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Last seen...

I can't believe it! I talk about having a flat tire, and a minute later it happens!

Finally got around to seeing The Inner Life of Martin Frost, Paul Auster's second attempt as a film director after the interesting-but-flawed Lulu On The Bridge. And well, nobody's ever going to accuse Auster of wild thematic shifts; like many of his recent novels, this is a metafictional story of a writer and the creative process - specifically, what happens when a story he's writing literally takes on a life of its own, in the shape of a muse become flesh and blood. Maybe. Or maybe she's just an aspect of himself. Hell, maybe she's even a real person. Whatever she is, he's responsible for her.

But those aren't dreams. They're real.

Mirrors don't count.

Auster definitely has some talent when it comes to directing, with a slightly Lynchian sensibility even if he's much too fond of voiceovers to carry the plot. He's got a good cast in Thewlis, Jacob and Imperioli, and the story itself is rather subtly told and never crawls as far up its own solipsist ass as Travels In The Scriptorium did. But as enjoyable a trifle as it is, I still can't help but think that it would be nice if Auster ever gets back to telling stories that aren't just stories about a writer trying to tell a story. :star3:



I've also seen Gran Torino :)stars5:), A Life Less Ordinary :)stars2:) and An American Crime :)stars3:) lately.
 
Watched In and Out on Saturday – stereotypes and clichés galore, but still works and is fun. Some good performances (Tom Selleck is close to being a revelation) and the underlying message of tolerance and the stupidity of bigotry is always welcome.

Saw A Room With a View yesterday – always delightful.

Watched Bram Stoker's Dracula on Saturday – it's somewhat ironic that FW Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu is actually closer to Stoker's novel than Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film.

It's filmed very interestingly and is an extrarodinarily sensual reworking of the story, which is no bad thing, but the love elements (Dracula is driven to the 'dark side' by the death of his bride, and Mina effectively takes her place later) bear no relation to Stoker's original.

This makes for some confusion for anyone familiar with the novel. While the novel's themes are pretty clear (see my review here), Coppola seems to send out a set of very mixed messages.

There are hints toward the modern 'version' of the syphilis that so terrified Victorians in HIV/Aids, but Mina and Lucy are made far more sexual characters than the literary originals. And the relationship between Dracula and Mina is fascinating, in that it seems to suggest that love and lust are pretty much interchangeable. What it does do – which is completely opposed to the novel, but a fascinating 'message' in terms of the HIV/Aids era – is suggest that lust is perfectly healthy, and even that non-monogamy is not the greatest crime.

Then again, is Mina a willing lover to Dracula or not?

The younger characters, as with the book, remain generally fairly thin and most fun is to be had from watching Gary Oldman in the title role and Anthony Hopkins as van Helsing.


In such a film mood, I might get to the cinema this year. Indeed, there are three films now out that tempt me – Underworld – Rise of the Lycans, for sheer good fun, plus Frost Nixon and Milk.
 
I seen Underworld: Rise of the Lycans at theaters as my latest. I really enjoyed it. I have only seen the first movie and I didn't particularly like it, but I wouldn't mind seeing this installment again.

Last DVD I seen was Wanted and all I can say for it was that I liked the scene where the main character whacks his best friend in the face with the keyboard to his computer. Everything else was very 'meh'...
 
Fantasy Moon said:
I seen Underworld: Rise of the Lycans at theaters as my latest. I really enjoyed it. I have only seen the first movie and I didn't particularly like it, but I wouldn't mind seeing this installment again.

Last DVD I seen was Wanted and all I can say for it was that I liked the scene where the main character whacks his best friend in the face with the keyboard to his computer. Everything else was very 'meh'...
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I liked the ending also where she went around the room...:whistling:
 
I watched Taken a month or two ago. It comes out in Theaters very soon. It came out in Europe a while ago and I was able to get a DVD quality of it from a friend. Movie is about the kidnapping of an ex-military man. The reason I liked it is because the bad guys finally get a beating in which the viewer can be 100% satisfied with.
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Twilight... I didn't like it that much, I expected it to be a bit darker. I also felt that the tension between Bella and Edward was a “bit forced” from the beginning, almost like the tension was way too strong at first.
 
Burden of Dreams. Very good documentary about one of the most ambitious and possibly insane movie shoots ever, that of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, in which Herzog, in order to film a story about a half-mad European hiring the local native Americans to pull a steamship over a mountain in the middle of the Amazon, hires the local native Americans to pull a steamship over a mountain in the middle of the Amazon. Oh, and there's a war on, and his lead actor gets deadly ill, and his replacement hates Herzog, and the crew refuse to work without hookers, and they're stuck in the jungle for years becoming more and more frustrated. Quoth Herzog in his inimitable accent:
Nature here is vile and base. I wouldn't see anything erotical here. I would see fornication and asphyxiation and choking and fighting for survival and... growing and... just rotting away. Of course, there's a lot of misery. But it is the same misery that is all around us. The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they sing. They just screech in pain.
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:star4:
 
beer good said:
Burden of Dreams. Very good documentary about one of the most ambitious and possibly insane movie shoots ever, that of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, in which Herzog, in order to film a story about a half-mad European hiring the local native Americans to pull a steamship over a mountain in the middle of the Amazon, hires the local native Americans to pull a steamship over a mountain in the middle of the Amazon. Oh, and there's a war on, and his lead actor gets deadly ill, and his replacement hates Herzog, and the crew refuse to work without hookers, and they're stuck in the jungle for years becoming more and more frustrated. Quoth Herzog in his inimitable accent: :star4:
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I haven't seen this one, but I love My Best Fiend, which has a lot of making-of footage from this. I love when the natives offer to kill Kinski.:lol:
 
lenny nero said:
I haven't seen this one, but I love My Best Fiend, which has a lot of making-of footage from this. I love when the natives offer to kill Kinski.:lol:
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My Best Fiend and Burden of Dreams would make an excellent double bill, even if they share some footage. BoD is much more focussed on Herzog himself, and it's both hilarious and rather chilling... like the scene where the local engineering expert is trying to explain to Herzog how many people would be crushed under the boat if the construction breaks down halfway, and Herzog replies "So we're talking about 20-30 dead...?" as if he's actually calculating if he could live with that. And the bit where he's trying to get Kinski to do retakes of the scene on board the boat, while the boat they're both on is barelling out of control down the rapids and the cameraman lies bleeding on the deck. The man's insane. He's one of the greatest movie directors of the last 40 years, but he's insane.
So we are cursed with what we are doing here. It's a land that God, if he exists has - has created in anger. It's the only land where - where creation is unfinished yet. Taking a close look at - at what's around us there - there is some sort of a harmony. It is the harmony of... overwhelming and collective murder.
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And the bit where he's trying to get Kinski to do retakes of the scene on board the boat, while the boat they're both on is barelling out of control down the rapids and the cameraman lies bleeding on the deck.
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That scene is in Fiend, the look on Kinski's face as he's flashing looks between the upcoming rapids and Herzog directing him is just wonderful. I love to hear Herzog speak, I find his voice hypnotic sometimes. Did you ever see that footage of when he was walking along with a documentary crew and got shot by a random bullet?
 
watched slumdog millionaire. Reminded me of City of God but different. Not an easy watch but very well done. One of the better films I've seen at the cinema for sometime (well since the 3rd Bourne as I missed the Dark Knight which is unusual for a Batman comic fan).
 
Repo! The Genetic Opera. Futuristic rock opera (starring Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman and... Paris Hilton!?) that tries way too hard to be a Rocky Horror-meets-Saw cult classic. Looks good if you're into the Tim Burton thing, and it's hard not to admire the sheer audacity of it, but suffers from lack of humour and crap songs. :star2:
 
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