16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES

FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES Compiled BY IAn Bartholomew

Inception The big release for this week is not to be taken lightly, for director Christopher Nolan has come up with a film that is not only stupendous to look at, but also puts audiences through their paces with a heist movie that essentially Deadly serious takes place in the subconscious. Memento, made in 2000, had Nolan playing around with amnesia. Inception takes as its premise a technology that allows a person to enter the subconscious world of others. Having made mega bucks with The Dark Knight (2008), Nolan seems to have been given a license to play complex mind games once again, though this time on a much bigger budget. The risk has a contemplative Hesitant initially to listen, Nathan paid off, for in addition to highly regarded performances by exercise on the begins to heed Kay’s advice and Leonardo DiCaprio, who has well and truly shed his pretty- What would you do if fragility of life and subsequently begins to depend on it as boy image, and Ellen Page, who has come a long way since you knew you were going to die? the need to cherish the doctor’s cryptic directions gradually Juno, the word on the street is that you’ll want to walk every moment of it, put him in touch with his family. right back into the theater after the credits roll to work out AsAfterwards has lots to offer. The most appealing aspect of exactly what happened. By Ian Bartholomew Much of the credit for this must go Afterwards its unconventional approach Staff Reporter to Alexandre Desplat, who composed to the central subject of death. Having the score, and to Taiwan-born announced that a character will die, it I Killed My Mother (J’ai Tue Ma Mere) cinematographer Mark Lee (李屏賓), who follows him through the mundane joys This angst-ridden gay coming- created the richly textured mood of and frustrations that lead up to, but of-age drama by first-time Afterwards and helped save the film from are often totally unconnected with, his director Xavier Dolan has the overwrought contrivances of director demise. Death is all around us, even picked up a slew of awards Gilles Bourdos, who seems to be aspiring as we talk with friends, walk down the (including three at Cannes) Afterwards to the same tortuous ambiguity that is the street or go to the bank. for a remarkable debut hallmark of auteur Atom Egoyan, whose Lee’s luscious cinematography — Lee feature. The script, also by most recent work, Chloe, is currently played a major part in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Dolan, has a raw power that DIRECTED BY: screening in Taipei, and the haunted (侯孝賢) success and also contributed to wowed critics, though Dolan’s visual style and his presence Gilles Bourdos metaphysical depths of Wim Wenders. the look of Wong Kar-wai’s (王家衛) In front of the camera in the leading role have received less Afterwards tells the story of Nathan the Mood for Love (花樣年華) — helps uniform praise. The semi-autobiographical work focuses on STARRING: (Romain Duris), a high-flying lawyer create a mood that is at once beautiful the relationship between Hubert, a young man struggling Romain Duris (Nathan), whose cold detachment and cynical yet full of trepidation and sorrow. with the realization of his sexuality, and an impatient John Malkovich (Doctor Kay), assessment of the world around him The big city with its dangers and and emotionally detached mother. The film wears its Evangeline Lilly (Claire), have brought him professional success delights, the highways through wide- cinematic influences, which range from Jean-Luc Godard Pascale Bussieres (Anna), but poisoned his relationship with his open spaces, the antiseptic motels by to Wong Kar-wai (王家衛), on its sleeve, but the moments of Sara Waisglass (Tracey), wife and daughter. the interchange — all have beauty, remarkable realism overcome the art-student posturing and Reece Thompson (Jeremy) He is visited by Doctor Kay (John even as they serve as a background to make Dolan a young director worth watching. Malkovich), who seems to tell him that tragedy. Desplat’s score plays well with RUNNING TIME: 107 MINUTES he is about to die. these images, toying with our emotions Doctor Kay is “a messenger” (the in the way you might expect from Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite) TAIWAN RELEASE: film was also released under the title the sound track of a thriller, building More gritty art house TODAY The Messenger), a person who is able unease at the realization that all this filmmaking can be found in to foresee the imminent death of those beauty could, and indeed will, suddenly Elite Squad, a Brazilian film around him. His goal is to allow them to cease to be. about slum clearance by  Photos courtesy of CatchPlay end their lives at peace with themselves Kay and Nathan have tensions of their death squad that picked up and those around them. own, not least because the latter believes the Golden Bear at Berlin in the former is threatening him with death 2008. A film influenced by City (blame always attaches to the bearer of of God, Elite Squad trawls bad news), and while the metaphysical the grimy depths of Rio de Janeiro’s slums and the dark conundrum of what we would do if we world of the Special Police Operation Battalion (BOPE), knew we only had a certain amount a heavily armed, law-unto-itself unit that is charged with of time to live is subtly explored, tidying up the city in the run-up to a visit by the pope. The Nathan’s character remains steadfastly relationship between two idealistic young recruits and a one dimensional, preventing any real jaded and cynical captain form the center of the narrative, engagement with him as anything other and brutal violence between the drug cartels and the police than a symbolic representation of a serve as the shocking backdrop. With a script co-written materialistic everyman. by BOPE officer Rodrigo Pimentel, the film contains some Devices such as the character of interesting thoughts about violence breeding violence Jeremy, a patient in Kay’s ward who buried within its shameless exploitation format. has a heart condition that could cause his death at any moment and who rails against his fate until he finds comfort Piecing Me Back Together (Mataaki) in visits from Jennifer, a girl who wrote Based on a best-selling novel to him after hearing of his story on TV, by romance author Ren are a bit Oprah. Such heavy-handed Kawahara, Piecing Me Back treatment suggests that Bourdos is not Together tells a story of young fully confident with his material, adding love interrupted by the terrible a ponderous, hectoring quality that does consequences of a traffic the film no favors. accident. Izumi and Junichi There are plenty of ideas knocking look forward to a happy life about inside Afterwards, but it has together. Izumi is killed and although Junichi survives, neither the loose lyricism of Wenders she discovers that she has lost all memory of the event. nor the intricate craftsmanship of Lawyer Makiko comes along and decides that she will help Egoyan, and while striving to emulate rebuild that memory and launches an investigation into the both, it fails to be either. accident. The film features established names in the leading roles, and for those in search of a good weepy melodrama, Piecing Me Back Together will probably fit the bill. FILM Beyond his wildest dreams After his Batman outings, Christopher Nolan returns to head trip territory with ‘Inception’

By DAVE ITZKOFF Inception have shown little more of extremely ambitious failures fashion,” he said. age to make big, sweeping films vacation in Florida, he returned to big expectation around what his NY Times News Service, LOS ANGELES than snippets of its star, Leonardo as well.” “As soon as you’re talking in the mode of directors like the Inception screenplay he began next movie’s going to be.” Nearly everything in Christopher DiCaprio, and a nattily attired In Inception DiCaprio plays about dreams,” he added, “the Ridley Scott and Michael Mann, almost a decade ago. For the Inception cast, the Nolan’s world is more than it supporting cast in slow-motion Cobb, the leader of a group of potential of the human mind is Christopher Nolan became more Though dreams have always intricate screenplay Nolan wrote appears to be. In his hands his action sequences. Intensifying “extractors”: people who are infinite. It has to feel like you committed to his elusive goal been a staple of cinema, Nolan was tantalizing but occasionally 2000 feature Memento became the fantastical quality of these able to participate in and shape could go absolutely anywhere by and cognizant of how rare these said that movies too often treat perplexing. “It was a very well not only a taut thriller with a disconnected moments and their the dreams of others. With these the end of the film. And it has to opportunities would be. them like “a little TV program that written, comprehensive script,” catchy psychological gimmick but vaguely modern settings is the skills, extractors can teach clients work on a massive scale.” “He’s always wanted to make we watch when we’re asleep.” DiCaprio said, “but you really had also a calling card to a career of revelation that they are taking how to safeguard secrets locked With Memento, his independent these things really, really well,” The crucial breakthrough to to have Chris in person, to try to cinematic independence. place inside a dream. away in their subconscious, or film noir about a man (Guy Jonathan Nolan said of his completing his Inception script articulate some of the things that His most recent film, The With these few bread crumbs how to steal them from unfortified Pearce) seeking an assailant who brother. “Now the level of the was considering what could have been swirling around his Dark Knight, was not just a Nolan and his studio are confident minds. Presented with the inverse has robbed him of his short- audience’s scrutiny has roughly happen if multiple people could head for the last eight years.” big-budget summer movie about that their opaque and costly film challenge of implanting an idea in term memory, Nolan capably reached parity with his own share the same dream. “Once you In discussing Inception, a vigilante in a bat costume, but will lure large crowds. They are someone’s head, Cobb assembles demonstrated he could make scrutiny of what he’s doing.” remove the privacy,” Nolan said, Nolan occasionally became also a meditation on heroism and betting that moviegoers have his team (including Joseph compelling movies at smaller Those expectations have “you’ve created an infinite number bogged down in long asides as he terrorism. Even the deceptively come to regard Nolan as a director Gordon-Levitt and Ellen Page) and scales. been inflated by Christopher of alternative universes in which explained the intricate rules he quaint home he keeps on an who combines intimate emotions designs an intricate mind heist But the experience of its Nolan’s intricately woven thrillers people can meaningfully interact, devised for its dream world. (“I unassuming block in Hollywood with outsize imagination and that leads them through layers release taught him a lesson about Insomnia and The Prestige, but with validity, with weight, with promise you, it’s not confusing in has a dual identity: It doubles seemingly limitless resources — a of dreams within dreams, and overnight success in Hollywood. mostly by the runaway success of dramatic consequences.” the film,” he said after unpacking as his residence and the bunker blockbuster auteur who has made to a mysterious woman (Marion Despite critical acclaim, Memento his superhero films Batman Begins Warner Brothers, which has one particularly Byzantine where he has been finishing his bigness his medium. Cotillard) from Cobb’s past. was passed over by several Ameri- and The Dark Knight, which released all of Nolan’s films detail.) But he made no apologies first film since The Dark Knight, “When somebody’s spent years Creating the film’s multiple can studios and, in an unusual earned more than US$1 billion since Insomnia in 2002, had for its ambiguous promotional which in 2008 earned the all-time making a film and spent massive valences of reality took seven move, was distributed domestically worldwide and a posthumous little hesitation committing to campaign. highest US domestic gross for a amounts of money — crazy months of principal photography by the company that financed it. Academy Award for its co-star the enormous production he “It’s really, at its core, a motion picture not made by James amounts of money, really, that in six cities — Tokyo; Carlington, “It was like riding a bike into Heath Ledger. Figuring out how to envisioned, knowing those details big action heist movie, and Cameron. get spent on these huge films England; Paris; Tangier, Morocco; a sand pit at full speed,” said follow that film, Nolan said, “could — and his involvement — would it’s a movie that doesn’t try Yet for all the fanfare that — then you want to see something Los Angeles; and Calgary, Jonathan Nolan, the director’s be paralyzing if you chose to take attract audiences. to bamboozle the audience will accompany Nolan’s new extremely ambitious in every Alberta, at an estimated cost of brother, who wrote the short credit for the success rather than “It’s being sold on the scale of continuously,” he said. Given film, Inception, when Warner sense,” Nolan, 39, said a few weeks US$160 million. story from which Memento was understanding that when you catch the movie, the idea of the movie, the complexity of its universe, Brothers releases it today, most ago, sitting outside the garage that For Nolan, those statistics are adapted. “We thought we’ve got the zeitgeist in that way, that’s a the cast, the visuals,” said Jeff “it’s a lot harder to just put out a of its intended viewers will is now his editing suite. humbling but necessary. “What this place figured out completely, very unique thing.” And, he added, Robinov, president of the studio’s two-and-a-half-minute trailer, and know almost nothing about it. At “Of course,” he added with a I found is, it’s not possible to and then we had to rebuild.” “not possible to explain.” motion-picture group. “But Chris everyone goes, ‘Oh, yeah, I know Nolan’s preference, trailers for dry chuckle, “there are all kinds execute this concept in a small Having yearned from an early Instead, after a monthlong brings a lot to the party. There’s a what that is.’”