cbarry39
Joined Apr 2001
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Reviews5
cbarry39's rating
I just finished seeing Wedding in White and I have to say that the experience was somewhat akin to seeing Herzog's 'Even Dwarfs Started Small' or Duk's 'Address Unknown' for the first time. Here's the synopsis:
During World War 2 in small town Ontario, Canada, a mousey sixteen year old girl gets raped at her house by a friend of a friend. When her Catholic mother finds out that her daughter is carrying a child from the attack she accuses her daughter of bringing it on herself. Now for those of you who don't know, in Canada they were incarcerating young girls for promiscuity as late as the sixties, so being the forties, the mother pleads with her husband not to send their young girl away. Let's just say that the alternative they come up is worse than you could ever imagine.
For those who can tolerate this kind of difficult subject matter, I highly recommend this film. Talk about Subconscious Cruelty!
During World War 2 in small town Ontario, Canada, a mousey sixteen year old girl gets raped at her house by a friend of a friend. When her Catholic mother finds out that her daughter is carrying a child from the attack she accuses her daughter of bringing it on herself. Now for those of you who don't know, in Canada they were incarcerating young girls for promiscuity as late as the sixties, so being the forties, the mother pleads with her husband not to send their young girl away. Let's just say that the alternative they come up is worse than you could ever imagine.
For those who can tolerate this kind of difficult subject matter, I highly recommend this film. Talk about Subconscious Cruelty!
I went to see "A Beautiful Mind" expecting an intelligent film about John Nash, a unique man who significantly contributed to economic theory, battled schizophrenia and won a Nobel Prize. I guess that was some other film because I ended up seeing a t.v. movie of the week about a guy who you wouldn't know was a genius if Ron Howard didn't just tell you. I've read articles in Reader's Digest that have more depth than this dribble.
" A Beautiful Mind" is a textbook example of why Hollywood's cinematic hegemony must be stopped at any cost. Terribly directed, terribly written, and poorly acted. I figured the awesome Russell Crowe who was so great in " The Insider" and " Romper Stomper" could have held his own here, but I guess even he couldn't survive Ron Howard's touch of death.
I can't understand why this film is getting such rave reviews except that Ron Howard's career is in serious, serious decline and the establishment feels like they're obliged to give him some kind of award before he makes something no one will be able to forgive him for.
If you want to see a film about schizophrenia, that's touching, vivid and real, rent Harmony Korine's Julian Donkey Boy. Now there's a film that actually deserves an award.
" A Beautiful Mind" is a textbook example of why Hollywood's cinematic hegemony must be stopped at any cost. Terribly directed, terribly written, and poorly acted. I figured the awesome Russell Crowe who was so great in " The Insider" and " Romper Stomper" could have held his own here, but I guess even he couldn't survive Ron Howard's touch of death.
I can't understand why this film is getting such rave reviews except that Ron Howard's career is in serious, serious decline and the establishment feels like they're obliged to give him some kind of award before he makes something no one will be able to forgive him for.
If you want to see a film about schizophrenia, that's touching, vivid and real, rent Harmony Korine's Julian Donkey Boy. Now there's a film that actually deserves an award.
After a very long wait, I finally got a chance to see Gaspar Noe's Seul Contre Tous and, surprisingly, it not only lived up to my high expectations, but actually exceeded them. What really impressed me was how director Gaspar Noe employed voice-over.
Less a straight up narrative, Seul Contre Tous, is really a ninety minute internal monologue. The main character, a tormented butcher who goes to Paris in search of his daughter lets fly with some of the most outrageously misogynistic, misanthropic ranting ever committed to celluloid, but the power of the film really lies in the way the character blames such disparate targets as Nazism, homosexuals, immigrants, and France itself for his poor stature in life, only to turn around and blame them again.
What's incredible is that there's a point in the film where the butcher's constant raging becomes mind-numbing, but then, around the seventy-five minute mark, once you think you've heard all he has to say ten times too many, you realize that this is the point of the film. It's frustrating enough spending ninety minutes WATCHING this guy, but Noe has drawn the main character so well and made his anger and ignorance so palpable that I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like BEING this guy. And this, I think, is where the true power of SCT lies.
Additionally, the conclusion of SCT is probably one of the greatest in the history of film. The way Noe treats the butcher's stream of consciousness at the climax should be studied by film students for years to come.
By the way, I noticed a lot of people describe this film as violent. I think violent is too simple a word. Inarguably, this movie is dark and disturbing, but violent? Despite a horrific beating at the head of the film, there's actually very little graphic violence, so those who enjoy pensive, daring films that take real risks, but are a little shy of high death counts should not dismiss this film immediately. Please take a look at it and judge for yourself, you might be happy you did.
Less a straight up narrative, Seul Contre Tous, is really a ninety minute internal monologue. The main character, a tormented butcher who goes to Paris in search of his daughter lets fly with some of the most outrageously misogynistic, misanthropic ranting ever committed to celluloid, but the power of the film really lies in the way the character blames such disparate targets as Nazism, homosexuals, immigrants, and France itself for his poor stature in life, only to turn around and blame them again.
What's incredible is that there's a point in the film where the butcher's constant raging becomes mind-numbing, but then, around the seventy-five minute mark, once you think you've heard all he has to say ten times too many, you realize that this is the point of the film. It's frustrating enough spending ninety minutes WATCHING this guy, but Noe has drawn the main character so well and made his anger and ignorance so palpable that I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like BEING this guy. And this, I think, is where the true power of SCT lies.
Additionally, the conclusion of SCT is probably one of the greatest in the history of film. The way Noe treats the butcher's stream of consciousness at the climax should be studied by film students for years to come.
By the way, I noticed a lot of people describe this film as violent. I think violent is too simple a word. Inarguably, this movie is dark and disturbing, but violent? Despite a horrific beating at the head of the film, there's actually very little graphic violence, so those who enjoy pensive, daring films that take real risks, but are a little shy of high death counts should not dismiss this film immediately. Please take a look at it and judge for yourself, you might be happy you did.