Tombstone

Saw Tombstone. It was a western.

Playtime

Finally saw Playtime. It starts out mining comedy from mass production. A travel agent's office has posters showing off identical skyscrapers in different locals. In one scene, four identical men get into four identical cars in synchrony. The main character looks so identical to every other person that no one can tell who he is. This all climaxes in a restaurant scene which is funny I guess but goes on a bit long (I also don't find rich, eccentric/drunk Americans to be very funny. It's a comedic archetype from a different time I suppose. It's funny how comedy can separate us from the past sometimes.) I liked the beginning, but I liked the ending of the film best of all. The film makes this identical, mass-produced Paris into a carnival. A roundabout becomes a merry-go-round, a cherry-picker becomes a giraffe, car-lifts become rides. It's very sweet and ends on a merry note which, judging from the "oh, this hectic modern life" tone of the beginning, I didn't expect. Ending in this way, the film seems to be saying "Life is crazy! Enjoy the ride!" And I think that's great.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Saw Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. It's about an old woman who falls in love with a young Moroccan man. It was terribly sweet and touching. The ending was especially good. Happy but not pat, only life bumbling on in its messy way. The reaction of her neighbors after she takes a trip halfway through the film confused me (of course the trip may have been years long?) I liked how she wasn't conventionally attractive, but kind of old and genuinely dowdy. A very sweet film.

A Place in the Sun

Saw A Place in the Sun. Such a feeling of desperation. It was complex and interesting but had a constant feeling of crushing, squeezing. It turned strangely moralistic near the end, but nicely showed and didn't tell the resolution of the film. Haunting.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was very well put together. I was annoyed that they actually showed the aliens, but I guess it had to be done. Someday I'll see an alien movie with the guts to not show something in a rubber suit. I really liked the nervy maybe-mental-problems in the beginning.

Night Watch

Saw Night Watch. It was a lot of fun. It got kind of bogged down in slow-motion and flashbacks near the end and there are a lot of loose ends of course. I kind of feel like I'm cheating the movie by not immediately watching the sequels. Apparently it was originally intended to be a four-part miniseries for TV. I think it would have been better in that format. There's a neat world here to be explored, but we're breathlessly rushing about it in one cataclysm after another. The opening scene with its Matrix-like suggestion of mysteries hiding just beneath the surface was my favorite part of the film. I was annoyed at the endless camera-tricks on display, but I do have a great weakness for strange visuals and in that this movie successfully delivered. All in all, not as good as I was hoping, but not bad either.

Voyage to Italy

Saw Voyage to Italy. It was about a husband and wife trying to salvage their failing marriage. The script/acting were very good, with both characters trying to score points and divine the other's feelings without tipping their own hand. I was disappointed that we didn't get to know the husband as well as the wife. He was supposed to be cold and distant, but it would satisfy me more if I'd seen something to love in him.

Rich tension is mined in the contrast between their petty but potentially life-changing squabbles vs the ancient and unchanging ruins of Italy. There is an excellent scene where they watch the bodies of a man and woman being excavated from Pompeii. "A man and a wife, perhaps" says the archeologist. Really good stuff. Very melancholy stuff though. I don't think I was in the right mood for it, but it was quite good.