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Film Banana - by cogs

World Cinema - Film Banana

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Welcome to the Quiet Room: Where to go, what to do.

Immediately Suzuki Matsuo, director, screenplay writer and original novel writer of ‘Welcome to the Quiet Room’ of which this film is based, lets the viewers know that a film that is titled after a method of submission used in psychiatric wards is not going to be as melancholy as you’d expect. Enter room; man sitting in chair being interviewed by two female reporters from a television magazine studio. He begins by blowing up a balloon and then popping it in an attempt to make an artistic statement. He certainly is an unusual character not least for the fact that he has a safety pin pierced through his right ear where you’d be expecting to see an earring. What does he have to do with the events that are about to transpire? Absolutely nothing. After this initial scene the film swiftly establishes that one of these reporters is to be our anti-heroine as she splits off from her colleagues to go to her next interview; or at least that’s where we think she is going. In actuality none of this has happened.

Asuka Sakura (Yuki Uchida) has in fact been taken to a psych ward after having overdosed two days ago on the suicide cocktail of choice; alcohol and sedatives, and is only pulled out of this dream world after receiving a text message from her roommate/boyfriend. I say roommate/boyfriend because the relationship she has with Tetsuo Yakihata (Kankuro Kudo) is one that is never firmly established in its nature. This isn’t surprising given the carefree and irresponsible traits that they both possess. Anyway, after being pulled out of the meeting she thinks she’s in, and back to reality, Asuka finds herself being pushed along on an emergency hospital bed of which she is strapped to and breathing through an oxygen mask. Various close-ups and acute angles show the bewildered look on her face as she takes in the cold, white walls that surround her and the blinding light that is shining down from the ceiling.

Quiet room ni yokoso poster

After gathering her bearings a little Asuka is informed that she is under suspicion of attempting suicide given the state she was found in by Tetsuo. She however has no memory of any of this and is adamant that she is not suicidal. Regardless of her appeals against this assumption, she is told she is to remain in the psych ward for further analysis and treatment. Apparently she needs to be cured of something, but as the film unfolds we discover there is no cure for the ailment she has except the solitude of the quiet room.

The head nurse of the ward is called Eguchi and I would describe her as being a cross-breed of Mrs Danvers, Miss. Hardbroom and Nurse Ratchet. The way she slides the window across her reception counter whilst giving out a stern look of disapproval immediately reminded me of Ratchet’s identical action when refusing the requests of R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Eguchi is very curt with her new patient and certainly a stickler for protocol but is never really given enough screen time to make that much of an impression on the viewer. The nurse that appears to be Eguchi’s assistant is Yamagishi and her temperament is the typical, humble, overtly polite and gracious sort; cut with a wide smile and a voice as gentile as a sakura blossom.

The film has great flashes of absolute hilarity when you least expect it as a casual situation will suddenly be interrupted by an unusual or clumsy occurrence. Tetsuo, a man who comes across as half geek and half awkward stoner revolutionaire, is a good provider of some of such truly inspiring comic moments. After arriving to visit Asuka, he begins to recount to her the story of how she came to be where she is via flashback and voice-over. This allows for some pretty humours anecdotes and close calls that make up the lives of these two misfits. His job is that of a television writer, though as you’ll see it is his bottom and not his brain that he uses as his greatest asset.

(left to right) Asuka, Tetsuo, Miki, Nishino, Komono, Eguchi

Welcome to the Quiet Room could be compared to a number of other films that situate themselves in a psychIatric unit such as Girl Interrupted, Ginger Snaps: Unleashed, 28 Days and of course One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Each of these films revolves around a new admission who we discover does not actually have a problem like the other residents. Whereas the others have seriously debilitating mental illnesses, the likes of Asuka, Susanna, Brigitte, Gwen and McMurphy are all just individuals with a lack of direction, who because they are too untamed for society have ended up in the only other place that can offer them some time to adjust. None of them belong in hospital but it seems that, like Tyler Durden in Fight Club, they need to see and live with those who are truly on the outskirts of sanity, so they can find some stability within themselves. These films try to transfer the complexities of psychiatric illness into eccentric behaviour, friendship and a satirical chuckle; with the exception of Ginger Snaps: Unleashed, which is just depressing, but brilliant, the entire time. They also seem to use the same psychological profiles for their residents as well. There is the skinny manic depressive bulimic Miki, the plump violent bulimic bully Nishino, the idiot savant pre-pubescent piano prodigy Sae, the completely bonkers Kinbara and the maternally sensitive Kurita. It is Kurita who like Miki seems to develop an immediate liking of Asuka, claiming that they are very similar people. Kurita isn’t rowdy, unbalanced, and views the pain of her peers with a poet’s insight. She doesn’t have a large role, but when she does make her presence known, the atmosphere changes from farcical and light-hearted to serious and melancholy.

I have already mentioned the use of flashbacks, though it cannot go unknown that they take a vital form in this film (especially as we get to see Shinya Tsukamoto in a cameo, performing a party trick that has the most hazardous of consequences). It is through the flashbacks in the film that we get to know the real Asuka as once she has been admitted to the ward, for the most part she is meek, helpful and considerate, which is not the real her at all. In fact it seems that the process of getting to know her through flashbacks happens in coordination with her gradual outbursts of anger in the ward. Just as the viewer is carried along smoothly by the narrative of the present, they are jerked back into a personal history lesson of Asuka who we discover is not only a slob of the biggest proportions, but also an alcoholic, parentally rejected, selfish liability. Being around such damaged people as she is forced to be certainly has a positive affect on her while she is there, but this doesn’t last as unfortunately a callous ending shows the empty shell she really is and that any positive lessons and emotions she may have learnt during her stay were only temporary.

Here's a couple of clips for you to enjoy, which will hopefully persuade you to see this film:

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May 4th 2008 @ 06:43

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: Japan

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Strawberry Shortcakes: Oishii desu yo

Strawberry Shortcakes is a film that revolves around four independent yet vulnerable women growing up in contemporary Tokyo. To give you some idea, I would describe describe it as The Joy Luck Club meets Lost in Translation. For women especially, Japanese society has become a fast paced environment to try and adapt to because of developments that have changed their place in society in the last sixty years or so. Women played a predominantly subservient role in Japan as it was pre World War II and the feudal system gave them very little say in the way in which they would be allowed to live their lives (though at least they are security). However since US Occupation and the influx of western values that have insidiously weaved their way into the hearts and minds of the newer generations, women have accomplished a lot more as autonomous beings, but have also been left to pick up the pieces of their shattered identities and try and fit together dusty old jagged pieces with new cutthroat ones. Many women fail at this and get left off the bullet train going 200mph into a future where old and new must gel together, resulting in a superwoman that can both have the dinner ready and juggle the stock-market.

Hitoshi Yazaki the director of Strawberry Shortcakes is trying to show us in a very quiet, slow-paced, easy-going way that the heroines of his film all have the same thing in common and that is loneliness. This factor is made so much more apparent by subtle aesthetic techniques such as the soft ticking of a clock in the background or the sound of the Shinkansen rushing by at frequent intervals which emphasize the passing of time and the holding pattern of life in the film. Shouldn’t it be odd that the film deals with themes of loneliness and alienation in one of the most buzzing cities in the world? Everything looks as though it is on top of each other with the Shinkansen running right through small neighbourhoods and not far over the heads of people. If anything you get an overwhelming feeling of cosiness running through these shanty town areas of Japan, where even at night things are lit up to give a feeling of life running through it. So why is it that everyone feels so detached and alone and on the constant search for a loving relationship?

(left to right) Satoko, Chihiro, Akiyo and Toko

The first character we are introduced to is Satoko (Chizuru Ikewaki) whose main objective is to fall in love. She wants this so badly that her introduction shows her clasping at the feet of an ex-lover begging him to take her back. Unfortunately in rock n’ roll style he kicks her away and tells her to get lost leaving her in a puddle of tears but the stronger for it, as she shortly gets up and vows success. Secondly we have Akiyo (Yuko Nakamura), the most listless and despondent of the women. Her entrance into the film shows her shifting the lid off her coffin-like-box for a bed, only to reach for her pack of cigarettes and begin the day by lighting up from within her confinement. It has much impact as before we even get a glimpse of her, we see puffs of smoke being blown out of her box that is centred in her dingy little flat. Heaven’s Gate is the name of a prostitute agency that employs both Satoko, as the receptionist; and Akiyo, as an experienced hooker.

The next woman along is Chihiro (Noriko Nakagoshi) who has a job working as a temp, serving tea and making copies of documents for her superiors. She will take the role of polite obedience with aspirations of being a loving housewife. She is roommates with Toko (Kiriko Nananan), the final female and the one with the artistic talent, also making her the housebound, workaholic with a certain disorder that provides some of the more unsettling shots in the film. Their pairing is a little strange, though I suppose convenient as Toko can make a mess which the flakey Chihiro is happy to clean up.

The film aims to give an insight into the casual, everyday activities of people who commit to the same old routine of getting up and going to work, having a meal or performing some kind of idiosyncratic ritual. The stasis of the film is emphasized by such things; examples being Toko and her painting methods, Chihiro and her lover, Akiyo meeting her friend in the pub and Satoko, who preys to God at her mini shrine for love and then cracks open a beer which she drinks whilst watching the moon from her balcony. The film beautifies these rituals by showing them in their simplicity and is stylistically similar to the films of Kim Ki Duk; most notably Bin-Jip, Samaritan Girl and The Isle. Like Ki Duk, Yazaki likes to play around with the contrast of strong images with extended periods of silence allowing things to sink in and provoke a more powerful response.

The film is about showing how people fill the emptiness in their lives. Sotoko is desperate to fill the void with love and Akiyo longs to have a relationship with an old friend but in the meantime just has sex for money to satiate her lust for death. Chihiro wants convention and to keep active, spending her free time trying to appease some lacklustre male and Toko dedicates herself to her work which she values more than anything else. Worthlessness seems to be etched into the characters, because as the viewer, it is hard to ignore the fact that their fates are likely to be nothing more than those of objects, used for the purpose they provide rather than living for their own human spirit where maybe happiness can be found. The only time Akiyo is not just going through the motions is when she is having a beer with her old friend in the pub. In these scenes she is like a different person, the rest of the time she is like a zombie and her coffin-box bed which seemed quirky at first, we see is more of an extension of her lifeless existence.

Tokyo Tower

However the passing shots of the city lit up at night give an impression of infinite possibility and grandeur. The many picturesque shots of the landscape seem to establish a connection between the women and their environment. One such instance of this is when they are shown to be connected to each other by the moon as the camera cuts to each woman looking up at it and wishing for similar things and then cuts to the next. The film has a way of dissipating the loneliness by showing that they are all doing the same thing and that even though they are far apart, they are connected. Another more artificial way of creating this connection is television. In the film The Tokyo Tower (which is responsible for broadcasting TV and radio signals), a symbol of communication, is often included as a passing shot in the film which seems most appropriate as a contrast to the fact that Strawberry Shortcakes utilises silence (or at least minimal dialogue) to emphasize disconnection. The fact that the Tower is shaped like the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of love and romance also provides a kind of bittersweet irony in that our characters seem to experience everything but romance. Nevertheless, the shots of this wonderful construction, lit up against the night sky are truly amazing, not unlike those used in Lost in Translation. In fact I recommend you see Strawberry Shortcakes if you want a more personal and heartfelt approach to themes that were dealt with in Lost in Translation, of which showed less insight into realistic struggles that city people have, as it was concerned with the foreigner’s perspective of loneliness in Tokyo.

For a J-Drama recommendation dealing with female stuggle of a more serious nature within in society, please check out:

Really Long Link

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April 14th 2008 @ 02:51

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: Japan

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Apartment 1303: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Apartment 1303 is a J-horror ghost story by Ataru Oikawa whereby each new female resident who comes to rent the apartment of the same title meets a smacking end, by jumping off its balcony 13 storeys up. It is thought to be nothing more than suicide by the police until the apartment takes its fifth victim; a sweet, happy, and popular girl named Sayako of whose sister Mariko is adamant that she would never have committed suicide. So the film follows Mariko as she investigates the apartment and does some research upon it and finds out that once upon a time, an abusive mother lived there with her daughter both of whom are now dead.

Poster. Scarier than the film

Mariko’s character is one who in front of others is a little cold, detached and uncaring, an impression we get from her stoic attitude at her sister’s funeral and dysfunctional relationship with her mother. However when she visits the apartment of her recently deceased sister, she spends time looking through old photo albums and through the pictures on her sister’s phone, until she finally breaks into a hysterical fit of tears whilst watching a stand up comedy show on the television. There is a lot of pressure on the youth of Japan to succeed and be specific types of responsible citizens and it seems that Mariko is an example of the type of Japanese girl who responds to these pressures by detaching herself from them. She is not the cute and lovable Japanese stereotype…no that would be her sister. Markio is the cigarette smoking, hardass who restrains herself from showing her vulnerabilities in public and as a result is branded as heartless. Parents have high expectations of their children and in a society that seems to split youth into two categories, when a child disappoints their parents they often end up falling into either the Sayako or Mariko stereotype.

Apartment 1303 is a film that has once again employed a similar cause and effect reasoning as other J-Horror ghost stories. What we have is a disgruntled girl who wishes to take revenge on other females, this time by possessing them and throwing them off the balcony, as a way of passing on the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. Predictable clues are also left within the apartment, such as an earring, a chewed up water bottle and a foul stench that emanates from the closet, which are then explained during a dismal flashback showing the disturbing relationship that Yukiyo had with her mother. Again a parallel is created between the protagonist Mariko and her mother and Yukiyo and hers as both daughters are objects of contempt to their mothers and the verbal abuse that Mariko receives from her mother is on a par with that of Yukiyo; whilst Mariko receives no physical abuse from what we can see (she is woman in her mid twenties now anyway), it can be inferred that when she was younger she may have, given her mother’s erratic temperament. There is also a woman and her young daughter who live in the apartment next door to the haunted one, and given the slovenly disposition of the mother and the sinister, introverted nature of the daughter (who seems to have some connection to the deaths that take place), it is fair to say that all is not well between them either.

Mariko

I can’t say that this film is at all that frightening however it does have some pretty cool moments such as when the ghost of Yukiyo makes her self present and proceeds to have about 50 or 60 tendrils explode from her hair and grab hold of a trio of girls who have been partying in the apartment. There is one particular scene that has to be one of the best of the film and it is a high angle shot coming from behind Yukiyo, who is made to tower over Mariko writhing on the floor, with her hair extensions shooting off either side of her head, like spiders legs. Another nice touch is Yukiyo’s creepy vocal filter, which makes her sound like the demon grandmother from The Evil Dead 2 film.

Compared with its brothers and sisters within the genre Apartment 1303 comes across as a more diluted version of stories that have been told with a greater depth in terms of back-story and character development. For example, about the only history we really get of the apartment is of the minimal conversation Mariko has with the police inspector about it and the 5 minute flashback sequence. There is no real great build up of events that surround the apartment, which would cause it to induce more fear in the viewer and the two initial deaths are too sudden in there execution. As far as characters go there’s nothing new, though Mariko does show some depth of emotion and an unpredictable mixture of solicitude and disinterest that makes her one reason to watch the film. Apartment 1303 doesn’t rank up with those of a similar style such as The Grudge or Dark Water, but what it lacks in storytelling and FX, it slightly makes up for in its solid acting, melancholy score and irresolution.

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April 7th 2008 @ 22:05

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: Japan

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Kuchisake-Onna: Slit-Mouthed Woman

Kuchisake-Onna or Slit-Mouthed Woman aka Carved is a 2007 film by Koji Shiraishi based on an old Japanese legend. The legend tells of a beautiful maiden who after arousing suspicions in her samurai husband that she was being unfaithful, was disfigured by having her mouth slit from ear to ear by her raging spouse who swore she would never be beautiful again. From this tale an urban myth has been continued by the Japanese people about a woman wearing a surgical mask and carrying a blade of some sort, who wanders the foggy streets asking passer-bys if they think she is pretty. If they say yes, she lets them go on their merry way. If they say no, she will slit their mouth into a similar style as her own.

The film plays pretty much to the same tune as the legend in that a woman with a slit-mouth wearing a mask goes around asking others “watashi kirei” or “am I pretty?”, except it also incorporates a real life panic that stuck Japan in the late seventies when sightings of a woman hunting children were accounted for and spread like wildfire.

Kuchisake-Onna Poster

Kuchisake-Onna begins in the spirit of its J-horror predecessors in that it introduces us to the urban legend the film is based on through rumours. The first ten minutes of the film jumps from a set of schoolgirls gossiping about the ghost to a trio of boys walking home from school to a father and his daughters, recounting of how the woman’s origins were in their very town. Suddenly an earthquake hits this small town startling the townsfolk as we cut from one group of people to another with the words “am I pretty?” echoing throughout, and then finally to the slit-mouthed woman who seems to have awakened from her tomb in the forest. I think that one of the best things the Japanese have going for them in the horror/suspense department is their ability to create a depth and mystery to a character through back-story. By relating to the viewer that there is something frightening on the horizon, it entices you into their world and creates a feeling of an evil that is ancient and haunting. It is like sitting around a campfire in the dead of night whilst someone attempts to put the heebie-jeebies in you by telling you there is a serial killer that is known to roam the very forest you are camped in.

The fear definitely seems to come from the fact that, like a disease, it is transmitted through the rumours the people spread amongst themselves building mass hysteria and pushing it to such a point that it would seem the earthquake they experienced was just as much an eruption of their collective unconcious as it is of the slit-mouthed woman’s awakening. The Yurei’s get their power from a tradition of storytelling that has become irresistible to the people and it is easy to see why, as a ghost story is a great way of making a town seem more exciting than it is.

Though it is a populated town, for the most part the streets are bereft of people, the roads are without traffic and the houses are quiet creating the sensation that this is an actual ghost town. It seems that the residents expect the slit mouthed woman to appear at a certain time, and so like a curfew has been enforced, the children are told to walk home in groups and nobody leaves their house after five. The time is certainly nigh for her appearance as she comes wielding a pair of extra long shears to abduct her first child.

short, back and sides if you please

The appearance of the slit-mouthed woman lends to her the profile of a serial killer more than a ghost, as she wears a long buttoned up grey trench-coat and wields a pair of shears like they were a butcher’s knife. That she stalks and stabs rather than haunts also suggests that Shiraishi is trying to blend two types of horror (ghost and slasher) into one which I think he does very well. One film Kuchisake-Onna did remind me of quite a lot was Wes Craven’s Scream. Both films use a small town made eerie where rumours are spread amongst school kids that some killer is stalking and killing their peers and both films create scenarios that are shaped and affected by events that happened in the past of that town concerning the death of a woman. Oddly enough it is Scream in which a real serial killer adopts the visage of a ghost and Kuchisake-Onna which has a real ghost possessing the form of a serial killer.

The main theme running through this story is that of abusive mother-daughter relationships. Parallels are created between Mayumi Sasaki a parent of one of the pupils, Kyoko Yamashita the schoolteacher and the Kuchisake-onna ghost all of whom were abusive or neglectful of their daughters. Many J-horror films deal with child abuse, suggesting it is a sort of epidemic in Japan (hence the coughing and surgical masks in the film?). The often vengeful female ghosts who are trapped in this world usually are so because of some spousal or filial abuse that occurred in their previous life. It is the schoolteacher Yamashita who the film follows and her remorse at the failure of her family plays a motivating part in her involvement in searching for the missing children.

The score is dark and sombre as you’d expect. For the first ¾ or so of the film a spooky, minimal piano phrase is repeated at moments of tension as well as what I can only describe as what sounds like two hollowed out bells ringing inside a morgue. For the last part of the film the score becomes much darker as it still uses bells and such but now much more metallic and sepulchral in tone with trembling symbols. This section of the film reminded me of scenes from the Silent Hill game; dark, dank basements, creeping movements and ghouls trying to kill you with sharp objects. The sound FX are just right and enhance the violence which isn’t to bad (except for a couple of scenes), conveying the disgusting, slushy, squelching sounds of a blade penetrating flesh.

Still from Silent Hill

The film doesn’t have any shocking plot twists and doesn’t constantly keep you in suspense but it is a really good rendition of an old legend and deserves extra points for combing the ghost and slasher genres so well. The slit-mouthed woman herself possesses all the disturbing factors needed from makeup to clothing to movement that make a frightening monster in a horror film and her method of attack is one that will make you think twice about how sweet you think Edward Scissorhands really is. The locations are great and utilise space effectively to create feelings of being trapped in desolation (the town seems quite large yet everything seems closely connected) and the spearing use of hand held cameras that sort of dive into the action during confrontations give a realism to the film akin to something you might see on Most Haunted or in a snuff film.

If you do want to see this and you get a copy off the Internet, be warned that the subtitles that come with it are not all that accurate so you’d be better off buying it from Amazon (it’s only £6 odd and worth it).

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April 3rd 2008 @ 15:46

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: Japan

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La Chinoise - Mao! Mao!

La Chinoise is a commentary by Jean-Luc Godard on the social uprisings of the 1960s including the Cultural Revolution instigated by Mao Zedong; the (yet to happen) student riots in Paris as well as America’s involvement in the Vietnam War; seen through the lives of five unique, student communist revolutionaries (Guillaume, Veronique, Henri, Yvonne and Serge) who decide to open their own subversive “Red Guard” school in the apartment of some wealthy bourgeoisie people.

La Chinoise was released in 1967, almost with a sense of immediacy given that the Paris student riots were to occur the following year. It seems almost to be a premonition of the revolts of students who with indignation at the class discrimination and a politically controlled education system, marched into anarchy in an attempt to bring down the De Gaulle government using Maoist, Marxist teachings as a tool for destruction. It was a movement responsible for more liberal institutions of equality, sexuality and human rights replacing the more reactionary, religious and patriotic ones

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March 31st 2008 @ 21:51

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: France

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Marebito: Fear and madness in Tokyo Vegas

Have you ever had the desire to see another side of life but at the risk of losing your sanity? All you have to do is submit your imagination to the devil and allow yourself to spiral out of realities polished grip into a subterranean world of mythology and lore that has its place in the minds of the most twisted creators in the fictional field. This is the desire of Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto), the star of Takashi Shimizu’s (Ju-on, Ju-on 2) Marebito, who is desperate to see the horror that becomes hidden by the naked eye. Armed with a camera, Masuoka leads the life of a freelance cameraman, who in his spare time indulges in his voyeuristic tendencies by setting up cameras that peep into the lives of others, whilst he watches from his cyber-styled black-hole of an apartment that is kitted out with numerous computers and television screens.

Marebito Poster

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March 28th 2008 @ 02:12

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: Japan

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Le Mepris: The Contempt of the Gods

**SPOILERS WITHIN**

Le Mepris is a film about filmmaking. It is also a film about God. About Godard as God. About control. About love, lust and desire all printed onto celluloid and rolled into a nice discus shaped reel, to be tossed our way by the powers that be

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March 17th 2008 @ 03:47

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: France

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King Lear - Shakespeare through Godard

Jean-Luc Godard’s “adaptation” (emphasis on the quotation marks there) of William Shakespeare’s King Lear is more avant-garde and experimental than his other more notable films, possibly because King Lear belongs to Godard’s second wave of cinema where he was less concerned with social and political trends. I warn you that it can be extremely demanding of the viewer and for someone less familiar with his work, advisably, this may not be the best film to begin with. I would skip this for now and mosey on over to something like Bande a Part or Alphaville, which would introduce you a little more smoothly into the mind of this marvelous madman.

Okay, now to try and decrypt this film so as to try and give you a slight insight into what this film is trying to communicate. King Lear is supposed to be set in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster which unfortunately for our young protagonist, William Shaksper Junior the Fifth (Peter Sellars not Sellers as I was disappointed to discover), has obliterated every last shred of art (including literature, films and paintings) entrusting him with the responsibility of rediscovering and rewriting that which has been lost. Whether his specific task is to recreate Shakespeare is unclear, but after hearing mafia kingpin Don Learo (Burgess Meredith) and his daughter Cordelia (Molly Ringwald) quote straight from the original text, he is inspired and tries then to articulate some poetry of his own. Even though Godard has used names straight from the play this is not an adaptation of Shakespeare’s vision but is a study (as the end inter-title says), an interpretation, and I would say a defamation (which I will explain later on) of it. The film makes little attempt at following conventional filmic techniques (even those conventional by Godard’s standard) that would be used by other directors, for example, Akira Kurosawa and his faithful adaptation of Hamlet in Throne of Blood, when adapting Shakespeare. The plot of the film is very thin as there is little in the shape of things that occur. Narrative is confused for there is no real chain of events or cause and effect of any kind. There is absolutely no character development, or construction for that matter because most of the dialogue that would usually set up the character is used to ask philosophical questions about the evolution of art and nature. As far as drama of which we would expect elements of romance and tragedy, there are deep touches of it, though it is not the kind of romance between two people but more Shaksper Junior’s affair with ideas. His burgeoning fascination of how art is created when there is no art to refer to leads him to fall in love with nature. The tragedy lies in the realization that words are needed to make things exist for without them we would be ‘nameless

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March 11th 2008 @ 19:30

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: France

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Masculine, Feminine: In 15 Acts - The Battle of the Sexes

Masculine, Feminine is essentially a film that chronicles the lifestyles and opportunities available to a selection of Parisian youths, who represent the dichotomy not just between male and female but also between politics and popular culture; passion and superficiality; and obstinacy and caprice. More closely it documents the relationship between yet another Jean-Luc Godard beauty by the name of Madeleine (Chantal Goya); a woman of fashionable tastes and Paul a man who like other Godard heroes is possessed of a rebellious nature that finds an outlet through an anarchist demeanor. Like the character that Anna Karina has been known to play, Goya imbues her role with the same sexy, aloof, self-satisfied lethargy. She is a woman of Haute Couture who, because of her work, is not estranged to the glamorous, celebrity lifestyle, of which she so desperately wishes to be a part of. Paul on the other hand is a man who though bereft of educational resources is not deterred to instigate some societal changes; driven to succeed given his stint in the military. Unlike Madeleine, Paul has tasted the hardships and suffering of life and is desperate to escape the dispiriting routine of work, eat and sleep to a more rewarding profession where his reflective nature can flourish.

Such differences between the two seem appropriate given Godard's style of casually striking up a romance out of the blue between two disparate strangers. In this instance it begins with a man in a cafe, randomly conversing with a woman of whom he has noticed there before. Moreover it is not long before the relationship evolves almost without any real substance, in that Godard seems to skip the whole "getting to know you Bulls**t" and jumps straight into the ferocious candor that is the true test of any relationship. In an early scene, Paul is trying to connect with Madeleine and express his awareness of the deeper levels of tenderness and the importance of love as necessary to human survival; however she is slippery, questioning his motives, whilst touching up her looks and flippantly teasing him when he gets to serious. Later in the film Paul proposes to Madeleine and shortly afterwards the shot cuts to him angrily throwing a magazine at her that she was reading, eliciting nothing but a burst of laughter, furthermore showing how girlish fantasies of fame and fortune are too important to her to give any consideration to a genuine love that Paul is offering

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March 10th 2008 @ 03:34

Posted By: Nathan 1 - Category: France

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Bande a Part: Breaking Bonds with Boredom

"I'm just talking, I'm fed up, it's impossible to get anywhere", says Arthur, the delinquent leader of the trio of misfits known as the band of outsiders. This sentiment is what resonates throughout a film which suggests that to be truly liberated, one must give in to life; prizing the free spirit over any expectations of success. Jean-Luc Godard is known for his free-spirited and subversive style of filmmaking, as a pioneer in fresh aesthetic techniques that translate to the screen as attempts at trying to wake the audience from a zombified resignation that comes when the expected is delivered.