KoenBro Reviews

Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (2020)

Flat

[2/10 · 13 June 2023]

The movie fails early, at story telling, as the script is just plain terrible. The basic premise is that the female lead character has spent 20 years in the US training and then launching her career as a neurosurgeon only to abandon everything because she met a Hungarian fellow neurosurgeon at a conference. I understand poetic license and creative liberties, but this is just plain silly in its implausibility and is just not a great story. Then some weird obsession unfolds, with a meaningless end. So the movie is neither a psychological thriller or a subtle psychological narrative of any kind, nor is it romantic in any meaningful way. The soundtrack is entry level, as well. The director should stop writing her own scripts and shop for quality material written by others.

Some of the moody shots of Budapest are beautiful but they are merely an esthetic addition, unable to carry over this sad product. Camera work is also somewhat beginner-ish with the many pointless close-up takes.

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Ernst Lubitsch's Art Deco sets are amazing

[6/10 · 13 May 2023]

Ernst Lubitsch's Art Deco sets are amazing and the movie is worth watching for this reason alone. The staircases, doors, mirrors, light fixtures are amazingly timeless. Kay Francis is stunningly delicious. The plot is merely adequate, although common for the era. On the down side, Miriam Hopkins comes across as crude, and talks like a peasant -- there is no chance she could have passed for a countess (or any other polished or pretending) socialite. She detracts from the overall experience. Will have to look her up in other movies to see if that was just an act, although I fear it is her baseline way of speaking.

Diva (1981)

Atmospheric

[8/10 · 10 April 2023]

Shot with dark and moody scenes, some meticulously constructed, this quirky art-house movie has a very evocative early 1980s vibe. I remember the cars of the era, and some of the fashions.

I am a fan of Richard Bohringer and his mysterious character was the Lebowskian rug that tied this cinematic room together.

Although the convoluted plot has some elements of incongruity, the film works, and I would happily watch a series based on Gorodish's and Alba's adventures.

Wilhelmenia Fernandez's voice is sublime, her two songs were well chosen, and the rest of the sound track is also very good. Those who came of age before iPods will appreciate the extra nostalgic feel of the cassette, and reel-to-reel tape players that are key props in this movei, and for the younger viewers, well, just try to follow along.

Color of Night (1994)

Entertaining

[7/10 · 3 April 2023]

An Agatha Christie-like whodunit remixed with Basic Instinct and a touch of Hitchcock, set in a Psychiatrist's practice in that most psychiatric city, LA with strong early 90s vibes. Jane March is very hot and shows it, and the sex scenes are gorgeous. The characters are otherwise a somewhat underdeveloped catalog of mental disorders, and although I am generally a fan of his, Bruce Willis is not a compelling shrink. The script is extremely implausible, and would have benefited from even a cursory industry consultation. That said, it was quite entertaining and loved the 90s atmosphere. Probably couldn't be made today (2023) so enjoy it while you can.

Night on Earth (1991)

Comes alive midway

[6/10 · 31 December 2022]

The plot is well described elsewhere: 5 quasi-simultaneous encounters in taxis, starting in LA, then NY, next in Paris, Rome, and ending in Helsinki.

The first two stories are implausible, corny and just poorly conceived and written, and their mini-plots are ultimately uninteresting. The LA cab driver was over the top but not artistic. The worst story is of the newly arrived newyorker who can't drive but buys an expensive and coveted yellow cab medallion, then flails along stepping on the gas and brake in a strange dance? Sure.

The story comes alive in the third segment, with a fast paced exchange that is ultimately warm but not corny.

Then it peak in Rome, with Roberto Benigni's boisterous and BRILLIANT improvisation. The movie is worth watching for this part alone.

The Helsinki episode did not impressive but I could see how others find it moving.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Average

[3/10 · 4 December 2022]

I watched this movie based on Criterion Channel's December 2022 featuring Sight and Sound magazine's Greatest Films of All Time list, where this work is ranked as #1.

Of ALL TIMES.

So this is 3hours and 20 minutes of close-cropped, highly repetitive domestic scenes of an emotionally dead woman who ends up killing one of her clients; she prostitutes on the side, because reasons. Doesn't everyone?

Is it among the top 1,000 movies ever? Yeah, I'd say so. Top 100? Maybe. BEST EVER OF ALL TIMES? Not by a wide margin. I don't care what the New York Times and all the critics say, there are lots of movies, feminist or not, that are just much better works of art, that interrogate and challenge la condition humaine and are better filmed, better acted, etc. This movie is like the Kardashians: famous because they are famous, and everybody agrees they are famous.

In conclusion, if one films three hours of grass growing, then stabs the sod violently is the result the greatest ecological chef d'oeuvre ever?

Best part of the movie btw is the title: daring, innovative, subversive even, gets a 10/10.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)

2 or 3 stars

[3/10 · 5 May 2022]

The Algerian War for independence had just concluded, offering rich material for an honest inquiry into war, cruelty, colonialism, and state terror, yet all we get on that front is... crickets. Instead the movie drones on and on about Vietnam. The narration is mostly a pseudo-philosophical Marxist word salad. You have to be unusually daft (or a fashionable intellectual, perhaps even a movie critic) to find some deeper meaning in the anti-American projection that masquerades for European thought. Sort of the dumb man's idea of a smart man.

Otherwise the pseudo-documentary format is interesting; the strong use of primary colors and the construction site shots do work. I liked the brief narrations on the banality of life.

I was torn between giving it 2 or 3 stars, but settled on the latter in view of the earnest effort from somebody who really cannot do any better.