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Wednesday, April 06, 2005
two psychological thriller movies
hide and seek - "come out, come out wherever you are"
the stunningly gifted young actrees dakota fanning plays emily, a young girl who's having lots of problems coping with her mom's sudden death. to assist emily in her grief recovery, her father (robert de niro) decides to move emily and himself away from the hustle and bustle of manhattan to a quite, big, spooky country home in an isolated area of upstate new york.
as soon as they arrive at their new home, emily becomes more and more withdrawn. she claims that she has met a new "friend" named charlie, with whom she claims to have met in a dark cave and with whom she enjoys playing hide and seek. lots of kids have imaginary friends but charlie is not a typical 9-year-old girl's imaginary friend.
by the time he does truly evil and frightening things when he gets mad, like drowning the family cat, leaving the ugly graffiti on the bathtub walls, and shoving people out of windows, it is clear that charlie may actual be real. at first all the strange behaviours lead de niro to believe his daughter is seriously disturbed. but as it gets worse, when some of charlie's actions seem impossible for emily to have committed, de niro begins to wonder who charlie is.
is he emily's split personality? is he a ghost? is he the spooky neighbor whose daughter has just died? is he the real estate agent who sold the house? is charlie the town sheriff, who seems to have keys to their house? or.. is it something far worse..? there are plenty of things to think about in this movie. that's what i like from psychological thrillers and that's what make me their fans.
i must stop here for the sake of your enjoyment...
saw - "... he wants us to saw through our legs..."
this movie does a great job of keeping the audience in their seat and wondering what the hell is going on from its beginning to end.
it is basically about two strangers who wake up to find their ankles chained to rusty pipes on opposite sides of a public toilet that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. in the center of the room lies another total stranger, face down in a pool of blood. in one hand is the gun he apparently blew his own brains out with, in the other is tape recorder. they have no idea how they got there or why anyone would do this to them.
the strangers introduce themselves to each other. we meet dr.lawrence, a wealthy married man with a young daughter and a desire for woman outside his marriage. we're also introduced to adam, a single-guy photographer. as they start to remember clues from the past and examine clues left in the room, dr.lawrence realize that is a psychotic serial killer known as jigsaw who has chained them up. jigsaw has been terrorizing the city by trapping people who he feels need his "help" to appreciate life. he puts the victims in extreme situations, where they must follow orders left on cassette tapes, leaving them with the dilemma to kill or be killed. failing to follow through on the order brings immediate death.
a guy who once slit his wrists in his actual life was one of his victims. he has to crawl through razor wires before the door shuts and he's sliced to death. in another case, an addict has to slice open the belly of another victim to get a key to remove a 'reverse bear trap' with timing device locked around her head.
so the psycho behind the crimes doesn't directly commit murder. he is smart. his crimes are well thought out and precisely planned and even the police cannot catch him.
back to dr.lawrence and adam, on a microcassette, the jigsaw instructs dr.lawrence to kill adam in 8 hours or his wife and daughter will die. other than microcassettes, their killer left a couple clues and two rusty handsaws that are only strong enough to cut flesh and bone, in other words: their own ankles.
i loved not being able to figure out this movie and being surprised at the end.
stelly @ 11:31 AM
Thursday, March 17, 2005
two movies centered on young boy(s) and set in europe between 1940s-1950s
[review] i am david
 set in a forced bulgarian labor camp in 1952, just after the end of ww 2, 'i am david' is based on 'north to freedom', an acclaimed novel by anne holm. david is a 12 year old boy who has lived all his life in that concentration camp with a group of grown man since his parents were arrested for their subversive politics. he knows nothing of the outside world except the cruel life of the labor camp. he has lived under constant fear of torture and death, terrified of uniformed officers. when soap is missing, the prisoners are lined up. one day, without any clear explanation, a guard (who is unknown to us until later) arranges for him to escape. the electric current is switched off from the fence for half a minute, just long enough for david to climb over. he is given a half loaf of bread, water, a compass, a bar of soap, and a sealed letter. he is told to head south to greece, cross over to italy and then walk north until he comes to a country called denmark. only then he can open the envelope and let the authorities see what's in it. "trust no one" is the only piece of advice david receives before escaping.
the main emphasis of the movie is david's journey and the people he meets on the way. of all the people that he meets, he doesn't feel able to trust anyone. so he shoulders the burden of the journey alone. he never smiles and is always so tense. although he's a boy about age ten, he has the survival instinct of an old man. too mature for his age. we can't help but symphatize for him as we understand his background. of course, what kind of person would you be if you had spent all your life in a concentration camp. all the years of pain and suffering have burdened him with grief. but as david journeys across europe, he begins to comprehend that he cannot live entirely alone. he does need other people, like maria, whom he saves from the fire, and the dog, and perhaps his own mother. he slowly learns to trust people through the kindness showed by strangers, including an aristocratic italian couple who open their home and their hearts to him after he saves their daughter's life.
 his wanderings lead him to switzerland, where a gentle widowed elderly woman helps him break through his inner wall of fear and suspicion. sophie is an artist who is trying to cope with her own tragedy of losing her only son. on the contrary with david, she has lived several peaceful decades in a world where there is freedom and beauty. while painting a picture of david, she is astonished by his serious eyes and his inability to smile. she welcomes him into her home, and although at first david is reluctant to share much about his past, he finally begins to find the courage to open his heart to sophie. we can see how damaged and vulnerable he really is inside.
sophie's words of wisdom to david: "you can't be cautious all the time. you have to let people in. most people are good. they have families and friends and they just want to live the happiest as they can. there's always of course bad people in the world, and you usually can recognize them.. sometimes you don't. but you can't let them to stop you for living your live fully and freely and making friends and seeing goodness in people. that way you can find happiness."
 this film is about a journey of self discovery, a journey towards healing and redemption. at the end, it warms the heart and nourishes the viewers' soul. the musical score and cinematography were both highly effective. one of the scenes i like most is when david wanders into a small swiss church where the local choir is practising gloriously mozart's ave verum. *one of my favourite song* while the choir sings the hymn, a montage flashback of crucial event in the prison camp rolls out. jim caviezel (the passion of the christ) who plays johannes, david's friend and mentor in the camp, made sacrifice in order to keep david alive. this facet of the story provides a link to christ's history and what he has done for us in order for us to have true life. furthermore, david's overall journey is like a believer in christ's pilgrimage in this life. one must keep putting one foot in front of the other to reach our goal - even when we don't feel like it. i'm quite moved after i watched it. it somehow makes me feel a little more grateful for what i have. life is a gift and is full of hope. as for david, he finally begins to smile, share, trust, and ultimately, love.
[review] the chorus
 in 1949, clement mathieu, an unemployed music professor who failed as a composer, arrives at a rural boy's boarding school (where "difficult" boys are sent to become men) to take up his new supervisor & teaching position. fond d'etang is the name of the school run with iron fist by the severe headmaster who routinely beats and sadistically abused the boys. on the contrary, mathieu is a sensitive soul who believes that there's goodness hidden underneath these troubled kids and that they need something beyond "action/reaction".
 when he doesn't seem to make much progress in winning the kid's trust through his patience & friendship (primarily by not reporting them to the principal when they commit a naughtiness but instead designing his own less severe punishment), he tries a new angle after hearing a few of the boys sing in mockery at him forming a boy's choir. believing music to be an excellent outlet for their energies that will certainly tame those teenage beasts, he sorts them by their voices, organizes a choir and shapes them into a beautiful singing choral ensemble. it doesn't take long time before the music magic begins to brighten the whole school.
 there are two special boys in the school. first is PEPINOT, a cute small kid who desperately awaits his parents, not understand they were in fact killed by the nazis. second is surprisingly talented MORHANGE who has a natural gift with the voice of angel. too bad he is the biggest troublemaker in the school. one teacher describes him as "the face of an angel but the attitude of a devil". in the opening scene, we learn that he ends up in new york city as one of the greatest conductors in the world.
the chorus was a huge box-office success in france & nominated for best foreign film at this year academy awards. it is about an influential teacher and how he touches the lives of these children by raising their spirits & introducing them to music. i nominate it as "best teacher movies". you can't help but be moved at the end of the film when mathieu is fired from the school, and the boys, who cannot leave their rooms for fear of the headmaster, float paper airplanes out of their class windows with words of farewell to their beloved mentor.
stelly @ 11:51 AM
Friday, December 17, 2004
fan chan
 jeab was always playing with noi-na since they toddlers simply because their houses were close together. at first jeab enjoyed playing with hoi-na but soon found himself embarrased to be seen playing house with the girls (pretend to bake cakes) or jumping with rubber string while the neighborhood boys are out racing bikes, kicking soccer balls & pretending to be kung-fu fighters. adolescence changed jeab's social group & he started hanging around with other boys. in order to join the gang of boys, however, he needs to prove himself worthy. unfortunately jeab's desperate need for acceptance could lead to another thing boys are naturally good at - breaking girls' hearts. he agreed to torment the other girls - including his noi-na. noi-na was of course upset & angry. coincidentally her family moved to another province a week later & jeab missed the chance to reconcile with her.
10 years have passed and now jeab looks back to his childhood & regrets that maybe he should have made some better decisions in his life. his flashback is provoked by the news that his childhood sweetheart is about to get married.
the story line is very simple yet has strong substance & interests me with its uniqueness. the child actors's acting in the movie was so great. being a ten-year-old kid they naturally performed their siliness & carefree innocence. the set is thailand in early '80s - when children did not need lots of money to have fun. its young actors - charlie trairat & focus jeerakul are superb. this movie was a big hit in thailand last year. now the film's child stars are celebrities in thailand.
this film provoked a thought in my mind... life is short & before you know it 10 years had gone by & a lot of things had changed. do whatever u're intending to do NOW! don't give any slight chance for regretting later.
it's definetely a must-see movie for everybody who wants to smile and remember their childhood and first love. i'm just grateful & happy to be along for the ride.
stelly @ 9:19 AM
Monday, November 29, 2004
before sunset
what if you had a second chance with the one that got away?
end of year 1998, in a small villange in french, i met him for a first time. i was in my only 20s then, very young and fresh and also very naive. i guess we both were. the chemistry between us became stronger when we're in milan for a week. the city itself is a beautiful backdrop for this innocent young couple who spoke mix language - french and english (the polish guy spoke only little english and the indonesian girl spoke only little french). we spent the new year's eve by strolling along the streets of milano while holding hands together. it was a magical romantic night before the guy had to catch his train heading home the next morning. he promised to meet the girl again in that small village in french before she left french for good. turns out his grandmother died and he couldn't make it to french. fate. there were times when i wondered what it's going to be if he did show up.
that's why i could really relate to "before sunset". i saw myself reflected in the film's characters. they reminded me of conversations i've held, dilemmas i've struggled to resolve and the excitement of connecting with someone special.
"before sunset" is a sequel of "before sunrise". but u don't have to see "before sunrise" to appreciate "before sunset" as the writer provides enough flashbacks in the film to give a sense of what came before. the predecessor "before sunrise" is a romantic story about a relationship between an american boy (jesse) and a french girl (celine) who met on the train. it was his last day in europe and he tought on spending the rest of the night exploring the streets of vienna and she agreed to join him. it was a memorable night full of lively, frank and interesting conversation when they discussed their lives, dreams and ambitions. in the morning they parted, but not before promising to meet again 6 months later at the train station to see if they were really meant for each other. did they keep that rendezvous? we can learn from the sequel that it turns out celine's beloved grandmother died and she was unable to be there. jesse however did show up and was heartbroken when she did not appear. they never met up and their lives has been miserable ever since.
nine years have past and now, jesse is in paris after a 10-city book tour of europe doing publicity for his novel based on the encounter and their 14-hour romance. he was at one parisian bookstore for his book signing-interview when he sees her standing quietly outside the window. it's jesse's last night in europe before he has to catch a plane to fly home to his wife and son in new york city.. but he has one hour to spare with his lover of nine years earlier for a short walk together to catch up and renew their old romance. only now they are older, hopefully wiser and much more cynical because of their life experiences. but the attraction between them is not diminished. they discover how easy it is to pick up their conversation again and make a fresh connection after so many years apart and so many moments of regret.
"before sunset" is all about long real-time conversation --yet so natural and interesting-- in a photogenic surrounding **where else if not the narrow parisian streets**.. the film is simply listening to two persons talk. as they wander from the bookstore to a cafe and then a park, board a boat on the seine, and get to jesse's car for the ride to the airport, they talk everything under the sun... from what they both have been doing the last nine years, what each thinks about the state of the world, topics included the environment and politic, the joys of getting older.. to how their love lives are going. there is a rushed feeling as they try to tell each other everything but have only a short time to do so.
 it's very interesting to hear their conversation.. at first both attempt to keep things light as they discuss what they've done with their lives. how it starts with the broad generalities, the positive components of each other's lives, the happy face each wants to impress upon the other.. but as the afternoon continues, honesty demands more depth and the masks come off. we finally learn that jesse is not just a successful novelist, he's trapped in a loveless marriage. he loves his son but he describes the condition of his marriage as if he's running a joint daycare center for the child with someone he used to date. celine on the other hand has grown to be a bit more cynical in the years. she has a boyfriend but she has never found a man who really inspires her. she thinks she has bad luck with men: they all say she taught them how to love, but all of them have left her and married someone else. she was damaged internally by disappointments in relationships.
 it is amazing how a film can be made so interesting, just focusing on conversation between two persons. ethan hawke and julie delpy give their great natural performances. the chemistry between them is excellent. they look really comfortable together. the conversation itself sounds exactly right in every detail. they are honest conversations. helmer linklate cowrote the screenplay in collaboration with hawke and delpy and the trio have done an amazing job. from the interview with delpy, i learn that they didn't improve a word. everything was written - every gesture, every break in the conversation, every moment where they look at each other.. everything was written and rehearsed.
unfortunately, "before sunset" is not for all tastes. the entire movie was built around conversation.. the focus never shifts from hawke and delpy, who also never stop moving except for a brief cafe stop.. kids these days won't have enough patience for a movie that consists of all conversation. this is beautiful movie though and a must see for those who love different kind of movies. "before sunset" assumes that its audience is intelligent and interested in love, in lost opportunities, in the possibility of redemption. it celebrates the pleasures of conversation, a quality that's been avoided by most american films. only few american films have the courage to rely entirely on dialogue and delpy supports this argument by saying that it's very hard to convince a company to give them money to do this sequel.
the ending is beautifully handled. there are questions left unaswered and there are both possibilities that these two may never see one another again or vice versa - depending on how u interpret the final scenes. where the story goes is left up to the viewers' imagination. would it be just another chance encounter? like celine's saying to jesse: "maybe we're only good at brief encounters, walking around eruopean cities at sunset". well, i would love to see a third chapter of jesse and celine's romance.
they have discovered this unique connection, special link with each other that some people try to capture their entire lives. have you discovered yours?
stelly @ 10:01 AM
Friday, October 22, 2004
blue & white
in the 1990s, polish director krzysztof kieslowski directed a series of three interrelated movies titled "blue" (1993), "white" (1994) and "red" (1994), collectively known as the "three colors" trilogy. thanks to my friend, i've seen two of them already - blue & white. "blue" is set in paris while "white" in warsaw & mostly in polish (my father's native language). kieslowski (who died in 1996 at the age of 54, not long after having completed these 3 films) cleverly named the trilogy after the 3 colors in the french flag. he used blue, white, & red to give him the predominant color & mood for each film. the trilogy itself deals with the ideals supported by the french revolution - liberty, equality & fraternity.. and how these relate to modern relationship. the three colors trilogy is not a standard plot-driven film, but instead goes much deeper. it is a film with multiple levels of meaning & it keeps growing on u the more u watch it & the more u analyze it.
"blue"
 blue's theme is liberty. it speaks especially about human loss and survival and true liberty. the story begins with a car crash that badly injures a 33-year-old woman & kills her husband together with their five-year-old daughter. the woman, whose name is july (juliette binoche), recovers physically & she must decide how to deal with her grief, most particularly for her daughter, & get on with her life. although she had not sought freedom, it has come to her, & she must make some difficult choices.
julie's husband was a famous composer who was working on much-awaited corcerto (the "song for the unification of europe" - intended to be played as a once-only concerto simultaneously by 12 separate orchestras around europe, as a symbol of its unification) at the time of his death & the unfinished piece of music haunts her. julie also discovers that her late husband had a mistress for years. on the other hand, julie's husband assistant, olivier, has been in love with her for a long time, & she must decide whether she is ready to risk emotional intimacy.
julie attempts to start a new life free of personal commitments, belongings, grief and love. she shies away from human contact & seeks to cut off all ties to her former life & the pain that it brings. she does this by selling up the entire family estate and disposes all her husband's music scores in an attempt to kill his musical legacy. she intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world & living anonymously in small flat in paris in a quiet, simple & lonely existence. she swims regularly to free herself of thoughts of the past life or to cleanse her emotions of guilt. it shows how grief can turn a loving person into an emotionless recluse. although she seeks strength, it's really self-destructive. despite her intentions, people from her former & present life intrude with their own needs & she finds herself once again interacting with people & getting caught up in the lives of others.
during her search for the liberty, julie learns valuable lessons from the different people she meets. she visits her institutionalized mother, who suffers from alzheimer. her mother is a representative of the extreme of liberty that julie seeks. because of her condition, she cannot recognize julie as her daughter. her mother spends her day in a hollow existence, 'seeing the world' through her television -- an illusion of freedom. she is free to see the world, but unable to interact with the images on the screen due to the lack of emotional connection with the events around her.
the writer wanted to show what liberty means to us today, who already posses liberty. liberty means individual liberty, the liberty of life itself. the film questions the value of liberty & conveying that complete freedom may be impossible to attain. in the end, julie re-establishes the connections with her past. she shifts from a state of liberty into a state of union. she gives the family's home & name to his husband's lover unborn child & completes the composition of his husband's music. she also allows herself to love & be loved by olivier. i'm into the art of film-making. i always appreciate visual techniques, which makes the film so stylish, in this film such as multiple reflections & macro close-ups. a few examples: have a look at the scene of the doctor informing julie of her husband & daughter's death: all shot as an extreme close-up reflection in julie's eyes... or the close-up of the sugar-cube slowly absorbing the coffee and then turning to coffee's colour (symbolising julie's ignorance of everything else around her, where the significance of even minor events is heightened by the introspecting mind... another example would be the scene where the old woman's attempt to put a bottle in a recycling bin is virtually ignored by julie as she is in one of her introspective trances)... or the macro close-up of the music sheets, or the triple reflection of the image of julie's mother, in the tv screen in the window of the nursing home. the director clearly wants the viewer to understand what is going on inside julie by observing her face in close-up. what an exquisite face binoche has!
"white" it's theme is equality. a hairdresser from poland, karol (it's also my uncle's name) marries a beautiful french woman named dominique & relocates to paris, where everything is structured in her favor. the movie opens in a paris courtroom because dominique wants to divorce him for failing to consumate the marriage... he is impotent. she testifies that she no longer loves him. perhaps it is due to his anxiety at living in a strange & hostile city where he doesn't belong & in which he can't even speak the language. it is not clear what the problem is, other than this is perhaps temporary one for karol. nonetheless, dominique is certainly not content to wait around for him at all. she cruelly humiliates him in the court, takes his passport & all of his possessions & then finally throws him out on the harsh street of paris. on the other hand the scene of the wedding day keeps replaying in karol's mind where dominique is innocent, dressed in white & smiling. she takes on almost goddess proportion in karol's mind. karol finds himself destitute, with no access to any money & with his sole possession being a suitcase containing his polish hairdressing diplomas & a porcelain statue he steals from a store (the statue being a pathetic reminder of his pre-paris dominique). but to top it all off, dominique then takes a great pleasure in taunting him over the phone with the sounds of her lovemaking with her new lover! *ouch!* surely life for our poor karol is at its rock-bottom. there is clearly no equality for this man. in the first half of the movie, karol is a complete innocent who is treated unjustly. as he plays polish folk songs in paris metro, he catches the attention of mikolaj, a polish bridge player. mikolaj offers to help get karol out of paris & take him back to his home city of warsaw in the suitcase. but alas, the suitcase itself is stolen by thieves! of course, they try to rob him, but he has nothing worth stealing so they beat him. despite rough treatment, we see karol pleased to just be alive & back in his snowy home city & cries out loudly : "jesus, i'm home at last!" the second half of the movie follows karol's plan to regain his equality with dominique. still hopelessly devoted to her, even despite what she's done to him, he feels compelled to win back her love & respect. in warsaw karol gets involved with some capitalists, & he gradually becomes very wealthy. he then fakes his own death & leaves his fortune to dominique, who comes to warsaw for the funeral. he uses his newfound wealth & power to reignite dominique's interest in him, then sees her for one last time & make love with her (karol suddenly regained his sexual powers). however, as the morning rise, karol is gone & dominique falls into his trap as karol makes it appear as though his ex-wife has murdered him for his money. the film is actually a black comedy. it deals with its theme -equality- in an ironic fashion. it is an excellent character study. *beware, a man scorned can be just as dangerous as a woman scorned* the ending is rather ambiguous, though (although i'm belong to eruopean audiences type who don't mind being left to draw their own conclusions in certain situations). karol finally gets his revenge alright, but does he gain his equality? well no, not really, as dominique is left in prison & he is on the outside. but the stage now is set for them to be in a relationship in which they will be equals. when karol goes to the jail where dominique is being held, through the windos, dominique uses sign language to tell karol that she still loves him & is willing to marry him again, if she can get out of prison. karol begins to cry, realizing that he too still loves her.
stelly @ 8:08 AM
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