Quick update and Film Review (2046)
Friday, January 28th, 2005 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthOn dating: Bohemia. Except, er, not.
On 2046: We went to see this because it was on its last night at the local UGC, and because the plot summary seemed rather SFnal. ("In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention... to recapture their lost memories. It was said that in 2046, nothing ever changed.") Yes, in places reminiscent of Days Between Stations, or Blade Runner ... but on the whole, more reminiscent of a glacially gradual love story. Possibly. Perhaps the reviewers have latched onto the SFnal aspects because it's very difficult to latch onto anything else.
Perhaps I'd have got to the heart of it if I'd watched again, with more attention to the way that music was used to distinguish times, years, characters ... actually, I'm not sure what the music (primarily opera arias, 'Casta Diva' from Norma and another well-known piece I couldn't place -- not listed on the soundtrack page -- plus 'The Christmas Song', played as Christmas Eve comes round each year, 1967, 1968, 1969 ...) signified, but I could tell it was supposed to signify something.
A bit like the film, really: there was meaning there, but I didn't get it. Yes, everything changes; yes, love makes you vulnerable; no, you can never know if your lover feels the same. But no, memories are not all the remains of tears (I forget the exact line): and that fatalistic melancholy, while not present throughout, irritated me every time it came up. It might've helped if I'd seen the film to which this is a semi-sequel (In the Mood for Love): I haven't. And I don't like coming out of a film feeling stupid. (A feeling ameliorated by sheer relief at having stayed awake.)
Looks lovely, beautifully edited, but impenetrable.
Later Edit I wonder if non-SF people will get more out of this: it seemed commonplace to me to draw parallels between a writer's life and his/her SF, to suggest that SF can be rooted in everyday experience. (For example, author's ignorance of girlfriend's emotional state being used as basis for an SF story that describes a female android's behaviour in terms of delayed reaction, mechanical wear etc.)
On 2046: We went to see this because it was on its last night at the local UGC, and because the plot summary seemed rather SFnal. ("In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention... to recapture their lost memories. It was said that in 2046, nothing ever changed.") Yes, in places reminiscent of Days Between Stations, or Blade Runner ... but on the whole, more reminiscent of a glacially gradual love story. Possibly. Perhaps the reviewers have latched onto the SFnal aspects because it's very difficult to latch onto anything else.
Perhaps I'd have got to the heart of it if I'd watched again, with more attention to the way that music was used to distinguish times, years, characters ... actually, I'm not sure what the music (primarily opera arias, 'Casta Diva' from Norma and another well-known piece I couldn't place -- not listed on the soundtrack page -- plus 'The Christmas Song', played as Christmas Eve comes round each year, 1967, 1968, 1969 ...) signified, but I could tell it was supposed to signify something.
A bit like the film, really: there was meaning there, but I didn't get it. Yes, everything changes; yes, love makes you vulnerable; no, you can never know if your lover feels the same. But no, memories are not all the remains of tears (I forget the exact line): and that fatalistic melancholy, while not present throughout, irritated me every time it came up. It might've helped if I'd seen the film to which this is a semi-sequel (In the Mood for Love): I haven't. And I don't like coming out of a film feeling stupid. (A feeling ameliorated by sheer relief at having stayed awake.)
Looks lovely, beautifully edited, but impenetrable.
Later Edit I wonder if non-SF people will get more out of this: it seemed commonplace to me to draw parallels between a writer's life and his/her SF, to suggest that SF can be rooted in everyday experience. (For example, author's ignorance of girlfriend's emotional state being used as basis for an SF story that describes a female android's behaviour in terms of delayed reaction, mechanical wear etc.)
no subject
Date: Friday, January 28th, 2005 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, January 29th, 2005 01:22 pm (UTC)ps to Dalmeny - got Blewitt Creek dessert botritus semillon on THurs. GORGOUS! Sigh..
botritus semillon
Date: Saturday, January 29th, 2005 02:07 pm (UTC)Blewitt Creek's in one of areas I may be working on soon.