philipperousseau1

After all these years, one of the best (if not THE best) stories written by Stephen King get a movie adaptation with more budget and a little more advances spectial effects. Yes I've seen the original with Tim Curry and I enjoyed it but thought that it didn't age very well though. I though this one however provided a great cinematographic experience to the audience and managed faithfully to recreate the spirit of the book on screen, with all the mystery and horror. But I still think that the book has a LOT more depth that none of the two adaptations went far enough. I get all the disaggreement related to the excessive use of CGI in the movie but it's the true (and sad?) reality that movies happening in fantasy worlds who represent things that don't belong in our reality (like monsters for exemple ) use less and less of makeups, props or animatronics to create the speciall effects. Take the Bilbo trilogy for exemple. It's just a reality we have to accept I think, and in my opinion, a movie that uses a lot of CGI and who does it well can still be very enjoyable. It's the case with this movie. So in the end I think that the novel will always remain WAY better than any attempt to put this story on screen but I'm glad with this one.

Recently, I revisited one of Kenji Mizoguchi's classics, Ugetsu Monogatari, and my fascination with Japanese cinema has been confirmed. More specifically the Jidaigeki, but also the Shomingeki and a little Gendaigeki. For me, the aesthetic that emerges from these films is incomparable and many Japanese films far surpass Western cinema on this aspect. This one is a good example. The directing of Mizoguchi is impeccable. His camera shots succeed in giving a poetic and romantic flavor to the narration, and it transports the Western viewer into this other world far away from his own reality. Indeed, the context of the film is very far from our modern North American society and it leaves the viewer the opportunity to escape in a sort of dream. The film is a beautiful portrait of what Japan's history was like at the time. Seeing this film in 1953 (or in 1959, late Parisian release) was probably not the same as seeing it in 2017. Some critics of Les Cahiers du Cinéma and other magazines have on their side hailed this feature film of Mizoguchi in 1959. But the viewer who attends cinema once a year should not have the same opinion. In any case, Ugetsu is a film that has so aged well that it will probably still be seen in ten, twenty, fifty or even a hundred years. It is a film that undoubtedly marked the history of Japanese cinema forever and, and it also is a good first step for anyone who wants to explore Japanese filmography. One can weep with sadness at the outcome of the film, when one notices that the woman of Genjuro was only a ghost, but one can also simply cry for joy at the idea that one has just seen such a beautiful movie.