Saturday, March 30, 2018
455 - Broken Embraces, Spain, 2009. Dir. Pedro Almodovar.
Almodovar makes a thriller.
Well, technically, he has made them before. But this is the first one I have seen.
When you think of Almodovar, you may think of love, lust, identity, family relations, melodrama, broad comedy, over-the-top situations, high production values, and bright colors.
But what if you add darker elements?
What if you add suspense, mystery, crime (maybe a murder), and psychological ingredients, such obsession, betrayal, and fear.
Not that Almodovar has not done obsession before. Au contraire. He may be the Prince of Obsession.
But what about the kind of obsession that leads to pushing your lover down a staircase just keep another man from having her.
We are in Kiss of Death territory here. Or A Perfect Murder. Or Dial M for Murder.
Or maybe not.
One is never quite sure with Almodovar.
Because this movie is never quite a thriller.
It is a hybrid. An Almodovar hybrid. Retaining all of his usual elements--the romantic drama, the family drama, and the melodrama in addition to the crime drama. The broad comedy in addition to the suspense.
And high production values and bright colors. Not shadows. Not deep focus. Not low key lighting.
But a pretty compelling car crash. And that push down the staircase. And somebody who may have paid somebody to take care of somebody.
A man and a man who love the same woman.
A man and a woman and a woman who all love the same man.
A film at stake. A film career at stake. Eyesight at stake. A life at stake.
And maybe, somehow, after all these years, these 14 years, and all the revelations of betrayal that come at the end of them, maybe, somehow, some healing, some reconciliation.
And a finished film.
Woody Allen's film Hollywood Ending came out in 2002.
Woody Allen cast Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008 (as well as To Rome with Love in 2012).
Pedro Almodovar made Broken Embraces, working with Penelope Cruz yet again, and, while not repeating Hollywood Ending, perhaps appropriating themes from it in a good way, in 2009.
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Friday, March 30, 2018
454 - All About My Mother, Spain, 1999. Dir. Pedro Almodovar.
Friday, March 30, 2018
454 - All About My Mother, Spain, 1999. Dir. Pedro Almodovar.
Esteban is writing in his notebook.
The television plays in front of him.
The movie is about to start!
I'm coming!
His mother Manuela comes and joins him. She brings the snacks. They start the movie.
Eva al desnudo.
Esteban complains. They always change the title! It should be Todo Sobre Eva.
All About Eve.
Esteban has found his title. He writes at the top of the page. Todo . . .
We flip under the pencil. We, the camera, become the notebook. Esteban writes on us.
When we saw Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 film The Lodger we saw The Lodger walking on top of us, on an invisible ceiling. We on the first floor looked at the bottom of his shoes on the second floor.
The Lodger
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/09/266-lodger-story-of-london-fog-1927.html
Now we see a pencil writing on us, on invisible paper.
What are you writing?
Nothing. Future Pulitzer winners.
She laughs. Eat. You need to put on a few pounds. Some day you may have to work the street to keep me.
Work the street. We do not yet know the significance of her statement. Esteban does not know. And he never will.
The credits have been rolling as we have been watching, and we have not yet seen the title. Now we do.
All About My Mother. Todo Sobre Mi Madre--not Mi Madre al desnudo--appears in bold, all caps, sans serif font, with the words in red, except "madre," which is in white, emphasized.
The words stand between them. Come between them. Split them. As words so often do come between people who love each other.
He follows up on her joke. "And you? Would you prostitute yourself for me?"
She looks at him with the fatigue of a single mother. "I've already done just about everything for you."
The titles play on several levels.
All About Eve--which stars Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holme, and Thelma Ritter, with a young Marilyn Monroe--is actually not about Eve but about Margo Channing, the Bette Davis character. It is about ego and identity and dealing with aging, the changing of public tastes, the fragility of stardom, the perpetual threat of younger players, marital infidelity, and alcoholism.
But Eve makes it all about herself by insinuating herself into Margo's life and taking over.
When Esteban complains that they always change the title, they actually change the title on us as well.
The Spanish title spoken on television is Eva al desnudo, which they portray in the subtitles as "Eve Unveiled." This translation seeks to capture a broader, more metaphorical sense of the meaning by suggesting that the film will show the true Eve, who she really is beneath the surface.
The literal translation of Eva al desnudo is "Eve Naked," or "Naked Eve."
We can see that the figurative translation, "unveiled," makes sense with respect to what the movie is about. In English we do use the term naked to suggest emotionally unguarded, open, or transparent (e.g., Natalie Imbruglio's "Torn": "I'm cold and I'm ashamed / Lying naked on the floor"; or Randy Stonehill's "When I Look to the Mountains": "I stand naked before you in amazed belief."), but by making it unveiled the subtitle translators have made that meaning more clear.
So when Esteban wants to take it back from Eve Unveiled to All About Eve, he removes the layer of meaning that suggests, "This movie is about what the real Eve is really about."
But he also opens it up to another meaning. All About My Mother adds to it the layer from popular psychoanalysis. Why are you the way you are? It is all about my mother.
And we will discover another layer. An ironic one.
We watch the opening scene from All About Eve, as Bette Davis as Margo Channing sits in her dressing room after the show, removing her make-up, arguing with her friend Karen (Celeste Holm) about "autograph fiends" and putting on cordiality as Karen brings innocent little fan Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) into the dressing room.
And by isolating this clip of film, Almodovar shows us the furtive glance Eve makes as she stands outside the door listening in on Margo Channing's conversation. Her ambitions rendered naked from the beginning.
Esteban asks his mother a question. "Would you want to be an actress?"
She responds, "It was hard enough becoming a nurse." We appreciate that she recognizes the hard work it takes to become an actress.
Manuela is a nurse who promotes becoming an organ donor. An extension of one of Almodovar's previous films, The Flower of My Secret (1995).
Esteban promises, "If you were an actress I'd write parts for you." He adores his mother.
And if you know Almodovar, you know that he adores his mother. And that he writes parts for her.
Manuela says she was in an amateur troupe when she was younger. She will look for a picture later. She does. After the movie she finds it and shows it to him.
The picture of Manuela when she was younger. To us she looks a lot like Diane Keaton in the 1970s. With the hat. The sleeves. The man's tie loosely tied. The hand on the hat. La-de-da. La-de-da. La-la.
Boris Vian, she says. Cabaret for intellectuals.
Which immediately takes me back to a show I saw once on Hollywood Boulevard at a place called King King. It was advertised in the LA Weekly as the story of a man from Huntsville, Alabama, who went on a journey of discovery and became an evangelist. How is it that a cabaret on Hollywood Boulevard came to be about a man from Huntsville, Alabama, who became an evangelist? I went to see it. It was fascinating and strange. As cabaret for intellectuals can be. The high octave, high octane singing. The tightly choreographed, flamboyantly bold dancing. The unbelievably all-too-familiar plotline. And the thoughtfulness. Camp with much more going on beneath the surface.
At midnight Manuela brings Esteban his birthday present.
Music for Chameleons, by Truman Capote. (Another Alabamian.)
He asks her to read to him, as she did when he was little.
"I started writing when I was eight. I didn't know that I had chained myself to a noble but merciless passion. When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip, and the whip is intended only for self-flagellation."
Yikes. Manuela feels that those thoughts would turn one away from writing. Esteban feels it is a great preface.
He asks to see his mother act in an organ-donor seminar. She performs live skits on camera for medical professionals to watch in order to learn how to guide dying patients and family members into donating their organs. He goes. He watches.
Then they go see the local performance of A Streetcar Named Desire. It looks like a play. It does not look like life actually happening before their very eyes.
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
And afterwards they wait outside. Just as Eve Harrington stands outside Margo Channing's dressing room after Aged in Wood, so also Esteban stands outside Huma Rojo's dressing room after Streetcar. His motives are bit simpler. He wants an autograph. And yet they are deeply more complex. He wants to learn about his origins. Which makes our title ironic.
His mother tells him that they played Streetcar twenty years ago. She feels they did it better. She played Stella. Stella! His father played Kowalski. Kowalski!
"Someday you'll have to tell me all about my father."
Huma Rojo comes out of the theatre. Complaining. She gets in her car. He races to her. Puts his face to the glass. The car drives away. She looks out the back window. Watches his face. He runs after the car. Chases it. Races it.
And here we have John Cassavetes' Opening Night (1977). Another play about life in the theatre. In which we also referenced All About Eve.
Opening Night
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/035-opening-night-1977-united-states.html
About a fan waiting to see her beloved star. And chasing her. And racing her. And getting hit by a car. And dying.
Manuela runs after Esteban.
"My son! My son!"
Oh, Absalom! Absalom! Oh, Esteban! Esteban!
And the movie takes it turn.
Now Manuela must make the decision. Will she donate the organs of her son?
His corazon. Her corazon.
She sneaks into the files. Finds the location and identity of the recipient. Flies there. Goes to the hospital. Stands outside and watches. Watches as he walks outside. Alive. Smiling. Happy. Wearing her son's heart. Her heart. His chest walking into the camera. As if we have just entered into his chest cavity and touched his heart ourselves.
Manuela will do what her son asked of her. She will go in search of his father.
The Search for the Father Figure.
This time not by the child but by the mother of the child.
Seventeen years ago she made the trip from Barcelona to Madrid. But she was not alone. She had Esteban inside her. Today she makes the trip from Madrid to Barcelona. Travels through the tunnel like a birth canal. This time alone.
Going back to be reborn.
Pedro Almodovar inhabits a space shared by our friends the German Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), the Italian Luchino Visconti (1906-1976), the Danish/German/British/American Douglas Sirk (1897-1987), and the Americans John Waters (1946- ) and Quentin Tarantino (1963- ).
He once said in a speech while receiving the Lumiere Award in France, "I think I used the colors of my childhood, Technicolor, brilliant explosive colors, that my passion for color is my mother's reply to so many years of mourning, blackness."
His movies are big and bold both in production design and in theme. He seems to have a very big heart and requires a very big canvas on which to express it.
454 - All About My Mother, Spain, 1999. Dir. Pedro Almodovar.
Esteban is writing in his notebook.
The television plays in front of him.
The movie is about to start!
I'm coming!
His mother Manuela comes and joins him. She brings the snacks. They start the movie.
Eva al desnudo.
Eve Unveiled.
Esteban complains. They always change the title! It should be Todo Sobre Eva.
All About Eve.
Esteban has found his title. He writes at the top of the page. Todo . . .
We flip under the pencil. We, the camera, become the notebook. Esteban writes on us.
When we saw Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 film The Lodger we saw The Lodger walking on top of us, on an invisible ceiling. We on the first floor looked at the bottom of his shoes on the second floor.
The Lodger
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/09/266-lodger-story-of-london-fog-1927.html
Now we see a pencil writing on us, on invisible paper.
What are you writing?
Nothing. Future Pulitzer winners.
She laughs. Eat. You need to put on a few pounds. Some day you may have to work the street to keep me.
Work the street. We do not yet know the significance of her statement. Esteban does not know. And he never will.
The credits have been rolling as we have been watching, and we have not yet seen the title. Now we do.
All About My Mother. Todo Sobre Mi Madre--not Mi Madre al desnudo--appears in bold, all caps, sans serif font, with the words in red, except "madre," which is in white, emphasized.
The words stand between them. Come between them. Split them. As words so often do come between people who love each other.
He follows up on her joke. "And you? Would you prostitute yourself for me?"
She looks at him with the fatigue of a single mother. "I've already done just about everything for you."
The titles play on several levels.
All About Eve--which stars Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holme, and Thelma Ritter, with a young Marilyn Monroe--is actually not about Eve but about Margo Channing, the Bette Davis character. It is about ego and identity and dealing with aging, the changing of public tastes, the fragility of stardom, the perpetual threat of younger players, marital infidelity, and alcoholism.
But Eve makes it all about herself by insinuating herself into Margo's life and taking over.
When Esteban complains that they always change the title, they actually change the title on us as well.
The Spanish title spoken on television is Eva al desnudo, which they portray in the subtitles as "Eve Unveiled." This translation seeks to capture a broader, more metaphorical sense of the meaning by suggesting that the film will show the true Eve, who she really is beneath the surface.
The literal translation of Eva al desnudo is "Eve Naked," or "Naked Eve."
We can see that the figurative translation, "unveiled," makes sense with respect to what the movie is about. In English we do use the term naked to suggest emotionally unguarded, open, or transparent (e.g., Natalie Imbruglio's "Torn": "I'm cold and I'm ashamed / Lying naked on the floor"; or Randy Stonehill's "When I Look to the Mountains": "I stand naked before you in amazed belief."), but by making it unveiled the subtitle translators have made that meaning more clear.
So when Esteban wants to take it back from Eve Unveiled to All About Eve, he removes the layer of meaning that suggests, "This movie is about what the real Eve is really about."
But he also opens it up to another meaning. All About My Mother adds to it the layer from popular psychoanalysis. Why are you the way you are? It is all about my mother.
And we will discover another layer. An ironic one.
And by isolating this clip of film, Almodovar shows us the furtive glance Eve makes as she stands outside the door listening in on Margo Channing's conversation. Her ambitions rendered naked from the beginning.
Esteban asks his mother a question. "Would you want to be an actress?"
She responds, "It was hard enough becoming a nurse." We appreciate that she recognizes the hard work it takes to become an actress.
Manuela is a nurse who promotes becoming an organ donor. An extension of one of Almodovar's previous films, The Flower of My Secret (1995).
Esteban promises, "If you were an actress I'd write parts for you." He adores his mother.
And if you know Almodovar, you know that he adores his mother. And that he writes parts for her.
Manuela says she was in an amateur troupe when she was younger. She will look for a picture later. She does. After the movie she finds it and shows it to him.
The picture of Manuela when she was younger. To us she looks a lot like Diane Keaton in the 1970s. With the hat. The sleeves. The man's tie loosely tied. The hand on the hat. La-de-da. La-de-da. La-la.
Boris Vian, she says. Cabaret for intellectuals.
Which immediately takes me back to a show I saw once on Hollywood Boulevard at a place called King King. It was advertised in the LA Weekly as the story of a man from Huntsville, Alabama, who went on a journey of discovery and became an evangelist. How is it that a cabaret on Hollywood Boulevard came to be about a man from Huntsville, Alabama, who became an evangelist? I went to see it. It was fascinating and strange. As cabaret for intellectuals can be. The high octave, high octane singing. The tightly choreographed, flamboyantly bold dancing. The unbelievably all-too-familiar plotline. And the thoughtfulness. Camp with much more going on beneath the surface.
At midnight Manuela brings Esteban his birthday present.
Music for Chameleons, by Truman Capote. (Another Alabamian.)
He asks her to read to him, as she did when he was little.
"I started writing when I was eight. I didn't know that I had chained myself to a noble but merciless passion. When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip, and the whip is intended only for self-flagellation."
Yikes. Manuela feels that those thoughts would turn one away from writing. Esteban feels it is a great preface.
He asks to see his mother act in an organ-donor seminar. She performs live skits on camera for medical professionals to watch in order to learn how to guide dying patients and family members into donating their organs. He goes. He watches.
Then they go see the local performance of A Streetcar Named Desire. It looks like a play. It does not look like life actually happening before their very eyes.
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
And afterwards they wait outside. Just as Eve Harrington stands outside Margo Channing's dressing room after Aged in Wood, so also Esteban stands outside Huma Rojo's dressing room after Streetcar. His motives are bit simpler. He wants an autograph. And yet they are deeply more complex. He wants to learn about his origins. Which makes our title ironic.
His mother tells him that they played Streetcar twenty years ago. She feels they did it better. She played Stella. Stella! His father played Kowalski. Kowalski!
"Someday you'll have to tell me all about my father."
Huma Rojo comes out of the theatre. Complaining. She gets in her car. He races to her. Puts his face to the glass. The car drives away. She looks out the back window. Watches his face. He runs after the car. Chases it. Races it.
And here we have John Cassavetes' Opening Night (1977). Another play about life in the theatre. In which we also referenced All About Eve.
Opening Night
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/035-opening-night-1977-united-states.html
About a fan waiting to see her beloved star. And chasing her. And racing her. And getting hit by a car. And dying.
Manuela runs after Esteban.
"My son! My son!"
Oh, Absalom! Absalom! Oh, Esteban! Esteban!
And the movie takes it turn.
Now Manuela must make the decision. Will she donate the organs of her son?
His corazon. Her corazon.
She sneaks into the files. Finds the location and identity of the recipient. Flies there. Goes to the hospital. Stands outside and watches. Watches as he walks outside. Alive. Smiling. Happy. Wearing her son's heart. Her heart. His chest walking into the camera. As if we have just entered into his chest cavity and touched his heart ourselves.
Manuela will do what her son asked of her. She will go in search of his father.
The Search for the Father Figure.
This time not by the child but by the mother of the child.
Seventeen years ago she made the trip from Barcelona to Madrid. But she was not alone. She had Esteban inside her. Today she makes the trip from Madrid to Barcelona. Travels through the tunnel like a birth canal. This time alone.
Going back to be reborn.
Pedro Almodovar inhabits a space shared by our friends the German Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), the Italian Luchino Visconti (1906-1976), the Danish/German/British/American Douglas Sirk (1897-1987), and the Americans John Waters (1946- ) and Quentin Tarantino (1963- ).
He once said in a speech while receiving the Lumiere Award in France, "I think I used the colors of my childhood, Technicolor, brilliant explosive colors, that my passion for color is my mother's reply to so many years of mourning, blackness."
His movies are big and bold both in production design and in theme. He seems to have a very big heart and requires a very big canvas on which to express it.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
453 - Open Your Eyes, Spain, 1997. Dir. Alejandro Amenabar.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
453 - Open Your Eyes, Spain, 1997. Dir. Alejandro Amenabar.
Cesar is a good-looking man.
Or is his face disfigured?
He is successful in wooing Sofia and dating her.
Or is he dating Nuria?
Nuria is pursuing him relentlessly and he is trying to evade her.
Or has Nuria died in a car crash in which she was driving?
Or is Nuria alive and really Sofia?
Cesar is really frustrated. He keeps waking up from his dream only to discover that it too is a dream.
Or else he is really awake but then dreaming again.
What is happening in his dreams and what is happening in reality?
Eduardo Noriega plays Cesar, and he is a good-looking man whether he is awake or asleep.
Penelope Cruz plays Sofia, and she is equally beautiful.
You may remember that Penelope Cruz also plays Sofia in Cameron Crowe's 2001 movie Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise.
It is the same story. Vanilla Sky is the American remake of Open Your Eyes.
A science-fiction, fantasy, romantic mystery.
This film was directed by Alejandro Amenabar. His second feature film. Which put him on the map. It was nominated for ten Goya Awards in Spain.
It also launched Penelope Cruz's career. At least internationally. It was around her sixteenth film to make in Spain in five years. Within three years she would be big in Hollywood. She is still going strong. So is Noriega back in Europe.
Perhaps all will end well with Cesar if he can only wake up.
Or maybe he is trapped in an endless cycle.
Who is lying and who is telling the truth?
And when will all this stop?
If he can only open his eyes.
453 - Open Your Eyes, Spain, 1997. Dir. Alejandro Amenabar.
Cesar is a good-looking man.
Or is his face disfigured?
He is successful in wooing Sofia and dating her.
Or is he dating Nuria?
Nuria is pursuing him relentlessly and he is trying to evade her.
Or has Nuria died in a car crash in which she was driving?
Or is Nuria alive and really Sofia?
Cesar is really frustrated. He keeps waking up from his dream only to discover that it too is a dream.
Or else he is really awake but then dreaming again.
What is happening in his dreams and what is happening in reality?
Eduardo Noriega plays Cesar, and he is a good-looking man whether he is awake or asleep.
Penelope Cruz plays Sofia, and she is equally beautiful.
You may remember that Penelope Cruz also plays Sofia in Cameron Crowe's 2001 movie Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise.
It is the same story. Vanilla Sky is the American remake of Open Your Eyes.
A science-fiction, fantasy, romantic mystery.
This film was directed by Alejandro Amenabar. His second feature film. Which put him on the map. It was nominated for ten Goya Awards in Spain.
It also launched Penelope Cruz's career. At least internationally. It was around her sixteenth film to make in Spain in five years. Within three years she would be big in Hollywood. She is still going strong. So is Noriega back in Europe.
Perhaps all will end well with Cesar if he can only wake up.
Or maybe he is trapped in an endless cycle.
Who is lying and who is telling the truth?
And when will all this stop?
If he can only open his eyes.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
452 - Hey, Babu Riba! (Dancing in Water), Yugoslavia, 1985. Dir. Jovan Acin.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
452 - Hey, Babu Riba! (Dancing in Water), Yugoslavia, 1985. Dir. Jovan Acin.
In 1985 Yugoslavian director Jovan Acin came out with a movie called locally Dancing in Water. It came to America as Hey, Babu Riba!
On the surface, Dancing in Water sounds like a superior title, as it reflects the lives of the five-man, or four-man-and-a-woman, rowing team whose lives intertwined so significantly, and whose hearts blended so profoundly, in their formative years.
Whereas Hey, Babu Riba is a meaningless title. Nonsense words. Confusing. And not appealing.
In fact, multiple critics, who also did not know about the original title, complained that it was a sure-fire way to sink a film.
Who is going to go see a movie with a meaningless title?
Economically, they may have been right.
Unless, of course, the audience understands the meaning behind the name.
The youth culture is fed up with the Soviet Union, with Russia, with Communism. They are obsessed with all things American and with all that represents freedom.
These are the words as pronounced by the five Yugoslavian crew, known as The Four, as they sing Lionel Hampton's 1945 recording "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop."
In 1931 Cab Calloway recorded "Minnie the Moocher," with the lyrics "Hi-Dee-Hi-Dee-Hi, Ho-Dee-Ho-Dee-Ho."
In 1981 The Stray Cats recorded "Be-Bop-A-Lula."
And for as many examples as I have listed, there may be hundreds more.
Lionel Hampton's 1945 version stood at Number One on the R&B Juke Box chart for 16 weeks. And it was this version that the characters in the movie sing and on which the movie's American title is based.
In 1961, when Barry Mann asked, "Who put the Bop in the Bop-Shoo-Bop-Shoo-Bop?," he went on to explain why he wanted to know.
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
452 - Hey, Babu Riba! (Dancing in Water), Yugoslavia, 1985. Dir. Jovan Acin.
In 1985 Yugoslavian director Jovan Acin came out with a movie called locally Dancing in Water. It came to America as Hey, Babu Riba!
On the surface, Dancing in Water sounds like a superior title, as it reflects the lives of the five-man, or four-man-and-a-woman, rowing team whose lives intertwined so significantly, and whose hearts blended so profoundly, in their formative years.
Whereas Hey, Babu Riba is a meaningless title. Nonsense words. Confusing. And not appealing.
In fact, multiple critics, who also did not know about the original title, complained that it was a sure-fire way to sink a film.
Who is going to go see a movie with a meaningless title?
Economically, they may have been right.
Unless, of course, the audience understands the meaning behind the name.
It is 1953 in Belgrade, and dictator Josip Broz Tito is in the process of splitting from Joseph Stalin, having been expelled from the Communist Information Bureau, refusing to remain a Soviet satellite state, and moving from Communism to Socialism. He has just been named President of Yugoslavia and retains the title of Prime Minister. He will go on to rule until his death in 1980.
He maintains his hold on the country, but he is giving its citizens the beginnings of a taste of liberty.
And they want it.
He maintains his hold on the country, but he is giving its citizens the beginnings of a taste of liberty.
And they want it.
That includes music.
And the lives of these five young people come together in the middle of a century in which popular music develops at the speed of sound.
In which nonsense words are sung when words are not enough to express the deepest feelings of the heart.
In a period that transitions from Boogie Woogie to Big Band to Swing to Bebop to Rebop to Doo Wop to Rockabilly to Rock-and-Roll to Hip Hop.
And the lives of these five young people come together in the middle of a century in which popular music develops at the speed of sound.
In which nonsense words are sung when words are not enough to express the deepest feelings of the heart.
In a period that transitions from Boogie Woogie to Big Band to Swing to Bebop to Rebop to Doo Wop to Rockabilly to Rock-and-Roll to Hip Hop.
They want to be a part of this world, this culture of freedom, and if they pronounce the song lyrics incorrectly, what difference does it make? It is scat singing anyway.
And it spans all time periods and popular musical styles from the 20th century forward.
And it spans all time periods and popular musical styles from the 20th century forward.
Bebop
A nonsense scat word.
Or, as Rebop, a derivative of the Spanish arriba.
Neil Irvin Painter in Creating Black Americans (2006) quotes Dizzy Gillespie as saying, "People when they'd wanna ask for those numbers and didn't know the name would ask for bebop."
Peter Gammond in The Oxford Companion to Popular Music (1991) states that in the early days Latin American bandleaders shouted "¡Arriba, Arriba!" ("Go! Go!") to pump up their bands.
In 1928 McKinney's Cotton Pickers recorded "Four or Five Times" with heavy scat singing beginning with the lyrics "I'm never a flop / I started on top" and moving on to "Bip-Bop One / Bip-Bop Two / Bip-Bop Three / Ski-Adda-Dadda-Dee."
In 1928 McKinney's Cotton Pickers recorded "Four or Five Times" with heavy scat singing beginning with the lyrics "I'm never a flop / I started on top" and moving on to "Bip-Bop One / Bip-Bop Two / Bip-Bop Three / Ski-Adda-Dadda-Dee."
In 1929 Pine Top Smith recorded "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie," which did not contain the phrase but did contain the swinging boogie rhythm that would return in many of the following songs.
In 1931 Cab Calloway recorded "Minnie the Moocher," with the lyrics "Hi-Dee-Hi-Dee-Hi, Ho-Dee-Ho-Dee-Ho."
In 1936 Jack Teagarden recorded "I'se a Muggin'" with the lyrics, "Nobody knows just how it started / Somebody blew it through a horn / Somebody played it on a bell / Somebody sang it and the song was born / Now it's the craze, the new sensation / Now it's the song that bands all swing / Now it's the phrase that rocks the nation / Don't try and stop me, cause I'm gonna sing / I'se a-muggin', boom doddy doddy / I'se a-muggin', boom doddy doddy / I'se a-muggin', boom doddy doddy / Be-bop, Be-bop, Be-bop, be-bo!"
In 1936 Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded "Wham" with the lyrics "I can swing and I can jam / Wham, Rebop, Boom, Bam / I'm a killer diller, yes, I am! / Wham, Rebop, Boom, Bam."
In 1937 Jimmy Rushing recorded "Boogie Woogie" with Count Basie, continuing the rhythm.
In 1939 Cab Calloway recorded "(Hep Hep!) The Jumping Jive."
In 1939 Cab Calloway published a book, Hepster Dictionary, to translate jive talkin' for fans. See below for examples.
In 1940 Cab Calloway recorded "Are You Hep to the Jive?" Hep would become hip, meaning cool, as in hipster, as in hip hop.
In 1944 Cab Calloway updated his book, The New Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive.
In 1939 Cab Calloway recorded "(Hep Hep!) The Jumping Jive."
In 1939 Cab Calloway published a book, Hepster Dictionary, to translate jive talkin' for fans. See below for examples.
In 1940 Cab Calloway recorded "Are You Hep to the Jive?" Hep would become hip, meaning cool, as in hipster, as in hip hop.
In 1944 Cab Calloway updated his book, The New Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive.
In 1945 Jimmy Wynn and his Bobalibans recorded "Ee-Bobaliba" with Claude Trenier.
In 1945 Helen Humes recorded "Be-Baba-Leba."
In 1945 Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra recorded "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" with Herbie Fields.
In 1946 Tex Beneke recorded "Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
In 1946 Perry Como recorded "One More Vote (One More Kiss)" for the movie If I'm Lucky, with the lyrics "On the hop, blow your top / Bring me home with the rebop de bop! (Mop!).
In 1947 Dizzy Gillespie and His Bebop Orchestra recorded "Bob A Lee Ba."
In 1947 Tina Dixon recorded "E-Bop-O-Lee-Bop."
In 1947 Charlie Parker recorded "Bebop," with the lyrics "I rock the bebop, the bebop, the bebop / The bud-budda-budda-bidda bebop bebop somebody don't / Bopped Bopped."
In 1947 Charlie Parker recorded "Bebop," with the lyrics "I rock the bebop, the bebop, the bebop / The bud-budda-budda-bidda bebop bebop somebody don't / Bopped Bopped."
In 1949 Woody Herman recorded George Wellington's super-fast "Lemon Drop," with lyrics containing nothing but scat.
In 1949 Dizzy Gillespie recorded "He Beeped When He Shoulda Bopped."
In 1956 Dizzy Gillespie recorded "Oop Bop Sh'Bam!"
In 1956 Gene Vincent recorded "Be-Bop-A-Lula" with His Blue Caps.
In 1956 Little Richard recorded "Tutti Frutti" with the lyrics "Awopbobaloobop Alopbamboom."
In 1957 Ray Conniff recorded an album entitled Dance the Bop! with multiple songs containing the word bop in them.
In 1958 The Everly Brothers recorded "Be-Bop-A-Lula."
In 1958 Gene Vincent recorded "Dance to the Bop."
In 1958 radio DJ Jiles Perry Richardson recorded "Chantilly Lace" under the name The Big Bopper. On February 2, 1959, his bandmate Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on a chartered plane so that The Big Bopper, who had the flu, could fly instead of ride in the cold tour bus. The Big Bopper died in the plane crash along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens on the day the music died. Bye bye, Miss American Pie.
In 1958 American Bandstand host Dick Clark asked the group Danny and the Juniors to change the name of their song "Do the Bop" to "At the Hop" to promote his job as an MC of Sock Hops. When they sang "Let's go to the Hop / Oh, baby," they, under Dick Clark's influence, did as much as anyone to lay the groundwork for popularizing the name of a future style known as Hip (cool, hipster) Hop (dance hall). Just as suburban communities called their dance parties sock hops, so also residents of Central Avenue in Los Angeles referred to teen house parties as hippity hops.
In 1958 American Bandstand host Dick Clark asked the group Danny and the Juniors to change the name of their song "Do the Bop" to "At the Hop" to promote his job as an MC of Sock Hops. When they sang "Let's go to the Hop / Oh, baby," they, under Dick Clark's influence, did as much as anyone to lay the groundwork for popularizing the name of a future style known as Hip (cool, hipster) Hop (dance hall). Just as suburban communities called their dance parties sock hops, so also residents of Central Avenue in Los Angeles referred to teen house parties as hippity hops.
In 1959 Cliff Richard recorded "Be-Bop-A-Lula."
In 1961 Barry Mann recorded ""Who Put the Bomp?," with the lyrics "Who put the Bomp in the Bomp-Ba-Bomp-Ba-Bomp? / Who put the Ram in the Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong? / Who put the Bop in the Bop-Shoo-Bop-Shoo-Bop? / Who put the Dip in the Dip-Da-Dip-Da-Dip?"
In 1962 The Rivingtons recorded "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow."
In 1962, a few months later, they recorded "Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow (The Bird)."
In 1963 they recorded "The Bird's the Word," which The Trashmen then developed into "Surfin' Bird," containing the lyrics "A-bap-a-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa . . . / Ma-ma-mow, pa-pa-ma-ma-mow, pa-pa-ma-ma-mow."
In 1961 Barry Mann recorded ""Who Put the Bomp?," with the lyrics "Who put the Bomp in the Bomp-Ba-Bomp-Ba-Bomp? / Who put the Ram in the Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong? / Who put the Bop in the Bop-Shoo-Bop-Shoo-Bop? / Who put the Dip in the Dip-Da-Dip-Da-Dip?"
In 1962 The Rivingtons recorded "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow."
In 1962, a few months later, they recorded "Mama-Oom-Mow-Mow (The Bird)."
In 1963 they recorded "The Bird's the Word," which The Trashmen then developed into "Surfin' Bird," containing the lyrics "A-bap-a-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa . . . / Ma-ma-mow, pa-pa-ma-ma-mow, pa-pa-ma-ma-mow."
In 1963 Ricky Nelson recorded "Be-Bop Baby."
In 1969 The Oak Ridge Boys recorded "Elvira," with the lyrics "Giddy-Up-A-Oom-Papa-Oom-Papa-Mow-Mow."
In 1969 The Oak Ridge Boys recorded "Elvira," with the lyrics "Giddy-Up-A-Oom-Papa-Oom-Papa-Mow-Mow."
In 1971 Paul McCartney and Wings recorded "Bip Bop" with the lyrics "Bip bop, Bip bip bop / Bip bop, Bip bip band." And variations.
In 1973 Helen Humes rerecorded her song as "Ooh Baba Leba."
In 1978 the cast of Grease recorded "Summer Nights," where, after Stockard Channing sings "Cause he sounds like a drag," the Chorus sings "Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop Bop / Yeah!"
In 1978 the cast of Grease recorded "Summer Nights," where, after Stockard Channing sings "Cause he sounds like a drag," the Chorus sings "Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop-Bop / Shoo-Bop Bop / Yeah!"
In 1979 The Sugarhill Gang recorded "Rapper's Delight," with the lyrics influenced by Grandmaster Flash and Love Bug Starski, "I said a Hip Hop / The Hippie, the Hippie / To the Hip, Hip-Hop you don't stop / The Rock it to the Bang Bang Boogie / Say Up jump the Boogie to the rhythm of the Boogity Beat."
In 1983 Cyndi Lauper recorded "She Bop," with the lyrics "She bop, he bop, and we bop / I bop, you bop, and they bop / Be bop, be bop a lu she bop."
In 1985 Dire Straits recorded "Walk of Life," beginning with the lyrics "Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies, / Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby, what I say."
And for as many examples as I have listed, there may be hundreds more.
Lionel Hampton's 1945 version stood at Number One on the R&B Juke Box chart for 16 weeks. And it was this version that the characters in the movie sing and on which the movie's American title is based.
Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop. - Lionel Hampton
Hey Babu Riba. - The Yugoslavian Youth
In 1961, when Barry Mann asked, "Who put the Bop in the Bop-Shoo-Bop-Shoo-Bop?," he went on to explain why he wanted to know.
"Who was that man? / I'd like to shake his hand / He made my baby fall in love with me."
And millions of people around the world have felt the same way. Including those in Yugoslavia.
How many people have fallen in love during a song?
How many people have fallen in love while singing nonsense words?
In this movie, all four men fall in love, at different times and in different ways, with the one main woman in their lives, influenced profoundly by the music in their lives.
Her name is Mariana Zivkovic, but they called her Esther, named after Esther Williams, the American swimming champion and movie star, who makes movies under water.
They especially love the soundtrack to Esther Williams' movie Bathing Beauty.
Esther is their coxswain. Because she is lighter than all the boys, she weighs down their shell less, and together this crew of five, called The Four, wins races.
A fifth boy loves Esther, a captain of the team that functions as their main competitor. And a rising member in the Communist party. He complicates things for the rest of them.
So does Esther's father, who believes that the four men are bad influence on her. He asserts himself into their lives in such a way that he changes things forever.
The film begins towards the ends of their lives, and the story is told in flashbacks.
Of those wonderful years.
And that wonderful Summer. Summer of '53. Those were the best days of my life.
So if you wonder what such an obscure title could possibly mean. Hey, Babu Riba!
And millions of people around the world have felt the same way. Including those in Yugoslavia.
How many people have fallen in love during a song?
How many people have fallen in love while singing nonsense words?
In this movie, all four men fall in love, at different times and in different ways, with the one main woman in their lives, influenced profoundly by the music in their lives.
Her name is Mariana Zivkovic, but they called her Esther, named after Esther Williams, the American swimming champion and movie star, who makes movies under water.
They especially love the soundtrack to Esther Williams' movie Bathing Beauty.
Esther is their coxswain. Because she is lighter than all the boys, she weighs down their shell less, and together this crew of five, called The Four, wins races.
A fifth boy loves Esther, a captain of the team that functions as their main competitor. And a rising member in the Communist party. He complicates things for the rest of them.
So does Esther's father, who believes that the four men are bad influence on her. He asserts himself into their lives in such a way that he changes things forever.
The film begins towards the ends of their lives, and the story is told in flashbacks.
Of those wonderful years.
And that wonderful Summer. Summer of '53. Those were the best days of my life.
So if you wonder what such an obscure title could possibly mean. Hey, Babu Riba!
Esther can tell you.
Her four best friends can tell you.
It is not obscure to them.
It means something to them.
It means love.
It means joy.
Her four best friends can tell you.
It is not obscure to them.
It means something to them.
It means love.
It means joy.
It means freedom.
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
Hey, Babu Riba! (Hey, Babu Riba!)
Yes, your baby knows.
* * * * *
Here are some examples of words and phrases in Cab Calloway's dictionary:
apple (for Harlem, later NY), beat (tired), blow your top, bring down (depress), canary (female singer), cat (musician), chick (girl), collar (to obtain), come again (repeat), cop (obtain), corny (old-fashioned), cut out (to leave), cut rate (cheap), dig, foxy, freebie, get in there, gimme some skin, gravy, groovy, guzzle, have a ball, hep/hip, hot, in the groove, jam, jitterbug, jive, joint is jumping, to kill (show someone a good time), kopesetic, latch on, licks, main (as in main man), mellow, muggin', nix, nod, out of this world, pad, pigeon, pops, ride (swing, as in ride cymbal), riff, righteous, rock me, rug cutter, salty, send (as in "You send me"), sharp, so help me, solid, sound off, square, stache, Susie-Q, take it slow, take off, the man, threads, too much, trickeration, truck, yeah man, zoot suit
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
451 - Eat Drink Man Woman, Taiwan, 1994. Dir. Ang Lee.
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
451 - Eat Drink Man Woman, Taiwan, 1994. Dir. Ang Lee.
Three Sisters.
No, this is not Anton Chekhov but Ang Lee.
On the other hand, perhaps you will find some similarities.
Jia-Jen is the oldest. She works as a schoolteacher.
Dear God, please bring luck to our family. We are happy to have God in our hearts. And thank you so much for this terrific dinner. And thank you again for bringing our family together with happiness. In the name of Jesus Christ, thank you. Amen.
Jia-Jen prays before the Sunday dinner.
The Chu family has dinner every Sunday. Chu is a master chef. He prepares great meals in great kitchens in Taipei.. Banquets for dignitaries.
He also prepares great meals every week in his home. At least they are to him. He is losing his taste buds, and his daughters, who have grown up on his excellence, begin to notice.
When Jia-Chen mentions that the ham is oversmoked, it creates family drama.
The three sisters come home and eat. And share their lives. And do not share their secrets.
Three generations of women join them some Sundays. Single mother Jin-Rong. Her daughter Shan-Shan. And her mother Mrs. Liang.
This creates more drama. Mrs. Liang is pursuing Chu, who has been widowed for sixteen years, but he may have a surprise for all of them in the end.
And because he is a master chef, he prepares great meals for Shan-Shan at school. Her mother Jin-Rong sends her lunch with her, but Chu shows up with five courses. The first time, the children laugh and gather round. But before long, they have Shan-Shan turning in a menu for Chu, and he is making lunch for everyone.
He in turn eats the lunches Jin-Rong sends with Shan-Shan. When she finds out, she is overwhelmed. And embarrassed that he is eating her cooking. He says no worries. He is losing his taste buds anyway.
Jia-Jen has been mourning for nine years a break-up she had with the love of her life, Li Kai. Li Kai now works at the airlines with Jia-Jen's sister Jia-Chen.
Jia-Chen is the middle sister. In the beginning of the film she has the most going for her. She works at headquarters of the airlines and is being recommended for a promotion to the Amsterdam office. Her boss says the men who have been sent over have all been idiots. So he has recommended her for the job.
She has also inherited her father's culinary skills.
Jia-Ning is the youngest. She works at Wendy's while attending college, and she watches as her friend Rachel strings along a young man named Guo Lun.
Rachel believes she is playing hard to get. Guo Lun believes Rachel does not love him. He pines over her. He shares his heartache with Jia-Ning. Jia-Ning is there for him. Guo Lun begins to feel for Jia-Ning. Rachel has overplayed her hand.
A new volleyball coach, Chou Ming-Dao, enters into Jia-Jen's life.
The rising airline executive, Li Kai, enters into Jia-Chen's life. She will then learn his side of the story with her sister nine years ago.
Jia-Chen also has her ex-lover, now close friend, Raymond, to talk to.
And Guo Lun enters into Jia-Ning's life when he confides in her about Rachel.
All of these relationships affect the family at Sunday dinner, and their lives change as Taiwan changes. Old traditions are fading. New ones are arising. Times change and people learn to change with them. Or not.
Chu observes that just as Beethoven could compose masterworks while being deaf, so can he compose great meals without taste buds.
"Good sound is not in the ear. Good taste is not in the mouth."
His friend and fellow master chef then asks him where good sex is, implying if it is likewise not in the body.
Chu replies, "God knows where."
"Eat, drink, man, woman. Basic human desires. Can't avoid them. All my life, every day, that's all I've ever done. . . . Is that all there is to life?"
"We should be thankful that we're still alive and cooking."
The lives of all four family members take turns that we do not expect. Surprises are revealed at Sunday dinner.
And life moves on.
"You're pregnant?"
"Nonsense! Of course not! It's just that we couldn't wait."
"He's not Christian."
"He will be."
"I think we can be really good friends."
"Sure."
"Then, good friends?"
"Good friends."
"Our love was secret until now."
"Mom?"
"Loosen her collar!"
"Don't touch me!"
"Are you crazy?"
"I'm not crazy. I know exactly what I'm doing."
"Do you believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven your sins and made you a new person?"
"Yes."
"You can taste?"
"I can taste it."
"Some more. Please"
"Daughter."
"Dad."
451 - Eat Drink Man Woman, Taiwan, 1994. Dir. Ang Lee.
Three Sisters.
No, this is not Anton Chekhov but Ang Lee.
On the other hand, perhaps you will find some similarities.
Jia-Jen is the oldest. She works as a schoolteacher.
Dear God, please bring luck to our family. We are happy to have God in our hearts. And thank you so much for this terrific dinner. And thank you again for bringing our family together with happiness. In the name of Jesus Christ, thank you. Amen.
Jia-Jen prays before the Sunday dinner.
The Chu family has dinner every Sunday. Chu is a master chef. He prepares great meals in great kitchens in Taipei.. Banquets for dignitaries.
He also prepares great meals every week in his home. At least they are to him. He is losing his taste buds, and his daughters, who have grown up on his excellence, begin to notice.
When Jia-Chen mentions that the ham is oversmoked, it creates family drama.
The three sisters come home and eat. And share their lives. And do not share their secrets.
Three generations of women join them some Sundays. Single mother Jin-Rong. Her daughter Shan-Shan. And her mother Mrs. Liang.
This creates more drama. Mrs. Liang is pursuing Chu, who has been widowed for sixteen years, but he may have a surprise for all of them in the end.
And because he is a master chef, he prepares great meals for Shan-Shan at school. Her mother Jin-Rong sends her lunch with her, but Chu shows up with five courses. The first time, the children laugh and gather round. But before long, they have Shan-Shan turning in a menu for Chu, and he is making lunch for everyone.
He in turn eats the lunches Jin-Rong sends with Shan-Shan. When she finds out, she is overwhelmed. And embarrassed that he is eating her cooking. He says no worries. He is losing his taste buds anyway.
Jia-Jen has been mourning for nine years a break-up she had with the love of her life, Li Kai. Li Kai now works at the airlines with Jia-Jen's sister Jia-Chen.
Jia-Chen is the middle sister. In the beginning of the film she has the most going for her. She works at headquarters of the airlines and is being recommended for a promotion to the Amsterdam office. Her boss says the men who have been sent over have all been idiots. So he has recommended her for the job.
She has also inherited her father's culinary skills.
Jia-Ning is the youngest. She works at Wendy's while attending college, and she watches as her friend Rachel strings along a young man named Guo Lun.
Rachel believes she is playing hard to get. Guo Lun believes Rachel does not love him. He pines over her. He shares his heartache with Jia-Ning. Jia-Ning is there for him. Guo Lun begins to feel for Jia-Ning. Rachel has overplayed her hand.
A new volleyball coach, Chou Ming-Dao, enters into Jia-Jen's life.
The rising airline executive, Li Kai, enters into Jia-Chen's life. She will then learn his side of the story with her sister nine years ago.
Jia-Chen also has her ex-lover, now close friend, Raymond, to talk to.
And Guo Lun enters into Jia-Ning's life when he confides in her about Rachel.
All of these relationships affect the family at Sunday dinner, and their lives change as Taiwan changes. Old traditions are fading. New ones are arising. Times change and people learn to change with them. Or not.
Chu observes that just as Beethoven could compose masterworks while being deaf, so can he compose great meals without taste buds.
"Good sound is not in the ear. Good taste is not in the mouth."
His friend and fellow master chef then asks him where good sex is, implying if it is likewise not in the body.
Chu replies, "God knows where."
"Eat, drink, man, woman. Basic human desires. Can't avoid them. All my life, every day, that's all I've ever done. . . . Is that all there is to life?"
"We should be thankful that we're still alive and cooking."
The lives of all four family members take turns that we do not expect. Surprises are revealed at Sunday dinner.
And life moves on.
"You're pregnant?"
"Nonsense! Of course not! It's just that we couldn't wait."
"He's not Christian."
"He will be."
"I think we can be really good friends."
"Sure."
"Then, good friends?"
"Good friends."
"Our love was secret until now."
"Mom?"
"Loosen her collar!"
"Don't touch me!"
"Are you crazy?"
"I'm not crazy. I know exactly what I'm doing."
"Do you believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven your sins and made you a new person?"
"Yes."
"You can taste?"
"I can taste it."
"Some more. Please"
"Daughter."
"Dad."
Monday, March 26, 2018
450 - Kolya, Czech Republic, 1996. Dir. Jan Sverak.
Monday, March 26, 2018
450 - Kolya, Czech Republic, 1996. Dir. Jan Sverak.
The LORD is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still--[Yelp!]
Still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
The soprano is singing. The cellist is toying with her. From behind. He runs his bow between her legs. Up her skirt.
Thy rod and thy staff . . .
She jumps.
Louka has a naughty streak. He likes women. Flirts with them. Chases them. Charms them. He is a pledged bachelor. A settled stag.
The seducing musician. Libretto libertine. Player player.
Or as she puts it,
Pig! Grow up, can't you?
Prague 1988
Soviet troops crawl like locusts.
His mother says so.
Louka loses his job with the symphony. Not for his behavior but for the way he filled out a form. He did not bow to the bureaucracy. Answered the questions playfully. Did not take their Seriousness seriously.
So he now plays funerals. At the cemetery. And struggles to make ends meet. He needs a new car. His mother needs new gutters. He finds a pretty piece of costume jewelry in her gutter while working on it.
His buddy offers him a deal. Marry my niece. She is Russian and under threat of being sent back. If you marry her, she can stay. You will stay in separate rooms on your wedding night. We will pay you well.
Louka offers to stay in the same room on their wedding night.
No.
He agrees.
They marry.
She disappears.
Now that she can stay in Czechoslovakia, she goes to West Germany to be with her boyfriend.
Surprise.
Oh, well. It was a sham marriage anyway. Louka has his money. He buys his car. He goes about his business.
Until Kolya shows up.
Kolya is her son. She could not take him to West Germany. She left him with her mother. Her mother has died. You are the father of record. Here is your boy. Good luck.
Louka was right in the middle of a dalliance when this 5-year-old was thrust into his life. Talk about interruptus.
Kolya interrupts a lot of things in Louka's life. Louka has no clue how to care for a child. They speak different languages--Kolya Russian, Louka Czech. And some words which sound the same in each language mean different things. Things are not easy.
Louka puts Kolya in the bathtub to give himself some privacy.
He tries to maintain his lifestyle. But Kolya's presence just will not let him.
Louka must learn to care for Kolya. And learn to love along the way. The excursions between the old man and the boy provide some of the most joyful moments in the film.
The soprano gets her wish. The pig grows up. "Can't you?" Yes. He can.
Louka settles down with Klara. She agrees to help. She gets the piece of jewelry. She brings stability.
Communism collapses.
The Soviets withdraw.
The Velvet Revolution. Democracy. Capitalism. Freedom.
The mother gets her son back. Louka loses his.
He nearly loses him on the train platform when Kolya steps aboard as the doors close. But they reunite. In time for Louka to turn him over.
"Goodbye, Papa."
"Goodbye."
Louka gets his job back. He plays cello for the symphony. Klara stands in the audience. Her belly bulging with the fruits of committed devotion.
Kolya rides in an airplane. Above the clouds. Singing the first words he learned when he lived in Czechoslovakia.
The LORD is my shepherd.
I shall not want. . . .
* * * * *
Zdenek Sverak is a beloved Czech screenwriter and actor who has worked in the movies since 1968. He has written nearly 40 screenplays and acted in around 45 films. He wrote the screenplay for Kolya and starred as Louka. We promise he is not Sean Connery.
Jan Sverak is Zdenek Sverak's son. He has directed around 10 films. He directed his own father in Kolya. He had directed his father twice before, in The Elementary School (1991) and Accumulator 1 (1994). He directed him again in Empties (2007), Kooky (2010), Three Brothers (2014), and Barefoot (2017).
Kolya won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for the Czech Republic.
450 - Kolya, Czech Republic, 1996. Dir. Jan Sverak.
The LORD is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still--[Yelp!]
Still waters.
He restoreth my soul.
The soprano is singing. The cellist is toying with her. From behind. He runs his bow between her legs. Up her skirt.
Thy rod and thy staff . . .
She jumps.
Louka has a naughty streak. He likes women. Flirts with them. Chases them. Charms them. He is a pledged bachelor. A settled stag.
The seducing musician. Libretto libertine. Player player.
Or as she puts it,
Pig! Grow up, can't you?
Prague 1988
Soviet troops crawl like locusts.
His mother says so.
Louka loses his job with the symphony. Not for his behavior but for the way he filled out a form. He did not bow to the bureaucracy. Answered the questions playfully. Did not take their Seriousness seriously.
So he now plays funerals. At the cemetery. And struggles to make ends meet. He needs a new car. His mother needs new gutters. He finds a pretty piece of costume jewelry in her gutter while working on it.
His buddy offers him a deal. Marry my niece. She is Russian and under threat of being sent back. If you marry her, she can stay. You will stay in separate rooms on your wedding night. We will pay you well.
Louka offers to stay in the same room on their wedding night.
No.
He agrees.
They marry.
She disappears.
Now that she can stay in Czechoslovakia, she goes to West Germany to be with her boyfriend.
Surprise.
Oh, well. It was a sham marriage anyway. Louka has his money. He buys his car. He goes about his business.
Until Kolya shows up.
Kolya is her son. She could not take him to West Germany. She left him with her mother. Her mother has died. You are the father of record. Here is your boy. Good luck.
Louka was right in the middle of a dalliance when this 5-year-old was thrust into his life. Talk about interruptus.
Kolya interrupts a lot of things in Louka's life. Louka has no clue how to care for a child. They speak different languages--Kolya Russian, Louka Czech. And some words which sound the same in each language mean different things. Things are not easy.
Louka puts Kolya in the bathtub to give himself some privacy.
He tries to maintain his lifestyle. But Kolya's presence just will not let him.
Louka must learn to care for Kolya. And learn to love along the way. The excursions between the old man and the boy provide some of the most joyful moments in the film.
The soprano gets her wish. The pig grows up. "Can't you?" Yes. He can.
Louka settles down with Klara. She agrees to help. She gets the piece of jewelry. She brings stability.
Communism collapses.
The Soviets withdraw.
The Velvet Revolution. Democracy. Capitalism. Freedom.
The mother gets her son back. Louka loses his.
He nearly loses him on the train platform when Kolya steps aboard as the doors close. But they reunite. In time for Louka to turn him over.
"Goodbye, Papa."
"Goodbye."
Louka gets his job back. He plays cello for the symphony. Klara stands in the audience. Her belly bulging with the fruits of committed devotion.
Kolya rides in an airplane. Above the clouds. Singing the first words he learned when he lived in Czechoslovakia.
The LORD is my shepherd.
I shall not want. . . .
* * * * *
Zdenek Sverak is a beloved Czech screenwriter and actor who has worked in the movies since 1968. He has written nearly 40 screenplays and acted in around 45 films. He wrote the screenplay for Kolya and starred as Louka. We promise he is not Sean Connery.
Jan Sverak is Zdenek Sverak's son. He has directed around 10 films. He directed his own father in Kolya. He had directed his father twice before, in The Elementary School (1991) and Accumulator 1 (1994). He directed him again in Empties (2007), Kooky (2010), Three Brothers (2014), and Barefoot (2017).
Kolya won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for the Czech Republic.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
449 - Attention Bandits!, France, 1986. Dir. Claude Lelouch.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
449 - Attention Bandits!, France, 1986. Dir. Claude Lelouch.
If he loves his wife more than the jewels, then we're in business.
The kidnapper has it figured out. Kidnap the wife. If the man loves his wife more than the jewels, then he will give you the jewels. Every good man loves his wife more than jewels.
Today is Monday, November 15, 1976.
Jean Gabin has died today.
Jean Gabin is the great movie star of France. The Humphrey Bogart of France. A man who has played many roles and many types of roles, but who is known among other things as the prototypical gangster.
The good man is Simon Verini. He is a good man in that he loves his wife and daughter. And he loves his wife more than the jewels.
He is not good in that he himself is a bandit. A gangster.
But at least he loves his family.
When he hears the news of Gabin's death, he exclaims, "Without Gabin, gangster films are done." Maybe they are not. He had no idea he is about to get caught up in one.
Verini is spending time with his wife and daughter at the country estate. He is teaching them to fish. His daughter, Marie-Sophie, is 11.
Mozart comes to call. No, not Amadeus. But a young gangster who pretentiously pretends to be someone else to get Verini to come to him. He states his business openly. He has chutzpah.
Verini agrees to fence some jewels stolen from Cartier.
He has no idea that he will be double-crossed.
He receives the jewels. He begins to do the work to separate them and find places to sell them on the black market.
Then they kidnap his wife.
He loves his wife more than the jewels, so he turns over the jewels.
But after they retrieve the jewels, they kill his wife. And frame him for the murder.
That rat-faced Mozart. Verini is going to kill him. Cue the Requiem. In D minor.
Verini is arrested. Tried. Sentenced. Sent to jail. He vows revenge.
He places his daughter Marie-Sophie in a posh Swiss boarding school. The two carry on a decade-long relationship of correspondence. They are pen pals. And his love for his daughter only grows stronger.
When he is released, he reunites with his daughter. He plots his revenge. She seeks to dissuade him.
He has done his time. He is now clean in the sight of the law. He can live the rest of his life without drama or incident.
And the twenty-one-year-old Marie-Sophie and her father Simon Verini can enjoy one another's company for years to come.
Either that or he can pursue revenge and start his problems all over again.
Which decision do you think he will make?
Wait. There is more. A love triangle.
Marie-Sophie is engaged to a Swiss equestrian. Met at boarding school.
And the other man who loves her is none other than--
Mozart.
Cue The Marriage of Figaro.
* * * * *
So far we have seen Jean Gabin six times.
The Lower Depths (1936)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/059-lower-depths-1936-france-dir-jean.html
Grand Illusion (1937)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/061-grand-illusion-1937-france-dir-jean.html
Pepe le Moko (1937)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/075-pepe-le-moko-1937-france-dir-julien.html
The Human Beast (1938)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/062-human-beast-la-bete-humaine-1938.html
French Cancan (1955)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/066-french-cancan-1955-france-dir-jean.html
Consider All Risks (Classe tous Risques) (1960)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/128-consider-all-risks-classe-tous.html
449 - Attention Bandits!, France, 1986. Dir. Claude Lelouch.
If he loves his wife more than the jewels, then we're in business.
The kidnapper has it figured out. Kidnap the wife. If the man loves his wife more than the jewels, then he will give you the jewels. Every good man loves his wife more than jewels.
Today is Monday, November 15, 1976.
Jean Gabin has died today.
Jean Gabin is the great movie star of France. The Humphrey Bogart of France. A man who has played many roles and many types of roles, but who is known among other things as the prototypical gangster.
The good man is Simon Verini. He is a good man in that he loves his wife and daughter. And he loves his wife more than the jewels.
He is not good in that he himself is a bandit. A gangster.
But at least he loves his family.
When he hears the news of Gabin's death, he exclaims, "Without Gabin, gangster films are done." Maybe they are not. He had no idea he is about to get caught up in one.
Verini is spending time with his wife and daughter at the country estate. He is teaching them to fish. His daughter, Marie-Sophie, is 11.
Mozart comes to call. No, not Amadeus. But a young gangster who pretentiously pretends to be someone else to get Verini to come to him. He states his business openly. He has chutzpah.
Verini agrees to fence some jewels stolen from Cartier.
He has no idea that he will be double-crossed.
He receives the jewels. He begins to do the work to separate them and find places to sell them on the black market.
Then they kidnap his wife.
He loves his wife more than the jewels, so he turns over the jewels.
But after they retrieve the jewels, they kill his wife. And frame him for the murder.
That rat-faced Mozart. Verini is going to kill him. Cue the Requiem. In D minor.
Verini is arrested. Tried. Sentenced. Sent to jail. He vows revenge.
He places his daughter Marie-Sophie in a posh Swiss boarding school. The two carry on a decade-long relationship of correspondence. They are pen pals. And his love for his daughter only grows stronger.
When he is released, he reunites with his daughter. He plots his revenge. She seeks to dissuade him.
He has done his time. He is now clean in the sight of the law. He can live the rest of his life without drama or incident.
And the twenty-one-year-old Marie-Sophie and her father Simon Verini can enjoy one another's company for years to come.
Either that or he can pursue revenge and start his problems all over again.
Which decision do you think he will make?
Wait. There is more. A love triangle.
Marie-Sophie is engaged to a Swiss equestrian. Met at boarding school.
And the other man who loves her is none other than--
Mozart.
Cue The Marriage of Figaro.
* * * * *
So far we have seen Jean Gabin six times.
The Lower Depths (1936)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/02/059-lower-depths-1936-france-dir-jean.html
Grand Illusion (1937)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/061-grand-illusion-1937-france-dir-jean.html
Pepe le Moko (1937)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/075-pepe-le-moko-1937-france-dir-julien.html
The Human Beast (1938)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/062-human-beast-la-bete-humaine-1938.html
French Cancan (1955)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/066-french-cancan-1955-france-dir-jean.html
Consider All Risks (Classe tous Risques) (1960)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/05/128-consider-all-risks-classe-tous.html
Saturday, March 24, 2018
448 - Chinese Box, Hong Kong, 1997. Dir. Wayne Wang.
Saturday, March 24, 2018
448 - Chinese Box, Hong Kong, 1997. Dir. Wayne Wang.
How is it I want so badly the one woman I can't have?
John asks himself this question on December 31, 1996. New Year's Eve.
The day before the year that Hong Kong will return from British to Chinese rule. Six months before July 1, 1997.
John, a British reporter in Hong Kong, has published a book, How to Make Money in Asia. The British are exiting. By July 1 many thousands of them will have returned home to Britain.
John loves Hong Kong.
Sometimes you just fall in love with a place without really knowing why.
John is thinking in voiceover.
He has fallen in love with Hong Kong the way has fallen in love with Vivian.
Vivian is local. She owns a bar. She is engaged to a prosperous and potent businessman named Chang.
John continues thinking.
So much of Hong Kong exists below the surface.
If they could see what I see, hidden in her eyes.
He watches Vivian from across the room. Looks at her. Remembers her. Pines for her.
The New Year's Eve party is filled to capacity with influential and affluent people.
Chang. Amiable. Affable. Cordial.
Chang appears frequently on television when they need a great businessman to interview. His decisions move markets. He wields great influence and authority.
Yet sitting at the bar he presents himself as a meek and mild man. He is John's acquaintance. The two men get along. He is untroubled by John's affections.
John thinks.
There is an old game we play, telling ourselves this is enough.
A man pulls a gun on the party.
People panic.
He tells them not to worry. What he is about to do is for him alone. He wants no one to assume any blame. He puts the gun in his mouth. Cut to:
Crowd reaction.
Sound of gunfire.
On the news they cite the Front Line Theater Group. A group that helps people stage their own demise. As live, public theater. The Theater of Assisted Suicide
The City of Hope is becoming a city of fear. Why? Because the Chinese want to change all the laws dealing with human rights.
So says the man on camera. On the news.
John continues to think in voiceover.
There are moments when you see your life very clearly. The things you left undone. That time in Beijing. We were both ready for one another. It seemed inevitable that we would become lovers. And yet we let it pass. And then it slipped away.
He appeals to her. She resists him.
I need something else. Not here today and gone tomorrow.
You won't find that in Hong Kong.
I have. That's why I want you to come away with me.
I can't.
She cannot go away with him because she is with Chang. Waiting for him.
John receives the doctor's report.
Leukemia. 3-6 months.
John listens calmly. His eyes reveal canyons of feeling.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins sings, "Hong Kong."
A montage of images present us with a slice of time. The zeitgeist. Change.
The dog runs on the treadmill.
Panting.
That dog does that all the time. Just to please his master. They put him back in the cage alone in the dark. Just so that when they fight he'll win for them.
John sits at the bar with Chang. He tells Chang a joke.
You know why Chinese people like blondes?
So they can sleep with them and not remember their wives.
Chang reminds John that he told him that riddle.
John loses it. He has found a picture of Vivian's past. When she worked at a love nest. Probably the Black Moon. The most expensive night club in Hong Kong.
John spends days at the bar. Ordering drinks from Vivian. Sitting next to Chang. Knowing that Vivian is waiting for Chang. Waiting patiently, impatiently, as Chang focuses on work. Sensing that Chang might never marry Vivian because of her past. Because his family would not approve. Knowing that he would take her in a moment. Watching the woman he loves love another man.
John gets drunk.
Maybe I should be an agent. I want to change my job. Maybe I should do that. What do they earn for that?
His use of the word agent is a euphemism for pimp.
He makes a scene. Grabs the microphone. Offers Vivian for sale. Shows the picture. Makes a fool of himself.
Chang stops him.
What's wrong?
Nothing. Except that I love this woman and she loves you.
Chang arranges for Vivian and him to take their wedding pictures. He wears a tuxedo. She wears her wedding gown. They will send the picture to Vivian's mother.
They will not get married.
The photographer says, "You should get married one day."
John walks the streets with a video camera. He spots a woman on the subway. Her face covered. Hiding something. He zooms in on her eyes. He follows her.
She peddles commodities to the people. Rolex watches. Cartier handbags. Dunhill lighters. Possibly all fake. And canned air. From before the changeover. So that you can retain forever the molecules of history.
She sees John's camera. Walks up to him. Smacks it out of his hands.
Days later she will find him again and offer to do the interview with him. For $1,400. Jean knows how to make a deal.
But she sets the terms. He can ask no questions. He must give her the camera. She will go away and talk on it. And give it back to him.
When he gets it back he projects her face on the wall. He projects her face on the ceiling. He projects her face on his face.
Watches her with his roommate Jim in the room. As Jim plays his guitar and softly sings.
They believe a map of the face is a map of a life, and you can read everything in it.
Jean opens up to John. She tells him why her face is scarred. Why she covers her face. She shows him where she and her boyfriend William used to hide their love letters. She is still waiting for him.
It is ten years later.
John finds William. John is a reporter. He can find things. He brings William to Jean. And in a powerful scene William does not remember Jean. Does not remember any love letters. Does not know what she is talking about. Does not understand why John brought him here. Thinks it is all a prank. He is getting married next week to a girl Jean also remembers from childhood. He is frustrated with this whole fiasco. He walks off. John looks at Jean. He was trying to help. He understands her devastation because he lives it too. She rationalizes as they sit on the bus going back. "That wasn't William." Then she exits the emergency door and disappears in the streets.
Vivian watches Marlene Dietrich in Foreign Affair and sings along.
Some men at the bar get drunk and talk rudely to Vivian. Chang defends her. Smashes a glass bottle over the instigator's head. Even calls her his wife. But Vivian in that moment realizes this is the best she will ever get from him.
John thinks.
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife.
Vivian comes to John. Three times. First, he rejects her. He is upset. He is trying to move on. Then she pretends to be Jenny and tries to make it playful through the guise of a game. That does not work either. Finally, he concedes. He loves her.
They have their time together. The one he has dreamed of all these years.
He writes about it in his diary. He writes her a letter.
He boards the ship to take him home. His aims his video camera at himself and speaks into it while lounging on the deck with the sun in his face.
He drops the camera onto his lap. Closes his eyes.
The camera records his sleep. His slumber. His death.
John--
Out of your life you give me a moment. Me, sure that in spite of the past, and in spite of the future, this tick of our lifetime's one moment you love me.
Vivian--
You always wonder if you'll have courage when you need it the most. I'm grateful to John for putting me to this test. Like the city, I have to start over again.
Director Wayne Wang writes a love letter to his beloved home of Hong Kong. You may know him for directing The Joy Luck Club (1993).
Jean's story was inspired by the short story "Last Act. The Madhouse" by Rachel Ingalls.
Books on John's Bookshelves
Pin, Shn. Military Methods.
Wong, Jan. Red China Blues.
Kristof, Nicholas, and Sheryl WuDunn. China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.
Salisbury, Harrison. The New Emperors.
Witzel, Morgan, and Tim Ambler. Doing Business in China.
Doing Business in the New China. ?
448 - Chinese Box, Hong Kong, 1997. Dir. Wayne Wang.
How is it I want so badly the one woman I can't have?
John asks himself this question on December 31, 1996. New Year's Eve.
The day before the year that Hong Kong will return from British to Chinese rule. Six months before July 1, 1997.
John, a British reporter in Hong Kong, has published a book, How to Make Money in Asia. The British are exiting. By July 1 many thousands of them will have returned home to Britain.
John loves Hong Kong.
Sometimes you just fall in love with a place without really knowing why.
John is thinking in voiceover.
He has fallen in love with Hong Kong the way has fallen in love with Vivian.
Vivian is local. She owns a bar. She is engaged to a prosperous and potent businessman named Chang.
John continues thinking.
So much of Hong Kong exists below the surface.
If they could see what I see, hidden in her eyes.
He watches Vivian from across the room. Looks at her. Remembers her. Pines for her.
The New Year's Eve party is filled to capacity with influential and affluent people.
Chang. Amiable. Affable. Cordial.
Chang appears frequently on television when they need a great businessman to interview. His decisions move markets. He wields great influence and authority.
Yet sitting at the bar he presents himself as a meek and mild man. He is John's acquaintance. The two men get along. He is untroubled by John's affections.
John thinks.
There is an old game we play, telling ourselves this is enough.
A man pulls a gun on the party.
People panic.
He tells them not to worry. What he is about to do is for him alone. He wants no one to assume any blame. He puts the gun in his mouth. Cut to:
Crowd reaction.
Sound of gunfire.
On the news they cite the Front Line Theater Group. A group that helps people stage their own demise. As live, public theater. The Theater of Assisted Suicide
The City of Hope is becoming a city of fear. Why? Because the Chinese want to change all the laws dealing with human rights.
So says the man on camera. On the news.
John continues to think in voiceover.
There are moments when you see your life very clearly. The things you left undone. That time in Beijing. We were both ready for one another. It seemed inevitable that we would become lovers. And yet we let it pass. And then it slipped away.
He appeals to her. She resists him.
I need something else. Not here today and gone tomorrow.
You won't find that in Hong Kong.
I have. That's why I want you to come away with me.
I can't.
She cannot go away with him because she is with Chang. Waiting for him.
John receives the doctor's report.
Leukemia. 3-6 months.
John listens calmly. His eyes reveal canyons of feeling.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins sings, "Hong Kong."
A montage of images present us with a slice of time. The zeitgeist. Change.
The dog runs on the treadmill.
Panting.
That dog does that all the time. Just to please his master. They put him back in the cage alone in the dark. Just so that when they fight he'll win for them.
John sits at the bar with Chang. He tells Chang a joke.
You know why Chinese people like blondes?
So they can sleep with them and not remember their wives.
Chang reminds John that he told him that riddle.
John loses it. He has found a picture of Vivian's past. When she worked at a love nest. Probably the Black Moon. The most expensive night club in Hong Kong.
John spends days at the bar. Ordering drinks from Vivian. Sitting next to Chang. Knowing that Vivian is waiting for Chang. Waiting patiently, impatiently, as Chang focuses on work. Sensing that Chang might never marry Vivian because of her past. Because his family would not approve. Knowing that he would take her in a moment. Watching the woman he loves love another man.
John gets drunk.
Maybe I should be an agent. I want to change my job. Maybe I should do that. What do they earn for that?
His use of the word agent is a euphemism for pimp.
He makes a scene. Grabs the microphone. Offers Vivian for sale. Shows the picture. Makes a fool of himself.
Chang stops him.
What's wrong?
Nothing. Except that I love this woman and she loves you.
Chang arranges for Vivian and him to take their wedding pictures. He wears a tuxedo. She wears her wedding gown. They will send the picture to Vivian's mother.
They will not get married.
The photographer says, "You should get married one day."
John walks the streets with a video camera. He spots a woman on the subway. Her face covered. Hiding something. He zooms in on her eyes. He follows her.
She peddles commodities to the people. Rolex watches. Cartier handbags. Dunhill lighters. Possibly all fake. And canned air. From before the changeover. So that you can retain forever the molecules of history.
She sees John's camera. Walks up to him. Smacks it out of his hands.
Days later she will find him again and offer to do the interview with him. For $1,400. Jean knows how to make a deal.
But she sets the terms. He can ask no questions. He must give her the camera. She will go away and talk on it. And give it back to him.
When he gets it back he projects her face on the wall. He projects her face on the ceiling. He projects her face on his face.
Watches her with his roommate Jim in the room. As Jim plays his guitar and softly sings.
They believe a map of the face is a map of a life, and you can read everything in it.
Jean opens up to John. She tells him why her face is scarred. Why she covers her face. She shows him where she and her boyfriend William used to hide their love letters. She is still waiting for him.
It is ten years later.
John finds William. John is a reporter. He can find things. He brings William to Jean. And in a powerful scene William does not remember Jean. Does not remember any love letters. Does not know what she is talking about. Does not understand why John brought him here. Thinks it is all a prank. He is getting married next week to a girl Jean also remembers from childhood. He is frustrated with this whole fiasco. He walks off. John looks at Jean. He was trying to help. He understands her devastation because he lives it too. She rationalizes as they sit on the bus going back. "That wasn't William." Then she exits the emergency door and disappears in the streets.
Vivian watches Marlene Dietrich in Foreign Affair and sings along.
Some men at the bar get drunk and talk rudely to Vivian. Chang defends her. Smashes a glass bottle over the instigator's head. Even calls her his wife. But Vivian in that moment realizes this is the best she will ever get from him.
John thinks.
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife.
Vivian comes to John. Three times. First, he rejects her. He is upset. He is trying to move on. Then she pretends to be Jenny and tries to make it playful through the guise of a game. That does not work either. Finally, he concedes. He loves her.
They have their time together. The one he has dreamed of all these years.
He writes about it in his diary. He writes her a letter.
He boards the ship to take him home. His aims his video camera at himself and speaks into it while lounging on the deck with the sun in his face.
He drops the camera onto his lap. Closes his eyes.
The camera records his sleep. His slumber. His death.
John--
Out of your life you give me a moment. Me, sure that in spite of the past, and in spite of the future, this tick of our lifetime's one moment you love me.
Vivian--
You always wonder if you'll have courage when you need it the most. I'm grateful to John for putting me to this test. Like the city, I have to start over again.
Director Wayne Wang writes a love letter to his beloved home of Hong Kong. You may know him for directing The Joy Luck Club (1993).
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her, it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society, the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife. Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=chinese-box
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her, it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society, the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife. Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=chinese-box* * * * *
Jean's story was inspired by the short story "Last Act. The Madhouse" by Rachel Ingalls.
Books on John's Bookshelves
Pin, Shn. Military Methods.
Wong, Jan. Red China Blues.
Kristof, Nicholas, and Sheryl WuDunn. China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.
Salisbury, Harrison. The New Emperors.
Witzel, Morgan, and Tim Ambler. Doing Business in China.
Doing Business in the New China. ?
Friday, March 23, 2018
447 - Girl from Hunan, China, 1987. Dir. U Lan, Fei Xie.
Friday, March 22, 2018
447 - Girl from Hunan, China, 1987. Dir. U Lan, Fei Xie.
I only build Greek temples in which humanity is worshiped. - Shen Congwen.
Adapted from Xiaoxiao by Shen Congwen.
Xiao Xiao is getting married. She travels with her father. By boat and then by sedan.
A sedan is a type of litter. A carriage box with poles run through it on each side and with four men carrying it while walking and lifting the pole handles. A palanqin. A jiao.
Her father walks beside the sedan.
She asks if they can stop. She needs to urinate. The English translation subtitles claim that she says, "I need to take a piss." We do not know if that is exactly what she says in Mandarin, but it seems curious when you get to know her.
Her father explains to her that where they are going will not be as nice, but she needs to be an adult and obey.
Obey?
Xiao Xiao is twelve.
Her marriage is arranged.
Her fiance, Chun Guan, is a two-year old boy.
Really?
That is what this movie is about. Arranged marriages between children.
The mother of the boy gladly gives him to Xiao Xiao. In fact, she arranged it. It is as if she wants someone else to take over the duties of raising him.
They have the ceremony. The rest is innocent. She acts more like a big sister raising a kid brother. He grows to call her "Sister."
She recites poetry to him under the evening sky.
Where the moon goes, I will follow.
The big round moon, it's so hollow.
Where the moon goes, I will follow.
It was made in the People's Republic of China. At the Youth Film Studio.
447 - Girl from Hunan, China, 1987. Dir. U Lan, Fei Xie.
I only build Greek temples in which humanity is worshiped. - Shen Congwen.
Adapted from Xiaoxiao by Shen Congwen.
Xiao Xiao is getting married. She travels with her father. By boat and then by sedan.
A sedan is a type of litter. A carriage box with poles run through it on each side and with four men carrying it while walking and lifting the pole handles. A palanqin. A jiao.
Her father walks beside the sedan.
She asks if they can stop. She needs to urinate. The English translation subtitles claim that she says, "I need to take a piss." We do not know if that is exactly what she says in Mandarin, but it seems curious when you get to know her.
Her father explains to her that where they are going will not be as nice, but she needs to be an adult and obey.
Obey?
Xiao Xiao is twelve.
Her marriage is arranged.
Her fiance, Chun Guan, is a two-year old boy.
Really?
That is what this movie is about. Arranged marriages between children.
The mother of the boy gladly gives him to Xiao Xiao. In fact, she arranged it. It is as if she wants someone else to take over the duties of raising him.
They have the ceremony. The rest is innocent. She acts more like a big sister raising a kid brother. He grows to call her "Sister."
She recites poetry to him under the evening sky.
Where the moon goes, I will follow.
The big round moon, it's so hollow.
Where the moon goes, I will follow.
Up in the air, like a swallow.
Where the moon goes, I will follow.
The big round moon, it's so hollow.
Not very good, is it? Maybe we should say children's verse rather than poetry. Maybe it sounds better in Mandarin.
When he gets older they play hide and seek. She starts to call herself his sister. He corrects her. "You're my wife!" They run and laugh. She spanks him playfully. They enjoy each other's company.
The men work the rice paddies. They refer to Xiao Xiao as "the virgin."
They take a break and ask the now 6-year-old Chun Guan to sing for them.
He sings.
Up in the skies, clouds are billowing.
Down in the corn, pea plants are growing.
Tendrils wrap tight 'round every stem.
Maidens wrap tight 'round all the men.
Who taught him that?
His uncle taught him.
Now that Xiao Xiao is 16 her body is developing and the men look at her and talk about her. Back in her bedroom she experiences the discoveries a young person goes through after puberty. Standing in the dark. Discovering herself. With her six-year-old husband across the room lying in bed.
In the village Chun Guan gets in the way. Xiao Xiao is asked to watch him. They go walking.
His uncle sings another song.
Three maple leaves, all the same.
Under the leaves, lover's lane.
Many girls to whom I've spoken
Now I've countless love tokens.
Maybe the translators speak English as a second language.
They go to the market. They ride in the boat. One of the young rice farmers, Hua Gou, flirts with her. The older women give her wooden shoes to bind her feet. She works. Making rice cakes.
The farmer from a distance plays an instrument. She hears it and turns. Smiles. Her husband brings her flowers. She appreciates it. Hugs him. Smiles.
She carries her husband on her back to run in out of the rain. They take shelter in a mill. She hides from her husband to remove her wet clothes. She hides further still when the rice farmer enters the mill.
Her husband asks the rice farmer to play with him.
Her husband asks the rice farmer to play with him.
Instead, Hua Gou asks Chun Guan to go looking for his buffalo. Hua Gou wants to be alone. He has something in mind.
Xiao Xiao is hiding in the hay. Hua Gou opens the sluice gate. Starts the drive shaft. Turns the waterwheel. Moves the millstone.
Hua Gou joins her in the hay. She receives him. She is, after all, a virgin having to wait at least ten more years to consummate her marriage. She has already waited four. That is like Jacob working for Leah and Rachel combined. And waiting all fourteen years to get either.
Xiao Xiao gets pregnant.
She tries to abort but does not succeed.
Another couple is caught. In flagrante delicto.
The villagers show up with torches. Ready for bear.
"Look how they've broken our clan rules. . . . Beat them. Beat them good and hard. We should break his legs, so he can't do it again.
I am curious to know how having broken legs would stop one from doing it again. If you find out, let me know.
They break his legs.
Now for her.
"Ask her parents. Either drown her, or if they're shameless, sell her off."
"That would be too nice. She's disgraced us. We must be strict."
They decide to "take her clothes off and drown her."
Now how is that first part not itself a violation of their strict clan rules?
The villagers with their firebrands stand en masse as this girl is carried on her own litter. Without a carriage box. A bed with poles. A stretcher. Nude. Bent over. Bound. Shamed.
They place her in the boat. They carry her out to sea. You may guess what happens next. They return without her.
Xiao Xiao watches these processions from behind a tree. She knows she is vulnerable. She is afraid.
She goes into labor. The elders gather round.
"If it's a girl, drown it."
It is a boy. The six-year old Chunguan's stepson.
He looks like a bull. They name him Bull. Little Bull.
Years later Chunguan is in town. High school age. Some girls approach him. "I hear you have a wife. 10 years older than you." / "Nonsense." "Look he is blushing, so it must be true." The girls laugh. He must endure it.
He catches a boat to go home. 10 miles up in the mountains. When he gets there he watches from a distance as his wife and mother talk.
The bride is coming.
The mother-in-law informs the daughter-in-law that today Little Bull will be married.
She says to Little Bull, "Your uncle wasn't weaned when he was married." Little Bull is weaned. Good news!
Little Bull resists. He cries. "I won't! I won't!" His step-grandmother informs him that "All men get married." So of course he must. She states that Chunguan will be so happy when he discovers Little Bull's marriage. She orders Xiao Xiao to go meet the bride.
Xiao Xiao does not want to meet the bride. But her mother-in-law explains that she must, as it is clan rules.
Then she gives Xiao Xiao another piece of advice. From Dad. (Whom we do not remember having ever seen.)
Xiao Xiao is to sleep with her husband Chunguan. For the first time since their marriage. Around fourteen years ago.
"It's really double happiness today!"
Xiao Xiao is smiling when she closes the door.
Girl from Hunin takes a stand for women. Or more precisely, it takes a stand for children of both sexes. Not to be given in arranged marriages. Not to be given in any kind of marriage against their will.
It was made in the People's Republic of China. At the Youth Film Studio.
It was one of the first Chinese films to be given a commercial release in America.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
446 - Ran, Japan, 1985. Dir. Akira Kurosawa.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
446 - Ran, Japan, 1985. Dir. Akira Kurosawa.
A single arrow is easily broken. Not so three together.
Lord Hidetora Ichimonji is giving a demonstration to his three adult sons, servants, and guests on the open slopes.
No, he has not been reading Ecclesiastes. He is drawing from ancient Japanese instruction.
He gives each son a single arrow. Each son is able to snap it with his hands.
He gives each son three arrows together. They cannot break them.
The reason they are on the slopes is that Hidetora has invited two warlords, his rivals of the past fifty years, to come and consider taking his youngest son Sabura as a son-in-law.
Lord Ichimonji has just given the entirety of his kingdom to his sons. With authority to his eldest son Taro.
He is about to discover that that was a mistake.
Each of the three sons responds to his bestowal.
Taro flatters him, saying he wishes his father would live a thousand years. That he would rather take years off his own life to extend the life of his father. He claims he cannot rule the kingdom by himself.
Jiro, the middle son, sides with Taro.
Lord Ichimonji uses the metaphor of the unbroken arrows to promote unity. Indeed, the symbol on the hung banner behind them means "one."
He states, "Whenever Taro is in trouble if you unite your forces the house of Ichimonji will be safe."
Let us just say that the opposite is about to happen.
Not only will the three brothers not unite, but they will also battle one another. Not only will the house of Ichimonji not be safe, but it will also be destroyed.
This is, after all, an epic tragedy appropriating certain narrative elements of King Lear.
Therefore, Sabura, as you might imagine, is impertinent. At least in Hidetora's mind. Hidetora's loyal servant Tango will appeal to him that Sabura is only speaking sincerely, from the heart. While his manner may be less than respectful of his father, his intentions are true.
Sabura demonstrates that while he cannot snap the arrows with his hands, he can certainly break them with his knee.
"Three arrows can be broken," he objects.
And they will be.
Lord Ichimonji is taken aback. He looks at the guests. He must save face. He laughs. He says he is amused by Sabura's pranks.
But Sabura doubles down. He is not pranking. He is serious. He elevates his tone. Expounds his position. Dishonors his father.
"You scorn your father's wishes? Parents and children have no place in this world? Very well, since you will have it so, I cut the bond between us! You are a stranger to me."
And Lord Ichimonji's disowning of Sabura, the true but too honest one, is his second mistake.
He will say at the end of the movie, just before they expire together, "My mistake was to love him too well."
The two-hour, forty minute film is divided into five acts and follows the line of intrigue, murder, betrayal, usurpation, revenge, bloodlust, and the declining of a once-great man into madness.
Lord Ichimonji will end up stripped and broken, alone in nature with his loyal servant Tango and his fool Kyoami.
Taro performs the first treachery, taking the power his father has given him, driving him out, and seeking to consolidate all the region under his authority.
"The view is more pleasant now that it is mine."
He decrees that anyone who helps his father will die.
A great battle takes place at the Third Castle, where Lord Ichimonji first goes to hide. Taro and Jiro conspire to besiege it, but Jiro betrays Taro as his own general Kurogane kills Taro.
Now Jiro controls the land.
But someone remains on whom they have not counted. Lady Kaede. She is Taro's wife. Like Lady Macbeth, she spurs him on to power when he first receives the premature inheritance. But do not think for one moment she loves her husband and wants to promote him.
Lady Kaede is the remaining booty of a defeated empire. When the mighty Lord Ichimonji defeated Lady Kaede's father, destroyed his kingdom, killed his people, and took possession of his land, he gave the lord's daughter Kaede to his firstborn son Jaro.
For years she has appeared to be a loyal member of the Ichimonji family, but in her heart she remains her father's daughter.
And now it is time for her revenge.
What she does to Taro, and then to his brother Jiro, and then to Jiro's wife Lady Sue, is so stunning. Shakespeare himself would have been proud.
The hen pecks the cock.
Another, greater epic battle will ensue as everything rises to the dramatic climax.
The only winner of this war is death.
At least Lord Ichimonji has a moment to reconcile with Saburo before it all ends.
"Forgive me. I'm a stupid old fool."
At age 75, Akira Kurosawa has made one of the greatest films of his career. He spent ten years preparing for it, even making the dramatic war film Kagemusha (1980) as a practice film. He storyboarded each shot, painting them. He had more than 1,400 costumes hand-made, each one requiring three months to construct.
He filmed the rich colors of the costumes and fabrics against the lush green and earth tones of the land.
And the red. Of the blood.
Ran--pronounced as "rahn" or "ron" and meaning chaos or revolt--cements Kurosawa's position as one of the greatest masters the cinema world has ever known.
446 - Ran, Japan, 1985. Dir. Akira Kurosawa.
A single arrow is easily broken. Not so three together.
Lord Hidetora Ichimonji is giving a demonstration to his three adult sons, servants, and guests on the open slopes.
No, he has not been reading Ecclesiastes. He is drawing from ancient Japanese instruction.
He gives each son a single arrow. Each son is able to snap it with his hands.
He gives each son three arrows together. They cannot break them.
The reason they are on the slopes is that Hidetora has invited two warlords, his rivals of the past fifty years, to come and consider taking his youngest son Sabura as a son-in-law.
Lord Ichimonji has just given the entirety of his kingdom to his sons. With authority to his eldest son Taro.
He is about to discover that that was a mistake.
Each of the three sons responds to his bestowal.
Taro flatters him, saying he wishes his father would live a thousand years. That he would rather take years off his own life to extend the life of his father. He claims he cannot rule the kingdom by himself.
Jiro, the middle son, sides with Taro.
Lord Ichimonji uses the metaphor of the unbroken arrows to promote unity. Indeed, the symbol on the hung banner behind them means "one."
He states, "Whenever Taro is in trouble if you unite your forces the house of Ichimonji will be safe."
Let us just say that the opposite is about to happen.
Not only will the three brothers not unite, but they will also battle one another. Not only will the house of Ichimonji not be safe, but it will also be destroyed.
This is, after all, an epic tragedy appropriating certain narrative elements of King Lear.
Therefore, Sabura, as you might imagine, is impertinent. At least in Hidetora's mind. Hidetora's loyal servant Tango will appeal to him that Sabura is only speaking sincerely, from the heart. While his manner may be less than respectful of his father, his intentions are true.
Sabura demonstrates that while he cannot snap the arrows with his hands, he can certainly break them with his knee.
"Three arrows can be broken," he objects.
And they will be.
Lord Ichimonji is taken aback. He looks at the guests. He must save face. He laughs. He says he is amused by Sabura's pranks.
But Sabura doubles down. He is not pranking. He is serious. He elevates his tone. Expounds his position. Dishonors his father.
"You scorn your father's wishes? Parents and children have no place in this world? Very well, since you will have it so, I cut the bond between us! You are a stranger to me."
And Lord Ichimonji's disowning of Sabura, the true but too honest one, is his second mistake.
He will say at the end of the movie, just before they expire together, "My mistake was to love him too well."
The two-hour, forty minute film is divided into five acts and follows the line of intrigue, murder, betrayal, usurpation, revenge, bloodlust, and the declining of a once-great man into madness.
Lord Ichimonji will end up stripped and broken, alone in nature with his loyal servant Tango and his fool Kyoami.
Taro performs the first treachery, taking the power his father has given him, driving him out, and seeking to consolidate all the region under his authority.
"The view is more pleasant now that it is mine."
He decrees that anyone who helps his father will die.
A great battle takes place at the Third Castle, where Lord Ichimonji first goes to hide. Taro and Jiro conspire to besiege it, but Jiro betrays Taro as his own general Kurogane kills Taro.
Now Jiro controls the land.
But someone remains on whom they have not counted. Lady Kaede. She is Taro's wife. Like Lady Macbeth, she spurs him on to power when he first receives the premature inheritance. But do not think for one moment she loves her husband and wants to promote him.
Lady Kaede is the remaining booty of a defeated empire. When the mighty Lord Ichimonji defeated Lady Kaede's father, destroyed his kingdom, killed his people, and took possession of his land, he gave the lord's daughter Kaede to his firstborn son Jaro.
For years she has appeared to be a loyal member of the Ichimonji family, but in her heart she remains her father's daughter.
And now it is time for her revenge.
What she does to Taro, and then to his brother Jiro, and then to Jiro's wife Lady Sue, is so stunning. Shakespeare himself would have been proud.
The hen pecks the cock.
Another, greater epic battle will ensue as everything rises to the dramatic climax.
The only winner of this war is death.
At least Lord Ichimonji has a moment to reconcile with Saburo before it all ends.
"Forgive me. I'm a stupid old fool."
At age 75, Akira Kurosawa has made one of the greatest films of his career. He spent ten years preparing for it, even making the dramatic war film Kagemusha (1980) as a practice film. He storyboarded each shot, painting them. He had more than 1,400 costumes hand-made, each one requiring three months to construct.
He filmed the rich colors of the costumes and fabrics against the lush green and earth tones of the land.
And the red. Of the blood.
Ran--pronounced as "rahn" or "ron" and meaning chaos or revolt--cements Kurosawa's position as one of the greatest masters the cinema world has ever known.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
445 - I Am Love, Italy, 2009. Dir. Luca Guadagnino.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
445 - I Am Love, Italy, 2009. Dir. Luca Guadagnino.
The Recchi family. Three generations. Wealthy from textiles.
The great dinner for grandfather's birthday. His naming of his successors. The pursuits of his children and grandchildren.
Here we have a film that takes its time.
Shots of architecture. Art. Nature. Food. Hand-held camera work. The use of soft focus as a tool. Blown-out lighting. Intense montages in extreme close-up. Juxtaposing nature with human nature. Foley. Lots of foley. Sometimes music. Bold music. Birds flying. Birds singing. People behaving naturally, as in real life. Understated acting.
And one fabulous mansion.
Emma is the mother. The second generation. Her son Edoardo Jr. has lost a rowing race to a chef named Antonio. Recchis never lose races.
Antonio bakes him a cake as a gesture of good sportsmanship. For a race well run.
Emma joins her girlfriends for lunch. They eat at at the restaurant owned by Antonio's father. He cooks there. But he dreams of opening his own restaurant. Atop a hill. People will climb. They will work up an appetite. They will eat fresh ingredients picked from the hillside.
Antonio serves Emma ratatouille. Anton Ego on his greatest day could never fathom the depths of pleasure Emma feels in that moment.
When you see her face you will want to have what she is having.
And you will know in that moment her life will never be the same.
The Recchis make clothing in a factory. Antonio makes food with his hands.
Emma goes to Nice to see her daughter's art exhibit. Or goes towards Nice. She stops in San Remo. Milan.
She walks with Vertigo hair.
She runs into Antonio.
Come up the hillside with me. Let me show you where I am going to build the restaurant.
Someone is going to get vertigo.
The Indian American refers to Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. One of them provides a template for a theme of the film.
* * * * *
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who after resting three days in the sepulcher gave assurance of resurrection to those who believe in You, let our brother _____ rest in peace until the day You, the Resurrection and the Life, will illuminate him with the splendor of Your vision so that he may see the glory of Your Kingdom, You who live and reign eternally. Amen.
Give him everlasting rest and eternal peace in the glory of Your light. Amen.
445 - I Am Love, Italy, 2009. Dir. Luca Guadagnino.
The Recchi family. Three generations. Wealthy from textiles.
The great dinner for grandfather's birthday. His naming of his successors. The pursuits of his children and grandchildren.
Here we have a film that takes its time.
Shots of architecture. Art. Nature. Food. Hand-held camera work. The use of soft focus as a tool. Blown-out lighting. Intense montages in extreme close-up. Juxtaposing nature with human nature. Foley. Lots of foley. Sometimes music. Bold music. Birds flying. Birds singing. People behaving naturally, as in real life. Understated acting.
And one fabulous mansion.
Emma is the mother. The second generation. Her son Edoardo Jr. has lost a rowing race to a chef named Antonio. Recchis never lose races.
Antonio bakes him a cake as a gesture of good sportsmanship. For a race well run.
Emma joins her girlfriends for lunch. They eat at at the restaurant owned by Antonio's father. He cooks there. But he dreams of opening his own restaurant. Atop a hill. People will climb. They will work up an appetite. They will eat fresh ingredients picked from the hillside.
Antonio serves Emma ratatouille. Anton Ego on his greatest day could never fathom the depths of pleasure Emma feels in that moment.
When you see her face you will want to have what she is having.
And you will know in that moment her life will never be the same.
The Recchis make clothing in a factory. Antonio makes food with his hands.
Emma goes to Nice to see her daughter's art exhibit. Or goes towards Nice. She stops in San Remo. Milan.
She walks with Vertigo hair.
She runs into Antonio.
Come up the hillside with me. Let me show you where I am going to build the restaurant.
Someone is going to get vertigo.
The Indian American refers to Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. One of them provides a template for a theme of the film.
* * * * *
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who after resting three days in the sepulcher gave assurance of resurrection to those who believe in You, let our brother _____ rest in peace until the day You, the Resurrection and the Life, will illuminate him with the splendor of Your vision so that he may see the glory of Your Kingdom, You who live and reign eternally. Amen.
Give him everlasting rest and eternal peace in the glory of Your light. Amen.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
444 - Life is Beautiful, Italy, 1997. Dir. Roberto Benigni.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
444 - Life is Beautiful, Italy, 1997. Dir. Roberto Benigni.
Guido Orefice is in love with life. Full of joy. With his arms spread out, open to the world.
Guido rides with his friend. On their way to Tuscany. To work for his uncle as a waiter.
The brakes go out.
The car leaves the road. Goes through the field. Down the hill. To the other road. Through the waiting throng. He waves at them. "We have no brakes!" They think he is saluting. They salute back. The one they are expecting shows up minutes later.
Remember when we watched Rene Clair's A Nous La Liberte (Freedom to Us!) (1931). Louie broke out of prison and ran into a man on a bicycle. When he got on the bicycle and road it, he found he was a in cycling race and won the race. This opening scene seems to be an homage.
Guido and his friend stop at a farm. He talks to a girl in front of the barn. A woman falls out of the mow, the hayloft, and into Guido's arms. He catches her and they land in the hay. Guido is immediately up for this new challenge.
Her name is Dora. He calls her Princess. He calls himself Prince Guido. Everything he sees is his. Life itself is his.
Guido and his friends go on. They move into Guido's uncle's storage building. Guido begins working as a waiter in his uncle's restaurant.
He builds connections.
Each morning he passes under a window where a man calls out to Mary to drop down a key. He begins a game where he steals a man's black hat and replaces it with his tan one. He makes friends with a Doctor Lessing, who thinks of Guido as a genius for the riddles he devises.
He runs into Dora again.
And again.
Buongiorno, Principessa!
And begins to woo her.
Unfortunately for Guido, Dora is already engaged to a man. A rich man.
Fortunately for Guido, he is a bore.
He leaves the door open for Guido to enter. And Guido knows just how to keep running into her. Surprising her. And dazzling her.
Guido has the energy of a firecracker, the facial elasticity of a clown, the physicality of an acrobat, the playfulness of a child, the integrity of a man, and a faithful and loving soul. Guido is good.
In the first half of the film Guido builds relationships and woos Dora.
But then the film takes a different turn.
And in the second half, he uses his wit and charm to fight for survival. To protect his son. To love his wife.
Guido is Jewish. World War II breaks out. Italy switches sides in the war. The Nazi Germans infiltrate Tuscany. Guido is taken. His uncle is taken. His son is taken.
Guido's wife, who is Christian, in an act of love, refuses to be separated from them. She boards the train. Not knowing the destination. Not understanding what we would learn after the war. Not realizing that once they arrive at the concentration camps, she will not see them.
Guido devises a game to protect his son. Their goal is to win a tank. To win they need to acquire one thousand points. Each day they acquire points when Guido gives his son Giosue a task to do which protects his life.
The stress is visible in Guido's face. The concentration shows in Guido's eyes. The terror at one point, when Giosue slips up and nearly costs himself his life, hangs all over Guido like a blanket.
But he covers it. Presents hope and joy to his son. Maintains his optimism. Acts playfully in the midst of despair. Doubles down on the rules of the game.
Because he loves him.
Upon its release Life is Beautiful became the most successful Italian film up that time. It won multiple awards around the world. It was a triumph. Benigni was a hero.
He had used comedy to deal with one of the most serious subjects in history. To highlight goodness. And truth. And beauty. The human spirit fighting death. And hatred. And fear. And winning. Love winning.
Then there was a backlash. A backlash by critics who could not see the urgency in Benigni's acting. Or the scope of his writing. The fact that his own father had spent two years in a labor camp. Or that the film had been inspired by an Italian Jew named Romeo, Rubino Romeo Salmoni, who had been sent to Auschwitz, and who had used humor to survive.
The film is not perfect from a technical standpoint. Its cinematography is not above average. Its editing and pacing follow a comedic format. The physical gags are not always pulled off at the highest level, the way one remembers their prototypes being done in the silent slapstick days. Some of the acting by some of the actors is sometimes weak. But if one were to complain of a lack of depth, it would apply more to the romantic comedy half of the film than to the dramatic half. For the romantic comedy plays like a romantic comedy, where falling in love is easy as a breeze, but when they get to the camps, the burden does come. And weights down the good father. Yes, the film maintains a distance from reality, which Benigni wrote into the screenplay and worked into the film. An intentionally fictional distancing from historical accuracy. Which probably helped.
But the message of the film remains solid. And the dramatic impact earned its recognition. The backlash was inaccurate and overstated; the mass appreciation, deserved.
Guido's son Giosue remembers his time in the camp as an adult. Addressing us directly. Off-screen. In voice-over.
This is my story. This is the sacrifice my father made. This was his gift to me.
444 - Life is Beautiful, Italy, 1997. Dir. Roberto Benigni.
Guido Orefice is in love with life. Full of joy. With his arms spread out, open to the world.
Guido rides with his friend. On their way to Tuscany. To work for his uncle as a waiter.
The brakes go out.
The car leaves the road. Goes through the field. Down the hill. To the other road. Through the waiting throng. He waves at them. "We have no brakes!" They think he is saluting. They salute back. The one they are expecting shows up minutes later.
Guido and his friend stop at a farm. He talks to a girl in front of the barn. A woman falls out of the mow, the hayloft, and into Guido's arms. He catches her and they land in the hay. Guido is immediately up for this new challenge.
Her name is Dora. He calls her Princess. He calls himself Prince Guido. Everything he sees is his. Life itself is his.
Guido and his friends go on. They move into Guido's uncle's storage building. Guido begins working as a waiter in his uncle's restaurant.
He builds connections.
Each morning he passes under a window where a man calls out to Mary to drop down a key. He begins a game where he steals a man's black hat and replaces it with his tan one. He makes friends with a Doctor Lessing, who thinks of Guido as a genius for the riddles he devises.
He runs into Dora again.
And again.
Buongiorno, Principessa!
And begins to woo her.
Unfortunately for Guido, Dora is already engaged to a man. A rich man.
Fortunately for Guido, he is a bore.
He leaves the door open for Guido to enter. And Guido knows just how to keep running into her. Surprising her. And dazzling her.
Guido has the energy of a firecracker, the facial elasticity of a clown, the physicality of an acrobat, the playfulness of a child, the integrity of a man, and a faithful and loving soul. Guido is good.
In the first half of the film Guido builds relationships and woos Dora.
But then the film takes a different turn.
And in the second half, he uses his wit and charm to fight for survival. To protect his son. To love his wife.
Guido is Jewish. World War II breaks out. Italy switches sides in the war. The Nazi Germans infiltrate Tuscany. Guido is taken. His uncle is taken. His son is taken.
Guido's wife, who is Christian, in an act of love, refuses to be separated from them. She boards the train. Not knowing the destination. Not understanding what we would learn after the war. Not realizing that once they arrive at the concentration camps, she will not see them.
Guido devises a game to protect his son. Their goal is to win a tank. To win they need to acquire one thousand points. Each day they acquire points when Guido gives his son Giosue a task to do which protects his life.
The stress is visible in Guido's face. The concentration shows in Guido's eyes. The terror at one point, when Giosue slips up and nearly costs himself his life, hangs all over Guido like a blanket.
But he covers it. Presents hope and joy to his son. Maintains his optimism. Acts playfully in the midst of despair. Doubles down on the rules of the game.
Because he loves him.
Upon its release Life is Beautiful became the most successful Italian film up that time. It won multiple awards around the world. It was a triumph. Benigni was a hero.
He had used comedy to deal with one of the most serious subjects in history. To highlight goodness. And truth. And beauty. The human spirit fighting death. And hatred. And fear. And winning. Love winning.
Then there was a backlash. A backlash by critics who could not see the urgency in Benigni's acting. Or the scope of his writing. The fact that his own father had spent two years in a labor camp. Or that the film had been inspired by an Italian Jew named Romeo, Rubino Romeo Salmoni, who had been sent to Auschwitz, and who had used humor to survive.
The film is not perfect from a technical standpoint. Its cinematography is not above average. Its editing and pacing follow a comedic format. The physical gags are not always pulled off at the highest level, the way one remembers their prototypes being done in the silent slapstick days. Some of the acting by some of the actors is sometimes weak. But if one were to complain of a lack of depth, it would apply more to the romantic comedy half of the film than to the dramatic half. For the romantic comedy plays like a romantic comedy, where falling in love is easy as a breeze, but when they get to the camps, the burden does come. And weights down the good father. Yes, the film maintains a distance from reality, which Benigni wrote into the screenplay and worked into the film. An intentionally fictional distancing from historical accuracy. Which probably helped.
But the message of the film remains solid. And the dramatic impact earned its recognition. The backlash was inaccurate and overstated; the mass appreciation, deserved.
Guido's son Giosue remembers his time in the camp as an adult. Addressing us directly. Off-screen. In voice-over.
This is my story. This is the sacrifice my father made. This was his gift to me.
Monday, March 19, 2018
443 - Il Postino, Italy, 1994. Dir. Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi.
Monday, March 19, 2018
443 - Il Postino, Italy, 1994. Dir. Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi.
The Postman.
"Words are the worst things ever."
Donna Russo is talking to her daughter Beatrice. She warns her.
"When a man starts to touch you with his words, he's not far off with his hands."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm thinking."
"With the window open?"
"Yes. With the window open."
Uh oh.
"Be honest with me. What did he tell you?"
"Metaphors."
"Metaphors? Never heard such big words from you before. What metaphors did he do to you?"
It may be too late. Mario Ruoppolo, the postman, has already done several metaphors to Beatrice.
And Beatrice seems to like having metaphors done to her.
From the moment he first saw her, she became his Beatrice. Naturally. But he has never heard of Beatrice. And for that matter, he has never heard of Dante.
No worries. Pablo Neruda is here to teach him.
Pablo Neruda?
Yes.
The great Chilean poet is here. In the flesh. On the island. In Italy. An exile from home. A quiet guest in the Mediterranean community. A community composed of people who do not read poetry.
But Mario has come to read poetry. And apparently, according to Beatrice, he has come to write poetry. And to do metaphors to her.
He has been bringing Neruda his mail each day, and the two have formed a friendship. Mario is curious. Inquisitive. He asks Neruda to explain things. And Neruda is generous with him. And helps him. He gives him the gift of a writing book in which to write his thoughts. He teaches him to do metaphors.
Mario first met Beatrice in the cafe in which she works, where she was killing time playing foosball. Which she calls pinball. He joined her. They never spoke a word. He rarely saw the table. He looked at her. She beat him.
At one point she placed the white ball in her mouth.
He took it home with him. He showed Neruda. This is important. She touched it.
At first Mario asks Neruda to write poetry to her for him. To be his Cyrano de Bergerac. And Pablo, in a moment of unthinking, tries. But he grows frustrated. I cannot write about her. I do not know her. I cannot write your feelings for you. I do not have those feelings. You must write.
So he teaches Mario how to do it.
One night Mario is looking up at the moon. And he holds the white foosball up next to it. And there it is. The key to unlocking metaphors. Now he can do them.
You're smile spreads across your face like a butterfly.
Your laugh is a rose, a spear unearthed, crashing water. Your laugh is a sudden silvery wave.
Like being on the shores of the white ocean.
Donna Russo is worried.
"Then what did he do to you?"
"I kept quiet."
"And he?"
"He kept quiet too. Then he stopped looking at my eyes and began looking at my hair. Without a word. As if he were thinking."
Uh oh.
It is not good for a man to be thinking. Especially when looking at a woman's hair.
Donna Russo presses her point.
"One stroke of his finger and you're on your back."
"You're wrong. He's a decent person."
"When it comes to bed, there's no difference between a poet, a priest, or even a communist!"
We have spent at least an hour with Mario. So we agree with Beatrice that he is a decent person. He has won us over with his quiet simplicity. His gentle sincerity. And we know that he loves her. He is not driven by his body but by his heart.
But then, well, the heart and the body do often end up together do they not?
Naked
You are as simple as one of your hands--
smooth, terrestrial, tiny,
round, transparent.
You have moon-lines, apple-paths.
Naked
You are as thin as bare wheat.
Naked
You are blue like a Cuban night.
There are vines and stars in your hair.
Naked
You are enormous and yellow
Like summer in a gilded church.
And these are the words of the amateur. But then amateur does mean one who does it for love.
(If you write a poem to a woman in which you state, "You are enormous," let me know how she takes it. I am curious. (Yellow.))
Beatrice hides the words in her bosom. Her mother reaches in and grabs the paper. She takes it to church. Takes it to the priest. Shows him. Asks him to read it to her. She is illiterate.
He takes his time. He looks unexcited about telling her. She makes him.
"Well?"
"It's a poem."
"Read it to me!"
She asks for it.
He reads. "Naked."
She exclaims. "Madonna!"
When Pablo Neruda first arrived on the island, Mario was excited. He got the job delivering the mail, because he had a bicycle. An homage, it seems, to Bicycle Thieves (1948).
He took a book with him to have it autographed. He asked Neruda to sign it to him. "To Mario." He had good reason. He wanted the souvenir.
"I'll go to Naples and show all the girls that I met Pablo Neruda, the poet of love."
Already he knew. He may not have known poetry, but he understood the prestige of the poet. And felt the rumblings in his own heart.
But they were strangers then, and Neruda just signed his name.
But daily excursions have paid off. By now they are friends, and eventually the master turns to the apprentice and asks him for help.
Pablo asks Mario for a word for the nets. The fishing nets. After all, Mario would know more than he.
Mario tells him sad. The sad nets.
Pablo writes it down. Now Mario has contributed to the bard's immortal words.
Il Postino is a film with three themes. Love, poetry, and politics. Pablo Neruda teaches Mario how to express his love. He shows him how to write poetry. And he also influences his politics.
Early on he tells him that when he was once a senator in Chile he visited a region called Pampo. A place where it rains once every fifty years. Where life is unimaginably hard. He wanted to meet the people who had voted for him. A man came up from the coal mine "with a mask of coal dust and sweat on his face," and he beseeched him. "Wherever you go, speak of this torment. Speak of your brother who lives underground in hell."
And Pablo tells Mario that he chose that day to write something to help the man in his struggle. "To write the poetry of the mistreated." That is how Canto General came about.
And yet, in his Utopian naivete Neruda has become a communist. And he encourages Mario to become a communist. A system that has brought oppression wherever it has been applied. Responsible for more mass murders than any other system on earth. Tyranny. Totalitarianism. Coercion. Cruelty. Torture. Terror. Genocide.
For Neruda it is theory and emotion. An abstract ideal claiming to help the working man. We would like to think, to hope, that this amiable and benevolent poet would not really support what communism really is. We know more about him in real life, but I am referring to the fictional Pablo Neruda as presented within the film.
But aside from the political thrust of the movie, the love story is simple, sweet, and heartfelt. And any celebration of poetry is always welcome. Especially if it motivates the viewer to read the works of such a great poet.
During the film Neruda is waiting to hear from Sweden. From the Nobel committee. To find out if he has been selected to win the Nobel Prize. If this film is set in 1950, then he would finally win it twenty-one years later, in 1971 (and unfortunately be terminated a mere two years later by the ruthless Pinochet).
Phillippe Noiret, our beloved lawman from Coup de torchon (1981), our beloved projectionist from Cinema Paradiso (1988), has returned thirteen and six years later as Pablo Neruda. And he looks completely different. He has shaved his (beard and) mustache. He has gained weight. His face is filled out. He has more hair. He plays Neruda with courteous and charitable composure. He is a good actor.
Massimo Troisi plays Mario Ruoppolo. He himself is a screenwriter and director as well as an actor, and he wrote the screenplay for this film and is listed as a collaborating director. He acted in a dozen films and wrote and directed five of them. He was from Naples and a beloved man both there and throughout Italy.
The film was nominated for five Oscars--including Screenplay, Director, Actor (Troisi), and Picture (as opposed to Foreign Film). It won the Oscar for Best Music for Luis Bacalav's original dramatic score. The romantic melodic refrain stays in the mind and helped propel the film to worldwide success.
Maria Grazia Cocinotta plays Beatrice. She has appeared in many films and continues to work today. You may know her as a Bond girl alongside Pierce Brosnan in The World is Not Enough (1999).
Massimo Troisi gave his life to make this film. He had fallen in love with the novel, Burning Patience, on which it is based (which was in turned based on a movie of the same name), and he decided to make it despite health problems. He got his friend Michael Radford to direct. He was born with congenital heart problems. He delayed heart surgery to shoot the film. While shooting he fell ill and worked only one hour a day. He filmed many of his scenes sitting down. He filmed many in only one take. At age 41, one day after filming was completed, he died of a heart attack.
443 - Il Postino, Italy, 1994. Dir. Michael Radford, Massimo Troisi.
The Postman.
"Words are the worst things ever."
Donna Russo is talking to her daughter Beatrice. She warns her.
"When a man starts to touch you with his words, he's not far off with his hands."
Donna Russo has found Beatrice sitting on her bed. Staring out the window. She smells trouble.
"I'm thinking."
"With the window open?"
"Yes. With the window open."
Uh oh.
"Be honest with me. What did he tell you?"
"Metaphors."
"Metaphors? Never heard such big words from you before. What metaphors did he do to you?"
It may be too late. Mario Ruoppolo, the postman, has already done several metaphors to Beatrice.
And Beatrice seems to like having metaphors done to her.
From the moment he first saw her, she became his Beatrice. Naturally. But he has never heard of Beatrice. And for that matter, he has never heard of Dante.
No worries. Pablo Neruda is here to teach him.
Pablo Neruda?
Yes.
The great Chilean poet is here. In the flesh. On the island. In Italy. An exile from home. A quiet guest in the Mediterranean community. A community composed of people who do not read poetry.
But Mario has come to read poetry. And apparently, according to Beatrice, he has come to write poetry. And to do metaphors to her.
He has been bringing Neruda his mail each day, and the two have formed a friendship. Mario is curious. Inquisitive. He asks Neruda to explain things. And Neruda is generous with him. And helps him. He gives him the gift of a writing book in which to write his thoughts. He teaches him to do metaphors.
Mario first met Beatrice in the cafe in which she works, where she was killing time playing foosball. Which she calls pinball. He joined her. They never spoke a word. He rarely saw the table. He looked at her. She beat him.
At one point she placed the white ball in her mouth.
He took it home with him. He showed Neruda. This is important. She touched it.
At first Mario asks Neruda to write poetry to her for him. To be his Cyrano de Bergerac. And Pablo, in a moment of unthinking, tries. But he grows frustrated. I cannot write about her. I do not know her. I cannot write your feelings for you. I do not have those feelings. You must write.
So he teaches Mario how to do it.
One night Mario is looking up at the moon. And he holds the white foosball up next to it. And there it is. The key to unlocking metaphors. Now he can do them.
You're smile spreads across your face like a butterfly.
Your laugh is a rose, a spear unearthed, crashing water. Your laugh is a sudden silvery wave.
Like being on the shores of the white ocean.
Donna Russo is worried.
"Then what did he do to you?"
"I kept quiet."
"And he?"
"He kept quiet too. Then he stopped looking at my eyes and began looking at my hair. Without a word. As if he were thinking."
Uh oh.
It is not good for a man to be thinking. Especially when looking at a woman's hair.
Donna Russo presses her point.
"One stroke of his finger and you're on your back."
"You're wrong. He's a decent person."
"When it comes to bed, there's no difference between a poet, a priest, or even a communist!"
We have spent at least an hour with Mario. So we agree with Beatrice that he is a decent person. He has won us over with his quiet simplicity. His gentle sincerity. And we know that he loves her. He is not driven by his body but by his heart.
But then, well, the heart and the body do often end up together do they not?
Naked
You are as simple as one of your hands--
smooth, terrestrial, tiny,
round, transparent.
You have moon-lines, apple-paths.
Naked
You are as thin as bare wheat.
Naked
You are blue like a Cuban night.
There are vines and stars in your hair.
Naked
You are enormous and yellow
Like summer in a gilded church.
And these are the words of the amateur. But then amateur does mean one who does it for love.
(If you write a poem to a woman in which you state, "You are enormous," let me know how she takes it. I am curious. (Yellow.))
Beatrice hides the words in her bosom. Her mother reaches in and grabs the paper. She takes it to church. Takes it to the priest. Shows him. Asks him to read it to her. She is illiterate.
He takes his time. He looks unexcited about telling her. She makes him.
"Well?"
"It's a poem."
"Read it to me!"
She asks for it.
He reads. "Naked."
She exclaims. "Madonna!"
When Pablo Neruda first arrived on the island, Mario was excited. He got the job delivering the mail, because he had a bicycle. An homage, it seems, to Bicycle Thieves (1948).
He took a book with him to have it autographed. He asked Neruda to sign it to him. "To Mario." He had good reason. He wanted the souvenir.
"I'll go to Naples and show all the girls that I met Pablo Neruda, the poet of love."
Already he knew. He may not have known poetry, but he understood the prestige of the poet. And felt the rumblings in his own heart.
But they were strangers then, and Neruda just signed his name.
But daily excursions have paid off. By now they are friends, and eventually the master turns to the apprentice and asks him for help.
Pablo asks Mario for a word for the nets. The fishing nets. After all, Mario would know more than he.
Mario tells him sad. The sad nets.
Pablo writes it down. Now Mario has contributed to the bard's immortal words.
Il Postino is a film with three themes. Love, poetry, and politics. Pablo Neruda teaches Mario how to express his love. He shows him how to write poetry. And he also influences his politics.
Early on he tells him that when he was once a senator in Chile he visited a region called Pampo. A place where it rains once every fifty years. Where life is unimaginably hard. He wanted to meet the people who had voted for him. A man came up from the coal mine "with a mask of coal dust and sweat on his face," and he beseeched him. "Wherever you go, speak of this torment. Speak of your brother who lives underground in hell."
And Pablo tells Mario that he chose that day to write something to help the man in his struggle. "To write the poetry of the mistreated." That is how Canto General came about.
And yet, in his Utopian naivete Neruda has become a communist. And he encourages Mario to become a communist. A system that has brought oppression wherever it has been applied. Responsible for more mass murders than any other system on earth. Tyranny. Totalitarianism. Coercion. Cruelty. Torture. Terror. Genocide.
For Neruda it is theory and emotion. An abstract ideal claiming to help the working man. We would like to think, to hope, that this amiable and benevolent poet would not really support what communism really is. We know more about him in real life, but I am referring to the fictional Pablo Neruda as presented within the film.
But aside from the political thrust of the movie, the love story is simple, sweet, and heartfelt. And any celebration of poetry is always welcome. Especially if it motivates the viewer to read the works of such a great poet.
During the film Neruda is waiting to hear from Sweden. From the Nobel committee. To find out if he has been selected to win the Nobel Prize. If this film is set in 1950, then he would finally win it twenty-one years later, in 1971 (and unfortunately be terminated a mere two years later by the ruthless Pinochet).
Phillippe Noiret, our beloved lawman from Coup de torchon (1981), our beloved projectionist from Cinema Paradiso (1988), has returned thirteen and six years later as Pablo Neruda. And he looks completely different. He has shaved his (beard and) mustache. He has gained weight. His face is filled out. He has more hair. He plays Neruda with courteous and charitable composure. He is a good actor.
Massimo Troisi plays Mario Ruoppolo. He himself is a screenwriter and director as well as an actor, and he wrote the screenplay for this film and is listed as a collaborating director. He acted in a dozen films and wrote and directed five of them. He was from Naples and a beloved man both there and throughout Italy.
The film was nominated for five Oscars--including Screenplay, Director, Actor (Troisi), and Picture (as opposed to Foreign Film). It won the Oscar for Best Music for Luis Bacalav's original dramatic score. The romantic melodic refrain stays in the mind and helped propel the film to worldwide success.
Maria Grazia Cocinotta plays Beatrice. She has appeared in many films and continues to work today. You may know her as a Bond girl alongside Pierce Brosnan in The World is Not Enough (1999).
Massimo Troisi gave his life to make this film. He had fallen in love with the novel, Burning Patience, on which it is based (which was in turned based on a movie of the same name), and he decided to make it despite health problems. He got his friend Michael Radford to direct. He was born with congenital heart problems. He delayed heart surgery to shoot the film. While shooting he fell ill and worked only one hour a day. He filmed many of his scenes sitting down. He filmed many in only one take. At age 41, one day after filming was completed, he died of a heart attack.
Sunday, March 18, 2018
442 - Malèna, Italy, 2000. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore.
Sunday, March 17, 2018
442 - Malèna, Italy, 2000. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore.
From now on I'll be at your side. Forever. I promise.
Just give me time to grow up.
So says Renato. To Malena. In his heart. In his dreams.
But Malena does not know Renato exists.
When she exits her home and passes him on the doorsteps, she says, "Little boy, let me get by."
Malena loves her husband. Nino Scordia. But Nino is away at war. In northern Africa. So Malena spends her time taking care of the home and caring for her father.
Malena's father lives alone. She walks to him each day. People watch. People talk.
Her father is a local teacher. He is Renato's teacher. He is hard of hearing, and the boys make fun of him in the classroom. They stand and point as if asking to go to the restroom. But then they say things such as, "May I sleep with your daughter Malena?"
He thinks they have said, "May I go to the restroom," so he says Yes. The boys laugh.
Malena is from another village. That is the first count against her. The local villagers suspect her. She is not from around her. She is an outsider. She must be up to no good.
Malena also keeps to herself. She minds her own business. This is the second count against her. Because people do not know her, they invent stories about what she must be doing behind closed doors. When she lets her hair hang down. They gossip.
Malena's husband is not around to defend her. She is vulnerable to their slander.
But Malena has a third count against her. She is pretty. She has an attractive figure. And that is the clincher. When she walks down the street the men look at her. The boys look at her. Heads turn. Eyes look. Hearts beat. Imaginations run wild. Mouths comment. Lips whistle.
The townswomen hate Malena. She distracts their husbands. She steals their men. She is a homewrecker.
So they say.
Renato is coming of age. He has just been given a new bicycle. This elevates him in the eyes of some local boys so that he may now join their group.
He joins them.
They meet on the street by the sea and sit on the parapet. What are we doing? Shh! If you want to join our group, be quiet and watch.
Renato sits quietly and watches.
Malena walks by.
The boys sit in silence and awe. Renato feels what they are feeling. His first encounter with a beautiful woman. The awakening of maturity. Post-puberty. The onset of adolescence. The becoming of a man.
Renato is smitten.
He does not consider that many men stand in line ahead of him, let alone many boys. He imagines himself Malena's personal protector. Her guardian angel. Someone to watch over her.
He goes to church. Selects a saint. Lights a candle. Makes a deal. I will come and light a candle and pray to you every day if you protect her.
When men catcall in the streets, he resents them. Two men walk out of their shop and make comments. He throws a rock and breaks the glass window. That will teach you to talk about her that way.
Renato goes to Malena's house. He watches through the windows. He finds a hole in the wall. His own personal lookout. Or look-in.
Renato is innocent. He does not perceive himself as a stalker or a peeping tom. He sees himself as that angel.
And through his eyes we discover that Malena is also innocent. She takes care of her father. She listens to musical records. She dances alone. She waits for her husband.
When Renato engages in his own boyhood fantasies, he does it through the eyes of the films he has seen. We see the films. Classic films. Remade with Malena's and Renato's faces in place of the original stars. We are in Giuseppe Tornatore's world. A world where the memory of films is a part of the collective unconsciousness. The vocabulary of life.
Renato is also not innocent. In that he youthfully, naively is doing the same things as the rest of the townsmen. He steals a pair of panties from her clothesline. Takes them home. Sleeps with them. His father finds them. Beats him. Nails his door shut with wood planks. Tells him he cannot leave.
His mother decides he is demon possessed. She has him exorcised. Then his father decides to give in and help Renato grow up with a rite of passage. He takes him to the rite of passage. He gives his approval.
When word comes to the town that Malena's husband Nino has died in battle, a town hero, the town holds a public ceremony to honor him. She wears black. She grieves. The boys in their military exercises announce to one another that she is now available. Men go crazy.
Eventually Malena in her loneliness receives a man. A companion. Comfort. Solace.
When he leaves, another man confronts him in the street. Both men claim to be her fiance. The other man has never visited her. They fight over her. The other man's wife comes out of the house and finds him fighting. This is all she needs to confirm that he has indeed been with another woman. She beats and berates him. She takes her fueled anger to the other women. She presses charges.
At the trial the bachelor defends Malena by claiming it was friendship only. Her defense attorney further states that the man is a bachelor and Malena is a widow, so no crime was committed and no harm was done. The defense attorney indulges in theatrical antics. He wins.
He takes Malena home and demands payment. She cannot afford him. No problem. He will accept payment in some other form. She does not want that. She resists. He overpowers her. Renato watches helplessly.
As the war progresses, Malena's fortunes diminish further, and she turns to means of support that confirm the town's suspicions. German soldiers are now present. And they pay. But they are also the enemy, for Italy has changed sides. The townswomen have had enough.
Things might turn tragic for Malena.
Yet they might also turn out in another, unexpected way.
Malena is two movies. A look at the way societies punish the strange, the beautiful, and the unknown. And the story of a boy's becoming a man.
It does not carry the same weight as Cinema Paradiso, but it adds to Tornatore's growing canon of films appropriating and commenting on film.
Monica Bellucci stars as Melena in a courageous role. She was a model, and people wondered if as a model she could act. But this was her twentieth film in a ten-year stretch, so that concern should have been satisfied by now. You may know her as Persephone from the Matrix movies as well as Mary Magdalen from The Passion of the Christ (2004). She also played Dr. Lena Kendricks in Antoine Fuqua's Bruce Willis action movie Tears of the Sun (2003); as the Mirror Queen in Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm (2005), starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger; as Veronica in John Turtletaub's The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), starring Nicholas Cage; and many other, especially European films.
442 - Malèna, Italy, 2000. Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore.
From now on I'll be at your side. Forever. I promise.
Just give me time to grow up.
So says Renato. To Malena. In his heart. In his dreams.
But Malena does not know Renato exists.
When she exits her home and passes him on the doorsteps, she says, "Little boy, let me get by."
Malena loves her husband. Nino Scordia. But Nino is away at war. In northern Africa. So Malena spends her time taking care of the home and caring for her father.
Malena's father lives alone. She walks to him each day. People watch. People talk.
Her father is a local teacher. He is Renato's teacher. He is hard of hearing, and the boys make fun of him in the classroom. They stand and point as if asking to go to the restroom. But then they say things such as, "May I sleep with your daughter Malena?"
He thinks they have said, "May I go to the restroom," so he says Yes. The boys laugh.
Malena is from another village. That is the first count against her. The local villagers suspect her. She is not from around her. She is an outsider. She must be up to no good.
Malena also keeps to herself. She minds her own business. This is the second count against her. Because people do not know her, they invent stories about what she must be doing behind closed doors. When she lets her hair hang down. They gossip.
Malena's husband is not around to defend her. She is vulnerable to their slander.
But Malena has a third count against her. She is pretty. She has an attractive figure. And that is the clincher. When she walks down the street the men look at her. The boys look at her. Heads turn. Eyes look. Hearts beat. Imaginations run wild. Mouths comment. Lips whistle.
The townswomen hate Malena. She distracts their husbands. She steals their men. She is a homewrecker.
So they say.
Renato is coming of age. He has just been given a new bicycle. This elevates him in the eyes of some local boys so that he may now join their group.
He joins them.
They meet on the street by the sea and sit on the parapet. What are we doing? Shh! If you want to join our group, be quiet and watch.
Renato sits quietly and watches.
Malena walks by.
The boys sit in silence and awe. Renato feels what they are feeling. His first encounter with a beautiful woman. The awakening of maturity. Post-puberty. The onset of adolescence. The becoming of a man.
Renato is smitten.
He does not consider that many men stand in line ahead of him, let alone many boys. He imagines himself Malena's personal protector. Her guardian angel. Someone to watch over her.
He goes to church. Selects a saint. Lights a candle. Makes a deal. I will come and light a candle and pray to you every day if you protect her.
When men catcall in the streets, he resents them. Two men walk out of their shop and make comments. He throws a rock and breaks the glass window. That will teach you to talk about her that way.
Renato goes to Malena's house. He watches through the windows. He finds a hole in the wall. His own personal lookout. Or look-in.
Renato is innocent. He does not perceive himself as a stalker or a peeping tom. He sees himself as that angel.
And through his eyes we discover that Malena is also innocent. She takes care of her father. She listens to musical records. She dances alone. She waits for her husband.
When Renato engages in his own boyhood fantasies, he does it through the eyes of the films he has seen. We see the films. Classic films. Remade with Malena's and Renato's faces in place of the original stars. We are in Giuseppe Tornatore's world. A world where the memory of films is a part of the collective unconsciousness. The vocabulary of life.
Renato is also not innocent. In that he youthfully, naively is doing the same things as the rest of the townsmen. He steals a pair of panties from her clothesline. Takes them home. Sleeps with them. His father finds them. Beats him. Nails his door shut with wood planks. Tells him he cannot leave.
His mother decides he is demon possessed. She has him exorcised. Then his father decides to give in and help Renato grow up with a rite of passage. He takes him to the rite of passage. He gives his approval.
When word comes to the town that Malena's husband Nino has died in battle, a town hero, the town holds a public ceremony to honor him. She wears black. She grieves. The boys in their military exercises announce to one another that she is now available. Men go crazy.
Eventually Malena in her loneliness receives a man. A companion. Comfort. Solace.
When he leaves, another man confronts him in the street. Both men claim to be her fiance. The other man has never visited her. They fight over her. The other man's wife comes out of the house and finds him fighting. This is all she needs to confirm that he has indeed been with another woman. She beats and berates him. She takes her fueled anger to the other women. She presses charges.
At the trial the bachelor defends Malena by claiming it was friendship only. Her defense attorney further states that the man is a bachelor and Malena is a widow, so no crime was committed and no harm was done. The defense attorney indulges in theatrical antics. He wins.
He takes Malena home and demands payment. She cannot afford him. No problem. He will accept payment in some other form. She does not want that. She resists. He overpowers her. Renato watches helplessly.
As the war progresses, Malena's fortunes diminish further, and she turns to means of support that confirm the town's suspicions. German soldiers are now present. And they pay. But they are also the enemy, for Italy has changed sides. The townswomen have had enough.
Things might turn tragic for Malena.
Yet they might also turn out in another, unexpected way.
Malena is two movies. A look at the way societies punish the strange, the beautiful, and the unknown. And the story of a boy's becoming a man.
It does not carry the same weight as Cinema Paradiso, but it adds to Tornatore's growing canon of films appropriating and commenting on film.
Monica Bellucci stars as Melena in a courageous role. She was a model, and people wondered if as a model she could act. But this was her twentieth film in a ten-year stretch, so that concern should have been satisfied by now. You may know her as Persephone from the Matrix movies as well as Mary Magdalen from The Passion of the Christ (2004). She also played Dr. Lena Kendricks in Antoine Fuqua's Bruce Willis action movie Tears of the Sun (2003); as the Mirror Queen in Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm (2005), starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger; as Veronica in John Turtletaub's The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010), starring Nicholas Cage; and many other, especially European films.
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