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Old Joy

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Old Joy (2006)

Old Joy is such a minimalist film--and I liked it--that it raises the question, “How minimalist can a film go?” Maybe more importantly, who will this film appeal to? A late-30s family man (Daniel London) and his old friend (Will Oldham) go on a weekend camping trip. End of story. But the chasm that has grown between the old counter-culture friends is great. While the London character has accepted the responsibility of a wife and son and listens to political talk-radio, the Oldham character is still doing too much drugs and is subtly dissatisfied beyond help. While this is a minimalist film, someone (in my opinion) had to make it, and this is a superb job of it.

Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2007 10:21 PM by JimBell | with 0 comments

Venus

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Venus (2006)

Although a lot of people liked Venus, they claimed to like it for what I think are the wrong reasons. This is not a film about December-May sex (there is none!). Nor is it a film about Peter O'Toole, at 74 years of age, being able to act like an old man (duh!). So that takes care of the vast majority of criticism. So what is the movie about, anyway? This is a film about dieing. Secondarily, it's about whether young people can lean an iota from the ancient sods who are passing on. Of course, old age and dieing is a broad subject, and, much to director Michel's credit (an excellent director!), this film is about a particular type of man. A British actor of some renown, he believed above all in giving (and, I suppose, receiving) pleasure. When an obnoxious young lower-class woman comes into his life, he does something amazing--he is, as he says, "nice." She blossoms--sort of, realistically, slowly, in fits and starts. As the O'Toole character dies, he does a lot of things. He dances with his best friend (presumably gay), he fights with his best friend over a misunderstanding, he undergoes medical examinations, he revisits theatres of his powerful maturity, and he longs for the beauty of a woman. While he says he is interested in pleasure, his secondary and unexpressed motive is education. For how can an ignorant, uncultured, boorish woman appeal to him? I love the way he exposes her to culture, and she blossoms. (She exposes him somewhat to the opposite, and it is interesting but a mixed blessing.) But in a heart-breaking and realistic way, she doesn't blossom ideally. My favourite shot in this sad and hopeful movie is when the O'Toole character goes to his ex-wife's place for a "last" dinner. We see them eating a gourmet meal sans lush candle light. It is shot through the banister with a black cat in the foreground, capturing perfectly the way in which things get in the road of unfettered human happiness. This is a precursor to the climactic scene when the old fellow dies on the beach: His last and ironic words to the young lady are (as I remember) "Now we can really talk." He dies.

Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2007 10:15 PM by JimBell | with 1 comments

Sophie Scholl

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Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2006)

Sophie Scholl is a simple story simply told. When people write that it is an excellent movie, do they mean the story is powerful, the simple filming is tremendous, or the synergy of the two is compelling?

The simple story is that in 1943, Sophie and her brother, Hans, were caught distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, were interrogated, tried, and executed. If you did not know the fatal ending from history, you could pick it up from movie reviews etc. The film makers use almost no modern filming techniques: no stream-of-consciousness, no hand-held camera, no special grainy film processing, no split screen, no flash backs, and so on, even though there are clearly opportunities to use all of these.

The classical, straight-forward telling is appropriate to the time. 1943 had not seen the atomic bomb, space travel, HIV, the internet, or MTV. Things were slower then, less fragmented, more linear. Just as the settings, the language, and the restrained acting create the atmosphere of 1943 daily life, so the screenplay and cinematography reinforce the sense of time.

Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2007 8:39 AM by JimBell | with 0 comments

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Old Joy

Venus

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