list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around The Life Before Her Eyes on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/The_Life_Before_Her_Eyes/284004/default.aspx Title: The Life Before Her Eyes
Year: 2008
Director: Vadim Perelman
Plot: Based on author Laura Kasischke's novel The Life Before Her Eyes, House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman's provocative study of memory, morality, and conscience stars Uma Thurman as the guilt-ridden survivor of a harrowing, Columbine-like high-school shooting. To any outsider, Diana (played as a young girl by actress Evan Rachel Wood) and Maureen (Eva Amurri) were polar opposites; Diana was always questioning authority, while Maureen quietly went about fulfilling the expectations of her devoutly religious family. Yet it was precisely theses differences that drew the two girls to one another and found them gradually growing to become best friends. As with any anxious high-school student, Diana and Maureen both existed in that strange grey zone between childhood and adulthood that found them constantly pondering the endless possibilities that awaited them in the outside world. Flash forward years later, and Diana's (played as an adult by Thurman) life isn't anything like she imagined it would be as a young girl. As Diana's traumatic past gradually comes into focus, it soon becomes obvious that she was profoundly affected by a pivotal event that occurred just prior to her high-school graduation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 15
Number of Lists: 4
Number of blog posts: 1
Number of discussion threads: 1
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:58:48 GMTThe Life Before Her Eyes2008Vadim PerelmanBased on author Laura Kasischke's novel The Life Before Her Eyes, <a href="http://www.spout.com/films/222423/detail.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>House of Sand and Fog</a> director Vadim Perelman's provocative study of memory, morality, and conscience stars <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P____70905/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Uma Thurman</a> as the guilt-ridden survivor of a harrowing, Columbine-like high-school shooting. To any outsider, Diana (played as a young girl by actress <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___235707/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Evan Rachel Wood</a>) and Maureen (<a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___341338/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Eva Amurri</a>) were polar opposites; Diana was always questioning authority, while Maureen quietly went about fulfilling the expectations of her devoutly religious family. Yet it was precisely theses differences that drew the two girls to one another and found them gradually growing to become best friends. As with any anxious high-school student, Diana and Maureen both existed in that strange grey zone between childhood and adulthood that found them constantly pondering the endless possibilities that awaited them in the outside world. Flash forward years later, and Diana's (played as an adult by Thurman) life isn't anything like she imagined it would be as a young girl. As Diana's traumatic past gradually comes into focus, it soon becomes obvious that she was profoundly affected by a pivotal event that occurred just prior to her high-school graduation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide15Tag Target (>10)4113http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s284004.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/The_Life_Before_Her_Eyes/284004/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/joem18b/archive/2008/8/26/34386.aspx Post By: joem18b
Post To: joem18b Blog
Post Date: 8/26/2008 2:13:26 AM
Body: Any movie that puts a human face on Iran and the Iranian people is a good thing. Plus, my dentist is Iranian. So is my congressperson, come to think of it. Persepolis covers the history of the country from the fall of the Shah up to a while ago. They don't make movies like Married Life anymore; only, this time, they did. The thing I like about Scorpian King 2 is that the hero carries his sword in a leather scabbard on his back and every time that he draws it, it makes a metallic rasping sound - forget the leather - followed by a ringing twang! I'll probably never take the time to write about The Life Before Her Eyes (2008), but I see 500 movies a year and maybe one out of the 500 affects me like this one did. A story that gets it just right, for me. Watched The Darwin Awards (2006) again. Was entertained all the way through, same as the first time. I wonder if this film is developing a following; it deserves one. Winona and Fiennes have some chemistry. My Canadian friend Matt the Movie Watcher assigned me Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) over on the Filmspotting Boards. The Criterion version that I watched is immaculate. Set in the 1940s, this naturalistic (till the director starts riffing) film of country life in Quebec is fresh enough to have been made yesterday. The Canadian National Film Board helped with its production; correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this might have been the first major example of Quebecois film. The NFB has funded quite a few works that feature drama in lesser-known areas of Canada and without it, film in Quebec might never have got off the ground. I grew up in a small rural town in the late 40s and early 50s and instantly related to the setting and characters in this movie. It was filmed in Black Lake City and at the Thetford asbestos mines in Québec.Mon Oncle Antoine is a milestone film, most highly thought of. Be interesting to see if it's mentioned on the Filmspotting top-Canadian-film lists this week.I can recommend the movie without reservation to anyone interested in a quiet, closely-observed visit to a small town in the country in the 40s, featuring a variety of interesting characters making a hard life seem a little easier that it probably is - especially since the town is dominated by an open-pit asbestos mine that coats everything, including the lungs of the residents, with carcinogenic dust.Having said that, it strikes me that the director, Claude Jutra, who here adapted a short story for the screen and directed the movie, turned his back on the possibility of making a classic film, ending up with a very good movie instead. I've just posted a review elsewhere of "Mother of Mine," and I had the same thought about the director of that film, Klaus Härö. In both cases, the director seems not to trust the tremendous power of the basic story that he is dealing with and instead tacks on an unnecessary melodramatic narrative that entertains us in the moment but can't stand up to scrutiny later, relegating both films to the category of rural picaresque. Jutra might well have worked from a checklist here that includes a teenager breathing his last, a journey over unpaved roads with a hard-to-manage coffin (when "As I Lay Dying" was published, this trope should have been moved to the Pantheon and left alone there), a teen's first look at the adult female rack and I'm not talking about Bambi's mother here, so forth. A documentary about Jutra is included and it's as interesting as the film itself. A life of struggle to make movies by a gifted man with money woes. Puts me in mind of Orson Welles.I also seem to be developing an aversion to characters who stare straight ahead without speaking, leaving us to divine their thoughts and relieving the author of the responsibility of writing intelligent and original dialog for them. Jacques Gagnon, who plays a young man whose final sudden coming of age is compressed into the confines of a day or so, underacts in a way that perhaps mimics the frozen silent wastes of those great northern forests up there, which will probably be filling up with refugee polar bears any day now.And Bravo! to Olivette Thibault, who gets her ashes hauled here at the age of 57 by a youngish Jutra himself.Mon Oncle Antoine is filled with interesting characters and interesting moments, entertains in its every frame, and is a gem indeed. Thanks to Matt for choosing it for me!
]]>Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:13:26 GMTjoem18bjoem18b Blog8/26/2008 2:13:26 AMAny movie that puts a human face on Iran and the Iranian people is a good thing. Plus, my dentist is Iranian. So is my congressperson, come to think of it. Persepolis covers the history of the country from the fall of the Shah up to a while ago. They don't make movies like Married Life anymore; only, this time, they did. The thing I like about Scorpian King 2 is that the hero carries his sword in a leather scabbard on his back and every time that he draws it, it makes a metallic rasping sound - forget the leather - followed by a ringing twang! I'll probably never take the time to write about The Life Before Her Eyes (2008), but I see 500 movies a year and maybe one out of the 500 affects me like this one did. A story that gets it just right, for me. Watched The Darwin Awards (2006) again. Was entertained all the way through, same as the first time. I wonder if this film is developing a following; it deserves one. Winona and Fiennes have some chemistry. My Canadian friend Matt the Movie Watcher assigned me Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) over on the Filmspotting Boards. The Criterion version that I watched is immaculate. Set in the 1940s, this naturalistic (till the director starts riffing) film of country life in Quebec is fresh enough to have been made yesterday. The Canadian National Film Board helped with its production; correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this might have been the first major example of Quebecois film. The NFB has funded quite a few works that feature drama in lesser-known areas of Canada and without it, film in Quebec might never have got off the ground. I grew up in a small rural town in the late 40s and early 50s and instantly related to the setting and characters in this movie. It was filmed in Black Lake City and at the Thetford asbestos mines in Qu&eacute;bec.Mon Oncle Antoine is a milestone film, most highly thought of. Be interesting to see if it's mentioned on the Filmspotting top-Canadian-film lists this week.I can recommend the movie without reservation to anyone interested in a quiet, closely-observed visit to a small town in the country in the 40s, featuring a variety of interesting characters making a hard life seem a little easier that it probably is - especially since the town is dominated by an open-pit asbestos mine that coats everything, including the lungs of the residents, with carcinogenic dust.Having said that, it strikes me that the director, Claude Jutra, who here adapted a short story for the screen and directed the movie, turned his back on the possibility of making a classic film, ending up with a very good movie instead. I've just posted a review elsewhere of "Mother of Mine," and I had the same thought about the director of that film, Klaus H&auml;r&ouml;. In both cases, the director seems not to trust the tremendous power of the basic story that he is dealing with and instead tacks on an unnecessary melodramatic narrative that entertains us in the moment but can't stand up to scrutiny later, relegating both films to the category of rural picaresque. Jutra might well have worked from a checklist here that includes a teenager breathing his last, a journey over unpaved roads with a hard-to-manage coffin (when "As I Lay Dying" was published, this trope should have been moved to the Pantheon and left alone there), a teen's first look at the adult female rack and I'm not talking about Bambi's mother here, so forth. A documentary about Jutra is included and it's as interesting as the film itself. A life of struggle to make movies by a gifted man with money woes. Puts me in mind of Orson Welles.I also seem to be developing an aversion to characters who stare straight ahead without speaking, leaving us to divine their thoughts and relieving the author of the responsibility of writing intelligent and original dialog for them. Jacques Gagnon, who plays a young man whose final sudden coming of age is compressed into the confines of a day or so, underacts in a way that perhaps mimics the frozen silent wastes of those great northern forests up there, which will probably be filling up with refugee polar bears any day now.And Bravo! to Olivette Thibault, who gets her ashes hauled here at the age of 57 by a youngish Jutra himself.Mon Oncle Antoine is filled with interesting characters and interesting moments, entertains in its every frame, and is a gem indeed. Thanks to Matt for choosing it for me! http://www.spout.com/groups/Trailer_Park/The_Life_Before_Her_Eyes/567/28175/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: mercurial
Post To: Trailer Park
Post Date: 5/5/2008 12:47:10 AM
Body: I've managed to avoid those films about school shootings (except Elephant which was alright) for various reasons. I guess being in high school when the Columbine shooting happened and the backlash against teenagers that exhibited any "signs" of possible psychotic tendencies (I remember being ostracized because I owned a Marilyn Manson album and had a friend that was partially Goth) made the subject rather annoying to me. However, The Life Before Her Eyes actually might change that for me. HD Trailer at Yahoo: 480p
]]>Mon, 05 May 2008 04:47:10 GMTmercurialTrailer Park5/5/2008 12:47:10 AMI've managed to avoid those films about school shootings (except Elephant which was alright) for various reasons. I guess being in high school when the Columbine shooting happened and the backlash against teenagers that exhibited any "signs" of possible psychotic tendencies (I remember being ostracized because I owned a Marilyn Manson album and had a friend that was partially Goth) made the subject rather annoying to me. However, The Life Before Her Eyes actually might change that for me. HD Trailer at Yahoo: 480p http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/romance/MemberTagFilms.aspxromance
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