Friday, June 25, 2004
A Devil's haircut and a knife in the water.
Well, as you can see I survived the slug ordeal. I'll post the rest of my journal after this weekend, so you can see the horrors that I endured. I'm also writing a short story that hopefully I'll have finished by then. In the meantime, I've been watching so many movies I feel like Kyle on crack:
The Man Who Wasn't There was a Cohen brother's movie released a couple of years back. Despite loving Fargo, I'm usually kind of wary about the Cohen brothers, because they can make either a really unique and interesting flick, or they can just as easily fish some dead thing out of a canal and try and make a movie out of it.
The Man Who Wasn't There is barbershop noir, filmed totally in black and white, with a plethora of Billy-Bob Thorton voice overs. It's funny how often you hear his voice off screen, for Ed (Thorton) doesn't actually talk much on screen. When he is addressed, he usually pauses for a moment longer than you'd expect, giving his words a touch of extra precision. The story involves a complicated but unintentional murder which is the result of a get-rich-quick scheme the barber attempts. A good solid cast, convincing acting, and Scarlett Johannson made this one a winner, even if it does fizzle out by the end.
Next is Krzysztof Kieslowski's famouse Three colors trilogy. Each movie is meant to portray a different part of the idealism of the French revolution, and each movie is named after the colors in the French flag. They aren't really connected beyond that, so I watched Bialy or White first.
It follows the story of a Polish hairdresser who has just been dumped on the streets of Paris by his unsatisfied French wife (after a quick divorce). Apparently he was unable to perform since they got married, and this was too much for her. She sets her own store on fire in order to blame it on him and to put him on the run. His last attempt to call her results in her forcing him to listen to her have an orgasm over the phone, a torture which finally makes him flee the country in a friend's suitecase.
When he arrives back in Poland he is not content to return to hairdressing (he is an award winner, and is hounded by dozens of middle-aged women), so he turns to the black market. Soon he has enough money to start his own business, and with time, he begins to plan on getting his wife to Poland. To do this, he fakes his own death, leaving everything to her in his will. He sees her crying at his funeral, and so, when she returns to her hotel room, she finds him waiting for her in his bed. After a night of "I love yous" and frantic lovemaking, she wakes up to an empty bed, and a knock on the door by the police. They are there to charge her with her husband's murder.
White is a brilliant dark comedy and revenge plot. It's not a slow paced long winded typical european flick, so give it a shot if you are bored listening to your own language ;-)
Knife in the Water is a famous Polish 1961 film by Roman Polanski
, and I'm afraid I missed the first few minutes. A wealthy couple picks up a younger student on the side of the road, and take him on a days sailing trip with them. The boy is always playing with a switchblade, which unnerves the arrogant husband, who insists on showing off in front of his wife. After getting caught by a storm, they anchor up and spend the night on the sea. The next morning, the man pushes the boy too far by dropping his knife overboard, and they come to blows. The boy, who claimed he couldn't swim, is knocked into the water and believed to be drowned. The husband swims around and eventually to shore looking for him. The beautiful wife stays on board, and soon discovers that they boy has been hiding, as he comes back to seduce her.
It sounds like a simple plot, but it is well filmed, and most of the story is told on the faces of the actors. It's a nice short venture into the unknown.
