About Chocolate Parfaits

Pokémon Movie No. 13: Zoroark Master of Illusions

Uh… You have to end your 12 films with something with 13 in it, right? Well, that was the rationale at least. I am not sure if it was a good idea to watch this Pokemon film, but I certainly enjoyed it. It’s a once in a lifetime thing to do, I suppose, and after seeing too many good movies (ahaha), I need a little bit of silliness sometimes.

This film, indeed, was the most ridiculous thing I have seen in awhile – yet the cutest as well. I don’t really understand the need for the creation of these fictional characters when our own world has such a large variety of beautiful, fascinating and cute animals as well, but I must admit that they are wonderfully designed. Especially those forest animals Pokémon were so cute?

The story itself was nothing special: Bad guy wants to do something, let’s help the good guys to defeat him. Then again, Tim Burton’s version of “Alice in Wonderland” had that kind of story pattern too, and this film merely delivered what it proposed: 1 1/2 hours of mellow entertainment.

Finally, here’s the obligatory ranking, heh.

1. Cool Hand Luke
2. A Night at the Opera
3. 12 Angry Men
4. Holiday
5. The Face of Another
6. The 39 Steps
7. Rashomon
8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
9. Catch-22
10. The Day the Earth Stood Still
11. Pokemon: Master of Illusions
12. Mad Max

A propos ranking, I want to see Pixelmatsch’s ranking on the Berlinale films now! XD

PS. Obviously this particular film is not in it, but I have now seen 197 in the 1000 Greatest Films list from They Shoot Pictures… That’s almost 1/5, which is very, very surprising. I find it amusing to see what kind of films I tend to see from this list – for instance, I have seen almost everything since 1999. We are a product of our own generation, after all.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

I have been told that you need to be high to fully enjoy this film. That is certainly true, but I think a certain state of mind created by alcohol, tiredom, incredible boredom or trashy music is enough, especially since you will then still have enough brainpower to compute what you are seeing just now.

Personally I think the film is about just as brilliant as “Naked Lunch” was, perhaps even better. Without any doubt, it’s a cult film and, unlike Dune, I cannot see how else you could adapt a book like this into a movie except for the way Terry Gilliam did it. It’s crazy, funny, and features the perfect actors for the role – is somebody else but Johnny Depp truly able to pull of this kind of craziness? I can see how Johnny Depp has studied the author extensively and am yet again impressed at how versatile he is.

I don’t know if this film has a problem with it glorifying the use of drugs. (Strong drugs to boot!) It doesn’t seem to be received that way, and the negative criticism of the film is mostly related to how the film is chaotic and lacks a coherent plot. Nobody seems to mind that we are talking about drugs here – not that I mind.

In the end, I can’t believe I have never seen this film before. I think it would have made another impact on me if I had been 17. Even if you have no idea what drug-induced hallucinations are like, the idea of it would probably have a much stronger, more interesting influence if you were young. In that respect, I think that I really liked the movie for how it is presented (oh my God Johnny Depp fingerling), but I am not so interested in the story itself, even if it’s supposed to be a sweet parody of the vulgarity of Las Vegas. It was a good trip though.

Mad Max

…but I think I have found here the worst movie I have ever seen, or something. The actors were shitty (oh my God, one could barely recognize Mel Gibson but his acting skills seem to have been just as bad to begin with), the story was most pointless and idiotic, and boring. I absolutely don’t know where the good rankings for the film are coming from. Wikipedia quotes some people consider it the best movie of 1979 – seriously? With “Life of Brian”, “Manhattan” and “Stalker” being released in the same year? (“Amator” came out too, by the way, but I admit that one is just too obscure.)

On a side note, I found “Mad Max 2” in the infamous 1000 Greatest Films list, but “Mad Max” was not in there. How the heck is something like this even possible? Ahaha.

All in all, sometimes it is fun to see something really trashy and campy. But no matter how much enjoyment they could be, the are typically bad movies and “Mad Max” is no exception. Perhaps I would enjoy the cultural references to it now, but actually it blows my mind why these would exist in the first place. At least Ed Wood is really, really, really bad.

A Night at the Opera

Ah, the Marx Brothers. It seems “Duck Soup” and this film are their most acclaimed films, and now I have seen both of them! What to come now? I hope that my (partial) enjoyment for these films will not ruin my impression of the others.

All in all, I found this one to be brilliant. Like with almost every funny film relying upon chaining one funny scene to another, there are some better scenes and there are some worse. This film obviously suffered from the atrociously high amount of ridiculous singing. It’s a shame for the actors because they actually could sing, and it was painful to see that they had to sing so the film studio could sell off their songs – it’s like these harem anime where musical aspects (either in the form of one special episode or as a recurring theme throughout the show) are worked in to boost the CD sales. I also have never seen “Il trovatore” so the opera experience of the film is not all too great either.
The best music of the film was when the Marx Brothers were playing the piano… But why the heck were there tons of gypsy children on deck? How random?

That is not what you are supposed to like about the film, after all. It’s also not about the happy end (which is so unnecessary that it should not be a problem that I am spoiling it here). The film is indeed mostly about the interaction between the Marx Brothers themselves, creating a few scenes which were funny beyond belief. They might be staple scenes, but since I have not seen all that much of them, I thoroughly enjoy them as something nice and fresh and inherently funny.

In the end, I am not sure whether I’d call myself a Marx Brothers fan – I certainly am a Monty Python fan even if they did a lot of stuff I found utterly boring and downright silly. But hey, there are at least 3 more of their films out there waiting for me…

Cool Hand Luke

Though I must say that “What we have is a failure of communication” comes pretty close. Men are ultimately more openly evil than sadistic nurses, but in the end, this film mirrors “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in many, many ways. They start off with a likable main character who is full of energy and, to some degree, fun, and ultimately break him. In both cases, this is done progressively as a downward spiral, and backed up with what they claim society calls them to do.

I was very surprised at how well this movie was made, entirely without special effects, weird narration or any special directing schemes. It’s a very plain film, with some good camera angles but nothing fancy. There is also no slowness or overly dramatic atmosphere built up here, so the whole film relies upon the story and the acting skills of the main character. I’d say both perfectly deliver if you don’t expect the world from this little film.

As for myself, well, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” rendered me depressed for the next week, and I cannot imagine any film before and after that with the potential of screwing with me that way. “Cool Hand Luke” was less bad, but goes into the same vein. It worked.

Catch-22

First of all, I have never read the book, though the book has always meant something to me; I’ve always wanted to read it and now there is a part of me who is scared that it might disappoint me.

In many respects, the film sort of disappointed me. Just like with certain science-fiction books, or screwball comedies, for that matter, I do have very high expectations when it comes to a war satire. “Dr. Strangelove” sets the benchmark and even Kubrick himself made two other great ones (namely “Full Metal Jacket” and “Paths of Glory”), but something with “Catch-22” just didn’t really click. They have a few amazingly funny scenes (although unfortunately they are dragging the Catch-22 joke for a little bit too long) and the main character is very likable.

But what else? There were quite a few scenes I didn’t understand; the multitude of flashbacks became annoying very quickly and ultimately, unlike what I would have normally expected from Mike Nichols, the movie was just not very well made. Something technical seems to be lacking here a little, though I cannot pinpoint what it really is. In the end, I probably have to go back to the book after all.

The 39 Steps

Ahh, Hitchcock. Looking over the list of his films, I feel like I have seen a lot of Hitchcock and now what his films are about; but then again there are so many famous ones I have not seen (North by Northwest, Psycho (!), Notorious, Spellbound etc. etc.)… How is it possible that a director can be so amazingly productive and still make so many movies? On top of that, unlike Woody Allen, he’s a little bit of a true pioneer. Instead of making films as an homage to others, Hitchcock is always only himself, no matter whether it’s silents, black and white talkies or modern color films; film eras Hitchcock has all seen and gone through successfully. You don’t even have to like Hitchcock to be able to appreciate this impressive achievement, after all, there were quite a few films of his that I personally did not like as much.

“The 39 Steps” is one of those films that I liked, but that did not impress me greatly. When I saw “Rear Window”, even though it was for the second time after we had to see it in class back then in high school, I was blown off my feet. Certainly, “The 39 Steps” had a wonderful, engaging story; while the main female character was annoying at best, the thriller qualities of the film could not be refuted. I was interested from the start to the end, and actually liked the end which tied in so beautifully with the beginning.

Apart from that, there isn’t much to say about this film anymore, except that it’s another nice addition to the Hitchcock list, with a perfectly lovely pair of main characters.

The Face of Another

Is it even possible to be a fan of Teshigahara? He is so avant-garde that one feels like there must be a distance between yourself and his work, which is just that weird. “The Face of Another” is another artistic masterpiece of his, and so very very stylish, it is amazing. The way he plays around with the camera is so masterfully done that I am surprised he is not more recognized, despite the weirdness of the story which must mostly be attributed to Kobo Abe who, incidentally, is popular after all.

I thought “The Face of Another” had a great story and even though the end seemed totally unmotivated, I find it very fitting to the topic. It also is good that they left open what is going to happen with the wife, even though she is perhaps the character I ultimately cared the most about. I wish they had given her more screentime to develop as a character so she will be a little more than just an object of desire for the main character who happens to end up doing something pretty cool at the end (even though that did not seem to have saved him after all).

Just like Kobo Abe’s books, the weirdness of Teshigahara’s films must be accepted within their absurd world and it is only then that the true subtle meanings and the greatness of the films will come out.

Rashomon

There is a great danger when you look up beforehand what a certain story is going to be. In the case of “Rashomon”, I expected a crime story whose truth is going to be gradually revealed. Certainly this was actually the case, but ultimately the versions of the crime story given by the people at the place were not too utterly different. I wanted drama and action!

Well, what can I say. The story itself makes a lot of sense, and I am happy to have seen it finally. It was extremely well done, the actors were absolutely brilliant (especially Mr. Mifune here) and I was also a big fan of the sweet end of the story. But then again, there is something I find utterly underwhelming about the film. I am always very vary of the first ranks in those “greatest movies of all times” lists. I think that “Singin’ in the Rain” is great, but not that great to warrant being number 9 (the same thing goes for “Battleship Potemkin” or, oh my God, “Casablanca”). In the same way, I was just not that impressed by the film. It was supposed to be a good story, which it was, but nothing more. People seem to see deeper philosophical meaning behind it, and it inspired other artists and even theorists, but in my opinion, this is just a film that self-proclaimed intellectuals can boost with, because it’s not that difficult to do.

I do see a great potential in Kurosawa’s films though. I like his very Western style a lot, because it comes off as very natural to me, and so far prefer him over Ozu’s style (even though I am a big fan of “Ukigusa”). We’ll see; one day I have to see “Seven Samurai” after all – and all his other films.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Or so it seems. Whereas both of them suffer horribly from overload of testosterone, I see an incredible beauty in Western stories now that I have seen some of John Ford’s beginnings. My background with Western is very weird though – most of it comes from reading Disney parodies (these Donald Duck in the Wild West stories in the Lustiges Taschenbuch), but I barely have seen any actual Western films.

With science-fiction it’s pretty much the other way around: I have seen a few of the classics very early and perhaps my first genre-crush in terms of books was, in fact, dystopian science-fiction. But most science-fiction is actually not very good, and there is a big difference between those that are thoughtful mind games and others which are only supposed to tell a story – unfortunately often in a very shitty way. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” probably had the silliest message I have ever seen in science-fiction, and while it beautifully appeals the every human’s most superficial wish – peace on this world – I don’t think this film has any valuable contribution to that. Even though the aforementioned wish is universal, the way the message was carried out and the context of WWII which just ended are enough for me to find this film to be awfully dated. (The bad special effects don’t help either, but normally I find those to be rather cate.)

Ultimately it is a good story, and most of all, I have actually enjoyed the alien’s friendship with the little boy, as random as it might sound. I know that this film is something of a cult and many people have grown up with it, but as for myself, I hope it is going to be a relic from the past like certain 80’s films as well.