泛谈电影

周末看了一部去年奥斯卡提名的西班牙影片 ＜＜Pan's LabyRinth>>， 反法西斯的。电影拍得好艺术，残酷的现实和绝美的传说揉合在一起，梦境般的迷离， 也令人感动。 可是， 看完后心太沉重了，我想， 不会再看第二遍了。

觉得还是喜欢 HollyWood 的电影， 娱乐性好。笑哈哈地看完，也许记不住什么， 但心里轻快， 还能看第二遍。

赚人眼泪的片子其实好拍，尽可弄得悲情兮兮的。但要大家都看得幽默发笑就不太容易， 所谓众口难调。就和做菜一样，可以精心地照菜谱作一道好菜， 但如果就做西红柿炒鸡蛋，让大家都觉得好吃就难了。

"Employee of the Month"

A very funny movie. The endings are totally unexpected. Not a romance movie at all, as it initially appeared and at the most of the time...

" The Lake House "

Beautiful Love Story.




I watched the movie yesterday. Really got moved. The same name novel had been very popular.

Another reason I like the movie is that Keanu Reeves looks really like my hubby, the version when he was slimmer.

For those of you who are interested, below is the plot described in wikipedia ( I meant to write the summary on my own but got lazy.) ----

"
The movie centers around lonely Dr. Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock ) who, on a winter morning in 2006, reluctantly leaves the beautiful lake house where she has been living for a job in a Chicago hospital. On her way to Chicago, she leaves a note for the lake house's new tenant asking him to kindly forward her mail and telling him about the paw prints by the front door and the box in the attic.
However, Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), the new tenant, sees a different lake house, one which was neglected, dirty, and there were certainly no paw prints. He disregards Kate's letter until a few days later; he is painting the walkway to the house and a stray dog runs across the fresh paint leaving paw prints where Kate said they would be. He writes back to Kate, only to discover that they are separated in time by two years, with Alex living in 2004 and Kate living in 2006 (the year the film was released). In her second letter to Alex, Kate writes: "Oh, by the way it is 2006. Has been all year, ask anyone." Kate mentions she is presently [in 2006] living at 1620 North Racine in Chicago. Alex goes to that address [in 2004], with the intention of personally delivering a letter to her at her apartment, and discovers that an unfinished construction site exists at 1620 North Racine. Alex estimates that the site will not be finished for another 18 months.

As Kate and Alex continue to correspond through the mailbox, they find themselves falling in love. Because Kate is in the future, she can tell Alex where to look for her in 2004 in places she has been. On one occasion, she asks Alex to bring her back something important (a gift from her father; her favorite novel by Jane Austen called Persuasion), which she left two years ago during a train station meeting with her then-beau. Alex goes to the station and finds the item and sees Kate with long hair. Even though he has the item, he does not place it in the mailbox to return it to her. Instead, he says that he will return it to her personally, "one way or the other."

By the same dog that put prints on the walkway, Alex and his female suitor Mona, whom he is uninterested in, meet Kate's boyfriend Morgan and are both invited to attend her birthday party. At the party, Kate is frustrated with Morgan's sincere but smothering ways. She wanders outside, where Alex is sitting, attempting to determine how to let this earlier version of Kate know that her "letter paramour" is here in person. Kate does not know who Alex is, as their relationship is in her future. However, the two share a dance and a romantic moment, but it is interrupted by Morgan and Mona.

Determined to bridge the distance between them at last and unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary connection, they tempt fate by arranging to meet. After a failed attempt at a date meeting at Il Mare, a fancy restaurant (an homage to the original Korean motion picture), in 2006, Kate retreats, believing she will never have happiness. She urges Alex to move on.

Kate later learns that a person who was hit by a bus earlier in the movie was actually the 2006 version of Alex. She warns him via the mailbox and changes the past, allowing Alex to escape his original fate. In the end of the movie, Alex and Kate share a passionate kiss. "

＂石头＂的背景 ( By HeDou )

终于在网上看到了早已耳熟的＂疯狂的石头＂，果然耳目一新。之所以新，就在于它一改单线索平铺直叙的老调。用多线索，异视角编成一个叙事网，让不同的角色的生活揉成团，电影只是向观众展示这个网中的几个重要结点。

这样的导演手法，在中国以外的电影市场上，尤其在独立制作的和小成本的影片中比较常见。"疯狂的石头”就象极了Guy Ritchie 的 "Snatch" , 最大的不同在于，前者的主角是一个翡翠，后者的故事围绕着一块钻石。

这种手法已经成为一种电影的流派，但是还没有一个合适的名称，姑且称之为非线性电影吧。至于"疯狂的石头"是否抄袭，仁者见仁，智者见智。我到觉得，首先，天下文章一大抄，电影界尤甚，而且有专有名词来称呼这类行为，叫做＂改编＂。其次，非线性电影特别适合中国的小成本制作，因为中国缺的是钱，不缺的是黑色幽默。我只是奇怪为啥这么晚才有人尝试。

＂罗生门＂应该是最早最出名的非线性电影了，Stanley kubrick's "The Killing" 好象也挺早的，而且也更具有娱乐性，不象＂罗生门＂如同嚼蜡，但不知什么原因不如前者有那么大的影响力。集大成者应该是Quentin Tatantino's "Pulp fiction",前面提的 "Snatch" 也勉强算吧。只是和＂疯狂的石头＂相比，这两个作品血腥有余，幽默不足。而有一部在Hollywood 默默无闻的电影Barry Sonnenfeld's "Big Trouble" 却是以搞笑为主的非线性电影，又可惜缺乏深度，净是一些家常笑料。

去年得Oscar的 "Crash" 和今年被提名的 "Babel" 则是非线性电影在社会性题材上的代表作。然而，在这两部电影分别得奖和被提名之前，尽管影片中巨星云集，票房却惨淡不堪。究其原因，我觉得，用非线性的手法描绘严肃的社会性话题是一个艰巨的挑战。无主角，多线索本身就会让大多数观众很难完全理解，再加上沉闷的单一主题，如果没有暴力，搞笑等噱头的话，让观众糊里糊涂静坐两个小时，实在有些强人所难。

非线性电影的生命力还是在于黑色幽默，所以＂疯狂的石头＂的意义是中国年轻导演对于新方法的探索，这不是票房数字可以衡量，也不是抄袭指控可以掩盖。

梅花档案

快冬天了，都有要冬眠的感觉。虽然俗务缠身。

看一部新拍恐怖悬疑片 ＜＜梅花档案＞＞，觉得还不错。特别是最后真相大白时女主角背上的梅花联络图，妖艳诡异，堪称此剧的高潮。 不过仔细想想逻辑是不对头的，刺在背后她自己要看不是太不方便了吗？ 似乎刺在腿上更有道理。

管它呢，反正是娱乐。

Fall Movies ( 秋季影评 )

EW just released its fall movie preview. I believe most of those lists will go straight to video rental shelves. However, there are three movies indeed catch my attention for different reasons.

1. 007 “Casino Royale”

When United Artist announced that Daniel Craig would be the new James Bond, those diehard 007 fans from all over the world suddenly turn into Owls, they all shouted: “ Who? Who?” Some have been outraged by his hair color, some are curious about his sexual orientation. Behind all these frustration is the uncertainty about the cold-war style spy plot in the unfitted post-cold-war era.
The recent two 007 movies featuring Bond thwarted a corporation CEO and intervened a real lunatic. Are we comfortable enough to see our fictional super spy working as an IRS agent or brain shrinker? That explains why the new movie wants to bring back the “Casino Royale” and reintroduce it as if the other twenty 007 films never existed, only this time there are no Sean Connery and the evil empire. It is definitely a bold move but inevitable fruitless. Unless Daniel Craig admits he is gay and the new Bond girl is played by Brad Pitt, the 007 series are, eventually, going down the hill.

2. "The Departed"

Speaking of down the hill, Martin Scorsese’ new film “ The Departed” is scheduled release in Oct. 2006. I saw the Hong Kong version of this movie (无间道) two years ago. It’s really a dull plot. Can Martin Scorsese re-shape it in a more vivid way? All things considered, the odds doesn’t look so good. Let’s face it, he deserved an Oscar either for “Taxi Driver” or “Good Fellas”, but after that, especially in recent years, he started to lose it. I have a suggestion for his next Oscar inquiry. Ok, I have three with all the benign intention ---

First, find a new PR person who can take care of Martin’s off-screen people skills. You don’t really think the beloved Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson took multiple awards by accident.

Second, ditch Leonard DiCaprio. The truth is out that he is never going to be another Robert De Niro. Even with Joe Pesci waving baseball bat behind him, Leonard still remind audience of the sidekick boy from “Growing Pain”.

Third, Martin should use AX instead of scissors to edit his movie. No movie should last four hours and no conversation should exceed twenty minutes. My idea is to have a law mandate all movies to be capped within two hours. If some weirdo desperately need a four-hour movie, he can just watch the same movie twice.
Wait, there is one more thing, Martin. Please stop doing those America Express ads. Tons of less talented directors enthusiastically want to squeeze in the commercial business.

3. "Maria Antoinette"

Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst represent, by all means, the hope of Hollywood youngest generation. Ironically, they teamed up for an old saga in“ Maria Antoinette”.
Why the Queen of France? After all, she was not a significant figure in French history but an exciting character in world literature. Her name in history book means the very own greedy venom in Versailles. What is interesting is, in the meanwhile, she was also an extremely elegant lady. On her way to the guillotine, she accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot, and her last words were, "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose." It always makes me wonder what she actually thought at that moment since my grandfather told me this story when I was a kid. Was she plain retarded or there were something else, spiritually, tranquilized her mind to face her destiny? Apparently, the inner conflict of the main character generates real challenge for both the actress and director.
As a matter of fact, I think Drew Barrymore is more suitable to play this role than Kirsten Dunst. A former coming back and turning around child, Drew probably has more understanding about this derailed personality. And of course, her chubby appearance will help too. I believe Sofia Coppola will agree with me if she can afford Drew.

---Written by HeDou in August 2006