with my last heartbeat...

       Last night my partner-in-crime, Collin, made me venture to the shady streets of Williamsburg to watch a film I've been dying to see. Heartbeats (les amours imaginaires) is the second film from my enemy Xavier Dolan. No I don't know him personally, but any 21 year old who has made two films that have been showcased at the Cannes Film Festival is no friend of mine. What I will say is that he knows how to make a film. Sure there were certain elements that I could do without, such as the weird lighting during the sex scenes, but the dialogue made up for any epileptic shock I was experiencing. Plus the soundtrack is friggin amazing. BANG BANG. Dolan has managed to make characters that speak the way that young'uns speak today. It was very strange because Collin and I both realized we were watching ourselves on screen. We're exactly like the bitch couple, Francis and Marie, and I was hard to watch our images reflected back at us. The story centers around two best friends who happen to fall in love with the same boy, Nicolas. Whether Nico is gay or straight is questionable because he's so friendly, his nature is hard to interpret. Watching Marie and Francis try to figure Nicolas out and fall in love with him in the process, is exactly how people fall in love today. There are no more dates or real courtship. Love nowadays slowly creeps up on you before you have a chance to acknowledge it. This movie has reignited my desire to get a fucking movie out by the end of 2012. 

brick by brick....

Brick is a neo-noir tale where all the suspects aren't old enough to legally buy alcohol. The plot centers around Brendan, our outcast sleuth, who is looking for the murderer of his ex-lover. His journey for the truth leads him into the seedy underworld of his high school's social elite. He finds himself entangled in the lives of stock characters of film noir, including a femme fatale who has her eyes on him, played by Nora Zehetner. Even though the film is set on the football fields of today, the dialogue harkens back to Humphrey Bogart with a cigarette in his mouth. And although all the houses look the same in this generic subarbian town, there is violence that is worthy of a Robert Mitchum flick. I enjoyed the film a lot and it even won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. See if you can figure out the mystery before Brendan does, gumshoe.

with words of love....

On Mother's Day this year I took my mother to see Letters to Juliet. My mom's a tricky minx. She only watches romance movies and she's very specific about them. She desires sweeping epics and grand gestures that culminate into the romantic equivalent of a sonic boom. Her favorite movies are The Notebook (not surprising) and the Sissi L'Imperatrice anthology. She's read all of Nicholas Sparks' novels with a critical eye and when I took her to see Dear John, she was outraged at the mediocre ending. However she genuinely liked Letters to Juliet, which ultimately meant that while she was swooning, I was gagging in my seat. Now that doesn't mean it's a tragically bad movie. It has everything you expect from the genre. Amanda Seyfried, in her doe-eyed girly perfection, portrays the role of Sophie, an aspiring writer who finds inspiration for a story while on a pre-wedding vacation with her fiance. While in the city of Verona, she encounters a group of women who refer to themselves as the Secretaries of Juliet, because they respond to the thousands of letters women write in romantic desperation to Ms. Capulet in search of advice. Sophie answers one of these letters that causes Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) to return to a fifty-year old journey for love. Of course on the way Claire finds her lover and Sophie begins to fall for Claire's grandson. The plot is predictable and the dialogue is superficial. The saving grace of the film is the supporting cast. Regardless of the film's lack of real interest in Claire's character, Ms. Redgrave proves that she's a true actor and makes her simple moments on screen enjoyable and poignant. Gael Garcia Bernal, who plays Sophie's chef fiance, is so much fun to watch and I found myself actually rooting for him. Maybe I just hate other people's happiness. I don't think this film possess the same passion that The Notebook exudes but if you're looking for a simple film to make you simply remember love, than maybe writing to Juliet wouldn't be the worst thing.



The actor that play Claire's long lost love, Franco Nero, is Vanessa Redgrave's actual husband. Now that's romantic.

the cities we love...

On the heels of the last post, I wanted to share one of my favorite films about love. Paris, Jet t'aime, is series of vignettes about finding love in the city of love. Each story takes place in a different quartier (or neighborhood) in Paris. However, the narratives aren't about one type of love. Each story doesn't necessarily have a happy ending. Even though each vignette is a separate entity, the film in its entirety illuminates the notion that every meeting, every odd occurrence, every missed train is an opportunity to find love, to find a connection. I recommend watching the entire film, but here's one of my favorite segments:



Paris, Je T'aime, is part of a series of films called "The Cities we Love". The second film of that series is New York, I Love You. After watching the Parisian version, I ran to the movie theater the day my hometown hit the silver screens. I must say that I was dissapointed. New York, I Love You, failed to capture New York, the way its counterpart captured Paris. Most of the vignettes take place in Manhattan, in cabs. The outer boroughs are ignored and so are the cultures and ethnicities that make New York so romantic. The one section that seemed to rise above the mediocrity is this one featuring Julie Christie and Shia LaBeouf (with a weird accent). Take a look at part of that scene:



I hope these films have made your voyage on the ship of love a little steadier, the currents a little softer, and the winds a little calmer. Bisous!

life is all about coincidences

As many of my friends know, I don't like contemporary romantic movies (Jo and Joy!). Not that I have anything against love, it's just that most modern movies paint a portrait of love that is unrealistic and unattainable.So under the trusted guidance of a fellow film lover, I checked out Lovers of the Arctic Circle, a Spanish film from director Julio Medem (Sex and Lucia), about two childhood lovers that are brought together by a series of fortunate coincidences. The movie keeps reiterating the message that things in life are cyclical and love, as well as opportunities, are all around us if we'd only look in the proper directions. However, since this is a romance that I like, I would like to warn you that it's not a fairy tale. These lovers,Otto and Ana, (their palindromic names play a role in the film) have trials to endure. But love, like life, isn't about the destination; It's about the journey. It also asks whether you wait for life to hand you your chances or should you seek them out for yourself. See if you can determine the answer by watching one of the first scenes of the movie.

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