When I was fresh out of High School and in my first year of college I used to go to this video rental in Old Town Eureka called Video Experience. I was tuned into the place by the brother of my girlfriend (at the time) who was also introduced me to the insane world Takashi Miike. I was hooked on this place. I used to rent 7 movies a week from them and just eat up foreign films and gangster movies etc. Then came that fateful day when they announced they had to close that location. I was crushed, but we went to their going out of business stock sale and I found this little VHS tape of Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine pointing a gun at me on the shelf. It was 2 dollars, I figured "What the hell." Ever since I've been obsessed with Kitano's films, so imagine my delight one particularly sleepless night when I found Beyond Outrage as I scrolled through the netflix titles.
Picking up five years after the events of it's predecessor Outrage, the film chronicles the booming Sanno and Hanabishi crime families. Opening with the discovery of a dead cop and a bar hostess in a sunken car, the police force determines that the Sanno have gotten too big for their britches. They employ the skills of Special Inspector Kataoka, who has gotten close to the families under the guise of a corrupt cop. Through suggestion and direct maniuplation, Kataoka uses Kitano's character Otomo and another disgraced yakuza, Kimura, to completely destroy the leadership of the Sanno family.
Kitano has had a tough time with critics following the release of his "Meta Trilogy" (Takeshis', Glory to the Filmmaker!, Achilles and the Tortoise) so when he returned to the yakuza film genre with Outrage it came as somewhat of a surprise as well as a delight to audience and critics alike. While Outrage and Beyond Outrage don't quite have the meditative quality about them that a film like Sonatine or Hana-bi do, they still manage to pull in the audience and hold interest up to the final moments. One of Kitano's best qualities when it comes to this genre is his ability to set up and expectation and then surprise the audience in it's delivery. As a dramatic actor, he has a kind of new wave deadpan style, only showing emotion in the extremes which makes his violent explosiveness sudden and thrilling to watch.
The disappointing thing about this film is the incredibly straightforwardness of the plot. It's very much an A + B = C sort of experience, which is not what I usually expect out of Kitano. However, this is subjugated fairly well by the actors and cinematography. Fumiyo Kohinata eyes everyone with the look of a Japanese Fox mask as Kataoka. It's no surprise to the audience that he's manipulating the outcome at every step planting suggestions that the yakuza hotly act upon bringing their own doom upon them. Even though we know that Otomo and Kimura are going to get these guys, Kitano manages to still do it at the moment when least expect it making the violence sudden and brutal. I'll never be able to look at a baseball batting cage the same way again.
Not one of his best, but certainly not his worst either, Beyond Outrage is a solid yakuza film and the first direct sequel that Kitano has ever made to one of his films. There are currently talks of a third film, which would make it his first direct trilogy of his career. If you haven't seen Outrage watch it first.
Austrian director, Belá Tarr, is a curious film maker. His films are known for long takes (we're talking a 1000 ft film magazine for one take long), eschewing color film stock, and telling stories about people in the depths of personal and human struggle. At age 58 he announced that he was retiring from film making, but not without leaving one last film for the critics and audiences.
The story is about a Cab Driver, His Daughter, and the Horse that Friedrich Nietzsche threw his arms around begging for mercy in Turin, Italy 1889. It is known that Nietzsche succumbed to a mute madness and died in the care of his sister, but it is not known what became of the Horse. Utilizing his characteristic real time long takes, we follow what may be the final days of the small family who are surrounded by a terrible wind storm.
To explain any key scenes would merely give away the film, so at the risk of giving myself away, I'm only going to talk about the philosophical concepts of existentialism as presented. This film, is existential to the core. The family is surrounded by an impartial windstorm and drowns in their own depressed repetition. The Horse that Nietzsche "rescued" was originally being beaten by the Cab Driver because of its refusal to move and it becomes clear early on that once the horse makes it home, it does not intend to move any time soon.
Our family is poor. They live on an old farm with no real neighbors to speak of and nothing to eat but boiled potatoes. Nothing good happens, nor does anything truly evil. At the core, there is only nothing, a growing void that has always been there and threatens to swallow them whole at any moment. This is Tarr's metaphor.
His cinematography only heightens this. At the beginning the film is relatively bright, but by the end, the father and daughter are slowly consumed by an inescapable darkness. This darkness, manifested here as a physical entity, is all part of the existential underlining.
While I will admit that watching the film will be daunting to those who are easily distracted. Long takes are the ADD generations enemy, unless they're coupled by suspense and violent action. I myself found myself getting restless myself after watching the two humans eating potatoes for the third time. Ultimately though, this film is a metaphor for the larger concept that there is nothing.
When I say nothing, I mean that we are nothing in the eyes of the universe. We are an insignificant speck to the greater vast space all around us and nature does not have the human concept of empathy. When surrounded by the elements we only have ourselves.
Not for the average viewer, but it is beautifully shot. While it garnered relatively positive reviews from critics, most audiences just plain didn't get it or were bored by the, sometimes agonizingly, long takes. I can't say that I truly liked it, but I also can't say that I truly disliked. I will say this: After watching The Turin Horse I have not found a day where something from the film hasn't entered my conscious thoughts in some way shape of form. I have mentioned this film in casual conversation every day for the last three weeks and I can only assume that is because it affected me in some way. Give it a shot if you think you're up to it.
I haven't watched anything particularly NEW in the past couple of weeks. When I say 'new' of course, I'm talking about recently theatrical releases. Instead, I've been combing through my back log of films that I have acquired over the years and, for some reason or another, neglected to watch up until this point. A few months ago I finally sat down and watched Andrzej Zulawski'sPossession in it's manic, gory, uncut glory. Today, I sat down to watch it's predecessor, L'important c'est d'aimer.
The film starts off with an actress (Romy Schneider) going through hell on some sort of film set, which we later discover is a pornographic set. A sneaky photographer (Fabio Testi) takes pictures of her in a compromising moment and she notices him. Somehow drawn to her, he goes to her house the next day proposing to take more artistic pictures in an attempt to make up for his trespass. What ensues is a journey into an understanding of pain, sorrow, filth, and, most importantly, love.
Zulawski's camera is almost constantly in motion, resulting in a slightly delirious, borderline manic feeling, only offset by incredible close-ups with amazing orchestral swells. We are locked into the characters and we want, no, we HAVE to know what is going to happen. Will they succeed or fail miserably? The film does not provide any definitive answers to the more basic questions, but instead offers suggestions for the viewer to take in and digest.
At the heart of it all, it is a love story between people who are caught in a sticky web of failure. They're all failed artists. A failed actress reduced to pornographic films and dubbing work. Her husband (Jacques Dutronc), with multiple failed ventures and an obsession with authentic photographs of classic film stars. It is the photographer who seeks to try and provide them with some success, a venture which fails pretty miserably, but it is through these actions that each character finds a sort of closure and a chance to move on, albeit in unexpected ways.
Zulawski has a reputation for making artistically controversial and often violent films. His films, while excessive in some areas, still are incredibly unique in how he handles eroticism and emotion. The characters in this film, speak quite frankly, but simultaneously they do not give themselves away to each other, making the character dynamics more complex.
This film is not for the faint of heart. There are moments that made my skin crawl, but I do not take those moments as a reason to not watch a film. On the whole, the story is intriguing, the pacing is excellent, the technique is strong, and the acting was top notch. Stellar performances from the three leads and a wonderful supporting role from Klaus Kinski made this film superbly enjoyable.
Catherine Breillat has been dubbed, in the past, as "The Bad Girl of Contemporary French Cinema" and while her recent take on the fairy tale of The Sleeping Beauty is not particularly shocking or risqué, it is still an entertaining exercise in the style of New Wave.
Originally a made for TV film, it was later released in a limited theatrical run and some festival play. Telling the tale of the girl who is cursed from birth to fall into a 100 year sleep at age 16, Breillat's version takes great liberty in it's lore, while simultaneously telling a story about preservation and love. The central character is Anastasia (played for the majority of the film by newcomer Carla Besnainou,) a rambunctious princess who loves reading the dictionary and listening to the ticking of clocks and imagines herself as a knight. From birth she is cursed by a witch (for no real specific reason I might add) to die at age 16. Three other witches intervene and use their powers so that she will instead fall into a sleep for 100 years at age 6 and wake up aged 16, but while she sleeps she live in a fantastic dreamscape.
In the dreamscape, she meets Peter, whom she almost instant falls in love with but who is stolen from her by the Ice Queen. What follows is her search for Peter and the many strange and interesting character's she meets along the way. All while learning the different ways that people grow mentally and emotionally.
Breillat favors long takes, frank dialogue, and honest emotional output from her actors, never afraid to expose the beautiful and ugly things that people do to each other. Thematically, the film is about growing up in a fantasy world and the joys and dangers that come with that. When Anastasia does finally wake up, it's in a world much different from dreamscape, where things are not quite what they seem. It poses a question, can love transcend time?
Since it was designed as a TV film, the budget constraints were considerable. However, because of the minimalist new wave style the film still retains a very entertaining quality about it. Not for the people who love special effects, explosions, and other visceral types of things, but for those who enjoy a more cerebral experience. I found myself specifically drawn to Breillat after watching a documentary called Great Directors(which, incidentally, you can watch on Netflix Streaming.)She's a survivor. Her early career in the late 70s was almost destroyed by critics who found her work to be offensive. She doesn't pull her punches and has a naturalistic approach to sexuality. That scares people sometimes, but I absolutely love it.
As I said before, not for the average movie-goer, but the film kept my attention and it's only 1hr 27min so what's to lose? If you've ever met someone and felt yourself thinking "This guy needs to read a bloody book once in a while." The Sleeping Beauty will not disappoint you. It's available on Netflix Instant along with 4 other works from 2002-onward. Check it out!
When one thinks of World War II there are definitely a few things that come to mind. Pearl Harbor, The Jewish Genocide, The Atomic Bomb and of course all of the aftermath leading into the Cold War. A not often talked about atrocity is the Japanese Invasion of Nanking, known also as The Rape of Nanking. It was an act of total warfare upon the Chinese Capital, which claimed upwards of 300,000 Chinese military and civilian casualties and resulted in the trials and executions of Gen. Iwane Matsui, Gen. Hisao Tani and foreign minister Hirota Koki (Nanking Massacre. wikipedia.org) while the more sadistic perpetrator Prince Yasuhiko Asaka was granted immunity from the military tribunal due to a pact between Gen. MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito.
There are many idea's surrounding what happened and why, but the fact remains that it is an atrocity seldom talked about on western shores. Although, this is not for lack of trying. Frank Capra made a documentary film in 1944 called The Battle of China which included graphic footage of Nanking and several other areas, but death toll numbers were mere estimates (and they were low at that). There are also a few mid 90s Hong Kong films about the incident, but again, only one of those is available to western audiences. However, it seems that recently western eyes have been getting more interested in the incident. Partially due to the story of John Rabe and the westerners who remained in Nanking and established a safe zone for civilians and refugees. Western Eyes look at these more romantic hero stories which give a kind of Hollywood glossed feel. Regardless of these sentiments, not many films show just how brutal the incident allegedly was. I say allegedly because it is still a huge point of contention between Japan and China, and the true death toll number has not been technically found, although most historians seem to agree on 250,000-300,000.
All films have bias and it is no surprise what the bias is going to be of a film made in the country which suffered. That being said, I still found myself moved, to tears a few times, by Lu Chuan's recent Black and White film, City of Life and Death.
I missed the film on it's VERY limited run at the Nuart Theater and was surprised on "internet blackout/protest day" to find that it had been recently added to Netflix Streaming. The film is a beautiful example of 35mm black and white cinematography. It starts at the end of the Japanese siege and with the capture of the city and moves through the documented history from there. Scenes of warfare and brutality are not far off, including mass executions of KMT and National Army troops as well as civilian casualties.
While most of the characters appear to be documented there are always aspects that have to be viewed from the lens of fiction. The key theme of the story is the weight of war. The Genocide committed by the Japanese troops acting on the orders of a few incredibly atrocious leaders resulted in an open wound for the past 70 years which still has not closed.
While I very much liked this film, I will admit that there was a certain formula that I found a bit displacing. Whether it was at the behest of the censors or an artistic choice is unknown to me (I have not seen Chuan's other works), but there were moments where the characters made "noble sacrifices" which were played up a bit much for my taste. I'm not a nationalistic person and I don't feel any pride when I see someone standing head held high to walk to their death. I do not see the unbeaten spirit of the martyr, I merely see a man walking to inevitable, pointless, death.
Wikipedia had this to say about the censorship process of the film:
The film endured a lengthy period undergoing analysis by Chinese censors, waiting six months for script approval, and another six months for approval of the finished film.[4] It was finally approved for release on April 22, 2009.[5] However, the Film Bureau did require some minor edits and cuts, including a scene of a Japanese officer beheading a prisoner, a scene of a woman being tied down prior to being raped, and an interrogation scene of a Chinese soldier and a Japanese commander.[4]
Sure enough, rape is a common depiction in this film. However, it is not depicted for the mere shock of depiction but as a historical recognition of what happened. There is documentation, via diaries, photographs, and films made by the Safety Zone committee, suggesting that perhaps 1000 instances of rape occurred on a nightly basis. In one instance, the Japanese Army demands 100 women for use as pleasure women for Japanese soldiers at the threat of extermination of the camp. It's harrowing, tragic, and downright depressing to see, but it happened none-the-less and if anything enhances the power of the film.
The most interesting, and perhaps most redeeming, aspect of the film is the Japanese character of Kadokawa. Kadokawa is akin to the conscience of humanity in the film. Through him we see the effects of brutality and suffering that comes from such unrestrained activity. He is the most profoundly affected of the Japanese and we see that he feels absolutely wrong about what is happening. He's a representation of the the duality of man, the idea that good and evil rest hand in hand. Ultimately crushed by the weight of war and the weight of what he has witnessed it is his line, "Life is harder than death" upon which the film ultimately makes it statement audibly. Death is easy; it's living with the understanding that what one has witnessed or how one has acted was grievously wrong that is next to impossible. This is the weight of war.
Chuan received death threats for his sympathetic portrayal of Kadokawa, just for showing the idea that a Japanese soldier could feel wrong about what happened and feel the need to take action, no matter how small that action may have been. Available on Netflix, I highly recommend this one. A beautiful, brutal, emotionally powerful film.
I'm always looking for films that I can't describe after seeing. The type of films that just strike you someplace deep in your chest or in your mind, igniting the fibers and sinews of emotion within your soul. It shouldn't be too surprising that I found this with The Kid With A Bike the new Dardenne Brothers film.
Thematically, the story is about growing up with the psychic wound of abandonment. The main character, Cyril (played by new comer Tomas Doret) has been abandoned to a country run children's home, like an orphanage intended to be a halfway towards foster families. Refusing to believe that his father would abandon him, he attempts to escape from the house and find his father, only to discover that the adults had been telling him the truth. Upon his capture in a medical clinic he becomes bound by fate to Samantha, a hair dresser (played by the wonderfully natural Cécile de France). Samantha becomes increasingly attached to Cyril, first out of pity, and second out of honest love.
The wounds of abandonment are hard felt and Cyril is definitely damaged by them. Psychologically speaking, he cannot reconcile his trauma and acts out in increasingly difficult and vicious ways, seeking love in all the wrong places regardless of the fact that it's been right in front of him all along.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's previous works include the Palmé d'Or winning Rosettaand L'Enfant as well as many others, and they have been working together for the past 37 years. Their style is very influenced by documentary film making, where they got their start, and their stories tend to be about young people in dire situations. They generally eschew music, with the exception of diegetic (motivated by the scene, i.e. a car radio, boom box, or television), although Kid is the first to feature a piece of non-diegetic music, a Beethoven piano concerto. While many of their films do not contain happy or uplifting endings (they are certainly more interested in realism) they focus on the transitory nature of emotion and mental maturity.
I will end on a non spoiler note, that The Kid With A Bike is probably one of their most accessible films to date, in terms of a wider audience appeal. I watched it with a few friends at The Aero in Santa Monica, CA followed by a Q/A with the Dardenne Brothers and I think it's safe to say that everyone in the theater left with the elation of seeing a film that left a feeling inside them that is difficult, if not impossible, to describe with words.
The film should hit theaters in Los Angeles in March, hopefully a wider release is to come, and it has also been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.
There is something that draws me to old theaters. The type of theater that has been around for ages. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that there are many of them where I grew up. In fact, there are only two facilities that can be called recent in the whole county, and one of them is even at least 6 years old or more. It must be the inherent memories of those theaters that keeps me seeking older and older buildings. Art Decco, ancient seats, single to three screen boxes. Watching a film in a building that is as old as film itself.
I walked into the New Beverly Cinema and that feeling of nostalgia came back to me. With it's gray, blue, and red color configuration, old seats, lack of stadium set up, and it's single screen. You can't help but feel the venue's history, regardless of knowing that it's been open since the 70s. You don't get that at these run of the mill multiplexes who aim to squeeze as much money as quickly as possible out of a print and chuck it on down the line like yesterdays wank towel.
The New Beverly specializes in themed double features, as anyone who has been there can attest to, and retrospectives, but once in a while something truly special comes along to this little revitalized building. I got to experience that tonight with Rie Rasmussen's feature debut Human Zoo.
The film was paired with Luc Besson's Angel-A a film that Rasmussen had a starring role in. What I did not realize upon attending this screening, which happened to be the last of a four night run, was that Human Zoo, until now, has never screened in America to date.
The film starts off with a bang, well, a scream to be exact, but it immediately sucks the viewer into a tense and gritty world. Cross cutting between modern day Marseille, France and Kosovo/Belgrade, Serbia, the film tells the tale of Adria, an Albanian woman who is rescued by a charming Serbian sociopath during the midst of the the 1998 conflict in the region.
Through the narrative we see how the violence of Adria's past affects her in the present day, reflecting that the borders of countries are merely cages to a larger "human zoo." This was the intention of the director and she hits the mark pretty hard. Past reflected in cold blue tones while Present is much warmer and hopeful, although the two collide closer to the end of the film.
At the beginning I found myself turned off by the music choices (she chooses a few rather blunt metaphorical rock songs pertaining to some scenes), but the longer the film played on I couldn't help but become more and more completely absorbed into the story. The film is NC-17/Unrated probably more due to graphic sexual content than violence (although there is far more violence presence than there is sex) but once again, to me, MPAA ratings don't mean a damn thing when pertaining to the validity of a story.
If you're even a little bit familiar with Rie Rasmussen, you know that she wears many hats. She's a writer, actress, model, and director. In this film, she wears three of those hats, starring as the main character Adria, without pulling any punches and showing no fear. It's a difficult metaphor to show and she drew heavily on personal experience. Adria's first love, Srdjan Vasiljevic, played by the show stealing Nikola Djuriko, is a predatory individual who opens up a world of mixed morals and violence that affect her deeply for the rest of her life.
Through all the bad choices made in her youth, Adria is drawn into a situation in which she is able to finally atone for past mistakes, and find a healthy love, but not without a price. What struck me the most about the film is how it reflects the duality of human existence. On one hand we witness the incredible capability of sadistic behavior drawn out by violence and strife while in the other we hold the tenderness of true love.
Rasmussenseems to be very interested in finding out what it is that makes human's prone to make violent choices and to seek injury and death upon one another. Her next film Beyond Good and Evil, a biopic about Richard Ramirez, aims to take a further look at this theme.
(unfortunately there is no trailer with English subtitles)
Hopefully, Human Zoo will receive further notice. Until then if you want to see the film you'll have to keep your eyes trained for screenings at retro theaters, or buy a foreign DVD and hope for subtitles.
