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I am sitting here thinking of what this film did to make me so very drawn to it. Perhaps it gives enough time for you to think about what Jonas thinks of. Think about all the people you've met and all the places you've been, and where they are now. Think about all your past decisions, choices, and actions and how you might be different without them. This is a question I seldom think to myself and I think that is the reason why this feels special. It isn't made for you to be reflective of Jonas' life entirely, but rather your own. It gives you time to think of the aspects of life that are given to you from a different point of view and translate it to your own. It almost feels like a car ride driving past all your memories, good and bad, and just lets them pass on until the next ones come along.

Jonas does not loathe his past, he finds the happier memories amongst the sad, yet you can hear his pain in the way he speaks. Riding through his own recollections of running from the war, running for his life, and running away from the people he once called friends, all the joyful things he recalls from his childhood fade into the dreadful, and the way he manages to blend them together is why I was so drawn to this.

Tone-deaf, tasteless, and ultimately pointless. Ingrid Bergman is was the only thing that held this together as she always did but other than that it was pretty terrible. The beginning took its precious time however the last 30 minutes were a complete rushed blur that took the audience for fools. It completely forgets about 90% of the plot points and just says "we will disguise our mistakes with a happy ending for the anti-hero and give her a fresh start." which is something that we have all seen before only it was better and wasn't done in 90 seconds.

Not worth your time.

It is sometimes hard to grasp something like this with words. Such scale and depth put into film cannot be easily translated simply with text. You kind of just have to sit with something like this - let it sink in. There is so much substance that you have to take time to think of it all as a whole. With so much progression and movement you can only capture surface-level importance at first, it takes a while to view everything together melodically.

There is something that feels so special about this - a very unique kind of specialty. Even with how raw everything is, there is this kind of enigmatic feeling to it all. Xiao Si'r is a true marvel of a character. We feel sympathy for him despite his wrongs, yet we still can't comprehend the extent to which he implemented them. We feel his sorrow all throughout this journey - we see his vulnerability, anger, and pain in such a true way that we can't help but take his side no matter what.

Atmospherically there is nothing that can do this film justice. Its constant repetition in its environment builds up a familiar feeling no matter who's shoes we are in. We see the same townspeople throughout the story without any knowledge of who they are, yet it causes the film to feel more comfortable despite some of its taboo subjects.

I don't want to say much more because with so many ideas swarming around your head it is easy to ramble on all day although the last point I would like to touch on is the all-around subtlety. The script isn't afraid to hold back and lets the silence speaks for it. Doing something like this can be so intimidating because it very well likely won't work however here it certainly does. The script isn't the only area where this concept applies, it also falls into the landscapes too. It gives the large, vast areas in which it was filmed and cuts down the amount of screen time it has significantly, causing every time we see it to feel more special. Take the shooting range for example - in spite of it holding such a key part of the story, it never revisits itself except for that one scene.

In conclusion, this was a real adventure and one to be remembered. A newfound favourite of mine for sure and I am certainly glad I got past the runtime because it more than paid off.

Haven't been terribly warm with Buñuel, although I am glad I gave him another shot. Belle de Jour has a very precise understanding of where to draw the line from fantasy to reality. It drifts in and out of these ideas frequently, yet has a steady tone and atmosphere that manages to travel to both sides with much finesse. Deneuve is always very aware of how far to take her character and isn't afraid to hold back and let the minimalism of the script speak for itself, making more a far more mysterious take on such a character. Most other features of this film complement each other well too; whether it's the music, landscapes, or lighting, they all blend together into a whole very well.