That Little Jumpstart

So here I am again.....

Some movies worth a viewing, if not just once (and if you can stand subtitles):

"The Perfect Crime" -- Although, I think the title is supposed to be a typo but was incorectly mis-translated. I think the name of the actual film is "Crimen Ferpecto", or "The Ferpect Crime." (it's kind of a quick bit in the film how everything in this guy's world is supposed to be perfect, but when he's falling into a state of madness and rents a film titled "The Perfect Crime," it rings up on the register as "Ferpect.") Anyway.....it's either a Spanish or Italian film---set in Madrid but the language is a little more Italian, unless it's proper Spanish, i dunno---and is basically a hoot wrapped up in lunacy. A dark comedy with style. Two weeks ago I had planned to give a full plot outline, but I think you can just wikipedia that if you want or better yet.....put it in your Netflix queue. But I'll try to sum it up by saying that Rafael is a playboy...a very foxy dude working in the women's department at a Macy's-esque store, and his rival is Don Antonio, an ugly old man working in the men's section, just across the aisle. Well, whoever sells the most merchandise at the end of the day will become the new floor manager, meaning that they will have control over the entire floor of fashion. B/c Rafael sweettalked a lady into buying a fur coat to put him on top, and b/c her check bounced the next day, he ended up NOT winning floor manager. Well, after snapping at the woman, and then being fired by Don Antonio, they have a scuffle in the dressing room, and Antonio ends up being impaled on one of those changing-room hooks (you know those hooks...I'll be forever nervous around them now.). Well, after attempting to stuff Antonio in the incenerator and goes to find a cleaver, he returns to find the body missing. The next day, whilst dodging investigators, Rafael discovers that a woman is trying to help him. Actually, a very ugly woman, jealous of how Rafael bones all the other women in the store but never even looks at her b/c she's not beautiful, was the one who helped him out. Now, the loony dark humor kicks in and Rafael spends the next few months in a living hell with a psycho hosebeast. He spends the rest of the film trying to figure out how to kill this woman and get away with two murders---alas, the Perfect Crime. Well, to find out how he does it, just watch it. Come on, there are subtitles....but there are boobies, too. Oddly, there are subtitles DURING the boobies, so just rewind that part to see what they are saying.

"After Life" -- A very compelling, though excrutiatingly boring, Japanese (kinda indie-ish) low-budget film that really gets you thinking about your own life. Apparently, when you die, you are in limbo and are sent to a place where you have three days to think about your life and pick ONE memory that will be committed to film and you will only have that memory for the rest of eternity. Now, it doesn't sound too out there, but the movie basically uses random non-actors that the director knew to be the people picking the memories. Actually, the film revovles around the 'guidance counselors' that are the people there to tell you you have died and help you figure out what your memory is. (turns out that if you refuse to pick a memory, that is where you spend your afterlife....helping people pick one.) I called it kinda indie-ish b/c it's lowbudget and shot on lowgrade film---even though at times it's shot well. Seeing as how that's not much plot other than what I have said, and most of the movie is just people (again, supposedly non-actors, which is even kinda apparent in Japanese) telling stories, I promise that before the movie is over you will be talking to yourself thinking about what memory YOU would pick. So, by the climax of the film you WILL love it, even though after that it drags again and tries to tie up a love story that it never really started in the first place. However, a very poignant film---may even hit home if you have Alzheimers patients in your family; as it's idea came about by they director's grandfather having it, even though people didn't know why he was losing his mind b/c the term hadn't been diagnosed/invented yet. Sorry, I read the production notes on the DVD.

"The City Of Lost Children" -- Fucked. Up. Film. --- Just. Wanted. Another. One. With. A. Subtitle. It was a French film, Plus it had Ron Perlman, so it was so hard to not look at that monster of a meat face and just wonder if his pregnant mother slept under a nuclear power plant whilst beating her womb with a billy club.
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Well, that's it for foreign films for now, if you are on Netflix, feel free to add me and you can see what else I've been watching and have queued. Don't worry, it won't feel intrusive. It'll be fun....and you'll see some good stuff you may want to watch. Anyway......nothing else to say for now.

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Oh, now that you've made it this far:


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