HarryB

The first part of Kieslowski's Three colours trilogy on France's national motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. 'Blue' is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew, free of personal commitments, belongings, grief or love. The disturbing topic of a woman who can't deal with the loss of her husband and child transforms into an essay on the impossibility of isolation. It is a quiet, personal movie that spends most of it's time with the main character played excellently by Juliette Binoche. The color blue is very evident in the film, and a fade to a simple blue screen is used to show times of deep emotion. I like the way this film changes from a story about a death to an affirmation to life. I like the way that little things like mice with babies in the apartment and cube of sugar dissolving in coffee loom large in the thought of our main character, where as what others consider important such as finishing her husband's symphony seem very minor . It feels like diving deep through cold dark water to finally swim toward the light. One passes through emotional turmoil to come out the other side. I found it a very satisfying. :) I've seen Red and blue so far and these movies are not to casually throw on after supper. These films require a commitment by the audience to really consider Kieslowski's implications (Kieslowski was one of the most talented directors) , perhaps a little too much for someone expecting a casual encounter.

B,R Chopra's Mahabharat is better.

Obsah is slightly wrong, It is not an Indian tradition ( tradice) to do so as written in the summary.

I was intrigued by the idea of Martin Scorsese directing a period piece, and he almost pulls it off. Visually, the movie was beautiful. It was a lesson for upcoming directors. The deliberate slowness of the camera as it moves throughout scenes; way characters react to one another with little more than glances and smiles and polite gestures who imply much more than what they say; the theme of a rigid society and the woman who unknowingly disrupts it with her "scandalous" conduct. Contemplative, Scorcese uses a tremendous amount of visual tricks to emphasize what or whom we should look at: spotlighting Pfeiffer and Day-Lewis as they enjoy a quiet conversation during the intermission in a play; slowing the action down for about five seconds in a key scene (when Pfeiffer gets up from her seat, crosses a room full of guests to go talk to Day-Lewis as Woodward narrates "It was not the custom for a lady to get up ... and talk to another man."). His technique forces us to really watch the story, to look for details, overt and covert, since like the opening montage of roses in bloom at the beginning of the credits, this is a movie of deep contemplation because of the subtle game of tradition which is being played behind the curtains, just out of the camera's view. Nothing is what it seems, and in the exceptional case of Winona Ryder's incredibly sly portrayal of May Welland, that becomes true: she knows much more than her character reveals, and when she does so, it's only with a loving glance. The movie so ultimately tragic and emotionally jarring: that true love is consciously allowed to be crushed in lieu of family tradition, which is the overwhelming hypocrisy of the people inhabiting Edith Wharton's timeless novel. Unfortunately, not everything works. The story, another tragic tale of impossible love, had been done thousands of times before and didn't really hold my attention. Not bad, just more time to watch the pretty pictures. Anyway, I don't think Scorsese was really interested in the love story. It's more an analytical study of the behavior of people from that day and age, and as such it does work. Daniel Day-Lewis is perfectly cast as the frustrated Archer.

First of all, full points to Ghibli for versatility. Producing this and 'Grave of the Fireflies' inside a year of each other would be like Disney doing 'Mary Poppins' and 'Judgement at Nuremberg' back to back. Words that spring to mind after watching Kiki include 'delightful', 'light', 'buoyant', and so forth. Unfortunately, this is the only thing holding it back from 5 stars from me There were just a few sections where the lack of a villain, of any real action, of anything other than people being nice to each other, took the top 10% off what was otherwise a masterful movie. Also allowing the cat "ji ji" to drop out of proceedings for most of the latter half the film, definitely removed a spark from the film. Whatever the case, Miyazaki's attention to detail is, as usual, spell binding and the settings of town, cinematography, is stunning and beautiful to watch. Movie to lift your spirits. ;-)