This is a solid movie about how a boy copes with the physical abuse of his gymnastics coach (the guy holding the sword above), joins the circus, learns how to become a coach without hitting anyone, competes internationally against his student (but no hard feelings) and then joins a better circus. The film covers two decades and plays around with time in an interesting manner by crosscutting between two climactic events in the main character's life, one that occurred in his early teens and the other in his early thirties. It also features a darkly comedic scene where the a coach who runs a Canadian gymnastics program has to explain to the Hungarian-raised lead that it is not okay to hit children. Ah, different cultures.
The two people pictured above don't know that they're in love. Can you believe that?
An old romantic comedy cliche is stretched to the breaking point in this thoroughly enjoyable (but weightless) French film about two people who are so blind to the fact that they are obviously perfect for each other and completely in love that they can't figure out what's going on even after they sleep together. Their blindness and general obliviousness makes for what is essentially one-joke film, but that joke is executed so delightfully that I can't complain.
I absolutely love this movie, always have. I'll just take a quick moment to point out a couple of things I noticed this time around.
I think it was very gutsy of them to open with "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", the most abstract section. It would have been so much safer to open with Micky in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and then ease the audience into the more challenging fair. But I guess Disney wanted people to accept the movie on his term. Good for him.
I think the end of the film is so powerful because they give you the lightest and most fun piece, "Dance of the Hours" (pictured above), second to last and then hit you with the one-two punch of "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria". "Night on Bald Mountain" is such a powerful piece that it's really a change of pace and to end that nightmare with "Ave Maria" is transcendent.
Also, I thought it was interesting that neither the nude fairies from "The Nutcracker Suite" nor the topless centaurs from "The Pastoral Symphony" had nipples, yet the naked female demons from "Night on Bald Mountain" did. It's like Disney's trying to tell us that only bad girls have nipples. I'm not exactly sure what that means but I bet it doesn't represent a very healthy view of sexuality.
It's nice to know that half-way around the world in Pakistan they also have teenagers who lie to their parents so that they can go to a rock concert in their cannabis-filled van only to fiend their bloody end in the middle of a dark forest. The only difference is that American teenagers face either the walking dead or a serial killer and his crazy family . . . not both. It's pretty bizarre when the kids try to escape the zombies only to find themselves faced with the (from what I could tell) completely unrelated threat of a man who runs around in a burqa while brandishing a morning star, his brother (below), and their even crazier mother but I guess that's just how the role in the 'stan.
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