Change Your Image
rogerothornhill27
Reviews
Black Moon (1975)
Salvation for the Humblest Among Us
Malle's mixture of myth, fantasy and a horrible, apocalyptic reality engages you. After Lily wrecks her car nothing seems the same. Death and brutality are all around her, until she happens into this lonely mansion, which is inhabited by an old lady and her weird brood. Ultimately, her tale is about loss, or the search for similarities.
RUN! I yelled at her. Fore soon, the surrounding armies will come, and it gave me such anxiety to watch this humble girl unable to express herself and incapable of escaping these insufferable bores. And yet, the kinetic relationships of this movie were fascinating. Each creature seems to know more than they're willing to share. All of them seem other-worldly. What is their connection to this messy mansion where children flit and dance through pastoral scenes with wandering animals? Well, I suppose animals are about survival, but what's going on here?!? And why doesn't anyone seem to care about pending doom all around them?
I decided Lily is too sweet and innocent to die, but she also seems too old to escape with Cherubim flocks, and then again, she is too young to find safety with the brother and sister! Alas, even the magical Eeyore-like Unicorn avoids her. Aggh! Okay, maybe she'll find safety with the motherly old woman. But all of them seem to lost in their own activities.
Salvation might be found in the nine orders of Celestial Hierarchy, where Cherubim creatures rank the lowest with the Seraphim, although a Seraph is usually afflicted in some way, while a Cherub is more childlike, and therefore divine. The antagonistic opposites of Cherub and Seraphim are Imps and Sprites, just as Angels are appropriate opposites of Devils. Thus, by dutifully transferring the hierarchical order ...on earth as it is in Heaven... it would seem the ranks animals are lower than humans. If one expands their spectrum of spiritual understanding---with Heaven and Hell at the extremes---then it's easy to see how animals and humans are actually more evenly matched in both wisdom and follies, as compared to creatures of the nether regions.
Cherubim are distinguished from Seraphim by the amount of wings. Babylonian, Summarian, Assyrian and Egyptian cultures all symbolized wings as strength, duty, escape and revenge; especially in Egyptian mythology where Horus is the falcon-headed "God of Vengeance". Lastly, vengeance and honor are combined to describe "In the year that king Uzziah died---the profit Isaiah of the King James Bible (ISAIAH 6: 1-2)----also saw "...the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."
Also interesting to read this screenplay was by Joyce Buñuel (who is Luis Buñuel's Daughter-in-law, and I wonder how much he encouraged her...) first screenplay, which gave the first role to Cathryn Harrison, an English actress who played Lily. RUN! Lily Run!
The Proposition (2005)
Savage Integrity found in Cave
This movie is both complex, yet straight-shoot'n. No one wastes their ammunition either, and the feuds are based on real problems ...if'n you raise your gun, then you best plan to use it! Even days later, just thinking about scenes... I still can't believe how real these characters all seemed; their sets; their clothing; their equipment, everything ...everything, I swear that I went back in time! Wow! "Oscar-worthy" indeed! From the opening scene ...when Capt. Stanley hit that kid, I swear I could taste blood in my own mouth, and then all the dust, and the heat and those flies of that Australian outback, (which made our Old West in the U.S. seem like a kiddies' sandbox!) And who the hell are the good guys in this film, anyway!? No one is... I reckon. Nope. Life is tough. It really defies belief how anyone could survive. And I appreciate how the film portrayed some of the Aboriginal mystic perspective on things.
Nick Cave took back the Western flick! No, he's done better than any western I've seen ...in recent memory... {{Sorry Sergio?!}} His movie is that gritty "Neo-realism", but with this band of Irish brothers. Convicts, I suppose, but I was really impressed how the idea of "moral superiority" kept shifting between all the characters. As motives and the film's plot are slowly revealed, it's interesting how the worst of this lot lives in a cave, like Osama bin Laden! Maybe in brutal environments, like these, some folk end-up relying so much on their own internal compass---more so than folk living safely in their civilized cities---that mountain dwellers lose the context of what is means to be human?? Then again, maybe there are reasons why some people are forced to lose their meaning, or belief in humanity?!? These brothers have made their own brand of integrity; not man-made laws, mind you, but this savage integrity that is based on the instincts of survival.
Cave's story should give anyone pause to consider... politically, about what it means to live in a society and the idea of "civilization". Because these characters are most complex. Each has the capacity for good AND evil, yet all of them---in their own simple way--- just want to find some kind of safety and a little comfort ...please... from that brutal Australian environment, mate!
Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
Something is modern in the state of Denmark
An ancient Norse blood feud, wherein a troll seeks to avenge his sire's death at the hands of Danes. The Danish King's cousin, played by the Scots actor Gerard Butler, sails in with a tribal contingent to terminate the troll's vindictive and deadly predations. Those are the bare bones of the tale. But chief among the initial impressions was the awe engendered by the stark landscape of Iceland where the film was shot : the heroics cliffs that plunge down into scree-scrubbed strands, the skull-strewn caves and fog-worried mountains have our minds already reeling.
More prosaically, as the story settles in and Nature's eloquent profusion gives way to Man's mean endeavour, our ears meet an unseemly me'lange of ponderously spoken pseudepical fragments interlarded with apparent references to a Royal Pretender : for so, it was we who heard "faux-king this" and "faux-king that" -- Aye, the script has all the earthiest speech of our own day as commonly found in any Glasgow pub, or at that poxy chipper in Luton wot the skins torched Mundy last. Thus --and a single example will suffice-- Butler's character opines to his companions anent the troll, that "this guy must be one tough prick to climb up here every evening". Yeah, ditto that, mate.
Prepare, then, for a lukewarm embrace of the old grandeur of recited English epic ('Beowulf' itself), though frequently doused with a cold draught of fresh "Saxon oaths", as they are facetiously termed. Beyond the script's shortcomings (really, it clips along quite nicely) and the excellent execution of the battle scenes, it is the minor characters that colour in the storyboard : the Irish monk who clamours apoplectically to baptize both king and Carl, the little seeress who brings a punk edge to fortune-telling, the fleetingly glimpsed child of the caverns, and the "grief-crippled King" in his cups (a melancholy Dane if ever there was one) who maintains the prerogative of a most Royal buzz and toasts "To the end of gloom !"
In sheer bold camaraderie the actors' ensemble work of Butler's troop of men is second to none ; but something is modern in the state of Denmark.
It must be said that --hands down-- the great troll's berserk outpourings of grief, rage and uncomprehending consternation make him the star of the show.
In this joint British-Canadian-Icelandic production there is no shortage of fine period costume -- even brooches, a nice detail. There are more wickerwork lean-tos than you could shake a stick at, and a well pitched musical score which features The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers, an early music choral group.
Stephen Quinn ~QVINTVS SCRIPSIT~
Psychopathia Sexualis (2006)
Revolving Doors of Desires
I expected mere titillation for the sake of exploitation ...which is partly why Krafft-Ebing challenges his readers to understand... he coined the term "masochism" and explains how exploitation, or the feeling of being exploited satisfies one's desires, however these selfish desires and their abstractions---not just coitus for procreation---but the odd fetishes; weird and irrational things that humans combine with touch, taste and their associations with pleasure, is what Krafft-Ebing explored. But in Krafft-Ebing's time the patriarchal model of thinking dominated every-body's behaviors, and the idea of Men and Women with different needs was completely new territory. Krafft-Ebing sought to understand these things, like his first pupil, Sigmund Freud and so should you.
About the movie, a few things stand out for me---besides Wood---the marionette and old-tyme, rotating diorama scene performed by Rob Nixon. If one only listens to the narrator, one will be repulsed, but Nixon's puppetry made it a lovely scene ...until you focus on the narrator again. Such delightful revulsion. Such a brilliant contrast. Speaking of weird contrasts, the scene shot on the train was technically abominable... whites blown-out and actors look green. What happened? Most other scenes are really well done, lighting, set and decent editing. I really enjoyed how the camera work made me feel like a voyeur on these people's lives.
Basically, the writer/director, Bret Wood takes an artful Victorian approach to exposing hidden recesses within the minds Kraft-Ebbing considered deviant. Most every quirk gets screen time, but blood-lust was the primary fluid of compulsion. I avoided focusing on this by counting how many behaviors were abnormal in the Victorian Age, and by comparison acceptable in modern times. It must have been a demanding task for Wood to sort through all the kinks from the book.
His book, a precursor to Kinsey's reports and the DSM, Krafft-Ebing explored various psychologies and how they deal with sexuality and desires. And I appreciate how Wood tied stories together with themes. Most interesting for the "people-watcher" or scientist. Voyeuristic; in a very mythical way, and its interesting to see people's motivations to satisfy desires. Honest portrayals of people's perversions, bawdy lusts and vile corporal behaviors---all the more condemnable because of the time period. Yet, I found a few actors unconvincing in their performances. Blah. But on the whole, scenes carried well from subject to subject, and in the end, there is some clear explanations about people's sexuality. This was good drama with an academic arch of learning. The ending was unexpected and left me with more questions than answers.
A brilliant feminist author, Camille Paglia once said in "The Joy of Presbyterian Sex--Sex, Art, and American Cutlure, Essays", published Vintage Books, 1992, p.32 she wrote "Life without guilt or shame would be found only in sociopaths and the lobotomized."
Naked in Ashes (2005)
youth springs eternal
A huge festival like Kuma is complicated enough to make sense, so India is something to be experienced. Paula Fouce's documentary puts more attention on the practices of Sadus, yogis, babas, nagas and those hermits that continue the ancient and traditional austerities for clarity.
Think about it. In western mindsto prove one's spiritualityis overly complicated, while these holy men live simply, and use their time on earth to harmonize with her rhythms. To western thinkers, these acts of austerity are amazing or odd.
Some wonderful things I remember: A yogi explains "God sends us back to earth because someone might benefit from our knowledge or experience. Youth itself is a form of God." As a Sadu in the Ganges explains "The flow of life is eternal. Man uses a vessel to carry the Ganges for his flow, as man is a vessel for God."
And about other reviewers who comment how everyone "is nude and often covered in ashes". Isn't this obvious from the title? If people are too prudish to purview penises, then they will miss the point entirely and should go pray in their pews for redemption.
Excellent edits and beautiful choices of music with moods in the stories; this film is very sincere about the spiritual quest for less materialism.