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| shannon |
 Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:15 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 1628
Location: NC
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Melody wrote:
SPOILER[/color]
I think -- bear in mind I've only seen it once and that was last summer -- the scene on the train is supposed to be his novel. Did you get that, too?
END SPOILER
Yes.
Quote: I'm curious -- what was it about 2046 that wouldn't let you give up on it?
I've always liked Kar-Wai and I really couldn't bare the thought of giving up on one of his films so easily. That and several posters whose opinions I respect, yourself included, liked it a lot. How could I not give it a fair chance? And I always like "difficult" films, anyway. Last Year at Marienbad, Eraserhead, etc. I have to be in a certain mood to watch them, but I do enjoy them whenever I'm in that mood. Plus I knew that, at the very least, I could spend 2+ hours looking at a bunch of pretty people. Seriously, everyone in the film is just so fucking gorgeous, so much so that when an ugly person finally arrives (Chow's agent), the effect is jarring.
I've revisited the film a few times over the past couple of days. I don't have the strength at this point to watch the entire film again, but I find myself putting it in and skipping to certain scenes like I do songs on an album*. Really, that's film's effect is more akin to a good pop song than anything else. There's no reason analyze the specifics, they're irrelevant. It's the overall mood the film creates and the beauty of the craft that you respond to. I think "Sloop John B" is a perfect song and I don't give a shit about a tugboat. All I know is that "I feel so broke up/I wanna go home" gets me every time. Now 2046 isn't quite "Sloop John B", but certain scenes have a similar effect. That close-up introductory shot of Faye Wong's feet as she paces the hotel room floor talking to herself, for instance. It lasts a good three minutes. Just feet. But I'll be damned if it doesn't work.
*that Zhang Ziyi sex scene in particular. goddamn (insert appropriate sleazy, drool-face, pervert emoticon here) |
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| shannon |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:47 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 1628
Location: NC
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Two movies tonight, neither really worth talking about:
Just Like Heaven: Pretty people look pretty together for a few hours. Shannon is amused. The end.
Waiting: Ignoring the rampant homophobia and dick jokes, the flick is actually a decent representation of what it's like to work in one of these shitty chain restaurants. The manager who takes his job way too seriously and in reality does little except sexually harrass the cute 16-year-old hostess, the perpetually-pissed, chain smoking waitress that's worked there about ten years too long, the guy that is always full of helpful life lessons who speaks like a philosophy professor, but works the lowliest job it's possible to have at one of these establishments: the dishwasher, the group of twenty-something college kids who spend all their time together, both in and outside of the restaurant and who have seemingly all slept together, the 25-year-old guy who has yet to realize he's too old for his job to be cool anymore and fucks cute 16-year-olds because they too have yet to realize that he's too old for his job to be cool anymore... I've met all of these people. And the movie (again, ignoring the rampant homophobia and dick jokes) is a lot wittier than it's given credit for. For instance: the 25-year-old with the high school fetish is waiting on a table of cute 16-year-olds. "You guys are still in high school? I could've sworn you were at least 21!" he says to them. "Yeah, we get that a lot," one of them replies before the entire table of very obviously young girls dive to their cigarettes and proceed to smoke awkwardly to show their maturity. Anyway, I laughed. Definately nothing to get excited about, but I found it enjoyable. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 8:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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"We Are Siamese if You Please" or "The Siamese Cat Song," from The Lady and the Tramp.
marj--Forgive me, please (I know this is neurotically picky), but there is no "The" in Lady and the Tramp. Her NAME is Lady. He is a tramp (whose name is also tramp, but that's irrelevant). Again, forgive me. (I think the title of the song is wrong, too, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it was written by Peggy Lee--that part is correct.) |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:53 am |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Marj wrote: Gary - But do you know which Disney film those lyrics are from? When you've heard Barbara Cook do "When I see an Elephant Fly" then you've really heard it...... |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:24 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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ehle64 wrote: Some Disney cover album from the late 80s, early 90s? I'll try and look it up for you.
Is that the one with Screamin' Jay Hawkins doing the itsy-bitsy spider song? I think I even bought that (although I haven't listened to it since). |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:35 pm |
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Marj wrote:
Quote:
Gary - But do you know which Disney film those lyrics are from? When you've heard Barbara Cook do "When I see an Elephant Fly" then you've really heard it. Dumbo is so good.
Sure I know where it is from. Not familiar with Barbara Cook, but those crows were fantastic. "When I see an Elephant Fly" has always been a personal favourite. When I was first in London in 1962 I was in my room and turned on the radio, the BBC, which was a strange mix of disparate bits often, and what comes on but that song. I felt right at home. |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:36 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 2242
Location: TX
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shannon wrote: ... I always like "difficult" films, anyway. Last Year at Marienbad, Eraserhead, etc. I have to be in a certain mood to watch them, but I do enjoy them whenever I'm in that mood.
I love your designation of "difficult." It perfectly describes the type of film I enjoy most. That's what drew me to David Lynch -- I remember trying to watch Eraserhead at a party and thinking, I can't wait to see this when I'm sober. It's like solving a puzzle; you don't always "get it" the first time around.
Which is why I love 2046, because I know I'll discover new meanings, new layers, with each viewing. Plus, I've got this nifty Wong Kar-Wai book, written by Stephen Teo, in which he postulates that 2046 is the completion of a trilogy, beginning with Days of Being Wild and continuing with In The Mood for Love. My plan, if Gromit comes through for me, is to watch these three together.
shannon wrote: ... there's no reason analyze the specifics, they're irrelevant. It's the overall mood the film creates and the beauty of the craft that you respond to.
I can (and do) appreciate this angle also. I walked into 2046 not knowing anything about it except my beloved ZZ was in it. I'd never seen a Wong Kar-Wai film. I literally sat there with my mouth hanging open, wondering how a film fan such as myself could possibly have missed out on one of the most creatively enigmatic directors of our time. Plus, like you said, everybody is so purty! |
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My heart told my head: This time, no. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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lady wakasa wrote: ehle64 wrote: Some Disney cover album from the late 80s, early 90s? I'll try and look it up for you.
Is that the one with Screamin' Jay Hawkins doing the itsy-bitsy spider song? I think I even bought that (although I haven't listened to it since).
The album was called "Stay Awake".
Melly Mel -- Happy Together! |
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It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:01 pm |
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| Well it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who liked Last Year at Marienbad. I didn't find it difficult though. The opposite. When i watched it (three times I think) I just let it wash over me like the existential poem that it was. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:21 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| bocce |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:40 pm |
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Joined: 24 May 2004
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marantzo wrote: Well it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who liked Last Year at Marienbad. I didn't find it difficult though. The opposite. When i watched it (three times I think) I just let it wash over me like the existential poem that it was.
marantz...
that was beautifully put and embraces both the writer and directors intent in a film so few TRY to understand on its own level. can i borrow it? |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:52 pm |
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bocce wrote: marantzo wrote: Well it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who liked Last Year at Marienbad. I didn't find it difficult though. The opposite. When i watched it (three times I think) I just let it wash over me like the existential poem that it was.
marantz...
that was beautifully put and embraces both the writer and directors intent in a film so few TRY to understand on its own level. can i borrow it?
After that compliment, of course. It's yours. Capitalize the 'i' though. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:53 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Yambu -- Thanks for the picture. I really must see Dumbo again. Now that's what I call a tear jerker! And Gar, I knew you knew what movie it was from. I mean anyone who actually knows those lyrics ...
And Billy - I guess that's what I get for trying to keep up with you guys after 2 in the morning. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Hey, ya'll.........I have an idea and I think it's a good one. There's a dvd out that should interest most of us......How 'bout let's watch and discuss:
Eros
This three-part film on sexual themes with segments by Wong Kar-wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni received mixed reviews when it was released theatrically last April, but its DVD release is remarkable for the one great extra it contains: "Michelangelo Eye to Eye," a 19-minute short directed by Mr. Antonioni and included here out of the sheer goodness of Warner Home Video's heart.
Largely silent, with the exception of some choral music by Palestrina that rises slowly during the film's last five minutes, "Eye to Eye" depicts the 93-year-old Italian filmmaker (effectively rendered mute by a stroke in 1985) as he pays a visit to a work by another Michelangelo: the sculptor's marble statue of Moses, created for the tomb of Pope Julius II. No words are pronounced, and none need to be as Mr. Antonioni's slowly moving camera caresses the curves and textures of the monumental artwork while it closes in on his own aging, almost translucent flesh. Crosscutting between his own clouded eyes and the frozen, eternal regard of the sculpture, the director establishes a dialogue across time. The artist ages; the art does not. This wise, reverberating piece contains unspoken volumes. $27.98, |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:24 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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A question - I just got an email asking the following:
Quote: I got a phone call from a man in Conway who is searching for the 1922 silent "The Power of Love." It is thought to be the first 3-D film and he?s hoping to be lucky like us and find a print of the film and restore it.
Am asking here not so much because I think someone here will know, but because someone may know someone who knows someone...
Plus I'd never heard of the 3D claim before (sounds cool) and was wondering if someone else had. |
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