What was the last movie you've seen?

[Ack]

I'm a big fan of some of his crazy stuff, like the post-apocalyptic rip offs of stuff like Escape from New York and Mad Max that he appears in. He's a minor note in Italian cinema for most of us, but man, he represents some of the very bottom of the barrel in a good way. Since I figured you were a fan of the likes of Fulci, I had to ask.



Wings of Desire

Angels watch over West Berlin and take notes of examples of human spirit but are unable to partake themselves beyond providing a momentary comfort, where they can only convey a feeling through a touch or a hug, one that a human can appreciate but never fully understand. Eventually this leads some angels to desire to join the human race, to seek new experiences, to feel. Bruno Ganz is one of these angels, and as he watches and tires of his never ending existence, he also grows to love a trapeze artist from a failing circus. As a result, he ends up eventually taking the plunge, learning about life and love while knowing his fellow angels watch over him.

Wings of Desire is a sentimental movie, not just about people but about Berlin. Its history from beyond the formation of man is retold, while its more recent history(that of childhoods, borders, the rise of the Nazi Party, and the destruction brought on by war) is remembered by the people who live there and walk in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. It's a meditation on the beauty of existence, no matter how poor, as well as the tragedy that can come with that existence. But the angels who populate the world of Wings of Desire understand that even at its worst, existence is worth experiencing. Peter Falk is the film's proof of this, playing a version of himself that was previously an angel but who came to Earth and helps convince Ganz to finally make the move over. His being himself adds a touch of realism, as do performances by the likes of Crime & the City Solution and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

For me, Wings of Desire is a joy to watch, for its steady cinematography and its fluctuations of color to show the power of existence versus the drab commemoration of humanity that the angels perform. This is not an action packed movie. Most of its best sequences involve people simply walking around musing to themselves. As a result, I focused on the images, the expressions, and the sound or the silence. It's a wonderful movie.

[samsonlonghair]

That sounds an awful lot like the synopsis to the film City of Angels. I never knew they stole the plot of that movie from a German film.

I saw that new Key & Peale commedy - Keanu. It made me laugh, but it's not amazing. Solid rental or streaming choice.

[prfsnl_gmr]

For me, Wings of Desire is a joy to watch, for its steady cinematography and its fluctuations of color to show the power of existence versus the drab commemoration of humanity that the angels perform. This is not an action packed movie. Most of its best sequences involve people simply walking around musing to themselves. As a result, I focused on the images, the expressions, and the sound or the silence. It's a wonderful movie.

Also...It has Columbo in it!

[Ack]

For me, Wings of Desire is a joy to watch, for its steady cinematography and its fluctuations of color to show the power of existence versus the drab commemoration of humanity that the angels perform. This is not an action packed movie. Most of its best sequences involve people simply walking around musing to themselves. As a result, I focused on the images, the expressions, and the sound or the silence. It's a wonderful movie.

Also...It has Columbo in it!

There are little moments in the film where folks recognize him since Peter Falk is playing himself, so he'll walk down the street and suddenly a group of German kids will shout, "Hey, it's Columbo!"

[prfsnl_gmr]

There are little moments in the film where folks recognize him since Peter Falk is playing himself, so he'll walk down the street and suddenly a group of German kids will shout, "Hey, it's Columbo!"

I know! I loved that about Wings of Desire. It is an achingly beautiful film that doesn't take itself too seriously (and is much better for it).

Also, the American remake is terrible...but the sequel has Gorbachev in it!!!!!

[Ack]

Sisters

That's pretty funny, the movie poster giving away one of the big secrets of the film like that. Sisters (1973) is a Brian De Palma film from early in his career. It cribs heavily from Hitchcock, especially films like Rear Window and Psycho, but there's also a touch of The Snake Pit in there for good measure. Basically a journalist witnesses a murder in another apartment, but the police don't believe her. So she investigates herself and discovers the woman in the apartment was a conjoined twin who was separated. Her sister died, and she went crazy as a result, developing a murderous split personality representative of her deceased twin. That, and the guy she claims is her ex-husband is also her doctor, accomplice, and really is her husband.

In short, the film is kind of a mess. That's not to say there isn't some interesting stuff going on, particularly regarding voyeurism, as well as depictions of interracial sex, racism in the police force, the growing divide between views on women in the work place of the Greatest Generation versus the Baby Boomers, the power of hypnotism, and cake decorating. Oh, and it turns out you can stuff a dead guy in your sleeper sofa and nobody will notice. But the killer twin/mental illness thing just doesn't do it for me, and I would have much rather focused on many of the other ideas that popped up. Those would have been much more interesting to me.

Some folks like this movie. I feel kind of 'meh' towards it, mainly because I find the plot bizarre and overly convoluted. If I really want a decent Hitchcock knock off, I'd rather go watch Peter Cushing in 1968's Corruption. But maybe that's just me.

[Pulsar_t]

Wow, a 1987 film in Berlin that I never heard of. Gotta watch!



Despite the excellent cast, this movie blows chunks, the yucky kind. Whoever wrote the screenplay ought to stop making movies.

[Ack]

Dodes'ka-den

I've seen about half of all the films Akira Kurosawa directed over his career, and I definitely count myself as a fan. As a result, Dodes'ka-den serves as a particular challenge, not because it's not a wonderful film(it is), but because it comes at such a terrible time in Kurosawa's career. He was reeling after a botched attempt at a Hollywood run with Tora! Tora! Tora!, he had just cut career ties with Toshiro Mifune five years previous, and it was his first time working with color. When it failed, he tried unsuccessfully to kill himself by slashing his wrists and throat 30 times with a razor.

Yet despite all of the changes, Dodes'ka-den is still a marvelous exploration of humanity when stuck in what could be considered the worst place possible. The people that populate the movie live quite literally in a dump. They are nearly all outsiders in some respect, be they mentally ill, poor, adulterous, alcoholic, homeless, emotional disturbed, abusive, idiotic, etc. Yet they continue to live their lives the only way they know how, through dedication, fantasy, or whatever other means they have to go on. That's pretty much it. It's a slice of life movie, one without a primary plot but with numerous small stories that occasionally intertwine and lead our characters to learn new things, grow, die, reveal truths about themselves, or simply not change at all. Life simply is, no matter how different for all of us.

Through it all is the strong undercurrent of color extremes, be it yellows and reds reflecting marriage, lust, passion, or relationships, clear sake in bluish bottles leading to intoxication while also representing looming death on the skin, the vibrancy of drawings and fake flowers, or the rainbow hues of fantasy, all against the drab browns and grays of the dump. Color supplies an intensity to the performance, which is not surprising considering it's Kurosawa's first venture into the area. He plays well with it, perhaps not to the extent of something like Seijun Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter, but still enough to show who these characters are and how they can feel.

I wouldn't recommend Dodes'ka-den be someone's first Kurosawa film, but I definitely wouldn't disparage it. If you've seen a few and feel you are comfortable with his work, then please go check out this experiment in fantasy and keep an open mind about how different Kurosawa was at this time versus any point in his career before or since. You'll find an enjoyable experience in humanity in the process.

[Sano]

Fight Club ... awesome movie!

[samsonlonghair]

Fight Club ... awesome movie!

Dude! You just broke the first and second rule!