Tuesday, November 27, 2007

After the Wedding, Part 2

If you did not immediately take yesterday's advice to go and see After the Wedding, then I'll make one more attempt.

Actually, part of the reason I started this blog was to serve as my own little repository for information I didn't want to forget, and the Head Butler's brief comments about After the Wedding are one of those things.

This is a special treat. I had to email the Head Butler himself to get the information, and then I had to dig through a virtual stack of old emails to find it again, but now that it is posted here, I'll know where to go to find it, and I can just send the link to this post when I want to recommend the movie to someone. How thoughtful am I??

So this is what the Head Butler wrote that drove me to the movie theatre that night:

After I saw The Lives of Others , I was convinced it deserved its Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. But over the weekend I saw the Danish nominee, After the Wedding , and I'm no longer so sure. I mean, two days later, I have only to think about this movie and the images come flooding back and I start shaking, so complete is my identification with the remarkable people Susanne Bier has created.

“We talk about 'reality' in American movies,” my wife said, breaking the silence afterward. “But you see a film like this, and you get that American movie 'reality' is fake reality, our 'emotion' is fake emotion.” Exactly right, my darling.

After the Wedding is just opening in this country, surely only in cities with “art” cinemas. Yes, you could wait until July for the DVD, but no at-home viewing can compare with what you'll experience during the last half-hour of this film in a crowded theater: total attention, rapt silence, muffled weeping. So don't read a word about it. Just go. Tonight, if you can --- even if it means a drive of a hundred miles. Not completely blown away? Write me and I'll pay for your ticket. [A safe offer: This film is that great.]

[Just a word of warning, I'm sure the money back offer has expired, but don't worry, I'm sure he didn't have to pay a dime to anyone.]

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