Four Board Wong Kar Wai's Blueberry
Source: Variety
May 23, 2006
StudioCanal has set Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and Norah Jones to star in My Blueberry Nights, a romantic comedy that will be the first English-language feature directed by Wong Kar Wai, says Variety.
Jones, the Grammy Award-winning singer, stars as a young woman who travels across America to find the true meaning of love, encountering offbeat characters along the way.
Pre-production begins right after the Cannes Film Festival, where Wong is jury president. The film will shoot this summer across the U.S.
The director, who most recently helmed 2046, is also prepping thriller The Lady From Shanghai, with Nicole Kidman to star. That film begins production in 2007.
Harris picks 'Blueberry'; Spacey eyes
Source: Hollywood Reporter
CANNES -- The list of stars in Wong Kar Wai's English-language debut "My Blueberry Nights" continues to grow, with Ed Harris in final negotiations for a role and Kevin Spacey also circling.
"Ed Harris will be in the film. We are talking to Kevin Spacey," Wong said late Wednesday at a party hosted by French distributor StudioCanal, which is selling the film internationally.
Norah Jones toplines as a young woman journeying across the U.S. in an attempt to resolve her questions about the meaning of love. Along the way she encounters some quirky characters.
The director, who is wrapping up his tour of duty as Cannes jury president this weekend, has been busy finalizing cast on the movie throughout the festival. Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz were announced a few days ago for roles in the picture, which is due to start shooting this summer.
A Block 2 Distributions presentation, "Blueberry" is a production of Jet Tone Films and Lou Yi Limited. StudioCanal will release the film in France through its Mars Distribution subsidiary. The company is selling world rights outside China and Hong Kong. The film has been sold to more than a dozen territories in Cannes including Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia and Scandinavia.
Wong is also prepping the thriller "Lady From Shanghai" starring Nicole Kidman, which will begin production in 2007, with StudioCanal again handling international distribution.
Photos from the Blueberry set here. (http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/FrameSet.aspx?s=ImagesSearchState%7c0%7c0%7c-1%7c28%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c1%7c%7c%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c3%7c%7cmy+blueberry+nights%7c2233391784121335%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0&p=7&tag=)
Casting Call Sheet here. (http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/Content?oid=oid:17082)
i just found out about this last night and i can't stop thinking about the possibilities. i'm gonna go ahead and predict that this will be my favorite movie of 2007.
from a Cat Power article in the NY Times...
Like Will Oldham, another indie-folk rocker who is currently starring in the film "Old Joy," Ms. Marshall is considering a foray into acting. She said that the cult director Wong Kar-wai invited her to play Jude Law's ex-lover in the movie he is now shooting. Mr. Wong, she said, told her he was in the habit of playing "The Greatest" for his actors before each scene.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/arts/music/20cat.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref=login
I'm glad I randomly clicked this thread.
Weinstein Co. picks 'Blueberry'
The Weinstein Co. has nabbed all U.S., Australian and New Zealand rights to Wong Kar Wai's romantic comedy "My Blueberry Nights" starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Tim Roth and Natalie Portman.
"Nights" marks Wong's English-language feature debut and the feature-film acting debut of singer Jones, who will play a woman taking a long road trip to find true love. The feature, filled with eccentric characters she meets along the way, was shot on locations across the country in the summer.
"Ten years ago, Harvey Weinstein played a key role in introducing my work to American audiences with 'Chungking Express,' " said Wong, who was the jury president at May's Festival de Cannes. "It's a pleasure to be reunited with an old friend at this new phase of my career."
Wong wrote "Nights" with Lawrence Block and produced the project with Jean Louis Piel, Jacky Pang and Wang Wei. The Block 2 Distribution presentation is a co-production of Jet Tone Films and Lou Yi Limited.
Weinstein Co. executive vps and co-heads of acquisitions Michelle Krumm and Maeva Gatineau and senior vp business and legal affairs Laine Kline negotiated the deal with StudioCanal executive vp international sales Muriel Sauzay and director of international sales Saya Huddleston. Irene Leung negotiated on behalf of Block 2 Distribution. StudioCanal is handling international sales.
The Master of Time: Wong Kar-wai in America
By DENNIS LIM; New York Times
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ON a SoHo film set last August, Jude Law and Norah Jones were getting intimate. Repeatedly intimate. To be precise, they had kissed upwards of 150 times in the past three days.
The occasion for this outbreak of passion was "My Blueberry Nights," the first English-language film by Wong Kar-wai, the maverick Hong Kong director turned avatar of cosmopolitan cool. This particular night was stifling as the crew spilled out of Palacinka, a small cafe on Grand Street that was the principal New York location, preparing for yet another take of the scene known as "the Kiss."
It's closing time, and Ms. Jones, the only remaining customer, is slumped on the counter, her eyes shut. A smudge of cream rests on her upper lip, the telltale sign of a dessert binge. Mr. Law, cleaning up behind the bar, gazes at her, slowly leans in and steals a lingering kiss. When he surfaces, the cream on her lip is gone.
The shot lasted less than a minute, but the number of permutations that Mr. Wong and his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, devised — 15 set-ups, by the count of the script supervisor — suggested it would play a central role in the finished film. The Kiss was being shot at different film speeds and from a multitude of angles: a wide shot, his point of view, hers, through windows, with objects in the foreground.
"I've never worked with someone who's put so much emphasis on a single moment," Mr. Law said between takes one night. "It's extraordinary how he'll take a moment and replay it and slice it up."
The consecration of a fleeting, fugitive moment is one of Mr. Wong's specialties. Perhaps more than any filmmaker since Alain Resnais, his great subject is time — or more specifically lost time. His rhapsodic movies, haunted by voice-over ruminations and swathed in lush regret, seem to transpire in the realm of memory. People and places are mourned even as they are captured on camera.
Mr. Wong, 48, is keen to describe "My Blueberry Nights," a road movie shot in New York, Memphis, Las Vegas and Ely, Nev., with a cast that also includes Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn, as a new beginning. His last film, "2046," was planned as science fiction but demonstrated the gravitational pull of the past as well, succumbing to the hothouse delirium of 1960s Hong Kong. A kaleidoscopic head rush, "2046" quoted so extensively from Mr. Wong's earlier work that it felt like a midcareer retrospective unto itself.
To a notorious degree Mr. Wong finds his way as he goes, often plunging into production with little more than an outline. His exploratory method gives his films a unique shape and intensity; the result is inseparable from the process.
In the mid-1990s, with Hong Kong's reversion to Chinese sovereignty looming, Mr. Wong directed three films — "Chungking Express," "Fallen Angels" and "Happy Together" — in quick succession. Made as if on deadline, they have a brash Polaroid-like immediacy. The films that followed, "In the Mood for Love" and "2046," are period reveries rooted in the melancholy of transience. It's only fitting that he had a hard time letting go; each took a seeming eternity to complete. "In five years you can make five films, but I spent five years making one," he said in his Manhattan hotel room soon after the shoot, referring to "2046."
"My Blueberry Nights" — repeat kisses notwithstanding — is a conscious attempt to pick up the pace. For one thing, Mr. Wong shot it in just seven weeks. "We thought of this as a vacation film, spontaneous and contemporary," he said. "Making a film under the best conditions, it's like a rock band on tour," he added, ever the rock-star director: his trademark sunglasses stayed on through the New York night shoots.
For another, Mr. Wong said that the project "happened overnight." He was in New York last year researching another movie, "The Lady From Shanghai," a period drama (no relation to the Orson Welles film noir) that would star Nicole Kidman and shoot in Russia, Shanghai and New York. When that was postponed, he decided to make a smaller, off-the-cuff film, which he conceived as a vehicle for Ms. Jones, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who had never acted before.
"She's a natural," he said, adding that he had instructed her not to take acting lessons.
As he sees it, "My Blueberry Nights" is in a sense about Ms. Jones's face as it reacts to different environments. "In Memphis there's something very classic about her presence," he said. "In New York it's very contemporary."
Ms. Jones seemed less confident than her director. "I have no idea what he saw in me or where he saw it," she said on a coffee break one night. "When I got the call, I thought he wanted some music for his movies. It's weird because I feel like I've looked uncomfortable in every music video I've been in."
William Chang, who has been Mr. Wong's editor, production designer and costume designer from the start, is with him on "My Blueberry Nights," but for the first time in 15 years Christopher Doyle, the iconoclastic Australian cinematographer, is not. Together Mr. Wong and Mr. Doyle invented a much copied visual shorthand for romantic alienation, a mix of neon-smudged kinesis and slow-motion contemplation. But their relationship has been strained of late, with Mr. Doyle's Hollywood workload and Mr. Wong's erratic schedules becoming incompatible. In Mr. Doyle's place is Mr. Khondji, the French cinematographer best known for the dank atmospherics of David Fincher's "Seven."
Just as striking as Mr. Doyle's absence from the project is the presence of Hollywood actors. Over the years Mr. Wong has built up a repertory of Hong Kong luminaries who learned to thrive under his impulsive demands. "My Blueberry Nights" subjects its starry ensemble to an open-ended process that would be inconceivable on a studio movie. (The film was acquired for American distribution by the Weinstein Company earlier this month.)
Mr. Wong was also working for the first time with a screenwriting partner, the crime novelist Lawrence Block, who had written some scenes based on an outline. While shooting, Mr. Wong constantly revised and added new scenes, often at the last minute. He said he was surprised to find that the actors were not only ready for the challenge — his reputation preceded him — but even excited.
"I wish we had endless time and endless money," Mr. Law said. "It's not often you get to be part of something like this — a living story that's still being decided."
There is a pragmatic side to Mr. Wong's seemingly reckless method. Entire subplots are planned, cast and even shot, only to evaporate. But he recycles ideas as often as he abandons them. A stray segment from "Chungking Express" became "Fallen Angels," while "2046" bloomed from a kernel first planted in "Days of Being Wild," his 1991 breakthrough film.
Similarly "My Blueberry Nights" grew out of a planned omnibus called "Three Stories About Food." One chapter became "In the Mood for Love" (2000). Another, the basis for "Blueberry," was filmed as a short with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and has only been screened once, at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
That short, called "In the Mood for Love 2001," contained the blueprint for the Kiss. As Mr. Wong expanded the scenario, it turned into a road movie partly because it would cost too much to shoot entirely in New York. So he contrived a romantic predicament to send Ms. Jones's character on a trip. "She needs time to think so she takes the longest road across America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific," he said.
The next step was to map her route and find at least two pit stops. Crew members went on three cross-country location scouting trips, accompanied twice by Mr. Khondji and once by Mr. Wong. Both took copious photos of highways, diners, motels: slices of Americana in the style of Robert Frank and William Eggleston.
Mr. Wong considered post-Katrina New Orleans, but the logistics were daunting. He opted instead for Memphis, where Ms. Jones would encounter Mr. Strathairn and Ms. Weisz's unhappy couple. (Mr. Wong called the Memphis segment a tribute to Tennessee Williams.) He discovered Ely while driving along Highway 50, often called the loneliest road in America, and decided to place Ms. Portman's story line there.
Mr. Wong asks for complete trust from his actors, but he's also willing to customize their roles to suit them. This was especially so with Mr. Law's character, the cafe proprietor, who started out as a quiet type but grew more boisterous when the actor's charisma and energy became evident. "I kept telling him to get louder," Mr. Wong said.
More than a month into the shoot, despite the breakneck pace and permanent uncertainty, the atmosphere on set was relatively serene. "There's an incredible calmness to him," Mr. Law said of Mr. Wong.
Even so, there are some basic aspects of production in this country that run counter to his prized spontaneity. Permit applications must be filed well in advance. Union regulations stipulate penalties for long days, precluding the marathon sessions that he has been known to hold.
In Hong Kong "we make films like a family business," he said. "Here everything has to be quite specific. I have to explain to the crew that even though I respect the rules, there's certain things I want to keep my way."
As Ms. Jones put it, "He's open to everything, but he knows what he wants."
BETWEEN takes of the Kiss, Mr. Chang, the production designer, was fussing over Ms. Jones. He rearranged her hair, fanning her curls out on the countertop, and reapplied the spot of cream on her lip. Compared with the exertions of "2046," which called for period re-creations, futuristic sets and a heaving wardrobe of traditional and android couture, this was a breeze.
"I really needed a break from period," Mr. Chang said, smiling.
The cafe location had only been minimally altered. There were hand-painted inscriptions on the glass windows and a new sign outside with Cyrillic lettering. Mr. Chang had also installed a pair of columns to break up the tiny space and mounted mirrors to maximize the angles.
That night Mr. Khondji was working out a complex shot that required him to pan, track and shoot the Kiss through a vase, a cake dish and some beer bottles on the countertop.
After a few takes Mr. Wong asked if the shot would work better if Mr. Law, before swooping in for the smooch, extended his hand to touch Ms. Jones's face. Or, as he put it, "Foreplay or no foreplay?" A vote was taken among those present; the former prevailed. Mr. Law incorporated the maneuver into the remaining takes.
Later Mr. Wong jokingly explained: "I had to ask because in America, sometimes they prefer things macho. I wasn't sure if it should be too tender. In Hong Kong I don't have to ask. I know what a guy would do."
Most nights the mood music was "The Greatest," the latest album of dreamy downer ballads by Cat Power. For Mr. Wong the on-set soundtrack was mostly for the benefit of the cinematographer. "The best way for the camera to pick up the rhythm is music," he said.
Mr. Khondji said that he and Mr. Wong had intended to adopt a casually alert, near-documentary style, using a small crew and natural light. But once they got under way, perhaps through force of habit, the shots became more stylized. Still, Mr. Khondji added: "It's not as perfect as his last two movies. There's no time for perfection."
Mr. Wong left for Hong Kong in September with almost all of "Blueberry," his ninth feature, under his belt and — it would not be a Wong Kar-wai film otherwise — questions surrounding the ending. He said he would likely return in the winter to shoot the concluding scenes.
Reached by e-mail recently, he said he was editing with Mr. Chang and would not make any decisions about additional shooting until he had a first cut. The plan had been to balance the completion of "Blueberry" with preproduction on "The Lady From Shanghai," but Ms. Kidman announced last month that she was pulling out of that film. "None of those reports have been confirmed by anyone involved with the project," Mr. Wong wrote. Without Ms. Kidman, though, he added, "There is no reason to do it."
Over tea shortly before he left New York, Mr. Wong said he was exhausted from the grueling shoot. But far from being fazed by the sense of incompletion, he seemed invigorated: the door remained open, no alternatives had been lost, the story was still alive.
And how might "My Blueberry Nights" end? "I think there will be a second kiss," he said. "But I don't know where."
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.natalieportman.com%2Falbums%2Fnews_images%2FMBN09079_72dpi.jpg&hash=bd4f4288d966ca56166fab43433d5e3829400192)
...
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv480%2Fsamsong%2Fmyblueberrynights.jpg&hash=d728395440e7e5dcea520e75347a491af15339e5)
:shock:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fhomepage.mac.com%2Fkennyneal%2Fjei%2F050721jabberjaw2.jpg&hash=6a68edf34cd9c2bc751926c5941b01b50fd4ea9b)
wowee wow wow, jabberjaw...
Quick, somebody post more pictures of this movie so we can react to them!
Quote from: polkablues on April 30, 2007, 05:44:38 PM
Quick, somebody post more pictures of this movie so we can react to them!
Okay then...
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogsmithmedia.com%2Fwww.cinematical.com%2Fmedia%2F2007%2F05%2Fmy_blueberry_nights.jpg&hash=93136639357f93df5708c06aa51a67b85a19e453)
http://www.impawards.com/2007/my_blueberry_nights.html
Potrzebie!
Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai finds success easier abroad
Chinese director Wong Kar-wai has proved a revelation in a Hong Kong cinema scene known for its gangster and martial arts flicks, yet his unique style has won him more fans overseas than at home.
The 48-year-old auteur, who this week becomes the first Chinese filmmaker to open the Cannes film festival with "My Blueberry Nights," his debut English-language work, has won praise for his visual style and sensual art films as well as a clutch of international awards.
Wong was the first Chinese director to head the jury at last year's Cannes festival and the first to win the best director award there in 1997 for "Happy Together", the tale of a strained relationship between two Chinese gay lovers living in Buenos Aires.
But it was his later film "In The Mood For Love," released in 2000, which earned him wider international plaudits. It was nominated for a Palme d'Or at Cannes and went on to earn some 2.7 million dollars at the US box office.
Despite global recognition, Wong's films are not box-office hits back home, where the media prefers to dwell on his reputation for being eccentric and laborious, working without a script or sometimes even a plot outline.
"Wong Kar-wai's films aren't box office hits here because they don't suit the taste of the Hong Kong people. Most of the movie-goers are attracted to commercial movies with strong visuals," film critic Lam Keeto said.
"The mainstream audience in Hong Kong don't understand the deeper meaning of his movies. Some of them would even find it boring," he said.
Born in Shanghai, Wong moved to Hong Kong when he was five. Despite no formal training, he enrolled in a television drama training programme after graduating from a local college in graphic design in 1980.
He later worked as a production assistant before becoming a TV scriptwriter.
Wong made his directorial debut in 1988 with "As Tears Go By" which was shown in Cannes. His 1990 follow-up "Days of Being Wild" regularly tops local critics' polls of the best films ever made despite being a financial failure.
International praise was heaped on the 1994 "Chungking Express", a quirky romantic comedy that Quentin Tarantino liked so much that he selected it as the first product of his Rolling Thunder distribution company.
Lam said Wong knows how to appeal to the Western audience with carefully crafted strategies.
"You can see Wong Kar-wai is very calculated in his market strategies -- in the whole filmmaking and in casting. He uses actors who appeal to the international market. His film scores are always in European style," he said.
Wong, who is always seen in his trademark dark glasses, is highly regarded for his ability to bring out the best in his actors, making international stars out of Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung.
His partnership with cinematographer Christopher Doyle has been another key to his success.
"You can see how Tony Leung can have a mediocre performance with some directors but with Wong Kar-wai, he is very different," Lam said.
Former beauty queen Cheung won best actress at Cannes in 2004 for her role as a junkie rock star in ex-husband Olivier Assayas's "Clean".
Actors, however, temper their praise of Wong with frustration over his methods. After it took five years to complete the futuristic love epic "2046", which was shown at Cannes in 2004, star Leung described the process as torture.
Still, that has not put off multiple Grammy-award winner Norah Jones, who stars in "My Blueberry Nights," and Hollywood heavyweight Nicole Kidman, who will appear in "The Lady from Shanghai".
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 14, 2007, 01:24:45 AM
"Wong Kar-wai's films aren't box office hits here because they don't suit the taste of the Hong Kong people. Most of the movie-goers are attracted to commercial movies with strong visuals," film critic Lam Keeto said.
"The mainstream audience in Hong Kong don't understand the deeper meaning of his movies. Some of them would even find it boring," he said.
I think I've read this quote before, and I've probably commented on it already, but lemme ask again--do the mainstream American audience, or the mainstream audience anywhere else, understand the "deeper meaning" of Wong KarWai's movies? Which self-loathing prick wrote this load of self-loathing bullshit?
10 pics: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/stills.php?id=3227
i find it hard to believe chris doyle didnt shoot this.
Trailer!!! (http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=18730399.html)
It's really weird to hear Wong Kar Wai dialogue in English.
Dialogue: Wong Kar Wai
Source: Hollywood Reporter
CANNES -- The Festival de Cannes' best director award winner in 1997 for "Happy Together" and president of the Competition jury in 2006, Wong Kar Wai returns to the Croisette today to open the 2007 festival with his first English-language film, "My Blueberry Nights." Starring Jude Law and singer Norah Jones in her first big-screen role, "Nights" took Wong -- who has long worked from his home base in Hong Kong -- nearly all the way across America, from New York to Tennessee to Nevada. Busy editing the film, Wong pulled away over several days to catch up with The Hollywood Reporter Beijing bureau chief Jonathan Landreth.
The Hollywood Reporter: What drew you to the "Blueberry Nights" story in the first place?
Wong Kar Wai: After spending five years on "2046," I felt like doing something entirely different. I also wanted to make a film about distance and see how I would work in a new environment. It was a personal challenge and also an excuse to see the real America.
THR: Music has been a powerful part of the feel of films of yours like "Happy Together," and now you're working with a famous singer as an actress. What music features in "Blueberry Nights"? Will any of Norah Jones' or her father's music be in the soundtrack, and, if so, is it original?
Wong: I'm not using any of Norah's music in the film. We both agreed that we want the audience to see her as Norah Jones, the actress. Music plays a large role in the film, but I don't want to spoil it for you.
THR: Do you fall in love with your leading ladies, and are you in love with Jones? What about her finished acting onscreen is different from your early expectations?
Wong: I love all my actors. There would be no reason to work with them otherwise. Norah truly defied my expectations. She is a very natural actress with great emotional instincts.
THR: What are your feelings on Cannes? Do you look forward to returning? What's your favorite place in the city? A bar? A theater? A certain stretch of beach? A restaurant?
Wong: Cannes is always an interesting experience for me. Last year I was the jury president, and two years before that I was rushing to the festival with the print of "2046." Fortunately, this year, the opening-night slot guarantees I will be there early. Either that or the organizers are just taking an incredible leap of faith. I have a favorite Chinese restaurant in the area. Do I really have to give you the name?
THR: What does the title of the film refer to?
Wong: The meaning is actually quite literal.
THR: Now that it's done, how do you rate this film in relation to your previous works? What about in relation to other recent films, both from Hong Kong and elsewhere?
Wong: Personally, I like it very much. I consider it a sort of homage to the American cinema and literature that influenced my decision to become a filmmaker. It's very different from "Spider-Man 3."
THR: Did your basic directing process change much in directing your first wholly English-language film? How? Was it harder? A welcome challenge?
Wong: It was definitely interesting and a concern at first since I was working with a different language and in a new landscape. But I fortunately discovered that certain emotions transcend words.
THR: What's next film-wise? Life-wise? Jones-wise? Will you work with her again?
Wong: I have a few projects in development, but it'll be a while before I make any final decisions. I'd love to work with Norah again. I'm curious to see the road she takes as an actress.
THR: Compare for us working with your longtime cinematographer Chris Doily to working with Darius Khondji. What's new, different? How did Khondji change your working style? What did he see that you might have missed? Do you miss Doyle and plan to work with him again?
Wong: Chris used to be a sailor, so he's a very rough-and-tumble "man's man." Darius, on the other hand, is more of a European gentleman. We drank a lot of tea together during the shoot. It was a nice change of pace. If the right project came along and the timing is right, I would love to do something with Chris again.
THR: Why is the Weinstein Co. the right company to sell this film in the U.S.? How are they going to do it and do you care to have much say in that side of the business?
Wong: Harvey Weinstein had released my earlier film "Chungking Express" under their Rolling Thunder banner with Quentin Tarantino. They did a brilliant job marketing it and introducing me to American moviegoers. I'm sure they will do another amazing job with the new one.
THR: In November, it was reported that Jude Law steals a lingering kiss from Jones in a scene that took many takes, and that you then were considering adding a second such kiss. Did you and did it make the final cut?
Wong: (laughs) You have done your homework. The answer to your question may still happen. I'm still in the editing room.
THR: Please describe working with Law while pretending that nobody ever would read what you said. Quick, first words that come to mind, please.
Wong: Talented and sophisticated. He was my first choice, and I couldn't have imagined anyone else in his role.
THR: Could you ever live in Memphis and why or why not? What's your favorite Tennessee Williams work and why?
Wong: I could live in Memphis. The summer there is very similar to Hong Kong. "A Streetcar Named Desire" is my favorite. I don't think masterpieces require an explanation.
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 15, 2007, 09:03:35 PM
THR: Music has been a powerful part of the feel of films of yours like "Happy Together," and now you're working with a famous singer as an actress. What music features in "Blueberry Nights"? Will any of Norah Jones' or her father's music be in the soundtrack, and, if so, is it original?
Wong: I'm not using any of Norah's music in the film. We both agreed that we want the audience to see her as Norah Jones, the actress. Music plays a large role in the film, but I don't want to spoil it for you.
isn't it all "The Greatest" like in the trailer?
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 15, 2007, 09:03:35 PM
THR: In November, it was reported that Jude Law steals a lingering kiss from Jones in a scene that took many takes, and that you then were considering adding a second such kiss. Did you and did it make the final cut?
Wong: (laughs) You have done your homework.
anyone who watches late night talk shows would know that.
Quote from: modage on May 15, 2007, 01:57:52 PM
10 pics: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/stills.php?id=3227
i find it hard to believe chris doyle didnt shoot this.
publicity stills are not usually taken by the cinematographer, so i don't find it that hard to believe based on those pics.
i also find it easy to believe based on the trailer, as there are not a million things in the foreground.
oh my god, chris doyle where are you. fuck this movie. and fuck them. how dare they break up.
Quote from: pete on May 16, 2007, 02:44:14 AM
oh my god, chris doyle where are you. fuck this movie. and fuck them. how dare they break up.
maybe wong wanted to work with someone gayer than a "sailor" for this film..
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 15, 2007, 09:03:35 PM
Wong: Chris used to be a sailor, so he's a very rough-and-tumble "man's man." Darius, on the other hand, is more of a European gentleman. We drank a lot of tea together during the shoot.
Norah Jones jumps blindly into acting
Singer Norah Jones took a leap of faith when she agreed to star in Chinese director Wong Kar Wai's latest movie "My Blueberry Nights."
When she was approached about the part of Elizabeth in his first English-language movie, she had never seen any of Wong's films and was focusing on a tour.
But once she watched his acclaimed "In The Mood For Love" Jones agreed to try her hand at acting.
"I was not planning on making any kind of acting debut, and he knocked on my door and I hadn't a clue and just thought ... 'I'm on tour and I'm not an actress, so whatever'," Jones told reporters after the film was screened to the press in Cannes.
"My Blueberry Nights" is the opening picture at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, one of 22 movies in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or. It has its world premiere at a red carpet gala screening in the evening.
"I watched 'In The Mood For Love' and I thought 'Wow, that's just the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Jones said.
"I thought, 'Let's have lunch, maybe he wants the music,' and he said: 'Do you want to be in a movie?'.
"I said: 'OK, you're amazing.' I really just jumped in with a good feeling of trust for him."
It was a risk for Wong too. He decided to cast Jones without having met her, attracted by her looks and cinematic voice.
LOVE LOST AND FOUND
Jones is a Grammy-winning artist who at the age of 28 has sold tens of millions of albums. She appears alongside British heartthrob Jude Law in a story of losing and finding love set in New York and across the United States.
Law plays New York cafe owner Jeremy from Manchester, England, who tells Elizabeth that her boyfriend has been cheating on her and they gradually become soul mates.
Elizabeth embarks on a journey where she encounters a policeman who drowns his marital sorrows in whisky (David Strathairn), his wife (Rachel Weisz) and gambling addict (Natalie Portman).
Wong said he was outside his comfort zone with the film, which critics in Cannes initially praised for its visual beauty and soundtrack more than the narrative or dialogue.
"The challenge of this film is it is in English, which is not my language," said Wong, the president of the jury in Cannes last year.
He said he had often found foreign directors' attempts to make films about China "very embarrassing," with characters distorted or too exotic.
"I always wanted to make a film in a different language, but I wanted to avoid this problem. I wanted to do justice to Americans, to the characters, which I expect from other films."
Asked why he had chosen blueberry pie for the title of the film, he replied:
"At the very beginning I decided it was blueberry pie. I asked Norah also what kind of pie you hate the most, and she said blueberry pie, so it's like a torture."
'Blueberry' greeted with 'quiet respect' from press
Source: Hollywood Reporter
CANNES -- "My Blueberry Nights" drew mixed reactions Wednesday from the world press corps attending the premiere of Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's first English-language film.
"Because I found it predictable, it was not like a typical Wong Kar Wai film," said Sylvia Toh, a reporter for Singapore's New Press. "Wong captured Americana well, and I enjoyed the film visually, but Norah Jones was a little self-conscious."
London Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye said he liked the film but added that after all his years covering film festivals he could tell that many in the audience did not share his view. "There was a quiet respect for the film, but no love," he said. "Some people are giving Norah a hard time about it, but I thought she was lovely."
The packed screening at the Palais des Festivals was followed by a news conference at which Wong, Jones and co-star Jude Law fielded questions about working on a film of firsts -- singer Jones' first screen appearance and Wong's first film in English.
Wearing his trademark sunglasses indoors, Wong said that it was Jones' voice that attracted him to her in the first place, though she does not sing in the film.
"Norah's voice is cinematic, like a finely tuned instrument that evokes a story all its own," Wong said.
The American-set film, which Wong said is about the distance between two lovers, includes an unlikely soundtrack of songs from the likes of American R&B great Otis Redding and Shigeru Umebayashi, the Japanese composer who wrote the theme to Wong's previous film, "2046."
"Music has no nationalities," said Wong, adding that he chose the music with Jones' help by giving her still photographs from locations he scouted before shooting began and asking her to match music to the pictures.
Jones recalled how she had to suppress her nerves upon learning she would act opposite Law and how her voice cracked into a high squeal on the film's first take.
Jones credited Wong and the generosity of Law and co-stars Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz for putting her at ease in the new medium. The collaborative nature of moviemaking struck Jones, she said, "as more like jazz than any other music."
Jones said she had not begun to plan working on a second movie as she has a long concert tour ahead of her.
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Review: My Blueberry Nights
By TODD MCCARTHY; Variety
As much a trifle as its title suggests, "My Blueberry Nights" sees Hong Kong stylist Wong Kar Wai applying his characteristic visual and thematic doodles to a wispy story of lovelorn Yanks. With pop music sensation Norah Jones floating through the episodic tale as a blank-page heroine striving to overcome the blues, beautifully embroidered pic generates increased interest as it travels from East to West and encounters Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman along the way, but its ambition and accomplishment remain modest in the extreme. B.O. hopes, at least Stateside, rest much more with romantically inclined young fans of Jones than among Wong devotees.
"Blueberry" echoes the director's biggest hit, "In the Mood for Love," in its moody melancholy, claustrophic settings and highly decorative shooting style. But while the actors' dialogue delivery is perfectly natural, the aphoristic philosophical nuggets Wong favors sound banal and clunky in this context, leaving the film thematically in the shallow end of the pool. Additionally, the road movie potential of the film's second half feel significantly under-realized.
Wong and his co-scenarist, crime novelist Lawrence Block, dig themselves into a bit of a hole during a borderline contrived initial half-hour devoted to the first-stage shock felt by Elizabeth (Jones) after having been dumped by her two-timing boyfriend of five years. Beset by hurt, Elizabeth consoles herself with latenight sweets feasts provided by the obliging Jeremy (Jude Law), the instantly sympathetic British proprietor of a Gotham café.
The establishment's cramped quarters are made to seem even moreso by the shallow focus lensing, which places objects, window writing and anything else Wong and cinematographer Darius Khondji can think of between the actors and the camera, which customarily roves around in search of decorous minutiae. As always, Wong is able to transform anything within his field of vision into something worth looking at, although, strangely, the intense close-ups of blueberry pie and other desserts dripping with cream look more like gross anatomical snapshots than anything you'd want to eat.
Jeremy's almost oversensitivity to Elizabeth's plight and his hyperactive eagerness to please gets old pretty quickly. But interlude ends in a hushed kiss --Jeremy can't resist the intimate possibilities of removing some lingering cream from a sleeping Elizabeth's lips with his own --that removes any doubts of his own interests and sets up Elizabeth's subsequent casual postcard correspondence with Jeremy from various spots on her future journey.
Working as a diner waitress by day and a barmaid by night in Memphis, Elizabeth becomes a sounding board to alcoholic cop Arnie (David Strathairn), who patronizes both establishments, and witness to the death throes of his marriage to Sue Lynne (Rachel Weisz), a faithless floozy who makes a point of flaunting her adultery, but ultimately pours out (in a long single take impressively put over by Weisz) her marital past and true feelings to Elizabeth.
Wong clearly delights in photographing Weisz in glamorized states of sultry disarray, but this proves just a warm up for his treatment of Natalie Portman, who pumps sass and energy into her portrait of a young, frosted-haired gambler who takes Elizabeth, now working as a Nevada casino waitress, for an emotional, financial and automotive ride. Leslie, who learned everything she knows from her gambler father, prides herself on her ability to read her opponents around a poker table and decides Elizabeth has a lot to learn about not taking people at face value. Predictably, the young women find they have something to learn from one another.
After all the effort expended upon elaborating the interior scenes, the film disappoints when it hits the great outdoors of the American West. Frequently speeding up the action of the women tooling around in Leslie's Jaguar convertible and allowing the scenery to flit by fleetingly, Wong seems to take no interest at all in settings that have provided great inspiration to many filmmakers. Reacting accordingly, Elizabeth returns to New York for an innocuously romantic wrap-up.
For all its insubstantiality, "My Blueberry Nights" does provide some catnip allure that will be to some tastes. Best served will be those willing and able to embrace the general void of Elizabeth's character and place themselves within it. Jones proves agreeable but bland company in the role; she's attractive, but lacks mystery, emotional vitality and that something special behind the eyes. As if to make up for this in their scenes together, Law starts off in overdrive and only rarely downshifts; he's more effective when he does so. Cult singer Chan Marshall has a tasty scene as Jeremy's ex back for a quick visit.
Visual beauty is a given in Wong's films, as is the use of pop songs and old standards, and nothing has changed on those counts here.
Camera (Technicolor, Kantana Labs prints, widescreen), Darius Khondji; editor, William Chang Suk Ping; music, Ry Cooder; production designer, Chang; costume designers, Chang, Sharon Globerson; sound (Dolby Digital), Drew Kunin; supervising sound designer, Claude Letessier; line producers, Alice Chan, Pamela Thur-Weir. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (opening night, competing), May 16, 2007. Running time: 111 MIN.
Quote from: Pubrick on May 15, 2007, 09:23:37 PM
i also find it easy to believe based on the trailer, as there are not a million things in the foreground.
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 16, 2007, 06:43:13 PM
the shallow focus lensing, which places objects, window writing and anything else Wong and cinematographer Darius Khondji can think of between the actors and the camera,
haha, i stand corrected.
Quote from: pete on May 14, 2007, 02:07:26 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 14, 2007, 01:24:45 AM
"Wong Kar-wai's films aren't box office hits here because they don't suit the taste of the Hong Kong people. Most of the movie-goers are attracted to commercial movies with strong visuals," film critic Lam Keeto said.
"The mainstream audience in Hong Kong don't understand the deeper meaning of his movies. Some of them would even find it boring," he said.
I think I've read this quote before, and I've probably commented on it already, but lemme ask again--do the mainstream American audience, or the mainstream audience anywhere else, understand the "deeper meaning" of Wong KarWai's movies? Which self-loathing prick wrote this load of self-loathing bullshit?
the delusion continues:
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 16, 2007, 06:43:13 PM
B.O. hopes, at least Stateside, rest much more with romantically inclined young fans of Jones than among Wong devotees.
who in their right mind was ever expecting a film starring Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Norah Jones and Rachel Weisz to be appealing ONLY to "wong devotees"??? of course, i forgot The Holiday made millions based solely on nancy meyers' auteuristic integrity.. the first and foremost quality americans and cinemagoers worldwide look for in a film.
it's fun to actually read these articles sometimes. more of you should try it.
Quote from: Pubrick on May 16, 2007, 07:10:53 PM
it's fun to actually read these articles sometimes. more of you should try it.
Pass.
New Teaser here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eE3uz_me4M)
New Teaser here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGczHAOWsEE)
New Trailer here. (http://a69.g.akamai.net/n/69/13042/v1/quicktime.allocine.fr//nmedia/18/63/18/14/18749220_fa4_vost_h.mov)
they still don't know how to cut a wong karwai trailer.
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That's great! Beautiful neon.
INSIDE WORD | "Blueberry" Booked for U.S. Release Next Month
New cut coming soon... The Weinstein Company has announced the release of Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights," coming to U.S. theaters on next month. The company confirmed that a new version of the film will be released on April 4th. In a statement, TWC said, "This is a new cut of the film, different than the version shown at Cannes." "My Blueberry Nights" opened the Cannes fest last year where indieWIRE reported on the film.
I'm glad I saw the original one, then. Even though it's not that great....
Quote from: Ghostboy on March 06, 2008, 08:57:42 PM
Even though it's not that great....
Or even good at all.
Quote from: Ghostboy on March 06, 2008, 08:57:42 PM
I'm glad I saw the original one, then. Even though it's not that great....
did you write a review? i had your website bookmarked before but lost it. roaddogproductions.com is what i incorrectly remembered. was wondering if you had a more expanded twbb review as well.
indieWIRE Presents: Wong Kar Wai at Apple Store SoHo in April
indieWIRE's ongoing series of filmmaker talks at the Apple Store - SoHo continues next month with special guest Wong Kar Wai.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 1st, 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: Apple Store - SoHo, 103 Prince Street, NYC
COST: Free, No RSVP required. Seats are first come, first serve. Seating is limited.
Filmmaker Wong Kar Wai ("In The Mood For Love," "Chungking Express," "Happy Together") will participate in a discussion and show scenes from his latest film, "My Blueberry Nights," which tells the story of Elizabeth (Norah Jones) and her journey across America where she leaves behind a life of memories, a dream and her soulful new friend - a cafe owner (Jude Law) - all while in search of something to mend her broken heart. Film journalist Dennis Lim will moderate the discussion.
"My Blueberry Nights" is being released by The Weinstein Company on April 4th, 2008.
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iW PROFILE | "My Blueberry Nights" Director Wong Kar Wai
"I don't think of this as a road movie," filmmaker Wong Kar Wai told New Yorkers last night, during a conversation about his new movie, "My Blueberry Nights," which was partially filmed in Lower Manhattan. "The original idea was to have the film just be about Norah and her relationship with the owners of this restaurant," Wong Kar Wai revealed. "But it was too expensive to shoot just in New York and the characters began to expand across the country."
The film follows a year in the life of Elizabeth, played by Norah Jones, as she suffers from a bad breakup and travels from New York across the country seeking closure and understanding. Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Natalie Portman and Jude Law round out the cast of characters she encounters along her journey. On his first time working with American actors Wong spoke highly: "I was surprised because I thought there would be a big difference. But I see a lot of Tony (Leung) in Jude Law and a lot of Gong Li in Rachel We isz."
A large crowd crammed into the Apple Store Soho theater last night to catch a glimpse of enigmatic filmmaker, during the special conversation presented by indieWIRE. "Blueberry Nights," his first English language film, will open on Friday. Wong, who has risen to international acclaim with films such as "Chungking Express" and "In the Mood for Love," was in full form, donning his famous black sunglasses and happily answering the questions from moderator Dennis Lim and the audience. Jude Law and Norah Jones in a scene from "My Blueberry Nights". Image provided by The Weinstein Company
"My Blueberry Nights" opened last year's Cannes Film Festival to mixed to negative reviews, but the cut to be released Friday is reportedly quite different than the one shown at the festival, the running time cut down by over twenty minutes. But, the audience at the Apple Store seemed generally excited about the clips that were shown, prompting hope that the theatrical release version could be far superior to the Cannes screening.
When asked how his method of working changed when he came to America he replied: "I needed a lot of help with the script, I really had to work to understand Norah's journey and also work hard to understand America." Although he shot "Happy Together," a film which earned him the best director prize at Cannes, in Argentina, he doesn't feel that film was about Argentines or the main character's relationship to that country.
"A big difference between making films in America verses Hong Kong is the amount of paperwork and unions involved," admitted the director. "I had to keep being reminded that everyone had to have a scheduled lunch break. In Hong Kong we don't have issues like that. But I believe when you work in another country you have to respect its rules."
Aside from shooting in another country, the other big change with "My Blueberry Nights" is the absence of Wong Kar Wai's long term cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Doyle helped define his style working with him steadily from his first hit "Days of Being Wild" up to "2046." Veteran cinematographer Darius Khondji ("The City of Lost Children," "Se7en") took the reins. And Wong Kar Wai spoke highly of Khondji, but admitted feeling the loss of a long-term comrade: "It's quite different than working with Chris, because our communication was without words. Darius has a huge respect for Chris Doyle's work and he kept asking me how Chris would shoot a certain scene. I always replied that it doesn't matter the way Chris would shoot, because I wanted it to come from him. But both men are very sensitive to film and both are very involved."
When an audience member asked why so many of his films are set around restaurants and food shops the director laughed. "As a writer I spent most of my time in coffee shops, so I can tell you the best coffee shops in Hong Kong. I like them because they're very intimate places. Bars I like too because it's a place where people go to meet strangers. Bars give you a good sense of community."
But when asked to elaborate on the themes of his films Wong remained quiet, admitting that he follows the Matisse quote that "artists should cut out their tongues" for fear of not letting their work be self-explanatory. But he did summarize the following concerning "Blueberry Nights": "I've noticed that American cuisine is full of sweets. I don't like deserts myself, but I feel like the theme of the film is finding the bitterness under the sweet. But it's also about that moment in our lives when we have to let go, when something just isn't working and it's time to go."
In other insights on his work, Wong told the audience that he has found the master print of "Ashes of Time," his early-nineties, post-modern, Wuxia epic. He announced that instead of doing a re-release of the film, he is going to incorporate some of the unseen footage for a complete recut.
the ultimate date movie. it's sweet and very , VERY well acted. especially the weisz, the strathairn, and the portman , of who i don't think much. it's alright, it's very simple and dumb but the little things make up for the chessiness, which wasn't a big deal for me.
what is it about chan marshall's face? it glows like a fountain.
ps,david strathairn looks a lot like my grandfather, may he rest in peace.
Wong Kar Wai's 'Blueberry Nights'
With his Americanized story, he joins a long list of foreign directors who have offered a glimpse at what the U.S. looks like through their eyes.
By Mark Olsen, Special to The Times
WITH his ever-present sunglasses and cultivated mystique, Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai has become one of the most distinct brand names on the international cinema circuit. His latest, "My Blueberry Nights," which opened Friday in Los Angeles, has all the tell-tale signs of previous films such as "In the Mood for Love" or "2046" -- interconnecting story lines, an eclectic soundtrack, attractive performers and a dreamy, impressionistic style that adds up to a delirious meditation on romantic love and longing.
Though he previously shot outside Asia when he made "Happy Together" in Argentina, "My Blueberry Nights" marks the first time Wong has worked in English and filmed in the United States.
"The real challenge about working on 'My Blueberry Nights' was thinking in American," Wong said from Hong Kong via e-mail. "Just like when I shot in Argentina, I realized that the local mind set was something you could approach, gaze into, but never really possess yourself. My constant reassurance was the thought that film is universal."
Though the film is full of its own idiosyncrasies, "My Blueberry Nights" places Wong in a long line of foreign auteurs who have come to America to make a film that also winds up being in no small part about America. Though Hollywood has always been a magnet for émigrés -- from Wilder to Woo -- this is distinctly different; these are filmmakers coming to America not for the temptation of "going Hollywood" but rather to explore the idea of America as seen through the camera lens, a reflection and refraction of Hollywood storytelling. . These films, if one can generalize, tend to be odd.
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni followed "Blow-Up," his look at swinging Sixties London, with a portrait of turn-of-the-Seventies American hippies in "Zabriskie Point." The French filmmakers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard each briefly flirted with directing "Bonnie and Clyde." Godard later abandoned a project shot in the U.S. in collaboration with documentarians D.A. Pennebaker and Richard Leacock known as "One American Movie."
Frenchmen Jacques Demy and Jacques Deray each took their own look around Los Angeles in "Model Shop" (1969) and "The Outside Man" (1972), respectively. The German Wim Wenders had one of his greatest successes with 1984's "Paris, Texas," and later set up shop in the U.S., while Serbian director Emir Kusturica made the quizzical 1993 film "Arizona Dream" here and has yet to return.
"My Blueberry Nights" follows a character played by singer Norah Jones as she travels across the country, and each section of the film was shot where its story takes place. The film begins in New York, where a heartbroken Elizabeth finds solace in late-night conversations with an equally lovelorn diner owner (Jude Law), who waits and waits for the woman who left him (Chan Marshall). Searching for a fresh start, Elizabeth hits the road, taking waitress jobs along the way. In Memphis, she encounters a dangerous booze-soaked couple (Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn), and in Nevada she comes across a sprightly gambler (Natalie Portman) who may not be up for life on the hustle. As Elizabeth boomerangs her way back to New York she stumbles upon the classically Wong-ian idea that physical proximity sometimes has no connection to emotional kinship.
Lost in America
LIKE many of the world-class filmmakers drawn here, Wong seems particularly attracted to the specific imagery of the American West. As well, the decidedly mixed reception "My Blueberry Nights" received on its premiere as the opening night film of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival is in line with the reception afforded many previous world-cinema directors who have stepped onto American soil. In his original Life magazine review of the much-panned "Zabriskie Point," for example, Richard Schickel took note of how, like many others before him, Antonioni (who spoke hardly any English) seemed to have lost himself in America, falling "under the spell of the American vastness, the enormous emptiness of our spaces." "There's that great line from Wenders, 'The Americans have colonized our subconscious,' which is from 'Kings of the Road,' " noted critic Dave Kehr on what keeps drawing outsiders to make films in the U.S. "Certainly you don't have to have ever come to the United States to have a very definite and vivid idea of what America is like, though it may be wildly inaccurate. All these people have grown up with an America as presented in our movies and pop music."
Traces of an American influence have surfaced in Wong's previous films, perhaps most notably in the repeated use of the song "California Dreamin' " in "Chungking Express" (1994). While grappling with how to apply his sensibility to an American setting, Wong said that his reference was more the road movie structure of "Easy Rider" than the moody ruminations of "Zabriskie Point."
Headier ideas often take a back seat, though, as "film production thankfully has enough practical concerns to keep me from worrying about theoretical ones. However, no matter where we live, we all grow up with fragments of American culture. The joy of this movie was to revisit these fragments and to pay homage to them."
Not all foreigners who make a movie in America are looking to assume a mailing address in the Hollywood Hills. Even among those who might be thought of as the "one-offs," they often come for reasons all their own.
Veteran French director Bertrand Tavernier, whose films include "Sunday in the Country" " 'Round Midnight" and "L.627," is finishing "In the Electric Mist," a literary adaptation shot in Louisiana starring Tommy Lee Jones. "As for me, I was not attracted by America but by [author] James Lee Burke," Tavernier said via e-mail. "I wanted to adapt a very good novel from a very good writer. My next films will be French, in French, about France."
In the end it is perhaps no great surprise that "My Blueberry Nights," for all its star-wattage and trappings of Americana, reads first and foremost as a film by Wong Kar Wai. It might easily be subtitled "An American Scrapbook," a cinematic mixtape of memories and romantic notions. Wong's co-writer, crime novelist Lawrence Block, called the collaboration "a strange process, because the whole film was very much [Wong's] conception, but the idea of what the story was kept continuing to evolve." Block was continually surprised by the extent to which Wong was "very savvy and conversant" about American culture.
"The USA is actually the best showcase of her culture," said Wong. "Each city has its own history and reference. The preference of one location to another is a choice about what your influences are: art, music, cinema, literature, from William Eggleston to Tennessee Williams; or from Coca-Cola to iPod. Eventually I had to decide what were the essentials, and the locations that finally ended up in the film probably give you a hint of them."
Man. Last night I was going to take the lady to see this, like dinner and then My Blueberry Nights, and I came home with my Date Night idea and she was excited. I thought. But then it turned into this argument about how all my Date Nights are selfish and I only take her places I want to go and bring her to movies I want to see and I should have taken her to Run Fatboy Run because that's the movie she's been waiting to see. She ended up crying and I ended up sleeping on the couch.
So now My Blueberry Nights is wrapped in relationship wounds and there's no way I'm going to get to see it in the theater.
Quote from: w/o horse on April 08, 2008, 03:08:11 PM
Man. Last night I was going to take the lady to see this, like dinner and then My Blueberry Nights, and I came home with my Date Night idea and she was excited. I thought. But then it turned into this argument about how all my Date Nights are selfish and I only take her places I want to go and bring her to movies I want to see and I should have taken her to Run Fatboy Run because that's the movie she's been waiting to see. She ended up crying and I ended up sleeping on the couch.
So now My Blueberry Nights is wrapped in relationship wounds and there's no way I'm going to get to see it in the theater.
i go through this argument constantly with my girlfriend, only the last time it happened she wanted to see meet the spartans. consider yourself lucky.
Y'all need new girlfriends.
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Oh I'm sorry...are they in comas?
Are you guys in your mid 30's? Why are you in a committed relationships?
:(
I liked it. Very much.
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on May 13, 2008, 11:53:58 AM
I liked it. Very much.
I did too. I was afraid to speak out. Thank you for your courage.
Quote from: cinemanarchist on May 13, 2008, 12:26:39 PM
Quote from: ElPandaRoyal on May 13, 2008, 11:53:58 AM
I liked it. Very much.
I did too. I was afraid to speak out. Thank you for your courage.
Well, it had everything I love in a Wong Kar Wai movie, it may not be perfect, but it's so damn lovely.
yeah i had to defend this movie today in the morning and told my friend, joking, that he had poison in his heart for not liking it. i exaggerated, but i didn't find the movie to be an abomination or anything. it's a super competent date movie.
i'm 28 on a steady relationship for the last 3 and a half years and we've been living together for the last 2 and a half but she's just a snub like me so we get along great on these subjects. however the main reason is she just knows i ain't going to see no goddamn fucking movie i don't want to see, and she can be convinced pretty easily to watch any commercial crap i want to indulge myself in, like the other day when i rented i am legend.
cat power's cameo is delicious. rachel weisz and david strathairn are very good.
a very phoned-in effort from wong kar wai, the film looks and feels like an assembly of all the bad takes. i can't even appreciate it as an admirable failure it's so marginal.