Ribaue, Mozambique, Africa
Friday, November 30, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Fellini's 8 1/2
attempt and not a completed result."
---Federico Fellini
Fellini's 1963 masterpiece, 8 1/2, is suggestive of an autobiographical work. Consider these:
- Fellini made 8 films prior to this one and one half unit for Variety Lights.
- The movie is about a film director.
- The film director is creating a follow up to a successful film.
In 8 1/2, the focus is on Guido, a well known director, who is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He is attempting to complete the script for his picture about the escape to outer space for the survivors of WW III. Guido fears of making a meaningless picture and he cannot explain his thinking to an endless parade of producers, critics, actors, intellectuals and writers. He eventually realizes that it is impossible for him to turn out a simple picture with a message for mankind but must instead produce a complicated story about his own confusions, uncertainties, and compromises.
What we end up seeing - as the movie viewer - is the movie that Guido intends to make, or more precisely, did make.
In 8 1/2, Fellini brilliantly manages complex shifts in viewpoint. Sometimes we are seeing the world through Guido's eyes. At other times we are watching him. Alternating subjective and objective perspectives leaves us seeing a stream of Fellini memories and associations. He uses flashbacks, daydreams, nightmares and fantasy to project the world that Guido is traveling in. The ride is exhilarating!
Guido's dream ideal woman is played by the beautiful Claudia Cardinale. She appears in dream sequences as his muse, offering reassurance. But she is fleeting and elusive. He must come to terms with his intellectual wife Luisa (Anouk Aimee). Luisa is as mad at him at one point in the film - after an affair - as much as for who he chose as for the infidelity itself.
8 1/2 followed Fellini's successful La Dolce Vita. [see point 3 above] His next film was Juliet of the Spirits, his best film and included in my Top 100 Movie List. But 8 1/2 won over 60 international awards, including an Academy Award for best foreign film and seven Silver Ribbons (Italy's equivalent of the Oscar).
In the end of the film, Guido's rebirth as an artist is complete and he comes into terms with his emotional past. Guido has an artistic triumph with his film - as does Fellini with his.
Related Posts:
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Apocalypto
Apocalypto - 2006I had to send my teenage daughter out of the room and up to bed. This movie is dripping with violence, death and destruction. If you got the squeemies about that kind of thing then you will be turned off... way off.
Mel Gibson's portrayal of the Mayan culture and civilization is considered by some to be over the top and unnecessarily cruel. While undoubtedly there is director creative license going on here, it is a historical vision worthy of consideration. We read about American Indian culture and savagery in works like Allen Eckert's Winning America series and understand that the early world was not always a pleasant place. And indeed the white men that came over were just as cruel and savage.
Apocalypto is at its heart a prolonged jungle chase vehicle. Jaguar Paw's village is decimated by the Mayans. He is pursued by his captors after his escape through the jungle - in a effort to get back to his pregnant wife and son who are hiding in a cave. As Jaguar Paw and several other village men are led up the long climb to the Mayan sacrificial alter, we see the heads of his predecessors tumbling down the steps in the distance.
The set detail and costumes are so rich and realistic that we are driven to watch and experience this spectacle, even when we are driven to turn away. Gibson is as masterful behind the camera as in front of it. Much like his Passion of the Christ a couple years ago, he takes the viewer to the edge of what they can take, then pulls back and gives us a rest. Then dives in for more, then gives a rest. His camera angles and methods are so engaging, we know we are in the hands of a master.
The performances of the actors are spot on as well. Gibson used only ethnic actors so you won't see a big name white actor in the bunch. The acting MUST be good enough to inspire hatred of the Mayan mercenaries in the viewer - so that we accept all the violence and carnage.
I'm not giving this movie 4 stars because it is a fine documentary of the late Mayan culture. It is getting 4 stars because it is a memorable ripping good action adventure. It lost a point because of the contrived ending but this is a worthy addition to the Mayan jungle chase scene genre.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Berkeley Protester Falls From Tree, Blames School
A protester fell out of a tree last Sunday and fortunately only broke a wrist and ankle.
The protester thinks its the school's fault for the accident because the school put up a fence to keep the protesters out of the tree.
I'm not making this up folks...
As reported in the article:
Protesters have been illegally occupying a grove of oak trees next to the stadium since December. They seek to block construction of a $117 million athletic training center for Cal football players and other athletes.
"It's a really regrettable accident but, to state the obvious, completely avoidable," Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said. "Things like that wouldn't happen if the people who are illegally occupying university property were abiding by the law."
Protester Hill said that if UC hadn't put fences around the site, then there would have been no need for the traverse line that he'd been trying to reach. [emphasis mine]
How long before we see Mr. Hill suing the school for causing the accident? Bets anyone?
Friday, November 16, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Dan in Real Life
*** Spoilers ahead - this is a POST movie watching review ***
Steve Carell's job in this movie is to underplay his character. From what I've seen of him, this isn't an easy task. As Dan Burns, though, Steve creates a character that is subdued from what we expect and shows some real acting craft.
In this romantic comedy, Dan Burns, a newspaper advice columnist, is raising three girls as a widower. Apparently, giving advice is far more easier than living the advice. The girls - at various stages of maturity - see their dad as a bit of a loser. After breaking up a budding romance happening in the life of the middle daughter ("You're a murderer of love.."), the family is off for a weekend with the extended family at a summer cabin in New England.
The movie is refreshingly different in its portrayal of this large family. It is not dysfunctional. It is not broken. It is not mean spirited. In fact it is overflowing with affection and love. I'm always ready to recognize the film that breaks the stereotypical mold and this is that. When Dan realizes that he is in love with his brother's girlfriend, it troubles him greatly and he sincerely tries to get beyond it.
Going back to Steve Carell's performance here, we get a character played with humility and restraint. We don't get Michael Scott from The Office (OK, maybe just bit out on the dance floor...). We feel Dan's heartache and frustration. You go into this movie thinking Michael Scott, you come out thinking Dan Burns. Obviously, Steve Carell won't have any trouble being typecast as Michael Scott when The Office comes to and end.
Juliette Binoche plays the love interest, Marie. Although we can see very early on that she is right for Dan and not the brother Mitch, she is much to conventional to switch sides overtly. Binoche is known for shying away from the big Hollywood blockbusters. And that is appropriate here. Although the movie has a big budget and a big cast, it steadfastly refuses to look like a big Hollywood movie. It feels like that small gem of a movie that only a few have discovered.
This is a movie about family and for family. There is no irony or hidden agenda. The family wins in the end.
Research the movie at Amazon here
Friday, November 9, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
2007 Hugo Awards
The Hugo is named after Hugo Gernsback, a magazine publisher credited with publishing the first science fiction magazine.
Some of this year's winners are:
Set in the future of 2025, computers have become ubiquitous and connect people in ways not possible today. In a genre sometimes referred to as cyberpunk, this novel from Vinge looks to be an interesting addition to his Fast Times at Fairmont High collection of short stories.
This next three novellas were published in the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction.
A Billion Eves by Robert Reed
Robert Reed tells us the following tale “It is a brutal reworking of a story that I first wrote in my mid-twenties. What remains from that earlier attempt is the flashback sections with the sorority house . . . except that I changed the point-of-view and the general tone, and, hopefully, I bring to bear the wisdom of a couple of decades of life experience.”
The Djinn's Wife by Ian McDonald
“The Djinn’s Wife” shares the same background of near-future India as Ian’s last Asimov’s story, “The Little Goddess” (June 2005), and his most recent novel, the 2005 Hugo-nominee River of Gods (Pyr). The author’s current book-in-progress is Brasyl. Ian works in television program development, and lives just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland with the hills behind him and the sea before.
Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt
Tim Pratt’s stories have been published in Best American Short Stories, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and other places. His first novel, The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl (Bantam Spectra), appeared in 2005, and his next collection, Hart & Boot & Other Stories, will be out later this year from Nightshade Books. Tim co-edits a little literary ‘zine called Flytrap with his wife, Heather Shaw. They live in Oakland, California. In his new story for Asimov’s, he takes a fresh look at that mysterious little shop we’d all like to find once again, and offers us a tantalizing glimpse of some . . .
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Sam Peckinpah is well known for big, blockbuster movies like Pat Garret & Billy the Kid, The Wild Bunch, and Straw Dogs. And he certainly didn't shy away from some bloodshed in his projects. As William Holden says at the beginning of The Wild Bunch, "If it moves, kill it". Peckinpah lived life to its fullest, abusing drink and drugs, and that plays out in his scripts.
During a period in the early to mid 1970's, Peckinpah went through a severe period of alcoholic fear and loathing. From this mindset we get this film. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was immediately panned by many film critics. But understand the context in which this movie was born of, and you will feel Peckinpah's life coursing through this movie. The movie's hero, Bennie, has a haunting demon, an exhaustion, and a sense of utter desperation that is certainly a picture of where Peckinpah was at the time.
The film stars Warren Oates, a grizzled character actor of the 60s and 70s. I grew up on a staple of this era's TV shows and probably have seen him in the likes of Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman and Rawhide. Here he plays Bennie, a seedy American expatriate, playing piano in cheap bars and Mexican brothels. When a rich and powerful industrialist offers a large reward for the head of Alfredo Garcia for impregnating his daughter, Bennie sees a way out of the bottom of life. He teams up with a prostitute (and former lover of Garcia) to find Garcia and collect the reward, along with other enterprising bounty hunters. The odyssey to get the body part, and get it back to collect the reward is riddled with violence and desperation.
For most of the film, Bennie carries around the burlap sack with the severed head of Garcia in it. Much like Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the personal mission provides the emotional unraveling of the character. There is no joy in this life and this quest is undoubtedly not the best path towards happiness.
Under a scorching Mexican sun, a bagged head doesn't preserve well. Bennie however protects it over all else that might be of value in his life. Oates masterfully shows the desperate emotion required of the part. After a period he calls the head Al and chats about the woman they both loved.
This movie is what it is because of Peckinpah's emotional state. It seeps into the film at its core and the actors are part and parcel of it.
There is a scene where Bennie and Elita stop on the road for a rest under a tree. Elita talks of marriage and commitment after all this is over. Bennie is initially taken aback with the thought. A happy marriage is as foreign to him as any life joy. But they both run with the thought and pay proper respect to it. Although they agree to the commitment, and tears are shed, we all know that it is not in the cards.
This has become a cult classic - but it represents so much more. It is a slice of wild life of one of America's best film directors.
Research the movie at Amazon here
Friday, November 2, 2007
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