Frenchy’s Fracas

Movie: Glory To The Filmmaker! (Kitano Takeshi, Japan, 2007, 104′)

Date: Feb 2, 2008

Rating:
(Proving a point, I guess.. Half a point added, because it’s Kitano.)

Plot: Actor/writer/director Takeshi Kitano is sharing his self-reflection with his audience. Tired of being pigeon-holed into gangster roles, the man vows never to make a gangster movie again. We’re taken on Takeshi’s wild and bizarre quest for something more meaningful.

Cast: Skippable.

Visuals: Meh, nothing special.

Conclusion: This guy’s made one of my all-time favorite movie, Hana-Bi, so he’s got a lot of credit with me. And while I do understand his need to find something different to do, I can’t understand why he would want to share this with his audience in this way.
The movie is mildly entertaining, but mostly uninteresting and way too self-indulgent.

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Movie: Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud, France, 2007, 95′)

Date: Feb 1, 2008

Rating:
(Beautiful story and artwork)

Plot: An autobiographical animation about the life of writer/director Marjane: her life growing up as a child in Iran after the fall of the Sjah and the rise of the current strictly religious government.

Cast: Skippable.

Visuals: Beautiful animation!! Before I saw the movie I reckoned the art would be secondary to the story and that the story would need to carry the movie. I was wrong.

Conclusion: A moving story, with lots of drama, but also with some great moments of fun and laughter. A nice description of Life in General.
The movie isn’t just a political statement against the current regime in Iran. You’d be a fool to miss the indictment against narrow-minded people in general.
This stuff is great entertainment and a powerful educational tool.

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Movie: 2KM2 - A Square View (Carel van Hees, André van der Hout, Netherlands, 2008, 78′)

Date: Jan 31, 2008

Rating:
(Rotterdam chauvinism)

Plot: Two square kilometers of Rotterdam are filmed for about a year. People, housing, industry, the harbour, culture, religion are all registered with care. It’s my town!!

Cast: Skippable.

Visuals: A lot of artsy shots, nice.

Conclusion: Hey, it’s my town! They’ve done a great job of showing its diverse activities, lives and problems. For people who don’t know Rotterdam it could still be an interesting movie, but I’m not sure.
Did I already tell you that it’s my town? Oh..

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Movie: Un Baiser, S’il Vous Plaît! (Emmanuel Mouret, France, 2007, 100′)

Date: Jan 31, 2008

Rating:
(Feelgood follies from France)

Plot: Two platonic friends get into deep trouble when one asks the other to help out with his quest: getting back that feeling of intimacy he misses so much. She can help him, but will her own relationship survive this test?

Cast: Solid, nothing remarkable.

Visuals: Solid, nothing remarkable.

Conclusion: This movie is an excellent chick flick and I do use the term in a non-derogatory way. I enjoyed the whole awkwardness between the main characters and the fact that it’s not a suave French romantic story: they are endearing in their silly and fumbling ways.

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Movie: Men’s Group (James Benning, USA, 2007, 80′)

Date: Jan 31, 2008

Rating:
(I stayed awake during the whole thing, I think..)

Plot: A documentary recording visits to the Great Salt Lake in Utah over a period of more than 20 years.

Cast: skippable

Visuals: It’s all about the visuals, very beautiful shots!!

Conclusion: It was just too much for me, seeing a beautiful shot that lasted more than two minutes without anything else happening. This went on for the whole duration of the movie. This is Major League Visual Studies, man.
I can’t say that the movie was bad, but I do know that I had to fight the festival fatigue to stay awake during the film. Those images were beautiful, but the director’s choice to present them in this way is not something that works for me.
Still, I’m curious about his next project.

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