich), his teenage daughter Pansy (Valentina Cervi) sits on his lap. Twice Campion shows a close-up of Osmond's hands stroking Pansy's, creating a sense of uneasiness in this display of intimacy. While no further evidence of an improper relationship between father and daughter is offered, these shots further arouse our suspicions about Osmond (after we have witnessed his scheming with Madame Merle [Barbara Hershey]) and establish the excessive control he exerts over Pansy, and her fearful obedience to him.
Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) in
The Portrait of a Lady
The concept of ambiguity is a key feature of art cinema discourse, and part of what defines Campion's films within these terms. Critics and audiences puzzled over the unanswered questions at the heart of The Piano's narrative: why does Ada refuse to speak? who is the father of Flora? why did Ada's father send her away? what to make of the film's conclusion that contrasts an image of domestic 'bliss' with that of Ada suspended at the bottom of the ocean, tied forever to her piano? (26) Like Sweetie, there is much about Ada's past that is unspoken and the occasional insight offered by the film ? such as Flora's tales of her opera-singing father ? are clearly marked as unreliable. The inscrutability of character motivation was the subject of intense critical discussion with regards to Isabel in The Portrait of a Lady: what exactly is it that Isabel wants? The ambiguous nature of Isabel's desire is expressed in the openness of the film's ending, as Isabel appears literally frozen on the threshold between escape with Caspar Goodwood (Viggo Mortensen) and retreat to the oppressive sphere of the domestic: what is Isabel's final decision? (27) The startling beauty of this final image ? Nicole Kidman's pale face and unruly red hair framed against the frost-covered glass panes of the mansion's door ? heightens the audacity of this unresolved narrative moment with which Campion concludes her film.
Ambiguity in Campion's films is not limited to her characters; it extends to critical analysis of her own directorial project. For reviewers of Holy Smoke, the film's uneven tone ? lurching between comedy and drama ? resulted in the obscuring of the film's intentions: to explore or exploit alternative belief systems? To praise or parody Ruth's pursuit of spiritual enlightenment? Dana Polan's close analysis of the film reveals the source of this confusion. Campion employs the kitsch stylings of 1970s pop culture to great comic effect in her portrayal of PJ Waters and her sense of humour is unforgiving in the presentation of Ruth's family, particularly her sister-in-law Yvonne (Sophie Lee). But, as Polan observes, ?moments of spirituality and vision [such as Ruth's conversion scene] are also treated in terms of a style that resonates with tackiness, and this contributes to the film's undecidability of tone.? (28)
The theme of ambiguity demonstrates the central role of discussion and debate in the reception of Campion's films. One of the most contested topics of discussion is her treatment of heterosexual relationships.Hey, you should really see this!
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Holy Smoke!
by SancarSignificantly, Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon) is the only one of Campion's heroines who dies at the end of the film. She is also considered, by most writers, to be the only one of these women who is truly 'mad'. (15) Without providing 'evidence' from the film to support the following labels, Sweetie has been described variously as ?insane?, (16) ?mentally disturbed?, (17) ?obviously unbalanced?, (18) ?mentally ill?, (19) ?genuinely mad? and ?nuts?. (20) This is a curious assumption as it is based on scant evidence within the diegesis: Sweetie is never diagnosed with a mental illness and we do not see her receiving psychiatric treatment. This veiled, inferential representation of madness in Sweetie is linked to another theme in Campion's films: ambiguity (discussed below). By way of example, consider the first time we meet Sweetie, when she arrives unexpectedly at her sister Kay's house, looking both dishevelled and flamboyant with her heavy eye-make up, well-worn bra and lace cuffs, in contrast with the neurotic, uptight Kay (Karen Colston). The dialogue throughout this scene is ambiguous, inviting us to read Sweetie as mentally ill. Kay confronts Sweetie: ?what are you doing here? You know you're not allowed?. Sweetie has already been presented as socially unconventional in her manner of breaking into Kay's house and proceeding to trash the bedroom with her junkie boyfriend Bob (Michael Lake). Kay then challenges Sweetie: ?you've stopped taking your medication, haven't you?? to which Sweetie replies in a suitably 'spaced-out' tone ?yeah, well Bob and I are really gonna walk through some doors, Kay, we're really getting it together?.
It is characteristic of Campion's style that this is the only time Sweetie's illness is discussed, and we are never informed as to what the medication is for. Nevertheless, as the film progresses, Sweetie seems to us more and more 'mad'. By the time the family returns from a trip to the outback, Sweetie is so incensed at being left behind that she refuses to speak to them. Instead, she growls and whimpers like a dog, and even tries to bite her father's hand. Like Ada in The Piano, who also refuses to speak, Sweetie's nonverbal communication is a rejection of the symbolic order of language, and the aggressive nature of this rejection of the Law of the Father is visualised in Sweetie's attempted assault on her father's hand. Sweetie's barking like a dog can be read in two ways: as a sign of protest ? the renunciation of the patriarchal order of language ? or as a sign of madness, as Kay indicates with her threat to Sweetie: ?you'll end up in a damn home?. Sweetie's childlike inability to care for herself ? the house is a mess and she hasn't been eating ? also suggests her 'madness' or mental instability.
Sweetie's refusal to conform to patriarchal law is taken to fatal extremes. In her final scene, she is naked and covered with black paint, shouting obscenities at her father from her ?princess castle?, her tree-house from childhood. Kay's phobia about trees proves prophetic when Sweetie falls to her death from the castle. (21) The tragic outcome of Sweetie's rebellion underscores the potential problems, noted by some feminists, in reclaiming madness as protest. (22) For these critics, madness represents an impasse, a request for help, a position of powerlessness and vulnerability that only serves to reinforce patriarchy's self-appointed role as moderator and guardian of female behaviour. (23) As Mary Russo observes, ?hysterics and madwomen generally have ended up in the attic or the asylum, their gestures of pain and defiance having served only to put them out of circulation.? (24) However, it is the very expression of these ?gestures of pain and defiance? that marks Campion's films as powerful texts for feminist analysis.Hey, you should really see this!
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An Angel at My Table
by SancarDebate, perhaps even controversy, has characterised the reception of Campion's films since the premiere of her first feature Sweetie at Cannes in 1989, where it was greeted with boos and hisses. (6) Sweetie has since been reclaimed as a hallmark of Campion's iconoclastic style, with its black humour, striking visual design (in terms of colour and shot composition) and its penetrating look at dysfunctional suburban family life. Campion's eagerly awaited follow-up to The Piano, her 1996 adaptation of Henry James' novel The Portrait of a Lady (written in 1881), drew criticism for its modernising impulses and liberal treatment of James' classic text, and for the coldness of its characters despite the sumptuous Italian locations and art direction. (7) Yet the film was highly praised for the supporting performances of Martin Donovan (as Ralph Touchett) and Barbara Hershey (as Madame Merle), with Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Hershey as Best Supporting Actress (1997). Despite an engaging performance from Kate Winslet, the Miramax-funded Holy Smoke (1999) was unable to recapture The Piano's success at the box office. The film was criticised for an uneven script that relied heavily on the stereotype of the grotesque, suburban family of the quirky Aussie comedy, which by 1999 ? some ten years after Sweetie and following on from a backlash against films such as Welcome to Woop Woop (Stephan Elliott, 1997) and Hotel De Love (Craig Rosenberg, 1996) ? was starting to wear thin with the locals and had lost its novelty for the international audience. (8) Even Campion's early short films ? despite being selected for Cannes in 1986, where she won the Palme d'Or for best short film for Peel (1982) ? were unappreciated at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) where she made them. (9) Campion's only film to avoid such controversy and debate has been her prize-winning adaptation of Janet Frame's three-volume autobiography To the Is-land (1982), An Angel at my Table (1984) and The Envoy from Mirror City (1985). Originally made as a television mini-series, in three parts like Frame's autobiography, An Angel at my Table (1990) was later released theatrically as a 155 minute feature. This adaptation, also scripted by Laura Jones who adapted The Portrait of a Lady, had fewer problems in terms of the inclusion or exclusion of information from the original source ? partly due to the luxury of three episodes ? and it featured a modest visual style to suit its televisual medium. Nevertheless, while Campion consciously avoided the striking framings of composition and colour that characterised Sweetie and her short films, (10) An Angel at my Table has a strong visual sense in its broad vistas of the New Zealand landscape and its evocation of Janet's private world.
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Sweetie
by SancarJane Campion is Australasia's leading auteur director. As recipient of the Palme d'Or (1993), the Silver Lion (1990) and an Academy Award (1994), she is also one of the most successful female directors in the world. (1) These statements are not made innocently. They are intended to draw attention to issues of nationality, of auteurism and art cinema, and of gender. In relation to these issues, Jane Campion is the subject of extensive critical discussion. The Piano (1993) ? her most successful film, both critically and commercially ? was the catalyst for debates about what constitutes 'national cinema' and 'women's cinema'. In the case of the former, the genesis of the film and the mix of creative personnel involved proved problematic: the film was funded by a French company, Ciby 2000; the script ? developed with Australian government funding through the Australian Film Commission ? was set in New Zealand; the director was New Zealand-born but Australian-trained; it was produced by an Australian (Jan Chapman); the stars were two Americans (Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel) and one New Zealander (Anna Paquin); and it was filmed on location using a New Zealand crew and local extras. (2) In discussions focusing on the nature of The Piano as 'women's cinema', some praised the film for its exploration of female desire and sensibility, while others criticised it for aestheticising female masochism and presenting a universalising view of femininity at the expense of New Zealand's indigenous population. (3) The Piano also exemplified the changes in art cinema during the 1990s, with the rise of the 'crossover' film. (4) It powerfully demonstrated the potential for art cinema to cross over into mainstream awareness and commercial success, with its unprecedented box office takings and several Oscar nominations (winning Best Original Screenplay for Campion, Best Actress for Holly Hunter and Best Supporting Actress for Anna Paquin). (5)
Hey, you should really see this!
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The Mist
by DanAt last, I finally got to see The Mist. I thought we'd never get it here in the UK.
Stephen King adaptations are usually a bit hit or miss, and as a loyal fan of his work I can say that there are a lot of misses when it comes to the movies.
I read The Mist a while ago and couldn't put it down. It helps that it's only around 150ish pages long so it can be read in one sitting if you wish, and I thought then that i'd like to see it made into a movie.
The thing that I couldn't get over was how deep this movie was for a creature feature. It's not the usual 'small town is attacked by giant insects' movie that we've come to expect. They're usually quite entertaining and fun, but that's it! This movie however stays with you for a while afterwards. What also makes it different is the fact that in this movie, it's not only the giant insects, spiders, and monsterous birds that are a threat... It also shows how monsterous humans can be. My mate and I both agreed that if you took the fictional giant insect scenario away and replaced it with a very real situation in an enclosed environment, it would only be a matter of time before people started turning on each other out of fear, desperation, or even insanity. That is more terrifying than fictional beasts! There are some poor excuses for human beings in this movie, one in particular that thanks to too many bible readings has gone a bit loopy. The hysteria she causes is intense, and you will loathe her! Marcia Gay Harden played the character to a T! Thomas Jane was also brilliant as the all round good guy, who manages to gather a small rational posse in the crowded supermarket.
Considering it was made for a relative small amount (as opposed to the average Hollywood movie) it looked fantastic! Some of the creature effects were a bit bad but it doesn't distract from what's being depicted. It also manages to stay gripping, even though 90% of the movie is set in the supermarket. You will root for characters, you will loathe characters, you may scream, maybe even cry? The only things that were left out of the book were minor details, although the ending was changed to give the audience a bit more closure. The book kind of leaves it to you to imagine what happens next. All i'll say about the new ending is that it's not a mainstream one, you may be surprised?Not the average creature feature. It's actually quite deep and lingers in your mind for a while after...
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