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January 21, 2004
And None To Go
I sat down and watched the last two DVDs I already owned for the top 100 films list...
Once Upon A Time In the West represents a move in Leone's westerns from the more comic elements of the Man With No Name trilogy (which I love) to more gritty melodrama. And to actually filming in the American West. The familiar deliberate (some would say slow or even glacial) Leone pacing is on display, the cinematography is amazing, and the story... Well, what we have is good, but it's told in a rather disjointed style, making it seem more complex and confusing than it actually is. Still, the characters are striking and bold, the acting perfectly matched to the Leone style (which means the actors often stand in place as another part of the carefully framed set), and the tough guys are classic. The Ennio Morricone music (essentially one theme repeated over and over again) doesn't quite work for me, particularly the numerous times when it is halted mid-theme to comment on the on-screen action; this seems too comic a technique for the film. Still, that's just a minor flaw. Well worth the 2 and a half hours!
Amelie is another recent film, sitting a bit higher on this list than it probably deserves, but still well deserving of a viewing. Here, we have a charmingly off-beat story of a strange French girl, not quite part of the world she lives in, trying to decide if she's willing to engage with others or remain aloof, manipulating events but not letting herself join them. Much of the film is told to us by a narrator, who gets to explain each character as we meet them and to comment on everything we see, often playing up minor-seeming events to monumental importance... And, within the world of this film, he's always right. The characters are alternately charming or disturbing (depending on what role they play in the tale), and the central two are oddly likable despite their quirkiness. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, more known for seriously offbeat work like Delicatessen or City of Lost Children here tones down the weirdness just enough to keep this film tangential to the real world, resulting in a seriously fun romantic comedy. Maybe not in the top 25 movies of all time, but certainly well worth seeing.
Posted by ghoul at January 21, 2004 08:21 AM
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