Word: cinema
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KUDOS FOR YOUR STORY ON THE DOCUmentary The Celluloid Closet and your discussion of homosexual themes in film [CINEMA, March 11]. It was an exceptional piece on one of the most misunderstood subjects of our time. Fortunately for the men and women in the gay and lesbian community, things in Hollywood and the rest of the world are starting to turn around--not quickly, but at least now the subject of homosexuality can be discussed openly and, at times, without fear. My generation may not live to see the day when sexual orientation is a nonissue, but then again most...
...single long takes, and you start to appreciate editing's vital contribution: it gives films the collision of images that creates a collision of emotions. It has been the primary technical touchstone for great directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Alain Resnais, Martin Scorsese) and vibrant movie movements (the Soviet silent cinema). From the brilliantly intercut chase scenes in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) to the dizzyingly allusive montages in Oliver Stone's JFK and Natural Born Killers, editing is moviemaking...
Another remarkable quality of the film is its creation of new emblems for homosexuality in cinema. The song "Secret Love" sung by Doris Day in "Calamity Jane," becomes an anthem of the revelation of a forbidden feeling, with its triumphant conclusion: "At last my heart's an open door, and my secret love's no secret any more." Apparently, k.d. lang, who provides a new recording of the song over the final credits, agrees with its relevance. The image of two men slowly dancing together, from an early experimental film by Thomas Edison, seems strange and haunting at the beginning...
Chungking has enough wit and pace to keep any mall crowd entertained. But it's the cinema verve of Wong's five films to date that makes them wholly his, whether he's doing gangster films (As Tears Go By, Fallen Angels), young-rebel dramas (Days of Being Wild) or kung-fu sagas (Ashes of Time, a film so beautifully bizarre it might be the first Martian-arts movie). The elements of his visual style: nightscapes (bars, beds, jukeboxes); sulky boys in white shirts; anomie punctuated by awful violence; murky lighting, as if scenes had been shot underwater and daubed...
Wong made Chungking in just 23 days, and the film's mad-dash energy is nicely reflected in his quartet of stars. Wong, himself a star of cinema's future, has already shown that he possesses a uniquely '90s voice, eye and spirit. You'll simply have to get to know his work. And Chungking Express--fast, smart, irresistible--is a great place to start...