Change Your Image
sjr5-1
Reviews
Bamako (2006)
stylized rather than realism
I think it would help to know a fair amount about Mali and the problems caused by the Western financial institutions -- the World Bank, the IMF -- to appreciate this movie. I wanted to like it more than I did, but too much seemed mysterious. First of all, the "trial" of the IMF and the World Bank was being held in a courtyard, what appeared to me to be the family courtyard, not a public square, and a guard at the gate would let people in or not depending on whether their name was on a list he had. Why? People outside the courtyard could listen to the proceedings via loudspeakers, but many of them appeared to ignore the speeches and went about their business.
One of the houses opening into the courtyard belongs to a nightclub singer and her husband, who seems to be unemployed. Quite a few times she comes out of the house while the court is in session to ask a young man to lace up the back of her dress. Why this intrusion of the private into the (semi)public? (The director was at the screening I saw and said he filmed in the courtyard of the home where he grew up.)
The witnesses, who report on the devastation that modernization has often brought to their lives because they've had no say on it, are very moving, especially the man who comes to the witness stand and cannot even speak. Also moving is the old man, the griot, chanting his accusations, which as noted by another viewer, are not translated. (The director explained this by saying that the griot is speaking a southern dialect that the people in the city don't understand.) But the photojournalist who says he prefers to film funerals because the dead speak the truth is more enigmatic. Perhaps the photojournalist is a stand-in for the director, which would explain the sudden, shocking ending. His silent video of a funeral left me feeling bewildered rather than energized to do something about the awful situation many African nations and people are now in.
Paprika (2006)
first time anime viewer -- loved it
This is the first anime I've ever seen, so I can't compare it to any others, but on its own terms, it was quite good. Very imaginative commentary on dreams and reality, and what might happen if dreams and reality merged and someone could control dreams. There's also the romantic concept that sharing dreams will bring people closer together or also become a therapeutic tool. The latter is the premise for this film, in which a device (the DC Mini) has been invented that will allow a therapist to see the dreams of her/his client. What happens when this device is stolen and the thief's dreams start intruding on the dreams (and reality?) of others is the plot. Then the viewer is sucked into layer upon layer of dream/reality, like when you wake up from a nightmare, you think, but you're still dreaming. The effects are beautiful, imaginative, almost but not quite scary, and fascinating throughout. (Also interesting how many English words have been adopted into Japanese.)
I haven't seen "The Science of Sleep," but I understand it's a similar theme, about the boundary between dream and reality -- would be interesting to see the two together. And maybe it's a commentary on our time: we wish the current reality were really a dream that we could wake up from and find a better reality.