The second film in our pairing of Chinese action films is one of the most visually stunning films yet made! Directed by master of the form Zhang Yimou, the story of a lone warrior, known only as Nameless (Jet Li), appears before the King (Daoming Chen) with the story of killing three mighty assassins: Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Broken Sword (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung). After being rewarded by the King and being allowed to approach within ten paces, the King begins to explain how he understands the story has actually unfolded. Following that, Nameless reveals the actual truth to the King about the assassins and the plot to kill the King. What sets this film apart from others, however, is the directorial and cinematographical artistry and elegance exhibited by Yimou! The film plays with color palettes in such a unique and picturesque way as to suggest a moving painting during the action scenes. A true feast for the eyes and an intricate, interesting storyline loosely based on Chinese history! And finally, the trio reveal which two classic movie musicals will be the subject of the next pairing!
This pairing focuses on some of the best Chinese action films to cross the ocean to the United States. We begin with the first foreign film from China to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, a high-flying fantasy action film that, while not taking home Best Picture, did win Best Cinematography, Best Music - Original Score, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Foreign Language Film! Directed by acclaimed artist Ang Lee, the film stars Chow Yun-Fat as Master Li Mu Bai and Michelle Yeoh as Yu Shu Lien, sword legends and partners who bring the legendary sword Green Destiny to a local governor's residence. Once there, however, the sword is stolen by a masked warrior and the chase is on! Add in strange martial arts masters, mystic powers, and parallel love stories, and you have an engaging story and effects that were ground-breaking in their beauty and elegance! The film also stars Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Sihung Lung, Pei-Pei Cheng, Fazeng Li, Yan Hai, and Suying Hu...
Our second episode in our pairing looking at 80s mind-based science fiction moves ahead one year to 1984 and, this time, focuses on the subconscious and unconscious mind in director Joseph Ruben's sci-fi/political thriller/romance film "Dreamscape!" Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a talented psychic whose abilities include telepathy, telekinesis, and precognition. After disappearing as a teenager, he's sought out by one-time mentor Doctor Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow) to work with him again, this time on a new technology that allows a psychic to project their consciousness into another person's dreams! After being essentially kidnapped and brought to the location of the project, he meets Dr. Novotny's associate Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw) as well as his government "handler" Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer). Once Alex agrees to join the project, he also meets Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly), the current lead psychic and the most successful dream-walker. As Alex learns how to ent...
It's back to the 80s we go, with a pairing Buddy nicknamed "MindFi," which translates to mind-based science fiction! First up, what if you could not only share all five senses of an experience with someone else, but you could record it and play it back at your leisure, feeling everything the original "experiencer" felt? That's the topic of our first film, directed by special effects genius Douglas Trumball, 1983's "Brainstorm!" Starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood (in her last big-screen role before her untimely death) as Michael and Karen Brace, a couple in the process of separating. The cause of their marital rift is the amount of time Michael has spent working on a project codenamed "Brainstorm" with project lead scientist Lillian Reynolds (Louise Fletcher), but they've finally had a breakthrough: They can record all five human senses while a subject experiences something, and when it's played back for someone else, they experience it as if they had originally gone throug...
Week two of our focus on real-life scandals brings us forward to the 1990s and the lengths one young writer will go to in order to be seen as successful by his peers. In 2003's "Shattered Glass," director Billy Ray brings us the story of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), the youngest write on-staff at the New Republic magazine. The editor of the magazine, Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria), is loved by everyone on-staff, but his constant head-butting with the owner Marty Peretz (Ted Kotcheff) sees him let go, replaced by Charles 'Chuck' Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), who Stephen views as a rival. After reporters for Forbes Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn) and Andy Fox (Rosario Dawson) do a follow-up on one of Stephen's stories, 'Hack Heaven." After discovering that they can confirm no facts, locations, persons, or companies mentioned in the article, they contact the New Republic and begin a series of meetings that ultimately result in the revelation that Glass has been fabricating story after story ...
Scandals are the fixed-point for this pairing of films about real-life instances of dishonorable behavior! First up is the Robert Redford-directed tale of how American gameshow audiences lost their innocence in the late 1950s in 1994's "Quiz Show!" The film follows Herbie Stempel (John Turturro), an everyman from Queens, New York, who has a run of victories on the NBC quiz show "21." Unfortunately for him, however, along comes dashing and handsome Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) who the producers of the show, Dan Enright (David Paymer) and Albert Freedman (Hank Azaria), think will be more popular with audiences. Stempel, who has been receiving the answers from the producers before actually competing on the game show, is told to lose to allow Van Doren to become the new champion, an instruction he is not happy to receive. As Van Doren becomes the new television sweetheart, also winning with answers provided ahead of time from the producers, Stempel tries to blow the whistle on the ...
The second part of our pairing focusing on the Supreme Court of the United States leaps straight into a horror the likes of which we have not seen. Directed by veteran Alan J. Pakula, the film follows law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) as she navigates both her classes and her relationship with her teacher Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). When two Justices of the Supreme Court are assassinated, Darby puts together a wild theory so far out in left field that it's unbelievable. Unfortunately for Shaw, it also turns out to be true. Callahan gives the paper to his friend, and lawyer for the FBI, Gavin Verheek (John Heard), who passes it along up the chain. So intriguing is the paper, now called "The Pelican Brief," that it makes its way to the CIA and the White House. From there, Darby's life becomes a nightmare as she is hunted for being the author of the brief. Ultimately, she requests the assistance of famed Washington Times reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) in her quest t...
With the Supreme Court of the United States in the news of late, this pairing focuses on two very different views of the Court. First, Ronald Neame directs Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh in a dramedey about the appointment of the first female Supreme Court Justice in 1981's "First Monday In October!" Based on a stageplay of the same name from 1978, this tells the story of the appointment of conservative Judge Ruth Loomis (Clayburgh) to the Supreme Court, something liberal Justice Dan Snow (Matthau) finds troublesome. The film follows the congenial relationship between Mr. Justice Snow and the "CJ," the Chief Justice of the Court (Barnard Hughes), and the contentious, combative, but ultimately friendly relationship between Justice Snow and Justice Loomis as they argue both economic and free speech cases back and forth. An intriguing look at how the Justices of the Court might discuss and debate the matters under their consideration, both in and out of the courtroom!
The second film in our "Bulgarian Biographies" pairing (because they're both biographies suggested by students from American University of Bulgaria) is also based on actual events as it follows the journey of a five-year-old Indian boy named Saroo (Sunny Pawar) who, when traveling with his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), becomes separated and falls asleep on an empty train. Saroo awakens thousands of miles from home in Calcutta, is all alone, doesn't speak the dominant language, and almost runs afoul of several horrors before he is taken to an orphanage and, eventually, placed with John (David Wenham) and Sue (Nicole Kidman) Brierley, a couple from Tasmania. Saroo grows up in Tasmania (played at this point by the incredible Dev Patel) and it isn't until he has gone to trade school that a chance encounter at a party reawakens long-dormant memories of his life before the Brierleys. Saroo, with his girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara) begins his quest to find his birth family, with th...
This pairing came about because of a class Jeff taught at the American University of Bulgaria on Media Criticism. His students chose films to analyze, some of which Jeff hadn't seen before, and the two films chosen for this pairing were both new to him (and to Buddy and Chad as well) and were films he never would have seen had it not been for his students' choice! Co-directed and co-written by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, "The Intouchables" is a 2011 masterpiece about a guy named Driss (Omar Sy) from the wrong side of the tracks who trips into a life-changing opportunity to become the primary caregiver for a wealthy quadriplegic man named Phillipe (Francois Cluzet). The two form an unlikely friendship, even when his secretary Magalie (Audrey Fleurot), his daughter Elisa (Alba Gaïa Bellugi), his housekeeper Yvonne (Anne Le Ny) and his lawyer Antoine (Grégoire Oestermann) all disapprove. The film is based on a true story, a gentle, good-hearted, touching tale about the power o...