Love... untangled

Joel wakes up on St. Valentine’s Day feeling strange, his head feels empty and his feelings enraged. He goes to work, but when he has to take a train to his work, he takes the one that takes him to a beach in Montauk… why? He has a feeling, he runs to it, as if he was called to it. Inside the train, he encounters Clementine, a girl with colored hair that laughs a lot and talks to him as if they knew each other from some time ago, which is strange, because he feels the same way. But, what if they did? What if they did have a relationship together, just that none of them remember it? How could this happen? Well, let’s enter with the science fiction aspect in this movie, they both erased each other from their memories, but how many times has this happened? The disjointed narrative in this movie confuses us and at the same time recompensates us with an original story, wonderful acting and spectacular dialogue.

Reality inside his head, escaping from erasing process.

There’s no doubt that this movie is one of the most original pieces of the last years, its elements of science fiction along with the tremendous and complicated plot make a wonderful work that will undoubtely last for long years. Nevertheless, one can easily confuse the message and plot of this movie, comparing the situation that displays on the screen with the one that happens in your real life. You may think that this movie shows how ‘cool’ would it be to erase your bad memories, so you can forget that horrible episode in your childhood, that bitter love that got you for months, that awful embarrasing incident that you don’t want to remember, but no, that’s not the point, it’s exactly the opposite. This movie advocates for the maintenance and good care of those memories, because some day they may be the ones that may help us in the future, those that can’t be easily forgotten are the most important ones, and they are the ones that change us as human beings.

How many times have they met in this same spot?

The dialogue is incredibly moving and there’s no doubt why it won an oscar for the best original screenplay, after all, it was written by Charlie Kauffman, one of the most impressive and creative minds writting screenplays out there. The direction by Michel Gondry is amazing, specially present on the memories scenes, because of the minimal and amazing use of special effects. This is one movie that is not easily forgotten, even if you go to Lacuna Inc. to erase it from your existence.

The official site of the movie is here, it contains a memory game and a lot of info, including a chat transcription with Charlie Kauffman.

In Google Books, you can find the shooting script of this movie.

The site for Lacuna Inc., the company that erases memories.

The trailer for this movie is embeded down:

Part of the soundtrack for this movie is on youtube, here’s 22 Row by Jon Brion:

An informecial for Lacuna Inc., directed by Michel gondry:

The movie can be seen on Youtube in its entire lenght, here’s part one:

#4 in the Top 250 21st Century Movies

]]> http://evildeadites.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/4xxic-248dtc/feed/ 0 jaimeblack Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Still Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Still Movie Still http://evildeadites.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/3dtc/ http://evildeadites.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/3dtc/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:41:38 +0000 jaimeblack http://evildeadites.wordpress.com/?p=55 ]]>

Humanism as a way of life, but not in this life.

Kaji is japanese, and he’s not really proud of it, specially now with the Second World War. Kaji is a humanist, but even if he enforces the autorities to improove the situation of the workers at his commanding possition, they won’t do it. Kaji has a wife, but with time they will begin to feel distant. Kaji hates war, but he’s obliged to take decissions for the good of his country generals and officials, as if he were a mere soldier. Kaji avoids war, but encounters it when he works at a mine, when the workers are chinese war prisoners, with whom he has to talk and convince that he’s a man they can trust. Kaji trusts a lot in the man around him, but they betray him at every step he makes, every decission he takes gets backlashed, he finally gets some kind of love-hate relationship with those who he tried to protect and trust, they admire what he has made, but they criticise him for not doing it before. Kaji ends in this film as a man needing the compassion of his loved ones, but he doesn’t receive it, except from his wife; so as we watch him we feel the opression and the need of compassion, and we end up giving it to him. The kind of movies that make you feel this way for fictional characters are rare, specially on this level of thought and feeling.

The wife, Kaji's only support, also begins to fall apart.

Masaki Kobayashi in this first entry of the Human Condition Trilogy gets it right. Here he can beautifully draw the character of Kaji, the central figure in the three movies, as well as the precepts of Humanism, in which he believes in. He manages to recreate the atmosphere of hate-distrust between chinese and japanese, as well as the sense of an epoch really well. It also manages to describe and characterize a lot of characters, distinguishing among them, a difficult task specially when we talk about asian films, where everyone tend to look the same in the eyes of the western audience. It slips its message without beign disruptive with the natural narrative of the film, is one of those whose message may seem implicit in one of the characters (Kaji and his hate towards war), but its concept seems battled so well all along the film that one may doubt, specially when treason takes place, but it finally wins in such a subtle and depressing way that one feels convinced, the movie is amazing in that kind of discovery.

Does betrayal deserve this punishment?

As I said, this is the first entry in the Masaki Kobayashi’s trilogy based on the book of the same name by Jumpei Gomikawa. Its second installment will be reviewed in a short time. The struggle for the achievement of humanity is harsh, and this movie proves it, let’s see if the rest of the installments are as powerful as this one. It has been recently released as a Criterion Collection 4 DVD set, it contains the three movies and a disc of special features.

On this page, we can hear two fragments of the movie’s soundtrack, another of his powerful moments in this movie.

The trailer of the movie is embeded down:

The movie, in 19 parts is on youtube, embeded down is the first part:

#3 in the Doubling the Canon list.

The common life of a Taiwanese family

Ah-Di, N.J.’s brother, is getting married with a obviously pregnant young woman; N.J. encounters by chance with a former school love; Yang-Yang, N.J.’s son, gets constantly hit in the back of his head by girls; N.J.’s Mother goes home, tired and saying that she’s old; Ting-Ting, N.J.’s daughter, befriends Li-Li, her neighbour, who has a boyfriend called Fatty; Min-Min, N.J.’s wife, plans to go to a religious temple for a season. All these lifes, connected, one with each other come together when Mother has a stroke and enters a coma. Everyone gets touched and everyone changes, everyone lives new lifes. Some of them will experience love, others knowledge or sadness, many times questions are asked and never answered. This is the story of a typical Taiwanese family, living their lifes with troubles and happiness, confronted with a country with economic recession and a loss of culture.

Guilt and forgiveness.

Edward Yang, the director and writer of this movie, has managed the impossible. He has made a movie about everything. Every topic of our life, every knowledge, everything can be found inside. With an always distant camera tries to show life as it is: hard, funny, with a lot of surprises; almost as if it was a documentary about philosophy and the sense behind being human and alive. This is way, maybe, this movie isn’t easy to explain, as it covers every aspect of life, and depending on your prespective of life you will value some elements before others. For example, N.J. buys a camera for Yang-Yang, because his son wants to know why we only see the half of truth; when he has his camera he starts taking pictures of the back of the heads of people, because “they can’t see it”; he, afterwards, says he wants to tell people things they don’t know, maybe this little kid is the incarnation of the director Edward Yang.

Being an artist isn't that easy.

 The Jian family isn’t special. It’s just as any other family in any other part of the world, that is what makes this movie worthwhilw, we can see ourselves into the film, we can see people we know and things we do, feelings we know we’ve had before. The movie is perfect for getting to know yourself.

Here’s an essay by George Wu about the movie, very insightful.

The trailer for this movie is embed down here, v.o. in various languages (including english) and french subtitles:

Photographs made by Yang-Yang:

Final promise by Yang-Yang, this is the final scene, so spoilers in this video:

#3 in the Top 21st Century List.

This man does not look for revenge

Olivier works in a rehab center where he teaches young delincuents to be useful to society, through carpentry. During his normal routine he has to cut wood, carry ladders and do many other things to teach the kids how to do it, even if his back is sore. One day, he receives the petition from a new kid to be in his class, with fear and curiosity he rejects him and sends him to other teacher. Olivier follows him as he eats, works, sleeps… who is this kid, and why does he know him? His ex-wife goes to see him after work and tells him that she’s pregnant and will marry again.

The kid doesn't know who his teacher really is.

The Dardenne brothers manage to direct a movie that shows everything, as in a documentary, but also hides us facts, as we see everything from Olivier’s perspective. Names can deceive, and for this movie, its title sure does. They were already naming it “The Father”, but they decided for this more criptic one. When we finally found out who this kid that is followed by Olivier, it’s a surprise if you haven’t read anything about it before. With the time, he ends up accepting him in his class, even being more akin to teach him than the others, hiding it under his amateur status.

This scene is long, slow and you can feel that something bad is going to happen.

Even if it’s a very slow movie, it has a purpouse. It lets you think about the situations presented, draw your own conclusions, change perspectives, figure out how things will come out. The acting is superb, from Olivier and the kid, and the cinematography is clean and documentary-like.

The trailer is embeded down. French VO with english subtitles.

#3 in the Doubling the Canon List.

#85 in the Top 250 21st Century Movies.

Betty (left) helps Rita (right) to find herself, she has lost her memory

Betty’s just got off the plane that left her in Hollywood and we can see her delighted expression: happiness and hope. A woman has just survived a car crush and we can see her lost and frightened expression: she doesn’t know who she is. They meet each other in Betty’s aunt’s department, as the woman who had lost her memory went to hid there. The woman, that names herself Rita, carries more than one million dollars in her purse, along with a blue box that contains a mystery beyond understanding. Why did she carry that money? Meanwhile, there’s a film director that tries desperately to get his movie made, but he doesn’t want to be told how to do it, who to contract and when to do it. At the same time, two friends go to see if the stuff the dreams are made of is real, with frightening consecuences.

The Producer. Look at the light and shadows, a major part in any David Lynch film.

David Lynch crafts a puzzle mystery where the answer is always there before you to see it. This was originally a TV Pilot, but the chain rejected it, Lynch only searched for more financement in France so he could finish it as a feature lenght movie, forgetting its TV aspect. Nevertheless, this stays as the most straightforward movie of his whole career, due to its initial TV aspect and the multiple storylines that finally end crashing. The sound plays an important place in the film, so is the music, as in every Lynch film. The acting seems stiff and clunky, but it has a deeper meaning that you thought it would ever have.

What is this alternative reality? Or...?

This is, even after all that, one of the minor works from David Lynch. It really can’t be compared to Blue Velvet or The Elephant Man, but it is, after all, one movie that sums up everything that has been Lynchian in a movie that it’s not always easy to understand or to simply view.

The official site is here.

The trailer for this movie is embeded down here:

One of the best scenes of the movie, so powerful it may get you tears, the Club Silencio:

Two pop songs, used as an audition: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71a4muF6Ak4]

Part of the Making-Off: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvUWoj-jCyg]

Here’s some deleted material from the TV Pilot, spoilers for those who haven’t seen te movie: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P4-Lg7GvLw]

Interview with Naomi Watts (Betty) about Mulholland Dr. :

There are 10 clues from David Lynch to unveil the mystery of Mulholland Dr., here they are:

A possible answer (spoilers) to these questions are here, along with a useful site to discuss this movie.

#2 in the Top 21st Century List.

This is Rakka, a Newborn Haibane, why is she here?

Rakka is a Haibane, a creature resembling an angel, who recently hatched from a giant cocoon. She has had a life before this one, and so all the Haibane, but they never remember anything, not even their names. Inside the cocoon, before hatching, the Haibane have a dream, if they remember it, they will be named after it. For example, Rakka dreamt about falling through the sky, so she was named 礫 (rakka; falling). Reki lives in a home for the Haibane named “Old Home”, where they take care of the little Haibane kids. They can only wear used clothes and buy old things, due to their condition. They also can’t go out from the town of Glie, nor touch the walls that sorround the city.

The other Haibane at Old Home: (clockwise, from left to right) Reki, Hikari, Kana, Kuu and Nemu.

This 13-episode anime series has many undertones and questions that are never answered. Why are the Haibane in this town? What is their purpouse? What happened with the Sin-Bound Haibane (like Reki) in their early life? The anime itself has great script and manages to convey a sense of place, even claustrophobical due to the walls sorrounding the town, but more of a inside realm or sense that this town is, maybe, out of our world, where the dead get to rest. That’s only a theory, but you must see it for yourself so you can make your own ideas.

 

Reki and Rakka share a common grudge, burden and destiny

This is, by far, one of the best one season anime that have ever existed. The mystery, the characters and the plot draws you in a world of despair, love and friendship. A good choice for a weekend view.

The official website is here (in japanese). The opening and ending of the series is embeded down here, the music is one of the highlights of the series:

The entire series (japanese vo, english subtitles) is on youtube, first episode here:

#2 in the Doubling the Canon List.

They will play a game out of grudge... where it will end?

Mr. and Mrs. Chan move to a new apartment. On the same day, Mr. and Mrs. Chow move to the apartment next door. Obviously, many things get confused in the moving, but one thought that feelings and love would also change places. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan begin to suspect from their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. This is the time when both of them begin to go out in dinners, as they get to know each other. Someon would think they would end together, as a vengeance, but they say they will not end as their spouses.

What is real? Love? Acting? Suffering?

They start to play a game of roles, they will act as each other spouse, to see how they fell in love. It’s a perfect strategy from the director (Wong) to not tell us when they are playing and when they are really feeling what they’re saying in Fa yeung nin wa. It gives a “mood” (no pun intended) of confusion and delirium, accompanied by the red dominant setting, the shape of the furniture… it was like an hallucination. The camera angles are always daring, the narrow aisles are prefred for the shots, it’s like feeling claustrophobic.

She helps him in his martial arts serial writing. Subtle atraction begins in this moment.

We feel a love/sexual tension among the two characters through the entire film, a part of us want them to fall in love, while the other part tries to keep the promise they made. It’s a difficult film to watch, it makes you feel uncomfortable many times, you trie to evade their looks and try to look through the glasses and natural filters that the movie puts in our way.

Dressed to buy food. Needing love.

This movie is the second film in a trilogy written and directed by Kar Wai Wong, the other two being Days of Being Wild and 2046. The three have the same characters (Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan) and I hope thay are as good as this one.

The official page, with very useful information is here. The american trailer is embeded down here:

The music plays an important place in the film, here are some examples of music used:[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAYJYxbJv1Y]

Making of documentary of the film, @ In the Mood for Love in 6 parts, recomendable if you have seen the movie, it has a lot of spoilers for those who haven’t: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDhdIRas2IQ][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUNgMZdUmVU]

Some deleted scenes, same as before, lots of spoilers: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL5tBSCnHS8]

Scene excerpts: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs0zZYQzDZs]

Movie theme song, sung by Tony Leung:

#1 in the Top 21st Century List.

Desesperation, war and suffering. Viewed from the eyes of a shepherd.

Elzéard Bouffier is a shepherd that, for over four decades, was able to make a forest appear out of nothing. Some obscure facts from his past, associated with his late wife, has some repercusions in his way of thinking, and as he did, we do as we see this wonderful animated short.

Raising a forest... in a desert.

L’ Homme qui plantait des arbres, directed by Frédéric Back, tells us the story of a wanderer who finds this amazing shepherd near a wasteland. When the narrator follows this man, we see how he plants acorns, gaining his grace. The animation tends to be like a series of fusions, the lines used never dissapear, as they transform into something else, the next scene: soldiers, sheeps, mountains, etc.

The magic begins as the wind blows...

But, it does have a clear goal and it is a sensibility one, it tries to make you aware of the nature problem, the tree trouble. It does accomplish it, and so does the original story by Jean Giono, but it maybe doesn’t fit that well to this short film.

Here is the complete short, in English V.O. Also, here is the short story in which it was based, it was “a gift to the world” from the author Jean Giono.

#1 in the Doubling the Canon List.