Modern Mondays: Bright Future (2003)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 29, 2009

Categories | Japanese Cinema, Modern Mondays, Tadanobu Asano

My regular readers may have noticed that my blog was impossible to access for 3 or 4 days. This was due to a major problem with the blog servers. They’re still ironing out the bugs so don’t be surprised if Cinebeats disappears again. Hopefully the problems will be worked out soon.

In the meantime, Modern Mondays has sort of snuck up on me. Since I’ve been unofficially counting down my favorite films of the last decade I thought I’d continue to do so with some shots from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Bright Future (aka Akarui mirai; 2003). Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of my favorite Japanese directors at the moment and his chilling 1997 film Cure made my list of “31 films that give me the willies.” Bright Future is another one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s best films and it features a stunning low-key performance by Tadanobu Asano.

I didn’t have time to write anything substantial about the film, but here’s a bit of text borrowed from the Bright Future DVD box: “Friends Mamoru and Yuji are aimless young men stuck in dead-end jobs in a dreary factory in Tokyo. Mamoru, the more antisocial of the two, is obsessed with his pet project of acclimating a poisonous jellyfish to fresh water by gradually changing the water in its tank. One night, he inexplicably murders his boss’ family and is sentenced to death. Yuji, left to continue the jellyfish experiment, befriends Mamoru’s estranged father, and the two form a bond. But Yuji’s attachment to the jellyfish is even stronger, and problems arise when he accidentally releases the poisonous creature into the canals of Tokyo ”

Of course the film is so much more than that simple plot outline, which is why Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films have garnered a lot of praise in recent years. Much has been written about Bright Future already and if you’d like to read more about the film I highly recommend visiting Michael Guillen’s blog The Evening Class. During last year’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa Blogathon Michael put together a great collection of links to some of the best writing about Bright Future that’s available online.

More images from a film filled with stunning imagery. . .

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Modern Mondays: Love Songs (2007)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 22, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, French Cinema, Musicals, Romance, Modern Mondays, Gay Interest, Louis Garrel

When I first mentioned that I was going to start “Modern Mondays” at Cinebeats I briefly discussed how much I liked musicals so I thought I’d share a few thoughts about the best musical I’ve seen in recent years, Love Songs (aka Les chansons d’amour; 2007).

Love Songs was directed by the talented French filmmaker and writer Christophe Honore (Ma mère; 2004, Dan Paris; 2006) and features an original musical score by composer Alex Beaupain. It also stars one of my favorite working actors, the incredibly handsome and charismatic Louis Garrel (The Dreamers; 2003, Regular Lovers; 2005, Dans Paris; 2006). The film tells a rather simple and bittersweet story about three young lovers living in Paris who are torn apart physically and emotionally after one of them unexpectedly dies. Romantic films featuring bisexual threesomes instead of typical “boy meets girl” couples are rare enough, but I’m pretty sure that Love Songs is one of the first full-length musical involving a ménage à trois.

The film’s unconventional take on love and loss is refreshing and beautifully handled by director Christophe Honore. In many ways Love Songs is the director’s love letter to French cinema from the ’60s. Fans of classic French films such as Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Francois Truffaut’s Jules and Jim (1962) and Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman (1961) will easily spot their influence on Honore’s film, but like the nouvelle vague artists that he celebrates here, director Christophe Honore is clearly interested in breaking new ground. He sidesteps much of the ambiguity that was often a trademark of ’60s French cinema to unabashedly deal in honest human anguish, passion and desire.

Love Songs is a sentimental film and I appreciated its sweetness and romanticism, but it’s also a thoughtful meditation on loss and the painful grieving process that occurs after we loose someone we deeply care about. There’s nothing more agonizing than the sudden and unexpected death of a loved one and I think Love Songs greatest achievement besides it’s wonderful score, smart script and beautiful cinematography is the way in which it expertly conveys that overwhelming sense of unexplainable sorrow that can become paralyzing after you suffer a great loss.

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Modern Mondays: Left Bank (2008)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 8, 2009

Categories | Movie Reviews, Horror, Modern Mondays

Last year critics and horror fans showered praise on the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In aka Låt den rätte komma (2008). The attention was well deserved and I enjoyed seeing critics twist themselves up in knots trying to explain their enjoyment of a horror film. The genre is still incredibly misunderstood and this can partially be blamed on the glut of lackluster American horror films churned out year after year that manage to overshadow the more worthwhile horror films coming out of Europe right now. Thankfully cinema fantastique is still alive in well in countries like France and Belgium. You just have to dig a little deeper to find it.

While the world was becoming enamored with Let the Right One In, I was falling in love with another horror film called Left Bank aka Linkeroever (2008). Left Bank is the first full-length horror film made by the talented Belgian director and writer Pieter Van Hees who’s earlier efforts seem to suggest an interest in sports. It shouldn’t be too surprising then that Left Bank also features an athletic protagonist named Marie in the form of charismatic newcomer Eline Kuppens.

In the film we’re introduced to Marie just as she is being forced to drop out of an important track competition after showing symptoms of an illness her doctor assumes is associated with stress and iron deficiency. The doctor orders Marie to rest, but that’s not an easy task for the energetic running enthusiast who also hoped that the competition would offer her an opportunity to escape the prying eyes of her overprotective mother.

Things begin to look up for Marie when she develops a romantic relationship with a handsome archer named Bobby (Matthias Schoenaerts). The young couple seems to be incredibly well-suited for one another and Marie soon decides to move in with Bobby who lives in an apartment on Antwerp’s Left Bank. The film does a wonderful job of capturing the passionate carefree days that occur early in a relationship when two people meet and fall head-over-heels for one another. Marie and Bobby rarely seem to leave their apartment and instead spend most of their waking hours making love and just enjoying each other’s company.

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Modern Mondays

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 2, 2009

Categories | News, Rants & Raves, Modern Mondays, Jim Jarmusch

Cinebeats was recently mentioned (along with fellow bloggers Forward to Yesterday and Self-Styled Siren) in a piece by Danny Leigh for The UK Gaurdian titled The View: Why we love being stuck in the past.

In Leigh’s extremely thoughtful and well-written piece he discusses how the DVD age has made it much easier for film enthusiasts to loose themselves in the many forgotten pleasures of the past and in turn, forsake modern cinema. As much as I’m deeply flattered to have Cinebeats mentioned in Leigh’s piece, the ideas that he explores in his article are somewhat problematic for someone like myself who isn’t afraid or ashamed to call herself a “cinephile.”

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