B&B Presents: Wong Kar Wai: Hong Kong present, past and future.
Yet another week of BJ MIA (actually he’s just at a family get together), and another week of hopefully not too little / hopefully not too late programming by Brendan. This week, we continue a journey into the deft and artful works of director Wong Kar Wai that some of us left off at C-Beans a few weeks back.
SUNDAY AUG. 13th
7pm
Fallen Angels / Duo Luo Tian Shi (1995):In a multilayered and surreal Hong Kong nightscape a disillusioned hit man on his “last” kill deals with his feelings for his partner, a drifter searches for her ex-boyfriend, and a mute breaks into stalls in the Kowloon Night Market.
9pm
2046 (2004): The fantasy future world of his writing allows a sci-fi author to connect with the love that fate would not allow him in the 1960s past. The much acclaimed continuation / fan service of the much more acclaimed
In The Mood For Love likely does not need you to have seen the first. It is to be a visually exquisite meditation on romance, remembrance, and regret.
B&B Presents: Noir in the Key of B
Just found out that BJ had no plans to hold a movie night this week; for shame. But have no fear, cuz Brendan while posting late still wants to make it happen.
SUNDAY (as in tomorrow) AUG. 6th
7pm
The Maltese Falcon (1941): Yes, John Huston’s directorial debut which adapted Dashiell Hammett’s classic noir novel to the screen and served as the launch pad for a then still relatively unknown Humphrey Bogart. The film became the archetype for the hardboiled private detective story and only existed because the 1930s pre-code version couldn’t be re-released due to sexual content. Bogie plays Sam Spade, a PI hired by femme fatale Brigid -Mary Astor. I have not seen this movie since I was six or seven - there is photographic evidence that after seeing the Maltese Falcon I had a fedora wearing Popeye candy cigarette smoking stage until I was nine – and may burst into glee with seeing it again.
9pm
Brick (2005): Brendan, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt,- from 3rd Rock, a sharp outsider is thrust into the noir underworld of high school when he investigates the disappearance and death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily. The gritty noir directorial debut of Rian Johnson is self conscious of its roots. Dialogue, while swift and smooth, sounds like it’s out of those dramas of the 30s/40s. The soundtrack is eerily entertaining. And, who can resist a main character based on Bogart who shares the same name as you.
