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SCREENING LOG
- 12/10-12/16, 2002
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I watched BILLY LIAR, HAROLD AND MAUDE, ADAPTATION, THE LEGEND
OF SURAM FORTRESS, BLACK NARCISSUS, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
and SANSHO THE BAILIFF. In order of preference:
Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Kenji Mizoguchi) second viewing
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0047445
In feudal Japan a provincial governor is forced into exile
when he tries to pass unprecedented civil reforms on to the
peasant class. His family is separated, kidnapped, and sold
into slavery, setting forth a remarkable series of events
that explore what ties bind family members beyond all boundaries,
even death. The first time I watched this masterpiece I was
rather routinely impressed by its effective storytelling and
profound pathos; only the devastating ending really stayed
with me. But I took that ending as an emotional starting point
with this revisit, and as a result I was more attentive to
the sheer beauty of how this film unfolds. Mizoguchi's great
love for his characters shows through every scene; his filmmaking
never leaps out to dazzle the viewer, but quietly, steadily
accumulates in suspense while allowing the viewer plenty of
room to contemplate the deeper implications of the action:
the profound power of such ideals as love, compassion, devotion,
and sacrifice, and how they persevere in a cruel and barbarous
world. Mizoguchi tosses off one amazing scene after another
with such quiet assurance that it's easy to take them for
granted. But by the end, Mizoguchi's hard-fought hope in humanity,
symbolized by two tiny figures clutching each other on a vast,
desolate beach, is overwhelming. clore-2 films about childhood
recommendation of the week
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945, Elia Kazan)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0038190
A superb adaptation of the popular novel by Betty Smith about
a girl growing up in a working-class home, caught up in the
conflict between her strict, pragmatic mother and her doting,
fanciful father. The film vividly creates a lively, loving
evocation of turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, and the family
dynamics are nothing short of being sharply observed, and
often very moving, thanks to a great ensemble. Kazan would
move on to his more famous works A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
and ON THE WATERFRONT, but this remarkable debut strikes me
as genuinely warmer and less overheated than either of those.
There's a real sense of a way of life being captured here,
its rhythms, its values, its feelings. Highly recommended.
The Legend of Suram Fortress (1984, Sergei Parajanov)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0087606
Soviet director Sergei Parajanov returned from over a decade
of being banned from filmmaking by making the kind of movie
that got him banned in the first place: a richly layered and
unapologetically opaque musical celebration of ethnicity,
in this case a mythical history of the origins of Georgia.
Frankly, I don't pretend to have really understood what I
saw, but whatever it was it was extremely beautiful. Perhaps
not as searingly dense as his masterpiece THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES,
but this is recommended for anyone who wants to witness Parajanov's
unique gifts of sheer visual beauty. Content-based satisfaction
is up to those willing to do a bit of research to uncover.
DFC-flix special delivery of the week
Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0039192
One of the silliest masterpieces I've seen. A flock of prim
and proper nuns sets up shop in the big bad Himalayas (complete
with bamboo forests -- huh?) and encounter a tribe of exotic
Hindus whose collective behavior fulfills every stupid colonialist
stereotype of the third world (childish, naive, oversexed,
barbaric) -- of course all of these are presented thematically
as mirror reflections of the repressed British psyche; this
film should more properly be renamed WHITE NARCISSISM. Whatever,
it's all an alibi for P&P to serve up their patented Technicolor
histrionics, and in this department they don't fail in the
least -- Jack Cardiff's groundbreaking cinematography still
ranks among the all-time best, without question, and P&P are
certainly adept a certain kind of choreography of images that
at best can be seen as the successor to Murnau's cinematic
symphonics, at worst, a glorified B-movie. How one comes down
perhaps depends on how much they value style substituting
for substance. It's lovely and amazing, but I didn't buy a
minute of it.
Dehlia films about childhood recommendation of the week
Harold and Maude (1971, Hal Ashby)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0067185
Everyone knows this one, the one about the kid who sleeps
with the 79 year-old lady. It's pretty much a subterranean
institution, and looking at it one can palpably discern its
tremendous influence on independent filmmaking of the "charming,
quirky and perverse-but-not-too-perverse" stripe, with some
warmed-over life lessons included. Count Wes Anderson, early
David O. Russell and the Farrelly Brothers, among others,
as descendants. I liked it well enough; it's really Cat Stevens
who does most of the work with his lovely song passages telling
as much of the story as the on-screen action.
Adaptation (2002, Spike Jonze) in theater
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0268126
Spike Jonze may very well be an immense directorial talent,
though we'll never know for sure until he steps out of the
immense shadow of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's hubris. Once
again, Jonze is basically the executor of Kaufman's out-of-control
will, coordinating the same soulless surface action that kept
BEING JOHN MALKOVKICH going at a brisk clip. Here the stakes
are noticeably higher, as Kaufman's own career becomes the
focus of his restless scrutiny, but in the end he fails and
the best he can do is add layers of irony to his lameness.
Nicolas Cage plays Kaufman as he struggles with both a screen
adaptation of Susan Orlean's book "The Orchid Thief" and with
adapting to the conforming, constricting demands of Hollywood
formula. Meryl Streep as Orlean and Chris Cooper as a rugged
Florida orchid poacher, the subject of Orlean's real-life
book, both give extraordinary performances whose versatility
matches Kaufman's blueprint while greatly exceeding him in
terms of their emotional investment in the material. Kaufman's
shameless depiction of himself as a charmingly pathetic writer
points out the terminal self-absorption that curtails his
otherwise formidable imagination; like MALKOVICH and other
Hollywood films about filmmaking, there's more postmodern
posturing than genuine insight on display. While I can sympathize
with Kaufman's self-expressed frustrations with the creativity-crushing
demands of Hollywood, Kaufman's script points as many fingers
at his own cowardice in engaging with any reality other than
that in his own mind. In the end, this film is just another
symptom of everything that's wrong with Hollywood, without
providing any real hopes for a cure.
bkamberger films about childhood recommendation of the
week
Billy Liar (1963, John Schlesinger)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0056868
The Angry Young Brit genre added a bit of whimsy to its restless
desperation with this tale of a charming working-class lad
(Tom Courtenay) prone to Walter Mitty-esque fantasies while
bumping around like a pinball between his nagging parents,
condescending co-workers and a couple of hag girlfriends with
frumpy hair. It's co-opting of New Wave techniques is more
cute than clever (the empty flash only got worse through John
Schlesinger's career), the film's ostensible social agenda
is most stirring when it casually shows scenes of buildings
being demolished: a Britain vanishing before our eyes. The
film is frustratingly non-committal in the face of such socially
searing visuals; but that same attitude is probably what made
it a safe popular success in its day.
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