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Reviews
Dog Star Man: Part I (1962)
surreal technical masterpiece
This 5-part montage is clearly a technical masterpiece, but like most surreal art pieces, it is dangerous to conceptualize with any confidence. It is highly recommended that that viewer experience all five parrts as they are certainly related. Although I am ignorant of the technical aspects of filmmaking, this film surely is mandatory viewing for film students since it appears to use every trick in the book for imagery-based, fast-cut filmmaking. Conceptually (as one viewer's take on the film), the film is about a young male in a cold, snowy alpine-like setting and his dog as they work their way along through the cold, harsh, dangerous elements. We experience what hapens in the mind and body of this individual during the ordeal, including scenes of the outdoors, biomedical footage of the inner workings of the body's tissue and organs, interactions between this man and a woman's body, his dog, celestial shots, the birth and first year of a new born baby. All of this is put together with great artistic talent (I was often reminded of work by Paranjanov, Tartovsky and Greenaway but I am not sure that any connection is warranted anywhere except in my own reaction) and depicts one man's fast-paced struggle with all of these experiences. The full-length feature is long and taxes one's attention, but the journey is worth it for those willing to take such an adventure.
Amores perros (2000)
A terrific achievement
Amores Perros is a manically-paced, emotionally exhausting and challenging film. It successfully interweaves several stories (as has become quite common in the past decade, e.g., Dahl, Tarantino, Tykwer, McKellar, Egoyan) as it tells a story of desperation and struggle in Mexico City. Combining the adrenaline rush of Pulp Fiction with the camera angles and slower views of street scenes that reminded me of Kieslowski, the director gives us a tale of how a single event can dramatically transform one's life (the loss of a leg for a fashion model, the loss of his beloved pets for a worned man in poverty). Whereas the dogs early in the film symbolize what is wrong with the characters, the dogs later catalyze or at least symbolize many of the emotional transformations for the characters and it might even be able to said that the animals inspire the adults to embrace a more responsible attitude towards others, reminding me of the role of children on selfish adults in many recent Iranian films. The acting of Amores Perros shouldn't be ignored (and may be overlooked as the acting was so effective that the actors seemed like they WERE their characters so to speak...the greatest compliment for actors). Bernal, for one, was simply outstanding. I often judge acting on the range of emotions conveyed. Bernal did it all. This gifted director is one to watch for in the future.