Monday, February 27, 2012
Zaz
In the lengthening history of this blog the bureau chief has never recommended any music until now. Zaz is a young French singer with an amazing strong, rough voice that conjures up memories of Edith Piaf. Madame Le Chef noticed her singing over the tail credits of "Hugo" and tracked down a video of her on YouTube. We have the album and it's really good. It doesn't matter if you don't understand a word of French. This is lively, delightful music.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Hugo and The Artist
Faithful readers, as chief of The Bureau of Odd Shaped Objects please accept my apologies for not having posted for so long. I kept hoping I would see a great film, worth talking about, but alas, did not. Instead I'm talking about two films that are good, and well worth seeing, but not as good as their nominations for Best Film Oscars or their glowing reviews would indicate.
Michel Hazanavicius, the director of "The Artist", is a very skillful French filmmaker. Back in 2009, I recommended his spy spoof "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies", which also starred the leads of "The Artist", Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. The coup de maître of "The Artist" is that it's a silent film about an actor who can't or won't make the transition from silent films to talkies. As the actor is disintegrating, later in the film, sound effects start to creep into the track, which (of course) was only music up till then. It's very cleverly done. Bejo, Dujardin and Uggy the Jack Russell are terrific, as are the supporting actors. The director and his crew perfectly captured the look of a silent film from the 1920s.
The reason the film is not great is that the script is rather static. The hero falls into despair and then falls deeper until he's finally rescued by the heroine. It's enough of a comedy that it limits the amount of emotional interest the viewer can put in it but it's not a really funny comedy. Still it's a very interesting and odd object and well worth a look.
Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" starts out not working at all and then rallies and begins to make connections with the audience. It took a while but I eventually got caught up in the plight of the orphan boy who hides in the enormous clock of a grand Parisian train station, stealing food to survive and stealing mechanical parts so that he can repair an automaton given to him by his father. He gathers friends and also an enemy and in the end finds a new family. Bravo! And then we have even more about the film career of Georges Méliès which we've had a hell of a lot of already. Méliès is one of the great pioneers of film and his image of the moon as a face with a rocketship stuck in its eye has escaped from his film "A Trip to the Moon" and become an iconic image. It's totally admirable that Scorsese is so enthusiastic about film history and preservation but the end of the movie is functionally a "This is Your Life" for Georges Méliès. Still it's another nice looking odd shaped object.
Below is a metal fence on West 21st Street in NYC. I took the picture in 2008. It's interesting that they've reversed the image.
Michel Hazanavicius, the director of "The Artist", is a very skillful French filmmaker. Back in 2009, I recommended his spy spoof "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies", which also starred the leads of "The Artist", Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. The coup de maître of "The Artist" is that it's a silent film about an actor who can't or won't make the transition from silent films to talkies. As the actor is disintegrating, later in the film, sound effects start to creep into the track, which (of course) was only music up till then. It's very cleverly done. Bejo, Dujardin and Uggy the Jack Russell are terrific, as are the supporting actors. The director and his crew perfectly captured the look of a silent film from the 1920s.
The reason the film is not great is that the script is rather static. The hero falls into despair and then falls deeper until he's finally rescued by the heroine. It's enough of a comedy that it limits the amount of emotional interest the viewer can put in it but it's not a really funny comedy. Still it's a very interesting and odd object and well worth a look.
Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" starts out not working at all and then rallies and begins to make connections with the audience. It took a while but I eventually got caught up in the plight of the orphan boy who hides in the enormous clock of a grand Parisian train station, stealing food to survive and stealing mechanical parts so that he can repair an automaton given to him by his father. He gathers friends and also an enemy and in the end finds a new family. Bravo! And then we have even more about the film career of Georges Méliès which we've had a hell of a lot of already. Méliès is one of the great pioneers of film and his image of the moon as a face with a rocketship stuck in its eye has escaped from his film "A Trip to the Moon" and become an iconic image. It's totally admirable that Scorsese is so enthusiastic about film history and preservation but the end of the movie is functionally a "This is Your Life" for Georges Méliès. Still it's another nice looking odd shaped object.
Below is a metal fence on West 21st Street in NYC. I took the picture in 2008. It's interesting that they've reversed the image.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Pariah
Two years ago I recommended the film Precious, which is about an African-American teen girl in New York City. Today I'm recommending Dee Rees' "Pariah", which is about an African-American teen girl in the same city. However, the similarities end there. Claireece "Precious" Jones was obese and illiterate and had endured horrendous physical and sexual abuse from her hideous family. Alike (Adepero Aduye) is slim, attractive, a good student, and a very good poet. She comes from a loving middle class family. Her problem is that although she has not yet had sex, she knows absolutely that she is a Lesbian, but she can't figure out how to come out to her family.
Her father is a NYC cop, her mother (Kim Wayans) is an office worker and a very fervent member of a fundamentalist church. Alike's dad is oblivious to Alike's sexuality. Her mom has suspicions, but believes that she can will her daughter into being a good straight girl. Alike puts off the inevitable confrontation with her mother by leaving the house in girl clothes and changing into the boy clothes that she feels comfortable in. At one point Alike's mom forces her to hang out with the daughter (Aasha Davis) of one of the other women in the church. This girl turns out to be a lot more complicated than she first seems. Alike's best friend (Pernell Walker) is also her guide into the world of African American Butch Lesbians.
This film is well cast, well acted, and very well made, with a good mixture of humor and drama. I recommend it. Dee Rees is another young director to keep an eye on. Her second film will be interesting to see because "Pariah" is based on her own experience coming out and her next project will presumably be material not quite so close to home.
Her father is a NYC cop, her mother (Kim Wayans) is an office worker and a very fervent member of a fundamentalist church. Alike's dad is oblivious to Alike's sexuality. Her mom has suspicions, but believes that she can will her daughter into being a good straight girl. Alike puts off the inevitable confrontation with her mother by leaving the house in girl clothes and changing into the boy clothes that she feels comfortable in. At one point Alike's mom forces her to hang out with the daughter (Aasha Davis) of one of the other women in the church. This girl turns out to be a lot more complicated than she first seems. Alike's best friend (Pernell Walker) is also her guide into the world of African American Butch Lesbians.
This film is well cast, well acted, and very well made, with a good mixture of humor and drama. I recommend it. Dee Rees is another young director to keep an eye on. Her second film will be interesting to see because "Pariah" is based on her own experience coming out and her next project will presumably be material not quite so close to home.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
War Horse
This is a great review of "War Horse" and it's illustrated.
http://thehairpin.com/2012/01/war-horse-an-illustrated-review
http://thehairpin.com/2012/01/war-horse-an-illustrated-review
Monday, January 9, 2012
Jane Eyre
The bureau chief has decided that from now on he will watch any film that Cary Fukunaga decides to make. His first film, "Sin Nombre", takes place in the dangerous and violent world of criminal gangs and illegal immigrants in contemporary Mexico. It's an excellent movie. For his second film, he decided to make something different, if you consider Jane Eyre different from Mara Salvatrucha.
It's also an excellent film. A quick glance at the IMDB indicates that the first version of Jane Eyre was made in 1910 and they've been been making versions steadily, in film and on TV, ever since. Fukunaga gets to cap off the first 100 years. Mia Wasikovska plays Jane and Michael Fassbender plays Rochester. They are very good as is the solid supporting cast of English actors. Fukunaga successfully evokes the intense passion between the leads, but also portrays the unfair treatment and cruelty of Jane's upbringing. Jane's anger at injustice and her strength are present from childhood on. Fukunaga doesn't ignore the Romantic and Gothic elements in the book or its critique of religious hypocrisy. I hadn't remembered the latter elements and started rereading the novel.
They're all in there. I last read it five or so decades ago and didn't remember it very well. One of the advantages of getting older is that you get a lot more out of works of art although you can't gobble them up at the rate you did when you were young. I accept the tradeoff. But I digress, it's a really good film so watch it on DVD or stream it and keep an eye on Cary Fukunaga.
It's also an excellent film. A quick glance at the IMDB indicates that the first version of Jane Eyre was made in 1910 and they've been been making versions steadily, in film and on TV, ever since. Fukunaga gets to cap off the first 100 years. Mia Wasikovska plays Jane and Michael Fassbender plays Rochester. They are very good as is the solid supporting cast of English actors. Fukunaga successfully evokes the intense passion between the leads, but also portrays the unfair treatment and cruelty of Jane's upbringing. Jane's anger at injustice and her strength are present from childhood on. Fukunaga doesn't ignore the Romantic and Gothic elements in the book or its critique of religious hypocrisy. I hadn't remembered the latter elements and started rereading the novel.
They're all in there. I last read it five or so decades ago and didn't remember it very well. One of the advantages of getting older is that you get a lot more out of works of art although you can't gobble them up at the rate you did when you were young. I accept the tradeoff. But I digress, it's a really good film so watch it on DVD or stream it and keep an eye on Cary Fukunaga.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Melancholia
The bureau chief saw Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" in 1996 and vowed never to see another of his films. It's the story of a naive and religious woman who decides that she must obey, as an order from God, her paralysed husband's request that she have sex with other men and then describe it to him. She has rougher and rougher sex, with a variety of men, until she's killed. She's a kind of Christian sexual martyr. The description sounds interesting but the experience of watching the film is horrifying. We see a confused and harmless woman being brutalized to death.
None of the reviews of von Trier's subsequent films made me want to see them, until "Melancholia". I'm very glad I did. First, it's beautiful. Back in 1996, von Triers made "Breaking the Waves" following the rules of "Dogme 95" which allowed only handheld camera, only production sound, only music that was played in the actual scene, etc. He's abandoned all that. A lot of the music is Wagner. The camera work is excellent. The central special effect, a planet approaching the Earth, is well done. One thing that hasn't changed is that the casting and the acting are very good.
Melancholia is the name both of the approaching planet and of the depression that afflicts Justine (Kirsten Dunst). You scholars of the Four Humors know that the excess of Black Bile that causes Melancholia also produces an artistic temperament and Justine has one, although she is wasting her talent writing ad campaigns. Her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is married to John (Kiefer Sutherland). He's very rich and Claire spends her time being a hostess and mother. The first half of the movie is named "Justine" and chronicles the opulent and painfully disastrous wedding party that Claire throws for her sister. The second half is called "Claire" and chronicles the approach of the planet and how the central characters deal with it.
Justine had fallen into an immobilizing depression after the failed wedding but the approach of the planet begins to strengthen her just as Claire becomes weaker and more helpless. In the end Justine manages to create an absurd little piece of art in the face of the final day. I really enjoyed this film and highly recommend it.
None of the reviews of von Trier's subsequent films made me want to see them, until "Melancholia". I'm very glad I did. First, it's beautiful. Back in 1996, von Triers made "Breaking the Waves" following the rules of "Dogme 95" which allowed only handheld camera, only production sound, only music that was played in the actual scene, etc. He's abandoned all that. A lot of the music is Wagner. The camera work is excellent. The central special effect, a planet approaching the Earth, is well done. One thing that hasn't changed is that the casting and the acting are very good.
Melancholia is the name both of the approaching planet and of the depression that afflicts Justine (Kirsten Dunst). You scholars of the Four Humors know that the excess of Black Bile that causes Melancholia also produces an artistic temperament and Justine has one, although she is wasting her talent writing ad campaigns. Her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is married to John (Kiefer Sutherland). He's very rich and Claire spends her time being a hostess and mother. The first half of the movie is named "Justine" and chronicles the opulent and painfully disastrous wedding party that Claire throws for her sister. The second half is called "Claire" and chronicles the approach of the planet and how the central characters deal with it.
Justine had fallen into an immobilizing depression after the failed wedding but the approach of the planet begins to strengthen her just as Claire becomes weaker and more helpless. In the end Justine manages to create an absurd little piece of art in the face of the final day. I really enjoyed this film and highly recommend it.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Descendants
In the middle 80s, Madame Le Chef and I went on vacation to the Hawaiian island of Maui. A travel agent had found us a very reasonably priced hotel. It turned out the good price was because it was in an unfashionable part of the island near the airport and lacked a sea view. On the other hand it came with a free rental car (we just had to pay for the gas). Think how long ago 26 years is. I've just mentioned two things that barely exist anymore, travel agents and free rental cars.
We used the car to drive all over the island and discovered the same thing that millions of other visitors have. Under the typical American layer of highways, subdivisions and malls Hawaii is a tropical paradise. All those millions of visitors haven't destroyed it. And the locals there are living their quotidian lives, like humans everywhere: loving, working, raising children, growing older, dying. In Alexander Payne's, "The Descendants", George Clooney's narration makes this point, early on, in a way that is perhaps too on the nose, but it's a point worth making.
Of course Clooney's character, Matt King, is not a typical local. He's a member of Hawaii's white ruling class and he, and his enormous extended family, own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai. It's going to be sold and it will make everyone in the family very rich. That's just one of the things complicating his life. His wife's in a coma. He's been a mostly absent father but now he has to be the parent of their two girls. There are even more complications that I won't go into.
I haven't been a rabid fan of Alexander Payne's films. I liked "Election" but really disliked "About Schmidt", which I thought was condescending. I liked parts of "Citizen Ruth" and of "Sideways". I think "The Descendants" is his best film. It has a few really funny things in it but digs deeper into the stuff of living than he ever has before. Recommended.
We used the car to drive all over the island and discovered the same thing that millions of other visitors have. Under the typical American layer of highways, subdivisions and malls Hawaii is a tropical paradise. All those millions of visitors haven't destroyed it. And the locals there are living their quotidian lives, like humans everywhere: loving, working, raising children, growing older, dying. In Alexander Payne's, "The Descendants", George Clooney's narration makes this point, early on, in a way that is perhaps too on the nose, but it's a point worth making.
Of course Clooney's character, Matt King, is not a typical local. He's a member of Hawaii's white ruling class and he, and his enormous extended family, own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai. It's going to be sold and it will make everyone in the family very rich. That's just one of the things complicating his life. His wife's in a coma. He's been a mostly absent father but now he has to be the parent of their two girls. There are even more complications that I won't go into.
I haven't been a rabid fan of Alexander Payne's films. I liked "Election" but really disliked "About Schmidt", which I thought was condescending. I liked parts of "Citizen Ruth" and of "Sideways". I think "The Descendants" is his best film. It has a few really funny things in it but digs deeper into the stuff of living than he ever has before. Recommended.
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