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Yesterday I watched Alphaville, which I have mixed feelings about. It's style doesn't match it's content to the point of making it feel awkward and disjoint. A film noir set in the future city of Alphaville, a technocentric city of oppression. The set and wardrobe reflects none of the things the film is about, which unnerves all the way through. They speak of machines and robots and a futurescape that does not surround them. I like the innovative cinematography, but feel that this plot did not carry it well at all.
Today I watched Milarepa, a strange and bittersweet tale of Tibetan Buddhist legend. It left me very thoughtful. One quote struck me "enemies are in the mind, just learn to control the mind". It's set me to reading about Buddhism - contains some interesting ideas! The film was well shot, and like Cave of the Yellow Dog, showed sign of much local cooperation and improv, allowing the true richness of culture to show without needing to be overt.
Killed a whole morning using Allmovie.com. It's very comprehensive and extensive cross-referencing database means you can find a film like another film in any given way you like. You can see top however many films by country, keyword, date, genre, each film has a list of films it is like, good descriptions, an easy to use rating system. In addition it has educational area with essays, glossaries, and quick guides - again all sorted and cross-referenced. :)
I was able to find some things of interest to watch, read about their genres, critiques, see their body of work in a glance and note similar films.
Decided that French New-wave was not for me, no matter how pretty the girls. Jean-Luc Goddard can keep his "cool". Nabbed Alphaville though, as it's supposed to be Tech-Noir psychological sci-fi, will give it a go. Got Wim Wenders - Wings of Desire, for it's high-concept fantasy exploration of the ideas involving supernatural protective forces (eg- guardian angels); Got Breaking the Waves as it's a Lars Von Trier I've not seen, and he's always great.
