hgz
Joined Jul 2000
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Reviews2
hgz's rating
I don't want to say very much about the movie itself here, lots of people have already done that. Of course, I think it is quite brilliant certainly innovative and also very disconcerting. There is violence, sex and generally quite a lot happening, but still the movie refuses to tell any story, teach any morals, elicit compassion, subscribe to any ideology, it doesn't even wish to entertain.
What I want to comment on is the advertising line "banned in France". This is not entirely correct in its simplicity. France is both more liberal and more bigoted than that. Everything started very well: the movie was reviewed by the relevant commission and issued with a certificate "16" by the ministry of culture, Catherine Tasca at that time. "16" is the most grown-up category in France, with the liberal philosophy behind it that you don't need to be 18 to watch something more serious than Disney. The movie was accordingly scheduled by the major cinema circuits. However a few days before the first public showing a private association called "Promouvoir", which combines fundamentalist Catholicism with hard-core fascism, brought a complaint against the ministry at the Conseil d'État - a quaint institution, something a little bit like a constitutional court. For once the court acted very quickly and just a few days after the movie had come to the screens - without any public notice as befits an art movie and to modest critical acclaim - it ruled that the movie was "probably of pornographic nature". The fascists (Bruno Mégret and Promouvoir) were right and the ministry was wrong. The certification had to be revoked.
What now? Some cinema owners representing the liberal France continued to show the movie for some more days, despite the threat of horrendous fines, which gave most people who wanted to watch it a chance to do so. I watched it on the afternoon after the court ruling in an only half full cinema. We can't really say therefore that the eager masses were deprived.
But then? There is no "18" certificate in France, the only thing the producer could have done theoretically would have been to apply for an "X" (porno) certification. A pointless exercise, because normal cinemas are not allowed to show "X" movies (all a question of taxes and subsidies) and the porn cinema of Paris - despite all the "city of love' stuff there is only one left - well, Baise- moi isn't really for their audience, is it?
So Baise-moi was not theoretically banned - the producer would just have needed to apply for that famous "X" certificate - but given that it was not allowed to be shown with an "16" certificate and that "X" movies cannot be shown at all because there are no X cinemas, the movie was practically banned.
And the end of the story? Well of course Catherine Tasca promised to recreate the "18" certificate, abolished for liberal reasons in the first instance. Just for borderline cases like Baise moi, of course. And acting on this promise the last big cinema circuit, MK2, took the movie off the screens. Well, that was a year ago and France is still waiting for the re-release of Baise-moi on the big screen.
What I want to comment on is the advertising line "banned in France". This is not entirely correct in its simplicity. France is both more liberal and more bigoted than that. Everything started very well: the movie was reviewed by the relevant commission and issued with a certificate "16" by the ministry of culture, Catherine Tasca at that time. "16" is the most grown-up category in France, with the liberal philosophy behind it that you don't need to be 18 to watch something more serious than Disney. The movie was accordingly scheduled by the major cinema circuits. However a few days before the first public showing a private association called "Promouvoir", which combines fundamentalist Catholicism with hard-core fascism, brought a complaint against the ministry at the Conseil d'État - a quaint institution, something a little bit like a constitutional court. For once the court acted very quickly and just a few days after the movie had come to the screens - without any public notice as befits an art movie and to modest critical acclaim - it ruled that the movie was "probably of pornographic nature". The fascists (Bruno Mégret and Promouvoir) were right and the ministry was wrong. The certification had to be revoked.
What now? Some cinema owners representing the liberal France continued to show the movie for some more days, despite the threat of horrendous fines, which gave most people who wanted to watch it a chance to do so. I watched it on the afternoon after the court ruling in an only half full cinema. We can't really say therefore that the eager masses were deprived.
But then? There is no "18" certificate in France, the only thing the producer could have done theoretically would have been to apply for an "X" (porno) certification. A pointless exercise, because normal cinemas are not allowed to show "X" movies (all a question of taxes and subsidies) and the porn cinema of Paris - despite all the "city of love' stuff there is only one left - well, Baise- moi isn't really for their audience, is it?
So Baise-moi was not theoretically banned - the producer would just have needed to apply for that famous "X" certificate - but given that it was not allowed to be shown with an "16" certificate and that "X" movies cannot be shown at all because there are no X cinemas, the movie was practically banned.
And the end of the story? Well of course Catherine Tasca promised to recreate the "18" certificate, abolished for liberal reasons in the first instance. Just for borderline cases like Baise moi, of course. And acting on this promise the last big cinema circuit, MK2, took the movie off the screens. Well, that was a year ago and France is still waiting for the re-release of Baise-moi on the big screen.
Hsia Nu is not only one of the most remarkable martial arts movies one could imagine, but in any sense a most remarkable film. I at least am unable to name many other three hour long movies which I have not found slightly lengthy (not to say boring) at some stage. Moreover Hsia Nu is the kind of film one definitely would want to watch on the big screen of a cinema, something rather rare as far as martial arts films are concerned and generally rare for anything not an extremely expensive super-production.
Its panoramic nature sequences have not only esthetic value, but are also symbolically relevant. In fact if one wanted to do this, it would be possible to interpret the whole movie as an allegory of human existence. Fortunately there is really no need to get out the heavy guns of symbolism and artistic value to convince oneself that Hsia Nu is a great movie. It is gripping and entertaining, amusing and serious, and infused with a pathos hardly ever encountered in European (or American) movies. Pathos of course is something difficult to handle, but the director and cast of Hsia Nu manage it very well. The film has its deliberate light moments, but it never invites laughter at its moments of pathos.
Of course we are talking here about a martial arts movie. And indeed, the fighting sequences are brilliantly done - there definitely has been no progress since 1969 - but there is not only that. There is in fact not all that much fighting if one considers that this is a three hour film, and the fights do not carry the plot. In some sense Hsia Nu resembles more a Japanese samurai drama than what we more customarily associate with the Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts genre.
The plot is very long and complex - though perfectly understandable, and even logical - therefore I do not see any real interest in retelling it here. Suffice to say that it contains most principal human emotions: loyalty and treason, love and revenge, hunger for happiness and for...enlightenment. The acting is brilliant, and especially a more masterly 'great master' character, a monk in Hsia Nu, would indeed be difficult to find in any martial arts movie.
If anybody is not convinced by the merit of the martial arts genre and just wants to give it a sole and unique chance, then this is the movie that might convinced such a snob that cinematographic 'art' is not necessarily grey, quiet and slow, but can be colourful, vibrant and full of pathos.
Its panoramic nature sequences have not only esthetic value, but are also symbolically relevant. In fact if one wanted to do this, it would be possible to interpret the whole movie as an allegory of human existence. Fortunately there is really no need to get out the heavy guns of symbolism and artistic value to convince oneself that Hsia Nu is a great movie. It is gripping and entertaining, amusing and serious, and infused with a pathos hardly ever encountered in European (or American) movies. Pathos of course is something difficult to handle, but the director and cast of Hsia Nu manage it very well. The film has its deliberate light moments, but it never invites laughter at its moments of pathos.
Of course we are talking here about a martial arts movie. And indeed, the fighting sequences are brilliantly done - there definitely has been no progress since 1969 - but there is not only that. There is in fact not all that much fighting if one considers that this is a three hour film, and the fights do not carry the plot. In some sense Hsia Nu resembles more a Japanese samurai drama than what we more customarily associate with the Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts genre.
The plot is very long and complex - though perfectly understandable, and even logical - therefore I do not see any real interest in retelling it here. Suffice to say that it contains most principal human emotions: loyalty and treason, love and revenge, hunger for happiness and for...enlightenment. The acting is brilliant, and especially a more masterly 'great master' character, a monk in Hsia Nu, would indeed be difficult to find in any martial arts movie.
If anybody is not convinced by the merit of the martial arts genre and just wants to give it a sole and unique chance, then this is the movie that might convinced such a snob that cinematographic 'art' is not necessarily grey, quiet and slow, but can be colourful, vibrant and full of pathos.