Film is Truth 24 Times a Second

It’s been a busy year for me, but I managed to squeeze in a few movies and even more TV on DVD. In brainstorming my list I am sure there are a few I have neglected to remember — I will add them later!

Favorite films I saw in 2006

• Casino Royale

I love James Bond. I love Daniel Craig. How could this not be awesome! (Coming to DVD March 13.)

• The Long Night

I reviewed this in one of our email updates. A great little film noir gem recently released from the vaults.

• Mrs. Henderson Presents

Judi Dench doing what Judi Dench does best. This is one of those drama-comedies that is sweet and a joy to watch.

• Everything is Illuminated

The best part of this film is not Elijah Wood; it is the quirky side characters that make this film great.

• Little Miss Sunshine

Yeah, yeah, it’s the big indie hit. I still enjoyed it. I would not call this a perfect movie, it definitely had a few issues that could be argued, but sometimes I just want to be amused and this film had several amusing parts (which usually involved Steve Carell).

• Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round

Well, this has been on the list for a long time. Well worth the wait.

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Favorite TV on DVD I saw in 2006

• Curb Your Enthusiasm

I was not a huge fan of Sienfeld. I absolutely love watching Larry David.

• Foyle’s War Season 3

Sometimes you just want exactly what you expect. Unlike our American TV there is no hype, no episode you can’t miss, no twist that will amaze you. Foyle is your typical BBC Mystery! set in England during the war.

• Rome

I found this a bit confusing when I watched the first episode at a friend’s on HBO. Best watched on DVD in a marathon, Rome is all it should be. It is graphic, sexual, and violent. A window into ancient times.

• Murder Rooms

Another BBC, this one is the early adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the basis for this Sherlock Holmes characture.

• Firefly

I am a Sci-Fi fan. This is a little gem and I am sad it was canceled after only one season. How come the best shows die young? If I were a ba-zillionaire I would open a studio devoted to quality TV shows.

• Jeeves & Wooster

Fun 1920’s poofy-ness. Hugh Laurie stars as a young rich nothing-to-do aristocrat who devises cunning plans to get his friends out of prediciments. Only, as you’ve probably guessed already, things usually go horribly wrong. Wooster (Stephen Fry), his valet, is always there to save the day.

I have a list up in the store of 8 Great films featuring professional wrestlers. This is the first in a quite possibly ongoing series giving a little detail about my choices.

All discussions about wrestlers in movies have to start with Andre the Giant (real name Andre Roussimoff) in The Princess Bride. It’s the most-loved film (I am tempted to say only loved film) in which a wrestler has a major part; Andre played the role of Fezzik, one of a band of outlaws who accosts Westley (Cary Elwes) and later becomes his ally.

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Considering that we haven’t even got through January yet, some might consider what I’m about to say somewhat hyperbolic. But still. If I see a better film than Pan’s Labyrinth between now and the end of 2007, I will consider it an act of God on the level of the feeding of the five thousand. So I’m going to get in a glowing review of it now, before it wins all those Oscars.

Pan’s Labyrinth is a beautiful ordeal of a film; a brutal, harrowing experience that creates the impression of the very best kind of nightmare, in which one is left battered and bruised and yet unaccountably relieved, as if a great psychic weight has been lifted. Set in Spain in 1944, it tells the story of a young girl, Ofelia, who is taken by her pregnant mother to live with her new step-father, a captain of Franco’s
nationalist army, who is stationed in the mountains to root out the surviving republican fighters hiding there. A lover of fairy stories, Ofelia begins to be drawn into one of her own as soon as she arrives. Ofelia’s journey further and further into this magical world counterpoints with the Captain’s vicious regime against the republicans.

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Derek Jarman’s brilliant 1993 Film, Blue. This film is much better than that snobby art film of the same name. To Find out more about this title click on the picture of the brilliant first scene from this incredible film. It’s so good… we had it on for, like, 6 hours. I think it’s the only Derek Jarman film we can play in the store without a baby crying.

By Ben Lim of Lucid Screening

Months ago I asked my friend Ben, a Korean film buff (and webmaster at the best film criticism website ever, Lucid Screening) to select ten or so Korean films from the selection we have at FIT and do a little write up on each one. The plan was to make a poster on Korean cinema for the store.

Well, months have passed and I still haven’t gotten around to making that poster - and I’ve been sitting on the text Ben wrote up for far too long. So here it is, the best of Korean cinema we have to offer at FIT! - Andrew

Shiri. This film had the largest budget of any Korean film ever at the time ($8.5 million) and went on to become a titanic success (pun intended). This was a watershed film in Korean cinema and opened the doors to greater financial investment in the industry so that the following films could be produced. Although it’s not a great film by any measure, it is interesting for its portrayal of the differences between North and South Korea. Note: For more on this, read Rufus’ essay at Lucid Screening about economic divisions in the two Koreas.

Chi-Hwa-Seon.This film traces the life of one of Korea’s most famous artists. It’s fitting then that it’s directed by Im Kwon Taek, one of Korea’s most prolific (he’s directed over 90 films) and respected filmmakers. This film won the prize for best director at the 2000 Cannes film festival and along with Shiri helped to put Korean filmmaking on the map.

The Isle. The first film by Korean cinema’s badboy, Kim Ki Duk, to make a splash (pun intended again…) on the international film circuit. Equal parts beautiful and disgusting, this film is hard to watch but yet another important film in the recent resurgence of Korean cinema.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring/3-Iron. Two of Kim Ki Duk’s least “extreme” films and also his best. Both films are perfectly paced and full of beautiful imagery.

Joint Security Area/Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance/Old Boy. Three films by the most famous filmmaker working in Korea right now, Park Chan Wook. After winning the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes film festival Park shot to fame and was embraced by internet fanboys of “extreme cinema.” He’s a virtuoso filmmaker who’s not as intelligent as he seems to think he is but he’s got such mad skillz that he’s one to keep your eyes on. His earlier work is much less overproduced albeit no less violent. Joint Security Area was an even bigger hit than Shiri and is essential viewing for anyone interested in the conflict between the two Koreas. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is his most violent and difficult film to watch but possibly the most rewarding as well. The filmmaking is great and his pitch black humor dissects (quite literally) the socio-economic issues in modern day Korea. Old Boy is a visceral thrill ride (sorry for the cliche). An operatic Greek tragedy starring one of Korea’s best actors, Choi Min Sik. The film is often overindulgent and maybe even a bit vulgar but you won’t be able to take your eyes off it either.

Memories of Murder. Bong Joon Ho seems to be shaping himself up as Korea’s most intelligent filmmaker. Memories of Murder is both a dark comedy and highly effective thriller. The film’s effortless shifts in tone can be a bit confusing for some but it’s part of its genius. All this is set in the countryside amidst the backdrop of a patriarchal society undergoing severe political unrest as the world begins to shrink thanks to technology and the country and the city collide. A gorgeous film that captures a time and place so wonderfully while weaving in ideas and an engaging story to create one of the best films in recent years from anywhere in the world, not just Korea.

Oasis. Lee Chang Dong is one of Korea’s best little known filmmakers. Oasis is the story of the relationship between an ex-con and a woman with cerebral palsy. Moon So Ri gives an amazing performance as the woman and transcends the cliche that all performances in which an actor plays a disabled person are great. This performance really is great. The directing is low key and sensitive while not shying away from lower class Korea the way most films tend to. One of my favorite scenes in film is from this movie.

The President’s Last Bang. The most overtly political Korean film that I’ve ever seen. It’s a pitch black comedy following former Korean President Park Chun Hee on the eve of his assassination. He was an incredibly harsh and corrupt leader but his cruel ways did help to make Korea the economic power that it now is. This has resulted in some nostalgia for him in Korea’s current society, a disturbing trend made all the more disturbing by the fact that he has children still involved in Korean politics. A good companion to Memories of Murder if you’re interested in the political turmoil that Korea suffered through in the 70s and 80s, this dark past is sometimes credited with fostering a society in which sappy melodramas and now “extreme” cinema have flourished.

Save the Green Planet. A wacky tribute to just about every famous science fiction film in existence. This film is really weird and really uneven but entertaining nonetheless. The director does try to weave in some social commentary but it’s lost amidst everything else that’s going on.

Take Care of My Cat. A small film might be a breath of fresh air compared to everything else on this list. The film is directed by a woman and is about five female friends struggling to find their places in the world after finishing high school. Through their relationships, issues of class and sex in Korean society are explored while never distracting from the tender tale of friendship that’s at the heart of the film.

Ok, so I haven’t seen as much Robert Mitchum as I thought, but seeing as the new Signature Collection is out I wanted to put in my vote for best Mitchum films. Here they are:

• His Kind of Woman (1951)

• Macao (1952)

• Night of the Hunter (1955)

• Cape Fear (1961)

• Dead Man (1995)

Here is a list of Robert Mitchum films at the store. Unfortunately, The Big Steal is not included as it has been out-of-print forever. I have been wanting to see it since I first read about it back in 1997! If you know where I can get a copy let me know.

• Angel Face (1952) DVD
• Cape Fear (1961) VHS/DVD
• Crossfire (1947) DVD
• Dead Man (1995) VHS/DVD
• Farewell My Lovely (1975) VHS
• The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) DVD
• Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) VHS
• His Kind of Woman (1951) DVD
• Home From the Hill (1960) DVD
• Last Tycoon, The (1976) DVD
• The Longest Day (1962) VHS/DVD
• Macao (1952) VHS/DVD
• Night of the Hunter (1955) VHS/DVD
• Out of the Past (1947) VHS/DVD
• The Racket (1951) VHS/DVD
• Ryan’s Daughter (1970) DVD
• Scrooged (1988) VHS/DVD
• The Sundowners (1960) DVD
• Thunder Road (1958) VHS
• The Yakuza (1974) DVD

He is also in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 Sabotuer as a passer-by if you are quick enough to catch him!

Academy Award Nominations were announced this morning (see the official list here) — to the surprise of many, Dreamgirls did not make the cut for Best Picture, despite winning a Golden Globe for best comedy/musical (and picking up 8 other nominations!). I’m going to try and see it tomorrow night, regardless — overall I’m pretty behind on watching this year’s Oscar crop.

I did manage to see Children of Men the other night and thought it was really good — it won’t end up being my favorite film of the year but it has a shot at the top ten. It got nominated for Best Cinematography, Film Editing, and Adapted Screenplay.

What disapponts me the most is that Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t get a Best Actor nom for Borat — that would have been really quite wonderful. (Borat, which did score an Adapted Screenplay nom — weird on a couple of levels — comes out on DVD on March 6.)

Directly below this post is Stephen’s review of Jesus Camp, which came out on DVD today — it picked up a nomination for Best Documentary, along with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

Of the Best Pic nominees, only one is on DVD — Little Miss Sunshine. The Departed hits the street in a few weeks, on February 13, and Babel follows the week after, on February 20. No release date has been announced for The Queen or Letters From Iwo Jima, so we’ve got two or three months to wait for those, probably (although Iwo Jima’s “companion piece,” Flags of Our Fathers, will be out on February 6).

Over at the Pickford Cinema, Best Documentary nominee Iraq in Fragments is showing this week, and Best Foreign Film nominee Pan’s Labyrinth starts on Friday.

The Oscar ceremony will be Sunday, February 25 at 5:00 pm.

In reviewing Jesus Camp I am going to work very hard to ensure that I do not resort to easy attacks on religion, stupid Americans or rat-tails. Many on the Left find it all too easy nowadays to follow Richard Dawkins in believing that without religion we would all inhabit some magical free-thinking paradise.

That said, Jesus Camp is the scariest movie you’ll see all year. The filmmakers avoid editorialising the action themselves: they allow everyone, adults and children alike, to speak for themselves, and they present them with humanity and respect. They do offer the angry monologues of Air America host Mike Papantonio as a counterpoint. Even this is arguably too much, as the footage really speaks for itself. Just as you may have heard, you will witness children as young as nine or ten praying to a cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush. You’ll see these same children driven to fits of agony by stories about the plans God had for all the aborted foetuses. (One has to wonder if God decides your future to the smallest detail before you’re even born, shouldn’t he be to blame for the abortions?) You’ll see a grown woman tell a roomful of children that “had it been in the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death!”

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PUNISHMENT PARK.directed by Peter Watkins. 1971.

(slightly rewritten from my review at Lucid Screening)

I gotta admit, conspiracy theories (and anyone single-mindedly anti-Bush) kinda bug me. These theories are so preoccupied with the machinations and motivations of the powerful, they forget what makes movements for social justice the most effective: not speaking truth to power – as if power didn’t know what it was doing, as Ward Churchill likes to smugly quip – but organizing people, building power. When political struggle becomes part of peoples’ daily lives, and not, say, a congressional hearing on a television screen, that’s when it becomes the most dangerous.

I can see how conspiracy theories contribute to a great deal of cynicism, but not much else (Alexander Cockburn argues persuasively that their danger is more than mere cynicism). I know my puny few words here aren’t going to keep people from renting 9/11 conspiracy documentaries like Loose Change, 9/11: In Plane Sight, or TerrorStorm (which sounds like a Six Flags theme ride to me) but I can at least suggest something else to rent instead.

Peter Watkins’ 1971 film Punishment Park is not a conspiracy theory, but its premise teeters on the brink. It’s a hippie’s worst nightmare put to celluloid. Filmed in the wake of ‘68, the shootings at Kent State, and all that, the movie is a simulated documentary depicting what many – especially young people – had feared America had become at the time, and what conspiracy jockies fear looms today: a fascist state.

At first, I dreaded Punisher Park would be nothing but a gloomy, glory rendition of repression. I feared that, like the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, we’d be treated to a hyperbolic harangue overly focused on the latest fascism at the expense of resistance to oppression, the social movements that ebb and flow in our midst on a daily basis. Thankfully, I found a film whose premise lies equally in the political resistance of the Sixties as it does on political repression.

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Well gosh, just a few days after I post this, the following disc is also announced… it’s like they were reading mind! This one - with its equally sharp cover art - will be out in April: