Spoilers herein.
The perfect movie for me does a few things. The first is that it should take me some place that I have never been: not just a strange location, but a perspective with exotic causalities. It should be deeply self-referential, in that the form of the cinematic vision should convey as much or more than the `story.' The images must captivate and flow, and a significant part of that is the image presented by the actors.
What stance they present is up to them, whether they charm or amuse or tease. But it must show deliberation and be consonant with the whole. My absolutely perfect film will be intelligent, and deal with some great ideas rather than fey emotions, but it is nearly good enough to be competently transported.
This is a nearly perfect film. It takes us to an era that some of us remember fondly but placed in a warm sensuous Morocco. What's so strange here is the film has a superstar, newly from `Titanic,' but she is there primarily to walk us through the environment. This is an expertly architectural film. Not arty, so much as giving a presence an enclosure that sometimes contrasts with an (unsheltering) sky.
It is deeply self-referentially wrapped: it has no goal, just an opportunistic drift. Nothing is resolved, nothing illuminated, no moral imparted. Just as it really was -- a large part of the transportation is to remove us from the need for linear narrative. Thankfully, this is not hammered home by the slight references to sufism.
These three: Kate and the two girls, are absolutely endearing. So without guile. It is a dangerous type of acting to act so open -- you need to be bigger than the part, which means more open than this totally open Julia. Small wonder Kate fell in love on the set. She is surely one of the best film actresses alive. It is especially appealing she chose this path, plus `Holy Smoke,' which can be seen as a companion film.
I wonder about how small children can act so. Bigger mystery than any special effect I've encountered -- the magic is greater. Makes the viewing somewhat dangerous if you yourself choose to be open.
The only flaw is that this is not about any great idea. But the strange thing is that it is about something we believed in the seed of our souls to be important at the time. Richie Havens!
A nearly perfect film.
The perfect movie for me does a few things. The first is that it should take me some place that I have never been: not just a strange location, but a perspective with exotic causalities. It should be deeply self-referential, in that the form of the cinematic vision should convey as much or more than the `story.' The images must captivate and flow, and a significant part of that is the image presented by the actors.
What stance they present is up to them, whether they charm or amuse or tease. But it must show deliberation and be consonant with the whole. My absolutely perfect film will be intelligent, and deal with some great ideas rather than fey emotions, but it is nearly good enough to be competently transported.
This is a nearly perfect film. It takes us to an era that some of us remember fondly but placed in a warm sensuous Morocco. What's so strange here is the film has a superstar, newly from `Titanic,' but she is there primarily to walk us through the environment. This is an expertly architectural film. Not arty, so much as giving a presence an enclosure that sometimes contrasts with an (unsheltering) sky.
It is deeply self-referentially wrapped: it has no goal, just an opportunistic drift. Nothing is resolved, nothing illuminated, no moral imparted. Just as it really was -- a large part of the transportation is to remove us from the need for linear narrative. Thankfully, this is not hammered home by the slight references to sufism.
These three: Kate and the two girls, are absolutely endearing. So without guile. It is a dangerous type of acting to act so open -- you need to be bigger than the part, which means more open than this totally open Julia. Small wonder Kate fell in love on the set. She is surely one of the best film actresses alive. It is especially appealing she chose this path, plus `Holy Smoke,' which can be seen as a companion film.
I wonder about how small children can act so. Bigger mystery than any special effect I've encountered -- the magic is greater. Makes the viewing somewhat dangerous if you yourself choose to be open.
The only flaw is that this is not about any great idea. But the strange thing is that it is about something we believed in the seed of our souls to be important at the time. Richie Havens!
A nearly perfect film.