I´m a movie aficionado. Of course I have tried to control myself to not to make every post a film review, but now that I haven´t talked about the subject for a while, I feel like I can praise this fine art a little again.
As I have stated before, a good movie is an unusual jewel (and when it comes to quality, you can´t always trust
Rolling stone). However, when this unusual jewel is found, it is easy to be enthralled by its beauty. I can´t emphasize enough the influence some films have had on me. There are few days during which nothing reminds me of the feverish music or the dreamlike rock ascending scene of Picnic at the Hanging rock, or the bewitching, ominous ambiance of Vertigo. I also immensely admire good directors (Ang Lee, Alfred Hitchcock, Won Kar-wai), because some of their visions are something I´ll always remember.
I would so love to be a director myself. I have a dream I would some day make a short film called
Elokuva masentuneille, Movie for downcasts. I have specific visions for it. It would have a scene with a pair kissing in a train, and while they are kissing every passenger in the train will kiss each other, too. It would also have another scene with a child walking down the road and stopping to scrutinise a butterfly. After watching and wondering (and there will be a flurry of thoughts in her head) the child will go on walking down the road, which would eventually take her to a arcane, abandoned villa (but it won´t be shown). I would also love to have bubbles and growing flowers on it somehow, and a scenery of an old, dusty cottage with a checkered kitchen table cloth. If I only had time and money to make my visions true...
I have lately watched older classics, like
Nosferatu,
The Philadelphia Story and
To have and have not, but I must admit, that usually, the older the film, the clumsier its narration. Romantic comedies like
Some like it hot are of course still funny, but their charm leans on nostalgia as much as on comical inventiveness.
There is nevertheless one film that is over 50 years old and still mesmerizes me the way it would have mesmerized in 1958:
Vertigo. For me it is naturally an extremely miserable story about impossible love, but also a story about unexplained deviation of destiny: like a reminding of the fact that reality can´t be controlled, that it is possible that no matter how much you strive, everything will go wrong. Chaotic (so chaotic it is depressing), yes, but somehow very beautiful, too. Like a devastating hurricane or hundreds of moths fluttering around a storm lantern.
Threre are few films like
Vertigo, and I doubt there will ever be. Nevertheless I made a list of movies worth to watch (my first, but I know it won´t be my last). No indifferent flick in it, I ensure.
Movies to watch
1. Thelma and Louise
Beautifully feministic roadmovie about two ladies hitting the road of no return after revenging all women in the world upon a misogynist redneck. Bonus: the coolest clothes ever.
2. Duel
Inspired thriller/horror film with an everyday setting has a persistent tension. Brilliant Dennis Weaver plays perfectly corny common man, who rises to challenge his almost paranormal opponent. Bonus: from time to time the monologue reaches hilarious levels of black comedy.
3. Erin Brockovic
A movie based on true story about a single parent mother who engages an evil large-scale enterprise to save a community from serious health issues. This films makes you believe in yourself like nothing else. Bonus: Julia Roberts wears epic noughties fashion.
4. Falling down
An unemployed engineer lets loose - with violent consequences. Perfectly liberating film for the annoyed. Bonus: Pleasantly infantile toning.
5. The Crying Game
A psychological thriller explores the themes of love and sexuality with a political backround. This film must not be explained beforehand, or else it will lose part of its magic.
6. Into the wild
Again a true story about a young man who decides to fight the career-focused expectations of the world and his parents by starting a hike toward the unspoilt wilderness. This road movie encourages shy voyagers to fulfill their wildest dreams about expeditions into the wild - and themselves.
7. Le Mepris
Strange drama has an inimitable tone of mystery. Bonus: The wig.
8. Brokeback mountain
Heartbreaking love story.
