SCREENING LOG - 11/5-11/11, 2001

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I watched Stage Sisters, Crows and Sparrows, and The Gospel According to St. Matthew. These films are each so otherworldly that I can't rank them in order of preference.

Stage Sisters/Wutai jiemei (Xie Jin, 1965)

Two stage actresses in pre-war China grow into a rift as one is seduced by a wealthy patron while the other grows empowered by communist ideology. Ironically, the Chinese government banned this movie because they felt it was too sympathetic to the "sell-out" actress! It's clear that the ideology of sisterhood is what stands above all others in this moving narrative, told in the classic 1940s Hollywood tradition and shot in glorious Chinese Technicolor. The musical interludes that work as a kind of Greek chorus, shimmer like the ringing of crystal bells. Director Xie Jin, who can milk the melodrama with the best of his Tinseltown rivals, achieves a perfection of visuals and mood that transcends the propaganda. Xie, still active today, boasts a distinguished career spanning half a century.

Crows and Sparrows/Wuya yu maque (Zheng Junli, 1949)

A subversive work released right after the fall of the Chinese Nationalist government, it tells the story of a household of commoners who gradually rise up against their tyrannical Nationalist landlord and his dragon lady of a wife. The making of the film is quite a story in itself -- production was hush-hush and a dummy script was circulated among the Nationalist censors as the real script was kept hidden. It's fascinating both as a social document and a movie -- wildly uneven and schizophrenic at times, perhaps due to the conditions in which it was made. The modes range from broad slapstick to melodrama to brutal neo-realism, encapsulating the various prevailing genres of the time. The overall effect is an odd charge, the feeling of imminent social upheaval captured on celluloid. The director, a major figure in early Chinese Communist filmmaking, eventually met his own demise during the Cultural Revolution.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)

I praise this film for shaking the conventions of the Christ movie, and trying to depict the man as the stern-voiced grass-roots revolutionary he probably was, rather than the impossibly benevolent martyr he's often made out to be. What I liked most was his use of striking close-ups of faces, and startling evocation of a 2000 year old setting using contemporary locations. There is plenty that I don't like about the film, such as the eclectic soundtrack and choppy narrative, but I at the same time I acknowledge the liberating qualities of these elements, and it's gotten me thinking about the filming of Jesus, the Gospels, and the divine in general more than most religious movies.

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