Absolute
Wilson 2006
105 minutes This is a
documentary about Robert Wilson, an avant garde director and producer. He is based in New York, of course, but he
has produced works all over the world.
He seems to know and be known by everyone. He has collaborated with Phillip Glass and
singer Jessye Norman and was close to Susan Sontag, all of whom appear in the
film. He is called a fearless artists
and a creative genius. Among his works
are “Deaf Man’s Glance,” “Einstein on
the Beach,” and “The Civil Wars.” One review calls him “the most controversial,
rule-breaking and downright mysterious artist of our era.”
.
Cloud
Atlas 2012
172 minutes Several stories are
presented in bits and pieces over many centuries and actions in one era may
affect events in another. The fun is in
the actors, each of whom plays multiple roles.
Tom Hanks is recognizable most of the time and you can’t miss Halle
Berry but Hugh Grant can be tough and so can Jim Broadbent. As a film, it was o.k.
.
Forty
Seven Ronin 2013 127 minutes
I’m sorry, but this title is totally misleading. There was a real incident in Japan where 47
leaderless samurai commited seppuku, and it has been told in film more than
once as “Forty Seven Ronin” or “Chushingura.”
This film is a fantasy that tells some other story, and it’s a lousy one
at that. The costumes and sets look
Chinese and the film has all the quality of a 1950s Hong Kong production. I hated it.
.
Lilyhammer I pretty much binged watched through season 3 of
this Netflix original series. If you
haven’t watched seasons 1 and 2, you won’t understand anything. Each of the ten episodes consists of bits and
pieces of earlier story lines. It’s a
big waste of time, and I loved it.
.
Marco
Polo I binged watched the first season of this made-for-Netflix
epic. Marco Polo’s father leaves him in
China with Kublai Khan as a sort of hostage.
Marco soon becomes a favorite of the Khan, but that doesn’t mean life is
without risk, because he is resented by some of the courtiers and not all of
the strategies he recommends work. It’s
interesting overall, especially the Khan who is likely to put people to death
for the slightest offense. Not only is
he cruel, but he’s is obese and ugly as sin.
Nevertheless I found myself liking him.
There’s lots of nudity and torture for those who are into that. One problem is that the whole production is
kind of dark. I don’t mean content;
there’s just not enough light to see what’s going on.
.
Sneakers 1998
128 minutes Robert Redford runs
a company that tests the security systems of businesses like banks that need
such systems. He’s actually a fugitive
from the law, but he has a new identity and has collected a team of hackers and
electronic wizards, including one blind guy.
He’s approached by two agents from NSA and asked to steal a black box
developed by a university math professor that will break any code. They offer a lot of money, $175K, and also to
clear his record. Redford does get the
box. It turns out the two agents aren't really from NSA. They get the box, so
then Redford has to steal it back from them to pass it to the real NSA. It’s pretty exciting stuff.
.
Two
Lives
(Zwei Leben) 2012 99 minutes
At the end of WW II, many of the children born to Norwegian women and
German soldiers were taken to Germany. Some were adopted by German families; others were raised in
orphanages. Both societies shunned the Lebensborn children and their mothers
after the war; in Norway, women known to have had relationships with Germans
during the Occupation were sometimes incarcerated in work camps. In East
Germany, some German orphans were recruited by the Stasi as agents and given false identities, so
that they could "escape" to Norway to be reunited with their birth
mothers, claiming places of war children and serving as spies. Reportedly there
are still such Lebensborn agents in Norway who have not been discovered. In the film we follow one such agent, who
found her “birth mother,” married, had children and now has a new granddaughter. She is totally assimilated. Then the wall comes down and efforts are made
to identify the children who were taken to East Germany and offer them
repatriation to Norway and financial compensation. As the lawyers begin to examine her case, her
cover starts to unravel, and she knows she is in danger from former Stasi
agents who have settled in Norway and want to live out their lives there. It’s a fascinating story of people under
extreme stress as they watch their lives unravel. Juliane Kohler plays the Stasi agent.
She was new to me; I hope I see her again.
.
Zelig 1983 79
minutes This is Woody Allen
innovating. He creates a character who
is so eager for acceptance that he even begins to look and act like the people
he is with -- fat, thin, any color, any profession. Mia Farrow is a shrink in the New York
Hospital where he ends up. She can’t
figure it out, but she falls for him. He
disappears and then turns up with Hitler at a rally in Munich. She brings him back and eventually his
symptoms fade away. What’s interesting
about the film is Allen’s use of newsreel footage to recreate New York in the
1920s and 1930s.
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