hazy shades of winter – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Ariel

Ariel (1988)
Written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki

The more I watch Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s work, the more I warm up to him. I haven’t seen a considerable amount so far, only Le Havre, Fallen Leaves, and now Ariel. I found myself adjusting to his tone & style in Le Havre and would probably enjoy it even more if I rewatched it. I loved Fallen Leaves, and Ariel is my favorite of all the films I’ve seen. It is also Kaurismäki’s personal favorite of his films thus far, the middle of what he labeled his Proletarian Trilogy.

Movie Review – Stranger Than Paradise

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Written by Jim Jarmusch and John Lurie
Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Everywhere looks the same. This sentiment is shared by Eddie, one of three central characters in Stranger Than Paradise. He shares this as he and his friends stomp across a snow-covered railroad track, feeling down & out. If you are from the States or have spent much time in the vast middle of the continent, then you know how concrete blasted, copied & pasted so many communities are. Corporate stores and eateries pop up like seeds planted in the asphalt. As someone who grew up in a small town with a main street littered with McDonald’s, CVS, Domino’s Pizza, etc., you do start to feel that any personality the place you lived in once had has been systematically replaced with dull homogeny.

Movie Review – Landscape Suicide

Landscape Suicide (1987)
Written and directed by James Benning

You likely haven’t ever heard of James Benning. He’s never directed a film that ended up in a multi-screen Cineplex. He’s never been nominated for an Oscar or won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. On the most recent Sight & Sound filmmakers poll, Benning was sent a ballot and returned it with a list of his films. His reason when asked about this is that he just doesn’t watch movies, really. Benning makes them, but his influences are literary, and he simply observes the world around him. He’s considered a minimalist but has actually employed many methods & styles as he explores the form. At age 83, he’s still making movies, with almost all of them examining America and its people.

Movie Review – Hana-bi

Hana-bi (1997)
Written and directed by Takeshi Kitano

One of my favorite things as a film fan is coming across a filmmaker doing something all their own. No film exists in a vacuum, so you’ll always see influences from others. But how that filmmaker mixes their ingredients makes all the difference. Takeshi Kitano started his media career as a comedian and TV host in the early 1970s. It was Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, in 1983, where Kitano made his feature film debut. It was a non-comedic role as a Japanese soldier who brutalized Allied prisoners. In 1989, he made his directorial debut with Violent Cop, a neo-noir film. And then it was this movie, translated into English as “Fireworks,” that won Kitano the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, only the third Japanese director after Akira Kurosawa and Hiroshi Inagaki to win the honor.

Movie Review – The Ascent

The Ascent (1977)
Written by Vasil Bykaŭ, Yuri Klepikov, and Larisa Shepitko
Directed by Larisa Shepitko

Two years after the release of The Ascent, writer/director Larisa Shepitko would be dead at age 41. She would leave behind her husband, Elem Klimov, the writer-director of Come and See, and Anton, their six-year-old son. Throughout her life, Sheptiko had struggled with her health. While filming her first movie, she contracted Hepatitis A. Her work was repeatedly censored, which caused her to have a mental breakdown. During her hospitalization in a sanitorium, Sheptiko had a fall that damaged her spine, and that caused Anton’s birth to be tremendously more painful for her than the average labor. Strangely, her death was just an accident. She and three crew members were driving home after scouting locations northwest of Moscow. The driver fell asleep at the wheel. Doctors ruled that all four died instantaneously when the car crashed. There is a plaque bearing her face and name on a street in Lviv, Ukraine, where she grew up. Her husband finished her last film, made one more himself, lived to be 70, and died in 2003.

Movie Review – The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm (1997)
Written by James Schamus
Directed by Ang Lee

In our series “Hazy Shades of Winter,” we’ll be looking at films set during winter that also exude the cold, lonely feeling that the season can often bring about. Winter has often been seen as a necessary time of death in many cultures, with the spring being a renewal period. As a result, wintery films often feature themes of grief and desolation or even more interesting, deep self-reflection. As you’ll see in this series, characters often come to significant revelations about their current status; this may be the realization that a marriage is over or the recognition that a person has lost their religious faith. In the winter, the leaves have all fallen away, trees are laid bare, and there is nowhere to hide your secrets.