Haluk Bilginer continues to make his voice heard all over the world by taking part in international projects. Directed by Pablo Larrain, the movie is based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas. I have no doubt there are many improvements on the soundtrack, but I would have to be a dog to hear them.Haluk Bilginer will star in the movie “Maria” with Angelina Jolie. I do not recall the first film in exact detail, but learn from the ``Star Wars'' Web pages that the look of the Cloud City has been extended and enhanced, and there is more of the Wampa ice creature than before. Perhaps because so much more time and money was spent on ``The Empire Strikes Back'' in the first place, not much has been changed in this restored and spruced-up rerelease. He doesn't die, of course (there is a third movie to be made) he's saved by some sort of chute I still don't understand, only to dangle beneath the Cloud City until his rescue, and a conclusion that only by sheer effort of will doesn't have the words ``To be continued'' superimposed over it. It comes after their protracted (and somewhat disorganized) laser-sword fight, when Luke chooses to fall to his death rather than live to be the son of Vader. Can there be a person alive who does not know (read no further if you are that person) that Luke discovers Darth Vader is his father? But that is not the moment. Then comes the defining moment of the series. There are a couple of amusing subplots, one involving Han's easily wounded male ego, another about Vader's knack of issuing sudden and fatal demotions. Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and C-3PO evade Empire capture by hiding their ship in plain sight and then flee to the Cloud City, ruled by Lando ( Billy Dee Williams), an old pal of Han's and (we learn) the original owner of the Millennium Falcon, before an unlucky card game. Luke and R2-D2 crash-land on the planet Dagobah and Luke is tutored there by Yoda in the ways of the Jedi and the power of the Force. Our heroes have a secret base on Hoth, but flee it after the Empire attack, and then the key characters split up for parallel stories. The Death Star has been destroyed, but Vader, of course, escaped, and now commands the Empire forces in their ascendancy against the Rebels. The second movie's story continues the saga set up in the first film. How can you be a space pilot and not be able to communicate in any meaningful way? Does Han Solo really understand Chew's monotonous noises? Do they have long chats sometimes? Never mind. ![]() This character was thrown into the first film as window dressing, was never thought through, and as a result has been saddled with one facial expression and one mournful yelp. And they did in his range of wisdom and emotion, Yoda may actually give the best performance in the movie. They wanted to make him a good actor, too. But Oz and Lucas were not content to make Yoda realistic. You know intellectually that Yoda is a creature made by Frank Oz in a Muppet shop. And then a cut back to Yoda, whose face reflects a series of emotions: Concern, sadness, a hint of pride. There is a cut to R2-D2 whirling and beeping. Yoda has just sent Luke Skywalker into a dark part of the forest to confront his destiny. That's the kind of detail George Lucas and his team live for. But then hot pieces of it shower down on the snow in the foreground, in soft, wet plops. Consider, for example, an early scene where an Empire ``probe droid'' is fired upon on the ice planet Hoth. The whole world of this story has been devised and constructed in such a way that we're not particularly aware of sets or effects-there's so *much* of this world that it all seems seamless. ![]() There is a generosity in the production design of ``The Empire Strikes Back.'' There are not only the amazing sights there before us, but plenty more in the corners of the screen, or everywhere the camera turns. Or for the vertiginous heights that Luke Skywalker dangles over, after nearly plunging to his death. Or for the face of a creature named Yoda, whose expressions are as convincing as a human's, and as subtle. Or for the Cloud City, on its spire high in the sky. But for such sights as the lumbering, elephantlike Imperial Walkers (was ever a weapon more impractical?). Not for the scenes of space battle, which are more or less standard (there's nothing here to match the hurtling chase through the high walls of the Death Star). Entirely apart from the story and the plot, the film is worth seeing simply for its sights.
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