The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet, by Ang Lee, is a comedy about the odd paring of Wai-Tung and his soon to be bride, Wei-Wei. Wei-Wei is a starving artist living in one of the apartment buildings owned by Wai-Tung. She is always asking him out because she needs to get married in order to obtain a green card. She appears to get more and more brash about her feelings about marrying him as the movie goes on. She constantly remarks about how handsome she finds him and dreams of being married and free of worry of being sent away from the only place she has to call a home. Probably the only thing stopping Wei-Wei from actually taking the most aggressive step and physically throwing herself on him is because she knows the true Wai-Tung. The true Wai-Tung is actually involved with another man named Simon, and without his parents knowledge he has been living with him in Manhattan. His parents, back in their home land of Taiwan have been longing for their son to grant them a grandchild and have even so far as to hire a dating service for him. To make it even more hilarious they make him send them qualifications that the woman must meet in order to fulfill his requirements; the list included the speaking of several languages, professional singer and even two PhD’s. When this fails Wai-Tung feels like he’s disappointing his family by not getting married traditionally and with the support of his partner decides to temporarily, marry the starving artist Wei-Wei. What was meant to be a means to an end or a quick fix would soon begin the chaining of events that lead Wai-Tung’s secret to be revealed and his relationship with Wei-Wei was simply an attempt to cover his real relationship with Simon. I enjoyed the film but didn't find much humor in it, but when I went back and watched the trailor online it was advertised as this hilarious comedy. I like the character of Wei-Wei too, she seemed like my kind of girl in some ways, bold and independent. Also Mr. Gao was one of my favorite characters just because of how stern he is and some of the facial expressions he has remind me of my own grandfather. I found it difficult to see the film as a comedy though. I guess because the language is foreign it's difficult to understand the comedic timing used by those people.         

Blue

Joshua Haimann

Blue

In the film Blue, by Krzysztof Kiesiowski, the main character Julie appears to be an odd woman at first; there seems to be something about her that she’s either hiding or trying to cover up. There is a troubling scene where she is in a hospital and attempts to commit suicide but is just unable to follow through with it. After being released she doesn’t seem to know what to do now with her husband having passed away. He was one of the world's great composers, and Julie tries to make a clean break of the past; selling off all their mutual possessions, and even going as far as attempting to start a new life for herself in an apartment in the city of Paris. While memories of her husband still come back from time to time she is haunted by the absence and the grief that is bottled up insider her. A copy of her husbands great unfinished symphony seems to keep Julies attention even though it appears to consumer her with sorrow. She eventually comes to a point where she needs to make a decision on whether to finish the piece or leave it unfinished and unpublished forever to torment her. Music plays an intricate element of the plot in that it illustrates Julie's efforts to be isolated from everything even though she rarely ever seems to; that only seems to occur when shes swimming and even then it doesn’t last very long. Just like the music cannot be made with a single note, it requires harmony with the other instruments, and how different people can represent different kinds of music. The same can be seen with her relationship with Olivier.

            This film seemed longer than it really was, maybe because of the limited dialogue and the constant cut scene transitions. Also the way the music was used to emphasize or enhance a scene, usually at the end, was a bit excessive at some points. It seemed like there were many instances where the was ten to fifteen seconds of panning images and loud music. Perhaps I wasn’t able to fully understand what these types of scenes are meant to add to the film. I thought the plot of the story was good though. Once the film ended and the whole story had been told, I felt the big picture of the film was a good story. I enjoyed watching the development of the unfinished symphony mostly; how Julie was fighting heself and her feelings about whether or not to let someone else finish it, finish it herself or just destroy the cursed thing and never let it haunt her again. . . complelling stuff. 

Cinema Paradiso

Joshua Haimann

Cinema Paradiso

The plot of the Italian film, “Cinema Paradiso”, by Giuseppe Torantore is a tale that starts by showing a famous filmmaker, Salvatore Di Vita, as he returns to his hometown with the intent to pay his respects to an old friend. As the film gets into the main story we see that it is about the former life of this man, his life as a child in the very town he has returned to.  As the film transitions from the current life of Salvatore it flashes back of his life thirty years in the past as a young boy around the age of six.  He begins to reminisce of the days he would spend in the cinema with the old man who runs the projector, Alfredo. The film takes its time to show how Salvatore, nicknamed Toto, does any and everything to learn from Alfredo and acts as his apprentice. Alfredo allows Salvatore to watch films with him in the projection booth and eventually teaches him how to operate the projector for him, since he spends enough time there anyway. One of the issues Alfredo has to deal with is the editing of the films, as directed or ordered by the towns priest. The priest doesn’t allow kissing scenes or overly intimate scenes to be shown in the theater and previews the films for scenes for Alfredo to edit. Instead of just throwing the clips out, Alfredo keeps them in a canister in the projection room. Alfredo knows that these clips are Salvatores’ favorite things to look at so he saves them and even makes a special box for Salvatore to have. However, in a terrible twist of fate, one of Alfredo’s greatest fears comes to reality as the projector overheats and catches the highly flammable nitrate film on fire. Caught in the blaze Alfredo is sure to die if not for the heroic efforts of his little apprentice Salvatore, who pulls him from the cinema. Unfortunately the damage is done, leaving Alfredo blind and unable to further run the cinema, which has burned to the ground. However, once rebuilt, the older, teen version of Salvatore uses the knowledge Alfredo provided him with to run the new cinema just as he would. Continuing his love of film Salvatore works passionately on them and has used them to find a girl he secretly has a crush on. Through natural cinematic development his boyish crush turns into a love filled relationship and eventually marriage. The final scene of the film is of Salvatore watching a montage of kissing scenes that Alfredo put together for many years before that he saved specifically for him.

            I really enjoyed this film for the story line. The story of Alfredo reminds me of my grandfather in many ways. Alfredo had no children; my grandfather didn’t have any boys, and I didn't have a dad. Being there to share in his interest and learn the, “tricks of the trade”, as an assistant/apprentice, helped us grow closer and made me appreciate the man for things greater than his education or worldly wealth. It gave me a real world idol, someone who I could look to as a model of the kind of man I’d like to be one day. I always feel like I want to do something specail for him because of what he means to me. Being the father figure of my youth I was able to learn the ways he bacame a man and use his experiences to help make me into the man I am and will eventually become. I feel lucky to have had him as long as I have and will truly miss him when he's gone.