Sunday, December 20, 2009

Love's a Bitch

Amores Perros. Translated it means "love's a bitch." Great name for a film. Great film.

My previous post was about me recommending movies. I recommended I Stand Alone to a co-worker, who liked it. In turn, she brought me her copy of Amores Perros. I watched it last night and was fairly impressed. It was a long film, and if you are squeamish about animal violence (there is a lot of dog fighting), you may want to stay away from it. If, on the other hand, you are one of those people really excited about yet another Terminator sequel, you will definitely want to stay away. The film is depressing, violent and makes you think. In other words it is in that genre of films known as "box office poison."

American films have a huge following worldwide. They have influenced a whole new generation of filmmakers, too. (The French have revolutionized the horror genre, surpassing the Japanese.) What I find interesting, however, is that the films coming to our shores from overseas are generally excellent films. They seem to leave out a lot of the things American audiences are known for loving. Now, maybe we aren't seeing a lot of the crap over here. Perhaps there is a series of Rambo clones coming out of Armenia, but I don't know about them. I think this is good not only for the viability of importing foreign films, but for film as a whole. American directors will always embrace the crap formula films (there's an audience for them), but the new camera hounds will be exposed to other things, and that can only help their filmmaking. I'm not a purist when it comes to art. I think different cultural influences can only help the art form grow.

I will be thanking my co-worker tomorrow. She and I will probably take some time in the day to discuss the film, what it meant, our thoughts on it. Much like we did with Gaspar Noe's nihilistic bit of depression. I enjoy those kinds of conversations. They don't get inspired by things like White Chicks.

Love's a bitch, and so is stereotypical cinema. Give me something to make me think any day over car crashes and played out love scenes.

2 comments:

  1. White Chicks was all about an existential crisis, in which two races will never, ever get along. Not sure why you hate that movie so much, other than the fact that it has black folk dressing up in white face. But if it was white folk in black face, you'd be all over it. Asshole.

    Anyway, I'm taking the day off from work so I can watch Avatar, back-to-back, in 3-D and 2-D to see which one better captures the post-modern identity crisis we all face on a daily basis.

    Oh, and do the dogs talk in Amores Perros? If so, I'm totally there! Did you know Cats & Dogs has a sequel coming out? Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. I am sooo keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out in 3-D.

    Can't wait for Gaspar Noe to sign his contract with Walt Disney! Irreversible theme park ride, here I come! Where's the fire extinguisher? Enter The Void funhouse? OMG!


    Toodles!

    Oh, God, I think someone spiked my cough syrup.

    Is the blog spinning or is it just me?

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