[I]Twilight of the Ice Nymphs[/I] most resembles a made for television sci-fi melodrama you would likely see on late night "Skinemax." Maddin satirizes the most unappealing aesthetic style/genre in existence; one that in fact is so amusingly lame that no parody of it could ever be half as funny or entertaining. Aesthetics and parody aside this is Maddin's least interesting film narratively as well, but I suppose it would fit in nicely with the schlock The Sci-fi Channel is showing these days.
Harmony Korine's latest film about a Michael Jackson impersonator joinging a commune of other celebrity impersonators and trying to discover himself, is somewhat of a departure from his past work, showing both progression and missteps. It is also his most autobiographical picture. Returning from an 8 year hiatus, Korine litters his new film with fragments of his midlife crisis. After a very strong opening and the always exciting screen presence of Werner Herzog, the film begins to stagger with it's insistence on indiscreet voice over and dialogue along with a few audaciously cheesy scenes including a nun falling from an airplane, and surviving the fall after praying to the lord. Despite these mistakes which Harmony claims to love, the film is filled with many memorable and even gorgeous images. The soundtrack consisting of everything from original score by Spaceman and the Sun City Girls, to A Silver Mt. Zion, Spank Rock, and some old blues and folk music is one of the strongest assets. Michael's character played by Diego Luna, laments at not being able to relate to the rest of the world, seeing things differently, and wanting to be someone other than himself. He and his fellow impersonators including Marylin Monroe, played by Samantha Morton, live in a sort of dream-like reality. To parallel this rebellion, the commune raises witless sheep without the freedom of choice or nonconformity. The main goal of the commune is to build a theater and draw audiences to "share the beauty of the world" with others, although only a few lonely souls show up to watch them perform. I think this is another reflection of Korine's struggle to make his mark with his own art. Originally I felt that the more conventional narrative structure of the film was what hindered it the most, however after thinking about it a little more I think Korine is capable of successfully making a conventional narrative. Unfortunately Mister Lonely is much more overt about letting you known what it wants you to feel, as opposed to his first two features which allow for much greater personal reflection through mostly just imagery.
I'm a huge fan of Italian realism and of this pivotal film in the history of cinema. The story is very simple as it focuses on the plight of one man in need of his bicycle to work and provide for his family. Emotionally we connect and sympathize with the protagonist and the adorable relationship he has with his son Bruno, but just as importantly if not more so the film covers the broader social problems of the impoverished lower class. When Antonio and his wife sell their sheets to the pawn shop in order to buy back his bike which he had previously pawned off, we see a reveal of a man climbing a seemingly endless storage shelf full of identical bundles of sheets signifying that the Ricci family is merely an individual representation of many similar stories. Later in the film Antonio follows a poor old man into a church that is providing free meals and grooming to the poor. Initially we feel disdain towards the man because he is associated with the thief, but this scene arouses pathos. When the thief is finally confronted, we see the slums he is living in as the community comes to his aid for protection after Antonio accuses him of stealing. After Antonio becomes tries to steal a bike himself, we can begin to sympathize with the original thief or at least understand his desperation. The touching scene with the boy and his father eating an expensive lunch next to a rich family is also one of the finer moments of the film. I also admire De Sica's choice to end the film with such uncertainty.
Brakhage combines his love of French surrealism with his affinity for Italian neorealism as he captures the paranoia and claustrophobia of the beatnik generation. Accompanied by an avant-garde musical composition, Brakhage approaches his subjects with a voyeuristic and shakily wandering camera as they drink and smoke, among various other eccentric activities such as using a mandolin as a machine gun, building a book tower, and becoming tangled in a spool of thread. At times the film resembled a surreal recreation of Reefer Madness.
This is an entirely silent piece that explores a newlywed couple and their interactions seen through alternating flashes of darkness and light and shots resembling polarized pornography. Brakhage plays with the absence and presence of darkness and light as our eyes are sporadically drawn to the glimpses brightness. Real objects become abstracted by the sparse and selective lighting as we try to make sense of it all.
Named after the literal definition of "autopsy," this film cuts together actual autopsy footage shot by Brakhage himself. For thirty minutes we are confronted with death and it's physical grotesqueness face to face and in silence. The lifeless bodies of anonymous men and women are ripped open, torn apart, and moved about like lumpy masses. Gradually the film becomes more intensely graphic to the point where it became very hard for me to continue watching, but left me with many questions. Are men meant to pry into the secrets of the internal body? should the body be considered a sacred object or is it just a temporary vessel? Who were these people, and is the autopsy and our viewing of this a form of trespassing?
The technical merits far outweigh the impact of the narrative for me. I've heard some critics complain that Welles' trick shots and stylization hinder the emotional weight and I tend to agree, however it is the former which has given Citizen Kane the reputation it has today.
A fantastically surreal depiction of a dream Anger had where he is violently beaten and raped by a group of sailors. Fireworks explores the plight of the outsider using stylized ballet-like movements and homoerotic imagery. What's most impressive is that Anger made his debut avante-garde psychoanalysis of his own fears and sexuality at the age of 17.
A Colorfully photographed look at a diva from the silent film era going about her afternoon routine. The look of the film and the music by Jonathan Halper make it seem very 60s, but the folk rock soundtrack was added decades later. It is interesting to see Anger's perception and fascination with this glamorous lifestyle of the era presented in color as it is not often associated with the 20s. I myself always find the 20s to seem like a distant fantasy dimension, and I think Puce Moment makes this world seem more real and tangible.
Anger's knowledge and fascination with different characters and folklore from around the world surfaces here as he combines a Japanese fairytale and Commedia dell'Art. Pierrot, a French mime stock character is taunted by Harlequin, the servant character from the Italian Commedia dell'Arte when he projects an image of Columbine, also a French stock character. On top of this, the film is juxtaposed with a soundtrack consisting of various doo-wop hits. Although many people dislike the re-edited 7 minute version with a more realistic looking moon, and a different soundtrack with A Raincoat's "It Came in the Night," I think I like it just as much as the original.
This is one of the most gorgeous films I've seen. Anger's film begins with his always opulent title cards and then we are taken to the beautiful water gardens of Tivoli, Italy. Anger shot on black and white film using only sunlight and red filters and then printed the film on color stock to create a blue hue. Shooting required elaborate planning to get the lighting just right to give the flowing water a 3-D quality. We see a woman periodically between the montage of stone faced fountains jets, and streams of dancing water droplets, but she is always at a distance, dwarfed by the landscape. When we first see her she is slowly descending a staircase, but her pace is hastened and by the end she is running until her plumes and period costuming transforms into a fountain. The classical score is equally beautiful serving as the perfect companion.
What begins as a fairly restrained theatrical and perhaps opera influenced piece set to "A Slavonic Mass" by Leos Janácek ends in a visually stimulating sensory experience that looks like some sort of a surreal hallucinogenic acid trip employing frantic editing and double exposures. The characters in the pleasure dome, partaking in decadent rituals and debauchery are apparently historical figures, biblical characters, and mythical creatures symbolizing everything from satanism and paganism to Catholicism.
Anger refers to custom bike building as American mechanical folk art. He captures the vanity, sexuality, passion, leisure, stress (use of meth, carrying firearms) of a group of bikers in Brooklyn, New York. The footage is semi documentary as Anger simply captures the daily routines of these men while splicing in other imagery symbolizing sex and death among other themes. After accidentally receiving a religious film that was meant to be delivered to a Sunday school, Anger decided to incorporate this footage as a parallel and a means of satire. The soundtrack includes some great songs from the 60s including "Wind Me Up" which has duel meanings. The motorcycle race, Anger filmed, fittingly resulted in the death of a man after crashing right in front of the camera.
This feels like an extension of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, only less interesting and not offering much different other than the incorporation of Vietnam war sympathies. Like Pleasure Dome, invokes an LSD experience with many superimpositions and satanic rituals. The film features a soundtrack by Mick Jagger which is actually more dull and repetitive than interesting. The film features footage of a Rolling Stones concert, as well as Bobby Beausoleil who was associated with the Manson Family murders, and a special appearance by Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satanism.
Anger mentions how mysteries are what makes life exciting and worth living, and I think this shows in some of his work, especially in Lucifer Rising which at times is very cryptic and personal.
A somewhat unique premise, but pretty predictable formula. The performances are the films greatest asset, and provide much of the laughs. Ryan Gosling and Paul Schneider are especially great. Schneider's reaction shots throughout are probably my favorite part.
This film is beautifully photographed, and a has a incredible soundscape that combined with the desolate environment, creates an truly dismal atmosphere. Tonally this film is a triumph. The problem I had with it is often too wordy and philosophical for it's own good. Tarr himself admits that the premise is intentionally simple and banal, but the film still delivers some memorable imagery such as Karrer crawling on all fours and barking at a stray dog in the rain, the emotionless sex scene where the camera wanders away from the two lovers around the room until we see their reflections in the mirror only to continue panning away from them, and the repetition of the creaking mining carts passing by.
Watched this again for the first time in probably over 7 years, and it was even better than I remembered it being. The cinema of Harmony Korine is best described as fragmented so here are some of my favorite scenes:
Auteur Kar Wai Wong explores the same themes of loneliness, nostalgia, and interactions with strangers in his first English language which is very much a "Kar Wai Wong film"; incidentally, just not a very good one. Familiar stylistic choices such as the voice over narration, odd framings, similar lighting, and slow motion are prevalent, but probably the biggest hindrance besides the all too apparent absence of former cinematographer Christopher Doyle. My Blueberry Nights basically comes across as an Americanized mashup of his former films. Mostly the style seems dated to me, particularly with the voice over and excessive use of ramping shots. Norah Jone's debut performance as an actress doesn't offer any help either.
Some great shots in this, such as the helicopter carrying a giant stone hand, and the final shot of the film, but the overly poetic dialogue got tiresome at times.
I thought this film shared a lot of characteristics with Rashômon and discovered afterwards that it was also written by Shinobu Hashimoto who did many of Kurosawa's films. Kobayashi and Hashimoto once again challenge organized authority and end the film on a bleak note. I was told this almost anti samurai picture is Kobayashi's best film, however I still prefer The Human Condition Trilogy and Samurai Rebellion, as I found this one to be a lot more telegraphed as I felt I knew what was going to happen all along. Still it is a fantastic film.
Appropriately named Dan Freeman becomes the first African American CIA operative. After putting up with rigorous training as well as passing numerous physical and academic tests on top of the racism and discrimination, he is relegated to a remedial desk job in order to showcase the employee integration. He leaves the CIA to begin leading a double life as a social worker in Chicago by day and the leader of an underground militant guerrilla group known as The Black Freedom Fighters. Things escalate when I cop shoots a junky in the ghetto and riots break out. The national guard occupies the ghetto and the Black Freedom Fighters declare war. It's a miracle this film ever was able to be produced as it must have been frightening for white America at the time of it's release. The trailer included on the DVD presented the film almost as if it were horror movie. I anticipated the film to have a real low budget rough look to it, but I was really impressed with how professional it looks and it was edited by Michael Kahn, one of Hollywood's most renowned editors who does Spielberg's films. This is an extremely revolutionary film based on the book by activist Sam Greenlee and it assumes an us vs. them mentality with whitey as the enemy, but quickly evolves into more of a with or against after they find themselves combating other African Americans. Such recourse is a bit drastic, but the film presents everything in a fairly plausible fashion. It's important to establish that the message is more about promoting a less passive and more aggressive attitude, community cooperation, and encourage change in order to obtain freedom and dignity through use of a fictionalized and radical scenario as allegory.
also known and recut as Vampires of Harlem Double Possession Blood Couple Black Vampire Blackout: The Moment of Terror Black Evil
Well, quite honestly I don't know what to do about this film. I'd never seen heard of it before and had no preconceived notions as I just decided to attend a Cinefamily screening on Holyfuckingshit themed Saturday at The Silent Theater. The film was introduced as an odd mixture of blaxploitation, horror, and African American art cinema about a archaeologist who is stabbed by an ancient knife and becomes addicted to blood. After his assistant commits suicide, the man falls in love and marries Ganja, the assistant's wife. I admire the dedication and ambition of the work. It's obvious this isn't an ordinary exploitation piece, but rather serves more as allegory with it's fractured narrative, and themes of spirituality, sexuality, identity, class, and race. That being said, the film seems clumsily directed, with a lot of unintentional hilarity, unprompted monologues and philosophizing and heavy handed religious imagery randomly spliced in. The soundtrack is great and for better or worse the imagery in the film is unforgettable. All in all I had a lot of fun with this...really there is only one word that can really some it up...Holyfuckingshit.
After recently watching 5 of Kobayashi's films he's quickly become one of my favorite directors. Formally he is a master of his craft. The editing, pacing, compositions, and lighting in all of his films are virtually flawless and I think he has an amazing knack for the use of dolly shots and cinematic rhythm. Samurai Rebellion is another humanistic story of a man standing up for authority and choosing to live his own life after 20 years of worrying about his social stature rather than living freely. The slow buildup is meticulously crafted and works perfectly for a thrilling finale.
The Connection is one of the first low budget American underground films and an early documentary satire. It is based on a play of the same name which is a little too apparent at times seeing as it all takes place in a studio apartment and the characters take turns delivering long winded monologues. The film is about a documentary filmmaker attempting to capture a week in the lives of a group of junkies, most of which happen to also be jazz musicians and contribute to a great soundtrack. Jazz musician Jackie McLean who plays the sax in the film, battled an addiction to heroin himself. Clarke does an excellent job of distinguishing her film from the play and making it more free flowing and natural through stylistic intentionally sloppy camera work, jump cuts, and improvised dialogue, realizing the true potential of the medium. The film often appears to be in the form of cinema verite style even though it is carefully scripted as it captures the bebop counter culture much in the same way and perhaps better than Cassavettes's Shadows. The Connection takes a fairly objective stance on the subject, neither condoning nor glamorizing drug use. The film also comments on the nature of the filmmaking business as the documenter at first tries to force his own version of reality, paying Leach to keep the junkies high for a week, and insisting that they act naturally, yet directing them to philosophize or act as he'd seen them on previous occasions. The question is raised whether or not the filmmaker wants to document the activities for social commentary or just turn it into a freak show. Eventually the filmmaker partakes in the drug-use, taking his first hit or heroin, and subsequently succumbs to the drug as we gather from the opening title card. The film won the Critic's Prize at Cannes and was also banned for it's edgy subject matter and harsh depiction of drug use.
Kobayashi directs an anthology of four Japanese folk tales and ghost stories that predate the J-horror phenomenon, but share many of it's elements including psychological tension rather than gore and an infatuation with the spirit world. Apparently at the time it was made Kwaidan was the most expensive film in the history of Japanese cinema. The lavish production is truly beautiful to look at, although I think the color photography and expressionistic sets both compliment and hinder the film in certain respects. The look lends a surreal supernatural fairy-tale feel, but on the other hand there is an obvious artificiality that takes me out of it at times, especially during exterior sequences. The cinematography and sound design are the two most impressive aspects of the film in my opinion. The music really sets the mood throughout, and the sound effects correlate with the pacing and rhythmic editing. Several instances employ an interesting technique where the diegetic sounds such as the screams of the characters and other foley are muted as eerie echoing sounds are put in place, representing the presence of the spirit. The four tales include "The Black Hair," "The Woman of the Snow," "Hoichi the Earless," and "In a Cup of Tea." "Hoichi The Earless" serves as the centerpiece and most elaborate with a duration almost double that of the other three. The opening montage juxtaposes images of painting of a sea battle with reenactments of it taking place. This sequence in particular reminded me of what graphic novel adapatations today like 300 are trying to do.
Perhaps Mizoguchi's most direct indictment against patriarchal society and the poor treatment of women, specifically geishas in this case. The story follows two sisters, Umekichi who abides by traditions of loyalty and obligation to her patron Mr. Furusawa even after his business goes bankrupt and the self-assertive Omocha who looks out only for herself, and believes in the pursuit of wealth rather than love. Omocha laments "why is there a such thing as geishas in the world" in the final scene.
