Film is Truth 24 Times a Second

I have finally been released, for the time being (okay, for just shy of four months) from that demanding mistress we call academia. Since I have been cruelly cut off from accessing the print shop in the art department, here is what I have been/will be up to (cinematically speaking) in order to avoid those harmful UV rays:

Ghost Town: I just saw this one, and while the saccharine charm of the romantic comedy is more often than not lost on me, Ricky Gervais does a stand up job of portraying a socially awkward dentist tasked with tying up some loose ends from beyond the grave (graves of others that is) so that a mob of whiny ghosts will leave him in peace. I think part of the brilliance of this is that Gervais executes the role with an awkwardness that is not at all self-conscious, and believes he is being suave and charming throughout an attempt to win the heart of the leading lady, adding to the hilarity of the flick.

Tess of the D’Ubervilles: a 200-minute + BBC film/series/saga? based on the book by Thomas Hardy, this on is so affecting and tragic that I think I might have had to run to the bathroom to cry like four times at school the day after watching it. From a feminist standpoint, it is a fascinating commentary, as well as being infuriating. It is beautifully shot, and if you have some spare time and desperately need to use up a pallet of kleenex (excuse me, monogrammed handkerchiefs).

Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: A television show akin to a serial with Bruce Campbell playing swashbuckling cowboy bounty hunter. Maybe taking 19 credits last quarter melted my brain…but I am getting really into this, there are even some clever modern art references (most notably when two characters paint a set on some train tracks to create a crash and facilitate a robbery). Does the fact that I am fessing up to watching this rob me of my street cred faster than a bandit takes a stagecoach? Reckon so. Do I care? Well shoot…

Coming up, since apparently all I am interested in lately is cowboys, will be a top ten list from yours truly about the best westerns EVER. So stayed tuned pardner.

These are the ones I liked the best this year, in no particular order. Stars mean that they are really remarkable (i.e. exceptionally rad)

*Mister Lonely

*Bitter Films vol. 1 (Don Hertzfeldt Animation)

Jellyfish

Reprise

The Guatemalan Handshake

*What a Way to Go: Life at the End of the Universe

*Quiet City

*Man on Wire

In Bruges

Chop Shop

Wool 100%

Aftermath: Population Zero

Brand Upon the Brain!

This may be one of the better documentaries I have seen in the last year. Actually understanding the staggering feat of balancing on a wire strung 1350 feet in the air between the twin towers (not to mention the fact that this was definitely not cleared with the Twin Tower’s security detail) might take more than the interviews, discreet reenactments, and crisp archive footage to achieve. However, the film comes close to this in that it induces an hour and a half of marveling at the conception, training, planning, execution, and aftermath of a performance art piece that is unmatched by any example I have yet been made aware of.

The weather lately, it’s not the best…but yesterday it seemed to be a good setting for a windswept film set somewhere in the British isles…Instead of picking up Wuthering Heights again, I watched a 1937 flick shot in the Shetlands, Edge of the World. Recently discovered, this was considered by director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, Tales of Hoffman), to be his first notable film, and a movie in which one can already see aspects of his burgeoning style: a sense of nearly Gothic foreboding, romanticized images of rustic life, doomed and forbidden love, and plenty of people falling off of really high places.

A recently added animated gem currently graces the new arrival shelf in FIT, Princes and Princesses, a 2000 French release by animator Michel Ocelot. In the same style as one of the first full length animated films ever made, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed, (Germany, 1926) Princes and Princesses uses cut out black silhouette animation against saturated jewel tone backdrops to relate six stories of royalty from an array of time periods and places in the world. Although the initial idea of 70 minutes of black cutouts dancing across the screen may strike some as tedious, the movement and stylistic detail of the art direction make turning away from the film as difficult as putting down a well crafted children’s book halfway through. The vignette-style presentation of the stories, laden with delicate props ranging from magical diamonds to Egyptian figs, assists in creating an entrancing all-ages flick.

in no particular order…
1. Loves of a Blond (Milos Forman, 1965)
2. Knife in the Water (Roman Polanski, 1962)
3. Fists in the Pocket (Marco Bellocio, 1968)
4. Mala Noche (Gus Van Sant, 1985)
5. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
6. Lola (Jaques Demy, 1961)
7. Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris Jr., 1989)
8. Blue light (Leni Riefenstahl, 1932)
9. Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
10. The Little Fugitive (Ray Ashley/Morris Engle, 1953)

The first full length film from Japanese director Mai Tominaga is one of those films that while I was watching it, I felt a little guilty when I needed to blink… The aesthetic is delicate without being overly whimsical, giving the viewer visual aperitifs throughout the duration of the movie. This is done both through the central role that stylized, vintage objects play (the main characters are two meticulous sisters who have spent their life collecting and cataloging bizarre cast-off junk in their decaying mansion) as well as the frequently changing methods of narration through assorted types of animation (in addition to the live-action footage which makes up the majority of the film.) Complementing this is a score of thumping, dissonant cello sonatas; the charm of the film allows this to work effectively, without any implied pretension.

The plot is, like the imagery, confusing but endearing. The sisters, after discovering a trail of crimson yarn find an unexplained girl on their kitchen table in the middle of the following night, frantically knitting the same red yarn into a matted dress, which she then unravels in a rage, ransacking the house in the process. This continues night after night until the sisters are at their wits end…

The most prominent questions raised in my mind as I watched “I am an Animal”, the new documentary on PETA and Ingrid Newkirk (co-founder of the organization) seem to be as follows: what is the difference between humans and animals? Is there one? If not, how far should one go to support this ideal?

The film examines the syntheses and methods of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), a controversial non-profit organization which seeks to end animal cruelty (maybe you’ve heard of it..?) Over the course of the film we find out more and more about the foundations of Newkirk’s dedication to her cause, that she will do anything to forward the agenda of PETA and gain recognition in the press, and that she harbors an extremism in the field of animal rights that could be seen as bordering on insanity (there’s a bit at the end where Newkirk very specifically details what she wants done with her remains, for the cause, naturally…)

The documentary consistently retains a very neutral stance on its subject, interviewing both supporters of PETA, former members, and those who oppose the group (both animal rights activists and individuals involved in companies who make use of animals in some way). Also examined are the unclear ties PETA and Newkirk have with other more extreme groups, such as the quasi-militant Animal Liberation Front.

As an individual with a certain level of interest in animal rights, I could sympathize with the logic behind some of PETA’s methodology, however many of the tactics used by the organization mirrored, with frightening similarity, those used by other political/activist groups with whom I strongly disagree. For example, this includes the use of imagery from the Holocaust and Civil Rights movement to promote a separate cause, a practice I find highly questionable. Those interested in Animal rights or related subjects would be well advised to take a look at this documentary, which sheds an interesting light (to say the least) on PETA’s both positive and negative aspects within the animal rights movement.

the most interesting new releases I saw this year, as far as I can recall, and the list also includes new arrivals to the store…

Jedne Noci v Jednom Meste

Innocence

Iraq in Fragments

L’Iceberg

Mala Noche*

I like Killing Flies

Strike

Interkosmos

Inland Empire

I’m Not There

Jonestown

The Weeping Medow

Wild tigers I have Known

Chameleon Street*

Fraulein

The Lives of Others

La Jetee/Sans Soleil*

Doggie Poo*

* means that the film is a new arrival, thus was not released this year.