ON SCREEN:

FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (Chinese). This one's got a very long and convoluted story, but it goes something like this: Two young male students meet at a Chinese school for opera in the 1920's and soon afterward become inseparable romantic leads and stars at the Beijing Opera, where they remain until the 1970's. Everything that happens to China in that time, from the chaos of the warlord period to Chiang Kai-Shek to the Japanese invasion to Mao, happens to them too. As much a spectacle as the operas the characters perform, this film is utterly fascinating almost to the last detail--and nearly unwatchable at the same time. The almost comically unremitting cruelty of the opera school (students are beaten if they get their part wrong, so that they get it right the next time, and beaten if they get it right, so they won't forget) sets the tone for the brutal happenings and inhumanities of Twentieth-Century China that never let up on these poor souls. Matters are made even worse by the fact that the poor souls are not especially sympathetic characters (although one, a homosexual who plays female roles and seems to live only for his art, is riveting). See it, but take a strong stomach with you!

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: This one is almost a textbook example of Hollywood schmaltz--and quite enjoyable for that. Sandra Bullock is a lonely token clerk on the subway in Chicago; she has a crush on a handsome lawyer who comes to her booth every day (Peter Gallagher, the bad guy in Sex, Lies and Videotape). One day, he gets hurt and falls on the track after being mugged, she saves his life, and through a series of misunderstandings, she ends up in the emergency ward with his extended family. They think she's his fiancee because a nurse heard her mumbling "I was going to marry him" and then let her into the ward. No, it wouldn't happen that way in real life--which is what makes this movie more fun than a lot of real life, if you can suspend disbelief for a while. Bill Pullman, her other love interest in the film, does an especially good job in a lead role (and it's about time that he got one!)

SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA (Vietnamese-French). This beautiful film follows the life of Mui, a young Vietnamese servant girl living in colonial and immediate post-colonial Vietnam, as she slowly (and I mean slowly) unfolds into young adulthood. The filmmakers have a terrific eye for detail, making every experience Mui has an impressionist feast for the eyes; they also get some of the best child acting I've ever seen out of their young lead. When she smiles, it's almost impossible not to smile yourself--an indication of how camera-worthy this young woman is. The various characters in the dysfunctional family that Mui serves are set in intriguing contrast throughout. Be forewarned, however; the filmmakers' fascination with showing every last brushstroke of activities like cutting the seeds out of the middle of a papaya makes this one of the slowest-paced movies I've ever seen. (As an aside, it is a pleasant change to see a movie set in Vietnam that isn't all about our involvement with it; there is nothing in the movie that suggests the violent times in which it is set.)

TIME PIECE: This manic mid-60's short by Jim Henson and Frank Oz seems to explore the many things we do to pass time, as it rolls on, apathetic to our activities. It also has the distinction of being the only thing I can think of by Henson and Oz that didn't involve Muppets or other puppets. Definitely see it if you get a chance. (The CFF showed this with "Green Papaya.")

IMMORTAL BELOVED: If you want to learn something about Beethoven's genius, listen to his music. If you want to learn what a colossal asshole he was, watch this lousy movie, in which Gary Oldman plays perhaps the most detestable composer ever to write a note. The plot revolves around a friend of Beethoven's trying to figure out the identity of the "immortal beloved" to whom he left a fortune after his death. He does this by visiting the women who were charmed by him (a laughable implausibility) and getting them to relate long, tedious flashbacks. By the time he was finished with this exercise, I thought it was a miracle that Beethoven had a friend, let alone a beloved! In addition, I found the tiresome old cliche of the-creative-person-as-total-jerk quite offensive, although not nearly as bad as the ending, which should have started a riot. (A visual reproduction of the Ninth Symphony near the end is the film's single good quality, however.) Is any of it historically accurate? I sure hope not!

MURIEL'S WEDDING (Australian): The title character is an unemployed, barely educated twentysomething with two obsessions in life--Abba and getting married. I have seen few movies that deal so intriguingly with the way we are driven by our fantasies, or that do it so hilariously (a scene where Muriel and a friend lip-synch "Waterloo" at a talent show had me rolling on the floor, especially the rock-video camera angles!) Toni Collette, the head actress, is definitely bound for a bright future. My only complaint is that many of the other characters (Muriel's family and supposed friends) are so obnoxious that you get tired of watching them!

THE WAR ROOM. The English documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker was given almost total access to the headquarters (i.e. the "room" of the title) of the Clinton presidential campaign of 1992. The resulting film is not the definitive documentary of the campaign (that won't come for several years, until we get some historical hindsight); instead, it gives you a great idea of what it is like to work behind the scenes in a major political campaign. The story we find there is not about the candidates, who aren't seen much, but instead about the handlers: people like Paul Begala, George Stephanopolous, James Carville, and Mary Matalin of the Bush campaign (Carville's then-girlfriend, who has a few terrific scenes with him). Pennebaker does a fantastic job, especially, of introducing Stephanopolous and Carville to us, and setting their personalities in contrast--Carville is the flamboyant idea man, alternately raving and sentimental; Stephanopolous the detail man, on the phone up until the very last moment for his candidate. My only complaint: since there's little historical detail, it won't mean much to people who have no idea who James Carville is (i.e. most people).

HOOP DREAMS. This documentary follows two young high school basketball stars from inner-city Chicago through all four years of their careers. It's three hours long. I don't think my attention wavered in the least at any time in the entire three hours.

CLERKS: Film student Kevin Smith made this day-in-the-life-of-a-convenience-store epic for $27,000, including several credit cards and a FEMA grant he got when a tornado destroyed his Volkswagen (your tax dollars at work, folks). He used the Quick-Stop grocery in New Jersey, the very same place he used to work, as a site. The result is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen in my life, and one of the few I have ever seen that hit home (Smith knows what kinds of things happen at dead-end service McJobs, and so do I). If they gave an Oscar for Best Misanthrope, I would nominate the foul slacker Randal, played with near-genius by Jeff Anderson (and he's not even the worst character!) While it was certainly to my taste, it won't be to everyone's--there is a ton of locker-room-level foul language that almost got the film an "X" rating.

BAR GIRLS: Billed as "a romantic comedy without the men," this hilarious farce follows the endless couplings and de-couplings of about 11 or 12 lesbians whose lives revolve around a bar in Los Angeles. You don't have to be of that persuasion to find it screamingly funny! The only major problem is that, as with most independent films, the acting quality varies heavily from one performer to another, although the main protagonists (one couple) are both quite good.

THE BLUE KITE (Chinese): This story of a young boy growing up in Mao-era China is almost as good as The 400 Blows in its cinematic evocation of childhood. The searing opening image of the kite is an unsubtle but powerful metaphor for the lost innocence of the lead character Tietou, his family, and his country. The Maoist characters are all obnoxious, loud, despicable hags--another less-than-subtle but well-done touch--who harry Tietou's naive parents and anyone else at all likable. Definitely see it, but not soon after you see Farewell My Concubine if you don't like depressing movies. (The contrasts between the two are intriguing, however; in Concubine the victims of totalitarianism are the very famous and talented, and their story is told like an old tragedy; in Blue Kite they are the ordinary, and their story is told realistically.)

PANTHER: Mario Van Peebles (filming a script that his father Melvin wrote) tells his version of the beginnings of the Black Panther Party in Oakland in the 1960's, including both the Party legends (Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, and Elridge Cleaver) and a fictitious character who is supposed to reflect us ordinary folks (played well by Kadeem Hardison). The film's best characteristic is undoubtedly its unerring period detail: I cringed at the harrowing police brutality, and chuckled at the now-quaint way the Panthers raised money for their cause (by selling copies of Mao's Little Red Book on the campus at Berkeley--no, I am not making this up). I was also impressed by the charismatic actor who played Newton. So why didn't I enjoy the film more? Probably because of its values--the Panthers are depicted as unambiguous heroes, with unpleasant little details like their sexism and their fondness for Communist dictators glossed over. Values like integration and non-violent agitation for change, according to the Van Peebles(es?), are either hopelessly naive or inherently evil. If those are their views, fine, but as far as I'm concerned, it makes their movie significantly less enjoyable and uplifting. (One other thing: did anyone else see just a bit of resemblance between the Panthers and our current plague of scary, gun-toting, far-right-wing militias?)

ON TAPE:

THE 400 BLOWS (French): The story of Antoine Doinel, a French youth in the 1950's, and his troubled home, stifling school, and aimless life, is shot through with hints of the strength that he could possess. This film, which put Francois Truffaut on the map, is absolutely one of the best stories of childhood in film or any other medium, ringing true in almost every detail. You will never forget the eerie, majestic ending.

GUARDING TESS:  Editor's Note (February 2009):  I was looking at the newsletter back issues online recently, and I realized that Guarding Tess , while not a bad movie in some respects, has an unpleasant occurrence near the end that is a very important part of the movie's plot, and is clearly endorsed by the filmmakers.  It also bothers my sense of morals deeply in a way I didn't realize when I first saw the movie, and the filmmakers' support of it makes it even worse.  Therefore, I have pulled my review of Guarding Tess, and no longer recommend that anyone watch it.