The Secrets: Israeli, subtitled. Two young women meet at a Jewish religious school (like the schools the men go to to become rabbis). Away from their families, they begin to break taboos one by one, including performing Kabbala ceremonies for a non-Jewish, French woman dying of cancer. One of the women is engaged to a man studying to be a rabbi, who she doesn't like, and the other women has an attraction to a clarinet player. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit--it showed me orthdox Jewish life in Israel--and there is a lot of singing and dancing together.
Two Lovers, with Joquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. Great movie; I stayed very interested the whole way through. Joquin Phoenix is the older son of Brooklyn? parents who is slated to take over his parent's dry cleaning business. He lives at home and has been dumped on by a previous fiance. He begins to have an intense attraction for Gwyneth Paltrow who lives across from his building (they can talk to each other across the way). He starts thinking of her as an incredible dream that he would like to have.
Barry Lyndon (1975). Watching this 3 hour movie again (I saw it when it came out) made me go to Wikipedia and read all about Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick made only 9 movies but they are considered some of the best movies ever made. I would like to get a $40 book of his Look magazine photographs. Barry Lyndon stars a young Ryan O'Neal as an 18th century Irish man. The scenery, castles, costumes seem unreal, they are so beautiful. The nighttime scenes were filmed only using candlelight which makes a "real" feeling that can't be beat. Complaints by people about this movie is that the pace is very slow. I didn't mind--it more felt hypnotic for me. The actors were unbelievably good too--I like the captain he has a duel with in the beginning and the rich woman Barry Lyndon marries and her stepson. There are dueling scenes that are very tense. Also, there are wartime scenes which shows Barry advancing with a line toward a waiting line--it's hard to believe that humans could walk toward a line of soldiers they know are going to fire on them. Reading about Stanley Kubrick made me admire him greatly--he was a big animal lover who took his cats with him to location shoots. Barry Lyndon sank at the box office (even though I paid to see it!) but has come to be regarded as one of the best.
more to come, I've seen a lot of movies this month.
