My original plan for this evening's post was something a bit more lengthy, comical, and acidic in content. However, a bad case of the go-to-sleeps is kicking my ass at the moment, so this will be a whole lot briefer.
Right now, I'm spending the night at my dad's home in Anthem, a town which never fails to unsettle me. For those who don't know: imagine a giant golf course that decided to turn itself into a self-sustaining town, and you have an idea what Anthem is like. On one hand, it has a real folksy small-town vibe, except in this small town everybody drives Hummers and tricked-out golf carts. I keep expecting Barney Phife to roll by the house, iced out with a giant diamond B on his chest and "DA LAW" printed on his chrome grill. While chilling at his crib, I've convinced my pater familis to start showing me the culinary ropes. He was a chef for 20 years, and I can still barely, just barely make a passable bowl of pasta. So today I learned many things, among them: 1) raspberries go great with beef stew, 2) baked red bell peppers add a lot of flavor to a pasta dish, and 3) how to properly slice the hell out of onions.
I also had the pleasure of indulging myself in a killer double feature, courtesy of TCM and IFC: In The Mood For Love and the original Manchurian Candidate.
Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love was fantastic. I was always a bit leery about seeing it, as its reputation has been puffed up over the years. I can't think of many other recent foreign films that have been as universally praised as Wai's film. Naturally, I was a bit worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype, but much to my pleasant surprise, it exceeded the hype. Such a beautiful film to look at. The lighting, the rich dark and light tones, Mrs. Chan's colorful dresses, the elegant way Mr. Chow lights and holds a cigarette... while a decidely modern fillm, its sensibilities feel ancient, timeless. Nice little touches are spread throughout the film: the fact that one never actually sees the faces of Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan's cheating spouses was clever and artfully done. The use of music was superb. It also takes an old folklore cliche (hiding a secret in a hole) and renders it onscreen in such a way that now, when I hear that kind of story, I will always think back to "Mood".
I'm kicking myself that its taken me this long to finally see this film. I knew the film had me as soon as the "garden party" sequence kicked in. I love the film's constantly sustained mood of tension, of inevitable doom. The lack of music in the film is what gets to me: so many other directors would have crammed as much incidental background music into the film as possible, ruining the film's fragile mood. So much of the tension of the film is the silence, the sense that anyone could come barging into the frame and disrupt the action at any time in the film. The performances are superb: Sinatra (while I don't care for his music) is great, Laurence Harvey is chilling and pathetic at the same time, and Angela Lansbury.... holy shit, is she frightening in this film. The best Lady Macbeth scenes that Shakespeare never wrote? All in this film, all performed by Lansbury. I think she won an Oscar for this film, or at least got nominated. If she didn't win, she got straight up robbed. Harrowing film. I saw the remake and it pales, paaaallllleeeesss, in comparison to this film.
Enough film geekery for one night. I'm off to watch my daily dose of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and then I'm going to call it a night.
Right now, I'm spending the night at my dad's home in Anthem, a town which never fails to unsettle me. For those who don't know: imagine a giant golf course that decided to turn itself into a self-sustaining town, and you have an idea what Anthem is like. On one hand, it has a real folksy small-town vibe, except in this small town everybody drives Hummers and tricked-out golf carts. I keep expecting Barney Phife to roll by the house, iced out with a giant diamond B on his chest and "DA LAW" printed on his chrome grill. While chilling at his crib, I've convinced my pater familis to start showing me the culinary ropes. He was a chef for 20 years, and I can still barely, just barely make a passable bowl of pasta. So today I learned many things, among them: 1) raspberries go great with beef stew, 2) baked red bell peppers add a lot of flavor to a pasta dish, and 3) how to properly slice the hell out of onions.
I also had the pleasure of indulging myself in a killer double feature, courtesy of TCM and IFC: In The Mood For Love and the original Manchurian Candidate.
Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love was fantastic. I was always a bit leery about seeing it, as its reputation has been puffed up over the years. I can't think of many other recent foreign films that have been as universally praised as Wai's film. Naturally, I was a bit worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype, but much to my pleasant surprise, it exceeded the hype. Such a beautiful film to look at. The lighting, the rich dark and light tones, Mrs. Chan's colorful dresses, the elegant way Mr. Chow lights and holds a cigarette... while a decidely modern fillm, its sensibilities feel ancient, timeless. Nice little touches are spread throughout the film: the fact that one never actually sees the faces of Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan's cheating spouses was clever and artfully done. The use of music was superb. It also takes an old folklore cliche (hiding a secret in a hole) and renders it onscreen in such a way that now, when I hear that kind of story, I will always think back to "Mood".
I'm kicking myself that its taken me this long to finally see this film. I knew the film had me as soon as the "garden party" sequence kicked in. I love the film's constantly sustained mood of tension, of inevitable doom. The lack of music in the film is what gets to me: so many other directors would have crammed as much incidental background music into the film as possible, ruining the film's fragile mood. So much of the tension of the film is the silence, the sense that anyone could come barging into the frame and disrupt the action at any time in the film. The performances are superb: Sinatra (while I don't care for his music) is great, Laurence Harvey is chilling and pathetic at the same time, and Angela Lansbury.... holy shit, is she frightening in this film. The best Lady Macbeth scenes that Shakespeare never wrote? All in this film, all performed by Lansbury. I think she won an Oscar for this film, or at least got nominated. If she didn't win, she got straight up robbed. Harrowing film. I saw the remake and it pales, paaaallllleeeesss, in comparison to this film.
Enough film geekery for one night. I'm off to watch my daily dose of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and then I'm going to call it a night.