WALL – E

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The new Pixar/Walt Disney film is about a love story between two robots.

The earth is completely full of rubbish and robots are cleaning it all up while mankind has fled to big ships in space, supposedly for five years. 700 years later WALL-E seems to be the last robot on earth still cleaning. The humans have not yet returned to earth. The clumsy little robot is living in a broken truck with his pet cockroach and meanwhile has a huge collection of things he has found in the piles of trash he’s been cleaning up all this time (similar to Ariel’s collection in The Little Mermaid).

One day a big space rocket lands and the beautiful robot EVE is left on earth to see if any plants have started growing again. WALL-E immediately falls in love with EVE, who shows no particular desire to get to know him. In fact, she tries to blow him up.

When EVE gets collected again by the space rocket, WALL-E follows her and the story continues among the humans on a big spaceship.

Even though this is an animation film, it seems to be aimed more at adults that at children. The love between the two robots is a very grown-up love and the film has a political message. The people on the spaceship are what we are heading for at the moment: Everyone is living on a floating chair, with a screen right in front of their faces and food in a shake. They are unbelievably fat, stupid and ignorant.

Of course, WALL-E and EVE change everything and people begin to realize what they are doing and will hopefully now mend their ways.

The film is very cute and even though there is hardly any dialogue it is thoroughly entertaining. I really loved it and recommend it to everyone!

Adoration

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In the framework of the Filmfest Hamburg the Canadian director Atom Egoyan was awarded the Douglas Sirk prize. Wim Wenders held the laudatio.

He told the audience the story of how he met Atom Egoyan for the first time twenty years ago at the Montréal Film Festival. It was a festival for young directors and Wenders won the Jury prize with a cheque for $5000 dollars. He felt quite guilty about receiving the prize because he was already over forty and was presenting his 15th film. As he was being handed the cheque his mind was racing and then he saw the runner up – the 27-year-old Atom Egoyan who was presenting his second film, “Family Viewing”. Wenders handed the cheque to the young man and dedicated the prize to him.

One year later Atom Egoyan won the prize at the same festival, this time it was a cheque for $10,000, at a time when he urgently needed the money. But when he saw Wim Wenders in the audience he acted quickly and handed the cheque to the runner up of that year. What a beautiful gesture!

After the long and very nervously delivered speech by Wim Wenders, Atom Egoyan came up to the stage. He was witty and confident and the first thing he said was, “Thank you, Wim, but what I never told you was this: When I got back home after receiving the cheque from you, I went to the bank to cash it. The person at the bank asked me ‘Are you Wim Wenders?’. When I said that I wasn’t but Wim had given me the cheque, he said that I couldn’t get the money. So the cheque was utterly useless.”

The film that was shown was the German premiere of Adoration.

Adoration is a very moving film about a teenager, Simon, who, inspired by his teacher as part of a drama project, makes up a story about his parents and tells it to his classmates as if it was real. The whole class starts discussing the events related by their friend on-line in a chat room. Even the parents have a chat room of their own where they are discussing the same issues. The protagonist refuses to tell his classmates that it was in fact a fake story.

There are several other strings – the real story about Simon’s parents, his life as it is at the moment, living with his uncle and the story of his teacher.

I liked that it was such a contemporary story, people are communicating via web-cam and Simon records his grandfather on his mobile phone. Although I have to say, being in a modern world, people could have googled Simon’s father and would have found out that it was a fake story.

Adoration is a great film and I will try to watch some other films by Atom Egoyan in the future.

(foto: Filmfest Hamburg)

What’s New Pussycat?

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This film is absolutely hilarious. A very young and potent Peter O’Toole is having trouble with the ladies. Every girl he meets wants him. Poor fellow. He goes to see Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Peter Sellers) to help him, for he believes himself to be in love with his neighbour Carole (Romy Schneider).

Carole wants the two of them to get married, but O’Toole’s character Michael James wants to have some more fun before he settles down. He goes out every night to meet women (such as Bond girl Ursula Andress and the gorgeous Capucine), which is making Carole rather angry. She turns to Michael’s friend Victor (Woody Allen) because she knows that he loves her.

What’s New Pussycat is crazy and confusing, but a lot of fun. The characters are wildly overdrawn (for example, Peter Sellers speaks with a sort of Austrian accent and is wearing what is obviously a wig) and the dialogues are mad (Michael: “Pussycat from the sky. I can’t resist you!” Girl: “Don’t resist. Capitulate!”). It is Woody Allen’s feature film début (writing and acting in it) – a really impressive start to his long career!

The film inspired me to draw this little cartoon. 😉

The Dark Knight

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Another film in the Batman series, the second one starring Christian Bale as Batman. He is great in this role, convincing as the sleazy millionaire Bruce Wayne and almost frightening as the Dark Knight.

Although I didn’t think the film was as dark as the papers claimed, it is indeed fairly gruesome. The story is quite weak: there is a predictable twist in the end and it doesn’t differ much from the other Batman films. But it is still fun to watch. As in all Batman films, the gadgets are the best thing about it. I would love to drive the Batmobile (which turns itself into a futuristic motorcycle).

The actors are great. The late Heath Ledger gives a daunting performance as the evil Joker (played by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 Batman), and Michael Caine and Gary Oldman are just as entertaining as in Batman Begins.

You should definitely watch Batman Begins again before taking in this one. I was a bit lost at the beginning as to what was going on because I couldn’t remember much from the prequel.   

A Good Woman

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This film is a sweet adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan”.

Scarlett Johansson is the naive Meg, newly married to Robert Windermere (Mark Umbers). They are spending the summer season at the Amalfi Coast in Italy and having a swell time until Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) shows up.

Driven away from New York City by jealous wives, she is now mingling with the upper class in Amalfi and forms a close relationship with Robert.

The whole town is talking about the alleged affair but sweet Meg doesn’t notice until her admirer, Lord Darlington, points it out to her. Of course it all turns out well in the end.It is a lovely film for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Beautiful pictures of Italy and a fun plot. The background characters (mostly elderly men) are especially enjoyable to watch.

Moulin Rouge!

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One of my favourite films. This is a story about Truth, Beauty, Freedom and above all things, Love.Christian is a young writer come from London to Paris to live a penniless existence and write about love. The only problem is, he has never been in love. This changes radically when he lays eyes on the “sparkling diamond” Satine, a can-can dancer at the Moulin Rouge.

He convinces her that they should be together, but what neither of them knows is that she is suffering from a fatal disease. The other problem for their love is that the rich, insanely jealous Duke wants to have Satine to himself and is spending a fortune to turn the Moulin Rouge into a theatre.

The first twenty minutes are a dazzling mixture of colour, light, music, singing and dance. Everything is going so fast that the audience is swept up in this strange and wonderful world. It slows down after a while when the actual story begins. The camera angles and cutting techniques are quite unusual. It is a bit like watching a very long music video.

“Come What May” is the only song written specially for the movie. All the other songs were taken from popular music, such as “Roxanne” (Sting), “Your Song” (Elton John) and “Like a Virgin” (Madonna).

Moulin Rouge! is the third film in Baz Luhrmann’s “Red Curtain Trilogy”, which includes Strictly Ballroom and William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (another one of my favourites). It is a spectacle of costumes, lights and great songs. Not to be missed!

 

The Darjeeling Limited

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The Darjeeling Limited was written (together with Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola), directed and produced by Wes Anderson. Therefore it is not a normal Hollywood film. Not quite as funky as his previous films The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Royal Tenenbaums (they are both great). Nevertheless it is quirky, funny and charming.The beautiful cast consists of Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman. They play three brothers travelling on the Orient Express.

For me, the story was secondary. It’s a road movie (on a train) with several stops at different towns, a lot of quarrels and strange encounters with the locals. The three brothers don’t really know one another and this trip is a way of bonding. What really makes the film are the actors and the scenery. The landscapes and towns are wonderfully exotic.

I greatly enjoyed the little details of this film. For example, the suitcases (made especially by Louis Vuitton) have the initials of the three brothers (F.L.W., P.L.W., J.L.W) embossed on them along with little animals. The train was built especially for the movie, with detailed drawings everywhere and beautiful colours, and it’s exactly the way I would imagine the Orient Express to look like.

 

2 Days in Paris

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This is a sweet little comedy about two lovers in Paris. It is quite different from the normal love stories. Very straightforward, a lot of dialogue and two main characters who are absolutely believable. Not too cheesy or overly romantic. Genuine people in a real setting.The American Jack (Adam Goldberg) and the originally Parisian Marion (Julie Delpy) have been together for two years. After a lovely trip to Venice they stay at her parents’ house in Paris for two days. Sounds romantic?! Well, Marion has a lot of ex-lovers, and to Jack’s annoyance, they all seem to be in Paris.

The dialogue is absolutely hilarious. Marion is constantly talking, while Jack is moaning non-stop. Although very annoying, Adam Goldberg is truly wonderful and awkwardly funny.

Written, directed, produced and acted by Julie Delpy. What an accomplishment! It is definitely a film worth watching. It is so refreshing to see a film about a couple who are already going out together. I am so tired of falling-in-love stories.