About Chocolate Parfaits

Isn’t it obvious that I was rather disappointed by the movies I saw?

101 Reykjavik

I will start with “annoying lesbians”. Until I saw the end of this movie, I thought of it as a waste of time, seriously… I mean, okay, the story was not exactly boring (how can roughly 80 minutes be boring?), but most of the time, I found it utterly stupid and not funny at all. (I believe the movie is supposed to be funny though as it is not serious.)

Basically you have a 28-year-old guy who stays at home, hates his family except for his divorced mother who she lives with, and makes his stupid girlfriend pregnant. Then a young flamenco dancer, a friend of his mother, stays over Christmas at their house, he falls for her and over New Year’s Eve, they have horribly good sex. After that, it turns out that she and his mother are lovers… and that she’s pregnant… and that he is not the father! Well, this was the point where I was utterly annoyed, because Lola, the flamenco dancer, kept insulting him as social crap and constantly tells him that he has no right to know who’s the father and who she has slept with. I was like “Why are you getting into their family issues anyways?”
Like I said, the end (and the revelations at the end *g*) wrapped up this storyline pretty well, with a metaphore which was very nice. On top of that, there was a funny scene totally unrelated to the main story which made me grin – and a funny ending scene. All in all, the last 15 minutes made up for the movie…

Maybe I also did the mistake to compare this movie with “Tanguy” (another movie about a 28-year-old who stays at home), which was 100 times funnier and which did not bear any seriousness at all. It also did not include the “are people staying at home doing nothing worthless beings?” question and did not feature complicated relationships.

Y tu mamá también

This movie is supposed to be “meaningful sex”. Just like 101 Reykjavik, it just wasn’t exactly what I have expected in this movie and it can all be traced back to the fact that the sex in this movie was way to meaningful.

First of all, this movie made me think and it was really depressive which I haven’t expected at all – I mean, hey, this was supposed to be a teenager road-trip movie! Now I also understand the subtitle “Lust for life”, which emphases “life” and not “lust”, like I suspected. Until the end, I did not understand all the blabbering coming from the off – which was interesting and very good, but always felt out of place for me. In the end, the movie would not have worked out without the narrator… which I think is rather a weakness. The characters and the movie itself were not what produced the atmosphere, but the narrator from the off. Hm.
In fact, it was the sadness that surprised me and saying that the two boys never met each other again touched me at a weak spot T_T

The second thing was that I did not like the characters. The young guys were okayish, although I found their crapiness in bed rather annoying, but – and this is the main point – I saw nothing attractive in Luisa.

Next was that I didn’t like Gaels role in this movie. He was madly laughing in way too many scenes, and looked like a person who was not able to think at all. Hm. (The only scene where I liked him was the very last one in which he actually looked matured.)

Well yes, and the second biggest deception of this movie (besides the depressive atmosphere I mentioned at the beginning) were the sex scenes. I noticed that there were not exactly supposed to be good-looking, and in fact, they looked crap. The only one that worked out was how all three of them danced together… but that wasn’t even a sex scene. Oh, Diego and Gaels kiss was good looking too *g* But that scene was way too short! >.< And all other sex scenes were utterly boring and simply looked like two animals rubbing against each other. All in all, this most definitely is a good movie: the actors made the best out of the crappy characters which I really mean as a compliment, the storyline wrapped up very well and the meaning came through, the socio-critical portrait of Mexico was very well done and last but not least, the funny lines were absolutely gorgeous. But apparently I have expected too much from it.

The Cactus Flower

This movie obviously is “difficult women”. And of course I don’t mean Ms. Dickenson (performed by La Bergmann! *g*), but rather Toni Simmons (Goldie Hawn’s first movie, or something…)

I watched it another time, or rather I skipped through it a bit. For some reason, I didn’t like it as much as the first time… of course, it was funny and all – but it obviously did not make me laugh out loud that often and that much as when I watched the movie the first and the second time. I still did not want to delete it from the tape though.
Oh, and I love Goldie Hawn’s eyes… they are so characteristic and make up for her stupidity XD I think her eyes are just like Angelina Jolie’s lips, just that her eyes can also look funny *g* (A propos Angelina Jolie, at least she has a beautiful name… even though it isn’t her real full name.)

PS. I am so proud of myself, I finished the fanlisting for Fuganaiya in exactly one hour. I have to admit that my idea for the layout is rather dull. *cough* But since I didn’t have anything better, I think it’s okay *g* To me, a fanlisting isn’t something really important anyways ^^;;; Now do we want the fanlisting for Split as well? *haha*

Ten Minutes Older – The Trumpet and The Cello

“Intro”
I found it rather disturbing that the names of the actors are nowhere shown, while the whole project is an hommage to big directors. (In fact, usually I think that directors should get more worship, this time, I think it’s the actors, that mostly were good.)
I can imagine very well that a lot of people are criticizing the display of “big director names”. I, myself, are actually only watching this because of Jim Jarmusch, the only director I have actually ever seen a film of. The others, Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci, Volker Schlöndorff, Jean-Luc Godard, are only directors I’ve heard of and know that they’re famous ^^;;;
Nevertheless, I was delighted by the idea of a short film collection in which Jim Jarmusch participated *g* I have a weak spot for short stories and episodical films.
As you can see, I started off with two films from “The Cello”, but when I saw that “The Trumpet” came first, I switched to it.

Bernardo Bertolucci – Histoire d’eaux
I didn’t really like the film esthetically… but the story was nice. I’ve read it’s based on an indian parabel which I like pretty much. As the first film I have seen, this one gave me a rather weird impression though (since the film is so unusual).

Mike Figgis – About Time 2
Speaking about unusual, this one is even weirder XD And it was difficult to follow, but then I understood that it is all about memories or something. Although it was a creative idea, I simply did not enjoy watching this.
And by the way, I was surprised that the guy who did this is so old… for some reason, this segment looked like it’s done by somebody rather young O.o

“Interlude I”
I wonder if I will end up preferring “The Trumpet” over “The Cello”. “The Trumpet” came first – and it has the more interesting directors. On top of that, I am surprised about how great this instrument sounds – the jazzish interludes of the film simply are the best *g*

Aki Kaurismäki – Dogs have no hell
The song in the middle of the episode is gorgeous… it’s a pretty catchy song and I like it X3 The camera focuses more on the guitars than the band members *hrr* I wonder if this is a coincidence.
Anyways, I cannot even guess which language this is! Is this really finnish? O.o
But this really is a rather cute love story *hehe* It’s a good beginning for “The Trumpet”.

Victor Erice – Lifeline
Uh, uh… isn’t that child, like, bleeding? O.o For some reason, I find that rather scary… even though the rest of the film looks so incredibly peaceful and beautiful (the scenery, the people, the black cat!). The best were the girls who polish other people’s beautiful shoes while their own are in a horrible state.
This episode was totally stunning. ’nuff said.

Werner Herzog – Ten Thousand Years Older
I’ve read a review where somebody denounced this film as the worst of all of them – I can’t really say that. I mean, it isn’t really an original idea to do this film, and it really is slightly too long (more than ten minutes, unlike the rest). But of course the (simple) message went through, and actually I do like the atmosphere.

Jim Jarmusch – Int. Trailer Night
Like I said, I am watching this film solely for Jim Jarmusch. I am a completist – one day, I want to watch every single movie he has done, and since something like “Ten Minutes Older” will never show up on TV anyways (especially not with these subtitles), I just had to rent this movie one day ^^
I have not expected this to be a black and white film O.o
I especially love the “Thank you for not smoking” sign in her trailer whiel she’s smoking the whole time *hrr*
This film was not particularily funny, but it was still Jarmusch *g* It rather had the atmosphere of Broken Flowers or the first sequence of Night on Earth, but still very great.

Wim Wenders – Twelve Miles to Trona
Yay for the soundtrack *g* Of course I know Wim Wenders, but I think I haven’t seen any of his films.
But this one was pretty suspenseful – compared to Jarmusch’s for example that felt like 20 minutes *hrr* (even though that one was not supposed to be suspenseful, of course), this film felt like 4. Melikes *g*

Spike Lee – We Wuz Robbed
You knew from the beginning what this film is leading to, because I cannot imagine a serious intelligent person be neutral with this issue or even side with Bush. It’s well done, as well, but this topic is making me furious, so it was literally a pain to watch this. I guess in this case, it rather means that it was good. *g*

Chen Kaige – 100 Flowers Hidden Deep
The translation of this sequence is total bullshit. I admit that it’s difficult to translate though, since all the people are talking heavy slang.
This episode is so sad and beautiful that I felt like crying… at least when you are chinese and have seen the incredible changes of the country, which is, imho, absolutely unique. It definitely was the perfect end for the movie.

“Interlude II”
Just like I’ve expected, I like all the films on “The Trumpet”, and I found all of them better than the first 2 on “The Cello”. That’s probably the infamous problem of the successor. (And on top of that, “The Trumpet” has Jim Jarmusch) *g*
A propos Jarmusch, I found a nice site with his “Golden Rules”. They are immensely cool *g*
It’s difficult to say whether I’d want to buy this DVD… it’s worth it to watch some of them several times, but some just are not of the kind that I would watch again. The DVD cover looks great, but I’m not *that* impressed by the making-of.

Jirí Menzel – One Moment
So this guy is not german, but czech.
I enjoyed the background music a lot, but I don’t really know what to think about the story itself *hrr*
For some reason I’m not really able to care for an old sexually frustrated guy as the protagonist apparently is. But the cinematography and the atmosphere were interesting.

István Szabó – Ten Minutes After
What a loser of a husband. There’s nothing else to say about this. The movie was very well done and pretty realistic, though. Maybe the best of the Cello films so far.
Bourgeoisie is evil.

Claire Denis – Vers Nancy
Amazing… this film is so french, it’s impossible to make it even frenchier XD A pretentious “philosopher”, a young, charming woman, the incredible arrogance of being french, the way to discuss things in that incredibly pseudo-intellectual way without any single “idea” coming out of it… arrr XD

Volker Schlöndorff – The Enlightenment
I know that this guy is probably the most important german director so far… but I haven’t seen any of his films either. I think he was friends with Billy Wilder or something.
The atmosphere is incredibly boring, but rather nice – until the people appeared. Ugh, fat german proletariat.
The stuff the narrator talks about isn’t that bad, but the film itself makes me want to sleep. Oh, at the end I understood why I liked it: Apparently the narrator was merely something written by Augustinus *hrr*
I believe Schlöndorff’s other films don’t look like this. ^^;;;

Michael Radford – Addicted to the Stars
When the subject of a short film collection is time, there necessarily has to be one science-fiction film, right? Only in science-fiction, you can distort time – and let somebody “time travel”.
I didn’t really like this film, because despite all the artsyness, I have expected him to not to see his son, turn around and go away again.

Jean-Luc Godard – Dans le noir du temps
Another french, philosophical short film *g* This one is a lot more intelligent than the other one though *hrr* Still I do have the impression that Godard is desperately trying to do a meaningful movie, even though this attempt is a very touching one. I want to see more by him.

“Outro”
I have noticed that I prefer films where people actually talk (a lot) with each other. This is the case for the Trumpet films (except for Lifeline)… while most of the Cello films were rather quiet, or the things they said did not make that much sense.
More than 3 hours of indie stuff is just a little bit too much, I guess @.@
And I thought I haven’t written much about Ten Minutes Older… it turned out to be more than 1400 words O.o

I have decided to write about this movie before I truly forget what I wanted to write… There is way too much!

Since I am tired, here’s a little list of what I intend to write about. You’ll see that this will become awfully long.
– too simplistic sci-fi (the movie is about science, not about philosophy)
– too simplistic school/church
– teenager problems
– Charita’s overly innocent character
–> Atmosphere, style, suspense, story = top. depth = well, not more than teenager level = the right thing for me to be entertained
– Donnie’s relationship with Gretchen
– Goethe’s Gretchen
– child porn? Argh.
– which DVD to buy? (I’m thinking about buying both already *oh my*)
– simple time travel? complicated as memento, “illogical” as mulholland drive
–> I doubt it’d be fun for to me find out what the ‘truth’ is in this movie… I’m okay with the director’s cut to explain it, but I’d have accepted if nothing was explained
– Jake Gyllenhaal! *arrrrrrrrrr!* Comparable with Edward Norton in his debut – he just fits the troubled teenager role.

How long has it been since I’ve been gone to cinemas? Aaah! This is such a refreshing experience to have this gorgeous sound and a big screen. There was a great funny ad for cinemas… it is so true *snif* Even though cinemas are expensive as hell, there are movies it is worth for. And Pirates of the Caribbean is one of these movies.

We have watched it in english, and I was surprised about how much I understood. I think I got the whole storyline and most of the jokes. Wow.
A propos funny, and it was worth to wait until the incredibly long credits have passed to see the very last funny scene *hrr*
And a propos the long credits: Can you imagine how many digital animators there were? Oh my… I believe that despite the budget of $200 million, these poor people earned basically nothing in this movie. It’s a pity.

I have watched the first movie, but I recognized that I have forgotten the whole storyline. I wonder if Jack Sparrow had been such an ass in the last movie as well *hrr* Anyways, Orlando “Gay” Bloom was as stupid as ever and makes Johnny Depp’s gorgeous playing even more shining. (Or is it the other way round? When you see what a strong character actor Johnny Depp is, you realize how much Orlando Bloom sucks.) The character of Jack Sparrow definitely is one of the elements that makes this movie so funny… the way he talks, the way he moves – arrrr! XD
I actually don’t think that Johnny Depp looks particularily good, but his great skills as an actor make him very attractive *~*
(And where is that gorgeous picture you have posted on your blog, Prog? I just wanted to talk about it XD)

The fact that I had to concentrate on the english and the whole atmosphere in the cinema helped to make the whole movie very suspenseful to me. I did not feel bored at all – I usually am not that into action movies and Hollywood blockbusters, but apparently this is an exception. This mix of action, gorgeous characters and funny dialogue lines made this movie incredibly entertaining for me.

But oh, there was a thing that actually bugged me in this. Since I don’t watch many action movies, I have never thought about it. But this time, when I saw all the ships sinking down and people flying through the air, I had to think about Bokurano chapter 31 where Kirie had troubles to see all the anonymous people dying and thinking that if only the hero survives, it’s a happy ending. In this movie, it’s the same: the scenes where they showed the monster destroying the ships were slightly too long in my opinion. In my eyes, it was just useless violence. But oh well, as long as the animators have something to do…

The end wasn’t that bad if you consider that there will be another part of the “trilogy”. I do understand that they want you to see the next movie so that they made this one ending with some sort of cliffhanger ^^;;;

All in all, I’m not sure whether I’d watch this movie again. Most probably not. But I’d recommend it.

PS. A little note on something unrelated: I really should have read Prog’s list of the line-ups in the Venice festival, because… oh my! Mushishi! Paprika! I’m so looking forward to them… (And it’s good to know that the Mushishi live action movie should not be too bad.)

Let me first say something about Mystery Train again. In my opinion, one important criteria about what a good movie is how great the director/writer manages to live out the potential of a movie. Movies are a gorgeous and interesting medium with lots of specialties – and I think that Mystery Train, with its interesting storyline, sceneries and characters is one of the best examples for that.

Oh my, Allie’s accent! It’s incredible XD I can barely understand it. You really can feel that Jim J… Walsh really is was young when he created this kind of character *haha* (Unlike Broken Flower where you could literally how old he has gotten *hrr*)

What a lovely loser he is~ Haha. Apparently “About Schmidt” and “Permanent Vacation” work well together: it’s both centered about the life of protagonist. One is young and totally not bourgeois, and the other totally is, wow. With this movie, I understand so well why Harold Sakuishi likes Jarmusch so much *haha* Concerning music, they really are on the same level *g*

A propos Broken Flowers… for some reason I think that this movie is very similar to Broken Flowers. I watch both of the movies out of interest for Jim Jarmusch as a person (or: imho they’re only for hardcore fans like me), both movies are very slow paced and thus have a very boring but still a bit interesting atmosphere, they both feature incredibly horrible and annoying women – ah well X-)
The differences are interesting as well: Allie only meets new people that are all crazy, Donny only meets old ex-girlfriends that are all boring. Allie has a fucked-up life and no future, Donny has a boring life and a rather complicated past. Both the similarities and the differences make me automatically associate and compare Permanent Vacation with Broken Flowers. Even the titles are related! You know, one adjective followed by a substantive in an interesting combination *haha*

I cannot stand the laughter of that mad woman in the same room of Allie’s mother anymore. I’m glad it has just stopped. Hmm… I really think it must be difficult to play a seriously mad person.

Even though I knew that it’s his first movie, I was surprised to see that it really is only 77 minutes long. If I really have wanted to, I would have watched 3 movies in a row today.

The streets really are amazing… at least if you believe Permanent Vacation and Night on Earth. The first one shows their ugliness and the second their beauty.

Considering the fact that I am currently having a huge problem with my parents that grow older and older, I sympathize a lot with unconventional life styles right now. Even when it looks ugly to me, like in this movie.

Number of movies waiting for me: 18.

As you can see, I didn’t watch any movies these last few days. I was annoyed and busy with the report of my internship (and still am but since it’s weekend, I think I can relax for awhile *g*)

Hmm… not bad. To me, this is typical “character movie”. It is mostly gorgeous because of its brilliant protagonist. Jack Nicholson is really an admirable actor – unlike everybody else in this movie, especially his crappy daughter. And that new woman he gets to know… maybe it’s because Jack Nicholson’s playing is so good, but she’s totally unbelievable.

The life of Warren Schmidt was called the one of a typical “bourgeois” by an internet site. They are so right… but he’s actually some kind of interesting bourgeois, so I like this movie. Nevertheless, I obviously would not want to be the friend or even the wife of such a person. Luckily Martin does not seem to share one single character trait with him XD

“Ich habe ein gutes Gespür, was Menschen angeht” — raaah! I hate people saying this… psychologically interested humans over 17 years tend to become pretty pathetic. I never want to hear anybody (friends excluded) to say anything about my “psyche”. Thankfully these kinds of people never approach me.

The soundtrack is nice, by the way. But I think that I enjoy most modern piano pieces in good movies.

Oh my, the speech . I have no idea why they call this a tragicomedy ^^;; Couldn’t he just… stay a sarcastic asshole? I actually do not see any serious reason for his change, the only thing I do felt was him feeling sorry about his wife, but that’s all. Ah well…

A bourgeois seeing pioneers and understanding how futile it is – well – to be one. Oh my. And that what matters in the world can all be traced back to the will and the courage to change something, to do something new. Unfortunately this scene was portrayed in such an… american way. Ugh.

The end, though, was so damn cute… I felt like crying for one second, awww~

Number of movies waiting for me: 19.
(It’s difficult to get this number decreased… there’s “The magnificient seven”, “The Malteser Falcon” and “Donnie Darko” on TV the next 2 days, so oh my XD

You will notice that the number of movies I still want to watch did not decrease. This is because “Elling” came on TV today and the movies I counted obviously only include the ones I have bought or rented or borrowed.

This movie is so totally different than what I’ve thought. That’s mostly because I didn’t know anything about it before, except for the name. It’s a pleasant surprise so far though – well, not that much a surprise, because aside from its title, I also heard that it’s a good movie *g* (I think there even is a sequel or so…)

I like Elling, honestly… This character is just so funny XD And how Elling slowly changes – and his friend! He’s such a lovely person – Aaah, I know that it’s rather weird, but I love this kind of tragic comedies… You cannot laugh from the bottom of your heart, but it isn’t a sad movie either. And yet, I felt touched. I had to think about “Of Mice and Men” again (even though the analogy isn’t that great because “Of Mice and Men” is totally different*) – these kinds of people, who have difficulties to integrate into society, are the protagonists of the most touching stories, at least to me ^^ They are showing their emotions so openly, it’s refreshing.
Note that I said that his friend is lovely… the way he is so perverted is funny, and somehow cute. And I love to see how well he’s dealing with all of Elling’s faults – it’s their friendship that makes both of them “lovely” actually.

For some reason I like the synchronisation… especially Elling’s voice is cool. He just sounds like his weirdness suggests it.

I slept 5 hours last night ^^;;; I’m way too tired to fully enjoy this movie, I guess. But it isn’t that bad, I’m still getting everything. On the other hand, this blog post has become t3h random, I guess. I have to write it while watching the movie… because afterwards, I will fall into my bed without any thoughts except for sex with Martin, maybe.

Damn, the end was beautiful… for some reason, and the ending song is really beautiful. *_* I want to have it!

*About the difference to “Of Mice and Men”: I think there are 2 points. The first is that you are supposed to feel pity for the protagonists in “Of Mice and Men” while you feel sympathy for Elling. And the second is that Elling is not sociocritical whatsoever…

Number of movies waiting for me: 20.

Considering how many movies I am planning to watch now, it’s rather unlikely that I’ll be able to find a good post title for every single movie… That’s why I decided to launch my movie weeks *g* Besides playing the piano every day, I am planning to watch one movie every day. We’ll how how I’ll manage this.

Jim Jarmusch’s movies are special: I don’t jump over the intro and I watch the whole credits – The background music is just too good *_*

Uh… Should I have expected the guys to talk japanese? But of course I should… Another opportunity to practise my unexistent japanese – and I have to say that it’s nearly impossible to understand what they’re saying.

Mister baby~! XXD They really look weird. They look so fruitsy and extravagant that you can’t really date the movie. Wow. And they are so sympathetic! *hehe* “Thi~s plum is from Japan!” XXXD
And damn, the girl is good with her feet! But, don’t tell me that the guy came after like… 15 seconds XD But they’re cute together in bed *hihi*

Hmm, so far I prefer the first episode over the second. That italian woman is so stupid O.o I mean, it was not that bad how she handled the damn Elvis guy, but she’s losing way too much money on stupid people for my taste XD

Hmm… I don’t like Johnny, obviously. Not manly enough, that guy. I really like the parallelism of the 3 episodes. Especially how the radio plays at 2.17 am *hrr*

Uh… the subtitles are pretty bad, methinks O.o Oh well… I guess if I ever buy this DVD, my english would be good enough that I don’t have to read the subtitles anymore.

Pochi and I finally have a list on dvdb.de *_* Of course there aren’t many movies on the list… but I think this is because I have never been that much of a movie addict that I buy the original DVDs of the stuff I watch. I watch movies on TV and go to the videotheque. I prefer the ladder because of the better movie quality and especially the original sound. But one day when I’ll have a bit more money, I will definitely buy the movies I really like.
My principle is to only buy movies that are worth to be watched more than one time (at least!). Especially the ones I’d like to show to Pochi one day. *~* And that’d mean that I would watch the movie a second time at least *g*

Number of movies waiting for me: 20.

Cactus Flower and Harry & Sally

Harry and Sally was good as always… actually I find it a lot more boring than the time I saw it the first time. I still think that it’s a classic though. For some reason, Harry & Sally isn’t really that funny… it’s rather the kind of witty rather than funny to make you laugh.

Cactus flower was the complete opposite: I really had to laugh out loud several times… not only because of what was said, but mostly because of what happened. And Goldie Hawn has these eyes! Oh my – I feared they’d fall out or something…
Actually I saw it yesterday, I was totally delighted and glad to have seen this movie and I had lots of stuff I wanted to write about it. But now… apparently it’s all gone. Grmbl. Will watch the movie again, most probably.