Evolutionary Biology

Mon Oncle d'Amerique (1980) - Resnais





Built around physician/philosopher Henri Laborit's ideas on evolutionary biology, the film follows three subjects from childhood - Jean (Roger Pierre) a writer from a privileged background, Jannine (Nicole Garcia), an actress from a proletariat household and René (Gerard Depardieu), a famer's son/struggling everyman. Using lab rats as an example, Laborit lays out how people avoid painful situations by moving, and if there is no escape, psychosomatic symptoms develop. And in defensive action, people turn violent against each other. But the film is much more than that. Resnais slightly interweaves these 3 lives without turning them into lab rats. Their melodramatic stories are rendered sympathetically and their problems relatable. The film is not cynical in any way, except for the notion of that mythic 'American uncle' who'd solve all our problems but never actually shows up.

Resnais counters Laborit's deterministic view with poignant montage sequences, constant cutting back to childhood memories and old movie clips featuring the heroes of our protagonists. The beauty of Mon Oncle d'Amerique is that it leaves me with more questions than answers. Are we all prisoners of our biological origins, that if one brick from our building blocks is removed, we are bound to crumble? Can our good memories trump our childhood traumas? Are we capable of leaping over our biological makeup of self preservation and think of the others? Beautifully constructed, playful and thoroughly thought provoking, Mon Oncle d'Amerique is one of my new favorites.

Film as History

City of Sadness (1989) - Hou





Hou quietly observes a prominent Lin family in a mountain town as it breaks apart during turbulent times in Taiwan after WWII. Handsomely photographed static interior shots accompanied by naturalistic performances, City of Sadness looks and feels like Ozu. Sung Young Chen is great as boisterous eldest son, so as Jack Kao as the middle child who suffers from PTD who were drafted to fight in a Japanese army and later is tortured by Kuomintang as a collaborator. Young Tony Leung also shines as the youngest, sensitive, deaf (because Leung couldn't speak Taiwanese, I found out, but it works him being as a slient witness) brother of the family. It's he and his long time family friend and later wife Hinomi (Xin Shu Fen) who bear witness to the changing times.

I had a very little knowledge of Taiwanese history going in City of Sadness: didn't know about their 51 year Japanese Occupation (compared to Korea being under 30 year occupation, and we still hold grudges) and the rather unique colonial past (as the first Japanese colony since 1894, taking cues from the Brits, the Japs governed them differently at first and to this day, I hear Taiwanese don't have too much adversarial feelings toward Japs as the rest of Asia do) , didn't know about their diverse ethnic groups, culture and languages, didn't know about Kuomintang's atrocities after the WWII against its own people. It is rather wrong to base your knowledge of a certain people's history solely on one mere film, but knowing Hou and his detached yet humanistic approach, I'd take his film over any dry history textbooks.

Lights! Camera! and Hold!

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (2012) - Shapiro





I like Crewdson's large format, cinematic photographs. I was excited about this documentary coming out but missed the chance to see it in theaters this spring. The native Brooklyn photographer is known for capturing scenarios of lost (white) American dream in the suburban/small town setting that New England writers are so fond of (apparently, Russell Banks and Rick Moody are big fan of his work and are interviewed in the film). As Crewdson talks about Cindy Sherman and David Lynch as inspirations, you can see where he's sensibilities are coming from. Unfortunately, Shapiro's doc is all about the process- how he shoots his massive scale photos working with a DP, production designer, set decorators and editors. It is indeed interesting stuff that he regards his photographic process as a film shoot with same amount of people and equipment as a moderate indie movie set. Instead of 'lights, camera and action!', it's 'lights, camera and hold!'

The doc never delves into how a well to do Brooklynite became photographing suburban decay. Crewdson comes across as a nice enough guy and his meticulousness (shouting from a cherry picker, "move your left hand about 2 inches up and to the right!") is pretty cool. But what motivates him to gravitate toward his subjects? Also, his post-touch up heavy process made me wonder about being an artist in the tech heavy age. Call me old fashioned, but I feel ambivalent about his compositing final product from many different takes, physically removing certain things from the frame and whatnot. I guess what matters at the end is selling your photos of poor folks for upward of one hundred thousand dollars to rich folks.

Spy in Our Midst

Shadow Dancer (2013) - Marsh

Shifting loyalties regarding family, cause and country are the basis for Shadow Dancer, a sensitive and affecting new political thriller from director James Marsh (Man on Wire, Red Riding: 1980). It boasts a great ensemble cast that includes Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson, Domhnall Gleeson and a relative newcomer, Andrea Riseborough in the central role. 

Soon after witnessing a senseless family tragedy in 1973 in the Occupied Northern Ireland, we are transported to 1998 London, where a sullen Republican member, Collette (Riseborough) reluctantly disposes a bomb in the tube station stairways. Then, she is swiftly scooped up by two ready MI5 agents and delivered to an interrogation room. The whole wordless botched bombing attempt and following apprehension sequences are tense and swift. There, Collette is given an ultimatum by an MI5 officer Mac (Clive Owen): become an informant in her own community and her family or lose everything and go to jail for 25 years. Fearing her young son's fate with the prospect of her being locked up, and after Mac's pledge to become a protector of her and her son from any harm, she accepts being a mole in her radical IRA household.

Back home, with the news of The Good Friday Agreement between the elite Republicans and the British Government looming, Collette's brothers, who belong to a more radical faction of the IRA and are frustrated by nimble politicians, plan an assassination of a high level judge. Collette, being under suspicion from the Republican higher-ups and radicals alike after her supposed unscathed escape from British authorities, is once again pushed into taking part in the terror act. Her absolute last minute phone call to Mac results in the death of her brother's colleague and the failure of their plan. The pressure and suspicions mount. Not wanting to harm anyone by her spying activity, Collette wants out, but Mac's boss Fletcher (Gillian Anderson) won't have any of it. Furthermore, she is willing to give Collette to the dogs when push comes to shove. "There are other informants," she coldly declares to concerned Mac.

Even though it's a classic 'pawn in their game' film, with its deliberate pacing and mood, Shadow Dancer never stays too far from its characters. Handsomely shot in grainy, anamorphic widescreen by Rob Hardy (Boy A, Red Riding: 1974, The Forgiveness of Blood, Inni), the camera often lingers on Collette and Mac's anxiety-ridden faces in close-ups. Working from his own novel of the same name, Tom Bradby's script beautifully sketches out sympathetic characters and their dilemmas without ever being sentimental, all the while pointing out the ugly circumstances brought on by years of systematic humiliation.

Not only is Riseborough fantastic as our morally tangled heroine, always dependable Owen also gives a fine tuned performance as an MI5 officer trying to do right by his subject. Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter series) turns gritty as Collette's militant younger brother. Most surprising is Gillian Anderson in a small but meaty role. Her double dealing MI5 commanding officer, Kate Fletcher, is an imposing presence in every frame she's in. Ever since re-relocating to London, Anderson is having a sort of renaissance of her career all across the pond - after her critically acclaimed performances in BBC's Bleak House and Great Expectations, she currently stars in an Irish TV series The Fall and NBC's Hannibal. Anderson's beauty is well utilized by Marsh here as a source of intimidation.

I see this film as a perfect antidote for often faceless, visceral filmmaking that has become the standard for today's action thrillers, which I call the 'Paul Greengrass school of filmmaking.' Shadow Dancer is understated, classy, solid filmmaking with intelligence and soul.

Party Like It's 2001

Millenium Mambo (2001) - Hou





Gorgeous, just gorgeous. With mangled timelines and sporadic and repetitive voiceovers, the film focuses on a beautiful wayward youth Vicky (Shu Qi). She is in a sadomasochistic bind with controlling Hao Hao (Tuan Chun-Hao), breaking up and going back to him many times. While working as a bar hostess, she meets Jack (Jack Kao), an older gangster type who takes her under his wing. I loved the scenes shot in snowy Hokkaido where Vicky loses herself to her surroundings. Colors, compositions, all amazing. With Hou, it's all touch and go for me. I adored Cafe Lumiere, Goodbye South Goodbye but meh about Flight of the Red Balloon. Mambo really clicked with me. And like with all Hou, the film, the characters are in love with its past. It's a 2001 movie told in 2011 being nostalgic about 2001! A free flowing, beautiful film.

Streaming Lives

Love Streams (1984) - Cassavetes
Sarah (Gena Rowlands) is going through a horrible divorce. Her husband (Seymour Cassel) and their daughter don't want anything to do with her. She is not stable enough. For her, love never stops, it's a continuous stream. Then there is her brother Robert Harmon (John Cassavetes), a famous writer whose life is soaked with booze and one-nighters. They both are impulsive, nutty mess: they make rash decisions thinking as if they are the most logical solutions which always lead them into disasters. My favorite scenes with Harmon are the ones where hits up with a pretty lounge singer, insists on driving her home in her car while drunk, crashes her car and ends up chatting up with her mother, and where he gives his 8 year old son (of whom he hasn't seen since his birth) beer to drink and leaves him alone all night in a Vegas hotel. Sarah is just as crazy. She thinks her brother needs something to love in his life, something fuzzy and cuddly, so she goes to animal shelter and brings in the whole zoo into his LA house- two miniature horses, a hen and a dozen chicks, ducks, a goat and a dog. Harmon obviously is in no shape himself to take care of his nutty sister, but insists that she stays with him. But she is dead set on reuniting with her estranged family who doesn't love her any longer.

Cassavetes's world of the lives of mental, emotional wrecks is often funny and poignant precisely because of the character's complete lack of self-awareness. Both Rowlands and Cassavetes are amazing in this funny and sad film.

Dirty Old Man

Comedia de Deus/God's Comedy (1995) - Monteiro








João César Monteiro's God's Comedy is perhaps the epitome of 'a dirty old man movie'. Monteiro himself plays a João de Deus, a well dressed, studious old bachelor who works at an ice cream parlor, making such fabulous concoction as Paraíso and others. He only hires beautiful young girls to work there, emphasizing on maintaining impeccable personal hygiene. As the movie plays out, we get to learn his weird sexual kinks these girls supply him with. He collects girl's pubes with special notes in a handsome bound book named "Book of Thoughts". There is Rosarinho (Raquel Ascensão), a curly haired, luminous beauty, of whom João takes a special interest in. Then there is 14 year old Joaninha (Cláudia Teixeira), a butcher's daughter whom he gives a milk bath, with the intention of making ice cream out of that tub of milk. The thing is, with long, intriguing face, João is not in the least creepy. His actions might cause him repercussions in the form of bodily harm and unemployment, but enough wit and charm, he is no different than Woody Allen. There are many other funny in-jokes in the film- especially the João's hilarious, long winded speech at the possible joint venture celebration with a French businessman (his name is Antoine Doinel and doesn't look anything like Jean-Pierre Léaud and João mentions that).

God's Comedy is an offbeat, often funny film and it showcases the director's unique comedic style. But clocking at almost 3 hours, the film is a slog to go through. It could've easily been a deft 90 minute film.

"I Hate Irresponsible People!"

Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987) - Hara

Crazy. Kenzo Okuzaki is a dedicated man. He is a 62-year old fiery WWII vet who wouldn't stop for anything to get confessions out of his interviewees in what happened in New Guinea at the end of the war. He is the first one to tell you that he spent 13 years in prison for murdering a former army officer and taking pot shots at Emperor Hirohito. Driving around in a van with anti-war/anti-emperor slogans, armed with loud speakers, Okuzaki is one of those slightly demented, intimidating and certainly dangerous characters who you don't want to confront in real life. He hates irresponsible people and he hates Hirohito who he deems as responsible for thousands of soldier's needless death in the war.

Everyone he interviews has different versions or is holding out on the truth. After much coaxing and physical altercations, he finds out the ugly truth- how starving soldiers were resorted to cannibalism- dark meat (Natives), white meat (American soldiers) but also among themselves (troublemakers and selfish ones). For many, they just want to forget that they were ever involved in that shameful time, 40 years ago. Let the sleeping dogs lie. But for Okuzaki, confronting them and holding them accountable (with violence if necessary) is his mission in life. The postscript says he shot a son of the captain who ordered the execution of the two soldiers who were charged with desertion. Hara just lets his subject talk and act, never interfering with whatever's happening on the screen. Utterly compelling and unforgettable.

Garlic is the Spice of Life

Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) - Blank
I usually keep about a half dozen bulbs of garlic in my kitchen at any given time. After watching this doc, I got curious where Koreans' love of the garlic comes from. According to wiki, Korea is the 3rd largest garlic producing country and they eat more garlic per capita than any other country. I didn't know garlic originated from central Asia.

I made this this morning- learned it from a friend from Majorca. Very satisfying meal.
Spanish Tortilla (as a breakfast or lite snack)
Prep and cooking time: 15 minutes

1 russet potato
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
4 eggs
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Cut potato in half lengthwise, then with flat side down on the cutting board, slice into 1/8" pieces. Slice onion into 1/4" pieces. Crush garlic, slice thinly. Heat a medium round frying pan on the stove in medium heat. With a bit of olive oil, fry all ingredients until potato is cooked but not burnt. In a large bowl, beat 4 eggs, pour in the fried stuff, sprinkle in some salt & pepper and mix well. Reintroduce the mixture to the pan, filling the edges with eggs. Cook about 2 minutes. Cover the pan with a large plate, walk over to the kitchen sink, flip it, then slide the tortilla back in to the pan, cook another minute or so.

Makes 4 servings or 2 depending on how hungry you are. Enjoy it with some Tabasco sauce. They go really well together.

Word Play

My Nights are More Beautiful than Your Days/Mes Nuits sont Plus Belles que Vos Jours (1989) - Zulawski
Lucas (Jacques Dutronc) just invented a new computer language that will revolutionize the world. But at the same time, he is diagnosed with some terminal brain disease that is eating away his brains and leaving him only speaking in non-sensical, free-association word games. He meets a lovely actress Blanche (Sophie Marceau) who is just about to become a star. They bond as they provide narratives for a fighting old couple on the sidewalk- are they in love or drunk? It's a love at first sight. Maybe because of his illness, he clings to her as if she is the sun and she in turn, sees him as a pure soul who might provide a solace from vultures that surround her.

Blanche takes off to seaside Biarritz to perform her clairvoyant act in a glitzy casino hotel and Lucas follows her. They go through tumultuous, surreal days and nights communicating only in word play, connected by childhood trauma (which is the weakest link of the film, btw) and understanding each other in madness.

Sophie Marceau bares it all in another Andrej Zulawski's film about love. Lighter than his other emotionally charged dramas but hardly any less amusing, My Nights showcases Marceau's beauty every chance it gets. She has a difficult duty of reacting off of Dutronc's checked-out-at-the-door performance. He's like a floating target that you can't ever pin down. I've seen My Nights when I was in High School, out of horny teen boy curiosity. Marceau was really big when I was growing up. And I never bothered to look seriously at the subtitles. The version I saw just now had great subs. I wonder how the delicate word games they play in the film come across in Korean. Probably not too well.

A Broken Heart

Police (1985) - Pialat
What makes a good Policiér: a tension filled plot where criminals always get apprehended at the end? Well orchestrated shootout sequences? A stoney faced hero with macho attitude? A good moral lesson? Memorable villains? Pialat's Police has non of that. When it's all said and done, it's about a broken heart. Then why is it infinitely more watchable?

Gerard Depardieu plays a tough veteran detective Mangin in a busy police district in Paris. He apprehends a couple (Simon and Noria) who are suspected in drug trafficking after a tip from a source. After grueling interrogation, Noria (Sophie Marceau) is released but not Simon. Now his brothers are getting antsy. With a pretty superintendent trainee in tow, Mangin, Noria's lawyer and Noria go out dancing. Hey, we are all human beings aren't we? Men, women, attraction...things happen. One day you slap her around and manhandle her, the next day you are making out with her. It seems Noria is taking advantage of everyone- the lawyer, Simon, Mangin, as she steals a suitcase full of money and drugs from Simon's brother who is in the hospital after getting stabbed in the gut multiple times while attempting revenge on the informant.

The best part of the film is Mangin and Noria driving around 'til dawn making out and talking, as if they were 15 year old teenagers in love. After he finds out what she has done, he returns the bag full of money and drugs to the guys to save her. She leaves. No promises are made that they won't track her down, no retaliation or shooting, no dying in your lover's arms or anything. Not even a goodbye kiss. Mangin quotes someone, "Deep down everything is rotten, or wait, was it everything is awful?" It's all realistic but not minimalistic. Devoid of drama yet human connections seem genuine and real. She was a cold bitch but he will no doubt miss her

Free Like a Bird

Light Years Away (1981) - Tanner 3.5/5






Jonah (Mick Ford), a scrubby 25 year-old bartender in the city has a chance encounter with Yoshka (Trevor Howard), an eccentric old man. He throws a book at the young man and disappears. The old man's name and address are on the book. With some difficulty, Jonah locates Yoshka in the middle of nowhere, living in an auto shop junkyard. Secretive Yoshka works locked in a garage most of the day, while putting Jonah to work on meaningless tasks in exchange for meager meals. Taking the old man as his guide, the wayward Jonah is up for anything. But the old man is real headcase: one day, he emerges from the garage all blooded up, asking Jonah to bury him up to the neck. Three days later, all healed, he is as good as new. After much taunting for not 'getting it' by Yoshka, Jonah finally snaps, sets junkyard ablaze and injures himself. Then the cranky old man finally lets his apprentice in his secret- in his garage, filled with birds, he is building a pair of wings and he will fly away beyond the galaxy. And when he takes off, he will leave everything to the young man.

Yoshka might be a looney but he opened Jonah's eyes to see the spiritual side of things. Light Years Away's free-like-a-bird, society-as-jail message is a bit too esoteric and dated for me, especially it is set in 2000 (I read that Tanner's referencing his 1976 film, Jonah Who will be 25 in the year 2000, about a group of people living in a Swiss commune). But I liked that Jonah is his own man. There are a lot of differences between the two men. Unlike Yoshka, Jonah is still rebellious young man who still wants to emjoy and love life. I loved its melancholic yet warm tone. It also has plenty of hauntingly beautiful images (shot in picturesque coastal Ireland).

Brimming with Life

Loulou (1980) - Pialat




Nelly (Isabelle Huppert) is a middle-class married woman. She meets a low-life scoundrel Loulou (Gerard Depardieu) at a disco. She knows he's bad and that's what's attractive about him. She leaves her husband André (Guy Marchand) and shack up with Loulou in a hotel room, then into a flat. He doesn't work and has an assortment of friends who go in and out of jail and always end up crashing at their place. Things are not so cut and dry with André, since she still works for him and he still has strong feelings for her. Nelly too, sometimes gets crossed with Loulou's wayward lifestyle. But yes, sex is good and yes it is sometimes thrilling to help out his illegal operations (stealing stereo equipment). She buys him things and pays for the flat. Then again, he constantly gets into trouble- gets stabbed in bar fights, gets tangled with other girls and their jealous husbands and shotgun wielding mental friends. Nelly gets pregnant. Would she keep the baby?

Brimming with life, Loulou features the one of the cutest couple in the cinema history. Pialat's steadicam long takes are perfect for capturing their lively relationship. Huppert is just adorable and Depardieu is natural in his silly, goofy, charming lowlife portrayal.

Dark Fairytale for Adults

The Heart is a Dark Forest (2007) - Krebitz






Model/actress turned director Nicolette Krebitz creates a dark fairytale of sorts for adults in this Tom Tykwer produced movie. She doesn't lack ideas or creativity when it comes to visuals- albeit derivative/homage heavy. (Maya Deren anyone?) What she lacks is consistency and cohesiveness. The film starts with the chicken scratch font titles as our heroine Marie (luminous Nina Hoss), a mother of two, waking up from a deep sleep. We are informed through dialog that she used to be a musician, just like her husband Thomas (always cherubic Devid Striesow), who's gone from classical violinist to playing 'pop things' for living. Their daughter's innocent mischief leads Marie finding out her husband having a double life with whole another family nearby. Devastated, Marie plunges into a slow hallucinatory descent and ends up at a masquerade ball that takes place in the castle in the forest.

Is it all a dream? The tone is all wrong. What does tiny Jesus running away from his cross mean- Is Krebitz doing Fire Walk with Me? Not so subtly Marie tells the Castle caretaker's wife that it's Medea who killed her children and not Maria Callas on TV. Then she goes skinny dipping, takes the gun from Otto Sander's cold dead hand and takes the bus naked to go back home. The hip style in the beginning doesn't add anything to the narrative. Dark Forest is obviously riding on the (bare)back of its star Hoss. But I feel she is too good for the material she is given here.