Toronto Film Fest, Day Six
Sep. 15th, 2004 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
przedA fabulous day! Three films; three masterpieces.
Title: The Motorcycle Diaries
Director: Walter Salles
Country: Argentina/U.K./Germany/U.S.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
When he was a 23 year old medical student, Ernesto Guevera and his best friend, Alberto Granado took a rickety old Norton motorcycle on a road trip around South America. Salles' film follows the future Che Guevera on the journey that will lead to his politicization. The film isn't heavy handed, but simply shows the increasing amount of injustice that the two young men find in their travels. Salles has found the perfect Che in the person of Gael Garcia Bernal, an actor of both great beauty and talent. You really believe that he will become a man that others will follow.
Title: 9 Songs
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
Until now, I've either been mildly pro on Winterbottom's films (The Claim) or hated them with a passion (Butterfly Kiss). 9 Songs is the first one that I've absolutely adored. It traces a relationship between a young English scientist and his American girlfriend entirely through their sexual encounters and a series of concerts they attend, mostly at the Brixton Academy. The sex is tender, playful, agressive, artfully shot. Oh, and hardcore. The concerts are by some of the best British acts playing today, including The Black Rebel Motorcyle Club, The Super Furry Animals, Primal Scream and, my current favourites, Franz Ferdinand. Based on this film, I think Winterbottom should eschew narrative entirely (since he never seems to do it terribly well) and concentrate on this sort of experiential, visceral cinema.
Title: Kung Fu Hustle
Director: Stephen Chow Sing-Chi
Country: HK
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
A martial arts, and comedy, masterpiece by the director and star of Shaolin Soccer. Set in a mythical Shanghai of the 30s where the terrifying Axe Gang has taken over the streets, it concentrates on one small, poor tenement, pig sty alley, which has remained beneath the interest of the gang until two small time hustlers decide to pretend to be gang members to shake down the residents. And that's just the first ten minutes. The movie is hilarious, the martial arts choreography (by master Yuen Wo Ping) is delirious and the whole thing is crowd-pleasingly amazing. Chow is hilarious as always, but he's also got an incredibly able cast, including Yuen Wah as the laid-back landlord of the tenement who is revealed to be a kung fu master.
Title: The Motorcycle Diaries
Director: Walter Salles
Country: Argentina/U.K./Germany/U.S.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
When he was a 23 year old medical student, Ernesto Guevera and his best friend, Alberto Granado took a rickety old Norton motorcycle on a road trip around South America. Salles' film follows the future Che Guevera on the journey that will lead to his politicization. The film isn't heavy handed, but simply shows the increasing amount of injustice that the two young men find in their travels. Salles has found the perfect Che in the person of Gael Garcia Bernal, an actor of both great beauty and talent. You really believe that he will become a man that others will follow.
Title: 9 Songs
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
Until now, I've either been mildly pro on Winterbottom's films (The Claim) or hated them with a passion (Butterfly Kiss). 9 Songs is the first one that I've absolutely adored. It traces a relationship between a young English scientist and his American girlfriend entirely through their sexual encounters and a series of concerts they attend, mostly at the Brixton Academy. The sex is tender, playful, agressive, artfully shot. Oh, and hardcore. The concerts are by some of the best British acts playing today, including The Black Rebel Motorcyle Club, The Super Furry Animals, Primal Scream and, my current favourites, Franz Ferdinand. Based on this film, I think Winterbottom should eschew narrative entirely (since he never seems to do it terribly well) and concentrate on this sort of experiential, visceral cinema.
Title: Kung Fu Hustle
Director: Stephen Chow Sing-Chi
Country: HK
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
A martial arts, and comedy, masterpiece by the director and star of Shaolin Soccer. Set in a mythical Shanghai of the 30s where the terrifying Axe Gang has taken over the streets, it concentrates on one small, poor tenement, pig sty alley, which has remained beneath the interest of the gang until two small time hustlers decide to pretend to be gang members to shake down the residents. And that's just the first ten minutes. The movie is hilarious, the martial arts choreography (by master Yuen Wo Ping) is delirious and the whole thing is crowd-pleasingly amazing. Chow is hilarious as always, but he's also got an incredibly able cast, including Yuen Wah as the laid-back landlord of the tenement who is revealed to be a kung fu master.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-21 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-21 07:57 pm (UTC)Aren't they just the greatest? They've played Toronto twice this year, in small clubs, but they seem to have a talent for picking dates when we're not in the city, the stinkers. They're coming back in a couple of weeks, but they're playing a venue I now refuse to go to on account of its extreme suckiness.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-21 08:05 pm (UTC)