New Cinema
I hadn't been to a movie since Borat and haven't seen a serious film in a long while. So my New Years resolution is to see as many films as I can this year.
Last year was the year of the television, so this is the year of film.
So my first film of the year was "Children of Men". I tried really hard not to read about this film before going because that always taints things. I'm not going to go into any detail on "Children of Men" but for me this film was all about hope. There is a desperation in this film that I have not noticed before. Maybe it is the slow helplessness of living at the end of civilization.
Now that I have seen the film and think that it is wonderful I am reading up on it. Some of the better articles are the ones in Filmmaker and the NY Times.
I think the best overview of it along with an inside look at a filmmakers community was on the Charlie Rose show on Dec. 18th. His guests were three Mexican filmmakers; Alfonso Cuaron, director of "Children of Men", Guillermo del Toro, director of "Pan's Labyrinth", and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of "Babel". These three filmmakers all are friends and are a support group for each other. It also helps that they are all very successful.
After seeing this show I really must see Babel and Pan's Labyrinth and then rewatch this episode of Charlie Rose.