Films x 3...(11/8)

A few films I watched recently...

1. Tournage dans un jardin anglais
The film is directed by Michael Winterbottom and featured Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon. Playing the story of Tristram Shandy in a crazy manner, the film is an exceptionally inspiring comedy. It is DIY and it applies reasonably nice cliché to create a humorous story of story telling or a comedian's film of filmmaking. Steve Coogan plays Tristram Shandy, and he is quite an impressive actor in the film. Crossing in between the modern times and the 17th century of England, there is a strong element of the Godard-style filmology. The film works on the historical story and at the same time it turns from time to time the perspective of the audience by bringing into the narrative character. Soon Tristram and Steve merge in the film to become a very consolidated and dimensional character. This is unexpected. The part of filming the crew to film the film reminds me some scenes in Mike Figgis's Hotel. I am not particularly fond of comedy but this is quite an out-of-the-box one.

2. Szomorú Vasárnap
The film was on the screen last year in Hong Kong, but actually it is a film produced in 1999. Expected to be a classic piece, the film was beautifully made. It romantically offers the introversion and density of the Hungarian, and in the story, Budapest was such a gloomy sleeper lying beside the Danube. I like the four main characters in the film, and they played very well. Stefano Dionisi acted as the tragic pianist & composer Rezső Seress, and his piece called for touching sensation. As the skeleton of the film, the melody perfectly fitted into the mourning mood. It is delightful to have the story edited in an accurate manner in the film, and indeed, it can be easy to fall into the trap of exaggeration about this suicide song. Not certain whether this is a realistic reflection about the culture of Hungary, but a very suppressive sentiment of the nation was depicted in the film. Unlike Poland or Czecho, Hungary appeared since World War II to the communist era to be a very subtle tribe, and in the film, people chose to sink into the tune rather than rebel. Hans, played by Ben Becker, was an outstanding character in the film. Without judging the standpoint of the storywriter or the director, the German general simply vitalised the human character of ambivalent judgment in pursuing the sense of value and the desire of power & wealth. Erika Marozsan played the diva and undoubtedly she captured the essence of the wildness & naive of innocence. The scene when she sang under the fear and threat was heart breaking. Out of the four, Laszlo, however, is my favorite character in the film. Joachim Krol fitted into a convincing role of the Jewish businessman, and his firm and charismatic way to manage crisis and love was perfect. The role is a powerful channel for the storyteller to express the glorious romanticism and dignity of the Jewish during the World War. The story is classic but the only flaw of some loose management of story development and logic of reasoning leaves the only scar to my interpretation of the gloomy Sunday.

3. Cars
A 2006 Pixar representative, and without much expectation, I found the animation quite a pleasant work. Having an arrogant Lightning McQueen as the star of the year, the story began with an abnormal means of narrative. The animation put impressive effort in the character image design and the rendering of wheel motions and speeding act on the tracks were perfectly designed and drawn. Not much lengthy denotation or ethics education, the work is neat and proper. Surely the scenery in the film was stunning!! A good pick of the summer holiday.