Coincidental Parallels - "Hud" and "No Country For Old Men"

On consecutive nights, a first time watch of Hud by myself followed by my son's suggestion to watch No Country For Old Men (first time for him, numerous for me).


"Little by little, the look of the country changes because of the men we admire"

"Once you quit hearing sir and ma'am, the rest is soon to follow."

The contexts are different - Hud wishing for the old ways, while No Country takes a realistic (some would say cynical, but I don't quite see that) view that things change and the world can't stop for you - but there are more than a few similarities between them. The gorgeous, Noirish-Western look and feel along with the sharp and funny Noirish-Western dialogue are the more surface parallels, but one could also make a case that Sheriff Bell and Homer Bannon share a few views while the new, more selfish world view is represented by Llewelyn, Chigurh and Hud.

A great pairing.

Coincidental Parallels - "The Ninth Gate" and "Robot & Frank"

While perusing NetFlix the other day, I scrolled passed Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate and then backed up to bring it into view again. I don't know if it was the urge to start diving into Polanski's, uh, middle years (I hadn't seen any of his films between The Tenant and Ghost Writer - a gap of about 35 years) or simply to see Johnny Depp without scads of makeup and CGI, but I decided to dive right into it.

A good decision as its a pretty fine thriller and was exactly what I was looking for that evening. The following day I stopped by my fave local video store Videoflicks (yes, I still frequent actual physical video stores) to catch up on some titles missed in theatres. I came home with Dragon, Dead Man Down and Robot & Frank. The last of those was my most anticipated since I liked the concept and had heard strong reviews. Turns out it was pretty damn good with Frank Langella giving an outstanding performance as a thief whose memory is slowly fading. He gets some healthcare assistance from a robot and turns it into his partner in crime.

Langella being in both films back to back was a great happenstance, but it was a bigger coincidence that caught my attention...

In Polanski's film, we learn early on what kind of man Johnny Depp's book dealer is as he undervalues a rare 4 volume set of "Don Quixote" and buys it. He walks away with an incredibly valuable tome for a pittance.

In Jake Schreier's Robot & Frank, Langella's old timer is an avid reader who loves to acquire armfuls of books at a time from the local library (though it's hard to say if the fact that Susan Sarandon also happens to work there actually trumps his desire for new things to read). On one visit, as he worries that the books are being replaced by new technologies, she shows him one of the building's most prized possessions. She unlocks a small glass encased box and pulls out a rare and incredibly valuable copy of..."Don Quixote".

Coincidences should be expected, but it's still pretty satisfying when you find them. Think I'll go rewatch Lost In La Mancha now...

Coincidental Parallels - "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" and "Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses"

"Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my daaaahrling Clementine"

Of course, I expected to hear this little snippet of the old folk ballad during my most recent viewing of "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" (as I showed it to my son for the first time - a viewing filled with comments like "Hold on...wait...so...", exclamations like "Oh, I get it!" and then further comments like "Hold on...wait...so..."), but I didn't expect to hear it again during the very next film I watched: Aki Kaurismaki's bordering on nonsensical and slightly deranged Finnish/English/Mexican/Russian hybrid Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses. There it was, though, in the very final scene before credits, being sung by the old man who twice tried to steal the nose of the Statue Of Liberty from the bus of the Leningrad Cowboys (I warned you - clear and straightforward narrative this is not).

No offense Andre Wilms, but I'll take Kate Winslet's version over yours any day...

Coincidental Parallels - "House Of Pleasures" and "The Secret Of The Kells"

Two obviously vastly different films that I recently just happened to watch back to back, "House Of Pleasures" and "The Secret Of The Kells" did not strike me as candidates for sharing anything in common. The first is a beautifully lensed story of prostitutes in turn of the century (19th to 20th) France while the other is an animated tale of one boy's quest to complete a magic book and show that enlightenment is the strongest protection from evil. Yet each one - for different purposes - uses a three way split screen at one point ("House Of Pleasures" uses a four way split - in quadrants, not side by side - in a few sections as well), so you just never know where you might find these little connections between films...

Coincidental Parallels - "21 Jump Street" & "Alice"

I was watching Woody Allen's lesser known "Alice" last night when I reach a point in the film where the character of Dorothy (the great Blythe Danner) tells her sister Alice (played by Mia Farrow) that she had spoiled her children. Her example was the multitude of stuffed animals that clogged her children's room.

I kinda shook my head for a second because it was a moment of deja vu - where the heck did I just hear about a mother buying too many stuffed animals for her child? Fortunately I'm not completely senile yet, so it didn't take too long to realize that it had come earlier in the evening while seeing the recent "21 Jump Street". There's a scene where Jonah Hill relates his experience of being a bit smothered by his Mom buying him every stuffed animal she could. An odd little coincidence, but feeling better having solved that little riddle, I continued with "Alice" (it's uneven, occasionally awkward and has a lead character that didn't quite allow Farrow to work her normal Woody Allen magic, but still a better overall film then its rather unknown status among the director's work might indicate). And then - just 3 minutes later - I had another occasion to pause as Alice talks to her friend Sue in a schoolyard. Though I recognized the actress Caroline Aaron playing Sue, it struck me that I had just seen her...like recently...

Then it hit me and I dove for IMDB to verify. Yep, Caroline Aaron played Jonah Hill's mother in "21 Jump Street" - the same character that had smothered him with stuffed toys.

I love it when that kind of thing happens.

An Odd Commonality - "Antichrist" and "Heartbeats"

After a lengthy bout with horror films throughout October (I'm still taking them on, but more sporadically at the moment), I've been bouncing around a bit (Japanese monster movies, documentaries off NetFlix instant viewing, a few old musicals, a re-watch of the Bourne trilogy, etc.), but now I'm settling into catching up on 2009/2010 releases. So in the last few days I've wrangled "This Movie Is Broken", "Please Give", "The Killer Inside Me", "The Social Network" and, the most recent two, Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" and Xavier Dolan's "Heartbeats".

I had few expectations of any commonality between these last two - von Trier's is an out and out horror film and Dolan's follow-up to his debut "I Killed My Mother" is a look at two friends who fall in love with the same guy. I knew "Antichrist" would look gorgeous (it did) and I expected as much from "Heartbeats" as well (though with far more colour), but not much else otherwise...

Then I got this:



Antichrist



Heartbeats


Totally different of course - one has falling acorns, the other falling marshmallows.

"Heartbeats" was a frustrating watch. Aside from a terrible English title (the French title "Les Amours Imaginaires" - ie. Imaginary Lovers - is not only far better suited to the film, but far less trite), the film just didn't offer much new to the story of unrequited love. Neither of the two friends was an interesting character and I couldn't see why the common love interest even wanted to be friends with them. Some lovely uses of colour, but it amounts to very little - a major step backwards for Dolan. I hope he invests more in the writing and character development for his next film since he has the visuals pretty much down pat.