Homo-Vampiric Kitsch and The Hunger (1983)

As, I was forewarned, The Hunger (1983) is not a great horror film, or vampire flick. Where it exceeds is in Bowiefying a world to such an extent, that nothing else matters. Bowiefying is the act of filling something with as much homo-erotic, androgynous, 80's kitsch as it can possibly hold, and The Hunger sets the standard. It's not far fetched to imagine this film being influenced by Waters, but unlike his work the writing is nowhere near as good. 

Obviously director, Scott, was under the MTV spell at  the time, deciding to try for a quick money maker. If Bowie were not in this film, its success would have probably been hurt. I was personally angered by the fact that, the pop-god dies within ten minutes of the films title. 

However, it is amazing that the Susan Surandon, sex scene of legend, was received so well. I'm not aware of many openly lesbian sex scenes in mainstream cinema at the time. It is hard to tell if this is an interesting beacon of tolerance, or just the desire of fan boys to see some skin. 

Never the less, The Hunger is a great film to watch for fun, especially if one is a Bowie fan. You are guaranteed to get some good laughs, and possibly some amazing interior decorating tips strait from the trash 80's.

Scottish Noir-Grime and The Red Road Experience

Red Road (2006) continues in the tradition of Trainspotting (1996) and Shallow Grave (1994), as showing Scotland as a very dark and grimy, industrialized land. In recent years this portrayal, has almost spawned a genre of its own. All these films utilize, noiresque cinematic techniques to achieve the feel of a dark city full of questionable hooligans. 

Red Road does a specifically good job with its look.  The footage is far from plainly dark and shadowy. Quite to the contrary, the cinematographer uses a huge pallet of deep unsaturated color to create the effect of darkness and shadow. 

Many instances of color, and cinematic variation occur as we peek with the main character through the CCTV monitors. They prove a great device to add visual effect, and constantly remind the audience of the voyeuristic themes amok. Also, the industrialized landscape provides a tremendous variety of fluorescent glow, which bathes the land. Red Road is Visually stunning to say the least. 

Unfortunately, the writing of the story ruins everything.  The failure of the character's development, despite the length of the film, is nearly intolerable. In retrospect it is this which makes, the equally poor ending, seem even more ridiculous.

A Nuance Packed Trip Behind The Iron Curtain

12:08: East of Bucharest (2006), the latest to hail hail from a growing Romanian film economy, is simply shot, dry as a bone, but so packed with meaningful residue that even the coldest cynic would be moved. The film hits late, but none the less like a ton of emotional bricks, falling from the Berlin Wall.

The dark, somewhat misanthropic inhabitants, of a small Romanian town display the kind of personality it took to exist behind the iron curtain. The awkward comedy that oozes from them, is lent to by a total-since of the absurd. They are parodies of people, and they know it. They seem to act in a way things should be, rather than the way they are. Their fiber is in essence the conflict between progress, and the regret of those who got left behind. 

The town itself is as frigid, and bleak as it's dwellers, but like them it also bears nuance of  emotion. It comes across as  a place of nostalgia, but also forgotten abandon. The grey concrete is bitter, for it too has seen better days, even in the hardest of times. 

The film moves dreadfully slow, one scene taking over thirty minutes, but 12:08: East Bucharest is not a film of instant gratification. It is a film that rewards patience. But for those who make it, the aftertaste is remarkably profound. Not a bad movie for Christmastime.

The Darkness of The Human Spirit and The Page Turner (2006)

Denis Decourt's, Page Turner is a vivid study in the darkness or vileness of the human spirit. As I was watching the film, I was continually reminded of Kieslowski's Decalogue: Five, another exploration into the darkness, which sometimes empowers us. Both films show in excessively lucid manners, the gruesomeness of revenge. In the Page Turner, Melonie's destructive actions, though not as physically violent, as the protagonist in Decologue Five's, are just as damaging.

The Film leaves us with hints of the extent of the premeditation, of Melonie's actions, but is never made extraordinarily clear. The result, as in Kieslowski's piece, is a mediation on what the breaking point of the human spirit is, and to what extent/for what reason's an individual's destructive tendencies are unleashed. Don't let the title fool you, The Page Turner is almost bestial in its darkness.

Renaissance (2006) An Exercise in Unfulfilled Anticipation

I was thrilled, as I always am, when I saw a feature length, animated Sci-Fi piece, and from France on top of it all. But this film falls into the same operation as most modern Sci-Fi films, creating a genre of unfulfilled potential. The state of Sci-Fi, as seen by this enthusiast, is sad to say the least. I blame the following sectors of deficiency. Writers have very little success in character, or even plot development. For instance, recent releases such as Danny Boyle's, Sunshine (2007), make no strides for heightened character development, and do little outstanding, but fall into the rhetoric of previous Sci-Fi disappointments. Also special effects, are like a bad batch of peyote on a director's mind. Never is this more evident, than in the last installments of Star Wars, where Lucas became illiterate, and turned to the crutch of ILM to make up for his lack of storytelling will-power. Finally, there is a lack of thematic depth, which is a result of catering to American audiences. This is both the fault of big-shot producers, and fans who are willing to accept such festering, worthlessness. It is sad when one child's fantasy movie, has more thematic wealth than the majority of an entire genre. Take for instance, Cauron's latest interpretation of the P.D. James novel, "Children of Men". Cauron could have redeemed an oddly chauvinistic text by making any of the female characters a protagonist. Though the novel itself does the same, it is interesting that a novel about the ability to birth children, where the last hope for the world is a pregnant woman, would bear the title of Children of Men. Also, throughout the film, chauvinistic values are reified by the weakness of female characters, and their need for protection. Just occasionally, it would be nice to see some thematic conventions broken in a genre, which at one point was so centered on defiance.

With that said, Renaissance (2006), falls into all the pitfalls of this genre of disappointment. It's plot and characters are weak, underdeveloped, and flat. The animation is no more than a crutch for lack of story telling skills, and the thematic river bed, might as well be a dessert. I would love to have enjoyed this film as something other than visually stunning, but I was disappointed, and unable to do so. 

Experienced-Documentarian Defines Contemporary Role of the American Star

I must admit I was apprehensive about going into a documentary about the Dixie Chicks, despite highly revered Kopple's authorship. I was pleasantly surprised. The piece is vastly more complex than the generic bio-pic I feared. 

"Shut Up and Sing" turns out to be a deep exploration into what constitutes a star in America, and what roles such figures are allowed to play. The country/pop phenomena evoke such rage from their audience so fast, it is truly mind-boggling, all over a single comment. 

My only complaint is one I wage against most feature-length documentaries. After the hour and ten minute mark, they begin to drag.  The film, in my opinion, would do better by sticking to the hour marker. A tighter, more lean film would get the point across stronger, show off Kopple's skill even more, and most importantly, not be so damn repetitive. 

 

Elements Of The Novel in Little Children

Todd Field's latest film feels like reading a good novel. It's the kind of movie that makes you want to find a comfy chair and batten down all the hatches. The character driven plot, pervasive, omniscient narration, and subtle cinematography all work to create the film's  book-like aura.


Telling the story in this manner is an interesting decision for Field. Placing such emphasis on the characters puts a large amount of pressure on the actors to convincingly carry the plot. Luckily, Field's choices prevailed, and played the parts with stunning realism. They do an excellent job of pulling the story along and, never once does Little Children drag or idle.

Also interesting is Field's choice for narration. At first it feels very odd, a booming, god-like omniscient voice. But I believe this is simply because it is not a favored custom in contemporary mainstream cinema. The narration eventually proves to be very helpful in revealing nuances of the characters, Field leaves as buried treasure. In addition, his choice of narration comes across as very literary. This definately ads to the novel-like essence. 

Japanese Minimalism and Tony Takitani

Tony Takitani (2004) reads like the most delicate of Haiku. This is due to both its short run time, almost poetic meter, and open ended meditative stile. It is also drastically minimalist in style, with an almost architectural feal. The film eliminates all the fluff, both visually and thematically. Colors are drastically muted, and camera movement remains steady, feeling subdued throughout the entire film. Simultaneously, the thematic elements of the film mimic this. There is no extra information, no gratifying closure, just a plain structure. Takitani is all node and no satellite. The result is a stripped down story, which like Kurosawa's epic Rashamon (1950) leaves the viewer with the final interpretation. This utter austere environment works for the film because it so perfectly embodies its protagonist's essence.

This perhaps is the film's only strong down point. The continuously sulking Tony does sometimes come off as plain old emo. The result is the protagonist coming across as whiny. It makes the connection between the viewers and characters brittle. However, the exercise in style, and restraint make the film well worth an hour and some change.

Smell objectification in Perfume

I really enjoyed Tom Tykwer's sensual masterpiece, Perfume(2006). The film is visually ravishing in both a grotesque and genuinely beautiful manner. Of course, one cannot help, but document Tykwer's attempt to convey smell through the celluloid as one of a kind. Ideologically, the film renders an interesting shift of the typical gazesque interpretation of female objectification. It is true that the women are very much objectified visually, by the camera as normal in mainstream cinema, but the sense of smell and the ways sound are incorporated in the cinematic act of smelling in this film are equally, as pedestal placing.

The act of smelling in Perfume is one which comes to be greatly more sensual for the films protagonist than sight. This is an interesting chiding since smell is not exactly the dominate cinematic sense, and smell-o-vision is generally considered a flop. Tykwer does a masterful job of portraying visually smells. He does it by almost using montage editing between lush, beautiful smelled objects, and pristine flaring nostrils. Adding to the experience is the nearly constant audio trope of sniffing. These things combine make you notice every time you sniff during and after the film.

With this in mind, it seems that the way in which women are often the target of smell in Perfume provides a different perspective on objectification. In Berardinelli's review of Perfume he talks about the sexual metaphor brought forward by the film. All the women murdered were virgins (except the prostitute),and they were in no way sexually abused. However none the less something is taken from them. Their essence is stolen. Berardinelli, puts it well, "Jean-Baptiste's crimes are rape and murder, although his raping occurs not through penetration but through distillation ". The protagonist in steeling these women's essences reveals something interesting. A concept, that smell is another social/cultural method by which objectification occurs. Smell objectification demands that there is a normative scent, a stereotypical odor of woman. Even the timeless saying, girls are made of sugar, spice, and everything nice, possibly notes an aromatic aspect of the ideal woman.

Perfume is interesting then, because of a smell dichotomy. On one level Jean-Baptiste, very much idolizes or this normative notion of femininity through odor, but on another level the manner and reality of the smelling boasts something different. Women, smelled by the protagonist are smelled, in well, malodorous regions. Also, being that the film takes place in the hardly sanitary eighteenth century does not suggest an ideal cultural, notion of female smell. yet, what is comparative to their virginity, their essence is stolen.

A look at technology vs. nature through The Host

Friday night, I got the unique experience of seeing Joon-ho Bong's, highly praised monster movie, The Host. It received standing ovations from Film Threat, The New Yorker, and Entertainment Weekly for its originality and family-core based struggle. However, because monster movies illustrate so well the relationship between human, nature, and technology, anytime I see one, I can not help but consider environmental ramifications. The Host has several interesting themes dealing with the strife between technology and nature.

The first lies within the spawning of the monster. Here is clearly demonstrated the chiding of humankind's creation with nature. The act of chemical pollution is directly linked to the widespread socially instilled notions of humanity conquesting the land. The logic, often of big business, that nature is waste, or something to be regarded as either expendable or extractable(harvestable). This is a key element of the Marxian land ethic, which is a keystone of historical materialism. I don't know whether or not the scientist portrayed as American in the first few scenes of the film( and then throughout ) is just being portrayed as stupid, or if this is a comment on an activity / mentality which is far more widespread.

The second is the attitude taken towards the monster after it has been created. It is typically discussed in context of a sociological term, othering. The monster is othered in that its existence is deemed, "unnatural", and because of the notion that humans are natural, stigmatizing things that are unnatural builds security in our own identity, as natural. It is possible that others would make the claim that people only respond to the generally violent tendencies of these monsters, but one must take into account the fact that no monster created in any works of this genre could be allowed to live. Even in such works as King Kong and Godzilla where certain characters wind up with an apathetic viewpoint towards the monster. This internal dialog of supremacy through self affirmation is intrinsically woven into the Western notion of nature, and is also very importantly tied in with the mainstream view of our place in nature. Nature is something which we can "return to" because we are in fact natural.

The third and final theme is the notion of techno-transcendence introduced by Marvin Harris. This is a derivative of techno-utopianism. It is the Western notion that that salvation can always be found through a technological revolution. Centrally important to this is Harris' notion of intensification. In this case technology and society intensify to the point that a monster is spawned, and then technology is invoked to save the day, Agent Yellow. However, The Host is specifically unique in that it has a very interesting portrayal of this transcendence's effect. All the imagery of people bleeding profusely because of the gas, leads us to wonder if in fact technology has failed us. Inevitably, intensification demands that technology come with a hardwired price tag. Either, technology succeeds, and we live with the side effects, one of which is growing intensification, or technology fails, and the system gets slack. The Host shows a situation where technology fails and we must deal with the ramifications, a bloody fight to the end.

Welcome to Cenobitic Voyeurism

Here is my blog for Film Criticism. The title comes from the word Cenobite or Cenobitic meaning: "...a monastic tradition that stresses community life..."¹, and Voyeur or Voyeurism:"...a practice in which an individual derives sexual pleasure from observing other people."² Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers) said in Being There (1979), "I like to watch." Film is about indulging in our inner most tendencies to live out other's lives through the gaze. Film is also about community, a culturally established pastime. Therefore film is an experience we watch together.