The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, June 1-7
Love Exposure (2008)
Directed by Sion Sono
Sono is probably the most exciting filmmaker working today, simply because he manages to maintain a high level of quality in projects that seem, superficially, so different from each other. But the breath of his talent truly shows in the 237-minute epic masterpiece Love Exposure, which I think is also the best film of the last 10 years. Sono combines the extreme visual flare explored in films like Suicide Club and Strange Circus (both extremely gory and visually compelling) with the teenage angst/family trouble dynamics (with acting akin to the strongest Cassavetes films) of I Am Keiko and Noriko’s Dinner Table. But even with some knowledge of what you could expect, nothing can prepare anyone for the madness of this profound work of love, perversion, religion, friendship and conspiracies. It’s the most bombastic work of Japanese Cinema of the past decade and maybe the only four-hour film you can watch more than three times… in a year. Jaime Grijalba (June 3, 7pm at Japan Society)
