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Solaris (2002)
I Wouldn't compare this to the Russian film
Rheya: What is that out there?
Chris: Solaris.
Rheya: Oh, my God, yes...
I can't remember how I got here. Did I come here with you?
Chris: I don't know how you got here.
Rheya: What do you mean?
Chris: I woke up and you were here.
Suggestive of Adam and Eve, this, of course.
Humanity is not ready, but we are also very nearly ready.
This movie absolutely mesmerizes me, every time I see it. I'm not going to say how many times I have watched it, but ever so often I get this "I need to rent Solaris Again" feeling.
I can't think of another extraterrestrial or alien or whatever you want to call it movie that I've been more affected by than this one ("Sphere" was headed in this direction, but got lost on the Interstate). This statement, in and of itself, is a spoiler of sorts, I 'spose.
It's a remake, but, though I really enjoyed the original, I feel no qualms about saying that I much prefer this rendering of the story.
Imagine a hauntingly beautiful woman who's very distant, versus a hauntingly beautiful woman who's way up close to you, but also quite distant.
There are quite a few spots where it strikes the chords of old sci-fi themes a little harder than its predecessor does, but I believe that's a good thing. At the very least, it's great to have both treatments.
The things suggested in this movie are not cloaked, over-much, in Mystery and they aren't lingered over.
The look on Cloonie's face when he speaks those lines, though: "I woke up and you were here." It's like he understands that he's in over his head, but doesn't want to get away, really.
Who, faced with the return of a lost Beloved (especially given the details of Chris' "loss" of Rheya), could stand flushing her into the Vacuum over and over again?
Chris is clever and knows a bit about the psyche, but in his way, he's about as irritating and banal as the gum-popping Snow. He seems OK, for the most part, though. It was no fun, watching his Sophistry dismantled by Solaris.
El laberinto del fauno (2006)
One of the most perfectly beautiful movies I've ever seen
Ofelia. She is Persephone, she is Joan, she is Iphigenia.
Miyazaki's Chiro occupies the same space. I can think of no more affecting and effective renderings of the Archetypal Heroine. Actually, gender doesn't matter in this space. These are the greatest of heroes.
Myth's are the dreams of a people; what I like to call Big Dreams. This film shines a bright light into places that exist deep inside all of us. It is a pure distillation of many of our greatest myths.
We are in the hands of a great, great story teller here.
There are elements of so very many giant stories; so many things that make me think of James Frasier, Joseph Campbell, and the Epics that I read many years ago. All of the great tales include, for instance, a scene or scenes in which the hero makes a descent into the under/other world: the world of the collective unconscious.
'Nuff said.
The mere sight of images like the one of Ofelia, dressed in red and gold, in the other-world, at the end of the film: they break my heart every time I see them. Over the course of the film, it becomes apparent that she IS the very character that most of us believe she's dreamt up. It's pure, absolute Magic!
The colors, the themes of under/other world, father/monster; of the conquering power of Seeing...
This movie is perfect. I'm changing my initial 9 rating to a 10: the only one, I believe, that I've given on this site.
Twilight (2008)
I have only one complaint:
Language.
Edward is supposed to be close to 100 yrs old, Carlisle's older. We should hear at least a few antique words, every now and then, from them, no matter how they might be trying to fit in. Stephenie Meyer used a few in her books, like "sanguine"... that one works. If you read a book like Will Self's "My Idea of Fun", you'll find that this is one of the things that really cranks up the creep factor with (in that book) The Fat Controller.
Anyway, I read the 1st three Twilight books last year and didn't want the story to end, so I put off reading the last one 'till now. I'm a Romantic. 'No apologies. After seeing the film, I couldn't stand it any longer: I had to dive into the dusty copy of "Breaking Dawn" that's been sitting on my night table stand for months now.
I was all prepared to not like this movie. I was even telling myself I didn't like it very much as I was watching it... then I realized, a day later, that I'd watched it three times.
Part of what drew me in, initially (with the books 1st, then the movie), was the setting: anyone who's been there knows that most of the movie was obviously filmed in and around Portland, OR. (Cannon Beach, the Three Capes, Multnomah Falls), but the entire Northwest is hauntingly beautiful. Just the thing for this kind of story. A few words more words on this: "Twin Peaks"... Neko Case.
Kristen and Robert are perfect as Bella and Edward. Period. I can't believe the folks responsible for it actually managed to find them. I also like Taylor as Jacob, but I'm with Charlie on Alice: Damn! Ashley Greene is a little more than perfect in this part. We're talking Gloria-Graham-level HOT, HOT, HOT!
But, back to the language thing: did I miss it or did Kristen/Bella not say "Holy Crow!" once in this movie? Jeeze, I know it might have been tough for the oh, so serious actress, but you gotta just let go and give in to your inner geek every now and then! Ya know?
Children of Dune (2003)
Nothing Can Touch Lynch's Version
and Anyone other than Jürgen Prochnow as Leto and Kyle MacLachlan as Paul/Muad'Dib... there's a sense in which this and the other Dune movies since 1984 just don't work for me.
But, in spite of that, this one was pretty good.
Alice Krige (one of my favorite actresses along with Helen Mirren and Naomi Watts) is absolutely perfect as Lady Jessica. She has that ethereal, almost UNreal mix of haunting beauty and savvy-strength: it's so incredibly unique. Her Lady Jessica is much more of a warrior-woman and a Mystery than Francesca Annis'. I like it.
I REALLY did not want to see Alia die -- especially the way she did -- though I know the story well enough from the books to know how things went with her. I know, too, when my heart-strings are being tugged hard, but, hey, it's alright.
"Monster", "Abomination": these things said of one who was essentially a child (despite all those voices in her head... how exquisitely ironic that the bene gesserit "witches" would do this to her. they would have done better to just call her the Ur-child or the Un-foreseen); a product not just of her parents' love, but also of their scheming. It's apparent, almost to the point of feeling painful, that she could have been SO much more if she'd not been imprisoned in the fact of her uniqueness. Watching that last scene of her, I found myself thinking of some of the things that the Atreides of Classical Mythology did, because of Ambition, to their children.
And, yea, I found myself thinking, too, of Helen Mirren's Morganna from the movie "Excalibur"; and of Krieg's Alma Mobley from "Ghost Story".
One of the things that the people who made "Children of Dune" did best was set up in it echoes between father-son, brother-sister, mother-daughter relationships. It's way true to some of the stuff that I took from Herbert's books. There's a strong sense that something in these families (and, perhaps, in all of us) will never die. And that something might not be entirely good.
Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004)
The Archetypes live and breathe in Miyazaki's workshop
This movie will be compared to his other works and found lacking. Ah, well, people will write and say all kinds of things.
The juxtaposition of and extended dialogue between Youth and the Aged; the blurring of lines between Hero and Heroine; the rhapsodic mixing of color and sound: this film is a chapter... a continuation.
The submerged images of War simply left me agape. I can't think of another place, in film, where I've seen this kind of guide to healing from Conflict.
There's a thing that was only sort of hinted at in Mononoke and Sprited Away. It was Nightmare, but it was something that needs to be looked at. Here, it's more fully rendered, but it's easier to handle: thanks to the earlier films.
Renaissance (2006)
'Not sure how to add to the "Recommended" list, but
Blade Runner (Deckard is a Replicant!),
City of Lost Children (augmented senses or whatever used and abused and mostly, well, just giving us far less than what we might dream of), and
Dark City:
These really ought to be added.
For a while now, I've been waiting for an animated film that might affect me as much as Miyazaki's stuff has. This one is the 1st.
Hmm, scratch the "animated" part of that.
I have an intense love-hate relationship with film noir and, hey, if you don't leave, it must be mostly love, right? But, there are so many sci-fi and noir themes totally submerged in this film that it's just a wonder to watch.
These people did an incredible job!
Vatel (2000)
Favorite Scenes
I simply never get enough of this film. It's one of the few that I have to re-watch, every so often.
Now, one of the things that struck me most strongly was the fact of Vatel and Anne's goodness -- this, in spite of where Louis' example might have led them -- with the people who worked with them.
The scenes with Vatel and Colin; with Anne and Louise... especially the one where Louise drops the vase that Vatel sent to Anne (and Anne says "It's alright, Louise... it's alright") ... these are made almost painfully beautiful by the contrasting scenes with the aristocrats running amok.
But, Vatel's words come back to me here: "Harmony and Contrast -- All beauty comes from those two things".
Stay (2005)
Augeries of Innocence
Those who find that the whole of this movie happens in the last few moments and have a problem with this are missing the point. Or rather, they are simply choosing not to appreciate the film for what it is and what it does.
There is in it the spirit of Blake's "To see a world in a grain of sand And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour."
I believe that most, if not all of us, will have a few small stretches in our lives where it will seem that everything that came before was prep.
A whole heaven-or-hell of a lot can happen in a moment.