Oooh. It’s been a minute since I’ve seen that logo…

I got this bluray because I rewatched Smoke/Blue In The Face recently, and that reminded me that I’ve never really gotten into Wayne Wang’s movies — he was another one of those 80s hot shit indie directors that’s basically been forgotten now.

Weird. I mean, the aspect ratio. It’s aaaalmost 16:9, but no movies are shot in 16:9. And indeed imdb says 1.85:1, but it’s been cut down slightly for this bluray.

And the subtitles are weird! There are three of them! One translates from Cantonese to English, but whenever they’re talking in English, there’s nothing. The third subtitles the English, but when there’s Cantonese, it just says [speaking in Cantonese]. And I have no idea what the second does, but it’s not useful, either.

Because when they’re speaking in English, it needs subtitles, and when they’re speaking in Cantonese, it really needs subtitles.

Why do everybody in this movie have a perm?

I’ve never been upstairs in an airplane… do those even exist anymore? They do! Hm, I wanna do that once in my life… The -8 is allegedly the newest iteration (but it’s more than a decade old).

Yeah… Arthouse. There really was a separate genre of films in the 80s, wasn’t there? Movies that were shown in the local cinematheques all over the world: Think Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, Peter Greenaway… Which was a separate “market” from the experimental movie market: Indie movies that are pretty conventional, really, but appeal to a slightly different market than the mainstream one.

I used to go to the cinematheque here all the time in the late 80s/early 90s, but I haven’t been in decades. I wonder what they’re showing now?

Oh! Lots of movies for children… and Goodfellas? OK. Cube!? That’s a horror movie… There’s a Woody Allen movie, which I’d guess would be there. And Cleo from 5 to 7, which is a stone cold classic. Heh, Ghost Dog — Jim Jarmusch, and Do The Right Thing — the Spike Lee movie people like.

Yeah, no. It’s old movies — 40 years older or more — and commercial movies. Doesn’t seem like they are showing new, interesting movies at all, which is a huge change from what it was like in the 80s. I guess those movies go on the festival circuit now, before being bought by Criterion for streaming?

Aaanyway. I really enjoyed this movie. I kept smiling the entire time. But it’s really… I’m not really gripped? So it’s really a kinda ⚃ movie? But I just really enjoyed letting it wash over me, so let’s go with:

Dim Sum: A Little Bit of HeartDim Sum. Wayne Wang. 1985. ⚄

I got this bluray because I read a joint interview between Alice Diop and Claire Denis in Sight & Sound, and Denis had many nice things to say about this movie.

And I understand why immediately — from the very first scene, it’s kinda gripping, and not completely unlike Denis’ films.

*gasp*

Wow. This movie is fantastic. It’s so … It’s not that it’s a subtle movie, because it tells you exactly what’s going on all the time — but not by having characters explain it at you, as most movies do. There’s these incredible shifts in where we suddenly realise something (like in the scene where Medea is mentioned) and everything shifts and you feel like shouting “DID YOU SEE THAT!” because if you’re looking at your phone while watching this, you’ll feel like nothing actually happened.

It feels like a movie in conversation not only with Claire Denis but Jeanne Dielman: It’s low key, but gripping and exciting.

And the actors in this are amazing. So many wonderful performances. Except, weirdly enough, the central character (but not the protagonist) — the woman accused of killing her child? I just didn’t buy her as the character she was portraying.

But on the other hand… perhaps that’s a very calculated move? Because that’s one of the mysteries of the movie.

Ah! It’s the second best film of 2022 according to Sight & Sound!

Saint Omer. Alice Diop. 2022. ☐ ⚀ ⚁ ⚂ ⚃ ⚄ ⚅

The name of this movie is really familiar — it has to be a major classic or something? But I bought this bluray pretty much at random, and I have no idea what this movie even is.

I assumed that the uniforms in question were military uniforms, but they’re school uniforms instead?

This has to be one of the earliest German talkies, I guess? 1931?

Oooh.

The cinematography is somewhat inconsistent? Some scenes have shots that are totally blown out, and other scenes look meticulous.

That’s my nightmare! Tender scalp.

It’s a fun movie in many ways — it seems to unsentimental and … abrupt? … which seems so unusual for its time. And, of course, everybody on screen being women (and kinda lesbian).

I think my problem with the movie is in how little character the characters have. Well, most of them — Ilse has lots of character, but the rest of them are sort of a melange.

Not even the play within the play really gets things going. There really isn’t much of a plot here, is there? (Not that there’s anything wrong with not having a plot.)

Heh heh:

The film was almost banned in the U.S., but Eleanor Roosevelt spoke highly of the film, resulting in the film getting a limited release in the US in 1932–33.

The last fifteen minutes of this is amazing — it’s unexpected, and really emotionally affecting. The rest of the movie is… It’s OK? It’s interesting and everything, but doesn’t quite fire on all cylinders.

Mädchen in Uniform. Leontine Sagan. 1931. ⚃