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This is most excellent.

I got this DVD because it was mentioned in an article in Sight & Sounds magazine and it sounded interesting… and it is! It’s very strange. It’s got a pacing I’m not used to at all — wherever I thought the first film here was going, it totally wasn’t.

Yeah, this is three short films glued together, apparently?

And I can’t imagine what the director went through to be allowed to make something this… er… ambiguous in Iran. She must have nerves of steel.

It’s weird — I don’t associate Iran with all this seafront. But, I mean, Iran has a huge coastline… Teheran is rather inland, so I guess that might be the reason? And looking at Google Maps, it looks like the coastline to the south is really, really arid? Like in this movie.

The last two stories are kinda allegorical… but I was so worried for the old woman in the last bit! مشکینی really made the viewer care… on such a flimsy premise. So weird.

And then she tied it all together. It’s a marvellous, strange, beautiful movie.

The ending is very, very moving, but it’s hard to pinpoint why.

The Day I Became A Woman. Marzieh Meshkini. 2000. ⚅

The Wizard

Uhm… uhm… why do I have this bluray again? Hm…

Oh… I think… I bought it because I was watching the commentaries on a horror movie, and the special effects guy said that this was the best? Something like that?

Buying this based on that sounds like something I’d do.

But I don’t know anything about this. And the first couple minutes look awfully cheesy.

That’s not an extensive movie directing career… but he’s done a tons of TV shows. Including two Twin Peaks s2 episodes. And just…

… an endless number of TV things.

Bit I guess it’s not CSI: Fumblebum, so it’s a bit more high class.

As I guess you can tell by my imdb-ing so much while watching this: I’m really, really bored by this. I give it ten more minutes, and then I’m ditching it.

…:

This movie explores the depths of human emotions. It incorporates dramatic struggles ranging from a family being ripped apart because of a divorce (all too common in this work-a-day society), and a complex friendship being stretched to the limit because of the legendary California Videogame Championship.

So this is a movie beloved by assholes?

OK, five more minutes and I’m ditching this. Unless something interesting happens.

Well, OK, there’s a plot forming…

OK, I’m ditching this at 28 minutes.

It’s not … The Worst Movie Ever or anything, but I have zero interest in watching this.

The Wizard. Todd Holland. 1989. ☐

Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot

BY EMACS! THIS IS THAT MOVIE!

OK, rewind: When I watched Playtime the other year, my mind was going “Tati… Tati… I’m sure I remember a Frenchey comedy director from my childhood…” And the thing was, I just remembered one single scene: People, holding parasols and stuff, running down into the underground (on steps) and then coming back up again somewhere else, unrealistically fast.

I tried googling for that, but I came up with nothing.

Whodathunk.

BUT THIS IS IT!!!! This is the scene I remember from when I was like… ten? I remember watching it on TV with my family? I remember laughing until I almost died? But I also remember it being in colour? So obviously my memories are suspect, but…

I’m so excited now!

OK, unpause the movie.

I didn’t type anything while watching this, because I was too busy laughing. I’ve LOL-ed out loud more over the past 90 minutes than in the preceding three months.

That was just… the funniest thing ever. I guess you could say that the humour is on a Buster Keaton/Mister Bean *shiver* tip, but it’s not maudlin like Keaton and it’s not embarrassing (or unpleasant) like Atkinson usually is. It’s super duper silly… but there’s also all these details: There’s so much subtext to these scenes. For instance, I love how that British woman takes to Hubert, but he’s oblivious… and that it doesn’t end the way you’d guess at all. Tati doesn’t succumb to the obvious impulse of making his Hulot the hero here, but letting him remain… unresolved.

This is simply a wonderful movie. It’s so meticulous. And gorgeously shot. I’m not surprised that I remember this as a major event from when I was like ten.

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. Jacques Tati. 1953. ⚅