tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41398875170355386022024-03-18T20:55:04.509-07:00Double Feature vs. Son of Attention SpanI like movies. Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-85344475380841672802016-03-06T12:03:00.005-08:002022-05-22T22:05:39.848-07:00#22: Farewells and One-Room Tenants: the Stanislaw Dygat - Wojciech Has partnership<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="WordSection1">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2c7i2d0VUXf1G_XNeZzDNGn_Ma9lps18-Xpvs7cIDKVDZRRTLM0_8FhbC2sZitjWX6bOiq9MtQQyqzDrcfS45Yds3TSvBFK4YBonf_7fehCoriaPvUaPuKWSLY2I-MtUG_BY7BwE5tXO/s1600/Pozegania+%255B6%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis2c7i2d0VUXf1G_XNeZzDNGn_Ma9lps18-Xpvs7cIDKVDZRRTLM0_8FhbC2sZitjWX6bOiq9MtQQyqzDrcfS45Yds3TSvBFK4YBonf_7fehCoriaPvUaPuKWSLY2I-MtUG_BY7BwE5tXO/s320/Pozegania+%255B6%255D.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2TVdL-p914WtFlgeRnwD3UEi4gUH5sa_HEt4pmMgSl9froEqf0iWhNJ_rqXCDLjYMXP4geOhH-LHUNcN_Prd_VSFDkiiCf7N9AX4YXjv1jRQcUTgG7sinlqX70ToqtF9nmOy5S-u4Wl7x/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-01-04-21h52m09s194.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2TVdL-p914WtFlgeRnwD3UEi4gUH5sa_HEt4pmMgSl9froEqf0iWhNJ_rqXCDLjYMXP4geOhH-LHUNcN_Prd_VSFDkiiCf7N9AX4YXjv1jRQcUTgG7sinlqX70ToqtF9nmOy5S-u4Wl7x/s320/vlcsnap-2014-01-04-21h52m09s194.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After spending some time watching and researching the prose-to-screen
adaptations directed by Wojciech Has, I decided to write about Has’s
collaborations with author Stanislaw Dygat: 1958’s <span class="yt-ui-ellipsis-wrapper"><i>Farewells (Partings,
Lydia Ate the Apple, Pożegnania)</i></span>
and 1959’s <i>One-Room Tenants (Wspólny pokój)</i><i><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></i> I’ll also compare these
adaptations with another adaptation of Dygat’s work: the 1967 Janusz
Morgenstern film <i>Jowita</i>. These titles
are all studies of society under pressure, defined by spaces and a particular
time.</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">What
characterized Stanislaw Dygat as a writer? According to Czesław Miłosz, Dygat’s
first novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lake of Constance</i> “was
directed at puncturing all the national clichés and the search for authenticity.”
The novel fictionalizes Dygat’s own internment under the Nazis, who sent him to
a low-security camp due to his French citizenship. “Dygat, with his humorous
detachment, is no exception among Polish writers of the postwar years. They
approach even the most hideous reality with a typically Polish mixture of the
jocular and the macabre.” [18] Along with his short stories, novels, and plays, Dygat adapted several other
works for other films. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Wojciech Has,
Dygat refused to express affiliation with any party, but still voiced criticism
of the status quo. Dygat, however, did so after joining and then resigning from
the Communist party.</span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dygat
adapted his 1948 novel <span class="yt-ui-ellipsis-wrapper"><i>Pożegnania</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>for Has. Its title has been translated
into English as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Farewells</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goodbye to the Past</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lydia Ate the Apple</i>. As the film begins,
a young man named Pawel is spying on a kissing couple on the street from his
upper-floor window. They leave by carriage before Pawel’s attention is called
back into the room, toward reality and his duties. It is early 1939. Pawel, a student
from an aristocratic family, is verbally reminded to follow through on his
family’s plans for his studies and career. After this stern warning, Pawel
heads for a nightclub. Romance develops between Pawel and the club escort Lidka.
One time in the nightclub, the song “Pamiętasz, była jesień (Do you remember,
it was fall)” plays, a popular song that happens to mention the film’s title, “Pożegnania,”
in the second stanza:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nNrT9ys6-EU/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nNrT9ys6-EU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span></span>
<br />
<div class="WordSection2">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Odszedłeś potem nagle, drzwi otwarte<br />
Liść powiewem wiatru padł mi do nóg<br />
I wtedy zrozumiałam: to się kończy<br />
Pożegnania czas już przekroczyć próg</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Then you
left suddenly, the door ajar<br />
A wind-blown leaf fell at my feet<br />
And then I understood: here it ends<br />
It is time to cross the threshold of parting</i> [3]</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" />
</span></span></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They soon
escape to the countryside. Pawel’s father catches the couple in an inn, and
pays Lidka to lead a more respectable life elsewhere. Lidka leaves on a train, and
the screen fades to Pawel lying in bed. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCrbZRPvRL_CJC6Sn74aZcLjiILaGV2KRSH5MkVjHmPimKQakHYC6LksyhNalJFvMaHaxKZatV5QJZw7NOac03AFXTlbEV4a6MWR-aMBKRX3BIL5GYqxB1nLkx9YHMvJ5IRPZa1Po0Ymi/s1600/Pozegania+%255B22%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCrbZRPvRL_CJC6Sn74aZcLjiILaGV2KRSH5MkVjHmPimKQakHYC6LksyhNalJFvMaHaxKZatV5QJZw7NOac03AFXTlbEV4a6MWR-aMBKRX3BIL5GYqxB1nLkx9YHMvJ5IRPZa1Po0Ymi/s320/Pozegania+%255B22%255D.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gone is
his clean-shaven, in-a-suit look; he is clad in a black turtleneck, with
stubble on his face. Pawel rises in a room unfamiliar to the viewer. Details of
the new setting seep in: cramped and makeshift living conditions, soldiers
patrolling outside the window. It is early 1945. The city is under German control,
with heavy forces to come. Pawel has escaped from Auschwitz. When he reconnects
with his family, he discovers that Lidka married his cousin, and that the
couple plans to escape from Poland. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only the
abstract of Wojciech Świdziński’s 2007 <i>Kwartalnik Filmowy</i> essay “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Farewells-What does Wojciech J. Has did </i>[bid]<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Adieu to?</i>” is translated into English.
Yet even this paragraph offers worthwhile points to consider:</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Wojciech
Jerzy Has began to reflect on the structure of time with his film '<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Farewells</i>'. The director was having a
poetic dialogue, lined with irony, with the national tradition and prose of
Stanisław Dygat when he made a film that entered the canon of the Polish school
[author’s note: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">referring to the “Polish
Film School” movement, discussed later in this piece</i>], but at the same time
stayed on the sidelines. Has was more interested in searching for lost time and
observing how people, places and things had vanished than in History. The love
affair of the film heroine and hero, Lidka and Paweł, is almost literally run
over by the column of Soviet tanks in the closing scenes of the film. What
mattered more was the game the pair was playing when they met each other and
parted – it’s almost a sophisticated waste of new chances.” [23]</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The two
times are set in contrast. Yet even before the war, the characters are trapped
by society and circumstance in one building or another, the nightclub or a
family home. Lidka and Pawel’s room at an inn only served as refuge for a
single night before they were discovered. In 1945, Pawel’s remaining extended
family has gathered in the same mansion, and even non-related refugees are
sleeping in the parlor. If those outside the landed class had to consider money
in all matters –including romance– before the war, the war exacerbates the
situation. Everyone becomes connected to the black market, and even aristocrats
must concern themselves with the grubby business of basic survival. Conversations
only occur when people need someone to talk with, or talk at; with growing
reluctance to touch on the dreams and distractions of years before. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mieczyslaw
Jahoda’s camera work captures baroque touches in the looming paintings and sculptures. Key moments are
often shot through windows, or with a foreground character looking towards the
background. Compositions settle into Has’ typical tight diagonals and odd
triangles or triangular spirals. The soft diffused light and hushed grace,
however, differ from much of the deep-focus dark drama of Has’ other work, even
from Jahoda’s extraordinary transitions from realism to heightened reality on
Has’s feature debut <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Noose</i>, or the
theatrical visual shifts Jahoda and Has employ in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Saragossa Manuscript</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While
reportedly not too strict in adapting the story, allowing Has’ images their
strength, Dygat incorporates lengthy full quotes from his novel into the script.
This quotation technique occurs in other Has adaptations before and after his
collaborations with Dygat, regardless if Has or another person wrote the
screenplay. For example, “…in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Farewells</i>
the main characters stand at a bar and hold a conversation by quoting verses from
Slowacki at one another.” [25] This instance of quotation-reference also gives
some context to the themes Has and Dygat explored. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Juliusz Słowacki was a Lithuanian-born 19<sup>th</sup>-century
poet and dramatist of the Polish Romantic movement, which reacted to collapsing
old orders and strict Enlightenment rationality with introspective ruminations
on spirit and nature. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Since the
oppressive hothouse conditions which fostered Polish Romanticism in the first
place have continued in many respects to the present day, the Romantic
tradition still reigns supreme in the Polish mind.” [2] Romanticism, in this
view, is fostered by tumultuous times despite any shattering of ideals; whether
it is the 18<sup>th</sup> century, WWII, or a particularly restrictive period
of Communist rule. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dygat also wrote the dialogue for Wojciech Has’ 1959 adaptation of Zbigniew Uniłowski’s
1932 novel <i>One-Room Tenants</i>. Lucjan,
an aspiring writer, is looking for an apartment after a stay in a sanatorium.
His friends and eventual roommates include poets, students, and working women
with varying degrees of ambition and disillusionment. “Neither of us lives on
ideas,” the poet Dziadzia tells Lucjan. Characters, especially the
intellectually inclined, often spit out fabrications, or sometimes speak just for
the sake of speaking, to hear oneself aloud or to hold the attention of another
person. Yet the characters are aware of the lies they tell themselves and each
other. As one character says: “We need to create myths. They help us take
reality less seriously.” When Dziadzia ruminates on how the appearance of the
street below could shift into “the East, or Champs Elysees, or a forest road,” Lucjan
replies, “Imagination is a liar.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the course of the film, Lucjan’s illness strikes back, and he
eventually cannot rise from his bed within the crowded apartment. “This is a
very sad story about the creative feebleness of promising beginner artists, but
also about the disease which deprives the main character, Lucjan, of hope for a
better life.” [8] What I could find about the source novel in English argues
that Uniłowski’s “drastic description of physiology…is meant to construct a
symbolically marked space… it is a symbolic expression of his anthropological
beliefs referring to the nature and man's duty. In this view a man is captivated
by his physicality and can only strive to limit its power over himself…” In one
scene Uniłowski juxtaposes “a gloomy sphere of biology (put in a blind kitchen)
with the light which falls into the room through the window together with
voices of a beautiful [woman] singing at work.” [26]</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxoRADD8goGtzd_uAZNtHwrjtvssk4aNVgUW6QGZNfoLE8SVZuAuXJpKgKoZ3hq-AP5WSVLKXrPEntbDOQhscfG5DqVxDC2ybFeOfNssnZNCuZvgusPui3HWmZk_u6B0u_fZFQ3j3C130/s1600/Has+comparison-+One-Room+Tenants.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxoRADD8goGtzd_uAZNtHwrjtvssk4aNVgUW6QGZNfoLE8SVZuAuXJpKgKoZ3hq-AP5WSVLKXrPEntbDOQhscfG5DqVxDC2ybFeOfNssnZNCuZvgusPui3HWmZk_u6B0u_fZFQ3j3C130/s320/Has+comparison-+One-Room+Tenants.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Zbigniew Uniłowski began writing the first chapters of <i>One-Room Tenants </i>in February 1931, at the residence of his longtime
friend, the composer and pianist Karol Szymanowski. Szymanowski had been sick
the previous years, sometimes barely able to write, undergoing treatment in
Davos, Switzerland. In his letters to Uniłowski, Szymanowski expressed his
wishes to have private accommodations. “I can’t stand guest houses, by reason
of having to associate with strangers (especially unbearable women!).” It is
not explicitly stated whether Uniłowski based the shared room and later ill
state of Lucjan upon his own friend’s condition, although a forward to the
letters written by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz states: “Karol was slightly perturbed
[by the novel], but he later calmed down: he believed in Uniłowski’s talent.” [12]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How are these aspects rendered in the film? The main apartment and other
settings are often very dark (except for a brighter-lit museum interlude), the
camera roaming and peering through interiors. Faces and objects of note are
either prominent in the frame, or stuffed between the contours of other bodies
or objects. Cinematographer Stefan Matyjaszkiewicz shot <i>One-Room Tenants</i> to convey tension and constriction. Though the
film starts outside on the street, it rarely follows the characters outside
after that, sitting still while the characters gaze outward through windows and
doorways. Lucjan and other characters will be confined, in one room or another.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwlhSvT5c-xWaxlN3V9mx3PwsCq2Ohlx0qyELCDw0qU7_PVl6II0O1otaVkwDSJFvZJUDhWC5DrRlh2wrX0BdiYInjFZdsklaFpUYfbLkrbsycT5TXoPahh8c0F1-p-QTEgYGvD2kRwudK/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-01-04-22h54m00s183.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwlhSvT5c-xWaxlN3V9mx3PwsCq2Ohlx0qyELCDw0qU7_PVl6II0O1otaVkwDSJFvZJUDhWC5DrRlh2wrX0BdiYInjFZdsklaFpUYfbLkrbsycT5TXoPahh8c0F1-p-QTEgYGvD2kRwudK/s320/vlcsnap-2014-01-04-22h54m00s183.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>“<span style="font-size: small;">Has’s adaptation updates the spatial
topos of the body as a grave. The title room is a place of death for
the main character. The disease and passing associated with this space allows
the director to return to the theme of life resembling theatre. Above all, the
room is a common space, characterised by a lack of intimacy and by exposure.
Withdrawal means rejection of masks, opening and liberation. However, when it
comes to time spent with other people, it is necessary to give up intimacy and
accept constant assessment, which, unfortunately, excludes authenticity.” </span></i><span style="font-size: small;">[8] </span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their conversations skirt around issues, unable to confront matters of physical
sickness or mental turmoil directly until it is too late for anything to
change.</span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To recreate this ‘30’s era through dialogue, Dygat could have also drawn
from his own experience as part of the bohemian milieu in pre-war Warsaw. The original
novel was also inspired by the “Kwadryga” literary group. In 1928, “Kwadryga
magazine became a monthly wide-range publication… Deep friendship relationships
between members of both groups became a legend. The legend of “Kwadryga” was
created mostly by the novel <i>Wspólny pokój</i> by Zbigniew Uniłowski, one of
the most scandallizing novels of the pre-war priod.” [7, sic] Uniłowski also
included the figure of author Isabela Czajka-Stachowicz [20], prominent in
avant-garde circles and the café scene. She inspired the character of “The
Leopard Woman,” [22] who enjoys ensnaring the attention of men. Her depiction
is somewhat negative, but at least in the film she is allowed her own scene of
reflection. </span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These and other muted moments balance the fast, episodic scenes fading to
and from black. One needs to pay attention to what underlies even the most
petty-seeming plots in the film. By the time political intrusion takes away a
visiting youth from the apartment, every aspect of the film is headed toward a
final, cryptic glance at the audience.</span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>One-Room Tenants</i> and <i>Farewells</i> are often considered part of
the Polish Film School movement, in which “filmmakers also tried blurring the
lines between realism and symbolism of the characters, events, landscapes and
objects on the screen. Even nowadays, the historians of cinema still dispute on
the truth hidden beneath the images produced by the Polish film school; but
they all agree [upon] the directors' method of expressing ideological
reflection -- such as leaving the most important element ‘between the lines’…"
[17]</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ1m-I1hER-L1BbWprfaiYkr2ExH1BLQimnSYjC03oaPQ0mRZawy4fPdKPuLRDj_orIr97O6faCGioqoM2KC6DYizCX3HqKXvZ_nS0dG8v7gRQ-zqwL0DvBZ_jn6HG4dUzpRjVTfKDG9yq/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-01-04-22h13m54s188.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ1m-I1hER-L1BbWprfaiYkr2ExH1BLQimnSYjC03oaPQ0mRZawy4fPdKPuLRDj_orIr97O6faCGioqoM2KC6DYizCX3HqKXvZ_nS0dG8v7gRQ-zqwL0DvBZ_jn6HG4dUzpRjVTfKDG9yq/s320/vlcsnap-2014-01-04-22h13m54s188.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Communist political domination in 1949 enforced Socialist Realism as the
only approved mode of art in Poland. After Stalin died in 1953, this
restriction became somewhat relaxed. The “Polish Film School (<i><span lang="PL">Polska Szkoła Filmowa)</span></i><span lang="PL">” </span>arose between
the relative stability of 1957 and 1963; confronting wartime experiences,
generational clashes, and notions of Poland as a nation. Though Wojciech Has,
even then, was noted for heading in a more independent direction, his output
during this time is considered part of the movement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">While many of Dygat’s written works were aligned with Social Realism, he also
moved along his own path. Dygat was one of several writers to resign from
the Polish Communist Party in 1957 [16], after administrative crackdowns like
the shutdown of <i>Po prostu</i>, a
periodical popular amongst young intellectuals. Student meetings gathered to
protest this decision were broken up, sometimes by force, by special militia.
The literary journal <i>Europa</i> was also
closed by the government even before publication of the first issue.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span>
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On March
14, 1964, Dygat joined others in science, arts, or politics in signing the
following “The Declaration of the Thirty-Four” (known in Poland as “List 34”):
[24]</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
"<i>The
reduction of printing paper allocation for books and periodicals and the
enforcement of much stricter censorship create a situation which endangers the
growth of Poland's national culture. We, the signatories, believe that the
expression of genuine public opinion, the right to criticise, to discuss freely
and to have access to unbiased information are all imperative ingredients of
any progress. Therefore, moved by our social conscience, we demand that changes
be introduced in the cultural policy of the Polish State which will accord with
the spirit of its Constitution and promote the welfare of the nation</i>." [21]</div>
</blockquote>
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It was
sent to Prime Minister Jcizef Cyrankiewicz, but the Polish government denied
receiving the statement. However, the Polish People’s Republic still took
action. Some, if not all of the signatories were forbidden from broadcasting,
and their names were declared verboten on Polish radio. Productions were shut
down, passports and clinic services were denied. The writer who mimeographed
the declaration, Jan Lipski, was imprisoned for two days. Six hundred responses
in the press also condemned those who signed List 34, reportedly outraged at
this act of defamation inspired by Radio Wolna (Free) Europa. Yet the
government failed in convincing the signatories from withdrawing their names.
The extent of retaliation also varied from target to target. Dygat managed to
continue writing for print and film, and was one of the literary voices who
shaped the direction of many Polish films from the late ‘50’s onward. His
influence in social circles was such that the secret police were said to call
him “The Prince of Warsaw.” (Stanisław Dygat był przez bezpiekę nazywany
"księciem warszawskim".) [13]</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Though he was a major literary voice within Poland, I was only able to find
one Stanislaw Dygat novel translated into English: the 1965 novel <i>Disneyland</i> (re-titled<i> Cloak of Illusion</i>). Here I’ll compare
the novel to its 1967 movie adaptation <i>Jowita
(Jovita)</i>, to see if it reveals any more about Dygat and bringing his work
to the screen.</span><br />
</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The novel
is narrated by the protagonist, a suspicious and over-analytical athlete named
Marek Arens. At one point, Marek half-seriously muses, “Your parents
compromised themselves in respect of various values. You all consider,
therefore, that they’ve been compromised. But the values have been compromised
too. They don’t want to admit that they themselves have been compromised and
they attribute the compromise to you.” This is quite the indictment of the
generations of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One-Room Tenants</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Farewells</i>. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Disneyland</i> takes place in livelier locations
than dank apartments or stuffy clubs or fading aristocratic mansions. It
features lively events in “public spaces frequented by the young and
fashionable, including a concert hall, a gallery and a sports club which also
serves as a venue for balls and parties.” [15] Yet Marek himself often
expresses two contradictory opinions, or states an ideal that he later betrays.
His generation also engages in disguises, hypocrisies, and stabs at honesty; at
the conversation games from the early romantic scenes of <i>Farewells</i> [13] and throughout <i>One-Room
Tenants</i>. </span></span></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">“<i>The characters … typically tend to create an artificial world
around them in which masks, multiple identities and confused emotions are
commonplace. At the same time in Poland, however, the numerous possibilities
open to the younger generation were being extolled. The game of masks and
mirrors, mixing reality and illusion… was the favourite subject of the writer
Stanislaw Dygat.</i>” [6]</span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnEwPSg7aUN3BWJplowD8rTMQzdXo_7nWVDQm5Of23ldyKbr00ZrS2qIB-3ezx72mmRmNsQ6_qhCzKuZTyfASeViGE4H7o09NnUaiFawambCxHsL-bNWulkSmxXkdXxu5c45buQYNY1zf0/s1600/Jowita+%255B2%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnEwPSg7aUN3BWJplowD8rTMQzdXo_7nWVDQm5Of23ldyKbr00ZrS2qIB-3ezx72mmRmNsQ6_qhCzKuZTyfASeViGE4H7o09NnUaiFawambCxHsL-bNWulkSmxXkdXxu5c45buQYNY1zf0/s320/Jowita+%255B2%255D.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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The film, directed by Janusz Morgenstern, is
less talky than the novel’s constant first-person narration, and feels more overtly
modern than the Has-Dygat adaptations or even the source novel. While Has
skillfully evoked the 1930’s and ‘40’s when directing Dygat’s scripts in the
‘50’s, Morgenstern “successfully portrays a very real picture of [contemporary]
Cracow, preserving the atmosphere and creating a true testimony of the period
for posterity.” [6] <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jowita</i> dips in
and out of a subjective lens but does not include the book’s narration. It is said
to be one of the few Polish film of the time clearly influenced by the French
New Wave [15], with split-second frame editing and sensual extreme close-ups. A
telephone’s ringing also anchors plot points with psychological effect. Outside
the concert, the soundtrack bounces with rock’n’roll and modern jazz. The meta
device of a film reel also becomes a brilliant catalyst for the memories and
regrets that propel Marek towards the conclusion.</div>
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After a
short plot introduction, we sweep into a concert where Khatchaturian’s waltz from the "Masquerade” suite plays. Marek falls into flashbacks that finally catch up to the concert
halfway through the film, making the novel’s time jumps easier for viewers to
follow. Then the film flashes back and forth again, extending past the concert.
There are less of the book’s ambiguity and mind games, but these seem cut for
time and cinematic flow, and do not undercut plot or themes. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Jowita</i> consisted of the usually government-friendly
qualities of adapting a work by a Polish author and focusing on a story of
romantic escape and folly. The film still ran into censor trouble before
release. Dygat’s earlier political involvement might not have been the
cause.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">“‘<i>It is, perhaps, difficult for
the Western spectator to understand the challenge that the film and its heroes
makes to members of government…This type of psychological and sentimental
interplay and this fondness for freedom from commitments and responsibilities
was common to most of the youth in other countries, where it was in no way
considered subversive. However, in a country where the role of films was
considered to be to testify to ideologies, portraying official social truths,
such “charmers” could only be a source of irritation to many</i>.’” [6] </span></div>
</blockquote>
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Even
avoiding political themes could court government trouble in this time. </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Marek has
many affairs with women, but can’t forget his one conversation with Jovita,
whose “Turkish” costume only revealed her eyes. His boxing coach Szymaniak (in
the novel, Marek’s doting stepfather) killed himself after a doomed
relationship with the prostitute named “Lola Fiat 1100,” a character thought by
Marek to be more predatory than someone like “The Leopard Woman” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One-Room Tenants</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the basis for a disturbing view of
women as mysterious, interchangeable until proven unique, exotic like the
costumes at the sports club ball. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Yet both the book and novel position Marek’s
perspective as dangerous, and the women in the story hold their own as characters.
One woman even confronts him in the final scene. His feelings are jumbled by
the conviction, shared by Polish Romantics, that love is a minor pursuit for a
man, unlike nobler affairs like competitive or intellectual pursuits. Though he
is close to proposing marriage at one point, he is reluctant give in to what he
sees as the domestic inclinations of women, which trapped his athletics coach
and could have led to Syzmaniak’s suicide. “Marek preferred an imaginary
(limerent) object of desire over a real woman or even over several women with
whom he had affairs and, ultimately, he chose nonlove.” [15] He might tell
himself that he despises hurting women, but his misogyny eventually guides his
hand to violence. Like the protagonists of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Farewells
</i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">One-Room Tenants</i>, Marek’s aspirations
and personal ideals will remain unfulfilled. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtT4lHgB7EGQxZLZ-l0kogtvKewWdqcHlJa1m-rW5ESPMUEJ2NtyYo20nTHSrl2_MSiXPsWYrW9x4Z4E-kyG9s0slfQ8-Qj9uaQVM8A9EsYVbgngebkPmoeUWMsRp5jC01YUsEiNYQqRS/s1600/Jowita+%255B40%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtT4lHgB7EGQxZLZ-l0kogtvKewWdqcHlJa1m-rW5ESPMUEJ2NtyYo20nTHSrl2_MSiXPsWYrW9x4Z4E-kyG9s0slfQ8-Qj9uaQVM8A9EsYVbgngebkPmoeUWMsRp5jC01YUsEiNYQqRS/s320/Jowita+%255B40%255D.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dygat inclined towards aspiring but dissatisfied characters caught
in whirlpools of mistrust, self-delusion, and societal pressures. This made him
a fitting partner for his projects with Wojciech Has. <i>Farewells</i> and <i>One-Room
Tenants</i> are concerned less with depicting the macro view of history and
ideology of their respective eras. What matters is how these films portray the
way people try to survive in a specific time, how they pursue and lose grasp of
dreams.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Works Consulted</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[1] "Cloak of
Illusion." <i>The MIT Press</i><http: books="" cloak-illusion="" mitpress.mit.edu="">. Print.</http:></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[2] Davies, Norman. <i>Heart
of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present: The Past in Poland's Present</i>.
Oxford University Press, 2001. Web. 17 Mar 2014. <
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=lMQei5CPZUgC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=%2B%22Juliusz+S%C5%82owacki%22&ots=JtPYeUDPCk&sig=eMe2XnCBCROUSVc9RQ3_IiSIEmE#v=onepage&q=%2B%22Juliusz%20S%C5%82owacki%22&f=false></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[3] "Do you
remember, it was fall." <i>Translation of "Pamiętasz, była
jesień" by Sława Przybylska from Polish to English</i>. Lyrics Translate,
30 June 2011. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.
.</span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[4] Dygat, Stanislaw.
<i>Cloak of Illusion</i>. Trans. David Welsh. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press,
1969. Print. 15 Feb 2014.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[5] "Elliptic
worlds of Wojciech Jerzy Has: Petla (Noose) – Wspolny pokoj (One room tenants)."
<i>Kinoglazorama Spectacular</i>. 20 Mar 2011. Web. 2 Jan. 2014.
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[6] "Festival
Lumière - "Jowita"." <i>Lumière 2011: Grand Lyon Film Festival</i>.
Institut Lumière, 2011. Print. .</span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[7] Gałczyński, Mikołaj. "Life
and Works of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński." <i>Official Website of Konstanty
Ildefons Gałczyński</i>. 2008. Web. 4 Apr 2014. .
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[8] Grodź,
Iwona. "One Room Tenants." <i>ARCHIVE - 10th Era New Horizons
International Film Festival</i>. Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty, 2010. Web. 4
Apr 2014. .</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[9] Has,
Wojciech, dir. <i>Farewells (Lydia Ate the Apple) (Pożegnania)</i>. 1958. Web. 14
Dec 2013.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[10] Has,
Wojciech, dir. <i>One-Room Tenants (<i>Wspólny pokój</i>)</i>. 1959. Web. 4
Jan 2014.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[11] Helman, Alicja. "The
Masters Are Tired." <i>Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue Canadienne des
Slavistes</i> 42.1/2 (2000): 99-111. Web. <
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40870137</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">></span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[12] Hughes, William,
ed. "Zbigniew Uniłowski: ‘Letters from Karol Szymanowski’ (‘Wiadomości
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2012. Web. 4 Apr 2014.
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[13] Kowalczyk,
Janusz R.. "Stanisław Dygat." <i>Culture.pl</i>. 2012. Web. .
.</span></span></span></div>
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</span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[14] Mazierska, Ewa.
"Existentialism and socialist realism in the early films of Wojciech
Has." <i>Studies in Eastern European Cinema</i> 4.1 (2013): 9-27. Web. <</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/seec/2013/00000004/00000001/art00002></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">[15] Mazierska, Ewa. <i>Masculinities
in Polish, Czech, and Slovak Cinema: Black Peters and Men of Marble</i>. New
York: Berghahn Books, 2008. Pp 153-155. Web. </span></span></span></div>
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and the Left (Koṡciół, lewica, dialog)</i>. Ed and trans. David Ost. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1993. 85. Web. </span></span></span></div>
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Under Political Pressure: A Brief Outline of Authorial Roles in Polish Post-War
Feature-Film 1945-1995." Trans. Andrzej Cimala. <i>Kinema</i> (1995). Web.
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Novel in Poland." <i>Daedalus</i> 95.4 (1966): 1004-1012. Web. <</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027015></span></span></span></div>
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Janusz, dir. <i>Jovita (<i>Jowita</i>)</i>. 1967. Web. 23 Mar 2014.</span></span></span></div>
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books." <i>Archive of Theses</i>. University of Warsaw, 2 Dec 2013. Web. .
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.</span></span></span></div>
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miłość".” <i>Culture.pl</i> 22
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Wojciech. "Farewells-What does Wojciech J. Has did Adieu to?. (<i>"Pożegnania"
- z czym się żegna Wojciech J. Has? </i>)" <i>Kwartalnik Filmowy</i>
57-58 (2007). Web. </span></span></span></div>
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</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;">[25] Toepplitz, Krzysztof-Teodor.
"The Films of Wojciech Has." <i>Film Quarterly</i> 18.2 (1964): 2-6.
Web. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">[26]
Wierzbicka-Trwoga, K. "Breaking the taboo of secretion on the example of
Zbigniew Unilowski’s ‘Sharing a Room’." <i>Pamiętnik Literacki</i> 98.3
(2007): 63-73. Web. </span><http: aspx="" issuedetails.aspx="" issueid="c93cbae1-510d-4bb9-83bf-72feacbdbf32&articleId=f904d541-aa0a-4771-8e34-f335042100fb" www.ceeol.com=""></http:></span></span></span></div>
Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-73260768874416561012015-11-27T12:23:00.002-08:002016-09-23T01:51:21.305-07:00#21: After Creation: genre television of the 2010's<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Months ago, I wanted to compare<i> True Detective</i> and <i>Penny Dreadful</i>, single-author shows that draw inspiration from 19th-century pulp literature. For the first season of <i>True Detective</i>, Nic Pizzolatto borrows from the "Yellow Mythos" that arose from Robert Chambers' 1895 story collection <i>The King in Yellow</i>, along with elements from later cosmic horror themes in the works of authors like Thomas Ligotti. For <i>Penny Dreadful</i>, John Logan includes characters from the eponymous serials and other classic horror at home in that time. <i>True Detective</i> and <i>Penny Dreadful</i> take alternate approaches: the former is a "prestige" show, atmospheric but grounded in a decades-reaching mystery/procedural; the latter more extreme and explicitly supernatural. In the evocative, alternately "gothic" settings of backwoods Louisiana and
Victorian London, souls and systems have been corrupted for generations, dragging people to violence upon stages and altars. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://40.media.tumblr.com/f3f50430f7d7a5e8da6abd92263519a3/tumblr_n277d8c3vZ1qbmwv6o8_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://40.media.tumblr.com/f3f50430f7d7a5e8da6abd92263519a3/tumblr_n277d8c3vZ1qbmwv6o8_500.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://stonerscully.tumblr.com/post/79122730764/the-altar" target="_blank">picture source</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/403063.html" target="_blank">picture source</a></td></tr>
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As the post comparing the two shows remained incomplete, I noticed similar themes appear in other other genre (or "genre-leaning") television. In <i>Penny Dreadful</i>, <i>True Detective</i>'s first season,<i> Orphan Black</i>, <i>Äkta människor</i> (<i>Real Humans</i>), Sky Atlantic's <i>Fortitude</i>, as well as the shows covered in <a href="http://doublefeaturefight.blogspot.com/2013/05/sinister-nature-hannibal-utopia-and-les.html" target="_blank">this previous post</a> (<i>Utopia</i>, <i>Les revenants</i>, and the first season of <i>Hannibal</i>); characters ponder the circumstances of their own existence. At what point did things turn wrong? How much of it is due to themselves, their upbringing, or current surroundings? Were they doomed at creation?<br />
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(spoilers under the cut) <br />
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<i>True Detective</i>'s and <i>Fortitude</i>'s tortured detectives and townspeople face and become figurative demons, a situation further complicated when people in <i>Fortitude</i> undergo horrifying physical transformations. <i>Orphan Black</i> 's clones struggle to assert their individual human lives within their status as scientific property. <i>Äkta människor</i>'s "hubots" and <i>Penny Dreadful</i>'s manmade or cursed creatures debate how much claim they have on humanity, and if being considered human is worth any effort. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRJZ-s0vXCjhdhVZaOkJBTb3Z5OBaakYG8YBfL4NCXvd2POUrfF3HslcYcQnYxlnftGFI01P_idYuBXvZrk11Wt0gZOs8rLQTEfHAEnRZFTuBJPyMGSmyvpE1g5b9ra52awU3LpFGjCrY9/s1600/tumblr_nl9lm3InIr1up3gc3o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRJZ-s0vXCjhdhVZaOkJBTb3Z5OBaakYG8YBfL4NCXvd2POUrfF3HslcYcQnYxlnftGFI01P_idYuBXvZrk11Wt0gZOs8rLQTEfHAEnRZFTuBJPyMGSmyvpE1g5b9ra52awU3LpFGjCrY9/s320/tumblr_nl9lm3InIr1up3gc3o1_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chrryblssmninja.tumblr.com/post/115044959066" target="_blank">picture source</a></td></tr>
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While anyone can fall victim in these shows, female
characters often receive the worst psychological and physical damage--
especially sexual dehumanization. While condemned on the surface,
this is enabled by pay cable's notorious overuse of female nudity as well as
writers taking away presence and agency from victims to give even more
screentime to male characters' conflicted emotions."Liberating" female
actions are often still tailored for a more or less pleasurable male
gaze. To borrow from <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/true-detective-season-1/" target="_blank">my YAM-Mag review of <i>True Detective</i></a>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Through the hypocrisies of men like Marty and the reactions of women
like his ex-wife Maggie (an underrated and underused Michelle Monaghan),
the show tries to make statements about misogyny and the relegation of
females to background vices and victims. However, the show rarely
develops those females beyond background vices and victims. </i></blockquote>
<i>Fortitude</i> handles assault in a more respectful manner, giving significant time and respect to the surviving victim's perspective and lingering trauma, and not just the effects upon the male authority figure involved. The show seems to understand a woman's wariness of the romantic interests of a man who can wield institutional power over her, for even if he is sincere about his best intentions, they can appear similar to dangerous behavior. He cannot expect his feelings to be returned (as happens too easily in many media romances in which a pining "good" guy is entitled to requited affection) without her genuine attraction, trust, and understanding. While not revolutionary, the show also features many women of different professional social roles, from youth through middle age, with scenes focused on their own stories and decisions apart from the men in their lives. Even jealousy between two women over a man doesn't erupt into catty arguments; those women blame the men more than each other. <br />
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Yes, <i>Penny Dreadful</i> is centered around Eva Green as the powerful yet tormented lead,
Vanessa Ives. The second season has the magnetic Helen McCrory as its
villain, the witch Evelyn Poole, and the formidable Patti LuPone as Vanessa's mentor.
However, the show seems to take a step back for every one or two steps
forward in its treatment of female characters. Caliban's harassment of women is both called out but then somewhat excused by his outcast status. In the second season, the show correctly genders Angelique one episode, digs at her "disguise" and birth name the next, and is eventually is killed off to further a male character's story. While the show allows men of various sexual orientations to live, women suffer and die to further the stories of others- almost always a male character. The show can be even more Victorian
than intended - condemning the state of psychiatric care and men's dismissal of women's concerns, but perpetuating the hysterical possessed woman trope and indulging the male gaze. Most of women's power comes from their magic. Females can only strike back through fantasy empowerment. When another character is brought back to recalls the abuse she suffered and witnessed throughout her life, she makes strong speeches decrying the treatment of women one minute, then displays her newfound power in alternately brutal and seductive ways upon men the next, lest her roaring rampage of revenge not be attractive. <br />
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<i>Äkta människor </i>is not faultless in this or in other regards, particularly with some gratuitous nudity in the opening episodes, but is better at showing a greater variety of female experiences through both sympathetic and distanced moments. Nearly all of the many female characters are developed in ways not entirely dependent upon their relationship with male characters, these females often interacting with each other in their own independent roles.<br />
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One complaint I have about the more-or-less competent English-language remake, Humans, is that, in incorporating elements of Flash's storyline into Niska's character, the writers decided to drop their version of Niska into a synth (their version of "hubot") brothel so that she will be "safe" in a place where no one suspects her. No longer is she the cool and commanding leader of the original, able to keep fellow hubots hidden in the countryside. She never turns off her pain receptors, and becomes enraged enough to kill one of her customers. This version of Niska does get a potent parting line when she leaves the human madam: "Everything your men do to us, they want to do to you."<br />
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Yet it's distressing that, in setting up her upcoming path of violence, they have to inflict sexualized horrors upon her (even if the underwear shots weren't always as lingering and exploitative as in other media works) to justify her anger. This sets up paths that could lead first to these audience trends of sympathy and then horror: 1) that she's only so angry and brutal because she was hurt, not just because she believes in synth free will and independence and 2) we have to witness this pain inflicted upon a named character in order to believe it, not a) trust the offscreen story of a victim or b) see that unnamed characters deserve their justice too, like what happens to a hubot Leo modifies in the Swedish original. Flash’s comparative ordeal Later on in the show, a man activates the sex function on Anita. The show contrasts the act with the daughter, Mattie, slapping two teenage boys for turning off a synth in order to have sex with it. She calls them disgusting for essentially trying to rape an unconscious synth. Yet, later on, while the newly-resurfaced Mia personality is visibly uncomfortable around the man, they soft-pedal the act, laying part of the blame on the Anita, who couldn’t do anything. It's also sad that another character had to suffer a higher level of sexual violence in the remake than she had faced in <i>Äkta människor.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVtKv1R-hEGWjIeSgmn52tA53T9CUC98yKBUybUlY_Xsl5cRq7m7CEZrz9gnBPjg9NYeLFZYmiujjOzaZ1p_tRHBB_1Hrlv2GlCcpcpYoOkmhqblk_1Q5YmgPx5SKxiKQMM2WsZM9KK_Rn/s1600/justice4niska.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVtKv1R-hEGWjIeSgmn52tA53T9CUC98yKBUybUlY_Xsl5cRq7m7CEZrz9gnBPjg9NYeLFZYmiujjOzaZ1p_tRHBB_1Hrlv2GlCcpcpYoOkmhqblk_1Q5YmgPx5SKxiKQMM2WsZM9KK_Rn/s320/justice4niska.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thegeekiary.com/humans-1x02-review-episode-2/25603" target="_blank">edited from picture source</a></td></tr>
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Hubots are built with a variety of customizable physical functions, and aside from being general servants and laborers, they are often used as sex objects. Even humans who insist upon a romantic connection with hubots have considerable power and ownership over any hubot who hasn't received the code for free will. While we do see male hubots forced into porn and sex work, it is the female hubots who are most mistreated. Though they have more strength than the average human (and several female hubots do attack those who exploit them), they can be overcome by surprise, human knowledge of hubot weaknesses, and programmed submission to human commands.<br />
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Flash, for example, initially thinks that her pimp's attentions are genuine appreciation, but later recognizes that she is being abused. She later takes charge of her destiny, reinventing herself as the social climber Florentine. Mimi is fetishized for both her hubot status and Asian female appearance, and faces several assault attempts. The hubots we see seem programmed for heteronormativity--particularly traditional-minded Flash, who is offended by the presence of a lesbian married couple (differently-minded individuals with separate personalities and subplots in their own right). As Flash becomes the more accepting Florentine, aspects of her traditional child-rearing are taken to extreme ends, but her desire to live a domestic life and take care of children are not devalued by the show either.<br />
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While Rick, a male hubot who is illegally "upgraded" in sexual and personality functions, is exploited as well, he is adjusted to fit a hyperagressive male ideal. He becomes obsessed with control, reacting sometimes with violence and also stalking a random woman before his functions slowly break down during his pursuit. Though Rick's storyline is a metaphor for one way men are abused in real life, his once-desirable "alpha male" reprogramming placed special focus on dominance over women, and when he hurt men, it was to attack any man who threatened that sense of dominance and overall superiority.<br />
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<i>Orphan Black</i> features one actress, Tatiana Maslany, playing over a dozen characters who struggle to assert and define themselves against the institutions that try to control them. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In its subject matter, “Orphan Black” broods on the
nature-nurture debate in human biology, but in its execution, the show
cleverly extends the same question to matters of genre. What does the
exact same woman look like if you grow her in the petri dish of
“Desperate Housewives” or on a horror-film set in Eastern Europe? What
about a police procedural? The result is a revelation: Instead of each
archetype existing as the lone female character in her respective
universe, these normally isolated tropes find one another, band together
and seek to liberate themselves from the evil system that created them.<br />
By structuring the story around the clones’ differences, “Orphan
Black” seems to suggest that the dull sameness enforced by existing
female archetypes needs to die."<br />
--<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/magazine/the-many-faces-of-tatiana-maslany.html?_r=0" target="_blank">The Many Faces of Tatiana Maslany, The New York Times</a></blockquote>
Maslany's characters are never easily contained in a single descriptive phrase: boho-geek scientist, soccer mom, tough grifter, troubled cop, trans male fugitive, ditzy manicurist, etc. Even a brief appearance has moments to deepen the dynamics beneath the veneer of a stereotype. [placeholder] A few women played by other actresses get their own arcs and interactions as well, particularly the foster mother and former militant Siobhan Sadler (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and conflicted double agent Delphine Cormier (Evelyne Brochu). The men get various supportive or antagonistic roles, though the male Project Castor clones are somewhat undercut by lack of character definition, even with the intent of showing how they were molded by a shared upbringing and military training. <br />
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Among the Project Leda clones, we see two more divergent examples of nuture as programming for a strict agenda: Helena and Rachel. Both first appear as antagonists-- Helena trained to kill clones, Rachel groomed to control them. Helena, left in the care of nuns who practiced extreme corporal punishment, is later taken in by a fanatical sect that takes the words of religion to justify her murders, stating that the clones’ existence as an aberration, that only Helena is the true and blessed “angel.” Rachel, raised with full knowledge of her status as a clone, is encouraged by a company that takes the words of industrialized science to justify their power, stating that the clones are experimental products, that only Rachel is the special “pro-clone.” We see that these women hurt their sisters -as well as others- because are trained to see themselves as the superior exception, akin on a level to real life behavior in how women are often complemented by putting down other females, not being superficial or weak “like other girls.”<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">edited from <a href="http://chrryblssmninja.tumblr.com/post/123138373386" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr>
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None of these programs handles in-show race issues as well as they could, even considering that they are mostly set around white characters. <i>Penny Dreadful</i> in particular has no excuse. For a show that calls out Victorian mores, the slaughter of American Indians, and the deeds of its Great White Hunter archetype in Malcolm Murray, it is straightforward and oblivious in its neglectful treatment of the character Sembene. Is there any self-awareness when, in two seasons of deeper investigation into main and side characters, the only character who isn’t white is a strong and often silent generically African servant whose actions are nearly always in support of the white characters, whose backstory is suddenly revealed to be that of a slave-seller, and whose last act is to state that his life is worth less that that of the white man accompanying him? At least Danny Sapani displayed great presence and chemistry in the role. The third season has cast more people of color in recurring roles, but viewers should prepare to be intrigued and disappointed once again.<br />
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<i>True Detective</i> takes a more vague approach to depicting race relations. A historically-Black church, for instance, is burned and desecrated, but this action happens offscreen, and the detectives only arrive to size up the aftermath for clues in the larger investigation. As the years progress, secondary and tertiary African-American characters have more screentime and authority, with Detectives Gilbough and Papania resuming the season’s main case years after the all-white police team had declared it solved. There is also one scene in which a black woman who worked in the house of a powerful suspect gives testimony of the occult festivities celebrated on the estate. While others dismiss her as simply old and crazy, the detectives recognize her importance as a living witness, respecting her work and her years along with the truth present in her words, even if she ends with shouts of praise for The Yellow King. It’s a rare scene of consideration for someone probably seen as less important due to her race and social position. Also, the famous six-minute tracking shot momentarily has Cohle trying to save a black boy caught in a gunfight between white bikers and a mix of black criminals and civilians. Otherwise, <i>True Detective</i> seems very shy in onscreen confrontation in regards to race, or even mentioning casual racial bias. The show doesn’t have to go out of its way to show racism, or boldly state “now we’re integrated,” but this quiet and vague approach is a major contrast to how the show displays the other abuses of white men in Louisiana. Perhaps this is more tasteful than its treatment of sexism, and perhaps the writer might have failed in aiming further, but such a manner might be too timid and disrespectful for the world and themes it wants to depict. <br />
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The Arctic town of <i>Fortitude</i> is populated by a plausible mix of nationalities: Norwegians (and probably other Scandinavians) along with Irish and Russian workers, a variety of British people (including mixed-race households), and perhaps a few other Sami besides the taxidermist Tavrani. The two people who stand out most in this mix are Eugene Morton, an American working for British police to investigate deaths on the island, and Elena Ledesma. Ledesma is a Spaniard whose characterization initially treads close to exotic stereotypes: a sensual and olive-skinned Southern European with an accent that contrasts with the Northern Europeans around her. Her beauty attracts attention, much of it unwanted, and she becomes somewhat of a femme fatale. An affair with the married Frank Sutter inadvertently leads to his son’s illness and involvement in a murder, and suspicions and envious assault of a rival from Sheriff Anderssen. It’s a relief that later episodes develop her character beyond her allure; also sizing up Anderssen’s attraction, violence, stalking and other unlawful actions as of his own making, not hers.<br />
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The black characters on the show hail from the UK, and show some personality and independence beyond their relations to white characters in their own side of the storyline. Frank Sutter and son Liam are main characters, although Liam might be considered more of a conduit for plot. Trish Stoddart may only appear for a few episodes, but she outlives her white professor husband Charlie (though he is played by top-billed Christopher Eccleston). Scientist Max Cordero doesn’t get much screentime, but he seems to the reasonable and relatively decent half of the oil-prospecting duo sneaking about (the other half being Yuri, a somewhat stereotypical Russian security chief with a scary-funny extreme personality).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ramon-tikaram.tumblr.com/post/112383755223/many-thanks-to-ramontikaram-fans-for-finding-this" target="_blank">picture source</a></td></tr>
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Nationality seems more of a discriminating factor than race on this island. However, Tavrani (played by Fiji-Indian/Malaysian actor Ramon Tikaram, who has a resonant and crisp English accent) doesn’t get much to do besides answer questions. It’s not clear whether he is the only Sami man in town, or if he’s part of a larger community on the island, though the Arctic islands in general fall outside the traditional Sápmi region. Is his taxidermy an individual practice, or him carrying on a tradition of an earlier Sami settler on the island? When an English photographer asks about spirit protection, there is a moment where Tavrani snipes something akin to “of course you’d assume that the only ‘Native’ person you know would know anything about mystic rituals.” Yet he does happen to know a little about warding off spirits, and so helps the photographer create a blood-magic guardian doll. The use of the doll becomes a minor prop in present-day drama and the theme of ancient forces, although I have no idea if the concept of the doll is authentic. I can only hope that we see Tavrani as more of his own character in Fortitude’s second series. <br />
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<i>Orphan Black</i> is better than many North American and UK shows at presenting many variations of white women, and makes an effort in regards to respectful LGBT representation as well. Its treatment of race, though, needs more work. Detective Art Bell (Kevin Hanchard) does have a significant supporting role, and is more-or-less included within the “Clone Club” inner circle of trust. Vic (Michael Mando) was also a recurring character, although he started off as an abusive ex-boyfriend that Sarah fights hard to escape. His criminal activities, messy personality, and obsession with Sarah are later played for comedic effect. One can also argue that Cosima’s dreadlocks, though appropriative, are very true to her character as a Berkeley bohemian who can arrogantly proclaim what is and is not acceptable. However, aside from Sarah and Helena’s generically African immigrant birth mother Amelia, who is soon killed by Helena, the two women with notable screentime who aren’t white are villains.<br />
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In the third season, Marci Coates is a pretentious and homophobic local representative whose school redistricting plans enrage Alison enough that Alison starts her own campaign to run against Marci. The show might have had an open casting call for the character, but having a black actress (Amanda Brugel) be the face of a practice often used against poor communities, especially those with a high minority population , is troubling combined with all the other factors in the suburban storyline. The show also spends more time saying that Alison cares about her kids Oscar and Gemma --adopted children of African descent-- than actually showing her with those children. They make cameo appearances or interact with their latest babysitter more than, in contrast, Sarah interacts with Kira, from whom Sarah’s often separated. Alison and her husband Donnie also have a twerking scene that parodies “gangsta rap” videos, throwing around money from their sudden drug-dealing fortune. The scene is meant to be hilarious and show how ridiculous the Hendrixes can be, but it seems everyone in the production was oblivious to the implications of uptight white suburb-dwellers celebrating the sale of drugs by breaking from their usual behavior and trying to copy a dance and video style that originated with African-Americans. What seems more intentional is having Alison’s mother suspiciously ask if Cosima is “mulatto” - we understand that the writers want to show the mother as not only overbearing and manipulative but racist as well, even if she has black grandchildren. <br />
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I’m criticizing what seems to be unnoticed or dismissed as okay by the writers, like the presentation of a stereotypical Mexican cantina, or when the show edges toward bizarre xenophobia when Alison and Donnie face intimidating Portuguese gangsters. While Portuguese are considered white Europeans today, they are light olive-skinned with accents exotic for the WASP standards of the suburbs (by which even nonwhite residents abide), playing fado in a dingy garage office. They are killed offscreen by another heavily-accented European, Helena, but since she’s now on her sisters’ side, it’s treated positively, with a bit of macabre humor. <br />
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Dr. Virginia Coady (played by First Nations actress Kyra Harper) does have an intriguing role and amount of power as the doctor overseeing Project Castor. Yet she rarely gets to interact with other women, except when she’s in conflict with them. She also encourages the Castor sons she raised to infect women through sex as part of an experiment - and doesn’t mind if her boys actually rape the victims, because it’s all in the service of trying to save the world . Of course a morally-gray villain is always welcome in drama, and there are women who sanction misogyny, but once again the show brings up unfortunate parallels and casts a minority face at the head of the practice, this time with real-life scientific abuses of forced sterilization and other horrors wrought upon American Indians and other populations. <br />
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On <i>Äkta människor</i>, Mimi's plight is reminiscent of many women, especially women of color, who are captured by human trafficking, sold into brothels or home service and face disrespect and harassment even in a more "respectable" white-collar workplace. Yet what happened to the immigrants? We see a diverse array of faces around, even in the hubot-hating "Real Humans" movement, but the show only covers the replacement of domestic jobs by hubots, and never mentions if the existence of hubots has discouraged or had any other effect on immigration from other European countries or abroad. The English-language remake overlooks the matter in a similar fashion. <br />
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Also, in <i>Äkta människor</i>’s second season, Flash meets and eventually marries a black man, Douglas (Alexander Karim), who was adopted into a rich white Swedish family. He’s amiable, although maybe written too perfect and convenient except for a slap during an argument, but soon dies to further Flash’s storyline. His death leads to Flash fighting for custody of his son, and eventually, to her imprisonment. Marylyn (Saunet Sparell) and Fred (David Lenneman) die after little character development, due to sudden plot contrivances. At Hubot Battle Land, Yuma (Nanna Blondell) is abused as a sex object and victim of violence until she starts following Rick’s rebellious orders and eventually gains free will. I wish that her statement “I want to go home” would have led to more exploration of her character if a third season was made.<br />
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Tobbe meets with a group of people who call themselves “Transhumans,” who frame their affections for hubots, and the disdain the rest of society has for them, appropriating terms used by the actual LGBT movement for the struggle of being a teenage boy in love with a female sentient robot. This group is also reminiscent of Japan-obsessed "weeaboos" in how they co-opt the pastels and stereotypical physical movements and vocal tics in their "hubot apprecation.” They are probably included to parallel scenes following the the extreme “Real Humans” movement, to depict people throughout the spectrum of hubot acceptance as a metaphor for current-day conflicts about immigration and other issues. Whether or not the show has an outsider’s ambivalence on the “hub-bies” is debatable, but the presentation of Tobbe’s attraction to Mimi as a struggle of sexual orientation is unconvincing, a cop-out to gain “progressive” sympathy by having a character who would otherwise not be discriminated against experience metaphorical discrimination. It’s disappointing to hear the priest Åsa’s message to her congregation as well as Inger’s defense in season 2’s climactic trial hinge upon simplistic comparisons of racism with discrimination against hubots. The show, while admirably tackling major issues, tends to treat all kinds of discrimination with the same weight in nearly all circumstances, without more precise context and nuance to strengthen its arguments.<br />
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The synths played by actors of African descent in Humans, Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) and Fred (Sope Dirisu), have more definition and screentime than Marylyn and Fred in the original version. While Max is seen first as Leo’s loyal helper, the show later reveals that the conscious synths consider themselves all Leo’s family, and breaking the trope of a minority character dying to further the narrative, it is saving Max from death that forms the climax of the first season. However, Fred’s body is twice immobilized and used against himself, turning what could have been commentary on exploitation of bodies, especially those of Black men, into a lazy reused trope. <br />
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Even with these criticisms, I wouldn’t have watched all these seasons through if I didn’t find something to enjoy or at least appreciate (I did feel wary about <i>True Detective</i> season 2 trying too hard with grim dark dramatics, and much of the reaction confirmed my opinion to stay away.) Yet it is not fiction for those who experience prejudice to treated as a lesser human for aspects of identity beyond their control; to see themselves in popular fiction as just helpful or harmful supporting cast to the privileged, if not narrative devices with little character of their own. For shows that grapple with the themes of humanity, this uneven handling of issues undercuts their ambitions. Perhaps it is more difficult for them to push their themes beyond general theories of existence towards a wider, but still story-relevant, range of matters of lived experience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Zwfog_0pf4IzxjOyyv9cBvM6Jyfdu63RbnMS4XHlW6UmvZX2Z82cHP7pRBohqOhFzyKd-K4apnl4JgP98GzRancU3UMiFSIqBgP3vBpFjdM-FLoQSp1ZOQVVeHguE4vr9Ybnn7a5doXY/s1600/td+1-7+storage+inside.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Zwfog_0pf4IzxjOyyv9cBvM6Jyfdu63RbnMS4XHlW6UmvZX2Z82cHP7pRBohqOhFzyKd-K4apnl4JgP98GzRancU3UMiFSIqBgP3vBpFjdM-FLoQSp1ZOQVVeHguE4vr9Ybnn7a5doXY/s320/td+1-7+storage+inside.png" width="320" /></a><br />
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It is much easier for these shows to explore lives and other creations gone awry, current forces clashing with those of the past. While much corruption begins in the past, preserved for generations in <i>True Detective </i>or for eons in <i>Fortitude</i>, modernity doesn't alleviate misery, and can even compound it. Caliban delivers this monologue to his creator, Victor Frankenstein, in the third episode, “Resurrection:”<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I am not a
creation of the antique pastoral world. I am modernity personified. Did
you not know that’s what you were creating? The modern age. Did you
really imagine that your modern creation would hold to the values of
Keats and Wordsworth? We are men of iron and mechanisation now. We are
steam engines and turbines. Were you really so naive to imagine that
we’d see eternity in a daffodil? Who is the child, Frankenstein? Thee or
me?</i> </blockquote>
The conflict born in created sentient life continues in alternate present days, as in the hubot world of <i>Äkta människor</i> (Real Humans) and the clone conspiracy of Orphan Black. Time can be positive, and it can’t be denied as an important factor in the production of these series. These television programs of the past few years might not have existed outside what many like to editorialize as “The Golden Age of Television,” although every decade of television had its own quality programs. Various factors of creative control allowed for the writers, directors, and other crew of all the shows I’ve mentioned to put forth their ideas in at least one season‘s worth of episodes. Feats of technology (cameras and cosmetics) work with the actors’ skills to make clones and hubots and aging and combined locations believable for today’s eyes. Within the shows themselves, the passage of time can bring uplifting ends-- though years have passed, justice is finally served, truths are eventually revealed, and so on. However, the ambition to create and innovate, for personal as well as societal benefit, brings about results whose sentience threatens concepts thought essential to civilization and survival. Often, this threat is increased by reactions birthed from fear, but whatever the catalyst, the conflict escalates to points where extreme opposites form, where one type of living being finds that their existence cannot continue as they wish until the other is controlled, if not eliminated. <br />
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Death in all of these shows is brutal, both in the moment and in later trauma, and to seek motivation or escape through desire often complicates matters further with more people to care about and protect, when that desire is not itself destructive. The clones and hubots have defects, the detectives have demons, the monsters are swayed to violence by man. Even on Fortitude, a seeming utopia where there has been no violent crime and no one is allowed to die, there is biological corruption preserved in the ice, its danger heightened by the secrets the humans keep. Any blame is shared, by unconscious agreement, between innate and surrounding nature As I noted in <a href="http://doublefeaturefight.blogspot.com/2013/05/sinister-nature-hannibal-utopia-and-les.html" target="_blank">my earlier post</a> about <i>Utopia</i>, <i>Les revenants</i>, and <i>Hannibal</i>'s first season, nature is an unavoidable and unending presence, that even when corrupted by humans, can still persevere and attack.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dailygrail.com/TV-and-Movies/2015/4/Nightmares-the-Future-The-Climatological-Horror-Life-Fortitude" target="_blank">picture source</a></td></tr>
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This returns us to the cosmic horror themes of <i>True Detective</i>'s Rust Cohle and the Yellow King, that the actions of humans are nothing to the universe, whether for good or ill. But are the actions of characters nothing to their audiences? These shows are created by humans, shaped by a multitude of forces whose influences are intentionally and unintentionally incorporated into the work. We continue to follow these characters as guided by writers’ sympathies, by how much information is displayed or withheld. We may disagree with the way a show turns, when we feel that a line of dialogue or a choice is at odds with the characters and themes the show has fostered. Yet we will keep on watching as long as the creations, beyond the limits and biases of their creators, have compelling lives of their own. <br />
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YAM-Mag reviews of: <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/true-detective-season-1/" target="_blank"><i>True Detective</i> - Season 1</a>, <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/orphan-black-season-2/" target="_blank"><i>Orphan Black</i> - Season 2</a>, <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/fortitude-series-one/" target="_blank"><i>Fortitude</i> - Series One</a>,<br />
<a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/hannibal-season-1/" target="_blank"><i>Hannibal</i> - Season One</a>, <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/utopia-series-one/" target="_blank"><i>Utopia</i> - Series 1</a>, <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/reviews/tv-reviews/les-revenants-season-1/" target="_blank"><i>Les revenants</i> - season one</a>; and comments on <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/blog/diandras-late-farewell-to-2014-viewing/2/" target="_blank">Hannibal - Season 2, <i>Äkta människor, </i>and Utopia - Series 2</a>.<br />
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ETA, May, 2016: The latest episode of Penny Dreadful , "A Blade of Grass" brings up the theme (paralleled by Frankenstein's and Jekyll's experiments) of abusing contemporary notions of psychology and psychiatric science to render people --particularly women-- docile, acceptable and exploitable to others. ETA, September 2016: However, by the series finale, Vanessa Ives has her agency completely removed from her until she (SPOILER) lets herself die at the hands of another. Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-61016771692202790172014-06-12T04:37:00.001-07:002016-05-19T11:52:24.290-07:00#20: Soldiers of Future Past: Marvel superheroes vs. American security measures<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrN0v3NS7zPEgXbnn-429i8EZuSz-WtvcTgR7DOH5j-T6Fwldq2UmphTmsmu6EesMwI0POR7o19CD27E6vyhgDrDUOoGzZbT8UvTM13aDmzHtSBhkwqzxZPi707OZbfXN031TzkU8wBZRr/s1600/winter+soldier+poster.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrN0v3NS7zPEgXbnn-429i8EZuSz-WtvcTgR7DOH5j-T6Fwldq2UmphTmsmu6EesMwI0POR7o19CD27E6vyhgDrDUOoGzZbT8UvTM13aDmzHtSBhkwqzxZPi707OZbfXN031TzkU8wBZRr/s1600/winter+soldier+poster.jpg" width="213" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CPMSl884Oz_dd5er8bSuklXN3P903e_5QlR_SnL7VBCpvhFFmKFXSMi5ASg2VEwppfugp7ruHtnV-z_R37vZvPHEyYWcy0fh9sO_lWVDpvTF8I3IVFla-9ro-jD5-kYzTsK9WXeXNOHs/s1600/dofp+poster.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CPMSl884Oz_dd5er8bSuklXN3P903e_5QlR_SnL7VBCpvhFFmKFXSMi5ASg2VEwppfugp7ruHtnV-z_R37vZvPHEyYWcy0fh9sO_lWVDpvTF8I3IVFla-9ro-jD5-kYzTsK9WXeXNOHs/s1600/dofp+poster.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
Posters by <a href="http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/2014/03/captain-america-winter-soldier.html" target="_blank">Paolo Rivera</a> and <a href="http://blurppy.com/2014/02/27/exclusive-phase-2-of-poster-posses-project-6-bryan-singers-x-men-days-of-future-past-is-x-ceptional/" target="_blank">Ben Whitesell</a>.<br />
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"This isn't freedom. This is fear."<br />
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Two of this year's movies with Marvel superheroes feature men displaced from their time, fighting against extreme preventive security systems: <i>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</i> (Marvel Studios) and <i>X-Men: Days of Future Past</i> (20th Century Fox). The former hearkens to the paranoid mood of '70's conspiracy thrillers (furthered by casting Robert Redford in a key role), while the latter actually travels between 1973 and a bleak near-future. Both adapt older comic book storylines and feature a destructive climax set right in Washington, D.C (<a href="http://alwaysalreadyangry.tumblr.com/post/88297921592/so-my-main-observation-after-seeing-dofp-and-yes" target="_blank">including major occurrences in the Potomac</a>). Though blockbusters (like all other groups of movies) vary in cinematic merit, they often respond to popular needs for escapism and hope while confronting more-or-less disguised modern fears. The conflicted mood of the American 1970's lives on in these speculative struggles for hearts and minds.<br />
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Steve "Captain America" Rogers, a symbol of WWII's "Greatest Generation," slept in ice through that war's aftermath, and through the ensuing Cold War and the "hot" Korea, Vietnam, and First Gulf wars. Post-WWII decisions and conflicts were responsible for pushing the modern American military-industrial complex into motion. The character name and title "Winter Soldier" calls back to the actual Winter Soldier hearings held for American military atrocities committed during <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier_Investigation" target="_blank">the Vietnam War</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Soldier:_Iraq_%26_Afghanistan" target="_blank">the Afghan and Iraq wars</a> (information <a href="http://problematize.tumblr.com/post/80397980251/im-super-excited-about-the-new-captain-america" target="_blank">via problematize</a>). In the film, the Captain and his allies have to stop the mobilization of a product of those escalated tensions and arms races: a roving security system named Project Insight, operating as a tool of the homeland defense organization SHIELD, that would immediately assassinate any person considered a threat. <br />
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Wolverine is sent to the last day of the Vietnam War, in which the United States is unabashedly declared the loser. Mystique rescues several mutants serving in the US Army from medical experimentation, recalling historical experiments performed upon soldiers and prisoners. Those experiments, carried out within government tents and camps, are the secret projects of the Trask corporation. Mystique's rescue effort is one part of her mission: to kill genius industrialist Bolivar Trask as revenge for the deadly experiments he ordered upon members of her species. Yet the whole plot of <i>Days of Future Past</i> concerns the prevention of Mystique's assassination of Trask, which in one timeline triggers the sale of mutant-killing Sentinel security robots to the US government. <br />
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Both films center on convincing others of the truth of one's cause. Those fighting alongside Captain America can only guess at the devastation of Project Insight, and choose to object based on principle. Wolverine, however,
has lived through the nightmare Sentinel future and can speak not just through ideals or comparison to previous horrors but through personal testimony. In contrast to these appeals to individuals, the "threats" targeted by these systems are determined by groups: genetics in X-Men, or any hint of activity deemed subversive in Captain America. Even The Hulk, Bruce Banner, is considered a target. One could say that at least the Sentinels stick to a set program of killing <i>all</i> mutants and mutant-spawning humans regardless of personal opinion; while names fed to Insight can be added or withdrawn depending on the wishes of those in power. Once in operation, Project Insight and the Sentinels are automated systems that shoot upon suspicion, taking no prisoners. They lack the will to allow a target to prove non-threatening or redemptive intentions. <br />
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Characters are also turned into weapons against their will. Mystique unwittingly brings about the termination of her species, not just through her action of killing Trask, but through the capture of her body, whose shapeshifting ability is used to make the Sentinels adaptable to any attack. The Winter Soldier, in turn, is brainwashed and physically transformed, frozen when not in use as a destructive tool to "shape the century." His memories and sense of self are repeatedly erased to maintain his status as an emotionless weapon, so much so that he attacks people he previously recognized and cared about.<br />
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In my opinion <i>Winter Soldier</i> is the better film, and it better distributes character agency. Characters Nick Fury and Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff have more definite arcs for their stories, and the film
shows more than tells when portraying relationships such as the friendship between Steve and
Sam "Falcon" Wilson. <i>Days of Future Past</i> relies more on declarations of relations and scraps of cast chemistry moments. The film gives the appearance that Mystique has a stronger individual role. Her mission is her own, not commanded by Xavier or Magneto. Their quest to stop her harmful misstep, however, arguably crosses over into physical and mental coercion. Kitty Pryde, the heroine of the source story
in the comics, spends nearly all of the movie in one position to guide Wolverine's journey. Previous major character Storm and other female X-Men get scant lines and a few bursts of action before dying. Keeping in a deleted scene with Rogue might have slightly improved matters, but I think the core story could have been told with more significant female presence and less obvious plotholes. I agree with <a href="http://www.dimthehouselights.com/post/87048131698/its-an-x-mans-mans-mans-mans-world" target="_blank">this discussion of the erasure of female agency</a> in the film, although I consider the romantic triangle to be Magneto-Mystique-Beast and the ideological triangle to be Magneto-Mystique-and (Raven's adoptive brother) Charles. <i>Winter Soldier</i> also has meaningful roles for more than one woman (though, among other things, Maria Hill's <a href="http://chromaticheroes.livejournal.com/13377.html" target="_blank">ambiguous heritage</a> isn't portrayed), and has two African-American men in leading roles. <i>Days of Future Past</i>, which places a stronger emphasis on the variation of possibilities in humans and mutants, has one major female role restricted to sedentary support, while the other's agency is curtailed. The mutants in the future may be diverse, but are sacrificed --sometimes twice-- before the white leads.<br />
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SHIELD director Nick Fury may not reveal all the motives of his orders to his operatives in <i>The Winter Soldier</i>, but this spy necessities vs. transparency conflict is discussed during the film. Captain America and his friends only use violence when necessary, setting their words forward when possible to try and convince others to choose a side or get to safety. For example, in one scene, Steve asks his potential attackers if they wish to leave the elevator before he starts fighting. Even unnamed SHIELD agent extras are allowed to make choices of their own free will, a contrast to the psychological binding of the Winter Soldier. Charles Xavier, on the other hand, invades people's minds in order to push into Mystique's mind. What could have been clear choices on Mystique's part become ambiguous, since Charles' actions appear more like forcing her hand than simply persuading through suggestion. Yes, the fate of the world is at stake. For a time, Charles actively suppresses his powers with drugs, because the bombardment of others' thoughts and experiences compounds his emotional pain at the loss of students. However, more demonstrated awareness of the invasive nature of Charles' powers upon others would have been welcome. <br />
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While <i>The Winter Soldier</i> sets its imaginary homeland security organization versus an imaginary Nazi offshoot, <i>Days of Future Past</i> paints the actual American military and Nixon administration complicit in the villainous scheme. <i>Winter Soldier</i>'s infiltration is run with the primary purpose for "peaceful," all-controlling reign of a master "race,"
though it may use business interests and physical coercion for those carrying out its tasks. Within the Marvel Universe, SHIELD's infiltration is shocking, for while SHIELD was portrayed as a morally gray organization, it often aided and recruited the superheroes we root for. Outside the Marvel Universe, Trask courts the US government's dollars for both business and personal conviction, selling security through fear of a mutant master race. <i>Days of Future Past</i> may place this at the feet of those working under an unpopular president, but it doesn't allude to real world implications and then sidestep them through fictional quasi-government bodies. Still, these are mainstream films in which any intended or unintended critique of the real world is masked, allocated a safe minimum of space, or balanced for popular tastes and/or status quo. Mystique's rage must be stopped, with relatively little punishment for humans who have or might have been involved with mutant deaths. Steve Rodgers' rage fuels the campaign for a complete takedown of any connections with the possibility of corruption, but while a few Congressmen fall, the CIA is shown in a positive manner in the concluding montage. <br />
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A surprising note from both films is that, at crucial moments, the heroes choose to become vulnerable. At times when they could have continued to use lethal force, they realize that major aggressors have been defeated or kept at bay. Final victorious beatdowns or shootouts, the displays of dominance celebrated in most action films, are shunned. The heroes choose to lay down arms, giving what remains of the opposing party an opportunity for agency they might have been denied (the Winter Soldier) or denied (those trapped with Nixon)-- the chance to decide what happens next. <br />
<br />Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-69737937703035328112013-08-30T22:19:00.000-07:002013-08-30T22:23:17.791-07:00#19: By the Flashbulb's Bright Glare: Ace in the Hole (1951) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlaC7R-kdCGaO8J5cwRwxLucUijhJZX5dFDnd3u17SA5PNF64Xp7mEtIxDj7z-jrX4D7uD76RhWuEApJcp_vQEOV0V6qp6be8VmORk8F9kZirWwsfPY1DH_LQKKg9dmqAZxD7hXf-i493U/s1600/ace-in-the-hole-movie-poster-1951-1010711842.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlaC7R-kdCGaO8J5cwRwxLucUijhJZX5dFDnd3u17SA5PNF64Xp7mEtIxDj7z-jrX4D7uD76RhWuEApJcp_vQEOV0V6qp6be8VmORk8F9kZirWwsfPY1DH_LQKKg9dmqAZxD7hXf-i493U/s320/ace-in-the-hole-movie-poster-1951-1010711842.png" width="228" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifq-XOVtgxPKmgzc3GVDsQigbBS7U0_X4mTGiGNKRLAOUoKf9bcdOy9iSoNz_YBoBs1Hot4aItyceZhOrMgha54plGJJg4Yi97xCYCaBXqN7MKqHEUO13j-5q5r0AIMxhGCuwqy_cwE9xj/s1600/sweet-smell-of-success-(1957)-large-cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifq-XOVtgxPKmgzc3GVDsQigbBS7U0_X4mTGiGNKRLAOUoKf9bcdOy9iSoNz_YBoBs1Hot4aItyceZhOrMgha54plGJJg4Yi97xCYCaBXqN7MKqHEUO13j-5q5r0AIMxhGCuwqy_cwE9xj/s320/sweet-smell-of-success-(1957)-large-cover.png" width="213" /></a><br />
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<i>Ace in the Hole</i> (directed by Billy Wilder) and <i>Sweet Smell of Success</i> (directed by Alexander Mackendrick) were brought to 1950’s screens by A-list talent, many of whom were hounded or haunted by the blacklist. These films’ vile protagonists wield quips and cunning as acid-tipped daggers in wars of influence. We are taken to locales of American legend: the Wild West and The Big Apple, where individuals became heroes and communities arose from dust and squalor. Yet New Mexico’s and New York’s caves and canyons are where these characters of ambition come to dupe or be duped, where care becomes a carnival. Born from the land of opportunity, these pictures drip with cynicism and self-disgust, enduring as two of the nastiest Hollywood creations made from and against the media machine.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGY_oQpr2FPNU8nrOzLipZItvjVf9DV28J9HVKb_hmtCy2rvv7timGd3n1HSxC4rG0E8LDQpHrBW15bpe7xjVMtb1wSdsbdgMAyD0S4JGjb0_dUAygrNYjL5zTrgBqDqZ5oq9J7N56S8/s400/sss13.JPG"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGY_oQpr2FPNU8nrOzLipZItvjVf9DV28J9HVKb_hmtCy2rvv7timGd3n1HSxC4rG0E8LDQpHrBW15bpe7xjVMtb1wSdsbdgMAyD0S4JGjb0_dUAygrNYjL5zTrgBqDqZ5oq9J7N56S8/s320/sss13.JPG" width="320" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJtm1GxlxWq2SMTwigzf43azmPCsYjDKuGKGzU2fapSzaV1ksyQPQH0_v9tJg_uhW25KU52YsE4e81OH2ncmtwtMUrUT_NJcPcUQCr5gE8ErXHouwlBaWLnnv0AuG0iJN7xucOZr4WOE/s400/sss9.JPG"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJtm1GxlxWq2SMTwigzf43azmPCsYjDKuGKGzU2fapSzaV1ksyQPQH0_v9tJg_uhW25KU52YsE4e81OH2ncmtwtMUrUT_NJcPcUQCr5gE8ErXHouwlBaWLnnv0AuG0iJN7xucOZr4WOE/s320/sss9.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Picture sources:<a href="http://filmscreed.blogspot.com/2012/03/cinematography-james-wong-howe-and-new.html" target="_blank"> here</a>, <a href="http://generationfilm.net/2011/02/07/film-recommendation-of-the-day-207-ace-in-the-hole-1951/" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/aceinthehole.asp" target="_blank">here</a>.</span> </div>
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P.S. Make it a triple feature with Wilder's <i>Sunset Boulevard</i> as a starter!<br />
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P.P.S. I also wrote a post about my five favorite classic cinematographers (including <i>Success</i>' James Wong Howe) <a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/features/film-features/diandras-five-favorite-classic-cinematographers/" target="_blank">at YAM-Mag</a>, and posted some favorite TV and movie soundtrack tracks in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLun6AySme_RB_h2Li8KtdDUXwxBUCyTG-" target="_blank">this Youtube playlist</a>. Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-20271971746104198332013-05-09T04:40:00.000-07:002014-04-06T13:48:03.235-07:00#18: Sinister Nature: Hannibal, Utopia, and Les Revenants (The Returned)<br />
Three gorgeous and compelling “genre” TV shows exhibit extraordinary elements irreparably transforming ordinary worlds: Canal+’s enigmatic zombie drama <i>Les Revenants </i>(titled <i>The Returned</i> for the UK)<i>,</i> Channel 4’s conspiracy thriller <i>Utopia</i>, and AXN/Gaumont/NBC’s investigative procedure-serial <i>Hannibal</i>. Their simmering, striking style melts into substantial experiences unlike most offerings on any screen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVykF6uWklhQj3hsLsh0JiZd4nhNzKrtz4CLDbGrdzKX8P6SwrLQX-idfg-zQL3LqBvfxyAXVUZ2_qmGbEQdqClw4-2b2Q2sYGp-2wnx6lRLVjn4Wom56OqQhJVBAXcMTmAFDfd3sraZSE/s1600/cleolina_stag.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVykF6uWklhQj3hsLsh0JiZd4nhNzKrtz4CLDbGrdzKX8P6SwrLQX-idfg-zQL3LqBvfxyAXVUZ2_qmGbEQdqClw4-2b2Q2sYGp-2wnx6lRLVjn4Wom56OqQhJVBAXcMTmAFDfd3sraZSE/s320/cleolina_stag.bmp" height="179" mwa="true" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top stag and later mushroom images from <a href="http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Cleolinda's recaps</a>. </td></tr>
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Past and present, real and unreal bleed through dream imagery in environments conquered by color. <i>Les Revenants</i> subtly shifts into visual modes that are distant, heavily shadowed, framed, or otherwise cut-off— fostering unease through a perspective simultaneously voyeuristic and withholding, painterly and disturbing. <i>Utopia</i>, whose plot centers on a graphic novel manuscript, features stunning hyper-saturated shots of nature and buildings. These shots give a macro- or micro- view of proceedings and surroundings, with people obscured or not even in sight (a trait that gains plot significance). <i>Hannibal</i>’s brutal <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/seitz-on-prequels-hannibal-and-bates-motel.html" target="_blank">“Brueghelian beauty ”</a> especially affects one of its main characters; who finds it increasingly difficult to separate the acts of viewing, understanding, and becoming. The bursts of violence in all these shows is heavily stylized, but their cruelty or sudden viciousness are presented as horrifying beyond — or because of— their shocking elegance. <br />
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Another factor that distinguishes these surreal-leaning shows from other TV programs: their original, evocative soundtracks. Moodiness and odd flourishes heighten scenes with tones ranging from ethereal to menacing. My favorite track this year is “<a href="https://soundcloud.com/cristobal-tapia-de-veer/meditative-chaos" target="_blank">Meditative Chaos</a>,” featuring the voice of Kim Neundorf, from Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s distortion-heavy <i>Utopia</i> soundtrack. Scottish post-rock band Mogwai composed atmospheric tracks like “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu8b-EVTsZA" target="_blank">Wizard Motor</a>” for <i>Les Revenants</i> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/feb/18/mogwai-stuart-braithwaite-les-revenants" target="_blank">by watching scenes with some English-language description and translation before scoring</a>. <a href="http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=11188" target="_blank">Brian Reitzell’s soundtrack for </a><i><a href="http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=11188" target="_blank">Hannibal</a> </i>sneaks and slithers before heavy beats and many an operatic crescendo. Pulses echo the ticks of a metronome, or a stalker’s steps. </div>
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Humanity is haunted and hunted. Scattered through these shows are the dream-stag and murder displays of <i>Hannibal</i>, Mr. Rabbit and the illustrations in <i>Utopia</i>, and the titular animal and human <i>Revenants</i>. Powerful images and personalities are presented as more than human, breaking past the civilized everyday into realms aligned with the primitive or supernatural. Living and dead, flora and fauna, blend in inhuman assemblage. Lines between opposing forces split and fuse in a kaleidoscopic array of allegiance and morality. Particular shots further suggest a further melding of diabolical and divine. <br />
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What is surprising about these shows is how they extend this dissolving duality to the basic physical and filial elements of existence. Inserts of gentle, pastoral nature are later revealed as omens of murder and decay. From <i>Utopia</i>’s pharma-food conspiracy to the cannibalistic killers of <i>Hannibal </i>and <i>Les Revenants</i> (and stirrings of feral behavior in the zombies of the latter), the vital and personal act of eating is tainted. Kinship bonds arise through <a href="http://prydonian.co.vu/tagged/things-only-anthropology-majors-say-while-watching-hannibal" target="_blank"><span id="goog_1032375860"></span>cannibalism</a><span id="goog_1032375861"></span> and trauma in <i>Hannibal</i>, mourning and survival in <i>Les Revenants</i>, and alternating paranoia and vulnerability in <i>Utopia</i>. Each program centers on survival through formation and fracture of individual and group identity. Yet which of these bonds are fabrications of manipulation and pressure? What bonds are genuine? <i>Les Revenants</i>, <i>Utopia</i>, and <i>Hannibal</i> bring to our screens three narratives that explore the hopes and fears of trust: in others, in oneself, and in one’s reality. <br />
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Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-74037835494608553072013-01-10T00:44:00.002-08:002019-06-13T00:40:32.868-07:00#17: Camera as Enabler: Man Bites Dog (1992) and Chronicle (2012)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVsFRku9aWPhH2QV94Ph1afFU4uqWbw5inwaqbstsOe8VLxv2B8NtVSm_PofGJScf7Q3MSCgRZ1Fk5KWQ_oH-Nl35W-J5rx921QVRN6uaynk4hzN8NsGTdEyZQJ25bTRMR5FnsAC_d3TT/s1600/Chronicle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVsFRku9aWPhH2QV94Ph1afFU4uqWbw5inwaqbstsOe8VLxv2B8NtVSm_PofGJScf7Q3MSCgRZ1Fk5KWQ_oH-Nl35W-J5rx921QVRN6uaynk4hzN8NsGTdEyZQJ25bTRMR5FnsAC_d3TT/s320/Chronicle.jpg" width="216" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsKP8-AOLiojLj1XaCrJbLrRGKQKAM5oL5HCtsMfw1RfsD9Th5sVYLKnZBN7J-4-jNvLPDkoSv15w7OIMbJJup3p4blxoW7L5W-6q2jeMTLcOvbztG2O-2U6c2nJMxREOkDE72lyKYGwjX/s1600/Man+Bites+Dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsKP8-AOLiojLj1XaCrJbLrRGKQKAM5oL5HCtsMfw1RfsD9Th5sVYLKnZBN7J-4-jNvLPDkoSv15w7OIMbJJup3p4blxoW7L5W-6q2jeMTLcOvbztG2O-2U6c2nJMxREOkDE72lyKYGwjX/s320/Man+Bites+Dog.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<i> </i><i>Man Bites Dog (C'est arrivé près de chez vous, "It Happened in Your Neighborhood</i><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><i>")</i>, </span></span></span></span>directed by and starring Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde; unfolds through the footage of a documentary production crew who have selected a hitman as their subject. A reason for filming gruesome murders turns into an excuse for criminal collaboration.<br />
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<i>Chronicle</i>, directed by Josh Trank, tells its teens-with-superpowers tale through constant obsessive or automated video documentation. The joy and troubles of newfound abilities takes an <i>Akira</i>-lite path towards destruction.<br />
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These are ultimately stories of villains, either sympathetic or charismatic. The camera becomes another channel of power. Recording and performing for an audience amplifies the protagonists’ control (or lack of control) over life and death. Both main characters try to turn themselves into legends, to reach beyond their lower-middle-class situation and become an “apex predator.”<br />
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Neither film is subtle, and a few jumps and plot holes are more obvious because of the films’ overall tight control. Females are simply plot devices compared to the male characters. Yet the format inherently acknowledges perspective limitations. <i>Man Bites Dog</i> manages to be both brutal and incisive in its shocks and whiplash morbid humor. <i>Chronicle</i> is notable for how it expands the “found footage” subgenre by transforming the camera into eyes, an extension of self, a witness, even a spirit medium. <br />
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“Found footage” movies ask the audience to accept that not only is the fiction on screen “reality” for the characters, but that this fiction has the appearance of fact. One could say that extreme aspects reassure the viewer that what is happening on screen is not real; of course no one dies like that, of course there are no superhuman powers from outer space. However, the movies still ask, what if it is real? What would you do?<br />
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The two films discussed here explicitly show the materials “used” for shooting — low-budget film for <i>Man Bites Dog</i>, digital video for <i>Chronicle</i>— to ground their concept. More than similar films, they activate the possibilities of their format. Through most of <i>Chronicle</i>, many viewers hope for the better welfare and possible redemption of the character whose often hand-held perspective guides much of the movie. <i>Man Bites Dog</i> implicates and horrifies both viewer and filmmaker for their fascination with the sensational. At which point will a viewer decide to tag along for the ride? At which point would a viewer step back? Either way, they’re still watching.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cilicodr-art.tumblr.com/post/113592783761/movie-log-chronicle-josh-trank-2012-usa-3" target="_blank">pic source</a></td></tr>
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For further reading, check <a href="http://www.screenmachine.tv/2012/issue/chronicle/" target="_blank">this critique of the socioeconomic dynamics in </a><i><a href="http://www.screenmachine.tv/2012/issue/chronicle/" target="_blank">Chronicle</a>,</i> as well as the AV Club’s <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/man-bites-dog,37588" target="_blank">New Cult Canon post on <i>Man Bites Dog</i></a>.<br />
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ETA: <a href="https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/115070255.html?thread=19457919791#t19457919791" target="_blank">A comment on the writer of <i>Chronicle</i></a>. Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-21439823238678244592012-12-09T23:53:00.001-08:002012-12-10T02:59:32.446-08:00#16 - 2NE1's "I Love You" MV (2012) and the films of Josef von Sternberg<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Late at night, trying out different Korean music videos on cable OnDemand, I noticed something. It is not influence I'm suggesting or exemplary work I'm praising. There are simply some similarities I wanted to compare.</div>
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Solitary scenes of longing are standard fare in music videos, but the concentration of those scenes in this video reminded me of aspects of the work of director Josef von Sternberg. <br />
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The four young women that comprise the pop group 2NE1 are kept separate for much of the song; lounging, searching. Their gaze is constantly angled, examining themselves or reaching elsewhere. If they face the camera, it is rarely sustained. These looks at the camera are often partly in shadow, at a diagonal, fleeting in motion, supported by shots of other members of the group, or through a mirror; sparsely distributed through the video until they climax in raid brighter-colored montage.</div>
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Outward excess is shown through a gaze both poetic and voyeuristic. One member's dance faces an empty armchair, while another is turned inward, a personal movement. There is an audience in mind, if not present. The group's usual hypersaturated palette, and extreme assemblage of high fashion would not be out of place in the casino of <i>The Shanghai Gesture</i>. </div>
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Josef von Sternberg was shameless in exploiting "foreign" stereotypes to create his idealized, often depraved, settings for desire. "I Love You" is from an Korean group and presumably filmed by an Asian director whose name I could not find. It uses many locations and objects exotic in design if not in use: the lighthouse shown below looks like a prop from a silent film, and one sensual gesture of brushing past hallway doors is quiet but memorable. </div>
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Many of the videos of 2NE1 are designed to create glamorous, bizarre yet fun worlds for school-age through pop-loving-adult fans. Both bodies of work strive to conjure escape in flickers, to embrace opulence and ridiculousness in impermanent forms. <br />
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As stated near the beginning, the slower songs of 2NE1 and other musical acts usually feature one or more people staring, in frames easy to mold towards whatever lyrics are being sung at the moment. What struck me about this video was how it indulged in languor.</div>
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Females in von Sternberg's films often slink and recline, and even in the relatively more realist silent <i>The Docks of New York</i>, key moments feature the heroine lying in bed. "I Love You" has been discussed as a typical song about obsession, another trait common to characters in von Sternberg's films. The women of 2NE1 and von Sternberg's heroines are presented lingering within their emotions, unsettled even in their dream worlds, restless but held back until the right moment for the direct gaze. <br />
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Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-9027591355454456092012-09-18T13:32:00.001-07:002012-09-20T01:59:35.029-07:00#15: Korean Interiors: I’m a Cyborg, but That’s OK (2006) and The Housemaid (1960)<br />
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<span lang="EN">Characters in Park Chan-wook’s <i>I’m a Cyborg, but That’s OK</i> and Kim Ki-young’s <i>The Housemaid (Hanyo)</i> are confined to stylized spaces that illustrate states of mind. The comedic color film <i>I’m a Cyborg, but That’s OK</i> has possibilities expand through the characters’ breaks with reality, while those in the melodramatic black-and-white <i>The Housemaid</i> are further trapped by their extreme emotions. Both films have one moment where the reality of the situation intrudes, a critique of over-sentimentalizing mental illness (<i>Cyborg</i>) or acting as a voyeur (<i>Housemaid</i>). Cyborg or Housemaid, the lead female characters’ minds are especially powerful and, especially for the male characters in the films, impenetrable.<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/6572/eiff-im-a-cyborg-but-thats-ok-review" target="_blank">Picture</a> <a href="http://mubi.com/films/the-housemaid" target="_blank">sources</a>.</span></div>
</span>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-87506308857598289412012-04-29T04:22:00.001-07:002012-04-29T04:25:33.213-07:00#14: The Socio-Economic Network: Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004) and Gommora (2008)Investigations into economic exploitation are adapted for semi-fictional drama in Lu Chuan’s <em>Kekexili (Mountain Patrol)</em> and Matteo Garrone’s <em>Gommora</em>. <br />
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<em>Kekexili</em>, which depicts events in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of Tibet, has drawn criticism for portraying the Chinese government as a benign authority. (See <a href="http://bangzhoe.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/mountail-patrol-kekexili/" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060523-patrol.html" target="_blank">here</a> for more information.) The director attracted similar comments of fulfilling Chinese propaganda aims with his masterful movie about the Rape of Nanking, <em>City of Life and Death</em>. </div>
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Roberto Saviano, the author of the vital muckraking work upon which <em>Gommora</em> is based, is still under police protection since publication of the book, which exposes the worldwide reach of the Camorra mafia and the stranglehold it maintains in and around Naples. </div>
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Though events in the plot may be as unforgiving as the mountainous landscape, <em>Kekexili</em> makes gritty heroes out of the Tibetans who give up their time and lives in order to save the Tibetan antelope from poachers. There is much less Hollywood-esque heroism in <em>Gomorra</em>, where the compromises and hypocrisies reach further into even the most well-intentioned person’s actions. The apartment structure at the center of the intertwining stories looms as an ominous structure of community decay.</div>
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Some have found <em>Gomorra</em> too bleak and overpopulated with characters to maintain interest, while one romantic subplot in <em>Kekexili</em> halts that film’s otherwise expert control of pace. Chuan also admitted that he could not find a satisfying answer amongst research notes and interviewees for why the protagonists are so committed to their task. </div>
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<em>Kekexili</em>’s cinematography brings forth all the color and majesty of the Tibetan highlands, pulling in tighter for character moments and very polished in its overall style. <em>Gommora</em>’s visuals tend towards desaturation in its more intimate and immediate look. The many accounts of Saviano’s book are distilled into several storylines connected by neighborhood and Camorra entanglement. A Chinese connection even appears with one clothes factory plot. “These Chinese know how to cook,” says one surprised Italian character, whose attitude towards the foreigners grows more amicable after food and work. Mealtime also establishes a deeper connection between the Chinese reporter and the Tibetan protagonists of <em>Kekexili</em>, but this a universal trope that can be found in films from any country.</div>
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What these films share most in common is a potent and damning critique of how increased worldwide demand for goods is met through pervasive exploitation- of Tibetans as well as the endangered antelope species in <em>Kekexili</em> and the people of an entire region in <em>Gomorra</em>. None of the characters in these films ever have the chance to witness escape from these situations, though hope may be given to the audience through post-movie research or concluding on-screen text. </div>
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<br /></div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-81281034551449749362012-01-27T22:57:00.000-08:002012-01-27T22:59:44.364-08:00#13: Expatriate Noir: The Third Man (1949) and Night and the City (1950)<em>"‘Your national mind,’ said he, ‘has no eyelids. It requires a broad glare and a beaten road. It prefers shadows which you can cut out with a knife.’"</em><br />
- a British diplomat's view of the United States in Henry Adams’ <em>Democracy: An American Novel</em><br />
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<span lang="EN">Opportunity amidst the ruins of postwar London and Vienna. Old World ideals and cowboy novel idealism are either defeated or tossed as a joke. All focus on the profiteering American. Both films lurk in cynicism, shadow, and extreme angles; up through a final chase.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture <a href="http://www.anatomyofaclassic.com/?p=1218" target="_blank">via</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly6jgwfJHM1qzhqumo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="144" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly6jgwfJHM1qzhqumo1_500.png" width="320" /></a></div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-19206224838019132302011-12-29T23:05:00.001-08:002011-12-29T23:05:59.815-08:00quick 2011 year-ender post!I've written about<a href="http://www.yam-mag.com/blog/diandras-2011-media-highlights/" target="_blank"> my media highlights of 2011</a> over at Yet Another Magazine.Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-13741454102390666522011-12-20T01:35:00.000-08:002011-12-20T01:35:14.833-08:00#12: Hidden Wars: Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)<div align="justify" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8zTLbL4hul8BzUt4VG15t5znCeSF78bCuJpdYrU2r7bs7okDp48BxrSBRgUQKsHlLjNqairqID5SVRHlMNZY5BKrjb8g2HPBHnjzhuuA13AR7-4hc1qo0Z6ruf8jxPHkLu11R4OAG1Zv/s1600/the+good+the+bad+the+ugly.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8zTLbL4hul8BzUt4VG15t5znCeSF78bCuJpdYrU2r7bs7okDp48BxrSBRgUQKsHlLjNqairqID5SVRHlMNZY5BKrjb8g2HPBHnjzhuuA13AR7-4hc1qo0Z6ruf8jxPHkLu11R4OAG1Zv/s320/the+good+the+bad+the+ugly.bmp" width="218" /></a> <img border="0" height="320" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgefod25JD1qaun7do1_500.jpg" /></div><br />
<i>Horror of Dracula</i>, directed by Terence Fisher; and <i>The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly</i>; directed by Sergio Leone; do not seem to have much in common besides violence more colorful, bloody and brutal than that shown in their genre predecessors. Yet one is a war epic where no main character fights in nor cares about war. The other film -intentionally or not- acts out tensions that could have sparked war in the time it was made. <br />
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In the <em>The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly</em>, the theme of civil war recurs in many character relationships. Brothers, business partners, fellow soldiers and others are divided by various interests and loyalties. There is also the actual Civil War, which rampages through the same south-western United States where our leads roam. Unlike most films set in this era, the three main characters do not belong to any side of the war. They pursue their own cons and hunts, exploiting local and state criminal laws and any other factors they encounter. The war winds in and out of the plot, saving one character from an otherwise inescapable fate, and spurring several scenes of interpersonal conflict or concern. Intensity built from personal interest and fate leads to a climactic shootout that could happen any time and any place. One look at the graveyard setting, though, shows that the film never escapes the ghost of war.<br />
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Bram Stoker’s <em>Dracula </em>and its many filmed adaptations begin with Jonathan Harker, an everyman real estate employee who unwittingly ends up in business with a vampire. <em>Horror of Dracula</em> turns Harker into a cognizant infiltrator. He poses as Count Dracula’s new personal librarian in order to fulfill a mission. While it’s amusing to think of a vampire count hiring a personal librarian (if he just wanted a warm-blooded person, he has the surrounding village to feed on), the important point is that position gets Harker within the Count’s castle walls. Who sent Harker on this undercover mission? Van Helsing, a man of science and faith, determined to fight against the godless creatures who feast on red blood. A scene with Harker’s relatives furthers the spy parallels when an official cannot reveal the true nature of a family member’s work and, to put it best, current existence status. <br />
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Agents of Dracula are hidden amongst the populace, and can turn loved ones into new recruits. Border guards are bribed and tricked in a vague Eastern European location. There is even a secondary character surnamed Marx- but while his funeral home plays an important part in the story, the character himself is just a jolly old man with dark humor. This Cold War framing does not extend to every aspect of the movie, and was probably not even a subtext intended by those who worked on the film. However, it adds a little layer of brain game to find Cold War parallels in an already entertaining horror film. <br />
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Under the surface, <em>Horror of Dracula</em>’s characters can be seen as agents of war between nations and ideologies. The main trio in <em>The Good, The Bad, the Ugly</em> dismiss that type of war. Violence is between solo fighters, inside and outside the army, and the antihero lead even calls one battle “a waste.” Dracula’s enemies fight for life and goodness, while Leone’s cowboys fight for life and gold. Both movies, however, operate on trust and free will. Whom you can trust and how long that trust can last? <br />
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Does the pursuit of a wealthy long life (or afterlife) foster personal freedom or destroy it? Is it worth the abandonment of family, or the deaths of others? Not even the unselfish Jonathan Harker escapes judgment, for while he works for the greater good, he leaves his family without a clue as to what might happen to him, and inadvertently endangers a beloved cousin. Leone’s trio are lone vagabonds with no care or nearly no care for others. There is an argument with a long-lost sibling who criticizes a main character for departing home to become a bandit. The argument brings up the needs of a group versus the needs of the individual, and it doesn’t end with complete triumph for either side. <br />
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<em>Horror of Dracula</em> displays excess in its bold colors (reputedly the first vampire movie to have bright red blood, and the second Hammer movie to include that feature after <em>Curse of Frankenstein</em>), low-cut eroticism, and the most lavish sets possible on a relatively small budget. It is traditional in all other ways, following a familiar story where good people fight one impulse-driven collective for the lives and souls of their own collective. <em>The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly</em> is packed with a large cast of extras and numerous locations. However, colors are dominated by blue and brown, muted by sun and dust. Flat landscapes and widespread vistas of sand eclipse all other sets. It is a long-running movie with a minimalist plot, savage and radical for the time but (with the other movies in Leone’s "Dollars Trilogy") a template for spaghetti westerns and other films to come. It is the relentless self-centeredness of the characters that give brief flickers of sympathy and partnership their grace.<br />
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Final battles, in both films, are fought over a grave- where all wars end. People in wartime, banding together and breaking apart- it is this theme these dissimilar films share.<br />
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They also share a hero's outfit of coat and scarf.<br />
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<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljxsnaHVWx1qd3ucoo1_500.jpg" /> <img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrnbs2PY3j1qz63pio1_500.jpg" />Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-4657246788497892612011-09-06T03:34:00.000-07:002011-09-06T14:03:06.291-07:00#11: A World of Horror: Vampyr (1932), At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964), Black Christmas (1974), The Plumber (1979), The Thing (1982), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), Meokgo and the Stick Fighter (2006), and District 9 (2009)This post is for the <a href="http://greatmovieproject.blogspot.com/p/blog-thon.html">World in Film Blog-a-Thon</a>.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I decided to participate in this blog-a-thon under the theme of horror. Let's start with the oldest movie first.</div><br />
Representing Europe, and serving as a bridge from silent film horror to the sound era, is <em>Vampyr</em>, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It was shot as a silent movie but had dialogue added in post-production. This film takes a Sheridan Le Fanu vampire story as the basis for dreamlike exploration of a setting where death seeps into place and mind. <em>Vampyr </em>is a prime example of the use of striking images in horror. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgwjmtb4bX1qfhfhno1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" nba="true" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgwjmtb4bX1qfhfhno1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture <a href="http://poisonedteacup.tumblr.com/post/3696925979/vampyr-1932">via poisonedteacup</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><em>At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul</em> (<em>À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma)</em>, directed by José Mojica Marins, represents South America. It is reputed to be the first horror film made in Brazil. The director also stars as Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe), a nihilist-leaning undertaker who is violently obsessed with finding an ideal mate. This first film in the "Coffin Joe Trilogy" shows how engaging execution of an extreme concept can help an obviously low-budget film endure as a cult classic. <br />
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<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lq9aioHdt01r0c0ndo1_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" nba="true" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lq9aioHdt01r0c0ndo1_400.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture <a href="http://elbergo.tumblr.com/post/9190000383">via elbergo</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>North America is represented by the Canadian film <em>Black Christmas, </em>in which a sorority house is targeted by an unknown killer. It predates better-known Hollywood cousins like <em>Halloween</em> by several years, and its influence can be found throughout the slasher subgenre. The terror in this film escalates from start to finish, and the group of sorority girls under attack are livelier and better-defined characters than many of the victims in other movies.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo1h2qjshX1qjw2szo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" nba="true" src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo1h2qjshX1qjw2szo1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
For Australia, there is the made-for-TV film <em>The Plumber</em>, written and directed by Peter Weir. Some might classify it as more suspense than horror, but this battle of wills between a housewife and an intrusive plumber finds scares in the most realistic situation on this movie list. Though it doesn't attempt greatness, Weir fit some complexities into this small-scale story, such as various levels of socioeconomic conflict and the ambiguity over what is permissible in the classification and expulsion of an outsider. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3UI7hrsabn_ips3spC8kvTZBXLpO3MFGq1moGhZSzdH5C1LgKkm9IYngV2GmO089Z8x9LB9Iw_i9D6qj43jYeOzvJdgSw6d6WiR0qD0F0iea6xJYXajqPL8B9Iq6bi319WJxwXUhBa0IT/s1600/rfdfgdr.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3UI7hrsabn_ips3spC8kvTZBXLpO3MFGq1moGhZSzdH5C1LgKkm9IYngV2GmO089Z8x9LB9Iw_i9D6qj43jYeOzvJdgSw6d6WiR0qD0F0iea6xJYXajqPL8B9Iq6bi319WJxwXUhBa0IT/s320/rfdfgdr.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture via <a href="http://criterionmission.blogspot.com/2011/05/plumber-1979.html">The Criterion Mission</a>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> Antarctica is represented by<em> The Thing</em>, which focuses on a science team who finds an alien creature in the ice. Horror director John Carpenter keeps action and special effects grounded within an environment of isolation and paranoia.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwp0rsq4h11qzehxco1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" nba="true" src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwp0rsq4h11qzehxco1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Representing Asia is <em>A Tale of Two Sisters (Janghwa hongryeon)</em>, directed by Kim Jee-Won. It's a gorgeous puzzle of a film that blends both psychological and supernatural varieties of horror. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture found via <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/a-tale-of-two-sisters,42473/">The AV Club</a>.</td></tr>
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Finally, we have Africa. While it was difficult to track down available horror films from the continent, I remembered that Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi film <em>District 9</em> has a very strong body horror element. The film's commentary on race relations and xenophobia may be undercut by its depiction of Nigerian immigrants, but the messy divisions between outer-space alien refugee and human are still powerfully illustrated within <em>District 9</em>'s narrative.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqt85vNd9L1qgo2a5o1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" nba="true" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqt85vNd9L1qgo2a5o1_500.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The last film on this list is the short film <em>Meokgo and the Stick Fighter</em>, directed by Teboho Mahlatsi. It didn't seem right to represent Africa just with a film that features a white African protagonist, so I decided to include this short film, which features black African characters. Like <em>District 9</em>, it's not strict horror. This odd little film is probably best categorized as fantasy. However, I'm also including it to bring up the point that horror, sci-fi, and fantasy often mix. Genre borders are probably imposed more by the audience than the creators, and are determined not simply by story, but a film's particular treatment of a story in relation with other films. This bizarre (at least to mainstream Western audiences) but entertaining short is about an accursed stickfighter who fights evil with the help of his magical tiny accordion (concertina). It is awesome.<br />
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This list was created with the intention of not only covering different continents but different types of horror cinema as well. Each selection is not meant to be an encapsulation of the entire horror output of a continent - just an outstanding film that happens to be from that continent. It's also worth noting the various fears that these movies depict. <em>Black Christmas</em> functions on fears of the intruder within the home. <em>Vampyr</em>, <em>The Thing, The Plumber</em>, <em>A Tale of Two Sisters</em>, <em>District 9 </em>and <em>Meokgo and the Stick Fighter</em> also make antagonists out of the outsider while incorporating suspicions about the protagonists themselves. The protagonists of <em>At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul</em> and <em>Vampyr</em> are driven mad by their fear of death, while the sci-fi films <em>The Thing</em> and <em>District 9</em> find horror within bodily transformation. The outsiders are either possibly ordinary folks -sometimes the protagonists- whose perceived traits are exaggerated by possibly irrational fears, or extraordinary beings whose existence seems impossible until asserted with violence. <br />
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While one can't expect all stories to fit neatly within established categories, I've found that stories that are declared "horror" can be pared down to tales of defending minds and bodies against forces of unknown potential for destruction. An audience is whisked away from mundane and complicated everyday life and dropped into a fight for life and sanity versus the undefinable. It is the heightened return to instinct that makes horror such a vital genre. <br />
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</div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-73591062255379221482011-08-14T03:43:00.000-07:002011-08-14T04:01:37.238-07:00#10: The Ideal Woman: Peppermint Frappé (1967) and Pygmalion (1938)<em>Peppermint Frappé</em> (1967), directed by Carlos Saura, and <em>Pygmalion</em> (1938), directed by Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard, are two films in which men attempt to shape a living woman into their feminine ideal. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1Foay0ME3aUvFdf7K_q742xD5sRbKLTaFspgMl9dvEuD9xGIXMmhTSOO2KyZIBL_VJi6U4xVOZmUFKFsGt_qkIICAYjVfm5_xTP1dxVxoRFG6coIlKfsYXBJP0ETMuiMkyPzSrQV8aeQ/s1600/pygmalion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" naa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1Foay0ME3aUvFdf7K_q742xD5sRbKLTaFspgMl9dvEuD9xGIXMmhTSOO2KyZIBL_VJi6U4xVOZmUFKFsGt_qkIICAYjVfm5_xTP1dxVxoRFG6coIlKfsYXBJP0ETMuiMkyPzSrQV8aeQ/s320/pygmalion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">poster sources: </span><a href="http://www.fan-de-cinema.com/affiches/peppermint-frappe.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">top</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://www.moviepostershop.com/pygmalion-movie-poster-1938/EB75850"><span style="font-size: x-small;">bottom</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><br />
<em>Peppermint Frappé</em> follows the doctor Julián (José Luis López Vázquez) in his pursuit of Elena (Geraldine Chaplin), the glamourous new wife of his best friend Pablo (Alfredo Mayo). Elena proves to be a difficult prize to obtain, so Julián induces Ana, the shy nurse he works with (also Geraldine Chaplin, excellent in double roles), to become an imitation of Elena, feeding his obsession until he wins over the real thing. <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><em>Pygmalion, </em>originally a stage play by George Bernard Shaw, was adapted for the screen by the playwright himself. Professor Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard), a master of dialect and accent, bets that he can transform the poor "guttersnipe" Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller, in a star performance) into a society lady whose origins none would question. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">The comedic drama of <em>Pygmalion</em> trots at fine speed, with dialogue and images flying fast until particular moments demand more settled, slow emphasis. The psychological tension of <em>Peppermint Frappé </em>creeps onto the screen, beginning with a title sequence set over fashion photos cut for collage. The action is set at a meandering pace; but judicious use of sharp cuts, soundtrack, and intense 360-degree spirals gently draw the viewer into unsettling emotional territory. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In <em>Peppermint Frappé</em>, the camera subtly blends Julián's stalker gaze with a distanced perspective that monitors his movements. If Julián cannot possess Elena's body, then he can possess her essence: through photographs, through her personal effects, and through Ana. These are visual and tactile ties to Elena. Julián's apartment is richly furnished, every object handled with meticulous attention to proper appearance and use. He also keeps a room in an abandoned mansion in the country, yet while the rooms he uses are clean and well-decorated, the rest of the home is left to ruin. Julián has an expert eye for crafting places and people into his idea of perfection, but has no care for what does not please him. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Shaw's reworking of the ancient Greek legend has the Pygmalion figure, Henry Higgins, craft his Galatea figure Eliza through speech instead of sculpture. This shift from a visual to verbal focus is an ingenious method of adaptation to the stage, where dialogue reigns. Though dress and gesture are also important in Eliza's transformation, words are Professor Higgins' forté, and serve as the entry point for his social experiment. Unlike Julián, Higgins initially embarks on this project with only his personal pride in mind. Higgins selects Eliza out of the challenge given by her low-class accent and place in society, not the looks and unapproachable aura of Elena or the desperate nature of doppelganger Ana. When Higgins realizes that he is falling in love with Eliza, it not the perfect society doll he desires, but the independent Eliza, who appreciates the skills she's gained but violently defends her status as an independent human being. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Both Julián and Henry are selfish and think little of the feelings of their female subjects. These men either overlook or never realize their own flaws, though both films present them as far from faultless. The intended audiences of the men's experiments differ: Henry holds his "improvement" of Eliza to his impossible standards but he seeks to make Eliza perform for those in high society. Julián's efforts are only for himself. (One makeup scene makes the viewer wonder if, as a balding and withdrawn middle-aged man, he ultimately jealous of the beauty of young women. His taste for something as sweet as the title drink suggest a little girl's tastes.) However, one can say that since only Henry and those close to him -who wager that he won't succeed- know the truth behind the elegant Ms. Doolittle, the project is ultimately for entertainment and pride of Henry. What makes Henry Higgins a more appealing protagonist than Julián is that, along with avoiding darker impulses, he is only obsessive about his work and does not seek to possess Eliza. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Elena is the embodiment of '60's mod style, taking her time to maintain her appearance even in private. Whether this effort is for herself or to please the eyes of others is not made clear. Yet her constant upkeep is not Julián's all-consuming devotion; she is a free spirit who enjoys life and her husband's company. Elena's husband may occasionally call her a "child," but they are both honest with each other and the relationship appears to be mutually beneficial. Some might think of Elena as a prototype of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" found in indie-oriented literature and film, but Elena's refusal to bend to Julián's will works against the wish fulfillment of that trope. Though Julián finds Ana a malleable stand-in for Elena, their personalities are drastically different, each frustrating Julián in an alternate way. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Eliza, despite her lack of education, has a sound mind that Henry notices in their early meetings. She willingly agrees to take the free elocution and manners lessons Henry offers, and is the one who approaches Higgins after the initial chance meeting. She puts in a greater amount of effort into Higgins' experiment, for both personal pride and her dream of being a respectable owner of a flower shop. Though they live in restrictive societies -1930's England and Franco-era Spain- Eliza and Elena both exercise agency. <br />
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Another writer could further this comparison by investigating the films' settings and their varying qualities of the feminine ideal. Yet both films share the theme of pride: both the healthy pride in one's skills and attributes, and the harmful pride that blinds one to reality and to the feelings of others. <em>Peppermint Frappé </em>presents the male gaze as toxic, and serves as a surreal fable about treating women as objects. <em>Pygmalion</em> sets forth the notion that all people, regardless of gender or class, should be treated with respect.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp8qtlBDgu1qzehxco1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" naa="true" src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp8qtlBDgu1qzehxco1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp8qtlBDgu1qzehxco1_500.jpg"><span style="font-size: x-small;">picture source</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-24919281871242327512011-03-22T05:39:00.000-07:002016-03-31T15:55:39.374-07:00#9 - The Maiku Hama Trilogy (1994-1996)To participate in the Japanese Cinema Blogathon, I decided to abandon the double-feature format for a triple-feature: the <i>Maiku Hama: Private Eye</i> trilogy. There isn't much written in English about these movies, and I hope that will change someday, because these movies are fun.<br />
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Named after the Mike Hammer character created by writer Mickey Spillane, Maiku Hama (played by Masatoshi Nagase) is a private detective who's both comic and strangely cool, with unfashionable shirts and a beautiful yet malfunctioning American sportscar. He has connections all throughout Yokohama, though not all of them are happy to see him, and his office is located inside a movie theater - where the stingy owner demands you buy a ticket before entry. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw9ixAVQc5TgXOfSHQNLyM0gXP8m-YYxSagOPNlDA9Oc97YnvbBrFSM-melY0g9HmBdn4gFBTnlWkFXPQtKAj0AaicCyV7lD3v7x5gxfuhmNSSxR8tAOwj6cTyWLyA9YklinTH9F323nH5/s1600/maiku+theater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw9ixAVQc5TgXOfSHQNLyM0gXP8m-YYxSagOPNlDA9Oc97YnvbBrFSM-melY0g9HmBdn4gFBTnlWkFXPQtKAj0AaicCyV7lD3v7x5gxfuhmNSSxR8tAOwj6cTyWLyA9YklinTH9F323nH5/s320/maiku+theater.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This picture's source: </span><a href="http://www.genjipress.com/2009/10/the-most-terrible-time-in-my-l.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This great write-up</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> on <i>The Most Terrible Time in My Life</i>.</span></div>
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This trilogy is a pastiche of numerous film tropes and references. It's often described as a parody and homage to American gangster pulp, French New Wave, and Japanese yakuza movies. However, the trilogy forms an experience totally its own. Consisting of the films <i>The Most Terrible Time In My Life (Waga jinsei saiaku no toki)</i>, <i>Stairway to the Distant Past (Harukana jidai no kaidan o)</i>, and <i>The Trap (Wana)</i>, it's a bizarre combination of quirky humor and dark detective drama. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=360ir9AP6BM">It also has a catchy jazz theme song.</a>.<br />
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The character, played by Nagase, was renamed Mike Yokohama in the somewhat-connected follow-ups <i>Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name</i> (directed by Shinji Aoyama) and the TV series <i>Shiritsu Tantei Hama Maiku</i>. <br />
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Though all three movies were directed by Kaizo Hayashi, each film has a strikingly different tone. <i>The Most Terrible Time In My Life</i> is shot entirely in black-and-white Cinemascope, and starts off as an offbeat comedy about a rough-edged good guy detective with an amazing streak of bad luck. A case brought by a Taiwanese waiter brings both budding friendship and the unwelcome attention of the New Japs, a gang formed by immigrant Chinese and Koreans. The movie segues into a noir-soaked tale of loyalty, and it surprised me by exploring the subject of immigrants trying to make a living amidst prejudice in Japan. The introduction of a femme fatale into the story is initially jarring, but during the last act I found myself riveted by what was happening onscreen. </div>
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The second film, <i>Stairway to the Distant Past</i>, is shot in color Cinemascope. It begins with the same light tone that introduced its predecessor. Then enters the stripper Lily (Haruko Wanibuchi), the mother who abandoned Maiku Hama and his sister. At the same time, Hama finds himself drawn into the escalating political and criminal conflicts over control of Yokohama's port interests. The use of color seems to usher in a sensibility that's both more romantic and more jaded than that of the first movie. Things aren't just black and white and grey; they're complicated across the spectrum. While the violence in the first movie was made up of brutal close-range attacks, this second film goes all-out into action territory, complete with multi-level gunfights and a high-speed chase down the waterfront. Don't let this dissuade you story-minded viewers - <i>Stairway to the Distant Past</i> is indeed bigger in scope than the first film, but it's also more personal, dealing with Hama's own family and memories instead of those of his client. There's also a haunting scene, set amidst mannequins in a deserted alley, that serves as a taste of the movie to follow. </div>
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<i>The Trap</i> is my favorite entry in the Maiku Hama trilogy. Just as Maiku seems to have finally found good luck in life -business going well, wonderful girlfriend, sister doing alright- a mysterious new case brings the series into the realm of psychological thriller. Four young women are dead, looking like department store mannequins with frozen expressions and no signs of harm. The police are baffled, and as Maiku investigates the case, he finds himself considered a possible suspect in the crime. <br />
While there are some odd bits in this installment (for example, a major gangster boss villain in the past two films is suddenly a helpful Catholic priest in this one, with no explanation), the movie maintains a high level of suspense and terror that made me forgive minor faults. This film's plunge into horror reminded me of Takashi Miike's works in that genre, but what transpires here is a breathtaking and twisted creation all its own. With a clever use of parallels and one of the scariest killers I've seen on film, <i>The Trap</i> is a fantastic end to the <i>Maiku Hama</i> trilogy.<br />
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ETA: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chirpyliz/543694570/">The Yokohama Nichigeki theater featured in the movies was closed in 2005</a>.<br />
- - -<br />
This post was done for the Japanese Cinema Blogathon, created to aid relief efforts for those affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Eastern Japan.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12">The donation page is here.</a><br />
More participating blogs <a href="http://cinema-fanatic.com/2011/03/15/japanese-cinema-blogathon-let-the-blogging-begin/">here</a>.</td></tr>
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Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-80828125043103181332011-01-04T18:48:00.000-08:002011-06-07T15:19:17.077-07:002010 in mediaMusic, movies, books, and more.<br />
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<strong>MY 10 FAVORITE SONGS OF 2010</strong><br />
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1) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_koM7WtiLfk">"The Night Last Night (feat. Rose Elinor Dougall and Alex Greenwald)"</a> - Mark Ronson and the Business International<br />
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Beautiful use of melody and counterpoint.<br />
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2) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELsryzJ5Hpg">"Seamstress"</a> - Dessa<br />
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Sharp lyrics and haunting sound.<br />
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3) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesEA-U4GAU">Gasoline</a> - The Dead Weather<br />
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Raw and ripped.<br />
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4) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc">“Tightrope”</a>- Janelle Monae<br />
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Can't help but dance to this. Takes a retro R&B sound and makes it fresh.<br />
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5) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1H2_VTGtk0">"Tighten Up"</a> -The Black Keys <br />
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One Youtube commenter said that he or she sang this song to a scoop of ice cream because it made him or her happy. <br />
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6) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFIZcVwrHt8">"Ikiru (To Live)"</a> - Tokyo Jihen<br />
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First, it makes crazy use of autotune to create a robotic barbershop chorus feel. Then it breaks into bouncy '20's-ish pop jazz. The melody stays strong throughout, even though its range is probably too ambitious for Ringo-chan's voice (or my voice when I try to sing to it). The <a href="http://www.nostalgic-lavender.net/ringo/ikiru.html">lyrics</a> are quite depressing for its bright sound.<br />
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7) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhPaWIeULKk">"Stylo"</a> - Gorillaz<br />
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cool on the down low<br />
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8) The <i>Tron:Legacy</i> Soundtrack<br />
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9) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rudkeNEJk_s">"Runaway" (feat. Pusha T)</a> - Kanye West <br />
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I still need to see the short film. However, I realized I really liked this song when it was playing in a store and I became lost in my mind.<br />
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10) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7dYb27ssuQ">"The Island - Part 2 - Dusk"</a> - Pendulum<br />
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I like fast-paced electronic songs that have lots of variety.<br />
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<strong>Cover songs that I also enjoyed:</strong><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXwjZ4pQbPo">"Stand By Me"</a> - Prince Royce (cover)<br />
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be quiet it's cute and fun to sway to<br />
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Mike Patton - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HVPImBI95M">"Il Cielo In Una Stanza"</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8ex1kwroU">"Ore D'Amore"</a><br />
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Songs to burst out in the car or on a table or on a stage.<br />
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Best mainstream pop chorus - "Billionaire." There's just something sad and hopeful about it.<br />
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Best sound: BRRRRRRMMMMM<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">- - - -</span></strong><br />
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<strong>25 television episodes I enjoyed the most in 2010</strong><br />
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Only episodes I watched from beginning to end. So, for example, since I missed the first 20 minutes of the Lost finale, it could not be even considered for this list.<br />
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This also counts all the episodes I watched this year, not just ones aired in 2010. These episodes are not ranked.<br />
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Conan Tonight Show farewell <br />
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Doctor Who - Vincent and the Doctor<br />
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Being Human episode 2.6<br />
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Misfits - Episode 1.4<br />
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Lost - 6.9 - “Ab Aeterno” - <br />
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Community -1.10 - Environmental Science<br />
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Lost 6.1 - 6.2 - “LAX”<br />
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Community - 1.15 - “Romantic Expressionism”<br />
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Boardwalk Empire - 1.5 - “Nights in Ballygran”<br />
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Sherlock - 1.3 - “The Greatest Game”<br />
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Chuck - 3.10 - “Chuck vs. the Tic Tac” <br />
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Sherlock - 1.1 - “A Study in Pink”<br />
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Lost - 6.7 - “Dr. Linus” - not best written but events<br />
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Community - 1.19 - “Beginning Pottery” <br />
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The Pacific- Part 9 - “Okinawa” (Buildup - Sledge is best character)<br />
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The Pacific - Part 3 - “Melbourne”<br />
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I, Claudius - episode 10 “Who, me?” - Caligula’s reign of terror<br />
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Community - 2.6 - “Epidemiology”<br />
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia - “Mac’s Mom Burned the House Down”<br />
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia - “The Gang Gets a Boat”<br />
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Boardwalk Empire 1.9 - “Belle Femme”<br />
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Community - “Mixology Certification”<br />
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Misfits - 2.4<br />
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Doctor Who Christmas special<br />
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The LXD - “Elliott’s Shoes”<br />
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My favorite show this year: <em>Sherlock</em>.<br />
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Two more lists. There is a * by stuff I really enjoyed, for one reason or another. Not an exact indication of quality.<br />
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<strong>Books read in 2010</strong><br />
1) <i>Yoshitsune: A 15th-century Japanese Chronicle</i> translated by Helen Craig McCulllogh<br />
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2) <i>The Ethnological Imagination: A Cross-Cultural Critique of Modernity</i> by Fuyuki Kurasawa<br />
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* 3) <i>Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall</i> by Kazuo Ishiguro<br />
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4) <i>Catching Fire</i>, by Suzanne Collins<br />
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* 5) <i>The Aeneid</i> by Virgil (translation)<br />
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6) <i>The True History of Tea</i> by Erling Hoh and Victor H. Mair<br />
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7) <i>Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West</i> by Cormac McCarthy<br />
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8) <i>The Game</i> by A.S. Byatt<br />
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9) <i>Soon I Will Be Invincible</i> by Austin Grossman<br />
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10) <i>Travels in the History of Architecture</i> by Robert Harbison <br />
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I think a Volume 2 might be published soon<br />
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11) <i>Neuromancer</i> by William Gibson<br />
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* 12) <i>Ficciones</i> de Jorge Luis Borges (FIRST BOOK READ IN SPANISH WOOHOO. BUT NOT A NOVEL. Short stories. I'm working up my way in Spanish comprehension.) <br />
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13) <i>Bloodchild and Other Stories</i> by Octavia Butler<br />
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14) <i>Women Poets of China</i> edited by Ling Chung and Kenneth Roxroth<br />
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15) <i>The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide</i> by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss<br />
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16) <i>JPod</i> by Douglas Coupland<br />
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17) <i>Blackout</i> by Gianluca Morozzi, translated by Howard Curtis<br />
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18) <i>The Manyoshu: The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai translation of One Thousand Poems</i><br />
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19) <i>Stained Glass Elegies</i> by Shusaku Endo<br />
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20) <i>The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern World</i> by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid<br />
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21) <i>A Storm of Swords</i> (A Song of Ice and Fire, book 3) by George R.R. Martin<br />
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I listened to the first two books in the series on audiobook. <br />
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22) <i>Selección De Leyendas Puertorriqueñas Del Dr. Cayetano Coll & Toste</i> compiladas Y anotadas por Cayetano Coll Cuchi<br />
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* 23) <i>Ilustrado</i> by Miguel Syjuco<br />
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I'd also like to recommend these three graphic novels I read in 2010: <br />
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<i>Asterios Polyp</i> by David Mazzuchelli, <i>The Arrival</i> by Shaun Tan, and <i>I Killed Adolf Hitler</i> by Jason.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">- - - -</span></strong><br />
<strong>finally,</strong><br />
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<strong>Movies watched in 2010</strong><br />
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<strong></strong>1) <i>East - West (Est-Oueste)</i><br />
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2) <i>My Family and Other Animals</i><br />
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3) <i>The Crimson Rivers (Les rivières pourpres)</i><br />
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4) <i>Cold Prey (Fritt vilt)</i><br />
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* 5) <i>Cleo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7)</i><br />
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6) <i>The Book of Eli</i><br />
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7) <i>Tulpan</i><br />
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I was just okay with this movie until the powerful ending, which has really stuck with me.<br />
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* 8) <i>Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary</i><br />
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* 9) <i>The Thing</i><br />
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10) <i>Nosferatu</i><br />
<br />
11) <i>Timecrimes (Los cronocrímenes)</i><br />
<br />
12) <i>Double Indemnity</i><br />
<br />
13) <i>Breaking News (Dai si gin)</i><br />
<br />
14) <i>Kind Hearts and Coronets</i><br />
<br />
15) <i>Dance of the Dead</i><br />
<br />
16) <i>Archangel</i><br />
<br />
17) <i>Antonio Gaudí</i><br />
<br />
* 18) <i>Reservoir Dogs</i><br />
<br />
* 19) <i>J.S.A.: Joint Security Area (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA)</i><br />
<br />
20) <i>Prisoner in the Mountains (Kavkazskiy plennik)</i><br />
<br />
21) <i>The Hitch-Hiker</i> (1953)<br />
<br />
22) <i>Noroi (The Curse)</i><br />
<br />
* 23) <i>The Hurt Locker</i> <br />
<br />
24) <i>Nightmare Alley</i><br />
<br />
25) <i>Kick-Ass</i><br />
<br />
26) <i>Chop Shop</i><br />
<br />
27) <i>Running Out of Time (Am zin, Hidden War)</i><br />
<br />
* 28) <i>Women of the Night (Yoru no onnatachi)</i><br />
<br />
29) <i>Secret Agent</i><br />
<br />
* 30) <i>Street of Shame (Akasen chitai)</i><br />
<br />
31) <i>Wonderful Town</i><br />
<br />
32) <i>I'm Not Scared (Io non ho paura)</i><br />
<br />
33) <i>Diabolique (Les diaboliques)</i><br />
<br />
34) <i>Into the Wild</i><br />
<br />
35) <i>À l'intérieur (Inside)</i><br />
<br />
I liked how simple and basic and insane it was. Also, toaster as a weapon.<br />
<br />
36) <i>Center Stage (Ruan Lingyu)</i><br />
<br />
37) <i>Hangover Square</i><br />
<br />
38) <i>Calvaire (The Ordeal)</i><br />
<br />
appropriately titled<br />
<br />
39) <i>Alice (Neco z Alenky)</i><br />
<br />
refreshing version of Alice and Wonderland<br />
<br />
* 40) <i>Elevator to the Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud)</i><br />
<br />
41) <i>Cure</i> (1997)<br />
<br />
42) <i>Séance (Kôrei)</i><br />
<br />
43) <i>Nói (Noi the Albino, Nói albínói)</i><br />
<br />
44) <i>Sauna</i><br />
<br />
45) <i>Dog Soldiers</i><br />
<br />
46) <i>Shiri (Swiri)</i><br />
<br />
47) <i>They Came Back (Les revenants)</i><br />
<br />
48) <i>Il Posto (The job)</i><br />
<br />
* 49) <i>Moon</i><br />
<br />
50) <i>Cría cuervos</i><br />
<br />
51) <i>I am Waiting (Ore wa matteru ze)</i><br />
<br />
* 52) <i>Hausu</i><br />
<br />
crazy crazy experience with screaming cats<br />
<br />
53) <i>Black Angel</i><br />
<br />
54) <i>Dead Snow (Død snø)</i><br />
<br />
55) <i>[REC]</i><br />
<br />
* 56) <i>Inception</i><br />
<br />
57) <i>Watching the Detectives</i><br />
<br />
58) <i>Border Incident</i><br />
<br />
59) <i>White Zombie</i><br />
<br />
60) <i>Silk Stockings</i><br />
<br />
* 61) <i>Mad Love</i> (1935) <br />
<br />
62) <i>The Big Sleep</i><br />
<br />
63) <i>Imprint</i><br />
<br />
64) <i>Cheyenne Autumn</i><br />
<br />
65) <i>Ninja Assassin</i><br />
<br />
66) <i>The Unsuspected</i><br />
<br />
* 67) <i>Sweet Smell of Success</i><br />
<br />
68) <i>Running on Karma (Daai zek lou)</i><br />
<br />
69) <i>The Baby's Room (La habitación del niño)</i><br />
<br />
70) <i>Le silence de la mer</i><br />
<br />
recommended for fellow Jean-Pierre Melville fans and if you have patience for lots of talking<br />
<br />
* 71) <i>Eight Men Out</i><br />
<br />
72) <i>Aftershock (Tangshan dadizhen)</i><br />
<br />
first tearjerker drama I saw from China this year<br />
<br />
73) <i>The Mark of Zorro</i> (1920)<br />
<br />
has one of the best fight scenes ever filmed<br />
<br />
74) <i>Rashomon</i><br />
<br />
75) <i>Undead</i><br />
<br />
76) <i>Topkapi</i><br />
<br />
77) <i>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1</i><br />
<br />
78) <i>Carnage (Carnages)</i><br />
<br />
79) <i>Throw Away Your Books! Rally in the Streets! (Sho o suteyo machi e deyou)</i><br />
<br />
great to finally hear the soundtrack in its context. Depressing movie. The ending hit really close for me.<br />
<br />
80) <i>Teenagers from Outer Space</i><br />
<br />
81) <i>Murders in the Rue Morgue</i><br />
<br />
82) <i>No One Knows About Persian Cats (Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh)</i><br />
<br />
* 83) <i>Sunset Boulevard</i><br />
<br />
* 84) <i>Four Lions</i><br />
<br />
85) <i>Electric Shadows (Meng ying tong nian)</i><br />
<br />
second tearjerker movie from China I watched sheesh<br />
<br />
86) <i>TRON: Legacy</i><br />
<br />
87) <i>The Shooting Party</i><br />
<br />
* 88) <i>Black Christmas</i><br />
<br />
89) <i>Fury</i><br />
<br />
* 90) <i>Shanghai Triad</i><br />
<br />
not a tearjerker but an emotional drama from China that shows the ugly side of 1930's gangsters<br />
<br />
* 91) <i>The Proposition</i><br />
<br />
92) <i>Five Miles to Midnight</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Favorite film of 2010?<br />
<br />
I haven't seen many films released in 2010, but I'd say <i>Inception</i> and <i>Four Lions</i>.Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-48054506266817624912010-12-29T03:52:00.000-08:002010-12-29T04:11:14.781-08:00#8 - Nightmares of Mystery: Last Year at Marienbad (1961) and Carnival of Souls (1962)<em>Last Year at Marienbad (</em><span class="title-extra"><em>L'année dernière à Marienbad</em>)</span>, directed by Alain Resnais, and <em>Carnival of Souls</em>, directed by Herk Harvey, are two movies you would not usually see mentioned together. However, they are both heavily stylized films from the early '60s with a protagonist who cannot figure out what is real. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Ya6bx24uYZuYYU1EorZFemn7bcWEDV9UncJbkxlkwT_adkWmSdq5dG9NwDVjdW5XEZbmPGAN6P_S5r0bNqydBBN12Q8zRMRalosOpoFHrraLrWqfRjX60tCX83jkMn_aDYcRX7xUB2gU/s1600/last+year+at+marienbad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Ya6bx24uYZuYYU1EorZFemn7bcWEDV9UncJbkxlkwT_adkWmSdq5dG9NwDVjdW5XEZbmPGAN6P_S5r0bNqydBBN12Q8zRMRalosOpoFHrraLrWqfRjX60tCX83jkMn_aDYcRX7xUB2gU/s320/last+year+at+marienbad.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://sjamaanka.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/220px-carnivalofsoulsposters.jpg?w=220&h=351" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="http://sjamaanka.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/220px-carnivalofsoulsposters.jpg?w=220&h=351" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://winsbury.tumblr.com/post/2154806979/kittenstropicalia-monstermadeofeyes-yng"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Poster</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://criticalrant.com/2010/09/30/carnival-off-balance-level-ground-arts-visits-nola/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">sources</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><em>Last Year at Marienbad</em> centers on an unnamed man (<a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0016617/"><span style="color: #136cb2;">Giorgio Albertazzi</span></a>) who meets a woman (<a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0786891/"><span style="color: #136cb2;">Delphine Seyrig</span></a>) at a European resort. He insists that they met a year before, at a resort called Marienbad, but she replies that they've never seen each other. The man spends his time trying to recall and relay his vague memories to her, and she may or may not start to remember things as well. Yet, as the connection may be a passionate one, the man must also contend with the presence of a man (<a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0685782/"><span style="color: #136cb2;">Sacha Pitoëff</span></a>) accompanying the woman at this resort.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<em>Carnival of Souls</em> opens with a car accident, killing all but one woman, named Mary Henry (<a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0385010/"><span style="color: #136cb2;">Candace Hilligoss</span></a>). She escapes and tries to reintegrate herself into life, but disturbing characters follow her wherever she goes.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Both the unnamed man and Mary Henry are confused about the paths they are taking, and later on start to wonder about what actually motivated them on their journeys. The only people they manage some connection with are initially presented as possible romantic interests - the unnamed woman in <em>Marienbad</em>, and the sleazy neighbor John Linden (<a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0074367/">Sidney Berger</a>) in <em>Carnival</em>. These relationships turn dark, and in each film,, the male character builds up to an aggressive pursuit of the female character. However, their actions may or may not be figments of a troubled imagination. <br />
<em>Carnival of Souls</em> is, unmistakably, a B-movie, though it is one with enough qualities to endear it to many types of film fans. The ghastly people following Mary have faces caked with white makeup, eyes surrounded with black. Some of the townspeople seem to act normal, but their actions grow more odd every moment, and there is an eerie emptiness all around Mary.<br />
<br />
In <em>Last Year at Marienbad</em>, the people at the resort are all elegant in dress and refined in manner. They stop moving and start moving, either accentuating the lead character's narration or illustrating the disjointed quality of his thoughts. The composition, beautifully photographed by <a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0005916/">Sacha Vierny</a>, is sometimes harsh in its minimalism and rigid geometry. People and things becoming little more than shapes and echoed lines. Each films have the effect of a dream spinning into nightmare. <br />
<br />
The soundtracks, and especially their use of organ music, add to this effect. Mary in <em>Carnival</em> is an organist, playing crazed, infernal compositions (by <a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0601235/"><span style="color: #136cb2;">Gene Moore</span></a>) when the mood strikes her. The rest of the soundtrack is also played on organ, except when tunes are played on a jukebox <em>Marienbad</em> composer <a href="http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0786892/">Francis Seyrig</a> uses the organ to create a stately yet ominous atmosphere with his music, such as when the movie opens with the main character's musings on the fading resort. On that tangent, locations in these films have both a stark beauty and an air of decay to them, from the ornate decor of that European resort to the haunting appearance of a ruined entertainment pavillion. <br />
<br />
<em>Last Year at Marienbad</em> and <em>Carnival of Souls</em> are understandably polarizing films. Their plots can be frustrating, their looks can seem too affected, and their characters are sometimes unsympathetic or even detestable. Even for those more inclined to like these movies, it takes some time for each film's particular rhythms to set in. Yet it is interesting to compare these films for their alternate "high art"-"low art" treatments of stories told through the eyes of unreliable, alienated protagonists trying to make sense of the world. Both films aim to display feelings that cannot be competely articulated in words. They aim to be honest, in their own way; by showing these experiences as fractured and surreal, compelling and frightening for what they reveal. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2418447379_7f3596d3fd.jpg?v=0" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" n4="true" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/2418447379_7f3596d3fd.jpg?v=0" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://confessions123.blogspot.com/2008/04/one-night-of-love-that-put-my-head-in.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Picture source.</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">-- -</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://carnivalofsouls4sampletheatre.blogspot.com/">Carnival of Souls for Sample Theater</a> is a blog covering a multimedia performance of the film's story.<br />
For more on the sets and fashion of <em>Last Year at Marienbad</em>, <a href="http://www.timesquotidian.com/tag/alain-resnais/">here</a> is a great collection of screencaps, as well as writings on the film.<br />
<br />
<em>Last Year at Marienbad</em> can, at the moment, be found in its entirety <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rrcB6Zn1oQ">on Youtube</a>.<br />
<em>Carnival of Souls</em> is in the public domain and can be viewed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exUFpSFblaw">here</a>.</div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-13427697336145269392010-10-12T03:39:00.000-07:002010-10-12T03:56:35.668-07:00#7 - The Detective as Mystery: "Cure" (1997) and "Insomnia" (1997)<i>Cure</i>, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and <i><em>Insomnia</em></i>, directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg, are two mystery films from 1997. Each film begins with a murder, and ends with the consequences or implications of another murder. Both features consist of blues and grays hazy as the skies, or pristine clear like a blade's glare. This goes not only for the images on screen, but for the sentiments and choices of the characters.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1hzamVYXA1qbdxsro1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1hzamVYXA1qbdxsro1_500.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1_9LEpPAsjcjgAyalVE8CCRm5pGdqVbn8Jxs5XuFHrW7rt0wfJgEWBnwpZnFiRs8UVRjcn8yALWjNxZXOsURizqNMgd7N6FI4Le-KiL2Zue-K-9bJ5_kCZvI5GxwnC31P1w6SUN9m8Qm/s1600/Insomnia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1_9LEpPAsjcjgAyalVE8CCRm5pGdqVbn8Jxs5XuFHrW7rt0wfJgEWBnwpZnFiRs8UVRjcn8yALWjNxZXOsURizqNMgd7N6FI4Le-KiL2Zue-K-9bJ5_kCZvI5GxwnC31P1w6SUN9m8Qm/s320/Insomnia.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<em>Insomnia</em> tells the story of Swedish investigator Jonas Engström (<span style="color: black;">Stellan Skarsgård</span>), who, with his partner, is called to Norway to help solve a murder. Engström is hampered by working where long hours of sun allows him little or no sleep each night. The case is further complicated when Engström must cover up his own crimes. <br />
<br />
<em>Cure</em> follows police detective Kenichi Takabe (<span style="color: black;">Kôji Yakusho</span>) on the trail of deaths with only two things in common: an "x" carved in each victim's neck; and the killers near the crime scene, remembering nothing. Takabe is determined to find the catalyst for these shocking murders, but this catalyst may prove too dangerous for him to handle. <br />
<br />
These detectives encounter suspects who are sly, manipulative, and sometimes enigmatically helpful. Engström's and Takabe's private desires compromise them in difficult moments. Their relationships with women are troubled: Takabe has everyday struggles taking care of his sick wife, while the middle-aged bachelor Engström fumbles his interactions with attractive women. <br />
<br />
<em>Cure</em>'s<em> </em>psychological explanation for the catalyst's methods take on an almost supernatural aspect. The unclear tone and at times obscure details can bother those who prefer a more grounded mystery that doesn't edge so close to ridiculousness. The film is often called "dreamlike," and is elegant in its way, though the word "nightmare" better describes some of the horrific (and horror-like) events that occur.<br />
<br />
The tensions in <em>Insomnia</em> center around men who wish to protect their self-interests; how these men use and abuse their skills to the benefit and misfortune of themselves and others. The film itself isn't misogynistic, but some of the characters are. Everything around the main male characters frustrates them - their living situation, the women around them, the jobs they perform. What's particularly hard for these men to admit is that it's their own faults that escalate frustrations into serious matters. <br />
<br />
These films explore the destructive emotions seething under composed appearances. Much of each film is slow, quiet buildup, setting up shocks that are genuinely startling. <em>Insomnia</em> has more outright gunplay and action, while in <em>Cure</em> the violence -the murders are nearly all offscreen- has a lingering quality that still made me gasp several times.<br />
<br />
Guilt and regret connect the detectives in these films, guilt for what they've done and regret for what they've failed to do. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l459pbmHyy1qavk2zo1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="179" src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l459pbmHyy1qavk2zo1_500.png" width="320" /></a><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1kny3Jw401qzehxco1_400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="213" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1kny3Jw401qzehxco1_400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/film/dvd/Insomnia/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Picture</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><a href="http://ateliertovar.tumblr.com/post/707062783/cure-kiyoshi-kurosawa-1997"><span style="font-size: x-small;">sources</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div>- - -<br />
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<br />
- A remake of <em>Insomnia</em>, set in Alaska, was directed by Christopher Nolan in 2002.Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-81489096381903286092010-05-26T18:39:00.000-07:002011-06-07T15:23:42.913-07:00#6: Framing the Everyday: "Bicycle Thieves" (1948) and "Chop Shop (2008)<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long! I also haven't been reading much of the blogs I follow, sorry. I've just found work after graduation, and that as well as family matters (along with my obsession over a little show called <em>Lost</em>) consumed much of my time. I'm going to keep this post short, because I'm quite tired at the moment.</div><br />
Here is the sixth double feature recommendation I have for you: <em>Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette),</em> directed by Vittorio De Sica, and <em>Chop Shop</em>, directed by Ramin Bahrani. Though separated by sixty years and set on different continents, these two films share an interest in hardworking people, in the mundane details surrounding the plot. De Sica is seen as one of the pioneers of the <em>neorealism</em> movement, which fostered movies that sought to show "reality" by dramatizing but not glamorizing the struggles that middle- to lower-class people face in life every day. Bahrani's film can be seen as an extension of this movement into the twenty-first century.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfZ0tEnCd1X2toukImepOj_0C_E31nLIqG69M5PF0ACPpWSZfhOnPdCaiMKWTUM65Clp9aLE-cbBdlE2cj1y371w_ejfJm_ZNAhDVBRHCgoYrpfxX-uLwFcjs6w-S8X61CpisQvm00lNtY/s1600/bicycle-thieves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfZ0tEnCd1X2toukImepOj_0C_E31nLIqG69M5PF0ACPpWSZfhOnPdCaiMKWTUM65Clp9aLE-cbBdlE2cj1y371w_ejfJm_ZNAhDVBRHCgoYrpfxX-uLwFcjs6w-S8X61CpisQvm00lNtY/s320/bicycle-thieves.jpg" t8="true" width="238" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3GvCnceiYegiqHEnEOa8xEtzjX_GvD0SaH9M_rxjmG8HsghvKv6V0-zwtTsH7JrWyucAjTKAWZO8NJzLZCWO8Wmbu3t2DYxH756TiHxzzWs2G0iS5_Oj0bvSugdD3j07dQG_JKIZCvavJ/s1600/prechop_shop_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3GvCnceiYegiqHEnEOa8xEtzjX_GvD0SaH9M_rxjmG8HsghvKv6V0-zwtTsH7JrWyucAjTKAWZO8NJzLZCWO8Wmbu3t2DYxH756TiHxzzWs2G0iS5_Oj0bvSugdD3j07dQG_JKIZCvavJ/s320/prechop_shop_poster.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Posters from Tinypic and <a href="http://humanrightsfilmfestival.ca/2008/01/05/chop-shop-a-definition/">here</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Both films focus on a family that scrapes up money from whatever job they have in order to survive. While <em>Bicycle Thieves (or, The Bicycle Thief)</em> centers on an adult father and a young son, <em>Chop Shop</em> follows the plight of a pair of teenagers, an older sister and younger brother. This difference in generations means that each film contains a particular variation on the themes of responsibility and lost innocence. The plots in these films emerge slowly, taking their time to rise out of the circumstances. As for visuals, <em>Chop Shop</em> manages to illustrate the grayish landscape of the titular setting with vibrant color, while <em>Bicycle Thieves</em> gives grace to the mundane settings through lighting and composition. I'd say watch <em>Bicycle Thieves</em> first, to see where particular filmic interests originated. </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-73504621581037280802010-02-27T18:11:00.000-08:002011-10-12T23:54:13.977-07:00#5 - The Filmed Reality: "F for Fake" (1973) and "Sans soleil" (1983)<em>F for Fake (Vérités et mensonges)</em>, directed by Orson Welles, and <em>Sans soleil</em>, directed by Chris Marker, are two films that may be superficially categorized as documentaries. They film actual events; they have interviews and other features of straightforward documentary. However, these two films play with the assumed reality of the traditional objective documentary. With slips of fiction, flights of fancy, and meandering across topics and countries, these films are probably better categorized as filmed essays.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8tpdpmaFRCGaEEvwKO_yL8bpMuHK3x0MsDV9H1o1-eGYGWe9IvugU2PUiySII0v9DaYrtF0kZrfpV2grZBYlz6FSm4JAGhqPoeESztF_LDffr2ke_NH8JD6f_DLBPL9wplXvCo7zmHmO/s1600-h/SANS%2520SOLEIL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8tpdpmaFRCGaEEvwKO_yL8bpMuHK3x0MsDV9H1o1-eGYGWe9IvugU2PUiySII0v9DaYrtF0kZrfpV2grZBYlz6FSm4JAGhqPoeESztF_LDffr2ke_NH8JD6f_DLBPL9wplXvCo7zmHmO/s320/SANS%2520SOLEIL.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBblGItQDtR1-Ds6T0sQ5zCIwYdNhSdO6l2P6pMoTokeIJ880RqkpbAoIYb0aGBbtEPHcJ_PbBsRABxMCtBv4bsqW04jzo30aZShCuskk8tVX_yJj94aOTWOMbskDLjZiM7aBk1M99BGsi/s1600-h/fforfakeposter1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBblGItQDtR1-Ds6T0sQ5zCIwYdNhSdO6l2P6pMoTokeIJ880RqkpbAoIYb0aGBbtEPHcJ_PbBsRABxMCtBv4bsqW04jzo30aZShCuskk8tVX_yJj94aOTWOMbskDLjZiM7aBk1M99BGsi/s320/fforfakeposter1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Poster sources: </span><a href="http://www.posteritati.com/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> and </span><a href="http://www.1984produkts.com/civilwarroundtable/?p=640"><span style="font-size: x-small;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Both movies, made ten years apart, take on subjects that are blurry, unreliable, and indistinct.<em> F for Fake</em> focuses on art fraud and the implications of the art of fakery, while <em>Sans soleil</em> focuses on time and memory. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><em>Sans soleil</em> is a travelogue of thoughts, narrated with letters from a fictional female traveler. While commenting on what she observes on her travels - through Okinawa and Tokyo, to Guinea-Bissau, to Cape Verde, to Iceland, to San Francisco - sounds and images cross and contrast. Memories blend and escape and become clarified. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><em>F for Fake</em> is a whirlwind in pace and personality from director/writer/narrator Orson Welles. The film seems to center around Elmyr, a legendary art forger who reproduce pretty much any work of art one can name. Yet there are multiple layers leading to and away from this center, searching to find if there are really any differences between art and forgery. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The narrators determine the tone in both features. Orson Welles is more of an overtly assertive force in his film than Chris Marker's female narrator in <em>Sans soleil</em>. Marker's narrator, though, is the only anchor in the cross-contintental flurry of associations; a quiet but vital guide whose opinion may be subtle but no less dominant than Welles' in the world of each film. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Both <em>Sans soleil</em> and <em>F for Fake</em> are held together by crisp editing and imagery. <em>Sans soleil</em>'s pallette is slightly more washed out, leaning towards whites and grays and blues and browns to complement its more meditative feel. F is for fake has a wide array of colors, featuring bright sunlight and yellows and reds and vibrant shades of other colors until the more thoughtful or important sequences settle into a bluer mood. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I'd place <em>F for Fake</em> first in the double feature, for its surprises and more outgoing personality will have greater impact when viewed first. <em>Sans soleil</em> can function as an extension, a tangent of the experiences felt while watching <em>F for Fake</em>, and is long and varied enough to emerge on its own in the mind. What both films offer is a way to break down, but not destroy, information we process through our senses; to not so much reevaluate as better appreciate everything we hear and see. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i48.tinypic.com/x3e4bn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" kt="true" src="http://i48.tinypic.com/x3e4bn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelco/153449113/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">source</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><div align="center"></div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-78669546963648496002010-02-06T03:42:00.000-08:002010-02-06T03:48:02.589-08:00#4: Critics of Tradition: "Sisters of the Gion" (1936) and "Harakiri" (1962)<em>Sisters of the Gion (Gion no shimai)</em>, directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, and <em>Harakiri (Seppuku)</em>, directed by Masaki Kobayashi, are two Japanese films that take a critical look at Japanese traditions that seem -for Westerners, at least- to be unquestioned, defnitive aspects of Japanese culture. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i46.tinypic.com/3478r60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kt="true" src="http://i46.tinypic.com/3478r60.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i45.tinypic.com/33djeci.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVCUiOU5-x7Lja0aF_NWo-YpnQVQba-pXY8vexTf3zlJ7ONnD585pDG-ZODoRhGR53rBc421L8eWhcBPEKiijHPYby2PJW6EBQyxcJrEDu_gZHDpcFTjm0Nibi8lA35RtVG2xtUJRax0/s400/harakiri4fA.jpg" width="237" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Poster sources: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gion_no_shimai_1956_poster.jpg">here</a> and <a href="http://trash-can-dance.blogspot.com/2007/09/harakiri.html">here</a>.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Though the films are set in different centuries -<em>Harakiri</em> is set the 17th century and <em>Sisters of Gion</em> is set around 1936 - they both depict the breakdown of tradition during times of hardship in Japan's history. One film takes on the geisha establishment, while the other criticizes strict adherence to <em>bushido</em>. Both films feature a character who follows traditional rules and suffers, and another character who fights back and exploits the system. However, despite the negative perspectives these films display, they do posess vitality in storytelling and strong emotional appeal.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><em>Sisters of the Gion (Gion no shimai)</em> focuses on two sisters who are impoverished geisha in Kyoto's Gion district: the traditional and soft-spoken Umekichi (Yôko Umemura), and the more modern-minded and abrasive Omocha (the luminous Isuzu Yamada). Umekichi's client Furusawa (Benkei Shiganoya) asks for her help when he becomes bankrupt and leaves his wife. Omocha finds this exploitative and impractical. She tries to drive Umekichi away from Furusawa while searching for wealthier patrons for her sister and herself. Yet society isn't kind to geisha of little reputation, and Omocha's manipulations soon catch up to her.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><em>Harakiri (Seppuku)</em> is told partly through story flashback. As warrior clans are broken up and former samurai are thrown into poverty, the samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai) asks for permission to enter a <em>daimyo</em> home in order to honorably commit suicide. The nobles of the house are wary of this request, though, and we see the story of a younger warrior (Shima Iwashita) who had begged for work from the house. Little do the nobles know what Hanshiro is truly seeking...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One might too simply separate <em>Harakiri</em> and <em>Sisters of the Gion</em> as male-centered action film vs. female-centered melodrama. Yet both have very intense scenes that sell some incredibly heightened situations and agendas. Both films also feature elegant compositions in black-and-white. Mizoguchi floods the sparse scenes with.sumptuous light, while Kobayashi clearly lineates the scenes for the action to come. <em>Sisters of the Gion</em> is more consistent in tone, since <em>Harakiri</em>'s flashback device takes up a large chunk of time after the relatively long (and dialogue-heavy initial set-up . However, the long periods of dialogue and flashback in <em>Harakiri</em> effectively build up motive and intensity for the the oncoming action. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I would suggest watching <em>Sisters of the Gion</em> first, since it is shorter and might underwhelm after the brutal violence in <em>Harakiri</em>. It also helps builds up this progression: "life looks tough for women in the 1930's, especially geisha, and oh look it was tough for samurai too, even in more traditional times! whoa!" </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Both films are great recommendations for those interested in Japan, especially for those who over-romanticize Japanese history and culture. They also offer damning critiques of society and gender roles, with strong plots and vivid characters. The last lines of <em>Sisters of the Gion</em> and one suicide scene in <em>Harakiri</em> will stay in my mind forever. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://i46.tinypic.com/2r60daf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" kt="true" src="http://i46.tinypic.com/2r60daf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://fredalme.multiply.com/reviews/item/55">image source.</a></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">- - -</div><div align="center" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><em>Harakiri</em> can be viewed <a href="http://www.theauteurs.com/films/743">online via The Auteurs</a>. (<a href="http://yellow-menace.com/2009/06/watch-the-best-samurai-film-ever-made-for-free/">source</a>)</div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-55345339742658137302010-01-19T14:12:00.000-08:002011-06-30T00:47:03.868-07:00#3: What Dreams are Made Of: "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) and "Chan is Missing" (1982)<em>The Maltese Falcon</em>, directed by John Huston, and <em>Chan is Missing</em>, directed by Wayne Wang, are two American detective films from very different decades. They both exploit and overturn aspects of the detective narrative formula, and make very pointed statements about the American Dream.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDOQAnvm945lmj-qqITJoaGJtfywbbRo6IBMX6_rDS0zsIexvfByedcJRJmWO1ASJ1nvoo6ic3jbC7kQJgFQKv4y98748JjW7GaBGMod8EkhHWXdjKIPzi_XoWIo0bgCUDk66S8VWGYBtO/s1600/chan+is+missing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" o$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDOQAnvm945lmj-qqITJoaGJtfywbbRo6IBMX6_rDS0zsIexvfByedcJRJmWO1ASJ1nvoo6ic3jbC7kQJgFQKv4y98748JjW7GaBGMod8EkhHWXdjKIPzi_XoWIo0bgCUDk66S8VWGYBtO/s320/chan+is+missing.jpg" width="210" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">poster sources: </span><a href="http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/0b8c9c65"><span style="font-size: x-small;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> and </span><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1sh_chan_is_missing_1982.jpg"><span style="font-size: x-small;">here</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><em>The Maltese Falcon</em> and <em>Chan is Missing</em> involve detectives trying to find something that is lost, the titular Maltese falcon statue in the former and the cabdriver Chan in the latter. Both films share a jaded outlook and stark black-and-white cinematography that illustrates the gray, ambiguous worlds their characters inhabit. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Regarded as a film noir classic, <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> starts out with a different case than expected: a woman (Mary Astor) walks into the office of Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) and Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) and hires them to follow a man. What happens afterward leads to a search for the mysterious Maltese falcon, with other suspicious characters - particularly Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) - as well as the police on their tail. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In <em>Chan is Missing</em>, Jo (Wood Moy) and Steve (Marc Hayashi) are not private detectives, but two taxi drivers. They have to search for the fellow taxi driver Chan Hung - and the $4000 they lent him for a business deal. What starts out as a search for a missing person becomes a set of conversations, confrontations, and realizations about self-doubt and Asian-American identity.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Partnership in both films is incredibly strained, with a clash of personalities and generations in <em>Chan is Missing</em>, and dislike and mistrust between partners in <em>The Maltese Falcon </em>(although the opposing team of Cairo and Gutman make such a great team that Lorre and Greenstreet were paired together in several later films). There are humorous bits of conversation in these films, but the humor leans more towards the dark and bitter. Women are barely present in <em>Chan is Missing</em>, but come across as more sympathetic and human than the deadly (but admittedly kind of awesome) femme fatale in <em>The Maltese Falcon</em>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The tone and pace in <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> are more brusque and staccato, reportedly (I have not read the book) following its Dashiell Hammett source novel as well as the tone of detective films of the time. Scenes in <em>Chan is Missing</em> are more fluid than blunt, probably due to driving scenes and more walking through locations. It's a more quiet film, with the plot turning more on words and revelations rather than the slaps and gunshots of Falcon. Neither film is too blunt or boring, though, due to the focus on plot and presence of strong characters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Both films are set in San Francisco, although <em>Chan is Missing</em> occurs more specifically in and around Chinatown. <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> does have several shots on location, but was filmed primarily at the Warner Brothers studios in Burbank. While made in the 1980's, <em>Chan is Missing</em> was not shot in color due to the cheaper cost of black-and-white film. This decision gives the film a distinctive look and a stronger connection to the detective films it parallels - including the Charlie Chan films alluded to by the name of the titular character. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I might recommend seeing <em>Chan is Missing</em> first in the double feature, since <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> is a more dramatic film and might create unfair or other expectations for <em>Chan</em>. However, some viewers might prefer something more realistic after the action-packed melodrama of <em>Maltese</em>. It might also be interesting to compare the more standard film noir/detective film tropes in <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> with their distorted, selective use in <em>Chan is Missing</em>. Whatever order you watch them in, I recommend seeing these films together because of their shared location, jaded nature, and revisions of the detective genre. As stated in the beginning, both films have very sharp statements to make about the fabled American Dream (and any similar desire) of finding success and living happily ever after. <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> comments about the dream itself, while <em>Chan is Missing</em> comments on how immigrants really fit into that dream.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.filmsactu.com/datas/dvd/d/i/dim-sum-chan-is-missing/xl/49c276315c0e4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" ps="true" src="http://i50.tinypic.com/10mq8ly.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://sixmartinis.blogspot.com/2007/11/at-times-i-can-hardly-believe-i-live.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">source</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- - -</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- an earlier, pre-Code version of The Maltese Falcon was made <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022111/">in 1931</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Bogart, Lorre and Greenstreet later worked together on <em>Casablanca;</em> and Lorre, Bogart, and Conrad Veidt (also in <em>Casablanca</em>) were in 1942's spy comedy <em>All Through the Night</em>. <a href="http://www.spywise.net/peterlorre.html">This site</a> offers a great synopsis of the Lorre-Greenstreet film partnership; scroll down the page to the paragraph that begins: "Lorre's work with Sydney Greenstreet during these years became known as the "Little Pete-Big Syd" pairing in films..."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Peter Lorre also starred in the Charlie Chan copycat Mr. Moto films, although it is said that those films are slightly more respectful of their stereotypical character than the Charlie Chan films were.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- <em>Chan is Missing</em> director Wayne Wang has gone on to make critically-acclaimed independent films as well as very mainstream films such as <em>Maid in Manhattan</em>, starring Jennifer Lopez, and <em>Last Holiday</em>, starring Queen Latifah. His most well-known work is probably the film adaptation of <em>The Joy Luck Club</em>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- <em>Chan is Missing</em> lead actors Wood Moy and Marc Hayashi display great versality and charisma in the film, but have not found any substantial roles on film or TV since, according to their IMDB profiles.</div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-63506666461222796542010-01-07T14:18:00.000-08:002010-02-04T12:36:33.697-08:00#2 - Dangerous Games: "13 Tzameti" (2005) and "Intacto" (2001)<em>13 Tzameti</em>, directed by Géla Babluani, and <em>Intacto</em>, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, are two European thrillers from the early 2000's about young men pulled into events run by international networks of powerful and deadly people. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.impawards.com/2003/posters/intacto_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" ps="true" src="http://i46.tinypic.com/105ck5e.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<div class="" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Poster pictures from <a href="http://www.franzoesischerfilm.de/?p=92">here</a> and <a href="http://www.impawards.com/2003/intacto_ver3.html">here</a>.<br />
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</div>Both films are incredibly high-concept, sometimes straining credibility and bordering on ridiculousness. Yet great control over tone, as well as excellent production and performance,s make these extreme scenarios work. <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">"Tzameti" is "13" in the Georgian language, and the film concerns the story of a young Georgian immigrant in France, Sébastien (George Babluani, the director's brother). He works hard at his construction job in order to support his near-impoverished family. While repairing a roof, Sébastien observes his employer behaving very strangely. From this mundane beginning, Sébastien is drawn into a manipulative situation neither he nor the viewer expects (that is, if you avoid trailers, synopses, even posters - don't look at ANYTHING!). <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em>Intacto</em> can be considered more of a supernatural concept disguised as a thriller, depending on what you believe luck is. It begins with a falling out between two major players in the luck exchange: Samuel (Max von Sydow) and Federico (Eusebio Poncela). Afterward, we are introduced to the main character, Tomás (Leonardo Sbaraglia), the only survivor of a plane crash. Due to his survivor's luck, he becomes a prime candidate for recruitment into the luck game - a gambling ring doggedly pursued by police investigator Sara (Mónica López).<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The high-stakes machinations in both of these films escalate into scenes of terror. The forest run scene in <em>Intacto </em>is particularly noteworthy, and the lightbulb in <em>13 Tzameti</em> and use of photos and touch in <em>Intacto</em> can all be nightmare fuel for the active imagination. (In fact, I did get a bit of a nightmare from the latter.) Alliances and vendettas are formed, while the intially helpless main characters gradually become more active and independent actors as they learn more about their situation. <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em>13 Tzameti</em> is shot entirely in black-and-white, adding to the film's brutal minimalism. <em>Intacto</em> is also stylishly shot, but in rich colors, incorporating sweeping shots and vast horizontal compositions in some key scenes. <em>Intacto</em> bustles with more sound and energy, while <em>13 Tzameti</em> quietly builds up before sudden moments blasting in sound and tension, overturning everything with blunt force.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Some have taken the events and characters in <em>13 Tzameti</em> to stand in for the exploitation of immigrants and other workers. Nearly all the characters are purposefully made ciphers, with only a telling clue or gesture as hints to their personality. Plot points are pushed by actions in the present. In contrast, the pasts of the characters in <em>Intacto</em> are very important to the plot. While <em>Intacto</em> may have less global and existential relevance than <em>13 Tzameti</em>, it does execute its police investigation plot in a better manner.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Watch <em>13 Tzameti</em> first before <em>Intacto</em>. This not only provides a cool stylistic progression from stark black-and-white to color, but also keeps plot points more unpredictable. What do these characters <em>really</em> win in the end? How would you fare in their situation? That's for you to wonder about at the end of this thriller double-feature.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.thomhudson.com/uploaded_images/13tzameti-788626.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" ps="true" src="http://i46.tinypic.com/ohpzs5.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
</div><a href="http://www.thomhudson.com/2008_04_01_archive.html">source</a>.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- - -<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- The English-language remake of <em>13 Tzameti </em>(called <em>13</em>, also directed by Babluani), is set to release later this year, so I'd advise seeing the original before promotion for the remake spoils the experience. <br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em>- Intacto</em> director Fresnadillo later directed <em>28 Months Later</em>, a solid sequel to <em>28 Days Later</em> that coasted over its plot holes through great direction and performances. Fresnadillo is at time of posting attached to the film adaptation of the excellent video game <em>Bioshock</em>.<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">- Through the internet, I found out that the Bollywood film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1242782/">Luck</a> steals a scene and situation from <em>13 Tzameti</em>, and has plot elements similar to both of the films in thise double feature.<br />
</div></div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-47245884396796197872010-01-03T01:36:00.000-08:002010-02-04T12:40:25.531-08:00#1 - Fantasy in Wartime: "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) and "The Spirit of the Beehive" (1973)The first pair of pictures I have for you: <em>Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)</em>, directed by Guillermo del Toro, and <em>The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena)</em>, directed by Victor Erice.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Poster pictures taken from <a href="http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/4292/42/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2007/spanish_posters/index.html">here</a>.<br />
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</div><span style="font-size: x-small;">I promise that I will not to give away any spoilers in these posts. Any plot points mentioned are those obvious at the start of each film.</span><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Both are Spanish-language films set in Spain during the 1940's, when the country was under the fascist rule of Franco. Both also center on the actions and imagination of young girls: the younger Ana (Ana Torrent) of <em>The Spirit of the Beehive</em> and the older Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) of <em>Pan's Labyrinth</em>. <br />
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Ofelia begins imagining that she is drawn into a mystical quest by a faun and other creatures, while Ana (in an amazing sequence) becomes so enraptured and affected by a showing of James Whale's <em>Frankenstein </em>that she can't get the film's characters and events out of her head.<br />
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However, while Ofelia's fantasy world is shown in detail, we mostly get just verbal and visual clues of what Ana is imagining. The wartime setting is also more evident in <em>Beehive</em> than in <em>Labyrinth</em>, although that is probably due to the different settings: Ofelia is stepdaughter to a high-ranking military official and surrounded by soldiers, while Ana's peaceful family of bee farmers lives nearly isolated in the countryside. <br />
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<em>Pan's Labyrinth</em> is faster-paced and more brutal than the languid <em>Spirit of the Beehive</em>. The conflicts between Ana's mother and father are not violent, especially compared to the actions of Ofelia's dictatorial stepfather. But the troubles still run deep and fracture Ana's family. One commentator noted that the family in <em>Beehive </em>is never shown on screen together. Ana has a sister of similar age to play with, but this sister does not care much for Ana's questions about Frankenstein's monster. Ofelia, on the other hand, soon has a baby sister to be responsible for, which gives her a different sibling relationship than Ana has but also conflicts with her fantasy world. Compare the mother and father figures -including Ofelia's faun - in the two films, and you'll find a complex picture of family and what goes into the formation of inner worlds.<br />
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Both films are sumptuous to the eye. <em>Pan's Labyrinth</em> is saturated with rich blues and browns, with fantasy sequences filled with red and gold. <em>The Spirit of the Beehive</em> takes place in the country, in and around a beautiful house fitted with windows like the honeycombs the family tends. The painterly film is bathed in a more yellowish gold, accentuated by white and brown walls and furniture. <br />
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I'm not sure which film to recommend for watching first in the double feature. While only around 90 minutes long, <em>The Spirit of the Beehive</em> is set at a very tranquil pace. It lacks the momentum of the narrative in <em>Pan's Labyrinth</em>, and needs some patience from the viewer before everything comes together in the last act. It's the type of film I categorize as perfect for a summer afternoon. Watching <em>Pan's Labyrinth</em> first might give you some impatience with the pacing in <em>The Spirit of the Beehive</em>. However, the more shocking impact of the events in <em>Pan's Labyrinth</em> might give you the taste for something relatively more peaceful, where the real dangers are only hinted at before appearing towards the end. It might also be better to see <em>Labyrinth</em> before <em>Beehive</em> so that the act of finding comparisons can maintain your attention during the latter. <br />
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Whichever movie you see first, I hope you enjoy both of these film, or at least find something to like in them. They both offer different treatments of the same period in history, and they both give respectful looks at the development and influence of young imaginations in times of conflict. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">this image via <a href="http://haxpyslime.tumblr.com/">haxpyslime</a> on tumblr.<br />
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</div>Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4139887517035538602.post-75475701703243068392010-01-02T02:25:00.000-08:002010-01-02T02:25:50.888-08:00What to expectFirst up for the double-feature recommendations: Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno), directed by Guillermo del Toro, and The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena), directed by Victor Erice. Post should be up in about a week from now.<br />
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Possible future recommendations:<br />
- <em>The Fallen Idol</em> and <em>The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu)</em><br />
- <em>The Maltese Falcon</em> and <em>Chan is Missing</em><br />
- <em>The Dark Knight</em> and <em>The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance </em>(idea from Rocchi's Portal)<br />
- <em>Hara-Kiri (Seppuku)</em> and <em>Sisters of the Gion (Gion no shimai)</em><br />
- <em>Last Year at Marienbad (L'année dernière à Marienbad)</em> and <em>Carnival of Souls</em><br />
- the WWII quadruple-punch of <em>The Longest Day</em>, <em>Is Paris Burning (Paris brûle-t-il?),</em> <em>Army of Shadows</em> <em>(L'armée des ombres),</em> and<em> </em> <em>Inglourious Basterds</em>.<br />
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Something I forgot to mention in my previous post: The <em>Maiku Hama</em> detective trilogy is awesome.Diandrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08847794175731233884noreply@blogger.com0