ELEPHANT - In the light of a recent school shooting down here and the killings in New Zeland I finally watched this one and liked it a lot. It's a simple idea at surface executed with style and empathy, Gus Van Sant is one of the best contemporary film makers in my opinion, at least when he goes more "artsy", and that's what he does here. He has his style that may put down some but I am really into it, I think he portrays the youth greatly, not just realistically and/or stylish, but somewhere in the middle like showing the memory of what has happened instead of the "truth" (for lack of a better word) of it. Slow motions and long takes and spiral "storytelling", wonderful movie.
EYES WITHOUT A FACE - I have to start getting to the shameful holes in my cinephilia and this one was just becoming ridiculous, I just lusted for it for so long but then end up watching "Overlord" and other ok/whatever movies instead. So I finally got to it and of course it didn't lived fully to what I was expecting but that says more about my own expectations than the movie itself. The beginning is great, the movie is stylish as hell and the problem to me was that the middle kind of dragged a little, midway art movie and horror film (but also a reflection of it's time period I guess, and today), but the end is spetacular, truly haunting and poetic in a very particular way. I suppose that watching this one in 1960 (or even some time later) would be a lifechanging cinema experience in a lot of ways, when you were not burdened by all the influence it had on the films that came after. It is still a gem, and when it is good it is great and I can see myself watching it again for sure.
