Recent movies watched and books read under the heat of the December sun, if you're interested. (If you're not interested, go to www.rogerebert.com. He writes better than me, anyways. And he's skinny now, too, which is in and of itself a miracle worthy of your attention.)
MOVIES WATCHED:
HOTEL RWANDA -- Involving flick about the massacres in Rwanda ten years ago. Similar to SCHINDLER'S LIST in some ways. A great central performance by Don Cheadle. Quite moving and powerful, mostly in the leisurely, gradual way that the story develops, the insidious way that horror and corruption go hand in hand. I saw a powerful documentary at the Toronto Film Festival that profiled Romeo Daillaire, who was the Canadian UN general in Rwanda at the time. (In this movie, Nick Nolte plays a character based on Daillaire; does Nolte pull off being a Canadian? I think he does. He has a Canadian flag on his uniform, so that's half the battle right there, right?)
Watching this, though, and other stories of heroism and survival in the midst of war, reminded me of a quote Stanley Kubrick's screenwriter on EYES WIDE SHUT made. He was talking to Kubrick (a Jew) about SCHINDLER'S LIST. Kubrick said something like:
"You think SCHINDLER'S LIST was about the holocaust? That movie was about six thousand Jews that lived. The holocaust was about six million Jews that died."
MADADAYO -- The legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's last film, a long and simple story about a retired professor and his decades-long relationships with his students. In its visual composition, pacing, script and overall theme, it is quintessentially Japanese. It is lengthy and slow and not much happens and it includes everything that American films would leave out. See it to see why Asian films are so much more better than western ones. (A blanket statement, but I think it's true.)
THE JOURNEY HOME -- This is by Zhang Yimou (sp?), the brilliant Chinese director, and it's a simple story, beautifully told. (As was MADADAYO, come to think of it.) Upon the death of his father, a Chinese urbanite returns to his rural village for his father's burial, prompting the story of how his parents being met to be told. The present-day sequences are in crisp, grim black and white, while the idealized narrative of his parents' courtship is in glorious colour. Another excellent Asian flick.
INFERNAL AFFAIRS III -- The first chapter of this Chinese trilogy was just released back in America, and it's going to be remade by Martin Scorsese, starring Brad Pitt and Matt Damon. You should see this orginal flick first, if you can find it. A Hong Kong action series, it focuses on betrayal and loyalty in the police force. This is a fitting end to the series -- entertaining, dramatic, suprising, and a worthy coda to the trilogy that, I suppose, is worth watching on its own, but it has added bits of resonance if you've seen (and remember) the first two flicks. On the whole, I'd say the first film is the strongest -- isn't that usually the case? The second film is a prequel, and the third film jumps back in time from before the first film until the present day. Got that? A convoluted but suspenseful trilogy that deals with poweful themes of memory, forgiveness, revenge and redemption. If foreign films scare you, check out these movies.
BOOKS READ:
CAMBODIA CONFOUNDS THE PEACEMAKERS -- A somewhat clunky title, and a bit of a boring read, but it highlights the long and winding road Cambodia took to achieving even a semblance of democracy after the Vietnamese rule ended in the early nineties. Very informative and exhaustive, illustrating how legal, circular and messy negotiations can become at the end of a genocidal regime that is longing for a semblance of normalcy. Not a fun read, no, but if you're interested in the Cambodian legal system and present-day society, worth checking out.
TWILIGHT OVER BURMA: MY LIFE AS A SHAN PRINCESS -- A memoir of an Austrian woman who, while studying in America, met a Burmese man, married him, and just happened to find out, upon arriving in the country (Myanmar/Burma) that he was a genuine prince of a Shan province. (Uh, sorry honey, he says. Forgot to mention that point.) Simply written, notable mostly for its first-hand details of life in a Burmese province circa 1950. A first-hand portrait of how an Austrian woman becomes a princess, raises a family, and then reacts and responds to ten years in an independently run province of Burma. The personal trauma she experiences when the military regime overpowers the country and her husband serves as a quiet testimony to the dreadful, basic unfairness of so much of Southeast Asian politics and life.
YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS -- This is the autobiography of John Mcenroe. I always liked Mcenroe, probably because he's left-handed, and probably because I remember that when I was in high school he made his final, desperate stab at a Wimbledon singles title at the impossibly late age of thirty-two, which is only three years older than I am now, which makes me feel freakin' old. I can remember reading a British biography of Mcenroe while waiting for a pizza at Pete's Pizza in the plaza near my house. (Is that place still there, I wonder?) Now I'm getting sentimental...
Strange thing is, the British edition, the one I read, is titled 'Serious'. Its cover features Mcenroe in a suit and tie. The American edition's cover shows the famous shot of Mcenroe circa the mid-eighties, strolling through Times Square in a lengthy black overcoat, looking cool. Maybe the publishers thought British readers wanted a little more depth, and the Americans a little more flash?
In any event, if you're a tennis fan, it highlights all the highlights you'd want from Mcenroe's career, but it's more than that. The title -- taken from one of Mcenroe's legendary rants to court officials -- is also kind of a lament for his own immaturity. It's a self-portrait of a guy who is trying to learn how to move away from being a selfish brat now that he has six kids, a wife, and a little bit of a loony ex-wife. How to balance the real world with the illusionary world that tennis players live in. ("Tennis players are not well-rounded people," he says. "There's nothing in the lifestyle whatsoever that requires us to be.")
Mcenroe is a true character, and he tells it like it is; the book pulls no punches on himself or other people. Read if you like or hate Mcenroe. It will probably confirm your opinion of him either way.
LIVING FAITH -- This is Jimmy Carter's memoir about his life as a Christian and how it's affected his career(s), politics and life. Reading this, you wish that Bush were this articulate and broad-minded about his religious beliefs. Carter is remarkably progressive in his beliefs, while never denying the central truths he holds dear. He is not heavy-handed or 'preachy'; he's showing what Christianity has meant to his life through specific examples that are usually poignant and sometimes funny. He's not afraid to criticize his own religion, and he's honest about his changing views. Carter was a pretty lousy president his first time around, I guess, but given all the great work he's done since then, is he still able to have another shot at it? The world needs more leaders like this guy.
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