Film Blog: Breathless

This is the movie that, when I told my friends I was moving to Los Angeles to study film, was on the top of everyone’s suggestion list for me to see. I am starting to see why, but I’m still not sure if I actually enjoyed it or not. Shot in a hand-held, home movie style, Breathless certainly breaks from the normal film structure in that it seems more like a piece of real life than a fabricated Hollywood plot. There is no apparent moral, goal, or clear arch, just a petty thief trying to get away. It really is just a piece of the action, a section of plot that might take up five minutes of any other film. The shooting style adds to this real life quality too: shaky hand held camera, like a home movie, jumpy editing, and characters in awkward situations or dress – not the fancy made up stars that is typical of the era.

As for the main character, Michel (Jean-Paul Belmodno) opens the film with this killer line: “After all, I am an asshole”. This just rubbed me the wrong way, getting me off to a bad start. Then his signature gesture, wiping his lips, just seemed to make him more skeevy and arrogant. I have to assume that this was intention on Godard’s part, but since the story follows Michel, it was an effort to keep watching this character, who until the end kept getting lucky, because I actually thought he was an asshole and deep down was rooting for his demise.

Film Blog: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

For the man who directed one of my favorite movies, Run Lola Run, Tom Tykwer really hit bottom on this one. The magic and sweetness that permeate even the original book seemed to be stripped away for the sake of telling the story, fact for fact, and forgetting the aesthetic the author of the novel, Patrick Suskind, so cleverly creates on the page. My first problem is that nearly the first quarter of the movie is in third person narration, almost like it is being read from the book. The images are beautiful, the characters appropriately costumed with rags or slightly fancy rags and yellow teeth to show that we really are in 18th century France. But as I said before, the magic is missing. We have no idea who the narrator is. The main character (Jean-Baptiste played by Ben Whishaw) rarely speaks – doesn’t for at least the first thirty minutes. This alone makes him into a bit of an outcast and potential threat, but not in a good way. Not in any endearing way that makes me sympathize with him. In addition, of all the facts Tykwer took so faithfully from Suskind’s story, the representation of Jean-Baptiste’s sickness, which is the book is anthrax, is nearly blown over and forgotten. Certainly his subsequent disfiguration from his miraculous survival is not even broached. I can only assume some producer insisted that the character keep his looks – they certainly went to a lot of trouble to cast a gorgeous young man. But for me, this only took away from his likeability. Seeing a youthful, healthy man killing young women (who could probably get them alive) is not the same as seeing a bitter, disfigured young man killing the women he could never have.

My interest did pick up about halfway through the movie, when the characters actually started speaking their own lines instead of being led by the God Voice of the Narrator. But it still seemed like too much ‘fact’ was jammed in, at the expense of the actual feeling of this amazing set of events. The only part that started to capture some of the magic I remember from reading the book was near the end, when Jean-Baptiste steps on the chopping block and wins over the village with the resulting orgy. But without this previously being entrenched in the aesthetic of the film, it seemed kind of shocking and out of place. And then the Narrator steps in to tie up the loose ends, which, especially at this point, I think could have been done just as effectively with no talking, just by Tykwer trusting the images he already has on the screen.

Film Blog: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Atame)

I had a sudden urge the other night to watch an Almodovar movie, and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was the only one that Netflix had streaming and not just on disk. The premise was a little odd (though his movies always are) but I decided to give it a shot. I was not disappointed. Similar to my experience with his hit film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, I was enthralled from the beginning – even with the subtitles that often loose me by the amount of attention I have to pay to a film. The characters were simple, but the story took twists that I could only follow with Almodovar’s superb directing. Ricky (Antonio Banderas) clearly had problems from the opening of the film. The fact that he was being “release” put me immediately on edge. The leading lady, both in the film, and within the film, Marina (Victoria Abril) was not your typical porn star – at least not by American standards. Putting the two together, along with Francisco Rabal as Maximo, the lecherous wheel-chair bound director, and Loles Leon’s Lola the not-as-pretty and overprotective sister, made for a typical crazy and hilarious Almodovar film where the unexpected was bound to happen. Like being kidnapped and tied up to your future husband.

From the beginning the imagery was absolutely captivating. The sudden change of ending of the ‘film’ that leaves Abril swinging like the hand of a clock from the balcony, seeming forever as the camera fades in and out and she just swings, as if to signify her biological clock ticking away. And Banderas, upon finding the bakery, his head revealed to be framed in the ‘O’ of the sign on the glass. Then there is the toy scuba diver. I nearly burst out laughing in anticipation of it swimming into her open legs. And then Almodover just let the camera sit on the image, as he does with a lot of the imagery, just sit and sink in. In addition the gorgeous production design (by Esther Garcia) of an apartment I could only dream of living in, Almodovar used this brilliantly to set up several perfectly balanced shots – mostly with Abril and Banderas splitting the screen right to left – which to me conveyed the power struggle and eventual union of the two as equals. Though unfortunately I knew the resolution from the synopsis, I was satisfied none the less by the journey there. The sisters approval though, that was a surprise. It’s almost like Almodovar is trying to say that there is no right or wrong, you just have to go and see what life throws in your lap.

Film Blog: Hunger Games

I had been so against watching this movie for so long, mostly because of the hype, but I'm really glad I finally caved and watched it. Hunger Games is both thoughtful in its exploration of society and artistic in it’s handling of oppression. It has a little bit of every good sci-fi/action movie rolled into one. The oppressive government with their “peacekeepers” (who look surprisingly like stormtroopers) are reminiscent of the Nazi regime (at least to me), keeping the ‘peace’ through the fear and continual punishment of the game – which also seems to reference the final Egyptian plague in the bible: death of the firstborn. The game itself was futuristic Thunderdome, pitting those who have no reason to fight into mortal combat. Like the Romans, the people of this world thrive on the violence, much like we thrive on violence in film. But I wonder, could we ever revert back to the days of the Romans when this actually was a sport that was desirable to watch? Or does it require that we think of those fighting as ‘less than human’, even as they do in the movie: after seventy-four years society still treats the districts as rebels that need to be punished.

I was also surprised at the James Newton Howard’s haunting score (which I will probably go buy tomorrow) and artistry of the Philip Messina’s production design. I’m not sure if this was Messina or director Gary Ross, but the limited color pallet of pastels (for the crowd in the capitol) combined with the combination 50’s and Edwardian dress was mesmerizing. It made the crowd an absurd mirror of the rich upper class, unreal in both their dress and manor. At times they reminded me of the extras from Rocky Horror, especially in the scene when Rocky is being born. This futuristic design contrasted with the stunning landscapes that aren’t usually seen in either sci-fi or dystopian films.

Film Blog: District 9

I love any faux documentary - I don't call it a mockumentary, because it's anything but mocking.  Especially when it addresses such deeply rooted cultural and racial issues - and even more so when the roles of good and bad get reversed, and there is no seemingly "happy" ending.  "District 9" did all that and more.  Director Neill Blomkamp, born in South Africa where the film takes place, captures the documentary style from beginning to end, complete with quality of the image, shaky camera work, and candid interview style of the unlikely participants of this sad story.

The new history, including racial slurs for the aliens (called "prawns") is cleverly woven into our own reality.  In addition, the setting of South Africa adds another level of reality (at least for myself) when watching it halfway across the world in North America.  It's different than Wil Smith's "Independance Day" which I can disprove just by looking out my window (or I felt like I could when I lived on the East Coast).

Also in documentary style, there is no real ending, much less a happy one, but more of life going on.  Wikus (Sharlto Copley) doesn't die, but he doesn't make it to the ship to get the promised cure either; the alien and his young child do get away, but leave the rest of their poor comrades behind.  Who are then relocated to yet another, smaller, camp (reminiscent of the Japanese interment camps after WWII).  "District 9" leaves the audience with more to think and ponder about how we act as individuals and a culture, though not a lot of hope.

Film Blog: Stan Brackage Pittsburgh Trilogy

Because of L.A. traffic, and faulty google maps, I arrived about fifteen minutes late to this event.  I was surprised to enter to a packed room (though I guess that shouldn't have been a surprise) but more the oppressive silence that literally hurt my ears.  In fact I had never stepped into a room, much less with a performance (film or live) where the audience was that quiet, it was somewhat daunting.  One comment made by guest speaker Werner Herzog: Brackages’ lack of sound was a way of distancing the events from real life, to give the audience another point of view, not wholly in reality (though Brackage never intended for the audience to be completely silent, this apparently confused him).  Even with my love of silent films, this is a new idea for me.  I love sound, and while I appreciate silence, I have never though of using silence as sound.

I had seen clips of some of Brackages work, but because of the noise of my daily life, I guess I never realized that not only did he shoot most of his movies in silence, according to Werner Herzog, Brackage never used recorded even in his sound films.

The first two films really set me up and grounded me for Brackages intent, and what is called in the description "cinematic documentary".  Even with the weight of the silence I was looking through the screen at life as I had not seen it before, first "eyes" in the back of a Pittsburgh police cruiser in 1970, and then in "Deus Ex", an operating room up close and personal.  While "eyes" was pretty straightforward in shooting style, "Deus Ex" re-caught my attention when Brackage began playing with zoom and rack focus, lighting and silhouette, using the life images to make abstract and back again, giving an additional perspective to oddly mundane events.

I had previously seen a clip of the last film, "The Act of Seeing with one's own eyes", and though I didn't continue, something macho inside me said that I could - after all I was raised on violent and gory movies.  But watching the whole film grew hard and tiring, I went through phases of not recognizing the bodies as human, wondering why on earth they were being cut up that way, and even spaced out at points I think because it was just too real.  Afterwards Herzog mentioned that although this was the only one of the three he had seen before tonight, he had somehow blocked out all of the imagery, guessing for his own mental self-preservation.  For me, the images aren't necessarily blocked, and one stands out quite clear as I just can't justify it with life that I know: one of the final images of a purple skinned woman, I have to guess either decomposed or with a layer of fat so when she is slit open there is yellow adipose underneath.

When I was a kid, my friends and I used too skin road-kill at our school.  We got quite good at it, and I recognized the technique the doctors used to separate the skin from the body.  Another way I distanced myself from the reality of these images was by thinking of the animals, not humans, the road-kill, not by our own hand, that we skinned in a similar way.

Film Blog: Escape from L.A.

John Carpenter's "Escape from L.A." is one of the cheesiest movies I have ever seen, and I loved it!  There are so many cultural and movie references in Carpenter's film, I'm not sure if I even caught all of them - but the overload added a familiarity that made "Escape from L.A." thoroughly enjoyable despite the predictable plot and weak dialog.

Since moving to Los Angeles, I have a new appreciation for movies poking fun at the City of Angels - but I suppose I have that soft spot for movies about any place I've live ("Super Troopers" when I lived in Vermont; "Canadian Bacon" after living in Canada; and any number of movies about Boston.)

            The premise for this movie was typical many post-apocalyptic, disaster movies: The Big One had finally come, and for some reason this had turned society on-end causing the United States to turn into a dictator-military state, and Los Angeles to sink into the moral demise that it had always been heading towards.  I find this cultural stereotype interesting as my personal experience with Los Angeles is that most people are nice and accepting to a fault, or the most self-centered people I have ever met.  It seems to be a city of extremes, and I rarely find a middle ground.

There are a variety of other cultural stereotypes that this movie pokes fun at, from the brief foray into Beverly Hills - Bruce Campbell's cameo as the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills nearly made me fall out of my seat laughing, as did the premise that the entire area had turned into a Frankenstein-esque laboratory, harvesting body parts to support the rich and famous as the cost of their extravagant plastic surgery had finally caught up with them.

Other L.A. references included the brief time in Koreatown; that one part of the 101 that is always backed up - even at the slowest of times; and even the short lived female side-kick whose "moral crime" was being Muslim in the mid-west (this movie was made before 911 and I can't help but of Caprenter's foreshadowing of future cultural-religious tensions).

I also couldn't help but notice the main villain, Cuervo Jones' (Georges Corraface) resemblance to Che Guevara, infamous South American revolutionary.  Jones, with the U.S.'s dictator/president's rebellious daughter in tow, acts out a combination Thunderdome and Roman coliseum, forcing our main hero, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to play basketball for his life.  Of course (similar to Mad Max) no one has ever survived this challenge.  And of course, Russell does.  Not knowing what to do with this, Corraface orders him killed anyway (like any good villain) and so begins the last act of the movie, and the build to the climax of any good disaster movie: the chase to the end.

Of course everything works out, in a way.  The virus was a fake (obviously, it's stated several times and Russell has no apparent symptoms), and Russell manages to save the girl and the world by destroying technology and sending mankind back to a pre-technological society.  Lights out on the industrial era, and on any future for another in this series?  Or maybe Carpenter's next installment will include dinosaurs?

Film Blog: Vertigo

Okay, this was definitely not the right movie to watch late at night, when I still had to go out into the dark to fetch my laundry.  I haven't seen much of Hitchcock's work, but I'm convinced that even without the new modern movie effects, his master understanding of the underlying human psychosis is more terrifying than any Hollywood monster or high budget special effects.

I was completely taken with John Ferguson's (Jimmy Stewart) psychological journey as he went slowly insane.  And though I know logically why Judy (Kim Novak) allowed herself to be changed to fit the model of Stewart's dead lover, watching each step as she allowed Stewart to create mold her into the "perfect woman" made my skin crawl with ever last step.  Especially in an age when society bombards us with images of "perfection," Novak's submission to being changed from curvy brunette to thin and blond shows that the struggle against stereotypes of beauty was just as prevalent then as it is now.  This particular theme reminds me of Barbet Schroader's 1992 film, "Single White Female" where the new roommate changes her appearance so completely that the audience feels like they are looking at twins.  There is something very disturbing in seeing that type of transformation take place before your eyes.

Hitchcock weaves in personal point of view with the narrative story, using abstract images show the development of Stewart's internal psychosis, and allowing the audience to feel a little of what Stewart is feeling.  As a whole, the movie itself is based in circles and spirals, from the beginning close up of the woman's eye, transitioning into the spiral and back to the eye; the spiral staircase that was the symbol of Stewart's vertigo; and even the circular plot: beginning with the story of Carlotta, played out by the later to be found out fake wife (Novak), and then played out third time when Stewart discovers his new lover's secret.  Three times, three deaths, round and round.

Film Blog: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I'm a huge fan of Jim Carey, and of the psychologically ambiguous plot, but for some reason had missed this movie until now.  I knew it wasn't his usually slapstick that had given him his reputation, and I was excited to see Carey move from comedy to drama so effortlessly.

"Eternal Sunshine" appears to start out as a linear love story, the down and out story of two lost souls who are drawn together by fate - well, the last part is, fate, is certainly true.  But when the plot takes a turn and we discover that Clementine (Kate Winslet) has gone so far as to actually have her ex-boyfriend Joel (Jim Carey) erased from her memory, it's clear there's going to be more to the story.

The movie takes us on a journey through Joel's memories, and both he and the audience realize that however bad a relationship, there are usually more good times than bad.  And even the bad memories are precious to us, they make us who we are, and maybe the pain we feel in remembering is necessary to moving on - as opposed to the forgetting.

As Joel and Clementine (his memory of her) race to hide her deep within his psychosis, we the audience cheer him on, and it is a sad moment when the last hint of her is erased from his mind, at least we think it is.  But what this movie seems to say is that no matter how hard we try to forget, love will bring us together again and again.  And if two people are meant to be, they will just keep bumping into each other, repeating the same mistakes.  Or, we can use the benefit of our memories and experience to move on and start fresh, acknowledging our mistakes and making our lives better.

Film Blog: The Exorcist

Oddly, I first got interested in seeing this movie after going to see Exorcistic: The Rock Musical Parody Experiment at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival.  As a child, I didn't watched horror movies, but lately I have been easing into the classics (which I find much more bearable and intelligent than some of the more recent slasher movies out there).

I knew at least the basics of the plot from seeing the stage parody, but I was really curious to see how it played on the screen.  I was particularly intrigued by connection with demonic possession and Regan's coming of age sexually - which I guess shouldn't have been such a surprise given the long history of religion vs. sexuality.  I did appreciate the arch the mother took to eventually get to even seeking help from the priest, I thought both her character's lack of religion and the priests sordid past were more realistic than the "evil" priest that might be portrayed if this movie was made today.

I was a little confused by the beginning sequence in Egypt.  The main object that was found on the dig didn't have any pay off, and though I saw the connection with the charm being found by their house I couldn't track how it got there, or really why it was important - the statuette seemed much more significant.  From the little I've seen of movies with possession, it seems they all have to start out with someone desecrating a tomb in Ancient Egypt, which gets a little repetitive after a while.

And though I knew the end (from the stage play) I was still satisfied with the not-quite-happy ending, the sacrifice of the flawed hero, and especially with the non-ending - life goes on, and who knows what will happen next.