Blowup

Blowup (1966) - 8/10

First Viewed: 3/30/08
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Cinematography by Carlo di Palma
Starring David Hemmings as Thomas

Blowup follows a day in the life of a photographer, Thomas, who spends most of his time strutting around his beautiful studio harassing his models and assistants. Thomas seems to be obsessed with the visual aspects of everything he sees around him. If he sees something interesting, say an antiques store or a night club, he goes off of his usual routine and explores them.

The movie, like the main character, is almost plotless and borders on rambling until Thomas blows-up one of his images and sees what he thinks may be a body. Even as he slowly sorts this mystery out throughout the course of the day, he lets other visual aspects and events distract him. Our protagonist, who could very well have ADHD, receives our empathy as we all get distracted in our lives, but he's also hard to get into considering he's pretty rude and abuses women. The film itself, much like Thomas, is off-putting and boring yet enthralling at the same time.

Antonioni, who my friend tells me was a photographer, provides beautiful compositions. He seems to focus on the importance of intra-frame lines, which are especially prominent in Thomas's studio. Our protagonist uses the various lines to create fascinating compositions with his models, yet he also has to avoid running into the studio's oddly placed beams. These lines also emphasize the nature of art and visuals as purely subjective entities that only have relevance in certain situations.

For example, a famous guitarist at a nightclub throws his broken guitar-head - a type of line - into the crowd, who almost kills Thomas when he's lucky enough to catch it. Once he escapes into the streets, he throws it on the sidewalk, where the shattered guitar-head loses all importance outside of the nightclub. Thus visuals, like the lines that Thomas interacts with in almost every frame, create meaning and restrict his actions on a daily basis.

Rant: Finishing the Semester and Boring Stuff

So, I think I had a very productive break. I took multiple measures to try to curtail my "buttitis," a condition that I got from Cross Country over a year and a half ago where my upper butt, along my piriformis muscle, has a constant burning pain that occasionally flares up. I had an MRI on my pelvis and then a fluoroscopy where I received four steroid injections into my piriformis muscle. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty sore and my physical therapy doctor thinks that I may have inflammation in the sacro-iliac joint, which may be triggering the piriformis muscle right next door. This ordeal will never end ...

I watched many movies over the break, as I'm sure you can tell with this sudden influx of write-ups on my blog. Some of them were watched on my brother's new PS3, which is actually a pretty nice machine. It runs quietly, keeps relatively cool, and responds quickly. Its catalogue of games is probably its weakest point: The XBox has most of the games on the PS3 in addition to its awesome exclusive games while some of the early PS3 games like Call of Duty only output at 720p instead of 1080i for some reason.

Still, the games were a blast and looked and sounded very nice. I like how the machine has a built-in blu-ray player and I have to say that blu-ray discs look very nice, though I wouldn't say it's an enormous step up over DVD. The blacks look deeper and more detailed, the colors more true, there's more detail, and there are hardly any annoying compression artifacts as seen on DVD. Unfortunately, our 42-inch plasma is kind of small to allow us to really appreciate the bump in quality; the display's resolution of 1024 x 768, which is arguably not truly HD and requires scaling, probably contributes to this lack of "awe." But it's definitely a nice addition to our home.

Speaking of home ... one thing that I never appreciated until I stayed in the dorms was how silent it is. We live in a suburb tract home that borders a canyon and it's literally dead silent at night. Except for the rats that were incessantly pattering underneath my room last night as I desperately tried to fall asleep. I had a 6:50 AM flight, as per frequent flier miles, and the incessant noises certainly didn't help. It wasn't until 2:00 before I finally said "fuck it" and moved into a sleeping bag in our living room. I think I got 3 hours of sleep - which is why I'm going to bed immediately after I finish typing this!

Berkeley is an eerie place without its students. The streets are empty, the once bustling businesses now largely vacant, the libraries and dining commons completely shut down, and the reliably noisy dorm courtyard as silent as my family's house. Unfortunately, I don't really have much to do here until monday when classes start. My few friends who are here are busy this week. The libraries aren't open so I can't start my research project. The mail room doesn't open until monday and, according to my roomate who stayed in the dorms over spring break, our building hasn't had any hot water since tuesday. Wonderful.

I have new goals, my "new years' resolution" so to speak, for the rest of the semester that I'll try to briefly outline before I fall asleep at the keyboard. One, I want to go to the gym three times a week. Two, I should really talk to professors and GSI's during their office hours. Three, I really want to start taking pictures every day and find a good method of organizing, processing, and distributing my pictures.

That about rounds it off. Off to bed I go!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - 7/10

First Viewed: 3/27/08
Directed by David Yates
Cinematography by Slawomir Idziak
Starring Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Emma Watson as Hermione, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange

Movie adaptations of books are often disappointing because they are hindered by obligatory ties to the source material. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix suffers from this problem, which makes some of the situations feel episodic and poorly fleshed out. Yet the film fares far better than most of the previous Harry Potter films.

I think this is because David Yates manages to simultaneously focus on the central narrative of Harry while conveying a sense of wonder with the magic world to the audience. Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down), whose use of compositions and lighting is often striking, and the wonderful production design by Stuart Craig help to sell Yates' more focused, darker vision of the series. The films' special effects have gradually improved over the years and they look very impressive here, as only a few shots involving characters riding on brooms or creatures in mid-air seem fake. The acting is another aspect of the film that is strong.

I strongly disliked Michael Gambon's performance in the previous films, but I think that his more aggressive Dumbledore fits in well in this film. Imelda Staunton's gives an excellent performance as administrator Dolores Umbridge, creating a sinister character with more depth than J.K. Rowling, who used the description "toad-like" to tiresome effect, ever provided in the novel. All of the adult actors give excellent performances, but Daniel Radcliffe - who has been improving over the span of the series - and Emma Watson - who has not - are still weak actors and seem particularly bad in comparison to the other performances.

The various weaknesses that are associated with book adaptations will always hinder the Harry Potter series. But I still enjoyed this movie and appreciated the effortless pacing and entertainment that Yates provided, a welcome change from the plodding first two films by Chris Columbus.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - 4/10

First Viewed: 3/26/08
Directed by Rob Marshall
Cinematography by Dion Beebe
Starring Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, and Michelle Yeoh

Rob Marshall attempts to follow the rise of a beautiful geisha in Japanese society through the creation of achingly beautiful images that are admirably provided by cinematographer Dion Beebe. John Williams provides an excellent score and Pietro Scalia's editing creates a nice pace to the film.

Despite the technical accomplishments, Memoirs of a Geisha is surprisingly boring. I actually stopped watching this film about ninety minutes into its two and a half hour running time. It was hard for me to get into the movie and the characters, who speak heavily accented English rather than Japanese. As a result of this decision, the actors' dialogue delivery sounds frustratingly stilted.

Marshall also seems to lose focus by concentrating on the aesthetic aspects of his film. The lighting, sets, and costumes look gorgeous, but they draw too much attention away from the protagonist's narrative. In addition to these weaknesses, the story itself seems to be, at its roots, a typical rise and fall story of someone whose profession is both the blessing and the bane of her existence.

The Counterfeiters

The Counterfeiters (2007) - 4/10

First Viewed: 3/25/08
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky
Cinematography by Benedict Neuenfels
Starring Karl Markovics as Sorowitsch and Devid Striesow as Friedrich Herzog

The Counterfeiters, the Austrian film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, has a fascinating premise. Sorowitsch, a former con artist who has managed to survive five years in the concentration camps, is enlisted by a German commander named Herzog to manufacture millions of fake bank notes in an effort to ruin the American and British economies.

Despite the intriguing story, the film does not work as well as it should. I am not a fan of the cinematography, which employs an odd conglomeration of de-saturated tones, handheld camera-work, jarring mid-scene zooms, high contrast, and repetition of compositions. It distracted from and ultimately hurt the film. Also, I never got to know who Sorowitsch truly was. The film simply presents him as a counterfeiter, a role that never changes or provides much in the way of character depth. The writing and Markovics' uninspired performance are also to blame for this lack of character development.

Simply put, I was bored. Instead of a fun, intriguing story with a fascinating lead, we get a poorly shot film with cliched dialogue, a boring protagonist, and standard secondary characters that we have already seen in other films that deal with concentration camps.

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai (1954) - 10/10

Second Viewing: 3/24/08
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Cinematography by Asakazu Nakai

Kurosawa's film follows the plight of a village of helpless farmers who enlist the help of samurai - with no more than an offer of providing food - to fend off forty bandits. The movie presents an enjoyable story as well as social commentary on a period of change in Japan.

The samurai are presented as a dying breed. Too many are arrogant and drunk on power and their swordsmanship is starting to be rendered obsolete thanks to the advent of gunpowder. Yet it takes the sacrifices of seven of the best - or perhaps kindest - samurai, who rely mostly on tactics and their intelligence, to empower and transform the farmers into an assertive, self-reliant group.

Kurosawa traces this evolution subtly thanks to his perfect filmmaking. His camera perfectly composes every single frame, his editing is seamless, the use of sound is effective, and his direction of the mis-en-scene - the lighting, sets, and placement of actors - is impeccable. The film is filled with so many ideas, yet Kurosawa manages to extensively develop a number of fascinating characters ranging from the fledgling leadership in Rikichi, to Kambei Shimada's (Takashi Shimura) wise, head-rubbing samurai, to Katsushiro's (Isao Kimura) hilariously rambunctious samurai.

The only aspect I did not like was the love story between Kambei's apprentice and the village woman. This is not because Kurosawa does a terrible job depicting the progression of the love story, but rather because the love interest is a poorly developed character who flies into unnecessary, annoying episodes of histrionic outbursts. Nonetheless, the film is an incredible work of art and one of my top ten favorite films.

Apocalypto

Apocalypto (2006) - 6/10

First Viewed: 3/24/08
Mel Gibson (Dir.)
Dean Semler (DP)
Starring Rudy Youngblood as Jaguar Blood

Mel Gibson's film is a work of contradictions. It is at once a bizarre tale - described as "science-fiction-like" in another review - of a Mayan Empire that isn't historically accurate and a standard story about an individual who tries to regain his life and dignity after they are denied by evil imperial forces.

Apocalypto is a film that I hated and enjoyed. The first third contains a number of stupid situations that depict the wonderful life of our protagonist, Jaguar Blood, before the Mayan imperialists enter the picture. This includes a hunt that culminates in JB bullying a fellow hunter into eating the testicles of a freshly caught pig. Then, a party of Mayans, complete with villains so evil and bloodthirsty that their behavior borders on caricature, attacks JB's village and takes the survivors to the Mayan capital for human sacrifices.

Gibson has a perverse fascination with the human condition. His camera seems to linger almost lovingly on increasingly horrendous acts of violence and cruelty. The first half, which culminates with the raid and the sacrifices, contains some of the most brutal violence I have ever seen in a film; these are accompanied by a number of incredibly grotesque and disturbing images that certainly don't make the film a pleasant viewing experience.

The second half of the film, however, is an extended chase sequence in which JB runs away from and outwits his Mayan oppressors. While the sequence is not given an original treatment, it is exceptionally well executed. It held my interest for over forty-five minutes and was very entertaining. So, I have to give Gibson credit; he can actually be a pretty good filmmaker.

The film's visuals are another positive aspect. The make-up, the sets, and many of the shots are quite beautiful and "authentic" looking. In addition, this film has the best HD transfer, for better or for worse considering the subject matter, I have ever seen.

The Deer Hunter

The Deer Hunter (1978) - 9.5/10

First Viewed: 3/20/08
Michael Cimino (Dir.)
Vilmos Zsigmond (DP)
Starring Robert De Niro as Michael, John Savage as Steven, Christopher Walken as Nick, and Meryl Streep as Linda

My Review Will be Re-Posted Soon.

Persona

Persona (1966) - 10/10

First Viewed: 3/17/08
Ingmar Bergman (Dir.)
Sven Nykvist (DP)
Starring Bibi Andersson as Alma and Liv Ullmann as Elisabeth Vogler

Bergman's film begins with a montage of abstract images. A film projector thunders to life, a roll of film advances, and a harmless cartoon plays. Then a tarantula crawls up the screen and the film cuts to disturbing images of a sheep slowly being killed and gutted, its life visibly draining out of its eye. Suddenly, we see a close-up of a hand, possibly belonging to Jesus, being nailed into a wooden post.

Bergman cuts to a dirty pile of snow and then to closeups of people laying motionless on beds in what appears to be a brightly lit morgue. A non-diegetic telephone rings and, as if on cue, their eyes fly open, revived by the noise. One of these people is a naked boy, who reaches out towards a huge projection of a blurred woman's face, as if he is trying to reach into another dimension. And then the narrative begins.

These are the first five minutes of Persona, and they comprise what is certainly one of the most fascinating openings to a film I have ever seen. I'm not even sure what it really means at this point, though I do have a theory that I'll explore later on. The film's narrative centers around a beautiful nurse, Alma, who is hired to take care of Elisabeth, an actress who has chosen to live as a recluse and a mute. What follows is a bewildering exploration of what defines identity. While the actresses themselves are stellar in their roles, it is the beautiful cinematography by Nykvist - the DP who would later do brilliant work in Fanny and Alexander and The Unbearable Lightness of Being - and Bergman's meticulous control of the mis-en-scene that give us an innate, visual understanding of the characters. Elisabeth has a shadowy, ghost-like presence while Alma, who is well-lit, seems to retain a bright demeanor.

Alma discovers that Elisabeth is a wonderful listener - she doesn't say anything, after all - and begins to recount events, both good and bad, in her life. Elisabeth, in the meantime, becomes less ghost-like and better lit while Alma seems to be consumed in shadows; their roles begin to switch. Elisabeth, who has chosen to withdraw from society because of past disappointments and disgust with the world in general, essentially becomes a parasite, sapping the humanity and life-loving nature from Alma, who begins to wallow in her own disappointments. The film, through the use of sound and imagery, evokes a feeling of imminent decay and we follow Alma as she struggles to retain her true identity and even her connection with life.

As for the opening sequence, I believe it represents all of the aspects that make up Elisabeth's life. It does seem that the little snippets from our lives - events both beautiful and disturbing - make the biggest impact on who we are and how we view the world. The boy at the end of that sequence may be Elisabeth's son, who she has chosen to grow apart from out of fear of personal weakness. The projected image that the boy reaches towards could be Elisabeth; it is appropriately hazy considering the emotional wall that she has built between them.

Bergman's film is challenging, purposefully vague and difficult to interpret. Its score ranges from sounding dissonantly brilliant to obnoxiously tacky. Our protagonist is sweet one moment and then incredibly distressed the next. Whatever it is we witness, though, this is undeniably brilliant work.

The Dreamers

The Dreamers (2004) - 6/10

First Viewed: 3/14/08

Bernardo Bertolucci (Dir.)
Starring Michael Pitt, Eva Green, and Louis Garrel

Bertolucci tries to show us how the lives of two very messed up, spoiled siblings intersect with the Paris revolution of 1968. This doesn't really work as the revolution itself is never a fully realized part of the film - it merely serves as a backstor...(read more)y with out-of-date revolutionary ideas for the creepy erotica.

Random Musings:
1. Michael Pitt has really pretty lips.
2. I could very easily go straight for Eva Green.
3. The brother (Garrel) is an annoyingly smug character and Garrel himself has an even more annoying face.
4. Why does Pitt's character pee in the sink? Bertolluci left me hanging in that regard.

Fargo

Fargo (1996) - 10/10

Second Viewing: 3/2/08
The Coen Brothers (Dir.)
Roger Deakins (DP)
Starring Frances McDormand as Marge; William H. Macy as Jerry; Steve Buscemi as Carl; Harve Presnell as Wade

Fargo is a brilliant movie about the best and worst of human nature, set in the genial, yet frigid wilderness of Minnesota. The film is impeccable on a technical level as cinematographer Roger Deakins does an amazing job photographing the beautifully harsh landscapes and the Coen Brothers' use of sound and editing as dramatic tools remain unmatched. The Coens present the whole gamut of characters ranging from McDormand's lovely police officer to Presnell's cold-blooded murderer.

In between is William H. Macy's fascinating character, a loser car salesman whose financial shortcomings lead him to do the most unimaginable things. Acting under the guise of Minnesotan friendliness, Macy's character is at once extremely pathetic and repugnant, a man who's willing to have his own wife kidnapped at his son's expense so he can pay off his debts. In trying to hide his shortcomings, he foolishly starts a chain of events that negatively affect the lives of many people. In the end, the lesson is that every action has a consequence; and while not an original idea, it has never before been so brilliantly realized in a film.

Blood Simple

I was fortunate enough to see a double feature of Blood Simple and Fargo at the Castro Theater, one of the awesome old school theaters in San Francisco, two weeks ago.

Blood Simple (1984) - 8.5/10

First Viewed: 3/2/08
The Coen Brothers (Dir.)
Barry Sonnenfeld (DP)
Starring Frances McDormand as Abby; John Getz as Ray; Dan Hedaya as Julian; M. Emmet Walsh as The Private Detective

Blood Simple is a very good movie and for a director's debut, it really is a great achievement. The cinematography and editing are generally excellent, Carter Burwell's score is one of the few 80's synthesizer scores I enjoy, and the story is often enthralling. The climactic sequence involving Frances McDormand, a hand, and a knife is particularly memorable.

The film begins with a conversation between Abby and another man, Ray, who is driving a car in the middle of the night. We soon learn that Abby is married to the rather psychotic bar-owner, Julian, and that Ray, one of his bartenders, is her lover. Julian sends a private detective to spy on his wife and the situation unravels from there.

The major theme of the Coen Brothers' work is communication, or rather the lack thereof. This is what causes Abby to leave Julian in the first place. All of the various misunderstandings culminate in bloody endings for many of the characters. This is an intriguing theme that isn't as effective as it could have been. At some points, it is painfully obvious that this is a debut. For example, the camera movement sometimes draws too much attention to itself, such as a crane shot that moves over a drunk guy sleeping on a counter in order to track into a conversation. Also, the premise of the film's middle act is that Ray thinks Abby has killed Julian while she thinks likewise. For some reason, this aspect is not engaging or very well laid out and as a result, the middle meanders and the characters' motivations do not make sense until the finale.

Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone (2007) - 7/10

First Viewing: ~ 2/17/08
Ben Affleck (Dir.)
John Toll (DP)
Starring Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie; Morgan Freeman as Capt. Doyle; Ed Harris as Det. Remmy Bressant; Amy Ryan as The Mother; Michelle Monaghan as Angie Genarro

In Boston, a mother’s child is abducted and two detectives - a girlfriend and boyfriend working as partners - are enlisted to help solve the case. What follows is an interesting, occasionally riveting mystery that leaves none of the characters untouched. Ben Affleck's film explores the tenacious beliefs that all individuals hold; each of the characters’ belief that what they are doing is morally “right” drives the film's plot. Patrick believes that the abducted child, if found, should be returned to the mother - who is a negligent drug addict - while his girlfriend, Michelle, disagrees and wants the child to have loving guardians, even if the child was obtained by illicit means.

This is a compelling question: Who deserves a child versus who has the right to keep one? Unfortunately, this idea is slightly weakened by Affleck’s failure to develop the tension within the boyfriend and girlfriend detective team; the couple seems to start disagreeing spontaneously. The film's other issue is the episodic nature of its plot, with an over-reliance on contrivances – and flashbacks – that make the film seem muddled. For instance, one scene involving an exchange is played back at least three times throughout the film from different vantage points. Yet it's still unclear what exactly happened.

The performances, for the most part, are excellent. Amy Ryan as the despicable, drug-addled mom who, in a selfish and even obligatory manner, wants her child back is simply fantastic and Casey Affleck is very good. Despite the film's issues, this is a pretty impressive directing debut by Ben Affleck.

Paranoid Park

Paranoid Park (2008) - 3/10

First Viewing: 3/14/08

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Cinematography by Christopher Doyle
Starring Gabe Nevins as Alex

Gus Van Sant’s latest film is a disappointment and all the more frustrating because of its wasted potential. We follow a young skater (Gabe Nevins) who is disturbed after committing a terrible deed near Paranoid Skate Park. Instead of presenting the events in a narrative fashion, Van Sant decides to present his story in a fragmented manner. While I have no qualms with such experimentation, I do have issues with Van Sant's execution. The film could have been a tightly-constructed, fourty-five minute character-study, but Van Sant prolongs the film by simply repeating events and using slow motion shots of skaters and our protagonist to an annoying and even voyeuristic extent. This does not add any depth to the skater’s actions and instead makes the film feel bloated.

Perhaps the film’s biggest issue is that it struggles to present two themes, both of which have the potential to be fascinating, but are never properly fleshed out. One theme attempts to explore the skater’s guilt and anguish over his actions and the other to depict the selfish, every-man-for-himself mentality of individuals. The first doesn’t work because of Nevins’ terrible voice-over delivery and the afore-mentioned repetitive nature of the film. The second theme also doesn’t work because of some very awkward dialogue (the obnoxious Napoleon Dynamite monologue) and distractingly bad acting (the protagonist’s friend who always wants to "get laid").

This isn’t to say that all aspects of the film are terrible. Indeed, Christopher Doyle’s cinematography is beautiful and mesmerizing, the sound design is well thought out, and the soundtrack is often excellent. But none of these wonderful things are allowed to shine because of the rest of the film’s weaknesses. In the end, the film's biggest failing is that despite much of the film being comprised of beautiful and almost lustful close-ups of Nevins' cherubic face, we never really get to know who his character is.

Additional Thoughts:
I later learned that this film is being released on blu-ray in April. I'm tempted to give Paranoid Park another watch at that point. First of all, Christopher Doyle's cinematography would look amazing. Second, the film may make more sense if I view it as a very subjective effort - that is, Van Sant shows how an emotionally underdeveloped middle-class teen is trying to make sense of his life through the use of elliptical storytelling.

Unfortunately, I feel that most of my afore-mentioned criticisms will stand unchanged. For instance, there's a scene near the beginning that plays a cool electronica soundtrack over mesmerizing tracking shots (shot in 8 mm film) of anonymous skateboarders at Paranoid Park. Van Sant then inserts random French dialogue into the soundtrack. I find it hard to believe that Portland teenagers would be playing French dialogue through their heads; the scene suddenly shifts from one of mesmerizing beauty to one of blatant pretentiousness.