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ROTTERDAM: The Last Lizard Reviews THE EDUKATORS, 2046, INNOCENCE, and VITAL!!
Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This is one busy Lizard we’re talking about. I just picked up a DVD of 2046 today, but I’m envious that he saw it on a bigscreen. I can’t wait... I’m going to have to go put it on once I finish updating...
Hey Harry/Mori,
today was another great day for visiting the Rotterdam Film Festival: four out of five films were very much worth seeing.
Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei (The edukators) (Hans Weingartner) (4+ out of 5)
Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei is the story of Jan, Jule and Peter, three friends who wear their ideals on their sleeves. In the name of anarchy they perform break-ins at rich people’s houses, but they don’t actually steal anything: they just rearrange the furniture, put the stereo in the refrigerator, and leave behind a note: “the years of plenty are over”. The owner of one particular house shows up early, however, and the three “educators” are forced to kidnap the man.
Up until that moment, the film tells a sympathetic but not very surprising story. But once the kidnapping has taken place, the dynamic changes dramatically: the kidnappee, Hardenberg, turns out to be a wily manipulator, and the dialogue between the old capitalist and the young idealists is gripping and often humourous stuff.
The performances are great across the board (especially Burghart Klaussner, who plays Hardenberg), and the pace of the film is excellent, but director Weingartner spoils his own party somewhat with an ending that doesn’t fit in with the rest of the film and chooses sides too much, a problem the film had so masterfully avoided before the end.
2046 (Wong Kar-wai) (4 out of 5)
The long awaited spiritual successor to In the mood for love, 2046 was shown in a different form in Rotterdam than in Cannes last year, but don’t ask me what the changes were. Once again Wong can count on Christopher Doyle’s masterful photography, and although 2046 isn’t up to its predecessor’s standards, it’s still a beautiful, moving experience. Tony Leung once again plays Chow, the man who left behind the love of his life in In the mood for love. The film follows his subsequent romantic exploits, against the backdrop of Chow’s novel 2047, which is about a man who falls in love with an android whose emotions are delayed (it makes sense in the context of the film).
2046 doesn’t always succeed in taking the viewer along for the ride: at some points, Wong gets lost in his own story and style, and the viewer is left to look at the admittedly stunning pictures. But when 2046 works, it really works; especially the story of 2047, which serves as a metaphor for Wong’s life, is mesmerizing. At well over two hours, you get the feeling that Wong had some trouble in “killing his darlings”, but he should be forgiven; 2046 is special enough to forget about the occasional slow moment.
The beautiful washing machine (James Lee) (1,5 out of 5)
The beautiful washing machine starts out well enough: when a young man buys a second-hand washing machine, it turns out to be possessed. Not in an Exorcist way, mind you: it just works fitfully, and one night, a young woman turns up next to the thing.
These events are portrayed in a fun, playful manner, but when the washing machine changes owners, the film goes south in a big way: endless shots, superfluous scenes, boring dialogue and a plot that goes nowhere all conspired to put me to sleep.
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic) (4+ out of 5)
This tale about a special school for young girls is a mysterious parable about the trials and tribulations of a girl’s childhood. The movie starts from the viewpoint of Lili, a six-year old girl who arrives at the school by way of a closed coffin. Once released, she is shown around her new home: a closed off forest with a few houses scattered about. When Lili asks if she can see her little brother, she is told that “there are no boys here”. It seems Lili will have to stay at the school until she is thirteen years old, and if she tries to escape before that time, there will be severe punishment. Not that the school is like an actual prison: there are many other girls of Lili’s age there, and she only has to follow ballet classes; otherwise she is free to do what she likes. The older girls go to a mysterious mansion every night; what they do there isn’t explained until the very end of the film.
Innocence is an exquisitely crafted metaphor for everything maturing girls have to contend with: rivalries, (dis)obedience to their parents, developing sexuality, the loss of innocence. The film has quite a dark mood, which is underlined by the brilliant sound and set design. The child actors are quite good as well.
Innocence, based on a short story by Franz Wedekind, is filled with mystery and feeling, and you should seek it out the first chance you get.
Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto) (4 out of 5)
The new film by A snake of June director Tsukamoto, Vital is the story of a young man who suffers from amnesia following a car accident. He enrolls into medical school, and some things happen there that cause his memory to come flooding back (but I’m not gonna spoil that much of the film).
Vital is quite a subdued film by Tsukamoto’s standards: he is most well known for body horror classics Tetsuo I & II. Though there is some body horror in the autopsy sequences, it's all relatively light. The main theme of the story is that of loss and coping with the death of a loved one.
The film is beautifully shot and features another great Tadanobu Asano performance. The story is quite original and moving, but once the central promise is uncovered, it holds few surprises, and the flick just moves to the expected ending. There is a lot to like about Vital; it just seems a bit more predictable than Tsukamoto’s previous work.
I’ll be back tomorrow, with among others the new film by Oxide Pang, Ab-normal beauty, and the new Wim Wenders feature Land of plenty.
The Last Lizard, signing off.Awesome. Keep it up, man.
"Moriarty" out.
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There's only one film I'm looking forward to more than WK-W's latest, and I think you know what that is. So much for the artist in me triumphing over the geek. As far as I'm concerned, the longer the film is the better in this case. Wong shouldn't have to kill any of his darlings; the lovely pictures are part of the reason his films are so great. I'm guessing that if you are obsessed with the images from his films, this will just be an overdose. I'm a little surprised that Moriarty would prefer to see it first on DVD. I can barely wait to see it, but I want to see it on the big screen for my first impression. I mean, if someone offered to show me Revenge of the Sith on DVD right now...I'd try my damnedest to resist.
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... do you think I would be me if I wasn't so miserably impatient? I was at Amoeba... it was there on the display rack... I couldn't resist. And it's not like I won't see it on the bigscreen as soon as possible. But... but... IT'S IN MY HOUSE! HOW CAN I NOT WATCH IT?!
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2046 was (by far) the best movie of 2004 for me. However, you should know that Christopher Doyle doesn't work much on WKW films since "in the mood for love" where only a small portion of his work was kept in the final edit. Lai Yiu-Fai and Kwan Pun-leung were the main cinematographers.
As for the Edukators, the level of naivete and simplistic/nihilistic "politics" it refers to, makes it a good movie for people under 16 years old. -
The fabulous Asano?
I wanna see this movie, right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -
You keep outscooping me! Stop doing it, or you may have to fend off an attack by a furious zombie woman one of these days...
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wonderful and beautiful movie. great final shot
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Vital was the best film I saw last year at the cinema...(3-Iron was a close second)....go here, ie.e cut and paste: http://kurtscomment.blogspot.com/2004/09/vital.html
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