| Author |
Message |
|
| Ghulam |
 Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 9:43 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
| The September Issue introduces us to the preparation of Vogue's highly anticipated September issue and gives us a close-up of its influential editor Anna Wintour. Not nearly as interesting as the documntary some 10 years ago on the work of Isaac Mizrahi. |
|
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:38 am |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Ponyo is essentially a very Japanese version of "The Little Mermaid" where the mermaid and the human she falls in love with are five years old. Her father apparently started off as a human who fell in love with the sea--and particularly a goddess of the sea. Since you can't be magic and human at the same time, he's rejected his humanity to the point of being quite all right with mankind getting wiped out because they keep polluting his ocean. Ponyo (originally Brunhilde, but she accepts the name the boy gives her) starts off as a fish with a human face, but is caught by a fishnet, has her head caught in the bottle, and is rescued by the little boy who assumes she is a fish. His opinion changes when she starts talking to him and he realizes she can do magic. She in turn wants to become human, which is dangerous because she is also magic, and trying to be both has disastrous consequences for reality. Like the Moon falling from the sky, for instance.
I was put off at first because the narrative seemed too childish and the animation of Ponyo, her father, sisters, and humans aren't anything special. But when the little boy frees Ponyo from the jar, fishlike creatures made of water start following him like waves from the sea, and the image is lovely. Indeed, there are a lot of images in the film that are simply beautiful, such as the first appearance of Ponyo's mother. She plays the same sort of role as the blue fairy in Pinocchio, and is a striking creation.
It's erratic, but is often very charming, and is full of striking images. Ponyo is aimed for a younger audience than you usually associate with Miyazaki. (About the same age group as My Neighbor Totoro, or even a bit younger) Japanese kids probably love it; American kids may too, but their parents may be a bit bewildered. |
_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 5:44 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| I must confess I couldn't make it past the first fifteen minutes of Ponyo. Though I am more than willing to stipulate that what Syd says is true--i.e., that it gets better--I was too put off, as he initially was, by the childish nature of the story and the drawing. I just couldn't waste any more of my life on it. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:54 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
I've been re-watching Le Plaisir. Maupaussant is such a strange author to me. I can't get through any of his stories, but his work is the basis of any number of movies that I love. But then, I think Ophals can do no wrong.
I love the way he only films the brothel of the second segment from the outside, skimming past the various windows. (Oddly, though we see the women in their undies, and hanging out with men, we never see them go into/come out of a bedroom with the men; these may be "hostesses" of the Gunsmoke variety.) |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:11 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
Amreeka is the story of a Palestinian woman coming to America to seek a better life for herself and her teen-age son and getting caught up in the post-9/11 anti-Arab milieu. A series of humiliations and hardships. The movie could have used a little more humor.
. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:27 pm |
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
Ghulam,
why should a dramatic film about a serious subject require humor? To make it more entertaining? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:35 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Ghulam, don't be concerned about Marc's question. He likes his movies grim. The grimmer the better. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:39 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
Marc wrote: Ghulam,
why should a dramatic film about a serious subject require humor? To make it more entertaining?
A Palestinian woman comes to the U.S. for the first time and settles in a small Illinois town. She strikes a friendship with a Jewish teacher. This does present opportunities for humor. An unrelenting litany of humiliations and hurts usually makes me pick up my newspaper, unless I am in a theater.
. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:59 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
Marc wrote: Ghulam,
why should a dramatic film about a serious subject require humor? To make it more entertaining?
I agree, humor is not required in serious drama, but it is rarely inappropriate. |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 12:33 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
| How about Night And Fog with a laugh track. Or Schindler's List with some comic relief, you know, Jews doing pratfalls. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:13 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
| That's why I'll never watch "Love is Beautiful". |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:25 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
| Yambu, I know you meant "Life Is Beautiful" and I admit to having seen it. Dreadful. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 6:22 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Marc wrote: Yambu, I know you meant "Life Is Beautiful" and I admit to having seen it. Dreadful.
Though I am no fan of Life is Beautiful, I think "dreadful" is far too strong a word. It's an interesting attempt at something very difficult, and sometimes it works. Benigni is quite good in the lead, though the Oscar award was ridiculous. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 7:11 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Spoiler for The Horse's Mouth (book):
At the very end, Gulley Jimson is being taken to the hospital in an ambulance, seriously ill and is accompanied by a nurse (nun). Gulley is laughing and the nurse says, "Don't you think it would be better to pray, Mr. Jimson?"
Gulley answers, "It's the same thing, sister."
A very good movie and a great book. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:34 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
yambu wrote: Marc wrote: Ghulam,
why should a dramatic film about a serious subject require humor? To make it more entertaining? Comic relief? The gate keeper in Hamlet? Waiting for Godot would be unwatchable, and it is in many productions, unless its humor is nurtured. Then it becomes a riotously funny, grim play.
I agree, humor is not required in serious drama, but it is rarely inappropriate.
No writer/director with any depth of feeling will ignore the comic in the dramatic. Only very shallow artists think life is soberly dramatic, period. That is not human experience. There is so much absurdity and ridiculousness in the human condition. We are not stone statues. The greatest novels are filled with humor, though dry commentaries might suggest otherwise. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
