Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon // 臥虎藏龍 (2000)

Behind the shoot:

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) with mechanical special effects designer Jim Doyle and Heather Langenkamp.

Don’t Breathe (2016)

The House That Dripped Blood (Amicus, 1971): US Lobbycards 11x14

H.R. Giger designs The Harkonnen Castle for Jodorowsky’s Dune

Heather Graham, Eddie Murphy & Steve Martin in:

Bowfinger (1999) by Frank Oz

Mank (2020)

exotica/the before trilogy

exotica (1994)

exotica is another one i caught on '90s latenight canadian tv as a perhaps-too-young teen, and yet...

nothing could have prepared me for witnessing this hypnotic film as an adult. i couldn't get it out of my head. i watched it. i watched it again. i invited a friend over and we watched it together just so we could talk about it. though it takes place in a sexy setting, it's not a story about sex... or anything lurid at all, really. it's about pain, and it's about the strange rituals we create to help us endure our pain.

as he often could, ebert said it perfectly:

"some directors make movies like onions, peeling off one layer after another. [egoyan] works in the opposite way. his new movie, exotica reconstructs the onion, one layer at a time. it starts with small pearls of a story that seem mysterious and unconnected, and gradually the whole form becomes clear. it's a curiously satisfying experience."

i couldn't be prouder that canada had one of the best entries in the mid-'90s indie film explosion, and i love finding out all these years later that atom egoyan and arsinée khanjian were a canadian/armenian indie film power couple. i can't wait to dig into more of their work.

p.s. the criterion edition of this is an delight in film study, from the illuminating sarah polley/atom egoyan conversation and the archival egoyan film, to the audio commentary and the damn fine cover art.

* * * * * / 5

before sunrise (1995) before sunset (2004) before midnight (2013)

watching these three films being so close to the age of céline and jesse in midnight was a magical fucking experience. what utterly perfect, authentic writing, acting, and filmmaking.

if i had to pick favorites i might have to lean towards sunset just because i can say without hyperbole that there hasn't been a more perfect ending ever committed to celluloid. (and it has benefit of those delightful julie delpy songs bookending it!) but the honest truth is that all three of them are thoughtful and breathtaking and need to be seen.

the before series will stay in my heart forever. i'm happy i saw them now and not as they came out, because seeing them before i had the life experience to truly understand and feel every moment of all three of them would have been a much lesser experience.

...and yes, i'm happy i could see them after having met my jesse/céline, the person i felt that immediate spark with, that fire, that magic, that otherworldly feeling.

"i guess when you're young, you just believe there'll be many people with whom you'll connect with. later in life, you realize it only happens a few times."

i hope we meet these two again, someday.

* * * * .8 / 5

David Dastmalchian in:

The Dark Knight (2008) by Christopher Nolan

Prisoners (2013) by Denis Villeneuve

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) by Denis Villeneuve

Dune (2021) by Denis Villeneuve

Gloria (1980) dir. John Cassavetes

Yojimbo (1961) by Akira Kurosawa

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) by George Miller

onceuponatimethecinema.blogspot.com

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) Welcome to this crazy time, tough girl

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 2024 George Miller