Some Films

Yes, it's that time of year when I do nothing but watch all the videos I can get my hands on from the public library. So far, I've watched a few:

1. Another Country. This was pretty moving and beautifully shot. In it you'll see a very young Rupert Everett and an equally young Colin Firth (they were 25 and 24 at the time), playing 17 year olds. Yes, I'm a sucker for films about elite schools; it must represent some repressed desire to be colonized ....

2. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Maggie Smith and another film about British public schools as breeding grounds for Fascism (and assorted responses to that ...)

3. Fallen Angels. I didn't like this as much as Chungking Express.

4. A Girl from Hunan. The blurb on the cover said that it was made in the wake of the Cultural Revolution and the photo of the director looked like it was from the Bureau of the Arts of Moving Picture Making. Slow-moving tale about the terrible consequences of child marriages (and thus squarely propagandistic).

5. Scenes from a Marriage. Exceedingly rewarding film watching (if emotionally exhausting). I watched the 5 hour "tv" version. It's quintessential Ingmar Bergman with two actors, one room and long long close-ups. Great acting from Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson. I spent the entire 5 hours trying to figure out how an actress can look so gorgeous one moment then absolutely dowdy the next. That and whether they bought the furniture for the sets from Ikea.

6. A Man for All Seasons. Otherwise known as "How Intellectuals Will Always Be Screwed By Bureaucrats". This was about Sir Thomas Moore and his refusal to have a stand on Henry the VIII's marriage to Anne Bolyn.

Now for the stuff that I'm only slightly embarrassed about watching:

1. Hero. Eh -- I like those kung-fu scenes in slow motion. I also thought that this release might have a little Quentin Tarantino 'talk-about-the-film' at the end because it was one of those brought to you by Quentin Tarantino things. Sadly, it did not.

2. Pride and Prejudice. Long BBC version with Colin Firth.

3. Pride and Prejudice. Short Hollywood version with Kiera Knightly (where EVERYONE looks good ...)

4. Love Actually. Yes and it ain't even near Christmas.