Watched the documentary film “Born Into Brothels” on 3sat today (more info: http://www.kids-with-cameras.org). It is about the children of the prostitutes in the red light district of Calcutta. While watching, I took a couple of notes about what impressed me most, which I would like to share here briefly.
“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” is an innovative movie which pushes the boundaries of technology — a fact that is not evident at first sight. The look and feel of “Sky Captain” is reminiscent of classic comics from the 1930s. However, the actors (a well-chosen cast of Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie) play entirely on greenscreen stages. Everything else is computer-generated. This movie is the first work of its director, which is even more astonishing. Well worth watching!
I was given a good movie on DVD as a gift: “JFK”. I did not expect that it had been filmed already back in 1991. Kevin Costner plays a lawyer who tries to investigate the case. The movie is actually based on facts and real people. I was particularly impressed by the depiction of subjects such as power and politics as well as justice and personal responsibility. The lawyer finds himself in the conflict between his incredibly important work to reveal the truth, which could change the course of the nation and even the world (remember the Cuba Crisis), and his marriage and family who suffer because of this work. He feels the urgency to stand up for the truth.
Although the subject John F. Kennedy is good stock for conspiracy theories, this movie does not deal with it in a tabloid manner, yet offers plenty of suspense. It is a movie with exceptional length that I can very much recommend. By the way, I think I have found a slight continuity problem in the courtroom scene (at approximately 2h 45min): A former colleague of the lawyer wears different suits from shot to shot.
I have had a certain borrowed DVD laying around for at least six months now, “Chocolat” to be precise. Tonight I finally watched it, despite (or because of?) my exam preparation stress. The subject interested me, I like chocolate very much. The movie has a brilliant cast, displays an extraordinary level of craftsmanship and offers beautiful images, besides asking important questions. However, I also want to point to a basic problem. First a brief overview: A woman, Vianne, and her daughter move to a conservative, catholic French village, where she opens a chocolaterie during lent (season of fasting). She also does not attend church, where the mayor greets each and every churchgoer individually. Vianne’s freedom (or rebellion?) is a provocation for the mayor, and when a traveling group of gipsies reaches the village the conflict climaxes.
So, basically it’s about religion and fasting, self-control and enjoying life. Later, fundamental values of society are addressed and questioned. It is exactly this questioning of values that can only be the beginning of a deeper dealing with these issues, to which I want to give a small contribution here. Take, for example, fasting: What is the motive that causes someone to fast? Is it tradition year after year, or the desire to have less weight, or voluntary surrender of rights in order to show God how earnest we are in our request? I see a problem where many words have gotten such a negative meaning now that their original intent has almost vanished. For instance, self-control sounds to our ears like renunciation and prudishness, while Galations 5:23 calls it a fruit of the Holy Spirit, along with such desirable things as love, joy, and faithfulness.
I was particularly touched by the way Vianne cared about the unaddressed problems of her neighbors and tried to solve them with both empathy and resolve. Luc, the son of the mayor’s secretary, very much reminded me of myself in the way he drew pictures so quietly by himself while not really being sure of his abilities. Vianne’s drivenness, which she inherited from her Mayan mother, struck me as strange at first, but was resolved quite nicely in the end (which I will not describe here, of course).
At some point, the gipsies arrive in the village, or rather outside the village, since they stay on their boats at the river bank. The mayor feels his village in danger and has the following leaflet distributed:
Boycott Immorality! Our beloved village rests upon a solid foundation of FAMILY, CHURCH, and COMMUNITY. To keep Lansquenet safe and tranquil, we must close our doors to outsiders whose only tradition is SELF-GRATIFICATION, whose only creed is godlessness, and whose only possible effect is the moral contamination of our village. WE MUST GIVE THESE OUTSIDERS NO QUARTER! We must make them unwelcome in our homes, on our streets, and in our places of business. Thank you for your cooperation. Lansquenet Town Council
While the movie attacks the xenophobic reaction and (allegedly) old-fashioned morals of the villagers, it simultaneously drags good and fundamental values down to the ground. What is so bad about having family, church and community as a foundation? (Even the word “fundamental” is almost taboo today due to the “fundamentalists.”) And vice versa: What is so good about immoral behavior? Of course, the territorial attitude of Lansquenet’s mayor is horrible and also discredits the good values he is identified with. (Unfortunately, many Christians react the same way when they happen to be confronted with “the world;” see 1. Corinthians 5:9ff.) Here the movie does not differentiate enough.
Similar observations can be made of the scene where the violent café owner, after the mayor has tried to re-educate him, asks his wife for forgiveness with the words: “God has made me a new man!” This, of course, is not true, since a) it was the mayor and not God, and b) the change involved only the exterior, not the inner man. Religion tries to change man from the outside to the inside through rules and rituals, but genuine life changes begin in the heart – with repentance, which is confession of one’s own sins and asking for forgiveness – and will then become visible on the outside as well. (See for instance Mark 7:1–23.)
There is much more to write, but I will call it a day. Which leaves me to say that I was especially impressed by the acting of Judi Bench and Alfred Molina. And that the beautiful village’s real name is Flavigny sur Ozerain, should you happen to be in the area.
By invitation of our design professor, I had the opportunity today to present Kaleidotype to his class. For the remainder of the lecture, he showed a couple of films by Virgil Widrich, an Austrian filmmaker. I liked “Fast Film” best, which is a hard-to-describe but very ingenious short film. On the website you will find good background information, but I will tell you this much: Over a period of two years, 65,000 paper objects (such as paper planes) were folded, on each of which one still frame from about 300 action films was visible. These were then assembled with stop-motion techniques in order to produce a new, 14-minute short film. The “Making Of” feature on the website explains a good deal.
Here is an interesting thought taken from the interview with Virgil Widrich: Since the main characters switch constantly, being assembled from several hundred films, Fast Film employs the main story every action film is based upon: The story of a hero who has to save his kidnapped love out of the claws of evil characters. It is this abstraction which makes this film even possible. Also, every individual person watching Fast Film sees his own film, since he recognizes certain actors, films and situations but not others, and so his attention is focused on only a few of the “films within the film.”
Of course, I’m also fascinated by the incredible patience this puzzle of a project demanded. And it was all done without computer animation! Genuine craftsmanship still does have its merits.