german-ish movie thoughts

It has been more and more difficult to find my kind of movies as I am aging.
Even though as I am aging, my kind of movies are changing, I expect that movie makers are creative and ahead of time so that there should always be someone who makes incredible arts on the big screen.

At the beginning, I liked 85% of the movies I saw. I saw at least 2 movies a week in that phase.
The next phase, I became picky. I decided whether to see a movie based on the actors who play in it. Although I did this screening before hand, the proportion of the movie I liked decreased.
The next phase, which is the present, I follow my instinct of how I feel when seeing a trailer or preview. If I like the trailer, I will pay attention to what a critic says in their first sentence of their criticism. If it gives me a good impression, I will see the movie.
Or I listen to friends' conversations . I know my taste is like someone and is not like someone else. If this someone else says he likes a certain movie, then I will not see the movie. Simple as that. Usually it works very well.

Recently, I want to develop the ability to memorize the names of the directors of movies that I like very much. I have this skill when it comes to Chinese-speaking movies. But I watch way more English-speaking movies than Chinese ones, I should have started memorizing names way back at the age of 12.
In particular, many young directors have made me fall in love with movies in a whole new different level.

Let me list 5 of my favorites. These are movies I saw after I left Taipei. I put them in a random order.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind --- by Michel Gondry
2. Thank You for Smoking --- by Jason Reitman
3. Little Miss Sunshine --- by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
4. Before Sunset --- by Richard Linklater
5. Something's Gotta Give --- by Nancy Meyers

Brokeback Mountain is not on the list, not because it is not one of my favorite, but because I know Lee Ang's work very well already. His name is easy to remember too because he is a Taiwanese Chinese-speaking film maker.

Today I am gonna remember another name, Marc Forster.
Actually "Stranger than Fiction" is not the first movie I saw from him. I saw "Finding Neverland" but was not so impressed.

"Stranger than Fiction" is a piece of Modern Art. It is like an afternoon walk in MoMA. If you know me, you know how much I love MoMA. (I also like the floors of MoMA. Tango on it makes me romantic.)
The story is novel.
The acting is just perfect.
The music is just right.
The visual effect is a bonus, not distracting at all.
I had expected seeing a light just-seeing movie. It turned out that this piece was so tasteful and I hated to turn off the TV. Visually, auditorially, and mentally, it was a great treat for a cold pre-spring Saturday.

Of course, I watched the special features too. They called it "extra" in the DVD.
Then I saw the image of the director.
He is a nice-, smart-, attractive-looking guy. He gives me a message that I will like his work. Period. His appearance is sincerely telling people that he knows what he is doing and that people trust him.
Of course, I imdb it and rated it. On imdb, I learned that Marc Forster is German with New York English accent.

I like Germans, I have found.
German men are handsome in nature. They also know how to present themselves in a not too gentleman and lightly humorous, witty way.
I like to see, or rather, observe them. How they talk, walk, shake hands, use hand gesture in talking, dress themselves, and attend to a conversation are so my type.
Most Germans I know are blond with blue eyes. But this does not mean that I like blond hair and blue eyes. It is what those eyes give forth that is attractive. They listen to you with eyes. They speak with their body figures. They nod with a sincere smile.

Well.. I lost my train of thoughts on movies.