Film festival impressions / More ALIAS
Jul. 3rd, 2005 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thalia_seawoodYesterday was the last day of the Munich film festival and I finally found the time to watch two films.
"Die Bergkatze" was a fun experience:
It's a silent movie made in 1921 by Ernst Lubitsch. There's the tradition that on the Munich film festival they always show one silent movie with life music composed for that film. I always enjoy these movies and this time was no exception.
This movie was a comedy and it makes fun of the military - which is apparently why it wasn't a big success back in 1921. :-)
The story of the movie takes place in a slightly surreal world: On one side, there's a military camp, on the other side, there's a band of robbers. Into this little world comes a ridiculously vein soldier named Alex who was sent to the military camp because he's a bit too popular with the ladies in the capital city. His arrival stirs things up quite a bit.
The true hero of the movie is Rischka, the daughter of a robber general. She's a tough woman with a generous heart - and she enjoys ordering the robbers around. There's one scene in which she defends the mountain side against a military attack and orders her father to stay home and make her coffee. (He does that quite happily and during one of the fight scenes he visits her and hands her a freshly brewed cup of coffee. :-))
The music composed by Aljoscha Zimmermann and performed by his little team was wonderful and really brought the film to life again.
The other movie I saw was "Imaginery Heroes".
I was a bit wary of it at first as it's about a family copying with the suicide of a family member. The movie handles things brilliantly though. There are some emotional scenes, but they are well done and never sugar coated. The darkness of the theme is counterbalanced by a sense of humour, because even when things are sad they can be funny.
During the course of the movie we learn that basically everyone has some sort of secret. When the secrets are gradually revealed, many odd things all of a sudden start to make sense.
The characters in the movie are well rounded and I came to care for them all, even for the father who appears to be just a big bastard in the beginning.
Another plus are great performances by all the actors. Sigourney Weaver's performance stands out in particular.
There's also an interesting friendship between Tim (brother of the suicide victim) and Kyle. I thought that I had read too many slash stories when I started to notice some subtext in their friendship, but then I got a big surprise when the two guys actually kissed. :-) Also Ryan Donowho who plays Kyle has cheekbones to die for. (And yes, I know I'm a tad superficial here. :-))
Regarding ALIAS:
I watched the 2parter "The Box" today.
While watching "The Box" my inner nitpicker was hopping up and down: So there are 600 cameras in SD-6 and I'm supposed to believe they don't record things too? Because I just can't believe that the CIA wants to pretend in the end that they never entered the building... Another huge nitpick was Jack and Dixon talking about Sydney being in the vents while their captors stand about 1 metre behind them. Couldn't they have just blinked at one another in morse code? :-)
But the strength of the show lies really in the interesting and many-layered characters which definitely makes up for the plot holes. And I will happily watch any show in which Sydney and her father are working as a team. Their father-daughter relationship is one of the show's highlights. (Of course, my inner paranoid commentator - who sits next to the nitpicker :-) - is wondering if we will find out one day that Arvin Sloane is really Sydney's father...)
"Die Bergkatze" was a fun experience:
It's a silent movie made in 1921 by Ernst Lubitsch. There's the tradition that on the Munich film festival they always show one silent movie with life music composed for that film. I always enjoy these movies and this time was no exception.
This movie was a comedy and it makes fun of the military - which is apparently why it wasn't a big success back in 1921. :-)
The story of the movie takes place in a slightly surreal world: On one side, there's a military camp, on the other side, there's a band of robbers. Into this little world comes a ridiculously vein soldier named Alex who was sent to the military camp because he's a bit too popular with the ladies in the capital city. His arrival stirs things up quite a bit.
The true hero of the movie is Rischka, the daughter of a robber general. She's a tough woman with a generous heart - and she enjoys ordering the robbers around. There's one scene in which she defends the mountain side against a military attack and orders her father to stay home and make her coffee. (He does that quite happily and during one of the fight scenes he visits her and hands her a freshly brewed cup of coffee. :-))
The music composed by Aljoscha Zimmermann and performed by his little team was wonderful and really brought the film to life again.
The other movie I saw was "Imaginery Heroes".
I was a bit wary of it at first as it's about a family copying with the suicide of a family member. The movie handles things brilliantly though. There are some emotional scenes, but they are well done and never sugar coated. The darkness of the theme is counterbalanced by a sense of humour, because even when things are sad they can be funny.
During the course of the movie we learn that basically everyone has some sort of secret. When the secrets are gradually revealed, many odd things all of a sudden start to make sense.
The characters in the movie are well rounded and I came to care for them all, even for the father who appears to be just a big bastard in the beginning.
Another plus are great performances by all the actors. Sigourney Weaver's performance stands out in particular.
There's also an interesting friendship between Tim (brother of the suicide victim) and Kyle. I thought that I had read too many slash stories when I started to notice some subtext in their friendship, but then I got a big surprise when the two guys actually kissed. :-) Also Ryan Donowho who plays Kyle has cheekbones to die for. (And yes, I know I'm a tad superficial here. :-))
Regarding ALIAS:
I watched the 2parter "The Box" today.
While watching "The Box" my inner nitpicker was hopping up and down: So there are 600 cameras in SD-6 and I'm supposed to believe they don't record things too? Because I just can't believe that the CIA wants to pretend in the end that they never entered the building... Another huge nitpick was Jack and Dixon talking about Sydney being in the vents while their captors stand about 1 metre behind them. Couldn't they have just blinked at one another in morse code? :-)
But the strength of the show lies really in the interesting and many-layered characters which definitely makes up for the plot holes. And I will happily watch any show in which Sydney and her father are working as a team. Their father-daughter relationship is one of the show's highlights. (Of course, my inner paranoid commentator - who sits next to the nitpicker :-) - is wondering if we will find out one day that Arvin Sloane is really Sydney's father...)
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Date: 2005-07-04 07:07 am (UTC)Of course, my inner paranoid commentator - who sits next to the nitpicker :-) - is wondering if we will find out one day that Arvin Sloane is really Sydney's father...
Blame George Lucas for giving you the suspicion.*g* Let's just say that J.J. Abrams (Alias creator) isn't a copycat, but that Sloane certainly is the alternate father figure in Sydney's life. The irony is that he used to be, pre-Danny's death, the Good Daddy, because he was around, was emotionally accessible, provided praise, and took her home to his wife whom she adores and sees as a replacement mother. Whereas post-Danny's death of course he's the Bad Father, the one who can be blamed for anything wrong in her life and is just plain evil, and Jack is the Good Father. Sydney does this thing with her mother(s), too - dividing between Laura Bristow, dead saint, or Irina Derevko, living embodiment of evil - but of course it's a little more complicated than that in all cases, and it's a tough process for her, finding that out.
Regarding The Box: besides Jack and Sydney working together, which I loved, I must confess my favourite scenes were the Arvin Sloane versus McKennas Cole ones ("I can't be the first person having trouble to take you seriously"), and the aftermath because once Jack arrives, you do see the torture thing had been getting to Sloane, he just didn't show it to anyone else but Jack. And then he doesn't hesitate to tell Jack to cut of his finger. This was where when originally watching I decided I was fascinated by the character, I remember.