Sounds great, ol'Father Geek can't wait. I've been reading and posting tidbits about this film for ages, just hope it gets to a screen where I can catch it real soon, and I mean a real motion picture big screen, big sound theater, not some micro-excuse for a screen at an out of the way hole-in-the-wall arthouse...
Hey this is DrunkenMoNk, you know the guy that "bellowed beligerantly" about Master of the Flying Guillotine :-), I just really wanted to send you my thoughts on how great Millenium Actress was since I hadn't seen much of anything posted about it.
This was my second day at the BAAF and I ended up seeing a trio of movies. It was all set up, first I was to see Perfect Blue, then Millenium Actress (the film premiering at the festival), and then off to the Cowboy Bebop showing that I was supposed to see Friday if me and my friends were a bit more organized.
Since I had no idea what Millenium Actress was I thought seeing prior work would set me into the correct frame of mind, which is why I was all for going into Perfect Blue. The descriptions of them though werent particularly exciting, but hey never judge a book by it's cover... right?
When writing this I initially wanted to describe all three films, but I'm just not into it... it's 3:17am in NYC right now and all I can think of is Millenium Actress. OMG! I had no idea what I was getting into, this film is fucking remarkable. I want this on dvd YESTERDAY. I almost don't feel like describing it because most people will lose interest right on the spot (almost like I did), but It's simplay amazing. It's one of those movies that leave you with that sense of awe, that feeling that you've just seen something that was simply perfect.
It's basically about a pair of reporters making a documentary on the life of an ex-actress turned reclouse. As they begin their interview with her they (as well as the audience) are sucked into flashback after flashback of various moments of both her life and her career. When I say sucked in though, I mean SUCKED IN. The reporters re-live the events with her as they are being told. For me this worked in spades, I felt more apart of this film than any film I've seen in a LONG time. Now once in these series of flashbacks, you learn of the lost love that drives her and her seemingly endless chase after him.
Man... I'm sorry if I can't get this all out just the way I want but... this is just something that people have to see. I hope people out there who saw this screening and the screening at the one previous festival start to spread the word. This film is simply the best thing I've seen all year and I hope that it does well in Japan when it's in released mid-September.
A good thing to note would be that during Taro Maki's introduction he said that Dreamworks had the rights to it's American distribution next year. I really do hope they push this thing like theres no tomorrow because this film quite frankly deserves it.
I guess that's it, maybe I'll even get to talking about about the dubbed versions of Jin Roh, Perfect Blue or Cowboy Bebop tomorrow... cause right now all that's on my mind is Millenium Actress.
DrunkenMoNk
