Reviews

Simply put and without undeserved hyperbole, this is one of the greatest fantasy/action-adventure films of all time. A little confusing on a first viewing, but makes complete sense subsequently. Should be seen many times to truly appreciate the amazing action sequences by Ching Sui Tong, Hong Kong's best action choreographer.

Affliction's only saving grace is its performances, by Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn, and Brigit Tierney. However Willem Dafoe's wooden voice-over narration, Paul Schrader's poor direction, and the story's inevitability stunt the film's dramatic force. The narration at the very beginning tells us what will happen, but even if it did not, we would know, such is the pervasive inevitability of the story. So we are dragged on masochistically for 2 hours watching a man's life fall apart knowing nothing can prevent it. Then the shockingly bad narration at the end gives us the unenlightening message that fathers should not beat their sons.

The first half of Lolita is an amazing achievement in depicting a paedophile's fantasies coming true. Jeremy Irons turns in one of his best performances, which is saying a lot, and Dominique Swain perfectly embodies Lolita physically. Unfortunately, the tone of the second half changes so drastically, it almost seems like a different movie. It becomes overly dramatic and the style turns almost haphazard. The film's biggest flaw however is that, unlike the book, Lolita does not seem to have any real love for Humbert Humbert at all, and it is this element (perhaps too dangerous to American puritan sensibilities) that would have made her character so much more complex and interesting. Whoever greenlit Lolita to the tune of $60 million was insane, and such a budget is really unnecessary for a story like this. It does look like its cost though. Cinematographer Howard Atherton lights every shot stunningly, too stunningly. Humbert and Lolita's trip across America should look seedy and squalid. Instead it is postcard gothic. I've focused on Lolita's negatives, but it really is a good movie. "Nine 1/2 Weeks" Lyne reins in his Zalman King predilections for the most part and makes his best film. Irons' sympathetic performance alone makes it worth seeing.

I was mesmerized by this 7-hour long 1994 Hungarian film called "Satantango." Filmed entirely in black and white, director Bela Tarr has created some of the most stunning images I've seen on film. The opening shot, about 10 minutes long, is an enormous tracking shot following a herd of cows wandering through an otherwise desolate village. Then there's this 10-minute take of a window at dawn. Everything but the window is dark, then ever so slowly morning light brings the objects in the room into view, a character finally enters, peers out the window, then goes back to bed. There's a 5-minute tracking shot of two characters hurrying down the street in a horrendous wind while a veritable tornado of garbage and litter whirls about them. There's a stark, almost surreal woods strewn with fog. No take is less than a minute long, and there are about a dozen around 10 minutes. The average edited shot in a Hollywood film is less than 10 seconds. It's almost mind-boggling the logistical and practical difficulties of sustaining such long takes. In a great many, Tarr utilizes extensive camera movement. The camera tracks and weaves and gives you a sense of space found in few other films -- maybe those of a Welles, Ophuls, or Kubrick. The dance in the middle of the film from which the film takes its title is shown in one 10-minute take. It cuts away to a little girl watching the dance for a few minutes, then cuts back to the dance for another 10-minute take. And nothing about this sequence is boring. The eight actors in the scene carry on heartily. Another inspired shot has the camera revolving around seven sleeping characters while a narrator describes the dreams of each.

The story concerns a group of poor villagers who gets conned by a smart talker who was once one of their own into giving up all their money to go live on a non-existent communal farm. The first 4-1/2 hours is made up of 5 "stories" from the perspective of different characters over the course of the same day. Some of the events in each story overlap, so you see them occur again and again, but each time from a different perspective since they occur in the context of a different character's life. It is not unlike what Tarantino does with a segment in "Jackie Brown," but whereas Tarantino's technique is tiresome because it is plot-related, Tarr's is a grand achievement in tone.

The first story shows us Futaki, who while having an affair with Mrs. Schmid, finds out that her husband is planning to make off with the money that eight villagers have come into through one of conman Irimias's schemes. Then they both discover Irimias, who was thought to be dead, has returned to their village. The second story follows Irimias and his trying to evade trouble with the law. The third shows us a doctor who observes the other villagers and who writes down everything he experiences in journals that he keeps. The fourth has a young girl taking out her miseries in life on a cat and contemplates suicide. The fifth shows all the pertinent villagers gather together at a bar and drinking and dancing until they are all in a drunken stupor.

Satantango is one of the grand achievements in cinema of this decade.