My Blueberry Nights. Dir. WKW. 2007.

WKW's latest opens in LA at the Landmark April 4th.

In Wong Kar Wai's debut English language feature, the internationally acclaimed director of In the Mood for Love takes his audience on a dramatic journey across the distance between heartbreak and a new beginning. After a rough break-up, Elizabeth (songstress Norah Jones in her screen debut) sets out on a journey across America, leaving behind a life of memories, a dream and a soulful new friend, a café owner (Jude Law)—all while in search of something to mend her broken heart. Waitressing her way through the country, Elizabeth befriends others whose yearnings are greater than hers, including a troubled cop (David Strathairn), his estranged wife (Rachel Weisz) and a down-on-her luck gambler (Natalie Portman). Through these individuals, Elizabeth witnesses the true depths of loneliness and emptiness, and begins to understand that her own journey is part of a greater exploration within herself.

EXTRA EXTRA!
Rotten Tomatoes Interview with Norah Jones: link

Flight of the Red Balloon. Dir. Hou Hsiao Hsien. 2007.

LACMA Screening
April 5 (7:30 PM)

Commissioned by the Musée d'Orsay, Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao Hsien's first French-language film stars Juliette Binoche, in "perhaps the best and certainly the most eccentric performance of her career" (Dennis Lim), as a single mother so absorbed in her work as a puppeteer that she hires a young film student to help care for her seven-year old son. Though partly inspired by Albert Lamorisse's 1956 short Le ballon rouge, Hou's film is an entirely original and tender reimagining infused with the lyrical humanism and casual majesty of his weightless camerawork. "A quiet, unassuming and flawless tribute to Paris, to the spirit of childhood and to the ability of art to compensate for some of the painful imperfections of life."

- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

EXTRA CLIP!:
Also inspired by The Red Balloon, is this clip with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Be Kind Rewind. 2008. Dir. Michel Gondry

Jack Black stars in Be Kind Rewind, a one-of-a-kind comedy from the mind of writer/director Michel Gondry (Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Black stars as a loveable loser stuck in a life that's too small for his big dreams. But when he unintentionally erases all the tapes in a video store where his best friend works, he devises a plan to satisfy the store's few loyal customers by re-creating and re-filming every movie they decide to rent. Be Kind Rewind features a cast that includes Mos Def, Danny Glover, and Mia Farrow.

Michel Gondry's latest film Be Kind Rewind gets released this Friday, Feb. 22. This version of the trailer takes on the same "swede"ing techniques found in the film. Gondry finds himself destroying the original trailer while projecting it. He then recreates it by filming himself as all the characters and then using lo-fi tricks to remake the rest. Brillant!