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Lines Out of Context
Aug. 24th, 2005 12:46 pm1. Looking for an Obedience Stud?
2. He only grows for guys he knows and me.
2. He only grows for guys he knows and me.
Aug. 24th, 2005
Two good movies were seen this week chez nous:
1. Brother to Brother
Interesting film because it manages to find room for a lot of history and a bit of polemic while keeping the story moving and human. A young black gay artist is trying to find his way in the world artistically, romantically and politically. He meets up with an aging gay black poet who came to New York just as the Harlem Renaissance was blossoming. The acting is consistently fine and the movie switches convincingly back and forth between our millenium and the 1920s.
Very interesting discussions about compromise and art which ultimately comes down to the peace an artist must find if he refuses to change his art to find fame. Also, some really heated (and at one point violent) stewing about race and orientation. In one scene, the main character tries to decide if his new bf only wants him for his "sweet black ass" or for himself and in another, he fights against other activist classmates who don't want him to bring sexuality into discussions of race.
2. Purple Butterly (Zi hudie)
This is the second movie I've seen by Lou Ye, after the intriguing Suzhou River. He is a very talented director who manages to pull off ideas that could make his films painfully artsy if done with less skill. Suzhou River was a mystery featuring a main character who was the POV of the camera throughout. Purple Butterly is long and slow and many scenes feature the characters in close up, saying nothing for minutes at a time before they make whatever decision they have to make. These scenes are interrupted by explosions of bloody violence between the two groups of characters: Japanese secret police and Chinese resistance underground fighters in 1930s Shanghai during Japanese occupation.
Given that thousands of Chinese have recently been involved in anti-Japanese protests, this is not the most politically correct film to come out of China as it abhors the violence on both sides and painfully shows the corrosive effects of the violence on those who dedicate their lives to "the fight".
The cinematography is exceptional and unusual and the acting is subtle and heartbreaking, especially by Zhang Ziyi (well known in the West for her roles as a beautiful fighting machine in Crouching Tiger, Hero and House of Flying Daggers). Liu Ye, who you might have seen in the title role ofLan Yu at various gay film festivals last year, plays the other great character here; an innocent bystander who becomes caught up in the battles when his fiancée is accidentally gunned down, collateral damage of an assassination attempt. His subsequent abuse by both the Japanese secret police and the Chinese underground turns him into a tragic, haunted killer.
Interesting how split the reviews are in the IMDB.
1. Brother to Brother
Interesting film because it manages to find room for a lot of history and a bit of polemic while keeping the story moving and human. A young black gay artist is trying to find his way in the world artistically, romantically and politically. He meets up with an aging gay black poet who came to New York just as the Harlem Renaissance was blossoming. The acting is consistently fine and the movie switches convincingly back and forth between our millenium and the 1920s.
Very interesting discussions about compromise and art which ultimately comes down to the peace an artist must find if he refuses to change his art to find fame. Also, some really heated (and at one point violent) stewing about race and orientation. In one scene, the main character tries to decide if his new bf only wants him for his "sweet black ass" or for himself and in another, he fights against other activist classmates who don't want him to bring sexuality into discussions of race.
2. Purple Butterly (Zi hudie)
This is the second movie I've seen by Lou Ye, after the intriguing Suzhou River. He is a very talented director who manages to pull off ideas that could make his films painfully artsy if done with less skill. Suzhou River was a mystery featuring a main character who was the POV of the camera throughout. Purple Butterly is long and slow and many scenes feature the characters in close up, saying nothing for minutes at a time before they make whatever decision they have to make. These scenes are interrupted by explosions of bloody violence between the two groups of characters: Japanese secret police and Chinese resistance underground fighters in 1930s Shanghai during Japanese occupation.
Given that thousands of Chinese have recently been involved in anti-Japanese protests, this is not the most politically correct film to come out of China as it abhors the violence on both sides and painfully shows the corrosive effects of the violence on those who dedicate their lives to "the fight".
The cinematography is exceptional and unusual and the acting is subtle and heartbreaking, especially by Zhang Ziyi (well known in the West for her roles as a beautiful fighting machine in Crouching Tiger, Hero and House of Flying Daggers). Liu Ye, who you might have seen in the title role ofLan Yu at various gay film festivals last year, plays the other great character here; an innocent bystander who becomes caught up in the battles when his fiancée is accidentally gunned down, collateral damage of an assassination attempt. His subsequent abuse by both the Japanese secret police and the Chinese underground turns him into a tragic, haunted killer.
Interesting how split the reviews are in the IMDB.