Thoughts: Thirst is part of the Criterion Eclipse series for early Ingmar Bergman work. Married couple Rut (Eva Henning) and Bertil (Birger Malmsten) are traveling through Italy on their way home to Sweden. Along the way they argue and fight and reminisce about their past lives. It was interesting and you could see where Bergman was laying down is groundwork for his later films but it was not great.
(M) Hamnstad (Port of Call). (Ingmar Bergman, 1948)Grade: C+
Thoughts: Port of Call is part of the Criterion Eclipse series for early Ingmar Bergman work. Berit (Nine-Christine Jonsson) is a depressed and troubled young woman who meets dock worker Gosta (Bengt Eklund). They are very much in love until Gosta learns about Berit’s tainted past. Much like Thirst, it was enjoyable but missing something that I think Bergman develops in his later works.
(M) Yi Yi. (Edward Yang, 2000)Grade: B-
Thoughts: N.J. (Nien-Jen Wu) is going through a bad midlife crisis – his mother is in a coma, his brother owes him money, his wife is trying to figure out her purpose in life, his company is making bad business decisions and he just reconnected with his first love from 30 years ago. The film could have been broken up into a television mini series the way it was shot and the length, around 173 minutes. However, it was one very long movie and though I enjoyed it, it was a bit too drawn out and I did not care of some of the characters.
(M) La Haine. (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)Grade: B+
Thoughts: Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Kounde) and Said (Said Taghmaoui) are three friends who live in the ghettos of Paris. The film follows them over a span of twenty-four hours and this is not the Paris travel agencies or movies like Amelie show. Although slow in the beginning, it picks up at the end with a powerful conclusion. It was a passionate look at racial tensions and social issues within the housing projects of Paris.
(M) My Best Friend’s Wedding. (P.J. Hogan, 1997)Grade: B
Thoughts: Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) and Michael O’Neal (Dermot Mulroney) are best friends. Then one day Michael calls Julianne to inform her he is getting married to Kimberly Wallace (Cameron Diaz) and Julianne realizes she loves Michael and needs to stop the wedding. This movie is a classic romantic comedy and one of the ones that solidified Julia Roberts’s box office career. Yes, the movie was predictable but Roberts was very charming and Rupert Everett who played George Downes, Julianne’s gay pal was so funny and entertaining.
Movie Count: 55
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