Farewell Grenoble - movies in town
Watching movies at night
DVD
Japanese Story
I had not watched this film for a long time - owning DVDs makes you lazy and you often think 'Oh, I can watch that anytime'. Seeing this in France with Marc allowed me to watch it again with fresh eyes. I loved the red dust and Toni Collette's raw performance the first few times I saw this. Marc enjoyed the way Japanese actor Gotaro Tsunashima struggled with English and his simple, poetic dialogue - especially the letter he wrote to Toni's character, which she read posthumously. Marc was also very taken with the music in this film - some sections were very reminiscent of Ryuchi Sakamoto's compositions. He recorded grabs of the soundtrack onto his tape deck and played it in the car as we drove around Grenoble and the Rhone Alps region. Curiously, he did not record Toni's scratchy a cappella rendition of 'On the road again', a tune made famous by Willie Nelson. When he played the tape, I would say to him, 'Marc, we're driving, yet you overlooked the best driving song ever! Then to his horror I would start to sing it, worse than Toni does in the film. Of course, she is not a half bad vocalist when not in character as a tone-deaf mining engineer. She sang 'Don't dream it's over', a Crowded House tune, on the closing credits of Cosi, as well as 'Stand by me' during the course of the film itself. Also, just this year, she has released an album of her own recorded in collaboration with her musician husband.
House of flying daggers
Not a great film but visually stunning. Music makes the majesty of certain scenes in it much more grand. The standout sequence is without a doubt the 'Duel of the drums' game. Marc recorded this as well ... does not sound as cinematic as Japanese Story on tape but the feeling of China is evoked nicely.
Cinema
Poltergay
'Can't vait for zhat vone' - the premise of this film just cries out for a synopsis by Marg Downey, as the stoney faced SBS presenter from the kooky old days when you could only get UHF channel 28 by connecting a fragile cable to your backyard Hills Hoist.
A cute young couple - spunky building site manager and wife, played by Gerard Depardieu's daughter, move to a run down old house. At night, wife sleeps well, but husband is woken by the sounds of Boney M coming from the basement. He ventures down to the basement to discover the ghosts of five homosexuals from the La Cage au Folles era who died in a horrific electrical accident during a 1970's foam party. Cute straight guy learns to cohabit with the flouncy gay ghosts, with hilarious consequences.
In a non-Marg voice, I thought it was funny but not RoFL hilarious. It owes a bit to 'Queer eye for the straight guy' and a lot to Boney M and Patrick Hernandez - Depardieu sings 'Born to be alive' as a slow ballad during the film and it is quite beautiful. I do not know if she has plans to do a whole album like Toni did.
DVD
Japanese Story
I had not watched this film for a long time - owning DVDs makes you lazy and you often think 'Oh, I can watch that anytime'. Seeing this in France with Marc allowed me to watch it again with fresh eyes. I loved the red dust and Toni Collette's raw performance the first few times I saw this. Marc enjoyed the way Japanese actor Gotaro Tsunashima struggled with English and his simple, poetic dialogue - especially the letter he wrote to Toni's character, which she read posthumously. Marc was also very taken with the music in this film - some sections were very reminiscent of Ryuchi Sakamoto's compositions. He recorded grabs of the soundtrack onto his tape deck and played it in the car as we drove around Grenoble and the Rhone Alps region. Curiously, he did not record Toni's scratchy a cappella rendition of 'On the road again', a tune made famous by Willie Nelson. When he played the tape, I would say to him, 'Marc, we're driving, yet you overlooked the best driving song ever! Then to his horror I would start to sing it, worse than Toni does in the film. Of course, she is not a half bad vocalist when not in character as a tone-deaf mining engineer. She sang 'Don't dream it's over', a Crowded House tune, on the closing credits of Cosi, as well as 'Stand by me' during the course of the film itself. Also, just this year, she has released an album of her own recorded in collaboration with her musician husband.
House of flying daggers
Not a great film but visually stunning. Music makes the majesty of certain scenes in it much more grand. The standout sequence is without a doubt the 'Duel of the drums' game. Marc recorded this as well ... does not sound as cinematic as Japanese Story on tape but the feeling of China is evoked nicely.
Cinema
Poltergay
'Can't vait for zhat vone' - the premise of this film just cries out for a synopsis by Marg Downey, as the stoney faced SBS presenter from the kooky old days when you could only get UHF channel 28 by connecting a fragile cable to your backyard Hills Hoist.
A cute young couple - spunky building site manager and wife, played by Gerard Depardieu's daughter, move to a run down old house. At night, wife sleeps well, but husband is woken by the sounds of Boney M coming from the basement. He ventures down to the basement to discover the ghosts of five homosexuals from the La Cage au Folles era who died in a horrific electrical accident during a 1970's foam party. Cute straight guy learns to cohabit with the flouncy gay ghosts, with hilarious consequences.
In a non-Marg voice, I thought it was funny but not RoFL hilarious. It owes a bit to 'Queer eye for the straight guy' and a lot to Boney M and Patrick Hernandez - Depardieu sings 'Born to be alive' as a slow ballad during the film and it is quite beautiful. I do not know if she has plans to do a whole album like Toni did.
posted by Slartibartfast @ Monday, January 01, 2007
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