Print
Email
Share
It’s a week of great ideas vs. divergent execution. Indeed, one of the defining skills for a filmmaker is the ability to translate what everyone agrees is a stellar premise into an equally intriguing movie. Sometimes, the combination creates a classic work of art. But in most cases, the lack of imagination destroys the fascinating narrative foundation, reducing the translation to something miserable and misguided. Luckily, most of the entries in this week’s inspiration against implementation contest came up winners. See for yourself as you peruse the titles for 6 February, including our main selection:
The Science of Sleep
When you consider its cinematic pedigree, and its remarkable visual invention, it’s unfathomable why more people didn’t respond to Michel Gondry’s fracture fable. Like an incomplete European version of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (his collaboration with Charlie Kaufman) the fascinating French auteur explored the battle between fantasy and reality, and how it relates to love, in a way that was stunning in its message and meaning. Never closing off any avenue of emotion, and using his dualistic characters (named, ironically enough Stephane and Stephanie) to constantly challenge the standard conventions of onscreen romance, Gondry does something very daring with this otherwise whimsical workout. He never offers any closure, instead looking at relationships as they really are – complicated, dense and often open-ended.Other Titles of Interest
Blume in Love
Using the unique construct of following a divorce lawyer as his own marriage breaks up, counterculture stalwart Paul Mazursky serves up one of his last iconoclastic efforts. George Segal expertly embodies a man incapable of understanding his own role in the dissolution of his relationship. This is the rare comedy that transcends its joke-oriented trappings to find the truth behind commitment and its collapse.Crossing Delancey
Amy Irving is a good Jewish girl, content with her life. Her grandmother wants her to find a good Jewish man. But she balks when it’s suggested she see a yenta (a.k.a matchmaker) – that is, until she meets up with pickle maker Peter Riegert. While things are complicated at first, this romantic comedy overcomes its uniquely ethnic trappings to work as both laffer and love story.
Flag of Our Fathers
It’s a brilliant subject for a film – how the famed image of the flag rising over Iwo Jima came about. Oddly enough, Clint Eastwood opted for jingoism over explanation, focusing mostly on the men post-event, and how they were honored, and exploited, for appearing in the photo. Most believe that his companion piece, Letters from Iwo Jima, is the much better WWII testament.Hollywoodland
In one of the more tragic tales of typecasting ever, B-movie staple George Reeves could never live down his TV’s Superman persona. So the kept man finally killed himself – or did he? That’s the unusual premise for a detective story dissection of the actor’s supposed suicide. Thanks to an amazing turn by Ben Affleck, this occasionally convoluted story shines through. A Summer Place
Pure processed American cinematic cheese, filtered through an angst-ridden soap style that’s awfully hard to resist. More obsessed with sex and hate than clique-ish middle schoolers, this puerile potboiler has the most hissable villain in the entire canon of melodramatic camp. Add in more mindless innuendo, a sulking Sandra Dee and total lack of subtlety and you’ve got a choice cheddar classic.
And Now for Something Completely Different
Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Okay, it’s true confession time. We here at SE&L have never even seen this infamous martial arts movie. We wouldn’t begin to know how inventive or thrilling it is. We’re not even sure if it has the kind of gravity defying fight scenes that make the genre so sublime. But what we do know is – you gotta love that title! Thanks to a bit of research, we have learned that “Mad Monkey” is a style of combat, and that the movie represents some of the best-choreographed illustrations of the format ever committed to film. While it probably was too much to hope for simian streetfighters kicking the crap out of each other, we’ll still line up for a copy of this long out of print chopshocky epic.
