Ever since I was small I have been captivated by the vivacious Katharine Hepburn. My Mother and Grandmother have always instilled in me the power of her acting and her ability to question society in the days when women weren't meant to represent any sense of masculinity and strength. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) is one of my favourite Hepburn films because it too encompasses a sense of questioning in an age of racial tension in America. The film tells the story of Joanna 'Joey' Drayton (Katharine Houghton-Hepburn's real-life niece), a young woman of a liberal upper class background, who has begun a love affair with Dr. John Prentice (Sidney Poiter), a young physician.
The couple visit Joanna's home in San Francisco, where she introduces her fiance to her successful parents Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn). John's parents also attend dinner ad are surprised to find that Joanna is white. Monsignor Ryan (Cecil Kellaway), a senior Catholic Priest friend of Matt Drayton's also attends the dinner and serves as the voice of reason and tolerance. This film is a beautiful film depicts the reaction of family and friends as they try and accept the choice made by Joanna and John. I recommend it to anyone.
4. Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) (1997)
After finding out that 2001's Vanilla Sky starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz was a remake, I immediately had to see it. Don't get me wrong, I loved Cameron Crowe's remake of the original, but there's something magical about the original.
From a prison cell, Cesar (Eduardo Noriega), a 25-year-old in a prosthetic mask tells his story to a psychiatrist Antonion (Chete Lera). Several flashbacks reveal important events: good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (Penélope Cruz), the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez). Later on, he takes her home and stays the night, although they don't sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) pulls up outside Sofia's flat and when she spots César leaving in the morning, she offers him a ride back to her apartment to have sex. On the way there, however, she intentionally crashes the car, committing suicide, and César is horribly disfigured. Sofia can not bear this and returns to Palayo's side.
After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. He passes out drunk in a street and wakes to find that Sofia not loves him and his face is no longer distorted.
But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she apparently changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her with a pillow, yet finds everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía.
From then on, fragments of his past begin to return to him and it becomes clear that shortly after his accident, he contacts Life Extension, a company who specialise in cryonics, to be preserved and experience lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams.
Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialise in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He had committed suicide at home after sleeping drunk on the street, and was placed in cryonic suspension. His experiences from about the midpoint of the movie onward have been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film he elects to wake up and be resurrected. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street is simply a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, César leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, resolving to open his eyes once more to real life outside the cryonic fantasy.
This film really is a pleasure. It is complex, intelligent and audacious. Cameron Crowe's remake is also unforgettable. For me this film stands out because of its great soundtrack and beautiful imagery. However, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) is an unforgettable experience.
3. Once (2006)
This film really is such a gem. I first saw this film with my sister and we both fell in love, mostly with the absolutely beautiful music. We got the chance to see the films stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in Sydney and it too was the most beautiful experience.
The film tells the story of an (unnamed) male who resides in Dublin writing hauntingly beautiful songs about his break-up with his girlfriend who cheated on him. He lives with his father and makes a living fixing vacuum cleaners, and singing and playing for money on the streets of Dublin. One of these nights he meets a young (also unnamed) Czech girl who plays piano, does odd jobs and cares for her mother and young daughter.
This unlikely pair begin a friendship based on their love of music and the Girl encourages the Guy to put together a demo disc in the hope they may land a music contract in London. Over the course of a few days the Guy and Girl embark on a journey together examining their past loves, and reveal their indescribable, unique love for one another through their haunting songs.
I would recommend to anyone to listen to this soundtrack. You will definetely not regret it. The music featured in this film is the most beautiful music I have ever had the pleasure to listen to.
2. Garden State (2004)
I can't really stand Zac Braff. I don't really know why, maybe I've seen too many Scrubs episodes, and he has released some terrible movies in the last few years. However, Garden State is certainly not one of them.
I will admit I like a film with a good soundtrack and Braff offers this to his audiences almost perfectly.
I couldn't write the plot summary anymore encompassing than this:
"Andrew Largeman shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, "Large" hasn't been home to the Garden State in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he's had on his son from afar. Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father. By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam, a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life".
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Upon initial viewing of this film I wasn't quite sure if it was as brilliant as everyone was making it out to be. To be quite frank, I didn't really get it! I viewed the film a second time, I absolutely loved it. This film is filled with such depth and intelligence
Joel Parish (surprisingly brilliantly portrayed by Jim Carrey) is an unhappy, withdrawn man who meets Clementine (also brilliantly played by Kate Winslet) a girl who is everything he is not, a free spirit, although at times dysfuntional. They are attracted to each other immediately despite their differences
They interact as if they have never met one another before, but in actual truth the pair were former lovers who separated after two years together. After a shattering fight, Clementine, in her true reckless spirit, decided to pay for program to have her memories of Joel erased from her mind. Upon learning of this procedure, Joel also has his mind wiped immediately after Clementine. However, Joel while unconscious, has second thoughts and decides he will do whatever it takes to fight the procedure and keep the memories of Clementine.
Much of the film revolves around Joel trying to preserve his memories. Audience watch as we view their love and courtship in reverse. However, it appears that all his memories of Clementine have been erased.
The employees of the Lacuna Corporation are revealed to be more than just peripheral characters. Mary (Kirsten Dunst) had an affair with the married doctor, Dr Howard Mierzwiak, who heads the company (Tom Wilkinson). In order to keep the affair a secret, Mary has the affair erased from her memory.
Patrick (Elijah Wood), who is lonely, becomes fixated on Clementine during her own erasing procedure and uses Joel's own personal mementos to seduce her. This situation proves to have a critical effect on the films main storyline.
Once Mary learns of the affair she had with the doctor, she steals all records and sends them to all clients. Joel and Clementine both listen to their initial erasure tape recording and realise their relationship can still exist, even if everything isn't perfect
If you haven't seen this film, please do. It is beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment