"The goodbye scene of the would-be lovers is over-the-top romantic. Nevertheless, or maybe because of that, it, too works. In the slightest of slow-motion, Mo-wan lets go of Li-zhen's hand (her wedding ring, ironically, in full view), and the camera stays on her face in extreme close-up as he remains far away in the background, out of focus. Then we discover, once again, that they are only rehearsing a separation that has not yet taken place and that, in fact, we never see. They playact through their emotional crisis, as if trying to manage it theatrically, and thus never reach their innermost selves, if such a place can be said to exist. They live within quotation markers and pre-written lines of dialogue. They put on an act because reality itself is too hard to bear. She sobs, and the strings reach a crescendo."
- Peter Brunette on "In The Mood For Love", Wong Kar-Wai
"Coming to its emotional climax at the Angkor War temple in Cambodia in 1966, the film plays out through a series of missed opportunities and bad decisions, as one of the most powerful renditions of mutually unrequited love in cinema history."
Just yesterday, Spike Jonze in collaboration with Absolut released a short film of a love story between two robots, I'm Here. There short can be found at its official site here, which only allowed a certain number of viewers access to the film every few hours. Disgruntled by this, I waited a whole day for Youtube to pick it up and found the entire film in three parts, as I've shared below. It won't be long before they remove it due to copyright, I'm sure. Catch it while you can. Otherwise, queue up at the film's official site.
My comments about the film are below the three Youtube links.
I hadn't heard about this film until I signed myself up for an account on The Auteurs and stumbled across this film's info page by accident. The website for which the film can be officially viewed at only seemed to give viewers access to the film on a first come first serve basis, and I was just unlucky enough to keep missing out every 2-3 hours. Soon enough, I managed to find the entire film on Youtube and happily watched the film in full quality.
I really, really loved it. To me, this film further defines Spike Jonze as a filmmaker and auteur. The film's style is distinctly his with the urban landscape and setting of the story, and simply just the overall visual look of the film reeks of Jonze. I felt that it was very close to his recent film Where The Wild Things Are, and I really like that about his style. It seems like he is getting more and more creative with his visual style, and I am loving it.
For my birthday, Kieran bought me Spike Jonze themed presents, including Volume 1 of the Directors Label series - the Spike Jonze collection. It includes a selection of his music videos, interviews, audio commentaries, rarities, documentaries and shorts. I was going through it yesterday and decided to also put on Being John Malkovich as a way to start my Spike Jonze retrospective. Having already seen Where The Wild Things Are, I thought I'd start some sort of a marathon of his work to see what he has to offer.
I think as a music video director, Jonze is highly versatile in his style. I felt that there was no definitive style I could put his name to. On one hand, you have the very elaborately choreographed video of Fatboy Slim's Weapon Of Choice (an old favourite of mine, too), featuring Christopher Walken; and on the other hand, you have the very simple, long shot music video of Weezer's Undone (The Sweater Song). However, I do believe that there is a distinct 'urban' feeling behind his videos. It could just be the type of music he creates videos for, or perhaps something deeper than that.
In terms of film, I do believe the partnership he has with Charlie Kaufman is one to be reckoned with. Being John Malkovich, to me, was similar to that of Michel Gondry's work - just brought down to a lower level of intensity compared to Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind or The Science of Sleep. Kaufman comes back to work with Jonze in Adaptation, a film I haven't seen yet, but will do in due time when I get my hands on the DVD.
Ten years later, we see Jonze taking on Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. The film bore some similarities to Jonze's unidentifiable style through his music videos, yet it's so different to Being John Malkovich or anything else that he's ever done (not including Adaptation since I haven't see it yet). And I guess that's what I'm beginning to love about Spike Jonze. I love his ability to change his styles and experiment with different ways of telling a story, while keeping the 'urban' aspect throughout - some more subtle than others.
I will keep following and watching Jonze's films till I find that definitive style, and until then, I'm going to explore the Jonze-Kaufman/Gondry-Kaufman partnerships, and snuff out the greatness behind Charlie Kaufman.
