Film Directors

Some of the most recent films I've seen have been chosen because of their directors ... one new, the others "catching up" on films I'd never seen previously.

I went to see The Science of Sleep (2006) a few weeks ago, a film written and directed by Michel Gondry (the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). I had only seen Eternal Sunshine for the first time a few months ago, and thought it was wonderful - so when I saw the preview for Gondry's latest film (before Little Miss Sunshine) I figured I'd have to go see this one as well. I thought it was a fascinating look at the idea of blurring between sleep and wakefulness, and some of the effects during the dream sequences were neat. Towards the end though, I started feeling a bit frustrated because some of Stéphane's actions just seemed incredibly stupid - I wondered why couldn't he properly sort out what was sleep and what was real. Then I started thinking about Stéphane in the context of mental illness, that is, that he had a distorted perception of reality - and then the film made a lot more sense to me overall. Looking at the reviews on IMDB, it seemed as though it got either 8-10/10 ratings or 0-1/10 ratings (love it or hate it) - for me, it was almost both during the same film (but the frustration was short-lived, so overall I enjoyed it and I was glad I saw it).

I watched Mystery Train (1989) the other day (VHS from the library), the first film I'd seen by director Jim Jarmusch. I had been told about his penchant for panning shots - certainly it was a good way in this film to convey the mood (desolation?) of inner-city Memphis. I liked the technique how 3 intertwining yet never-really-meeting stories were told one after the other - I first thought that it was the next day when it switched from "Far from Yokohama" to "Ghost", until we saw the same hotel, the same song/same time on the radio, and so on, to realize that it was actually taking place at the same time as the first story (and the third story also taking place at the same time).

And while I had several friends who were big Twin Peaks fans when it was originally on TV, while we were undergrad university students, I never actually got around to watching it, nor anything else by David Lynch until now. The other day I watched Blue Velvet (1986) - "disturbingly good". I think disturbing in the sense that if you watch a movie about drugs/gangs/crime you'd expect certain levels of violence - but it seems more out of place with white picket fences and roses, and wholesome kiddies crossing the street in a small town, as in the opening shots of this film.

Today I watched Mulholland Dr. (2001) - wow! I was captivated throughout, at the end I got lost and confused, yet still appreciated the artistry and film-making throughout. Then when I read some "hints" online and realized I'd missed the significance of the opening scenes, it made more sense - overall, amazing!

(Thanks to Chris for the David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch recommendations).