Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +4

[kihei]

The Last Dance (2020):

The Last Dance gets better as it goes on. I really enjoyed the series and I'm not someone who likes basketball.

7.5/10

I got a little weary of the constant Jordan perspective as it progressed; the series seemed to become "the case" for Jordan over James. Gotta admit, it's a strong case.

 

[kihei]

This isn't a response to Nameless 1's review of Too Many Ways to Be Number 1, just something I was musing about yesterday. To whit, the new century has been great for Asian directors in general. I mean the list of talented directors who have emerged this century or capped their careers with distinguished films this century is an incredibly long and impressive one:

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives)
Jia Zhang-ke (Still Life)
Tsai Ming-liang (I Don't Want to Sleep Alone)
Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking)
Chan Wook-park (Old Boy)
Hou Hsiao Hsien (The Assassin)
Bong Joon-ho (Mother)
Lee Chang-dong (Burning)
Anne Hui (A Simple Life)
Zhang Yimou (Hero)
Hiyao Miyazaki (Spirited Away)
Wong Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love)

(not implying that the above directors are one-hit wonders, just listing my favourite film by each)

To me, their work collectively is very comparable in quality to the movies that emerged from the great explosion of European directors that occurred in the '60s: Godard, Truffaut, Resnais, Antonioni, Fellini, Pasolini, Bergman, Bunuel, Tarkovsky, Polanski.

 

[kihei]

Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977) Directed by Marguerite Duras 4C

I guess I was slightly more impressed by Baxter, Vera Baxter than I was with India Song which I saw recently. But I am finding Duras' work very much an acquired taste, and I am not sure it is going to be to my liking. This movie is about a morose woman who sits on a couch in a poorly-lit but expensive villa that she has just attempted to rent. She is visited by a woman who seems to drop out of the sky, supposedly intrigued by Vera Baxter's name which she overheard in a nearby pub. This stranger has a lot of possible interpretations: would-be friend, confessor, rival, betrayer, interrogator, nosy parker, the roles seem to shift with the shadows. Anyway the stranger listens to and encourages Vera's sad tale. Her philandering husband doesn't love her anymore and even went as far as to sell her sexual favours to another man to settle a gambling debt. All of this occurs in the most languid manner possible, and mostly in one dim room, with characters speaking as though they are drained of energy. The odd shots of the neighbourhood through windows and the occasional tour of the empty house do little to relieve the monotony. The characters drone on and on. At one point I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. I had hoped that while I was napping a giant tarantula had laid waste to Aix-en-Provence, but no such luck. When I rewound, it was just more of the same.

While I grant that this is definitely one way to make a movie, and that it even works on some esoteric level, I don't like it at all. Not because of its tedium, but because of what it represents: an approach to film making that seems to systematically reject everything about movies that we liked about them in the first place. The audience is not supposed to enjoy this movie, the audience is supposed to suffer through it, the movie equivalent of eating our spinach. It is "serious film" with a capital "S" made by people I probably would want to kill if I met them at a party. Even if there is some earth-shaking existential epiphany lurking in the background here, that doesn't justify such a lifeless object laid at our feet as if by some malevolent poodle.

subtitles

MUBI

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977) Directed by Marguerite Duras 4C

I guess I was slightly more impressed by Baxter, Vera Baxter than I was with India Song which I saw recently. But I am finding Duras' work very much an acquired taste, and I am not sure it is going to be to my liking. This movie is about a morose woman who sits on a couch in a poorly-lit but expensive villa that she has just attempted to rent. She is visited by a woman who seems to drop out of the sky, supposedly intrigued by Vera Baxter's name which she overheard in a nearby pub. This stranger has a lot of possible interpretations: would-be friend, confessor, rival, betrayer, interrogator, nosy parker, the roles seem to shift with the shadows. Anyway the stranger listens to and encourages Vera's sad tale. Her philandering husband doesn't love her anymore and even went as far as to sell her sexual favours to another man to settle a gambling debt. All of this occurs in the most languid manner possible, and mostly in one dim room, with characters speaking as though they are drained of energy. The odd shots of the neighbourhood through windows and the occasional tour of the empty house do little to relieve the monotony. The characters drone on and on. At one point I fell asleep for about 20 minutes. I had hoped that while I was napping a giant tarantula had laid waste to Aix-en-Provence, but no such luck. When I rewound, it was just more of the same.

While I grant that this is definitely one way to make a movie, and that it even works on some esoteric level, I don't like it at all. Not because of its tedium, but because of what it represents: an approach to film making that seems to systematically reject everything about movies that we liked about them in the first place. The audience is not supposed to enjoy this movie, the audience is supposed to suffer through it, the movie equivalent of eating our spinach. It is "serious film" with a capital "S" made by people I probably would want to kill if I met them at a party. Even if there is some earth-shaking existential epiphany lurking in the background here, that doesn't justify such a lifeless object laid at our feet as if by some malevolent poodle.

subtitles

MUBI

Oh no.... That's tier 2 in Duras' filmo to me, but still a very interesting film.

Funny that you fell asleep, that's one of the films I challenged my students with. They did too.

Also funny, Duras disliked this movie. She was already working on Le camion (lower tier 1) when it came out, and declared Baxter, Vera Baxter a step back in her work as soon as it was done (IMO if there's a real step back in her work, it will only come years later with Les enfants).

 

[ORRFForever]

I got a little weary of the constant Jordan perspective as it progressed; the series seemed to become "the case" for Jordan over James. Gotta admit, it's a strong case.

^^ TBH, I have no idea. ^^

I went to ONE (and it was one too many) Raptors game - it was the longest 3.5 hours of my life (went into overtime).

IIRC, it went into DOUBLE OT, but my friend agreed to leave after one - he was killing himself laughing because he knew how bored I was. I didn`t care who won (neither did he), I just kept praying neither side would keep tying it... and my prayers were NOT answered.

 

[kihei]

Oh no.... That's tier 2 in Duras' filmo to me, but still a very interesting film.

Funny that you fell asleep, that's one of the films I challenged my students with. They did too.

Also funny, Duras disliked this movie. She was already working on Le camion (lower tier 1) when it came out, and declared Baxter, Vera Baxter a step back in her work as soon as it was done (IMO if there's a real step back in her work, it will only come years later with Les enfants).

If she pops on MUBI again, as she has twice now, I will give Duras another shot. You should really consider joining the MUBI site which, I suspect, has lots of movies that would interest you. You could probably find some that won't put your students to sleep even.

Library | MUBI

 

[Trap Jesus]

I saw Color Out of Space. I think it was very uneven and inconsistent but overall I enjoyed it. I've never read the story, but just based on what I know from Lovecraft, his stories are SO difficult to capture on the screen, just with that sense of dread and fear of the unknown, along with things that are just outside of the comprehension of the human mind. My GF mid-way from the movie said "I think the screenwriters may have had trouble translating the story into a movie plot" and I think that rang true.

I always love me some Nic Cage, but the casting choice here just felt like they put him in to feature some of his crazy moments that didn't really fit the tone they were going for. I don't think the meshing of comedy and horror worked that well. Still, there are some moments in here that are just hilarious in their own right based on how Cage delivers the lines. I just think when you're comparing this to something like Mandy, the absurdity of Cage worked a lot better tonally in something like that.

I think the CGI was a bit wonky TBH, there were times where they could have went practical but didn't. It reminded me a bit of the end of Hellraiser when they had a lot of good practical stuff and then you get those weird CGI moments that didn't seem to fit.

Speaking of references, you could pinpoint the exact movies they were drawing influence from Just some of the ones I caught were Hellraiser, The Thing, War of the Worlds, The Mist, Hereditary, Annihilation and The Witch (GF has an eagle eye for this stuff, there's a character wearing a Black Phillip shirt).

I liked it overall though, just nothing special. There is one extremely effective sequence in here:

Spoiler

When the mother and youngest son morph into one another and the family just have no idea what they're supposed to do. The kid slowly morhphing into a baby being absorbed by his mother with these baby-like cries, the mother's hair falling out, and the whole subplot of her feeling undesirable to her husband just reaching an extreme by morhping into this hideous monster. I actually think the point where he kissed her trying to reassure her was perversely sweet in a way.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Just saw Tenet, it was great. Oh wait no I didn't because it's been delayed indefinitely due to America ruining it for the rest of us.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I got a little weary of the constant Jordan perspective as it progressed; the series seemed to become "the case" for Jordan over James. Gotta admit, it's a strong case.

I thought it was unintentionally funny that Jordan still comes off as a colossal asshole despite the documentary being produced by his team.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

If she pops on MUBI again, as she has twice now, I will give Duras another shot. You should really consider joining the MUBI site which, I suspect, has lots of movies that would interest you. You could probably find some that won't put your students to sleep even.

Library | MUBI

I really should. But I have LOADS of films here that I haven't seen yet, I'm just too lazy and end up on TUBI or Prime, or YouTube. My brains' not what it used to be! And I haven't taught in quite a few years - so no students to torture right now.

Duras, you want to see the "lecture" films:
1A
Aurelia Steiner (Melbourne) (her masterpiece IMO)
Le Navire Night (my favorite)
1B
Les mains négatives
Césarée
Aurelia Steiner (Vancouver)

Also lower 1st tier, Le Camion and Agatha et les lectures illimitées are a little different but also reading-based. I think that, apart from India Song (which is low second tier to me), they are her most praised films.

I think all of her films are now on YouTube in pretty good quality.

I saw Color Out of Space. I think it was very uneven and inconsistent but overall I enjoyed it. I've never read the story, but just based on what I know from Lovecraft, his stories are SO difficult to capture on the screen, just with that sense of dread and fear of the unknown, along with things that are just outside of the comprehension of the human mind. My GF mid-way from the movie said "I think the screenwriters may have had trouble translating the story into a movie plot" and I think that rang true.

I always love me some Nic Cage, but the casting choice here just felt like they put him in to feature some of his crazy moments that didn't really fit the tone they were going for. I don't think the meshing of comedy and horror worked that well. Still, there are some moments in here that are just hilarious in their own right based on how Cage delivers the lines. I just think when you're comparing this to something like Mandy, the absurdity of Cage worked a lot better tonally in something like that.

I think the CGI was a bit wonky TBH, there were times where they could have went practical but didn't. It reminded me a bit of the end of Hellraiser when they had a lot of good practical stuff and then you get those weird CGI moments that didn't seem to fit.

Speaking of references, you could pinpoint the exact movies they were drawing influence from Just some of the ones I caught were Hellraiser, The Thing, War of the Worlds, The Mist, Hereditary, Annihilation and The Witch (GF has an eagle eye for this stuff, there's a character wearing a Black Phillip shirt).

I liked it overall though, just nothing special. There is one extremely effective sequence in here:

Spoiler

When the mother and youngest son morph into one another and the family just have no idea what they're supposed to do. The kid slowly morhphing into a baby being absorbed by his mother with these baby-like cries, the mother's hair falling out, and the whole subplot of her feeling undesirable to her husband just reaching an extreme by morhping into this hideous monster. I actually think the point where he kissed her trying to reassure her was perversely sweet in a way.

I like this post a lot and it makes me want to watch it again because of the influence part...

 

[Trap Jesus]

I like this post a lot and it makes me want to watch it again because of the influence part...

I think some I might be stretching a bit, but they seemed so similar to the others I saw:

Spoiler

Hellraiser - Keeping the evolving creature in the attic and trying to feed someone to it
The Thing - I think this one was a lot more obvious, the alpacas morphed into the dog being very reminiscent of the kennel scene in The Thing.
War of the Worlds - The lightning "transferring" something to the meteorite in the ground like the lightning transferred the aliens into the pods in WotW. Also, the overgrowth of the pink wildlife looking very similar to the blood-soaked scenery:

The Mist - I thought the first creature you see was very similar to those flying bug creatures in The Mist
Annihilation - I think the plots were very similar, the idea of something coming from space creating this zone that slowly takes everything over. The morphing scene reminded me a lot of the screaming bear, where the kid crying like a baby is just designed to feel so wrong an unexpected to come out of that creature. Also a lot of morphing of DNA going on in Annihilation of course.
Hereditary - I'm pretty sure Cage banging repeatedly on the wine cellar was a nod to Collette banging her head on the attic door.
The Witch - Black Phillip shirt.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I think some I might be stretching a bit, but they seemed so similar to the others I saw:

It really don't matter to me. In fact, my main object of interest (a long time ago) weren't the concrete intertextual relations (parody, allusion, etc.), but the intereferences that were perceived at the reception (and how they affected the reading).

 

[McOilers97]

This past weekend I watched:

The Birds - Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
Working my way through Hitchcock's stuff slowly. This doesn't come close to Rear Window or Psycho, and I even prefer Strangers on a Train (and I have yet to see North By Northwest, Vertigo, Rope, Dial M for Murder) because The Birds is sort of a dumb movie, and maybe feels a bit padded out in length, but I'll give Hitchcock credit for building suspense as effectively as ever.

The Master - Paul Thomas Anderson (2012)
Such a dense movie to try to sort through after 1 viewing. I'll probably need to watch it again to unpack it more effectively, but I sure loved the chemistry between Phoenix and Hoffman. Regardless of the fact that I didn't totally "get it", it's pretty obvious that Anderson made something special here, tapping into scientology + Hubbard in creating "The Cause" in this movie.

 

[ORRFForever]

The Birds - Alfred Hitchcock (1963)
The Birds is sort of a dumb movie, and maybe feels a bit padded out in length

Yes and yes.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Donnie Darko's on again. I remember I used to really like this movie, but now I just find it annoying, tedious, pretentious, and I hate most of the characters.

 

[kihei]

Agatha et les lectures illimitées (1981) Directed by Marguerite Duras 7C

Third time lucky. It is a deceptively simple idea. In Agatha et les lectures illimitées, a couple recite their dialogue off camera as we look at pictures of bleak oceans, empty dwellings and streets, and, very occasionally, at the young couple themselves (presumably), lounging around what looks like an empty old hotel by the sea. The dialogue is as rich as one might find in really good literature, and the images contribute to the mood the audience feels. The story is one of a strange and passionate love between two people who can't seem to live without one another, who desire one another, and who, at least once, consummated their relationship sexually. As we come to learn they are brother and sister, which certainly complicates things, though director Marguerite Duras does absolutely no moralizing about their relationship whatsoever. I would not call this movie slow cinema; I would not call it minimalist cinema. Other than experimental cinema, I don't know what I would call it. But in its subtle way Agatha et les lectures illimitées raises a lot of fascinating issues which resonate with more movies than just this one. I was much more consciously aware of my relationship to the narration and my relationship to the images than I am normally in most movies. One big question is why did Duras choose these images for me to gaze at while the narration between siblings unfolds offstage. Another big question is why tell the story this way? That question is easier to grapple with. Movies about incest walk a narrow line, can promote, intentionally or not, a nervous reaction or be quickly ridiculed as deviant. Duras presents a fresh context for her story allowing the audience a different point of entry and a different way to engage our imagination regarding something that many viewers might reflexively dismiss. In my case, this approach enables the complexity of the love story, its attraction and power, to take precedence in my thoughts so that I could empathize with the despair of the couple. While I have already mentioned that I don't consider Agatha et les lectures illimitées slow cinema but something else, I have argued before that when slow cinema works really well it brings similar rewards to experiencing a great short story. I think that is the case here. In a way Duras has done nothing more that find the best way to tell her story. Who could ask for more?

subtitles

YouTube

 

[kihei]

Yes and yes.

No and No.

 

[ORRFForever]

No and No.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Agatha et les lectures illimitées (1981) Directed by Marguerite Duras 7C

Third time lucky. It is a deceptively simple idea. In Agatha et les lectures illimitées, a couple recite their dialogue off camera as we look at pictures of bleak oceans, empty dwellings and streets, and, very occasionally, at the young couple themselves (presumably), lounging around what looks like an empty old hotel by the sea. The dialogue is as rich as one might find in really good literature, and the images contribute to the mood the audience feels. The story is one of a strange and passionate love between two people who can't seem to live without one another, who desire one another, and who, at least once, consummated their relationship sexually. As we come to learn they are brother and sister, which certainly complicates things, though director Marguerite Duras does absolutely no moralizing about their relationship whatsoever. I would not call this movie slow cinema; I would not call it minimalist cinema. Other than experimental cinema, I don't know what I would call it. But in its subtle way Agatha et les lectures illimitées raises a lot of fascinating issues which resonate with more movies than just this one. I was much more consciously aware of my relationship to the narration and my relationship to the images than I am normally in most movies. One big question is why did Duras choose these images for me to gaze at while the narration between siblings unfolds offstage. Another big question is why tell the story this way? That question is easier to grapple with. Movies about incest walk a narrow line, can promote, intentionally or not, a nervous reaction or be quickly ridiculed as deviant. Duras presents a fresh context for her story allowing the audience a different point of entry and a different way to engage our imagination regarding something that many viewers might reflexively dismiss. In my case, this approach enables the complexity of the love story, its attraction and power, to take precedence in my thoughts so that I could empathize with the despair of the couple. While I have already mentioned that I don't consider Agatha et les lectures illimitées slow cinema but something else, I have argued before that when slow cinema works really well it brings similar rewards to experiencing a great short story. I think that is the case here. In a way Duras has done nothing more that find the best way to tell her story. Who could ask for more?

subtitles

YouTube

Love this.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Chocolat (2000) - 5/10

It's like a children's film for adults. There's something offensively generic about it.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

I've been quite taken with this collection on the Criterion channel called "Western Noir" stuff like Anthony Mann's The Naked Spur and some early career offerings from the like of John Sturges (The Walking Hills) and Robert Wise (Blood on the Moon). I haven't made my way through all the selections yet, but I've found an interesting trend. Perhaps I'm having an issue with the "noir" marketing of the collection. I get it. Many are black and white and as heavy on shadow as its city-bound crime cousins so visually it makes sense and there definitely is an edge and ambiguity in some of the characters that make the parallel work too.

But the thing that's really struck me though in each of the movies I've watched is that they all pull their punches right in the closing moments. Each plays with cynicism but just can't fully close the deal like many a classic noir does. The shaded "hero" loses all darkness at the last moment and a certain clear sense of rightness or justice closes out the story. Some are outright, unambiguously positive. More fitting of some classic Westerns for sure.

A bit of a fascinating hybrid. It's a flirtation toward some truly hard-edged neo-Westerns that would eventually come, but the genre wasn't quite ready yet. Intrigued if this will carry through the other films in the offering ....

 

[Langdon Alger]

Chocolat (2000) - 5/10

It's like a children's film for adults. There's something offensively generic about it.

I remember them referencing this movie in I Love You Man.

 

[nameless1]

In 1999, the Hong Kong film industry was still in a dire state. Since the Handover was still so fresh, there were still a lot of uncertainties. While China buoys the Hong Kong industry today, that was not the case at that time, so money continued to be in short supply, and the majority of the top talents had moved onto greener pasture. The Hong Kong people, however, have seen their share of ebbs and flows, and they always find a way to get through difficulties. The Mission, by Johnnie To, is proof of that resiliency.

At that point in time, To's own situation reflected the reality of the Hong Kong film industry. His own studio was still in its infancy, and even though he had a hit with The Longest Nite the year prior, he did not have the funds to make his next project. Thus, while The Mission is a Hong Kong gangster movie through and through, the money actually came from Taiwan. With only 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars, which was about 332 thousand U.S. dollars back then, and no script, To managed to finish the shoot in just 19 days, and somehow, against all logic, he created one of the most stylish and smoothest action film in Hong Kong film history, and showed that John Woo's Ballistic Ballet style was not the only way to film action scenes.

Honestly, the plot is as old and basic as it gets. A gang leader survives an assassination attempt, and thus, he hires five gangsters of different skills to protect him, and subsequently thwart the plot against on his life. In the hands of any other director, this will be a B-movie through and through, with as much gun fight sequences as possible. To, however, has other ideas. The film really only has three big set pieces, and the rest of the screentime he devotes to character development. It is probably out of necessity, due to limited funds, but it allows the characters to become unique individuals, all with their own personalities, and that makes the film more memorable than non-stop action, because the audience grows to care about them, and the camaraderie that they develop. The big action scenes are also quite static, as they consist of more standing than shooting, but through careful edits, and creative use of mise-en-scene, they remain griping, and they too are mainly used to show character growth. Again, the lack of funds is the determinant factor, but it turns out to be quite a rather unique use of action scenes, and it is something that To kept for the rest of his career.

Since there was no script, the dialogue is at best sparse, To needed really capable actors in order to fulfill his vision. Luckily for him, he manages to find a collection of some of the best leftover actors in Hong Kong, which includes Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, and even a cameo from Simon Shum. Many of the actors had known To for a long time, and they knew how dire his situation was, so they all took very little money to help him finish the film. To save on film stock, To even asked the actors to finish their scenes in one take, so all the leeway would be given to a relative new comer, Lam Suet, who never had more than cameo roles before this film.

As a result of all these restraints and conditions, there is no wasted actions at all, simply because the director cannot afford them, and the lean 83 runtime becomes one non-stop thrill ride, elevated greatly by a superb soundtrack that perfectly compliments the tone of the film. In fact, the opening and closing theme has become so intertwined with the film, that once it plays, scenes from the movie will play in my head. I watched the film again after my last comment about To, as a refresher, and even though the film stock looks aged and grainy now, it is still as good as I remember. In fact, I managed to discover a new detail or two that is not noticeable before, but they definitely help to move the story forward, and even shows a new dimension to another character.

Spoiler

The youngest of the five bodyguards loves to put matches in cigarettes as a prank, and after he has an affair with the gang boss' wife, one of his prank cigarette ended up in the hands of the gang boss' brother, despite almost no on screen interactions. That explains how the gang boss' brother discovers the affair, and why he foregoes his brother and tells the leader of the bodyguards to take care of it.

Everything is so smooth, and so tight, that details can still be missed. For a film with no script, it is an impressive feat.

Of course, the film is not perfect, and there are things, plot wise, that are unrealistic and forced. Most notably, the main characters are all great shots, while the antagonists all miss, which is always a problem in action flicks. Nevertheless, these issues are minimal, and To manages to elevate a B-movie into a work of art, and an important milestone in Hong Kong film history. I have it at 8/10, because even though To's magnum opus might have been the two part Election, this continues to be my favourite work of his. If people have time, I highly recommend it. It is a great way to pass the time with, as you can digest it in one go.

 

[kihei]

The Portuguese Woman (2019) Directed by Rita Azevedo Gomes 8C

A ravishing example of slow cinema, The Portuguese Woman looks at the life of a decidedly non-fairy tale princess in the 16th century who comes to northern Italy to marry an average lord who possesses an average castle (still nice digs, though, if drafty). In eleven years, the royal couple only see one another long enough to make two babies and then the Prince is rushing off to war which he far prefers to dull, boring peace. Eventually he survives the many battles only to be bitten by a bee and he may die from the resulting complications. His princess does her best to nurture him back from the dead, but her collection of herbs might not do the trick. As odd, slow to develop love stories go, The Portuguese Woman is a graceful one. But the real attraction here is how beautiful this film is to watch. I only wish I had seen the movie on a big screen so that I could experience it the way that it was meant to be seen. In terms of visual beauty, think of Barry Lyndon, as a rough example. Director Rita Azevedo Gomes prefers long takes with the camera at some distance from the actors, Movement withing the frame is carefully choreographed in sometimes wonderful ways. As for the interior shots, many are reminiscent of Vermeer. Often the emphasis is not so much on the actors but on the spaces they inhabit. In this painstakingly composed film, there are moments of humour and even pathos such as when a peasant is unceremoniously deprived of his pet kitten. I think this is the most beautiful film I have seen since last year’s A Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The Portuguese Woman is a brilliantly accomplished piece of movie making, the best new movie that I have seen this year.

subtitles

MUBI

 

[kihei]

Calendar (Egoyan, 1993) – This short film (74 minutes only), made without much money or means, has an incredible crushing effect on its spectator: one can only feel very small facing such signifiance (in English, signifiance means importance, but in French linguistics, it means the emergence of meaning – both very apt here). You'd need a thesis to make it through the many paths in interpretation, the many readings available: it's about identity, it's about exile, it can be read as a political film (the negation of the representation of the war vs the prevalence of media in the film). Of most importance to me, it is about (mis)communication (lost in translation, you say?), and about mediation – or about communication vs mediation (or is it communion vs communication?). They're visiting places that are directly related to Egoyan's character's origins, but he is never part of the Armenian images, always cut from them, behind the cameras, but also always a disconnected spectator to what's in front of him (disconnected both from History and from the love story burgeoning between his wife and their driver). This disconnection is efficiently linked to his only means of relation to the world: cameras (photo and video), letters, phone, etc. It is proposed that he won't be able to connect to his relation with Armenia's historical sites and History other than through touch – but he refuses to get close to the monuments he takes pictures of (and this lack of communion affects the whole of his existence – up to his adopted daughter, only existing through letters and videos, on whom he puts a monthly cost). He is looking at what's been said between his wife and their driver to understand what happened and to find the moment he lost her – that moment is the first thing we see in the film: a flock of sheeps they drove by, partly blocking the street, an image that will come and go through the film, and come back at the end, when her ever-fading voice on his answering machine tells him that it's at that moment that, while he was recording images of the sheeps, the driver touched her. Egoyan's character is nothing more than a spectator of all of the Armenian scenes of the film, limited by his technical means, he misses what he was looking for. The spectator of the film is also put in an uncomfortable position that mirrors the character's estrangement: submitted to untranslated dialogues in many different languages, we are also limited to the character's means through our time in Armenia, and like him, we only see the sheeps. These images of the sheeps are also of utmost importance to me because they are the mirroring echo of a shot in Rossellini's Viaggio in Italia where the couple pass by a herd of bovines – the shots are the same, on opposite sides of the car. As in Egoyan's film, the husband is there strictly on business, as the wife tries to immerse herself in the culture... This short comment might get you to think that Calendar is a very hermetic and complex film (and really, I am only brushing its surface), but it remains a very simple story – it's just so rich once you dive into it that you might drown. Probably the most interesting love triangle ever told, and my favorite Canadian film. 10/10

I somehow missed this review the first time around.

We are definitely in agreement on this one. Not 10/10 agreement, but Calendar is my second favourite Egoyan film behind The Sweet Hereafter. I think your reading of the film is excellent. But I would add that in addition to everything else happening on so many different levels, Calendar is also a wonderfully funny film, perhaps my favourite Canadian comic film. quite the trick given everything else Egoyan has going on here. The darker reality, the stuff he is really thinking, his frustrations, the strains in the marriage, and Arsinee's growing relationship with their driver/guide, just kind of glides in there two thirds of the way through the movie. When it comes it almost feels like getting splashed with cold water, but once it arrives, it's here to stay. At a surface level, though, the humour really impressed me, how inventive it was, how Egoyan seemed to be taking the piss out of himself, poking fun at his own oblivious self-absorption and what a turn-off it can be for those around him, while also making fun in general of movie making and the creative process with calendar art as the foil. Having only seen Calendar a couple of years ago after watching most of Egoyan's films to that point, I would have said he was the least likely Canadian director to display a sense of humour. So Calendar really came as a very pleasant surprise. Also I think Arsenee Khanjian's gives one of her best performances in the film. She can be a little stiff as an actress sometimes, but here she is very charming--which gives their growing estrangement an added pang of loss.