Lulu On The Bridge

Rating:
Summary: Beware of God
Review: This movie was underrated, not seen, in the US; I saw it in Mexico and was astonished by the exquisite, simple little story and esp. the ambiguous character played by Willem deFoe, was he on a side or not? Additionally, the music is a treasure and apparently not available as a soundtrack. (...)

Rating:
Summary: Great acting, Great story
Review: This was a great story with a great cast (refering to Mira Sorvino and Gina Gershon mostly). It was a touching story and I would willingly watch it again. To anyone who remotely likes Mira or Gina and is in the mood for something different, I would soooooooooooo recomend this film.

Rating:
Summary: Yuck, Yuck and Yuck
Review: Was I supposed to do a reading for this movie? I love fantasy, I love quirky, metaphysical movies, but I need some cooperation from the movie makers! Keitel is WAY TOO old for Sorvino and he needs a girdle, Does he think he is too spritely for Vanessa Redgrave, because I have some news for him...

Rating:
Summary: Aphrodite, metaphysics, and illusion
Review: What is the story about? Jazz saxaphonist, Izzy, is performing with his band and is shot(whether intentionally or accidentally is not clear) by what seems like a crazed man. There is no police follow-up. Obviously this is not important to the theses in the film.
Izzy recovers though he has lost one lung and no longer has the wind power to play the sax, and has lost the use of his right hand fingers, so he cannot key the sax. Am I supposed to think he's a man without an identity? After recovering, Izzy is walking home on a dimly lighted street and comes upon a man with a bullet hole in his forehead, a leather briefcase beside him. Again no mention is ever made of this murder as far as the police are concerned. When Izzy arrives home, he empties the satchel, finds a small box, in it a stone about the size of an egg that glows in the dark. Alongside the dead man there was also a paper napkin with a phone number written on it. Next day he dials the phone number and meets Celia a would be actress waitress.
When the stone glowed, I thought, "Oh, no! Not one of these stories." But I persisted. Izzy did not know Celia or her name, so when she says, "Yes, come on over," I know I'm in a reality different from mine . In the late 20th century a single young girl is going to let an unknown male visit her alone in her aparment. Celia thinks she knows Izzy because he identified himself on the phone and she is listening to a recording of his. Nothing like honesty and trust. Well, Celia holds the glowing stone in the dark of her apartment; and then Izzy does. They are transformed into lovers at first sight. Izzy happens to know the people producing the movie LULU for which Celia is auditioning for a part which she gets because Izzy called his friends. Celia goes to Ireland where the movie is being shot; Izzy will follow in three days__which become a long time.
Stanley Mar, the murdered man, was murdered because he had the stone. Now some toughs find Izzy in his apartment and imprison him in a seemingly abandoned building where he is interrogated in hope of revealing where the stone is. He doesn't reveal it, but the interrogator(daFoe) reveals all the nasty details of Izzy's life. Izzy doesn't reveal anything about the stone because he's protecting Celia who has it in Ireland. Although Izzy hasn't given daFoe a clue, daFoe nevertheless finds Celia in Ireland.
I can't tell you the denouement, but I think it is still in the realm of a reality different from mine. I am not a romantic, so the love story didn't capture me. I'm a materialist(philosophical), so the transformative power of the stone did not capture me. Perhaps the story is about the transformative power of love, but then so is Silas Marner, and no stones, just gold. Where does Aphrodite come in? Well, LULU is a remake of G.W. Pabst's PANDORA'S BOX(1928), which is a very sexy, provocative story, and so Celia is supposed to be in the role of Lulu(Pandora), a femme fatale . And this is why the ending is ambiguous for me__again the reality of the film vs. the reality outside one's mind. This one reqires the "willing suspension of disbelief."
Five stars for the acting, etc.