some movies I've been watching
Sep. 27th, 2006 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Babette’s Feast: Watched via James’s recommendation. And because he said it was like Chocolat(one could argue that it served as something of an inspiration) A rather charming tale about two sisters who passed on life and love to aid their minister father, who take in a refugee from the French Revolution(a friend of one of those loves they passed on) Years later, she comes into some money, and uses it to prepare a feast for them, in honor of their father’s 100th birthday(not that he’s still around) A rather charming tale, though there were some amusing errors in the subtitles.
Dark City: Also watched via James’s recommendation. Also well worth it. Starts off a standard ans stylish looking film noir tale and spins into an odd little cerebral scifi. About halfway through, I knew there had to be some pretty widespread beliefs that The Matrix was a ripoff of this(I would fall into that category, myself, esp. since I think this is a much better movie, not that I dislike Matrix) Pity this one isn’t the better known of the two.
Labyrinth: An old favorite, rewatched because of the sequel manga, and I finally got the DVD. Also...second Jennifer Connelly movie here. The graphics here, IMO, are(for the most part) as good as or better than most modern fantasy films, which, once you remove the "ooooo" spectacle of the CGI end up not having a lot of foundation. As a result of not having that to fall back on, storytelling gets more attention. End result is that I hold this, "Legend" "Willow" and "Ladyhawke" above pretty much any modern fantasy film.
Miss Marple Collection(BBC): And the rest of the Joan Hickson "Miss Marple" movies...I was a touch leery of these, as I generally like BBC productions a little less than A&E...they end up being so caught up in the details that they lose the feel to me, at times.(note, other Hickson’s are A&E, as are the Poirot shows) Fortunately, I liked them just as much. What makes Miss Marple great is that she really is the sweet little old busybody who’s always knitting and interfering in her nephew’s lives...she’s just also an analytical genius and shrewd observer who really DOES know how to run people’s lives better than they do.(Is sad the nephews weren’t in this set) Oddly, from the set up, you’d expect these movies to be lighter than the Poirot mysteries, but that’s not the case. Poirot’s villains are usually motivated by revenge, jealousy or greed. Marple’s villains, though, are typically more manipulative and darker, and often as much the victim as the villain, and the motive is rarely as straightforward.