The Horse Whisperer (1998) directed by Robert Redford, starring Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne West, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Cooper, Kate Bosworth
Watching this films, I noticed Thomas plays a lot of adultresses (this, The English Patient, Life as a House, Gosfield Park). Maybe all are not consumated adultery, but all involve being tempted to leave marriage. I love Johansson in this movie. She's so young and relateable. I love her scenes with Bosworth, they have such an unscprited feel, enhancing the tragic end.
Annie- I heard you help people with horse problems.
Tom- The truth is, I help horses with people problems.
Tom- There was a boy from the Blackfeet reservation, he used to do some work around here for a while. Sixteen, strong kid, good kid. He and I were really, really good friends. One day he went swimming and dove headfirst into the lake... and right into a rock. And it snapped his neck, paralyzed him. And after the accident I'd look in on him from time to time. But he wasn't there. It was like his mind, his spirit, whatever you want to call it, just disappeared. The only thing left was just anger. Just sort of as if the... the boy I once knew just went somewhere else.
Grace- I know where he goes.
Tom- I know you do. Don't you disappear.
Elizabeth (1998) directed by Shekhar Kapur, starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, Vincent Cassel, Emily Mortimer, Kelly MacDonald, Daniel Craig
A beautifully haunting movie with lots of great actors in it. Cate Blanchett, whom I worship, Cassel, who went on to do good work in Ocean's Twelve and Eastern Promises, Mortimer, and Craig, who was v. convincing as the dark and sinister assasin priest. When he walks darkly down the corridor towards Elizabeth, you can definitely see his James Bond strut, minus the goofy haircut.
Walsingham- There is so little beauty in this world, and so much suffering. Do you suppose that is what God had in mind? That is to say if there is a god at all. Perhaps there is nothing in this universe but ourselves. And our thoughts.
Elizabeth- I have rid England of her enemies. What do I do now? Am I to be made of stone? Must I be touched by nothing?
Elizabeth- Observe Lord Burghley, I am married. . . to England.
Shakespeare in Love (1999) directed by John Madden, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, Rupert Everett
Very cute, witty rom-com. Paltrow and Fiennes have great chemistry. Rush, Wilkinson and Affleck make for great comedic relief. Everett as Christopher Marlowe is my favorite, especially since Shakespeare is so envious and fond of him at the same time. Judi Dench is wonderful as Elizabeth I, nearing the end of her life but still as sharp as ever.
Philip Henslowe- Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster
Hugh Fennyman- So what do we do?
Henslowe- Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Fennyman- How?
Henslowe- I don't know. It's a mystery.
Ned Alleyn- What is the play and what is my part!
Viola de Lesseps- I loved the writer and gave up the prize for a sonnet.
Elizabeth I- I know something of a woman in a man's profession. Yes, by God, I do know about that.
The Virgin Suicides (1999) directed by Sofia Coppola, starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Scott Glenn, Danny DeVito, Hayden Christensen, Giovanni Ribisi
I love this movie. This is one of the first movies, I think, anyway, with a really great soundtrack. The music montage when the Lisbon girls are calling the boys across the street and playing 45s to each other, always fills me with such loneliness. You can feel their desperation, and it is a desperation every teenager has felt. Life is changing too fast, seen in the film's theme of dying elm trees. The elms symbolize familiar childhood, which is quickly dying, spreading through the neighborhood as the children age.
My favorite song choice is Heart's "Magic Man" as Hartnett (Trip Fontaine, one of the best character names ever) struts through high school halls and life, unaware love is about to shake his confidence. In present day we see him, apparantly in a rehab clinic. Teenage years are a shaky image of a person, it's hard to tell what kind of adult they will become.
Doctor- What are you doing here honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets.
Cecilia Lisbon- Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13 year old girl.
Trip Fontaine- You're a stone fox.
Narrator- We knew the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love, and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.
Narrator- What lingered after them was not life, but the most trivial list of mundane facts: a clock ticking on a wall, a room dim at noon, and the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself.
American Beauty (1999) directed by Sam Mendes, starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Scott Bakula
A beautifully interesting movie about changing your life, realizing "you still have the ability to surprise yourself." I love Ricky and his disturbing gaze. Benning is excellent as the repressed real estate adultress. Best of all, though, is Spacey as Lester Burnham, who goes from sniveling loser to spontaneous and free.
Lester- I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up.
Lester- Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die.
Ricky Fitts- She's not your friend. She's just someone you use to feel better about yourself.
Fight Club (1999) directed by David Fincher, starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf Aday, Jared Leto
I think this is one of the most important movies of the last ten years, at least in terms of popular culture. It encapsulates so much of a generation that feels undefined, unmoored from the rest of the population. It is a Zen guide all in its own, and I definitely think it is the most quoted movie of the past decade. I knew guys who could have majored in this movie in college. The best part about this movie is how disturbing it is, and how happy that would have made Tyler Durden.
Narrator- If I had a tumor, I'd name it Marla. Marla... the little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it, but you can't.
Narrator- Marla's philosophy of life is that she might die at any moment. The tragedy, she said, was that she didn't.
Tyler- Now, a question of etiquette - as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch?
Marla Singer- My God. I haven't been fucked like that since grade school.
Marla- The condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip one on when you meet a stranger. You dance all night. Then you throw it away. The condom, I mean, not the stranger.
Tyler- We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives.
Tyler- It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment