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L’appartement
Vincent Cassel can be really charming or really creepy in his movies, but he’s always compelling. In L’appartement (The Apartment), he plays a guy who drops everything to go track down an old girlfriend (Monica Belucci) after catching a glimpse of her running out of a restaurant. The glitch: he’s got a new girlfriend, to whom he’s about to propose, and he has a job, both of which he has to abandon temporarily as he goes on reminiscing about his old flame.
Their love story unfolds through a series of flashbacks that help shed light on events that take place in the present. At times, the non-linear storytelling is hard to follow, and things are further complicated by the revalation of a love triangle that doesn’t involve the fiancée.
In love stories like these, it’s usually the woman who’s tormented, is always falling passionately in love and who is overly complex. Take Katherine Heigl, for instance, in two of her more dreadful comedies: 27 Dresses and that other forgettable comedy she does with the good-looking gladiator from 300. Her character is all over the place; she thinks she knows what she wants but doesn’t; wants a fairy-tale and needs to be rescued from herself by some straight-talking, steak-and-potatoes guy who knows how men think. In L’appartement, it’s definitely the guy who falls in love easily and is reckless with his emotions and needs rescuing. Somewhat creepy but very compelling.
Avatar
David and I watched Avatar on DVD last night. We saw it in 3D at the IMAX theater in Seattle (David has seen it three times in the theater) back in January and I loved it. I can’t remember the last time I sat through the same movie twice, or wanted to see such a long movie a second time. The Avatar images are mesmerizing and the story, about a warrior bringing peace to tree-dwellers who worship their ancestors, live in complete harmony with nature and who pose no threat, is compelling. I could watch this movie again and again.
As much as I liked the anti-war message of the film, I also enjoyed the zingy and inappropriate one-liners that the trigger-happy colonel fires off nonchalantly during combat, things like: “and that’s how you scatter the roaches,” and “I would say diplomacy has failed.”
Death Note
David’s coworker lent him a Japanese thriller called Death Note. Since the Blue Ray jacket depicted a set of wings and a guy with heavy makeup biting his thumb, I dismissed the movie as an adaptation of some popular video game or anime series that woudn’t interest me. But there’s nothing like the pressure to return borrowed property in a timely fashion to kick the urge to procrastinate. We watched the movie last night and I was pleasantly surprised.
It’s about a law student who finds a ledger – the Death Note – abandoned by an undead, clown-like, winged grim reaper with feathery epaulettes and heavy-metal jewelry. The angel of death follows the student around, offering up advice and historical anecdotes while chomping down on apples, er…the forbidden fruit. His ledger, He explains, grants the person who possesses it (finders, keepers) the power to kill with impunity just by writing the victim’s real name down on one of the pages. The holder of the book can also specify the time of death and how he wants his victims to die. But luckily the film stays focused on the supernatural aspect of the deaths and not the killings. There are a couple of foaming-at-the-mouth scenes but at no time are we treated to creative murders, like impalements on household objects or stiletto heels piercing through the eyeballs.
The student initially uses his power to rid the world of murderers and sleazebags, but then starts scheduling random hits to cover his tracks and to off anyone who gets in the way of his killing. The entire law enforcement community gets involved to help solve the supernatural killings. Some of the crime theories made no sense but they won’t detract from the story as long as you accept that the Death Note follows its own logic.
The story of the death note sounds cinematic to inspire an American remake but I doubt it would be very good. The subtle aspects that made the film so interesting probably wouldn’t fly with Hollywood movie executives, who would surely ramp up the American version with over-the-top actors – including an annoying it girl to play the love interest and a comedian to play the intelligent detective – bizarre killings, an obnoxious soundtrack and several car chases. I’m hoping some director will prove me wrong.
The Twilight Saga: Old Cheese
I was a little disappointed with New Moon. The vampire makeup was bad; the dialogue was cheesy and the story just wasn’t as interesting as the first one. Perhaps the movie makers were trying too hard to stick to the book.
Bella is boring and spends most of the movie either pining or being rescued by her werewolf and vampire love interests. And I much preferred Edward in the first movie, when he was the rock-star-cool boyfriend, with tweed suits and dark secrets. In New Moon, he was just the old guy at the club wearing white makeup and red lipstick. And he comes across as a wimp, threatening to leave Bella to protect her, and then flying off to some Vatican-style court in Italy to kill himself.
Granted, I am not the target audience but I can appreciate a good vampire love story, especially one that’s set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I’m hoping the third book will be better.
Antichrist
Poor David. I made him sit through Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. I admit it was hard to make sense of any of it, but at least it was thought provoking.
The film opens with a tragic event that leads a woman and her husband to retreat to a desolate log cabin to deal with their grief. The tragedy, and subsequent grief, inspire three depressing chapters, entitled Grief, Pain and Despair. Scenes in the movie play out segments of a bizarre, tortured dream that I didn’t fully understand. Animals in the wild are acting strangely and turning against each other and then the people follow suit. It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t, and how the title Antichrist played into any of this.
Bizarre. One of the messages could have been that some tragedies are so painful that no other I’d probably have to watch it again for it to make any sense at all but I’m not ready to live those those images of the people or the animals.
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