Yi Yi

Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000)

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank, his business partners make bad decisions against his advice, and he reconnects with his first love 30 years after he dumped her. His teenage daughter Ting-Ting watches emotions roil in their neighbors' flat and is experiencing the first stirrings of love. His 8-year-old son Yang-Yang is laconic like his dad and pursues truth with the help of a camera. "Why is the world so different from what we think it is?" asks Ting-Ting.

Can we use the word epic to categorize the size and the reach of a movie or is it just a saturated genre? Well, Edward Yang’s family drama of 2000 is one of the most beautiful film about family since the intimist grand scale studies of Yasujiro Ozu. Summarizing movies is not something I like to do in my reviews and I think it takes too much words that are already wrote by marketers.

But, Yang’s film is touching and riveting just like the pictures taken by Yang-Yang that reminds us of what the others see of us are a side we never see. With a naturalist direction Yang’s mastery is at storytelling and the sincerity of the feelings and situations his multifaceted’s characters embrace. This is honestly, the kind of film that throws you out of your chair.

To cite the late Roger Ebert : There was a time when a film from Taiwan would have seemed foreign and unfamiliar--when Taiwan had a completely different culture from ours. The characters in "Yi Yi" live in a world that would be much the same in Toronto, London, Bombay, Sydney; in their economic class, in their jobs, culture is established by corporations, real estate, fast food and the media, not by tradition. The great film critic couldn’t be more right about Yi Yi, this is a movie about contemporary life and the currents of life. Yang also puts up stories that defies the rules of regular romantic films and the fulfilment of parts of life that Hollywood often offers. Yang demonstrates how a person’s life is fulfilled by not only some moments that can be captured by a motion picture but as the evolution of someone and his actions in the maelstrom of society, family, friends, lovers.

With Yi Yi, Edward Yang left one of the greatest film about family in our contemporary world. It was the first film from Yang I ever watched and I can’t believe I waited this long to discover this talented filmmaker. I hate when I have to finish a film review with a sentence like that but I think Yi Yi s not far from being Yang’s masterpiece if I stick with its praise all over the film world. I’m now looking forward on watching his A Brighter Summer Day.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Joel Coen, 2000)

Written by Ethan and Joel Coen and directed by the latter, it is stated in the openning of the film that O Brother, Where Art Thou? is based on Homer’s Odyssey and titled just like the movie Joel McCrea’s character in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels works on while traveling as a hobo in the movie. The Coens have a grand admiration towards the director of some of the best comedies of the 1940’s and it is a great homage to make this movie that was never directed and that carries Sturges’ spirit. Some scenes are direct connections to the original film of 1941 especially the scene in the movie theatre.

Requiem For a Dream

TSPDT Greatest Films #812 Requiem For A Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)
This film has been equally adored and equally hated by cinephiles since it came out. From the director of the celebrated The Wrestler and the esoteric The Fountain. He may not manage to show as much talent as a P.T. Anderson for example, but I personally think that he is one of the "young" American directors to follow in the years to come.

Les meilleurs films de la dernière décennie - 2000

Pour vous faire languir encore plus avant le dévoilement de mon Top 100 des meilleurs films de la décennie qui se terminera en ce 31 décembre 2009 je vais vous présenter le Top 10 de chacune de ses années!

Voici mon Top 10 personnel des 10 meilleurs films de l'année 2000:

1. Dancer In The Dark (Lars von Trier)
Mon film préféré du cinéaste le plus prétentieux de tous les temps. Juste merveilleux et dérangeant jusqu'à la fin! Excellent exemple du Dogme 95 qui ne répugne pas son spectateur en lourdeur excessive.

2. In The Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai)
Probablement le plus beau film de tous les temps par sa filmographie parfait et ses cadrages intimes qui rendent ce film somptueux et extraordinaire!

3. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe)
Ce film nous fait vivre le rêve que tout adolescent a; de suivre son (ses) artiste préféré en tournée et de vivre avec eux.

4. Memento (Christopher Nolan)
Nolan nous prouve tout son talent avec un film hors de l'ordinaire et qui utilise une narrative déconstruite pour nous permettre de rentrer dans la tête de son personnage principal.

5. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
Un ballet acrobatique de Wire-Fu. Stylisé et très appliqué Lee se démarque et se place parmi les plus grands cinéastes de son époque.

6. American Psycho (Mary Harron)
Une révélation, un film qui nous expose les années 80 (revenues à la mode depuis quelques temps) dans toute sa démesure et sa folie. Moins graphique que le livre mais tout autant appréciable.

7. Amores perros (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu)
L'éveil du cinéma mexicain qui sera suivi par le tout autant excellent 21 Grams. Inarittu réussi à conter une histoire tordue qui ouvrira la voie au cinéma étranger sud-américain.

8. Traffic (Steven Soderbergh)
Soderbergh est probablement le cinéaste le plus polyvalent de cette dernière décennie et avec Traffic nous a offert un film complexe qui ne prétend pas résoudre de problèmes ni donner de réelle solution au trafique de la drogue mais nous dresse un tableau pour nous montrer l'ampleur de ce problème.

9. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola)
Le premier film de la cinéaste la plus inspirée de sa génération et ce, pas seulement du côté des femmes.

10. Gladiator (Ridley Scott)
Passionné d'histoire je me laisse toujours embarquer par cette représentation de la Rome antique qui sort des péplums traditionnels. Probablement très surestimé mais très divertissant!