SCINTILLATING CINEMA
The Ice Storm 1997
DIRECTOR: Ang Lee
WHY I DIG IT: "The closer you are drawn back in, the deeper into the void you go," remarks Paul Hood, summing up the irresolute psycho-emotional relationship between a disoriented youth and his dysfunctional family. Adapted from Rick Moody’s book, The Ice Storm examines strained family life under the influences of sexual awakening, social experimentation, personal melancholy, and heedless disillusionment in 70’s suburbia.
Everyone Says I Love You 1997
DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
WHY I DIG IT: Anticipate the unforeseen, for in Everyone, everything goes. Filmed on location in Paris, Venice, and New York, this modern musical comedy lacks the excessively-neurotic undertones characteristic of Woody Allen’s films. Cupid’s antics keep cinephiles reeling. The film’s talented cast includes Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore, Lukas Haas, Natasha Lyonne, Goldie Hawn, Gaby Hoffman, Edward Norton, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, and Tim Roth.
ALSO BY ALLEN THAT MERIT CITING:
Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) 1959
DIRECTOR: Jean-Luc Godard
WHY I DIG IT: Spontaneity and joie de vivre reign supreme in this Beatnik-esque black-and-white New Wave film examining nuances of a capricious relationship. Romantic outlaws Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg embody free-spirited allure as two lovers ensnared in Parisian labyrinths of existentialism.
ALSO BY GODARD THAT MERIT CITING:
Three Colors feature Trilogy: Blue 1993, White 1993, Red 1994
DIRECTOR: Krysytof Kieslowski
WHY I DIG IT: These three cinematic gems work separately and collectively as a trilogy in which the contemporary meanings of the three concepts of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity are examined.
ALSO BY KIESLOWSKI THAT MERITS CITING:
8 ½
DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini
WHY I DIG IT: Juxtaposing memory with fantasy and reality, Fellini ringmasters richly textured, wildly surreal, and abstractly absurd vignettes of one burnt-out movie director’s life in this black-and-white Italian feature. We can identify with Guido Anselmi’s internal conflicts as he wrestles with deadlines, elevated-expectations, procrastination, decay, and emptiness in the context of nostalgic irrationality. Where's his Muse?
ALSO BY FELLINI THAT MERIT CITING:
Rear Window 1954
DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
WHY I DIG IT: In one of Sir Alfred’s swankiest thrillers, a bedridden photographer-turned-voyeur played by James Stewart spies on his neighbors only to find out that the boy-next-door may very well be a cold-blooded killah.
ALSO BY HITCHCOCK THAT MERIT CITING:
A Clockwork Orange 1971
DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
WHY I DIG IT: Based on an innovative novel by Anthony Burgess, this mod piece of disturbing cinema intrigues and inflames. En-griefing his parents by leading a senseless life of incorrigible crime, sinister Alex, head-honcho of the droogies cadre, finds himself in prison where he undergoes alterna-rehab. Kubrick describes this film as: "...a social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioral psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots." Remember to keep an OPEN mind when critiquing this vid.
ALSO BY KUBRICK THAT MERIT CITING:
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