Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s national epic tells the story of Germany’s ‘economic miracle’ recovery through the experiences of three strong women, each resilient in a different way. The Marriage of Maria Braun takes us from the bombings to a postwar struggle for survival. Veronika Voss hangs on to her illusions of a glorious stardom that died with the Reich; she’s now the victim of opportunists. And Lola isn’t the only person corrupting an idealist come to bring fairness to the rebuilding of Coburg: even without a conspiracy, the legitimate town leaders are up to their necks in double-dealing. These are the top titles of the prolific writer-director Fassbinder, beautifully restored.
The Brd Trilogy
Blu-ray
The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, Lola
The Criterion Collection 203
1979-82 / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 9, 2019 / 79.95
Starring: Hanna Schygulla, Rosel Zech, Barbara Sukowa.
Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich,...
The Brd Trilogy
Blu-ray
The Marriage of Maria Braun, Veronika Voss, Lola
The Criterion Collection 203
1979-82 / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 9, 2019 / 79.95
Starring: Hanna Schygulla, Rosel Zech, Barbara Sukowa.
Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pea Fröhlich,...
- 7/13/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Peter Whitehead, via Occupy Cinema
"One of last year's best films, Ken Jacobs's Seeking the Monkey King is showing Saturday at Anthology as part of a program presented in support of Occupy Wall Street," writes J Hoberman in one of the last pieces he'll turn in at the Voice. "Covering 500 years of American history, this furious beatnik analysis makes a people's historian like Howard Zinn seem like a Chamber of Commerce booster, particularly as delivered amid [Jg] Thirlwell's industrial-strength rhapsodic noise drone, against the seething apocalypse of melting glaciers and crystallized lava that soon becomes an ongoing Rorschach test." See, too, David Phelps's essay. Seeking the Monkey King is "showing with several of Jacobs's short works (19th-century stereopticon slides treated as material for a cyclotron) and excerpts from his 3D footage of Zuccotti Park. Other films showing in the series are An Injury to One (2002), Travis Wilkerson's lucid,...
"One of last year's best films, Ken Jacobs's Seeking the Monkey King is showing Saturday at Anthology as part of a program presented in support of Occupy Wall Street," writes J Hoberman in one of the last pieces he'll turn in at the Voice. "Covering 500 years of American history, this furious beatnik analysis makes a people's historian like Howard Zinn seem like a Chamber of Commerce booster, particularly as delivered amid [Jg] Thirlwell's industrial-strength rhapsodic noise drone, against the seething apocalypse of melting glaciers and crystallized lava that soon becomes an ongoing Rorschach test." See, too, David Phelps's essay. Seeking the Monkey King is "showing with several of Jacobs's short works (19th-century stereopticon slides treated as material for a cyclotron) and excerpts from his 3D footage of Zuccotti Park. Other films showing in the series are An Injury to One (2002), Travis Wilkerson's lucid,...
- 1/7/2012
- MUBI
CANNES -- Years in the making and hugely anticipated, Wong Kar-wai's "2046" is a keen disappointment. Because the film arrived 24 hours late for its Cannes debut and one of its star actresses, Maggie Cheung, has been reduced to a "special appearance by" role, one can only guess that in the chaos of revisions, re-edits and rethinking, the director lost his narrative thread. The employment of voice-overs and pretentious quotes onscreen to help viewers understand what is going on with the characters only points up how badly the movie gets engulfed in a storytelling fog.
With an array of actors including Tony Leung, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Faye Wong and Japanese star Kimura Takuya all handsomely costumed and photographed by no less than three accomplished cinematographers, "2046" will assuredly travel widely. But even the art house crowd will find the film off-putting not only because of its vagueness but because of its thoroughly unlikable characters.
The film more or less occupies the same physical and emotional landscape as Wong's previous film, "In the Mood for Love", made four years ago. The story again takes place in the 1960s, mostly in Hong Kong but with sequences in Shanghai and Singapore. While shot in widescreen, the characters are claustrophobically caged up in tiny flats, narrow corridors and small restaurants. Everyone dresses elegantly in '60s-style clothes and hairdos, cigarette smoke still curls in the air in artistic patterns, and American pop music plays softly in the background.
Leung plays Chow Mo Wan, a former journalist-turned-novelist who is writing a book called "2046", supposedly a futuristic story. In actuality, that is the room number of the flat next to his, which is occupied by pretty women whose company he keeps. In his story, a passenger has boarded a train headed for 2046, where the hostess is an android who can never leave the train. Yet the more he writes, the more the story delves into his past.
The writer moves into the Hong Kong flat in 1966, a year before the riots against the then-British authorities, and most of the movie centers on the next three years in that building. A charismatic man, he has many women -- all of whom he treats with a casual flippancy bordering on contempt. But his main fixation is on the occupant of 2046.
The first is Bai Ling (Zhang). Starting out as "drinking buddies," the two wind up in a torrid romance. When his ardor predictably wanes, Bai Ling is devastated because she has fallen in love with him. She finally abandons the flat.
The landlord then installs his daughter (Wong) in the flat. She is too in love with her Japanese boyfriend (Takuya), of whom her father disapproves, to become more than a friend to the writer. He clearly longs for her, but it is hard to gauge how brokenhearted he truly is since he mostly is a brooding presence in the movie.
Sometimes the film shifts in tine and place to other liaisons with characters played by Gong and Carina Lau Ka Ling. These all end with tears and abruptness, but given the superficiality of the characters -- the women are more lovely figments of fantasy rather than flesh-and-blood characters -- nothing pulls you into their lives. Nothing compels your interest other than their beauty and mystery.
The theme here seems to be that of memory, of how people dwell in the past without ever achieving any resolution or closure. But the stilted dialogue and a mostly stagnant story line gum up the works. Voice-over comments like "all memories are moist" don't help matters. Whatever does that mean?
Wong's technical crew, shooting in several Asian cities, most definitely creates a striking mood that falls somewhere between romance and melancholy. Sadly, the director is unable to take advantage of these amazing actors and an arresting design.
2046
Block 2 Pictures and Paradis Films, Orly Films, Classic SRL, Shanghai Film Group presenta Jet Tone Films production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-producer: Wong Kar-wai
Director of photography: Christopher Doyle, Lai Yui Fai, Kwan Pun Leung
Production designer/editor: William Chang Suk Ping
Music: Peer Raben, Shigeru Umebayashi
Cast:
Chow Mo Wan: Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Su Li Zhen: Gong Li
Tak: Kimura Takuya
Wang Jin Wen: Faye Wong
Bai Ling: Zhang Ziyi
Lulu/Mimi: Carina Lau Ka Ling
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 124 minutes...
With an array of actors including Tony Leung, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Faye Wong and Japanese star Kimura Takuya all handsomely costumed and photographed by no less than three accomplished cinematographers, "2046" will assuredly travel widely. But even the art house crowd will find the film off-putting not only because of its vagueness but because of its thoroughly unlikable characters.
The film more or less occupies the same physical and emotional landscape as Wong's previous film, "In the Mood for Love", made four years ago. The story again takes place in the 1960s, mostly in Hong Kong but with sequences in Shanghai and Singapore. While shot in widescreen, the characters are claustrophobically caged up in tiny flats, narrow corridors and small restaurants. Everyone dresses elegantly in '60s-style clothes and hairdos, cigarette smoke still curls in the air in artistic patterns, and American pop music plays softly in the background.
Leung plays Chow Mo Wan, a former journalist-turned-novelist who is writing a book called "2046", supposedly a futuristic story. In actuality, that is the room number of the flat next to his, which is occupied by pretty women whose company he keeps. In his story, a passenger has boarded a train headed for 2046, where the hostess is an android who can never leave the train. Yet the more he writes, the more the story delves into his past.
The writer moves into the Hong Kong flat in 1966, a year before the riots against the then-British authorities, and most of the movie centers on the next three years in that building. A charismatic man, he has many women -- all of whom he treats with a casual flippancy bordering on contempt. But his main fixation is on the occupant of 2046.
The first is Bai Ling (Zhang). Starting out as "drinking buddies," the two wind up in a torrid romance. When his ardor predictably wanes, Bai Ling is devastated because she has fallen in love with him. She finally abandons the flat.
The landlord then installs his daughter (Wong) in the flat. She is too in love with her Japanese boyfriend (Takuya), of whom her father disapproves, to become more than a friend to the writer. He clearly longs for her, but it is hard to gauge how brokenhearted he truly is since he mostly is a brooding presence in the movie.
Sometimes the film shifts in tine and place to other liaisons with characters played by Gong and Carina Lau Ka Ling. These all end with tears and abruptness, but given the superficiality of the characters -- the women are more lovely figments of fantasy rather than flesh-and-blood characters -- nothing pulls you into their lives. Nothing compels your interest other than their beauty and mystery.
The theme here seems to be that of memory, of how people dwell in the past without ever achieving any resolution or closure. But the stilted dialogue and a mostly stagnant story line gum up the works. Voice-over comments like "all memories are moist" don't help matters. Whatever does that mean?
Wong's technical crew, shooting in several Asian cities, most definitely creates a striking mood that falls somewhere between romance and melancholy. Sadly, the director is unable to take advantage of these amazing actors and an arresting design.
2046
Block 2 Pictures and Paradis Films, Orly Films, Classic SRL, Shanghai Film Group presenta Jet Tone Films production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-producer: Wong Kar-wai
Director of photography: Christopher Doyle, Lai Yui Fai, Kwan Pun Leung
Production designer/editor: William Chang Suk Ping
Music: Peer Raben, Shigeru Umebayashi
Cast:
Chow Mo Wan: Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Su Li Zhen: Gong Li
Tak: Kimura Takuya
Wang Jin Wen: Faye Wong
Bai Ling: Zhang Ziyi
Lulu/Mimi: Carina Lau Ka Ling
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 124 minutes...
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