Our Final Award...

So Close Yet So Far

Credits: Jessica R., Alice K., Liz K., and Ji Y-S.

Perhaps more than any other production in our festival, the makers of this film recognized the limitations of the project (handheld cameras, the difficulty of capturing sound, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to (Ignore that last, pretentious reference to Hamlet)) and found a way to transcend them. It's also the only film in which the creators do not appear. So Close Yet So Far is a Boy Meets Girl, Girl Falls in Love with Boy, Boy Ignores Girl, Boy Fails a Math Test and Gets Tutored By Girl, Boy Falls in Love with Girl kind of story.

HIGHS: The film relies completely on visuals and its wonderful soundtrack to carry the story: there's no dialogue whatsoever and yet it works brilliantly; the Boy (Jeremiah) and Girl (Joanne) have excellent camera presence; the strangely disturbing yet effective transition from the inside of Joanne's head to what's "on her mind": Jeremiah; no irony, no sarcasm, just some refreshing good old-fashioned sweetness; the allusion to Chungking Express where Joanne dances outside Jeremiah's locker to California Dreamin'.

LOWS: Some rough music edits, but still an impressive production for a group with almost no iMovie editing experience when the project began! And where was Ji during the editing process?

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE: this film gets the Baby Daz for best use of music to set the mood and best use of Jeremiah (I don't know what that means).

Our Next Film Is...

Moonshine
Red Skyline Productions

CAST: Thomas, Rebecca, and Sara

Perhaps the only film in our festival to play it straight--and 'right down the line,' if you know what I mean. Moonshine is no moonlight serenade; this is one cynical little film! Prescott (Thomas) is an 'absurd man' on whom nothing registers--not school, not lunch, not even his annoying friend Luna (Rebecca) who pesters him repeatedly about all things social and academic. By the film's end it's clear that Luna has murdered someone and left the body for Prescott to find and take the blame.

HIGHS: Night-vision shooting on school grounds; tracking shot of school hallway cieling as the credits roll and the camera tilts down to follow Thomas walking--very smooth!; match cut of Thomas' pen transitioning to a fork at lunchtime; anomie aplenty as Thomas eats popcorn with a fork; Rebecca's performance as the wonderfully irritating Luna (nice name, btw); Sara's gorgeous cinematography both day and night.

LOWS: None really, but a few Loose Plot Threads--When Luna sends Prescott to her car, why does he think he's going there? She just asks him to go to her car and throws him the keys. It's clearly part of her scheme to frame him for the murder, but what's at the car for him? And who died and why? Luna is some femme fatale!

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE: This film gets the Baby Daz for originality--for only allowing the chuckles to be dark ones--and for showing what we always suspected: that Wing Kay, at the very least, has a tobacco problem.

The Baby Daz Goes to...

Well, the reviews go on. I’m watching each film again and loving every minute of it. Almost.

Scott
Mooing Wolf Productions

CAST: Jonah (“Jo-Moo”), Scott, Treyton, Eric, Doug (“Frizzbee”)

Where, oh where does Scott go when he should be tracing the roots of Anglo-Saxon grammar in Dr. Manuel’s English 12 AP class? That’s the question this mockumentary feigns to answer. Strangely enough, Scott finds a portal in a school closet that transports him through time and space to, where else, the humble abode of GNSH alumnus Jon Kantrowitz. Why? Don’t ask. This excision of motive leads to a strategic narrative opacity that forces the audience to endlessly debate this terrifying ripple in the space-time continuum. Fortunately, after much boredom (Scott’s, not ours), he returns to school and finds a forgiving Dr. Manuel willing to ignore the quiz Scott missed today. Add a star if you hang out with Jon.

HIGHS: Jonah’s brilliant selection of music; Scott’s very naturalistic acting; the camera work throughout of Doug, Eric, and Treyton (esp. the library scene when Scott finds the clue that leads him to the portal and then, later, enters that portal); the improvised dialogue in the library; did I mention the music selected by Jonah?; excellent “steadicam” shot of Scott heading for room 432; cameo by John S. (“Intel Chip”) as the physicist who explains the whole kooky anomaly; Dr, Manuel who, it grieves me to say, is a better actor than me—I mean “I.”

LOWS: as the credits say: “Writers?”; a reliance on knowing Jon to bring home the comedy bacon.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE: This film takes the Baby Daz for best eclectic soundtrack and best friend willing to let you make fun of his hair.

Art of Film - FINAL ANALYSIS

I thought I would do a few entries to look back at everyone's final projects. I'm instituting a new award too; so long Oscar. Hello, Baby Daz:

La Douche de L’espirit (U.S. title: La Douche de L’espirit)
D- Productions (pronounced “dee-MIE-nus”)

CAST: Max, Craig, Ben B., Ben W., Brandon, Josh

This is the story of a TV anchorman (Craig) who loses his job to a colleague (Ben B.) because studio executives (Brandon & Ben W.) are delighted with the latter’s coverage of a school scandal. But no one seems to be too concerned with plot, which is okay, because Josh has Final Cut Pro and he knows how to use it.

HIGHS: Max's appearance as Christ to the down-and-out Craig; Halo 2 SFX in the final revenge scene; Brandon’s deadpan performance of a TV studio exec.; climactic scenes filmed on location in Great Neck and in the rain!; Craig stopping an oncoming car with a wave of his hand as he runs past it; Ben W.’s expert camera work; Ben B.’s interview of the cheating scandal's “Deep Throat.”

LOWS: Bathroom scenes; a few inaudible moments; poor kid whom Craig yells at in the hallway probably still in shock.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE: This film takes the Baby Daz for best editing and best impersonation of the Messiah.

In No Particular Order

Brokeback Mountain
When I first heard of this film, a few months before it was released, I was sure Ang Lee was out of his mind. Gay Marlboro Men? Is he kidding? So the most impressive aspect of the film for me is that it works precisely because they're cowboys and despite the Big Sky and open spaces, the love these two men have for one another has nowhere to go. That's the tragedy here, as the years pass and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger) attempt to live impoverished lives in straight society, meeting secretly (and only occasionally) to carry on their relationship. Of course this all can't end happily, but in the mysterious way tragedy works, I don't think you leave the theater feeling depressed. "Brokeback Mountain" is a tremendous love story whose title, after all, suggests a fatal wound. Lee gets superb performances from Gyllenhaal and Ledger who balance restraint with passion, never forgetting the sense of loss at the heart of love.

Casino
I can't imagine that Martin Scorcese and company weren't walking through the production of this film with feelings of deja vu stronger than a cheap champagne New Year's morning hangover. There's nothing here that wasn't done before and much better in "Goodfellas." Even Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci as gangsters who go to Vegas where their trade is practically legitimized by the corruption that is Vegas, are plucked right from that earlier, superior film. The first third of this 3-hour epic is pure voiceover exposition; only in the final hour is there some semblance of a plot and a story that moves forward without crutches.

Les Diaboliques
Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 follow-up to the "Wages of Fear" (Le Salaire de la Peur) is a remarkably restrained, dirty little film. Set in what Netflix calls a "moldering" boarding school, the film details the murder of the evil headmaster by his mistress and his wife and what happens when the corpse disappears. The direction is almost painfully neutral. Only a keen eye will detect the cockroaches scurrying across the table in a medium-shot of the teachers and students eating a meal of bad fish in the dining hall. Built on suspense and surprise it's difficult to explain the plot without giving up the ghost, but I'll say this: after a very slow start (typical of Clouzot) I was riveted.

March of the Penguins
I'm looking for a documentary for next year's Art of Film course. Ms. Lukoff suggested this film as a possibility and I think it's terrific. "March of the Penguins," as the title promises, follows the unbelievable seventy-mile trek that empire penguins make from the water to their nesting grounds. And not just once in a year, but again and again as new penguin parents take turns caring for their egg while the spouse returns to the sea to feed and bring back food for their hungry, newly hatched chick. However, while the footage of the penguins courting, fighting, and huddling together against the intractable polar weather is eye-opening, I think the film is too antiseptic and geared for a younger audience, as its G-rating will attest. There wasn't enough science or detail here for me about the environment and the life cycle. (Not to be indelicate about it, but I still don't know how empire penguins actually make babies.) It's an enjoyable documentary but probably not the best example of the genre for the Art of Film. So, I'm still looking, and open to suggestions.

Quickies

Good Night, and Good Luck
George Clooney’s look at the legendary CBS broadcaster, Edward R. Murrow and his 1950’s cold war of words with Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Filmed in black and white and cinéma-vérité style, this chamber piece almost feels better suited for the stage than the screen. Still, a compelling portrait of truth and power that is strangely intimate and sterile.


The Celluloid Closet
An excellent documentary on the evolution of how Hollywood has depicted gay people since the 1920’s. From the “Sissy,” the effeminate male stock character who’s always the butt of someone’s joke, to Hitchcock’s gay villains, to the suicidal, self-loathing “fags” of the 70’s, to Tom Hanks stricken with AIDS in “Philadelphia,” it’s painfully clear that in Hollywood’s eyes to be gay is to be anything but happy.


My Voyage to Italy
Martin Scorcese’s incredibly long (246 minutes!) documentary of Italian films that influenced his life and career. I like how he balances the warhorses such as “8 1/2” and “La Dolce Vita” with lesser-known gems from De Sica, Antonioni, and Visconti. It’s an impassioned look at cinema, Italian culture, and life itself from arguably the greatest living American director. A must-see for anyone who loves film.

Three Times

Some friends dragged me to a showing of “Three Times” at the New York Film Festival the other night. I say ‘dragged’ because it was a weeknight (and I’m a big baby about foreign language films that clock in at well over 2 hrs. and start at 9 p.m. and are three subway trains away from my apartment--insert your own crybaby sound here) and because I’m unfamiliar with Hou Hsiao-hsien’s earlier films.

“Three Times” is three love stories in three time periods in twentieth-century Taiwan. The film opens in 1966 where two young people, a billiard hall hostess and a patron, strike up a romance with hardly a word uttered between them. This is the sweetest, most sentimental vignette in the trilogy and the direction is gorgeous. The camera floats around the pool players, the roll and bump of brightly colored balls, and the connections between chance, fate, and love are dreamily clear.

It is both a strength and a weakness that the same actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen, play the roles of the lovers in each time period. Though their performances are excellent, reinforcing the timelessness of the characters' struggles in this way feels a bit hokey. Fortunately, I think the film’s overall visual subtlety overcomes this stridency.

The second vignette is set in a 1911 brothel where Qi is a courtesan and Chen her wealthy lover. Communication in these shadowy scenes is abundant but we’re never allowed to hear their voices as the dialogue is displayed--literally written out--on 1920’s film style intertitles. It’s an effective way of depriving these people of their “voices,” and rendering them powerless. Ironically, their passions too in this setting are held in check by the revolutionary politics of the outside world (for him) and the politics of sexual servitude (for her).

The film concludes with a tedious story set in rocking modern day Taipei between Chen, now a photographer, and his present obsession, Qi, a bisexual epileptic chanteuse. You get the picture.

Variations on a theme, yes, and often visually beautiful—but that’s about it. I’m not any more enlightened about love or life or Taiwan now than before; I’ve just seen a few pretty pictures. My friends feel that this is not Hou's best work and recommend I see “Flowers of Shanghai” and “Millennium Mambo,” which they say are twice as good as "Three Times."

2046

So, I’ve decided that blogging takes real commitment. Who has time for that?

It has been 2 weeks since I’ve been here, but I think the last film I saw, Wong Kar-wai’s “2046,” is the cause of my writer’s block. His earlier film, “In the Mood for Love,” is one of my all-time favorites and “2046,” coming as a kind of sequel to that, is as strangely beautiful as it is unsatisfying. Like Pedro Almodovar, Wong takes chances and he’s adored by critics for eschewing conventional narrative techniques (a beginning--a muddle--and an end) but that being said, one still has to sit through 129 minutes of images that, though beautiful, do not bear the weight of the film’s obsessive themes of personal loss and isolation.

Spanning three years in the mid 1960s, “2046” focuses on Chow, a roué and journalist whose real occupation (preoccupation?) is writing erotic fiction. Chow, with his slick backed hair and pencil-thin mustache, is played with reptilian precision by Tony Leung. One day, Chow meets an old flame that lives in the Oriental Hotel, in Room 2046. When Chow later returns to her hotel, he discovers that she has disappeared. He eventually moves into the adjacent room, 2047, where he meets the two women whose lives will intersect with his own. Ziyi Zhang is one of these women and her smoldering performance alone makes the film worthwhile-but it’s a slow go, even for a fan of Wong’s earlier films.

I’m sure I’m missing something (possibly everything), except the way Wong films his characters: gorgeously, like matinee idols from a time gone by. I’ll watch “2046” again (someday, on DVD) and I’ll see more and appreciate it more. But like the early stages of an acquired taste, I’m a long way from loving it.

The Memory of a Killer

Yesterday I saw "The Memory of a Killer," a Belgian film, at the Quad Cinema. It's an enjoyable action/thriller that's being compared to "Memento" because the lead character, an assassin, is suffering from Alzheimer's. (He also writes important information on his arm in black marker just as Guy Pearce made indelible marks on his own body in "Memento.") But there the similarities end. In "The Memory of a Killer," the assassin's failing memory is merely a plot complication (at one point late in the film he assembles his weapon, forgetting to include the firing pin...oops) and another corruption in a world where child prostitution, politics, and religion freely mingle. The aging assassin Ledda, played wonderfully by Jan Declair, is secretly hired to kill two people by a prominent Belgian baron. After snapping the neck of the first victim and confronting the second target, Ledda decides he is unable to finish the job, which puts his own life at stake. The predator becomes the prey as Ledda is chased by an idealistic police officer and Ledda's disappointed employers. Manohla Dargis in the "Times" says that "An amnesiac killer is an inherently rich conceit" and she's right. Like Tony Soprano staggering through an anxiety attack, Ledda demands our fascination for the horrible weakness of his tremendous power.

Day One

So I'm just giving this a shot, leading the way where so many others have gone before. Very soon I may ask my students to do this too--to write down their thoughts about the films they're going to see in "The Art of Film" and elsewhere. I'm just testing the waters, wondering which way the wind's blowing. Lettuce blog: