Saw Great Expectations (1946), an adaptation of the famous Dickens story which follows the protagonist Pip's adventures being thrust into high society and then back out again. Throughout the story children are made into wealthy individuals. Contrasted with the protagonist is the love interest Estella, who is being raised to be heartbreaker by the sinister Miss Havisham.
The film feels very professional. It's not bad, but it's not terribly exciting either. It feels like a fairly rote recitation of the story, well done but stiff and over-rehearsed. I feel like I'm meant to draw some meaning or lesson from the film but I don't know what that might be. Pip becomes rich, learns the identity of his benefactor, fails to melt Estella's icy heart. It all seems like a bunch of stuff that happens. There's some words to be said about class and how kindness is separate from that and perhaps in Dickens's time that was enough but today it feels a bit limp.
This limpness is revealed to be systemic by the weak ending. The ending of a prestige film like this needs to wrap everything up in a coherent way and this film fails to do so here. Questions of class and wealth and upbringing are swept aside as the love story takes centre stage. Apparently Dickens himself changed the ending post-publication and this film's screenwriting team had trouble with the ending as well. Without some viewpoint or message, it's a tricky story. It's not really fun enough to be a romp and not coherent enough to be a lesson. It's just a bunch of stuff that happens.
So, the film was alright, just stiff and kind of lifeless. Some of the scenes and characters are perfect (Mr Jaggers is perfect and Miss Havisham is pretty good too) but most of the film is just things happening kind of at random. I think I missed the point here.
Nov 25, 2018
Nov 23, 2018
The Pianist
Saw The Pianist, a fairly harrowing WW2 film about Adrien Brody, the famous pianist jewish pianist, who is trying desperately to survive in Poland. The film starts with him at the top of the world, the film richly saturated in color, Adrien suavely playing piano in a busy diner. Soon though jews are not welcome in some shops, and jews are not allowed in public parks, and armbands, and registries. Midway through the film, his family is vanishing and color and background music fade from the film.
The movie tries to tell a general story of Poland in the war and so it feels fairly impersonal at times. The protagonist, apart from being a piano player, is a cypher, a blank space for us to project ourselves into. He survives and his survival is not pretty but neither is it particularly challenging. He never has to sacrifice a stranger, for example, to save his own skin. Indeed, the protagonist twice expresses a desire to die rather than to leave his house, never mind sacrificing his morals. This was based on an autobiography, so perhaps that's why.
The nazis in the film are generally attractive, which is weird. Somehow the image of the nazi officer in popular imagination is always impeccably dressed, supremely capable and confident, and strikingly handsome. this image must originate from nazi propaganda. I wonder if we're unwittingly repeating that propaganda.
Anyway, handsome nazis aside, this film is quite sad but not terribly brutal. There's times when I cried, but I was never horrified. Come And See hit me harder for some reason, and of course there's no beating Shoah for depth of information. On an unrelated note, I wish youtube movies would disable comments on movies. In the comments section of this film someone started a well-thought-out argument about Israel which is a sort of sour finisher for such a noble, sad film.
The movie tries to tell a general story of Poland in the war and so it feels fairly impersonal at times. The protagonist, apart from being a piano player, is a cypher, a blank space for us to project ourselves into. He survives and his survival is not pretty but neither is it particularly challenging. He never has to sacrifice a stranger, for example, to save his own skin. Indeed, the protagonist twice expresses a desire to die rather than to leave his house, never mind sacrificing his morals. This was based on an autobiography, so perhaps that's why.
The nazis in the film are generally attractive, which is weird. Somehow the image of the nazi officer in popular imagination is always impeccably dressed, supremely capable and confident, and strikingly handsome. this image must originate from nazi propaganda. I wonder if we're unwittingly repeating that propaganda.
Anyway, handsome nazis aside, this film is quite sad but not terribly brutal. There's times when I cried, but I was never horrified. Come And See hit me harder for some reason, and of course there's no beating Shoah for depth of information. On an unrelated note, I wish youtube movies would disable comments on movies. In the comments section of this film someone started a well-thought-out argument about Israel which is a sort of sour finisher for such a noble, sad film.
Nov 17, 2018
Visitor Q
Saw Visitor Q, another strange film from Takashi Miike. This one follows a small family of father, mother, son and daughter who exist in some kind of cruel, violent reality. The on is being bullied and takes his aggression out on his mother. The daughter is a prostitute. The father is a recently disgraced reporter who was sexually assaulted while reporting on youth culture. For no reason, some man at a train station hits the father over the head with a rock. This rock-wielding stranger comes to stay with the family for a while.
The universe is dismal and hyper-violent, but in a cartoony way, like the Death of Mary Queen of Scots sketch. As the film progresses, things become more dark and more violent. It's fairly upsetting if you start taking it seriously. Lucky for me, I knew what to expect going in and was only smugly self-satisfied when confronted with the sexual violence, and the knee-deep pools of breast milk. Ah Takashi, I would expect nothing less from you!
The film is dream-like. The plot makes little to no sense but the visuals are very striking and I've genuinely not seen another film like this one. The through-line of the film is the family overcoming their struggles and differences and becoming closer together by descending into a sublimely violent state. This is a neat little surprize but feels like the backwards morals of Oscar Wilde's sayings or of the Marquis De Sade's stories. They're basically jokes, relying on shock and expectation-upsetting, but not really bearing up to any scrutiny and certainly not meant to be taken seriously.
This was a fun film. Not for everyone of course, but a nice little joke while it lasts.
The universe is dismal and hyper-violent, but in a cartoony way, like the Death of Mary Queen of Scots sketch. As the film progresses, things become more dark and more violent. It's fairly upsetting if you start taking it seriously. Lucky for me, I knew what to expect going in and was only smugly self-satisfied when confronted with the sexual violence, and the knee-deep pools of breast milk. Ah Takashi, I would expect nothing less from you!
The film is dream-like. The plot makes little to no sense but the visuals are very striking and I've genuinely not seen another film like this one. The through-line of the film is the family overcoming their struggles and differences and becoming closer together by descending into a sublimely violent state. This is a neat little surprize but feels like the backwards morals of Oscar Wilde's sayings or of the Marquis De Sade's stories. They're basically jokes, relying on shock and expectation-upsetting, but not really bearing up to any scrutiny and certainly not meant to be taken seriously.
This was a fun film. Not for everyone of course, but a nice little joke while it lasts.
Nov 11, 2018
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Saw The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, another brilliant film from studio Ghibli. This one tells the story of a bamboo-cutter who finds a little girl in one of the bamboo shoots, along with fine silks and a supply of gold pieces. The girl grows into a young woman in the span of about two days and the bamboo-cutter decides that she is a princess and is meant for the Big City. In the Big City, she's a hit. Everyone loves her but she clearly pines for the carefree days of her youth, running about with the other children and listening to the wind in the trees.
As in other studio Ghibli films, nature is used as a shorthand for purity and a kind of effortless spiritual fulfillment. It's very nice. The honest woodcutters and such are shown as being similar to the pheasants and foxes in that they too do not wonder about the purpose of their lives or their place in the world. This placement of laborers in with the animals is a little weird, but that's Japan for you I guess.
At any rate, this is a sweet, nostalgic film in the vein of My Neighbors The Yamadas. The art style is loose and impressionistic, looking like an illustrated scroll come to life. I think a few scenes are directly lifted from manuscripts and tapestries. As usual for fancy-anime, this is swooning and lovely. No one is hurt who doesn't deserve it, nothing truly bad happens, and we end on a great crane-shot, zooming out to show the whole of the world, loving and dyning and us humans in with it. It's all a mess, but a glorious one.
As in other studio Ghibli films, nature is used as a shorthand for purity and a kind of effortless spiritual fulfillment. It's very nice. The honest woodcutters and such are shown as being similar to the pheasants and foxes in that they too do not wonder about the purpose of their lives or their place in the world. This placement of laborers in with the animals is a little weird, but that's Japan for you I guess.
At any rate, this is a sweet, nostalgic film in the vein of My Neighbors The Yamadas. The art style is loose and impressionistic, looking like an illustrated scroll come to life. I think a few scenes are directly lifted from manuscripts and tapestries. As usual for fancy-anime, this is swooning and lovely. No one is hurt who doesn't deserve it, nothing truly bad happens, and we end on a great crane-shot, zooming out to show the whole of the world, loving and dyning and us humans in with it. It's all a mess, but a glorious one.
Nov 4, 2018
The Servant
Saw The Servant, a nice little psychodrama about an indolent young aristocrat who hires a butler. This butler at first seems to be a sort of Jeeves, a knowing and loyal servant who smiles at his master's foibles and who is subseriant but who of course knows best in the end. We the audience are allowed to see this mask slip a few times however. We're allowed to see how his smiles fade and how he smugly grins when the aristocrat refuses his own girlfriend's medical advice in favor of the butlers'. Soon the butler is using his master's bedroom and is introducing his "sister" who is a maid.
The film's sympathy is clearly on the side of the aristocrat who is fleeced by this conniving butler. As the aristocrat falls prey to the butler's machinations and to his own vices (booze) the soundtrack weeps with violins and the camera leeringly lingers on his wretched face. All the same however, I didn't have a ton of sympathy for this guy who wasn't just showing this butler the door. There's meant to be a kind of abusive relationship caused by the ironical reversal of power, but the law and society are on the aristocrat's side. It feels victim-blame-y but can't this guy just cook his own food?
The point of the film basically seems to be to highlight the deeply fraught situation of having servants in your house. If they aren't stealing the silverware outright, then they're laying more sinister, long-term plans. I sort of can't imagine having servants around my house at all, so this seems like a sensible danger to highlight to me. It is sort of dated however.
At any rate, the film is nice and taught. The drama is good and the hysterics are theatrical and nice. I enjoyed the film, even if it was a bit dismal, and I was invested in the characters. Sort of an aging film, but still a nice one for the moment. Better catch it quick before it sours entirely!
The film's sympathy is clearly on the side of the aristocrat who is fleeced by this conniving butler. As the aristocrat falls prey to the butler's machinations and to his own vices (booze) the soundtrack weeps with violins and the camera leeringly lingers on his wretched face. All the same however, I didn't have a ton of sympathy for this guy who wasn't just showing this butler the door. There's meant to be a kind of abusive relationship caused by the ironical reversal of power, but the law and society are on the aristocrat's side. It feels victim-blame-y but can't this guy just cook his own food?
The point of the film basically seems to be to highlight the deeply fraught situation of having servants in your house. If they aren't stealing the silverware outright, then they're laying more sinister, long-term plans. I sort of can't imagine having servants around my house at all, so this seems like a sensible danger to highlight to me. It is sort of dated however.
At any rate, the film is nice and taught. The drama is good and the hysterics are theatrical and nice. I enjoyed the film, even if it was a bit dismal, and I was invested in the characters. Sort of an aging film, but still a nice one for the moment. Better catch it quick before it sours entirely!
Nov 3, 2018
Samurai Spy
Saw Samurai Spy, the last of the samurai movies I'll see for a while. It followed a ninja (or is he a samurai??) who is caught up in the shadowy assassination plots and spy rings of two rival powers. The film is mostly boilerplate samurai stuff. There's the usual sword fights and goofy sidekicks and women who somehow cannot resist the charms of the sullen, scowling hero. Many samurai films have been adapted into westerns (Seven Samurai of course, and Yojimbo) but this one feels much more like a gangster film. Rather than being isolated and remote, as with the westerns, this film is too densely packed, with everyone on top of each other, always running into an agent or counter-agent.
The film is very shadowy, both in terms of plot and in terms of filming. The first glimpse of the protagonist we get is of him striding through the fog, flickering in and out of sight. We see the main characters often in silhouette, reduced to shadows. The characters are engaging in shadowy, hidden work and are thus, appropriately enough, most often found in shadows, or fading into the mist. Appropriately, the climax is at a masked carnival and the ending has the characters fighting in the fog once more.
The film was not that interesting to me. The shadowy cinematography shows up immediately and never goes anywhere. A lengthy pre-credits exposition overwhelmed me immediately. It explained who the two factions were and why they were fighting and who was the head of which but I think ultimately it doesn't matter that much. Man A is fighting man B. 'Nuff said. Unfortunately, this film spent a lot of time twisting the plot and revealing characters to be double/triple/quadruple agents. There were some nice high-speed camera shots, but it was a samurai film after all.
The film is very shadowy, both in terms of plot and in terms of filming. The first glimpse of the protagonist we get is of him striding through the fog, flickering in and out of sight. We see the main characters often in silhouette, reduced to shadows. The characters are engaging in shadowy, hidden work and are thus, appropriately enough, most often found in shadows, or fading into the mist. Appropriately, the climax is at a masked carnival and the ending has the characters fighting in the fog once more.
The film was not that interesting to me. The shadowy cinematography shows up immediately and never goes anywhere. A lengthy pre-credits exposition overwhelmed me immediately. It explained who the two factions were and why they were fighting and who was the head of which but I think ultimately it doesn't matter that much. Man A is fighting man B. 'Nuff said. Unfortunately, this film spent a lot of time twisting the plot and revealing characters to be double/triple/quadruple agents. There were some nice high-speed camera shots, but it was a samurai film after all.
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