Displaying all 4 Review

• "Fly - don't look, just fly!" — for Superman
  Written by coolathlon on 29.07.2010

  Within all those men in tights, there are few that stand out. One of them is wearing big glasses, acting shy while being a reporter. Why is he that popular? Because he's the fastest one on the typewriter and he's a super man they tell.
  That's maybe the same reason why some may love this enormous number of special effects. We see strings, blue screen, front projection, optical editing and other techniques that were modern back then in 1978. (Actually, we see none but the result of them on the screen.)
  But I'm not satisfied with that. I'd more like watching C-beams glitter than Mr. S flying on and on and --
  What made this Alien become vivid was the fresh play of Christopher "notwalkin'" Reeve (I did not notice before the enormous number of alternative meanings to that middle name I just gave). He's a Fredric March with crystal powers and a spark of making-fun-of-himself. Clark still is a nice guy after his many small faults he makes in everyday's life. But Louis -- who's that? only thing to remember well is her screaming. Watching a huge continental rift coming near and not running away is too much for a human being with two legs and a brain.
  Which leads us to the script. Thank god the original one of more than 500 pages was reduced and freed of comic events involving Kojak and things. I did not get in the mood to develop a relationship to the characters. May it because it's too sweaty, or I have not the mind for taking super powers for granted, or because I've never read any comic of one of the most ancient American heroes. BTW "sweaty":
  http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=vlcsnap-2010-07-29-21hpca9.png
  [29.07.2010 21:37:05] <Sebas> ...the fuck?
  [29.07.2010 21:37:36] <Sebas> Is that from a real superman film, or some terrible porn knockoff?
  [29.07.2010 21:38:27] <coolathlon_movi> That IS Christopher Reeve. It's the test audition that made him Mr. S.

  In summary we have a mass of SFX with good quality (for that time), a story with too often exaggerating the situation to some sillyness and an earworm soundtrack thanks to John Williams.

  So go just look at the WTM-shots, buy the soundtrack and 'Maus. A Survivor's Tale' from Art Spiegelman if you are not into heroes but dramatic stories.
  Else it's long SFX fest for popcorn cinema lovers.
  If you're really into classy pictures: Originally it was made in 70 mm. A few cinemas may show it not only on the big screen but the bigger one.

• "Bon voyage et belles amour" — for Les demoiselles de Rochefort
  Written by coolathlon on 13.08.2010

  Did you ever enjoy the Ode to Joy? I restrain myself to enjoy it only once a year (except it appears in movies or comes to my mind to whistle it) to not get used to it. Preferrably I go to a concert or when I'm in a really bad mood.
  With movies it's sometimes the same. You may just enjoy the joyful whole thing. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is one of the rare genre movies (from a genge i usually dismiss) I enjoyed a lot.
  The Ouverture introduces us to some boats on trucks on a hovering bridge; with that, the circus begins. We have our Mr. Niceguy, white hair, white sailor's uniform, who happens to have lost his woman ideal. The two hard workers, enjoying their volatile life. Some parents apart and two incredibly *arrr* twins (Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac; last movie of her).
  Everybods is searching for his love. Some find it in a picture they paint, others in the third movement. And all they have and give enjoyment with wunderful, colorful, well choreographed dancing and rhymes. I have never been so proud of not understanding a foreign language but reading the subs. French is so much fitting the sense of the movie. Amour tout jour. Seldom I was so amused by the same procedure as every scene (Dinner for One is THE 'same procedure' movie to recommend, by the way), when someone has an idea, something to say, continuing to a solo part and in the end everyone on the street dances.
  Sure, it's not depicting reality; with some exceptions: There are some pacing parts that make you think of where everything could lead to. The two circus workers I wrote of try to make the twins part of their life, but somehow only make a single appointment to one stage show. Some others always miss their unknown love by seconds, which keeps the suspense, as Hitchcock would say. But it's not scary at all. It's sunny. Singin' in the French sun.

  Did I mention the colors? Pink hydrants, how could anything go wrong with that? A fully choreographed baskedball game on stage! You see both sisters having a birthmark at the same place on their backs.

  If you happen to have a bad mood, want to listen to a great score and see very short skirts fly, this is the recommendation.

• "We're doomed!" — for Hadaka no shima
  Written by coolathlon on 24.03.2011

  After a long time without a real 'whoa' I must admit I was completely overwhelmed by this movie.
  In the early morning of a summer day a man and his wife row to the harbour and take two barrels of water each to their boat. Handdriven they go on an island that is steep, full of rocks but made their home. They do not bring the water to drink from but for their plants on this Naked Island. After breakfast with their sons the mother brings the elder to school and returns from the harbour with another pair of water pots. Every time you seen one of the two climbing the steep tracks up the hill, they have heavy load with them to care for their plants. The people work hard to have something to eat, even the youngest hunts for fruits of the ocean. Surely the little drops of water sink in the ground quite fast, but the harvest is better than what I expected.
  Hard life is eventually longin for its tribute and the question is whether the family can bear such price; to have just little to notice of cultural life, to have just one trip a year on the main land that leads to a mountain, this time with a gondola.
  The question will be answered in the movie, but not spoilered here.
  Very noticable is the lack of speech, just some songs can be heard, all that is said in the movie comes from the action of the charafters, their emotions and the emotions of the sky, the ocean and the soil. And this nature is it that rules us all. We are working on subdueing it, but in the end a human life is just a waterdrop on a hot stone of the universe.

  This is the best movie I have seen in the last at least two years. It overwhelmed me in an extraordinary way when it just had to be a gap filler for a short evening. I want to thank @them00ch for the recommendation and please everyone to watch it. If maybe it doesn't fit your needs you most probably would be very pleased, too, at least.

• The 3D expression of a philosophical desire, legalized by music — for Pina
  Written by coolathlon on 30.04.2011

  How to make the world change by this movie must've been the question Wim Wenders posed to himself when coming up to make a movie aboub the work of Pina Bausch.
  In the end he made the room behind the screen avaioable for the viewer. The enormous need of dancing for space got caught in a smooth and enjoyable 3D camera work.
  After a "we make dance theater" preparation with shoveling earth on a stage, the show starts. But not it is show but the need of expression through movement that is shown. Between several main parts we get a liht of what work with Pina Bausch was like for the other members of her troup. We have 2D cinema, too; dancing on the streets, on rock, mountain, in train, with a pity pillow beaten up and eye-stabbed by a hairy robot monster.
  In a dance theater one would expect to get something like a ballet movie, but we were given something, more like a documentation of expressionistic movement. An that is what makes movies great: Getting in touch with it, feeling it, being enlightened. In a way it's the opposite of Det sjunde inseglet: There one thinks about and with Death, here' shown the joy of life, of what we can. The end even is a citation of the Bergman movie.
  The only downer may be the length. After some time you jut expect something new in the next scene, which in the outcome isn't that unexpected.
  Still, this is the first movie that knows how to use the 3D technique and deserves to be watched as it gived our all-beloved medium a new important part.
  9/10