October Movie notes

1) La Belle noiseuse (aka The Beautiful Troublemaker) directed by Jacques Rivette: Rating 7/10

This 1991 French movie is all about Emmanuelle Beart or specifically Beart’s body. Michel Piccoli plays Edouard Frenhofer, a reclusive painter with his own unique painting style. Frenhofer has stopped painting a while ago but when Beart agrees to pose for him, he finds his rhythm back. There are things about art which are difficult to translate and the same goes for this movie. Some things don’t translate fully but nonetheless a decent movie. Beart’s expressions are spot on as usual.

2) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (directed by Michel Gondry): Rating 6/10

A great story idea penned by Charlie Kaufman, Gondry and Pierre Bismuth but a very poor on screen execution. Jim Carrey as expected is great in his role but the problem really is with the movie rhythm. The movie is caught in between a European and Hollywood feel. If it was a truly a French movie, then it would have worked. If it was in the realm of a complete Hollywood movie, then maybe it could have made it. The story is around the idea that people can go to a certain company to erase their painful memories. The journey through Carrey’s brain when his memories are being wiped is a great visual achievement. But in the end, very disappointed.

3) Coffee and Cigarettes (directed by Jim Jarmusch): Rating 4/10

A series of 11 black and white shorts filmed with a common thread of caffeine and nicotine. 10 of the shorts feature coffee, 2 have tea (with one being coffee free). I think only one short does not have cigarettes.

Anyway, the first 6 movies can be discarded. That is a big thing considering the first one stars Roberto Benigni as a severe coffee/cigarette junkie. Jarmusch shot the first few shorts in 1986 and then finished the rest of the films in 2002/03 or so. After movies such as Ghost Dog, Night on Earth, Dead Man, I was expecting more from him. But in the end, most of the efforts are not that great.

The seventh movie titled ‘Cousins’ starring Cate Blanchett in a double role is quite good. This is the only movie which features expresso.
The 8th movie is best forgetten.
The 9th movie titled ‘Cousins?’ is probably the best of the lot starring Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan. This is the only short which does not have coffee but only tea.
The 10th movie starts Bill Murray & RZA, GZA (of the Wu-Tang Clan) and is not bad. This one also features herbal tea.

4) Ju-on: The Grudge (directed by Takashi Shimizu): Rating 6.5/10

I finally watched the original Japanese movie before the Hollywood remake is released on Oct 22. Now, I was expecting a lot more scary scenes from this movie than what transpires. But in typical Japanese horror fashion, the scares are brought on by carefully constructed scenes focusing on background music and tiny details. There is no need for slashing gory scenes to make people jump with anticipation; just simple scenes which slowly unravel the horror works efficiently. The story revolves around a haunted house, which has a curse placed on it because of a murder committed there. Anyone who comes in contact with the house will not survive no matter where they run to. The movie is jam packed with situations which evoke horror even before anything is shown – dark attics, an empty bathroom, closets, dark rooms, etc. It is not a bad movie but I guess what disappointed me was the expectations I had from this flick.