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Reviews
La double vie de Véronique (1991)
Poetry and Music
Like Last Year at Marienbad this is a film so beautiful that its worth viewing even if there is no meaning to it. The use of light and shadow is spectacular, the music is divine, and the camera is constantly seeking and finding beauty in every shot.
Looking at the postings so far it seems everyone has a different explanation, so I might as well throw mine into the mix. To me Veronique/Weronika are twin angels being manipulated (guided might be a better choice of word) by God (or an abstract Divine) for some unfathomable purpose. Consider the use of the puppeteer as a metaphor for the condition, look at how he says he makes two because they are fragile and break easily (just as Weronika breaks in her concert). Veronique speaks of how she always knows what to do in every situation as if her life is leading up to something. Theres a telling scene about midway through the film where Veronique walks between shadows through a slender path of light her face gazing rapturously at the the sun. Both V's appreciate and reflect the beauty around them: light, shadows, the falling rain, ... highly reminiscent to me of the 'fallen' angels in Wings of Desire.
Wo hu cang long (2000)
A work of almost painful beauty
I arrived at the theater to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a great deal of emotional baggage. I've seen the great kung fu films and enjoyed them, the hype for CTHD had been building up for a while so I went expecting a masterpiece and nothing else would really satisfy. Actually at the time I was a bit worried, going into a film with that kind of expectation and finding something merely good can ruin a decent filmgoing experience... and could Ang Lee (who's made some wonderful character dramas) really do a film with martial arts?
Several hours later I was numb on my seat and practically weeping. And I wasn't the only one, the audience burst into spontaneous applause (something I've just never seen before at a film) What makes this film so extraodinary is not its action scenes (which are gorgeous, but probably not as technically sophisticated as some of the classic Jet Li/Jackie Chan flics), or it's characters, its beautiful scenery, the romance, the humor, or the sophisticated philosophy at it's core. Rather it's the combination of the elements working in harmony to produce a perfect cinematic experience. Something which, in my humble opinion, is a necessary requirement in any truly great film.
This is, strangely, an extraodinarily American film in it's focus on concepts like honor, sacrifice, duty, and a yearning to rebel against societal roles and relationships. And in it's use of self and genre-referential humor and the focus on production values. Which, I suppose explains the strange dichotomy of the IMDB boards where ordinary Americans rave about a subtitled, art house, foreign film while bemused non-yanks complain about its low action content and loose plotting.
All I can say is go see this movie with an open mind and you won't be disappointed.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Curiously unfulfilling, but still pretty
Between the shiny veneer, reflected lights, and excellent camera work, Eyes Wide Shut seems a surprisingly simplistic movie. Basically a juxtaposition of a steamy dreamworld of sexual fantasies and secrets with the mundanities of married life. Both Cruise and Kidman's characters seem to be rebelling against the placidity of their comfortable, fertile, and relatively wealthy marriage with potentially dangerous consequences. Stylistically perfect, but neither Cruise or Kidman seem to pull off their characters terribly well.