Logorama (2009) is an animated short film created by Francois Alaux and Herve de Crecy. I'm not going to review it because that would be ... futile in its own way. You can watch it online for free and you need to know only three things in advance: it features thousands of famous logos, it is nominated for an Oscar this year and it's AWESOME.
Score: 9 out of 10
Takeshi Kitano's Dolls (2002) follows three different stories that have one theme in common - love. There is the story of a couple wandering in surreal landscapes after they face an emotionally drastic challenge in their lives. Another story focuses on an old yakuza boss who suddenly remembers a girlfriend he had decades ago. The third story tells about a famous pop idol and her obsessed fan who goes to great lengths to stay in touch with her.Kitano has all the ingredients for a great film. The storylines begin in a promising way, but fall flat sooner or later. The first storyline is overlong and redundant, the second storyline is somewhat decent, but the ending is simply too abrupt and completely irrational. The third story ends up being quite decent and fascinating - I wish it would have been extended into a full feature film. Kitano gives us hardly anything tangible in the film - it's simply too vague. All of the characters are detached from the real world by love, but nothing is made out of that. Kitano seems to have run out of ideas for his "artsy film" - especially the terrible ending proves that. Dolls tells you how not to end a film. Even though I hate the glaring flaws of the content, it has a few redeeming qualities - such as the fascinating characters and observation on love (even if it's too distant).
Kitano's form is challenging because the film runs at such a slow and dreamy pace that it can easily make one fall asleep. However, it is fitting for the film. The delicious cinematography kept me interested throughout the film and the poignant musical score was a nice touch on top of the nice visuals.
Ultimately, Dolls is an intriguing film which is sadly flawed and at times frustrating.
Score: 6 out of 10
The French New Wave is probably the most famous cinematic movement of all time. I'm ashamed to admit that my knowledge of the movement is far from sufficient and right now I'm trying to fix that. Along with Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959), Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1960) is the most important and popular film of the entire movement. Initially the film seems like a thriller or a gangster film because a murder sets the story into motion. However, it becomes something totally different - and something so much more satisfying and fascinating - after a while.The story is hard to get a grasp of. It is the "spontaneity" that makes the film as great as it is. There is no clear rising and falling action in the film apart from a few moments, which makes it more "anti-cinematic". There is a natural tone in the dialogue - partly because the actors didn't know the lines beforehand and partly because the dialogue doesn't drive the plot forward most of the time. Despite this incoherency the film manages to deliver us with something tangible that will linger on our minds for some time after we have seen the film.
Godard's form is even more bewildering and energetic than the content of the film. The camera moves in erratic ways and the editing is even wilder - you can figure that out when you know that this film created the jump cutting technique.
It was a weird experience to write this review: initially I thought I would give this film a 9, but the more I think and write about it, the more I love it. I ended up appreciating it even more after I wrote this review. This film is rightfully praised and popular. Go watch it. Now.
Score: 10 out of 10
I have decided to make a list of my favourite 80's films by the end of June this year. For this project, I collected all the films I would put to the list right now, the ones I need to watch again and also the ones I want to see.
The films I consider eligible for the list right now
A Summer at Grandpa's (Hou)
Akira (Otomo)
Aliens (Cameron)
Angel's Egg (Oshii)
Blade Runner (Scott)
Blue Velvet (Lynch)
City of Sadness (Hou)
Fitzcarraldo (Herzog)
Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata)
Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio)
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Miyazaki)
My Neighbour Totoro (Miyazaki)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Miyazaki)
Once Upon a Time in America (Leone)
Pink Floyd The Wall (Parker)
Raging Bull (Scorsese)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg)
Ran (Kurosawa)
Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner)
Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi (Marquand)
The Color of Money (Scorsese)
The Meaning of Life (Gilliam)
The Thing (Carpenter)
This Is Spinal Tap (Reiner)
Wings of Honneamise (Yamaga)
The film I need to watch again
1984 (Radford)
As Tears Go By (Wong)
Blood Simple (Coen & Coen)
Brazil (Gilliam)
Come and See (Klimov)
Do the Right Thing (Lee)
Fanny and Alexander (Bergman)
Full Metal Jacket (Kubrick)
Kiki's Delivery Service (Miyazaki)
Mystery Train (Jarmusch)
Nostalgia (Tarkovsky)
Scarface (De Palma)
Stranger than Paradise (Jarmusch)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese)
The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky)
The Shining (Kubrick)
They Live (Carpenter)
Time Bandits (Gilliam)
The film I should watch (listed under the director's name)
Aki Kaurismäki
- Ariel
- Crime and Punishment
- Shadows in the Paradise
Akira Kurosawa
- Kagemusha
Alejandro Jodorowsky
- Santa Sangre
Bela Tarr
- Damnation
Bernardo Bertolucci
- The Last Emperor
David Cronenberg
- Scanners
David Lynch
- The Elephant Man
- Dune
Edward Yang
- The Terrorizer
- Taipei Story
Francois Truffaut
- The Last Metro
Hsiao-hsien Hou
- Daughter of the Nile
Jean-Luc Godard
- First Name: Carmen
Kon Ichikawa
- The Burmese Harp
Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Decalogue
- A Short Film About Killing
- A Short Film About Love
Louis Malle
- Au revoir les enfants
Mamoru Oshii
- Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
Martin Scorsese
- The King of Comedy
Nagisa Oshima
- Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Nicolas Roeg
- Bad Timing
Robert Bresson
- Money
Shohei Imamura
- Black Rain
- Ballad of Narayama
Takeshi Kitano
- Violent Cop
Terry Gilliam
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Werner Herzog
- Cobra Verde
Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984) is regarded as one of the most important and brilliant gangster films alongside The Godfather and Goodfellas - and rightfully so. I would actually say that it is the best film made about mafia. Essentially the film is about 5 friends who commit crimes together as kids and the film reveals us how they end up later in life. The film is told in three periods: 1910's, 1930's and the 1970's. This film was Leone's last and it's a great ending for a career - only rivalled by Edward Yang's Yi yi in that regard.
Leone observes the twisted moral values of the main characters - especially how they change over time. He reveals just how corrupt and hideous these characters can be yet he makes them lovable in a peculiar way. The narrative is incredibly dense and even exhausting even though the film has a calm pace. The pace is certainly challenging, but once you get used to it you are rewarded.
The recreation of Brooklyn in those periods is painstakingly authentic - I wonder how they pulled it off so well for so many scenes on such an epic scale. Leone's cinematography is simply a wonder to look at. There weren't a lot of shots that didn't astound me in a way or another. Ennio Morricone's score is brilliant and reminded me a bit of Once Upon a Time in The West - which is only good.
When I saw the film for the first time I wasn't so amazed by it. I guess I watched expecting something else after I had seen Once Upon a Time in The West. However, this time I totally loved it and now I would call it one of the greatest American films I've ever seen.
Score: 10 out of 10
Now that I've seen all the films Klaus Härö has directed, I can declare that his latest, Letters to Father Jaakob (2009), is his masterpiece. A pardoned convict Leila (Kaarina Hazard) is assigned to help a blind pastor (Heikki Nousianen) with his letters. As the film goes further, both of them have to deal with guilt, loss and even an existential crisis to a certain extent. Härö observes the two main characters carefully and closely. Their hidden complexities are gradually revealed and you can not avoid caring for them by the end of the film. Both of them are only broken souls barely coping, trying to find a way out. Härö's usual sentimentality is very underplayed until the end which is heartbreaking in its magnificence.
The form is refined even in comparison to Härö's earlier films. The cinematography is stunning, the editing is smoother and the music is poignant (a lot less dramatic than the music in his earlier films). The performances by the lead actors are pitch-perfect - even though both of the performances are rather towering, neither dominates the film.
Letters to Father Jaakob is a vivid film that made me genuinely cry. I consider it the best Finnish film ever made - although that doesn't mean a lot when the film industry is in terrible condition in Finland.
Score: 10 out of 10
Klaus Härö's Mother of Mine (2005) touches on a subject which is rarely discussed nowadays (even in Finland): during World War II tens of thousands of Finnish children were sent to Sweden to avoid the conflict by living with a surrogate family. In Härö's film, a 9-year-old boy's mother sends him to Sweden after his father dies. Initially he hates the surrogate the members of which are just as broken and vulnerable as he is. Eventually their wounds begin to heal and they bond.
The screenplay is magnificent because it handles the subject and characters thoroughly and honestly. Problems concerning coming of age, language and family are explored and observed in an unforgettably poignant way. The screenplay is simply top-notch in all aspects. Härö's form is stunning yet again - especially his cinematography is simply impeccable. The only gripe I had with this film is rather minor: the last 20 minutes had a few weird formal choices that could have been done better. However, that is still a really tiny problem in a fantastic film.
Klaus Härö's Mother of Mine is Finnish (albeit a co-production with Swedes) cinema at its best. Forget Kaurismäki: it doesn't get a lot better than this.
Score: 10 out of 10
