The Last Days of the World

My run on good movies came to an end with the terrible film The Last Days of the World. I mainly watched it because I wanted to see a Japanese film. I should have selected something else.

The Last Days of the World follows Kanou, a bored high school student. He sees a vision of a small man who tells him the world is going to be destroyed and that he should enjoy his final days and do whatever he would like to do. So what does he do? Kanou smashes a bully's head and kidnaps a fellow student, Yumi, who he really likes and wants to have sex with. The movie goes downhill from here. In the end you do not know if the events of the movie are 'real' or just a dream, but who cares. 

I definitely do not recommend this terrible movie.

To the Wonder

Yesterday my new Apple TV streaming box arrived and I wanted to run it through its paces. It was significantly better than my old one. I decided to pay a little more and see an HD movie that is still has showing in the theater and has not been released to DVD. Well, I picked a very unique, poetic, thought-provoking movie entitled To the Wonder staring Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, and the most beautiful Olga Kurylenko.

To the Wonder is extremely difficult to describe because I did not really understand this movie as I watched it. It has taken me time to digest what I saw even after reading many reviews. So what did I see when I watched To the Wonder? 

We meet Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (Olga Kurylenko), lovers who are spending time in Paris. He's an Oklahoman; she's a single mother from the Ukraine. We catch up with them after they have already fallen deeply in love in Paris at Mont Saint-Michel. Neil brings Marina home with him to Oklahoma, to an area where he works, overseeing the construction of a Southwestern suburb--moving from an ancient European preserve to the modern Middle-American world of rapid reconstruction. She is a stranger in a strange land. The sparseness of the dialogue symbolizes the lack of communication between them.

They settle into a life together, but then real life intervenes. They can't marry because of the Catholic church, and other normal everyday problems emerge in their relationship. What happens in their union is not surprising given what we know of them. They argue, they make mistakes, they reunite, they break-up, they make-up. They love each other from the depth of their being and their reaction to one another is startling. There is a moment when he becomes angry with her leaving her stranded by the side of the road, but what he does next is surprising. 

So you think this intriguing and complicated in itself, but this is just part of the story. Another thread of this story is happening in the same city at the same time. It focuses on a Spanish priest Father Quintana (Javier Bardem), who has come to Oklahoma, making him another stranger in a strange land. His eyes tell us everything that we need to know. He is a servant of God, devoted to his work but whose heart is feeling the pangs of emptiness. All around him are people in joy and pain. He officiates a wedding, later he visits inmates at a prison. He visits the sick and the elderly, but there is doubt in his eyes. He can officiate, and comfort but as a priest he is unable to have a life of his own. He sees lovers getting married but he knows that he can never experience this. Bardem is an actor who can speak volumes without speaking a word. 

Now how do these two complicated storylines connect to each other? Well, this movie is poetry which means you have to see this movie and decide for yourself based on your life's experiences. Do not watch this movie if you are looking for a simple story in which everything is neatly answered in the end. This is a great movie that I recommend only for the intellectual.

Queen To Play

Queen to Play is a French film that stars Sandrine Bonnaire, and Kevin Kline. It is strange seeing Kevin Kline speaking French. He seems fluent and at ease acting in French.

The story centers on Sandrine Bonnaire as Hélène who is married with a troubled teenage daughter.  She works as a cleaning lady in both a local hotel in Corsica and once a week for a man living alone in his country home. This man is Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline), an American expat.

One day, as Hélène goes to clean a room, she is surprised to find a couple playing chess on balcony of their room. It intrigues her the way the young woman beats her boyfriend, in what appears to be skillful playing.

After this, chess take holds of Helene's life especially after seeing a chess set at Kroger's house. Her life becomes consumed with chess after she starts playing chess with Kroger.  Ultimately Helene becomes so good she regularly beats Kroger. They discover an intellectual intimacy that goes beyond their afternoon chess sessions. In the process, Helene becomes good enough to enter the local chess club tournament.

I very much enjoyed seeing a film that centers around chess, even though I do no play chess. I recommend this entertaining movie.

Bride Flight

I am on a roll. I have seen two excellent movies on consecutive nights. Last night I saw Bride Flight, a Dutch film.

Bride Flight has rich character development, excellent plot lines and a magnificent beautiful setting in New Zealand. The story begins in post World War II Holland in the 1950s as three young women (Karina Smulders, Anna Drijver and Elise Schaap) are boarding an airplane for New Zealand to join their new husbands and start a new life. One of them is Jewish and the trauma of the holocaust will have a very subtle cast on the film. On board they also meet Frank (Wakdenar Torenstra) a young man, somewhat of a free spirit, also seeking a new life as a farmer and ultimately a wine maker who will play prominently in their lives.

The story captures the frontier life in New Zealand at this time, the conflicts of religion, passion, friendships and good old fashioned romance. There is also a theme of an important family secret that hovers in the story and should be one that you have seen and thought about in other settings. In alternating time sequences, we get to know these people as their lives progress to a point 40 or 50 years later.

I highly recommend seeing this excellent movie.

Prag (Prague)

Wow, what a good movie selection! While perusing Amazon streaming I spy a movie entitled Prague, a city that I recently visited and cannot wait to return. Prague is one of the best movies that I have seen in awhile. What is the storyline of this masterfully produced and acted Danish movie.

Christoffer (Mads Mikkelson) and his wife Maja (Stine Stengade) have traveled from Denmark to sign the final paperwork following the death of Christoffer's father, a father he has not seen or communicated with for 25 years when the father left wife and son for Prague. His father's lawyer (Borivoj Navrátil) make all the arrangements for the shipment of the body back to Denmark and informs Christoffer that the financial balance sheet at the time of death leaves Christoffer with only the house in which his father lived. But during all the 'business' of dealing with his father's death, Christoffer feels a distance from Maja and confronts her with his knowledge that she is having an affair. The veneer of their marriage cracks open and the couple must face the current status of their failing relationship.

Prague is a story about love in all its permutations--disappointments, rewards, and longings both filled and unfulfilled. The manner in which each of the characters plays out the consequences of love against the cold background of the rigid atmosphere of the city of Prague is like watching organisms under a microscope. 

I highly recommend seeing this fabulous movie.

Manon 70

 I was in the mood for an older movie last night and I selected Manon 70. It is a 1960's version of an 18-century French novel and a 19-century Italian opera by Puccini. It has an excellent cast staring Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Claude Brialy, Sami Frey.  Catherine Deneuve is superb in the role of Manon.  Manon 70 sees Sami Frey's character, Francois, chasing and trying to keep Deneuve's Manon to himself. However she and her brother repeatedly entrap rich men to take them for as much money as possible. This film shows Manon's battle between her love of money and her true love, Francois. 

No, this is not a great movie, but it is an entertaining diversion that shows what a great actress Cahterine Deneuve was early in her career. I recommend this movie.

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty was the third movie that I watched crossing the Atlantic from London to Washington, D. C.. I was surprised at the really good movies that were available from United Airlines. Actually I had no desire to see Zero Dark Thirty but I thought that it would be a good movie that may keep my interest with all of the distractions in a plane flying at 35,000 feet.

Zero Dark Thirty is a film that requires a lot of patience because it is not built in the mode of Hollywood movies. What is this film about? One woman's crusade to find and kill Osama Bin Laden. Why is she so determined? We don't know. We don't see any personal connection. She didn't volunteer. She was assigned. Why? 

The first 30 minutes was full of undecipherable Arabic names being flung around during interrogations, questionings or in meetings in that "realistic" way of portraying conversation i.e. you can't understand anything. 

As the film develops we see the workings of the CIA where politicians determine what the CIA professionals can do. It is sad. Ultimately we see the raid that kills OBL. This is well done.

I do not recommend this movie for most people because it is boring and tedious, but some may enjoy seeing this documentary that is not a documentary.

À l'aventure

A l'aventure is a sensuous, thought-provoking French film. The movie begins on a park bench. Sandrine (Carole Brana) sits on this bench talking to her friend Sophie (Lise Bellynck) about her dissatisfaction with life, in general, and especially her sex life with her boyfriend. During this conversation an older man (Étienne Chicot) joins them and makes wise reflections. From this conversation the movie develops. Sandrine ultimately decides to change her life. She quits her job and cheats on her boyfriend with a guy, Greg (Arnaud Binard), who she picks up in a cafe.

Greg is studying to be a psychiatrist who uses hypnosis to help his patients. He introduces Sandrine to several women and she also meets an architect and decorator, Jérome (Frédéric Aspisi), who's into heightening women's orgasms by playing their S/M master. Eventually Greg uses hypnosis to take Sandrine and two other ladies on a risky ecstatic trip. All the while Sandrine keeps meeting the older man on the bench, and eventually at his cabin out in the country. He is a taxi driver but also studied meditation in India and taught physics. He outlines the rough history of the cosmos to Sandrine and gives a simplified explanation of relativity.

Without saying more you can see the complexities of this thinking-person's sensual movie. If you are open-minded, intelligent, and nonpuritanical, then you will enjoy this movie. I recommend this film. 

Dangerous Beauty

Tonight I wanted to see a movie that takes place in Venice, where I will be next week. I selected Dangerous Beauty, a movie that has good ratings.

Dangerous Beauty takes place in 16-century Venice. It follows Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell) who is of a wealthy and powerful family, and is a Senator in good standing in the community. He is also in love with Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack), who though intelligent and beautiful, is beneath Marco's station in society, and they are, therefore, forbidden to marry. Instead, Marco's father, Pietro (Jeroen Krabbe), has arranged a marriage for his son, an alliance that will be to the substantial benefit of both families. Veronica's family, meanwhile, due to prevailing circumstances must look to Veronica for support, so her mother, Paola (Jacqueline Bisset), not only arranges for Veronica to become a courtesan, but instructs her herself in the fine art of seduction and the kind of pleasures that will put the most coins in the coffers, as well as how to survive by being in love with `love.' 

I very much enjoyed this true story. It is a well-crafted, intelligent movie that I reccomend.

Kadosh (Sacred)

Kadosh, which mean "sacred" in Hebrew, is a dark, intense Israeli drama. It is a realistic indictment of religious fanaticism among the ultra-orthodox Chasidic Jews in their community in Jerusalem.  This is a place so extreme that women are stoned for daring to go sleeveless, and cars are stoned if driven on the sabbath. The film is exceptionally deliberate with a slow pace that is unbroken, but it offers a rare, highly detailed glimpse into such an insular world.

Kadosh follows two sisters, one forced out of and the other forced into a marriage. This film shows that Chasidic woman's only function is to procreate, furnishing the legions who will overrun the sect's enemies. The personal needs of the womenl--love, privacy, self-determination--are pitted against the demands of society, a very old theme.

Without saying more about Kadosh you should realize that this a terribly complex movie about a group that attempts to live in the 15th century without regard for what has happened over the past six centuries. As a result you see the turmoil of women who are religious and must give up everything for this unflexible, brutal religion.

You will have to be in the right mood to watch this movie.