A TALKING PICTURE Manoel de Oliveira rehearses his farewell with this cruise around the Mediterranean in the company of a history professor and her young daughter. The tone is bizarrely straightforward, though midway, John Malkovich and three European divas arrive to raise the eccentricity level. A travelogue that imagines the origins and the end of European civilization and amply justifies its title, A Talking Picture has so little vanity it's not even artless. Watching the movie is like getting high on spring water. A Kino release, opens late 2004. J.H.
photo: Tribeca Film Festival
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ZATOICHITakeshi Kitano plays the titular blind swordsman, beloved folk hero of numerous Japanese serials, as a platinum-blond recluse forever chuckling over some private joke (maybe it's that he can actually see?). With its taiko-heavy score and punchily choreographed bursts of torso perforation, Kitano's first period movie repeatedly threatens to turn into a musical, and eventually does, complete with ecstatic, tap-dancing chorus line of samurai, peasant farmers, and cross-dressing geisha. A Miramax release, opens June 4. D.L.
