Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

a film by Danny Boyle

In the Mood for Love (Bonus Track)

In the Mood for Love (2000)

a film by Wong Kar-wai

2001: A Space Odyssey

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
a film by Stanley Kubrick

Many times I had tried to watch this film before an all of them I ended up asleep or confused. I wanted to feel the impact I wanted to experience what people feel as master piece as a memorable art work. So I stepped into the Cinematheque to experience this film with the state-of-the-art projection technology in a 70mm copy and the three hour of devotion it deserves. By the intermission I was shocked, I was amazed. By the end of the film nothing made sense but I loved it.

2001: A Space Odyssey is a audiovisual work of art in three chapters. The first one brings us the "Dawn of Man", where a group of hominids face the complications of life as an early-human, the second brings us a scientist leading the investigation of a disturbing finding on the moon and the third one takes us to the spaceship en-route to Jupiter with the human crew and the memorable HAL. The binding thread for these stories is a mysterious monolith, which presence is equally disturbing for the hominids and the humans living in the space, and which bring the science fiction open-to-discussion background of the movie.

Lots of things have been discussed about this movie but for me it was an enjoyable experience because of the emotion it is able to transmit. Caring little about the discussion on extraterrestrial life or technical achievements I allowed my imagination to flow with the Blue Danube watching the spaceships floating in orbit. I enjoyed the uniforms, the furniture and the aesthetics of this imagined future. I was thrilled by the feeling of awe of the scientist on the moon or the desolation of the Jupiter mission crew. I left myself be terrified by the calmed voice of HAL and got lost in the avalanche of images. This movie delivered feelings and ideas and I value that beyond the story that I may guess or discussed.

This is an open movie, it won't send you home with any answers but with many questions instead. It is the wrinkle in the heart that produces this genius combination of images and sound what I took home. I opened my senses and I was filled with emotions and ideas. I could talk about science fiction but that doesn't move me that much.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

a film by Martin Scorsese

I couldn't believe this was an Scorsese movie until the music started playing and the narrative got me engaged. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is an Scorsese movie that doesn't look like the rest of his works but keeps his great narrative power. This movie is funny, sensitive and thoughtful, it is a portrait of woman.

Alice Hyatt, a housewife in a small town in New Mexico looses her husband in an accident and decides to leave the town with her precocious son and travel to her hometown in California to follow the singing career she abandoned when she married. This is a story that happens on the road where mother and son find love, troubles and memorable characters.

The soul of this movie is Ellen Burstyn playing Alice. She is natural, funny, tough, sensitive, absent, smart and contradictory. Her role is really memorable and it blends perfectly with the role of the son who gives her a hard time with his insolent intelligence. On the road both of them discover the scary character played by Harvey Keitel, a smart and sharp androgynous girl played by Jodie Foster and a brutal but sensitive man played by Kris Kristofferson along other memorable characters.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a entertaining and moving story. It is a love story full the human contradictions, a mix of great acting and a fresh story, a road movie featuring a woman that seems so real and interesting that you want to follow across the American Southwest after the first scene.

Airplane!

Airplane! (1980)

a film by David Zucker

It is hard to deny that Airplane! is a silly movie. It is silly, it has lots of cliches, it is predictable but very funny. It is so funny because is so predictable, clichéd and silly. Often I found myself wandering what was so awesome about this film that seemed so simple and the answer arrives when I laugh by myself when some of the lines come back to my mind.

There is no case in describing the plot of this movie so I will describe it. A delicate poisoning affects the passengers on a flight from L.A. to Chicago, the weather is terrible, the plane is on the hands of an inflatable autopilot, Leslie Nielsen is the doctor in charge of the situation and the only man who can land this airplane is heartbroken by a beautiful stewardess and traumatized after an unnamed war.

I picked this movie as an homage to Leslie Nielsen and enjoyed the lines that only he could deliver with a straight face. I'm serious, and don't call me Shirley.