On Body and Soul - Ildikó Enyedi (2017)

Tell me, how wonderful does it make you feel to watch an incredibly touching, romantic film? It can fill you up with an indescribable feeling you carry with you for hours, sometimes days. It's so intoxicating, you want to revisit it right away.

Where does that magic come from? Sure, you'll point to the screenplay, the directing, and the lovely performances. Some romances have a powerful charm and a gorgeous story running underneath everything that you really can't verbalize.

In these gems, we fall in love with the characters instantaneously. It's more powerful than what they call chemistry and it's something that you can't explain in words.

So when we are lost in a film like Abdellatif Kechiche's "Blue is the Warmest Color," Francois Truffaut's "Jules and Jim," Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," or Tony Scott's "True Romance," (my favorite love story), what gives us that spark that makes these films so elegant and timeless?

In Ildikó Enyedi's "On Body and Soul," a young woman, Mária (Alexandra Borbély) starts her new job as a meat-inspector at a slaughterhouse. On her first day, she meets the man in charge, Endre (Géza Morcsányi), an older man, very quiet, who keeps him to himself.

On the surface, they don't seem to form any kind of rapport. But they quickly learn the two of them share their dreams.

Literally. When they sleep at night, they wander into a single dream. It's a very simple dream. Endre is a stag who comes across a doe, Mária. There's not much to it, they spend some time playfully and affectionate at a riverbank surrounded by mountains of snow.

It takes them days to realize it, but when they do, they have no idea how to respond. They are not instantly captivated by the other.

The story slowly starts its work. You realize that these two are either going to have to truly earn their relationship, along with our affection, or you're watching a bad movie.

Then they keep raising the stakes on each other. It's very subtle, powerful storytelling going on as they slowly build to the place where Endre and Mária can't and won't live without the other.

So no, they don't share that glow right from the beginning. It takes a while to do it, but Mária and Endre work hard to win our affection and when we've finally fallen in love with them, we are caught off guard. Emotionally, we live and die in every breath they share, in every touch.

"On Body and Soul" takes no shortcuts. It doesn't take for granted that these two, even given the

connection in their dreams, will be able to sustain, or even start, a relationship. It's right at the top of the list with "Blue is the Warmest Color" as one of the great romances so far this century.

And that makes a film a classic. It's why this film will endure.

Call Me By Your Name - Luca Guadagnino (2017)

Do you remember the moment you discovered you were a sexual creature? You think of others as more than just handsome or beautiful. You actually want to do things to them. You start to wonder creatively what those things could be.

Luca Guadagnino's "Call Me By Your Name," reaches back to that moment when one's sexuality first rears its head.

Every summer, the Perlman family hosts a guest for the summer. The patriarch, Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg), is a professor and it's an opportunity for a kind of mentorship. This summer, that guest is Oliver (Armie Hammer), a twenty-four-year-old student of Mr. Perlman.

At first, Elio (Timothee Chalamet), the Perlmans' seventeen-year-old son, doesn't like Oliver at all. In fact, Oliver is kind of a dick. He's arrogant and dismissive. He refuses any overtures of friendship, but he himself demands constant companionship. He expects others to drop everything to accommodate him. So yeah, Oliver is not just kind of a dick. He's a straight-up bastard.

Elio has to spend almost all of his time entertaining Oliver. He has to go on errands with him. Whenever it suits Oliver, he insists Elio must accompany him all of the time as he goes bike riding or swimming, etc.

Slowly, Elio's feelings turn from annoyance to attraction. Like a little man-crush, and the romance builds from there.

At the same time, Elio is curious about sex in general. He hasn't found his identification yet, so while he's falling for Oliver, his romance with girlfriend Marzia (Esther Garrel) is progressing, getting more serious and more sexual.

But as his attraction to Olivier turns into infatuation, he has to make some kind of choice. To be fair, Marzia deserves that much. She needs to know where her relationship with Elio is going.

The bulk of the film concentrates on the evolving romance between Oliver and Elio. Now, the time he spends with Oliver, running errands, bike riding, swimming etc. have gone from tedious to treasured.

The way the story plays out with this small intimate group of characters, against the backdrop of northern Italy in the summer makes me think of Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty." Just as in "Stealing Beauty," the characters adore each other and that endears them to us. Plus, the love scenes between Oliver and Elio are soft and intimate.

One thing I have learned from art-house, gay-centered films is that all of the love scenes starts with play fighting. I don't believe that's the way it is in life, but I don't think I've ever seen a gay love sequence without that wrestling kind of foreplay.


The tenderness and subtly which with Guadagnino unfolds this romance is beautiful. If you like love stories at all, you'll enjoy "Call Me By Your Name."

Quote of the Day: Love Takes Many Forms

Lee: "I love you."
E. Edward Grey: "We can't do this twenty-four hours a day seven days a week."
Lee: "Why not?"

She makes a very fair point, don't you think?

(Lee sits down at Grey's desk.)
E. Edward Grey: "Put both your hands on the desk, palms down.
(Lee puts her hands on the desk, palms down.)
Lee: "I wanna make love."
E. Edward Grey: "Keep both your feet on the floor until I come back."

The Greatest Couple in Cinematic History

Here's an homage to the greatest couple in cinematic history.

Greater than Bonnie and Clyde.

Greater than Mickey and Mallory.

I even like them more than Bogey and Bacall.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Worleys.

Song to Song - Terence Malick (2017)

What is the difference between need and desire and how can you tell when you have switched from one to the other? There is an early part of the relationship when you want to be with someone. Then, with no warning, turns them into someone you can not live without?

Terence Malick's "Song to Song" is a film about love, (well, more desire than love) rejection, betrayal and other ugly creatures we've all had in the pits of our stomachs at one time or another. It is set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene.


The first thing we hear in "Song to Song" is Faye (Rooney Mara) telling us how she associates sex with violence. What does that say right off the bat about our heroine? Faye is the kind of person who will look anywhere, fly as high as she needs to, to find her place in life. The problem is she does not know what her place looks like.

From the start, her relationship with Cook (Michael Fassbender) is doubtful. Cook is presented as a chaser and an opportunist. A man who goes after pleasure, higher and higher without regard to the people around him. He is also wealthy as hell, so so he can search out pleasure to no end. As the movie progresses, we see how riches can sabotage what could have been romance, or at least friendship.

Cook is a sharp contrast to BV, (Ryan Gosling) a man clearly out to fulfill his wishes, but with self-awareness and complexity. Like Faye, he has an infatuation with Cook. He believes the man has the key to starting his music career for him. Meanwhile, Faye just sees Cook as an opportunity for love.

As the three of them spend time together, we get the idea that Faye and BV could be very happy together were it not for Cook's influence.

This is the first love triangle we're introduced to.

Now, as we work our way through the movie, the study of desire slowly turns to a story about obsession.

Then, there is betrayal, both in romance and in other, far more personal forms. And at one point, it comes down to simple jealousy.

Next, Cook encounters Rhonda, (Natalie Portman) a shy, young out-of-work kindergarten teacher.

After that, I have no idea what happened because this movie is such a chore to watch that I could not finish it.

My God what a terrible, terrible mess.

I mean, you get to see Iggy, Patti Smith and Lykke Li, but it is not worth it.

I do not even have to the energy left to tell you how bad.

I apologize for making you read all of the above, but I had already gone through the tedious chore of writing it and I did not want it to go to waste.

But if you're a fan of Malick, prepare to be very disappointed.

Very.