Snowed In
During the blizzard this past weekend, I drank hot chocolate with marshmallows and staged a mini movie festival. I rewatched Zhang Yimou's Hero and loved the breathtaking visuals even more the second time around. A twisty narrative, each plot twist lit with a different luminous color scheme, assassins, calligraphy and swordplay, doomed lovers...who could ask for anything more? I favor Hero over the more critically-acclaimed House of Flying Daggers, but if you like Zhang's style, check out both, along with his new movie, The Curse of the Golden Flower, although I am sorry to say it has already disappeared from our local cinemas.
I also enjoyed Michael Winterbottom's mockumentary Tristram Shandy: a Cock and Bull story, a hilarious look at the perils of adapting an 'unfilmable' British classic to the screen. The film within a film concept cleverly pits the tidiness of movie-making against the chaotic real lives of the filmmakers and actors. Plus, how could you not love a movie that includes trapping the leading man upside down in a very cramped plastic womb and then making fun of him? Steve Coogan, Jeremy Northam and Rob Brydon star, and Gillian Anderson makes a brief but interesting appearance.