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Tu te souviendras de moi (2020)
Brilliant!
As a previous reviewer said; a little Still Alice but also a a little Memento. A study of memory from a very quebecois perspective; sensitive, touching, funny, sentimental, life affirming, philosophical. Just great - well done to all involved.
The New Pope (2020)
No one else could have pulled this off
I had to watch the finale a second time because there is so much going on. I was so disappointed that this was met with such oh hum reviews - it is one of the best TV series ever. I guess you either love him or don't and to watch Sorrentino who has been my favorite director for some years, you have to let go and suspend expectations. His skill is in being suggestive - never dumbing it down to the obvious but allowing the viewer room for their own interpretation and to leave you always wanting.
I guess it was inevitable that his fascination with faith, fanaticism, the catholic church, its proximity to Italian culture, and his irreverence would come together in something like this - there were hints in prior work that he wasn't quite done with it. The script was amazing as I don't believe Paolo is English fluent - I could be wrong but have only seen him interviewed with a translator. Every scene a work of art and brilliantly selected soundtrack. The palette and imagery reminded me, particular the opening credits of Too Old to Die Young but there the comparison ends. Even the beginning credits were creative - different every couple of episodes .
My own interpretation for what it's worth is this is a rock star Jesus appearing amongst us, and it would be only natural that he aspire to the top faith job and appeal in a contemporary way to the young but all the while reinforcing the tarnished values of the faith. "The Young Pope" had him finding his way, figuring how best to reveal himself, and learning that that world had moved on and the old standards interpreted by a church bureaucracy informed by old men's weaknesses needed to be influenced but could not be (and maybe didn't need to be) radically changed, and understanding modern failings and conflicts. The second coming unlike the first did not pose a threat and thus the method of demise less important - but he did bear the scars. Just as then the world needed faith and just as then imaginations were fired with a sign to the faithful and the doubters that was enough, but not enough to cause conflict or revolution. Love prevails.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Why I love this Movie
I can totally understand why this movie does not attract universal appeal. The entertainment is concealed within the story and figuring out your personal interpretation of what it represents - and that I acknowledge may be nothing much but it'll take some time to get there and perhaps several screenings.
Many directors at some point pay homage to their profession (Once upon ATI Hollywood, 81/2, The Player, Hail Caesar etc) and this could be Inarritu's. On one level it is about acting and the debate about whether theatre or film requires the most skill/talent or whatever.
The cast are first and foremost players within a film about a play - explaining as some have commented the stilted performances; trying to carry to the person seated in the balcony. To reinforce this there are limited cuts - like acts in a play. The players have to remember pages of script and learn stage markers.
To further compound there are the casting ironies; Keaton as the super intense over energised charachter that we know so well (which he says is most unlike him ahem!) and Norton playing the script finagler that we are lead to believe that he is. Plus their prior roles as superheros brings a biographical element to their casting along with emma from Spiderman and Naomi possibly extending the role of Betty/Diane from Mulholland Dr.
Two hollywood characters feeling they need to play the boards to be truly recognised in the eyes of their profession and another who feels that's the last place he needs to be to act (or live - for him real life is acting). A critic who can make or break a play describing "hollywoods" as celebrities. Does this set the scene for where we are about to be asked to be sympathetic? Plus there is a certain air of disdain around the achievement of "Birdman"; "Directing and starring in your own play? That's ambitious".
Overlayed on this is human frailty of wanting to be respected and already having been venerated as a larger than life character who was approached with such intensity that the actor became him (at the cost of family) including those in this case imagined, superhero gifts.
With the approach of personal, professional and financial failure that not even these gifts can overcome the only option to change this scenario is to die on stage; gain professional attention, legendary status and avoid the sting of failure.
Was the end a death dream or homage to the superhero industry where no injury is too great that it can't be overcome and where the hero gets to fly away and fight another day or was the whole thing a play about a play after all... its left up to you.
Intriguing story within a story within a story, great script, clever casting and brilliant acting. It his best for me.
The Highwaymen (2019)
The Story from the Other Side
Why did no one ever think to bring these two actors together before? What a superb combination. Costner plays his grumpy old with the hardened skin and the sentimental interior, Woody is Woody. Partners from way back that tolerate each others annoying habits and behaviours they spend three months, seemingly living in cars tracking the two criminals who are only ever shown in fleeting half glimpses.
One has a real sense of time passing, the waiting , the staking out, the false leads, the incompetence of corrupted local police and public who saw them as heroes rising up against the machine that caused the great depression. All the while a pervading cloud of dirt and grinding Grapes of Wrath poverty.
Amazing attention to detail adds to the atmosphere.
This attracted poor initial reviews as my guess is that most were expecting what the trailer suggested; a shoot em up police procedural. Its a study of the time, culture and the grinding pursuit of two of America's high ranking public enemies
Play for Today: Stronger Than the Sun (1977)
Early Poliakoff foretells themes to come - possible spoiler
I think I have now seen all of his work and I am fascinated by his perspective as an outsider, an observer with a healthy paranoia. Impenetrable mysteries that we can't hope to figure out like who makes decisions and the power of institutions. These are themes that run thro his work along with a fascination with authority and the English class system and of course later, history thru photographic image. There is so much power in the story that the endings I find are often anticlimactic - not that that deteriorates from the whole.
What a combination of talent; Apted, Poliakoff, Bell and Aniss.