From the Chicago Reader (April 22, 1997). — J. R.
Despite its sentimental aspects, this youthful, semitragic tale of two Chinese mainlanders in Hong Kong — the wonderful Maggie Cheung (Actress, Irma Vep) and pop star Leon Lai — and their fluctuating relationship as friends and lovers is the most moving film I’ve seen yet about that city’s last years under colonial rule (though the film’s final sections are set mainly in New York, where both characters emigrate). I suspect many Chinese viewers feel the same, because the film cleaned up at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, sweeping no less than nine categories (including best director, film, screenplay, and actress). Set between 1986 and 1996, and visualized by director Peter Chan with a great deal of inventiveness and lyricism, this movie is full of heart and humor, capturing the times we’re living in as no Western film could. Watch for a charming cameo by Christopher Doyle, the premier cinematographer of the Hong Kong new wave, as an English teacher. Film scholar and former Chicagoan Patricia Erens, now based at Hong Kong University, will introduce the Friday screening. Film Center, Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson, Friday, August 22, 6:00; Saturday, August 23, 8:00; Sunday, August 24, 4:00; and Tuesday, August 26, 7:30; 312-443-3737.… Read more »
It’s the last day of the Cine Palium Fest in Palo del Colle, a medieval
village in southern Italy, where I’ve been serving on one of the juries,
and for me the highlight of the week has been the world premiere this
morning of an omnibus feature coproduced by Jay Rosenblatt and
Ellen Bruno consisting of thirteen very diverse but entertaining
pieces of anti-Trump agit-prop by seventeen filmmakers, in the
following order: Sarah Clift (a charming fiction about a Mexican
mother riding on her motorbike to a remote cave to acquire a huge
Trump doll from a mysterious shaman to serve as her little boy’s
birthday piñata), Pacho Velez and Nicole Salazar (the Trump
Inauguration as seen or ignored at the Tijuana border control), Kate
Amend and Pablo Bryant, Shy Hamilton, Ferne Pearlstein, Rosenblatt
(a characteristically Rosenblattian creepy and funny reworking of found
footage), Kris Samuelson and John Haptas, Usama Alshaibi (a scary look
at and listen to what American talk radio sounds like to someone with a
Muslim background who’s driving), Chel White, David Sampliner and
Rachel Shuman, Alan Berliner (a succinct way of summarizing what a
divided country consists of and feels like), Eva Ilana Brzeski (heart-
stopping portraiture of fellow Americans that reminds me of both
Dovzhenko and Costa), and Jeremy Rourke (reminding us of how joy
can be an empowering form of resistance).… Read more »
“Doubtless this tale of spirit possession in Georgetown packs a punch, but so does wood alcohol,“ wrote Reader critic Don Druker in an earlier review of this. I wouldn’t be quite so dismissive: as a key visual source for Mel Gibson’s depiction of evil in T as well as an early indication of how seriously pulp can be taken when religious faith is involved, this 1973 horror thriller is highly instructive as well as unnerving. William Friedkin, directing William Peter Blatty’s adaptation of his own novel, aims for the jugular, privileging sensation over sense and such showbiz standbys as vomit and obscenity over plodding exposition. This 2000 rerelease runs 132 minutes, 11 minutes longer than the original; with Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, Linda Blair, and Lee J. Cobb. R. (JR)
… Read more »
Chen Kaige clearly intended this Chinese fantasy-action spectacle to top Zhang Yimou’s Hero, and I must admit that I prefer it to the earlier movie: the digital effects are sometimes excessive, yet Chen’s story of a loyal slave, his master, and a wealthy, seemingly doomed princess is more affecting, especially in the closing stretch. Chen’s original U.S. distributor, the Weinstein Company, ordered him to shorten the movie from its original running time of 128 minutes and then dropped it. (It’s worth recalling that his 1996 feature Temptress Moon was severely damaged by Miramax’s recutting.) Now Warner Independent Features is releasing the abbreviated, 102-minute version, and it’s well worth checking out. PG-13. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Esquire, Landmark’s Century Centre.
… Read more »
