a filmblog

Under discussion:

The Women  (1939)

The Women  (2008)

Almost three quarters of a century has passed since The Women was unleashed on an unsuspecting populace; the inner sanctum of Manhattan socialites and all the cattiness, backstabbing and unapologetic malice that seethed through their painstakingly coiffed hairdos and razor sharp, yet finely manicured nails was revealed for all to see. Sadly, the 2008 remake of The Women has nothing to offer a modern audience. Virtually a shot for shot remake of the original 1939 film, sporadic injections of melodramatic ennui are given to each of the main leads that does nothing more than detract from the originally intended comedic tone and distorts the remake into a uninspiring mishmash of soapy cliches unfit for a Lifetime movie of the week. These women are nothing more than redundant caricatures of characters whose heyday has long since passed: the mousy wife of an adulterer that does nothing but bemoan her husbands existence, the emasculating businesswoman that exchanges her loyalty to her friends to keep her job, the butch lipstick lesbian / African American that seems to speak only in interjections, and the pregnant housewife dragging a handful of kids behind her and stuffing food in her mouth every chance she gets. Nothing but pathetic stereotypes that should offend anyone that watches it.

Under discussion:

The Love Songs  (2008)

Maneuvering the complexities of a ménage à trois proves difficult for three young Parisians in The Love Songs, a witty musical romance set in the City of Lights. Ismael (Louis Garrel) works with the beautiful brunette Alice (Clotilde Hesme) and lives with the tempestuous blonde Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), but at night they all share the same bed. Fantastic, yet entirely uncomplicated musical numbers accompany this intense study of understanding one's own feelings about love, expressing that emotion, and coping with the fallout of not being able to do so. 

Under discussion:

Waking Life  (2001)

Prometheus' Garden  (2008)

Putting into words the happenings of Prometheus' Garden is as laborious as the stop-motion claymation must have been for animator Bruce Bickford. A nihilistic interpretation of the evolution of humanity throughout the ages; a mélange of prurient thoughts and perverse fantasies involving bosomy blonde nymphs and phallus wielding virile gladiators; a horrific exploration of mans animalistic urges for grisly torture and evisceration; the inherent loneliness of life on Earth and the struggle to construct and manipulate our surroundings to assuage our fears of it all: all of this only begins to deconstruct the chaos viewed over the course of the films twenty eight minutes. Tracing the course of human history across the globe, the constantly metamorphosing landscape of the earth is matched only by that of humanity and their transformation from peaceful inhabitants of lush locales to warring, bloodthirsty warriors bent on total destruction. Prometheus' Garden is an incredible work of art that only falters in its overly bizarre, nonsensical nature which it should ultimately be garnered with praise for and not admonished for. Undoubtedly comparable to a non-speaking claymation version of Waking Life.