hairy lime

Revival

S. — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:18:00 +0000

I’d like to jump-start this little corner of the internet again. Happens every six months, I know, but I’ve even had a draft sitting on this blog for 4-5 months. I am going to tinker with it and post it, then I will start the new year with a little summary of 2010 in cinema ( a person list of films I saw for the first time, and a little vs of the movies that were released ).

Thanks for stopping by.

Midnight Cowboy

S. — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:26:10 +0000

Midnight Cowboy was playing at our local artsy-theater. I knew John Schlesinger’s work from Billy Liar (what you could call a British version of this film…) and had obviously heard the film bounced around as a controversial masterpiece. And I have been on a Dustin Hoffman kick – saw an interview with him recently, and watched Straw Dogs.I think deciding to become an expat has also made me rather resminiscent of my culture. That quirky American culture, best portrayed in 60′s and 70′s films like this, where real people with extreme dialects smear their rude naiveté all over the screen. That is, not the façade obsessed with political correctness and being overlysensitive to everyone’s needs, but the one that I remember and communicated. It was just another thing that drew me out to the late-night showing of this film. Living in Europe… watching an American film surrounded by people not directly familiar with the culture… it all allows me to sit back and analyze something that has always seemed like a phantom to me – the American identity. I’m grateful for being let in on the little secret.

Midnight Cowboy had a way of showing both the whitewash culture and the genuine one. It’s safe to say that Joe Buck himself embodies both qualities – a man wearing a Cowboy Hero mask, but who was walking with a flame under his foot and a second away from boiling over. Fed up with the reality of his dishwasher lifestyle he leaves for “the city” to pursue “the American dream.” How? By becoming a high-class male prostitute – a profession he figures will fall into his lap if he simply stalks women in his kitschy midwest get-up. However, nobody in New York is buying what he’s selling – neither in profession nor in character. He comes to the city as a hustler, but in the end, the city hustles him.

While Joe Buck becomes a walking stereotype in order to survive the city, his acquaintance Rizzo, though proud of his surname, refuses to follow the path of his anscestors and become a walking Italian stereotype. Rizzo fails to be any more of a success by shedding his stereotypes than Joe Buck does at milking his. It is also an interesting lesson in how the scum of the Earth can still have some goodness left to give.

I mentioned Billy Liar earlier, a black and white film about a misguided British youth. Though that film is in itself great, it’s easy to see that Schlesinger made so many visual advancements from 1962 to 1969. Midnight Cowboy has such a great grainy raw quality that is full of curious closeups and psychedelic interludes. Joe Buck’s face, sometimes so full of smug and other times so full of sadness, was another great quality of the film.

Perfect double-bill

S. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:26:47 +0000

O Lucky Man!

Synecdoche, new york.

An Actor’s Revenge

S. — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:55:44 +0000

I finally got around to screencapping An Actor’s Revenge, which I watched recently. Click here to view.

This, Kon Ichikawa’s film, was made to commemorate the actor Kazuo Hasegawa’s 300th performance as an actor. It is actually a remake of a film that Hasegawa had also appeared in. Hasegawa plays two roles – a female-impersonating Kabuki actor and an infamous thief.

At first look, the film is one of the most bizarre revenge flicks on the shelf (and that’s saying a lot). Hasegawa plays Yuki – a female-impersonator kabuki actor and secret swordsman. He uses this persona on and off the stage, dressing and speaking as a woman in daily life. Yuki, with his feminine presence and masculine strength, charms at once the infamous thief Yamitaro (also played by Hasegawa), a rival female thief Ohatsu, and the magistrate’s daughter Namiji. Stop me if you see where this is going. Yes, the intimate scenes between Yuki, forever in-character as a female, and his lovers commence. Not too intimate, but enough to seem just a tad over-the-top. All the while, the film plays to the tune of an almost-comedic jazz score.

After listening to Yuki’s strained feminine voice for so long it becomes very difficult to take the film seriously and, after all, this is the director’s intention. At first it seems unnatural to dismiss the storyline of a film of such exquisite visual style, but it honestly plays like the equivalent of a Japanese Opera Buffa. Ichikawa is in fact expects us to see humour in the cult that surrounds Yuki. He is satirizng the traditions of Kabuki and Japan in general, but doing so in style. The films crooked angles and minimalistic sets and lighting give the look and feel of watching a real Kabuki play. And it’s surprising that the film isn’t more popular simply because of that.

Woman Under the Influence

S. — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:17:36 +0000

“You still have to write your review?”"Yes.”

“Already forgotten what it was about!”

“I haven’t.”

“Only that Columbo was in it.”

“He’s the forgettable character.”

So yes, “coming soon” means how soon, indeed? The feelings that filled my heart and head after watching this film have certainly tapered now, two weeks later, but nevertheless when I see a frame of the film the astouding performance of Gena Rowlands immediately comes swirling back and the goosebumps follow.

So this is what I had for you, reader:

A suburban service worker named Nick finds that as his job becomes more demanding his wife, Mabel, slides closer towards a mental breakdown. “Eccentric” only begins to describe Mabel’s fragile mental state and her childish behaviour. The stress of daily life and the judgement of her actions by those around her plague her until she can no longer cope. Mabel is indeed strange and her family and friends have neither time nor patience to deal with her moodswings. Against her own wishes, a family doctor institutionalizes her for six months in the hopes that she may calm down permanently.
The most depressing aspect of this film is the fact that as “crazy” as Mabel is, everyone surrounding her is mentally and physically abusive to her. It’s hard to tell whether if this is representative of their innate characters or if this is the way they’ve learned to deal with the situation. Either way, they are just as damaging to her as she is to the world.

A very interesting quote I have found, from Cassavettes himself:

I’m very concerned about the depiction of women on the screen. It’s related to their being either high- or low-class concubines, and the only question is when or where they will go to bed, and with whom or how many. There’s nothing to do with the dreams of women, or of woman as the dream, nothing to do with the quirky part of her, the wonder of her.

Over three decades later this quote is no less true today than it was then. The world is slightly more interested in What Women Want, and their hopes and dreams – as long as those dreams are as grandiose as fame and fortune or as simple as the perfect man, sex, or shoes. What of the everyday emotions and instabilities that one may brush off as a girl on the rag or in need of some pills? What of the woman’s affections for her pounding emotions and her dizzingly high moods? Rowlands begged Cassavettes to “write” this role because she knew she’d bring the truth to the screen, real life. Either way, these stories still aren’t exactly blockbuster hits even today.

Peter Falk’s character, Nick, can see the wonder of her. His reluctance to have her institutionalized and his dismay when he returns as a stiff droid, who is short-circuiting inside from the pressure, shows it. He doesn’t want to tame the shrew, he simply wants to accept her.

A Woman Under the Influence – watch it, love it.