'Before Midnight' . Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Directed by Richard Linklater.
In the last 20 years, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have taken us across Europe. In the mid-1990's, they met in Vienna in 'Before Sunrise'. Then ten years later they came together in Paris in 'Before Sunset'.
Now here they are, a middle aged couple with two very young blonde twin daughters. Delpy is the French-born Celine and Hawke is Jesse, the American novelist. Their six week stay in Greece's beautiful Pelopenesian area is just coming to an end.
Not everything's cool and calm with this unmarried couple. Jesse wants to move back to Chicago to be with his young son, the offspring of his first and only marriage. The blonde Celine is tired of being a novelist's wife and is in the process of changing her job.
'Before Midnight' moves from an airport to a lovely meal full of fine food, drink, and coversation, to the movie's finale, where a massive quarrel erupts between Jesse and Celine in a hotel room."The only upside at 35," Celine tells Jesse, " is that you don't get raped as much." This comes in the middle of Celine's feminist rant about keeping their relationship going which means she's doing all the important work. Jesse responds with his ego-driven take on the couple's dynamics.
Will Celine and Jesse pop up on sthe screen in another ten years and show us, under Richard Linklater's direction what getting near old age can do to a couple? Hard to know but one thing's clear: I won't probably be around to see this film.
'Before Midnight' gives us a personal drama in the midst of the beautiful Greek countryside. But where are the thousands and tens of thousands of Greeks, protesting the harsh austerity measures dealt out by the top honchos of the European Union? They don't make it into this flick.
'Before Midnight' offers us an escapist touristy version of Greece where the main fight explodes between a couple and has nothing to do with politics. I liked this film but I don't see it as anything more than a modern day fairytale, albeit as one with some very salty language.
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
A Slow Loook at Growing Old
'Still Mine'. Starring Genevieve Bujold and James Cromwell. Directed by Michael McGowan.
"There's dance in the old dame yet," an old woman said about 40 years ago. This became the title of a book on old age. But for Irene(Genevieve Bujold), there's not much left energy left for dancing. She and her husband of many years (James Cromwell) live in a 2,000 acre farm in rural New Brunswick.
"She's fine," Craig says about his wife. But Irene's not fine. She's slowly losing her mind, perhaps to Alzheimer's. Craig meanwhile tries to build a new house for them both.
But the 80 year-old Craig runs head on into the new rules and regulations that govern the building code. Unlike the recent French film 'Amour', this film is a happy film. This couple laugh together, kiss, make love and reminisce about the past.
Director Michael McGowan gives us a slowly paced film of ageing and its downsides. Sometimes the film moves too slowly. But the film is also full of stark beautiful images of rural New Brunswick, courtesy of the wonderful photography of Brendan Stacey.
"Atlantic Canada is plagued by a culture of defeatism," Prime Minister Stephen Harper once said in effect. But there's no defeatism in this film. It's a story of a couple triumphing over the problems of ageing, as death lurks in the background.
"There's dance in the old dame yet," an old woman said about 40 years ago. This became the title of a book on old age. But for Irene(Genevieve Bujold), there's not much left energy left for dancing. She and her husband of many years (James Cromwell) live in a 2,000 acre farm in rural New Brunswick.
"She's fine," Craig says about his wife. But Irene's not fine. She's slowly losing her mind, perhaps to Alzheimer's. Craig meanwhile tries to build a new house for them both.
But the 80 year-old Craig runs head on into the new rules and regulations that govern the building code. Unlike the recent French film 'Amour', this film is a happy film. This couple laugh together, kiss, make love and reminisce about the past.
Director Michael McGowan gives us a slowly paced film of ageing and its downsides. Sometimes the film moves too slowly. But the film is also full of stark beautiful images of rural New Brunswick, courtesy of the wonderful photography of Brendan Stacey.
"Atlantic Canada is plagued by a culture of defeatism," Prime Minister Stephen Harper once said in effect. But there's no defeatism in this film. It's a story of a couple triumphing over the problems of ageing, as death lurks in the background.
Monday, 13 May 2013
'The Great Gatsby' Was Too Over The Top
"The Great Gatsby'. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Toby Maguire and Carey Mulligan. Directed by Buz Luhrmann.
"The rich are different from us," novelist F.Scott Fitzgerald once told his long time rival Ernest Hemingway. "Yes," Hemingway is supposed to have replied. "They have more money."
Director Buz Luhrmann is the sixth director to create a film version of Fitzgerald's slim 1920's novel. Here in 3-D he highlights the moneyed people of the 1920's, and in many ways they don't differ from us cash-strapped people at all. Though of course, they're way way richer.
Nick Carroway (Toby Maguire), comes to 1920's New York City seeking fame and fortune. He ends up trading bonds on Wall Street. He lives next door to the mysterious ultra-rich Jay Gatsby, played by Leonardo Di Caprio. Di Caprio looks more and more like the young Orson Welles, whose 1940's film 'Citizen Kane' was another meditation on wealth and power.
Then there's the blonde Daisy (Carey Mulligan) Carroway's cousin, who's married to an insensitive multimillionaire. But Gatsby adores Daisy whom he met five years ago. He still wants her.
Click here for romance, sex, endless parties, dozens of servants, many types of musical sound tracks,
and luxurious houses that dwarf any megamansion in Vancouver. This is Buz Luhrmann's idea of Fitzgerald's novel.
But tragedy and pain lurk behind this American success story. Gatsby's yellow Duesenberg car roars past coalfields where coal encrusted miners toil from dawn to dusk, under the all seeing gaze of an eye-filled billboard.
And then there's Gatsby himself, as seen in hindsight by Carroway who's now a reformed alcoholic. Gatsby's real name is James Gatz. "His parents were dirt poor farmers from North Dakota," Carroway tells us about Gatsby, who's heading for disaster.
'The Great Gatsby' is two and a half hours of bloated fun and games, and then tragedy. It works alright, but for me it was way overdone.But if you want a mega-project of a film, then this is surely the flick for you.
"The rich are different from us," novelist F.Scott Fitzgerald once told his long time rival Ernest Hemingway. "Yes," Hemingway is supposed to have replied. "They have more money."
Director Buz Luhrmann is the sixth director to create a film version of Fitzgerald's slim 1920's novel. Here in 3-D he highlights the moneyed people of the 1920's, and in many ways they don't differ from us cash-strapped people at all. Though of course, they're way way richer.
Nick Carroway (Toby Maguire), comes to 1920's New York City seeking fame and fortune. He ends up trading bonds on Wall Street. He lives next door to the mysterious ultra-rich Jay Gatsby, played by Leonardo Di Caprio. Di Caprio looks more and more like the young Orson Welles, whose 1940's film 'Citizen Kane' was another meditation on wealth and power.
Then there's the blonde Daisy (Carey Mulligan) Carroway's cousin, who's married to an insensitive multimillionaire. But Gatsby adores Daisy whom he met five years ago. He still wants her.
Click here for romance, sex, endless parties, dozens of servants, many types of musical sound tracks,
and luxurious houses that dwarf any megamansion in Vancouver. This is Buz Luhrmann's idea of Fitzgerald's novel.
But tragedy and pain lurk behind this American success story. Gatsby's yellow Duesenberg car roars past coalfields where coal encrusted miners toil from dawn to dusk, under the all seeing gaze of an eye-filled billboard.
And then there's Gatsby himself, as seen in hindsight by Carroway who's now a reformed alcoholic. Gatsby's real name is James Gatz. "His parents were dirt poor farmers from North Dakota," Carroway tells us about Gatsby, who's heading for disaster.
'The Great Gatsby' is two and a half hours of bloated fun and games, and then tragedy. It works alright, but for me it was way overdone.But if you want a mega-project of a film, then this is surely the flick for you.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
'Renoir' the film is sometimes boring but sometimes beautiful.
'Renoir' with Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, and Vincent Rottiers. Directed by Gilles Bourdos, 107 minutes long. In French with English subtitles.
"Among the French Impressionists," writes the British art critic John Berger, "Renoir is still the most popular painter."
In the film 'Renoir' director Gilles Bourdos shows us why. In 1916 France is besieged by World War One as German and Allied troops kill each other in merciless trench warfare. But here's Auguste Renoir, living peacefully in the south of France, waited on by five women. Now Renoir's life is going downhill. He's widowed, wheelchair-bound, old and arthritic. Still, he paints beautiful pictures of naked, slightly overweight young women frolicking in green pastures.
Enter Amadeee, a young female model played by Christa Theret, and then Jean Renoir, Renoir's son, played by Vincent Rottiers. The young Renoir has been wounded in the war and hobbles around on crutches. Fireworks should ensue but they rarely do in this movie.
The Renoir family is your average dysfunctional family, full of rivalries, fueds and frustrated loves. But director Gilles Bourdos doesn't probe too deeply here. His camera and script stay mostly on the surface of things as Renoir paints and talks.
Renoir tells his son Jean who in real life later becomes a famous film director, that painting is about painting naked ladies and not "poverty, despair and death."
Fair enough and the film sticks mostly to that rule. It can bore you at times. but lovely shots of the south of France and Renoir's estate can enchant you also. 'Renoir' is not a great film but it has its charms.
"Among the French Impressionists," writes the British art critic John Berger, "Renoir is still the most popular painter."
In the film 'Renoir' director Gilles Bourdos shows us why. In 1916 France is besieged by World War One as German and Allied troops kill each other in merciless trench warfare. But here's Auguste Renoir, living peacefully in the south of France, waited on by five women. Now Renoir's life is going downhill. He's widowed, wheelchair-bound, old and arthritic. Still, he paints beautiful pictures of naked, slightly overweight young women frolicking in green pastures.
Enter Amadeee, a young female model played by Christa Theret, and then Jean Renoir, Renoir's son, played by Vincent Rottiers. The young Renoir has been wounded in the war and hobbles around on crutches. Fireworks should ensue but they rarely do in this movie.
The Renoir family is your average dysfunctional family, full of rivalries, fueds and frustrated loves. But director Gilles Bourdos doesn't probe too deeply here. His camera and script stay mostly on the surface of things as Renoir paints and talks.
Renoir tells his son Jean who in real life later becomes a famous film director, that painting is about painting naked ladies and not "poverty, despair and death."
Fair enough and the film sticks mostly to that rule. It can bore you at times. but lovely shots of the south of France and Renoir's estate can enchant you also. 'Renoir' is not a great film but it has its charms.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Three Stories Don't Add Up To A Great Film
'The Place Beyond the Pines' A film starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes.Running time 141 minutes. Directed by Derek Cianfrance.
'The Place Beyond The Pines' is three heavy male stories that hinge on the man who sets the film in motion. Ryan Gosling, the blonde, blue-eyed, jut jawed hunk from Cornwall, Ontario, dominates the film's first part. He's a motorcycling stunt man, who travels with a carnival and maybe he's scattering his seed among many women.
Then he meets a special woman named by Romina, played by Eva Mendes who lives in Schenectady New York and bears their son Jason. Soon Luke Glanton, played by Gosling takes up robbing banks and with dire results.
Enter Avery Cross, played by Bradley Cooper. Cross is an honest cop who ends up working with a bunch of crooked policemen.Targeted for murder by his one-time pals, he survives and then prospers. He and his wife have a young child too, just like Luke and Romina.
"I'm a cop," Avery tells his wife after a brutal encounter. "That's what I am, a cop." But flash forward 15 years and Avery is now an aspiring attorney-general running for office in the state of New York. Meanwhile, his son AJ played by Emory Cohen meets up with Luke's offspring Jason in the cafeteria of a Schenectady high school.Jason is played by Dane DeHaan.
Jason never did find out how his father died. Soon he tries to turn up his roots, and this means danger. "You're a liar," a beaten up Jason tells his mother Romina as he lies in a hospital bed after discovering the truth.
Well what does all this add up to?
Despite some fine acting , maybe not too much. The heart of the film, directed by Derek Cianfrance, lies in the wonderful, sometimes hair raising rides and chases through forests and tree-lined roads in a very green, nearly always sunny New York state. These scenes seem based on American critic Leslie Fiedler's idea that most of American literature is based on the theme of escaping from civilization into the wilderness.
At movie's end Jason takes off on a motorcycle to head out west on a blue-skied fall day, just like a latter day Fiedler might predict. He flashes past trees tinged with orange and yellow. Like his dad he's on the road roaring away from the troubles of the past, on a motorcycle. It's a lovely peaceful moment in a film racked by violence.
At this point, most viewers might whisper "Enough" and wish Jason a peaceful future and good luck wherever he ends up. After all Schenectady has been through in this film and everything Jason has felt, he deserves a rest . Hopefully he'll find what he's looking for out west. 'The Place Beyond The Pines' in the end disappointed me, but cheapskate that I am, I didn't hobble away from the theatre feeling cheated. It only cost me eight or nine dollars. At that price it was a good bargain.
'The Place Beyond The Pines' is three heavy male stories that hinge on the man who sets the film in motion. Ryan Gosling, the blonde, blue-eyed, jut jawed hunk from Cornwall, Ontario, dominates the film's first part. He's a motorcycling stunt man, who travels with a carnival and maybe he's scattering his seed among many women.
Then he meets a special woman named by Romina, played by Eva Mendes who lives in Schenectady New York and bears their son Jason. Soon Luke Glanton, played by Gosling takes up robbing banks and with dire results.
Enter Avery Cross, played by Bradley Cooper. Cross is an honest cop who ends up working with a bunch of crooked policemen.Targeted for murder by his one-time pals, he survives and then prospers. He and his wife have a young child too, just like Luke and Romina.
"I'm a cop," Avery tells his wife after a brutal encounter. "That's what I am, a cop." But flash forward 15 years and Avery is now an aspiring attorney-general running for office in the state of New York. Meanwhile, his son AJ played by Emory Cohen meets up with Luke's offspring Jason in the cafeteria of a Schenectady high school.Jason is played by Dane DeHaan.
Jason never did find out how his father died. Soon he tries to turn up his roots, and this means danger. "You're a liar," a beaten up Jason tells his mother Romina as he lies in a hospital bed after discovering the truth.
Well what does all this add up to?
Despite some fine acting , maybe not too much. The heart of the film, directed by Derek Cianfrance, lies in the wonderful, sometimes hair raising rides and chases through forests and tree-lined roads in a very green, nearly always sunny New York state. These scenes seem based on American critic Leslie Fiedler's idea that most of American literature is based on the theme of escaping from civilization into the wilderness.
At movie's end Jason takes off on a motorcycle to head out west on a blue-skied fall day, just like a latter day Fiedler might predict. He flashes past trees tinged with orange and yellow. Like his dad he's on the road roaring away from the troubles of the past, on a motorcycle. It's a lovely peaceful moment in a film racked by violence.
At this point, most viewers might whisper "Enough" and wish Jason a peaceful future and good luck wherever he ends up. After all Schenectady has been through in this film and everything Jason has felt, he deserves a rest . Hopefully he'll find what he's looking for out west. 'The Place Beyond The Pines' in the end disappointed me, but cheapskate that I am, I didn't hobble away from the theatre feeling cheated. It only cost me eight or nine dollars. At that price it was a good bargain.
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Douglas Coupland Looks At Loneliness
'Eleanor Rigby: A Novel by Douglas Coupland. Random house Canada. 249pp.
Douglas Coupland is my favourite novelist. His novels often take place in North or West Vancouver, places I've often gone to. It's nice to read a novel that happens near where you live. Also his novels are easy to read. So you don't have to stress your mind wading through some incredibly dense work. Last but not least they remind me of t.v. dramas, but they're so much deeper, funnier and sadder than most stuff on the box.
'Eleanor Rigby' published in 2004 takes off from the Beatles' song of the same name. "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where her wedding has been," sang the fab four about fifty years ago. "Lives in a dream." And the song's chorus asks "All the lonely people/ where do they all come from?" Coupland's novel like the Beatles' song is about loneliness.
When the novels opens, Liz Dunn a very lonely middle aged person is living, sort of, in a North Vancouver condo. Then the Hale-Bopp comet lands on the north shore and signals better things to come. Liz takes us back in time to a distant trip she took to Italy with one of her high school classes. Here, she ended up in a party that took place on a roof, and met a man. Then something happened.
"I'm overweight and my clothes are serviceable," Dunn explains to us. "They're usually loose fabrics because they conceal my roundness. Men af all ages don't notice me, period. To them, I'm a fern." So life looks grim for this plain Jane.
And her family is not very supportive. But then a stranger intrudes and transforms her life.
The novel here, I think, goes astray. The Beatles' song 'Eleanor Rigby' ends on a depressing but realistic note. Coupland's novel gives us an old-fashioned Hollywood style ending where all of Liz's problems vanish.
But in the end so what? The novels entertains and also Coupland drops all sorts of observations on life into the story. Now that I've unplugged my t.v. I'm going to keep reading Coupland's work. It beats watching the dramas on the box anytime, unless they're written by Dougals Coupland, that is.
Douglas Coupland is my favourite novelist. His novels often take place in North or West Vancouver, places I've often gone to. It's nice to read a novel that happens near where you live. Also his novels are easy to read. So you don't have to stress your mind wading through some incredibly dense work. Last but not least they remind me of t.v. dramas, but they're so much deeper, funnier and sadder than most stuff on the box.
'Eleanor Rigby' published in 2004 takes off from the Beatles' song of the same name. "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where her wedding has been," sang the fab four about fifty years ago. "Lives in a dream." And the song's chorus asks "All the lonely people/ where do they all come from?" Coupland's novel like the Beatles' song is about loneliness.
When the novels opens, Liz Dunn a very lonely middle aged person is living, sort of, in a North Vancouver condo. Then the Hale-Bopp comet lands on the north shore and signals better things to come. Liz takes us back in time to a distant trip she took to Italy with one of her high school classes. Here, she ended up in a party that took place on a roof, and met a man. Then something happened.
"I'm overweight and my clothes are serviceable," Dunn explains to us. "They're usually loose fabrics because they conceal my roundness. Men af all ages don't notice me, period. To them, I'm a fern." So life looks grim for this plain Jane.
And her family is not very supportive. But then a stranger intrudes and transforms her life.
The novel here, I think, goes astray. The Beatles' song 'Eleanor Rigby' ends on a depressing but realistic note. Coupland's novel gives us an old-fashioned Hollywood style ending where all of Liz's problems vanish.
But in the end so what? The novels entertains and also Coupland drops all sorts of observations on life into the story. Now that I've unplugged my t.v. I'm going to keep reading Coupland's work. It beats watching the dramas on the box anytime, unless they're written by Dougals Coupland, that is.
Thursday, 4 April 2013
Review of 'Tea With Hezbollah'
'Tea With Hezbollah: Sitting at the Enemies' Table. Our Journey Through the Middle East' by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis. Doubleday, 245 pp.
What happens when a Canadian author and an American author get together? Well if the Canadian is best-selling novelist Ted Dekker and the American is Middle East specialist Carl Medearis you get an interesting book. They don't spend their time arguing about Americans' know nothing take on Canada or the high price of American-made goods on this side of the border.
Instead off they go to the Middle East to find out whether the top honchos over there obey Jesus's injunction, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."
This is a dangerous journey. And as the twosome touch down in six countries, death, despair and violence lurk everywhere, as do many cups of tea.
Dekker, an experienced novelist, describes the lands they pass through. Medearis, with a background in the Middle East, helps track down the leaders of movements like Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Sami Awad, the leader of non-violent resistance to settlers in Israeli's West Bank. Canada and the U.S. governments , by the way, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
Most of the men interviewed agree with Jesus's saying. Others are not so sure and who can blame them? "I've stood in front of moving bulldozers and Israeli jeeps many times," says the Palestinian leader Sami Awad, "to try to prevent them from destroying farmland. I've been physically assaulted more times than can be counted by Israeli troops who use their rifles, boots and batons."
Awad has been denounced by Israeli leaders and by other Palestinians as a CIA tool. But he agrees with Jesus.
This is a male-dominated book. The only woman who shows up in the book is Nicole, who Dekker invents. And Israeli leaders don't show up in the book at all. Nor do U.S. politicians who launched invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But the book contains an interesting history of the Samaritans, one of whom inspired Jesus's injunction.
'Tea with Hezbollah' doesn't probe too deeply but it's an enjoyable read. "A simple teaching," Dekker concludes, "made 2,000 years ago may bring agreement and hope."
What happens when a Canadian author and an American author get together? Well if the Canadian is best-selling novelist Ted Dekker and the American is Middle East specialist Carl Medearis you get an interesting book. They don't spend their time arguing about Americans' know nothing take on Canada or the high price of American-made goods on this side of the border.
Instead off they go to the Middle East to find out whether the top honchos over there obey Jesus's injunction, "Love thy neighbour as thyself."
This is a dangerous journey. And as the twosome touch down in six countries, death, despair and violence lurk everywhere, as do many cups of tea.
Dekker, an experienced novelist, describes the lands they pass through. Medearis, with a background in the Middle East, helps track down the leaders of movements like Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Sami Awad, the leader of non-violent resistance to settlers in Israeli's West Bank. Canada and the U.S. governments , by the way, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group.
Most of the men interviewed agree with Jesus's saying. Others are not so sure and who can blame them? "I've stood in front of moving bulldozers and Israeli jeeps many times," says the Palestinian leader Sami Awad, "to try to prevent them from destroying farmland. I've been physically assaulted more times than can be counted by Israeli troops who use their rifles, boots and batons."
Awad has been denounced by Israeli leaders and by other Palestinians as a CIA tool. But he agrees with Jesus.
This is a male-dominated book. The only woman who shows up in the book is Nicole, who Dekker invents. And Israeli leaders don't show up in the book at all. Nor do U.S. politicians who launched invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But the book contains an interesting history of the Samaritans, one of whom inspired Jesus's injunction.
'Tea with Hezbollah' doesn't probe too deeply but it's an enjoyable read. "A simple teaching," Dekker concludes, "made 2,000 years ago may bring agreement and hope."
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