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Martyrs (2008)
purifying
I short - a girl from asylum fights with her inner daemons which seem real as real as they can be. Being a guardian angel is an other younger girl helping her stay in contact with reality. But this is just the established starting point.
I won't go into describing the turns and twists of this movie because they play a rather important role in creating the mood and feeling. But i didn't find the points i found interesting about this movie in other reviews.
The visual solution is not so subjective as usually is done in these kind of movies with a person suffering from some kind of mental problems. It connects you to the main protagonists but still it's rather distanced, as watched from a safe point of view. I guess it's because of the gore content, which shown in a more subjective, emotional (or painful) way would make this movie unacceptable than it is. But still you can say that it's not the extreme like other reviewers are saying. It's not the top, but it's made right like it should be because gore violence is not really the aim here.
I'd say the idea behind is the pivotal point why this movie works. Though violent against women, it works strong in putting women in a role of a messiah. You cannot avoid seeing similarities with Jesus Christ and Jeanne D'Arc.
Being the victim of a sick world, the crazy, insane girl becomes a saint. In some way it's a resemblance to the modern world increased in intensity to the limits. Still the problems of a Western world inhabit lives of all these characters. The killing burden of conscience, struggle for a higher knowledge inaccessible to human mind, struggle for immortality. It's all there in a physically sensible way.
I'd say this movie goes as far as being a manifest of feminist philosophy. Not many horror movies i've seen are as multilayer-ed as this one.
Nevertheless extremely hard to watch, not for everyone.
Little Children (2006)
thought provoking
I started watching this movie rather skeptical because of the storyteller who guides us through out the whole movie. It seemed useless when communicating simple relations, thoughts and emotions of characters. But as movie goes, the relations keep going more and more complex adding more and more characters and in the end it feels very reasonable to have some sort of commentator.
The movie is rather complex, seven rather important characters in one movie is not seen everyday. When you think that the character is revealed completely you still find something new to reevaluate him/her. Each of them in their own way. Basically each of the main characters are met in a moment in their lives when they are not at the happiest moment, when everything has gone so far that you cannot continue not to do anything. Your emotions, life expectations, feelings etc have come to a degree you cannot ignore.
Brad is unable to communicate his beautiful wife who is giving all her attention to their new born child.
Sarah in search for her own time works as an aggressor against her closest ones.
And they choose not to deal with the situation but rather escape in a dream land, in a land where you can try to forget the past and maybe try everything from the start. But what they are forgetting is the responsibility they have put on them selves what they have to deal with first of all.
There are many ideas communicated besides the main one. "there is a start for any changes". No matter how good you realize (or intellectualize) the danger surrounding you, you are still vulnerable for irrational emotions when danger comes to your house. The irrational - whole village is expelling a member of society who once showed his genitals to children. Rather than dealing with this member, everybody fears him like a deadly infected one - place where calling people "little children" is appropriate.
Anything Else (2003)
intelligence and emotions
I used to think that all Woody Allen movies are about himself. You take any and 90% are him talking about himself in different periods of life. Some sort of a continuous autobiography. This movie looked like one of those therefor i was skeptical at the beginning. I have to say that it still was about himself :). But nevertheless it was one of the best ones i ever like from Woody. It was funny but not in a hilarious kind of way. You smile at the people you see, at their emotions and you believe those emotions by 100%. Everybody has been in these situations, everybody has had these feelings. Too much unnecessary sentiment, clichés and banalities is what usually kills the good feeling in these kind of movies. In this one you don't get this stuff. It's intelligent, full of irony, emotions, maybe a bit too much of 'old mans wisdom' but it doesn't do too much harm here.
What for acting - of course it was great, Jason Biggs (maybe too much talking the nervous Allen style), Danny deVito, Cristina Ricci. I liked them all.
Don't Look Now (1973)
drilling into you
though i watched this movie late in the evening, rather sleepy, beginning of this movie woke me up and didn't let me go right till the end.
I saw some people say that director purposely was breaking rules of movie making but i don't see it that way. He was using the very rules, the bricks of narrative technique by putting them together in a puzzling way. Editing style of "Don't look now" is disorienting and distracting right from the beginning. Lots of mirror images, constant distraction 180 degree action line, unmotivated sounds and so many more is used ingeniously to create the necessary mood. The constant background sound of water makes me feel wet and soaking, you begin to be afraid from sound of water by the end of the movie. The use of water motif in murders and the followed use of it in background sound works perfectly. The beautiful and tourist friendly Venice is given a completely different image. Like a maze where two people loose themselves and each other running after their memories (or running away from them). Another motif used through out the movie was red color. It was almost the only color most of the time on the screen, besides blues of the main characters, all the rest was grayish desaturated look.
Overall it's a perfect example of fear generated from deeper emotions not from monsters suffering from excessive saliva.
Chung Hing sam lam (1994)
a mix of spices
Right from the first second you get sucked in the events and lives of heroes of this movie. It's absolute liveliness makes it hard to watch from an emotional distance. It is colorful, full of feelings, joy and loneliness. It is a feeling that comes from a way this movie is shot. Every single shot is a joy to the eye. You can feel the director cares for every shot, each episode. The movie suggests a very claustrophobic feeling, taken mostly in small rooms, crowded market places. If you add the shaky camera movements then all this together emphasizes in a way the loneliness of characters and the struggle avoiding this loneliness. It also serves to emphasize the characters dreams of a better, sunnier, warmer place (more for the second part of the movie).
Gummo (1997)
incredibly lively
Watched it only once but i got a feeling that it has to be watched several times. Not to get a sense of some kind of plot cause there isn't any (in a traditional way from narrative movies). Just to feel the different aspects of what is told in the movie. Very fragmented but still - sticks together perfectly. The most intriguing part of this movie is seeing the contrast as for how unreal the characters are, how bizarre and grotesque and at the same time - how alive. The characters, the way the movie it is shot and edited. Don't look for narrative, look for contrasts and the attitude to the real world!
Watched it without blinking from the first to the last minute!
The New Rulers of the World (2001)
a must see for consumers; that is each of us
there are loads of movies, audio and written material accessible to mass public shouting on the bad globalization, ugly politics etc, etc never going into detail, never explaining what does it actually mean, how we've come to this point and what were the reasons.
This is not that kind of movie. It goes deeper to the beginning of so called globalization in the most analytical detail as i've seen so far. Pilger took one specific country (Indonesia) and went back to 60's where it all started. Asking brave, direct questions to each side involved and getting back different views on the topic. And here you can see that none can bear the responsibility of the system, every corporation, every government can account for a tiny little part of the "evil" therefore stay virtually clean.
I've heard people don't like these kind of movies cause they don't give you any hint on solutions. They shouldn't give. They are to make you think , to make you aware. And nevertheless it teaches people to recognize professional, analytical documentaries (or interview essays in this case) like this one from manipulative, shouting peaces of garbage that flood the public knowledge.
It's a shame that this is the first comment on a this movie which is 7 years old by now.