Yogi's Movie Consumption Blog

An American cabaret girl falls in love with a stiff English teacher in the Berlin of the 30s, while the Nazis start to seize power over the country. The musical numbers in the movie are highly enjoyable and filled with great little visual ideas. I enjoyed them thoroughly. The actual love triangle story didn't impress a lot - I couldn't help the feeling that it was slanted too much into giving more contrast to the (prudish) Nazis that show up more and more during the movie. What did stick out for me was the editing. The pacing is what I might call 'standard', but very often there are really fast cutaways. During the stage shows, there are flashes of audience visible, some of them more visually inspired than others. The woman with the monocle, obviously inspired by Dix is quite memorable, but other shots just show generic cabaret guests clapping and laughing. I do wonder how they came up with the decision to edit that way. It could maybe be a 'director'...

A young woman is purposely infested by a parasite that turns her into a kind of zombie. She is then robbed of all her possessions. Relentlessly praised on the internet, I had extremely high expectations for this film. I can't say I was disappointed but the story felt a bit long and too much focused on the mystery of the woman's transformation. Things come together in the end, but I there were some stretches in the movie were I felt a bit overwhelmed by the symbolism and the dream-like sequences. One thing to notice is the camera work. The film was shot on a low budget, and the director decided to use many close-ups. There are noticeable few wide shots - which I think are the most fun to film. I noticed that I really prefer careful compositions that are a bit wider, but I can imagine the situation of this shoot. This choice of camera, quite possibly dictated by budget restrictions led to a very fast editing style, that doesn't give the story time to breathe and...

The famous bio-pic of one of the most astounding man ever to live. It's been a while since I've watched the film, but what most lingers in my mind are the breathtaking visuals, the enormous scene at the funeral and Ben Kingsley's absolutely fantastic performance. Sometimes a film maker has everything at the right place: a great script, a fantastic lead, and an absolutely astonishing locations to set the story in. This is one of those cases. I consider writing a good biopic one of the hardest things to do. Especially in the case of Gandhi, the biography is so rich and full of details, it takes a master surgeon to disentangle the many possible strands the plot could follow. Attenborough chose to focus on the bizarre stubbornness of Gandhi. The first couple of scenes keep repeating that theme on less important incidents, but throughout the story Gandhi's will to perservere is gradually exemplified at increasingly difficult situations. Although there is the dange...

When a falsely arrested black man turns out to be a police officers he reluctantly helps the sheriff of a racist small town in the South to solve a murder, despite all their tensions. This was a highly entertaining watch for me. Just seeing Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier play off each other is worth the time. I was fascinated by Poitier, but I somehow preferred Steiger's crazy mood jumps. For example: The sheriff's patience wears thin pretty fast with the smug behaviour of the big city homicide expert Tibbs (Poitier) - In one of the best confrontations between the two, the sheriff lets his deputy arrest Tibbs out of blind and helpless rage. Everybody in the room (and the audience) understands the pointless move but we can feel with the sheriff who just went over the edge of his intellectual and emotional possibilities. Tibbs keeps cool and has the upper hand, until he is confronted with his own racial prejudices. The scene where he meets the rich white land owne...

An invisible angel roams the streets of Berlin when he realizes that his spiritual existence is not the fulfillment of his destiny. Bruno Ganz's subdued performance takes a bit to getting used to, but his appearance on the big screen is so mesmerizing that it was my joy to watch him for the full length of the movie. He barely speaks and when he does it often sounds like he is reciting from heavy prose or dense poetry. The film in itself doesn't try to hide its schematic and for today's tastes the switch between b/w and color might even seem rather crude. I really loved the black and white renderings especially when the dancer was sitting in her trailer - beautifully lit photography at its best. The dreamlike narrative that manifests very slowly from the uncountable narratives the two angels encounter as they roam the streets of Berlin is just as unreal as the conclusion of the story: love doesn't meet out of coincidence, lovers are drawn together by fate,...

An empathic assassin tries to perform his final job to get the money to save the eyesight of one of the innocent bystanders injured during a former murder. There are many great things about this movie, but I was especially astounded by the editing and have looked at a sequence of scenes in particular. When Ah Jong goes to kill his final victim, the police force is also shown. Their job is to protect the (obviously scumbag) rich guy from being shot or attacked. They fail gloriously at their job. The first scene starts with the police officer receiving instructions to protect the VIP. Officer "Small B" gets the file on his desk, then we cut to the head of the force giving some information on their protection job on a long dolly shot. The dragon boat race is intercut with this scene, alternating between long lens and slow motion shots. At the same time "Small B" and his assistant are shown in a 2-shot - effectively separating them from the anonymous police...

Professor Rankin, a teacher in a small town in Connecticut marries the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice. She has no idea that the man she loves has a very sinister past. There is something comically surreal about the whole plot. Although the film shows some signs of a typical film-noir, it is more a political satire on post-war America. Undercover war crime agents hunting Nazi sleepers is a rather blunt set-up and many of the actions in the film verge on the ridiculous. When the 'bad guy' is finally uncovered, Welles' character goes through an inconsistent zigzag of confiding the truth to his wife, and at the same time lying to her. On the other hand he is a amateurish murderer with very weak planning ahead for such an allegedly super-smart war crime architect. His escape attempts towards are lame and stupid - packing a bag or hiding in his favorite spot in the church tower when the whole town is searching for him. I can understand why Welles didn't like th...

A convicted felon threatens to commit suicide by jumping off a high building. While a detective tries to talk him out of it, his real motives emerge. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to connect with this film - it is a solid action/thriller/heist mix, but for me the characters weren't very deep. Cinematography, editing and music were all well done, and the visual language appropriate for such a film. Some random thoughts of mine: The protagonist Nick and his ex-police partner Mike have an ambiguous relationship. At one point it's clear that Nick doesn't trust Mike anymore. His back story is credible, because he actually presents his wife to Nick, giving him a reason to abandon his co-worker for his family. This is also the core moral of the movie: "Don't trust anybody but family" Detective Mercer's back story is dropped in hints and bits by Nick and her co-workers. This lead to a long bunch of exposition during the first part of the movie, when ...

A young woman is institutionalized after a suicide attempt - she believes that she is a killer cyborg. The film starts out as a surreal comedy and at times becomes so absurd that I wasn't sure if I really want to go on, or if Korean slapstick is simply lost on me. But once all the characters are well established the story turns to a very moving and beautiful story about love between lost souls. I've felt compassion for every single side character - although their actions seem ridiculous at first, once their back story is established everything (sort of) makes sense in that universe. As I've experienced often in newer Asian films there is an abundance of beautiful pictures and smart compositions. I also noticed the ease with which the director shifts from very long takes on steadycam to the fast editing of violent genre movies - RoboGeisha comes to mind. The script has been well developed and practically every remark made in the first half does somehow pay off in the ...