Jan 23 2008
Movies I’ve Watched #2
Close Encounters of the Third Kind — One of the best science fiction films ever made, and worth revisiting if you haven’t seen it for a long time. Steven Speilberg’s directorial style quickly became what you might call “obvious” later in his career, but in this early film he allows plenty of room for interpretation. He shows us but doesn’t tell us anything. The final encounter with the aliens is spectacular and mysterious (communicating through music is pretty darn cool). Too bad they don’t make movies like this anymore. (Jan. 22/08)
Cloverfield — The Blair Witch version of Godzilla. Passable entertainment for what it is: a monster movie full of beautiful people running and screaming — all through a single hand-held home video. We get glimpses of the monster destroying Manhattan, but the scares and thrills are fairly tame; frightening isn’t the word for it. More like indifference. Seeing how it’s supposed to be a video tape, it would probably play just as well on a TV (i.e., it’s a rental). (Jan. 20/08)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly — Movies like this are why I love movies. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly takes hold of you from the first frame and doesn’t let go until the end credits are rolling. It’s a true story of a guy who has a stroke that leaves him unable to do anything except blink one eye, and from that one blinking eye he writes a book and communicates with people. In the opening shot (and for the first half hour of the film), we see what he sees after the stroke. His waking up. His distorted vision. We hear his voice — but no one else does because he’s unable to speak his thoughts. We hear his thoughts as he reacts to seeing his reflection for the first time, as orderlies clean his body that he can’t feel, as his children come to visit him, all of it. The experience of seeing what he sees is immediate and affective. (It’s also funny because he has a better sense of humour than most of the people around him.) I’ve never seen anything like it. I sat in my seat until the end of the closing credits. It’s an extraordinary film. (Jan. 17/08)
All the movies I’ve seen so far this year are posted on Mud Songs.
Close Encounters will someday, if it is not already, be considered a classic movie - right up there with King Kong, Gone with the Wind and Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
My students gave me the scoop on Cloverfield. They loved it. When they really like something, I know I will hate it and you confirmed that I should save my money and rent Close Encounters. I haven’t seen it in years.
I forgot how good Close Encounters is — how much better it is than most of Speilberg’s films. Better to me, anyway.
Cloverfield, on the other hand, is not specifically good, per se. But it’s not as stupid as most movies of its type. I was generous is my appraisal of it.