About Movies

I realized that a blog should be about something, not just about anything. So today, I've made this a movie blog.

With Cinemanila No. 9 on an extended run until August 28, 2007, there is a good start. Plus, a lot of new movies in the regular cinema provide plenty to write about. You don't need to guess but I enjoy great movies like a bookworm enjoys a novel.

The first movie is Paris Je T'aime. The idea was to create a movie to promote Paris as a romantic city. Sort of like a tourist film featuring various places of interest in Paris with an interesting story to follow. A series of short films (around 5 to 7 minutes each) provides the viewer with a taste of Paris. What piques the audience's interest to watch this movie is the assembly of important name directors such as Assayas, Craven, the Coens, and Salles, and familiar film faces like Steve Buscemi, Miranda Richardson, Willem Dafoe, and Juliet Binoche. The movie was a full house in the screening I was in. Enough about what the movie is. You can always Google it.

This is not a great movie or a classic, interesting but not all that fascinating. Episodes are disjointed, unrelated to each other except that they are set in various parts of the city as a sort of showcase. It's not yet clear to me why the episode entitled "Bastille" was about a husband who leaves his mistress for his wife who is dying of cancer, or why the film about a mime was called "Tour Eiffel." I'll probably get it once I visit those places, read up on their history and watch the movie right after. I like that the director's were sort of given the opportunity to "run with it", not to be stuck with the usual movie narrative conventions, almost experimental and art house. Though, not all directors chose to do so.

With a "chopsuey" for a movie, you have to have a favorite. Alexander Payne's "14th arrondissement" was funny and heartbreaking. Also, this is the first film of Catalina Sandino Moreno that I've seen and she is a presence. I like the "vampire" episode because it seems that it was made just for fun. My favorite though is the Christopher Doyle episode about Chinese hair salons. Aside from its comedic treatment, I like the idea that the Chinese are everywhere and just like most Asian communities, can not do without a beauty pageant. We all need a taste of home and Chinese have made a home in Paris with a their festivals and Miss China-France.