Norwegian Wood, the movie

only trailer I can find now:


Tran presents 'Norwegian Wood' at Venice film festival

VENICE, Italy — The pacing, the blowing wind, the music and other atmospherics all helped create the tension in "Norwegian Wood," says Tran Anh Hung, presenting the haunting movie at the Venice film festival.
Based on a best-selling novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, the story of love, sexuality and loss -- mainly through suicide -- is set in Japan in the volatile 1960s.
"The film is rich in physical variation," the Vietnamese-born Tran told AFP, discussing scenes in which the lead character Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) paces around an apartment with the troubled Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), and later tries to keep up with her in a green field.

Senna, the movie

It looks like Senna, the Movie is being released in Japan first. Japanese title:
アイルトン・セナ　音速の彼方へ

Go to the official movie website to see a clearer trailer:
http://senna-movie.jp/

There is a trailer posted to youtube here


It's being released on Oct 8th in very limited theaters in Japan. I'll probably go see it in Odaiba Cinema Mediage in Tokyo.

extremely well done short animation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygon_(film)

The film was drawn in an unusual animation technique called photographica that consists of two celluloid layers for each character with special color schemes and with one of the layers out of focus to imitate the three-dimensional space rendering. The animation then actively moves the virtual camera to change perspective dynamically for each scene and give a sense of realism, without the use of any CGI methods (which weren't available at the time).
The characters in this animated film were designed with faces very similar to those of several famous movie actors and celebrities of the time, including Ringo Starr, Jean Gabin, Paul Newman, Yul Brynner and Mel Ferrer (The scientist) among others.

Blueberry Nights

My Blueberry Nights is so thoroughly utterly bad it's good. A practical joke. Maybe entirely done on purpose. What are you trying to tell us Wong?

1) Norah Jones the actress
2) "Manchester" why bother
3) bad dialogue translation (I know)
4) Elizabeth in essence a supporting role
5) fun was had with the stars
6) culturally inaccurate US backdrops
7) itch scratching depth

Best seen slightly drunk/hung over on Sunday, by yourself, in a cheap empty theater without knowing what's being shown. Boy what a pleasant-awful surprise.

Occupation 101

See clips on official website

For decades many Americans have been deceived about the Palestinian-Israeli issue that appears to be locked in a never-ending conflict. 'Occupation 101' is a film that exposes the root-cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Addition it explains the reality of the situation through the voices of the silent majority of Israeli, Jewish, Christian, and Americans that are silenced through the mainstream media. -taken from IMDb

download torrent for the complete documetary here. You owe it to yourself to learn a bit more about the truth.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it's the illusion of knowledge.
(written on movie's poster)

seven/+ movies

Movies I've seen within the past two years that I voted a "7" or higher for on IMDb.com:

Half Nelson (2006)

An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.

I dug this post up from the grave for a new entry. A little clicking around results in a short film Gowanus, Brooklyn (2004) that quite possibly is the precursor to this quiet screamer of a movie.





Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

'Me and You and Everyone We Know' is a poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating and contemporary world. Christine Jesperson is a lonely artist and "Eldercab" driver who uses her fantastical artistic visions to draw her aspirations and objects of desire closer to her. Richard Swersey (John Hawkes), a newly single shoe salesman and father of two boys, is prepared for amazing things to happen. But when he meets the captivating Christine, he panics. Life is not so oblique for Richard's seven-year-old Robby, who is having a risqué Internet romance with a stranger, and his fourteen-year-old brother Peter who becomes the guinea pig for neighborhood girls -- practicing for their future of romance and marriage.

If I'd made a film, it would have looked something like this, not that I have the know-how. Wonderfully done. People are capable of displaying very diverse personalities. The characters and events depicted may seem a little stranger than usual, but are they really? I laughed out loud.

The Door in the Floor (2004)

Alternately tragic and comic, an exploration of the complexities of love in both its brightest and darkest corners. Adapted from John Irving's best-selling novel A Widow for One Year, the film is set in the privileged beach community of East Hampton, New York and chronicles one pivotal summer in the lives of famous children's book author Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) and his beautiful wife Marion (Kim Basinger). Their once-great marriage has been strained by tragedy. Her resulting despondency and his subsequent infidelities have prevented the couple from confronting a much-needed change in their relationship. Eddie O'Hare, the young man Ted hires to work as his summer assistant, is the couple's unwitting yet willing pawn - and, ultimately, the catalyst in the transformation of their lives.

Once in a while comes a movie that slips under the radar, giving it elements of surprise. Not the brightest in the sense of heaviness or being smart, but a rare one in today's Hollywood's dogpile.

Contact (1997)

Contact, based on the novel of the same name by Carl Sagan, is the story of a free thinking radio astronomer (Jodie Foster) who discovers an intelligent signal broadcast from deep space. She and her fellow scientists are able to decipher the Message and discover detailed instructions for building a mysterious Machine. Will the Machine spell the end of our world, or the end of our superstitions? Will we take our place among the races of the Galaxy, or are we just an upstart species with a long way to go?

If anyone wants to see a sci-fi that is belivable and heartfelt, this is it. Nothing like the War of the Worlds crap.

Clerks. (1994)

Dante Hicks is a clerk at a local convenience store in New Jersey. On one particular Saturday morning, he gets called in on his day off. Once there, he must deal with multiple problems. The shutters outside won't open. His ex-girlfriend, whom he is still in love with, is getting married. His girlfriend, who bugs him about starting college, has revealed certain, uh...stuff about her past. His boss hasn't come in to take his place. He has a hockey game at 2 o'clock. Another ex has died, and today's the last day he can go to her wake. He must deal with customers that aren't so intelligent. His friend, Randal, a clerk at the video store next door, is even less dedicated to his job than Dante, and is always bothering Dante's customers. And the biggest problem of them all: HE'S NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE THERE TODAY!! Can Dante manage it all?

Lots of clever one-liners. Really interesting dilemmas in everyday's situation.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Steve Zissou, sea-film auteur a la Jacques Cousteau, has reason to be melancholy: his partner has been eaten, perhaps by a mythic jaguar shark, his wife may be taking up with her ex-husband, a young man appears claiming Steve is his father (Steve hates fathers), his most recent films have tanked, he's having trouble raising money for his venture to revenge his partner, and he's attracted to a pregnant reporter who prefers the pretender. At sea, in pursuit of the shark, will he escape pirates and mutiny, forge the bonds of fatherhood, place his arm around his wife, find the monster of the deep, re-establish box office hegemony, and discover a reason to smile?

Maquinista, El (2004)

THE MACHINIST is the story of TREVOR REZNIK, a lathe-operator who is dying of insomnia. In a machine shop, occupational hazards are bad enough under normal circumstances; yet for Trevor the risks are compounded by fatigue. Trevor has lost the ability to sleep. This is no ordinary insomnia...

Watched it a while back. Well executed ideas. Keeps you wondering.




Dark City (1998)

John's life has become a nightmare. He is hunted by the police for a series of murders he knows nothing about, a woman who claims to be his wife is after him, and so is a mysterious "doctor". But his worst trouble is the strangers, a series of vastly powerful beings who seem to manipulate just about everything in the city, and want him because of the extraordinary powers he manifested. John decides to find out what is happening in his city; why is it always night? And why can nobody tell him a way to leave the city?

Another great Sci-fi. Mind opening as well as intriguing.

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

Determined to solve the coincidence of seeing the same conspicuous stranger three times in a day, Albert hires a pair of existentialist detectives, who insist on spying on his everyday life while sharing their views on life and the nature of the universe.

Need I say more?






Code 46 (2003)

Code 46 is a love story set in a Brave New World-type near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. People cannot travel unless they have "papelles," a special travel permit issued by the totalitarianistic government, the "Sphinx". Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people without papelles forced to live primitive lives. William is a family man who works as a government investigator. When he is sent to Shanghai to solve a case of fake papelles, he meets a woman named Maria. Although he realizes she is behind the forgeries, he cannot help but fall completely in love with her. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can only last as long as his papelles: 24 hours. Back home, William is obessed with the memory of Maria. When the original investigation is inevitably re-opened a week later and William is sent back to finish the work he started, he tracks her down, only to discover she has been accused of a Code 46 violation and any further relationship is impossible.

Unconventional depiction of the future. Although they miscast Tim Robbins for the role.

note:
quoted plot outlines taken from IMDb.com
bold type comments by me

Top 50 Indie Films

...according to Empire:

Big budgets, big names and a wide release are but three of the advantages enjoyed by studio films. An overriding concern to make money, interfering executives and lack of creative control are three more, rather less enjoyable, attributes. Because of this it's more often independent cinema you must turn to for examples of truly brave and innovative filmmaking and, assembled herein, you will find Empire's choice of the 50 greatest independent films: some of the boldest and most creative movies ever undertaken. Bearing in mind that to encompass all those that are independently financed would mean The Phantom Menace is an independent film, we've qualified all entries by ensuring they were made with what we consider to be an independent spirit. The final order then takes into account the quality of the film, the circumstances behind its production, the achievement of the filmmakers despite monetary and logistical constraints and its influence on subsequent projects. (the list)

#10 Mean Streets (1973)
# 9 Sideways (2004)
# 8 The Usual Suspects (1995)
# 7 Sex, Lies, And Videotape (1989)
# 6 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
# 5 Monty Python's Life Of Brian (1979)
# 4 Clerks (1994)
# 3 The Terminator (1984)
# 2 Donnie Darko (2001)
# 1 Reservoir Dogs (1992)

6.5's

Roger Dodger (2002)
The opening boggles the mind. But from there on things go a slightly different way. A little less intellectual but almost equally amusing. Great acting and some more.

Broken Flowers (2005)
A financially sucessful man goes on a trip to examine his earlier love life. Murray is his typical self. I just wish Julie Delpy had more of a role. I think it's fair to say the soundtrack makes this movie.

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Miyasaki's artwork is there (or more accurately, his direction of artwork style); his soul not. Fascinating entertainment seriously lacking depth. One could only wish. Six point five still for sheer visual stunts and creativity.

The I Inside (2003)
A brilliant little film. open mind needed. I couldn't care less about Ryan Phillippe but he does a decent job in this movie.

Crash (2004)
Very good and easier to understand movie trying to deal with a certain helplessness and deep-rooted prejudice. Movies like this need to reach a larger audience so it does what it's supposed to. It's literally not just black and white, the world is full of situations where values get stuck inbetween those two. Some fairly flawed plotlines. But worth a closer look.

The Girl in the Café (2005)
An interesting enough movie that talks about love and poverty. Well acted leads. The rest of it was tried but failed, just barely. Enjoyable. The somber tone with hints of cheerfulness works for me.

Melinda and Melinda (2004)
This Woody Allen's piece feels nothing more than a fully developed student film that shines a special light on the issues it discusses. Now, for a student, it'd be a great accomplishment. But coming from a master it only deserves a 6.5. The concept can't be simpler. It's up to the audience to grasp the depth of the theme. Or, it'd still be a great Sunday afternoon couch warmer.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
I fought myself for a long while to put this one on 7+ or 6.5. It's a wonderful film, but seeing it after it was first released three years ago when I instantly wanted to see it but never got around to, spoiled it for me. I came to expect a bit too much. And then again I might be wrong. I'll probably give it a second viewing in a couple of years and if I like it better then I will bring it higher up my list.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
Good coming-of-age movie for girls. I am not part of the target demographic, so I will try to be as impartial as possible. Judging from the movie and what other users have said about the two, go see the movie, then read the books. They are claimed to be much better. I really like positive teenager movies. It's so tough being a teenager, but people, mostly your own family, just don't appreciate it. Everybody should learn how to cry over and learn from her mistakes/pain, better when she has someone to do it with.

Closer (2004)
It leaves you thinking, mostly because seeing these likeable real life actors and the shitheads they play makes me sick. They all do such a good job which makes them real. Portman is sloppy at times. Law's Alfie (2004) came to mind, even though the two characters share very little in common. I like Portman so much but this movie she's the least good of the four.

(6.5 is the score I'd give on IMDb.com if half a point is allowed. 7 to me is a very good movie, so 6.5 is getting close but being a hair of a line short)

Broken Flowers OST

...is a great selection if you are in a mellow sunlit coffee shop mood. I wish there was one around here where I can drink that occasional cup of coffee alongside some readings.



























1. There Is An End - The Greenhornes
2. Yegelle Tezeta - Mulatu Astatke
3. Ride Your Donkey - The Tennors
4. I Want You - Marvin Gaye
5. Yedermo Sew - Mulato Astatke
6. Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth - Brian Jonestown Massacre
7. Tell Me Now So I Know - Holly Golightly
8. Gubelye - Mulatu Astatke
9. Dopesmoker - Sleep
10. Requiem, Op.48 (Pie Jesu) - Oxford Camerata
11. Ethanopium - Dengue Fever
12. Unnatural Habitat - The Greenhornes

Time magazine top 100

Time's 100 Best Films:

A - C
Aguirre: the Wrath of God (1972)
The Apu Trilogy (1955, 1956, 1959)
The Awful Truth (1937)
Baby Face (1933)
Bande à part (1964)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980)
Blade Runner (1982)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Brazil (1985)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Camille (1936)
Casablanca (1942)
Charade (1963)
Children of Paradise (1945)
Chinatown (1974)
Chungking Express (1994)
Citizen Kane (1941)
City Lights (1931)
City of God (2002)
Closely Watched Trains (1966)
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936)
The Crowd (1928)

D - F
Day for Night (1973)
The Decalogue (1989)
Detour (1945)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Dodsworth (1936)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Drunken Master II (1994)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
8 1/2 (1963)
The 400 Blows (1959)
Farewell My Concubine (1993)
Finding Nemo (2003)
The Fly (1986)

G - J
The Godfather, Parts I and II (1972, 1974)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
Goodfellas (1990)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
His Girl Friday (1940)
Ikiru (1952)
In A Lonely Place (1950)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
It's A Gift (1934)
It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

K - M
Kandahar (2001)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
King Kong (1933)
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Last Command (1928)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Léolo (1992)
The Lord of the Rings (2001-03)
The Man With a Camera (1929)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Metropolis (1927)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980)
Mouchette (1967)

N - P
Nayakan (1987)
Ninotchka (1939)
Notorious (1946)
Olympia, Parts 1 and 2 (1938)
On the Waterfront (1954)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Out of the Past (1947)
Persona (1966)
Pinocchio (1940)
Psycho (1960)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Pyaasa (1957)

Q - S
Raging Bull (1980)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Searchers (1956)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Singing Detective (1986)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Star Wars (1977)
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Sunrise (1927)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Swing Time (1936)

T - Z
Talk to Her (2002)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Tokyo Story (1953)
A Touch of Zen (1971)
Ugetsu (1953)
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
Umberto D (1952)
Unforgiven (1992)
White Heat (1949)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Yojimbo (1961)

my favorite movies

of all-time, in random order:


Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
Three Colors: Blue

Blue is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew free of personal commitments, belongings grief and love. She intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world and live completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heals Julie and irresistably draws her back to the land of the living.
Directed by
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Cast
Juliette Binoche
Benoît Régent
Florence Pernel

阿飛正傳 (1990)
Days of Beiing Wild (1991)

Set in 1960, the film centres on the young, boyishly handsome Yuddy, who learns from the drunken ex-prostitute who raised him that she is not his real mother. Hoping to hold onto him, she refuses to divulge the name of his real birth mother. The revelation shakes Yuddy to his very core, unleashing a cascade of conflicting emotions. Two women have the bad luck to fall for Yuddy. One is a quiet lass named Su Lizhen who works at a sports arena, while the other is a glitzy showgirl named Mimi. Perhaps due to his unresolved edipal issues, he passively lets the two compete for him, unable or unwilling to make a choice. As Lizhen slowly confides her frustration to a cop named Tide, he falls for her. The same is true for Yuddy's friend Zeb, who falls for Mimi. Later, Yuddy learns of his birth mother's whereabouts and heads out to the Philippines.
Directed by
Kar Wai Wong
Cast
Leslie Cheung
Maggie Cheung
Andy Lau
Carina Lau
Rebecca Pan
Jacky Cheung

Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989)
Cinema Paradiso

A famous film director returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years. He reminisces about his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He is also reminded of his lost teenage love, Elena, who he had to leave before he left for Rome.
Directed by
Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast
Antonella Attili
Enzo Cannavale
Isa Danieli
Leo Gullotta
Marco Leonardi
Pupella Maggio
Agnese Nano
Leopoldo Trieste
Salvatore Cascio

天空の城ラピュタ (1986)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky

This film is set in a Victorian era that might have been, influenced by the visions of writers such as Jules Verne. As Pazu, the apprentice of the engineer who maintains a mine's elevator machinery, carries his boss's dinner back to the mine, an unconscious pigtailed girl floats down from the sky into his arms. This girl, Sheeta, and her magical levitation-stone pendant hold the key to a mysterious, mythical sky-castle known as Laputa. Sheeta and Pazu must flee from both air-pirates, who seek the sky kingdom for its legendary treasure, and the army, led by a government agent with his own mysterious agenda for Laputa.
Directed by
Hayao Miyazaki
Voice actors
Mayumi Tanaka
Keiko Yokozawa
Kotoe Hatsui
Minori Terada

Love Letter (1995)

Hiroko Watanabe's fiancé Itsuki died two years earlier in a mountain climbing accident. While looking through his high school yearbook, Hiroko in a fit of grief decides to write a letter to him using his old school address. Surprisingly she receives a reply, not from her dead husband, but from a woman also named Itsuki whom had known Hiroko's husband in school. A relationship develops between the two women as they continue to exchange letters and share memories of the dead Itsuke.
Directed by
Shunji Iwai
Cast
Miho Nakayama
Etsushi Toyokawa
Bunjaku Han
Katsuyuki Shinohara
Miki Sakai
Takashi Kashiwabara

Before Sunrise (1995)

Before Sunset (2004)

Before Sunrise is a passionate and intelligent romance between a young American (Jesse) and a French student (Celine). A chance encounter on the train incites intrigue, and Jesse provocatively suggests that Celine postpones her return to France and embarks instead on a spontaneous expedition to Vienna. In the course of their 14-hour relationship, the two share in their love for the unrehearsed and their appreciation for the unexpected as they explore in a powerful meeting of hearts and minds. Dawn breaks. Sad in silence, they make their way to the station. As they bid each other farewell, Jesse is seized by another impulse - another encounter?

(Before Sunset)Jesse, a writer from the US, and Celine, a Frenchwoman working for an environment protection organisation, acquainted nine years ago on the train from Budapest to Vienna, meet again when Jesse arrives in Paris for a reading of his new book. As they have only a few hours until his plane leaves, they stroll through Paris, talking about their experiences, views and whether they still love each other, although Jesse is already married with a kid.
Directed by
Richard Linklater
Cast
Ethan Hawke
Julie Delpy

重慶森林(1994)
Chungking Express

Wong Kar-Wai's movie about two love-struck cops is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color. The first half deals with Cop 223, who has broken up with his girlfriend of five years. He purchases a tin of pineapples with an expiration date of May 1 each day for a month. By the end of that time, he feels that he will either be rejoined with his love or that it too will have expired forever. The second half shows Cop 663 dealing with his breakup with his flight attendant girlfriend. He talks to his apartment furnishings until he meets a new girl at a local lunch counter.
Directed by
Kar Wai Wong
Cast
Brigitte Lin
Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Faye Wong
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Valerie Chow

movie-goers' movie

Was it just me or the Korean have really taken off with their good taste in film-making? They were unheard of 10 years ago now they are making some of the best movies out there. Well, movie-goers' movies.


click poster for IMDb link.
warning: serious movie-goers only.

poster: IMDb.com