Last week's movies

Looper (2012) , Rian Johnson

Paprika (2006), Satoshi Kon

Early Summer (1951) , Yasujiro Ozu

Code Unknown (2000) , Michael Haneke

Before Sunset (2004) , Richard Linklater

Movie of the week: Looper.

Before Sunset. Completing the before trilogy, Before Sunset turns out to be my favorite – if not a tie with Before Midnight (2013) (my #5 for 2013). If I could be transported back to 1995 and saw Before Sunrise, I would be sure to watch all three. I would go out on a limb and say that if Richard Linklater decided to do another film, with a similar story, using different actors, I’d check it out. I can’t wait for January next year when Netflix dvd gets Boyhood.

Code Unknown. I was reminded of a couple of Jim Jarmusch’s films, specifically Coffee and Cigarettes and Night on Earth – both films showing different moments in time. One critic made the comparison with Babel. In Code Unknown, several characters are loosely connected and each story is shown in segments that alternate and are revisited. Having seen three of his films, I kept anticipating the action, though if you’re not concentrating you could miss what is actually occurring in the specific segment.

Early Summer. One of my favorite performances by Setsuko Hara. She is once again teamed with Chishū Ryū, who is almost unrecognizable as the domineering brother. In one scene, they are in a restaurant eating their meal, and Ryu’s wife is also at the table, and the young ladies tag team against the brother / husband, and at one point the normally reserved Setsuko almost glares at him – I’m talking if looks could kill, he’d be toast. Another scene - girls night out, two single ladies (including Setsuko) take on the two married women – all in fun, but superbly done. And surprise surprise, from the director who has shed any movement of his camera with his later films, there are several dolly shots, too many, I actually lost count. And culminating with a crane shot! The only one he did, according to Donald Richie’s 1974 book Ozu: His Life and Films.

Paprika. There is a short on the dvd that follows Satoshi Kon during the few years it takes for him to film Paprika, an adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1993 novel (first published in a women’s magazine in 4 parts) about dream monitoring and intervention, 17 years before that movie with the spinning top. He first tries to get a conventional film made, then realizes that animation may be the way to go, and eventually teams up with Satoshi Kon. They are seen together in the studio recording their voice overs for the respective characters that they play. This video essay (which contains SPOILERS), by Tony Zhou – Every Frame a Painting, led me to Satoshi Kon, Paprika in particular.

Looper. I was going to skip this one – don’t know why, may have been the trailer, until it started moving up toward the 2012 top 10 on a few lists. I place it at #7 on mine. There is a point when the action speeds up, and through parallel editing you follow the action of both scenes, then, out of the blue, you are literally transformed into another film – where did that come from? Even during the second viewing it threw me for a loop. At one point, Jeff Daniels says Then the echo later - the waitress (you’ll learn her name) asks Bruce for his order – steak and eggs, rare and scrambled.