Reader Alert!
The following review is repeated directly from the matri-familia, Mom, who has actually seen the movie, as opposed to me, who has only checked out the facts on IMDb ( my motto: Movie Reviews you can trust, you just have to trust my version of the facts.)
In Mom's words: "5-stars." "I loved it."
(warning: a comment on IMDb calls this a "women's film" which means I'll probably have to see it eventually) (I try to not let Linda see "women's" films with other women and especially not by herself; she can get all the wrong messages unless she has my presence there to remind her that things could always be worse.) (wait, that didn't come out the way I think I meant it)
Before Sunrise
Lovely "talkie" movie (kind of like My Dinner With Andre but with movement meaning they get up from the dinner table). A young woman and man meet on a train in Europe and spend the night walking around Vienna. I think they lay down at some point but I was really too engrossed in what they were saying. Ethan Hawke plays the man and a French actress plays the women. Like Casey Stengal said, "You can look it up" if you want to know her name. It's in English (American-English on Hawkes' part) but interesting use of other people speaking other languages without subtitles. There's a sequel we haven't seen yet but will try to soon. The title shouldn't be too hard to guess.
Diva
Absolutely one of the most gorgeous films I've seen in a long time. 1981 French film about an opera singer (a real American opera singer who had been asked to act in the movie after the producers saw her in an opera; beautiful voice and acting, you'll wish you could hear her live) who doesn't ever record herself. A young man is infatuated with her and secretly records a performance. The rest is incidental. The whole movie is about using all our senses to experience the movie. Even the sense of touch since we had to keep finding the remote everytime the phone would ring with one of the boys asking if they can stay out a little longer. Many of the scenes are staged like a work of art. Try watching it without subtitles so you can just sense what's going on. We watched it with half the subtitles since the bottom half of the subtitles was below the screen. We could easily figure out what was going on and it was much more of a sensory experience. A comment on IMDb said if you wanted to be hip in the '80's then this was one of the three movies you had to have seen. It's past the '80's now so the other two don't matter. Other comments said everything was realistic (from a French point of view) including how the man does the recording. Great scene of a philosopher and a jigsaw puzzle, also of him buttering a loaf of bread. The chase scene is supposed to be classic. If your subtitles don't work just remember what Casey Stengal said; not the one about how he was such a dangerous hitter that he got intentional walks during batting practice.
Cache
A 2005 French film with Juliette Binoche who was in The English Patient which I loved. This one had a very interesting plot, kind of like Atonement mixed in with The Battle for Algiers. Unfortunately, it really needed subtitles and they just weren't woking well in our DVD version. We missed most of the dialogue so quit after a bit.
My Dinner With Andre
I saw this in the theatre when it first came out in 1981. Since I mentioned it here I just thought I'd say, "5-stars; "I loved it."
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