War and Peace

finally saw War and Peace. It was very long, but had many great scenes. The dances in the beginning were stunning and strange, the war later was insanely unsettling. The looting of Moscow in the middle of it burning to the ground was astonishing. There's too much for me to really even think about all at once. A big movie.

Tillsammans

Saw Together (AKA Tillsammans) It was really nice. It was set in Sweden in the 70s. Really kind-natured stuff.

The Man form Earth

Saw The Man form Earth. It was interesting but far more preoccupied with its concept than anything else. There were necessarily annoying things about it (so you REALLY don't age??) The concept was interesting enough to easily carry the film, so no biggie. An interesting sci-fi think-piece.

His Girl Friday

Saw His Girl Friday. It was a fun screwball comedy. I'll bet it was a riot to act. I sure wish screwballs wouldn't put its characters through the emotional wringer like that though.

The Wrestler

Saw The Wrestler. I noticed a neat thematic thing: the wrestler's arch-nemesis is "The Ayatollah," a relic of bygone troop-rallying. The climactic re-match mirrors the throwback-ery of the film itself, which is about a man whose strength has made him vulnerable. An inherently pathetic genre is made all the more cutting by the refinements of modern cinema. Even though I could predict the punches, I couldn't see how hard they would hit. A near-final shot of an empty gap in the curtains acts as a final, awful moment. Not quite as tough as Requiem for a Dream (another Aronofsky movie) but boy was trying.

The Tin Drum

Saw The Tin Drum. An almost Brechtian exploration of the absurdities of war. A strident mixture of whimsy and grotesquery. There are several bizarre, memorable scenes. Fishing for eels, the appetite of his mother, queasy sex scenes. A worrying film.

What Time is it There?

Saw What Time is it There? It went completely by me. I was too tired and it was too slow & peaceful. I could catch glimmers of things going on beneath the surface, but was feeling too indolent to pursue it. Slow, slow movie.

Three Amigos

Saw Three Amigos. I liked it pretty okay. There was some silliness that was a bit heavy-handed, or just too much, but for the most part it had the silly absurdity I like from comedy. "Sew, old one. Sew like the wind!"

Napoleon

Saw Napoleon. It was pretty wearying, but some of the camera-work was awesome. I particularly loved the montages of war and dancing. The juxtaposition of Napoleon adrift at sea with the raging French revolution. The ending 'triptych' sequence was marvelous. It's the sort of wild stuff that only seems to happen when the medium is young. But 4 hours? Yikes.