Chacun son Cinéma part 1
My my, it seems the poll this time is less popular than usual. I wonder why? XD I do admit that it’s been awhile since I posted
I’ve been wanting to see this for quite awhile, as there are quite a lot of directors I really like. Every movie was 3 minutes, amounting to 99 minutes in theory, but actually the whole thing lasted for nearly two hours. Well, it’s not like I would complain about it.
Actually I have no idea how the actual order of those short films on the DVD are; what we did was to set our own order depending on the origin of the directors. So, this is one trip around the globe, starting with China and ending in Iran. Since it’s so many of them, I will review the ones left to the Atlantic first.
Zhang Yimou – En regardant le film (China)
This was such a typical Zhang Yimou type story. It’s actually nothing but the start of a movie, showing the setting of villagers getting together. As the next shortfilms show, the chinese directors seem to love this.
Chen Kaige – Zhanxiou Village (China)
We are suspecting that the boy at the very end, who wanted to finish watching the movie, was the director himself. The idea with those bicycles is so incredibly cute though, as I would have expected from Chen Kaige. I have loved his contribution to “Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet” too, after all. However, I hated “Wu Ji”, so who knows, perhaps Chen Kaige is just a brilliant director for short films, but his longer films are crap? Heh.
Wong Kar-Wai – I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You (Hongkong)
Unlike everybody else, I don’t like Wong Kar-Wai’s neon light style. However, in this short clip, I happened to find it immensely beautiful, and for a reason I cannot explain to myself, I felt like the protagonist’s feeling were honest, beautiful and incredibly deep. What the heck XD
Hou Hsiao-hien – The Electric Princess House (Taiwan)
My first impression of this was “Oh, this looks so taiwanese!” Haha. I have never been to Taiwan, mind you. (But I want to go!) This is one of those nostalgic ones reflecting the changes of movie theaters, and I have found this one to be rather nice. I know from my parents that the public cinema was a really important place of getting together on Saturdays, and I somehow wish we had something like that today.
Tsai Ming-liang – It’s a Dream (Taiwan)
After four surprisingly nice shortfilms, this is the first one I didn’t really like. It felt so pointless to me that I keep forgetting what happened. The only thing I keep remembering is this “We ate durians together.” How random.
Takeshi Kitano – One Fine Day (Japan)
This cinema looked like it was out of some anime, so cute! And that burning film roll! Ahahaha! Well, perhaps it’s just that I am a Kitano fangirl, but I have found this little shortfilm to be very charming and funny too.
Jane Campion – The Lady Bug (New Zealand)
She has directed “The Piano”! I never knew. Somehow “The Piano” has left a huge impression on me, it felt very intense and when I watched it, I was about as young as Anna Paquin in the movie. Anyways, this one was pretty random, but enjoyable nonetheless. Quite an amazing contrast to “The Piano”.
Atom Egoyan – Artaud Double Bill (Canada)
Here goes the first one that I have forgotten. XD
David Cronenberg – At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World (Canada)
This was so funny! I liked it a lot and have even laughed a little bit. This is the type of randomness that I like.
David Lynch – Absurda (USA)
Absurda indeed. My my, Lynch really always does the same enigmatic, psychedelic things. That’s fine for me usually, but within 3 minutes, it remains pointless and doesn’t even really build up an atmosphere in my opinion. I should rather watch “Inland Empire” finally. XD
Gus van Sant – First Kiss (USA)
Seriously, I have thought that this movie was totally not like Gus van Sant. Somehow a beach beauty and this director don’t go well for me. XD I tend to like the shortfilms of directors I like, but in this case, it doesn’t apply because this shortfilm looked like something completely different. It was somehow sweet, but a little bit silly too. XD
Michael Cimino – No Translation Needed (USA)
I fear I have forgotten about this, but my memory tells me that this shortfilm was the one with the Cuban singer and her band. If that is so, it was another one of those utterly pointless movies for me – although the dance was quite energetic.
Alejandro González Inárritu – Anna (Mexico)
I love González Innáritu, really. Sure, I didn’t like “Babel” all that much, and I had my irks both with “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams”, but ultimately I feel that his movies were all really strong. Taking advantage of the incredibly intense soundtrack of “Le Mépris”, this short film was quite emotionally powerful.
The only thing that did not work for me was the fact that I never perceived “Le Mépris” as emotional, especially not that silly relationship drama. But, it is one of the movies that are visually very strong, and it’s a shame not to be able to see the pictures.
Walter Salles – À 8 944 km de Cannes (Brazil)
This was so funny! Perhaps this is actually the funniest of all the shortfilms in the collection. Nuff said.
Raoul Ruiz – Le Don (Argentina)
And here comes the next one I have forgotten. XD
I am concerned about the state of your memorizing capabilities, I really am. XD
Atom did the thing with the two people texting while watcing different movies and Raoul did this pointless one where they sit in a cinema and talk about the natives who rebuilt the radio and projector they received out auf wood.
Oh oh, you are right, I am forgetful indeed. T_T But hey, they were rather forgettable, no? XD
That is right indeed, it is still an excuse however. :P