Day of Drama

Three films today: Kid with a Bike, The Tree of Life, and Norwegian Wood. Pretty heavy and plenty of drama - which I hadn't thought about until the tickets were bought... so these three in a day? Probably not for the emotionally fragile. But definitely not a regrettable experience at all, so here goes...

Kid with a Bike - a Belgium film about a young and troubled boy, Cyril, who in reality just wants to be loved (especially by his father who wants nothing more than to forget about him). He is taken in by Samantha, a painstakingly patient foster carer. But controlling him is no easy task, both physically and emotionally. Despite his reckless behaviour, you ultimately sympathise with Cyril, which probably says a lot about his acting (and I think this may have even been his first film!). A very real and raw insight into the lives of the many less fortunate children in this world.

Norwegian Wood is the adaptation of one of my favourite novelists, Haruki Murakami. It's often voted one of his best works and possibly even partly autobiographical. On the surface, it's a love story, but there are so many deeper issues buried deep within each of the characters that it just a tangled mess of complicated emotions - which is really a prerequisite for Murakami's stories. Tran Anh Hung captures the pain and isolation perfectly, and every scene is truly beautiful despite the endless feelings of suffering and depression. Definitely more enjoyable having read the book, since you're never surprised about the odd conversations or the manner in which the characters speak, which is a trademark of his novels. I always come away with a strange feeling when I read his books, and it was the same after seeing the film. Even his translator, Jay Rubin says that "reading Murakami changes your brain." I think its true.

Last but definitely not least is Terrence Malick's Tree of Life. I went into this film (intentionally) not knowing much about it other than it was about religion, won the Palm d'Or and it had Brad Pitt in it. Based on various other Palm d'Or winning films I've seen, I knew I wasn't expecting any kind of conventional story-telling. And I was right. Well, I guess I should put this out before I go on...

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Right... so in the first half we got a whole bunch of everything, from space, stars, planets, foetuses, cells, volcanoes and dinosaurs. Yeah, DINOSAURS (albeit, very well-animated ones). Like, what the?? All jokes aside, the above is a real still from the movie. Basically there is this rather long segment of various images that gets a bit Space Odyssey on you, pretty much illustrating the beginning of time and life, which is juxtaposed with a suburban family in the 50s with 3 young boys, whom the eldest is treated extra harshly by an affectionate but over-proud and devout father (Brad Pitt). I guess my interpretation (which is probably not "it", but what the hey) is the idea of life being so trivial in the grand scheme of the world/universe, but as humans we think of our own experiences as so paramount to our existence. It's probably much more profound and abstract, but that's what I got. I think it was a really beautiful film though, with really artful direction and acting during the family scenes - it never seemed like acting or that you were watching a film. The more artistic scenes are dreamlike and so mesmerising, like during the scenes where the son (Sean Penn) explores desolate lands, before he is reunited with his family again. But the mixed reviews, are perhaps understandable.