(International Cinema Limited : Hindi Cinema, Part 2)

(International Cinema Limited : Hindi Cinema, Part 3)

If 'Help!' had some deftly partitioned musical sequences, they were all the more deft because they were partitioned. Hardly the picture of joyful wackiness 'A Hard Day's Night' was, this lame attempt to define the oddity and need for a Beatles film never quite gets its wacky-religious-cult-chasing -Ringo-for-some-Ruby-Red-Ring plotline to jive with the whole British invasion sub strand and the thing comes out mushy and awfully repetitive. Never dull, but darn it if you don't wait for the moment when somebody's going to interrupt the damn accented parade of pursuit to say : "Help!" (and follow it with the lyrics to sed song).

Since its a film in which Buster tries to off himself - its a gas. Because a number of the mini sequences (Buster trying to catch a fish is a highlight) have the usual sidetracked nuttiness about them, it tends to supplement the premise with some genuinely great moments. A drunken Buster volunteering to help some moguls catch an armadillo for a zoo society is another gut buster. Maybe the best gag is the one that's missing. Foolish studios didn't care for their film stock in a way that preserves longevity and the ending was lost forever. (It is that: Buster dives from a high dive, misses the pool and erupts from the chasm his body has created with a Chinese wife - one year later). Left to stills, a small explanation and our imagination, this gag is lifeless (according to Buster, though, it got one of his biggest laughs ever). Like many of his films and shorts, this one is also considered to be his favorite. I suppose a great actor/director with such a wide and impeccable repertoire can have the problem of being mis-quoted on every set as saying "This is my favorite picture". (available with "College")

Watched 'The Virgin Suicides' again last night. The Air video is quite humorous (if you know somebody with it, bug em' to show it to you). And the film, though I was a bit worrisome when I saw 'Traffic' that I was overrating 'Suicides' in its seven month absence from my consciousness: SILLY ME. This is a film that pounds me every time I see it. Deliriously on-par understanding of the concept of memory and nostalgia and the universality that trips alongside those two heartbreaking mental states. Watching 'The Virgin Suicides' makes me talk like I'm high, creating theories and detailed explanations of things that probably seem really simple and obvious to anyone who's NOT me. I love getting passionate about a movie. Especially this movie.

the second viewing
the original review of 'The Virgin Suicides'

Imagine that! This pseudo homage to 'Das Boot' (though it's about a sliver as effective), stumbling through forty minutes of tired, dry expository boredom hasn't really improved any since I saw it in the theater seven months ago. Still the same great sound, same great editing, same utterly banal situational submarine clunker. Seriously, Jonathan - - - make another throwaway. 'Breakdown' brrings the thriller genre to an art form. This makes me want to watch 'Das Boot' again - - - and you know what, I just don't have the bleeding time!

the original review of U-571

Bringing the enjoyment of confusion, ambiguity and psychological torment to an art form is not an easy task. A good third of 'Open Your Eyes' had me questioning the deformity of its main character, Cesar (played beautifully by Eduardo Noriega) - - - "hey guys, isn't that the tactic soap operas employ when they want to crank up the melodramatic tension?" - - - but as the film begins to crystallize and make sense of itself, I got the all-purpose slap in the face that said - - - "you bonehead, can't you just enjoy something and not ruin it with mindless critical chattering?" Amenbar's film has all the propensity, thematic interest and execution of 'The Twilight Zone'. The use of Penelope Cruz as the idealization of beauty in a film that is initially about false vanity (or at least, that's what I'm telling you) is masterful, one of those little tricks you don't appreciate unless you've seen a face inundated among media cascades and such (as I'm sure such publicity endures in her homeland). Thoroughly enjoyable as a deceptive thriller as well, which is a tough thing to claim in a world of Hitchcock-knock-off's and other uninspired dreck. As close as a film can come to exploring a world I think I'm desperately afraid will come true - - - and at the same time, would love to imagine was actually real. Rare, and it says a lot about it. Without the mind swirling open-endedness of 'Open Your Eyes', this would make an American film worthy of the gimmick crazy audiences of today (and surprise! surprise!, it's being re-made as 'Vanilla Sky' with Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and....Penelope Cruz. Cameron Crowe, of all people, is set to direct. We'll see.)

There's been absolutely no deliberation since I saw this masterwork on the big screen. Everything is as I remember it: bold, obtuse, wonderfully visual yet casually and carefully cerebral. This is an allegory. But on a much larger scale, its an adventure story. It turns out to be one of the greatest visions of man vs. nature that I've seen while retaining an almost dizzying value as a piece of genuine Japanese folklore. The animation is top notch on DVD in form as well as imagination / adaptation. Even viewing the film with subtitles (a much clearer, more competent watch entirely), the film is still so powerfully ripe with the imagery of nature, its rape and its ultimate triumphant flare - - - that wonderfully joyous victory you know is coming, you wait with bated breath for and finally, bow before as the majesty of Miyazaki crumbles yet another wall in the ever-growing field of adult conscious animation. This is the kind of film, like this year's 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', that warrants specific and deserved comparison to films like 'Star Wars' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Why? Because the giddy thrill of being fully immersed in entertainment evokes a childlike nostalgia
- - - and as an adult filmgoer, that's one of the greatest feelings art can ever produce.

Endlessly inventive romp (which falls thin only in its repetition) with a premise to die for : to win the love of a girl, Keaton swaps diplomas with someone at his graduation and curves the mojo of an old geezer by programming his house to be electrically capable and convenient. If they'd remade it in the eighties, I wouldn't be surprised. Particularly funny is the gag wherein characters are hurled from a second story window into a pool.

What I love about Keaton is that occasionally he gets so absolutely mean-spirited as to straddle the fine line between tasteless and point blank "rage-a-holic". In 'The Blacksmith', he is the innocent bystander of another character he no doubt modeled after this oft-seen trait shown in himself. While cars are destroyed and horses mocked, Keaton always wins the day - accidentally. (Or is it not so accidental? I think its good old fashion gumption. Keaton could charm paint off the walls.)