008 Slow-moving Asian Films

Dreams (Yume) - Akira Kurosawa, 119 min
In the Mood for Love - Wong Kar-Wai, 98 min

(In the Mood for Love)

'Uncle Boonmee' is definitely at the top of this category but I've already posted about it. I started 'Dreams' with a friend but he stopped it after two or three vignettes.. and possibly because he drifted in and out of sleep during the first 20 minutes. I watched these alone (I watch most movies alone now). Sometimes wrenchingly simple but beautifully composed, all quiet and lonely. The destitution and emotional duress by which all characters are bounded is taken carefully and with meditation. Visualize suckling cigarettes and tracing smoke lines as they traipse above you. Meditate on its dissolve. These movies aren't for a typical date.

2/2 

007 Depression, Psychosis, & the Apocalypse

Melancholia - Lars von Trier, 136 min
Mary & Max - Adam Elliot, 92 min
Rachel Getting Married - Jonathan Demme, 113 min

(Melancholia)

Aren't they all the same thing? I have been taking to watching movies alone in theatres the past couple years. That's not to say I would rather watch them alone or that I sit in dark, dank theatres alone more often than I am accompanied-- but when you've discovered that your emotional threshold and sensibilities are unreasonably short-circuited and that you're devastatingly wrecked and convinced your chest palpitations are a result of the earth shaking-- that's when you can't always be around others during and after films. I dodged the bullet last night when dinner at Taste of the Himalayas near Mission Beach ran a bit over causing our group to miss the last showing of Melancholia. Was it the naan or did we just need more time before we tackled von Trier? I was a little relieved, still anxious, but exceptionally satisfied with the Momos.



3/3

006 Pantheism is the New...

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives - Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 114 min
Woman in the Dunes - Hiroshi Teshigahara, 143 min (director's cut)

(Uncle Boonmee)


To be, to become. How easily identities shift, reappropriate. The excuse for flesh on flesh is paramount when we can't just dispel the subconscious of irrationality-- flesh on fur? flesh on sand? Conflate sex, nature, the sublimity of the incomprehensible in juxtaposition of our everyday and we get "sexy pantheism".


2/2

005 Despised Films Jean-Pierre Gorin Shows in Class (or More of JP's Colorful Aphorisms)

Wings of Desire - Wim Wenders, 128 minutes

To avoid obfuscation, JP despises/ [insert other aphorism here] these movies. These are not necessarily my opinions.

004 Films to Watch While I Clean

Before Sunset - Richard Linklater, 80 min

(Before Sunset)

Why the sequel instead of Before Sunrise? Why offend anyone who enjoyed these two films? I do not have a reasonable answer, except I watched the first five minutes of this film because it had already been downloaded on my computer and I suddenly recalled that I needed to clean my entire bedroom and living room.

I apologize.

-"It's a good test.. if you're a romantic or a cynic."


Update: Perfect to listen to while cleaning house.

003 Films From the Criterion Collection Made the Year I was Born

The Killer - Jon Woo, 110 min
For All Mankind - Al Reinert, 79 min
Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee, 120 min
Sweetie - Jane Campion, 99 min
Mystery Train - Jim Jarmusch, 110 min

(Do the Right Thing)

 Status - 2/5

002 The Fourth Wall

Dogville - Lars von Trier, 2003, 178 min
Synecdoche, New York - Charlie Kaufman, 2008, 124 min

Nesting frames, meta structures - physical and representational, interactive and passive. The self-aware can make living even more drowsy and dream-like. What would Denis Diderot have to say about the piercing of the Fifth Wall?

Olive: Dear diary, I'm afraid I'm gravely ill. It is perhaps times like these that one reflects on things past. An article of clothing from when I was young. A green jacket. I walk with my father. A game we once played. Pretend we're faeries. I'm a girl faerie. My name is Laura Lee. And you're a boy faerie. Your name is Tita Lee. Pretend, when we're faeries we fight each other, and I say "Stop hitting me I'll die!" And you hit me again and I say, "Now I have to die." And then you say, "But I'll miss you." And I say, "But I have to. And you'll have to wait a million years to see me again. And I'll be put in a box, and all I'll need is a tiny glass of water and lots of tiny pieces of pizza and the box will have wings like an airplane." And you'll ask, "Where will it take you?" "Home." I say.

Status - 1/2