Life: Idiotropic

Unlike Kirk who has a memory for movies like an elephant and can recite movie lines at any moment even though he's seen them years ago, I don't remember movies. I don't even really like movies. They are entertaining and, I guess, I like the idea of them. A really great movie is wonderful, but frankly, most of the films that come spewing from Hollywood are simply not worth 90+ minutes of my time. So, I might see 2 movies in the theater each year just to go out with friends and be social. And, I might sit through a few with Kirk to spend time with him. But in general, I am the silent one if the subject of "movies" comes up in conversations with friends. Even my Spanish friends know more about Hollywood stars than I do.

But, this last week I borrowed five movies from the library - a truly unheard of occurence. And, though I wouldn't recommend them all, they were all interesting. Four were foreign, one was American. A good mix for me.

So... here they are with brief comments just in case you feel artsy and want to view something created with thought and not randomly spewed.

Vodka Lemon (2005)
Kirk and I watched this one together and at the end just looked at each other with the "what did I miss" expression on our faces. According to the cover it was "Stunning. A Magical Movie," "Visually Ravishing - a tribute to just how rapturous life can be," "Heart-stabbing, Wierdly lyrical", and "Frostbitten Fellini." Another mentioned comedy. I think the funniest part for me was finishing it and rereading the above comments listed on the cover. The film critics who wrote those comments surely had a few too many Vodka Lemons under their belts. If you want action, this isn't it. The movie is slow and has little dialogue. The scenery is white with very little color. It is a movie from which you can take away a sense of the people in Armenia and how they live in this one village. For most, I wouldn't recommend it. But, the more I distance myself from it, in restrospect, I can appreciate it a lot more for its humanity and the honest display of a people trying to survive in their native land post-USSR.

The Story of Weeping Camel
This was night two of my mini-film festival. I watched it alone and loved it. National Geographic was part of this wonderful documentary. It followed a nomad tribe of camel breeders living in the Gobi desert. There was very little dialogue and only half of it was translated into English for the subtitles, but it was interesting. I learned a bit about that culture and the camels were beautiful. The story centered around a white camel who was born breech after a difficult labor. Its mother rejected it and wouldn't let it nurse. When all attempts failed, the family sent two sons across the desert to a village to find a violinist. The movie ended with a ceremony using song and the vibration and sound of the violin to reunite the mother and calf. Again, this isn't Terminator, but it was really interesting to watch and the young boy made me smile. He lives in such a different world, and yet he is just a regular kid, wanting ice cream and television and running around.

Rosenstrasse
I really enjoyed this movie. Kirk called it "the ultimate chick flick." In German with English subtitles, Rosenstrasse told two stories: the story of a mother and her daughter in New York in the present time, and the story of Aryan women in 1943's Berlin fighting to get their Jewish husbands released. The stories, of course, are related and interwoven. I could not find a good review for it, but it was really a good movie both in that it told one of history's stories and in the relationships it describes.

Turtles Can Fly
If you want an honest look at pre-Iraqi war Kurdistan, I think this might be it. Because of it's locale, I could not find an non-politicized review of this movie, but the movie is not about politics. It is about a small village in Kurdistan and the children who live there. It is poignant and heart-warming, sad, yet real. It seems effortless. No agenda. Nothing forced. Just sad honesty. Another foreign film, you won't see Brad Pitt, and there isn't a lot of violence, but it's worth seeing.

Hitch
Sometimes when you don't want to think or learn, a good comedy is in order and this is one of my new favorites. I don't like typical Hollywood drivel, but Will Smith is truly fun to watch and without the language and smut you find in many other films.