Discuss My Blueberry Nights
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Yikes did Hollywood kill another great foreign director?
posted by rooprectSTAFFMOD on October 6, 2023 at 9:18 AM
I'm a huge fan of Wong Kar-Wai's early films from his native Hong Kong: As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, and In the Mood for Love. Then in the early 00s following his international breakthrough he was given a bigger budget and the opportunity to film his first English language film with mega stars, My Blueberry Nights (2007).
Ok, it's not bad. It has some great moments (like Natalie Portman's reveal which totally got me by surprise), and it's stylish for sure. But jeez, I got the feeling that a 2nd year film student could do as well. It seemed to be trying too hard to be artistic--to prove its artisticness to Hollywood--with hyper saturated colors and that 8fps jerky slowmo effect in EVERY DAMN SCENE (I'm not exaggerating, it's in every scene). Maybe those were cutting edge in 2007 but I'm afraid those tricks haven't aged well since every hack youtube filmmaker uses them to death now.
And can we talk about those cringe moments in the plot for a sec?
In no universe is it ok to kiss and lick the ice cream off the face of a girl who's passed out drunk. Are we clear on that? Not even if you're Jude Law. Not even if the cinematographer does his best to give it soft romantic lighting. It's f'kn creepy dude.
Next...
In no universe is it ok to violently assault, stab and nearly kill some guy just because your ex-wife is now dating him. And yet the character who does this, the psycho drunk cop, is supposed to be the sympathetic hero of the scene? And we're supposed to feel sorry for him, the psycho cop, just because he has a sad face and his ex-wife is a 'sl*t'?
I dunno man, I'm trying really hard not to hate this movie. Like I said, I was the biggest WKW fan from his early 80s-90s movies. But I'm thinking he's another case of a talented foreign filmmaker who gets his first taste of Hollywood ($$$) and totally loses his sensibilities. Gawd I can't get that disgusting ice cream scene out of my head. Who thought that would be a good idea?
Reply by rooprect
on October 9, 2023 at 9:11 AM
No I hadn't heard that! Which movie was it?
Godard is a challenge for me, I either adore his films or I can't make it through 20 mins. But the more I learn about cinema, the bigger the "adore" pile gets.
I heard about his death.... assisted suicide, not for any specific illness. A family member said "He was not sick, he was simply exhausted." I see he was making films as recently as 2018 just 4 years before he died. Tragic ending for such a master, but I guess he went out on his own terms.
Reply by RockySullivan
on October 9, 2023 at 9:58 AM
Uhhh, I don’t remember the film by Godard that got butchered, but that’s how legend tends to work — specificity can get sacrificed as time passes. Sorry about that.
Reply by wonder2wonder
on October 9, 2023 at 4:33 PM
Here is a post about that incident.
Reply by bratface
on October 9, 2023 at 4:37 PM
Why didn't you just leave the info for 'rooprect' in response to his question? Why did you have to create a whole different thread?
Reply by wonder2wonder
on October 9, 2023 at 4:54 PM
I don't want to go too far off-topic on this thread. Sometimes I do and I will then try to correct myself. I can do so by combining it with helping create content - which might interest other users - on the empty discussion boards of this site.
Reply by RockySullivan
on October 9, 2023 at 7:24 PM
It's been years since I've seen Blueberry Nights, but I'm reasonably sure that the slowmo effect you are referring to -- which I tired of myself -- is supposed to symbolize some sort of state of being for the characters in the film.
Kar-Wai often uses techniques like that to make a point about his films' principals.