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| bart |
 Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:55 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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If you like surrealism, the Science of Sleep is a treat, inventive visually and careening nicely back and forth between waking life and dreams. If you aren't big on surrealism, however, this probably isn't the film to talk you into it. It has that French way of charming you before you've consented to be charmed, and the usual French tendency towards philosophical remarks sprinkled into quotidian conversation to a degree that feels a little stagey, even a little pretentious, maybe.
It did manage to strike out in a new direction as far as my experience of French cinema goes, in that there was no actual sex -- even the merest touch or holding of hands between the romantic leads was fraught with difficulty and doubt and massive attacks of insecurity. This gave a pleasantly comical air to the whole thing, and further blurred the ability to separate the waking from the dreaming scenes.
An American viewer might need closed captions, as the dialog is constantly shifting between French and English and small bits of Spanish (the dreamer is a Spaniard), so if you pick subtitles they will only get you through the French, but leave you straining to follow the English. Activate both CC and subtitles, and it's not hard to follow. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Speaking of careening nicely back and forth between waking life and dreams:
After watching Wordplay I dreamt about Will Shortz last night. I admit, I would like to marry him (though he's probably gay). He was staying at my house for some reason....and my parents were there. He took a shower and walked down the hall naked and unembarassed in front of me. I noticed his hair was really long, wavy, disheveled, and reddish. I laughed and asked him if he was letting his freak flag fly. My parents kept interfering with my attempts to get to know him.
Wordplay was fun. I thought of Billy.....he said he can do the NYT crosswords. And they said it's musicians and math people who do the best on them. I'm a dunce on crosswords because I do not have a good memory for facts. So I'll buy the Monday paper because I know I can at least solve that one.
When Clinton says doing crosswords prevents altzheimers, etc......that's not the latest info on that subject. You need to be learning how to do NEW things to keep your brain sharp. That's why I'll be taking a Spanish class soon. (My father will be 99 soon and he's still got his mind and his memory.) |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:35 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| All ninety-six minutes of Russian Ark were shot in one continuous take. But that's not why you should see it. No film has ever taken me into a time and place like this. The ballroom scene is so real because of the prolonged look at the participants looking over everyone else, because of the unhurried time spent with the dancers doing the mazourka, because our look is not distracted by any dialog attached to a plot, because as the camera moves away from the orchestra, we pick up the idle chatter, in half sentences, appropriate to the scene, and because we hear everyone's feet shuffling and tapping the hardwood floor. For the final fifteen minutes, we see everyone leaving the ballroom, and it is mesmerizing. As the last participants exit, the camera takes us out a window, into the Russian winter night. I was breathless. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:58 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| I found Russian Ark fancily made piffle. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:33 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| this may be the first time the word "piffle" has appeared at Third Eye. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:35 pm |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| No no I swear I used once before...or was that back on the NYT... |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Russian Ark has some visual delights, but it all does not add up to much. The whole picture being taken in one shot is an item of mild interest. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:06 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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I just finished watching Joseph Mankiewicz's Five Fingers for the first time in quite a while; it's still a razor sharp and delicious film. Mankiewicz was never a particularly imaginitive director but he arranges a sleekly told story aided and abetted by a performance of superlative smarm from James Mason - man, he could act when he wanted. Laced with gorgeously cynical dialogue ("Why did you leave Warsaw?" "Bombs were falling, I felt I was in the way.") and the finale's a brilliant scene.
It's interesting looking up the Wikipedia and finding the historical divergences; in the film, Cicero is called Ulysses Diello; it was actually Elyesa Bazna, and the back story for the man was also fictionalised, and Danielle Darrieux's character is made up. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Saw Five Fingers 50 years ago, still have fond memories of it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:04 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: Saw Five Fingers 50 years ago, still have fond memories of it.
Me too, and still remember the final scene, James Mason on a balcony enveloped in ironic laughter. I agree Mason (one of my least favorite actors) gave a memorable performance, and Darrieux was enchanting. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:27 am |
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| Just to jump in with the other ancients, that's when I saw it too. Caught it on TV at a much later date also. It certainly is a classic of its type. |
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| bart |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:39 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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Befade, thanks for reading my mini review of Science of Sleep. Regarding your remark...
"I'm a dunce on crosswords because I do not have a good memory for facts."
Actually, neither do I, but I've found I can do the NYT Sunday puzzle by means of developing a sense of how letters are patterned in words, what letter combinations are commonly found, and actively learning how NOT to try to remember things. One trick along this line is, after you feel stumped by a clue, is to look away from the puzzle for a minute, then look at the blank letters of the word and just think again about the clue in the vaguest way possible without actually reading the clue again. Sometimes, if you have a couple of letters already, it will just come to you. I am always surprised at how fast I can do the puzzle if I go this route, rather than grunting and straining to fill in every corner and figure out every single clue. Too often the intellectual heavy lifting causes you to become rigid in your thinking about what the clue must mean. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Bart.......I will need to consult more with you on this......if I ever decide to try a Sunday puzzle again.......(well, I do have a book of them in my give-away bag. I'll get it out and see if I understand what you mean) I can't even do the Monday puzzles in one sitting. But when I come back later, I see things I didn't the first time.
One fascinating aspect to Wordplay was the insight into what the constructors are thinking.......very creative people. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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I liked The Science of Sleep a lot (although I'm still scratching my head why it isn't The Science of Dreams). I did at one point write at review (I don't think here), and I found it a nifty little film. I understand what Bart mentioned about French movies (and being charmed before you've consented, which is an appropriate way of putting it), but I didn't find that a problem here.
And crosswords are like languages - a different way of thinking. If you get in the mindset, they get easier. (Also if you do them on a regular basis.) You also have to have a little vocabulary under your belt; but like Bart said, you can figure out things from context. Not terribly different from a lot of life, when you think about it... |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| The Sunday puzzle is usually set at Wednesday/Thursday level. The Friday puzzles have gotten easier in recent years. It is the Saturday puzzle that still takes a long time to fall. I go to bed with the puzzle half finished, but the next morning, for some reason, it yields much more readily. Seems the brain is working while you are asleep. |
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