Movies!

A list of films which I rented/saw at the cinema the past two weeks:

Once

Scoop

Superbad

Goodbye, Lenin!

Lives of Others

The Fountain

Be Kind Rewind

Lars and the Real Girl

There's lots of particularly awesome stuff on that list. I especially liked Once, Lives of Others, Be Kind Rewind and Lars and the Real Girl. Looking forward to seeing heaps more movies over the mid-semester break.

Romance on celluloid

For the record, I don't think much of Valentine's Day...it's a manufactured holiday, for crying out loud. But this post isn't a harangue about how the occasion is a cheap excuse to peddle chocolates and jack up flower prices. I just thought I'd put together a list of my favourite love stories on film as a tribute to this universally-celebrated idiotic holiday, because even if I'm entirely convinced that February 14 is the most vastly overrated and overhyped day of the year, I still wouldn't want to be called The Grinch Who Stole Valentine's.

1. Los Amantes del Circulo Polar (Lovers of the Arctic Circle) - by virtuoso Spanish director Julio Medem. A love story replete with themes of tragedy, fate, coincidence and cycles. The film emphasises the fact that life is an endless cycle of coincidences and circuitous circumstances. Storyline was so intelligently woven and leaves viewers with so much to discuss and mull over.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Can science assist people in successfully erasing memories of past loves gone wrong? This film gives a very interesting answer. Good cast (one of the few films where Jim Carrey didn't annoy me) and excellent acting.

3. When a Man Loves a Woman - Welcome to the dark side of love. No formulaic romantic comedy plot in here. A story of a married couple...guy is a pilot, wife is an alcoholic. I liked this one because it shows you that there are so many deeper dimensions to real human relationships (unlike what the shallow, cutesy plots of most Hollywood rom-coms make us believe), and it explores the stark realities of love and marriage. And also because it was not just another love story.

4. The End of the Affair - Based on a Graham Greene novel, this Neil Jordan film is about a married woman having an affair during the war. Turning point in the movie: while consummating their passion in their love nest, a bomb blast severely injures the woman's lover and he nearly dies. Woman falls down on her knees and profusely begs God to let her lover live, and in exchange she will never see him again. Next scene we see the lover very much alive, and already standing behind her. The woman (who prior to praying to God for that favour was an agnostic) now becomes a devout Catholic. She severs all contact with her lover, lover then suspects her of having an affair, then woman dies and a string of miracles becomes attributed to her. Phenomenal novel and an equally beautiful film. I like how Greene eloquently tackles themes of faith and religion against the backdrop of a very passionate adulterous affair.

5 . In the Mood for Love - The first Wong Kar Wai movie that I ever saw. The lovers in the movie hardly had any physical contact but their unspoken passion exploded heavily on screen. I also found the inclusion of classic Spanish love songs like Quizas and Besame Mucho in the soundtrack wildly original and creative (this was a Chinese movie after all).

6. Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Say Anything, For Keeps, Some Kind of Wonderful and all those other 80's flicks - What can I say? Growing up, I was Molly Ringwald's biggest fan, and I was and still am deeply enamored with the 80's (fashion and hairstyles excluded). These movies best immortalise the sweet agonies of young love (during the decade when I was growing up) and thus will forever make me nostalgic.

7. A Very Long Engagement - True love is indeed very very very patient. I especially liked how sometimes I am as superstitious as Audrey Tautou's character in the movie (If I reach the bend before the car, my lover will still be alive...If I don't break the peel, his comrades managed to save him).

I'll try to add some more to this list...

A very bad habit and Corbijn's Control

Every time I find myself submerged with work, I do either of two things: surf the net like mad or go to the movies. Today I did both. I spent a good bit of the day checking out people's blogs, online forums, wiki, rotten tomatoes, IMDB and Facebook. I also searched for other postgrad programs that I might consider doing in the future (haha). I combed the www for certain 'dream jobs' as well.

Tonight I also saw Control, the black and white biopic of Joy Division's vocalist Ian Curtis (directed by Anton Corbijn). He committed suicide at 23 (sometime in 1980). I wasn't born yet at the time the band got big, but I do know of a couple of Joy Division (which later on became New Order) songs.

My verdict: Control was painfully beautiful. Corbijn reportedly decided to shoot the film entirely in black and white to reflect the atmosphere of Joy Division and the mood of the era. Each scene mirrored Ian Curtis' tortured soul, and his music is now replete with even more meaning as we see how his personal torment and grief compelled him to pen such melancholic lyrics (when asked whether Joy Division's music is beautiful, Curtis replied that "Some of it is...but some of it is not meant to be beautiful"). The haunting words and melody of 'Love will tear us apart' are still playing in my head as I type this.

My to watch list & Cine Europa

Looking forward to seeing these in the next two weeks:

A Mighty Heart (I didn't know that Michael Winterbottom directed this!)

Control (92% rating at rottentomatoes)

Across the Universe

I haven't been to the movies in ages, which is extremely uncharacteristic of me. I used to regularly see a movie every Tuesday night (cheap night here) but recently all my uni stuff has been getting in the way. I try to make up for it by watching films on SBS (free tv) whenever I can, and I average around 2-4 weekly.

I've already seen the Cine Europa 2007 schedule and I feel so sorry that I'll be missing a lot of good films. I've been religiously attending Cine Europa screenings since high school and it's just heartbreakingly sad that I won't get to go this year. Lives of Others, Kolya and Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander are on this year's lineup, along with a host of other excellent European arthouse flicks. I remember last year I saw Klassfesten (The Reunion) with friends and it was totally hilarious; the year before that I saw Bergman's Trolosa (Faithless) and it was two and a half hours of pure cinematic genius.

An excellent film-watching week

Saw the following movies last week:

Donnie Darko

Lilya 4-ever

The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro)

Monsoon Wedding

P.S. All of them were mindblowingly good...more than satisfied my movie lust.

Bits of screenplay from a favourite movie

This film is dedicated to lonely guys everywhere.

Lonely guys have been with us since the beginning of time.

There's one there. Poor guy.

Another new year's eve alone in the cave.

Even a thousand years from now,

the lonely guy will still be there.

Look at this guy.

That couple will go down in history.

All he gets to do is eat roast beef from a tube.

So all you lonely guys out there, this film is for you.

It's for guys like that guy, chin loo fung in canton, china.

He's got married brothers and sisters,

yet still eats alone in a chinese restaurant four nights a week.

It's for mbowie zoomba, another lonely guy.

While he's happy that cable tv has been installed in his area,

he'd really just like to meet a nice girl with attractive lip lace.

And it's for larry hubbard...

[larry hubbard] Hey, that's me, fifth one down. I'll take over the narration.

Hi, i'm larry hubbard. This is the story of how i became a lonely guy.

I came to manhattan to be a writer.

While i was working on my novel, i took a job at a greeting card firm.

It was working out pretty well.

What are you working on, hubbard?

It's an idea i had for a new kind of sympathy card, sir.

Mmm.

"I know how much your loss must grieve you,

"but here's a thought i'd like to leave you:

"Although you're sad remember that...

now god is petting your pussycat. "

Beautiful! Hubbard!

- Congratulations! You're moving up. - Thank you, sir.

- Get your things and take the front desk. - Yes, sir!

- Finley, harrison, annenberg, leach. - Yes, sir?

Stop whatever you're doing. I want pet cards.

Birthday, anniversary. And not just cats and dogs.

I want hamsters, fish, parakeets.

I was always lucking into things like that.

New york had been pretty good to me.

The best part was, i'd met this gorgeous ballet dancer named daniele.

She was nuts about me and asked me to move right in with her.

Every day at : she'd have bathed, perfumed,

put on a sexy nightie...

and be waiting alone in a big bed just for me.

Hi, daniele. Tarzan is here.

Oh, one second while i look through my mail here.

[Muttering] Oh, geez.

Hey, a rejection from a completely new publisher.

They're finally getting to know me in this town.

Hi, honey. You miss me?

- So, what'd you do today? Anything interesting? - Ohhh.

You gotta get out of the house. You can't mope

around all day waiting for me to come home.

Ohhh.

This your cigar in here, honey?

All ready for me i can see, huh?

Mmm. You smell good.

I don't believe you!

You come home, you find me in bed with another man,

you act as if nothing's going on.

Larry, this is my lover, raoul.

We're lovers. Understand?

- Hi, raoul. Larry hubbard. Nice to meet you. - Yeah, hi.

Have you known daniele long?

Yes, we're dancers in the same company.

- Dancer? I thought they were all... - yes.

Well, raoul's not! Raoul's all man.

Yeah.

And he's moving in tonight. After the nutcracker.

He's bringing his things over in the morning.

Bringing his things over? There's hardly enough room for our things!

Your things are going! I've already packed them!

They're in the hall beside the garbage, and you can take 'em out all together.

I know i'm behaving strange. Probably real strange.

I've never been in a situation like this before.

I don't know how to handle it. I still don't know how to handle it.

So i was waiting, calmly,

patiently, reasonably,

'til i do figure out how to handle this kind of situation.

Hold it. I think i've got it.

Yes, yes.

What the hell's going on here? What's he doing in this bed?

You disgust me, both of you!

I'm getting out of here, and i never want to see you in my life again!

I think i handled that rather well.

[Daniele, muffled] Oh, larry, don't forget the garbage.

I had no place to stay, nowhere to go.

There was no one to talk to. I must've looked pretty pitiful.

But that's the good thing about living in a big city like new york.

At least nobody i knew was going to see me like this.

Cinema Paradiso

Alfredo: I'll tell you a story. Just for you Toto. Let's sit down. God Almighty! Once upon a time......a king gave a feast. The most beautiful princesses were there. A soldier who was standing guard saw the king's daughter go by. She was the loveliest one, and he fell instantly in love. But what is a simple soldier next to the daughter of a king? One day he managed to see her and told her he could no longer live without her. The princess was so taken by the depth of his feeling that she said to the soldier:"If you can wait for 100 days and 100 nights under my balcony, I shall be yours." With that, the soldier went and waited one day, two days......then ten, twenty. Each evening the princess looked out and he never moved! Always there, come rain, come thunder. Birds shat on his head, bees stung him, but didn't budge. After 90 nights, he had become all dry and pale. Tears streamed from his eyes. He couldn't hold them back. He didn't even have the strength to sleep. And all that time, the princess watched him. When 99th night came......the soldier stood up, took his chair, and left.

Toto: How come? Right at the end?

Alfredo: Right at the end, Toto. Don't ask me what it means, I don't know. If you figure it out, you tell me.

[Few years later, Toto has learned a bit more about life, and presents his interpretation of the story's ending.]

Toto: Remember the story about the soldier and the princess? Now I understand why the solider left right at the end. In one more night, the princess would have been his. But she also could not possibly have kept her promise. And that would have been too cruel. It would have killed him. This way, at least, for 99 nights, he was living under the illusion that she was there, waiting for him.

Alfredo: Do as the soldier, Toto. Go away.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfFblhAKECA]

The Science of Sleep

Saw this movie last night. It was a real charming gem of a film. I adore anything remotely surrealist, and that explains why Buñuel and Medem are among my favorite filmmakers (I love Miró's and Dalí's artwork as well). Michel Gondry is now one of my new favorite directors (he did Eternal Sunshine a few years back), and this movie has now secured a slot in my desert-island top films list.

Gael's character and myself are very much alike, in many respects (except the artistic part...I can't draw to save my life), but the fact that we are both big narcoleptics who can't reconcile real life from reveries takes the cake. His saccharine yet childish antics moved me to pieces. Case in point, he gave Charlotte Gainsbourg a cool time machine he invented as a no-particular-occasion present, and when asked why, he sweetly muttered, "on the occasion that you're pretty".

Some have commented that the film left them monumentally bored, but surprisingly the montage of beautiful images and colors engaged my eyes and really left me in a dream-like state for almost two hours. Sheer genius. And Gael and his quirky officemates even performed a slow, jazzy and cutesy song called "If You Rescue Me" (which apparently is a pseudo-cover of a Velvet Underground song) while they were in cat costumes. Such cuteness...

One of the best opening sequences in a movie. Check it out:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=-78pDIEFZoE]

Snippets

Here are fragments of songs, poems and movies (even advice!) which have been reverberating in my head for the past few days. Just a disclaimer, there is no coherent theme binding them all together. For some inexplicable (or explicable hehe) reason they have just been tormenting me, creating a totally bizarre cornucopia of melodies, images and dialogue in my head. Oh, and some of them are just frighteningly sappy, and I apologize. My tastes can't be discriminating all the time, and my mind apparently has a mind of its own...

1. Smashing Pumpkins' Try, Try, Try (along with its hauntingly beautiful music video)

2. MJ telling Spidey "We have to forgive each other or everything we ever were will mean nothing" (the trailer keeps playing on TV)

3. Neruda's "Es tan corto el amor, y tan largo el olvido" from Puedo Escribir Los Versos Mas Triste Esta Noche

4. Go West's King of Wishful Thinking (haha!)

5. Sylvia Plath's Mad Girl's Love Song

6. That Neil Gaiman quote which starts with "Have you ever been in love..."

7. Rilke's You Who Never Arrived

8. Karen Kunawicz's Sound of One Heart Breaking

9. That awful theme song from Neighbours: "Neighbours should be there for one another...that's when good neighbours become good friends..." (I'd really love to explain why, but I don't want to jinx anything yet. All I can say is that it's this little project that's been making me and someone else so excited as of late. I think I'm gonna call it Operation N.H. hehe. Will divulge everything when the time is right.)


10. Charlie reminding me the other day that I once told her back in college that she will just laugh at *everything that happened* in the future (I'm nearing that stage now, Charlie...!)

11. K's Choice's Almost Happy

12. The plot of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind