About Chocolate Parfaits

Le Amiche

For many reasons, „Le Amiche“ ended up being the only film I was able to see during the Antonioni retrospective they had at the Arsenal. This is very sad, but if it was not the retrospective, I would never have been able to see this film otherwise. After all, the movie doesn’t even have a decent Wikipedia article!

It’s weird enough, because I have seen so many great movies lately, but none of them had an impact on me as strongly as „Le Amiche“ did. Granted, this is not a very typical Antonioni, and I understand perfectly why it is not as acclaimed as his other films. Most Antonioni’s are extremely visual and his style would make his film great even if the story were completely pointless. „Le Amiche“ is not a feast for the eyes as most Antonioni’s are, like „Blow Up“ or „L’Éclisse“, although of course the characters are always very nicely dressed. It also doesn’t really have an intriguing mood like „The Red Desert“ – very unlike every other movie of his, „Le Amiche“ is just a simple film with a simple story.

But what a story! When I think back, the last film that impressed me in the same way was „Jules et Jim“, although for rather different reasons, since Truffaut’s masterpiece is very stylish and playful too. „Le Amiche“ is comparably serious yet less dramatic. It’s mostly a love story, but a more ‚real’ one than Antonioni’s other films about love. When Rosetta wanted to kill herself, I could perfectly feel why. The characters in „Le Amiche“ remind me a little bit of „Don Juan kommt aus dem Krieg“, where many different women are shown, but in the end they are all the same. All women take love seriously, even when they make a decision against it. There were quite a few scenes where I thought „Wow, how real“ – very unlike Antonioni’s other films. One of them was when Momina says „A husband is always a husband“ when she reconciles with him, another one was when Nene says that she must leave when there is no love in a relationship anymore, that she would have stayed if there were children. But since there are no children, love is necessary for two people to be together. This scene, and quite a few others, made me want to cry out in the movie theater.

I find myself to describe why I like „Le Amiche“ so much, and actually this Amazon review does a much better job than me. It’s very personal, I guess, and it touched the core of myself, a little bit like „Huo Zhe“ did. In that respect, this film is much more precious to me than every single other Antonioni. I have found all of his films to be brilliant, but none of them made such an impression on me than this little, unpretentious title.

Before I die, I am determined to see these other Antonioni’s:
- L’Avventura
- La Notte
- Antonioni’s China
- Professione: Reporter
- Beyond the Clouds
This means that I will at least double the number of Antonioni titles I have seen. See why I think it’s difficult to a cinephile in the making?

Sunset Boulevard

I don’t know how long it’s been that Shii tells me to watch this movie. For some reason I don’t understand, I always thought that the movie would be a romantic comedy. Probably because a film with „sunset“ in the title sounds like it has to be romantic and since Wilder directed it, it must be a comedy. Harr harr. Later, I got to know that it was about some old woman who wasn’t able to face her age – such a vain topic is not particularily interesting for me, or so I thought.

Now, I have completely forgotten why I have finally decided to watch the film – especially since it turned out to be completely different from my imagination. It should have helped me not to know that this is a Wilder – in many ways it’s probably the exact opposite of Wilder’s films. Usually, Wilder mostly employs somewhat weak and hollow women (except for Greta Garbo of course), he likes the blonde type after all. Gloria Swanson’s character is somewhat hollow too, but at the same time, her character is very well fleshed-out and much more complex,. She is not just an old hag, there’s some mysteriousness and obsessiveness about her that is very different from Wilder’s usual simple-minded women. She plans ahead and knows how to charm a man. The way she entertains the man she loves by playing Charlie Chaplin for him shows that she is actually a fascinating character, and a much more exciting lover than the little girl, her rival in love. Perhaps Norma is the best female character Hollywood has ever made, I think she’s even greater than Margo Channing in “All about Eve”.

I love Erich von Stroheim’s appearance in the movie, absolutely love love love Buster Keaton playing himself. It’s just so funny when we see Swanson interact with people of her own age, and tragic at the same time. That particular scene is like the whole movie through the magnifying glass, it was great. While Gloria Swanson is absolutely amazing, she did not completely outshine her surrounding (except maybe William Holden) just because they managed to get so many great actors on screen.

In the end, I feel like I should watch that movie again. It’s incredibly layered, provoking and usually deep and serious for a Wilder movie. I loved it a lot. In the end, I would say that it’s among the best pictures that Wilder made, with „Some like it hot“, „Avanti“ and „One Two Three“. But then again, there also is „The Apartment“, „Ninotchka“ and „Sabrina“… ahhh! I think he is my second favorite director for a good reason. (No. 1 would be Jim Jarmusch.)
It’s so difficult to compare Wilder’s movies really. How is it even possible to judge whether “Some like it hot” or “Sunset Boulevard” is a better movie when they are more different from each other than apples and oranges?

Something extremely odd happens to me when I’m at 6451’s place. It’s a quite bare house and literally everybody I know has a nicer house than they do. However, something about that place intrigues me, it makes me want to live there. Perhaps it subconsciouly makes me think my first boyfriend’s home with it’s the mixture of white walls, a neat yet boring kitchen and Biedermeier looking furniture.

Anyways, this is the first movie I have seen with 6451 and I am so glad that we chose this one to be it.

Der Letzte Mann

It’s been awhile since I have last seen a silent film, and most silent films that I ended up liking were during live screenings. Metropolis, Nosferatu and others made an incredibly great impression on me because I was able to watch them in a movie theater with like-minded film buffs accompanied by great live music. I was not sure whether I will be happy with just watching a silent on a laptop screen.

But, it seems that truly great movies would deliver even under the worst circumstances (it was the same thing for “The White Ribbon” after all). “The Last Laugh” was absolutely wonderful, and while I still don’t really know much about silent films, I had this feeling that the cinematography was extremely unusual. The few scenes where we were zooming into the main character were astonishing and greatly contributed to the mood – I was so in awe. It was only later on that I got to know what revolutionary techniques Murnau used.

It’s difficult to describe it, but I think the greatness about the film really consists in its cinematography and all those details that make this film with its simple story so incredibly effective and suspenseful. We were introduced into the main character’s life with so much detail that the scene where his downfall starts comes off as a shock. I especially love the scene where he walks in through the revolving door while that other guy walks out. More than Nosferatu even, the greatness of The Last Laugh comes from his versatile directing and modern filming techniques. I am so amazed by Murnau’s skills… why is it that German director’s in the Weimar Republic were so great?

Concerning the ending, I am absolutely sure that Murnau was incredibly pissed when he was forced to change his ending. Granted, I have only seen his Nosferatu so far, but I strongly believe that he never wanted the film to end that way. The end is too… hollywood-ish, it’s completely defying the film’s atmosphere and considering what kind of time Murnau is coming from and what background he has, I can’t possibly believe that he intended to tell such a story. However, after I have struggled through the whole film and felt so much compassion for the main character, the ending left a nice feeling for me. I know this is horribly wrong, but I was somewhat happy at the end.

I absolutely need to see Sunrise. The problem with watching movies is that every single movie I watch makes me want to watch at least two more other films. When is this ever going to stop? XD

The weirdest thing about blogging on movies is when you only come to blog about films months later. In fact, the next 5 blog postings are all super old old, let’s see:
- Sunset Boulevard: Watched around 29 January
- The Last Laugh: Watched at the beginning of September 2009
- Milk: Watched on my flight back to Germany, i.e. 12 December 2009
- Le Amiche: Watched on 14 December 2009
- Platform: Watched around 26 December 2009

So except for that one movie at the end of January, they were all from December last year! I don’t really know in which order to blog these films now, but I’ll just randomly start with

Milk

I have always wanted to watch the film, but the fact that flights from and to the U.S. never have subtitles, I was a little unsure whether I should though. Also, Up was running at the same time, but since I missed about 20% of Up already, I ended up sticking with Milk. What a good decision it was!

Somehow I feel like I should start with Milk’s weaknesses: I can’t really take that film for serious, just like I am unable to do so for most biographical films. I am sure that the true Milk was not like this, and just like every other Hollywood adaptation, even when it’s a Gus van Sant directing it, we are dealing with a good portion of twisting reality. And clichés. I know what hard path homosexuals have had to (and still have to) go through in the U.S., but the glorification of all that, especially with the way the characters are depicted, is just a little bit over the top.

But, everything else turned out to be quite marvelous: Sean Penn is absolutely the perfect actor for this role, the storyline was engaging and it made me cry quite a few times. I thought the opera scene was absolutely perfect! After just about a second into the scene, I recognized that it was „Tosca“. Perhaps this is because deep down I still remembered the music, but as a political drama, „Tosca“ is the best fitting opera for that scene – it couldn’t really be anything else.

After watching the film, I was thinking of it a lot. After taking out the Hollywood elements of the film, the core of the story is still very intriguing. I liked how Sean Penn was portrayed as a multi-faceted character, and I am sure that the true Harvey Milk was a fascinating man, and much more than just a spokesperson and politician. At the same time, I dislike everything emotional in political dramas (and hated V for Vendetta partially for this reason). The film makes you think that they have fought bravely for the best thing in the world, even if it is not actually the case. It was immensely touched and overwhelmed by „Milk“ nevertheless.

The ending scene where they showed how the characters really looked like was absolutely lovely. I am very glad that I have seen the film, but although I think it was a great movie, I am not really sure if I would recommend it. At the end of the day, it’s still Hollywood.

Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis

Although I have planned to watch this film with Shii for a long time, and although I knew that the movie was probably the most popular movie in France, honestly I wasn’t entirely convinced that I would like this movie. Now I don’t even remember why I got the feeling that I might not like the humour in the film – perhaps it’s because I have seen so many French films and this one seems to be very different from the Nouvelle Vagues that I am so used to. I was scared of the unknown, that’s it.

Of course I was entirely wrong. „Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis“ is a whole lot of fun even when you are not French, and while it totally ignores the real picture of France today, it manages to create an incredibly funny atmosphere. This story so devoid of realism was probably what frustrated French people want to see in their country now – as simple, honest and thoroughly likeable.

Enough of those politics, although it’s actually very easy to do that considering the success of the Ch’tis and how much it became a mass phenomenon. Let’s talk about the movie itself… Not. Just like many comedies, this is a film that you simply must see. In fact you should see it in French with French subtitles. The language of the Ch’tis are absolutely hilarious and I can’t see how it is possible to even translate that. Story-wise, the majority of the film is very predictable. Especially at the beginning, where you perfectly know that our main character is going to end up in Nord Pas-de-Calais, the first 20 minutes were not all that funny. The true greatness of the film clearly kicks in when he starts interacting with the Ch’tis, and how he slowly became friends with them. Towards the end though, the film became incredibly unrealistic (with the mother suddenly deciding that she will let her son go) yet so immensely cute with the love confession. I am sure we are a whole generation who wants to be proposed to like that now! XD

Finally, of course the Ch’tis doesn’t really have any artistic merit like we are used to from French movies. It will never appear on any critics’ favorites list. But it was so much fun to watch!

Das weiße Band

Actually this is the very first Haneke I have seen. I heard of “Funny Games”, of “The Piano Teacher” and of course “Caché”, but I have never seen them and except for “Funny Games” I don’t actually know much about the films or their plot. Before I started watching this film, however, I knew about its plot a little bit: People die and the children are suspects. I also knew that there won’t be a ‘conclusion’ to this whodunit story. So how would I like it?

In the end, it turned out that “The White Ribbon” became one of the most suspenseful films I have seen in awhile. (Maybe because I haven’t actually seen many films in awhile.) I kept wanting to know what is going to happen next, and was completely drawn into that haunting atmosphere. While I perfectly knew that the movie is not going to give many hints, it was enough to give a picture.

The best part of the story was the mood and the ‘Germanness’ of the village. Throughout the movie, I think I have said “Oh my God, this is so German” about a million times. It’s a little bit like Dogville – of course humans are not all like in Dogville just like German villages at the beginning of the 20th century definitely weren’t such horrible places as in Haneke’s film. But the mood, especially the dialogues and the way people interacted with each other (especially that doctor and his midwife!) felt so incredibly realistic.

After watching the film, I immediately knew that I won’t be able to write about it in a satisfactory way, just because there actually is so, so much to write about, and I feel like my recent blog postings have gotten worse yet again. I blame it on the fact that I haven’t had any chance to write blog postings lately.

But, at the same time, I couldn’t help myself to dig the internet for ‚secondary literature‘. I haven’t been able to find much interesting things in the German internet world, mostly because everybody didn’t say much besides relating the story to fascism; and while some comments in the New York Times review are interesting (while the review itself is pretty crappy), I haven’t been able to find so much analysis on the film itself. I wanted websites that dissect details about the film that I might have missed, and speculations as to what the motives were.

Obviously the children play an important role and they probably were the ones who committed all the crimes the whole time, but when it comes to analysis, I would read things like „This is what happens when children grow up unloved“. Ridiculous. Indeed it is a dangerous thing if a child grows up unloved, but these children definitely didn’t. Their parents actually cared for their children a lot, they were just using a very authoritarian method. When comparing these children to some parents nowadays who don’t spend any time with their children and put them in front of the TV all day, it is obvious to me that the pastor truly loved his children. The problem is that he shows his love in a way that we don’t agree with anymore nowadays.

The other thing that bugged me throughout the film were the choice of victims. First, there is the doctor, who happens to be the only parent who truly abuses his children. My speculation would be that the other children, who are actually loved, would not turn against their parents, because they know that and acknowledge it. However, to ease their suffering and the repression of their desires, they develop some sort of sadism that makes them turn against the weaker ones, like the only innocent characters in the story, Karli and Sigi. Maybe that is it, but it still feels too simple and wrong to me; I feel like I have overlooked things.

At any rate, I am hoping for more interesting comments on the film to show up on the internet someday, and until then, I will think about which Haneke I would want to watch next…

South of the Border

Oh wow, this movie so bad. It’s clichéd, kitsch, not really funny, and furthermore it had an idiot protagonist. After seeing “The White Ribbon” (posting to come), this is no film that could potentially measure up to it after all.

Nevertheless, I felt very touched by the story. I think that the character of the female protagonist was played out marvelously and even the male character at least looked very honest. No matter how ridiculous their love story has started out as, they played out this love story in a very believable way, so that the tragedy of their separation felt real. Both of them did the best they could, and they showed very effectively how the both of them kept loving each other throughout the whole film.
Then again, if I were the female protagonist, I wouldn’t just have thrown some rocks. I would have cried out loud and tried to beat the heck out of him. (Oh right, and since a girl is weaker, the whole situation necessarily would result into a ‘he-grabs-her-tightly-and-then-they-kiss” scene.)

In fact, the movie makes me want to listen to sappy music and believe that there is something like two people being ‘meant’ for each other. After all, you have to believe that such a thing exists to feel the sadness of the story. Ultimately the whole story is centered around their tragic love; even less than other ‘immigration tales’, this is mostly a love story and barely deals with politics or the life of refugee in South Korea. Granted, North Korea is depicted very nicely at the beginning of the film, but I think the film would have made a greater impact if it dared to show a little more. Except that it’s explicitly said that we are dealing with Korea here, the film doesn’t feel all that ‘Korean’ to me.

In the end, I have a weakness for long distance relationships (perhaps even more than I am for love triangles), and I feel deeply sad when I feel that there is a love story that ’should’ be . Apart from that, the film is actually utterly pointless.

By the way, 4.0 (sic, this is another one of my numbered nicknames) told me today that his not-yet-girlfriend likes action movies, and that he doesn’t really know what else she likes. Although I felt immensely sorry for how bad they are at having a nice date, I found myself in a situation where I was completely unable to suggest a film to them. Oh, and “Harold and Maude” is a no go because there is a sex scene in it. Any ideas?

Sadly, there was no day 7. Blame it on general inability to overcome obstacles in life. If I can get any more general and cryptic…

Der Aufenthalt
German Democratic Republic 1983, Frank Beyer, 102′

It is the summer of 1945. At a train station in Warsaw, literally moments before being loaded onto a train back to Germany, Mark Niebuhr, who has only been a German soldier for sixth months and is as innocent as you can be in this situation, gets falsely recognised by a Polish woman as the soldier who murdered her daughter. He is taken to a Polish prison where he is at first mistreated and made to do the most dangerous work around, but he tries to adapt to it and please his guards so his conditions slowly improve, but then he breaks his arm and is moved into a cell with other Germans. At first, this looks like an improvement, but in reality this is where his ordeal really starts.

I am highly impressed. With this kind of story it is very hard not to cross the thin line between presenting the reality of a deeply scarred and understandably resentful Polish people and self-pitying the Germans who got their more than fair share of hate and distrust after the war. Beyer and Kohlhaase, who wrote the script based on a POW’s novel about his own experience, succeed very well in showing the terror of being falsely accused by people who seemingly are only interested in indiscriminate vengeance, while still managing to show that these were normal people, even in their harsh reactions. Mark’s polish guard for example, treats him like a human being and while he is hard on him, he rewards Mark’s attempts at obeying him and treats him like a regular prisoner, the actual mistreatment is only done by the political officers.
Where the film really shines however, is the second part: The Germans in his new cell, ranging from a Wehrmacht general, Gestapo officer and regular criminals to a Dutch gardener who insists that while he was in Auschwitz he was only responsible for the tulips, are the really bad people. All of them deny that they did something wrong. The more prominent ones, with a law background even discuss how shooting hostages was a perfectly fine thing to do and are outraged how anyone could see this as a crime in times of war. The cell is basically fascist Germany en miniature and through this concentration it is even worse. A highly interesting movie on a very controversial time and subject, I heartily recommend it to anyone who knows at least a bit about the situation back then.

Fin (The End)
Spain 2010, Luis Sampieri, 89′

Three kids who met online get together to go on something that looks like a hiking trip. Of course we know it’s nothing like that…

Spanish-speaking films this year don’t like me. Or the other way round. I was so glad, when they finally died! This was such an unbelievably boring exercise in drawn-out, unnecessarily long mood shots that delivered no mood at all, so devoid af any action and just infuriating instead of creating understanding for the characters that I just don’t know how this could get invited to the Berlinale. It lacks everything a slow-paced mood-shot movie needs to have to make itself interesting. Even the cinematography was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, if it were you could at least call it an exercise in style. Right now it’s an exercise in wasting: Their money and my money, their time and my time.

First of all I’m terribly sorry for taking so long with these reviews. I really wasn’t in the mood to write anything and I’m still not, but I should get this written down, or I’ll forget too much of my impressions.

Kawa no Soko kara Konnichiwa (Sawako Decides, 川の底からこんにちは)
Japan 2009, Yuya Ishii, 112′

Sawako’s fifth year in Tokyo: Fifth job, fifth boyfriend and still no plans for the rest of her life. Locked in her apathy she somehow lives through her days, until her uncle calls to tell her that her father is terminally ill and wants her to come back. Hearing this, her boyfriend Kenichi, an untalented toy designer working at the same company who also wants her to become his daughter Kayoko’s new mother, decides for the three of them to move to Sawako’s hometown to take over the family business. Sawako and her patchwork family now have to face the village community that sees her as a traitor after running away five years ago with her then-boyfriend…

Yes, this is indeed the delightfully expressionless main girl from Ai no mukidashi. For the amazingly apathetic and aimless Sawako however, she is the perfect choice. While the average Asian actor is great at looking apathetic or disconnected she takes it to new levels, her “I guess it can’t be helped.” is the essence of apathy. On the other end, her eruption of decisiveness near the end is also done really well.
The movie is full of absurdly comical situations and while it is serious in its message it is incredibly entertaining at that with its many running gags and comical situations, like the unfaithful fisherman running away to Tokyo with the obese Tokyo student… Also, it succeeds in something quite unusual: While Sawako has serious flaws and really is the “lower-middle” character she states to be, she is easily the most likeable character (apart from Kyoko-chan maybe. :3 ), because of all the people she is the most true to herself and her change seems quite realistic in that she still retains many of her bad qualities at the end of the story, while coming to accept her limitations and really trying her best to live the best life possible for her with these faults.
In the end, the movie has a very simple message: Realise your limits, do your best within them and be proud of that. Surprisingly, this rather resigned-sounding message turns out to be really positive.

Caterpillar (キャタピラー)
Japan 2010, Kouji Wakamatsu, 85′

It is 1940 and Lieutenant Kurokawa comes back to his hometown, after earning three medals, while losing all of his extremities and becoming deaf for that. The whole family is shocked, especially his wife Shigeko, who is bullied into caring for him under the pretense of doing it “for the country” and to “serve as an example of a good soldier’s wife”. The story shows how deeply brainwashed people can become in times of war and how absurd the ensuing situations are.

Why, Kouji Wakamatsu, why? The movie starts with cheerful military music on a background of footage from the Japanese-Chinese war, which sets up a nice ironic mood. Then, we are presented with a group of Japanese soldiers burning and raping a Chinese village, which is quite brave for a Japanese movie, so we’re off to a good start. In the main part, the agony of our “War God” and his wife are shown with simple, yet very efficient and well-chosen pictures, with the sex scenes being intentionally repulsive and the general tone quite depressive and suffocating. Their feelings came out really well, although sometimes the rape flashbacks were a little obvious and unintentionally comic. Generally however, Kurokawa’s and Shigeko’s conflicts (with themselves and with each other) were fleshed out very well. Also, the absurdity of a community brainwashed by propaganda was depicted through the many rallies and simple things like fire drills which looked quite absurd as they only seemed to waste water.
So the first 80 minutes worked out great, then came the one thing that ruined the movie for me: Japanese self-pity. How can you state the number of people killed by the A-bombs without any commentary on why this happened? That’s like Germans saying: OMG, we lost so many people in the war, how could this happen? It’s not like you were a poor, peace-loving country invaded by evil Americans. You can debate whether the bombs were the best course of action, but you can not debate the fact that you started the war and that they came for a reason… And to top it off, he states that over a thousand war criminals were hanged “just for defending their country”. I don’t know how you define “defending” in this context, but I think conquering half of the Pacific and raping and killing millions of people does not count as “defending”.
If you want to watch this, go on. The Silver Bear for the main actress is fully deserved and it really is a great movie, just turn it off when you see the walls of text at the end…

En Ganske Snill Mann (A Somewhat Gentle Man)
Norway 2010, Hans Petter Moland, 90′

Ulrik is released from prison after spending twelve years for murder. He rents a room in a basement, his old gangster “friend” and boss welcomes him with a potted plant, he even finds work at a garage and learns that his son is doing well and tries to reconnect with him. Everyone around him says that he deserves a second chance and it looks like they mean it. But his old boss wants him to kill Kenny, the man who is supposed to be responsible for Ulriks time in prison and somehow it seems like he doesn’t really have Ulrik’s interest in mind. And all the people who seemingly wish him well and are supposed to give him a second chance somehow don’t live up to their own standards…

Aaaah, Scandinavian black humour comedy, how I love you! This movie es everything you would expect from its description and country of origin: it is packed with the usual absurdity and dead-pan humour we’re accustomed to and the execution of it is definitely one of the better ones in recent years. If you’re into this sort of movie, a definite recommendation!