I finally saw The Lives of Others and loved it. I was completely absorbed and engaged in the film. Nothing since 24 has held my rapturous attention like this film. It was amazing. Rich, complex characters that felt as if they were inhabiting a very real, very morally complex world. It was deep and resonant without being didactic or too obvious. It managed to be both restraintful and emotionally evocative. I really, really loved it.
I can’t wait until Film Streams opens this upcoming weekend. I am trying to decide if I should attend the opening on Friday night. Seven Samurai opens as one of Alexander Payne’s ten picks for the Film Streams series that he is curating. Although some may view this as sacrilege, especially as a movie lover and a film student, I must admit that I’m not a big Kurosawa fan. I’ve got nothing against the guy, but the films I’ve seen of his haven’t sparked anything within me. Basically, I was bored. I feel like I have seen Seven Samurai for a film class, but I’m not sure. Maybe I should give this movie a first or second chance. Maybe with the excitement of a hopefully packed theater on opening night, I will find something onscreen in that dark, new theater that I haven’t seen before. Payne has written this about the film:
“Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s grandly entertaining historical epic is an achievement like climbing Mount Everest. My vote for best movie ever made. It’s the film that most made me want to become a filmmaker.”
There’s more:
“I still can’t believe it now, fifty-odd viewings later, that a movie can be that good—that ferocious, that delicate, that historical, that timeless, that entertaining, that complete. It goes by quickly precisely because it is so economical, each frame measured and weighed for the story it tells.”
That’s pretty high praise. If you’re interested in seeing his other picks and notes on them, you can go here for an Omaha World-Herald article and/or on the Film Streams site. As more incentive, Payne himself is going to be on hand for some of the opening week events.
It seems to me, based on my own musings here, that I should go. Couldn’t McCabe and Mrs. Miller be the opening night? Or La Notte? Or The Last Detail? Or any other film that he has chosen?
