The Bird People in China (1998)

Purity, Song, Jade Miike has a pretty solid pattern. He makes films for a distinctly Japanese audience, teasing out some issue or two that seems culturally rooted. This is his context. He shifts it into a magical, cinematic world and imagines scenes as episodes within this containing structure. So we get impressed by the big… Continue reading The Bird People in China (1998)

Billy’s Balloon (1998)

Inflated This is a replacement comment. The original bothered a diligent reader, so I have made some expansion. Animation is like any film type: artists ally to certain philosophies, perhaps without realising it. In the case of animation, it bumps up against that great American invention, noir. That’s the notion that there is a world… Continue reading Billy’s Balloon (1998)

Tango (1998)

Making Film Dance I love this stuff. This film has weaknesses, but the ambition is so grand one can forgive, at least in deciding to watch. The general problem is mixing film and dance. Rarely, oh so rarely is it done well. The stock choices are two: either film a dance more or less as… Continue reading Tango (1998)

Basil (1998)

Class Yet another example that just plodding through a novel has little to do with making a tenable film. This one just thrashes through the story with nary a nod to cinematic necessities. But it does have Derek Jacobi, an actor with so much presence it almost makes the trip worthwhile. Derek knows how to… Continue reading Basil (1998)

Zero Effect (1998)

Son of What There are only a few ways into a story. One of these is to embrace the narrator and carry the viewer through their eyes and the engagement of the world that gives us love. Here, Kasdan does this while referencing Holmes, where this notion of detached observation originates. There’s an elegant purity… Continue reading Zero Effect (1998)

Snake Eyes (1998)

The Eye That Lies This is a wonderful experience. Never mind that the acting is poor and the story weak — that was never the point. This film was made because DePalma knows how to make his camera dance and wanted to make a film based on that notion. A central question in most art… Continue reading Snake Eyes (1998)