deming Reviews

Les yeux secs (2003)

Dry eyes? Not in the audience.

[10/10 · 6 May 2004]

For me, the first 10/10 film of 2004. I went in expecting a good film and came out bowled over. Several people left the theatre with tears in their eyes. The cinematography would make the tourist bureau proud, the acting is very good, and the story (based on reality) is extraordinary. An isolated Berber village inhabited only by prostitutes, whose paying customers arrive on the night of the full moon... the mothers, former prostitutes, banished to an even more remote cluster of dwellings: this is a movie about women that is accessible to everyone. Indeed, it is a man in a Charlie Chaplin outfit who comes along to change their lives. Bravo to the women who wrote, directed, produced, and acted in this magnificent film.

Happiness (1998)

the film that American Beauty aspires to be

[10/10 · 16 May 2003]

I was out of the country when this film was released and have only just discovered it on video. I haven't been so satisfied and disturbed by a film since I saw Requiem for a Dream. THIS is what American Beauty wanted to be, only that film didn't go nearly far enough. (And guess what? It won Oscars!) "Happiness" is pure genius and truly gets to the rotten core of human relationships, whereas the aforementioned film scratched the surface and then backed off, one eye on the awards programs. One film told an obvious story: American society is superficial and people are lonely. Duh. The other film (this one, of course), is a universal story of alienation and truly dysfunctional families and individuals. It doesn't pull any punches, and if you're like me, you'll be grateful that a filmmaker had the guts to tell this story.

Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

"Film within a film" really works

[9/10 · 26 August 2002]

Reading the other reviews, I see that homophobes have been duly warned about this movie, so I won't say anything about the relationship between the two men beyond that it is complex and beautiful.

What interests me more for the purposes of this little blurb is that no one has commented on how the "film within a film" (much like the "play within a play" in Hamlet) reflects the actual events unfolding in the prison cell. Molina (William Hurt) is ostensibly retelling his favorite film to entertain Valentin (Raul Julia) and make the time pass more quickly, but he himself admits that he "embroiders" the story to make it more real. So who is to say if this film exists except in Molina's mind, and if it does, what really transpired in the film? The story about the French woman who is in love with a German officer during World War II, and must decide whether or not to betray him, is an obvious parallel to Molina's decision to betray Valentin or not. Even Molina says that he most identifies with Leni La Maison (Sonia Braga) in this film of his, and it's not just because he is a drag queen. It's because he has to choose between the man he loves and "patriotism" (in his case, represented by the police/government as well as his ailing mother).

This storytelling tactic works brilliantly, in my opinion. Kiss of the Spider Woman is indeed original, quirky, and a must-see.

Femme Fatale (2002)

Sleek, fast, unpredictable...

[9/10 · 2 May 2002]

Sleek, fast, unpredictable: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos or the movie itself? Both! The Mission Impossible-like opening sequence at the Cannes Film Festival gives way to a double-crossing, back-stabbing story that moves to Paris. None of the themes here is new, but we've never seen it quite like this before. Romijn-Stamos is excellent (even her fake French accent is pretty believable) and Antonio Banderas holds his own. A highly entertaining film that falls during a dry few months in French movie theaters.

Winged Migration (2001)

lovely just as it is

[10/10 · 12 January 2002]

Yes, there are times when viewers wonder what country we are flying over now, but much more narration in this film would have detracted from the sheer visual pleasure. The images speak for themselves, in a "no comment needed" sort of way. The most stunningly beautiful film I have seen in a long time--and I wasn't bored for a minute.

Eden (I) (2001)

Like watching a badly-filmed play

[2/10 · 5 September 2001]

Questionable lighting, unnecessary monologues, dramatic music during long scenes with no action... this is the worst movie I have seen in a string of mediocre films. I sympathized with no one, not even the purported heroine. Even Arthur Miller sounded like he was woodenly reading a script, with no inflections or expressions to make him seem like a real person. I struggled to stay awake and spent several minutes wondering if my time wouldn't be better spent outdoors in the beautiful autumn sunshine. I stayed, hoping things would improve and there would be a point to the film, but either there wasn't one or I missed it entirely.

The Center of the World (2001)

At least it only cost me $4

[6/10 · 3 August 2001]

Well, 29 francs, which is the equivalent of $4. I knew little about the film except that it was a bleak erotic Wayne Wang film. And it was all of those things. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood to see Pretty Woman Meets Leaving Las Vegas/Showgirls, I don't know. I was underwhelmed by the sex, the dialogue, even the loneliness--I've had better of all of those. The one scene I did actually find right-on was...

POSSIBLE SPOILER: ...the one where they finally have sex in the end. It comes just after he talks about how it is going to be, how great HE is going to be. But the reality is that he isn't super-lover; she isn't wet, he spits on his hand to get inside her, she is just starting to get into it when he comes. How many women can relate to that? I certainly can. I don't think the scene was at all about her retreating into herself and pretending not to enjoy it--it was about the fact that he was a great lover only in his own mind. And when he turns her over and forces himself on her after that, no one can claim she is simply "pretending" not to enjoy it. She's being raped, for God's sake!

END SPOILER

I'll have to rent Smoke again to regain my taste for Wayne Wang films.

Te quiero (2001)

The worst movie I have seen in awhile

[3/10 · 5 March 2001]

I very nearly walked out of the theatre during this movie to find a more comfortable place to sleep. Minutes pass in this film with no dialogue--then when the characters start speaking, what they say is so banal you wish they would stop. The editing is occasionally choppy, and some scenes don't make much sense. The only redeeming factor, as far as I'm concerned, was the presence of several nice shots of the Peruvian crowd or of an interesting color. I thought Too Much Flesh would be the worst movie I had seen all month, but this has taken its place.

Pas d'histoires! (2001)

Unsettling

[8/10 · 11 February 2001]

This film, consisting of twelve vignettes, lasts just over an hour. The group of people with whom I saw it was a mix of Lithuanian, British, American, and French. Immediate reviews ranged from "disappointing" (Lithuanian) to "interesting" (American) to "I quite liked the stories" (English). A couple of the plots weren't quite clear, but on the whole, I found this an hour very well spent. Several of the stories are quite gripping, and one only wishes they lasted longer than 5-6 minutes. We all had a feeling of being unsettled: some because the stories are just a glimpse into a life, with no finality or closure, some because racism (overt or subtle) is an unsettling topic. But it needs to be brought into the open like this.

Hamlet (2000)

Innovative film

[8/10 · 27 December 2000]

Shakespeare has arrived in the moneyed world of New York, and I think he likes it. What particularly struck me about this film was some of the imagery and devices. Reflections are everywhere, not just in Hamlet's soliloquies: glass windows, mirrors, water, even the video screen. If we exist only in the eyes of others (J-P Sartre), then everything in this film is granted existence, even Hamlet's madness, because we see it through so many media and reflections. Hamlet's "play within a play" becomes a film, not something ephemeral, but a strip of celluloid that will last past his death, just as this play has survived so many centuries after Shakespeare's time.

Memento (2000)

One of 2000's best films

[10/10 · 13 October 2000]

This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time, especially following a summer in which the top movies were about sexagenarians in space and Tom Cruise face masks. The premise--that this guy has lost all short-term memory and thus every hour is a fresh start--nicely fits the backwards nature of the storytelling. We see the end and work back to the beginning, and along the way all of our landmarks are turned upside down. Just when you start to think you have a handle on a character, you see what that person did previously and it distorts your thinking. We know immediately that Leonard, played by Guy Pearce with his usual flawless American accent, is trying to track down his wife's killer. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that by the end of the movie, you leave the theater wondering if you really know whodunit. The brilliance of the movie is how it gets from the end to the beginning and keeps the viewer engaged (and occasionally breathless).

What Lies Beneath (2000)

This film went on way too long

[5/10 · 15 August 2000]

After a few climactic highs, I was ready for the end, but they kept trotting out scene after scene that was supposed to keep me on the edge of my seat. I started to get bored and stopped caring about the characters. This film would have been awful except for the veteran actors, and I didn't like the acting of Mary (the neighbor) or Jody (the friend) at all.

Happenstance (2000)

This jewel of a film really shines

[9/10 · 25 June 2000]

The fluttering of butterfly wings in the Atlantic can unleash a hurricane in the Pacific. According to this theory (somehow related to the Chaos Theory, I'm not sure exactly how), every action, no matter how small or insignificant, will start a chain reaction that can lead to big events. This small jewel of a film shows us a series of seemingly-unrelated characters, most of them in Paris, whose actions will affect each others' lives. (The six-degrees-of-separation theory can be applied as well.) Each story is a facet of the jewel that is this film. The acting is finely-tuned and nuanced (Audrey Tautou is luminous), the stories mesh plausibly, the humor is just right, and the viewer leaves the theatre nodding in agreement.

Saint-Cyr (2000)

And the award for best hairpieces goes to...

[7/10 · 24 May 2000]

I like period pieces, and this film has plenty of history (late 17th-century France, Louis XIV), setting (Normandy) and elaborate costumes (including various hairpieces). There is some interesting insight into Madame de Maintenon, the mistress-cum-wife of the king (whose devotion to Catholicism most certainly influenced her husband's repression of the Protestants in France). The acting is marvelous, perhaps most notably among the younger girls, who progress from speaking their local patois (Provencale, Languedocien, etc.) to "proper" French as Madame sees to it that they become educated young ladies. My 20th-century-trained ear found it a bit difficult to understand all of this proper French, but I did enjoy the film.

A Matter of Taste (2000)

Smooth storyline, good acting, appealing food

[7/10 · 4 May 2000]

This movie isn't a whodunit, since we know from the start pretty much what happens--it's just a question of WHY? And the movie answered that question to my satisfaction. Interesting and plausible psychologically, and the food presentations woven throughout are mouth-watering. Best of all to a non-native French speaker, I found it fairly easy to understand all the dialogue.