August 05, 2009

cafe lumiere

Although I know I have become more mellow when watching movies, I did not expect such plain evidence: a year ago I would have hated Café Lumière (2003); not only do I have the patience for it today, I find that I (almost) kind of love it.





4 comments:

DG said...

That's all?

Ian said...

It doesn't have to be. What more do you want?

DG said...

What did you like about it? Are you warming to modern (art) cinema in general? I'm interested in changes of this sort.

Ian said...

I really liked the girl's hat. I liked both characters and connected with the urban isolation theme. I like Japanese houses and wish I had stuff like what's in them (especially those knee-high tables). I like trains. I like long shots and the general detachment from the characters (the external camera I've talked to you about). I like the ease and slacked tension of the story. It's easy to be drawn to young people in an urban environment, and I suspect that if I haven't been drawn to his work before, it's because I've only seen his earlier films which are concerned primarily with the past in less-urban settings.

But that doesn't really hint at what's changed in me. I think before I would have demanded the film work on my own pet cinematic interests, and I could right now be complaining about the camera, which I felt was not as static as it should be (this is, after all, an Ozu homage). Or I could be complaining about the inconsistent use of music. Or whatever. I don't think I care about that anymore.

So when it comes to personal choices, no, I'm not really at home in today's art cinema; but I'm no longer at war with it, I think. I'm fine living by its side and find that it can be a welcome friend at times.