Hey folks, Harry here... Ya gotta love a kid that will roast Woody Allen, Robert Rodriguez and Takeshi Kitano's new films... and then love Tsai Ming-Liang's GOOD BYE, DRAGON INN - a film about saying goodbye to a movie theater on its last screening... one where they happen to be showing the film... DRAGON INN - a fantastic old movie btw... This is Markus' second report from Venice, personally I look forward to hearing about the rest of the films he saw there. Sounds like he had quite a festival!
Hi Harry,
It’s Markus R writing in from Austria with Part 2 of my coverage of the Venice Film Festival. – With star ratings, ‘cause I like it.
ANYTHING ELSE (by Woody Allen) *
The new film by Woody Allen opened the 60th Mostra del Cinema. The funniest thing on this evening was probably the expression on Woody’s face as he listened to the terribly long and boring opening ceremony. In his opening speech he remarked that he could never watch one of his own movies to the end. "I tried to make a good movie. If you like it, fine; if you don’t, I’ll try to make a better one next year." I’m paraphrasing here, but maybe he is aware of his lack of new ideas.
I have never seen a worse Allen movie. I see what he is trying to do, but it just lays flat on the screen. ANYTHING ELSE is a classic example to understand the saying "Better burn out than fade away." Allen just tries to recreate old sketches and situations his characters have been in a hundred times before. His characters talk and talk with no end or point to it. Jason Biggs is very likeable and tries hard to make something out of his role, but also he, like everyone else in the movie is only channeling Allen’s well known mannerism. The jokes are bad and then repeated again and again, till they make you feel uncomfortable.
During this movie I was thinking about ANNIE HALL a lot, maybe just because I recently watched it again or maybe because Allen copies his famous coke sniffing scene. ANNIE HALL is such a great, intelligent and funny movie, something that will live in people’s hearts for a long time, while ANYTHING ELSE feels like the copy of a copy of a copy.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (by Robert Rodriguez) *
I’m really curious how the reactions from the US will be on this one. - Whether or not anyone can make sense of this mess. I know that I’m stepping on thin ice with this review, because Rodriguez has achieved a certain cult status in the 90s. And I’m the first one to admit that EL MARIACHI and DESPERADO are fun; flicks that I revisited again and again as a teenager.
But the 3rd part of this trilogy feels like yesterday’s news. I don’t know what this movie is about, if it takes itself serious or not (probably not, but then it’d have to be much funnier) and why so many fabulous actors are wasted. Johnny Depp is the only reason to see this at all. Damn it, see it for him. He stands out in every scene he is in and gives his role pathos to cherish. His CIA agent/ killer/ renegade/ whatever he plays is the only new idea this movie has; the rest is inexplicable at best.
Why do we get to see Salma Hayek only in ridiculous flashbacks? Why is Enrique Iglesias in more scenes than Willem Dafoe and Mickey Rourke? Why was this flick made when it didn’t want to tell a story that would follow up on something that happened before or enhance the characters? Yeah, I know it’s an "action film" in an exploitation genre, but a guitar that can fire bullets and flames and people jumping through the air is just not enough. And Antonio Banderas is making one bad movie after the other (just try to watch IMAGINING ARGENTINA and don’t come out laughing.)
And concerning the use of digital cameras: The shots look shabby and washed out. Especially in action scenes where there is a lot of movement, you can mistake the pictures easily for something that was shot on a regular DV camera. I see that you can work faster on digital cameras, but they are just not ready for the big screen. ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO wouldn’t be a better film if it was shot on 35mm, but it would look like one.
ZATOICHI (by Takeshi Kitano) ** 1/2
I don’t know, maybe I was tired or overdosed on coffee or both. ZATOICHI did little for me, except that it made me shaking with anticipation for KILL BILL. That’s because I think that KILL BILL will deliver in the storytelling department. In ZATOICHI the fight scenes are so exciting and filmed with style and atmosphere that they become a movie of their own. The blood sprays are mostly digital, so that there is no lack of red juice. If the story would have been more interesting and more focused, it could very well be one of my favorites.
I love my samurai movies, but give me any Kurosawa picture instead of this one. ZATOICHI tells its story without any urgency. The blind masseur (played wonderfully as usual by Kitano) comes into the village and gets involved into a gang war and a revenge story. But the sides are never made perfectly clear and I couldn’t get past the fact that I didn’t know where we are and why. (Then again, it could be my lack of sleep.) I really started to get involved at the very end, when a genius, John Carpenter – like score kicks in and Kitano faces his last battles.
It’s an enjoyable movie, easily Kitano’s best since HANA-BI, but I wished for more than just perfectly delivered fight and dance scenes. ZATOICHI was the public’s favorite in Venice, which is somehow understandable. The movie is very well directed, shot and edited and definitely a treasure for samurai lovers. But ultimately, I never got into it.
GOOD BYE, DRAGON INN (BU SAN) (by Tsai Ming-Liang) *** 1/2
This was probably the best theater experience I had in Venice in terms of audience involvement. You see, BU SAN is again a film for people who have a strong affection for cinema and for the experience of going to the movies. The story is about the last screening of an old movie before the movie theater closes its doors. The movie playing there is an old samurai flick called "Dragon Inn". A young man who’s coming to see the film despite the heavy rain, encounters a handful of strange people in the giant theater. But the place seems empty and void of life. The man tries to connect with some people while the movie is being shown, till he realizes that there is a certain connection between the people sitting in the rows of the theater and the actors on the screen.
BU SAN is a slow moving film. Though thematically completely different, I was reminded of GERRY, simply because of the unwillingness to cut away from a frame. But here this technique makes perfect sense.
Ultimately the movie is about bittersweet memories, about the past and about the pain of saying Goodbye to a beloved place. There is almost no dialogue throughout its entire 82 minutes running time. All the dialogue that is heard comes from the samurai on the moviescreen. But when the first words of dialogue are finally uttered, they are perfect. The audiences erupted into sudden applause, which filled my body with adrenaline for the rest of the movie’s duration. These words actually sum up and explain everything.
GOOD BYE, DRAGON INN is such a sad and at the same time heartwarming picture. It makes you sentimental and full of joy - just like the old record that is playing over the end credits, where the audience started to clap with the song’s rhythm. See this in a cinema filled with movie lovers and it will make your heart beat faster. I love it, I love it, I love it.
I’ll leave with a list of other fabulous titles that I saw in Venice that you just have to check out whenever you get a chance:
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
BUONGIORNO, NOTTE
ANTENNA
15 (FIFTEEN)
A GOOD LAWYER’S WIFE
THE AGRONOMIST
CASA DE LOS BABYS
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
This is Markus R signing off. Have a good one and thanks for reading.
