In the Mood for Love.

In the Mood for Love never won, neither was nominated for an Oscar. Why is it here then in the Oscars month? Because not only it won many other prizes in many other respectable film festival around the world, but also because it is one of the most beautiful films ever made. I couldn't wait to talk about it and share its wonderfulness with the world.

In the Mood for Love is a Chinese film by Kar Wai Wong. It depicts the story of a man and a woman, neighbours, that discover that their spouses are having an affair. They are drawn together because they are both lonely and miserable. And trying to decipher what happen to their wife and husband they start to get closer and closer together.

The story is really not as important as you may think. The original idea was different than the result. The plot was more clear, more direct, more physical, if you know what I mean. But the director decided to create the mood of the film and the film itself as it is today through improvisation and discussion with the actors.

The result is beautiful. I've never seen a film that tells so much while revealing so little. That tells you a whole story with a look, with a shade, with the realisation that we are never know what happened, what is happening, that we will never meet all the characters, that many things will be hidden from us.

The respective spouses are always hidden for the audience. The only thing that is offered instead is the performances of the main characters of what they thing happened, of how the others fell in love, which is actually how they fall in love. But it is all a reflection of the creation of the film. The layers are endless. The questions innumerables and the answers scarce. However, that is what makes this film so attractive, so absorbing in its slow pace. The interpretation of the audience is necessary constantly, to make the film meaningful.

However, the most beautiful moments of the film are those in which the music takes the place of the action and steals the protagonism. There are two songs that form a theme withing the film: Yumeji's theme is the first one. It is tragic and painful and it is imperfect, which makes it perfect. Every time you hear, you know that a moment of extreme delicacy, poetry, and pain is going to appear before the audience. The other one is Aquellos Ojos Verdes. It is much happier and playful. However, it is equally deep and mesmerizing. I will never again hear these songs without a feel of recognizion. A sudden thud of electricity.

All in all. This film is more than just a film. It is everything. And I would like very much to see 2046, Kar Wai Wong next film. If only it was on Netflix.

Cashback.

So, this business with writing about oscarized films is more difficult than I thought. It's like trying to watch non-British films, suddenly, only British films seem attractive to me. I guess that it has to do with human nature. We always want what we can't have. However, it all worked with Cashback. I watch a kind of oscarized film and hey! it is also British.

So, this film was never really nominated for an Oscar. However, this film is the feature long version of a short film that was nominated to best short film for the Academy Awards. So, it is within the category.

Cashback tells the story of this young artist that breaks up with his girlfriend and suddenly becomes an insomniac. He decides to use those extra hours to work in a supermarket, to get some cashback. The short film deals exclusively with his time in the supermarket. He learns that, in order to make time go faster, he actually has to stop time. He captures the beauty of the women in the supermarket in his drawings. He actually stops time and undresses the shoppers in order to draw them. I wasn't sure about this film because it sounds so vulgar and careless. However, it is a beautiful moment. Women are treated like precious objects, like the summit of beauty. The boy sees beauty where nobody else can, in the awfully lit aisles of a supermarket during the night. He especially sees beauty in the girl portrayed by Emilia Fox. Beautiful Emilia Fox. Delicate Emilia Fox.

This film is delicate but very funny. The gallery of characters is perfectly arranged. There is enough fun and reality and chemistry between them to make a film that is worth 5 stars. Don't let the poster mislead you. This is worth it.

Exit Through the Gift Shop.

So, as we are in February, and February is the Oscar's (oh, excuse me, the Academy Awards') month, I thought that I could just post here my comments on films that are nominated to the Osc... Academy Awards. That was the original idea. However, since I am only posting Netflix films, that is going to be difficult. (I believe only this one and Dogtooth, the Greek one are in Netflix) so I'll talk about Oscarred films in general. Kind of loosely. My endevour is proving difficult, though. I tried to watch A Fish Called Wanda the other day and I fled the computer bored as an oyster.

Anyway, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary by Banksy. I am not a big documentary girl, as some of you may know. But I can handle them. I watch them and enjoy them when they're good and made by the BBC. Oh, BBC, how I love thee! Flavia, keep focus. Ok, so, yes, Banksy. He's this street artist, very daring and imaginative and very good. Probably he is also a hoax. Probably not. No one really knows. But everyone loves him.

I'm sorry if I am a bit untidy in my writing today, but after an hour watching this MBW man, Banksy's subject and character and maybe hoax, but probably not, you just can't be the same. He is all over the place. He is big in what he does but small in how he does it. He is running from one place to the other. Like a French rat. Like that little rat in Ratatouille.

The documentary is about high art and street art and performance and about this man with too many ideas. It's like watching F for Fake again. Art and lies. And the creation of characters. And twisting the audience and the characters themselves. It was fun. 4 stars. Excuse me, I have to go and eat a banana now.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

I had never seen a film by Terry Gilliam before, and I was so pleasantly surprised. Not that I thought that he wasn't any good, but to encounter this little jewell, and I unaware of it! Excuse my prose in praising this film, but today it was Snow Day in Normal and I have spent the day watching BBC productions. I will try to be more specific. Alas!

This film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is confusing and evasive. It is, also, visually striking. The different worlds that are created in Doctor Parnassus' imagination look like a mix of Wonka's Factory and a very creative The Simpsons' episode, if you know which one I mean. But I wonder, which one is more believable, the imaginarium or the real world? The world in which the troupe lives and acts seems like a pastiche of something else. Many something elses. It's a world that you can't quite pin down. Oh, layers. How I love films with layers. Or coats. Depending on the metaphor you prefer.

And of course, how could I forget Heath Ledger. His last production. His last unfinished production. And still, how elegant, the fix. At times his presence seemed imposed into the film, not canonical, from another world. But the whole film feels that way, doesn't it? It feels like the viewer is intruding in something that shouldn't be revealed.

Maybe that something is the encounter with the devil. Or with Tom Waits. Or both. Who tells you Tom Waits is not really the devil? He was born to deceive Faustus. Maybe next time he should try poker. Or maybe he already did, in the Seafarer.