movie reviews
Oct. 22nd, 2006 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonExtensive hand-sewing has given me the chance to catch up on a couple of films I've been sitting on:
I had to see Lost in La Mancha as a life-long Monty Python/Terry Gilliam fan. Gilliam's repeated problems making the film parallel the obstacles faced by "Don Quixote"; in the end Gilliam realizes it's not going to happen despite his sheer will to make the thing, rather the way Quixote regains his sanity at the end :P
I enjoyed it because it was fun to see the "artist at work" and the sheer number of things that go wrong is comical (rained out sets, sets with jets flying over head, injury of lead actor, inability to get any actors for most of pre-production). Good to know Gilliam got some mileage out of what he did shoot in the form of this movie (Depp fan alert - he was going to be in this, and is still tied to any future production).
Fire - beautiful and subtle drama about two traditional Indian sisters-in-law who fall in love with each other (fairly good review at the link). Visually beautiful, but also very quiet, you can almost see how the character chafe in the roles of traditional, dutiful wives and daughter-in-laws. In particular, I think the characters complement each other perfectly, I can see the appeal of someone like Sita (young, playful, constantly butting heads with authority) to someone like Radha (older, serious, suffers her lot in silence).
It's less about the lesbian relationship and more about bucking tradition in general - parts of it might read as irrelevant to western viewers but, then, modern Europe/America is far, far less traditional than it used to be (I think this is why the Bollywood remake of "Pride and Prejudice" worked so well - the roles of women in modern India are more like those during Jane Austen's time - but I'm digressing).
I had to see Lost in La Mancha as a life-long Monty Python/Terry Gilliam fan. Gilliam's repeated problems making the film parallel the obstacles faced by "Don Quixote"; in the end Gilliam realizes it's not going to happen despite his sheer will to make the thing, rather the way Quixote regains his sanity at the end :P
I enjoyed it because it was fun to see the "artist at work" and the sheer number of things that go wrong is comical (rained out sets, sets with jets flying over head, injury of lead actor, inability to get any actors for most of pre-production). Good to know Gilliam got some mileage out of what he did shoot in the form of this movie (Depp fan alert - he was going to be in this, and is still tied to any future production).
Fire - beautiful and subtle drama about two traditional Indian sisters-in-law who fall in love with each other (fairly good review at the link). Visually beautiful, but also very quiet, you can almost see how the character chafe in the roles of traditional, dutiful wives and daughter-in-laws. In particular, I think the characters complement each other perfectly, I can see the appeal of someone like Sita (young, playful, constantly butting heads with authority) to someone like Radha (older, serious, suffers her lot in silence).
It's less about the lesbian relationship and more about bucking tradition in general - parts of it might read as irrelevant to western viewers but, then, modern Europe/America is far, far less traditional than it used to be (I think this is why the Bollywood remake of "Pride and Prejudice" worked so well - the roles of women in modern India are more like those during Jane Austen's time - but I'm digressing).
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-23 03:38 am (UTC)