May 14, 2008...2:55 pm
Back Again
Hello world, it’s been awhile. I’ve moved to LA and started a new job, and I guess blogging has kinda fallen on the back burner. Something else that’s been neglected is the joy of cinema appreciation. But of course you can only go so long without googling new and upcoming film news, and this tidbit came up yesterday: Steven Soderbergh, director of Traffic – one of my favorites — has been working on what looks to be a pretty time-consuming project about every scruffy college student’s favorite revolutionary — Che Guevara.
Over four hours long, it’ll be premiering at Cannes next week before its public, two-part release. Since I’ve been reading Jon Lee Anderson’s excellent excellent bio, I’m pretty jazzed about seeing it. Regardless of whether you think he’s a hero or a cold-blooded killer, he was indisputably one of the most convicted, forceful personalities of the 20th century. I really hope Soderbergh’s work is a dense, well-sketched portrait of a man who was a lot more complex than many people make him out to be. Walter Salles’ Motorcycle Diaries was a great movie overall, but to me its flaw was that it did little to illustrate the forces that informed Che’s worldview — from beginning to end of the movie, we knew he was a compassionate guy, and that his indignation for poor people grew as he traveled South America. But we didn’t really know why. Hopefully this new film will attempt to color in those details.
Also looking forward to The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale look, as usual, on top of their game — and what is this performance by Heath Ledger out of left field? I don’t recall seeing a lot of his other movies, but his turn as the Joker looks absolutely phenomenal. Looks like he went out on a high note.
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