Being John Malkovich

John Cusak, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and, of course, John Malkovich
Gramercy Pictures 1999

I remember that various friends and compatriots had insisted that I must see this film way back when before the tilt of the millenium, but for some reason, I never got around to it until this weekend, when I finally did, and I must say that yes, it is definitely worth a watch, and it leaves you faintly disturbed, and you don't really know why.

Everyone knows the premise, I should think: guy finds a passage in his office that leads into John Malkovich's brain, where for a short time, you get to BE John Malkovich.

One of my favourites scenes is the one in which JM goes through the tunnel himself, which answered the question that I had early on, what would happen if Malcovich gets to BE Malcovich - lemmetellya, JP Sartre himself would have been flabbergasted, sputtering something like "QUOI LE BAISSE?" (or something of the sort)

And of course I don't want to spoil anything ferya'll, so I'll just let you know that you can sort through the metaphysical implications of "self" while you watch it, and I will state unequivocally that the only true victim in the film is poor JM himself . . . the rest are fairly dastardly.

And kudos to Diaz for "dressing down" (by cinema standards) - this was the first film I've seen of her where she looks like a normal woman.

VG

What to Do in Case of Fire

German movie

anarchists from 1988 had planted a bomb in an abandoned building and 12 years later it explodes, leading the cops to look for these guys, of whom the majority have moved on to relatively lucrative careers - it's all about whether it's right to stick to your values, even if it means yo sepnd your thirties living in a run down building living hand to mouth, or better to "sell-out."

It's a fairly entertaining movie, except for a few scenes of overly exaggerated emotions - like his total collapse when he finds out that his flame isx getting married - although integral to the plot (it pouts him in the building/position to help his friend) it's still silly. Extremely silly. Other than that - it's all right. Not as great as I thought it was going to be.