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This collection of three short films by three "world class" directors is a mixed bunch. With two interesting footnotes to the careers of their directors, while the final one is simply put one of the worst films ever made and nail in the coffin of its director's career.
The first film is Wong Kar Wai's The Hand. Its about a women and her tailor over the course of several years. Its about smoldering desire and the meaning of love/lust, and what we do for the objects of said desire. Its a very good film, but not really up to Wai's best. It kept reminding me of In the Mood for Love.In some ways this maybe the best of the three, though I found I never really connected to it, even though I could relate to it. This is probably the only one that really belongs in a film called Eros.
Steven Soderbergh's Equilibrium follows. Its a humorous look at a man who's being haunted by a reoccurring dream. In desperation he goes to a shrink who helps him unlock the meaning of the dream. This is a pretty good sketch of a film that only falters at the conclusion. If you can forgive the poorly done ending you'll come out of it amused.
The third film is by Michelangelo Antonioni. To say that this film is a complete waste of film is an understatement. Its the story of a couple who are fighting. The man has an affair and then the women meet. Its horrible, its pointless. Its pretentious. I can't say enough bad about it. Its bad enough to force one to reconsider the over rated career of its director and to ask for his Oscar back. Its terrible but the only good thing about the movie is we get to see the two female stars sans clothes. This final piece is one of the worst films I've ever seen.
The last film aside, the real problem with this movie is that the three movies don't really fit together. The tone and style of the various parts don't blend together well enough to be one film. Unless you are going to stop between each film, the bleed over from each movie is going to effect the others. This isn't bad, its just not the best way to view the two good films of the set.
Ultimately I'd say if you're interested in any of the directors give it a shot, or more precisely the first two are worth renting or seeing on cable, while the final film should simply be burned. The films come off more as doodles than as fully fleshed out movies, but considering none is longer than 40 minutes thats okay. An interesting attempt.
score 6/10
dbborroughs 19 July 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1130331/ |
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11-3-2021 00:07:06