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stranger than fiction:
i like recursive films. i like charlie kaufman. this was not charlie kaufman, but it easily could have been, and it reminded me of kaufman mostly in that (a) it is yet another film about writers' block and (b) it was really quite well done. the cast is excellent, particularly will ferrell and emma thompson (her voice over in particular i enjoyed)--the only irritant really was dustin hoffman's performance, which seemed a collection of twitches. but yes, a good, funny engaging bit of film, yes.
the seventh continent
i love michael haneke's films. this one is truly fucked up---quite disturbing even--but filmed with such precision and with none of the american-film-typical assumption that you, viewer, are stupid.
the only rub with this is that you really cant talk about what happens without wrecking the film, so i would just say: go ye forth and find it. watch it. it'll do bad things to you.
which is the strongest recommendation i can give to a film.
elegy for a voyage
i really like alexandr sokurov. this film is visually beautiful--as the narrative is a dream, it makes sense that the images would be dream-like-and the effect of shooting on the surface of water is quite nice--and is not over-used in this context.
but it has this existentialist thing--you know the drill---what's it all about man? what's my place in the Scheme of Things? i dont know why it is that this sort of angst bores me stupid when it is someone else's, particularly when i watch a film that is preoccupied with such questions.
on the other hand, the film is 45 minutes and visually lovely from start to finish. so maybe let it run with the sound off at the next event you have that would seem to require curious visuals.
like making dinner or sitting around with your pet bong or a party or some such.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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