Change Your Image
ramanujanhelmy
Reviews
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Great Film
One of Woody Allen's best films among his other thirty-five (the best, I think, is either Annie Hall, or Manhattan). One of the most brilliant things about this movie is the lighting, and cinematography by Zhao Fei, who also worked with Allen in Sweet and Lowdown, and who was also responsible for two of the most beautiful films I've ever seen (Kaige's 'The Emperor and the Assassin', and Yimou's 'Raise the Red Lantern'). The use of mirrors and reflections on the glass was also kinda nice. Most of the scenes, like in the insurance company office, were filmed with a sepia filter: this and the lighting reminds me a lot of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 'Flowers Of Shanghai', another one of those most beautiful films. The dialogue, especially from Woody Allen's character, is as always in his films, witty and funny, even more so than most of his films in the past five years. Oh, and the soundtrack is also great. I'm not sure if there was some from Woody's regular jazz band, but I hope so. For film-lovers, look out for the two references to Frederico Fellini (1) The hypnotism scene, like in 'Nights of Cabiria', and (2) Laura Kensington's reference to 'jumping into publuc fountains', which reminds me, of that famous scene in 'La Dolce Vita'. The plots is twisted and labyrinthine as some of Woody's better films, and the acting is, as usual, brilliant. Overall, this is an excellent film. I won't claim that there is something new in it, but most of the things were exquisitely executed.
Ta'm e guilass (1997)
One of the Best Films of the 90s.
Abbas Kiarostami has not only been critically lauded by film critics and theorists, but also by some of the greatest directors, from the late Akira Kurosawa and Atom Egoyan to the legendary 'Film God' Jean-Luc Godard. This is probably of his fresh use of ideas and spiritual/humanism way to directing and writing his films. His work, according to the director himself, is reminiscent of Andrei Tarkovsky (who had made the most spiritual films ever made), Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Theo Angelopoulos and Frederico Fellini (although I would also add directors like, Yasujiro Ozu) who want the audience to let the film live in their minds soons after, letting them fill some details of the story. This technique reminds me both of the short stories of Anton Chekhov and South-Asian Minimalism, such as the 'Palm-Hands Stories' of Yasunari Kawabata (Nobel-Prize laureate), where less is more. His methods of rubbing the line between fiction and nonfiction is an excellent way, a common theme in his films. Taste of Cherry is one of his best films (then again, I have only seen four of them). It is also very demanding, especially the ending, which might be a disappointment (he did made a alternate ending, though, without that video thing at the end, as an experiment in one festival screening). There are many things to notice in this film: (1) The helicopter sounds in the background (some spiritual metaphor?) (2) Earth and Naturalism (there's a lot of earth and dust in this movie, and the far shot of the grave reminded me of a painting by Manet). (3) The acting. The actor remainds almost stone-faced throughout the movie, again showing by concealing. Trivia: The actor, Mr. Badii, was not actually face-to-face with most of his passengers. For the first passenger, the soldier was face-to-face with Kiarostami himself for the whole segment (you never see Mr. Badii and the Soldier in one same shot). In fact, none of the passengers, at the beginning (except probably the taxonomist) knew that he was in a movie. Kiarostami revealed that only to them later (except for the soldier, who actually did ran off). The seminarian actually believed truly that Kiarostami was going to kill himself. Overall, this is an excellent movie. But, it is not the sort one can compare its quality with others (just like one cannot compare the works of David Lynch with others), since it has its own style to it. However, I was confused at one point when the taxonomist said 'Mulberry' instead of 'Cherry', but then again, perhaps he wasn't actually refering to the same thing.
Happy Accidents (2000)
Lousy Film
This film is supposed to be intelligent, right? So I watched it with a critical eye, not like the way I watched films like 'Rush Hour II' or American Pie II which were made exclusively for entertainment. The main reason I think this is a bad film, inferior to Session 9 is because it is so banal. The dialogue is banal, which, if it wasn't because of the good acting by both Tomei (despite playing a very annoying an pretentious character) and D'Onofrio, would be obviously ridiculous and pretentious. Even the science fiction element is bad and unimaginative. Of course, it is very difficult to get new ideas on science fiction topics, moreover on time travel, but, at least be a bit mature about it (the anarchist colony idea was kindergarten stupid, if you ask be, an idea that was explored and already ridiculous in the 50s. And a bar-code ID? I didn't think they used that idea anymore! ). It is funny though, in a Jay Leno way, recycling old jokes and situations that have been used a hundred types before about dating, finding Mr. Right etc, and the common paranoid new yorker, reminiscent of Woody Allen and Seinfeld. The film's intelligence is only superficial, those ponderings on the nature of love and relationships are from the mother templates; nothing new.
The direction is good though, especially the lighting. Some of the doorway shots are interesting. The interior monologue style of narration is rather fresh (though making it part of a psychiatrist visit is an often used idea, from 'There's Something About Mary' to 'Timecode').
Overall this is lousy story and script. Everything else is fine.