Live and Let Die

Source Code (2011) - Jones

Isn't it ironical but also fitting at the same time that David Bowie's son grew up to be a chubby sci-fi film geek? Duncun 'Zowie' Jones' Source Code tells a group of gov scientists using a clinically dead Afghanistan War vet (Jake Gyllenhaal) to find a dirty bomber in a crowded commuter train bound for downtown Chicago, using 'Source Code': reliving the last 8 minutes of one of the victims on the train over and over again. This ain't no Johnny Got His Gun or Caterpillar or not even Groundhog Day. But in Duncun Jones' hands, the material seems much less incongruous and almost commendable in its optimism overlooking the laws of quantum physics. It's another solid popcorn movie by Jones after much coveted Moon. Enjoyed it a lot.

Fluffiest Pancakes Ever!

I've heard a lot about Clinton St. Bakery's legendary blueberry pancakes. So I decided to make them myself and found the recipe online. It might not be exactly the same recipe but it came out beautifully and tastes wonderful. So without further ado:

Blueberry Pancakes with Maple Butter


Pancakes:

2 eggs
5 tbsp butter melted
1 cup buttermilk or half & half
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup blueberries

Maple Butter:

3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup maple syrup

Separate egg yolks from whites in two different bowls.

Add butter and milk in egg yolks, beat together. In another bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.

Beat egg whites with a whip until it's foamy and fluffy (about 5 minutes).

Pour liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and stir lightly until just combined. Add blueberries. Lumps are ok. Fold in the egg whites until just combined. Remember, you want the fluffy pancakes. You don't want to overmix it.

Melt some butter on a hot frying pan. Add batter, each about half a palm size. Pancakes are ready to flip once a few bubbles appear on the surface. Flip and cook another minute or two.

Microwave butter and maple syrup together for about 30 sec. Pour it on pancakes.

Serves about 3-4. Enjoy!

Drama

Poetry (2010) - Lee

Loved it. I normally would not touch Lee Chang-dong's high melodrama with a ten foot pole, especially when it's titled 'Poetry'. I wasn't too sure in the first thirty minutes and thought about turning it off many times. The icky subject matter, an invalid old man, Alzheimer's, all competing for my prejudices in movies. Oh god, what am I getting myself into, I thought. Waterworks probably. But I stuck with it.

Poetry is nothing like what I expected. High melodrama for sure, but it's understated and not afraid of reflecting life's nitty-gritty, ugly, awkward details. Much thanks to Yun Jeong-hie's performance as a sixty five year old woman trying to write poetry for the first time while struggling with whatever life throws at her, everything feels real and honest.

It could've been handled horribly, but no. Compared to other humanist filmmakers like the Dardennes and Koreeda, Poetry lacks the smooth narrative that has clean emotional closures and certain visual style or flare. It feels rough around the edges. What the film does is making you smooth those edges yourself. It makes you breathe. That's perhaps the best way I can describe it. But it feels much more real and honest and even wiser than the said filmmakers' work. I'm very taken by it.

*Thank you Ari for letting me to keep the film all this time. I finally got around to it and you were right. It's a beautiful film.

Dance Dance Dance

Pina (2011) - Wenders

Riveting and deeply moving. Wenders weaves many of the late choreographer Pina Bausch's pieces interpreted by many dancers of her troupe. There is visual, rhythmic cohesion throughout. Coincidentally it's by another middle of the road German director who uses 3D technology aptly and gracefully in this case. Physicality of the pieces shines in 3D. I'm glad I got to see this in the theater. Please go see it before it ends its theatrical run.

Looking at the Past

Nostalgia for the Light (2010) - Guzmán

Chilé's Atacama desert is the driest place on earth. It is also the setting for this poignant documentary that successfully blends astronomy with ugly Chiléan history under Pinochet.

The desert's dry climate has been attracting sky gazing scientists from all around the world since the early 50s. But it also had been used as a site of mass graves for hundreds of 'the disappeared' under the Pinochet regime. Patricio Guzmán ponders the nature of time through interviews with astronomers and the old women who are combing the vast, arid desert ground for the remains of their loved ones.

As one astronomer points out, when we are looking at the stars, we are looking at the past since the light reflected on the stars takes time to meet our eyes. Comparing astronomy to archeology and paleontology, Nostalgia for the Light brings down the sky to human level much more elegantly and poetically than recent films that invoked celestial musings (Tree of Life, Melancholia, Another Earth, Take Shelter etc). I could've done without constant narrations. The visuals speak for themselves most of the time.

Once Upon a Time...

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) - Ceylan

As the title suggests, Ceylan's new film unfolds like a good book. What seems a police procedural on the surface, Anatolia is a deeply felt human drama that is rich and nuanced as any great Russian novel. The story begins at a crime scene (or rather, on the road searching for one) and ends at a morgue. But in between those places for two and a half hours, you are constantly on the winding, hilly dirt roads with policemen, a confessed killer, a country doctor, diggers, transcriber with a laptop and a Clark Gable-ish prosecutor. As they move from one place to another in the night (because the confessed man doesn't remember the exact location), they converse and lament about their lives. Thanks to the scarce electricity in the small village and only car headlights beaming the much of the action on the road, Anatolia is visually striking in its widesceen format and has many images that linger for days after viewing. The distant thunder and lightening tells the rain is on the way. One character laments, "That hasn't changed for thousands of years, but 100 years from now, who will remember us?" But Anatolia is filled with memorable, deep characters drawn beautifully by its multiple character interactions and leisurely running time.

Anatolia completely avoids clichés of the usual crime drama. Although police incompetency and provincialism are not the main attractions at all, it has a lot of self-deprecating humor and constantly very funny under the given grim circumstances. Only thing that I saw coming from a mile away (not that I'm complaining) was the appearance of the beautiful village mayor's daughter. Only a few female characters appear in the film. Granted all the Turkish girls are beautiful, but the glimpse of this stunning beauty under the kerosine lamp (for everyone to see, as she serves tea to each characters) and them commenting on her beauty was a little too predictable. With quiet but touching revelations, some even only to the audience, it's a very rewarding film.

Altitude Sickness

Black Narcissus (1947) - Powell/Pressburger





A young prudish nun Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) is appointed as a mother superior and sent to the Himalayas to open up a convent where Sisters would teach and provide medical services for the natives. It's a big test for her and others who are young and still haven't gotten over their earthly desires. It might be the high altitude or the clean air or that hunky man-meat Mr. Dean (David Farrar) in khaki shorts, that many of the nuns are acting strange and losing faith. Then there is an enchanting, sexed-up, 17-year old native savage named Kanchi (Jean Simmons) stirring things up. To top it all off, the convent is located in a former pleasure den used by the local general, with grand architecture and salacious wall paintings intact.

It's a soap opera high up in the mountains in glorious Technicolor backdrop and a mind-blowing achievement to think that everything was done in the studio. It culminates to the confrontation between Clodagh and Jealous, feverish Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) who abandons the order, at the bell tower at the edge of the cliff. P & P are not interested in religious aspects of Clodagh at all. Rather it's a magnificent adventure story and tests people go through in life. I really loved it.

I want to destroy something beautiful...

Beau Travail (1999) - Denis

Claire Denis loosely adapts Melville's Billy Budd- a story about the human desire to destroy something pure and beautiful, with a sensual, languid imagery. Arid, rocky Djibouti backdrop clashes with smooth, muscular bodies of young Legionnaires as they carry on their boring daily routines (mostly shirtless) with no real enemies in sight. Galoup (Denis Lavant), a seasoned military man takes an immediate dislike to a beautiful, righteous new recruit Sentain (Grégoire Colin) and looks for excuses to destroy him. His feelings are mixture of desire, jealousy and envy.

It's Lavant's physicality on full display here. His pockmarked face and athleticism dominate the screen. I thought Galoup's narration was unnecessary at first since it doesn't add anything much to the plot. Then again, Denis has little concerns for that. On this viewing, I can see how it accentuates Galoup's loneliness and isolation. Plus, Lavant's gravelly voice is music to my ear and makes the narration all the more poignant. Great Michele Subor also stars as the commandant without principles. The ending is definitely my favorite movie ending of all time. I really hope Criterion picks this one up in the future because New Yorker DVD sucks.

Begotten

The Red Shoes (1948) - Powell/Pressburger

Amazing. Can't think of a movie in the theme of ambition begetting the life of an artist better pronounced in such a grand and fantastical way than in The Red Shoes. The 25 minute The Red Shoes production sequence plays out like the live action version of deezzznee's Fantasia on acid. There are so many great visual ideas in that scene it's mindboggling. Even with full use of Technicolor, The Red Shoes has an aura of silent era films from make-up, actors (especially Marius Goring, who played gayest French guardian angel in A Matter of Life and Death and Anton Walbrook as the ruthless dance company owner), expressive lighting to set design, all taking cues from German Expressionism.

It's campy but there are enough cynicism and perversity in Powell & Pressburger films that I dig. I doubt their other films will top this but looking forward to Black Narcissus and Blimp.

Stairway to Heaven

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - Powell/Pressburger

An English airman (David Niven) has a brief on-air conversation with a button nosed American radio operator, June (Kim Hunter) just before he jumps from his burning plane. It was supposed to be his last good bye to the world. But he finds himself washed up ashore, because a mistake was made upstairs. Blame goes to the horrible English weather. They try to recall him but he attests, citing that he had fallen in love with June. His plea is granted and the repeal process begins.

The film is a romantic fantasy in the highest order, sort of uplifting 'love conquers all' type right after the WWII. Not the type of films I normally watch. But it's very English and enjoyable. Constant back and forth between crazy Technicolor/B&W with great transitions to massive sets & matt paintings, and with real time freeze frames and reverse motions, the film is visually mad inventive. I can see its influence everywhere. It's a very charming film. Sad to see Dr. Frank go though.

Beast of Burden

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) - Bresson

It took me this long to see this finally and I got nothing much to say. It's profoundly sad and beautiful and moving. And I didn't expect that from a movie whose main character is a donkey. Unlike any other animal films, our donkey starts as a donkey and remains a donkey until the end. Yet it pulls so much empathy and emotion from us. The donkey is the (mostly) silent witness of all the human follies around him. He takes all the abuses and neglect in and dies alone. No character notices or mourns its passing.

Then there is Marie (Anne Wiazemsky). She is sad and beautiful. No wonder Godard hurried up and married then 19-yr old unknown actress right after seeing the movie. It's also the first film I felt there is no excess anywhere, that all the 90 some minutes are totally justifiable. Edits, closeups, sound, everything. The film is a transcendental beauty.

Down with the Old

Palacíos de Pena/Palaces of Pity (2011) - Abrantes/Schmidt

The film opens with the same Vangelis score for Blade Runner in a giant football stadium where our two teen girl protags stretch their legs before a football match. The blonde one is 14 and the dark haired one is 13 and they are cousins. Their ancient grandmother is old and trying to decide just who will inherit her fortune. The grandma sets up a test for them to see which would be a better choice in her gigantic estate near an ominous dam.

The film is a constant battle of opposing images and texture- enormous concrete structures, baby goat, huge glass windows, teenage girls' faces, looming trees and mountains and ipad... After a night of hard drinking and dancing, the girls come home and crash on grandma's lap. The grandma tells her dream where she is a grand inquisitor condemning two young Arab boys to the stake for fondling each other. In the morning, the girls find their grandma dead, and the cousins become rivals for the inheritance.

Weird, dreamlike and beautiful, Palaces of Pity is a playful take on rejecting the old ways of Portugal. It shares thematic similarity with current Greek cinema where generation gap takes an ugly turn. But Abrantes and Schmidt distinguish themselves with sensual imagery. To start a new, the clueless and carefree young'uns will even burn the palace down without knowing the country's history!

Beauty + Art

It Maybe That Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve: Masao Adachi (2011) - Grandrieux

Grandrieux is not in a hurry to introduce Masao Adachi, a radical Japanese Red Army member/filmmaker who preached armed struggle in the 60s. Beauty starts with Adachi, an affable white haired old man narrating free association style while pushing his granddaughter in a swing. With his usual hand held camera, Grandrieux walks among the Japanese crowd in Shinjuku, takes a taxi ride and retraces the steps of Tarkovsky's Solaris (driving scene). Adachi tells an anecdote about reading Jean Genet's Thief's Journal out loud with Oshima while writing The Diary of Shinjuku Thief. Adachi to Grandrieux is a hero, because he's always been trying to find a new ways to looking at the world socially and aesthetically. "Cinema moves from one film to another through time, above and beyond those who make it." Grandrieux muses. Less a biography than an examination of difficulties integrating art in politics/life in a meaningful way, Beauty is a beautiful and contemplative documentary I won't soon forget.

Freedom Song

La Follie Almayer/Almayer's Folly (2011) - Akerman

Akerman stepping into Claire Denis territory? Loosely based on Joseph Conrad's first novel of the same title, the film finds a disillusioned French colonialist (Stanislas Merhar) deep in Malaysian jungle living with his loveless native wife and a half-breed daughter, Nina (Aurora Marion). Still dreaming of making it big in the mines with his shady business partner/former captain Linguard (Marc Barbé), while boozing and being nostalgic about great Europe, Almayer obliges Linguard's insistence to take his beloved daughter and put her in a boarding school in the city to be 'a proper woman' and join the European society in the future.

In the film's stunning beginning, Nina is seen dancing along with other girls in the background while her lover Dain croons (lip synching) an Elvis song at an outdoor club. As Dain gets stabbed to death, Nina takes the stage and sings. In Akerman's eyes, Nina emerges as the main character, not her pathetic, broken father. With its non linear structure, lush surroundings and long takes, Akerman creates some really blissful cinematic moments. At other times, it becomes a little tedious, especially with Merhar. I wish she chose Barbé (who resembles sedated Kinski and just as charismatic) for the title role and vice versa.

Almayer's Folly is a film of considerable hypnotic power. It hadn't left my head since seeing it on Friday.

Fontainhas

In Vanda's Room (2000) - Costa





It's probably the first time for me that I don't want to say much about a film that I just saw. Not because I don't have anything to say, but the film is so earnest, intimate, unique and undefinable, anything I think of saying sounds extremely trivial. I can just tell you what it's not. Even though it is about junkies in urban ghetto (Fontainhas in Lisbon, Portugal), it's not a poverty porn with pretty pictures. Yes, it contains some mesmerizing images. But I felt like an asshole taking those beauty screengrabs above because they don't justify this 3 hour film and its cumulative effect on me in any way. Gritty, grimy reality Costa captures with the least bit of sentimentality has no equal. The resilience of the inhabitants of Fontainhas has no equal.

My favorite segment is probably Vanda and Nhurro/Pango, her childhood friend in her tiny room- him asking her if he could stay with her a little bit, then them talking about choosing/not choosing the way of life they lead. Really beautiful stuff.

Ossos Review