Movie Talk

March 26
SS Lau

"True Crime"---A Clint Eastwood directed movie, and starring Eastwood. You immediately know what this movie is all about. It does not matter much what  the plot is, Eastwood is doing his own thing. Unlike the " Dirty Harry" movies and the "Spaghetti western" movies, there was not much violence in this "crime" movie, where Eastwood played a womanizing, just off-the-wagon reporter for the "Oakland Tribute", which is not another new York Times, or even the San Francisco Examiner. This movie goer enjoys seeing this movie, not only because of Eastwood, who at 69 still played a womanizer, (must have taken some Snow lotus and/or PSP), but also because of a very competent black actor, whom I have seen before. Long live the aging womanizing man and God bless Pfizer.

"Tongo"---An Argentina-Spanish joint production about Argentina's nationa dance "Tango". It does have a story line about a Play/musical/dance show producer and a 23 year old dancer named Elena. There is nothing new about such a story and the movie is not about a story, it is about The Dance.

It is worth asking " is Elena pretty?" No, she is not pretty and not beautiful. She is much much more and far more than these two adjectives and thosand more put together.  Here is a scene our fearless president and ML can learn from.....

After watching the dance performed with white-heat intensity, the producer  walked up to Elena and said "I want to talk to you". "I can't, they are waiting for me" Elena said in a quiet voice. "alright, when then?" asked the producer. In an even more quiet voice and wearing a ever-so-slight smile, Elena said " ask me to dinner". There was absolutely no need to show her thong, and he was hooked for good.

If French is a language of love, then Spanish, when spoken slowly and in a low voice, is a language of seduction. It is just as well that I don't understand Spanish. At times I would just not look at the subtitiles and made up my own version of conversation between Elena and the producer as the movie unfolded. It can be qiute " satisfying".

The movie features many Tango scenes. When tango is done right as they do in Argentina, it is exciting beyond words. All male dancer are steely athletic, all female dance are gracefully shapely...need I say more.

Every tapping of the floor and every clicking of the heel pound your heart. Slowly and gracefully the dancing pair move across the floor, and then come a few tricky quick moves to pound your heart some more. The female dancer lifts her leg in an arc and curls around her partner's waist, sliding down his leg and then they dip. She dips backward, he dips forward.....need I say more, need I say more.

Tango is a dance of seduction, a most lethal seduction, a seduction of your soul. 

The world of movie making is really beyond the limits of Holliwood, Sherwood studio ( where a bunch of old 007 movies were made in England), Shaw brothers and Golden Harvest, there are some truly incredible movie makers in the of the world. The lighters should get together and go to Cannes to attend the film festival.

I don't know if my heart can stand the excitement of seeing this movie again. It is a case of "die and gone to haven", a case of die a thousand deaths.