kathleen azali

Lumumba
directed by Raoul Peck, 2002

“This film is not an ‘adaptation,’ it aims to be a true story. I want to extract the cinematic narrative from reality by remaining as true to the facts as possible,” so said Raoul Peck. Using archival images of official history (many of film’s pivotal scenes are moving recreations of famous still photographs and newsreel footage from Lumumba’s short political life and assassination), Peck crafted a documentary-style recreation and meditation for what might have been in the events surrounding Lumumba’s assasination.

Continue reading “Review: Lumumba”

Yi Yi (Taiwan/Japan, 2000)
directed by David Yang
George Wu wrote an elaborate review on Yi Yi at Senses of Cinema, so go and read his. (Michael Jackson from the gayer-than-gay pub downstairs is messing with my brain, sorry.) The movie is almost three-hour long, but there’s something about its lack of dramas and every day life contemplation (reminiscent of Ozu) that despite the long shots, make it a very engaging, accessible film. Recommended.

Shunji Iwai
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) is, IMNSHO, his best work. Swallowtail (1996) is less refined but interesting nevertheless, while Picnic (1996) lacks substance. Hana & Alice (2004) and Love Letter (1995) are sweet but pale in comparison to All About Lily Chou-Chou and Swallowtail. So yeah, those two are the ones I’d recommend most.

I’ve been stuck in a state of perpetual ennui lately, forcing myself to write these harf-arsed pieces just to fill this sad little blog up. Apologies if I owe you some  correspondence/replies/whatnot, worry not, I am well, just with nothing interesting to tell.

Bus 174
Ônibus 174 (2002, Brazil)
José Padilha

This has been oh-so-often compared to aforementioned City of God, but I like this much better. On June 12, 2000, Sandro di Nascimento hijacked a bus, and for four and a half hours it was broadcasted live all across the country. This incident would be known as Ônibus 174, the hijack never portrayed as anything but a prototypical psychopath with a plan gone wrong. Continue reading “Review: Bus 174”

City of God
Cidade de Deus (2002, Brazil)
Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund

You’ve heard the hype: the focus of the story is on ‘Cidade de Deus’ (‘City Of God’), a housing project constructed by the Brazilian government in the 1960s to isolate the poor from Rio de Janeiro’s city centre. It chronicles of the growth of gang warfare and the drug trade that grip the ‘favelas’ or slums of Rio de Janeiro.

Lots of actions that somewhat remind me of John Woo, you wish realities were that simple. I’d be lying if I say I didn’t enjoy it (at least more than I did Woo’s films), but it is uncomfortably unsettling to see all these one-dimensional gung-ho stints placed at the expense of underdeveloped, underplayed caricature of one of the world’s worst slums (I’m almost tempted to say exploitative). But I guess in “sleek” movies (whose main purpose is to, d-uh, entertain) dealing with these kinds of grim subjects one’s bound to find the drama/action to be trivialising the bigger issues. I’d say watch this as a company of Bus 174, instead of the other way around.

Buy the DVD at Amazon.com

Motorcylce Diaries
Diarios de Motocicleta (2004)
Walter Salles

As a work of fiction, it was enjoyable. If the movie wasn’t based on such a popular figure whose face is on every T-shirts and posters, I’d have enjoyed it more and forget my usual nit-picking on the cult of Che and have less reason to feel such irritation about what it’s doing. (The usual problems with biographical films: hagiographic, too naively, glamourly romanticised, a charade on martyrdom all the while ignoring his savage sympathies and deeds, blah blah blah.) So to reiterate: it’s best treated purely as, well, a fiction not based on anyone. Forget who he’s supposed to represent, forget what this film is doing to those who wear his face without knowing what and who he was. Continue reading “Review: Motorcycle Diaries”