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billpride
Reviews
Rang-e khoda (1999)
Uplifting story, yet sad at the same time
Uplifting story, yet sad at the same time, about a 9 year old boy's Summer vacation with his family in rural Iran, away from his live-in school in Tehran -- the blind school. The images we see at the school as the film opens are of kids who are almost certainly real, not actors. I think this might be a propaganda statement, and it works. Film school classes probably dissect it to pieces, pointing out it brilliantly shows how different people handle a blind child. I would point out he's first a 9 year old boy, and second blind, not the reverse. To me, it's good drama, pure and simple, with glimpses of another culture mixed in.
Grande école (2004)
Intricate and true -- coming of age for adults
The title translates to "The Best of Schools," the school of life. This film really makes me wish I was fluent in French, including idioms and nuances that must be flowing every moment. Subtitles just can't cut it. But there's a great line in the film, which translates pretty well, I think: "You don't get it at all. Hetero, homo, all that's finished. It's outdated and it doesn't matter." In the "Making of..." feature, the director (Robert Salis) says, "...the theme is based on the notion of choice, or, actually, the disobeying of imposed choices...." and "crisscross desire" (which he insists is not the same as sex). He also said, "...it's like a dresser with drawers on top of one another. To find out the complete contents you have to open the drawers separately one after another." He does just that very skillfully.
Needless to say, it's a complex film, with happy parts, sad parts, sex galore (men with women, and a man with a man), sexy men showing full frontal nudity, and all that. About halfway through, it felt exactly like "Maurice," (and Salis even mentioned that film in the "Making of..."), but then it changed to something totally different after that. This isn't a Gay film. It's a "men who have sex with men" film. "MSM" is a term sex researchers use because most men would never self-identify as Gay, but usually will privately admit if they've had sex with men.
There's a lot more depth, but I'm not going to analyze it to death. Great movie! Watch it. Don't watch the trailer or the "Making of..." or anything else first though.
Back to "desire": Salis'closing line in the "Making of..." is, "There's only love and the lack of love. And desire naturally goes hand in hand with the lack and nourishes itself." I think I'll have to watch the movie all over again now to understand that.
Lan Yu (2001)
Sad, happy, honest and typically, tragically Chinese
I went to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" with a young Chinese man who said to me, as if I didn't know this, "Of course it has a tragic ending. It's Chinese!" That awakening, plus seeing the movie in a Chinese filled theatre, taught me something. I rented "Lan Yu" expecting a Chinese movie. I didn't get one. There were no intense cultural overtones, just references. Mao, Tiannimen Square, Russians, yes. The matriarch's New Year's dinner was the closest thing to Chinese culture. But, of course, Beijing and Hong Kong are cosmopolitan. The plot even makes fun of Lan Yu being thrust into the city from the country.
I put this movie in the category of "Parting Glances," "Steam," and "Love, Valor, Compassion," definitely not "Philadelphia." That's a high compliment for me. I've seen boring, "go for the audience impact" Gay movies. This isn't one, thank goodness. It's a love story with the complexity of approach/avoidance conflict, embraced by friends who are straight, even though the story is about Gay love. And it's about one-sided love, growing love, fearing the loss of love, committment anxiety, and all that, the same as in straight relationships. It has acceptance and tolerance and is totally devoid of sneers from the homophobic thrown in to thicken the plot.
The character development is a little sparse, but actually we learn about them quickly. There's no long wind up. Skillful! The character depth is what grows. Lan Yu grows. His lover doesn't, until it's too late.
The direction and photography were subtly superb. I didn't catch on until far into the film how good the photography was and placement of the characters. The acting was excellent -- or was it their direction?
How interesting that the clearly more submissive character is the stronger one.
Did those who hated this movie notice all of that, or are they jaded? I wouldn't like to be at a play or movie with them.
Wonderful movie. I cried. I laughed. I'm still feeling it. Very few movies do that to me.
The Lost Son (1999)
Very tough topic, well done.
Violence, abuse, psychological drama, and sexual predation are real, and they're portrayed shockingly here, as is appropriate. Be warned. It makes you want to become an activist or a vigilante. Where was the law? Where were the other tradtional protectors? Can it ever be prevented and will it ever end?