Wild Strawberries (Bergman, 1957)
This is a film I hadn't seen since I was a teenager and had different expectations from movies, so I might as well have never seen it. Wild Strawberries might be in the top ten of all time in terms of pscyhological character development. The film opens with the very famous dream sequence where the man sees the clock with no hands and himself in a coffin. He's a man in his seventies being honored for a lifetime of academic achievement, and his mortality is hitting him in the face all at once. He looks back and sees his life in a whole different light. He drove everybody close to him away by keeping a cold, rational distance from everyone to suit his intellectual pride. He judges himself and makes a new effort to connect to the people in his life. There isn't really much more to say about it than that without getting into a deeper scene by scene analysis of the imagery and dialog, because despite the nuanced character development, Wild Strawberries is a very simple film. Bergman doing what Bergman does best.
Rating: **** 1/2 / 5
51/101
Others:
Dogville ** / 5
I like the concept of this film more than I like the actual film. The set looks like the set of a high school play. It's a big flat black board with props drawn in chalk on the ground. The problem is, the plot is like a high school play except R rated, and it's so long (Almost three hours) it can be hard to get through. A woman on the run from the mob comes upon a small mountain town called Dogville and is helped by one of it's people who enlists the rest of the town to help her. She helps them out and gains their trust. But after they realize it's dangerous to keep her and she has nowhere else to go, their ugliness starts to come out. They start to feel more and more entitled to take whatever they want from her, to the point they treat her like a slave or an animal. Then at the end, after you see this poor girl being exploited for three hours, through her moralizing she turns out to be just as depraved and barbaric as the townsfolk. Again, a wonderful concept for a movie. But it's just too long to be so simple and very boring to sit through.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
#25: City Lights
City Lights (Chaplin, 1931)
Chaplin movies are so simple there's not a whole lot to say about them. Chaplin is the master of physical comedy in silent films, and he's got a grudge against those who consider themselves 'High society'. In this one he plays (Shockingly) a poor man who doesn't fit in with rich society. He meets a blind woman and falls in love with her, and she thinks he's rich because he was driving the car of a rich man he lucked into talking out of suicide. Problem is, the rich guy can only recognize him when he's drunk, so when the blind woman needs money to avoid being evicted, he has to desparately try to get her money. It's all very funny and a nice little story, and ends up in a very memorable final scene.
Rating: **** / 5
50/101
Halfway there and it's only May. That's a good pace. I found Pather Panchali, the hardest one to find left, cheap on VHS. (It would have been like $70 on DVD. No.)
Others:
Elephant: ** 1/2 / 5
A realistic film that follows a day of school that ends with a Columbine style shooting. In the first hour of the film the kind of actors they got worked in the film's favor. But then when there are kids marching through the halls with guns, nobody seems to emotionally react very much. I don't see the terror, or the panic. People walk toward the sound of gunfire instead of away from it. People have a gun in their face and calmly say "Please don't do this. Please don't do this". The acting just doesn't make me feel the tragedy.
New films:
Mother and Child: 7/10
One of the most emotional films I've seen in a while. It follows two main characters. a 51 year old woman who had a baby when she was 14, and her daughter she's never met. Both have severe social dysfunctions. The mother is overly demanding a drives everyone away, and the daughter avoids any long term relationships altogether because she doesn't want anyone to expect anything from her. Based on the adoption contract, the only way for them to get in contact with each other is for one to leave a letter that the other can receive if she ever comes looking. Both of them sort of secretly want to meet each other but avoid seeking each other out. Parts of the film are very happy, other parts are very sad, and the entire resolution is emotionally moving.
Chaplin movies are so simple there's not a whole lot to say about them. Chaplin is the master of physical comedy in silent films, and he's got a grudge against those who consider themselves 'High society'. In this one he plays (Shockingly) a poor man who doesn't fit in with rich society. He meets a blind woman and falls in love with her, and she thinks he's rich because he was driving the car of a rich man he lucked into talking out of suicide. Problem is, the rich guy can only recognize him when he's drunk, so when the blind woman needs money to avoid being evicted, he has to desparately try to get her money. It's all very funny and a nice little story, and ends up in a very memorable final scene.
Rating: **** / 5
50/101
Halfway there and it's only May. That's a good pace. I found Pather Panchali, the hardest one to find left, cheap on VHS. (It would have been like $70 on DVD. No.)
Others:
Elephant: ** 1/2 / 5
A realistic film that follows a day of school that ends with a Columbine style shooting. In the first hour of the film the kind of actors they got worked in the film's favor. But then when there are kids marching through the halls with guns, nobody seems to emotionally react very much. I don't see the terror, or the panic. People walk toward the sound of gunfire instead of away from it. People have a gun in their face and calmly say "Please don't do this. Please don't do this". The acting just doesn't make me feel the tragedy.
New films:
Mother and Child: 7/10
One of the most emotional films I've seen in a while. It follows two main characters. a 51 year old woman who had a baby when she was 14, and her daughter she's never met. Both have severe social dysfunctions. The mother is overly demanding a drives everyone away, and the daughter avoids any long term relationships altogether because she doesn't want anyone to expect anything from her. Based on the adoption contract, the only way for them to get in contact with each other is for one to leave a letter that the other can receive if she ever comes looking. Both of them sort of secretly want to meet each other but avoid seeking each other out. Parts of the film are very happy, other parts are very sad, and the entire resolution is emotionally moving.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
#75: Fanny and Alexander
Fanny And Alexander (Bergman, 1982)
I have so much to say about this one. It's gonna be hard to keep it short. Fanny and Alexander is a late career Bergman film that comes off as a reflection on his whole career. It's supposedly semi-autobiographical and touches on death, religion, spirits, affluence, theater, psychology and perception, and basically all the major themes that formed the basis for his career.
Fanny and Alexander are children of an actor who dies at the beginning of the film. They've spent all their lives in a large mansion with their expansive, wealthy family. But after their father dies, her mother marries a bishop, who insists they cut all ties to their former life. The mother doesn't want to force this on them, but the bishop imposes himself and cuts off all the contact they have with the rest of their family. The mother decides she wants to leave him, but she is unable to because he threatens to sue her for abandonment and take her children. When she sneaks off to spend time with her family, the bishop imposes very harsh Christian punishments. He locks them in their bedroom all day, and he beats Alexander with a cane or forces him to sleep in the attic without food for the slightest infraction. Because of all of this, Alexander wishes for the bishop to die a painful death.
As harshly as the priest is portrayed for the large part of the film in retrospect he's portrayed a little more charitably, and that all ties in to the notion of 'The small world' versus 'The big world' brought up through the film. At the beginning, the father refers to the stage as the 'Little world', and says 'Through the little world, we can be diverted from the big world, or perhaps attain a greater understanding of it'. That line comes off as Bergman speaking directly to his audience, reflecting on film. But later on, the childrens' uncle refers to their sheltered lives in the big luxurious mansion as 'The little world', and says that people get angry and hateful when their little world is taken away from them. Our own personal worlds we live in are a form of stage, and we can't handle having our illusions taken away. The children couldn't live without their version of the world, and it made them wish death to another human being. But at the same time, the bishop's behavior is explained away as just a reflection of the way he was raised. Bergman lets the bad guy off the hook.
Fanny and Alexander could have been Bergman's last film, and if it had been, it would have been the perfect swan song for him, just as Ran was the perfect swan song for Kurosawa.
Rating: ***** / 5
49/101
Others:
Raising Arizona: **** 1/2 / 5
This film seems like it was the inspiration for the show My Name Is Earl. A ex-con who finds out his wife is barren kidnaps a child from a family that had quintuplets. He tries to change his nature and become a better man, and finds he keeps being drawn back to his old behavior. The film manages to tread the line of being funny, entertaining, human and emotional all at the same time.
Law Of Desire: *** / 5
Having seen many of Almodovar's films, I knew he had explicitly sexual dialog, and many of his characters were homosexuals or transsexuals. Still, Law of Desire (One of his earlier films) shocked me with how explicit it was in all of those regards. Basically, a man moves away from a man he loves, and starts up an affair with another man. He still exchanges letters with the first man, but his new lover goes and murders the old lover, out of a desire to possess him. What strikes me the most about Almodovar films is that characters take all these things that we consider controversial and edgy and treat them like they're just a normal fact of nature. It strips away the political aspect of these themes and just tells a love story.
New movies:
Robin Hood: 4/10
Robin Hood is yet another 'Franchise reboot'. It covers all the events that happened prior to what we consider to be the Robin Hood mythology. Robin Hood is reimagined as a willful ultra-masculine principled idealist. This movie was intended to be the 'Batman Begins' or 'Casino Royale' of Robin Hood, and replace the camp with grit. The first half of the film is very successful in doing so, but as the film moves on it becomes more and more cheesy and predictable. And then when they made Maid Marion into a fully modern woman who led troops into battle (Even though it took place in 12th century England), it dispelled all the 'gritty realism' the film earned in the first hour.
I have so much to say about this one. It's gonna be hard to keep it short. Fanny and Alexander is a late career Bergman film that comes off as a reflection on his whole career. It's supposedly semi-autobiographical and touches on death, religion, spirits, affluence, theater, psychology and perception, and basically all the major themes that formed the basis for his career.
Fanny and Alexander are children of an actor who dies at the beginning of the film. They've spent all their lives in a large mansion with their expansive, wealthy family. But after their father dies, her mother marries a bishop, who insists they cut all ties to their former life. The mother doesn't want to force this on them, but the bishop imposes himself and cuts off all the contact they have with the rest of their family. The mother decides she wants to leave him, but she is unable to because he threatens to sue her for abandonment and take her children. When she sneaks off to spend time with her family, the bishop imposes very harsh Christian punishments. He locks them in their bedroom all day, and he beats Alexander with a cane or forces him to sleep in the attic without food for the slightest infraction. Because of all of this, Alexander wishes for the bishop to die a painful death.
As harshly as the priest is portrayed for the large part of the film in retrospect he's portrayed a little more charitably, and that all ties in to the notion of 'The small world' versus 'The big world' brought up through the film. At the beginning, the father refers to the stage as the 'Little world', and says 'Through the little world, we can be diverted from the big world, or perhaps attain a greater understanding of it'. That line comes off as Bergman speaking directly to his audience, reflecting on film. But later on, the childrens' uncle refers to their sheltered lives in the big luxurious mansion as 'The little world', and says that people get angry and hateful when their little world is taken away from them. Our own personal worlds we live in are a form of stage, and we can't handle having our illusions taken away. The children couldn't live without their version of the world, and it made them wish death to another human being. But at the same time, the bishop's behavior is explained away as just a reflection of the way he was raised. Bergman lets the bad guy off the hook.
Fanny and Alexander could have been Bergman's last film, and if it had been, it would have been the perfect swan song for him, just as Ran was the perfect swan song for Kurosawa.
Rating: ***** / 5
49/101
Others:
Raising Arizona: **** 1/2 / 5
This film seems like it was the inspiration for the show My Name Is Earl. A ex-con who finds out his wife is barren kidnaps a child from a family that had quintuplets. He tries to change his nature and become a better man, and finds he keeps being drawn back to his old behavior. The film manages to tread the line of being funny, entertaining, human and emotional all at the same time.
Law Of Desire: *** / 5
Having seen many of Almodovar's films, I knew he had explicitly sexual dialog, and many of his characters were homosexuals or transsexuals. Still, Law of Desire (One of his earlier films) shocked me with how explicit it was in all of those regards. Basically, a man moves away from a man he loves, and starts up an affair with another man. He still exchanges letters with the first man, but his new lover goes and murders the old lover, out of a desire to possess him. What strikes me the most about Almodovar films is that characters take all these things that we consider controversial and edgy and treat them like they're just a normal fact of nature. It strips away the political aspect of these themes and just tells a love story.
New movies:
Robin Hood: 4/10
Robin Hood is yet another 'Franchise reboot'. It covers all the events that happened prior to what we consider to be the Robin Hood mythology. Robin Hood is reimagined as a willful ultra-masculine principled idealist. This movie was intended to be the 'Batman Begins' or 'Casino Royale' of Robin Hood, and replace the camp with grit. The first half of the film is very successful in doing so, but as the film moves on it becomes more and more cheesy and predictable. And then when they made Maid Marion into a fully modern woman who led troops into battle (Even though it took place in 12th century England), it dispelled all the 'gritty realism' the film earned in the first hour.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
#16: L'atalante
L'atalante (Vigo, 1934)
L'atalante is one of the TSPDT top 100 that you can't find on DVD in the US. I had to buy a VHS copy on ebay. The particular copy I got was in circulation at the Seattle library in 1990. I was surprised when I put it in and it still played. Watching a film on an old VHS tape reminded me how much better DVDs are.
It's one of those films in the vein of Sunrise that tries to tell a love story that's universal to the human condition. Those stories, of course, seem far less universal when you watch them from a perspecitve after the cultural revolution. The story is that a girl from a small village marries the captain of a shipping vessel and leaves her home. The girl wants to see big cities, make a lot of new friends, and have a lot of new experiences. The guy is possessive and jealous and flips out when she tries to do anything that isn't sit around on the ship and be a wife. Later she sneaks off the ship to go see Paris, and the guy gets angry and leaves. When she's gone, he remembers how much he loves her.
Similar to Sunrise, this would never happen this way in a modern context. If a man behaved the way the man behaved, the woman would probably tell him to go frack himself. In a time when we've disregarded the notion of women's lives being possessed by their husbands, it's harder to connect with these films. It helps in Sunrise that the cinematography and scene staging are good enough to draw you in on their own accord. For L'atalante, that isn't the case, and the result is the film coming off like a historical relic.
Rating: *** 1/2 / 5
48/101
Others:
Spider: **** / 5
With the other Cronenberg films I've seen (History of Violence, the one with the twins), I tend to like what Cronenberg is trying to do but not be able to connect with the result. Spider explores the personal history of a schizophrenic man, and with the twist at the end, really draws me in like the other two didn't.
New films:
Please Give: 8/10
The film centers around a family that sells antiques they bought from the families of recently deceased, and a family whose belligerent 91 year old grandmother is the first family's neighbor. It's a multilinear story and a black comedy. The antique selling mother is always trying to do good for others, but in subtly hypocritical ways. She gives fives and twenties to homeless people on the street but won't give her daughter with serious self esteem issues the money to buy clothes to make her feel good about herself. The film is entertaining and funny, but also manages to make very poignant satire about current times.
L'atalante is one of the TSPDT top 100 that you can't find on DVD in the US. I had to buy a VHS copy on ebay. The particular copy I got was in circulation at the Seattle library in 1990. I was surprised when I put it in and it still played. Watching a film on an old VHS tape reminded me how much better DVDs are.
It's one of those films in the vein of Sunrise that tries to tell a love story that's universal to the human condition. Those stories, of course, seem far less universal when you watch them from a perspecitve after the cultural revolution. The story is that a girl from a small village marries the captain of a shipping vessel and leaves her home. The girl wants to see big cities, make a lot of new friends, and have a lot of new experiences. The guy is possessive and jealous and flips out when she tries to do anything that isn't sit around on the ship and be a wife. Later she sneaks off the ship to go see Paris, and the guy gets angry and leaves. When she's gone, he remembers how much he loves her.
Similar to Sunrise, this would never happen this way in a modern context. If a man behaved the way the man behaved, the woman would probably tell him to go frack himself. In a time when we've disregarded the notion of women's lives being possessed by their husbands, it's harder to connect with these films. It helps in Sunrise that the cinematography and scene staging are good enough to draw you in on their own accord. For L'atalante, that isn't the case, and the result is the film coming off like a historical relic.
Rating: *** 1/2 / 5
48/101
Others:
Spider: **** / 5
With the other Cronenberg films I've seen (History of Violence, the one with the twins), I tend to like what Cronenberg is trying to do but not be able to connect with the result. Spider explores the personal history of a schizophrenic man, and with the twist at the end, really draws me in like the other two didn't.
New films:
Please Give: 8/10
The film centers around a family that sells antiques they bought from the families of recently deceased, and a family whose belligerent 91 year old grandmother is the first family's neighbor. It's a multilinear story and a black comedy. The antique selling mother is always trying to do good for others, but in subtly hypocritical ways. She gives fives and twenties to homeless people on the street but won't give her daughter with serious self esteem issues the money to buy clothes to make her feel good about herself. The film is entertaining and funny, but also manages to make very poignant satire about current times.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
#57: North By Northwest
North By Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)
Hitchcock's most mainstream film, North By Northwest revolves around certain iconic scenes. The cropduster, the fight on Mt Rushmore, and other scenes seem designed to be put in trailors and parodied for years. The main character is played by Cary Grant, Mister Handsome of the 40s through 60s. They worked really hard to put butts in movie theater seats belonging to people who would not otherwise be interested in psychological thrillers. The plot is a pretty typical Hitchcock plot. A man being hunted by criminals mistaking him for a government spy, who meets a woman involved in a multi-layered net of deception. It takes basically the average plot across on Hitchcock movies and gives it the gloss and production value of a Hollywood film.
This mainstream production is a mixed bag. It makes it more fun and entertaining than other Hitchcock films, but it also makes it less psychologically interesting and harder to suspend disbelief. For instance, the crop duster scene. I work for a crime syndicate and manage to send a person I believe to be a government spy to an isolated location alone. I want to kill him. What's my weapon of choice? A crop duster! Because it's way easier and more likely to succeed to run an airplane into somebody than to just drive by with a machine gun! The scenes most designed to broaden the appeal of the movie are the scenes that come off as the silliest. The effect is, North by Northwest is the Hitchcock movie you watch if all you're in the mood for is light entertainment. Which, sometimes you are. But if you're looking for something as psychologically interesting as Vertigo or Strangers on a Train, you'll be disappointed.
Rating: *** / 5
47/101
Next: L'atalante
Others:
Hannah and Her Sisters **** / 5
A pretty typical Woody Allen film. It revolves around three sisters and their present and past husbands. Woody Allen's character used to be married to Hannah, and now Michael Caine's character is. Woody Allen has some unexplained hearing loss, and has to go in for a CAT scan. He's told it might be cancer in the worst case scenario, but it turns out he's totally fine, which sets him off on an existential crisis. Michael Caine's character is attracted to one of Hannah's sisters, and they have an affair. It's a good film, but nothing that stands out from Woody Allen's other films.
New films:
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird: 6/10
A Korean take on The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good is a man trying to kill the bad guy for being the notorious 'Finger chopper'. The Bad is a sadist trying to prove he's the best. The Weird is a bandit who's only in it for the money. Like the original it all ends up in a three way duel at the treasure site, with a very different genre-defying result. Based on it's connection with The Good, The Bad and the Ugly I expected a gunslinging tour de force. The problem is, the Good and Bad are kind of boring, and the only interesting character is The Weird. The action scenes are cool but the parts of the movie that aren't action scenes are boring. Overall it's worth seeing but nothing special.
Hitchcock's most mainstream film, North By Northwest revolves around certain iconic scenes. The cropduster, the fight on Mt Rushmore, and other scenes seem designed to be put in trailors and parodied for years. The main character is played by Cary Grant, Mister Handsome of the 40s through 60s. They worked really hard to put butts in movie theater seats belonging to people who would not otherwise be interested in psychological thrillers. The plot is a pretty typical Hitchcock plot. A man being hunted by criminals mistaking him for a government spy, who meets a woman involved in a multi-layered net of deception. It takes basically the average plot across on Hitchcock movies and gives it the gloss and production value of a Hollywood film.
This mainstream production is a mixed bag. It makes it more fun and entertaining than other Hitchcock films, but it also makes it less psychologically interesting and harder to suspend disbelief. For instance, the crop duster scene. I work for a crime syndicate and manage to send a person I believe to be a government spy to an isolated location alone. I want to kill him. What's my weapon of choice? A crop duster! Because it's way easier and more likely to succeed to run an airplane into somebody than to just drive by with a machine gun! The scenes most designed to broaden the appeal of the movie are the scenes that come off as the silliest. The effect is, North by Northwest is the Hitchcock movie you watch if all you're in the mood for is light entertainment. Which, sometimes you are. But if you're looking for something as psychologically interesting as Vertigo or Strangers on a Train, you'll be disappointed.
Rating: *** / 5
47/101
Next: L'atalante
Others:
Hannah and Her Sisters **** / 5
A pretty typical Woody Allen film. It revolves around three sisters and their present and past husbands. Woody Allen's character used to be married to Hannah, and now Michael Caine's character is. Woody Allen has some unexplained hearing loss, and has to go in for a CAT scan. He's told it might be cancer in the worst case scenario, but it turns out he's totally fine, which sets him off on an existential crisis. Michael Caine's character is attracted to one of Hannah's sisters, and they have an affair. It's a good film, but nothing that stands out from Woody Allen's other films.
New films:
The Good, The Bad, and The Weird: 6/10
A Korean take on The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good is a man trying to kill the bad guy for being the notorious 'Finger chopper'. The Bad is a sadist trying to prove he's the best. The Weird is a bandit who's only in it for the money. Like the original it all ends up in a three way duel at the treasure site, with a very different genre-defying result. Based on it's connection with The Good, The Bad and the Ugly I expected a gunslinging tour de force. The problem is, the Good and Bad are kind of boring, and the only interesting character is The Weird. The action scenes are cool but the parts of the movie that aren't action scenes are boring. Overall it's worth seeing but nothing special.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
#36: Chinatown
Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)
I've got a love/hate relationship with Polanski films. On one hand the writing is really incredible and they always have really good casts. On the other hand, all the ones I've seen have featured well intentioned but cynical men investigating some massive conspiracy on their own and causing more harm than good. The conspiracies aren't always entirely plausible. It's like he takes corruption stories from the news, approaches them with zero skepticism and stretches them out to their logical extremes.
In the case of Chinatown, it's okay, becuase Jack Nicholson is awesome. He plays the part of the well intentioned cynical PI thinking he can take on corruption on his own so well, you can suspend disbelief more easily than you can for a movie like Ghost Writer. Chinatown also has more than it's share of iconic scenes that have been parody fodder for years.
Another reason it's easier to suspend disbelief for a movie like Chinatown than one like The Ghost Writer is the setting. It takes place in the 1930s during the expansion and development of Los Angeles, and uses that setting to deconstruct the noir genre. In old PI films, you can always tell who the bad guys are. They're always cackling evilly, they've got giant scars, they're running around murdering people in cold blood. The villains in Chinatown are the opposite. They're cool, calm, collected, politic, and opportunistic. They don't spend their time chasing after jewel encrusted falcons. They spend their time trying to control the entire water supply for a desert city for a thousand times the payout. They commit their murders privately, and the police do whatever they say because they're such god damned rich important people. Nicholson figures out just enough of the conspiracy to give him a glimmer of hope that the bad guy can be taken down, and plays around with the same kind of clever setups they play in old detective stories. Unfortunately, his plans rest on the police acting like policemen and not cronies, and the outcome would have been better if he'd just stayed out of the whole thing altogether.
Rating: ***** / 5
46/100
Others:
Ghost World: *** / 5
I thought I'd like this one more, but the concept has been done to death. Introverted, cynical, intelligent, sarcastic outcast tries not to sell out and ends up alienating everyone. The main character is very similar to Claire Fisher from Six Feet Under, only she was written with a lot more depth and sensitivity. The exact same concept was done more believably and poingantly in the recent movie Greenberg. Some of the assumptions of the writing misrepresent the real world. She needs to get a job, and she thinks her only option is a boring customer service job. I tell you, there are plenty of low paying easy jobs that don't involve customer interaction and don't require such complete conformity. Why is this introverted individualist only applying to movie theatre popcorn stands? And, the scene at the art gallery? I'm sure regular audiences would jump to the conclusion that the icon was a statement of racism, but the art crowd would jump just as easily to the conclusion that it's a comment on racism. I've seen far more superficially racist paintings at art galleries, but the art community gets the intention. Ghost World portrays the world a lot more monotonous and alienating than it really is.
The Piano Teacher: ** 1/2 / 5
Haneke films are derivative of Ingmar Bergman. I guess I can see the merit of what he's tyring to do, but the result is the characters barely come off as human. He goes for the aesthetic of Bergman without the psychological relevance.
I've got a love/hate relationship with Polanski films. On one hand the writing is really incredible and they always have really good casts. On the other hand, all the ones I've seen have featured well intentioned but cynical men investigating some massive conspiracy on their own and causing more harm than good. The conspiracies aren't always entirely plausible. It's like he takes corruption stories from the news, approaches them with zero skepticism and stretches them out to their logical extremes.
In the case of Chinatown, it's okay, becuase Jack Nicholson is awesome. He plays the part of the well intentioned cynical PI thinking he can take on corruption on his own so well, you can suspend disbelief more easily than you can for a movie like Ghost Writer. Chinatown also has more than it's share of iconic scenes that have been parody fodder for years.
Another reason it's easier to suspend disbelief for a movie like Chinatown than one like The Ghost Writer is the setting. It takes place in the 1930s during the expansion and development of Los Angeles, and uses that setting to deconstruct the noir genre. In old PI films, you can always tell who the bad guys are. They're always cackling evilly, they've got giant scars, they're running around murdering people in cold blood. The villains in Chinatown are the opposite. They're cool, calm, collected, politic, and opportunistic. They don't spend their time chasing after jewel encrusted falcons. They spend their time trying to control the entire water supply for a desert city for a thousand times the payout. They commit their murders privately, and the police do whatever they say because they're such god damned rich important people. Nicholson figures out just enough of the conspiracy to give him a glimmer of hope that the bad guy can be taken down, and plays around with the same kind of clever setups they play in old detective stories. Unfortunately, his plans rest on the police acting like policemen and not cronies, and the outcome would have been better if he'd just stayed out of the whole thing altogether.
Rating: ***** / 5
46/100
Others:
Ghost World: *** / 5
I thought I'd like this one more, but the concept has been done to death. Introverted, cynical, intelligent, sarcastic outcast tries not to sell out and ends up alienating everyone. The main character is very similar to Claire Fisher from Six Feet Under, only she was written with a lot more depth and sensitivity. The exact same concept was done more believably and poingantly in the recent movie Greenberg. Some of the assumptions of the writing misrepresent the real world. She needs to get a job, and she thinks her only option is a boring customer service job. I tell you, there are plenty of low paying easy jobs that don't involve customer interaction and don't require such complete conformity. Why is this introverted individualist only applying to movie theatre popcorn stands? And, the scene at the art gallery? I'm sure regular audiences would jump to the conclusion that the icon was a statement of racism, but the art crowd would jump just as easily to the conclusion that it's a comment on racism. I've seen far more superficially racist paintings at art galleries, but the art community gets the intention. Ghost World portrays the world a lot more monotonous and alienating than it really is.
The Piano Teacher: ** 1/2 / 5
Haneke films are derivative of Ingmar Bergman. I guess I can see the merit of what he's tyring to do, but the result is the characters barely come off as human. He goes for the aesthetic of Bergman without the psychological relevance.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
#7: The Searchers
The Searchers (Ford, 1956)
When I'm watching the Searchers I imagine it being aired nightly at Fox News headquarters. It presents the view of the world that crowd considers idyllically American. Men are men, women are women, children are innocent. There's one culture that nobody questions. Arguments between men are solved by beating each other up then having a drink together. There are lines like 'Living as an Indian isn't really living'. Then there's John Wayne, the unshacklable badass loner who can dominate any situation purely by exuding manly charisma. These are the reasons I think it's widely considered (And by TSPDT) Ford's best film. It's the American ideal that a sizeable chunk of the country pines for.
The plot is fairly simple. John Wayne arrives at his brother's ranch having served in the Confederacy. He's bitter and angry about the defeat. Shortly after, a tribe of Indians attack, killing his brother and his entire family except two daughters who they capture. He and a young family friend spend five years chasing after the Indians and his neices. He wants to get revenge against the Indians, but the young friend only wants to save the girl. Now, the older daughter they killed almost immediately, but the younger girl they raised as one of their own. Wayne thinks 'She's not white, not anymore', and plans to kill her, but the young friend still sees her as the little girl she used to be and wants to stop him. This is the main issue of the movie, and it all comes out as an exploration of what it means to be a man, what it means to be American and what it means to be human. Like many John Ford films it's got a sense of emotional realness, but also like many John Ford films it puts cultural idealism above cultural realness. It's a great film, but those predisposed to watch Fox News would like it a lot more than those who aren't.
Rating: *** 1/2 / 5
45/101
Next: Chinatown
When I'm watching the Searchers I imagine it being aired nightly at Fox News headquarters. It presents the view of the world that crowd considers idyllically American. Men are men, women are women, children are innocent. There's one culture that nobody questions. Arguments between men are solved by beating each other up then having a drink together. There are lines like 'Living as an Indian isn't really living'. Then there's John Wayne, the unshacklable badass loner who can dominate any situation purely by exuding manly charisma. These are the reasons I think it's widely considered (And by TSPDT) Ford's best film. It's the American ideal that a sizeable chunk of the country pines for.
The plot is fairly simple. John Wayne arrives at his brother's ranch having served in the Confederacy. He's bitter and angry about the defeat. Shortly after, a tribe of Indians attack, killing his brother and his entire family except two daughters who they capture. He and a young family friend spend five years chasing after the Indians and his neices. He wants to get revenge against the Indians, but the young friend only wants to save the girl. Now, the older daughter they killed almost immediately, but the younger girl they raised as one of their own. Wayne thinks 'She's not white, not anymore', and plans to kill her, but the young friend still sees her as the little girl she used to be and wants to stop him. This is the main issue of the movie, and it all comes out as an exploration of what it means to be a man, what it means to be American and what it means to be human. Like many John Ford films it's got a sense of emotional realness, but also like many John Ford films it puts cultural idealism above cultural realness. It's a great film, but those predisposed to watch Fox News would like it a lot more than those who aren't.
Rating: *** 1/2 / 5
45/101
Next: Chinatown
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