MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS
Hong Kong, 2007, 111 minutes, Colour.
Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman.
Directed by Wong Kar Wai.
Loneliness, regrets, time wasted. Listening. Journey, trust, hope.
This is a thematic outline of My Blueberry Nights, famed Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s first film made in English and in the US. Sometimes his post-action films make a great impact (In the Mood for Love, The Hand). Sometimes they get critical acclaim but come across as confused, even tedious (2046).
If you let yourself surrender to this one in the early scenes, you will have no difficulty in liking it. It will be rewarding. If you don’t, you may become irritated by its slower pace, its talk and its probing the interior lives of its central characters.
Wong Kar Wai is clearly fascinated by the United States and its people. He is also fascinated by the diversity of locations (from New York to Memphis to Nevada casinos and deserts). His film-making style is distinctive and he uses his frequent, very rich colour pallette (deep blues and reds and yellows) to paint America more brightly (even at night), than we usually see it. He diversifies camera techniques and speeds to keep jogging us on our perceptions of his characters. And the score is by Ry Cooder.
The plot consists of chapters in the journey of Lizzie who will become Beth and, finally, Elizabeth. She is played engagingly by singer Norah Jones. Distraught at the sudden break-up of a five year relationship in New York, she finds herself talking comfortably with a diner manager (a sympathetic Jude Law, as he was in The Holiday). Most of his deserts are sold out and she accepts a piece of blueberry pie – which no one has ordered. He tells her that blueberry pie is good but people make other choices.
She takes to the road and meets an anguished policeman in the Memphis bar as well as the diner where she waitresses. She listens to him. She also listens to his frustrated wife. David Strathairn and a very different Rachel Weisz are excellent. She also comes across a compulsive gambler, played vivaciously by Natalie Portman, and finds that she has become a good listener and a good friend.
It is time to go back to the beginning of the journey and know the place for the first time.
Clearly, Wong Kar Wai is also a romantic.
1.The director and his career? Acclaim? For Chinese audiences? Universal? His themes and style? Appeal?
2.A Chinese perspective on the United States? The journey, the road? Space and distance? The American road? Differences from American-style films?
3.The visual style, colours, rich and deep, bright? Night sequences and brightness? Interiors? The road, the desert? A visual and time perspective?
4.The importance of camera techniques, time-stop motion, speeding, the blur, collage? The effects of this kind of visual perception? The musical score, the songs?
5.The structure: chapters of Elizabeth’s life, the captions of days, times, distances from New York?
6.The prologue and Los Angeles, a destination, the journey fulfilled, time to return? Elizabeth’s memory – exact or not exact?
7.Themes of loneliness, regrets, waste of time? The importance of talking and listening? Trusting or not trusting? Learning hope? A romantic perspective on life?
8.Meeting Lizzie, bereft, waiting, going into the diner, the meeting with Jeremy, her angers, issues of the keys, her boyfriend, the break-up, smashing the bottle? Going to the window and looking in? Her return to the diner, her needs, loneliness, wanting to talk? The relationship of five years? An important person in her life? Cutting her off? Her staying, talking, Jeremy and his friendship, the blueberry pie, the habit of going into the diner?
9.The title, the blueberry pie and nobody choosing it, Jeremy saying people made other choices? Jeremy and his character, his theories about eating, recognising people from what they ate rather than their names? Lizzie’s eating the big pie? The smudge on Lizzie’s face, the kiss – and the recapitulation of the kiss at the end?
10.Jeremy, his skills, the opening, the description of people and their eating habits? His ability to listen? The keys, the jar, the stories of all the keys, his own story, Katya, her leaving, his coming from England and staying, wanting to run in the marathons, wanting to make a diary? His dreams? (And Katya’s later return, the kiss, wondering whether this was a dream?) The video camera and its difficulties, the fight, his blood nose, Lizzie mugged, her bleeding? Watching the videos? His staying in New York, receiving her cards, his comments, phoning the ninety diners – and telling his story, the wrong number, the wrong person? Katya’s return? Waiting for Lizzie?
11.Lizzie, the handle of the door, her not going in, her leaving, going to Memphis, meeting Travis, applying for the job, waitressing, the bar, her second job, hard work, saving money for the car? Her watching Arnie? His loneliness, talking to him, his saying it was his last night, the big tip for the car, his return, the chips from the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings? Discovering Arnie was a policeman, separation from his wife, his not accepting this? On the job, his lunch at the different diner? Lonely, talking? Seeing his wife with the men, his angers, finally confronting her after her telling him off, getting the gun, holding it on her? His driving the car, the crash?
12.Arnie’s wife, her story, Lizzie listening attentively to the story? The long take of the wife and her sadness, telling her story? Marrying at seventeen, the tensions, love, hatred? Arnie’s drinking, the regrets? Travis wanting her to pay Arnie’s tab, her finally paying it, giving the bills as souvenirs? The car, her leaving, a new beginning?
13.Leslie and her style, gambling, her glamorous look, Aloha and his surliness, her giving Beth the tip, the poker face and the game, the other players? Lizzie calling herself Beth? Working at the casino, not knowing whether it was night or day, her meal breaks? Leslie talking with her, the issue of the car, borrowing the money? Leslie and her playing, the audience not knowing the result? Giving Beth the car keys? Driving in the desert, the game about true or false statements, Leslie’s confidence, Beth not able to tell? The phone call about Leslie’s father dying, her not believing it? The night at the motel, the confidential talks? Trust? Leslie getting Beth to go into the hospital, the truth? Beth and her reaction to Leslie’s lies about her father, her grief?
14.The irony of the result, Leslie winning the money, giving the money to Beth, getting Leslie to help buy the car, the bluff about bringing down the price? Trust and hope? Each in their own car waving goodbye?
15.Lizzie, Beth, calling herself Elizabeth? The return to New York, going in to see Jeremy, better in herself, looking better, more confident? The discussions, the blueberry pie, the bond between them? Jeremy kissing her?
16.A road trip, a love story, life and truth?
