Eureka, Maboroshi, minimalism...

[C.G. Rider]

Eureka is showing here in Montreal at the Festival
Nouveau Cinemas in a few days, and I already have my
ticket. The recent comparisons to Kore-Eda's Maboroshi
have me thinking, though. Minimalist or not, I thought
Maboroshi was terrible. Esumi Makiko's "acting"
consisted of pouting like the model she is (and should
remain) whenever the camera was near, and the
direction I found totally insipid ("any moron can let
the camera run for three minutes..."). The film was
utterly inaccessible on a human level, with pretty
pictures and a couple of cute kids and not much else.
It dragged, and by the time of the outcome most were
utterly uninterested, wasting that great
cosmic/nihilistic sea/sky composition at the end (with
a massive nod to Kurosawa's final staggered
composition in Ran). Minimalism seems to be a pretty
individualistic term anyway. I don't think any
serious, unpretentious director would wrap his work up
in such a tidy, digestible package.
I hope Eureka doesn't present the same stiffening
boredom of Maboroshi. Film critics often start to swim
in theoretical discussions and forget whether the film
is entertaining or not. Films should not try to
interest five or ten percent of people, but everyone.
I don't mean Stallone-testosterone enterslavement, but
intelligent filmmaking that grips. Perhaps I'm not as
educated in the intellectual pursuit of film, but I
don't think think this necessarily clouds one's
judgement. I love Ozu because story is paramount, not
a forty second shot of a polished tansu. You want
characters? Go back to Cassavetes or Imamura. I loved
Kikujiro no Natsu for the way pathos and humour follow
one another and often change positions. (I saw it
again last night in a rep theatre and people left
saying that they didn't understand a lot of things,
but Takeshi is funny. No-one left early - unlike
Maboroshi). I'm looking forward to Eureka and the
continuing discussions in this group.
Guinness Rider



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