First and foremost, an absorbing, original idea. Then a good script with sharp repartees. Then the cinematography. Then the direction. Then the sounds. Then the clothes. And finally, the cast.
In that same order. Though sometimes the cast bit skips upwards to fifth place.
Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English was marvellous.
Absorbing idea, check. Good script, check. Great cinematography, check. Good direction, check. Swell tracks, check. Parker Posey's, Melvil Poupaud's wardrobes, you want to raid them I tell you. Stellar cast, check.
Best thing about Broken English? It's got an ending I can believe in. No and-so-they-live-happily-ever-after. I hate those. There are no such things as happy endings lah. I think Hans Christian Andersen was just delusional. Either that, or he's just one idealistic bastard.
P.S Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Tim Burton, Michel Gondry, Christopher Nolan, Wim Wenders: Please make more films. So I'll have a ball of a time at The Picturehouse and Cinema Europa. :)
