{"id":6256,"date":"2010-08-07T18:09:45","date_gmt":"2010-08-07T22:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=6256"},"modified":"2016-05-04T16:15:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T20:15:49","slug":"cinema-botanica-in-the-mood-for-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=6256","title":{"rendered":"Cinema Botanica (In The Mood For Love)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night at Cinema Botanica. It was only a matter of time before I dragged movies into this blog ostensibly about plants. I’ve wanted to see this movie since it was released a decade ago, so I’m definitely late to this show. I knew it was a slow, elegant mood piece, and just the right moment to savor it had to be found. As long a wait as it was, now I’m thankful some movies this good are left in reserve. I knew it would be a visual knockout, that Maggie Cheung’s qipaos<\/em> had caused a commotion when the film was released. But watching her walk in these gorgeous dresses is to witness the crowning glory of human bipedalism. It is these qipaos<\/em> that rate this film a slot in the Cinema Botanica, or one dress in particular. You can’t miss it. The shock of that huge daffodil on the pale, straw-colored bodice had me gasping out loud. What a bizarre but bold idea, and the perfect touch for a movie partly about a woman stoically holding on to her self-esteem while her husband spends his passion on interminable “business trips.” The passage of time is subtly handled, and what may seem like an extended dinner scene is actually several dinners, as quietly revealed through the changing qipaos<\/em> worn by Ms. Cheung.
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\nThis same dress appears later on in the movie, seen full length, one of the rare times a qipao<\/em> is repeated. The stylized cheongsam<\/em>, the qipao<\/em>, would seem to be one of the few garments capable of absorbing whatever colors and patterns the designers dream up, even full-length flowery chintz, but I think this has as much to do with the graceful bearing of Ms. Cheung. If you’ve ever sewn a garment, you’ll appreciate the fit of these dresses to this actress for the astonishing piece of dressmaking artistry it represents. And if you’ve ever wondered why Americans can’t seem to bring a gorgeously designed movie to the screen without a superhero anchoring it, this is your movie, which celebrates the intimacy of sharing food, the exuberant use of pattern and color, the bottomless depths of suppressed feeling expertly performed by virtuoso actors. <\/p>\n

The exquisite music and, oh, the food,<\/a> the dumplings, those noodles, bear equal billing. One of my favorite lines, because I was thinking the same thing is, paraphrasing: “She goes out dressed like that for noodles<\/em>?” Yes, she does, gliding in the qipao<\/em>, the thermos of noodles swinging at her side. Our neighborhood is just now getting some decent street food, little taco carts open til all hours just a block away, but to have a little thermos like the character of Mrs. Chan to fill with pork and noodles at the end of a workday — personal misery notwithstanding, dinnertime would be bliss.
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\nFor color theorists, this movie is a master lesson, awash in strong Fauvist contrasts like red and green.
\nSupporting role here played by an aspidistra. Overall amazing set design for this story set in 1962, like Mad Men of the Orient<\/em>.
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\nIn The Mood For Love<\/a>. The link details the plot, so if you haven’t seen this extraordinary movie yet, read at your own risk. Even if it takes ten years, find the perfect moment to watch this movie. For anyone with even a remote interest in color and design, you’ll be richly rewarded, I promise.<\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday night at Cinema Botanica. It was only a matter of time before I dragged movies into this blog ostensibly about plants. I’ve wanted to see this movie since it was released a decade ago, so I’m definitely late to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[148],"tags":[149],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-1CU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6256"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72505,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256\/revisions\/72505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}