Some New Film, Some Old: Russian Dolls, Juno, and Carlito's Way

Sunday, December 9, 2007

L'Auberge espagnole (2002) was the first Cédric Klapisch film I saw, and now the second, appropriately, the sequel to L'Auberge, Russian Dolls (2005), is another lovely jaunt through Europe where I live vicariously through the characters who find amazing abodes in the heart of Paris, and meaningful, hair-pulling careers as writers. Ah, where is that bottle of Bordeaux? My glass is empty and I need a refill.

Russian Dolls finds the college flatmates now buried in work they are disappointingly tied to as they struggle to make do with a reality that doesn't mesh with their dreams of yore. Each one, teetering on bona-fide adulthood, is swept off their feet by love and lust, still in touch with that dewy freshness of youth and ideals. Pour heavy. That glass is already empty...

L'Auberge Espagnole and Russian Dolls are to Generation Y, who now march solemnly into the dawn of their thirties, what John Hughes and The Breakfast Club were to Gen X-ers in the 1980s: a celluloid catharsis that demands we not deny the spirit of youth, enlightenment, of who we are, of who we love, of what we want to do, of who we want to be. Pour on!



Friday, December 14, 2007

I listed Juno in the number 4 slot of this year's Top Ten List, but it very well could have been placed further up (or down?) depending on the day. I wrote a bit about Ellen Page on Seen's sister site Scarlett Cinema, which defines Page as one of the biggest female assets to the film industry. You can read about that right here.

I'm thirsty for more of Ellen Page's fresh attitude and wit that holds as much clout as her male counterparts.


















Saturday, December 15, 2007

Hello, Brian De Palma! I missed your movie Carlito's Way in 1993, but now, nearly fifteen years later, I finally saw it, and I have to say it's one of my favorites. Pacino is always great, that's a given (except for in Two For The Money), but the real winner is Sean Penn as the coke addled, high-power attorney. For as humorless and annoying as Penn can be of late, one ought not to forget his serious contributions to cinema; his acting is simply uncanny. I have yet to see Into The Wild, but did see The Pledge (2001) and remember being impressed with his skill as a director too.

Also, some brief observations on the camera work in Carlito's: an outdoor party scene in the Hampdens reveals Penn and Pacino in extreme long shot, from what looks to be a mile away from the subjects; the sound of their conversation is crystal clear, however, and it creates a real sense of surveillance. De Palma also has the incredible ability to make the streets of New York look like they're duplicates on a set; in a number of scenes outside of a night club and an evening exterior of a cafe look downright painted.