[this is not a movie review (there's somebody in the family who's much better at that sorta thing than me, if he'd just do it--and he knows who i'm talkin about); it is merely a movie recommendation, with a couple observations thrown in.
and i wouldn't even be doing this if i had something better to cough up; but truthfully, collapsing on the couch with v and a bowl of popcorn to watch this movie was by far the most exciting thing i did this week--god knows there are lots of worse ways i coulda spent my time.]
i had to sleep on in bruges before i figured out how i felt about it; here's what i'd come up with by the next morning:
- the story goes down a lot easier if you can look at it as a greek tragedy (with all the contrived artificiality and inevitability that implies) rather than a this-could-actually-happen sequence of events--if you can make that leap, then it's actually a lot of fun
- the performances were universally good--ralph feinnes obviously had a field day being allowed to cut loose and be coarse for a change
- colin farrell's a damn fine actor, but it's those infinitely-expressive eyebrows that make him a star
- if you rent it, make sure to watch the (several of them inexplicably-) deleted scenes afterwards--they'll fill in a lot of the gaps that left you wondering
- bruges is gorgeous--i gotta go someday
- damn quentin tarantino for enabling other filmmakers to believe they can mix lighthearted banter and graphic violence as well as he can--because most of 'em (including these guys), sadly, can't
6 comments:
So this is not a movie review, but your comments on a movie that a lot of people (including myself) have never seen. OK.
are you really gonna bust my balls about this? it is a qualified movie recommendation, no more--if you haven't seen it, consider doing so.
As you know, I really only have two settings, ball busting and sleep. Just not very much in to the nuance thing.
Perhaps you will put up something new then.
really, Sav? 'Cause I find you to be far less ball-busting (and I know nothing of your sex life, so really, what do I know?) than you think.
The beauty of Bruges has been celebrated in literature and opera. The novel Bruges la Morte by Georges Rodenbach became Korngold's gorgeous opera Die Tote Stadt.
Alan Hollinghurst set his early novel The Folding Star there. Although the city isn't named, the occasonal references to it as a dead city or to the city's deadness fix it as being Bruges.
The unspoiled medieval character of Bruges has made it a great visual symbol. Rodenbach, after much consideration, even had photographs of the city bound into editions of his novel because he felt the look and ambiance of Bruges was an essential part of a novel about a man lost in memory and nostalgia.
thanks, will--i definitely want to know more about bruges, and you've given me a start.
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