Two long weeks ago my buddy J.D. tagged me to do this meme where you get to create your own film festival. Then Becca followed up with her tag. Since I’ve been tagged twice I’m going to follow Becca’s example and write about twelve nights instead of six.

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

Night One: Urban Underworld

My first two selections are dark stories which focus on the cruel world in which we live.

Dirty Pretty Things shines a light on Britain’s shadow economy via the characters of Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Senay (Audrey Tautou), who are illegal immigrants working in a hotel. Former doctor Okwe finds a human heart in a toilet at the hotel and realises that his boss is not just a hotelier. In order to escape the immigration authorities and later to procure a new identity, Senay is asked to give up her sexual innocence.

It can be easy to ignore the poverty and criminality which lurk just beyond our front doors. Although I’ve never been to South Africa, there is an increasing level of violent crime in London and many other cities. Tsotsi has no regard for life, until he shoots a woman and steals her car then finds her baby in the backseat. The rest of the movie asks whether someone who has committed awful acts can redeem himself.

Night Two: Metamorphosis

The next two films are about transformation. The Prestige focuses on illusion and deception in a theatrical sense, while The Machinist is about the physical and mental deterioration of a man burdened by guilt. Both films happen to feature Christian Bale, though watching him in the second film isn’t much fun.

Night Three: Love, Lust and Madness

And then we get to the sex. Jamón, Jamón is a spicy Spanish surreal satirical comedy starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Penelope’s character is dating a guy whose mother thinks she is beneath them. The mother hires Javier’s character to seduce her away from the son, mayhem ensues and it all ends with a bizarre ham fight between the men… (Looking at the imdb page for this movie, I noticed that the characters are given hilarious generic titles such as The Whore Mother, The Mother Whore, The Whore’s Daughter, The Spicy Sausage (Chorizo).)

Betty Blue is a mesmerising look at utterly crazy love. Betty blows into Zorg’s mundane life like a hurricane and draws him into her crazy and erotic world. He endures her frequent tantrums and destructiveness without complaint as an active partner in their obsessive love. However, in time it becomes clear that he cannot protect her from herself.

Night Four: Intertwining Lives

In Amores Perros, the lives of several strangers are changed forever after a terrible car accident. In contrast, The Lives of Others focuses on a man who observes a couple without their knowledge, and becomes increasingly emotionally entangled in their lives. Both movies unearth significant truths about human nature.

Night Five: Martial Art

You know, if I had a few more movie nights I’d love to feature kung-fu classics like Drunken Master, Enter The Dragon or Knockabout, but I’ve got limited time here.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is probably my favourite movie, it’s just so amazingly beautiful. It was the first wuxia movie I’d ever seen, but it captured my imagination and led me to seek out other such films such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

Beautiful Boxer relates the true story of Parinya Charoenphol, a Muay Thai champion who had a sex-change operation to become a woman. The brutal sport of Muay Thai seems a strange occupation for a man with yearnings to be more feminine, but it was the only way for him to help his family and save up money towards his sex change. He also incorporated his feminine leanings into his boxing persona, wearing make-up at matches and kissing his opponents coquettishly!

Night Six: The Search for Truth

Our sixth night moves us from the art house to the multiplex, though both films are equally intelligent and compelling.

While The Matrix is a based around a sci-fi premise, we can take much from Neo’s journey. He is given the choice to either remain in the artificial world that is all he knows, or venture out into the unknown to discover the truth. Which pill would you choose?

In Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne doesn’t remember who he is, but starts to piece together his memories as he tries to escape the people who hunt him. Though he has forgotten so much, his subconscious mind and physical prowess provide astonishing insights into who he used to be.

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I’ll finish the second instalment over the weekend. In the meantime, what do you think of my selections?