Movie #139 The Double Life of Veronique *1991*

Irene Jacob - Veronique / Weronika
Krzysztof Kieslowski (Director)

My favorite podcast Filmspotting is doing a Kieslowski marathon.  I am not sure if this film is on tap to be reviewed on the show, but I hope that it is.  Double Life is a movie about two unrelated women.  Both of whom are played by the stunning Mrs Jacob.  These women have some sort of a bond between them.  It is never really explained by more that a few sentences in the movie.   The women look almost exactly alike, and both have a feeling that they are not alone in this world.  Other than that there is no interaction between them.  Weronika sees Veronique on a bus and Veronique accidentally takes a picture of Weronika, but that is as close as they ever get to realizing that they may be another person sharing their lives.

Weronika is a young beautiful singer living in Poland who has a deadly illness.  Veronique is a beautiful music teacher living in France who has a puppeteer admirer sort of stalking her through the picture.  Their stories are told one at a time with little overlap.

The entire film has a dreamy mood to it.  The use of color and shadow in the film is amazing.  I don't want to sound like a hypocrite, after lambasting Susperia (Movie #82) for its bold use of color for no reason.  But I don't entirely understand why the color palate was chosen, or why certain scenes were infused with soft greens, reds and yellows.  But it worked.  I felt almost drunk watching this film.

Another thing that I really liked about the movie was the use of the POV (Point Of View) shots.  They shots would often go from a master or a two shot into a POV without an edit.  This helped give the film that dream like quality.  That along with upside down shots and a few other off axis shots also made you question if what you are seeing is real.  I read up on the movie a little and apparently the music within is a big deal.  It is operatic and fits the style of the film very well. Zbigniew Preisner is the artist behind the music.

I really enjoyed this movie.  It left me wanting to see more works of Kieslowski.  I give The Double Life of Veronique ★★★1/2.  Check out the Trailer Par to see for yourself.  This movie is available on Blu Ray through Criterion Collection.  I highly recommend seeing it on Blu if you can.

Movie #138 Year One *2009*

Jack Black - Zed
Michael Cera - Oh
Juno Temple - Eema
June Diane Raphael - Maya
Harold Ramis (Director)

I first saw this prehistoric film in a second run theater south of Chicago.  I was on a business trip and the days activities had been cut short so I did what I usually do and that is look for a theater that is playing something that I haven't seen.  Year One was on my list to watch mostly because of Michael Cera.  I am not a big Jack Black fan, but some of his more broad work is acceptable.  Year One is not one of those films.

Year one is the story of a couple of misfit cavemen.  They are kicked out of their tribe and forced to seek a life else where.  From this point on the films premise is "What would happen if these two were to come into contact with bible characters"?  How funny would it be if a caveman met Cane and Able?  How many laughs could you get out of a caveman interfering with Abraham and his sacrifice?  The answers are not very funny and not many laughs.

Normally I am down with spoofing the christian religion.  I remain unaffiliated and therefore can take pleasure in mocking, spoofing, poking fun at, and generally laughing at all the worlds religions.  I think where the movie went wrong is instead of taking the comedic rich material already printed in the bible, they added the caveman element wrecked the whole thing.

Jack Black is just not funny in this.  His shtick grows tired before he even gets out of the forest.  Michael Cera (my boy) manages to get a few laughs with his near perfect timing and "shoe gazing hipster of a caveman".  Even cavemen had to be teenagers at some point right?  There are a few good bits with some big name cameos.  Paul Rudd and David Cross play Cane and Able in a gag that made me laugh a little.  Hank Azaira is funny as Abraham (even though his part goes on for WAY too long).  I don't know what the heck Oliver Platt is doing in this film, other than not being funny.

The female roles in this movie have little to do, but the actresses who played them make the most of what they are given.  I thought both June Diane Raphael and Juno Temple were lovely and mildly funny.  As a whole the movie kinda stinks.  I watched it this time with the kids on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  There are worse ways to pass a rainy weekend.  The film is directed by Harold Ramis of Caddy Shack, Stripes and Ghost Busters fame.  He didn't live up to that collection with this film.

I give Year One ★★.  I have to steal a line from someone I read when this film came out.  Apparently comedy wasn't invented until year two. Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.

If Country Strong wins best song I'll shut my TV off!

C'on Banksy!!!

I know my sound mixing and sound editing!

2/7 so far. The Academy really botched it giving The Kings Speech the screenplay over Kids are All alright.

Here we go. Hollywoods biggest night. I'm Social Network all the way!