Author: Sasa

Tokyo Story

I am disappointed in you, Jim. Surely I will watch all the other films on the list, and I think that my irks with “Tokyo Story” is a rather personal one: While the ‘ennui’ of Jim Jarmusch films were always marvelous and never felt boring to me, “Tokyo Story” was a borefest from its beginning to… the point I stopped watching it. In fact, Pixelmatsch and I were talking about how annoyed we were with the japanese-ness and the overload of honorifics in their family (of course it is really well-made and just accentuates the pervertedness of their familial relationships) – and then, we decided to stop the film the next time she says “douzo”. This happened about 1 minute later, eek.

Besides the boredom I felt while watching the film, I was mainly unhappy about the society portrait. I totally understand what it wants to say, but I just don’t agree with it. I have never been such a badly educated brat as the children are depicted in the film, I don’t think old people are neglected, conservative and kind (most older people are still very independent and want to lead their own life) – and I especially think that most asian people are better children to their parents than the main characters in the film. Sure, this film is supposed to exaggerate a little bit, but I don’t feel like this is an adequate portrait of my family life or the family lives of people surrounding me.

At some point, I think I will finish the film, although I feel like this is nothing compared to the funny, witty and comparably suspenseful Ukigusa. It would just make me feel horrible if I hadn’t finished it, hm.

Persona

Ah, how long it took me to finally watch this film! I started the first 10 minutes of it ages ago, but was never able to watch more, but now I finally did. I didn’t regret it – this is quite a classic.

Matte said he didn’t know about the high suicide rates in Sweden, and now I realize that I really tend to watch depressive swedish movies, I wonder why? It makes me feel like the swedish language also sounds somewhat depressive, ehehe.

My my, this film is so incredibly yuriyuri, at least in the beginning. In fact, to me, even the scenes in which they fight each other make them feel like they are even closer to each other. But this is even better, it’s homoerotic tensions with her second personality?

Now, onto a serious note, the psychologic aspects of the film are so brilliant that I find it impossible to put it into words. Both women are fascinating, or rather, the portrait of their inner thoughts is fascinating as the women themselves are more like models – not stereotypical, but they represent humans in general. How amazing. I am also a fan of the scene that was re-played, but only the other woman was shown. Beautiful. (I am not sure whether there are differences in the dialogues though, I think not.)

I still remember how I have enjoyed the very beginning of the film when I watched it the first time – I had to see it a second time again, and yes, it’s still pretty cool. This is some kind of surrealism that I can live with. However, I do admit that I am completely unable to relate the surrealistic parts of the film with the general topic of the film itself. Why those soldiers? Why the weird visual effects? After watching the film, I surely am going to read a few interpretations on it, as I believe I am unable to grasp everything about the film as I have seen it right now. One thing I have found to be interesting is this Wikipedia quote:

Bergman and Elisabet share the same dilemma: they cannot respond authentically to “large catastrophes” (such as the holocaust or Vietnam). The actress Elisabet responds by stopping speaking: by contrast the filmmaker Bergman emphasizes that “necessary illusions” enable us to live.

Now, some of the surreal scenes make much more sense to me.

Finally, yes, I think this film is quite an insider’s tip, it’s absolutely great. I would have expected something like “Persona” to be the critics’ favorite, instead of the likes of “Tokyo Story”.

Inspired by seeing this really nice making of video of “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” and reading Prog’s statement “there goes my life for the next two weeks”, I couldn’t help but thinking “What the heck? But films are life!”

The last two days made me realize this even more. In short, there was a meeting with the people I have lived with in Paris, and since I am too uncreative to find nicknames or use A, B, C now, I will refer to them by their room numbers (I suppose you wouldn’t want your name on the internet, right, 314? *g*) So 307 and 314 have been visiting me in Berlin and we went to a drink yesterday evening. In fact, the whole meeting was dramatic in many ways, especially since a bunch of other people came and we ended up being 6 people! That same evening, I was talking to 314 about his paper on “Le Mépris” and told him that I found it really enjoyable to read. That was an understatement – it was actually outstandingly enjoyable to read and made me wonder if I would enjoy studying and working on films on a scientific level. I was surprised at myself and the paper made me think “I want more of this”: I want to see more of those small details in films that reflect on it and give it further meanings, I want to get to know more of their background and history, I want to read about other people’s interpretations and learn about other perspectives on how to understand them. Basically, I want to do with films what we have done before way back in literature classes at high school, and more.
The next day, we went to eat breakfast together while 312 talked about how he started reading a book on Billy Wilder. I immediately started talking about Billy Wilder a lot – about his films and how some old movies are absolutely great in their german dub (“Kubelikmäßig” – “Springen Sie!” – “Man nennt mich also Konzentrationslager-Ehrhardt!”) I got really worked up about my fascination for Billy Wilder movies; yet again I realized why I love his films so much.

Let me open a parenthesis: My passion for films started with “Some like it hot”. The certain person who initated it watched the film with me while explaining to me what he loved about the film so much – the references and parodies of classical gangster comedies, the great get together of the protagonists, Billy Wilder’s brilliant use of Marilyn Monroe’s inherent character traits (blonde, sexy and rather dumb) and finally the comedy that is great on so many levels – there is slapstick, there are brilliant dialogues and beautifully portrayed characters. Sometimes my parents watch the films I watch – and usually I don’t like that because I fear they wouldn’t like them – but they laughed a lot even though it was difficult for them to understand the whole dialogue. Mr. “Some like it hot” has obviously loved the film and places it above all other Wilder films – and I do too. I even think this is his favourite film of all times (although he has repeatedly named “A Fish called Wanda” as his favourite).

Back to the topic: During the whole trip, I have found it difficult to wholeheartily recommend something to people. 314 wanted to see the Gemäldegalerie for awhile and after he went there, he described his incredible fascination for the museum – yes, it’s a great museum, but I had reservations about whether I find it recommendable. However, there are things in the world that just automatically go into ‘fascination mode’ and I suppose films are one of those things that make me feel like that. I just cannot see how 312 would not love “Some like it hot” and I am really curious about what he thinks of its end. I have been talking so much about this that 306 asked me how I am able to remember so much about the films I watched, saying that she tends to forget about them. But to me, this is all what it is about: I want to see memorable things, talk about them and learn more about them.

All in all – I have not seen any movies for quite awhile, but I realized that this is something I want to do again – as much as I can. Films are life indeed.

Les chansons d’amour

They are right. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a good french film. I have liked “8 femmes” and I think that “Va Savoir” is great (even though it took me ages to finally see it), but recently? There was nothing. Is it because I am not such a rabid movie watcher anymore as I was 2-3 months ago? Or is it just that modern french films are bad objectively? (I remember having read some article on the Süddeutsche Zeitung awhile ago where somebody complained about this.)

How should I put it – normally I dislike musicals and like love stories. In this case, I have liked the songs of the musical but thoroughly disliked the love story, I wonder why. Considering how much I like “Jules et Jim” and other ménage à trois stories, it’s unusual for me to have disliked this one. Perhaps it’s because it didn’t touch me emotionally at all (despite the good music!) and because I didn’t find the main characters. I’m not a big fan of Jeanne Moreau either, but I found her great in “Jules et Jim”, so this cannot be the reason. I know at least that I have disliked parts of the cinematography – I really see absolutely no point to use those stills randomly.
Instead, I guess I’ll continue by comment on the songs of interest by going through them chronologically (which is also the order in which they are provided on the soundtrack).

First of all, the songs contribute to the storyline just like every good musical. However, despite the very clear voices it was not easy to always understand the french singing. So I had to read the horribly translated english subtitles and that probably dampened my viewing pleasure a lot. Ah, the world needs better translators! (But I am a horrible one myself.)

Another interesting thing about the songs is that every song that I ended up liking is featured in the official trailer that we have seen a few days in the Cinema Paris before. This reminded me a lot of “Good Bye Lenin” where the trailer was a summary of all the great scenes in the film, heh.

Before moving on, a little warning: These are sappy pop songs. I know that you guys all hate them =P

De bonnes raisons
At the very beginning of the film, La Sagnier and Louis Garrell start singing this while “dancing” through the night of Paris. It all looks very stylish and I must say that I find this song thoroughly charming. “Why do you love me?” is probably the most complex, dangerous and awkward question of all time, and the answers given in the song are just as beautiful as they are superficial. It was a great start into the film, I think. This also was one of the scenes I have found particularily nice in the trailer.

Inventaire
This is another one of those relationship songs, but this time, I don’t quite remember much of it. Don’t let yourself be fooled by my bad memory though, it’s still a nice song.

Je n’aime que toi
This is the only one that features the trio, I think, and thus also is the only one that touches the topic of the threesome. Actually, this is one of my favourites, the changes between the voices is nice. The only thing that I am not sure whether I should like it or not is that this “Mm-mm” makes me think of Annett Louisan, eek.

As-tu déjà aimé?
It’s the apple song, hohoho. Actually I think it was very clearly shown how the love between the boys feels purer and much more natural than the somewhat questionable threesome with the girls in which it was clear that they actually just hated each other and were unhappy. On top of that, the family comes into the picture all the time, ugh. Especially that sister! *dies* Louis Garrel is such a gay actor, hoho.
Back to the song, I think this was a sweet discourse about lasting vs. passionate and short love. The comparison with the apple is simple, but again, I find it very charming. In french, the lyrics sound really nice to me.

Les yeux au ciel
The trailer starts with this song, and I’d say it’s my absolute favourite although I probably listen to “Je n’aime que toi” more often. It has a nice dynamic and the accompagnement feels great.

J’ai cru entendre
Another relationship song to some degree. I never really paid attention to it, but it ends the film well in my opinion. After quite a number of uninteresting songs (even one involving the dreadful sister), this one has the charm of french chansons again. (I know that I keep using “charming”, but honestly there just is no better word to describe it. It’s the “interesting”-disease.)

Finally, the film will most likely stay in my memory because of the nice songs – and only because of the songs.