Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Horrible Beauty...
Well.. I was flipping channels.. and Requiem for a Dream was just getting started. Against better judgement, I got sucked into it, making it the second time that I've watched this movie.
I find it hard to even describe it really. It is just so beautiful and purely horrifying all at the same time. I really find it pretty deeply frightening and disturbing on a lot of levels, much more so than some slasher picture. At the same time, the music, the composition, all so beautiful in a sad haunting way. And I don't know I have a thing for her or protection instincts kicking in or what, but Jennifer Connelly just radiates...
I think after I saw the movie the first time and had time to think about it, I wasn't sure if it went too far in the end.. going to extremes for shock value. Now that I've seen it again, I don't think so. It all just seems to flow together and when taken as not literal reality and partly diving to the realm of horror, it all seems to fit together.
This time I was also able to sit back a bit more and compare the styling to Pi, as well as have fun with the cameos a bit more... Was also able to appreciate even more his techniques for portraying visually how the characters are feeling. It has a lot of the iconic feeling of some of the best comic books, where skewing realism actually gives a window into internal reality. In any case, by the end I was still in a very altered state of mind. I'm only coming back to normal now...
So.. I dunno, I guess I'm rambling. I think I may now agree with (Sean?) about the Lars von Trier stuff suffering from just endless abuse. Now that I think about it Dancer in the Dark did seem like maybe too much at the end. Despite loving the music, I think Requiem succeeds better in both the horror and beauty categories.
BTW, if you enjoy movies of people self-destructing, I'd recommend Dead Ringers from Cronenberg. A co-worker recommended it to me, and is quite an interesting and disturbing movie where Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who fall into drugs and madness. It surely has some of the same feeling of Requiem to it. Also, I can't help feeling some tenuous connection to some of Dario Argento's earlier movies, even though perhaps it is colored by Jennifer Connelly's appearance in Phenomena (which was actually before Labyrinth).
Anyway, I highly recommend Requiem for a Dream, one of my favorite movies of all time, even though "favorite" may imply the wrong tone. Watch it, but be ready for a rollercoaster. You may want the Care Bears Movie or something as an antidote, even though it might also ruin the horrible beautiful feeling...
I find it hard to even describe it really. It is just so beautiful and purely horrifying all at the same time. I really find it pretty deeply frightening and disturbing on a lot of levels, much more so than some slasher picture. At the same time, the music, the composition, all so beautiful in a sad haunting way. And I don't know I have a thing for her or protection instincts kicking in or what, but Jennifer Connelly just radiates...
I think after I saw the movie the first time and had time to think about it, I wasn't sure if it went too far in the end.. going to extremes for shock value. Now that I've seen it again, I don't think so. It all just seems to flow together and when taken as not literal reality and partly diving to the realm of horror, it all seems to fit together.
This time I was also able to sit back a bit more and compare the styling to Pi, as well as have fun with the cameos a bit more... Was also able to appreciate even more his techniques for portraying visually how the characters are feeling. It has a lot of the iconic feeling of some of the best comic books, where skewing realism actually gives a window into internal reality. In any case, by the end I was still in a very altered state of mind. I'm only coming back to normal now...
So.. I dunno, I guess I'm rambling. I think I may now agree with (Sean?) about the Lars von Trier stuff suffering from just endless abuse. Now that I think about it Dancer in the Dark did seem like maybe too much at the end. Despite loving the music, I think Requiem succeeds better in both the horror and beauty categories.
BTW, if you enjoy movies of people self-destructing, I'd recommend Dead Ringers from Cronenberg. A co-worker recommended it to me, and is quite an interesting and disturbing movie where Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who fall into drugs and madness. It surely has some of the same feeling of Requiem to it. Also, I can't help feeling some tenuous connection to some of Dario Argento's earlier movies, even though perhaps it is colored by Jennifer Connelly's appearance in Phenomena (which was actually before Labyrinth).
Anyway, I highly recommend Requiem for a Dream, one of my favorite movies of all time, even though "favorite" may imply the wrong tone. Watch it, but be ready for a rollercoaster. You may want the Care Bears Movie or something as an antidote, even though it might also ruin the horrible beautiful feeling...
