animated anniversaries at the Brattle
one of the Boston area’s handful of wonderful arthouse cinemas, the Brattle on Brattle St in Harvard square, natch) is screening a series of animated films on their notable anniversaries: Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, Rintaro’s Metropolis, and Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress are all celebrating their 25th together (2001! what a year!), and Bruno Bozzetto’s Allegro Non Troppo is 50! the showtimes were fortuitous for me to make a double feature of Spirited Away and Millennium Actress, both of which i’d seen before, but not recently, and neither on the big screen. spoiler alert: they’re great!
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
what a magnificent film! they could have gotten away with so much less lush detail and still had something pretty good, but instead they chose to just knock it out of the park every time. i think what stuck with me the most watching it for the first time in a few years (and the first time ever in a theater!) is how much music there is- almost every moment is soundtracked with a score that’s constantly changing to reflect what happens. the attention to detail is nearly as stunning as the parents’ monumental stupidity
5/5 stars
Millennium Actress (Satoshi Kon, 2001)
Satoshi Kon was such a master of blending reality, memory, dream, and fiction. Susumu Hirasawa’s music, as always, moves through me like lightning. this one is more grounded than the work Kon’s most well known for, but it packs just as strong an emotional punch, and i hope more people get a chance to see it. that last shot, with the annihilating noise of the rocket, is so beautiful, especially on the big screen.
5/5 stars