soundonsight:

Twin Peaks meets The Shining

nevver - Purgatory

This man is my hero.

Number 16: GODZILLA

Now this is why I watch movies. This is everything I want to to spend and hour and a half in the dark for. The original 50’s Godzilla movie (edited and adapted for american audiences) has so much to love, I don’t even know where to begin.

Everyone’s familiar with the story: Japan wakes up Godzilla, he rampages around Tokyo, eventually they manage to subdue him. It’s pretty straightforward. But the narrative has quite a bit more going on than one might guess (It’s embarrassing, but this was another one of those classics I’m just now getting to). Obviously there’s the nuclear weapon allegory, with Godzilla symbolizing the destructive forces and consequences of man’s nuclear weapon activity. A poignant statement that is just as relevant today as it was in the 50’s (given the status of Iran and North Korea). It’s a cautionary tale you can really get behind. Fuck nuclear proliferation. Most people are uninterested in this aspect, but having a real message and statement of intent (among many other things) elevates films from pop-entertainment to real works of art and cultural milestones.

The character work in the film was surprisingly good, especially in the case of the eye-patch-wearing doctor Serizawa (fucking cool, by the way).  His internal conflict and arc become the real thesis of the movie. He finds this unbelievably destructive power, but only wants to be rid of it. He regrets even finding it in the first place. When worst comes to worse, he agrees to use it on the monster, but ensures the weapon will never be used again. It’s an effective, cathartic moment that sticks with the audience long after the movie ends. Smaller personal conflicts that add to his character’s development while serving narrative purpose. His wife and her lover form a love triangle that, upon resolution, makes the doc an even more fun to root on. He’s morally upstanding, doesn’t take shit, and sticks to his guns all the way through. Classic story tools used to perfection. Sorry, but this writer really loves this dude. He’s the REAL hero as far as I’m concerned; not fucking Raymond Burr and his awkward insertion, thought to make the movie more digestible for American audiences (Burr’s still fun though, and doesn’t feel Completely out of place).

On the whole the pacing and narrative progression are much more sophisticated that what popular monster-movie opinion might imply (people complain about them all the time *sigh*). They knew how to tease out the monster a little bit at a time for maximum efficiency. It starts off with the (iconic perfect amazing chilling awesome) scream being the only part of Godzilla we experience. Then, on a stormy night, we catch a glimpse of a foot stomping a house. A little later, his head peeks over the mountains. It’s not until much later in the film, after dozens of discussions and speculations on the monster, that we really get to see him in all his rubber suited glory. They tease him out, bit by bit, and it makes his Tokyo rampage 100x cooler than it would be were we just shown the whole thing right away. I only go out of my way to point this out because people overlook this kind of thing, or dismiss the tease as boring. Fuck that. It’s brilliant I wish people wouldn’t take it for granted.

The mysterious weapon and the doctor provide the context for what might be my favorite scene from the movie too. Serizawa brings his wife down to his lab after swearing her to secrecy. He milks the build up for all its worth, talking about this big new discover. He then drops some weird shit into a fish tank and the camera cuts to his wife. We never see what happens with the fish, but the wife’s reaction is pure terror. She screams and runs away and you have no idea why. Perfect use of the classic “leave it to the imagination” technique used by older films, but so rarely seen today. This kind of thing is another reason I love THE SEARCHERS and Tobe Hooper’s TEXAS CHAINSAW (it’s not nearly as gory as you remember! Most of the violence is implied off screen). With modern effects and budgets, horror and science fiction movies show everything in attempt to shock today’s jaded audiences. It’s bullshit. Leaving the abject offscreen can make the reaction all the stronger if you let it happen in the viewer’s mind. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. Granted, you see what happens in the fish tank later, but that doesn’t take anything away from the perfection of that moment. There are dozens of scenes just as interesting and layered as this one. All in all, the movie is put together more efficiently than anything you would expect and resonates in powerful ways. 100% deserving of its status as a classic.

Number 15: SISTERS OF THE GION

Sisters is a very old (1936) japanese film about geishas and the exploitation of women in society. It’s an essay film with the thesis clearly stated in the final shot. It’s got basically all the regular conventions of early narrative films, before Kurosawa started doing his thing and changed film narratives forever (see: Seven Samurai and character development). Because the film is relatively simplistic, there’s not a lot I really want to say about it, but I will hit a couple of things that interested me.

A technical aspect I was really impressed by was the depth of field/foregrounding. Many, many shots in the film are peering through holes in a fence, or peeking through a half closed door, or watching from behind some plants. The objects up close are really crisp (for the film quality anyway), and the action in the shot is in focus as well. The movie is like 5 years older than Citizen Kane, which is what surprised me. Granted, even technically it does 1/12th of what Welles did, but the focus and clarity are definitely better than what I would expect.

This style did a lot of voyeuristic stuff I thought was cool. The story is a small melodrama taking place in various homes and shops, giving the viewer a sense of looking in on the private lives of these people.

This was a required film for one of my classes. We watched it to get a feeling for early Japanese cinema and social dynamics of the time period. We learned that women were shit on (like pretty much everywhere else in history/the present), and men were usually vengeful pigs (again, like most of history). It’s a significant film if you’re into Japanese history, and actually pretty entertaining.

Number 14: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

(also a lot on Cronenberg)

David Cronenberg is one of the all time great directors. (Most of) His work has influenced culture and film in unbelievable and innumerable ways. Ways people don’t even realize. He IS the body horror genre. You know, all that those movies that make transformations or deformities of the body particularly horrifying? They intertwine the physical and the psychological until both are utterly grotesque. Pop culture actually sees a lot of subtle references to seminal films like THE FLY and SCANNERS. From Weird Al to The Simpsons, Cronenberg has made his mark on entertainment.

Theorists, horror junkies, and plain movie fans alike tend to be in love with the guy. It takes something really special to achieve high art and intellectual status while working in what are considered schlock or pulp genres. There are countless other articles you can find that will back up what talking about here. He is testament to the validity of auteur theory and the importance of innovative directors. I only go to such length in this description because he’s a relatively unknown name in the mainstream. Many of his projects are small and often independent with limited theatrical releases, so the average movie goer may not even realize his presence, which is something I want to fix.

Cronengerg also brought a new philosophy on violence and horror to mainstream audiences; if you’re going to show someone getting shot, it should not be lighthearted or dismissive of the consequences per western and action movie traditions. Clint Eastwood or Bruce Willis kill somebody and they flail and fall over. No, violence should be hard to watch. Almost unbearable. The viewer should be squirming. I think this is a really interesting and humanistic approach to art.

The abject in these movies manifests itself in the grotesque and disturbing use of make up and prosthetics. I personally love the aesthetic, and I think the props have such a deeper effect on the viewer than CG and green screen stuff. Thy FLY shows melting skin, bulbous blisters, decaying flesh and it shows them thoroughly. It’s one of the reasons the movie has stood the test of time. The head exploding in SCANNERS had audiences losing their lunches and walking out of the theater. You just don’t get that kind of audacity anymore. But I’ve ranted on the man enough. Now for the movie.

HISTORY is less extreme than the Fly or The BROOD or VIDEODROME (one of the best films ever), but still walks hand in had with many recurrent Cronenberg themes and motifs. Darwinism, fragmented psyches, brutality, and evil hiding just under the surface are explored and observed with a steady hand.

As one might guess, the story is about a man with violence in his past. This doesn’t come up until later in the story. The first third or so is devoted entirely to depicting an idealized, clean, everybody knows everybody (yellow light means slow down instead of speed up) kind of small town America. Reminiscent of the 50’s, but more modern in aesthetic. The father (our “hero”) eats breakfast with his kids, packs their lunches in brown paper sacks, and picks up trash in front of the diner he owns. The world is all sunset shots, wide open skylines, and green lawns. The post-war Norman Rockwell look with jocks running the high school and weekends where the whole town goes to the football game. The filters and shot composition have a noticeable calming affect on the viewer. The Howard Shore score puts you at ease with its innocence and serenity. I think you get the picture I’m painting here. But things are about to get Lynchian.

Not all is well in this little slice of heaven. The conflict starts with a random stick up. Two men, shown at the beginning of the film to be violent killers on a crime spree across the country, walk into Viggo’s diner with plans to rob the place and assault the customers. The tension strings you along beautifully as you wait for the explosion. When they finally do whip out the gun and start throwing orders around, things get real. Tom (the father), turns the tables very quickly, and the criminals end up full of holes and without a face (shown with gritty claustrophobia, complete with liquid gurgling sound effects).

And of course, something as exciting as two dead criminals is headline news in this part of the country. Tom is covered on all the major news networks and is heralded as a hero of the common man. The town and his son idolize him even more. This is short lived however. Things really start to derail when classically coded gangsters (black suits, city accents, sunglasses, etc) show up and start calling Tom by a different name, claiming to know him from “before”. All this is in the trailer, so I haven’t spoiled anything plot wise that you didn’t see on TV in 2004.

What makes me really love this movie (apart from the brilliant look, sound, and storytelling) is the America allegory. Tom has a history of violence (!) with a mob that he has completely tried to forget. He’s buried that part of his life where no one can see it and no one talks about it. Similarly, the United States has a very, very long history of violence, often just for the sake of making war. The genocide of the Native Americans, slavery, internment and concentration camps in WWII, Vietnam, Columbia, the list of atrocities goes on. But America is sold to the population as the quaint and picturesque and the essence of all that is good in the world. People buy into this. People watch this movie and get heavy nostalgia for the first third of it. They think that’s the way it should be, and that their lives might not be too far off the mark. The point of this movie is that you are kidding yourself. We’ve never been that peaceful friendly group of people just trying to get home for supper and a sit on the porch.

We were built on violence, and can never really be rid of it. If the occasion calls for it, we  will drop the facade and “do what’s necessary” without a second thought. Seeing Viggo play this out is one of my favorite things. You trust him. He’s a caring father, a good husband, morally upstanding, gentle, soft spoken, and hard working. Truly relatable for for the white middle class. So when he blows a hole in the back of a gangster’s head, stomps on another’s throat, and punches a face until the nose disintegrates, its incredibly jarring and powerful.

All these violent sequences are shot in essentially the same manner as the rest of the film. Other than slightly accelerated cuts, there’s not too much difference in aesthetic. Movies will frequently use a different visual style or dramatic lighting/framing/etc to get make the fight more cinematic. But Cronenberg shoots them as just another part of the movie. Never a break in suture. It’s a subtle way of making the violence even more affective (it’s still brutal and probed for all its worth, but the viewer never breaks from it like they might a fight scene in THE MATRIX or something with slow motion). I could go on and on about individual scenes and character interactions that give amazing nuance and depth, but I’m already running a lot longer than I intended this post to be.

I’ve been crazy busy with school and work and homework and partying the last few weeks, but I’m going to try to get back into the rhythm of writing again here soon. If you took the time to read this overlong-gushing-redundant post, I thank you and wish you a radical weekend.

Until next time,

Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes.

soundonsight:

First Official Image for Lars Von Trier’s ‘Nymphomaniac’

YES