Movies movies movies

On the Netflix so far this week:

Sunrise (dir. F.W. Murnau, USA, 1927)

Wot to say about a movie considered to be one of the greatest, most important things ever filmed? Well, that I really enjoyed it, for one. I haven't seen a silent film in a bit, and had great fun with this. It should be noted that there are some recorded sound effects and crowd noises in this though, and that they are used very sparingly and to great effect, like when our married couple go to the city and kiss in the middle of a crowded intersection and are suddenly surrounded by an urban throng of vehicles with angry drivers. Def added to short list of films I must see on a big screen before I pass.

Reprise (dir. Joachim Trier, Norway, 2006)(currently available to Watch Instantly on Netflix)

Still a little torn on this one, but at worst it's an interesting film about young 20-something artists, which is nice. Lots of flashbacks and flash-forwards and what-ifs and Joy Division, and I am really so over college that I should react badly to a scene in which "Deceptacon" gets put on by interlopers at a stuffy party? No, I'm not.

Moartea domnului Lazarescu (the Death of Mr. Lazarescu) (dir. Cristi Puiu, Romania, 2005)

An old man calls an ambulance with a headache. The ambulance eventually comes. He gets driven to like 4 hospitals in total. This goes on for 2 and a half hours, but considering how rather downcast the material is it went by fairly briskly. Quite different from YMD fav 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, admittedly the only other Romanian movie I've seen (not that I would expect all Romanian films to be alike obvi), in that while the camera in 4 Months seemingly exists at times only to make you uncomfortable, this one is decidedly more matter of fact, letting the characters (sometimes compassionate, sometimes not at all helpful, mostly just frustrated and trying to do their jobs) and situations take care of the storytelling. Recommended if you've got some time free to watch an old man get sick (and god knows I do).