Funny Games (1997)

15 Oct 2007
MoMA
An Evening with Michael Haneke

從十年前第一次在台中的戲院看Funny Games，到一年前在Genre Studies寫了一篇期末報告，探討片中中產階級家庭的行為及生活如何導致自身的滅亡，這部片我看了六次左右。第一次永遠是特別且無法置換的經驗，在高中時期看到了這部意識上暴力，卻刻意將畫面上的暴力隱藏住的電影。當時只覺得被年輕且有吸引力、說服力的臉龐給迷惑住，成了連續殺人犯的同夥，腎上腺素掌控了大部分腦細胞的運作。而在埋首於一篇篇訪問及學術文章後，Funny Games成為披著類型外衣而反類型的電影；Haneke試著將痛苦及血腥還原其原本的意義，而非提供懸疑快感的工具。而得知MoMA將於Haneke回顧展最後一天請到導演本人做Q&A後，我在一週前就引頸期待這一天的到來。然而在影片放映前20分鐘前才到達的我，自然是一張票都拿不到。當下胸口如同被車子迎面重擊一般悶痛，但仍決定在門口及售票處徘徊，等待奇蹟的發生。在影片即將開始之時，我的堅持有了回報。一位老太太喃喃的對其同伴說：我是不是應該把票讓給別人？我上前詢問是否有多餘的票，可能我問的突然，並非十分禮貌，她第一次裝作沒有聽到我。我悻悻然的走開，但沒有走遠。隨即一位老先生上前問了同樣的問題，老太太的同伴指著我說：她先問的。現在想來這位我沒有注意看清的女士才是我真正的救星，因為她持票的老太太才在一陣猶豫後把手中的兩張免費票送給我及那位老先生。老太太的理由是片子太血腥她不願去看，不管如何，當時拿著票的我捧著票像捧著全世界，心跳及腳步同時加快，迫不及待要見到我心中的英雄。

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"Insofar as truth is always obscene, I hope that all of my films have at least an element of obscenity.... Pornography, it seems to me, is no different from war films or propaganda films in that it tries to make the visceral, horrific, or transgressive elements of life consumable" - Michael Haneke (1)

MoMA日前做了Michael Haneke回顧展，一路從最早奧地利時期，一些難以見到的電視作品，到2000年以後的法語長片，做了完整的播放。Funny Games被選作為壓軸於10月15日放映，並請到Haneke到現場做Q&A。就時機來看，不乏是為來年二月在美國上映的英語版做暖身。

睿智與尖銳一直是Haneke電影的特色，也反映在這個夜晚他的談話中。在開始前Haneke只簡單的說電影撥放之前不需多說話，一切留待撥映完後再進行討論。映後觀眾的第一個問題是他為什麼要拍這種片，想必發問的人是另一個被Haneke獨特的殘忍所震撼的觀眾。他回答會看到完的都是需要這部電影的人。這句話不禁讓人咀嚼再三，留待台下每個觀眾慢慢思考。

顛覆與操縱是Q&A中導演及觀眾反覆提及的字眼，也是Haneke希望他的電影能夠成就的目標。有意思的是他答應美國製片公司拍攝此片的條件是完全複製舊版本的一景一幕。這同時也是令人震驚的決定。被問及為何做這個決定時，他回答德文發音的版本只能觸及少數的觀眾，他幽默且聰明的用art ghetto來形容藝術電影的處境，並認為做為對暴力／螢幕暴力的質詢及思考，十年前拍攝的舊版本一點也不顯得過時。映後問答中幫忙做德英翻譯的女士說了一段小插曲：她在遙控器那段劇情前走入放映聽，在槍響後先是聽到拍手叫好的聲音，而在令觀眾無法預料、不知所措的轉折發生後，整個劇院轉為一片死寂。Haneke微笑著說這正是他想要的效果；他希望讓觀眾想想自己的反應，剛剛竟為了一件殘忍的事歡欣鼓舞。不禁想起十年前我在台中的一家戲院第一次看到這部片時，觀眾有著一模一樣的反應。因為這是一年內大概第四次看這部片，電影放映中就不禁好奇同場不知結局的觀眾對於Haneke電影一貫的冷酷與殘忍有何反應。觀眾時常對於劇中兩個年輕人似是而非的論點發出不可置信而又帶點讚嘆的笑聲。但是隨著兒子角色的死亡，觀眾意識到這不是熟悉的好萊塢類型電影，開始明瞭導演的意圖及可能的結局後，笑聲逐漸消失。Haneke曾經說要顛覆類型電影前要先建立類型，觀眾受著情節引導進入懸疑的氛圍，卻等不到熟悉期待的最後救贖。如同劇中人物Paul不時的直視攝影機／觀眾講話，Haneke寄望與觀眾溝通的意圖十分明顯。Haneke提到一個細節，劇中郊外二層樓作為的度假屋的建築在奧地利並不常見，在舊版拍攝時就有影射美國文化的意思。從Haneke的話裡推敲最需要這部片的觀眾群卻對他德語發音的作品不感興趣。

一位觀眾請Haneke定義「真實」，他引用他哲學教授的話回答，當人試圖要用文字定義一個詞時，它真正的意義就已經喪失。這位觀眾接著敘述一個近期在美國發生，與電影情節雷同的新聞，Haneke隨即補充在舊版電影完成，尚未做公開播映時，他從媒體得知西班牙也發生了兩名年輕人殺害一整個家庭的事件，只是手段更為殘忍；每一件在電影中發生的事，在現實生活中都已經發生過了。而媒體呈現暴力的方式或許才是這個問題的源頭。Haneke曾說痛苦及傷害是暴力的真相，也是他想還原的部分。何謂真實何謂虛構，就有待同時接受好萊塢洗禮，也看Haneke電影的觀眾在觀影後做些反思。

得知新版Funny Games將是shot by shot的重建對我來說是個令人傷心又興奮的消息。雖然美國觀眾不喜看需要字幕的電影已是眾所皆知，但是像Haneke一般有聲望的導演還需將自己的作品套上美國人熟知的語言及演員來拓展觀眾，不禁令人嘆息。當觀眾問到和演員合作的模式時，他回答每部片子都不一樣。但是選角成功是最大的關鍵，將適合的人放在適合角色上，電影便成功了一大半。在Haneke的電影中，他鏡頭下的角色總是被逼至超乎常理，通常是殘酷至極的情況。他運用許多長鏡頭，讓劇中人物的情感在螢幕上發酵；可能是驚嚇瞬間，意識停止運作的慘白神情，可能是意會過來後無法承受的嘶吼與號泣。人的情緒與反應是Haneke電影中重要的元素，演員的表演也顯得格外重要。這點他的演員們完成了絕佳的工作，每一部片子裡備受折磨的中高產階級角色，都是由德國或法國演員如 Ulrich Muhe, Isabele Huppert, Daniel Auteuil和Juliette Binoche做出色的詮釋。新版Funny Games是令人期待的實驗，一方面看新版的演員Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt和Brady Corbet能否如同原版一般精彩的詮釋劇中的要角；一方面看新舊片的差異，以及觀眾對電影的反應；在Haneke心中只有一線之隔的Obscenity和Pornography，觀眾的判決究竟為何。

(1) http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_exhibitions.php?id=6152

1408 (2007)

US

Mikael Håfström - Director
Scott Alexander - Screenwriter
Matt Greenberg - Screenwriter
Larry Karaszewski - Screenwriter
Stephen King - Short Story Author

John Cusack - Mike Enslin
Samuel L. Jackson

It is really difficult to discuss a film's plot with a big name original book author, or maybe this question can extend to every adaptation. Who should I attribute, refer to, especially most of the time I've never seen the book? So maybe the wise thing to do is put this issue aside, just concentrate on the film.

Although the plot is short lasting, the tension building between Jackson and Cusack is awesome. This kind of claustrophobic, supernatural, blurring reality and dream thriller doesn't have much surprise, basically all you have to do is to plan the seeds of terror in the first part of the film and wait for the right moment to make them bloom. But this doesn't mean it can't invoke the involuntary screams. Basically 1408 is Cusack's one man show, and he did a great job.

The ending seems to me bear less significant, nothing can really surprise audience these days, and nothing can conclude and rationalize the whole story easily. The best ending is already become cliche, and to avoid that, it means to loose the best choice.

This is Håfström's second Hollywood film, he directed the Danmark film Evil.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

US
Gore Verbinski - Director
Jerry Bruckheimer - Producer
Ted Elliott - Screenwriter
Terry Rossio - Screenwriter

To be honest, the heavy British and, well, all the weird accents, and my remarkably bad memory of what happened in Dead Man's Chest hinder my full understanding of the plot. But put my little inability aside, I like it. It does not overdo the jokes, the romance, or the plot (at least as far as I can comprehend...) It does have something underdeveloped. The beautiful and touching opening does not reach its full potential in the proceeding part of the film. The fighting choreography is far less spectacle and entertaining from the first two of the trilogy. (Trilogy? Maybe more to come.)Yet the slightly low-key style just something I will like, with some amazing sequences involving ships sailing though the stellar underworld sea, turning up side down and moving by the pebble-turned crabs. And who wouldn't love the schizophrenic Captain Jack Sparrow and the handsome Pirate Queen Elizabeth Swann?

War of the Worlds (2005)

US
Steven Spielberg - Director
Josh Friedman - Screenwriter
David Koepp - Screenwriter
H.G. Wells - Book Author

The invasion of aliens has been filmed countless times, this adaption of H.G. Well's classic does not repeat the hero-making alien-slaughtering cliche makes it exceed my expectation. It is slow-paced, investing time on the Ferrier family. It is much more about human beings, about any disaster that might come and go without a trace yet takes away everything from you. But does it change you? When Ray standing outside his ex-parents in law's house, nothing is changed, it just a terrible nightmare.

Paprika (2006)

Japan

Satoshi Kon 今敏 - Director / Screenwriter
Yasutaka Tsutsui 筒井康隆 - Book Author

雖然最後的夢境對劇中人物來說是一場惡夢，但是畫面卻不是。陪著日本小孩及動畫迷長大的各種玩具人偶，沒有變成令人不悅的影像，反倒變成一種鄉愁。看到御宅族真心的美女警探或許只會出現在童話故事中，但童話也沒什麼不好。

[Gig] Cold War Kids

9 April 2007
Bowery Ballroom

This was so humiliating, and this had nothing do to with Cold War Kids. If you happened to see me that day, I beg you don't tell...
Here the story goes...

2:09 PM, April 10
definitely top of my most embarrassing experience.

i was there for the cold war kids, end up just listening to their first song, sitting on the filthy ground outside bowery, recovering from the blackout caused by one god damn beer.

one hour ago from this scenes, i stood inside, holding half empty beer cup, happy with the finding that sounds swirling inside my beer cup and vibrating through my palm.

then it came, the post-beer headache. then i saw it coming, the blackout. i thought i could handle it, just like i handled it couple times before, just stood still, breathe, and waited for it to past. i thought i can handle it, but the next thing i knew i was sitting, no, collapsing on the ground. my eye-sight was blurry, so was my hearing. people hold me up and took me few steps forward to lean on the stage. vaguely i might say something like 'can i just stay here for a while then i'll be ok,' but vaguely someone say i need air and people held me out of the venue. the cold air actually felt refreshing, i just wanted to sit down, i knew it going to pass soon. a nice girl called jennie stayed with me for a while and gave me a hug. i assured her i was going to be ok and send her inside. i sit there, didn't know whether to go back or not, or to laugh or cry. i started to feel cold, then put on my jacket. i decided not going back inside to avoid possible recognition from the crowd, which now i could see clear. i took M103 and headed back home. nothing is more surreal than this, as now i'm writing the whole thing, with my head still feel the residue of last night's beer (theoretically it's unlikely, but i can't sever the tiredness, mentally and physically, from it), and the pain in my ass, literally.

hope writing this down can be therapeutic, since i don't want to recall it, and no one else but me will ever know this. luckily i won't go back to bowery until next month. even with this shit, it still my favorite venue in the city.

[Gig] Lou Reed - Berlin

December 15, 2006
St. Ann's Warehouse, DUMBO, Brooklyn

I walked alone in the cold night, as always, on the street of Brooklyn. After few turns, there is was, the Bridge. Magnificent but not intimidating, surreal as as the show I was going to hear. Everyone sit, the swing of the body could only within few inches parameter. I could not help wonder what was it like if the performance took place 30 years ago. This was the second one of the four shows, and I felt like it locked in the secluded place and night, became some kind of tale or myth.
I might have to persuade myself that I've seen Lou Reed years from now.

[Gig] My Morning Jacket

November 30, 2006
Roseland Ballroom
w/ The Slip (who are moose, raccoon, and wolf tonight)

If I can reserve a section of my brain, dedicating to My Morning Jacket, engraving their performance this evening in my head and never letting anything else to overwrite that section, I will. Maybe I've already done so. In my short-listed gig-going history, this one easily reaches the top of my list. Lack of knowledge and vocabulary in rock'n'roll writing prevent me from properly documenting my overloaded senses, but the brain-exploding experience can not be more authentic. The first time I find a band/performance so integrated, impeccable team work and chemistry, and Jim James.

My Morning Jacket and the voice of Jim James will haunt me for a long time, and I welcome it heartily.

My Morning Jacket is:
Jim James
Two-Tone Tommy - bass
Parick Hallahan - drum
Bo Koster - keyboard
Carl Broemel - guitar

Setlist:
one big holiday
wonderful man
gideon
way he singz
off the record
just one thing
it beats
wordless
lowdown
lay low
phone
dondante
run thru
they ran
--
tonite i want to
nashwille to ky
golden
steam
dancefloors
mahgeeta
anytime

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

US
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: John August
Book Author: Roald Dahl

When our hero, Charlie (Freddie Highmore), the good kid, inevitably wins one of the five golden ticket and heads to Willy Wonka's (played by Johnny Depp) chocolate factory, and inevitably wins the ultimate prize, the factory itself, in the end, I can't help thinking: it is just too obvious. No way the whole thing is so simple.

Charlie gets his first piece of Wonka chocolate as an early birthday present, although his family almost runs out of food. No golden ticket. His grandpa gives him some money he hides for a long time, telling him to go to the nearest store and buy the first chocolate Charlie sees. Still no golden ticket. Then Charlie finds a bill half buried in the snow outside the sidewalk, he grabs it and without thinking, he runs into the nearest store for another Wonka chocolate bar. The store owner hands him one, and this time charlie is getting lucky. Yes, luck. Not the money from Charlie's beloved parents and grandparents, but random money from the street and the chocolate from a stranger's hand.

It's clear that the other 4 kids being chosen is a meditation, a scheme somehow organized by Willy Wonka. So the Oompa Loompas will have a song when a spoiled kid is "punished" for his or her behavior. But what about Charlie? The heterogeneity of a single character, usually the leading one, is created for the audience to project our sympathy. But how Charlie gets the grand reward blurs the movie's main theme, the connection between good heart, good deeds and good consequences is weaken. As a movie primarily made for children, I can not help wonder is there any dark intention hidden in this colorful and overall delightful movie.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Director: Brett Ratner

When a movie have something to hold on to, something that doesn’t have to be too complicated, something that can be as simple as a single noun like friendship or loyalty, then apply this center ideal to build the story and characters, we are more likely to have decent a movie. Not the case of X-men: the Last Stand here, as we try and try waiting for the story to come together and make some sense, it fell from the first moment to the end. Confusingly the movie ends with Mutants fight against each other, forgetting Human is the source of the fight.

It begins with a vaccine that can “cure” mutants, make them “normal.” Typically we have two groups stand in different ground and fight with other for their own beliefs, but the beliefs here is confusing. Magneto (Ian McKellen) doesn’t trust Human will give Mutants the free will to choose, stubbornly believing that the invention of the vaccine means genocide. He gathers the Mutants and preaches they make the first move, but this move gives Human exactly what they need- an excellent excuse to use the weapon. On the other hand, Professor Charles Xavier’s side not exactly has a sufficient reason to the war, either. They don’t talk about the issues of the vaccine much, the minority issue was long gone in this movie, and it is really hard to say what they are fighting for; the peace they pursue just a mirage of nothing happened. All the threads the movie picks up end loosely and unsatisfyingly. The love triangle, the untold love, the father-son issue, the team work, the movie temporize its audience and gives easy answers to those questions.

No beautiful faces or novel superpower tricks can save the movie this time.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

France / Italy / Spain
Director / Screenwriter: Luis Buñuel

I admit the first sentence came out of my mind after watching the movie was "This is fucking good." I need to use F word to express my strong appreciation. This group people of upper-middle class is always making dinner appointments but never able to actually eat anything except drinking wine. Dreams within dreams until reality and imagination finally blurred. The last scene, these people walking on the road in the field is one of the most beautiful scene I have ever seen, Buñuel left us there pondering the 100 minutes bizarre and beautiful images that criticize about the absurdity in life forever.

南國再見，南國 (1996)

Goodbye, South, Goodbye
Taiwan / Japan

Hou Hsiao-Hsien - Director
King Jieh-wen - Screenwriter
Chu Tien-wen - Screenwriter
Jack Kao - Screenwriter
Mark Lee Ping-bing - Cinematographer


Kao is a middle age gangster with trimmed short haircut and grave mien who you do not know exactly what he does for a living. He has a father who came from Mainland China to Taiwan with the Nationalist government in 1949, he speaks mandarin to his father and use both mandarin and Taiwanese with friends. He has a vision, talking about opening a restaurant in Shanghai all the time, both fulfilling his father’s wish and his own vision of making something big. He tries very hard to describe his vision as promising as possible to his girlfriend. But in the end, his investments will fail, his girlfriend will leave him and join her sister in America, and he is going to end up in a car crushing into rice field in a backwater town of southern Taiwan.

This is the story of Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996), a film by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien. Look at the image of the protagonist, Kao (a recurring actor in Hou’s films, played by Jack Kao), the resemblance look of Kao and Hou himself is not easy to omit. Besides, this fictional character has a gangster background and a father who used to live in China hint the link back to Hou himself. Using biography style to state the story is one of Hou’s trademarks. Boys from Fenggui (1983) is a loose adaptation of his own wild and lost teenage time, A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985) is the autobiography of his life before twenty years old. Hou also borrows stories from others. Summer at Grandpa’s (1984) is based on the memories of his long time screenwriting collaborator Chu Tianwen. Dust in the Wind (1986) is base on the life of the screenwriter Wu Nianzhen. Not to mention The Puppetmaster (1993), a half documentary of the puppet artist Li Tien-lu.

But personal life and story is not Hou’s sole concern; his characters are in the swirl of history, tumbling with Taiwan’s social and political turmoil. For Hou, Taiwan is a place that always hurtles into the next era, with constant and ongoing power struggle, every new regime tries to construct their version of history and leaves the past behind.(1) In his films which recite tales of the past, Hou stops and looks back, pondering and reflecting a slice of time that is easily forsaken in the fast pace modern society. Hou’s protagonists are nobody, and yet they are everybody live in the very island as him.

Modernization in Taiwan has resulted in a paradox, on the one hand, it's a mess - chaotic, extremely greedy for instant gains, with no sense of justice, or respect for law and order. But, at the same time, it's a vibrant country brimming with energy and life. There is a thin line between loving and hating it. - Hou Hsiao Hsien (2)

In Goodbye, Hou turns his gaze back to the contemporary. He does not stress on the troubled history of Taiwan, but on the life of the people who live in it this moment. Hou is famous for his long takes, still camera shots as if he tell every story (including his own) as a bystander. The way he depicts personal memories is “through a de-personalisation of the narration, putting his intimate feelings at a distance and choosing a detached perspective…the real protagonists are his family and his country.”(3) Although not as direct as his early works, the references to his personal experience make this film join his long time traditional of biographical filmmaking style.

In the beginning, Kao and his protégé, Flathead (Lim Giong), and Flathead’s girlfriend Pretzel (Shizuka Inoh) take a train to a little town to work in a gambling house. He is being asked why he has the leisure to take a train rather than drive (since the town is not far from Taipei), he replies that he has not done so for a long time, and it brings back lots of memories. Nostalgia flows through the entire film. Train and trail is the link between city and countryside, between adulthood and childhood form many Taiwanese.

In Goodbye, Hou uses a lot of scenes shot from or on moving vehicles like train, scooters and cars. But these shots can be divided into two kinds. One is with positive spirit, like placing the camera in front of the train as if we are listening and watching it winds through the refreshing lush valley. Another example is the three main characters on scooters and merrily rides up along the hill. The rural scenery portrayed here is full of memory and harmony.

But other shots bear darker meanings. We see characters sit in vehicle; the frame mostly jams with characters’ face and body. We only know they are moving, but can not see where they are going. The aimless feeling generates from these scenes echoes with the never ending talks on cell phones about business. Hou makes it clear in the opening scene when Kao tries to talk through the phone on train and is interrupted by poor reception. Modernization pushes people forward and urges people to catch up with the trend, but the promise is empty and the effort is futile, people have no control over their life and lost their way while pursuing the elusive and deceiving future.

Koa is the only character receives clear description in the film. He embodies the disoriented people live in the fast pace modern society in Taiwan. He carries the question and memory, both sweet and sorrow.

Until the second half of the film the party of three go to the South as the title stated to complete the swine scandal. The last thirty minutes of the film is in the dark. The tranquilize south countryside usually represents peace and childhood memory; but here it is the battleground for gangsters and politicians fight to drain something out of it, with these two parties sit around the same table wheeling and dealing with pretentious good manners. The last scene, after Flathead is released, the three are in a car fleeting back to Taipei. In the dawn on the crooked road, the car rushes into the rice field. The car is stuck inside the mud that grows rice, the food that all the residents on this land depend on; so as our protagonists and their future. Hou uses static and long shot capture the breathtaking rural scenes, yet what happens inside the frame is gloomy and tragic. The ambivalent emotion of both love and hate flows though Hou’s portray of modern Taiwan.

After the Taiwan trilogy, Hou Hsiao Hsien tries something different in Goddbye South, Goodbye. He uses more music, including the dark, electronic soundtrack composed by the actor, singer and songwriter Lim Giong (4)who plays the punk kid Flathead. He also uses more camera movement, and less historical reference. Although this is a story with people hit the dead end, Hou still tells it in a humanistic and compassionate way, filming the story, the people, the place he breathe and live.

Notes:
(1) “The Secret History.” 35th International film Festival Rotterdam Publication No.8 2 February 2006
(2) Hou Hsiao Hsien on Goodbye, South, Goodbye, Cannes Film Festival Catalogue
(3) Neri, Corrado. “A Time to Live, A Time to Die: A Time to Grow.” Chinese Films in Focus. Chris Berry eds. London: BFI, 2003. p161.
(4) Lim Giong started his career as a pop singer in Taiwan. Recent years he turns underground and adds more electronic element in his musical work. The theme song (titled Self Destruction) in the beginning and end of Goodbye South, Goodbye is composed by him with lyrics written in Taiwanese. He also composes for another Hou’s film, Millennium Mambo (2001) as well as Jia Zhang Ke’s The World (2004), Still Life (2006) and Dong (2006).

V for Vendetta (2006)

US, Warner Bros. and others
Director: Fames Mcteigue (first work)
Screenwriter: Andy and Larry (Lana?)Wachowski
Cast: Natalie Portman (Evey), Hugo Weaving (William Rookwood, V), Stephen Rea (Finch), John Hurt (Adam Sutler), Rupert Graves (Dominic)

清楚的呈現 V is everyone. V 是 Evey, 是每個帶著 V 面具走上街頭大大小小男男女女。但是在倫敦街頭行進的整群 V, 跟持槍的警察們是否又有不同？如同戴著面具搶劫的男子，面具帶來的匿名性是否也意味著這群看似覺醒的群眾，也有可能化成不用負行為責任的暴民？
漫畫中傳統的善惡二元對立仍是基本的論調。一方面可以說 V 是群眾的代言人，但也可以說在整個敘事底下，群眾只是沒有聲音傀儡罷了。

Unknow White Male (2005)

UK, Documentary
Director / Producer / Editor: Rupert Murray

Douglas Bruce's story. I don't know what bugs me, but I got this strange feeling that I don't buy this story. Maybe I am just envy someone can start a new life, literally, this way. Yes, I do envy him, especially he can look at the world as a new born baby; everything is fresh, is beautiful. No burden to carry, no past to worry. This is the right way to "feel" life, no matter we have the amnesia or not.
What make us distinctive? Are we made of our memory? Is there anything calls "true self" and are we born with it? From Doug's story, I'll say there is no such thing as true self, we are containers of our memory, and that what make us who we are. Of course it is kind of scary (or comforting?)to think of this way, as fundamentally we are all the same.

I don't know why this film made me extremely sad walking out of the theater in the East Village. Personal? Maybe the feeling I got is because some part of the movie vibrates with some part of me. Or maybe because the Sigur Ros I was listening.
I don't know.

Hamlet (2000)

US, Miramax
Director / Screenwriter: Michael Almereyda
Cast: Ethan Hawke (Hamlet), Kyle MacLachlan (Claudius),
Sam Shepard (The Ghost), Diane Venora (Gertrude),
Bill Murray (Polonius), Liev Schreiber ( Laertes),
Julia Stiles (Ophelia), Karl Geary (Horatio)

Very good adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Set in New York, 2000, but keep all the language in the play. The ancient language beautifully blended into nowadays modern settings (including well-designed offices and of coures, the Guggenheim). It seems that the eternal story of Shakespeare is so powerful that what language it use doesn't matter anymore. Or thanks to the nature performance of the actors (maybe not Ethan Hawke and Julia Stiles, sometimes, monologue indeed is not easy), the story did come alive in it's reincarnation in 2000.

Though it is kind of wired to hear Hamlet doing his famous "to be or not to be" speech while walking among the aisles of Blockbuster (among other product placement), the young and perished images of actors in background videos do show the unique power of using the new media to express the classic. Beautiful photography with clips from other films used in Hamlet successfully transfer written words into images.

Easter Parade (1948)

USA
Director: Charles Walters
Casts: Judy Garland (Hannah Brown), Fred Astaire (Don Hewes),
Peter Lawford (Jonathan Harrow), Ann Miller (Nadine Hale)

I got to say right now I don't know how to look at the musicals. But as far as the narrative is concerned, Easter Paradejust don't have the sparks between the leading roles. It starts with several love-chasing between four charaters, but only ends up hastely binding Garland and Astaire together, maybe as any two leading roles "supposed" to be in any musicals, and leave much untold and unexplained.

But hey, it's a musical, and we got Garland and Astaire, in certain level it can't be that wrong. I think Garland was most splandid when she sang alone with a little bit naughty expression in her face. And Ann Miller did look gorgeous in her numbers. I am glad to see Nadine doesn't been punished to fail or anything just because she chooses her career over man.

Mr. 3000 (2004)

US
Director: Charles Stone III
Cast: Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Brian J. White, Michael Rispoli

I got to write something, it's a baseball movie.
Basically it's pleasant to watch. Please, it talks about baseball. And all baseball movies should be touching, inspiring, and having happy endings. This one is included.

But it won't be in the top list of my favorite baseball films. Major flaw is the abrupt transformation of the two characters: T-Rex Pennebaker suddenly changes from the clubhouse cancer to a natural leader, and Stan Ross changes to his old selfish self after he is invited to the Jay Leno show. Due to the essence of baseball, these movies like to add some sentimental speeches about how great it is to be a major league player. It could be touching, but it could be fake, too. Unfortunately, the speech isn't very convincing in this one. The most touching part is the Manager, Ross' former teammate stands up and argues with the first base umpire over a very close play. They should really elongate this scene a little bit, let the audience to drench in this moment more.

Surprisingly the female journalist Mo Simmons is not bad written. This girl knows what she wants, and balances very well between her professional career and love life. She never seems lost, and sees things, and people, clearly.
As for the ending bunt, it's not surprising at all, Major League uses this trick before. But it still ends great, although Ross can only becomes Mr. 2999, its worthy because even he lost probably the most important hit in his life, he earns friendship, relationship to the woman he love, and of course the Hall of the Fame.

I'll fail this one if it's not talking about baseball, but as a baseball fan, it did give me some good time.

Heaven (2002)

USA/Germany
Director: Tom Tykwer (The Princess and the Warrior)
Screenwriter: Krzysztof Kieslowski / Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi

這真的不能怪我。因為 Kiewslowski 的名字掛在上面，我不停的從 Tykwer 的電影中尋找 Kiewslowski 的影子，結果終究是徒勞無功。Tykwer 只想拍屬於兩個人的世界，屬於兩個人的愛情故事，即使故事的開端Philippa 為了自己伸張正義而誤傷了無辜的人，似乎有道德辯證的意味，但不久後這只是為了開啟兩人浪漫逃亡旅程的藉口罷了。即使是要把它當成愛情影片拍，Filippo 這個角色的塑造也遠不及 A Short Film About Love 裡面的男孩。

只剩偶而流出的悲傷音樂，還有像 Blind Chance 一樣呼應開頭的結局讓我想起Kieslowski。除非說我看到原劇本 Kiewsloski 要講的真的只有這樣，不然我永遠不會滿意的。

Swimming Upstream (2002)

Australia
Director: Russell Mulcahy (Queer as Folk)
Cast:
Geoffrey Rush as Harold Fingleton
Judy Davis as Dora Fingleton
Jesse Spencer as Tony Fingleton
Tim Draxl as John Fingleton

雖然有 Geoffrey Rush, Judy Davis 和 beautiful Jesse Spencer ,整部戲並沒有因為他們活起來，角色性格讓人摸不著頭緒，劇情鋪陳沒有重點。

Harold 和 Tony 的關係是最令人不解的部分。即使父親始終冷淡以對，兒子還是渴望得到父親的認同。父親這種 heroic icon 是從小建立，是在提及男性成長的電影中一再被提到的主題，只是兒子這種「不管父親再討厭我，我還是要做一切努力獲得父親的愛」的情節還是令我覺得理由薄弱而難以接受。而父親毫無理由的忽視及偏心，更是令人不解。唯一提及的父親的悲慘童年，也不能提供合理的解釋，就連疼愛 Tony 的母親 Dora 也沒有幫我們問出為什麼。

雖說奧運金牌不是唯一的價值，但電影結束在 Tony goes to Harvard 的確是少了分力道。再加上「和解」這件事並沒有發生(Harold/Tony, Tony/John)，就連父親和Tony間強烈的反抗及爭吵也沒有。你可以說 Tony 從父親的影響下走出來為自己而戰，但他的故事有沒有必要這麼大書特書，我就不是很確定了。。