The movies I love most are those in which situations occur which do not occur usually in reality, but are scientifically possible. By this last part I mean that I am not a very big fan of horror or science-fiction. A movie, to me, does not need to have realistic situations or dialogue to be good. What happens in the movie should just be in accordance to the world the movie has created. If we want realistic situations and dialogue, I believe, we can simply go out to the pub or to school. This obviously does not mean that I can't enjoy such a movie if it is very well made. All this probably explains why my favorite filmmakers are the likes of Quentin Tarantino, The Coen Brothers,Paul Thomas Anderson,Woody Allen, etc. None of their movies are probably flawless, but their faults are because the filmmakers dare to take risks. One of the most stupid criticisms I've ever read is that the movie Juno isn't good because no teenager in real life talks that way. First of all, that's a pity. Second of all it's true. That is why it is a movie and not real life and why the movie is so good.
Anyway Martin Scorsese's After Hours is exactly the kind of movie I love. Nothing that happens to Paul Hackett is very likely to happen. But the movie is so inventive and shifts tones so effectively that it is on of the most purely entertaining and absurd movies I've ever seen.
Psul is a very normal person working as a word processor who doesn't lead a very interesting life. One night he is sitting in a pub, reading a book, when he meets a slightly strange girl,Marcy, who has read the same book. She has to go home where she lives with a friend of hers, but gives him her phone number. Later that night he calls her and he goes to her and her friends' apartment, which is more of a loft, in Soho. Her friend makes paperweights and is into SM and is the first of the many absurd characters he'll meet on this night that's only going to be weirder. After a while of cuddling and talking with Marcy, Paul realizes he doesn't have much in common with her, leaves her and goes home. At least he wants to go home. Unfortunately he has only 97 cents left and can't take the metro, because after midnight the price of a ticket is up. As a barman says to him:"After hours, there are different rules."
Stuck in Soho, trying to get home, he finds that this is a quarter where all kinds of bizarre people live and are all connected to each other. Martin Scorsese has a brilliant cameo as light operator in club who with his light constantly follows Paul. The point is made rather brilliantly that all that happens to these characters is not by God's will or by some cosmic rules, but simply because the filmmakers want it. We only fully realize this though in the brilliant and even a bit frightening last 5-10 minutes of this film. They are frightening not only because the film becomes completely absurd, but also because we realize that poor Paul has no free will whatsoever. Everything he does is determined by his creator, Martin Scorsese, because he wants to entertain us. A lot of movies have been made and a lot of books have been written which reflect similar ideas. Not much have done it this entertainingly (The movie contains big laughs) or this good. And the closing shot is brilliant. It's not Scorsese's best which is logical considering he made Taxi Driver, but it's a masterpiece. And while I previously did not like Scorsese much, he is becoming one of my favorite filmmakers after also seeing The Age of Innocence and Shutter Island. He can obviously work in many genres.
donderdag 24 februari 2011
zaterdag 19 februari 2011
Once Were Warriors
Once Were Warriors, a movie about modern Maori in urban New Zealand, starts brilliantly. We see a shot of a beautiful natural area with some tranquil music in the background. Then the camera pans away and we see that this natural area is simply a photograph on a billboard next to the highway. The shot still lasts and we see Beth Heke coming back from the mall. The movie plays with our expectations. We know we are going to watch a movie about Maori people, so when we see the first shot we are not surprised at all. We are prejudiced to believe that the Maori still live in the wilderness with primitive means. This obviously is not true. This prejudice is often unconscious and when the camera pans out we become conscious of our prejudice. We realize that we found the first shot a very normal first shot to start a movie about Maoris. The rest pf the movie is not as brilliant, but is still very good and often very powerful and shocking
Beth Heke is married to Jake Heke and together they have five children. They live in a relatively nice house even though they struggle to make ends meet. In the first scenes everything seems pretty fine. Beth and Jake obviously love each other and their oldest daughter is reading her own stories to her little brothers. Boogie has some troubles with the police and is expected to court because he stole something. But it seems like everything will be OK. They (and we) don't know that this will be the day that this family will start to disintegrate with tragic consequences.
In another great and important scene we see Jake with his friends in a bar listening to a live performance by a singer. A thug doesn't care about this and puts on the jukebox. As a consequence he is beaten up by Jake, which is quite an achievement. Previously we saw this thug beating up five seemingly strong people very easily. Jake is now celebrated by the rest of the bar and the party continues at the Hekes.
The atmosphere at the Hekes' party is so good, pleasant and full of love that we are often jealous that we aren't there. It's then even more of a shock when it goes horribly wrong. Beth gets a bit annoyed, because her son does not listen to her and she reacts a bit cross when her one of Jake's friends asks for something. This infuriates Jake and he beats her up. Our sympathy for Jake is not completely lost though. We realize that he could have easily inflicted much bigger harm on her and that he actually controlled himself by not killing her. The next morning we learn it's not the first time something like this happened. To make matters worse Boogie has to go to a detention center.
In the rest of the film Beth hopes to make her husband, who she really does love, a better man, while trying to keep her family together. She unfortunately does not succeed and things only get worse.
I won't tell much more about the plot. The film gets only more violent and only more filled with aggression. The violence is often very shocking, because it's filmed very unflinchingly. There are calm scenes, but the tension in them is so great, because we expect that at any moment it can all erupt. And it often does.
Beth Heke is married to Jake Heke and together they have five children. They live in a relatively nice house even though they struggle to make ends meet. In the first scenes everything seems pretty fine. Beth and Jake obviously love each other and their oldest daughter is reading her own stories to her little brothers. Boogie has some troubles with the police and is expected to court because he stole something. But it seems like everything will be OK. They (and we) don't know that this will be the day that this family will start to disintegrate with tragic consequences.
In another great and important scene we see Jake with his friends in a bar listening to a live performance by a singer. A thug doesn't care about this and puts on the jukebox. As a consequence he is beaten up by Jake, which is quite an achievement. Previously we saw this thug beating up five seemingly strong people very easily. Jake is now celebrated by the rest of the bar and the party continues at the Hekes.
The atmosphere at the Hekes' party is so good, pleasant and full of love that we are often jealous that we aren't there. It's then even more of a shock when it goes horribly wrong. Beth gets a bit annoyed, because her son does not listen to her and she reacts a bit cross when her one of Jake's friends asks for something. This infuriates Jake and he beats her up. Our sympathy for Jake is not completely lost though. We realize that he could have easily inflicted much bigger harm on her and that he actually controlled himself by not killing her. The next morning we learn it's not the first time something like this happened. To make matters worse Boogie has to go to a detention center.
In the rest of the film Beth hopes to make her husband, who she really does love, a better man, while trying to keep her family together. She unfortunately does not succeed and things only get worse.
I won't tell much more about the plot. The film gets only more violent and only more filled with aggression. The violence is often very shocking, because it's filmed very unflinchingly. There are calm scenes, but the tension in them is so great, because we expect that at any moment it can all erupt. And it often does.
zondag 6 februari 2011
As and Angie
Angie (The Rolling Stones, 1973) The Rolling Stones can rock pretty hard, but they are at their best when they dial down a bit. The song is probably about some ex-girlfriend of Mick Jagger. And even though this song is about a break-up, it's actually a pretty positive song. The former lovers seem to have no bad feelings for each other and seem to even still be friends. And if you analyze the lyrics a bit further, they may not even break up forever, but that Angie's lover is simply going away to find a way to earn some money, since they are broke. Unfortunately this song does not have a clip
As(George Michael & Mary J. Blige, 1999) A song that's incredibly full of cliches, but one that's sung very powerful by both singers.
Well, the lyrics of the song make it pretty obvious what this song is about. Two lovers will love each other forever. So the clip wisely is an interpretation of the text. The aim of this clip seems to be to sell Mary J. Blige and George Michael as singers for sophisticated adults in the style of Frank Sinatra for example. Whomever made this clip wanted to distance it as much as possible from the usual clips of popsongs. First of all it has a lot of long takes of sometimes more then 30 seconds, which is quite long for a videoclip. During this long takes not much of interest happens. We simply watch them sing and dance. The ideology of the clip is obvious: For singers the music should be the most imprtant, not the show around it, just like it used to be in the good old times.
Michael and, especially, Blige are also dressed very nicely in suits, which also differs a lot from the usual video clip. And the bar they are in is also very sophisticated. When we see them drink they drink 'adult' drinks like whiskey. I have no explanation for the fact that we see many George Michaels and Mary J. Bliges, but it matters in this aspect that we see just as much Mary J. Bliges as George Michaels. Men and women are equals. Again, opposed to many other clips. We also don't see anyone else in the clip, besides the Michaels and Bliges. This may be an allusion to the text. They love each other so much, they don't need anyone else.
As(George Michael & Mary J. Blige, 1999) A song that's incredibly full of cliches, but one that's sung very powerful by both singers.
Well, the lyrics of the song make it pretty obvious what this song is about. Two lovers will love each other forever. So the clip wisely is an interpretation of the text. The aim of this clip seems to be to sell Mary J. Blige and George Michael as singers for sophisticated adults in the style of Frank Sinatra for example. Whomever made this clip wanted to distance it as much as possible from the usual clips of popsongs. First of all it has a lot of long takes of sometimes more then 30 seconds, which is quite long for a videoclip. During this long takes not much of interest happens. We simply watch them sing and dance. The ideology of the clip is obvious: For singers the music should be the most imprtant, not the show around it, just like it used to be in the good old times.
Michael and, especially, Blige are also dressed very nicely in suits, which also differs a lot from the usual video clip. And the bar they are in is also very sophisticated. When we see them drink they drink 'adult' drinks like whiskey. I have no explanation for the fact that we see many George Michaels and Mary J. Bliges, but it matters in this aspect that we see just as much Mary J. Bliges as George Michaels. Men and women are equals. Again, opposed to many other clips. We also don't see anyone else in the clip, besides the Michaels and Bliges. This may be an allusion to the text. They love each other so much, they don't need anyone else.
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