I’m still not sure whether I liked this movie or not. On the one hand, the film vocalizes a lot of familiar contemporary frustrations for bourgeois couples; the setting is a horribly clichéed movie-Paris, a gauzy, sepia-tone lovers’ paradise; and Ethan Hawke is smug and flirty, while also looking as gaunt and sickly as Lou Reed. On the other hand, the bourgeois complaints still strike a chord; Paris is really like that sometimes; and Julie Delpy is hotter than she has ever been.
Still, though the film can be self-indulgent at times, it is nonetheless deceptively rich and quietly affecting. That said, I much prefer Scenes from a Marriage, even if it is four times longer.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Warner Bros. DVD
05 Apr 2005 10:38 PM | Comments (1)
Re: Preferring Scenes From a Marriage.
Well, duh. ;)
As a continuation of the characters forged in Before Sunrise, however, I think this is almost a masterpeice in it’s own right, particularly in how effortlessly it frames the invisible obstacles preventing its characters from reaching happiness – political, social, geographical, etc. This is one of the few recent movies were I go into modes of almost pure thought when I watch it – last veiwing, time literally ceased to exist for me for a bit (as contradictory as that sentence sounds). The same happened with The New World – halfway through, my mind simple overloaded (although for entirely different reasons).
Robert
28 January 2006
11:12 PM