Through a movie series at MoMA, titled as "Scorsese Screens". The main reason I picked this up from the series's long list was a picture I saw at another movie theater, Film Forum. Their intro movie, which is shown every time before the featured title shown, has many flashy scenes from master pieces they have been screening there. These include Metropolis, Wendy and Lucy, Ran, and …. this was one them. My feeling was "this must be one of the bests, too" and that assumption was completely right, it was a master peace.At least for me, this is not a simple ballet movie. It contains more than that and whole piece would be close to a live performed opera. It was a wonderful week because I could enjoy Michael Powell's titles back to back, "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) and this one. In the mentioned title, Moira Shearer's performance was limited but, in this title, she was everywhere. I could enjoy her performance all the way to the finale.Yes, I do want to watch this again, whenever I find the next chance.
Somehow, I was patient enough and have waited five years but it was worth waiting for. I finally had a chance to watch it on the big screen and as a 3D version, in a theater not so crowded and free to choose whatever the best seat. The storyline keeps telling about the idiocy of human race but also keeps asking if you are brave enough to quit being a human being. This would sound like this one is somewhat crossed line version of "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", here I am referring to the comic version of it, not the movie version. I don't want to easily quit being a man but it can be interpreted as cases when you have been tested how deep you can understand other tribe's values or when you have been treated as a disabled for long enough both mentally and physically. There must be big enough reasons he had to cross the border. If I stay here longer, I would be feeling closer to him in a way.By the time finish watching this title, I have started recognizing James Cameron as a director who can also write.
Through a series named as "See It Big! Science Fiction" at my recently added venue, Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria.When you look at their line up, you would notice that it could be called as "Cameron's and others" because of the frequency of James Cameron Titles. Good thing they did was they picked Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" as the series opener. This pick is helping a lot to balance with heavily Cameronized selections. : )I was surprised that how little I knew about the actor Michael Biehn. His image with his mustache was very different with the one without. Typical examples are 1) I couldn't notice that he was the father of John Connor, 2) I couldn't notice that he was involved with affair with Sigourney Weaver in Aliens. It looks like tracing back his chronicle would be full of surprises.
My 2nd flight to this master piece as a part of an exhibition held at MoMA, titled as "Dante Ferretti: Designing for the Big Screen". My not-functioning-well-antenna didn't pick up the name "Dante Ferretti" immediately even though I had been exposed to his other recent works as an art director, such as "Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" (1994), "Gangs of New York" (2002), "Cold Mountain" (2003). I must admit that I wasn't patient enough during my 1st flight over 170 minutes but the 2nd experience was unexpectedly pleasant and comfortable ride. Somebody said that Di Caprio is the hell of good actor when he plays an extremely crazy guy and the fact that I'm getting used to that image would have been the reason I enjoyed all the way through to the ending. Of course, being able to watch this title with a big screen must have boosted my motivation.Can I say my name and the occupation out loud when I am so close to death? Probably not. The volume I can make at that moment would be the size of my life in this real world. Sadly, it's so true.