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Mar adentro (2004)
What if Ramon Sampedro had known about stem cells?
Throughout the entire time I was watching this masterpiece from talented Spanish director Amenabar, I could not help but wonder what would have happened if Ramon Sampedro had known about stem cells?
Embryonic and adult stem cells hold out the promise that in 10-50 years it may be possible to implant some of these cells into an injured spinal cord and, in a short time, these cells would replicate and replace the injured ones, thereby enabling the spinal cord to heal the injury to some degree.
Of course, chances are that their use would never allow for Ramon's complete recovery, but maybe -- just maybe -- it would have been possible to allow Ramon regain some feeling in his feet, or possibly even the use of one leg.
How would have Ramon would have reacted to this possibility?
On the one hand, he did not feel that he could live his life in "dignity", so it's possible that even something as slight as regaining feeling in his feet would not have been been sufficient for him to reconsider euthanasia.
On the other, if stem cells would have allowed him to regain the use of one leg, then maybe -- just maybe -- that would have been "dignified" enough for him for him to reconsider.
It's too bad we will never know what Ramon would have done.
Ford Transit (2003)
Taxicab Confessionals Palestinian-style!
Caution: Spoilers within.
A while back, MTV used to air a wonderful show in which a taxicab was fitted with a camera and mic, and the audience got to see all sorts of wonderful personalities as they would ride the cab and converse with the driver and give us all sorts of funny and weird "confessionals".
Hany Abu-Asad seems to have taken this idea one step further in "Ford Transit", by using taxicab confessionals as a way to showcase the views and opinions of a large number of Palestinians, as well as depicting the their hectic way of life as they try to cross from checkpoint to checkpoint using a Ford Transit taxicab.
We get to see everyone in the taxi, and i mean everyone!! Prominent Palestinian political figures like Hanan Ashrawi and Azmi Bishara; older women; fat men; lawyers; waiters; younger kids. All of them sitting in the back of a taxicab telling us what he/she thinks of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the peace process, Bush, the Israelis, checkpoints, and so on....
Reigning as the supreme confessional, however, is the dialogue with Rajai, the young photogenic driver of the taxicab, as we watch him hustle his way through checkpoints, drive his cab over dirt roads to avoid surprise searches, and serve as a reality-check to the lofty, idealistic words sometimes expounded by his passengers. Rajai symbolizes the everyday hustle that young Palestinians have to become to survive in Palestine.
What I liked most about this movie, however, was that the director Hany Abu-Asad himself, in interviewing the passengers in the taxicab, was always willing to play the role of the devil's advocate: trying to pose questions from the Israeli point of view and challenging the Palestinian occupants to see things not only from their side, but also from the other side.... ..this is movie's ultimate triumph, in my opinion! Not only does it serve to show us a vibrant and sometimes exasperating slice of Palestinian life, but it also questions the Palestinian/Arab viewer to think deeply about issues like the effect of suicide bombings, and whether they serve any meaningful purpose.
Everyone should go see this movie. Well done.
Ravayate Makhdoosh (2002)
Horrific & Intriguing & Ultimately disappointing
I caught this movie at the Festival of Iranian Films at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and thought I'd add the first comment for it here at IMDB. Caution: some spoilers ahead.
At the heart of this movie is a very intriguing story about a poor Iranian Kurdish woman, who agrees to marry a wealthy Iranian sergeant she does not love in order to provide a better life for herself and her family.....
But there's a catch: The sergeant is only interested in having this woman provide him with a male heir, and is not the least bit interested in her...
what follows in the movie is a horrific sequence of events that covers everything from sado-masochism, murder, abortion, chases, and death. All mixed in with a touch of political and social commentary to boot.
All of this would have made for a wonderful drama, had it not been for the director's decision to film the entire movie in a "Reality-TV" style in which the entire movie is seen from the point-of-view of someone holding a camcorder (usually the Kurdish woman's POV, but sometimes the Iranian sergeant's POV as well).
What is disappointing with this choice of style is not so much that the viewer is subjected to an hour and a half of shaking camera views, rough edits, audio problems, and shots from bizarre camera angles... ...but rather that this style is not appropriate for telling this story! There are scenes in the movie when i find it hard to believe that any of the characters in the film would be lugging a camcorder around with them in the middle of an argument or a motorcycle ride or a chase... ...so the "suspension of disbelief" feeling breaks down, and ruins what may have been an otherwise horrific drama.
In my opinion, the director should have stuck to a traditional approach to film this story.
Ruz-egar-e ma (2002)
Reality TV meets Iranian politics!
American audiences have become used to the "reality TV" spawned by the likes of shows like MTV Real World, MTV Road Rules, and a host of other copycats... ..but when you mix that cutting-edge reality TV style with the fervor of iranian politics & the pains of discrimination and economic hardship in modern-day iran, you get Rakhshan Etemad's explosive documentary "Our Times":
MTV-Real-World "confessionals" with hijab-wearing teenage girls telling us why they want to run for president...
traveling cameras recording live political arguments in the middle of the street...
12fps video played at 24fps to create the "sped-up" effect seen the Matrix and Equilibrium... ..and more!
go see it!
in the end, the real tragedy portrayed by this movie is that while iran's youth have plenty of political idealism and a desire to make things better for themselves, they unfortunately run up against the "brick wall" of culture, society, and politics, which serve to chip away at that idealism and in many cases blow it away completely.
congratulations to Rakhshan Etemad on a spectacular effort!
Ta'm e guilass (1997)
Moments of cinematic genius
Too many people commenting on this film seem to be fixated on the premise of the film (the man's impending suicide), when the most thought-provoking aspect of this film was the presence of some moments of true cinematic genius:
For example, at the beginning when Badii interrupts the guy talking in the phone booth to ask him if he needs money, the camera keeps fixated on Badii (not on the guy), and we only get to see the guy in the phone booth as the car turns around completely.
Notice also how the camera kept fixated on the kurdish soldier, and we see his eyes nervously shifting and getting more and more apprehensive as Badii insists on not telling him about the job he has to do. Fear is in the eyes!!!
At the end, we also never got to see the taxidermist explicitly get into Badii's car, and we listened to him talking to Badii for a few minutes before we finally got to see his face. In those moments, I (as the viewer) was asking myself : "who is this guy talking to Badii? Is he Death?"
It is creative film moments like these which push Kiarostami above the usual fray of film directors, and put him in a league with the best.
Raye makhfi (2001)
Film is also about Iran's Arab minority
I thought I'd add another comment to the mix of comments made about this film, which is that this film also tackles the issue of Iran's treatment of its Arab minority. This minority lives primarily in a western province called khuzestan (borders w/iraq), and along the western coastline, where the island portrayed in the movie happens to lie.
Most of the local inhabitants that the election official meets speak Arabic, some dont even speak Farsi (like the man in Granny Naghoo's compound). Being semitic, they have different physical appearances from the iranians, who are indo-european. And their customs are more similar to the arabs on the arab side of the persian gulf.
In addition to making points about democracy and about gender issues, Secret Ballot is also about the distance of Iran's central government from its Arab minority, seeming to be out of touch with their customs, their concerns, and their issues.
Incidentally, this theme of how Iran deals with its minorities is also addressed in Baran (Majid Majidi), but in that case it's about Iran's Afghan minority.
Congratulations to Babak Payami for a wonderful little gem of a movie.
Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993)
OK, OK, but what about grief for the daughter?
OK, OK, we get to see Julie struggle with her grief over her husband's death, as is evidenced by the music, the incomplete score, Olivier, the mistress, and so on, but what about the daughter???????
Apart from the blue-gemstone-hanging-thing and the blue lollipop, there's almost nothing in the movie about what Julie thinks or feels concerning her daughter, and i'm a bit puzzled by that.
We get to see none of her daughter's friends, her living quarters, her daughter's interests, either at the beginning (when Julie is blocking everything out), or at the end (when she starts opening up to her grief)
Are we to think that she was a detached mother to begin with, preoccupied with her husband's career and music?
Maybe the scene with her killing the rat and the babies also points to the fact that Julie was a detached mother?
And maybe her invitation of the pregnant mistress to come live in the house represents a coming-to-terms of Julie with her detachment as a mother, and thus she would want to make up for lost time?
This movie leaves me with more questions than answers.
Satin Rouge (2002)
this is a great "aphrodisiac" movie!
the plot of this movie is a bit contrived in certain places: i find it hard to believe that a widow can morph herself into a belly dancer/mrs. robinson type in such a short timespan, especially in conservative tunisia.
despite that, i'd have to say this is quite an "aphrodisiac" movie: for you guys out there who are dating "shy" women, or for you guys out there who want to rekindle some passion in your love life, have a go at watching this movie together, and then enjoy each other as the "tiger" within your woman comes out!
my thanks to raja amari (a new & promising talent) for a wonderful aphrodisiac.
Leila (1997)
Implausible Climax
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** i found the climax at the end when the husband reza brings over his 2nd wife to leila's house the night of the wedding to be utterly implausible.
although i am not iranian nor did i grow up in iran, i did spend some time in the arab world, and it seems to me that the more likely and plausible outcome to this tale would have been for reza to take his 2nd wife to a 2nd house the night of the wedding than to bring her home to leila's house.
leila should never have had to clean up her master bedroom and move to the guest bedroom. similarly, leila should never have had to run away from the house to her mother's house.
the cruel actions of reza at the end are also entirely implausible given the sensitivity he is portrayed with in the movie, and i felt the director was just trying to instigate a forceful yet unrealistic climax at the end, perhaps to make a statement. a better (yet understated) end to this story would have been to have the 2nd wife come home to a different house the night of the wedding.
finally, kudos to leila hatami for a stellar performance!
Charade (1963)
breath mints/chicken/liverwurst/soup/icecream hitchcock
it's wonderful how donen uses "food" in almost every serious conversation scene in this movie, as a contrast to the very important matters being discussed. for example,
1) when the french inspector is notifying audrey hepburn that her husband has been killed, we see her listening to him while popping breath mints into her mouth
2) in the first meeting between walter mathau and audrey hepburn in the american embassy, there is all this talk of chicken/liverwurst sandwiches.
3) again when matthau and audrey meet towards the end when he tells her about the OSS mission, audrey fumbles with cigarettes and then gets interrupted when the waiter brings her soup.
4) while walking with grant, audrey stops to order an ice cream which she subsequently spills onto grants suit ...and other examples.
this use of food in suspenseful scenes was an element that hitchcock also liked to use quite a bit, so it seems that donen's homage to hitchcock went beyond the obvious elements to more subtle ones.
congratulations to donen on a wonderful playful little gem of a film!
Abre los ojos (1997)
ambitious and influential film
kudos to amenabar for making what is **CLEARLY** a very influential film, evidence being that the themes addressed in this movie eventually find their way into films like The Matrix, the Sixth Sense, Mulholland Drive, and others.
my only criticism is that the movie introduces the whole "virtual reality/memory implant" theme a bit too late: at the very end when Clause 14 is mentioned at the Life Extension office. the audience **IS** aware that something about life extension is relevant to the movie's final outcome, but life extension is NOT THE SAME AS virtual reality, so the whole virtual reality theme came too abruptly for my taste.
despite that, the fact that Los Ojos makes such a good first stab at the subject matter entitles this film to a ranking on the IMDB top 250 in my opinion.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
mandrake was the weakest of the 3 sellers personae
my only criticism of this otherwise perfect masterpiece from kubrick is that i felt that the mandrake character played by sellers could have been a bit better. what i mean is that i felt his scenes with the insane general jack ripper were really designed as a "staging" ground for the audience to hear from and learn about the general's psychosis with bodily fluids.
however, the scenes could have been a lot better if **in addition** to learning about the general's theories we also were to see mandrake trying to wrest the key from the general, or trying to get to a phone,
trying to kill the general, trying to jump out the window. in this manner mandrake would have been an interesting contrast to president muffley's calm handling of the crisis or scotts eagerness to go to war.
instead, most of the time is spent just listening to the general and waiting for the soldiers to come. witness for example how wonderful the mandrake character becomes when he tries to interact with the "bat guano" lieutenant trying to convince him to get some change for a phone call to the president. more of that kind of silly "nervous tension" would have pushed mandrake's character over the top i think, and put it in league with the other dr. strangelove and president muffley personae played by sellers.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
near cinematic perfection
i give this a 9 out of 10. the only negative comment i can say about this movie is that i felt kurtz was a bit too "dramatic" and "literate" at the end. if i were doing this movie i would have made him more savagelike. forget about his little desk with the bible and poetry. we should have seen a kurtz who beheaded kurtz' boatmate! a kurtz who was having orgies with the cambodian natives. i dont mean for coppola to have turned on the sex and gore at the end, just give us a kurtz who was a little less "shakespeare" and a little more "rambo".