Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by TA (A) on July 29, 2003 at 08:23:44

In Reply to: I am very cool on Lars... the Dancer killed all my respect for him posted by Victor Khomenko on July 29, 2003 at 06:51:53:

i haven't seen any of mike van diem's films. will put him on my list. too many films, too little time.

what i like about wong kar wai, lars von trier and cronenberg - and going back in time, filmmakers like herzog and fassbinder - is that their movies are about characters whom i wouldn't imagine i'd want to see a film about. (hollywood films tend to feature characters the little kid in me wants to see - aliens, robots, detectives, rock stars, cool people.) sometimes their films are little tough to sit through or get into, but i like the emotional punch at the end that these directors can deliver out of the material. i guess for me, movies are about hitting that emotional oomph in me.

what i liked about dancer in the dark is how lars presents to the viewer the inanely unbelievable that still got me emotionally. most stories, once you start disbelieveing the premise, lock you out of the emotional content. in dancer, i think he was trying to push this limit as far as he could and then some, while juicing up the cues that tell an audience, this is when you should cry. i kept thinking, "why am i moved by this? it is so stupid. i should be laughing." so i enjoyed the movie for how it maintains that tension.