a great beauty in the North

[jchrisobrien]

I watched the House of Flying Daggers (at last) last night.  I enjoyed this a little more than hero.  I didn't get Hero the first time around, and felt it was a little long.  Flying Daggers was more straight forward, and very pretty.  I recognized the director's use of colors, and he filled the screen with pretty things to look at.  Did I mention that it was pretty? 

I thought it was a shame that American movies can't be this good, but they can.  Foreign films look so much better because their style is new to you, not necessarily because they are better.  Generally, you usually see the cream of the crop of foreign films too, so they would be good by any standards.  House of Flying Daggers certainly was that.

Tuesday was a tasty dinner celebrating the birthday of SilentQ.  Before hand, while shopping for a gift, I listened to New Order blaring from a widescreen television, videos from a new compilation DVD.  Cris would love it (if he doesn't have most of it already).  I really liked some of the new (to me) songs from it.  It turns out most of the songs were from Republic and Get Ready.

As you can see, I'm well behind the curve when it comes to pop culture.

Comments

[spacymonki.livejournal.com]

House of Flying Daggers was purty indeed.
It seems to me that American movies, or at least the ones that I end up encountering, concentrate less on saying something with color or shape or combinations of the two. Sometimes they try, and it seems over the top. House of Flying Daggers and Hero were simply gorgeous, and the shots flowed, something that's been lost in a frenzy to make the quickest and most affecting cuts in a lot of action movies.
Soooooo.... purty.

[silas7.livejournal.com]

That's part of the difference. There's a lot less jumping and cutting in the cinematography (as opposed to the jumping and cutting that's onscreen!), there's more stillness. At least with this director.