Films

Although replete with gorgeous mise-en-scene characteristics of his later works, The Man from London falls frustratingly short to Tarr’s previous works. Tarr’s usual late bag of tricks — richly-textured, gorgeous long takes, Mihaly Vig’s cyclic music (which is rather annoying this time compared to his previous transcendental scores), along with the dance-in-a-bar, unblinking, silent characters staring into nothingness for 30 seconds or more — feels this time way too excessively self-indulgent in the face of the noir-like plot.

Perhaps it’s the lack of emotion-driven issues and “existentialist” themes (usually present in Tarr’s works) that makes the beautifully-conjured melancholia and the story rather incompatible. There were moments of great beauty, sure, but overall, I would rate even his earlier works e.g. Karhozat, Almanac of Fall, Prefab People, even the short in Visions of Europe higher than this one. Just hoping it’s not a sign of a further autumnal decline.

Lumumba
directed by Raoul Peck, 2002

“This film is not an ‘adaptation,’ it aims to be a true story. I want to extract the cinematic narrative from reality by remaining as true to the facts as possible,” so said Raoul Peck. Using archival images of official history (many of film’s pivotal scenes are moving recreations of famous still photographs and newsreel footage from Lumumba’s short political life and assassination), Peck crafted a documentary-style recreation and meditation for what might have been in the events surrounding Lumumba’s assasination.

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Yi Yi (Taiwan/Japan, 2000)
directed by David Yang
George Wu wrote an elaborate review on Yi Yi at Senses of Cinema, so go and read his. (Michael Jackson from the gayer-than-gay pub downstairs is messing with my brain, sorry.) The movie is almost three-hour long, but there’s something about its lack of dramas and every day life contemplation (reminiscent of Ozu) that despite the long shots, make it a very engaging, accessible film. Recommended.

Shunji Iwai
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) is, IMNSHO, his best work. Swallowtail (1996) is less refined but interesting nevertheless, while Picnic (1996) lacks substance. Hana & Alice (2004) and Love Letter (1995) are sweet but pale in comparison to All About Lily Chou-Chou and Swallowtail. So yeah, those two are the ones I’d recommend most.

I’ve been stuck in a state of perpetual ennui lately, forcing myself to write these harf-arsed pieces just to fill this sad little blog up. Apologies if I owe you some  correspondence/replies/whatnot, worry not, I am well, just with nothing interesting to tell.