My Top Five DVDS for 2004*

21 Grams (2004)

How much does a soul weigh? Why is it that when we die, we lose 21 grams? Innaritu, director of Amorres Perros, explores these esoteric ideas in 21 Grams.

Three strangers’ lives intersect because of a horrible accident, where a woman loses her reason for living and another man gains his. Paul Rivers (Sean Penn), the ailing mathematician, tells the grieving widow Cristina Peck (Naomi Watts), “so many things had to happen for us to meet.” Indeed.

Of particular interest is its non-linear narrative technique, which renders what would have otherwise been an ordinary plot into a visual poem. The characters’ turmoil is also echoed by the palette of rust and earth which permeates every scene. As always, Penn and Watts are magnificent, but it’s really Benicio del Toro who shines here. Critics aren’t exaggerating when they say this could be the best performance of his career, better even than his role in Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects (2002).

By itself, the film is enough reason to invest in the DVD, but it offers little in the way of bonus features, with only the requisite French and Chinese subtitles, and a short featurette entitled “21 Grams: In Fragments”.

Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi (2003)

Known to non-Japanese speaking audiences as Spirited Away, this is anime at its finest.

With its big-eyed heroes and amply endowed heroines, that genre has been pigeonholed rather unfairly, cast aside as “cartoons for horny adults”. Some film critics are quick to judge anything that falls under its classification as juvenile and simplistic. But Hayuo Miyazaki shatters these misconceptions, with his astonishingly brilliant productions, like Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, Grave of the Fireflies, and now Spirited Away.

Taking a page from Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass, this is the story of Chihiro, a young girl who is trapped in the Bathhouse of Spirits, where she must work in order to free herself and her parents from the evil Yubaba’s spell. There, this formerly petulant adolescent learns the power of words. She discovers that to speak is to be – when her name is taken away from her, so is her identity. With her spirit friend Haku’s help, she sacrifices everything in order to reclaim it.

La Dolce Vita (2004)

Frederico Fellini, the visionary Italian director who became famous for his bold commentaries on the empty, hedonistic lifestyles of the rich and famous, was at the height of his powers when he made La Dolce Vita in 1961.

For the uninitiated, this is the movie that coined the term paparazzi. It was also for this film that the now-famous, and often-imitated, fountain scene with Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) and Marcello (Marcello Mastrianni) was created.

Released earlier this year as a 2-disc Collectors’ Edition DVD, this, like the movie, is a plethora of deliciously packaged decadence, guaranteed to satiate even the finickiest film buff. Bonus features include: an audio commentary with the noted critic and film historian Richard Schickel, a tour of Fellini’s house, interviews with Fellini, Mastroianni, Cinecitta and Ekberg, as well as an 8 page collector’s booklet with rare and hard-to-find photos from the actual theatrical set. The best of them all? Fellini TV, an hour-long collection of Never-Before-Seen Fellini shorts!

Cidade De Deus (2004)

Based on the novel of the same name, Fernardo Meirelles’ Cidade De Deus (City of God) unflinchingly shows us the squalor, ruthlessness and violence of Brazil’s shanty towns.

This is the darker underbelly of a country that’s better known for its beaches and fiestas. There are moments when it’s difficult to watch, but it’s almost as if Meirelles is daring us to keep looking – to gaze upon the frail body of that child, shot dead on the street, or an entire motel, massacred in cold blood by no less than a 12-year-old boy. In this City, God is nowhere be found, and the only way to keep from losing your soul here is to get out.

Amelie (2003)

Amelie has become everyone’s favorite French film.

Jean Pierre-Jeunet’s charming fable also achieved something that no other foreign film can lay claim to: it’s made local Filipino audiences much more receptive to alternative cinema.

Audrey Tatou is the perfect Amelie. As the shy but highly imaginative waitress who takes it upon herself to save the world, Tatou is warm and kitschy, animated but not over the top. Shot in heightened, intense tones, Jeunet shows us a world where vagrants refuse to accept alms on Sundays, where gnomes become globe-trotting nomads, pet goldfish are suicidal and an old tin box holds the key to a grown man’s happiness.

Any film aficionado worth his salt should know this movie inside out – from the meticulous storyboarding that Jeunet did from the first frame to the last frame to how long it took for him to film the four-minute montage that serves as the film’s introduction (two months). The DVD explains all of this, and more, with an impressive list of bonus features (short films by the cast members, Jeunet’s funny directorial commentary, and the audition videos of Tatou and her other co-stars) that makes the P1500 price tag well worth it.

*To Be Published In The Reviewer, December 2004. Please do not distribute. This is copyrighted stuff!