A R O U N D T O W N 發光的城市 17 TAIPEI TIMES • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009

ne of the first scenes who becomes his live-in lover and in Milk is of a pick-up first campaign manager. Rather, Marriage: it’s a word, not a sentence in a New York subway the constant risk of harassment, station. It’s 1970, humiliation and violence is the Promising documentary maker Wuna Wu’s latest film Oand an insurance executive in defining context of that intimacy. a suit and tie catches sight of a And his refusal to accept this finds merit in the social institution of matrimony beautiful, scruffy younger man — as a fact of life, his insistence on the phrase “angel-headed hipster” being who he is without secrecy By Ho Yi comes to mind — and banters or shame, is what turns Milk from Staff reporter with him on the stairs. The mood a bohemian camera store owner of the moment, which ends up (after his flight from New York) Woman: “I am getting married big points or explore deep with the two men eating birthday into a political leader. on Sept. 30.” emotions. Marriage is viewed as cake in bed, is casual and sexy, “My name is , and Man: “Congratulations!” something that needs work and and its flirtatious playfulness is I want to recruit you.” That was Woman: “But I am short of a a social institution that does somewhat disarming, given our an opening line that the real Milk groom … I pick you.” have its merits — people share, expectation of a serious and often used in his speeches to Man: “Me? No! … The fortune- learn from past mistakes and important movie grounded in break the tension with straight teller said I can’t get married find true happiness. historical events. Milk, directed audiences, but the film shows this year.” Ordinary people tell their stories of Though the cinematography by Gus van Sant from a script by  photo: AP him deploying it with mostly gay married life in Let’s Fall in Love. is rough and the narrative Dustin Lance Black, is certainly crowds as well, with a slightly Just one of many colloquies  photo courtesy of Classica Vision uneven, the documentary such a film, but it manages to different inflection. He wants to between couples in Let’s Fall amounts to a heartwarming evade many of the traps and recruit them into the politics of in Love (尋情歷險記) that had the characters feel like next-door essay on matrimony and mixes compromises of the period biopic democracy, to persuade them that audience laughing out loud at neighbors. a sense of humor with personal with a grace and tenacity worthy the stigma and discrimination they the film’s press screening. First up is Irene, a intimacy and empathy, which is of its title character. A freedom fighter in are used to enduring quietly and After dealing with schizo- professional middle-aged woman underscored when the director That would be Harvey even guiltily can be addressed phrenia in Echo (快不快樂四人行, who pursues love a decade after puts herself in the firing line as Milk (played by Sean Penn), a by voting, by demonstrating, by 2002) and the loss of a loved one her first marriage failed. she asks Chen to help her find neighborhood activist elected claiming the share of power that in Farewell 1999 (再會吧一九 九, For Vivian and Jason, love a partner. to the Board life becomes a is every citizen’s birthright and 2003), Let’s Fall sees promising came at first sight, but the two Wu is seeking investors of Supervisors in 1977 and responsibility. documentary filmmaker Wuna can’t stop screaming at each to bankroll the film’s release murdered, along with the city’s The strength of Black’s Wu (吳汰紝) tackling marriage, a other the day after their wedding. nationwide. After two months, mayor, (Victor script is that it grasps both the subject matter that seems, at first The most inspiring story of all 100 people have come forward, Garber), by a former supervisor radicalism of Milk’s political glance, mundane. is that of Cube, a 28-year-old zhai each investing NT$10,000. potent symbol in death 宅男 named (Josh Brolin) ambition and the pragmatism of The project sprung from nan ( ), or homebody, and This has enabled the film to be the next year. Notwithstanding his methods. Milk understands the director’s sense of urgency. CC, a 40-year-old maid, who finds screened in Hsinchu City and the modesty of his office and the By A. O. SCOTT that modern politics thrive at Being an intellectually and marriage to be a blessed escape Taipei City. tragic foreshortening of his tenure, NY Times News Service, New York the messy, sometimes glorious financially independent city from solitary life. Wu’s goal is to attract a total Milk, among the first openly gay intersection of grubby interests gal who yearns for love but is Looking amusingly serious of 500 investors and roll out the elected officials in the country, and noble ideals. unable to hold down a stable behind his nerdy black-framed film across the country. had a profound impact on national (like the Palme d’Or-winning For more than two lively, relationship, Wu found herself glasses, Cube’s candor in Let’s Fall in Love screens politics, and his rich afterlife in provocation Elephant) employing eventful hours, Milk conforms heartbroken after a breakup front of the camera when for one week at the Majestic American culture has affirmed his nonprofessional actors, and none to many of the conventions at the age of 30, and the he describes how his desire Theater (真善美戲院) in status as pioneer and martyr. His of them much concerned with of biographical filmmaking, seven wedding invitations she exploded made the director Ximending starting today. brief career has inspired an opera, soliciting the approval of the Milk if not always to the precise received didn’t help much to laugh so hard she could barely For more information, call a documentary film and now mass audience. Gerry, Elephant, details of the hero’s biography. alleviate the pain. Then she met hold the camera straight. (02) 8712-6080 or e-mail Milk, which is the best live-action Last Days and Paranoid Park Directed by: Gus Van Sant Milk’s inexhaustible political Helen Chen (陳海倫), a happily Wu doesn’t try to make theviewart[at]gmail.com. mainstream American movie that I are linked by a spirit of formal commitment takes its toll on his married musician and head have seen this year. exploration and also by a Starring: Sean Penn (Harvey relationships, first with Scott and of a consulting company who Milk is accessible and preoccupation with death. Milk), Emile Hirsch (), then with Jack Lira, an impulsive, dabbles in matchmaking as a instructive, an astute chronicle of Like Elephant (suggested by Josh Brolin (Dan White), Diego unstable young man played by hobby and has successfully Luna (Jack Lira), Alison Pill (Anne big-city politics and the portrait of a the Columbine High shootings) and Diego Luna with an operatic verve hitched up 20 couples over the 尋情歷險記 warrior whose passion was equaled Last Days (by the suicide of Kurt Kronenberg), Victor Garber that stops just short of camp. past five years. Let’s Fall in Love ( ) (Mayor George Moscone), Denis by his generosity and good humor. Cobain), Milk is the chronicle of a Meanwhile, local San Francisco Chen the matchmaker is O’Hare (John Briggs), Joseph DIRECTED BY: Wuna Wu (吳汰紝) Penn, an actor of unmatched death foretold. Before that subway Cross (Dick Pabich), Stephen issues are overshadowed by the star of this documentary, emotional intensity and physical station encounter, we have already a statewide anti-gay-rights dispensing advice — such Spinella (Rick Stokes), Lucas Starring: Wuna Wu as herself; Helen Chen (陳海倫)

discipline, outdoes himself here, seen real-life news video of the referendum and the national as “love and romance come

Grabeel (Danny Nicoletta), 陳愛娟 as herself; Irene Chen (一 ) as herself; playing a character different from aftermath of Milk’s assassination, Kelvin Yu (Michael Wong), crusade, led by the orange-juice not before but after the Johnson Shih (施柏 旦 ) as himself any he has portrayed before. as well as grainy photographs of James Franco (Scott Smith) spokesmodel Anita Bryant, to marriage” — that contemporary In the years since the earnest gay men being rounded up by the repeal municipal antidiscrimination relationship experts might Running time: 90 minutes and commercial Finding police. These images don’t spoil Running time: 128 minutes laws. The culture war is unfolding, deride as old wives tales. Forrester (2000), Van Sant has the intimacy between Harvey the and Milk is in the middle of it. And Through Wu’s intimate lens and Language: in Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles devoted himself to smaller- buttoned-up businessman and Scott Taiwan release: today so, 30 years later, in the wake of her heartfelt friendship with the

scale projects, some of them Smith (James Franco), the hippie Proposition 8, is Milk.  couples featured in the film, the Taiwan release: showing

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