-28.4-

The Illusionist:

I first saw commercials for  The Illusionist when it was in theaters, but I hadn't had a chance to see it until now.
The film was beautiful, and I liked the quietness of it. But...I felt like I couldn't quite connect to the story. Part of it was that the leading girl looked older than I expected her to, and that made it hard to gauge her relationship with the Illusionist at first. (It also may have been because I had little sleep the night before. I'll have to re-watch it.)

Things to steal:
-Color palettes of the various cities
-The scene where the Illusionist was crowded on a boat with all of the sheep
-A shot of the leading girl and her love interest exiting the shop (the sidewalk was slanted)

-A shot of the leading girl first meeting the Illusionist. The Illusionist could barely be seen through the open doorway

-The shot of the leading girl and her love interest in the rain (they only had a coat while everyone else had umbrellas)

-The lonely book's shadow almost flying

-The scene where the Illusionist "interacts" with his real-life counterpart Jacque Tati

*The lack of dialogue in the movie/mixing in of languages so it's more universal

-27.4-

Today I saw Only Lovers Left Alive directed by Jim Jarmusch (I had been anticipating it since two actors I really like are the main characters!)

I liked the movie, but it isn't one many people would like since it's very slow paced (about the speed of The Stationmaster), and had only one semi-fast action scene. There was a lot to analyze, and many allusions made, but the movie gave a very thoughtful look into the concept of eternal life. I'm not a fan of the current vampire genre, but this movie definitely didn't have sparkles. The vampires seemed more like erudite drug addicts than anything else.

The differences between the two main characters was my favorite part of the movie. The man, Adam, took eternal life as boredom and focused on the past (he stayed shut inside and used old technology). He saw people as "zombies" and wasters of the future. Alternatively the woman, Eve, viewed eternal life more positively. She had an iPhone, and seemed a bit more social with others (There was a nice scene where she chides Adam saying something along the lines of, "you could spend all this time helping others than thinking about yourself.")

Other aspects that stood out to me were the first scene, the darkness, and the humor. In the first scene of the movie, there was a cross dissolve between Adam, Eve, and a record playing. As the record went around and around, the actual sound in the theatre moved in a circular motion (Another decision to think about when directing!)

Other scenes that amazed me were scenes of the night sky (since the characters were vampires, the whole thing took place during the nighttime). I kept wondering how they shot those scenes, or if those scenes were CGI.

Even though all of the scenes were shot at night, and the movie had a serious tone, I was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few humorous scenes. They balanced out the metaphorical bleakness in the lives of the characters and reminded the audience that the movie was fictional.

I'd definitely see the movie again, but I'd need to be in the mood to see it since it is in a slower style.