Culture Watch
In this issue:
These Movies Matter;
July DVD Reviews
Foreign Drama: Yi Yi, A One and a Two, The EventDocumentaries worth watching:
Ballets Russes (See Ballets Russes with The Red Shoes), Why We Fight; Protocols of Zion
Classic: The Loved One and From the Small Screen: Portrait of a Marriage
Yi Yi: A One and a Two
2000, Taiwan/Japan, 173 min., subtitles,
Criterion edition
Director: Edward Yang
Recognitions
Best Director,Cannes, 2000; Grand Prix, Fribourg, 2001;
Panorama Jury prize, Sarajevo, 200; Chief Dan George Humanitarian
Award, Vancouver, 2000; Best Foreign Film, French Film Critics, LA Film
Ciritics, New York Film Critics, 2000
The film focusses on NJ, a middle-aged Taiwanese electronics executive,
who is so busy rushing through his life he has not been paying much
attention to happiness. From this centre-point the story moves through
the ups and downs of three generations of an upper-middle class
Taiwanese family. As the film opens, NJ’s wife, Min-Min, is undergoing a spiritual crisis and wants to go on a retreat. His teenage daughter,
Ting-Ting is about to experience first-love. And Yang-Yang, his
eight-year-old son has begun a project to photograph the backs of
people’s head in order "to show them what they cannot see." But,
all-in-all, things seem pretty normal for an active family.
Then the current of life begins to shift. At Min-Min’s brother’s wedding, NJ’s mother-in-law has a stroke which results in a coma. NJ has a chance encounter with his first love, Sherry, whom he has not seen for thirty years and his emotions begin to surface — but things do not unfold as one might imagine.
Yi Yi is an observant, richly detailed, portrait that allows the
minutiae of daily life to provide an ongoing, flowing background for
some of the deeper questions such as: What sort of difference in one’s
life does taking one opportunity and not another actually make? Or, as
Ting-Ting asks: "Why is the world so different from what we think it
is?" In this movie — unlike most North American films — the characters don’t feel forced into sudden decisions, romantic or otherwise. They’re
committed to the life they’re leading and their vague romantic
yearnings are more like background noise than calls to action.
When
doubts about existence and how we’ve conducted ourselves arise, as NJ
observes, it’s a little like talking to someone in a coma, when talking
is “like praying: you’re not sure the other party can hear, and not
sure you (yourself) are sincere.” This is the small magic of going with
the current of ordinary life.
The Event
2003, Canada/USA, 114 min.
DVD released April, 2004
Director: Thom Fitzgerald
Recogntions
Jury Award, Berlin, 2003; Grand Jury Award for Outstanding
Actress (Olympia Dukakis), L.A. Outfest, 2003; Audience Award,
Indianapolis, 2003; Best Director and Writer, Atlantic Film Festival,
2003.
Matt (the charismatic Don McKellar) is in his thirties, gay, Jewish,
and dying of AIDS. He feels he has no hope of recovery and decides to
take his own life. With help from his friends and the support of his
mother (Olympia Dukakis), he decides to hold an “event”, a party at
which he can end his life among friends — a final celebration of life.
His boyfriend, Brian, is an AIDS counselor and has access to the
necessary drugs. All goes well until an inquisitive district attorney
(Parker Posey) arrives and begins to ask questions. She’s looking into
a string of unexplained deaths in the Chelsea district of Manhattan
where Matt lived and died. Initially, she’s only interested in
questioning Brian, but then a video of Matt’s event surfaces and her
net spreads wider. As she questions the participants she begins to uncover disturbing inconsistencies in the stories of Matt’s nearest and
dearest.
This is a hard-hitting film that will make you think about dying and
the right to choose your death. What is the role of loved ones in
supporting such a decision? And how do you begin to deal with
emotional conflicts and the single taste of tears, anger and humour all
arising at the same time? Everyone who was at Matt’s “event” tells it
like it was for them, and the answers are not always the ones a
district attorney wants to hear — but they are truth.
This is the best
drama we’ve seen on assisted suicide, and one that will intellectually challenge you for
days.
Page Two of Angela Pressburger's July DVD Reviews>>