Monthly Archives: October 2005

Serenity in Europe

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Serenity (2005)While the rest of the world is ravelling in “Serenity” goodness, we over here in Europe need to wait a little longer before we can actually indulge ourselves in the visual pleasures of Joss Whedon’s latest movie.

The highly anticipated Sci-Fi spectacle is opening in theatres in France on November 2nd and it seems from all the buzz it gets on the net that it will have a hard time living up to all the hype.
Since its success will determine the fate of the whole “Firefly” franchise, people already are speculating that rather than invigorating the franchise, Joss Whedon put a nail into the coffin of any future Firefly movie. On the other hand, if “Serenity” turns out to be a hit, it will be reassuring for fans to know that the actors have already signed on for two more movies.

When talking about box office hits, Whedon says: “It’s not about a shock-and-awe first weekend; it’s about word of mouth. It’s about whether the film has legs.”
“Serenity” was No. 2 at the box office with just about $10 million, which isn’t that much but Whedon apparently hopes to stay in the charts for quite some time and maybe he’s right. After all, it still has to open in Europe!

Drifting Clouds (1996)

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Drifting Clouds (1996)I first came across Aki Kaurismäki’s work when I saw “The Man without a Past” back in 2002 and I really liked it and I had high hopes for “Drifting Clouds” (1996), which is one of his earlier works. After watching it recently, I was a little dissapointed I must admit. It emanates a certain crudeness that makes it difficult to immerse yourself in the story even more so since the English subtitles are awkward at times and distract from the characters original dialogue.

Aki’s movies have often been described as being minimalistic. The mis en scene in “Drifting Clouds” mirrors a time of recession in Finnland, with highly saturated colors reminiscent of ’50s Technicolor and lots of shades of blue (as is the case in “Man without a Past”). The colors and the absence of warmth make the sets appear void of happiness and in a way resemble the desolate inner state of the characters. We do not get to see much if any emotions from the characters themselves and the acting could be considered almost clinically sterile.

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