Movie Diary 2011-11 [November]

Sorry, I couldn't get it. The story was terrible, as the characters except maybe for the dog Laika, which is, well, a dog, and I like her just for that. I don't know his movies so much, but I remember to have enjoyed Juha a lot. This one instead left me like I just watched a big big sick joke, a tasteless food for the intellectuals of mediocrity.

Probably the best Avati movie I've seen so far.

You can say anything about this movie, and anything has been said actually. I had completely removed entire scenes from my memory, since I last saw it years and years ago (maybe 2003), but the last sequence (aliens) always stayed with me, and I remember I thought the movie would have been a way better without it, ending with David trapped forever under the sea. Yeah that would have been a wonderful ending. But now, rewatching the movie perfectly aware of that last scene, I sorta saw everything from another perspective, and yes, I appreciated it more, a lot more.

A wonderful piece of art.

When it comes to the 1941 Universal classic The Wolf Man, it's about the heart, more than anything else. It's obviously an outtated movie, and I never liked Lon Chaney Jr's makeup, which resembled some ugly silly curly people I know more than a terrifying werewolf (1935's Werewolf of London displayed a scarier monster, but not wolf-like at all), and it lacks a proper man-to-monster on screen transformation (only the feet are shown). The creature inspires more compassion than repulsion.

When it's about very old talkies people tend to have two different approaches: there's those (group 1) who can't stand the obvious defects in any case magnified by the pitiless passing of time, the old-fashioned acting and music, the sometimes poor picture quality, the naiveté in plot twists etc etc. so they in most cases don't even start to watch a movie like that if they know it's so old, and on the other side there's people (group 2) like me who don't fucking care about all that and try to enjoy the picture contextualizing it in its own period of time, but most of all trying to ignore the annoying comments of group 1 members, if present.

Every Miyazaki work is medicine for the soul. This is one of the few undeniable certainties that I have.

Re-seen after many years. Beautiful and touching like the first time.

It's something I need to see again and I think I'll appreciate it more. I'm not sure how to call it - documentary? art film? maybe both - sometimes delightful, sometimes tiresome, depending on the moment, and probably the viewer's (my) state of mind (and weariness: something one should not view if tired at the end of the day, or in bed - you're warned).