two of a kind posted by imani , Thursday, February 5, 2009 at 6:53 PM, in Labels: something else

Last Tuesday, I was on a marathon – a movie marathon, that is.

I saw a couple of movies – Vicky Christina Barcelona and The Reader.

Vicky Christina Barcelona was of course, set in Spain. Wahahah. It was written and directed by the perennialy thin-man-but-nevertheless-a-genius, Woody Allen.

Scarlet Johansson is Christina, Javier Bardem is Juan Antonio and Penelope Cruz is Maria Elena. Pardon me but I can’t seem to remember the actress who portrayed Vicky. My brain is fried.

So best friends Vicky and Christina embarked on a journey and went to Barcelona – to find themselves. Instead they got entangled in a web of ménage-a-trois and shared a lover in the person of – tadah! Javier Bardem.

One thing was constant in the movie – since they were in Spain, every time they call on Bardem’s character, they had to mention his entire name – Juan Antonio. Kind of gives you the feeling you were at home and watching a Mexican telenovela at lunch time.

Javier Bardem is one gorgeous conquistador, he’s cute whatever he wears and regardless if he looked like he didn’t take a bath. Penelope is Maria Elena, Juan Antonio’s estranged wife who is also a full-time painter and a part-time lunatic.

So here’s the synopsis: Vicky and Christina meets Juan Antonio, Juan Antonio invites the ladies to a secluded villa, asks both of them to spend a night with him – he beds Vicky first then moved on stealthily with Christina. Vicky was followed by her fiancé and gets married. Christina then gets involved with Juan Antonio and creates a pseudo love nest with the latter. Maria Elena comes back one night after Juan Antonio ‘rescued’ her from killing herself. Bit by bit, Christina was drawn to Maria Elena – and soon enough all three of them – Juan Antonio, Christina and Maria Elena – are sleeping in the same bed.

By the end of the movie – Christina leaves the couple heart broken, having confessed that she knows nothing of what she wants, only of what she does not want.

The Reader, on the other hand, has some very serious and dark undertones to it. Kate Winslet is Hanna, a German woman who works in a local train station.

Michael Berg (portrayed by David Kross) was 16 years old when he met Hanna – coming home one day from school, was clueless of the tell-tale signs of scarlet fever. He stops at an almost barren building and pukes his guts out (or at least something that looks like it). Hanna helps him and takes him home.

Three months later, when Michael has recovered, he goes back to Hanna’s apartment and gives her flowers. The next few days he’d visit Hanna…until one time, she asks him to fill two buckets with coal. He gets himself dirty and Hanna offers to run a bath for him.

Hanna is twice Michael’s age, yet the growing passion and tension between them was undeniable. They sort of found a refuge in each other arms – he’s a confused teenager, she’s an introvert.

Michael would read his books to Hanna every afternoon – from The Odyssey to The Lady with a Little Dog. Michael falls madly in love with the woman who calls him ‘Kid.’ Hanna, despite the intimacy, has told Michael that ‘You do not have the power to upset me.’

One day, Hanna mysteriously disappears – leaving Michael forlorn and unable to move on. Eight years later, as a law student, Michael ‘sees’ Hanna again – the latter being tried for crimes against the Jews.

Hanna was pointed as the culprit for the murder of at least 300 Jews during the Nazi occupation – by 5 other women who were taken to court. There was a point in the movie when the judge asked Hanna for a sample of her handwriting – a way to prove if she was really the person who wrote the report after the murder. Kate, as an actress, gave a stellar performance – I think this is one of her best performances. It turns out that Hanna was illiterate – and she refused to produce a sample of her handwriting because she’s ashamed and daunted and scared as hell to admit to everyone that she’s unable to write or read. Hanna was sentenced to live the rest of her life in prison.

Now a middle-aged man, Michael Berg (played by the delectable Ralph Fiennes) is still haunted by the thought of Hanna – like a phantom – a succubus devouring him in his sleep. Knowing that Hanna now will be spending all of her years behind bars, he started to tape his voice, reading some of the books that Hanna then loved hearing from him.

Years after, Michael learns that Hanna, now 66 years old, is to be released from prison. He comes to her for the first time since he was a teenager and tells Hanna that he will take care of her - as the latter does not have any other family.

Later that day, Hanna takes her own life, hanging herself. This film asks the questions: How far would you go to protect a secret? Is there a means to reconcile the past with the present - is there a way for this generation to understand the magnitude of the Holocaust, as victims and witnesses of the tragedy die and its living memory starts to dissolve?

I suppose there is no end to the tragedies for the character Michael in this film - he is fated to be perpetually pained by the one woman who had him - the one woman he will never have.