it has been a long list of films since i last posted; and that is mainly because being at home all day i end up watching all kinds of nonsense back to back until they all dissolve into one giant mess of a image mash up at night when i sleep. so here i try to sift some of these images out into their proper slots.
'my architect' displayed a remarkable facility for ickiness throughout the film. i cant remember the last time a film made me cringe so much. maybe it was the very premise of the film where an illegitimate son tries ot rediscover his absent father through his legacy so every stone or shaft of light in louis kahns work signifies some profound psychological insight into kahns very soul; or maybe it is the fact that the son so shamelessly in the bald confessional tone of an oprah winfrey show asks his mother intimate details about her relationship with his father on camera; or the mystic indian yoginess thrust upon kahn by his devotees in india who make him into a seer; or the bengali architect at the end of the film who simpers and sobs away in the dhaka assembly and credits kahn the american for bringing democracy to his underdeveloped country. at the end of the film the son stares at the son setting behind kahn's monumental tomb like assembly and 'listens to the silence' and finds his father. if this was television it would be a rendezvous with simi garewal. meanwhile kahn's architecture which i so admired for their clarity and monumental sublime become merely enormous phallic replacements for a man desperate to leave a legacy to the world and could only find them in the mute ruins of a classical past. all his buildings become tombs to him.
in new york two loners try and find their selves both by selling their bodies and their youth. the man, a wannabe writer, finds an older woman emntor who takes care of his every need while the girl has escaped from her past to reinvent herself in an permanent nomadic mode wearing fanciful costumes and scouring the city for a rich man to get married to. her only companion is a cat with no name and an obsession with a jewellery store. true happiness lies in this landmark of a capitalist paradise. here even the clerks who know you cant afford any of their wares do not condemn your desire. a similar paradise existed in 'modern times' where in one night of pleasure chaplin and the tramp roam free and play out suburban fantasies inside the shopping mall. in 'breakfast at tiffany's audrey hepburn lives a perpetual fantasy of a richer future until clear and present love reigns at the end. it is a happy ending - of sorts.
hedwig and the angry inch is a movie based on a broadway musical whose central protagonist is a transgendered rock singer who came to america just before the berlin wall fell from east germany. she fell in love with an american marine and lost most of her penis in a botched up surgery leaving her with an angry inch. in america she is betrayed by her teenage lover who uses her songs to top the charts without giving her any credit. the film follows hedwig as she follows this cheat across his tour of america. fantastic over the top fun, and although some of the songs are a little corny the film more than easily carries it along with its flair for fantasy and melodrama.
i am not really so much of a 'south park' fan. i dont really get the humour. i understand it but i dont laugh. in the feature film a tv show is to blame for the spread of cuss words and bad language thorughout the youth of america and the americans blame canada leading to a war between the two nations. the films targets everybody liberals, conservatives, war mongers and peaceniks but much of the jokes are predictable. but then they would say- that's the point. ok i get it, but so what? now if only they had managed to lampoon themselves..
'the weathering continent' feels like a short story for a feature length anime. a boy, a warrior and a gender unspecific mystic are journeying to a town looking for water on a continent buried under sand. on the way they come to a city whose inhabitants have recreated a world of pleasure in death. all the bodies are like wax statues in position performing theatre or dance, but their faces are hollowed out masks. bandits are raiding this city and are going to be cursed. great premise for some fantastic set pieces but the animation is basic and so is the story.
'phoenix 2772' has a typical tale to tale of environmental destruction against technological progress. a shape shifting robot in love with her master is merely one of the many cute osamu tezuka style characters in the film which include a dice with arms and a head, a walking accordion, etc. our hero is to save the world by bringing back the firebird 2772 from a galaxy far far away.
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