In the Mood for Love?
Just staying with the subject of sexy music for the moment, I've just watched the two Wong Kar Wai movies, In the Mood for Love and 2046 which are both incredibly sensual. The first is full of repressed longing and the second a rather sad but very sexual search for real love. I saw Wong Kar Wai out for an early morning stroll in Cannes. No minders, no entourage. Just out for an early morning constitutional along the shore in his black leather jacket. Which I thought was cool. The soundtracks are an eclectic mixture of opera and music from the 60s. Thought I'd share two very very sexy pieces of music from the two soundtracks with you: the theme from In the mood for love and Siboney by Connie Francis. Anyone like his movies?
Just staying with the subject of sexy music for the moment, I've just watched the two Wong Kar Wai movies, In the Mood for Love and 2046 which are both incredibly sensual. The first is full of repressed longing and the second a rather sad but very sexual search for real love. I saw Wong Kar Wai out for an early morning stroll in Cannes. No minders, no entourage. Just out for an early morning constitutional along the shore in his black leather jacket. Which I thought was cool. The soundtracks are an eclectic mixture of opera and music from the 60s. Thought I'd share two very very sexy pieces of music from the two soundtracks with you: the theme from In the mood for love and Siboney by Connie Francis. Anyone like his movies? 
11 comments:
Thanks for the recommendation, FP: not seen any of his movies, but having wikipedia'd, shall certainly be seeking them out once my studies subside.
Fantastic Connie Francis is new to these ears, but I'm seeing a Spanish man in drag (too many Almodovar movies methinks).
SM
I really recommend them. Watch In The Mood for Love first and then 2046 - it's the follow on. Aaaah you can never watch too many Almodovar movies. What a genius. I love also the song 'Piens a me' from 'High Heels' - the one with lovely lovely Miguel Bosé in drag. (hope I'm not mixing them up) I'm off to Cannes again this year so if I see anything good I'll let yuz all know. Wonder how Atonement is doing in the BAFTAS round about now????
In the Mood was sexier- all that noodle slurping.
mmm, noodles.
2046 was slightly lower key, probably more romantic. Both great films.
2046 reminded me a bit of Wim Wenders- Himmel über Berlin, Until the end of the world, that era.
In the Mood for love really reminded me of southeast Asia- I could smell the food and the street. Highly evocative.
I saw In the Mood, but not 2046. I liked the spaces, the silence, the pace, the color schemes, the measured noises. I remember feeling impatient with the characters, though, in a way that made me care less about them.
saw this late, hope someone spots the new comment. I've seen all of Wong Kar Wai's films, and he is a genius, but has a strong tendency towards emotional vacuity, pursuing beautiful images and wilful contradictions in his characters without any real depth to them. At his best, when he avoids this, he's possibly the best film-maker from Hong Kong or China (up there with the early Zhang Yimou). But when he misses his films are very pretty but ultimately 'so what?'.
anyhoo. I grew up in Hong Kong and still visit every year. I see Wong and Christopher Doyle around pretty regularly.
LTD - spotted, sir! And that's a very good analysis of his strong and weak points as a film maker. Watching "In The Mood..." reminded me of the same preoccupation with gorgeous images that you find in, say, Adrian Lynne's films or indeed Alan Parker's. Set me wondering whether WKW started off in advertising, as is often the case. His other specificity is that he's an utter utter perfectionist and edits his films until the very last minute. When he presented 2046 in Cannes, the festival organisers sweated it out as he didn't send his film in on time. I believe he literally came with the reels under his arm. Talk about last minute timing! Apparently this is his trademark. But he's such a star that people wait for him...
yeah, he really is a star. I saw 2046 at the London Film Festival, and he took questions afterwards - we were rapt. He made a number of references to his perfectionism then - in particular how it had taken him so long to cut the film that he had to postpone his next project.
I think a very good comparison to make is with Shunji Iwai from Japan. His films are staggeringly beautiful (and he has directed commercials and TV as well), and at their best really powerful. All About Lily Chou-Chou is one of my favourite movies of the last ten years.
also, did you know 2046 and In the Mood for Love are actually meant to be part of a very loose trilogy? the other film is Days of Being Wild. There are references in Days... which crop up again 2046 in particular.
No I didn't - thanks for that. So where does 'Days' fit in with the other two? What's the chronological order?
It's an interesting one that, it's closer to a thematic link than a chronological one. The main character is played by Maggie Cheung and called Su Lizhen. She's being romanced by Leslie Cheung (rip), playing one of those scarily intense, romantic characters he made his trademark. Without giving anything away, Tony Leung is in the last scene, uncredited.
Su Lizhen is the name of Maggie Cheung's character in In the Mood for Love, and Gong Li's in 2046; like the Su Lizhen's each of them plays she's haunted by the past and in particular the passing of time, after something Leslie Cheung's character says to her.
Finally, in Days, Leslie Cheung is obsessed by a story about a bird with no legs that can only land to die, doomed to always fly. This is strongly alluded to by one of Chow Mo-Wan's loves (or conquests) in 2046, who is forever in love with a man she describes as her 'legless bird' that could never land, but this man has left her. This character was a showgirl. One of Leslie Cheung's two lovers in Days (the other being Su Lizhen) is a showgirl called Mimi.
basically - lots of smallish connections, but each of them quite meaningful!
That's OK then - so I can watch 'Days' now - having seen the other two - and not be out of synch as it were....
Post a Comment