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Millennium Actress (2001)
Directed by Satoshi Kon
[Rated PG] 1hr 27min
★★★★★
Millennium Actress is an animated romance drama about a fictional movie star who recounts her life and career to two filmmakers for her first interview in decades now that the film studio she once worked at is being demolished.
This is a beautiful film that perfectly highlights the impact that cinema can have on people’s lives. Both the narrative and visual style blur the lines between reality, memory, and movies, which effectively conveys the emotions that are experienced by those who make films and those who watch them. The story effortlessly flows between various levels of storytelling as it connects the actress’ past with the plots of the films she has made and contextualizes them from her perspective in the present day. As a result, this film offers a thoughtful reflection on how actors incorporate their own life experiences into their roles and how audiences can then be profoundly influenced by the actors’ performances they see on screen.
I highly recommend Millennium Actress to anyone who’s involved in any aspect of filmmaking as well as anyone who enjoys films as a artistic medium. It’s such a genuine love letter to movies, the people who make them, and the audiences who watch them that it’s easy to feel this film’s passion for everything involving cinema.
Millennium Actress is currently available to stream for free on Pluto TV (original Japanese version with English subtitles) and on Plex (English dubbed version). Click here to watch the Official Trailer.
– Review by Will Hopper
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