The Dinner Game – Le diner de cons (1998)

The Dinner Game is a delightful lighthearted French comedy, that still manages to pack some social commentary punch.

Pierre Brochant and a group of his affluent friends host a weeky dinner party where each of them try to one up each other and bring the biggest idiot. Pierre thinks he has a winner in Francois Pignon and invites Francois to his house before the dinner party to get to know him. Between the invitation and the dinner party. Pierre hurts his back and decides he can’t go to the party this week, but can’t get to Francois in time to stop him from coming over. When Francois shows up at his house and tries to ‘help’ him, the hilarity ensues.

Francois is a lovable loser, who turns out to have some incredibly insightful views on life and love. His claim to fame is his matchstick replicas of great feats in architecture like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Eiffel Tower. Pierre’s day starts off with him thinking he has the winning idiot and then the days goes downhill from there, to the point he realizes he is the idiot, not Francois.

Francois’ performance reminds me of one of Peter Seller’s great roles in The Party, where despite their good intentions, everything they touch turns out wrong.

Enjoy

Bill

A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement (2004) Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

 

You may know this director from his work with Marc Caro on films such as “Delicatessen”, “City of Lost Children”, and “Amelie”.   This time, without Marc Caro, Jeunet takes a bit of a different path with his film, but still manages to mix the whimsy and the horrific without missing a beat.

 

Our story takes place around World War 1.   Audrey Tatou  (Amelie), who will eventually not be able to get away with playing 20 year olds (but not yet), is a crippled young girl, Mathilde, whose fiancée has gone off to war.  Despite all reports and signs that say that her fiancée, Manech, has been killed, she refuses to give up hope and launches an all out search for him.

 

Now, Mathilde lives with her aunt & uncle, since her parents were killed when she was a baby & then she contracted polio, but she still manages to get around fairly well.   She was made fun of at school by the other children because she was crippled, so she became very shy until a neighbor boy, Manech, managed to befriend her.

 

Now, it seems that Manech was part of a group of men that were to be executed for self-mutilation, that is, maiming yourself so you could be sent home from the front.  These scenes are quite inventive and are presented in a VERY darkly humorous manner.   But instead of being executed, this group of men were set loose in “no-man’s land” to fend for themselves, and while some witnesses that Mathilde manages to track down say they saw Manech killed, she eventually finds one that seems to think he was spared somehow.   

 

Mathilde never refuses to give up hope, and  she relies on certain little games that we’ve all participated in at some time in our lives, like, if she counts to 7 before a train enters a tunnel then everything will be all right, etc.    She also hires a private detective, Germain Pire (as played by the late Ticky Holgado, a staple in previous Jeunet & Caro films) to help her.

 

There is, however, another twist to things, like a prostitute named Tina who is out for blood, because one of the men supposedly killed was her man, or one of them, anyway. – maybe her favorite, I don’t know.  She has painstakingly tracked down the officers responsible for the execution of these men & has managed to do them in in amusingly creative (but nasty) ways.  

 

I have to say that while I knew this movie was by half the team that did some movies that I really love, I avoided it for a long time because it just didn’t look like it would be that good, and it’s sort of a romance, but not really.    I was very wrong in my assumption, and I’m quite glad I finally watched it, because I wasn’t at all disappointed.   Recommended!

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari – 1920

Want to know what a Tim Burton movie would have looked like had he made a silent movie filmed in 1920 in Germany? Give the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari a whirl. This movie defines creepy and you can see so much of its influence on Burton’s work, in particular all of the scenes from hell in Beetlejuice.

The movie centers around a mental patients telling of a story of Dr. Caligari and his sideshow freak Somnambulist (sleep walker) and the rash of murders that seem to accompany them every where they go. The movie plays on your perceptions of reality and is a visual eye candy feast for its imagery. One repeating scene that I like is the way the people in the government agency that Caligari keeps visiting sit all stooped over in their weird, incredibly uncomfortable stools.

I have a fondness for movies that provide a visual stunning experience and I frequently use them as “background visual noise” when I have a social gathering. This movie would fit the bill just fine.

Enjoy

Bill

Shallow Grave

I found it interesting that the next movie I was to review on my five e feelm list was Shallow Grave, the cinematic directorial debut of Mr. Danny Boyle, whose most recent effort, Slumdog Millionaire just ran off will all of the Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Most people will label Boyle as the Trainspotting guy and rightly so, but I have enjoyed some of his lesser known works like Millions and Shallow Grave.

In Shallow Grave, three friends and roommates must decide on a course of action when a new fourth roommate turns up dead and to complicate matters, leaves a suitcase full of money behind.

The movie is dark, gruesome, hilarious and thought-provoking. A younger Ewan McGregor stars, but I think the best performance is put in by Christopher Eccelston who appears to be the sane one at the beginning of the dilemma, but comes unhinged the quickest. His scenes from the attic as he frantically drills holes in the attic floor to keep tabs on the other two roomates are priceless.

How well do you know your friends?

Enjoy

Bill

Sexy Beast – 2000

Ben Kingsley  is an actor I have utmost respect for. He can play a myriad of roles and always manages to transform himself in a brilliant performance. Unfortunately for me, even though he was acting brilliantly, my eyes kept prompting me to ask, “Why is Gandhi in this movie?” Kingsley’s performance as Gandhi defined him for me for many roles to come. It wasn’t until his role as Don Logan in 2000, that I was finally able to break the stranglehold Gandhi had on my definition of Kingsley and it was my ears this time that broke the paradigm as I was then prompted to ask, “Why is Gandhi uttering the F-word every other word?”

Beyond a swearing Gandhi, Sexy Beast has a great story and incredible style. The imagery is amazing. I swear I can feel the sun on me as the main character, Gary “Gal” Dove is laying out burning in the Spanish sun at his villa by the pool. What interrupts his baking in the sun is visually stunning in a great opening scene. Gal is a retired gangster who Logan comes to harass out of retirement.

I really like this little known jewel of a movie and find that as long as people can get by the aural assault, it is a movie that most people really enjoy.

Enjoy

Bill

Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah talai jone)

Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah talai jone) 2000, director Wisit Sasanatieng

 

 

This is presented as a western, and it IS sort of a western, although it’s made in Thailand so you can imagine that they’ve put their own spin on it, whether it be from creativity or from just plain ignorance of what a western is supposed to be like.   

 

Now, by saying this is a western, I’ve probably put a lot of people off, because nobody much watches westerns anymore, but this is different, to say the least.    First off, it seems to take place in modern times, the cowboy outfits are rather like those that a child would wear, at least 40 or 50 years ago, and there’s also a mix of genres, including a sort of  juvenile delinquent spin that was popular in the 50’s.  Plus, it’s got incredible deep saturated colors that  are incredible to see, it’s like watching a painting instead of a movie.    And as for the western bits, well, there’s even a good old-fashioned shoot-out, that would make fans of old cowboys movies feel faint….kind of a splatter western, but in an over-the-top style kind of like “Evil Dead”….more is better.

 

This is also a romance, for our hero, Dum (yes, really) is smitten with a young lady that he’s been in love with since they were kids, and he’s sworn to win her heart, even though her father has promised her to another.

 

The sets are quite surreal, to say the least, and the scenery is incredibly beautiful, for the most part, and then we shift to some incredibly violent gun-play and you’re left gaping at the screen.   There’s even a scene where Dum and a friend of his become blood brothers in front of a statue of Buddha…and then get rip-roaring drunk.   Not your typical western, indeed.

 

There are even some bits where we “go back in time” to when our characters were younger, which play out as though they were an “old time” film, complete with jumpy film and missing soundtrack bits, and oh yes, the soundtrack…well, it’s kind of  old-time Western music, with a definite “Eastern” spin.

 

This is a wonder to behold, and it may not be for everyone, but  I loved it.   It seems incredibly bizarre to take a genre that is so very  American and transplant it to Thailand, and the results are everything you might expect…or might NOT expect.   Truly strange & worth seeing. 

 

Sam

Lola rennt – 1998

Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) is yet another movie that dicks with your mind regarding time and what version of reality is the real one. Instead of intertwining different realities, Lola rennt uses the approach of taking you completely through one scenario, then starts you over with one changed variable and then you see where that reality goes and the movie concludes with the 3rd version of reality.

Franka Potente, who made her splash in American cinema as Matt Damon’s co-star in the Bourne Identity, stars as the punked out, on the edge Lola who is running against time to try and help stop her boyfriend Mani from robbing a supermarket and ruining his life.

The movie is non stop action, fast paced and the director, Tom Tykwer keeps you right in the middle of the action. Tykwer also does some imaginative animation sequences as well. Don’t rent this movie if you are looking for a movie to sit down and relax with your sweetie. This one takes you on a wild ride!

Bill

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari Joins Feeeeelm Collection

Just watched another IMDB top 250 of all time gem, Cabinet des Dr. Caligari., Das. A German silent film released in 1920 starring Werner Krauss, the movie takes you on a Tim Burton-esque journey into mental illness. If you remember the scene from Beetlejuice when Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin were walking through hell, you have a glimpse of what all of the sets were like in this movie. Incredibly creepy and way ahead of its time.

This is a movie I will have to buy to have in my library and was an easy addition to my list of films that garner the five e Feeeeelm rating!

Bill

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

This great cross-dressing movie from Australia is best summed up by Bernadette’s sarcastic comment, “A cock, in a frock on a rock.”

The first thing this movie has going for it is a great cast led by Hugo Weaving, who plays Mitzi Del Bra, Guy Pearce who plays Felicia Jollygoodfellow and Terrence Stamp who plays the above mentioned Bernadette Bassenger. The second thing is a great soundtrack highlighted by a phenomenal performance to CeCe Peniston’s, Finally.

The movie centers around this trio of Drag Queens who take their show away from the liberal Sydney and into the more conservative outback in the middle of Australia, Alice Springs to help out Mitzi’s ex (who happens to be a woman). It is a road trip movie with a bunch of hilarious scenes as the three navigate the Australian back country. Beyond the humor and music, this movie also has heart.

Every time I hear an Abba song I can’t help but think of Felicia’s little prized possession she keeps in a locket around her neck!

Enjoy

Bill

The Machinist

Director Brad Anderson takes you inside the mind of a delusional Trevor Reznik, played brilliantly by Christian Bale. Just like Christopher Nolan did in Memento, Anderson plays with you because you are experiencing the movie from the delusional mind’s perspective. Instead of observing from a rational perspective, you have to figure out what is real or not, just like Reznik.

Reznik hasn’t slept in over a year and he is becoming less and less in touch with the real world. In addition to messing with his mental health, he is becoming a waif looking like a holocaust survivor. Reportedly Bale lost an incredible 63 pounds to get that incredibly creepy look. What made him look even creepier is I had just saw him in his buff body as Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins and it was hard to tell that it was the same guy.

This movie is a roller coaster ride with a dark mean streak. Certainly not a feel good movie in the least.

Enjoy

Bill