ItoBlog

The week's best and worst

Alright. I give up. There's no way i'll be able to write on this blog on a daily basis. I really wish i could but i just lack the discipline (laugh)... For all of you who aren't bloggers, all those blogs you read that are updated daily, the person behind it is either a full-time blogger and/or lives off her/his blog, or, this person is glued to her/his computer and is a talented multi-tasker.

In anycase, for now, i'm going to go for the simple "one-theme-a-week formula".

The theme this week is FILM.

The high point of my week was seeing (finally) Ang Lee's latest masterpiece, Brokeback Mountain. Absolutely amazing. Some extraordinary acting, breathtaking photography and an incredibly gripping story. A definite must-see.Heath Ledger is stunning (i never really liked him before) but this time, he steals the movie right away with the tight-lipped-low-talking-tortured-soul cowboy rancher he plays. Bottom line:  A must-see. You will weep.

Now THE total flop of the week is Lord of War with Nicolas Cage. I won't even waste too much digital ink on this one. The film is pretentious and is agonisingly lame. The acting is atrocious (the actors are good, it's the director that's smoked too many doobies) and the soundtrack is appaling. Pompous hollywood crap. End of story.

Cliché fest

This year's corny-cliché-infested-hollywood-tear-jerker award goes to "A History of Violence" by David Cronenberg. This film is cliché-central on steroids, absolutely appalling, don't be mislead by the positive reviews this film has (which essentially why i went to see a film despite tête à claques Viggo Mortensen as the main character.

Love where you don't expect it

Just saw Me and You and Everyone We Know directed by Miranda July. I came in with very high expectations (ie. Camera d'Or at Cannes, Jury Prize at Sundance) and the verdict is that it's quite good.The story is set in a typical lower-middle class american suburb and probes the lives of a quirky thirty-something woman (played by Miranda July) in search for love, a cerebral shoe salesman coping with life after love and his two 14 and 7 year old sons who escape the monotony of their youth in sex chat rooms. The film is a cross between Happiness and Virgin Suicides  with its dark humour and melancholic portrayal of modern suburbian life coupled with beautiful photography and an amazing soundtrack. Most memorable though is the absolutely unbelievable peformance of very young actor Brandon Ratcliffe (the kid is 5!) who plays the 7 year old Robby who arouses the hidden perversions of an unsuspecting thirty-something museum curator in a chat room. Enough said.... go see this film!

Paradise Now

Last night, Yasmine and I went to see what is arguaby the best film I've seen since Turtles Can Fly. The film is called Paradise Now  and is directed by palestinian filmaker Hany Abu-Assad. The story is about two childhood friends who are recruited for twin suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and explores the psychological evolution of the two friends during their final hours. The director deftly avoids plunging into clichés and lame political correctness, and deals with the  subject with subtlety and depth. There is near-constant tension in the film that almost becomes unbearable, thanks to a very solid script and two absolutely brilliant actors. A real tour de force. Go see this film!

11 minute experience i want to forget

Remember when you were a kid and watched those terrifying horror movies that scared you shitless and gave you nightmares for the next couple of days. Well, I re-experienced that type of cinematic terror the other day when i went to see this japanese underground psycopathic and extremely distrubing horror film called "Marebito". I'm a grown up now (at least i think i am) so i shouldn't let films scare me, right?  It's all make-believe, nothing you see is real, they're all actors etc... bla bla bla.  You can rationalise all you want, you will NOT be able to sit through this film. I myself rarely walk out of films and when i do it's because the movie is agonisingly bad (eg. Jurassic Park, Independence Day and the like...). I've never walked out of a film because it was agonisingly scary, until this one.

Literally a minute into the film, I switched on my image-censoring device (ie. my hands) and looked through those tiny slits between your fingers. Three minutes into the film, I had to tuck my thumbs deep inside my ears and block out the screaming. It became clear quite quickly that, seeing roughly 2% of the projection screen, hearing nothing except my own breathing and looking as terrified as the characters in the movie, I had to swallow my pride and run for the exit. A whopping 11 minutes after the opening credits. Pathetic.

The charm of Romain Duris

Landed in Paris yesterday morning and one of the first things i did was to go to the movies. I hadn't been in ages. Went to see Cedric Klapish's latest, "Les Poupées Russes", the sequel to his international hit "L'Auberge Espagnole". The film is quite disappointing and way, way too long. Still, it has two redeeming factors a) a wicked soundtrack and b) its lead actor Romain Duris. I would say he is my favourite actor right now, his versatility and charm make this film definitely worth seeing (and all his other films for that matter). You could basically cut out all the scenes without him and "Les Poupées Russes"  would probably get better reviews. He's a real natural, not many actors out there with his talent. Check out his filmography here.

Bill Plympton's Universe

I went to see Hair High by Bill Plympton. Perhaps not a great idea considering I already had a mild headache on my way to the movie house. Maybe some of you are Plympton fans but  this movie knocked me out cold. The screams, the car chases, the gore, the masturbating chicken scene, the overall frenetic rythm of the film pounded me til I almost dropped from my chair. Hair High feels like the last half hour of Brazil by Terry Gilliam, multiplied by 10. Watch at your own risk. Not for petites natures like me.

Journey into the heart of darkness

This evening, I went to see DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE by Austrian filmaker Hubert Sauper,
perhaps the most powerful documentary film I have ever seen . The film, billed as a documentary on the Tanzanian fish industry off Lake Victoria is actually an intimate look at the winners and the losers of a booming industry in one of the world's poorest countries. A must-see. (****)

Va, Vis et Deviens

  vavisdeviens 

   

Great french/israeli film we saw last week with Yasmine about Ethiopian jews in Israel, their history, their remarkable and often tragic journey to Israel and their difficult situation in the country. Very moving, extremely interesting. Overall a good film although the acting is a little floaty and the film loses quite a bit of steam on a couple of occasions. (***)

New film section for this blog

I was just thinking that this is first a foremost a way to keep track of the ever-so interesting life I have these days (laugh) and of course to share thoughts and ideas with my friends and family. I went to see a couple of good movies this week so I decided to add a new section called "Films I've seen this week", bearing in mind that I do tend to see at least 2 to 3 films a week on average. I'll also rate each film I see with the following star-rating system: (****) potential cult classic, (***) really worth seeing, (**) ok, but could have gone for a beer instead, (*) waste of time but but didn't walk out and (O) pure agony.