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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 8, 2019 19:18:20 GMT
I skipped a few other movies that I saw. I hope you'll forgive me.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 10, 2019 14:25:12 GMT
I saw Can You Ever Forgive Me? today. I know it has already been discussed on the small screen thread, but it was just released in France as one of the summer slump movies. I understand why -- even though Melissa McCarthy received a richly deserved Oscar nomination for her performance (while not having a snowball's chance in hell for the ceremony -- after all, Olivia Colman, really...), this story is not only unknown to European audiences but also many of the celebrities mentioned for the forgeries would not ring a bell, which of course diminishes the interest. But what diminished my interest was that it became too repetitive. After one, two, three transactions I was bored with all of the other transactions. It was the same thing again and again. This was not at all the actors' fault; they kept up their end of the deal.
I felt that Richard E. Grant was channelling Bill Nighy in his performance, but maybe that's just me.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 10, 2019 15:07:55 GMT
I enjoyed Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but completely agree with your review of the picture. Good call on Grant's performance! I knew there was something about it that seemed vaguely familiar, but would never have pinpointed it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 15, 2019 18:55:00 GMT
Okay, I went to see Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, which came about a bit later in most of Europe than in the US due to publicity junkets. This is apparently a new montage from the version presented in Cannes and is actually 3 minutes longer albeit with different scenes. It is a hefty 2h41 but apparently Tarentino will release a "long" version later. I was a bit worried about the length, but I shouldn't have been since Tarentino makes sure that you are never bored. The only thing that I might have shortened if asked would have been the time spent at the Spahn movie ranch where the Charles Manson family lived. At the same time, I was delighted to finally see this place since it was mentioned in all of the articles and I never knew what it looked like.
DiCaprio, Pitt and Robbie are all quite good, but the prize goes to Brad Pitt in terms of appeal. DiCaprio acts his little heart out, but I felt that he overdid his Missouri accent and some other elements.
Since I moved to Los Angeles in 1969 exactly when this movie takes place and only lived there for 3 years, the presentation of Los Angeles really struck me as perfect, because that is exactly how it was. Kudos to Tarentino who was too young to really know all of the details, so he clearly did lots of research.
As for the plot, everybody who sees the movie has been told not to reveal the ending, but I understood immediately how it would end. After all, anybody who has seen Inglorious Basterds knows perfectly well how Tarentino views historical events. It's just a shame that real life is often not as good as the movies.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 15, 2019 21:16:06 GMT
I am honestly thrilled to see your review of this movie, Kerouac! A little while ago I watched a trailer for it and immediately thought of you. Specifically, I thought "This is the perfect Hollywood movie for that boy who hates Hollywood movies." Not having seen the movie itself, I am pleased at getting your review and pleased to hear that you liked the movie.
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Post by rikita on Aug 16, 2019 8:50:27 GMT
went to the movies the other day with my niece and nephew and sister in law and of course agnes, to see "benjamin blümchen" - another character known from audio plays, by the same company as bibi blocksberg and bibi and tina, though geared towards slightly younger children. the movie was okay, but i have seen better children's movies, and as always the story seemed a bit complex and the movie a bit young for the age group towards it should be geared ...
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 16, 2019 15:23:37 GMT
I saw two quirky French comedies. One failed and one was fantastic.
Je promets d'être sage ("I promise to behave" - but the English title is Lost and Found) is about a theatrical director who fails so badly that he abandons his profession and becomes a museum keeper instead in some minor provincial city. His colleagues are all weird, but there is also a nasty one who wants to crush him. The two of them get assigned to duty for the annual museum reserve inventory. He discovers that she has been stealing items and selling them on the black market. As always, conflict breeds passion, but the script was really poorly written.
Perdrix (The Bare Necessity in English) is about a country gendarme confronted with a strange young woman whose car has been stolen by revolutionary nudists. He lives with his mother Fanny Ardant and his brother Nicolas Maury (from Call My Agent). The mother broadcasts a radio call in show from the garage, and the two sons have to be on duty to call in if nobody else does. The other gendarmes at the station are just as weird as the museum colleagues in the other movie. Here are three excerpts with English subtitles. This movie is wonderful.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 21, 2019 19:07:57 GMT
So, I went to see Late Night. It was okay, nothing special. It's all been done before.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 27, 2019 3:16:36 GMT
I went to the movies today and was so glad I did, as it turned out to be a thoroughly satisfying experience. The movie was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which I've been wanting to see ever since viewing the trailer. It was even better than I thought it would be. Maybe I was positively set up to like it knowing that it was Tarantino's swan song. By that I mean that I automatically forgave him the extremely long exposition which starts the movie and about which my companion complained slightly. Well, more than forgave -- I just went with it and enjoyed it. It was his movie and he knew what he was doing. I have to wonder if Leonardo DiCaprio worked without pay, because it seemed he was enjoying himself so much and gave such a fabulous performance. That is not to take away from Brad Pitt, who I felt completely inhabited and delivered his character. I lived in California during the time the movie takes place and it was 100% like being back in that time. The Hollywood and current events references come thick and fast and I was amazed at how organically I got them. Anyone would be hard pressed to think of a movie that has such uncannily perfect casting throughout. That said, my jaw dropped when I saw {Spoiler}Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen . Good grief ~ so obvious that I can't believe I never saw it for myself before! Lots of chuckles throughout the film and lots of meat on its bones, too. I liked it!
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 6, 2019 17:01:49 GMT
1. Roubaix, une lumière. (English title: Oh Mercy) **** The movie follows various police investigations in Roubaix, the most poverty stricken city in France. It is actually based on a documentary that was made about the very same police cases and proves that reality is weirder than fiction. Gripping.
2. Angel Has Fallen. *** Gerard Butler saves the world again. Totally outlandish plot but never boring. 3. Le Déserteur. ** Very strange non linear Canadian movie about a Charlie Chaplin imitator who wins $10 in a contest, crosses a strange desert, is captured and everything goes completely WTF? It seems to take place in the 1940's or 50's but not really since REM plays on the car radio.
4. Ma famille et le loup. (My Family and the Wolf) *** There is a family reunion in a country house to celebrate the birthday of the grandmother (Carmen Maura). But young Hugo knows that the wolf is coming to get her and tries to stop it with the other children. The movie mixes live action with some animated sequences, and it works.
5. Good Boys. ** The usual vulgar comedy appealing to one's worst instincts. Obviously there are some funny moments.
6. Haut Perchés. * Five people -- four men and a woman get together to do terrible things to the man who hurt them. The movie is filmed like a stage play and basically takes place in one room. You never see the victim and just hear upsetting noises as each person visits the bedroom to exact revenge. Total waste of time.
7. Vif-Argent. *** (English title: Burning Ghost) A young man who is apparently dead and invisible to most people finds other people who can see him to help them cross over. But he encounters one woman who used to love him and can see him. Is she supposed to die or is he supposed to come back to life? A very dream like nighttime fantasy which mostly takes place in the Buttes Chaumont.
8. La vie scolaire. **** Life in a somewhat difficult junior high school in the northern suburbs of Paris. Students, teachers and parents are all treated equally, which is rare in such movies.
9. Thalasso. ** Gérard Dépardieu and author Michel Houellbecq play themselves as grotesque alcoholics in a fitness spa. It is their real lives. You can't take your eyes off the horror of it all.
10. The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil. **** Gritty Korean perfection.
11. Une fille facile. *** (English title: An Easy Girl) A good girl receives a visit from her bad girl cousin in Cannes. The bad girl is played with enthusiasm by Zahia Dehar, a Moroccan escort girl who became famous a few years ago for sleeping with half of the French national football team. She has now moved on from that profession but is more than convincing playing the slut in this movie.
12. Fête de famille *** (English title: Happy Birthday). Old Catherine Deneuve (age 75) has reunited her children for her birthday celebration. Her almost normal sons basically behave themselves, but then the crazy daughter shows up after 3 years in California. This movie is the same as all of the family reunion movies where everything gets more and more horrible in spite of everybody's best efforts.
13. Les Hirondelles de Kaboul ***** (The Swallows of Kabul). Based on the novel of the same name by Yasmina Khadra, this animated film is simultaneously horrible and magnificent. It takes place in Kabul during the reign of the Taliban. A young couple lives in fear although the wife is rebellious and an older couple try to get by -- he is in charge of the women's prison and his wife (the always magnificent Hiam Abbass) is dying of cancer. The young woman gets thrown in prison for a public display of affection (her husband is merely ordered to go to the mosque immediately to be purified), and even though she is released, she is soon back in prison for something much much worse. There are stonings, hangings, throats cut and other abominations. Director Zabou Breitmann said animation was the only way to make the movie because a life action movie would have been too painful to watch. It is a masterpiece.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 17, 2019 16:29:27 GMT
1. It - Chapter 2. ** Well acted but totally unimaginative. Just one jump scare after another for almost 3 hours.
2. Deux Moi. *** The latest offering by Cédric Klapisch (The Spanish Apartment, Russian Dolls...). He seems to have chosen his new Romain Duris in François Civil, who also starred in his previous movie Back to Burgundy. This is about two young people living unhappily just one street from my place. They unconvincingly do their grocery shopping in a store on my street (Sabbah Orientale), when there is a Monoprix, a Franprix and a Carrefour City on the same block. If the two characters were of North African origin, why not? But they are typical ethnic French. Okay fine, why not? I do my shopping in a lot of ethnic places, too, but only for a few rare items. Anyway, the two characters both end up unloading their angst to psychiatrists; obviously it is both funny and sad. They live in buildings right next to each and pass each other with out noticing each other constantly. You can see where this is going, right? Maybe so, maybe not...
3. Blinded by the Light (French title: Music of my Life). *** This is a pleasant but totally predictable movie about a young man of Pakistani origin who falls in love with the music of Bruce Springsteen in the late 1980's. His traditional family has other ideas about what he should be doing.
4. Tu mérites un amour (English title: You Deserve a Lover) *** The title is from a poem by Frida Kahlo. I have been fascinated by Hafsia Herzi ever ever since she won a César for The Secret of the Grain. This time she both directed and starred in her movie. She plays Lila, a young woman who has been dumped by her boyfriend, but she is determined to get him back, or take her revenge, or sleep with as many guys as possible, or who knows what? Her friends give her good and bad advice, and she just plunges on. I think quite a few of us have known people like this.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2019 12:04:27 GMT
Il corpo della sposa (Le mariage de Verida in French or Flesh Out in English) is the sort of movie that totally fascinates me -- strange country, strange customs, universal dilemma. It is an Italian movie filmed in Mauritania in Hassanya and French. Verida is a young woman whose marriage has been arranged by her family but before the date, she must gain weight. Stretch marks are even better. Not everybody follows the same custom, but in her family (and I suppose the groom's family) brides must be fleshy. So her mother feeds her 10 meals a day starting at 6am. Verida is an obedient daughter, so she tries her best, but who can eat 10 meals a day? Her more modern friends say that she should rebel. On top of that, she has become very interested in the young man who goes from house to house with his bathroom scale to weigh fiancées every day for a small fee. There are other strange details. One morning her mother comes in and finds her with her head uncovered. "I took off my veil because it was too hot." "You're exposing yourself to the angels!" What century is this?
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2019 12:09:35 GMT
Ad Astra is a stunning movie, somewhere between Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
A Rainy Day in New York is one of the better Woody Allen movies. Timothée Chalamet has to channel the W. Allen character and does it quite well, except for the narrated parts, which sounded completely wrong. It is pure vaudeville among the ultra rich.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 25, 2019 14:44:12 GMT
Trois jours et une vie is a Chabrolesque movie set in the Belgian Ardennes. Two boys in a small village are inseparable friends, but one of them disappears one day, never to be seen again. Everybody in the village is a suspect, but not to the movie audience, because we saw exactly what happened and who did it. So the whole point of the movie is about whether the person will ever be found out. The event takes place in the final days of 1999. Just when search parties have started to examine every little bit of the forest, the famous storm of the century destroys the region. I made a little report about it because it devastated northern France, Belgium, Germany and other areas. It was scarier than any hurricane that I ever saw, even though it blew through Paris in only about 30 minutes. Anyway, this stops all of the searches, and the story picks up again 15 years later. All of the possible suspects are still there when the other boy returns to visit his mother for Christmas. Frankly, this is a great movie in the Chabrol style. What happens in later years is totally diabolical. Edie is a Scottish movie that fascinated me. It's about an old woman who took care of her invalid husband forever, but he finally dies. He was a controlling bastard and stopped her from doing everything she ever wanted to do for more than 30 years. When her crappy daughter decides that she will be better off in a retirement home, she runs off to do what she has always wanted to do -- climb Mount Suilven solo in the Scottish highlands. Since she is 83, climbing solo turns out to be a bit beyond her abilities, so she hires a guide at a local sporting goods store to help her. He is pretty much of a wanker and she is kind of an old bitch, so obviously they tame each other after a few days and learn to cooperate and appreciate each other. Climbing Mount Suilven is not an easy task, that's for sure. I haven't seen any movies that made me want to go to the Scottish highlands so much since Highlander or Local Hero (although that one was lower in altitude but nice).
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 25, 2019 15:34:46 GMT
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) is an interesting period piece. A young woman painter is sent to an island in Brittany in the 18th century to masquerade as a sort of lady companion to the wild daughter of a rich woman. Her mission is to paint a portrait of her so that she can be married off to a Milanese aristocrat, something that the young woman does not want at all -- a male painter was already dismissed in no uncertain terms as soon as his mission was known. The always angry Adèle Haenel was the perfect choice for this movie. The outcome is inevitable -- both of the young women catch on fire.
Bitter Flowers is a Belgian movie filmed in Paris and the very unpopular Chinese region of Dongbei (according to all of the snide remarks made by the Chinese Parisians). It is almost entirely in Mandarin. A determined woman pays to illegally immigrate to France, leaving her husband and young son at home. She is certain that she will earn all of the necessary money for her restaurant project because of the stories that she has heard. Oops, things do not turn out as planned. She works at first as a nanny for only 25% of the amount she expected and still gets cheated ("I'm deducting 100 euros from the 500 because of the vase you broke." "But I didn't break the vase -- you know that your son did!" "You are paid to look after him, so it's your fault."). She really tries hard to find a job elsewhere, but ends up doing what happens to so many of these women. At least she is finally sending significant amounts of money to her husband. But then a terrible thing happens -- one of her good friends comes to join her since she was doing so well. The truth finally comes out, and they end up asking the French government for voluntary repatriation. While our protagonist Lina knows how to keep her mouth shut, he friend was so traumatised that she confesses all to her husband, who wastes no time informing Lina's husband, who moves out. And things go one from there, all very depressing. I have seen all of these women hanging around certain metro stations in Paris, so that made it even more upsetting.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 25, 2019 16:10:49 GMT
Fionn Whitehead is certainly not following the traditional path for a young actor who headlined in Dunkirk. After Roads, which I already mentioned here, now he is the star of Port Authority, which is even more extreme. A young man leaves Pittsburgh to live in New York, but his half sister is not there to meet him as he expected. In fact, when he finally manages to contact her, she wants nothing to do with him. After he gets in a fight in the subway, a shady character takes him under his wing and lets him have a bed in some sort of flophouse housing place. One of the other residents introduces him to the world of vogueing, which he is discovering for the first time. He is particularly attracted to one of the young women in the group, but all is not what it appears to be...
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 29, 2019 15:01:16 GMT
Bacurau is a relatively amazing Brazilian western that takes place in the near future. Bacurau is a small village in the Nordeste region ("the butthole of Brazil"). It has been chosen by a group of North American "hunters" (and also German Udo Kier, the group leader) who have always wanted to be mass murderers but have never dared to do it in their home country. In this place off the map, they can do it in total impunity. It is cut off from the world -- telephone service, water, electricity, etc. are all turned off -- and the killing can begin. But the villagers have been through many problems in the past and know how to deal with such people. Very bloody, but also the winner of the Jury Prize at the last Cannes festival. The director previously made the wonderful film Aquarius about a woman resisting eviction by real estate developers.
Au nom de la terre is one of those grim agricultural movies which make it clear to us city folk that it is the worst profession in the world -- incredibly noble but doomed. Guillaume Canet is an optimist farmer with cows, chickens, goats, wheat... all sorts of things. He took over the place from his grumpy father. Since he worked on an American farm in his youth, he understands that expansion is the only solution, so he goes into debt to build bigger and better buildings for more and more animals. But the equipment breaks down -- how do you feed 10,000 chickens when the automatic feeding apparatus breaks down? And one day there is a fire that destroys one of the barns and kills all of the livestock. Watching this movie, you know there will be no happy ending. The farmer has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalised while his family tries to keep the farm operational. He returns in better shape, but the farm is still struggling. And he commits suicide by drinking pesticide.
Okay fine, this is a movie, but what about the real world. We see the tombstone of the farmer -- 1954-1999 (because that is when the story takes place) -- and then we see an identical tombstone with the name of the director's father and the same dates, because in fact it is a completely true story of what happened. Absolutely terrible truth. And yet it makes rural life look lovely. The Flemish actress from The Broken Circle Breakdown plays his wife.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2019 10:57:19 GMT
So, I saw the Downton Abbey movie. Made my skin crawl. Excruciating. Most of you will love it.
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Post by bjd on Sept 30, 2019 14:20:25 GMT
That Jesus Rolls film looks like it should be in Spanish, not Italian!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 1, 2019 4:23:38 GMT
Finding the whole tv series cringe-worthy after watching a couple of early episodes Just so y'all know, I hate both of you.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 4, 2019 17:36:05 GMT
I will not deny that the technical wizardry of Gemini Man is impressive. Seeing Will Smith at age 50 and Will Smith at age 20 acting together is nothing short of amazing. But the plot is shitty and ridiculous, just like in a James Bond movie.
Ang Lee has made some excellent movies, but he should be ashamed of this one. I'm sure that he will be ashamed all the way to the bank.
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Post by lugg on Oct 4, 2019 18:07:32 GMT
Edie sounds like something I would really enjoy - it is unlikely to be shown in my local cinema so I will have search it out elsewhere. Bixa - even my friends and family who are huge fans of Downton have reported that the film is crap ( sorry) Have you seen it yet? Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is certainly a film that I want to see.
Has anyone seen Judy yet ? I was listening to an interview with Renée Zellweger and it made me want to see it. I think the reviews are mixed so far ?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 4, 2019 18:14:11 GMT
Bjd, no, I haven't seen the Downton Abbey movie yet and yes, I know it has awful reviews. But I consider the series just wonderful entertainment and allowed myself to be emotionally manipulated by it, plus I adored the clothes. I expect the movie to fill the same bill. Have you seen the trailer for Judy? I kind of hate bio-pics, especially ones showing the disintegration of the subject. That said, I loved La Vie en Rose and do want to see Judy.
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Post by lugg on Oct 4, 2019 18:18:26 GMT
Lugg even
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Post by lugg on Oct 4, 2019 18:21:55 GMT
Not seen the trailer Bixa .. but just watched Mark Kermode's review on You Tube - makes me want to see it even more
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 9, 2019 16:56:51 GMT
Okay, Joker is as disturbing as shit. It is also brilliant. I completely understand the people who are worried about the influence it might have on unstable incels (and not just them), but it delivers a very important message about the state of society now (even if it purportedly takes place in Gotham City at the end of the 1970's). It does not at all glorify violence even though it splashes it in your face. If Joaquin Phoenix does not win the Oscar for best actor, he will have been robbed.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 9, 2019 17:47:55 GMT
This is how Phoenix developed the character's laugh: "I watched videos of people suffering from pathological laughter, a neurological disorder that makes individuals laugh uncontrollably." source
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 19, 2019 22:12:50 GMT
Here are just a few recent ones...
Martin Eden - an Italian adaptation of the novel by Jack London, set in Naples instead of San Francisco. It takes place in an indeterminate time period with elements from 1920 to 2018 but it mostly feels like the 1930s due to the clothing. Luca Marinelli's performance was impressive enough for him to win Best Actor at the Mostra. It's in Italian, Neapolitan and a bit of French.
L'Angle Mort (Blind Spot) is a strange French movie about a man who is sporadically invisible. He used to be able to control his invisibility but as he gets older, it is erratic. I was not captivated at first, but then it grew on me. As you know, you have to be completely naked to be invisible, and this is not something that is very practical in the middle of winter.
Camille is the true story of a young photo journalist who went to the Central African Republic. The actress is very impressive. The movie uses the actual still photos that Camille Lepage took. She was killed by the rebels.
Papicha is an Algerian movie that takes place during the civil war in the 1990s. It concerns brave young women who refuse to change their lifestyle and put on a fashion show at their university. Then the Islamic fundamentalists break in and shoot everybody. The movie has been selected to represent Algeria at the Oscars, but the authorities cancelled local release of the movie "until futher notice." Since a movie has to be released in its country by the end of September to qualify, the director applied for special dispensation and received it.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 21, 2019 13:33:44 GMT
For a change of pace, I went to see the animated movie La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia (The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily), adapted from the novel by Dino Buzzati. I enjoy simple 2D animation, and this was in the style of The Red Turtle or Ernest & Celestine. The movie strays from the plot of the novel a bit, but that doesn't really matter, does it? Bear king Leonzio gets separated from his son Tonio on a fishing expedition. After not being able to find him anywhere, he understands that Tonio is now living with the humans in the city. There is a battle between the Grand Duke of Sicily and the bears, and the bears win. Help is provided by a nice human magician, and there are some visually beautiful encounters with the army of wild boars, which are transformed into floating balloons as well as a sky ballet by the ghosts of dead bears. Leonzio rules over Sicily, and the humans and bears live in harmony except for one problem -- the bears are becoming too much like the humans and are losing their simple bearish values.
Once again the French trailer and the internaitonal trailer tell totally different stories.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 24, 2019 19:50:00 GMT
Takeshi Kitano used to be my favourite Japanese director, but anything he is doing is no longer reaching Europe. But that has permitted me to appreciate the strange films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa in recent years. He made a number of just barely science fiction movies -- Japanese life with a twist, but his latest movie is a bit different. For one thing, it was apparently financed by Uzbekistan, which wanted him to make a movie there... That is already a bit weird in itself.
So this movie Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari (English language title -- To the Ends of the Earth) takes place in Uzbekistan, which is already wonderful. How often do you get to see that country? A Japanese film crew is filming a television show there. They are looking for some sort of legendary fish in an artificial lake. They never find it, so they decide to shoot footage of unusual sights in the country. We get fleeting glimpses of Samarkand and Tashkent -- both places clearly have wonderful things to see -- but they instead film local food specialities, a small amusement park, markets and a captive goat.
The main character is a chirpy little TV girl, unhappy with her job because she wants to be a singer. (An inside joke for Japanese audiences is that the star Atsuko Maeda is a real Japanese pop star who wants to be a serious actress.) She eats terrible food, goes on horrible rides but soldiers on each time with cheerful commentary. But she also remains independent from the film crew and wanders in the cities in places where none of us would ever go, gets in trouble with the authorities because of this but also has a phantasmagorical moment at the Tashkent Opera where she sings Edith Piaf's "Hymne à l'amour" (in Japanese) on an empty stage to an empty house but with the Uzbekistan national orchestra playing.
I loved this movie.
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