The Pillow Book - by Peter Greenaway

I just watched this masterpiece in one sitting. First of all, for a film that is actually 2 hours, it felt like 15 minutes because I couldn't tear my eyes off the screen. This is such a beautiful film that I found it hard to follow the words because every shot was just perfection. It goes without saying that this is now my favorite film, but this happens every time I watch a new film. Incidentally, this is not the first time I've watched this film! I have no idea when or how I watched it, but I know I did because after the death of Jerome I suddenly remembered everything that was going to happen afterwards, the rest of the books, especially I remembered the book of secrets and the book of silence.

My two favorite things that have nothing to do with the beauty of the film, but the actual film itself (because I think those two things can be considered completely seperately), happened one after the other.

The first one was the scene right after the burial. Jerome's mother and Nagiko sit in the car and Jerome's mother is going on about her son. She gets to the part when she says how he always preferred his aunt to his mother, because she liked modern literature full of "swear words and scatology, before it was fashionable" and tells Nagiko that she heard she is fashionable. And that is why, in mother's eyes, Jerome was with Nagiko. And then the best happens: it's so quick, you barely have time to realize and it's all over: Nagiko slaps the old lady. But she doesn't do it hard.. it's so soft and subtle, almost playful, even though the English lady exclaims "Oh!" and then the scene is cut right then. No time to think about it, to process the deed.

The second one is the scene right after this. It wasn't the scene that caught my attention, but the words. In a film so based on writing, you hear words rarely, and they are usually repeated throughout the film. Here is a rare case when Nagiko is narrating and she says this beautiful and somewhat really funny line "We didn't burn his books. They were too damp". It just struck me as so unlike the narrative of the film, it has a touch of dark humor in it.... it's just brilliant.

Lastly, oh Ewan McGregor!

I don't really know what to say except that every film I've seen him in, he surprised me in all of them greatly. I don't usually have a favorite actor because I don't watch enough films for that, but Ewan McGregor is absolutely amazing... 

^Trainspotting

^Velvet Goldmine

^Even the horrible Moulin Rouge.

On another note, has anyone noticed the HUGE difference in google images?!