Movie storytellers to make you feel

I try to post an image for every post. Photoshop on Wacom Cintiq.

Joe's quest to be better at storyboarding and storytelling is a standard to aspire to and we all have pieces of what he's been for us to share and learn from. Colleagues in animation are all movie addicts, talking in movie phrases and attendant sound effects (scaring the uninitiated within earshot), spontaneous discussions about movies we love or hate on a daily basis. So, to keep in shape and keep on with Joe's passion to understand stories better (he even had a soft spot for appreciating the strangest of "trainwrecks", as John Lasseter recounts) here's two of my recent faves, both films are about dealing with loss. (NY Times requires registration). A recent documentary was on when I was painting this weekend and I heard a quote but didn't see who it was. I believe this to be true:

"People come to movies to feel, not to understand."

NY Times review of "2046" by Kar Wai Wong. Just saw the movie last night. Really impressed by it. It may not appeal to the general public needing all questions answered but I so enjoyed the way it didn't cleave to the expected rythms and regularities of a standard structure but delivered a journey worth the time taking anyway. Performances by the cast were powerful (Ziyi Zhang blazed a performance for the Oscars, I think) and the camera work and spare staging carries the style of the earlier "In the mood for Love." Excerpt from Manohla Dargis review:

Routinely criticized for his weak narratives, Mr. Wong is one of the few filmmakers working in commercial cinema who refuse to be enslaved by traditional storytelling. He isn't the first and certainly not the only one to pry cinema from the grip of classical narrative, to take a pickax to the usual three-act architecture (or at least shake the foundation), while also dispatching with the art-deadening requirements (redemption, closure, ad nauseam) that have turned much of Big Hollywood into a creative dead zone. Like some avant-garde filmmakers and like his contemporary, Hou Hsiao-hsien of Taiwan, among precious few others these days, Mr. Wong makes movies, still a young art, that create meaning through visual images, not just words.

(bolds are mine--R)

And if you're really feeling daring, try out Ji-woon Kim's "Tale of Two Sisters" (Janghwa, Hongryeon). Pete Sohn lent me his DVD with cautions that it's not a good movie. But I was blown away by the unstructured story telling. Left a lot of questions unanswered. Mystifying parts that didn't fit. But I had a blast anyway. My cup of tea. NY Times review by Dana Stevens excerpted below"

In a subversion of the usual horror-movie rhythm, the central secret is revealed about halfway through. The film's last 40 minutes trace the evolving rivalry between the fierce Su-Mi and her archetypically monstrous stepmother, slowly leading us to the heart of what is, in the end, less a gruesome fairy tale than a somber reflection on memory, adolescence and mourning.

Marvelled at the direction (restraint, great choices) and the powerful performances of the lead women. Hat's off to all involved. Sad to see the DVD cover capitalize on gore imagery which implies slasher sensibilities to this movie that isn't in quantities to warrant the diservice.

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