Filmography
Feb. 19th, 2007 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyChungking Express
I can't recall who recommended this to me, but recommended it was at some point when I first got to the US. I'm feeling all multicultural, as this is a Chinese film. The director, Kar Wai Wong, has tied together two separate narratives into one film tied together by the fact that both the central male protagonists are policemen who frequent the same bar; the first tells of a man who has separated from his girlfriend, trying to come to terms with it, who manages to fall in love with a drug smuggler without realising; the second is about a man so wrapped up in mourning his girlfriend leaving him that he fails to notice the stalkery behaviour of the snack bar waitress, who even comes into his house and changes things therein.
I enjoyed this a surprisingly large amount, actually - four stars. Only the four as some of the filming is a bit shakey, and some of the connections don't quite hit, and the narrative themes are sledgehammer like - for instance, if you manage to miss the significance of sell-by dates in the first half and of aeroplanes in the second, you might need some form of medical examination. But it's generally a good film, even if, quite frankly, pretty much everyone in it is weird. For instance, cop 1 at one point is pictured cleaning the shoes of the mysterious drug runner with his tie, unwittingly cleaning off blood from a massacre she perpetrated the night before; cop 2, as I say, doesn't appear to notice someone's fiddling with his apartment; waitress is freaker stalker; drug runner obviously has personal issues, wears a very fake Western blonde wig at all times, and ends up shooting the chap one presumes is her unfaithful lover as well as her 'line manager'.
However, there is some beautiful whimsicalness. For instance, cop 2 thinks his whole apartment is crying because his girlfriend has left him, and exhorts his soap to keep on eating and not to get too skinny because of grief. Cop 1 hunts down tins of pineapple with the same sell-by date for the 30 days he has given his girlfriend to come back, and then phones all the girls he's ever known to ask for a date - including one he was in grade 4 with. The waitress makes cop 2 a boarding pass to follow her when she runs to California.
I have to say my favourite character was probably the drug runner. Something about never seeing her outside the glasses and the wig. I did wonder at first if she was the waitress, myself, but I suspect not as they have different voices. She is rather interesting, if I say so myself. And I have to say that I'm quite surprised about how long this little film has had me thinking about it.
Name of the Rose
This is the 1986 adaptation of Umberto Eco's excellent novel, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a good enough film to get its five stars. I really enjoyed it. Yes, there are some daft bits where the plot has clearly been simplified, and there are some other daft bits where the homoeroticism is as barely suppressed as in the novel, and still more daft bits where clearly the authentic middle ages feel has been taken that smidgen too far. But it's very good.
The plot, for those of you unfamiliar, involves an abbey famous for its library, which is all labyrinthine, and a nasty series of deaths taking place on its premises. William of Baskerville, a Franciscan monk, has arrived there for a conference between the Franciscans and the representatives of the Pope, and being a sensible man is asked to investigate. It all goes a bit pearshaped as far as the Franciscan/Papal stuff goes, and is left unresolved; thankfully, the man from the inquisition gets his comeuppance and William turns out to have been right. It all stems around a book written by Aristotle on laughter, you see, which the head monk librarian thinks would be dangerous to have in the outside world and thus is trying to repress. With deadly consequences, obviously.
What with all this political wrangling (although the whole heresy debate of the novel is considerably toned down), Sean Connery as William of Baskerville and Christian Slater as his young novice Adso, there's not really much more you could as for. Oh, and there's medieval chanting. Which they really did as they filmed, as the documentary in German depicted. It was great and very happy making. Huzzah for intelligent murder mystery!
I can't recall who recommended this to me, but recommended it was at some point when I first got to the US. I'm feeling all multicultural, as this is a Chinese film. The director, Kar Wai Wong, has tied together two separate narratives into one film tied together by the fact that both the central male protagonists are policemen who frequent the same bar; the first tells of a man who has separated from his girlfriend, trying to come to terms with it, who manages to fall in love with a drug smuggler without realising; the second is about a man so wrapped up in mourning his girlfriend leaving him that he fails to notice the stalkery behaviour of the snack bar waitress, who even comes into his house and changes things therein.
I enjoyed this a surprisingly large amount, actually - four stars. Only the four as some of the filming is a bit shakey, and some of the connections don't quite hit, and the narrative themes are sledgehammer like - for instance, if you manage to miss the significance of sell-by dates in the first half and of aeroplanes in the second, you might need some form of medical examination. But it's generally a good film, even if, quite frankly, pretty much everyone in it is weird. For instance, cop 1 at one point is pictured cleaning the shoes of the mysterious drug runner with his tie, unwittingly cleaning off blood from a massacre she perpetrated the night before; cop 2, as I say, doesn't appear to notice someone's fiddling with his apartment; waitress is freaker stalker; drug runner obviously has personal issues, wears a very fake Western blonde wig at all times, and ends up shooting the chap one presumes is her unfaithful lover as well as her 'line manager'.
However, there is some beautiful whimsicalness. For instance, cop 2 thinks his whole apartment is crying because his girlfriend has left him, and exhorts his soap to keep on eating and not to get too skinny because of grief. Cop 1 hunts down tins of pineapple with the same sell-by date for the 30 days he has given his girlfriend to come back, and then phones all the girls he's ever known to ask for a date - including one he was in grade 4 with. The waitress makes cop 2 a boarding pass to follow her when she runs to California.
I have to say my favourite character was probably the drug runner. Something about never seeing her outside the glasses and the wig. I did wonder at first if she was the waitress, myself, but I suspect not as they have different voices. She is rather interesting, if I say so myself. And I have to say that I'm quite surprised about how long this little film has had me thinking about it.
Name of the Rose
This is the 1986 adaptation of Umberto Eco's excellent novel, and as far as I'm concerned, it's a good enough film to get its five stars. I really enjoyed it. Yes, there are some daft bits where the plot has clearly been simplified, and there are some other daft bits where the homoeroticism is as barely suppressed as in the novel, and still more daft bits where clearly the authentic middle ages feel has been taken that smidgen too far. But it's very good.
The plot, for those of you unfamiliar, involves an abbey famous for its library, which is all labyrinthine, and a nasty series of deaths taking place on its premises. William of Baskerville, a Franciscan monk, has arrived there for a conference between the Franciscans and the representatives of the Pope, and being a sensible man is asked to investigate. It all goes a bit pearshaped as far as the Franciscan/Papal stuff goes, and is left unresolved; thankfully, the man from the inquisition gets his comeuppance and William turns out to have been right. It all stems around a book written by Aristotle on laughter, you see, which the head monk librarian thinks would be dangerous to have in the outside world and thus is trying to repress. With deadly consequences, obviously.
What with all this political wrangling (although the whole heresy debate of the novel is considerably toned down), Sean Connery as William of Baskerville and Christian Slater as his young novice Adso, there's not really much more you could as for. Oh, and there's medieval chanting. Which they really did as they filmed, as the documentary in German depicted. It was great and very happy making. Huzzah for intelligent murder mystery!
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