We had a few hours before the movie started and so we walked around the mall vicinity. We made a few important discoveries.
- There is a tolerable pizza place very close to our apartment. Good dough, good mozzarella, decent toppings. I don't need pork products to survive, but I do miss bacon and pepperoni.
- There is a table tennis/billiard/bowling alley business in the same area. We spent an invigorating half hour playing ping pong. Four games later, we had each won two games. The proprietors of the business wanted to play us. They were summarily and deftly defeated. I want to go back there frequently.
I feel like there is something to say about violence here. Movies represent violence in many ways. Lots of movie makers increase the exposure to bloodshed, dismemberment, etc. Sometimes they put the act of violence off screen and we then see a shadow of the act, or we see a blood splatter, or we just hear it and our mind fills in the rest. All of these techniques have their uses. Over the years, gunshots in film have varied in their decibel levels. I don't know any official data on the subject, but it seems to me that the volume of the gunshots in a movie changes how the movie affects me. The guns from a Woody Allen farce sound like cap-guns, for a less jolted audience experience. Body Of Lies has some intense violence. The depictions would be conisidered violent even if we were watching a Cecil B. DeMille movie, but this violence came with some volume. The increased volume makes the whole experience much more viscerally jarring. I'm a pacifist, and I don't usually like movies that are obsessively violent. This movie is not that. It is tasteful and appropriate for the story that is being told. Watch the movie, tell me what you think.
The overall Egyptian movie experience was pleasant. Except for a slight focus issue, the audio/video was quality. The seats were comfortable and the audience was quiet and respectful. The ushers were cool too... they actually wore tuxedos and they ushered people in and out with dim flashlights. The intermission in the middle of the movie was a shock. It wasn't very gracefully spliced. I suppose it's impossible to expect Egyptians to go a whole two hours without smoking.
1 comment:
I am excited to see Body of Lies. Thanks for the review.
Violence in film: this is an interesting issue. I used to feel like it didn't affect me, but lately I've been more and more squeamish about it. Maybe my imagination is improving.
Keep us posted on movies you're watching over there...
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