tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85127985750681840462024-03-13T20:58:17.554+13:00The Film SufiDevoted to the discussion of film expressionThe Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.comBlogger933125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-13264423776607069512022-10-02T16:34:00.001+13:002022-10-18T16:11:32.037+13:00“What the Health” - Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2017)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>What the Health</i> (2017) is a documentary film written, produced, directed and edited by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/08/kip-andersen.html"><b>Kip Andersen</b></a> and <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/08/keegan-kuhn.html"><b>Keegan Kuhn</b></a>, that takes a look at the effect of the animal agriculture industry (i.e. the meat <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHyyMFTDfmdLj1WbgSvp0cr9n_y04NGt2kiDNWaXHOPJ1CdDV31Bf97-G2XBIMs-yh9OjMgv7GXqxoNCJzTtrRZ92M0XDBWXvTX0d81iDUVsCv7ps8QcA4-pLbXkPbdhVutK2Ti0U7CQ2JE98Zmy2wBDj5oDocgzgq8Bn5pqOxnUgN5FdGDLleuzNTQ/s1526/What%20the%20Health%208a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1526" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPHyyMFTDfmdLj1WbgSvp0cr9n_y04NGt2kiDNWaXHOPJ1CdDV31Bf97-G2XBIMs-yh9OjMgv7GXqxoNCJzTtrRZ92M0XDBWXvTX0d81iDUVsCv7ps8QcA4-pLbXkPbdhVutK2Ti0U7CQ2JE98Zmy2wBDj5oDocgzgq8Bn5pqOxnUgN5FdGDLleuzNTQ/w400-h191/What%20the%20Health%208a.jpg" width="400" /></a>and dairy industry) on human health. It can be considered to be a companion piece to an earlier film by Andersen and Keegan Kuhn, <i>Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret</i> (2014), which focussed on the impact of the animal agriculture industry on the environment. Both films feature Kip Andersen as an investigative reporter talking to various spokespeople and lobbyists in the animal agriculture industry, as well as figures from environmental organizations (like Greenpeace and The Sierra Club, in the case of <i>Cowspiracy</i>) and from human health organizations (such as The American Diabetes Association, in the case of <i>What the Health</i>). Andersen also spoke onscreen with a number of doctors and investigative world experts, government officials, and others who are outside those specific organizations but who are impacted by the effects of meat and dairy industry food production. And both films come to similar conclusions – the meat and dairy industry is fundamentally harmful to human welfare.<br /><br /><i>What the Health</i> begins with Kip Andersen introducing himself and confessing that he is a recovering hypochondriac. He used to compulsively follow public prescriptions from the meat and dairy industry, such as faithfully consuming three full glasses of cow’s milk every day (I used to do that, too). Later in the film we are shown, in fact, that cow’s milk is nutritionally very different from human milk and is not really suited for human consumption. This is an example lesson that almost everyone can relate to. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">When Andersen reads that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently determined that all processed meat is carcinogenic, he is shocked. This means that, among other things, all ham, bacon, and sausages are carcinogenic. He checks the web site of the American Cancer Society and is<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7x2vz2TNEMJCVHJg1PD-SMVpWnGbaMvLgyFlm06UKTYBIpAh9vLWslVLuVrku-8oJhjSOZlaEO7hvfRte5cK0UafIx_W-LcsRvQNrFumtTr0ohILFAPjH8KAULHh7cAJojvp9OzGOEIxfu4snzFRljMtsJ_rMeDbxwP6PZSXT-O27qC8ThlhOq9mIcw/s1545/What%20the%20Health%205a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1545" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7x2vz2TNEMJCVHJg1PD-SMVpWnGbaMvLgyFlm06UKTYBIpAh9vLWslVLuVrku-8oJhjSOZlaEO7hvfRte5cK0UafIx_W-LcsRvQNrFumtTr0ohILFAPjH8KAULHh7cAJojvp9OzGOEIxfu4snzFRljMtsJ_rMeDbxwP6PZSXT-O27qC8ThlhOq9mIcw/w400-h185/What%20the%20Health%205a.jpg" width="400" /></a> further disturbed to see that they not only ignore WHO’s announcement but that the American Cancer Society seems to explicitly endorse the eating of processed meat. When he tries to contact the American Cancer Society about their policies on this issue, they brush him off and refuse his requests for an interview. <br /><br />Andersen further discovers that the commonly held view that diabetes can be attributed to, or at least worsened by, the consumption of sugar and carbohydrates is wrong. In fact, according to Dr. Garth Davis, one of the featured doctors in the film [1], the real consumption culprit for diabetes is actually eating red meat.<br /><br />In this connection , there is a rather dramatic interview with Dr. Robert Ratner, the Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Ratner adamantly refuses to blame the meat and dairy industry for worsening the health of diabetics. And when Andersen points out to him some peer-reviewed research articles that report finding a definite connection between meat and dairy consumption and worsened diabetic conditions, Ratner angrily shuts down the interview and leaves the room. <br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrYItqqTUkcq4IGLO8EVezOEln53rixoJ7x7VWy1yDDSQ1JEs31ZRoCRcQYvbaOnwWo_hamBFk3u_NXSnETNVsIZbXQuY93yvD7OdEDkhCIXnDqHzHSqw_bpqeYdU0JFbPs3EbkRGJMhfJmF2EFUtzN4IBIkfTCIlx8xX9m6pXH5RZ5v46fzL1NOIwQ/s1443/What%20the%20Health%2010a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="1443" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrYItqqTUkcq4IGLO8EVezOEln53rixoJ7x7VWy1yDDSQ1JEs31ZRoCRcQYvbaOnwWo_hamBFk3u_NXSnETNVsIZbXQuY93yvD7OdEDkhCIXnDqHzHSqw_bpqeYdU0JFbPs3EbkRGJMhfJmF2EFUtzN4IBIkfTCIlx8xX9m6pXH5RZ5v46fzL1NOIwQ/w400-h201/What%20the%20Health%2010a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>One major reason why Dr. Ratner may have refused to discuss this issue is that his American Diabetes Association is receiving major sponsorship funding from the meat and dairy industry. This meat-and-dairy industry sponsorship complicity (which was also mentioned in <i>Cowspiracy</i>) is additionally true of the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, and this can be confirmed by going to their respective websites. These people in the health institutions refusing interviews about animal products may have been worried about jeopardizing a major source of their funding. <br /><br />Of course, the discussion of this whole subject requires at least some consideration of the medical and pharmaceutical industries. One major problem with medical school education is that nutrition is not a significant theme in medical school curricula. I am not sure why this so, but perhaps nutrition is considered to have too-fuzzy boundaries and therefore to be outside the scope of “hard science”. At any rate, doctors coming out of medical school are not trained to be knowledgeable about nutrition and thus are not knowledgeable about the relative merits of plant-based and animal-product-laced diets. The clear benefits of following a plant-based diet are overlooked by most doctors.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqjMbkMWiGEt-q7w_YxeJG5oObDza8Xz4hnytTON7SSvfaB0kjLRLYRYUHdO5cwQsi_ozkGMRZ0UMqpBOiY9By-AWUkU9qq8wnXClMCMuu0QqSpcIVC8dPJALUvbL2u3kD8XQKNLmc6Hem726BIzySsTXYAn1G0NACSjxsQkZbUsxxY6jd1Kp-ZIVRUQ/s1546/What%20the%20Health%2011a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1546" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqjMbkMWiGEt-q7w_YxeJG5oObDza8Xz4hnytTON7SSvfaB0kjLRLYRYUHdO5cwQsi_ozkGMRZ0UMqpBOiY9By-AWUkU9qq8wnXClMCMuu0QqSpcIVC8dPJALUvbL2u3kD8XQKNLmc6Hem726BIzySsTXYAn1G0NACSjxsQkZbUsxxY6jd1Kp-ZIVRUQ/w400-h186/What%20the%20Health%2011a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Another, more general concern is that the medical industry appears to be more interested in treating patients long-term than in preventing illness in the first place. This is also true of the pharmaceutical industry. Of course there are financial payoffs for following this path, but I doubt this is an explicit strategy on the part of these two industries. Nevertheless, this is a problem, and as the film shows, there is a simple path to follow that would reduce the occurrences of many long-term illnesses and thereby address this problem – following a plant-based (vegan) diet.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In this connection the film shows several people suffering from long-term and supposedly (according to the medical advice these people were receiving) incurable health conditions. To help alleviate their painful and debilitating symptoms, they were regularly taking a massive number of prescribed pills. Then these people switched to vegan diets, and in a short time all their debilitating symptoms vanished. They were cured, and they were able to stop taking all those pills.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcsvRiZjRI2ql3zKFl5x6LExf0uiE_XHEmAT_tmTDuawZF9yfgU0juPpgiVX0NL3cl4YttzysrexjcU9ed6HfO6MLilazqiQBGix_-4dJnPutRanNBmjk_j_OtakGoFN6T7okeWoGVie4u6TFnSBjID9cHcFNAt06rgLXjYEqFduDX3qutsMi4VKaupQ/s1148/What%20the%20Health%209a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="1148" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcsvRiZjRI2ql3zKFl5x6LExf0uiE_XHEmAT_tmTDuawZF9yfgU0juPpgiVX0NL3cl4YttzysrexjcU9ed6HfO6MLilazqiQBGix_-4dJnPutRanNBmjk_j_OtakGoFN6T7okeWoGVie4u6TFnSBjID9cHcFNAt06rgLXjYEqFduDX3qutsMi4VKaupQ/w400-h250/What%20the%20Health%209a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Expanding on these experiences and other evidence present in the film, the filmmakers of <i>What the Health</i> come out and explicitly recommend that, in order to have a healthy life, <i>everyone</i> should adopt a plant-based diet. They discuss with medical experts who debunk the commonly-held notion that a plant-based diet will be short of protein. In fact a plant-based diet provides plenty of protein, roughly just as much as a typical meaty diet. And it is worth pointing out, as is mentioned in the film, that there is nothing sacred about the protein in meat – all protein originates from plants anyway. Animals just recycle it. <br /><br />They then show a number of muscular athletes and bodybuilders who attest that their physical prowess is significantly enhanced by their vegan diets. <br /><br />Overall, <i>What the Health</i> is a well-made and usefully informative documentary that is well worth seeing. Its message is more emphatically told than is that of its companion piece,<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgywSZ_rajb49GcNIWzBxg6KvF1hcpVs7J9W5eoWF0p4x3Td6KV4tILK0AaOACNFUkfBQLEjGyIiYLVx3MK81WvPjIGHhM8skI1mT0beCORcflaFKY21GDlsfWtT8pF7FIypVND1LhUO7WKL-kmtNk7lDYC0xscR2U_cKhyL1unVjn7v3KJserJQtGNXw/s1270/What%20the%20Health%2013a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1270" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgywSZ_rajb49GcNIWzBxg6KvF1hcpVs7J9W5eoWF0p4x3Td6KV4tILK0AaOACNFUkfBQLEjGyIiYLVx3MK81WvPjIGHhM8skI1mT0beCORcflaFKY21GDlsfWtT8pF7FIypVND1LhUO7WKL-kmtNk7lDYC0xscR2U_cKhyL1unVjn7v3KJserJQtGNXw/w400-h226/What%20the%20Health%2013a.jpg" width="400" /></a> <i>Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret</i>. However, from a pure filmmaking perspective, I liked <i>Cowspiracy</i> a bit more, because <i>What the Health</i> has more continuous sequences of “talking heads” that would have benefited from some more brief insertions of context-setting commentary on the part of Kip Andersen that would have smoothed the pace. Nevertheless, I recommend that you see <i>What the Health</i> and heed its advice [2].<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></span><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">½</b></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> </b><br />Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b> </b>Other prominent, supportive doctors featured in the film include:<br /><br /><ul><li>Dr. Neal Barnard (see <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2012/11/forks-over-knives-lee-fulkerson-2011.html"><i><b>Forks Over Knives</b></i></a> (2011))<br /> <br /></li><li>Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (see <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2012/11/forks-over-knives-lee-fulkerson-2011.html"><i><b>Forks Over Knives</b></i></a> (2011), <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2019/12/the-game-changers-louie-psihoyos-2018.html"><i><b>The Game Changers</b></i></a> (2018))<br /> <br /></li><li>Dr. Kim A. Williams<br /> <br /></li><li>Dr. Michael Greger<br /> <br /></li><li>Dr. Michael Klaper<br /><br /></li></ul></li><li> See also my reviews of <i><b> </b></i></li><ul><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2010/09/eating-3rd-edition-mike-anderson-2009.html"><i><b>Eating, 3rd Edition</b></i></a> (2009)</li><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2012/11/forks-over-knives-lee-fulkerson-2011.html"><i><b>Forks Over Knives</b></i></a> (2011)</li><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2019/12/the-game-changers-louie-psihoyos-2018.html"><i><b>The Game Changers</b></i></a> (2018)</li></ul></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-5152291042108899122022-08-28T17:37:00.002+12:002022-10-01T18:33:39.202+13:00“Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” - Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2014)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret</i> (2014) is a documentary film written and directed by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/08/kip-andersen.html"><b>Kip Andersen</b></a> and <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/08/keegan-kuhn.html"><b>Keegan Kuhn</b></a> that takes on the ambitious task of seeking to find a solution<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdFBIJoyIBMr2jWZ1LLx9I5TQZa7MFGpvgkiyog4qpAWy1CC3xmiJcFSm752dOAFV4ihgUdIE0xroVl5FDqBDOLecLP_uZnB6X5cFX0U06OUsfv_etYKHYkgA7U5ECbHTqIC8JrCb87hCh9WDx8viAOklP7xLyFxMG4-EXq2fezJ4n-438vdZ-QyN5w/s1701/Cowspiracy%209a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="1701" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdFBIJoyIBMr2jWZ1LLx9I5TQZa7MFGpvgkiyog4qpAWy1CC3xmiJcFSm752dOAFV4ihgUdIE0xroVl5FDqBDOLecLP_uZnB6X5cFX0U06OUsfv_etYKHYkgA7U5ECbHTqIC8JrCb87hCh9WDx8viAOklP7xLyFxMG4-EXq2fezJ4n-438vdZ-QyN5w/w400-h169/Cowspiracy%209a.jpg" width="400" /></a> to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions that threaten our planet. It follows the personal quest of Kip Andersen, who was inspired by watching Al Gore’s film <i>An Inconvenient Truth</i> (2006) to do something about our impending climate catastrophe. So over the course of this film, the viewer watches onscreen protagonist Kip Andersen (Kuhn handled the camerawork) as he narrates his efforts to see what can be done. <br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At first Andersen sets about changing his own lifestyle, believing that if everybody did this, then our problems would be solved. So he gave up driving his car and took to bicycle riding, took shorter showers, and tried to conserve electricity. But as he investigated further, he learned that these matters of personal behaviour are not where the problem lies. For example, he discovered that 660 gallons of water are used in the production of a quarter-pound of beef for a hamburger – a figure that dwarfs whatever water savings that could be made by taking shorter showers. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div>And in fact as Andersen investigated further, he learned that animal agriculture in general is the primary source of human-based environmental degradation. There is evidence for this out there, but it is not prominently on display. Andersen wanted to know why. <br /></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVJ9lh7tpQd2ITNKs_YJwhcE6FueIg97TumK54z6kPW6t4PhbDqt_oEAWEkoVulLddj3LIPklO9Mwp6BqwqMeSeetPC9QelSno-x-pYbFPwvunHyAQQ5v-E8gGTEVIOzrBBgmuXOzyjkdqPNZlfmmGZfJjDKf_U18algtHpGz-T_hXhGIxRTpW47t-Q/s1410/Cowspiracy%201a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1410" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVJ9lh7tpQd2ITNKs_YJwhcE6FueIg97TumK54z6kPW6t4PhbDqt_oEAWEkoVulLddj3LIPklO9Mwp6BqwqMeSeetPC9QelSno-x-pYbFPwvunHyAQQ5v-E8gGTEVIOzrBBgmuXOzyjkdqPNZlfmmGZfJjDKf_U18algtHpGz-T_hXhGIxRTpW47t-Q/w400-h204/Cowspiracy%201a.jpg" width="400" /></a>One piece of evidence that probably a number of people <i>have</i> heard about is a 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, “Livestock's Long Shadow”, stating that raising animal livestock produces more greenhouse gas emissions than do all transportation vehicles [1]. Andersen found that the UN FAO assertion was supplemented by a 2009 <i>World Watch Magazine</i> report by Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang claiming that livestock causes 51% of greenhouse gas emissions [2,3]. However, a number of lobbyists and supporters of the meat and dairy industry have taken great exception to this latter report, arguing that the 51% figure was a gross exaggeration and that its mention in <i>Cowspiracy</i> renders the film fraudulent. It should be pointed out, though, that the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production is a complicated matter, because one needs to include peripheral greenhouse gas sources, such as fossil fuel emissions from the transport of livestock and associated items (food, waste, etc.). There is not always agreement on what must be included. We must keep in mind that what we are interested in is the difference in total emissions from two different global situations – our current world and one in which no animal food products are produced. In any case, it should be noted that no matter what calculation measures are used, they all agree that the total greenhouse gas emissions from animal food production are very high and significantly exceed the greenhouse gas emissions from those of all transportation vehicles [4].<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">One thing that shocked Andersen is that the primary U.S. environmental organizations, like Greenpeace and The Sierra Club, make no mention of the high environmental costs of animal food production on their web sites. When Andersen tried to contact these organizations about this matter, they refused to discuss it with him – even when he made personal visits to the organizations to see if he could get their views on the subject. For example, spokespeople for The Sierra Club simply dodged the issue (this is shown on film), while Greenpeace formally refused to talk to him.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmSyazkIAR43D-LcMdB8HhtNkgYYagQ18Iu7ZDzUHLQI0X6Qiof9EE6oTQZ6LCQzoNkU1SyjB0nWJCLsduqe3Mm5NeLgYnwDKRA72H4vvB1dTiBf5VLgwQb0iZ-H6mTwTN-UlSrZU5zy5Eqm_CY0FPsh-Nr9qqXetVmYdZeeQWR_yzSjJ_KgPoFNEFg/s1714/Cowspiracy%2010a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1714" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmSyazkIAR43D-LcMdB8HhtNkgYYagQ18Iu7ZDzUHLQI0X6Qiof9EE6oTQZ6LCQzoNkU1SyjB0nWJCLsduqe3Mm5NeLgYnwDKRA72H4vvB1dTiBf5VLgwQb0iZ-H6mTwTN-UlSrZU5zy5Eqm_CY0FPsh-Nr9qqXetVmYdZeeQWR_yzSjJ_KgPoFNEFg/w400-h153/Cowspiracy%2010a.jpg" width="400" /></a>It turns out that the major environmental organizations all receive funding and support from meat and dairy companies and lobbies. Andersen even shows meat and dairy industry logos on display on some environmental organization websites. Apparently the environmental organizations are unwilling to risk this funding by discussing animal agriculture impacts on the environment. And so they shut out speaking with inquisitors like Andersen. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We also learn that both federal and state government agencies heavily subsidize the meat and dairy industry. When Andersen tries to talk to California state government officials about the matter, they won’t talk about this issue. So the animal agriculture industry seems to have a lot of economic clout. <i>Cowspiracy</i> does give some of their people a chance to speak – for example, Emily Meredith of the Animal Agriculture Alliance (a pro-livestock lobby), but their pro-livestock testimony seems weak to me. For one thing, they have no answer for a basic issue with animal agriculture: the fact that no matter how nicely the animals are raised, these animals will all be killed well short of their natural lifespan. No matter how we may try to ignore it, somebody has to do this killing. We are graphically reminded of this terminating action when, towards the end of the film, we are shown closeups of a backyard farmer personally using his hatchet to chop the heads off of the ducks he has raised. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdhya7bOsRG03pS6ds1KUVKQRC2x8fbRCXszTux7hcpWt0-wmU081lT-nekBo5qiPVRsO1HnYHQ4G_ckvNTiuHQOdp89oYW6rrK7kYVCERGl2wdGj9Q9OVLRhpbOOplSldm_bSGjPd9rw-y2UcvDsvGN2oEu64TkbEm9-cCPZdEM81AZT7XFI_aFH4hA/s864/Cowspiracy%202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="864" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdhya7bOsRG03pS6ds1KUVKQRC2x8fbRCXszTux7hcpWt0-wmU081lT-nekBo5qiPVRsO1HnYHQ4G_ckvNTiuHQOdp89oYW6rrK7kYVCERGl2wdGj9Q9OVLRhpbOOplSldm_bSGjPd9rw-y2UcvDsvGN2oEu64TkbEm9-cCPZdEM81AZT7XFI_aFH4hA/w400-h255/Cowspiracy%202.jpg" width="400" /></a>As the film proceeds, Andersen and Kuhn take on wider, more global issues, and world experts are interviewed on these matters. For example, one issue is the dramatic depletion of the world fish population due to over-fishing and pollution. Another issue concerns the imminent destruction of the Amazon rainforest due to human exploitation. The program director of the Amazon Watch organization, Leila Salazar Lopez, tells us that the entire Amazon rainforest could be lost in just10 years.<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Overall, <i>Cowspiracy</i> provides a fascinating and informative investigation of the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. Kip Andersen’s investigative style is mild-mannered and genuinely exploratory. He lets the pro-meat people have their chance to take the floor and defend their products. As a result, the film has received a number of favourable reviews [5,6,7] – at least from those critics who don’t have a pro-meat axe to grind. <br /><br />But no matter what the advocates of animal agriculture may say, and no matter how much many of us love the taste of meat (I used to be one of those people, when I was a meat-eater), they don’t have an answer or suitable response to a simple fact pointed out by sustainability consultant Richard Oppenlander: <br /></p><blockquote><b>for any given area of land, you can produce 15 times more protein from plants than from animals. <br /></b></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvXnTpRCycxdXOlOnroteQz9oMubLCY-gnoP7QI0xjMv0Z9LSG_U1kpH3UGr2S-7iHnVx5N_fOAttYNOlE6Mlm7dAiapa1xYxa10xSJxQe66mH9CJoOS7A3SuF-l19PTrsqCsWGJhfz7eus8eyoyWEZma62LBvj-TERhV73hafv0FImZC3yHXoaVnGQ/s1478/Cowspiracy%203a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="1478" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvXnTpRCycxdXOlOnroteQz9oMubLCY-gnoP7QI0xjMv0Z9LSG_U1kpH3UGr2S-7iHnVx5N_fOAttYNOlE6Mlm7dAiapa1xYxa10xSJxQe66mH9CJoOS7A3SuF-l19PTrsqCsWGJhfz7eus8eyoyWEZma62LBvj-TERhV73hafv0FImZC3yHXoaVnGQ/w400-h188/Cowspiracy%203a.jpg" width="400" /></a>We must keep this in mind when we ponder what to do with animal agriculture in connection with such major issues as the world food crisis and global pollution. Reducing animal agriculture (in fact preferably eliminating it) can save the planet. <br /><br />So I recommend that you watch <i>Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret</i> and take into consideration its message(s). This film is both entertaining and informative. However, one should bear in mind that there is one area of concern about animal agriculture that is not given a lot of attention in <i>Cowspiracy</i>, and that concerns the consequences and impact on one’s personal health of consuming meat and dairy products. Rest assured, though, that this was not a topic outside the purview of Andersen and Kuhn. It was just an area of concern that in their minds deserved to have a whole film devoted to it. And this is what they did when they made their subsequent documentary <i>What the Health</i> (2017), which is another film worth your consideration.<br />★★★★</div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Notes:<br /></b></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock's_Long_Shadow"><b>“Livestock's Long Shadow”</b></a>, <i>Wikipedia</i>, (15 March 2022). <br /></li><li>Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, <a href="https://awellfedworld.org/world-watch-magazine/#:~:text=But%20recent%20analysis%20by%20Goodland,of%20annual%20worldwide%20GHG%20emissions"><b>“Livestock and Climate Change”</b></a>, <i>WORLD WATCH MAGAZINE</i> (2009), a well-fed world, (November 2009), . </li><li>Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, Jeff (Nov–Dec 2009). "Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change were pigs, chickens and cows?" (PDF). <i>Worldwatch Magazine,</i> Worldwatch Institute. pp. 10–19. S2CID 27218645. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-01. </li><li>Keegan Kuhn, <a href="https://www.cowspiracy.com/blog/2015/11/23/response-to-criticism-of-cowspiracy-facts"><b>“Response to Criticism of Cowspiracy Facts”</b></a>, <i>Cowspiracy</i>, A.U.M. Films & Media, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Kate Irwin, <a href="https://www.dailycal.org/2014/06/27/meat-problems-cowspiracy/"><b>“More meat, more problems in ‘Cowspiracy’”</b></a>, <i>The Daily Californian</i>, (27 June 2014). <br /></li><li>Chris Sosa, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/are-burgers-really-destro_b_5690278"><b>“Are Burgers Really Destroying the Planet? Kip Andersen Thinks So”</b></a>, <i>HuffPost</i>, (19 August 2014; updated 6 December 2017). <br /></li><li>Ward Pallotta, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cowspiracy-exposes-the-truth-about-animal-agriculture-1881961982.html"><b>“Cowspiracy Exposes the Truth About Animal Agriculture”</b></a>, <i>EcoWatch</i>, (10 October 2014). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-33373161190365214922022-08-28T15:37:00.002+12:002022-10-02T16:57:50.504+13:00Kip Andersen<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Kip Andersen:</b><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/08/cowspiracy-sustainability-secret-kip.html"><b><i>Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret</i></b></a> - Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2014)<b></b></li><li><b><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/10/what-health-kip-andersen-and-keegan.html"><i>What the Health </i></a>- </b>Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2017)<b></b></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-36545617608327982292022-08-28T15:29:00.003+12:002022-10-02T16:55:19.966+13:00Keegan Kuhn<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Keegan Kuhn:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/08/cowspiracy-sustainability-secret-kip.html"><b><i>Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret</i></b></a> - Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2014)<b></b></li><li><b><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/10/what-health-kip-andersen-and-keegan.html"><i>What the Health </i></a>- </b>Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (2017)</li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-23742758709717565262022-07-02T15:50:00.001+12:002022-07-02T16:34:40.518+12:00“The Mask of Dimitrios” - Jean Negulesco (1944)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> (1944) is one of the classic <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2008/08/film-noir.html"><b>films noir</b></a> of the 1940s, and it stars two of the more colorful figures of that period, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Only on this occasion, <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFKDqR-IJ82F2GVnwGyGJMvabP8-6kVtr1BXDQ2xwPgUZkHYKT9afYu6gpME567lQ3Q7giDx4voMOrXCKe6aXPGrKRIKsL86zKOYlArcrhRmiLz5bEWs5zzBlzruuSO7Wu8kPHuYFjTh_66jyoONySzF9UZi3cfybauBxX-G2lL50QhwS_ibfDZHxI8A/s1117/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2020.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1117" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFKDqR-IJ82F2GVnwGyGJMvabP8-6kVtr1BXDQ2xwPgUZkHYKT9afYu6gpME567lQ3Q7giDx4voMOrXCKe6aXPGrKRIKsL86zKOYlArcrhRmiLz5bEWs5zzBlzruuSO7Wu8kPHuYFjTh_66jyoONySzF9UZi3cfybauBxX-G2lL50QhwS_ibfDZHxI8A/w400-h304/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2020.jpg" width="400" /></a></i>instead of playing shady and somewhat threatening supporting roles, they are cast as the stars of the film and represent the protagonists of the story. Greenstreet and Lorre appeared together in nine famous films during this period – <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2011/06/bogart-and-brando-maltese-falcon-wild.html"><i><b>The Maltese Falcon</b></i></a> (1941), <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2011/06/casablanca-michael-curtiz-1942.html"><i><b>Casablanca</b></i></a> (1942), <i>Background to Danger</i> (1943), <i>Passage to Marseille</i> (1944), <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> (1944), <i>The Conspirators</i> (1944), <i>Hollywood Canteen</i> (1944), <i>Three Strangers</i> (1946), and <i>The Verdict</i> (1946) – but I would say that <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> features their greatest and most memorable performances. <br /><br />Interestingly, despite their being cast here in <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> in the roles of the protagonists, Greenstreet and Lorre here retain their usual shady cinematic personae. Lorre is his usual slimy self, and Greenstreet is characteristically abrupt and threatening, although he is here perpetually delivering his sanctimonious statement: "There's not enough kindness in the world". Nevertheless, we are in film noir territory here, so it all fits together nicely. Indeed, film scholar Keith Roysdon, who wrote an essay in praise of the Lorre-Greenstreet acting collaboration [1], commented:<br /><blockquote>“‘Mask of Dimitrios’ is . . . the peak of the Lorre and Greenstreet movies.”</blockquote>The film was directed by the versatile <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/07/jean-negulesco.html"><b>Jean Negulesco</b></a>, and it was based on the famous 1939 novel of the same name (aka in the U.S.: <i>A Coffin for Dimitrios</i>) by popular British author Eric Ambler. The cinematography and editing was handled by Arthur Edeson and Frederick Richards, respectively; and while there are a number of distracting jump-cuts and camera-axis-crossing shots, the film’s overall appearance does very well conform to the dramatic visual panache of the dark urban film-noir underworld. The film’s music was composed by the prolific Adolph Deutsch, who was also responsible for the music in <i>The Maltese Falcon</i>. The result was a classic film noir in all its trappings. And over the years, <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> has consistently drawn a number of appreciative reviews [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKU-nsJ3SXRTJzxiDEE4c_jO5bdMyCKk1fl6sC3SlYo0PckumfMC-XFedH0DHZsdYcnLyPKia3UoERoqJbtH9CPMwkPz0L2vbL-pe52X5Cc9nGL3SQvizxP0EKRI4z9flOd_f2X7h6MJmqUSpa8FQlIjBlQDEf8d23lN3cj_i0tL-g8fhA-bxu6QgIw/s824/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="824" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKU-nsJ3SXRTJzxiDEE4c_jO5bdMyCKk1fl6sC3SlYo0PckumfMC-XFedH0DHZsdYcnLyPKia3UoERoqJbtH9CPMwkPz0L2vbL-pe52X5Cc9nGL3SQvizxP0EKRI4z9flOd_f2X7h6MJmqUSpa8FQlIjBlQDEf8d23lN3cj_i0tL-g8fhA-bxu6QgIw/w400-h261/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The narrative of <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i> is somewhat complicated by the retelling in flashback of several lengthy past episodes from the life of the nefarious Dimitrios Makropoulos (played by Zachary Scott in his first starring role). Dimitrios, we will learn, is a liar, thief, murderer, spy, gangster, betrayer, and traitor. The person interested in learning his story is a well-known detective story writer, Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre), who believes Dimitrios would make a good subject for his next book. <br /><br />The story begins in 1938 with Leyden visiting Istanbul. At a social gathering Leyden meets a high-ranking police officer, Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch), who is a fan of Leyden’s writing. Haki tells him about Dimitrios Makropoulos, whose dead body was recently washed up on the beach. It is revealed that Dimitrios is known to have engaged in various criminal activities over the past sixteen years in a number of places – successively in Smyrna,, Athens, Sofia, Belgrade, and Paris.<br />The evil nature of Dimitrios intrigues Leyden, and he is allowed to see the corpse just before it is disposed of. Afterwards, a stout gentleman, a Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), also comes to the morgue to see the corpse, but he arrives too late.<br /><br />Intent on basing his next novel on Dimitrios, Leyden travels to Athens to dig up more info about him, but he doesn’t find much. So he heads to Sofia, where he is able to track down Irana Preveza (Faye Emerson), a former lover of Dimitrios fifteen years ago. Telling him in flashback, she says Dimitrios was involved in an assassination attempt and left the country using money borrowed from Irana. But despite his promises, Dimitrios never returned the money. When Leyden returns to his hotel room, he finds a gun-wielding Mr. Peters has searched it and demanding to know why he is interested in Dimitrios. After the mysterious Peters becomes convinced of Leyden’s relatively innocent intentions, he proposes that the two of them work together and that there may be some unexplained financial reward that results from it.<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7yHklN13_vCPVJ6vTafPPRIKXyhrgHT5o29oSmMih_61Ua6mtw16BSVZjI1r1FOftHA-bZpwwoosKi9a2htriiRQGRdudmA00Uzc8b7wRwGa9uje5erg-bkNi20h5BY8AKWIcIKpjyJ_bo07UR7DeguJRMUW_rpMZvbN04lcB6rUdbiozfpFb2BqDCg/s1116/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="837" data-original-width="1116" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7yHklN13_vCPVJ6vTafPPRIKXyhrgHT5o29oSmMih_61Ua6mtw16BSVZjI1r1FOftHA-bZpwwoosKi9a2htriiRQGRdudmA00Uzc8b7wRwGa9uje5erg-bkNi20h5BY8AKWIcIKpjyJ_bo07UR7DeguJRMUW_rpMZvbN04lcB6rUdbiozfpFb2BqDCg/w400-h300/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%209.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>So Peters puts Leyden in touch with the genteel but sinister Wladislaw Grodek (Victor Francen). In a 20-minute flashback Grodek relates how he had hired Dimitrios to obtain some state secrets. Dimitrios manipulated Karel Bulic (Steven Geray), a minor Yugoslav government official, into gambling and losing a huge sum so that he could be pressured into stealing charts of some strategic minefields. Bulic ultimately confesses to the authorities and then commits suicide, but Grodek just smirks when telling about it. However, Dimitrios double-crossed Grodek by selling the stolen charts himself to the Italian government.<br /><br />Still desirous of knowing more about Dimitrios, Leyden heads to the next known stop of the man’s iniquitous itinerary, Paris. There he meets up again with the up-to-now secretive Peters, who Leyden has by this time learned used to be a member of Dimitrios's smuggling gang. Peters now informs Leyden that the corpse he saw in the morgue in Istanbul was not that of Dimitrios, and he proves it by showing Leyden an identifying photograph of the of the man, not Dimitrios, who was killed in Istanbul. Dimitrios, Peters informs Leyden, is still alive and is living under an assumed name in Paris. Since Leyden is the only person who has seen the corpse and can confirm that it was not Dimitrios, he and Peters are now in a position to blackmail Dimitrios. Peters wants one million francs from Dimitrios for his silence, and Leyden agrees to go along. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNmGZGAwn0dtasTBX8mY_R8qC1a5tn3UArQHadvVXZ3HkoZgwxMzIwIuGgvUpe3fuojzrZpYNUJ7TUG00lH3ABolCF1vv1TvCK56hDqu81LAKMAUqXM7QqaK0AYVfcamcRxkXgtMDnAtIucKGeWNPxXI1RjbABh3GmPLjXIh7W5pTVZpmIhZppy1DTw/s1119/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="1119" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSNmGZGAwn0dtasTBX8mY_R8qC1a5tn3UArQHadvVXZ3HkoZgwxMzIwIuGgvUpe3fuojzrZpYNUJ7TUG00lH3ABolCF1vv1TvCK56hDqu81LAKMAUqXM7QqaK0AYVfcamcRxkXgtMDnAtIucKGeWNPxXI1RjbABh3GmPLjXIh7W5pTVZpmIhZppy1DTw/w400-h295/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2013.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Peters knows how to get in touch with Dimitrios, and he arranges a secret meeting between himself, Dimitrios, and a suitably disguised Leyden. At the meeting Peters issues to Dimitrios his demand for one million francs in cash, or he will reveal Dimitrios’s to the authorities via Leyden’s anonymized testimony. Dimitrios grimly concedes that they have the goods on him and agrees to make the payment.<br /><br />And so at a secretly arranged location, Peters and Leyden pickup a case filled with one million francs in cash. Peters is exultant.<br /><br />However, we are likely to doubt that Dimitrios will give up the ghost so quickly, and, sure enough, Dimitrios does have another play to make – and a violent one, too. But you will have to watch the movie, yourself, to see how it all plays out in the end.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">One might be tempted to wonder if there is any moral slant in <i>The Mask of Dimitrios'</i>, although this is not often an issue in a film noir. However, in this film, Leyden, the ever-fascinated observer of malevolent people, is presented with closeup, contrasting views of two often-congenial but ultimately pernicious antagonists going up against each other:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><b>Dimitrios</b> – He is a complete narcissist and only interested in his own utilitarian gain. If he thinks he can gain from it and get away with it, he will lie to, cheat, murder, and/or betray any person he comes across. Other people don’t count for him.<br /><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7x7XcTDTFcPhsIFUkLkgbHMmXW9mIhjVmweU_jhakzfNwxgFpNeMpJTwieGTXYGN4dJsnc52v7Kc2sPgZRYSXZq05GE4_HO8nhHEWOc2TSapKP5DTPj1zRTFyejbKTyQxYYI3hnYhb9XoDoaQ2CsJPI8dheM-g82lckx9Hi7AluoblN6x7EJlnqK05A/s1200/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2016.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="1200" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7x7XcTDTFcPhsIFUkLkgbHMmXW9mIhjVmweU_jhakzfNwxgFpNeMpJTwieGTXYGN4dJsnc52v7Kc2sPgZRYSXZq05GE4_HO8nhHEWOc2TSapKP5DTPj1zRTFyejbKTyQxYYI3hnYhb9XoDoaQ2CsJPI8dheM-g82lckx9Hi7AluoblN6x7EJlnqK05A/w400-h291/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2016.jpg" width="400" /></a></b> </li><li><b>Peters</b> – Although we know that he has been a member of a smuggling gang, Peters does care about other people. That is why his slogan is "there's not enough kindness in the world". But he cares about people in both positive and negative ways. He can sometimes hate them and want to take revenge on them. Indeed, he has spent a major part of his life engaged in a revenge campaign against Dimitrios. For Peters, this revenge is even more important than the one million francs.<br /></li></ul>So Dimitrios and Peters are malicious, but in different ways. Dimitrios is almost a cold-blooded self-serving robot, out only for his personal gain, whereas Peters does concern himself with other people but sometimes in a vengeful way. <br /><br />I personally believe that we have all been placed in this world with the assigned goal of bringing joy to all the beings that we encounter while we are here. And anger, hatred, and vengeance have <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrxlv0ewdKbyypTmuK5mAeaA6Yqy9odaKPoLAndZuIZPtTxHadwYAWjfpMxBxWeiyU2uXsKqWYSxY2wbK3N4dHztzXmYAnkrjKwKWbgeAPkP1N6rmXeNCGvajx3b9O2aKWRePA-GG1xKl48n6ppi-ldJthP1yhyMwRQB6NNn-M_vj6-kuVEH9-0ZnJQ/s1115/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2011.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1115" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWrxlv0ewdKbyypTmuK5mAeaA6Yqy9odaKPoLAndZuIZPtTxHadwYAWjfpMxBxWeiyU2uXsKqWYSxY2wbK3N4dHztzXmYAnkrjKwKWbgeAPkP1N6rmXeNCGvajx3b9O2aKWRePA-GG1xKl48n6ppi-ldJthP1yhyMwRQB6NNn-M_vj6-kuVEH9-0ZnJQ/w400-h303/The%20Mask%20of%20Dimitrios%2011.jpg" width="400" /></a>no place in the carrying out of this mission (as you may have guessed from my reviews of other revenge-films). Therefore Peters is no angel here. And so Leyden must consider that aspect of his encounters with the people he has met in this story, too. <br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">At any rate, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre with their colorful personages, do an excellent job of raising these issues in <i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i>. As for the overall moral slant of the film, perhaps it does just come down to the need for more kindness. After all, the final words expressed in the film are Greenstreet’s:<br /><blockquote>"There's not enough kindness in the world."</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">★★★★<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b> </b>Keith Roysdon, <a href="https://crimereads.com/peter-lorre-and-sydney-greenstreet-film-noirs-greatest-odd-couple/"><b>“Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet: Film Noir's Greatest Odd Couple”</b></a>, <i>CrimeReads</i>, (30 April 2021). <br /></li><li>Bosley Crowther, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1944/06/24/archives/the-screen-the-mask-of-dimitrios.html"><b>“THE SCREEN; The Mask of Dimitrios'”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (24 June 1944). <br /></li><li>Walter E. Wilson, <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1957/10/28/the-mask-of-dimitrios-pin-the/"><b>“The Mask of Dimitrios”</b></a>, <i>The Harvard Crimson</i>, (28 October 1957). <br /></li><li><a href="https://www.tvguide.com/movies/the-mask-of-dimitrios/review/2030281960/"><b>“The Mask of Dimitrios Reviews”</b></a>, <i>TV Guide</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Orson DeWelles, <a href="http://www.classicfilmfreak.com/2011/06/28/the-mask-of-dimitrios-1944/"><b>“The Mask of Dimitrios (1944) with Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet”</b></a>, <i>Classic Film Freak</i>, (28 June 2011). <br /></li><li><a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83036/the-mask-of-dimitrios#synopsis"><b>“Synopsis”</b></a>, The Mask of Dimitrios, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>James Steffin, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83036/the-mask-of-dimitrios#articles-reviews?articleId=59891"><b>“The Mask of Dimitrios”</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (24 October 2003). <br /></li><li>Dennis Schwartz, <a href="https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/maskofdimitrios/"><b>“Mask of Dimitrios, The”</b></a>, <i>Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews</i> (5 August 2019). <br /></li><li>Leonard Quart, <a href="https://www.cineaste.com/fall2013/from-the-archives-the-mask-of-dimitrios"><b>“FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Mask of Dimitrios”</b></a>, <i>Cineaste Magazine</i>, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 4, (2013). <br /></li><li>Glenn Erickson, <a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4180mask.html"><b>“The Mask of Dimitrios”</b></a>, <i>DVD Savant</i>, (20 June 2013). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-47603946523767061432022-07-02T14:04:00.001+12:002022-07-02T15:53:10.733+12:00Jean Negulesco<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Jean Negulesco:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/07/the-mask-of-dimitrios-jean-negulesco.html"><b><i>The Mask of Dimitrios</i></b></a> - Jean Negulesco (1944)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-26444985533942238942022-05-20T14:02:00.001+12:002022-05-20T14:06:11.128+12:00“Hit the Road” - Panah Panahi (2021)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Hit the Road</i> (<i>Jadde Khaki</i>, 2021) is an Iranian film written and directed by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/05/panah-panahi.html"><b>Panah Panahi</b></a>, the son of masterful Iranian film auteur <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2008/08/jafar-panahi.html"><b>Jafar Panahi</b></a>. This is a “road movie” that has a special flavor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhekA5Fa0uL3SIxGJ3lSxXYw_XKTcEg6dGmAgZYLUvBFjaRBtS5f1M0y1Sslkf2d-eQ5OSLW-LcbWB8EVvTe-GNJkWnyRw9u-LZ1qWs-vh5iMdtDmvccCH39aeNFRN909GgWYGYWx09pa7XoGp5MeFcuqzn_2IbPNCLihqboxER63vjXNpszD5iglet7Q/s1920/Jadde%20Khaki%2010.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhekA5Fa0uL3SIxGJ3lSxXYw_XKTcEg6dGmAgZYLUvBFjaRBtS5f1M0y1Sslkf2d-eQ5OSLW-LcbWB8EVvTe-GNJkWnyRw9u-LZ1qWs-vh5iMdtDmvccCH39aeNFRN909GgWYGYWx09pa7XoGp5MeFcuqzn_2IbPNCLihqboxER63vjXNpszD5iglet7Q/w400-h225/Jadde%20Khaki%2010.jpg" width="400" /></a> to it, thanks, in part, to its Iranian context.<br /><br />Although I customarily don’t spend much time discussing film production details, because such details can get in the way of directly appreciating the film’s aesthetics and storyline, I sometimes make an exception for Iranian films. That is because the Iranian government’s incessant incessant suppression of free expression in all media, including the film medium, makes it extremely difficult for creative filmmakers to express their ideas cinematically, and the reader may benefit from learning a few things about this background. That is the reason why, for example, many good Iranian films are “road movies”. It is sometimes only within the close confines of a road vehicle that the filmmaker has the privacy and freedom from spying eyes to be able to show genuine human interactions. <br /><br />And, of course, there is the matter of the Panahi family background. Panah Panahi was born in 1984 and went to film school. But most of what Panah learned ed about filmmaking came from watching both his famous father, Jafar Panahi, and his father’s equally famous mentor, the noted Cannes Film Festival Palme-d'Or-winner, <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/12/abbas-kiarostami.html"><b>Abbas Kiarostami</b></a>, who often discussed their film projects with each other, with the young Panah sitting and watching in the background [1,2]. However, things became much more complicated when Jafar Panahi’s progressive attitudes and film expression came under the critical scrutiny of the Iranian government, and in 2010 he was charged with producing propaganda against the government. He was then sentenced to <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">“six years in prison and a 20-year ban on directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving interviews with Iranian or foreign media, or leaving the country except for medical treatment or making the Hajj pilgrimage” [3]. </div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiXq-HDwvXGM0TfwNiYIkbsOvgFjXE1csXp3CdDP5seXGtjKHzRglXWI6eUMWa39SDtcI65mox1-sNMUF9AX_DWxdykLFdKTg2YrdIdNnfLXOMnx1awoYez_-vM82JVTKIHuM-3BYWP9sfTFxtyKDAVvjfGMOiMVnGZGDPAapib6vIwcm5BRR9ijvlGg/s1018/Jadde%20Khaki%2012.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1018" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiXq-HDwvXGM0TfwNiYIkbsOvgFjXE1csXp3CdDP5seXGtjKHzRglXWI6eUMWa39SDtcI65mox1-sNMUF9AX_DWxdykLFdKTg2YrdIdNnfLXOMnx1awoYez_-vM82JVTKIHuM-3BYWP9sfTFxtyKDAVvjfGMOiMVnGZGDPAapib6vIwcm5BRR9ijvlGg/w400-h216/Jadde%20Khaki%2012.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Since then Jafar Panahi’s activities have been severely restricted,, and he has more or less been under house arrest. Nevertheless, he has somehow managed to continue to make some films, and his son Panah has continued trying to help in the background. Eventually, Panah’s own contributions became more significant, and he was credited as the co-editor on his father’s recent film <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2018/08/3-faces-jafar-panahi-2018.html"><i><b>3 Faces</b></i></a> (2018). <br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note that both Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami have made some road movies. Does that mean that Panah Panahi’s <i>Hit the Road</i> is a film like those of his mentors? Yes and no. <i>Hit the Road</i> has features of other Iranian road movies, but it has some of its own novel aspects, too. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The film begins by showing a SUV parked along the side of a highway, and the viewer is not given any real background information as to what’s going on. Instead the film employs the cinematic technique of “slow disclosure” to draw the viewer in to learning more about the situation. The SUV has four people in it, evidently a family headed somewhere. In the front is a twenty-something young man behind the wheel and a middle-aged woman in the front passengers’ seat. In the backseat area is a middle-aged man with his leg in a cast that stretches out into the space between the two front seats. Sitting next to this man in the backseat is a rambunctious and naughty six-or-seven-year-old boy, This family, the viewer will eventually surmise, is fleeing from some unspecified, dangerous situation in Tehran, probably brought about by the oppressive government of the Iranian Islamic Republic. Indeed the young driver of the SUV has probably been conscripted into military service, which can in Iran be a very dangerous situation to be in..<br /><br />So in this film the focus is primarily on the four contrasting members of the family in the SUV heading west out of Tehran:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lJTVInTqbiaCHVNywS9y2LC-YI3OJTRzG78B6gJHRK9lubENKqqE9iPfSW-ZFY4rat-VVo9JFkBZBs-Wy7jCSDLTHWq2u3DnPlswOZcGY-Os1dYXOVnX5BYqQV3tYNQv3OJRv3I1vgagOEO1ptqnh_g0il-5ZCc027xOx9FqPAT-aawu9izbkufotQ/s1078/Jadde%20Khaki%204.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="1078" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lJTVInTqbiaCHVNywS9y2LC-YI3OJTRzG78B6gJHRK9lubENKqqE9iPfSW-ZFY4rat-VVo9JFkBZBs-Wy7jCSDLTHWq2u3DnPlswOZcGY-Os1dYXOVnX5BYqQV3tYNQv3OJRv3I1vgagOEO1ptqnh_g0il-5ZCc027xOx9FqPAT-aawu9izbkufotQ/w400-h209/Jadde%20Khaki%204.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The <b>Mother</b> (we are never told her name). She is played by well-known actress Pantea Panahiha, and she is the most heartwarming person in the story. She wants the best for her grumpy older son, but she has to hold her ground in the face of her family’s banter in the car.<br /> <br /></li><li>The Father (known as <b>Khosro</b>) is played by Hasan Majuni. He is an enigmatic, grouchy character, probably because he has had his foot in that caste four months. But he sometimes quietly displays a warm heart, especially towards his mischievous young son sitting next to him in the back seat.<br /> <br /></li><li>The <b>young boy</b> (nicknamed “Monkey the Second” by his Dad) is played by Rayan Sarlak and is an impish little boy constantly causing trouble. But there is an innocence about him, too; for example when he occasionally kneels down by the roadside and prays to God.<br /> <br /></li><li>The older brother (played by Amin Simiar) is known as <b>Farid</b> and is the taciturn young man behind the wheel of the vehicle.<br /> <br /></li><li>In the very back of the SUV, is a pet dog, “Jessy”, who is apparently dying of a fatal condition.<br /></li></ul></div><div></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the family heads west in the SUV towards the Turkish border and hopeful refuge for Farid, we gradually learn amidst all the wisecracks along the way, that they have made great sacrifices to save the young man. In order to get the money to pay off illegal, underground human-smugglers at the border, the family has sold their family house and car – the SUV they are driving is a borrowed vehicle. All these details have to be kept away from the younger boy (the “2nd Monkey”), because he is such a young blabbermouth that he can’t be trusted with this information – he might give the game away if he converses with someone they meet along the way. <br /><br />So as the journey <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYtVZFDk-h5g57fzlkdgG212mQahaOn4DQSBXJY8Rmo1f9H9GJu_gjbZyC0gCHCRelJFvU8GjyAM8w4fBccUcWRW2o3MbxpjvgQaxXz8eVtrG5Wi2ypDLxheeNll4ftJeIEf6H4O_52wp7oWh5mokBX6G0OTuG1tTNJqxD_jZmibVincGWIw1tIF5jQ/s1000/Jadde%20Khaki%208.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="1000" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYtVZFDk-h5g57fzlkdgG212mQahaOn4DQSBXJY8Rmo1f9H9GJu_gjbZyC0gCHCRelJFvU8GjyAM8w4fBccUcWRW2o3MbxpjvgQaxXz8eVtrG5Wi2ypDLxheeNll4ftJeIEf6H4O_52wp7oWh5mokBX6G0OTuG1tTNJqxD_jZmibVincGWIw1tIF5jQ/w400-h166/Jadde%20Khaki%208.jpg" width="400" /></a>proceeds, the viewer is privy to two levels of concurrent inside-the-vehicle conversations — (1) the lightweight smart-alecky patter on the surface and (2) the guarded worry-laden remarks revealing concerns about constant surveillance threats and upcoming dangers. These ingredients make the film special and have led it to receive accolades from the critical community [1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. As A.O. Scott of <i>The New York Times</i> remarked in this regard [4]:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>“What makes <i>Hit the Road</i> so memorable and devastating is the way it explores normal life under duress. An unseen, oppressive force — presumably some aspect of the government that has harassed Panahi’s father for more than a decade and tried to prevent him from making films — imposes its will on them. That invisible cruelty makes the tenderness and good humor of this movie all the more precious, and almost unbearable.” </blockquote></div>And as critic Tomris Laffly more generally commented [5]:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">“Here, the details don’t matter as much as their heartbreaking consequences: the irreversibly burdened families unfairly torn away from their loved ones, and a society that carries those scars.”</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjhFH87Dv1GqO_nGWOdWHFS-xde5PZoFyjhunpRnVP5H1S5AuES5_2xJRaZ47f1qF8HALDBGDIC500nsVkVaaSyoYLKQcYuTEKYu6fF_JQtz_Z33z5hLQsb0MrDTxc5W7E_VBX7DCxf5vmMQ4PzY0q5IcdK84xrAV1_O44pYBh6wAf7GbAy8yn-RPJCA/s1095/Jadde%20Khaki%202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="1095" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjhFH87Dv1GqO_nGWOdWHFS-xde5PZoFyjhunpRnVP5H1S5AuES5_2xJRaZ47f1qF8HALDBGDIC500nsVkVaaSyoYLKQcYuTEKYu6fF_JQtz_Z33z5hLQsb0MrDTxc5W7E_VBX7DCxf5vmMQ4PzY0q5IcdK84xrAV1_O44pYBh6wAf7GbAy8yn-RPJCA/w400-h204/Jadde%20Khaki%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Panahi achieves all this emotive filmmaking with the help of his excellent production staff. This included the always emotive music by Peyman Yazdanian (which also featured some diegetic pop music from pre-revolutionary times). The cinematography by Amin Jafari and film editing by Amir Etminan and Ashkan Mehri, much of which was focused on activities inside the SUV, was excellently executed, included many long takes that were adroitly performed and that added to the intimacy of the goings on. One highly imaginative sequence featured their visual rumination on <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2016/08/2001-space-odyssey-stanley-kubrick-1968_16.html"><i><b>2001: A Space Odyssey</b></i></a> (1968) (you will have to see the film to see how that fits into the storyline). As critic Richard Brody of <i>The New Yorker</i> commented more generally [6]:<br /><blockquote>"[Panahi’s] visual compositions are essential elements of his world view, whether in a poised side-by-side image of Farid and his mother evoking ineffable love at a rest stop with a discussion of <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> or an unbearable moment of separation that’s ingeniously filmed from hundreds of feet away, with heartbreaking reserve that nonetheless captures both its frantic energy and its poignant intimacy. Panahi’s visual correspondence of elisions and separations replicates the silences and mysteries that mark the characters’ own adventure.”</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EYti2eR0sUCLZJZLpEkkalux731cVRF8nuQXhTmgJ3wHnZ5pT01hjVrZ6oUJJFN2Z-tw-xuZwBNeNhwP6yz302w2c9dQDo0A-dz74lc3R08ukOu6_nrJk7EzSbiGQiRL06gM4ftm2S8esOX8vA-3MjIIsrUyUx6zEgxaZGUr6ouwtDBSW4lSrkdT3Q/s1042/Jadde%20Khaki%206.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="1042" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EYti2eR0sUCLZJZLpEkkalux731cVRF8nuQXhTmgJ3wHnZ5pT01hjVrZ6oUJJFN2Z-tw-xuZwBNeNhwP6yz302w2c9dQDo0A-dz74lc3R08ukOu6_nrJk7EzSbiGQiRL06gM4ftm2S8esOX8vA-3MjIIsrUyUx6zEgxaZGUr6ouwtDBSW4lSrkdT3Q/w400-h186/Jadde%20Khaki%206.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>And so the family of four proceed along their stressful, doubt-laden path. Although the outer structure of the story suggests one of event-filled adventure and danger, this is really a story about human relationships. In fact it’s a story about love – family love. You can watch <i>Hit the Road</i> to see what happens at the end of their journey and how things come out.<br /></div></div><div>★★★½<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b> </b>Carlos Aguilar, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/movies/panah-panahi-hit-the-road.html"><b>“For Panah Panahi, Being the Son of an Iranian Auteur Wasn’t Entirely Helpful”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (22 April 2022). <br /></li><li>Soheil Rezayazdi, <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/114219-for-us-iranians-the-car-has-become-a-second-home-panah-panahi-on-his-debut-feature-hit-the-road/#.YmzBBehBxhE"><b>“‘For Us Iranians, the Car Has Become a Second Home’: Panah Panahi on His Debut Feature, Hit the Road”</b></a>, <i>Filmmaker Magazine</i>, (22 April 2022). <br /></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jafar_Panahi"><b>“Jafar Panahi”</b></a>, <i>Wikipedia</i>, (1 April 2022). <br /></li><li>A.O. Scott, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/movies/hit-the-road-review.html"><b>“‘Hit the Road’ Review: Wheels Within Wheels”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (21 April 2022). <br /></li><li>Tomris Laffly, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hit-the-road-movie-review-2022"><b>“Hit the Road”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (22 April 2022). <br /></li><li>Richard Brody, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/hit-the-road-reviewed-a-mysterious-and-thrilling-revelation-from-iran"><b>“‘Hit the Road,”’Reviewed: A Mysterious and Thrilling Revelation from Iran”</b></a>, <i>The New Yorker</i>, (18 April 2022). <br /></li><li>Leigh Singer, <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/hit-the-road-humour-heartbreak-oddball-iranian-familys-suv-panah-panahi"><b>“Hit the Road packs humour and heartbreak into an oddball Iranian family’s SUV”</b></a>, <i>Sight and Sound</i>, (11 July 2021). <br /></li><li>Scout Tafoya, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/nyff-2021-hit-the-road-unclenching-the-fists-the-girl-and-the-spider"><b>“NYFF 2021: Hit the Road, Unclenching the Fists, The Girl and the Spider”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (7 October 2021). <br /></li><li>Jordan Mintzer, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/hit-the-road-jadde-khaki-review-cannes-2021-1234980825/"><b>“‘Hit the Road’ (‘Jadde Khaki’): Film Review | Cannes 2021"</b></a>, <i>The Hollywood Reporter</i>, (12 July 2021). <br /></li><li>Jessica Kiang, <a href="https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/hit-the-road-review-1235032270/"><b>"‘Hit the Road’ Review: Several Stars Are Born in an Irresistible Iranian Road-Movie Debut”</b></a>, <i>Variety</i>, (29 August 2021). <br /></li><li>David Ehrlichm, <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2021/10/hit-the-road-review-panah-panahi-1234669180/"><b>“‘Hit the Road’ Review: An Iranian Family Makes a Run for the Border in Panah Panahi’s Unforgettable Debut”</b></a>, <i>IndieWire</i>, {5 October 2021). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-70866023373064831642022-05-17T17:07:00.002+12:002022-05-20T14:04:21.918+12:00Panah Panahi<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Panah Panahi:</b></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/05/hit-road-panah-panahi-2021.html"><b><i>Hit the Road</i></b></a> (<i>Jadde Khaki</i>) - Panah Panahi (2021)<br /></li></ul>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-89682422697200609842022-04-11T16:23:00.000+12:002022-04-11T16:23:12.934+12:00“The Pianist” - Roman Polanski (2002)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Pianist</i> (2002), the story of a Polish concert pianist’s harrowing experiences during the German Nazi occupation of Warsaw in World War II, has been perhaps famed film <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEopX_2XMLZjItf5eYks4A5vxpZdu55zYTX-EBxpFuZzoZbN4H2Tt4_9frHgDj1GlXXt8mZzUTKz6RpDgJvdztSlXVxE8JlATLHfbEPQHJ4JE24JjeiWiHM7rqGnS_XUATl5ok-doWnkNnsi1JtwE4P8ZvtK9C4C-Ufr_fu-davhfAnC-uSNAS8QIS5A/s1358/The%20Pianist%205.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1358" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEopX_2XMLZjItf5eYks4A5vxpZdu55zYTX-EBxpFuZzoZbN4H2Tt4_9frHgDj1GlXXt8mZzUTKz6RpDgJvdztSlXVxE8JlATLHfbEPQHJ4JE24JjeiWiHM7rqGnS_XUATl5ok-doWnkNnsi1JtwE4P8ZvtK9C4C-Ufr_fu-davhfAnC-uSNAS8QIS5A/w400-h215/The%20Pianist%205.jpg" width="400" /></a></i>director <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/04/roman-polanski.html"><b>Roman Polanski’s</b></a> most lauded work [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. It won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d'Or, and it was nominated for seven U.S. Oscars, winning three of them (for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor). The film also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards for Best Film and Best Direction, and it won seven French Césars (the French national film awards), including those for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. In addition, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) currently has <i>The Pianist</i> ranked 34th on its list of all-time greatest films [8]. So we are dealing here with a film that may be headed for status as a classic. <br /><br />The story of <i>The Pianist</i> is based on the experiences of a real person, Wladyslaw Szpilman, who was a young Jewish pianist living in Warsaw when the Nazis attacked and invaded the city in 1939. In fact Ronald Harwood’s screenplay for the film was adapted from Szpilman’s personal memoir, <i>Smierc Miasta. Pamietniki Wladyslawa Szpilmana 1939–1945</i> (<i>Death of a City: Memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman 1939–1945</i>), which first appeared in Polish in 1946. A significant additional background feature that undoubtedly had further impact on the telling of this tale was Roman Polanski’s own personal experience as a young Jewish boy who somehow managed to escape from the Nazi Krakow Ghetto during the war. On account of this background, <i>The Pianist</i> may be one of Polanski’s most personally felt film accounts.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOoUS5IDZS-5Ylo3lesbuyV0prCYNBvWV8O-HcmOlAwcyQ2v_-93w_tjWJstefMnnljTg8O1HOMasjzenMLGvX5etiu7X8nLm_MWc2LFJYO4u1Kt7N1U57IhTypkpDhjH4VOBqztSJOrPDp7wsCf4tli5z6NQux-MQ2X2Oovbi4HnGLlFgwKYwUHxEQ/s1215/The%20Pianist%209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1215" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYOoUS5IDZS-5Ylo3lesbuyV0prCYNBvWV8O-HcmOlAwcyQ2v_-93w_tjWJstefMnnljTg8O1HOMasjzenMLGvX5etiu7X8nLm_MWc2LFJYO4u1Kt7N1U57IhTypkpDhjH4VOBqztSJOrPDp7wsCf4tli5z6NQux-MQ2X2Oovbi4HnGLlFgwKYwUHxEQ/w400-h214/The%20Pianist%209.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The film begins in 1939 with Wladyslaw Szpilman (played by Adrien Brody) performing a piano piece on-the-air at a Warsaw radio station. Just then the building is subject to a cannon fire attack by the invading German army. Everyone flees except Szpilman, who continues playing on the piano. But finally, with the cannon fire now destroying the wall of the studio Szpilman is in, he is forced to face reality and flee, himself. This hesitancy here on the part of Szpilman to shift his focus and react to the threats around him will be a metaphor that is repeated throughout the story.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Szpilman belonged to a well-off Jewish family, and Jews had long been well-treated in Poland. But the invading German army are shown to be almost uniformly ruthless and cruel – and they are particularly vicious towards Jews. They seem to shoot and kill civilians on the street just out of whim – and then they laugh about it. The people are powerless to respond. Soon the Szpilman family is moved, along with all other Jews, to the walled-off and encapsulating Warsaw Ghetto.<br /><br />In 1942 Szpilman and his family are to be transported to the Treblinka extermination camp when an acquaintance who is collaborating with the police recognizes Wladyslaw and pulls him away just as he is about to be forced into a departing train car. In the subsequent confusion, Wladyslaw manages to escape and find a temporary hiding place in the city. This is just one of the many out-of-the blue strokes of good fortune in the tale that save Wladyslaw from imminent annihilation. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaohdLdkAFv02cyTrNkoICgJ9xEtch0qRneeu_xiYDtfkYdLHFh_IAmKqzXbdDAbSA26d7tTZwGyKkwNR7h1v9FzRg3u1c9t4POaTtyJProv7bUgmD9NAYZU44XVoyf1AenKmckC3B5G0HYsunrziVVwQgZlmfcIUy8VUokLwRgzg4OPPTzxn1wkJo6Q/s1296/The%20Pianist%202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1296" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaohdLdkAFv02cyTrNkoICgJ9xEtch0qRneeu_xiYDtfkYdLHFh_IAmKqzXbdDAbSA26d7tTZwGyKkwNR7h1v9FzRg3u1c9t4POaTtyJProv7bUgmD9NAYZU44XVoyf1AenKmckC3B5G0HYsunrziVVwQgZlmfcIUy8VUokLwRgzg4OPPTzxn1wkJo6Q/w400-h215/The%20Pianist%202.jpg" width="400" /></a>Over the next few years Wladyslaw is compelled to move from one hastily-found hiding place to another just before he is about to be exposed to the authorities. Sometimes he is helped by non-Jewish friends that he encounters, but most of the time he finds himself alone in abandoned buildings and without food. During this time, he sometimes looks out through the window of his room to see activities of the failed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) and the Warsaw Uprising (1944), both of which are cruelly crushed by the Nazi authorities. Ultimately, it appears that the whole city of Warsaw is destroyed. And always the savagery of the German military is on full display.<br /><br />Over the course of these years, the fugitive Wladyslaw has great difficulty finding any food in the abandoned buildings that he finds to hide in, and he is always on the brink of starvation. So he becomes more and more emaciated. It is said that the actor who played the part of Wladyslaw Szpilman, Adrien Brody, who was already slim, lost thirty pounds so that he could present a realistic emaciated physiognomy for this part of his role. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNpN_9hVIpOalPoSRaBM4azw0IzHCsRK33bvY4yWhbGKiDssa25mnKTv7-U3C2TyoPx5k3nUmtPJtlssakYGMNDGvujsWqS5WIsslNO32DnlPsA4ymRdcpVud82XAzbzGWk62mloBdN8f6GPOjTYX7CKjYOghcNAQlO3USUAP2RaDR2j766S5btBbcw/s600/The%20Pianist%2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="426" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNpN_9hVIpOalPoSRaBM4azw0IzHCsRK33bvY4yWhbGKiDssa25mnKTv7-U3C2TyoPx5k3nUmtPJtlssakYGMNDGvujsWqS5WIsslNO32DnlPsA4ymRdcpVud82XAzbzGWk62mloBdN8f6GPOjTYX7CKjYOghcNAQlO3USUAP2RaDR2j766S5btBbcw/w284-h400/The%20Pianist%2011.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>Eventually while trying to open a can of pickles he has found, Wladyslaw is finally discovered by a German military officer. Captain Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann). When Wladyslaw tells the man that he is a pianist, the skeptical Hosenfeld demands that Wladyslaw demonstrate his prowess on a piano located in the apartment they find themselves in. So Wladyslaw plays a Chopin piece for him, and that stirs the sympathies in Capt. Hosenfeld, who agrees to hide Wladyslaw in the attic and secretly supply him food on a regular basis. In 1945 with the German army now retreating, Hosenfeld comes to Wladyslaw before departing and gives him his army overcoat to keep warm. (This German military attire would later cause problems for Wladyslaw when the allied forces arrive.) Note that Wilm Hosenfeld is just about the only German in the film who is presented sympathetically as a humane person. <br /><br />At the close of the film and with the war over, a formally-attired Wladyslaw is shown playing the piano with orchestral accompaniment at a posh recital hall. For Wladyslaw, at least, life has regained its former beauty. <br /><br />Altogether, <i>The Pianist</i> is a polished and fascinating work, with excellent production values featuring the cinematography of Pawel Edelman and the film editing of Hervé de Luze. The music includes a number of melodious pieces written by famed Polish classical composer Frederic Chopin. And director Roman Polanski has gone to great lengths to conjure up an atmospheric setting that evokes the ravages of a war-torn city of that time. In addition the acting of protagonist Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman is particularly notable, because, even though he doesn’t have a lot of spoken dialogue lines to speak, he conveys the increasing angst of a man constantly faced with life-threatening circumstances. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWv-WakbVOQXHCNA5800IWzesbaOvwBlHMatm8LfpmFloUsFFPqasrzHo3TM3p8naVCGRzqj18K5z2_spwoPeNApY42-v5vBo3OeFj8tZgZxXGMCKbafQRVLfIgsppXYm8iDAuGXrPUmnr2vDKaVOHPuYyHHjPinSbR2aj72xmT91k8qlL5RuNq7yN0g/s1524/The%20Pianist%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1524" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWv-WakbVOQXHCNA5800IWzesbaOvwBlHMatm8LfpmFloUsFFPqasrzHo3TM3p8naVCGRzqj18K5z2_spwoPeNApY42-v5vBo3OeFj8tZgZxXGMCKbafQRVLfIgsppXYm8iDAuGXrPUmnr2vDKaVOHPuYyHHjPinSbR2aj72xmT91k8qlL5RuNq7yN0g/w400-h216/The%20Pianist%204.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Nevertheless, and despite these undeniable virtues, I think <i>The Pianist</i> is not a great movie – it is a very good film, but not a great one. The problem here is the absence of a compelling narrative structure to the events that are covered in the film. For me the best films are those that portray the protagonist(s) engaged in some metaphorical “journey” for which they have some options concerning which “paths” they may choose to take. I have remarked on this theme before, notably in connection with my review of <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/09/nomadland-chloe-zhao-2020.html"><i><b>Nomadland</b></i></a> (2020) [9]:<br /><blockquote>“Almost all films (as well as dramas, stories, and novels) have a narrative that provides a structure for the events depicted. The metastructure of these narratives is often characterized metaphorically as a journey. There are one or more protagonists on such a 'journey' who are struggling to reach a desired 'destination', and there are usually other agents along the way who assist or stand in the way of progress. Much has been written about the narrative-as-journey metaphor [10,11,12,13,14], notably the more formalized characterization of it known as the 'hero’s journey' [15] that was popularized by Joseph Campbell [16].”</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb8RGPpXoJtVgVkQdydHspf-zSdWbtDyP-8InUwEuKjyfvaEFwPA0Y4giXDy0uZyPAhORiCyxCvI8unBZgr-J_NBdEYTxp0ogc3fjGNFaKBV7A3kUV7G0yQIALXxM57-aZ7IcGOvfWzed8puRpwQV3ddcODf2tMmDCaxL3coifE3omyn3AmWUsMZaiaw/s1299/The%20Pianist%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1299" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb8RGPpXoJtVgVkQdydHspf-zSdWbtDyP-8InUwEuKjyfvaEFwPA0Y4giXDy0uZyPAhORiCyxCvI8unBZgr-J_NBdEYTxp0ogc3fjGNFaKBV7A3kUV7G0yQIALXxM57-aZ7IcGOvfWzed8puRpwQV3ddcODf2tMmDCaxL3coifE3omyn3AmWUsMZaiaw/w400-h215/The%20Pianist%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In the story of <i>The Pianist</i>, however, our protagonist, Wladyslaw, is relatively passive. Things just happen to him, and he is never shown to be in any situations where he can exercise any agency, where he can choose one among several optional “paths” to take. All we see is a perpetual victim who manages to survive one catastrophic life-threatening situation after another mainly by pure luck. Wladyslaw’s adversaries are cruel and, at bottom, inscrutable. They are like dark, unfathomable forces beyond his and our comprehension. All Wladyslaw can do is helplessly react and try to hide. This character of a darkened world with more or less unfathomable adversaries has been seen in other Polanski films (e.g. <i>Rosemary's Baby</i> (1968) and <i>Chinatown</i> (1974)) and may be something of a pattern for him.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, Polanski could have added some narrative elements to <i>The Pianist</i> that would have made Wladyslaw’s experiences more of an agency-oriented journey (if not a “hero’s journey”), but that would have compromised the historical authenticity of Wladyslaw’s tale. What Polanski did do was insert a couple of narrative elements that were presumably intended to add some characterological depth to the Wladyslaw character. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZgQRJNmldPVFfpj0aFuqZiCHwIZRiHG07bc-E9I72CMllIKTxKjRR9eL4UvSMjons6yLc-xUawGWeLEDgOTvYTqG7YG4cfw2VEmD7rR2K68tbn3GntDEgqKpcybN8w3KKesOCj4RUztKR3pIAI8Ingsm-YbS2T-iYi5_VlZyTRWgbcBePeJ51hZ_8A/s1906/The%20Pianist%208.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1027" data-original-width="1906" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZgQRJNmldPVFfpj0aFuqZiCHwIZRiHG07bc-E9I72CMllIKTxKjRR9eL4UvSMjons6yLc-xUawGWeLEDgOTvYTqG7YG4cfw2VEmD7rR2K68tbn3GntDEgqKpcybN8w3KKesOCj4RUztKR3pIAI8Ingsm-YbS2T-iYi5_VlZyTRWgbcBePeJ51hZ_8A/w400-h215/The%20Pianist%208.jpg" width="400" /></a>One concerned a couple of sequences involving some flirtatious encounters Wladyslaw had with an attractive young woman, Dorota (Emilia Fox). But these encounters don’t lead anywhere. Another inserted narrative element was Wladyslaw’s aforementioned encounters with the taciturn German Captain Wilm Hosenfeld. But while these encounters with Hosenfeld were among the most interesting human interactions in the film, they represented an isolated occurrence and failed to give us a feeling for the earlier parts of Wladyslaw’s quest. So the two narrative insertions did not fulfill my desire for narrative material that would flesh out Wladyslaw’s mental journey.<br /><br />Nevertheless, <i>The Pianist</i> does feature a meaningful and heartfelt message that is a key to the film and must not be overlooked – it is one that is concerned with a fundamental aspect of human nature. Despite the vast differences that stretch across humanity with respect to language, education, abilities, customs, norms, and culture, there is something that we all share, and that is the capability to have a direct aesthetic experience in response to something we see or hear (or even taste) in the world. An example might be something like seeing a beautiful flower or waterfall or hearing beautiful music. These aesthetic experiences are immediate and intuitive, and they do not require cogitation or thinking <b>about</b> what is being experienced [17]. Thus they are universally available and open to everyone, regardless of one’s background. This means that, despite their hugely discordant backgrounds, a Jewish musical artist like the pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman and a German Nazi military officer like Wilm Hosenfeld can share direct aesthetic experiences, such as the Chopin musical piece that Szpilman plays for Hosenfeld, experiences that offer opportunities for bonding and that can ultimately open the door to shared understanding.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0JNycMHyqU90JTiK1aNiGetRfBYj8cZkcRqg8voaQO1xxr7Y-ekvs_vc2sPRWiRAtKVFBPPtR2NZO5d4Hv6m8keNVh7cj7pRiEuKR3p2jk-fRhZxkT7DzgyGZ3WjkeZfkRDfUgI1AgLh-JldntVOqcpti0JXY7RlMuiw1eSGSUvV-POcHErhKNCz3g/s1308/The%20Pianist%203.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1308" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ0JNycMHyqU90JTiK1aNiGetRfBYj8cZkcRqg8voaQO1xxr7Y-ekvs_vc2sPRWiRAtKVFBPPtR2NZO5d4Hv6m8keNVh7cj7pRiEuKR3p2jk-fRhZxkT7DzgyGZ3WjkeZfkRDfUgI1AgLh-JldntVOqcpti0JXY7RlMuiw1eSGSUvV-POcHErhKNCz3g/w400-h214/The%20Pianist%203.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This was the message that Szpilman and Polanski offered to the viewer – that even amidst the most horrific atrocity-filled conflicts, shared aesthetic experiences can offer an opening toward salvation. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">★★★½<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A. O. Scott, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/27/movies/film-review-surviving-the-warsaw-ghetto-against-steep-odds.html"><b>“FILM REVIEW; Surviving the Warsaw Ghetto Against Steep Odds”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (27 December 2002). <br /></li><li>Peter Bradshaw, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/jan/24/artsfeatures6"><b>“The Pianist”</b></a>, <i>The Guardian</i>, (24 January 2003 ). <br /></li><li>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-pianist-2003"><b>“The Pianist”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (3 January 2003). <br /></li><li>David Edelstein, <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2002/12/the-pianist-is-the-best-film-of-2002.html"><b>“The Sound and the Saved”</b></a>, <i>Slate</i>, (27 December 2002). <br /></li><li>Jeffrey M. Anderson, <a href="https://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/2002/pianist.shtml"><b>“The Pianist (2002)”</b></a>, <i>Combustible Celluloid</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Dennis Schwartz, <a href="https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/pianist/"><b>“Pianist, The”</b></a>, <i>Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews</i>, (16 December 2002). <br /></li><li>Duminica, <a href="http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-pianist-written-by-ronald-harwood.html"><b>“The Pianist, written by Ronald Harwood, based on the book by Wladyslaw Szpilman, 9 out of 10"</b></a>, <i>Notes on Films</i>, (16 July 2017). <br /></li><li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/chart/top?ref_=tt_awd"><b>“IMDb Top 250 Movies”</b></a>, <i>IMDb</i>, (n.d.). </li><li>The Film Sufi, <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/09/nomadland-chloe-zhao-2020.html"><b>“''Nomadland’ - Chloé Zhao (2020)”</b></a>, <i>The Film Sufi</i>, (30 September 2021). <br /></li><li>Roger Schank and Gary Saul Morrison, <i>Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence (Rethinking Theory)</i>, (1990), Northwestern.</li><li>Jerome Bruner, "The Narrative Construction of Reality", <i>Critical Inquiry</i>, 18:1, 1-21, (1991).</li><li>Jerome Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality”, <i>Narrative Intelligence</i> (2003), Michael Mateas and Phoebe Sengers (eds.), John Benjamin Publishing Co.</li><li>Paul Ricoeur, <i>Time and Narrative, vols. I- III</i>, (1983-1985), University of Chicago Press. </li><li>Christopher Vogler, <i>The Writer’s Journey</i>, 2nd Edition, Michael Wiese Productions (1998).</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey"><b>“Hero’s Journey”</b></a>, <i>Wikipedia</i>, (17 September 2021). <br /></li><li>Joseph Campbell, <i>The Hero with a Thousand Faces</i>, 1st edition, Bollingen Foundation (1949), 2nd edition, Princeton University Press (1990), 3rd edition, New World Library (2008).</li><li>Eckhart Tolle, <i>The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment</i>, Chapter 5, New World Library, (2004). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-13289297077559813372022-04-10T18:56:00.001+12:002022-04-11T16:24:48.302+12:00Roman Polanski<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Roman Polanski:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/04/the-pianist-roman-polanski-2002.html"><b><i>The Pianist</i></b></a> - Roman Polanski (2002)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-43492938862347037052022-03-22T16:04:00.002+13:002022-03-23T17:33:09.784+13:00“Doctor Zhivago” - David Lean (1965)<span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><i>Doctor Zhivago</i> (1965) is an epic historical romantic drama directed by British film director <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/03/david-lean.html"><b>David Lean</b></a>. Lean’s meticulous cinematic craftsmanship had already been manifested in his </span><span><span><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxyeyrbmL9rYL-Se2N5ypwefEms7YsUFmhUgVMTXrcXdUsBgXVRc9o_ls2lMNDygknQJE0vpuUkzZnV8jr0MS6MsMo4VSbOOjAzzPwtytvjH3jAwue2RNjCsczvs-WF6T2xj3bctFpQD1zlvNxue07fFDPi45wRU3qa850mcW9uRLRFMIjTqS-QYlnFw=s1539" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="1539" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxyeyrbmL9rYL-Se2N5ypwefEms7YsUFmhUgVMTXrcXdUsBgXVRc9o_ls2lMNDygknQJE0vpuUkzZnV8jr0MS6MsMo4VSbOOjAzzPwtytvjH3jAwue2RNjCsczvs-WF6T2xj3bctFpQD1zlvNxue07fFDPi45wRU3qa850mcW9uRLRFMIjTqS-QYlnFw=w400-h180" width="400" /></a></i></span>earlier prize-winning epics, <i>The Bridge on the River Kwai</i> (1957) and <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i> (1965); but here indeed in <i>Doctor Zhivago</i> the term “romantic epic” is a particularly definitive characterization of this film. That is because it emphatically exemplifies many of the features that go into the making of a romantic epic film – (a) a dynamic and disruptive historical setting, (b) emphatically stylized principal characters, and (c) passionate, romantic relationships. In these respects, the film that most closely comes to my mind for comparison with <i>Doctor Zhivago</i> is <b><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2020/01/gone-with-wind-victor-fleming-1939.html"><i>Gone with the Wind</i></a></b> (1939). And like that earlier classic romantic epic film, <i>Doctor Zhivago</i> was (generally) a success with the critics and with the public. The film that David Lean fashioned here, with the help of Robert Bolt’s screenplay, Freddie Young’s cinematography, Norman Savage’s film editing (despite numerous jump-cuts), and the musical score by Maurice Jarre (who also wrote the haunting musical score for <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2017/08/sundays-and-cybele-serge-bourguignon.html"><i><b>Sundays and Cybele</b></i></a> (1962)), was a masterpiece; and it earned 10 Oscar (U.S. Academy Awards) nominations and winning five of them, as well as numerous other accolades. <br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>The film <i>Doctor Zhivago</i> was based on Boris Pasternak’s Nobel-prize-winning novel of the same name that was published in 1957 and is about a Russian physician and poet who lived during the turbulent years of World War I and the subsequent Russian Communist Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War. Both the novel and the film take a skeptical view of the Communist Revolution, and </span><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyYwx31xXEd6rZgh57otoE7FlDzdBMFR8tYa46Q3TQwsJKiCuhYD7gJU3o_aJlyZnxeWR9PuTwi6uKn_Ej9aHagUDQqi8gAU0OCc96wuql1-WWppl5BE83XTmnrVjTXGH8dwnhQAgjeRmLRUVRa6g3A4g0K7ZAmpnpM8bX8PLO7h9ZeWtbbggl-LsLMw=s1014" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="1014" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyYwx31xXEd6rZgh57otoE7FlDzdBMFR8tYa46Q3TQwsJKiCuhYD7gJU3o_aJlyZnxeWR9PuTwi6uKn_Ej9aHagUDQqi8gAU0OCc96wuql1-WWppl5BE83XTmnrVjTXGH8dwnhQAgjeRmLRUVRa6g3A4g0K7ZAmpnpM8bX8PLO7h9ZeWtbbggl-LsLMw=w400-h174" width="400" /></a></span>so it was not surprising that the early distributions of both of these two works in the Soviet Union were suppressed. And in addition, since both of them were made during the height of the U.S.-Russian Cold War, there was an inordinate amount of critical interest in the West in these political aspects of the story. But we must remember that the film <i>Doctor Zhivago</i> was more than just a political saga about disruptive social conflict; rather, like <i>Gone with the Wind</i>, it was really about in-depth human feelings and experiences of some passionate people who lived inn the midst of this turmoil.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>As mentioned, the story of this film concerns the experiences of a young Russian doctor, Yuri Zhivago, (played by Omar Sharif), during the early part of the 20th century. When Yuri is a boy, his mother passes away, and he is taken in by family friends Alexander (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna) Gromeko. The Gromeko's have a daughter, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), and Yuri and Tonya soon become fast friends. After a period of schooling in Paris, Tonya returns to Moscow, and Yuri and Tonya develop a mutual romantic attachment which leads to their becoming engaged to be married. </span><br /><span></span><br /><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBomAtck9yIRfeQixMDFBX_PXack1bijlR4X0199P_04lm7YAFlpMqJXmuRxLVGh513lD0yh-OvOATRkLfBZR4Y4J1XD47nFcok5v51yUXojYSZau57VL6N5yI3hzVDDUbmb6XMHMQ6TeL-HVKDxiu0rX6foYaOd6riZsTo2UlQ1s3U31gm_AF2k1_Og=s1646" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="1646" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBomAtck9yIRfeQixMDFBX_PXack1bijlR4X0199P_04lm7YAFlpMqJXmuRxLVGh513lD0yh-OvOATRkLfBZR4Y4J1XD47nFcok5v51yUXojYSZau57VL6N5yI3hzVDDUbmb6XMHMQ6TeL-HVKDxiu0rX6foYaOd6riZsTo2UlQ1s3U31gm_AF2k1_Og=w400-h168" width="400" /></a></div>In an initially separate thread, beautiful 17-year-old Larissa ("Lara", and played by Julie Christie) is coercively seduced sexually by her own mother’s paramour, the cynical opportunist Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger). When Lara’s mother learns of Komarovsky’s infidelity, she attempts suicide, and one of the doctors summoned to attend to the woman is Yuri Zhivago. This is the first time that Yuri becomes aware of Lara. Anyway, Lara’s real romantic interest is in a younger, idealistic political revolutionary, Pasha Antipov (Tom Courtenay), and the two of them eventually get married and have a child.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>When World War I breaks out, the idealistic Pasha enlists in the military, but he is soon reported missing-in-action. So Lara enlists as a military nurse in hopes of finding her husband. Meanwhile Yuri Zhivago is drafted into the military to serve as a doctor. When Yuri meets Lara out in the field, they join up to work together in a field hospital, where the two of them soon fall in love. This is the major romantic relationship of the story. However, since both Yuri and Lara have spouses to whom they feel they should be faithful, they separate wistfully at the end of their term of service, and Yuri returns home.</span><br /><span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>At this point, though. we are still in the early stages of a complex drama, and there is still much more to come. The Russian Revolution and Civil War break out, and the whole society is further disrupted. Because of Communist disapproval of his poetry, the Zhivagos take refuge at a Gromeko-owned home in the Ural Mountains. In that area Yuri encounters Lara, and they resume their romantic passion for each other. He also encounters Lara’s supposedly missing husband, Pasha Antipov, </span><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjM1fb_o81JDojctCXw2UVnQ22cXAD27NomGHc_0UKBlevlbYyUz9HubF6w3zsobn7aucy5AQazMOcdmC-3MBEo0gDXyUbEs1tEr_6JZW2rd8PsnL7hqOfMtdZwD8Gnm1qdonn71DMepkqX2Bk4YQSA2OsZf8RuiAau_mFYCnEUQbHcM-m3YH4xNNcLAA=s1609" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1609" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjM1fb_o81JDojctCXw2UVnQ22cXAD27NomGHc_0UKBlevlbYyUz9HubF6w3zsobn7aucy5AQazMOcdmC-3MBEo0gDXyUbEs1tEr_6JZW2rd8PsnL7hqOfMtdZwD8Gnm1qdonn71DMepkqX2Bk4YQSA2OsZf8RuiAau_mFYCnEUQbHcM-m3YH4xNNcLAA=w400-h174" width="400" /></a></span>who now identifies himself by the name “Strelnikov” and has become a high Bolshevik commander. When Pasha had been seen earlier, he had been an idealistic revolutionary, but skeptical of the communist Bolsheviks; however, now, as Strelnikov, he is seen to have become a dogmatic and ruthless Bolshevik fanatic.<br /><br />Revolutionary turmoil has further disruptive effects on our characters. Though Tonya manages to escape with her children to France, Yuri is captured by communist forces and impressed into field medical service. After a couple of years of forced service, however, Yuri escapes from his captors and harrowingly makes his way back to Lara, whereupon they again resume their romantic affair. <br /><br />Later Komarovsky surprisingly shows up where Yuri and Lara are living, and this time, even more surprisingly, the normally opportunistic Komarovsky seeks to help someone other than himself. He informs Lara that her estranged husband Strelnikov’s political enemies are out to kill him, and since her life is thereby endangered, too, he offers to facilitate her escape. In the escape event, though, Lara and Yuri become separated again, this time for good. And so it goes.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgOrmcz4FNqhlR147ivmDcH8SW10Sv5fwC_0EovGvRypLfa_Iu3w52Z0HPkY6KlNxSyBogR1ikl8P8BEELR-hvPqObUizYWb20aFqT-mTvHma6M27Z8Q3VAmibx_gh-DKQuqj4pXKvEsENVEZkes_ef0xAdEjxdQuoPNEfmQ66yL2DJzZ2FJwxDXmrx9Q=s1530" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1530" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgOrmcz4FNqhlR147ivmDcH8SW10Sv5fwC_0EovGvRypLfa_Iu3w52Z0HPkY6KlNxSyBogR1ikl8P8BEELR-hvPqObUizYWb20aFqT-mTvHma6M27Z8Q3VAmibx_gh-DKQuqj4pXKvEsENVEZkes_ef0xAdEjxdQuoPNEfmQ66yL2DJzZ2FJwxDXmrx9Q=w400-h188" width="400" /></a></div>The whole story of <i>Doctor Zhivago,</i> which covers the full span of Yuri Zhivago’s life, from his boyhood to his death many years after the primary events I have described here, is encapsulated in a narrative framing device set in the 1940s that involves a high officer of the state police, Yevgraf Zhivago (Alec Guinness), who is Yuri Zhivago’s half-brother and who is looking for the lost daughter of Yuri and Lara. Yevgraf finds a young woman, Tanya Komarova (Rita Tushingham), who was separated from her parents when she was a very small child and who may be the missing daughter. To help prod Tanya’s memory, Yevgraf tells her the story of Yuri Zhivago’s life. This narrative framing device has seemed artificial to some viewers, but I believe it contains a crucial hint as to what this film is ultimately about. </span><br /><span></span><br /><span>Many critics have liked the film (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6]), although some of them did complain that the film’s running time, which comprises about three-and-a-quarter hours of screen time, is too long [5,6,7]. And there were some naysayers. For example, notable critic Andrew Sarris was sarcastically critical of how he felt the film overlooked Pasternak’s original message [8]. And <i>New York Times</i> critic Bosley Crowther complained about what he felt was the film’s lack of depth [9]. But despite this range, none of the reviews that I encountered made much mention of what I think is the film’s ultimate message.</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>So what is this tale, ultimately about? It seems up-front to be essentially a tale about the love between Yuri and Lara. </span><span><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIMsYLby5sm2O9p9udkV9Emyn-3iWL9jUWxVSha4KqkkoHLb7VHOsnw3PSS37rgVhxK5yVlpDDp-AoAAPthKEY2DJmY0YTs7qYZeX2Qvas3xaMcsYho86AqqwroeOx8uNZ_xHT6h6VJ8atB201fybgNMU8GSE1o_NNSmhNrMFxi-Lu8HNYkm-Vp436wQ=s1520" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1520" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIMsYLby5sm2O9p9udkV9Emyn-3iWL9jUWxVSha4KqkkoHLb7VHOsnw3PSS37rgVhxK5yVlpDDp-AoAAPthKEY2DJmY0YTs7qYZeX2Qvas3xaMcsYho86AqqwroeOx8uNZ_xHT6h6VJ8atB201fybgNMU8GSE1o_NNSmhNrMFxi-Lu8HNYkm-Vp436wQ=w400-h181" width="400" /></a></span>In this sense it is like <i>Gone with the Wind</i>, which despite its highly dramatic backdrop, is really a story about the romantic relationship between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler. And also, similarly to the situation in <i>Gone with the Wind</i> (with its iconic characters like Scarlett O’Hara, Rhett Butler, Ashley Wilkes, and Melanie Hamilton), we have here in <i>Doctor Zhivago</i> several iconic characters:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span><b>Doctor Yuri Zhivago</b> – the poetic humanist who sought the welfare of all concerned;<br /> <br /></span></li><li><span><b>Lara</b> – the passionate romantic who couldn’t help giving way to her feelings;<br /> <br /></span></li><li><span><b>Komarovsky</b> – the selfish opportunist who always sought to maximize his own utility;<br /> <br /></span></li><li><span><b>Strelnikov</b> (Pasha) – a person who dogmatically sought the establishment of an uncompromising political order that, even though it may trample the welfare and “rights” of many. was believed to be best for the society as a whole;<br /> <br /></span></li><li><span><b>Tonya</b> – the loyal, loving, and considerate wife.</span><br /><span></span></li></ul></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilTxRd3hPBl9s6THXFSzk_ABpooce4pDMO8SFkZoaWTH0VZm1Zc9QlI7iIDn9640vnRfBkV2jSc-3W3Q1aEbbqzWezY5zOD8hAAzjxWhmlOUhKOu-dWLZuzTW7g57Y11WwIsTE_659sPRcUg5pQCE6hi-TNf2oQLkSvjeVnQsk-NRdPI3K_bGCAtCx7g=s1508" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="1508" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilTxRd3hPBl9s6THXFSzk_ABpooce4pDMO8SFkZoaWTH0VZm1Zc9QlI7iIDn9640vnRfBkV2jSc-3W3Q1aEbbqzWezY5zOD8hAAzjxWhmlOUhKOu-dWLZuzTW7g57Y11WwIsTE_659sPRcUg5pQCE6hi-TNf2oQLkSvjeVnQsk-NRdPI3K_bGCAtCx7g=w400-h189" width="400" /></a></div>This character breakdown, as well as the final spoken lines that close the narrative framing device, point us to what is <i>Doctor Zhivago’s</i> real message. That message revolves around Yuri Zhivago’s character and what it represents as to the meaning of life. What is it, after all, that makes human life so special, so different from that of the animals? What is it that we should pursue and treasure? We know that it must be more than just the acquisition of material comforts and the satisfaction of physical lusts, as was the practice of the ruthless utilitarian Komarovsky. He was successful in his selfish pursuits, but he was little more than a clever animal. We also know that it must go beyond the collectivist vision of someone like Strelnikov, who was also operating on the material plane, but at the same time suppressing the freedom of individuals. As for love, as embodied by Lara and Tonya (and also by Yuri), we know that that is special, but it is often ephemeral and localized. <br /><br />But Yuri added something more, and that was his ability to see and appreciate all the beautiful experiential moments of human life that were happening around him all the time – and then to aesthetically express his feelings about those experiences by means of his poetry. This was a “gift” that he presumably shared with Tanya Komarova, the girl who was probably Yuri’s daughter and who had a gift for music.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgztU9eSVEOwmLuNYZdPggd47hTR0kvdF2bie2dPvCzo2_w0FXgjqSql-qLFIHTDKOSD4xvish9EMSrDAqNb9sGDYwx9LTeRLLs71tOWFjUQ7CMWix_5ODC_IYeI36DSUBvHqSIoCxMldbOjYn73U3IvyRvOXasJEe_AjQmyCW7m-nmg9e2aIUeTRdcQQ=s1597" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1597" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgztU9eSVEOwmLuNYZdPggd47hTR0kvdF2bie2dPvCzo2_w0FXgjqSql-qLFIHTDKOSD4xvish9EMSrDAqNb9sGDYwx9LTeRLLs71tOWFjUQ7CMWix_5ODC_IYeI36DSUBvHqSIoCxMldbOjYn73U3IvyRvOXasJEe_AjQmyCW7m-nmg9e2aIUeTRdcQQ=w400-h170" width="400" /></a></div>Life is beautiful all the time, but we too often neglect the constant flow of beautiful moments by our petty involvements in the mundane. Our lives can be enhanced by being exposed to those people who have this gift for sharing their feelings about life’s beauty in aesthetic form. This was the film <i>Doctor Zhivago’s</i> final message, and its final scene shows the gifts of Boris Pasternak and David Lean in displaying it. As critic Powers remarked [1],<br /><blockquote>“<i>Doctor Zhivago</i> is more than a masterful motion picture; it is a life experience.”</blockquote><b></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span></p><span><b>Notes:</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span>James Powers, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/doctor-zhivago-1965-review-958823/"><b>“‘Doctor Zhivago’: THR’s 1965 Review”</b></a>, <i>The Hollywood Reporter</i>, (23 December 1965). <br /></span></li><li><span><a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,842363,00.html"><b>“Cinema: To Russia with Love”</b></a>, <i>Time</i>, (31 December 1965). <br /></span></li><li><span>Arthur D. Murphy, <a href="https://variety.com/1965/film/reviews/doctor-zhivago-2-1200420915/"><b>"Film Reviews: Doctor Zhivago"</b></a>, <i>Variety</i>, (29 December 1965). <br /></span></li><li><span>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/doctor-zhivago-1995"><b>“Doctor Zhivago”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (7 April 1995). <br /></span></li><li><span>Philip K. Scheuer, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65946022/philip-k-scheuers-review-of-doctor/"><b>"'Zhivago'---a Poetic Picture",</b></a> <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, (24 December 1965). <br /></span></li><li><span>Richard L. Coe, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65946385/clifford-terrys-review-of-doctor/"><b>"Doctor Zhivago"</b></a>, <i>The Washington Post</i>, (4 February 1966). <br /></span></li><li><span>Clifford Terry, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/65946385/clifford-terrys-review-of-doctor/"><b>“Acting Excellent, So Is Production in ‘Doctor Zhivago’”</b></a>, <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, (28 January 1966 ). <br /></span></li><li><span>Andrew Sarris, <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UwBOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=54sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4425%2C4664071"><b>“films”</b></a>, <i>The Village Voice</i>, (30 December 1965). <br /></span></li><li><span>Bosley Crowther, <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/12/23/96726198.html?pageNumber=21"><b>“The Screen: David Lean’s ‘Doctor Zhivago’ Has Premiere, Adaptation of Pasternak Novel at the Capitol”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (23 December 1965). </span><br /><span></span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-68220170793262912532022-03-22T14:27:00.005+13:002022-03-22T16:06:57.106+13:00David Lean<div style="text-align: left;"> <b>Films of David Lean:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/03/doctor-zhivago-david-lean-1965.html"><b><i>Doctor Zhivago</i></b></a> - David Lean (1965)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-42352232105229713292022-02-16T15:18:00.003+13:002022-02-16T16:36:21.839+13:00“Babette’s Feast” - Gabriel Axel (1987)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Babette’s Feast</i> (<i>Babettes Gæstebud</i>, 1987), by Danish writer-director <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/02/gabriel-axel.html"><b>Gabriel Axel</b></a>, is an intriguing film for me due to its contemplative quality. By this I don’t mean that the film adopts a <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTZSlU6MOq-dO0LrbwfEk0KUkgKkxurakNT-n1YsNvjJjxupdyrBdY4S8QRrlpVZdiopSVJ1HcW159S1B2qk_ipinIDD3zNowriOtUaHSxjOuh3hcEhqLIBxlG8Gyg7BO5Bl7QTeEHR6EvMqyL_WEsaajc37RBDQ23vxIOeHwM0ySQOKDSwTTnqKGIvA=s1000" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="1000" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTZSlU6MOq-dO0LrbwfEk0KUkgKkxurakNT-n1YsNvjJjxupdyrBdY4S8QRrlpVZdiopSVJ1HcW159S1B2qk_ipinIDD3zNowriOtUaHSxjOuh3hcEhqLIBxlG8Gyg7BO5Bl7QTeEHR6EvMqyL_WEsaajc37RBDQ23vxIOeHwM0ySQOKDSwTTnqKGIvA=w400-h305" width="400" /></a></i>contemplative stance or presentation perspective, but rather that it induced in <i>me</i> a tendency to contemplate about life’s meaning throughout my watching of the film. Axel’s script was a close adaptation of Danish writer Isak Dinesen’s (the pen name of Karen Blixen) famous story “Babette's Feast” [1], which first appeared in <i>Ladies' Home Journal</i> magazine in 1950. Isak Dinesen, of course, is most renowned for her marvelous memoir <i>Out of Africa</i> (1937) concerning her experiences in British East Africa. The film <i>Babette’s Feast</i> won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1987 U.S. Academy Awards, and it has been highly regarded ever since by the critical community [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. And also, in light of the theological aspects of this film’s story, it is interesting to note that <i>Babette’s Feast</i> is Pope Francis’s all-time favorite film [11].</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwsRbF1omrAyfmQ9xNYots7YGEcyexXewJzb4GK_u5Vd_AjyYWWrfpxaMBDAYmp2mAxBE65ILtPs1dJqF_awYxm3En8Eah7jBQTUcZKdjwyOQJmRorWT4EGwO_MuzsknvxNo_g--BZuLalkUxQ8kdZ0NFRWFRstgEr4pXtIU3PEI7UAItEa6frxkDOfw=s640" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="640" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwsRbF1omrAyfmQ9xNYots7YGEcyexXewJzb4GK_u5Vd_AjyYWWrfpxaMBDAYmp2mAxBE65ILtPs1dJqF_awYxm3En8Eah7jBQTUcZKdjwyOQJmRorWT4EGwO_MuzsknvxNo_g--BZuLalkUxQ8kdZ0NFRWFRstgEr4pXtIU3PEI7UAItEa6frxkDOfw=w400-h268" width="400" /></a>Babette’s Feast</i> is set in Denmark in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and it concerns two elderly, unmarried sisters who have lived all their lives there in a remote village on the coast of Jutland. The two sisters, Martine (played by Birgitte Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer), were raised by their now-deceased father, who was a conservative pastor who led a Pietistic Lutheran ecclesiastical congregation in the village. After their father’s passing, the two sisters continued with the leading of the aging and slowly dwindling congregation in accordance with their father’s strict standards.<br /><br />The film’s story covers three time periods, during which significant events took place for the two sisters, Martine and Philippa:</p><ol style="text-align: justify;"><li>A period some 49 years before “the present” (“the present” takes place in the late 19ths-century), during which time some significant events take place for Martine and Philippa.<br /> <br /></li><li>A time 35 years later when a French woman refugee, Babette Hersant, comes to the village and begins working for the two sisters as their cook and maid.<br /> <br /></li><li>“The present”, when Babette prepares her special feast.<br /></li></ol><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Period 1 - 49 years earlier than “the present”</b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpovx4ywU0DnNhm1456RM1aIJDUsMvAd0ZO0ej9OrdrvhCM58w-qhcMaT1hI02sFfu6wzUGIVzvBfH0H4HG2T88oEcY9zmpq8-T1EvQyfQ-hrhqc5H7dZ17vVdhjs1u2Rv-pTp4ZzJTcBv2fOvA4LJFaC3oI5YJ8z3oejRwMLZyq8jWh8J3DE2uqIvAw=s1023" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1023" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpovx4ywU0DnNhm1456RM1aIJDUsMvAd0ZO0ej9OrdrvhCM58w-qhcMaT1hI02sFfu6wzUGIVzvBfH0H4HG2T88oEcY9zmpq8-T1EvQyfQ-hrhqc5H7dZ17vVdhjs1u2Rv-pTp4ZzJTcBv2fOvA4LJFaC3oI5YJ8z3oejRwMLZyq8jWh8J3DE2uqIvAw=w400-h318" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an extended flashback we see the two daughters as late teenagers living under the strict but kindly guidance of their pastor father. Both daughters are beautiful, but they are kept under wraps by their conservative father. The only way to meet them in a social setting is to see them in Church. One dashing young suitor is cavalry officer Lorens Löwenhielm (Gudmar Wivesson), whose recent rowdy behavior has caused his family to send him to the remote village to “cool off” at his aunt’s place. Lorens is quickly smitten by the beauty of Martine (in this section played by Vibeke Hastrup), but he doesn’t know how to approach the reserved girl. After some fumbled attempts, Lorens realizes that his dreams of being with Martine are hopeless, and he decides to leave and devote himself to a professional career based on honor and glory.<br /><br />A little later another visitor comes to the village, this time a famous French opera singer, Achille Papin (Jean-Philippe Lafont), who has come to get away from the Parisian hustle and bustle for a while. He happens to hear Philippa (in this section played by Hanne Stensgaard) singing in church and is overwhelmed by the wondrous quality of her voice. Achille manages to convince Philippa’s father to let him give her singing lessons so that he can make her into an operatic superstar. Achille wants to do this because of his lifetime devotion to artistic expression. But, of course, he is also romantically attracted to Philippa. However, Achille’s passionate and exuberantly affectionate style of personal interaction is too much for the demure Philippa, and she has to discontinue the lessons. So Achille has to return to Paris unfulfilled. <br /></div><div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Period 2 - 14 years earlier than “the present”</b><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgrZ0_4rXBzRN38DwbruaquDogSdzuKJdnCC1zMhg-B7X7OLjGmL67ygjv5K_nb6-nNo7g6WZ8-BEkJbl12FoMliqOEpFF9xTxwayL80l9JUt-iaoH3mOGWG3_oXKrjFHRclUGz59ookgn7p7OW1CQdgTYpnos7uqDsLsytTNoLrmVU6zdYeaS1XcoCdQ=s1000" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1000" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgrZ0_4rXBzRN38DwbruaquDogSdzuKJdnCC1zMhg-B7X7OLjGmL67ygjv5K_nb6-nNo7g6WZ8-BEkJbl12FoMliqOEpFF9xTxwayL80l9JUt-iaoH3mOGWG3_oXKrjFHRclUGz59ookgn7p7OW1CQdgTYpnos7uqDsLsytTNoLrmVU6zdYeaS1XcoCdQ=w400-h274" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Time passes, and after their father’s death, Martine and Philippa have taken over running the local religious parish. One day about 14 years prior to “the present”, a woman from France, Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran), knocks on their door and bearing a letter of introduction from Achille Papin. I should mention here that even though she first appears rather well into the piece, Stéphane Audran is the real star of this film. Note that the actress Audran had been the partner and wife of French filmmaker <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/11/claude-chabrol.html"><b>Claude Chabrol</b></a> for more than twenty years and had starred in most of his films, including <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/11/les-cousins-claude-chabrol-1959.html"><i><b>Les Cousins</b></i></a> (1959) and <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2019/11/la-rupture-claude-chabrol-1970.html"><i><b>La Rupture</b></i></a> (1970). In this film, although the initial focus is on the sisters Martine and Philippa, Audran, as Babette, plays a pivotal, but enigmatic, character around whom the whole story hinges.<br /><br />The letter of introduction explains that Babette is a refugee from the Paris Commune uprising of 1871 and that her husband and son had been killed in the conflict. Fearing for her life, Babette has fled Paris, and Achille, recalling the kindness of the two Danish sisters, asks them to take her in. The sisters explain to Babette that they have almost no money, but Babette tells them that she is willing to work for them for nothing as their cook and maid. So the sisters take her in and begin patiently explaining to Babette how to make the simple, bland cuisine that they are used to.<br /></div></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Period 3 - “the present”</b><br />So now we come to “the present” time, and Babette has been working diligently for Martine and Philippa for fourteen years, and she has become a familiar background character to the dwindling number of people of the local parish that the sisters look after. One day, however, Babette receives a message from a friend in Paris who has been buying a lottery ticket every year for Babette that informs her that she, Babette, has just won the Paris lottery of 10,000 francs. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSiaWPHEO_NU1X4JSQ4wLcrtr1rePUfKcYM0TGSn0AtfL-kg45-dtiXB--vp2RXRmOCaDaHdvEQwhpUI1TqRBZafsu4XUJsQC9GInv52qobr6760X9Bh_TWOFAf6P-TyN8Ay6DY57cX3hNbMtfOdBnd7lH66rqul_YTCaoYbpkQPNmplULWu9cJ-wqwg=s1000" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSiaWPHEO_NU1X4JSQ4wLcrtr1rePUfKcYM0TGSn0AtfL-kg45-dtiXB--vp2RXRmOCaDaHdvEQwhpUI1TqRBZafsu4XUJsQC9GInv52qobr6760X9Bh_TWOFAf6P-TyN8Ay6DY57cX3hNbMtfOdBnd7lH66rqul_YTCaoYbpkQPNmplULWu9cJ-wqwg=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Everyone expects that, with civil society in Paris now calmed down, Babette will soon be returning to Paris, but Babette doesn’t say anything about this. Instead, she indicates that she is going to prepare a grand French feast for Martine and Philippa and all the church parishioners on the occasion of the father pastor’s 100th birthday. Noone knows quite what to expect about this feast, but it soon becomes apparent that it is going to be beyond the imaginations of any of the locals.<br /></div></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The film now devotes considerable time to showing Babette’s lavish preparations for the banquet. Babette imports all sorts of exotic ingredients, as well as elegant plates and cutlery. As the sisters and parishioners become aware of all these preparations, they begin to worry that it will be a sinful event, and they make a vow not to mention the food or express any appreciation at the dinner.<br /></p><div style="text-align: justify;">At the event, Martine’s long-ago admirer Lorens Löwenhielm, unexpectedly appears. Lorens, who is now a famous general and is married to a lady of the royal court, has not seen Martine for forty-nine years, but he is in the village visiting his aunt, who is a church congregation parishioner. As the other avowedly taciturn guests eat their delicious food and sip the elegant wine, their solemnity gradually fades away, and they warm up in conviviality. Old offenses are forgiven, past grudges are mended, and almost-forgotten romantic feelings are rekindled. But while all the other guests remain publicly silent about the feast, Lorens, who is familiar with fancy cuisine, stands up to make an after-dinner speech and toast. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizJ6oECttXGqFg6MXJ9A59iOzKZiSrLV9TdfpKt5KMt4qMHNXwvB-P4_slX1Enk2TkTHTCLuXtUBksZAJEKi33sYBYtjJdPdf_5awuITYYXGlJioscwxvUtu4LUv_xv6cOWNBeF6ujdNarkmoxy_2tkqjyDLOovuJMBw7GTtlEY3ivIFRKnjXwlm6p-g=s1600" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizJ6oECttXGqFg6MXJ9A59iOzKZiSrLV9TdfpKt5KMt4qMHNXwvB-P4_slX1Enk2TkTHTCLuXtUBksZAJEKi33sYBYtjJdPdf_5awuITYYXGlJioscwxvUtu4LUv_xv6cOWNBeF6ujdNarkmoxy_2tkqjyDLOovuJMBw7GTtlEY3ivIFRKnjXwlm6p-g=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He remarks that he has tasted outstanding cuisine all over the world, but in his experience the food of this present meal is so good that it can only be matched by the food from one other place – a special café in Paris. (The viewer will later learn that Babette was in fact the chef at that Parisian café.) Then Lorens offers his toast, which is not so much about the food, but how the wonders of the feast has opened his eyes to the wonders of the world [11]:</div></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"> “There comes a time when your eyes are opened <br /> And we come to realize that mercy is infinite.<br /> We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude.<br /> Mercy imposes no conditions.<br /> And, lo! - Everything we have chosen has been granted to us.<br /> And everything we rejected has also been granted.<br /> Yes, we even get back what we rejected.<br /> For mercy and truth are met together.<br /> And righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.”<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">After the feast is over, the sisters assume that Babette will return to Paris., but Babette tells them that she used all of her 10,000 francs to pay for the expenses of putting on the feast and that she is not going away. She did it, because she wanted to give everything in her power to the world in which she had been living. This was, for her, the ultimate act of self-expression.<br /><br />Although the basic story of <i>Babette's Feast</i> seems simple, the film has fascinated critics and won an Oscar. Some people are drawn to the numerous allusions in the film to Christian symbolism, including The Last Supper (Babette's feast offered dinner for 12 guests). But I think that the profundity of the film lies elsewhere. To me the film features four distinct outlooks on what we should seek in life, and these outlooks are personified by four separate personages:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Martine and Philippa<br /></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHtBvsyU0zjWc1b9DWYA9T5VWafGjiTEkxR8qRfSu_opHxV4WaHWT8O8rl9E7UH4b3qdRPrTYcygVNKEhLq7aqEVJ-2lUptldgTvuHcQl5kOlJ1_27z9zWLTW_TSdQm_YcyMbN2n4_4XvkNlBHLockotUdazbhUvU93rc0jOM2pU3c0so93qSlpqZwBg=s431" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="431" height="329" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHtBvsyU0zjWc1b9DWYA9T5VWafGjiTEkxR8qRfSu_opHxV4WaHWT8O8rl9E7UH4b3qdRPrTYcygVNKEhLq7aqEVJ-2lUptldgTvuHcQl5kOlJ1_27z9zWLTW_TSdQm_YcyMbN2n4_4XvkNlBHLockotUdazbhUvU93rc0jOM2pU3c0so93qSlpqZwBg=w400-h329" width="400" /></a></b>The two sisters, following their pastor father’s prescriptions, humbly
seek to adhere to the strict rules of evangelical Christianity.
Although they devote themselves to helping the enfeebled and
impoverished in their community, there is something limited and
mechanical about this policy<br /><b> </b></div></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Lorens Löwenhielm</b><br />After Löwenhielm’s failed infatuation with Martine, he devoted himself
to the attainment of personal glory and honors. When he is seen in the
latter part of the film, it is evident that he had attained what he had
sought, but we get the feeling (something his closing toast confirms)
that he senses that there is still something more to life than that. <br /> </li><li style="text-align: justify;"><b>Achille Papin</b><br />For Papin the ultimate achievement to be sought in life was ecstatic
artistic expression in accordance with one’s own aesthetic gifts. But
this is a very personal mode of being and does not significantly involve
the serious engagement with others or with a wider spectrum.<br /> </li><li><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Babette</b><br />Babette's mission was too use all her abilities in order to selflessly,
even anonymously, bring joy to others. And she did this through the
wonders of food preparation and taste. Her feast was her personal gift,
not just to the parishioners, but to the world.</div></li></ul><p style="text-align: left;">With regard to the first three of these perspectives, Tasha Robinson remarks [8]:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>“The narrative is also about the emptiness of most pursuits: General Lorens is dissatisfied and confused after devoting his life to a spectacular career. The Puritans are bitter and judgmental after devoting their lives to religion. Martine and Filippa find satisfaction in devoting their lives to their father, but are left bereft after his death, watching the consensus he built crumble.” </blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">And in this vein of multiple life perspectives, Mark Le Fanu further adds [9]:<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH08C2SnowXI99sODFFcyWVqZ9LfQGuJR6oa_qC--X_4rqq4xMw6gi4u2I-PRCXOI0lB94arGs4KvULd6qZCa2bhRqCe5-Cjny-t9Z6aIIS44mePs5wVRGnhLHhMB98F5CqPGY0L_3lmr0ilBp8quHcBvto4tBREXz1P45gadO5JhILc1idlz4J3H8qA=s824" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="824" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH08C2SnowXI99sODFFcyWVqZ9LfQGuJR6oa_qC--X_4rqq4xMw6gi4u2I-PRCXOI0lB94arGs4KvULd6qZCa2bhRqCe5-Cjny-t9Z6aIIS44mePs5wVRGnhLHhMB98F5CqPGY0L_3lmr0ilBp8quHcBvto4tBREXz1P45gadO5JhILc1idlz4J3H8qA=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Thus there are two stories, at least, going on in the closing stages of the film. Babette is busy showing us that the artist is able to respond to adversity with self-denying style and generosity, while Löwenhielm, in his after-dinner speech to the guests, is demonstrating that our choices in life—even the bad ones—are all ultimately redeemable and beneficent. Somehow, these two positions meet; at a certain level, they are identical postulates. For if Löwenhielm never sees Babette (she remains in the kitchen, outside his range of vision), he guesses she’s there—invisible, like grace—for the simple reason that, years ago in Paris, he attended a similar feast, and there is only one person in the world who could have authored this one.”</div></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Overall and despite its modest format, <i>Babette's Feast</i> is a very successful cinematic consideration of our ultimate goals in life. Of course, this topic has been the subject of countless philosophical treatises where text is used to express such abstract notions. It would seem to be even more difficult to try doing this if one is confined to using the physical visual imagery of film. Nevertheless, Jean Schuler feels that <i>Babette's Feast</i> has actually managed to accomplish what Kierkegaard thought to be beyond the realms of possibility [4]:<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>“<i>Babette's Feast</i> achieves what Kierkegaard treated as impossible: to make the hidden movements of faith visible. A film about goodness threatens to bore its audience; a film about holiness that manages to get it right would seem to be as impossible as roses blooming in December or sitting down to a banquet fit for kings in a Jutland cottage.”</blockquote></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiR7cx74KiZlti-iVIHuHgfsRrePMgIv3ccseitIVtv56XqQ9nGCP3thPDMDHkcMRPGo4WsnxqiT16v0hFiq7qaCCngF7EbEJOuonq7sKQiwWSOwDQhcyDqgcbUFE0S2DX6-Xq18r9cP5ypa42hzsPw_Re-irJn6G84h8Lkh7v60Btb-IC3VQDl3Ym2Qg=s1023" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1023" data-original-width="825" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiR7cx74KiZlti-iVIHuHgfsRrePMgIv3ccseitIVtv56XqQ9nGCP3thPDMDHkcMRPGo4WsnxqiT16v0hFiq7qaCCngF7EbEJOuonq7sKQiwWSOwDQhcyDqgcbUFE0S2DX6-Xq18r9cP5ypa42hzsPw_Re-irJn6G84h8Lkh7v60Btb-IC3VQDl3Ym2Qg=w323-h400" width="323" /></a>However, Gabriel Axel, with the help of Isak Dinesen’s story, Henning Kristiansen’s cinematography, and Stéphane Audran’s performance, <i>did</i> get it right.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps it is best to summarize the essence of what they got right with this quote from Pope Francis, himself [13]:<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>“The most intense joys in life arise when we are able to elicit joy in others, as a foretaste of heaven. We can think of the lovely scene in the film Babette’s Feast, when the generous cook receives a grateful hug and praise: ‘Ah, how you will delight the angels!’ It is a joy and a great consolation to bring delight to others, to see them enjoying themselves. This joy, the fruit of fraternal love, is not that of the vain and self-centred, but of lovers who delight in the good of those whom they love, who give freely to them and thus bear good fruit”</blockquote></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Notes:</b></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b> <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/babettes-feast#Introduction">“Babette's Feast”</a></b>, <i>Encyclopedia.com</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Desson Howe, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/babettesfeastnrhowe_a0b156.htm"><b>“Babette’s Feast”</b></a>, <i>Washington Post</i>, (8 April 1988). <br /></li><li>Rita Kempley, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/babettesfeastnrkempley_a0ca1c.htm"><b>“Babette’s Feast”</b></a>, <i>Washington Post</i>, (8 April 1988). <br /></li><li>Jean Schuler, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121231034620/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/kierkega.htm"><b>“Kierkegaard at Babette's Feast: The Return to the Finite”</b></a>, <i>Journal of Religion and Film</i>, (October 1997). <br /></li><li>Wendy M. Wright, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090416233214/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/BabetteWW.htm"><b>"Babette's Feast: A Religious Film”</b></a>, <i>Journal of Religion and Film</i>, (October 1997). <br /></li><li>Peter Bradshaw, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/dec/13/babettes-feast-review"><b>“Babette's Feast – review”</b></a>, <i>The Guardian</i>, (13 Decembet 2012). <br /></li><li>Nathaniel Thompson, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67854/babettes-feast#articles-reviews?articleId=906478"><b>“Babette’s Feast"</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (8 November 2013). <br /></li><li>Tasha Robinson, <a href="http://thedissolve.com/reviews/75-babettes-feast/"><b>“Babette’s Feast”</b></a>, <i>The Dissolve</i>, (23 July 2013).. <br /></li><li>Mark Le Fanu, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2842-babette-s-feast-mercy-and-truth-have-met-together"><b>“Babette’s Feast: ‘Mercy and Truth Have Met Together’”</b></a>, <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, (22 July 2013). <br /></li><li>Samuel Wigley, <a href="https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/bfi-news/then-now-babettes-feast-reviewed"><b>“Then and now: Babette’s Feast reviewed”</b></a>, <i>British Film Institute, </i>(3 April 2014). <br /></li><li>Philip Kosloski, <a href="https://aleteia.org/2016/11/21/why-does-pope-francis-want-us-to-watch-the-movie-babettes-feast/"><b>“Why does Pope Francis want us to watch the movie ‘Babette’s Feast’?”</b></a>, <i>Aaleteia</i>, (21 November 2016). <br /></li><li>Ezio Vailati, <a href="https://www.siue.edu/~evailat/babette.html"><b>“Babette's Feast”</b></a>, <i>Southern Illinois University Edwardsville</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Pope Francis, <i>Amoris Laetitia: On Love in the Family</i>, Our Sunday Visitor, (2016), p. 129. <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-71722510144972727462022-02-15T16:07:00.003+13:002022-02-16T15:36:15.639+13:00Gabriel Axel<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Gabriel Axel:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/02/babettes-feast-gabriel-axel-1987.html"><b><i>Babette’s Feast</i></b></a> - Gabriel Axel (1987)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-32475135501768391002022-01-30T15:35:00.001+13:002022-01-31T17:21:35.579+13:00“The Big Sleep” - Howard Hawks (1946)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Big Sleep</i> (1946) is a famous <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2008/08/film-noir.html"><b>film noir</b></a> directed by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2018/05/howard-hawks.html"><b>Howard Hawks</b></a> – in fact some people think it is the greatest of all films noir [1,2,3,4,5,6]. It is based on famous detective fiction writer <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmsiurlxJNVvVOB2RdoPDN-ocw83vpJB7VWqGsK1ZO0AdJwigJpIzzJKPmxBB-geyc7SK8NoKhC64PT7lCJQa6tc3q7e2W7trM0lcEpDZ8vXv21y0GrgMfpwHzWJ1ZNFvG-l_0-HilYdkI-4sse8xRa9SHfVCv5Lm_l1gCs7-couXQit90QFEw39wsIQ=s608" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="608" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmsiurlxJNVvVOB2RdoPDN-ocw83vpJB7VWqGsK1ZO0AdJwigJpIzzJKPmxBB-geyc7SK8NoKhC64PT7lCJQa6tc3q7e2W7trM0lcEpDZ8vXv21y0GrgMfpwHzWJ1ZNFvG-l_0-HilYdkI-4sse8xRa9SHfVCv5Lm_l1gCs7-couXQit90QFEw39wsIQ=w400-h295" width="400" /></a></i>Raymond Chandler’s first novel, <i>The Big Sleep</i> (1939), which featured Chandler’s favorite fictional protagonist, private detective Philip Marlowe. In Hawks’s film version here, Marlowe is played by Humphrey Bogart, and this was one of the factors that made this film noir so popular – it turned out to be one of Bogart’s more famous roles. Another factor in the film’s popularity was the romantic pairing of Bogart (aged 44) with Lauren Bacall (aged 20), a combo that had already achieved significant traction with the public from Hawks’s earlier <i>To Have and Have Not</i> (1944). “Bogie and Bacall” were coupled offscreen, too, and they got married during this period.<br /><br />Despite the fame of this film, though, there are aspects of it that make the work problematical. For one thing, the plot of <i>The Big Sleep</i> (both that of the film and the novel) is so convoluted that most viewers can’t keep track of it. This is partly a consequence of Chandler’s practice of basing each of his novels on several of his earlier-published short stories, each of which had its own plot. And anyway, plot was less important for Chandler than atmosphere and characterization. It seems that he wanted more to create a sense of tension rather than to tell a story. So the task was considerable for the esteemed screenwriters who worked on the film:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>William Faulkner, a novelist and short story writer who won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature,</li><li>Leigh Brackett, who later scripted another famous film noir based on a Raymond Chandler novel, <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/03/the-long-goodbye-robert-altman-1973.html"><i><b>The Long Goodbye</b></i></a> (1973), and</li><li>Jules Furthman, a prolific screenwriter whose vast repertoire includes the scripting of seven of <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2008/08/josef-von-sternberg.html"><b>Josef von Sternberg’s</b></a> films. <br /></li></ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhTXV0zUhM_LNUHCvLGg7-P5Lf259MKCL0YQDEaHPKBJgTGgBFfm7Hw-5GWRYFjBFwieL5rr97kIABmWCPsTXJM12TPL-GLDgPEwlgGDPzuZm7DHX9p9YDA2JM1-8h-rui3RUjV5rm5dU6PRaoORf0F3mLisgChwbehVH4HBXWBz8nsUVlGLxcRNXg6jA=s608" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="608" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhTXV0zUhM_LNUHCvLGg7-P5Lf259MKCL0YQDEaHPKBJgTGgBFfm7Hw-5GWRYFjBFwieL5rr97kIABmWCPsTXJM12TPL-GLDgPEwlgGDPzuZm7DHX9p9YDA2JM1-8h-rui3RUjV5rm5dU6PRaoORf0F3mLisgChwbehVH4HBXWBz8nsUVlGLxcRNXg6jA=w400-h295" width="400" /></a>Not only did Faulkner, Brackett, and Furthman need to tone down the explicit sexuality (including homosexuality) in Chandler’s original account, they also had to understand and try to make some sense of Chandler’s tangled plot in the novel. One notable example of this difficulty occurred during the shooting of the film when Bogart and Hawks wanted to know who committed one of the seven key murders in the film [5]. That is, was Sternwood’s chauffeur murdered or was it a suicide? It bothered Bogart and Hawks so much that Hawks sent a telegram to Chandler to find out. But it turned out that Chandler didn’t know, either! As I said, Chandler was mainly concerned with atmosphere, not facts about who did what.<br /><br />The story, such as it is, of <i>The Big Sleep</i> begins with Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) being summoned to the mansion of General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), a wealthy invalid with two wanton young daughters – the lewd and self-indulgent Carmen (Martha Vickers) and the divorced Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall).. Sternwood is concerned that Carmen is being threatened for the nonpayment of her gambling debts. Marlowe agrees to look into the matter. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRXNG80MAL6l2Qv8dD1WOIfm32k7D4S4VtFjvYHrUXGi6nj0crN4S9kNux9LX8DaD_lwS4jIeo_YIWtOiWJyoYkDJAUmKFziYWM4JPWf0oLRKG5B1mjQNwE4bXo9OIDgM1vhzB5ntZUJfbVA8-5qLHCWVaV2lX55Tws-rcUxvqICPJJx_lj3rswmvdHQ=s608" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="608" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRXNG80MAL6l2Qv8dD1WOIfm32k7D4S4VtFjvYHrUXGi6nj0crN4S9kNux9LX8DaD_lwS4jIeo_YIWtOiWJyoYkDJAUmKFziYWM4JPWf0oLRKG5B1mjQNwE4bXo9OIDgM1vhzB5ntZUJfbVA8-5qLHCWVaV2lX55Tws-rcUxvqICPJJx_lj3rswmvdHQ=w400-h295" width="400" /></a>But things turn out to be not so simple as that. Marlowe soon learns that Carmen was being blackmailed by her phony creditor, whom Marlowe soon finds murdered. And Marlowe learns from Vivian that her younger sister Carmen has been blackmailed before by other mysterious gangsters and miscreants, who may or may not be involved in this current murder. Throughout all the various violent events that come along and the corpses that pile up, Marlowe tries to figure out what is going on. But he is always one step behind. However, along the way, Marlowe and Vivian (who also turns out to be a victim of blackmailing) gradually develop an attachment for each other.<br /><br />I won’t go over the plot details here, but I can say that in the end, things get somewhat resolved, although we do learn that Marlowe, Vivian, and Carmen each killed someone who was threatening them individually [2]. <br /><br />So what is it that accounts for <i>The Big Sleep’s</i> popularity? I don’t think it is the intricate plot, because the plot is too random and loose-ended. Moreover, we don’t get much of a feeling for what motivates most of the events that transpire. And I don’t think it is the “Bogie and Bacall” Mystique, either. That relationship is very much in the background and never really occupies center stage. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKIy9nsyyUKd33aoqY-1Syw0GL21Bk_ZTvF_Bp4Dthhc3tU4RGZo90k8s36X1GTxjZ4QS9zAdFDlYWCRZXxpOEj-RVWUu5hDkCz5C1NsrHDjzWCMoLv67PeyK_4jrdc3OxCQw6rSqs3to72zWU1RB5RT-kn97Pm2ih9Ie-I72OUZhO-7edSksfmJMJcQ=s608" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="608" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKIy9nsyyUKd33aoqY-1Syw0GL21Bk_ZTvF_Bp4Dthhc3tU4RGZo90k8s36X1GTxjZ4QS9zAdFDlYWCRZXxpOEj-RVWUu5hDkCz5C1NsrHDjzWCMoLv67PeyK_4jrdc3OxCQw6rSqs3to72zWU1RB5RT-kn97Pm2ih9Ie-I72OUZhO-7edSksfmJMJcQ=w400-h295" width="400" /></a></div>No, I think what accounts for <i>The Big Sleep’s</i> popularity is that the film is so heavily loaded with all the accoutrements of film noir stylistics. There is a nonstop barrage of all the incidental elements that the aficionados of film noir look for and recognize when they encounter an instance of the genre – </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>a dark, cynical, and obscure protagonist</li><li>attractive women with unclear pasts and ambiguous intentions</li><li>unexpected encounters with shady characters</li><li>unanticipated violence</li><li>cynical and innuendo-loaded wisecracks and dialogue<br /></li></ul>Thus film critic Roger Ebert loved the film precisely for these elements, as he remarked<br />[5]:<br /><blockquote>Working from Chandler's original words and adding spins of their own, the writers (William Faulkner, Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett) wrote one of the most quotable of screenplays: It's unusual to find yourself laughing in a movie not because something is funny but because it's so wickedly clever. (Marlowe on the "nymphy" kid sister: "She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.") Unlike modern crime movies which are loaded with action, "The Big Sleep" is heavy with dialogue--the characters talk and talk, just like in the Chandler novels; it's as if there's a competition to see who has the most <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1vhtXa4O7d_s7eQAUWBRp1vD6LvVRo8i_BI5BrwfbQpSobZDIa_QzGF8Da6cZURkMP-ZVYv_rhtJ0I6sLp931cjvPTdm8qWBPfB3rz75sZdS1JV0JdYEoaXHEJ3Cx5Ad9wu437R6NNUl7wWfCKaTkPA0n0sv3D8xWE3sHafgCasr6fp9MIwxMi_SHiQ=s700" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="700" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1vhtXa4O7d_s7eQAUWBRp1vD6LvVRo8i_BI5BrwfbQpSobZDIa_QzGF8Da6cZURkMP-ZVYv_rhtJ0I6sLp931cjvPTdm8qWBPfB3rz75sZdS1JV0JdYEoaXHEJ3Cx5Ad9wu437R6NNUl7wWfCKaTkPA0n0sv3D8xWE3sHafgCasr6fp9MIwxMi_SHiQ=w400-h293" width="400" /></a>verbal style.</blockquote>But I don’t see things that way. An outstanding film cannot be just all clever talk; it has to have a compelling narrative, and <i>The Big Sleep</i> doesn’t have that. The story of this film is too loose-ended and contorted. So although the film has some entertaining moments (I did like the brief, separate interactions Marlowe had with Carmen (Martha Vickers) and Harry Jones (Elisha Cook, Jr.)), this is certainly not a great film noir.<b><br /></b><b><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">★★★</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span><br />Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ol><li>Leonard Maltin (ed.), “The Big Sleep (1946)”, <i>Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide</i>, Plume, (2005), p. 47. </li><li>Tim Dirth. <a href="https://www.filmsite.org/bigs.html"><b>“The Big Sleep (1946)”</b></a>, “Filmsite”, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Andrew Sarris, <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7-JLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MowDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6161%2C3035776"><b>“Living the private-eye genre”</b></a>, films in focus, <i>The Village Voice</i>” (8 November 1973). <br /></li><li>Jeffrey M. Anderson, <a href="https://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/classic/bigsleep.shtml"><b>“I'd Like More”</b></a>, The Big Sleep (1946), <i>Combustible Celluloid</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-big-sleep-1946"><b>“The Big Sleep”</b></a>, Great Movies, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (22 June 1997). <br /></li><li>Brian Cady, Margarita Landazuri, and Frank Miller, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/45/the-big-sleep#articles-reviews"><b>“The Big Sleep”</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (17 February 2005). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-18219385176256473482022-01-12T16:09:00.000+13:002022-01-12T16:09:10.333+13:00“1917” - Sam Mendes (2019)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>1917</i> (2019) is a British war drama set in the brutal trenches during the First World War. Directed and co-written by <b><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/01/sam-mendes.html">Sam Mendes</a></b>, the film has achieved wide popularity and was nominated <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirvZLYeiV8lng6te3gezeWqdVSq26mGjNel-2WUEvARpMj9_wcI9FT-GGA0X3hnQ4-6af0F4inhCURXCT6VJjLp2Jeo3VD86JAimITOjOjj7KqtVW4Oewsk1v-vkfbr2Wfj1UcMe1hjsfUfKz4IK_CFUrDGbczt7pzBttKQEXyBeng2SY8iuKlp39U-g=s1485" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1485" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEirvZLYeiV8lng6te3gezeWqdVSq26mGjNel-2WUEvARpMj9_wcI9FT-GGA0X3hnQ4-6af0F4inhCURXCT6VJjLp2Jeo3VD86JAimITOjOjj7KqtVW4Oewsk1v-vkfbr2Wfj1UcMe1hjsfUfKz4IK_CFUrDGbczt7pzBttKQEXyBeng2SY8iuKlp39U-g=w400-h194" width="400" /></a></i>for 10 Oscars (U.S. Academy Awards), winning three of them, including the one for Best Cinematography. Indeed the cinematography is the most striking thing about this work, because the entire film has the appearance of consisting of just two camera shots. It’s my understanding that films comprising only a single take have been made before, but <i>1917</i> must surely be the most successful execution of that concept/scheme. <br /><br />The story of <i>1917</i> concerns two British lance corporals, Will Schofield (played by George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), who are charged with a critical and dangerous overnight mission. With communication lines down, the task for them is to cross over “no man’s land” in front of their trenches in order to deliver a crucial message to another British battalion that would enable the recipient of that message to avert a German slaughter of British troops and save 1,600 lives. The message, from General Erinmore (Colin Firth), is specifically directed to an officer of the other British battalion, Colonel Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch), to call off an intended attack, because aerial reconnaissance has discovered that the German army has setup a trap and will annihilate the attacking forces. <br /><br />Blake is eager to carry out the dangerous assignment, because he wants to be a hero and because his brother is a member of the endangered battalion. Schofield, however, is not enthusiastic at all. He is a survivor of the devastating Battle of the Somme (300,000 deaths and over one million casualties) the year before, and he is familiar with the futility of war, but he agrees to go with Blake out of loyalty to his friend. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCNI8rQl5eYiq1VBz0fEBDZhK7QU6OtyNhj6FZyWr_b8jNokyAEK2OKUef9aA1nIfNGRVTjfeol37ps0ZD03Bep46V4ApSVah86Rglr8no-A09rbwmXN8ntWHxjb-LSMb3ag5WHS6fxNnt2BiXDZTCQhdvk_jMM4y2M4bD6Vhv8Uff7R0komarg6OLTQ=s1381" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="1381" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCNI8rQl5eYiq1VBz0fEBDZhK7QU6OtyNhj6FZyWr_b8jNokyAEK2OKUef9aA1nIfNGRVTjfeol37ps0ZD03Bep46V4ApSVah86Rglr8no-A09rbwmXN8ntWHxjb-LSMb3ag5WHS6fxNnt2BiXDZTCQhdvk_jMM4y2M4bD6Vhv8Uff7R0komarg6OLTQ=w400-h178" width="400" /></a></div>The film begins on the evening of April 6th, 1917, and the film’s first shot, which lasts about an hour, starts by showing the lance corporals Blake and Schofield tranquilly snoozing under a tree in what appears to be a peaceful, pastoral setting. We are soon to see that their environment is anything but peaceful. They are awakened and informed about their dangerous assignment, and as the camera continues to track them, they are shown walking overt to and in the front-line war trenches looking for the place to cross over into no man’s land, which due, to a recent German retreat, is believed to be temporarily safe to move through. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As the shot progresses, one becomes increasingly aware that this is one continuous take, but the camera movement is so carefully orchestrated and psychologically motivated that the continuity of the shot does not intrude on the viewer’s involvement in what happens (at least not for me). (Actually, there are moments in the film where near-invisible camera cuts have likely been made, but the first hour of the film certainly looks like a single take.) Some reviewers have found this single-take cinematography (by Oscar-winner Roger Deakins) to be gimmicky and artificial, and they have therefore panned the film (e.g. [1,2]). But I, along with most reviewers (e.g.. [3,4]), found the visual flow of the film to be natural and compelling. The camera moves, because it takes the watcher to a view that he or she is motivated to see. <br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjENxorb4e95tzsBT6uVXBzU0dZK1-zBkArT-Iye0cyVe2drIrIljceXoCgihGM8kOdcuuqN1EnnPqbsy3k602ulHjKUO2RnDtoLbwIhOKqBNUyDxWa7hcM7_KIkKCh2JLY4Qz28RJ15BokxiU_kYmlzokI2zYDtjq425D466eq7NcE8muWigTa9IqIOA=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjENxorb4e95tzsBT6uVXBzU0dZK1-zBkArT-Iye0cyVe2drIrIljceXoCgihGM8kOdcuuqN1EnnPqbsy3k602ulHjKUO2RnDtoLbwIhOKqBNUyDxWa7hcM7_KIkKCh2JLY4Qz28RJ15BokxiU_kYmlzokI2zYDtjq425D466eq7NcE8muWigTa9IqIOA=w400-h166" width="400" /></a></div>But this cinematography is more than just “natural”. It establishes and maintains a moving aura of labyrinthine entanglement that visually evokes a dominating mood for the film. The camera work makes one viscerally feel that Blake and Schofield find themselves in a relentless and continually evolving hell, which keeps presenting them with threatening surprises from which they must escape in order to carry out their crucial life-preserving mission. So I would say this adroit cinematography constitutes the very soul of the film.<br /><br />Further into this “first” shot we see Blake and Schofield in various bizarre and life-threatening situations out in no man’s land. While the two of them are temporarily taking shelter in an abandoned farmhouse, they watch an aerial dogfight between a German plane and some Allied aircraft. The German plane is shot down, and in flames it crashes into the farmhouse. Blake and Schofield just barely get out of the way of the plane crash, and then they quickly manage to rescue the burned German pilot from his crashed plane. But while Schofield is not looking, the pilot fatally stabs Blake. Although Schofield shoots and kills the pilot, he is unable to save the life of his best friend, Blake. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJ9TfZ-z5jSvWEkEq79UqYGmSSwd-6mp0_STuizOjaPo1c5A_FTZ-vvTf3Lwu0DwGWG-k2yF2fNWIcoBe33yZ9aFJ0aptVd0XPteFue_bLFCGEW0AxhM6nhUh-yPUJr9VWzkJGFGyoa0Mh2RRYS8kZxsA1lNCQZJXgvgi9QVoKJmsE5eI4P6zkrcvM0A=s1510" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1510" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJ9TfZ-z5jSvWEkEq79UqYGmSSwd-6mp0_STuizOjaPo1c5A_FTZ-vvTf3Lwu0DwGWG-k2yF2fNWIcoBe33yZ9aFJ0aptVd0XPteFue_bLFCGEW0AxhM6nhUh-yPUJr9VWzkJGFGyoa0Mh2RRYS8kZxsA1lNCQZJXgvgi9QVoKJmsE5eI4P6zkrcvM0A=w400-h185" width="400" /></a>This is a shock to the viewer, because less than half-way through the film, one of the two protagonists is now gone. So Schofield now has to carry on alone.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After Schofield has more tense encounters, the film’s first shot finally comes to an end when he engages a German sniper in a gunfight that results in the death of the sniper and causes Schofield to lose consciousness. <br />The “second” shot of the film begins later in the night, near dawn, when Schofield regains consciousness, and it continues with the same action-packed tenor as the first shot. Schofield continues to have deadly encounters with the German combatants that he encounters. At one point while fleeing his pursuers, he jumps into a river and winds up getting swept over a high waterfall. Eventually he manages to find and make his way to the British battalion under the command of Colonel Mackenzie that he has been seeking. But precious time is running out, and Schofield still has to find Colonel Mackenzie’s trench and get him to call of his imminent attack.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLLigFUNIwmpZh9l0gbCGVzIkWtIHa2GWaWLE6wwpgbcPPVcbjXI0WcP7HltR_r-7qol9ZZmMAwmvNPSNCpvKYDmuGuB8SSS2rL7t1glK-FQltX--oBHl2Rk-vOOqsDKLLrOnfE2Dcq9rFd5MBFeNu2qgpYO7YdBjJMIHkS1fnV4cKAuLycwcI4lnYSw=s1587" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="1587" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLLigFUNIwmpZh9l0gbCGVzIkWtIHa2GWaWLE6wwpgbcPPVcbjXI0WcP7HltR_r-7qol9ZZmMAwmvNPSNCpvKYDmuGuB8SSS2rL7t1glK-FQltX--oBHl2Rk-vOOqsDKLLrOnfE2Dcq9rFd5MBFeNu2qgpYO7YdBjJMIHkS1fnV4cKAuLycwcI4lnYSw=w400-h158" width="400" /></a></div>Throughout this sinuous tale of Schofield’s struggles, we get a real, on-the-ground, feeling for what WWI trench warfare must have been like. Although the story of <i>1917</i> is classed as fiction, it is based on tales that Sam Mendes heard when he was young from his grandfather about the latter’s experiences in WWI. So Mendes apparently based this work on testimony that was as psychologically personal and authentic as he could find. And the key feeling that prevails the work is one of entrapment. It is like an ongoing nightmare from which there seems to be no escape. <br /><br />There have been various esteemed cinematic efforts over the years, such as Lewis Milestone’s <i>All Quiet on the Western Front</i> (1930), that seek to convey a basic truth about war – namely that “war is hell”. And these anti-war films almost invariably evoke a sense of alienation, usually by directly showing characters who are alienated. We see clearly direct evidence that those characters are alienated. But <i>1917</i>, thanks to its brilliant camera work, goes further and provides an even greater sense of immediacy. We, the viewers, have the same visual experiences that the portrayed characters have and feel our own personal sense of alienation. We never really know much about Schofield <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6Z_6T3xvNfagICWCBgMARjWvFyBJQx2tDO61RsJn5O3fWuGNEhKpoi1lXlGtotJEaOFfRz2Ji5qEstTpC3GzpX0WfF6xYNBK-0hFn_DiwKOLTxRCU1fWrRWOhl3DStZvZyyaEiAvlli2R5RpYmzIUs-0FiOftNFfs64JOdM48UJowQRVBI2xbhmeBTg=s1200" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6Z_6T3xvNfagICWCBgMARjWvFyBJQx2tDO61RsJn5O3fWuGNEhKpoi1lXlGtotJEaOFfRz2Ji5qEstTpC3GzpX0WfF6xYNBK-0hFn_DiwKOLTxRCU1fWrRWOhl3DStZvZyyaEiAvlli2R5RpYmzIUs-0FiOftNFfs64JOdM48UJowQRVBI2xbhmeBTg=w400-h225" width="400" /></a>as a person in this tale. He is just an <i>everyman</i> who serves as a screen surrogate for the viewer so that he or she can have his or her own horrific experiences of life and combat in the trenches.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For these reasons I recommend that you see <i>1917</i> so that you can, like Schofield, also experience the existentially challenging feelings conjured up by its amazing camera work.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">★★★½<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Peter Sobczynski, <b><a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/1917-movie-review-2019">“1917"</a></b>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (25 December 2019). <br /></li><li>Manohla Dargis,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/24/movies/1917-review.html"><b>“‘1917’ Review: Paths of Technical Glory”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (24 December 2019). <br /></li><li>Philip Concannon, <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/1917-sam-mendes-george-mackay-world-war-one-shot-action-ride"><b>“1917 orchestrates World War I as a one-shot action ride”</b></a>, <i>Sight and Sound</i>, (13 January 2021). <br /></li><li>Richard Whittaker, <a href="https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/2020-01-10/nineteen-seventeen/"><b>“1917"</b></a>, <i>The Austin Chronicle</i>, (10 January 2020). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-18952176315814368022022-01-12T15:09:00.003+13:002022-01-12T16:10:59.928+13:00Sam Mendes<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of Sam Mendes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2022/01/1917-sam-mendes-2019.html"><i>1917</i></a></b> - Sam Mendes (2019)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-61720973657726690232021-12-21T16:51:00.004+13:002021-12-21T18:19:30.769+13:00“Persona” - Ingmar Bergman (1966)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Persona</i> (1966), written and directed by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2013/08/ingmar-bergman.html"><b>Ingmar Bergman</b></a>, is one of that great Swedish filmmaker’s most challenging films. Many viewers and critics alike have found this film, mostly just showing<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_ilg8yoRlXXIm81wir52T9ogjnFk-mpMmlRm8KTAY5fyiIcAXClrnrfc9zKGWVYeEcwPZP8ulPYT052L23KGpmdnkRL447vXLSzV5OBUgINzJomGvr55EP-2o6K28tqBpjoB_wrcDS0jV72-e_wiFqLjEM773Jhgyv_7D3e2bWXBakxPSwc4BmGmyFA=s1020" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="1020" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_ilg8yoRlXXIm81wir52T9ogjnFk-mpMmlRm8KTAY5fyiIcAXClrnrfc9zKGWVYeEcwPZP8ulPYT052L23KGpmdnkRL447vXLSzV5OBUgINzJomGvr55EP-2o6K28tqBpjoB_wrcDS0jV72-e_wiFqLjEM773Jhgyv_7D3e2bWXBakxPSwc4BmGmyFA=w400-h240" width="400" /></a></i> two isolated women looking to interact with each other, to be largely incomprehensible, and they could not understand even what the film is about. Their difficulties were exacerbated by the problems they had making out which key scenes in the film were supposed to be imaginary and which ones were supposed to be “real”. Not surprisingly, <i>Persona</i> won few awards when it was released, and it has drawn heavy criticism from such leading critics as Andrew Sarris [1] and Jonathan Rosenbaum [2].<br /><br />Nevertheless and despite the film’s supposed inscrutability, <i>Persona’s</i> novel and artistic treatment of fundamental aspects of personhood has gradually attracted an enthusiastic global following, and it is now regarded by many as Bergman’s masterpiece and as one of the greatest films ever made [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. The British Film Institute's 2012 international poll of film critics ranked <i>Persona</i> as the 17th greatest film of all time [11], and its 2012 international poll of film directors ranked <i>Persona</i> as the 13th greatest film of all time [12]. But even though <i>Persona</i> has attracted a devoted following, there is still widespread disagreement about what it all means. As a result, there have been several books and collections devoted to the film, and film scholar Thomas Elsaesser has suggested that <i>Persona</i> may be the most seriously written-about film ever [6].<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheNvvWUHt3yFdcScmlmQstgrN6jYxbGraC8ZvEgqfy9yBeQU8N9CnaK1JtaPzvDF63aJfXr5g2xLjJML9nvIcYrymEjK_apJ8cKE8EEvfM-Jme14P_R6L1O2TyQ0BY16U96j0qygn_LC8cOO151Z54jeY7qM_-t5LxfS_fmE7tIJYHvyMsGA1bg1WYIg=s932" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="932" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheNvvWUHt3yFdcScmlmQstgrN6jYxbGraC8ZvEgqfy9yBeQU8N9CnaK1JtaPzvDF63aJfXr5g2xLjJML9nvIcYrymEjK_apJ8cKE8EEvfM-Jme14P_R6L1O2TyQ0BY16U96j0qygn_LC8cOO151Z54jeY7qM_-t5LxfS_fmE7tIJYHvyMsGA1bg1WYIg=w400-h263" width="400" /></a></div>The film concerns two women, Elisabet Vogler (played Liv by Ullmann), who is a famous stage actress, and Alma (Bibi Andersson), who is a young nurse. But before introducing these two personages, Bergman begins his film cryptically by showing an old film projector and then some disconnected images, including a slapstick silent-film sequence, a spider, a crucifixion, and a lamb being slaughtered. Then we see a young boy waking up in a hospital cot and looking around, finally gazing on a large screen showing a blurry image of a woman’s face.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then we are introduced to the two women, Elisabet and Alma. In the middle of one of her stage performances, Elisabet suddenly and mysteriously became mute. Her doctors subsequently determined that there is nothing physically wrong with Elisabet and that her now-total silence is the result of a stubborn decision on her part. Elisabet’s psychiatrist doctor (played by Margaretha Krook) believes that Elisabet’s total withdrawal is due to a fanatic concern about her personal authenticity – Elisabet apparently doesn’t want to express anything that is not fundamentally true about herself, and so she is holding to her silence. Consequently the doctor assigns nurse Alma to take Elisabet to the doctor’s remote island cottage and see if she can spend some relaxing time with the actress and help bring the woman out of her malaise. <br /><br />As I mentioned, it is argued by many (e.g. [5,6]) that the events shown in the film don’t add up to a single coherent story, thereby leaving viewers to construct their own stories out of the subsequent narrative shards that are presented. These narrative shards can be grouped into six collections.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7Yqn455mhhr1Ko18gnf3RigZ77w6DB0nk7VOJcJLQ7DHRLcNRdMy5bqY9pqjZgvlv1rkdIf80zZndEtk1VPoWgDBY2N1t4TeyDWlJcPSkKgVkVUwOpdnHyv4f8H2uLz6kOA7a88jTriPutkEFFpy7ZH11luVVu1SVuhaAlwJGDmoQlx1Ax1Ig0pVKFw=s933" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="933" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7Yqn455mhhr1Ko18gnf3RigZ77w6DB0nk7VOJcJLQ7DHRLcNRdMy5bqY9pqjZgvlv1rkdIf80zZndEtk1VPoWgDBY2N1t4TeyDWlJcPSkKgVkVUwOpdnHyv4f8H2uLz6kOA7a88jTriPutkEFFpy7ZH11luVVu1SVuhaAlwJGDmoQlx1Ax1Ig0pVKFw=w400-h266" width="400" /></a><br /><b>First “Conversation”</b><br />At the cottage, Alma tells her mute companion that she is happy to finally find someone to listen to her own babbling. She begins talking about her current fiancé and also about her first romantic affair that was with an older man and that lasted five years. <br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then she tells a more detailed and sexually explicit story about a time when she was already involved with her fiancé and she went alone to the beach. There she met another woman and the two of them engaged in some nude sunbathing. Two young men then appeared, and Alma’s new woman friend uninhibitedly got them involved in a sex orgy. Alma describes experiencing some intense orgasms, and film critic Roger Ebert commented that this was “the most real experience Alma has ever had” [4]. Later, however, Alma became pregnant and had an abortion, and she still feels guilty about this. All this is told verbally, and there are no flashbacks here, as the mute Elisabet listens attentively.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Nighttime Encounter<br /></b>It is becoming increasingly evident that Alma idolizes her patient, Elisabet, and wants to be like the famous star. In the evening Alma thinks she hears Elisabet whispering to her to go to bed. And then later at night, Alma wakes up to see (or perhaps dreams) Elisabet coming to her and embracing her tenderly. In the morning, though, Allma asks Elisabet about these two incidents, and the woman silently denies that they occurred.<br /><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzygrGsQmp9zHif4-IAIuP7LMmWkH3O930605a92w2hbWzeC8PVVUFWMZrnGPgIx1cluCUNlqQFCxr9EG6_rdtiuerXWH_XxV5r-Rvj7hRikqGslNJZiG_jvw8hELNAPpTN0a7aUWOccBxOEmnKbV-veWI5EennH8DI_IqEF9R8CZryMMMoGCRfTN9EA=s930" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="930" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzygrGsQmp9zHif4-IAIuP7LMmWkH3O930605a92w2hbWzeC8PVVUFWMZrnGPgIx1cluCUNlqQFCxr9EG6_rdtiuerXWH_XxV5r-Rvj7hRikqGslNJZiG_jvw8hELNAPpTN0a7aUWOccBxOEmnKbV-veWI5EennH8DI_IqEF9R8CZryMMMoGCRfTN9EA=w400-h266" width="400" /></a></div><br />The Argument</b><br />One day Alma drives to town to mail some letters they have written, and she notices that Elisabet's letter to her doctor is not sealed, so she proceeds to read it. It is a patronizing letter that is dismissive of Alma and mentions the nurse's personal story about her beach orgy and abortion. Alma, of course, becomes angry and withdraws from her hitherto worshipful feelings about her patient.<br /><br />At this point the film briefly breaks up with some artificial cinema edits like in the opening sequence, thereby reminding the viewers that they are just watching a movie.<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">When Alma returns home, she angrily confronts Elisabet and threatens to scald her with a pot of boiling water. Frightened, Elisabet speaks out for the first and begs Alma not to do it. Then Alma furiously goes on to tell her that she knows the woman is a very bad person. Elisabet runs off, and when Alma, coming to her senses, chases after her and begs her for forgiveness, Elisabet refuses to forgive her.<br /><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhqc970W7s23QK2lm2FPcXJK2UWzmMcaAB_ulp7eQd8L7_Z2NdaxWX3YVL0rBM2yS7PDtAhcZStQXVm-F4ilSQ2wVs5dS9pTcuRaAXoPWH5cJj1r_46KoPB0bVYDf0VgPPtn7jFrBMc6aXMFuscEmz4Aopa_0J1Foi4fZLBRg0jmawIBh1VMczeBY7kA=s926" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="926" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhqc970W7s23QK2lm2FPcXJK2UWzmMcaAB_ulp7eQd8L7_Z2NdaxWX3YVL0rBM2yS7PDtAhcZStQXVm-F4ilSQ2wVs5dS9pTcuRaAXoPWH5cJj1r_46KoPB0bVYDf0VgPPtn7jFrBMc6aXMFuscEmz4Aopa_0J1Foi4fZLBRg0jmawIBh1VMczeBY7kA=w400-h269" width="400" /></a></b><br /><b>Elisabet’s Husband Comes</b><br />One night, Alma hears a man outside calling for Elisabet, and it turns out to be Elisabet's husband (played by Gunnar Björnstrand). The man seems to have bad eyesight, and he mistakes Alma for his wife. Although Alma tells him he is mistaken, she very soon succumbs and assumes Elisabet's identity. Alma and the husband then go on to have sex together while Elisabet, close by, silently watches.<br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Elisabet's Confession</b><br />Earlier, Elisabet had received a letter from her husband that contained a picture of her son, which she had proceeded to tear up. Now Alma meets with Elisabet to talk about why Elisabet tore up the picture. Elisabet proceeds to give her account, and we see her face, but her account is told in Alma’s voice. The voice says that the only thing that Elisabet wanted that she did not have was motherhood, and so she became pregnant. However, she soon regretted her decision and tried to have a self-induced abortion, but she failed in this effort. She wound up giving birth to a boy who she hoped would die and whom she has since always despised. Nevertheless her rejected son has always craved her love. <br /><br />Strangely, this same story is then repeated word-for-word, only now showing Alma’s face telling the exact same story.<br /><br /><b>Ending</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVaSDYL_QMAwZtza0VwuEkXjkCjauSmJJXxutMJBnugcWi_3kvjEKa5qgkcJfT2f4lrAVzkxPnQC7Kr-cxqtbnzCkQ8O8cetjZS0Tpv9e87oJH-u4YevxS0DWJz-Hh_u3kNQvTeGwyllycJ4xHGsToaGAPj1IXw1ymNA9GJtZAK3D0mE2EX9isLsm4fg=s923" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="923" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVaSDYL_QMAwZtza0VwuEkXjkCjauSmJJXxutMJBnugcWi_3kvjEKa5qgkcJfT2f4lrAVzkxPnQC7Kr-cxqtbnzCkQ8O8cetjZS0Tpv9e87oJH-u4YevxS0DWJz-Hh_u3kNQvTeGwyllycJ4xHGsToaGAPj1IXw1ymNA9GJtZAK3D0mE2EX9isLsm4fg=w400-h270" width="400" /></a></div>The film ends with Alma in a distressed state. She adamantly asserts to Elisabet that she has her own identity that is very distinct from that of Elisabet. She later finally manages to get Elisabet to say something – the word "nothing". Then Alma packs up her things and gets on a bus to leave the cottage, which is accompanied by a shot showing a modern film crew filming her. <br /><br />So what can be said about the overall meaning of this odd, disjointed work? As one watches it, it is possible to make out some key themes that resonate throughout:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Personal <b>authenticity</b> (and inauthenticity). What is the true essence of a person and how is it revealed? </li><li><b>Images of the face</b> and the degree to which they can reveal or mask one’s true personhood. </li><li><b>Touching with hands</b> and the degree to which that can confirm the reality of what one sees.</li><li>The <b>inadequacy of language </b>for revealing the essential nature of experience.</li><li>The never-ending quest for <b>the true meaning of life</b>.<br /></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhANQ3H5O0b7ouBqwXS7kQJqBIV6LK1F1BRkgJj1h5IlfCM5FDRhscPlLOQ6Suzq-jMFNu63Wmv7nd8jmQ9E1347GfmKfU0-bWetm85uKsPymJ8aYKn-kTZvdFiR45GaQkOcxf_UpgDX36iBXL-NfrZHyk_JPk84kJMK3qWfugYvXdj2INCDQz94QrgzA=s928" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="928" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhANQ3H5O0b7ouBqwXS7kQJqBIV6LK1F1BRkgJj1h5IlfCM5FDRhscPlLOQ6Suzq-jMFNu63Wmv7nd8jmQ9E1347GfmKfU0-bWetm85uKsPymJ8aYKn-kTZvdFiR45GaQkOcxf_UpgDX36iBXL-NfrZHyk_JPk84kJMK3qWfugYvXdj2INCDQz94QrgzA=w400-h270" width="400" /></a></div>These various themes and metaphors in the film have elicited a range of commentary over the years, but the most interesting thoughts I have come across have been those of Susan Sontag, who wrote an insightful essay on <i>Persona</i> in 1967, soon after the film was released [5]. For example, on the issue of plot and how one might best construct a coherent narrative with what is shown in the film, Sontag doesn’t believe that Bergman ever had any intention offering a real plot [5]:<br /><blockquote>“Once it is conceived that the desire to ‘know’ may be (in part) systematically thwarted, the old expectations about plotting can no longer hold. At first, it may seem that a plot in the old sense is still there; only it’s being related at an oblique, uncomfortable angle, where vision is obscured. Eventually though it needs to be seen that the plot isn’t there at all in the old sense, and therefore that the point isn’t to tantalise but to involve the audience more directly in other matters, for instance in the very processes of ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’.”</blockquote>And on the interesting topic of what is Alma’s authentic self and to what degree does she move to find herself, Sontag has an interesting take. She asserts that Alma and Elisabet can be considered to be two sides of one person [5]:<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>“It’s correct to speak of the film in terms of the fortunes of two characters named Elizabeth and Alma who are engaged in a desperate duel of identities. But it is no less true, or relevant, to treat <i>Persona </i>as what might be misleadingly called an allegory: as relating the duel between two mythical parts of a single ‘person’, the corrupted person who acts (Elizabeth) and the ingenuous soul (Alma) who founders in contact with corruption.”</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-_58WzkuRc_NRGBbeyArlXbcv3gmbXS3MLCX0VllP7L3CLU1vCeK4NoR1tx3B76FB33JgPLfj_suXkbxxpVuHoQrNCDbLX1dimAgW4ptCg_UyUp-jXu9Kz4Q1bXkECpsMlR7WsBmFC6aUmIMS4jYJMXk1QhhbI-ChZO21aiGMl4oaXP_VJI2SM-_H1A=s917" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="917" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-_58WzkuRc_NRGBbeyArlXbcv3gmbXS3MLCX0VllP7L3CLU1vCeK4NoR1tx3B76FB33JgPLfj_suXkbxxpVuHoQrNCDbLX1dimAgW4ptCg_UyUp-jXu9Kz4Q1bXkECpsMlR7WsBmFC6aUmIMS4jYJMXk1QhhbI-ChZO21aiGMl4oaXP_VJI2SM-_H1A=w400-h270" width="400" /></a></div>(Indeed, at one point Bergman shows a special image of a single face that consists of half of Elisabet’s face on one side and half of Alma’s face on the other side.)<br /><br />Sontag’s comment here is, to me, the most compelling interpretive observation on the film, and it fits well with several other expressionistic sequences of the film, too, such as (a) the nighttime encounter between Elisabet and Alma, (b) Elisabet’s husband mistakenly taking Alma for his wife, and (c) the exact repetition of Elisabet’s confession, showing first Elisabet’s face and then Alma’s face, but each time spoken in Alma’s voice.<br /><br />So <i>Persona</i> is a challenging and perplexing film, but it also has a fascinating focus, and I believe it is worthy of your interest. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span> <br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Andrew Sarris, <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kgNOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KYwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3179%2C1400889"><b>“films”</b></a>, <i>The Village Voice</i>, (23 March 1967). <br /></li><li>Jonathan Rosenbaum, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/opinion/04jrosenbaum.html"><b>“Scenes From an Overrated Career”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (4 August 2007). <br /></li><li>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/persona-1967"><b>“Persona”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (7 November 1967). <br /></li><li>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-persona-1966"><b>“Persona”</b></a>, Great Movie, “RogerEbert.com”, (7 January 2001). <br /></li><li>Susan Sontag, <a href=" https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/persona-review-susan-sontag/"><b>“Persona – Review by Susan Sontag”</b></a>, <i>Sight and Sound</i>, (Autumn 1967). <br /></li><li>Thomas Elsaesser, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3116-the-persistence-of-persona"><b>“The Persistence of Persona”</b></a>, <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, (17 March 2016). <br /></li><li>Chuck Bowen, <a href="https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/persona/"><b>“Blu-ray Review: Ingmar Bergman’s Persona on the Criterion Collection”</b></a>, <i>Slant Magazine</i>, (21 March 2014). <br /></li><li>Peter Bradshaw, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/29/persona-review-ingmar-bergman-rerelease"><b>“Persona review – Ingmar Bergman's enigmatic masterpiece still captivates”</b></a>, <i>The Guardian</i>, (29 December 2017). <br /></li><li>Acquarello, <a href="https://filmref.com/2017/12/25/persona-1966/"><b>“Persona, 1966"</b></a>, <i>Strictly Film School</i>, (25 December 2017). <br /></li><li><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics"><b>“Critics’ Top 100"</b></a>, Analysis: The Greatest Films of All Time 2012, <i>Sight and Sound</i>, British Film Institute, (2012). </li><li><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/directors"><b>“Directors’ Top 100"</b></a>, Analysis: The Greatest Films of All Time 2012, <i>Sight and Sound</i>, British Film Institute, (2012). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-85592992006575232222021-11-14T16:18:00.001+13:002021-11-15T15:57:28.231+13:00“Cries and Whispers” - Ingmar Bergman (1972)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2013/08/ingmar-bergman.html"><b>Ingmar Bergman’s</b></a> <i>Cries and Whispers</i> (<i>Viskningar och rop</i>, 1972) is a unique film in several respects and is unlike other films in Bergman’s oeuvre. For one thing, the film doesn’t trace <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JM0S8_gbn7CdqJKdVMm4TlsChmn4Tn7dTI6i6-i_nMlhk5d952oR8en45QjiV2k1nQezXbnIL6dv_xL8d8_8_ms3jVUXKaY5KnfjH_Mnfo4Dk5B1svor5GnLViboaam-mILiFoZM_KT6/s811/Cries+and+Whispers+12.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="811" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JM0S8_gbn7CdqJKdVMm4TlsChmn4Tn7dTI6i6-i_nMlhk5d952oR8en45QjiV2k1nQezXbnIL6dv_xL8d8_8_ms3jVUXKaY5KnfjH_Mnfo4Dk5B1svor5GnLViboaam-mILiFoZM_KT6/w400-h239/Cries+and+Whispers+12.jpg" width="400" /></a></i>out a straightforward, coherent narrative like most filmed dramas. Instead, it consists of a collection of emotion-tempered recollections and visions on the parts of its four main characters. On account of this, the film has drawn a range of reactions from various reviewers. Famed film critic Andrew Sarris hated the film [1]. On the other hand, Roger Ebert was captivated by the film and had this to say about it [2]:<br /><blockquote>"’Cries and Whispers’ is like no movie I've seen before, and like no movie Ingmar Bergman has made before, although we are all likely to see many films in our lives, there will be few like this one. It is hypnotic, disturbing, frightening.”</blockquote>And overall, the film has come to be regarded as a classic [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Moreover, the artistic craftsmanship employed in the making of this offering was recognized by the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by earning five Oscar nominations, including one for “Best Picture” (not just a nomination for “Best International Feature Film”, i.e. Best Foreign Film). <br /><br />For my part, as I watched <i>Cries and Whispers</i>, I was initially somewhat skeptical and thought that some of the characters were perhaps too schematically drawn to fuel a gripping drama. But as the film played on, I became increasingly drawn in to the psychological themes on display. As critic Emma Wilson remarked [8],<br /></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">“Its [<i>Cries and Whispers’s</i>] achievement, making it emerge from Bergman’s extraordinary corpus as unique, is in its incandescent touching of love and horror in their fullest extremes.”</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJ2_uJmGZODqFO2hYwGWuz2HDtpwYO4hsp318Ccvcgs9BUaL4cGbg40YCX1q5DLCiO2mqecP7eBdSv8raXdswnDR0OqfA3hTfszVQaQpcbhNt2ar1jxGStmoCn54rN0v3nLK1mvH3-Mg7/s1078/Cries+and+Whispers+2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="1078" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJ2_uJmGZODqFO2hYwGWuz2HDtpwYO4hsp318Ccvcgs9BUaL4cGbg40YCX1q5DLCiO2mqecP7eBdSv8raXdswnDR0OqfA3hTfszVQaQpcbhNt2ar1jxGStmoCn54rN0v3nLK1mvH3-Mg7/w400-h223/Cries+and+Whispers+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Indeed, there are a number of passionate human existential themes interwoven into this tale:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Honesty and authenticity</li><li>Communication</li><li>Human intimacy </li><li>Pain</li><li>Death</li><li>Love <br /></li></ul>But before we look at the coverage of these themes in the film, we need to clear up a matter concerning the English title of the film. “Cries and Whispers” is an English translation of the Swedish title, “Viskningar och rop”, but the English rendering likely suggests the feelings of whimpering sadness. However, as Norman Holland has pointed out, the English word ‘cries’ has two meanings – (a) “crying out”, i.e. shouting, and (b) tearful sadness, whereas the Swedish word ‘rop’ connotes only shouting [4]. So a more precise, though less poetic, translation of “Viskningar och rop” would be “Whispers and Shouts”. This suggests that a key aspect of this film is concerned not so much with sadness, but with contrasting types of spoken communication, which is one of the above-listed themes of the film. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihsaBA0XikDk-3aPavUIXc6cwfRO_1bvEBf54qr-7auImfzZ8U9TvcEftWFn4h0gSYR8sQsFsQ3sMWxVTC92xNS3wNpheVv4H452MHYuQA9acI4DjazxXgivaMK75-kam0V2IkHFM2uI2i/s806/Cries+and+Whispers+16.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="806" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihsaBA0XikDk-3aPavUIXc6cwfRO_1bvEBf54qr-7auImfzZ8U9TvcEftWFn4h0gSYR8sQsFsQ3sMWxVTC92xNS3wNpheVv4H452MHYuQA9acI4DjazxXgivaMK75-kam0V2IkHFM2uI2i/w400-h234/Cries+and+Whispers+16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The events in the film take place in a large manor house in the Swedish countryside near the end of the 19th century, and they concern the thoughts and feelings of the four adult women who are staying there. (There are men in this film, but they are mostly mechanical ciphers with little feeling.) Three of these women are sisters – Agnes (played by Harriet Andersson), her older sister Karin (Ingrid Thulin), and Agnes’s younger sister Maria (Liv Ullmann) – and the fourth woman is the housemaid, Anna (Kari Sylwan), who has served at the home for twelve years. Karin and Maria have come to the mansion to attend to their terminally ill sister, Agnes, who is suffering in the final stages of intestinal cancer. The film opens showing Agnes in bed and suffering extreme pain, the intensity of which is underlined by a two-minute extreme closeup shot showing Agnes’s agonized face. In the adjoining room the other three women are shown expressing their concern. <br /><br />Then the film begins its sequence of subjective recollections and visions, some of which seem to be fantasies. These are all encapsulated by fade-ins and fade-outs from and to a deep red color, rather than black, and they feature a closeup of the woman having the vision before fully fading to a deep red hue. Indeed color is a key feature of this film, particularly red, which Bergman once said represented for him the “interior of the soul” [5]. And of course black and white have also always been key shades for Bergman. Norman Holland has symbolized these three colors for Bergman as “red for the fruitful, sensuous mother; white for the virgin; black for the death-goddess” [4]. Here in this film we can further identify these colors with the four women: Maria (red), Karin (black), Anna (white), and Agnes (white). <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0XCMOEwjzHyN62nJz-vo62Q0yz-1LbVuiX92y80hkUIJ7suwRmcbcUNdrOcQPBm4tofiXqPN5wyB-51SsHIYPezFGFgdti67BZ_4CkNOAztM0-OL5i8YT39zKhu8jhUQHD20YV25zfFOv/s799/Cries+and+Whispers+8.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="799" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0XCMOEwjzHyN62nJz-vo62Q0yz-1LbVuiX92y80hkUIJ7suwRmcbcUNdrOcQPBm4tofiXqPN5wyB-51SsHIYPezFGFgdti67BZ_4CkNOAztM0-OL5i8YT39zKhu8jhUQHD20YV25zfFOv/w400-h230/Cries+and+Whispers+8.jpg" width="400" /></a>The sequence of subjective recollections and visions provide little narratives concerning how the four women see themselves and the others. After all, this is only natural – we tend to characterize ourselves and other people in our acquaintance not as lists of facts, but in terms of brief narratives that we have constructed for the purpose [10,11,12]. <br /><br />To reveal Maria’s nature, there is a revelatory recollection of an occasion when Agnes’s doctor, David (Erland Josephson), pays a brief clinical visit to the mansion and before departing is privately approached by Maria. We learn that Maria and David had had a past extramarital affair (which had induced her neglected husband Joakim (Henning Moritzen) to attempt suicide) and that now Maria wants to rekindle things. But David doesn’t want to restart anything with the woman, and he holds her in front of a mirror so she can see his description of how her many years of selfish, good-natured superficiality has affected her face. Maria, looking at her image in the mirror, seems to accept David’s painful diagnosis. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQ0gy0ELZbsJxnrXggkeHuk1meEmMz-rLpv-jPtN9U_ndOR-UELRv4m3A0yh-6VEQliGyy1FNZq7Ur2-2WJQmV5JDds2DoaeCpap_ByefrJi0uMdf1m7VmxUJ4lwkc7ASuNZXg_lwiSep/s802/Cries+and+Whispers+18.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="802" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQ0gy0ELZbsJxnrXggkeHuk1meEmMz-rLpv-jPtN9U_ndOR-UELRv4m3A0yh-6VEQliGyy1FNZq7Ur2-2WJQmV5JDds2DoaeCpap_ByefrJi0uMdf1m7VmxUJ4lwkc7ASuNZXg_lwiSep/w400-h239/Cries+and+Whispers+18.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>On another occasion, though, Maria is shown approaching her sister Karin and seeking to restore their once affectionate relationship when they were growing up. Maria wants to again touch and kiss her sister, but Karin is standoffish and reluctant to do that. However, Karin eventually succumbs to Maria’s approaches, and they embrace affectionately. On a later occasion, though, Karin wants to resume the affectionate gestures with her sister, but Maria is shocked and has forgotten all about the earlier encounter. This reveals that, essentially, Maria is a mostly genial, outward-going, touchy-feely person, but she lives mostly in the present and generally doesn’t retain long-held feelings.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Karin, on the other hand, is a lonely and thoughtful, inner-directed person who harbors long-held resentments. There is a recollective vision which shows her having dinner with her husband, Fredrik (Georg Årlin), who is cold and self-centered. Afterwards, she takes a piece of broken glass and uses it to painfully mutilate her genitalia so that she can deny her husband from having sex with her.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1_ERacJEpsXROys3pSmsF04REuM8p40az6BkaTno8wtk4Y4hGywaccZD3PHelz-gTSSIO6T3Rj4rPsJKSRFQsQhQl97Cp_qDKh_1VwaO0oJ5_vjGtcSKoAgtNXtAyrf8Tn7jfu2jxYv8/s802/Cries+and+Whispers+21.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="802" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-1_ERacJEpsXROys3pSmsF04REuM8p40az6BkaTno8wtk4Y4hGywaccZD3PHelz-gTSSIO6T3Rj4rPsJKSRFQsQhQl97Cp_qDKh_1VwaO0oJ5_vjGtcSKoAgtNXtAyrf8Tn7jfu2jxYv8/w400-h243/Cries+and+Whispers+21.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Anna, the maid, is a simple person but full of warmth and compassion. She is religious and prays to God regularly, and she doesn’t question what she considers God’s unfathomable wisdom for having years ago taken the life of her young daughter. After Agnes’s death, Anna recalls or imagines a period when Agnes briefly came back to life and called out for solace from her deathbed. Karin and Maria were disturbed at the sight of such an apparition and withdrew in horror, but Anna went to Agnes and instinctively enfolded her in her bosom the way a mother would do to comfort her suffering child.<br /><br />We don’t get much about Agnes’s inner personal vision until the end of the film. Maria’s and Karin’s husbands come to the manor home to shut things down, and they cold-heartedly dismiss Anna without any severance. So Anna must clear out her things, and in the process of tidying things up, she comes across Agnes’s diary. Anna reads an entry in the diary, which is dramatically visualized, in which Agnes describes an earlier time when she was feeling better, and an occasion when she, Karin, Maria, and Anna frolicked together in a park. In particular, Agnes highlighted a shared moment of oneness when they engaged in swinging on a swing. This was such a special moment for Agnes, and she said [4], <br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>“The people I am most fond of in all the world were with me. I could hear their chatting around me. I could feel the presence of their bodies, the warmth of their hands. I wanted to hold the moment fast and thought, </blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>‘Come what may, this is happiness. I cannot wish for anything better. Now, for a few minutes, I can experience perfection. And I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much.’”</blockquote></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLR1WCwoTEk5U8DCvbR_d3eu8I_ycVGwJ_RyvQutGFnJscLPv4ZU7vswGIsRBGvengNlp-vroO_mHgEyJF-KzvhfKxfS_18rBIWoZ0PEKVv5Yt6q18-0RIRQhT3sgKs2kgeC226axjKJBc/s803/Cries+and+Whispers+24.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="803" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLR1WCwoTEk5U8DCvbR_d3eu8I_ycVGwJ_RyvQutGFnJscLPv4ZU7vswGIsRBGvengNlp-vroO_mHgEyJF-KzvhfKxfS_18rBIWoZ0PEKVv5Yt6q18-0RIRQhT3sgKs2kgeC226axjKJBc/w400-h238/Cries+and+Whispers+24.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>So the film ends giving one the feeling that though her life was painful and tragically shortened, Agnes was perhaps the one who lived life most authentically and thereby to the fullest. She had the ability to recognize and hold onto all the beautiful moments she experienced in life. This is the scene that brings things together and makes the film a coherent whole. But this is only one of the film’s moving expressions of engagement (or would-be engagement).<br /><br />In fact there are several scenes in <i>Cries and Whispers</i> that critics have singled out as being uniquely brilliant, even for Ingmar Bergman. Emma Wilson, writing for <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, treasured two other scenes – one of Anna enfolding Agnes in her bosom and another of Agnes returning to life, to the horror of her sisters [8]:<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>“These two scenes are unequaled in any film, I think, in their finding of a form, an image, to hold unspeakable emotions.“</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuk4jEBjRchOzE-kuBggeROuARK33chwH1h_-JlV5C-S7wrbVAGuWc-buXES4IVpGHLYZ0L2tAHlwTFG-y_SPSlrqTRkJLKEgljgBorSd2E68TT2qXXuAl05tA6cQosFcYZgoXfo7VIzmi/s810/Cries+and+Whispers+25.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="810" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuk4jEBjRchOzE-kuBggeROuARK33chwH1h_-JlV5C-S7wrbVAGuWc-buXES4IVpGHLYZ0L2tAHlwTFG-y_SPSlrqTRkJLKEgljgBorSd2E68TT2qXXuAl05tA6cQosFcYZgoXfo7VIzmi/w400-h229/Cries+and+Whispers+25.jpg" width="400" /></a>Roger Ebert had his own take on favorite scenes [2]:<br /><blockquote>"These two scenes – of Anna, embracing Agnes, and of Karin and Maria touching like frightened kittens – are two of the greatest Bergman has ever created.”</blockquote>When you see the film, you may have your own favorites. Together, all these moments of visionary emotive expression in <i>Cries and Whispers</i> add up to a moving cinematic experience.<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Andrew Sarris, <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MtpHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CIwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6470%2C6315233"><b>“films in focus”</b></a>, <i>The Village Voice</i>, (28 December 1972). <br /></li><li>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cries-and-whispers-1973"><b>“Cries and Whispers”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (12 February 1973). <br /></li><li>Vincent Canby, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/22/archives/bergmans-new-cries-and-whispers.html"><b>“Bergman's New ‘Cries and Whispers’”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (22 December 1972). <br /></li><li>Norman N. Holland, <a href="https://asharperfocus.com/Cries.html"><b>“Ingmar Bergman, <i>Cries and Whispers, Viskningar och rop</i>, 1984.”</b></a>, <i>A Sharper Focus</i>, (1984). <br /></li><li>Peter Cowie, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/108-cries-and-whispers"><b>“Cries and Whispers”</b></a>, <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, (18 June 2001). <br /></li><li>Roger Ebert, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-cries-and-whispers-1972"><b>“Cries and Whispers”</b></a>, Great Movies, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (18 August 2002). <br /></li><li>Marco Lanzagorta, <a href="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/cteq/cries_and_whispers/"><b>“Cries and Whispers”</b></a>, <i>Senses of Cinema</i>. (March 2003). <br /></li><li>Emma Wilson, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3511-cries-and-whispers-love-and-death"><b>“Cries and Whispers: Love and Death”</b></a>, <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, (1 April 2015).<br /></li><li>Margarita Landazuri, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/71768/cries-and-whispers#articles-reviews?articleId=1180032"><b>"Cries and Whispers”</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (23 February 2016). <br /></li><li>Roger Schank and Gary Saul Morrison, <i>Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence (Rethinking Theory)</i>, Northwestern, (1990). </li><li>Jerome Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality”, in <i>Narrative Intelligence</i> (2003), Michael Mateas and Phoebe Sengers (eds.), John Benjamin Publishing Co.</li><li>Paul Ricoeur, <i>Time and Narrative</i>, vols. I- III, (1983-1985), University of Chicago Press.</li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-37957992235723066672021-10-24T15:27:00.003+13:002021-12-21T18:25:41.726+13:00“Autumn Sonata” - Ingmar Bergman (1978)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">One of <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2013/08/ingmar-bergman.html"><b>Ingmar Bergman’s</b></a> last movies made expressly for the cinema, <i>Autumn Sonata</i> (<i>Höstsonaten</i>, 1978), was something of a masterpiece in both style and content. Consisting of mostly an <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGitzWCsNrkEomyqJ_kPgMy7RGZ-7hJ4C7dKZFM_sz59DBRcS_WlT111waJfN6WyeNhG0PihigKPCFfmFYwJy4sIDX5r4vkuyFXhcCAsPDklGxYyIGwALNMMbcghuAI-E4ID6JTYu2hYJ/s1799/Autumn+Sonata+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1799" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGitzWCsNrkEomyqJ_kPgMy7RGZ-7hJ4C7dKZFM_sz59DBRcS_WlT111waJfN6WyeNhG0PihigKPCFfmFYwJy4sIDX5r4vkuyFXhcCAsPDklGxYyIGwALNMMbcghuAI-E4ID6JTYu2hYJ/w400-h240/Autumn+Sonata+4.jpg" width="400" /></a>extended, bitter colloquy between an elderly mother and her married daughter, one wouldn’t expect material of this nature would be suitable for a fascinating film. But writer-director Ingmar Bergman, with the help of his two leading actresses, Liv Ullmann and Ingrid Bergman, fashioned a gripping psychological drama that keeps the viewer interested all the way, and <i>Autumn Sonata</i> has been highly regarded by a number of critics over the years [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. This was Ingrid Bergman’s last film appearance (and the only collaboration between the two famous Swedish Bergmans), but she gives here one of her most moving performances to cap off her career.<br /><br />At the time when this film was made (1977), Ingmar Bergman was going through an anguishing period, because he had been charged and arrested by the Swedish authorities for tax-evasion in 1976. Although the charges were soon dropped later that year, the now-depressed Bergman went into self-exile for the next four years and thereby cut off his ties with the Swedish filmmaking industry during that period. Nevertheless, he continued to make films during this time, and <i>Autumn Sonata</i> was shot in Norway and produced in West Germany. And with this film Bergman also continued with his relatively later-in-his-career focus on the complex moods and interactions of female psyches. Many of these films featured Liv Ullmann (in addition to <i>Autumn Sonata</i>, these include <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/12/persona-ingmar-bergman-1966.html"><b><i>Persona</i></b></a> (1966), <i>Shame</i> (<i>Skammen</i>, 1968), <i>The Passion of Anna</i> (<i>En Passion</i>, 1969), <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/11/cries-and-whispers-ingmar-bergman-1972.html"><b><i>Cries and Whispers</i></b></a> (1972), and <i>Scenes from a Marriage</i> (<i>Scener ur ett Aktenskap</i>, 1973)), who was also a sometime romantic partner of Bergman’s.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqUW7anH-rqX4n1K9rS9Hukc8KixDVJkILA9qFMnX3EabV4qjqmW9rT7iIBRNZ8GxASQlOvO6WR3ryJFzKpctYESfwJiOzJ2PTLxsE9WgFWOiyxOmBNOC6K77KSY7dj_8S79gm1SYrf_J/s650/Autumn+Sonata+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="650" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzqUW7anH-rqX4n1K9rS9Hukc8KixDVJkILA9qFMnX3EabV4qjqmW9rT7iIBRNZ8GxASQlOvO6WR3ryJFzKpctYESfwJiOzJ2PTLxsE9WgFWOiyxOmBNOC6K77KSY7dj_8S79gm1SYrf_J/w400-h225/Autumn+Sonata+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The story of <i>Autumn Sonata</i> concerns the wife of a country parson, Eva (played by Liv Ullmann), who invites her semi-estranged mother Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) to come to her rural home for an extended visit. Charlotte, who is a famous concert pianist, is grieving over the recent death of her romantic partner of eighteen years, and although the mother and daughter have not seen each other for seven years, Eva now wants to extend a loving hand of support to her long-unseen mother. <br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The film actually begins with Eva’s husband, parson Viktor (Halvar Björk), directly looking into the camera and describing his wife, who can be seen in the background but is out of earshot. But although the film starts with Viktor, he turns out to be a minor character – a kindly and basically passive observer to what will really be a story about Eva and Charlotte and their contrasting personalities. Although Eva is successful and has written two books, we will soon see that she is a modest, self-effacing person who is bent on helping and nurturing the people around her. Charlotte, in contrast, is a vivacious, self-confident performer, and she is used to projecting what is on her mind to the people around her. As we soon learn, the reason why Eva hasn’t seen her mother for seven years is that Charlotte has been just too occupied with her own affairs to attend to the affairs of others.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAof2-jGn1Xhq9VKPp5Z3Rp4o-KPJYNDUI4l0pAn_MPv8yCx3X8Gln9VFQHsY4CI9XPq3CxnZkT8pY_K-vnQIJW0eXEyGV39BxS7VF0-z3gTyeLPL7Gt25PRrFXbHspE-i3joFMuWXDUo/s889/Autumn+Sonata+2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="889" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAof2-jGn1Xhq9VKPp5Z3Rp4o-KPJYNDUI4l0pAn_MPv8yCx3X8Gln9VFQHsY4CI9XPq3CxnZkT8pY_K-vnQIJW0eXEyGV39BxS7VF0-z3gTyeLPL7Gt25PRrFXbHspE-i3joFMuWXDUo/w400-h231/Autumn+Sonata+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>When Charlotte arrives at Eva’s country home, she is joyfully greeted by her gracious daughter, who is thrilled to hear that her mother intends to stay there indefinitely. But when mother and daughter sit down and start talking, troubles arise. The first issue is that Eva reveals that she has taken her severely-handicapped younger sister, Helena (Lena Nyman), out of a medical care home and brought her into her own home to look after her. Helena is suffering from an incurable, degenerative neurological condition that has left her mostly paralyzed and unable to speak intelligibly. Years earlier, when Charlotte had been confronted with her daughter Helena’s deteriorating condition, she had ultimately chosen to have the girl institutionalized and had thereafter never even bothered to go visit Helena there – evidently out of sight, out of mind! So Charlotte is severely uncomfortable about seeing and facing up to Helena now. But Charlotte now decides to buckle up, and she goes into Helena’s room, where she graciously greets her crippled daughter and puts on a show of motherly affection. Although she cannot talk intelligibly, it is clear that Helena is ecstatic to see her long-absent mother.<br /><br />A bit later while Charlotte and Eva are talking, Charlotte urges the reluctant Eva to play a piano piece that her daughter has been working on, Chopin’s “Prelude No. 2 in A Minor”. Although Eva is competent at the piano, she is by no means a concert-level pianist like her mother. As she listens<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiw0Rgx0fqNfnm_FlXR9ChG3liyEufAyi4fXhqiVpS4nRLYS3Va42nsPnnhuIQZkGGKGEdNf3U_2J5P8X2vBhYbq2lReEfTrhpIc7_TUzLk_gqnPKLTjyMKo8sZIxPYBC0yxeYVrGCSDuh/s641/Autumn+Sonata+6.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="641" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiw0Rgx0fqNfnm_FlXR9ChG3liyEufAyi4fXhqiVpS4nRLYS3Va42nsPnnhuIQZkGGKGEdNf3U_2J5P8X2vBhYbq2lReEfTrhpIc7_TUzLk_gqnPKLTjyMKo8sZIxPYBC0yxeYVrGCSDuh/w400-h240/Autumn+Sonata+6.jpg" width="400" /></a> to her daughter play, Charlotte can be seen wincing at some of the passages – she doesn’t agree with Eva’s interpretation of the piece. Then Charlotte sits down at the keyboard and plays the same piece the way she thinks it should be played. Although Eva doesn’t say much, we can see that she is traumatized by the way her proud mother has dismissed her efforts. Clearly a caring mother should have shown some appreciation for her daughter’s humble attempt to play a piece for her.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Still later, Eva talks to Charlotte about her son Erik, who died just before his fourth birthday and for whom she still grieves. At that time, Charlotte had been too busy to come and attend her grandson’s funeral.<br /><br />That night Charlotte has a nightmare of Helena coming to her bed and choking her, and she cries out in the night. Eva comes to Charlotte’s room to comfort her, and they begin a long, ultimately heated conversation that is the core narrative sequence in the film and takes up about 36 minutes of the film’s running time. The theme of the ensuing colloquy becomes Eva’s complaints about Charlotte’s failure as a mother. The viewer has already seen that Charlotte is cordial and self-confident, but she is also self-centered, and Eva feels that selfishness more or less defines her mother and accounts for all of her unforgivable failures. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpfu51HR_wI9FV48U7aNl_H86Cg3d7S9_BwwmffCBGLCT5kjHviVMHr0vX8kkgYr8OwVd-ckXrryap4oytzieBK6X76UIT4FGy_QGs9cUkAdG4oU59J074Ocf2kq9L1LdZjqI7YeEQvfN/s832/Autumn+Sonata+11.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="832" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpfu51HR_wI9FV48U7aNl_H86Cg3d7S9_BwwmffCBGLCT5kjHviVMHr0vX8kkgYr8OwVd-ckXrryap4oytzieBK6X76UIT4FGy_QGs9cUkAdG4oU59J074Ocf2kq9L1LdZjqI7YeEQvfN/w400-h241/Autumn+Sonata+11.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Gradually Eva’s commentary turns into a long diatribe against her mother. She complains that her mother was always away from home on concert tours or attending to endless practice and rehearsals. The few periods that Charlotte did spend at home, she was, according to Eva, domineering and insensitive to her daughter’s needs. For example, there was the time when Eva was 18 and pregnant, and her mother forced her to have an abortion. Eva says she was a sensitive, introverted person and that her always imperious, super-confident mother continually made her feel inferior, which suppressed her development growing up. <br /><br />Throughout this invective, Liv Ullmann performs movingly and realistically, and Ingmar Bergman, along with his long-time cinematographer Sven Nykvist, maintain the emotive tension with a back-and-forth sequence of adroit closeups showing Ullmann speaking and Ingrid Bergman in horrified reaction. In this story, Charlotte, who is always used to projecting herself, has to shut up and listen.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Charlotte, sympathetically now, starts talking about her own anguished childhood, which she thinks contributed to her shortcomings as a mother. But Eva won’t letup and now begins talking about Charlotte’s neglect of Helena when she was a child. In fact Eva claims that Charlotte’s neglect of Helena when she was an infant was a cause of Helena’s neurological condition. During this part of the conversation, there are intercut shots of Helena rolling out of her bed upstairs and struggling to crawl out on the landing. She cries out – shockingly, because her words are for the first time intelligible – “Mama, come!”. Clearly her mother’s presence in the house has a powerful effect on Helena.<br /><br />At the end of the long indictment, Charlotte, now full of remorse, tearfully begs Eva for forgiveness. But it remains unclear whether her resentful daughter is willing to do that.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3vqlDCXANsCV62LjEeQkR4G3wik5cE65byGks84mbhzTUmG5vDxw0Vxl7EjxJ6cifYs5FnbSYhIB8BXxpTXuyaBjuiFf-WNc1lrgZ4Fj4u6W6PpMLmNJ7FKaLPIcmhMfF2MQPKyK2RRe/s769/Autumn+Sonata+16.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="769" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3vqlDCXANsCV62LjEeQkR4G3wik5cE65byGks84mbhzTUmG5vDxw0Vxl7EjxJ6cifYs5FnbSYhIB8BXxpTXuyaBjuiFf-WNc1lrgZ4Fj4u6W6PpMLmNJ7FKaLPIcmhMfF2MQPKyK2RRe/w400-h246/Autumn+Sonata+16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The next day shows Charlotte on a train out of town with her agent Paul (Gunnar Björnstrand). She has apparently made good on her vow to donate the expensive car in which she had arrived to her daughter, and she appears to be back to her old self. She tells Paul about Helena and wonders out loud why couldn’t Helena just die? So we have to wonder how much Charlotte’s encounter with Eva really changed her.<br /><br />Meanwhile Eva is shown walking in the cemetery around her son Erik’s grave and brooding about suicide. At the same time Helena is shown to be hysterically upset at the news that her mother has departed.<br /><br />Later, in the closing shots, Eva composes a letter to Charlotte apologizing for what she had said the previous night and expressing her hope that the two of them can get together and have a renewed relationship. It is by no means clear that this is likely to happen, though.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ingmar Bergman shot <i>Autumn Sonata</i> in just 15 days, but still managed to produce an extremely polished work. So it is surprising to read that there were clashes between Ingrid Bergman and Ingmar Bergman during the film concerning the interpretation of the Charlotte character [3,5]. It seems that Ingrid favored a softer, more sympathetic interpretation, while Ingmar wanted a more hard-boiled version. I’m not sure how it played out on the set, but I would say that Ingrid Bergman’s sensitive portrayal of this character was a key to the film’s success, and anything she may have done to soften and deepen the role was a probably a valuable contribution.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pKkt6LCZY_EspVWmoaxlile29_S_URhnAf9zlTSfsGCvfJs_CIeE8u9nFjROIu60AY7TUXUTudKb9PNEVJ4dABqILFwgG_JbXsAdouyTqHE1RU_sPxLIqL-b1rdYKxA1zU6ZGMKkGhuO/s820/Autumn+Sonata+10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="820" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pKkt6LCZY_EspVWmoaxlile29_S_URhnAf9zlTSfsGCvfJs_CIeE8u9nFjROIu60AY7TUXUTudKb9PNEVJ4dABqILFwgG_JbXsAdouyTqHE1RU_sPxLIqL-b1rdYKxA1zU6ZGMKkGhuO/w400-h235/Autumn+Sonata+10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In fact what is fascinating about <i>Autumn Sonata</i> is that we have an encounter between two complex characters, the types of which we all have some familiarity with. Charlotte is absorbed with her own concerns, but she has confidence and is used to projecting her cordial self in social encounters. She is upbeat, but she is selfish. Eva, in contrast, is more contemplative and internalized – she wants to know herself. While Charlotte is unlikely to examine herself, Eva is eternally mystified by herself. <br /><br />Compared to her mother, indeed compared to most everyone, Eva is very self-effacing and continually devoted to helping and nurturing others. This is all part of her trying to be who she wants to be. She doesn’t really <i>love</i> anybody, not even her husband Viktor. But she wants to care for him and for so many others, like her crippled sister, Helena. Thus Eva’s sympathetic efforts have made her the only one who can make sense of Helena’s unintelligible grunts and jabbers.<br /><br />But Eva is not completely benign. She is full of resentment for her mother, and she can’t resist spewing out her long pent-up anger towards the woman during her night-long vituperative condemnation of her mother’s parental sins. You have to wonder what good can come now from bombarding a sixtyish woman with such angry accusations concerning the woman’s selfishness and motherly neglect. It seems she wants to make her mother suffer the way she suffered. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So no one is completely innocent here, and Ingmar managed to fashion an emotive psychodrama concerning these characters by showing their intense interactions, mostly in closeup. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMm0VZYWG-ENkSp-ucEyWVSbMJFgSpc_LOqfMtFUrzU-8yOutMKhUoQ96OCAeakNCAIY7A_r3WmfRJA-DbuMxn-1e1ej7MMt76v7VR88VLTTiJ7cxGEWY4DFkQd36-r4tQxRxYdZBrHaP/s842/Autumn+Sonata+13.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="842" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsMm0VZYWG-ENkSp-ucEyWVSbMJFgSpc_LOqfMtFUrzU-8yOutMKhUoQ96OCAeakNCAIY7A_r3WmfRJA-DbuMxn-1e1ej7MMt76v7VR88VLTTiJ7cxGEWY4DFkQd36-r4tQxRxYdZBrHaP/w400-h233/Autumn+Sonata+13.jpg" width="400" /></a>(The only real longshots are those involving flashback sequences concerning Charlotte, Eva, and Helena in the past.) These extended, somber-colored sequences of expressive closeups, both of the one explaining her feelings of resentment and of the reactions of the horrified listener trying to be sympathetic, are what make <i>Autumn Sonata</i> a special presentation of long-held-back human emotion.<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span></span><br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Norman N. Holland, <a href="https://www.asharperfocus.com/Autumn.html"><b>“Ingmar Bergman, <i>Autumn Sonata, Höstsonaten</i>, 1978.”</b></a>, <i>A Sharper Focus</i>, (n.d.). <br /></li><li>Peter Cowie, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/67-autumn-sonata"><b>“Autumn Sonata”</b></a>, <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, (31 December 1999). <br /></li><li>David Sterritt, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67803/autumn-sonata#articles-reviews?articleId=333800"><b>“Autumn Sonata”</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (8 June 2010). <br /></li><li>Chuck Bowen, <a href="https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/autumn-sonata/"><b>“Blu-ray Review: Ingmar Bergman’s <i>Autumn Sonata</i> on the Criterion Collection</b></a>, <i>Slant Magazine</i>, (12 September 2013). <br /></li><li>Farran Smith Nehme, <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2900-autumn-sonata-mothers-daughters-and-monsters"><b>“<i>Autumn Sonata</i>: Mothers, Daughters, and Monsters”</b></a>, <i>The Criterion Collection</i>, (16 September 2013). <br /></li><li>Julian Murphy, <a href="https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2015/cteq/autumn-sonata-ingmar-bergman/"><b>“Three Doors into the Chamber of Ingmar Bergman’s <i>Autumn Sonata</i>”</b></a>, <i>Senses of Cinema</i>, Issue 75, (June 2015). <br /></li><li>Acquarello, <a href="https://filmref.com/2017/12/25/autumn-sonata-1978/"><b>“Autumn Sonata, 1978"</b></a>, <i>Strictly Film School</i>, (27 December 2017). <br /></li><li>Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, <a href="https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/reviews/view/6380"><b>“Autumn Sonata”</b></a>, <i>Spirituality & Practice</i>, (n.d.). </li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-32761164402777848972021-10-11T16:26:00.001+13:002021-10-17T16:50:09.343+13:00“And Then There Were None” - René Clair (1945)<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>And Then There Were None</i> (1939) is not only English mystery writer Agatha Christie’s most popular novel, it is the most widely read mystery novel ever written, with more than 100 million <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymp4szVkrnGm9t4TVyJuf2fMm57EjO8Gqn0ZxGzzqn8arA_4MM65JBi785sIrvBzKjaJfCSBHhXrXhg_fIrwd_sVmH7WWVDgfQpDIgpdNHPOzyejUFyNAYiEep6V5ApFrv8vLmF1u8UCk/s1134/And+Then+There+Were+None+10.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="1134" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiymp4szVkrnGm9t4TVyJuf2fMm57EjO8Gqn0ZxGzzqn8arA_4MM65JBi785sIrvBzKjaJfCSBHhXrXhg_fIrwd_sVmH7WWVDgfQpDIgpdNHPOzyejUFyNAYiEep6V5ApFrv8vLmF1u8UCk/w400-h268/And+Then+There+Were+None+10.jpg" width="400" /></a></i>copies sold [1]. This novel (which was originally titled <i>Ten Little Niggers</i> but was soon changed to <i>And Then There Were None</i>) was refashioned by Christie in 1943 into a stage play with an altered, more upbeat, ending; and it is this play that has served as the basis for numerous film and TV adaptations around the world over the years. However, the most famous of these adaptations was the first – the 1945 American film <i>And Then There Were None,</i> directed by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/10/rene-clair.html"><b>René Clair</b></a>.<br /><br />What makes Christie’s story so irresistibly enticing? It is undoubtedly the story’s foundational proposition – ten strangers stranded in a lone mansion on a small island are facing the prospect that an unknown member of their group is intent on killing all the others, one-by-one. As the murders proceed, the surviving parties (and the viewers) must continually revise their suspicions as to who might be the fiendish perpetrator. Since everyone is ultimately under suspicion, the atmosphere for paranoia is intense. As such, this turns out to be one of the ultimate claustrophobic whodunits. <br /><br />René Clair, the film‘s director, was a famous French filmmaker and something of an auteur, but he spent the war years of World War II self-exiled in the U.S., where he had the opportunity to direct a number of Hollywood films (e.g. <i>The Flame of New Orleans</i> (1941), <i>I Married a Witch</i> (1942), <i>It Happened Tomorrow</i> (1944), and finally <i>And Then There Were None</i> (1945)). So not surprisingly, this film’s production was very much a standard Hollywood product, with the script, cinematography, editing, and music all handled by Hollywood veterans Dudley Nichols, Lucien N. Andriot, Harvey Manger, and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, respectively. Even so, the uniqueness of Agatha Christie’s story has made the film largely stand out as something of an art-house favourite over the years [2,3,4,5,6].<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The film begins with eight people, all mutually strangers to each other, being delivered in a small boat to an isolated island off the English coast. We will soon learn their identities:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQCWzwDFra7M2Y3ewn5CwV6NmztdYjENUNAGN3Hk104BUCrfnREQEH8Qwpg_EBdcb__-5bVbR0XVE_9vt74cDcwjybsew8vY4lZr1H2ZlGJ8Te72qxgGAkTiPgLg6ljv4Ail1LVLZS04b/s1024/And+Then+There+Were+None+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1024" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQCWzwDFra7M2Y3ewn5CwV6NmztdYjENUNAGN3Hk104BUCrfnREQEH8Qwpg_EBdcb__-5bVbR0XVE_9vt74cDcwjybsew8vY4lZr1H2ZlGJ8Te72qxgGAkTiPgLg6ljv4Ail1LVLZS04b/w400-h291/And+Then+There+Were+None+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Judge Francis Quinncannon (played by Barry Fitzgerald), a legal authority</li><li>Dr. Edward Armstrong (Walter Huston), a medical physician</li><li>William Blore (Roland Young), a police detective </li><li>General Sir John Mandrake (Aubrey Smith), a military officer</li><li>Prince Nikki Starloff (Mischa Auer), an upper-class wastrel</li><li>Emily Brent (Judith Anderson), an older upper-class woman</li><li>Philip Lombard (Louis Hayward)</li><li>Vera Claythorne (June Duprez)<br /></li></ul>They are all guests of a Mr. Owen whom they have never met. When they arrive on the island, they are taken to a lone mansion tended to by two newly hired servants, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, who have also never met Mr. Owen. When the guests sit down for dinner, they notice a flamboyant centerpiece on the table featuring ten figurines of (American) Indians. This odd centerpiece, which can evoke the macabre children’s nursery rhyme “Ten Little Indians”, will serve as a physical metaphor for the gruesome events to follow. <br /><br />Then Mr. Rogers, following instructions he had received from Mr. Owen, plays a phonograph record having a recording addressed to the newly arrived guests. The recorded voice asserts that, based on inside information, it knows and spells out how each of ten people in the house – the eight invited guests and Mr. and Mrs. Rogers – is individually responsible for the deaths of one or more innocent people. Essentially, they are all unconvicted murderers. And so, according to the voice on the recording, they all deserve to be executed.<br /></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDOHnaf6PHvrEbKaLWuSUPemYFv-PzOn5JZAP1NgeU03njYDkfYNi2gx7UGdosalKUhaoi-Vtke14scQ8mHdqibkomitsA_9B99dDnRoSGx2bDnkVbEJWdtWq0E_oJPPF52umfcsQGUI2L/s600/And+Then+There+Were+None+5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="600" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDOHnaf6PHvrEbKaLWuSUPemYFv-PzOn5JZAP1NgeU03njYDkfYNi2gx7UGdosalKUhaoi-Vtke14scQ8mHdqibkomitsA_9B99dDnRoSGx2bDnkVbEJWdtWq0E_oJPPF52umfcsQGUI2L/w400-h255/And+Then+There+Were+None+5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Naturally, this announcement is disruptive to the equanimity of the group, who are in the initial stages of getting to know each other. There are various angry denials, as well as confessions of some degrees of guilt. But they all feel that they are now the targets of revenge for their alleged past deeds.<br /><br />Then the sequence of mysterious deaths begins. The first one happens quickly. After Prince Starloff sits down at the piano in the drawing room and plays and sings the children’s nursery song “Ten Little Indians”, he takes a sip from a cocktail drink and then keels over, dead. The cocktail drink was mysteriously poisoned. In this and in the subsequent death cases, the identity of the perpetrator of the vengeful murder is unknown. But each occasion is accompanied by an equally mysterious disappearance of another Indian figurine from the dining room table. And the circumstances of each death weirdly reflect the circumstances of the corresponding Indian disappearance mentioned in the nursery rhyme. At first the life-threatened guests believe that there nemesis is somewhere on the island outside the mansion. But after thoroughly investigating this possibility, they conclude that their existential antagonist is a disguised member of their own group.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most of the guests are stereotypes of their professional backgrounds, and so they stereotypically apply their accustomed skills to finding who is the murderer. Thus Judge Quinncannon sees things from a legal perspective; Dr. Armstrong sees things from a medical perspective; General Mandrake sees things from a military perspective; and Detective Blore just wants to collect all the evidence. Although some viewers may like this heterogeneous problem-solving admixture, I found it a bit too artificial for my taste. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtfDr17VRw7nIzkbqyIMaYcc-YQpaZu4MMPWj9ve2z_F1XF13buf9SApaQiBVHJEvI2w6TcflgOlw-7TVwPESLNPxyco77rr2EfHLhlB0g8fEfwDdZMZm-3M8-A35XDtuUtwifdc30jFr3/s1000/And+Then+There+Were+None+9.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="1000" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtfDr17VRw7nIzkbqyIMaYcc-YQpaZu4MMPWj9ve2z_F1XF13buf9SApaQiBVHJEvI2w6TcflgOlw-7TVwPESLNPxyco77rr2EfHLhlB0g8fEfwDdZMZm-3M8-A35XDtuUtwifdc30jFr3/w400-h290/And+Then+There+Were+None+9.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />So the sequence of surreptitious murders continues to play itself out, with the identity of the cold-blooded killer being continually restricted to one of a set of candidates among the declining number of surviving guests. Eventually the viewer does learn who it is, and I will leave it to you to see the film and find out for yourself.<br /><br />Enticing as this challenging many-suspect whodunit might seem, though, the film <i>And Then There Were None</i> doesn’t live up to its potential for several reasons:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>For one thing, there don’t seem to be potential motivations for the murders committed on the island, and this leads to an absence of suspicions. I believe murder mysteries are best outfitted with threatening suspects whose suspected motivations can help drive the narrative. This problem here likely stems from the overly simplified and stereotyped characterizations of the guests in this story.<br /> <br /></li><li>Two of the guests, Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard (whose real name later turns out to be Charles Morley), are much younger than the other guests and very glamorous compared to the others. This makes it too obvious that they are innocent parties and that they <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjen14xV978-vn5gAF1F3d9IsUPkLDulvvau-E-0NFbiVcnrl4kXv9x3AvMktbTjMNxlC84sYqpKxfFCUXaBw8kE8qTo0eLk1z7wcTb7sghiwekjLGVcezgD1jt9zlxfMKW83QXa6598GT5/s838/And+Then+There+Were+None+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="739" data-original-width="838" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjen14xV978-vn5gAF1F3d9IsUPkLDulvvau-E-0NFbiVcnrl4kXv9x3AvMktbTjMNxlC84sYqpKxfFCUXaBw8kE8qTo0eLk1z7wcTb7sghiwekjLGVcezgD1jt9zlxfMKW83QXa6598GT5/w400-h353/And+Then+There+Were+None+3.jpg" width="400" /></a>are likely to be the protagonists in identifying the true culprit.<br /> <br /></li><li>And finally, the film makes too light of the notion of death and basically adopts a mocking attitude toward the loss of life. This may help lighten the dark tenor of the story, but the film dialogue goes too far in this direction. In fact the incessant flow of superficial wisecracks in this area wears pretty thin before we come to the end of the story.<br /></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So <i>And Then There Were None</i> may offer you an interesting mind diversion sometime, but it is a story that could have been fashioned into a more compelling cinematic experience.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia", serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><b><b><b><b><b><b>★</b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>★</span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">½</b></span><br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None"><b>“And Then There Were None”</b></a>, <i>Wikipedia</i>, (30 September 2021). <br /></li><li>Bosley Crowther, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1945/11/01/archives/she-screen-in-review-and-then-there-were-none-with-barry-fitzgerald.html"><b>“SHE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'And Then There Were None,' With Barry Fitzgerald, at Roxy, Appears Opportunely as Goblins Pay Annual Visit Universal Offers a Refashioned Drama of Pirandello in Film 'This Love of Ours,' New Bill Showing at Loew's Criterion At Loew's Criterion”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (1 November 1945). <br /></li><li>Variety Staff, <a href="https://variety.com/1944/film/reviews/and-then-there-were-none-1117796771/"><b>“And Then There Were None”</b></a>, <i>Variety</i>, (31 December 1944). <br /></li><li>Leonard Maltin (ed.), “And Then There Were None”, <i>Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide</i>, PLUME, Penguin Press, (2005). </li><li>Jeremy Arnold, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67324/and-then-there-were-none#articles-reviews?articleId=687383"><b>“And Then There Were None on Blu-ray”</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (18 September 2013). <br /></li><li>Jay Carr, <a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67324/and-then-there-were-none#articles-reviews?articleId=941222"><b>“And Then There Were None - And Then There Were None”</b></a>, <i>Turner Classic Movies</i>, (9 January 2014). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-5411988084266987412021-10-11T15:23:00.004+13:002021-10-11T16:28:27.343+13:00René Clair<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Films of René Clair:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/10/and-then-there-were-none-rene-clair-1945.html"><b><i>And Then There Were None</i></b></a> - René Clair (1945)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-23309646412510313582021-09-30T14:55:00.002+13:002022-01-06T16:01:02.158+13:00“Nomadland” - Chloé Zhao (2020)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Nomadland</i> (2020) is an award-winning drama whose approach to the realism of its subject matter is both original and also something that underlies the film’s themes. This film is a story <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWuQqI46LtIQDAD391iS-Jc4L5gGMnJ9AeuFTQHuzfKUN-q4s7c5EpVLq1s4Fh5i3Dz2Dq-_XRoU9OjDO3VgthU25-eQw99bxbn18QPe3peUpoIHgPVkNE_ANJBmipaFS_vRvtacH2bgZ/s1474/Nomadland+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="633" data-original-width="1474" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieWuQqI46LtIQDAD391iS-Jc4L5gGMnJ9AeuFTQHuzfKUN-q4s7c5EpVLq1s4Fh5i3Dz2Dq-_XRoU9OjDO3VgthU25-eQw99bxbn18QPe3peUpoIHgPVkNE_ANJBmipaFS_vRvtacH2bgZ/w400-h171/Nomadland+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></i>about “vandwellers” in America – people who live in campervans, RVs, mobile homes, or modified buses and have no fixed abode. Although the film is a work of dramatic fiction, it is closely based on a nonfiction book that documents the lives of these wandering vandwellers, <i>Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century</i> (2017) by Jessica Bruder (in fact Jessica Bruder is credited as a “consulting producer” for the film). Moreover, almost all of the people who appear in this film are real-life nomadic vandwellers with no prior acting experience. They are just playing themselves. <br /><br />However, <i>Nomadland</i> is not an example of fly-on-the-wall cinema verite. It is a carefully crafted drama, with masterful cinematography by Joshua James Richards and haunting sound-track music by Ludovico Einaudi. Neither is it quite appropriate to categorize this film as another example of Italian neo-realism, because there are certain distinguishing aspects of this film that make it rather unique. <br /><br />For one thing the film was written, directed, edited and co-produced by Chinese-born American <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/09/chloe-zhao.html"><b>Chloé Zhao</b></a>, and although Ms. Zhao received a film education at NYU film school, she <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvXSN5HHMnONMwYb2K4PcHXYwpJqKfGS5ob8Xa-fjB9-ez4rbi8TZKOUK90B3ZlHKO-Tixgo3NOqtKGceM_EQAlQAm31APTB2AqDB83Vk-NpQfyRCrPKxupnVugz8AqV3P4GephsQNgcX/s1597/Nomadland+6.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="1597" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvXSN5HHMnONMwYb2K4PcHXYwpJqKfGS5ob8Xa-fjB9-ez4rbi8TZKOUK90B3ZlHKO-Tixgo3NOqtKGceM_EQAlQAm31APTB2AqDB83Vk-NpQfyRCrPKxupnVugz8AqV3P4GephsQNgcX/w400-h163/Nomadland+6.jpg" width="400" /></a>brings her own original, externally-based eye to the aspects of American life that she writes and films about. In the context of this film, she seems fascinated by a phenomenon of growing general alienation that is starting to emerge among many ordinary people in America. And as this film shows, many people have no choice but to accept it. <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">So alienation is clearly one important aspect of <i>Nomadland</i>, but there are also other thematic elements present, as well, and these all collectively contribute to reasons for why Zhao’s film has been so remarkably well-received. On the awards front, <i>Nomadland</i> had almost a clean sweep. The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress (and nominations in three other categories) at the 93rd U.S. Academy Awards. It won the Golden Lion (best film) at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. It was chosen as Best Film at the 74th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs). And at the 78th Golden Globe Awards, it won an award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and an award for Best Director. And among top film critics, <i>Nomadland</i> has been widely praised [1,2,3,4,5,6,7].<br /><br />The meandering story of <i>Nomadland</i> is concerned with a sixtyish woman, Fern (played by award-winning actress Frances McDormand), who has just embarked on a new life as a nomadic vandweller. She and her husband had worked for years at a gypsum plant in small company-town <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXd1vflGr0wyDzJjci0KPSKH32Qgc0m_wc27GbS-wxPfLQ_PMVpczIH897uqoTIGQq5XTBHVVUcsobSosjIzIGtKz4_pd9Q2izdY8i7IlE5eetHcY_JTSoTnGjL6UQYvIzS5BQjziCh5y7/s1684/Nomadland+5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1684" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXd1vflGr0wyDzJjci0KPSKH32Qgc0m_wc27GbS-wxPfLQ_PMVpczIH897uqoTIGQq5XTBHVVUcsobSosjIzIGtKz4_pd9Q2izdY8i7IlE5eetHcY_JTSoTnGjL6UQYvIzS5BQjziCh5y7/w400-h149/Nomadland+5.jpg" width="400" /></a>Empire, Nevada. But now the gypsum company has shut down, and her husband has just died, leaving the childless Fern alone and with no means of support. So she purchases a van and converts it into something she can live in while she travels about looking for work. When asked if she is homeless, she responds with no, she is “houseless”. <br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The entire film then focalizes exclusively on Fern as she travels about the western United States in search of odd jobs that she can use for support. However, Fern is so laid-back and laconic that much of what we learn in the film about vandwellers comes not from Fern, but from the fellow vandwellers that she meets and interacts with. And as I mentioned, virtually everyone Fern meets is a real-life vandwelling nomad. Nevertheless, Frances McDormand’s pensive performance as Fern is crucial to the success of the film. As the film proceeds, we want to know more about what Fern is thinking and feeling.<br /><br />After Fern heads out on the road from the shutting down town of Empire, she secures a seasonal job at a massive Amazon fulfilment center (warehouse for third-party shipping). Although the workers don’t appear to be mistreated, the sheer size of the operation makes everyone on the floor like a tiny cog in a gigantic machine. This is a telling visual metaphor for the impending gig economy and streamlined supply chain that so many ordinary people are now facing.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAk1Wc5s29AJCr36NM00typhHYGae8Jq6zLltdZL05aMngeBekYiqjnxe7MxWBbtDUTaSkxx5o7XrXZe8IFe4lR2HISnJTxbWfgrucRcPYU9eeC7gs0iO0J2WkRECnGwcTWpupg1mE9NAb/s1118/Nomadland+1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="1118" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAk1Wc5s29AJCr36NM00typhHYGae8Jq6zLltdZL05aMngeBekYiqjnxe7MxWBbtDUTaSkxx5o7XrXZe8IFe4lR2HISnJTxbWfgrucRcPYU9eeC7gs0iO0J2WkRECnGwcTWpupg1mE9NAb/w400-h223/Nomadland+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>One of Fern’s coworkers at the warehouse, Linda, convinces her to come to a meet-up for vandwellers in the Arizona desert. The event is hosted by Bob Wells, a charismatic real-life nomad who seeks to organize cooperative support for his fellow vandwellers. Although some vandwellers are middle-class retirees who have embraced this way of life in order to fulfill their love for freedom and the open road, most of these people are like Fern – forced by poverty to live in a van. At Wells’s meet-ups these people can share tricks and info about how to get by on the road.<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later Fern meets and becomes friends with a congenial elderly woman nomad, Swankie, from whom she learns more about survival under impecunious circumstances on the road. Swankie also tells her that she, herself, has terminal cancer, but she wants to close out her life on the open road rather than in a hospital.<br /><br />After the extended encounter with Swankie, Fern is shown working in the Black Hills, South Dakota, where she runs into Dave (David Strathairn, the only other actor in the film with significant professional acting experience), a mild-mannered elderly nomad she had seen earlier in Arizona. They go on to meet on several further occasions, and Dave politely indicates to Fern that he is interested in having her stay with him in a long-term relationship. But ultimately Fern resists the temptation and decides to stick to her life of independence on the open road.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUzrY-dRAuw84eXapOm_UKP7L7H03cHvGbqSv0U3l8KAvJQ4nKvV5Ois_FUln9WMpWWzM_ENMG91ew4lFdCs5xF7-jK7V-EhHeU38YCxrngzrLDPRHX7PIfO4pWrO-TrMYsroxwftF_iV/s1277/Nomadland+7.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="1277" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUzrY-dRAuw84eXapOm_UKP7L7H03cHvGbqSv0U3l8KAvJQ4nKvV5Ois_FUln9WMpWWzM_ENMG91ew4lFdCs5xF7-jK7V-EhHeU38YCxrngzrLDPRHX7PIfO4pWrO-TrMYsroxwftF_iV/w400-h183/Nomadland+7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>There is also an occasion when Fern’s van has a serious breakdown, and she has to go ask her married sister in California for a loan in order to pay for the repairs. When Fern goes to her sister’s upper-middle class home, we can see the contrast in the two sisters’ lifestyles; and we hope the encounter will shed some light on the taciturn Fern’s background. But it becomes clear that the sister has always been as much in the dark about Fern’s thoughts and feelings as we viewers are now. Anyway, the sister does loan the money to Fern, and the van gets fixed.<br /><br />Fern has further encounters with Bob Wells and other van-dwelling nomads, before eventually returning for one last nostalgic visit to Empire, Nevada, which is by this time almost a ghost town. Then at the end of the film, she heads back out on the road.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So overall, <i>Nomadland</i> is a bleak, moody film that effectively conveys inescapable feelings of loneliness and a sense of loss. But there are three connected thematic elements in the film that linger in my mind and warrant further comment:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Is the Gig-Economy the Future of Labour?</li><li>What Role Does Narrative Play in <i>Nomadland</i>?</li><li>To What Degree is a Self Defined by Narrative?<br /></li></ul>These are not items really explicitly addressed in <i>Nomadland</i>, but they were tangentially evoked when I watched the film.<br /><b><br />1. Is the Gig-Economy the Future of Labour?</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirBn26JmtGROpiiDa_jJ9CQfc2kbjY1hTs6o_d2ONcOARcCLCE9z07y297Ngz3UdCSZ7sd2eRsIYxU_9_2tLngOLZYzAps3NKVVVpBrTmvCJFsiGd-Kmcrv8qNbI7gPBUZUtLzWb-0cmnb/s1519/Nomadland+9.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1519" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirBn26JmtGROpiiDa_jJ9CQfc2kbjY1hTs6o_d2ONcOARcCLCE9z07y297Ngz3UdCSZ7sd2eRsIYxU_9_2tLngOLZYzAps3NKVVVpBrTmvCJFsiGd-Kmcrv8qNbI7gPBUZUtLzWb-0cmnb/w400-h164/Nomadland+9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Watching <i>Nomadland</i> made me wonder whether the traditional nature of U.S. socioeconomic society is collapsing (and since the U.S. is at the forefront of social evolution, this applies eventually to everywhere else, too). With management increasingly centralized and specific jobs increasingly objectified and compartmentalized, the labour environment is more and more moving towards a gig-economy. For digital workers, this can mean more and more digital nomads – people who can perform their jobs from remote locations and can therefore live anywhere. But for hands-on gig workers, such as those depicted in <i>Nomadland</i>, it means that anyone looking for work must travel to the site of the job location and secure the gig-job. In other words, they have to be nomads.<br /><br />The positive side to all this is that there are likely to be available jobs for itinerants. But of course the downside is that the jobs are reduced to lowest-common-denominator specifications and are often low-skilled and low-paid.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chloé Zhao doesn’t take up this general social issue and its ramifications at all in <i>Nomadland</i>. But what she does show is the lifestyles of the nomads and their various ways of dealing with the inherent loneliness in “nomadland”.<br /><br /><b>2. What Role Does Narrative Play in <i>Nomadland</i>?</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgiP5T8Naipz0Fh4ppiZpeFzYAo_5jTPpGTvsKcXodVyMIA8BSojVNCeAbFZ4H8zkXTT8Xo3B-Sow0d1ksAHlMbV_S8jsX55seU0BDlIR-91bAVxSF03j6jrfo1cIf1NJNp5O43jjmuyRf/s1760/Nomadland+8.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1760" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgiP5T8Naipz0Fh4ppiZpeFzYAo_5jTPpGTvsKcXodVyMIA8BSojVNCeAbFZ4H8zkXTT8Xo3B-Sow0d1ksAHlMbV_S8jsX55seU0BDlIR-91bAVxSF03j6jrfo1cIf1NJNp5O43jjmuyRf/w400-h248/Nomadland+8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Almost all films (as well as dramas, stories, and novels) have a narrative that provides a structure for the events depicted. The metastructure of these narratives is often characterized metaphorically as a journey. There are one or more protagonists on such a “journey” who are struggling to reach a desired “destination”, and there are usually other agents along the way who assist or stand in the way of progress. Much has been written about the narrative-as-journey metaphor [8,9,10,11,12], notably the more formalized characterization of it known as the “hero’s journey” [13] that was popularized by Joseph Campbell [14].<br /><br />In the present context concerning <i>Nomadland</i>, we don’t have to delve into the various narrative characterizations, because in this case, I don’t see that the film even has a narrative. Although one might at first think Fern is on some sort of journey, neither the destination nor the overall scheme of that journey is ever specified. We never know what the wandering Fern wants or is thinking. All we get is a random sequence of scenes depicting haphazard encounters that have no clear outcome – at least no outcome with respect to a given quest. We never really learn much about what goes on inside Fern’s head or indeed who she is. But then maybe that is the point. Fern’s lack of a narrative is what this film is about.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3. To What Degree is a Self Defined by Narrative?</b><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1r_EtpDGqz1w23wAwDxUiu0bQ-nF3lpjqRB-3c0AQq3Ddaz5QC6Pjes6ZmgAaeOJGGi-4G0DANvx7makKezG9JMJ9mym8GVFE_uPSsMWlO3L98dlWV9YUUFGRmmORUr9M-kYt4q-M5uJM/s647/Nomadland+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="491" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1r_EtpDGqz1w23wAwDxUiu0bQ-nF3lpjqRB-3c0AQq3Ddaz5QC6Pjes6ZmgAaeOJGGi-4G0DANvx7makKezG9JMJ9mym8GVFE_uPSsMWlO3L98dlWV9YUUFGRmmORUr9M-kYt4q-M5uJM/w304-h400/Nomadland+4.jpg" width="304" /></a>It is often claimed that we basically model all the people we meet in terms of the narratives we construct about them, and this is how we come to know and understand them [9,10,11]. We even think of ourselves in terms of the narratives constructed by ourselves and others about ourselves. So is it really true; is that <i>all</i> there is to the self – the narrative that has been constructed to characterize it? Are you and I just the stories we have constructed about ourselves? There is dispute on that score.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1r_EtpDGqz1w23wAwDxUiu0bQ-nF3lpjqRB-3c0AQq3Ddaz5QC6Pjes6ZmgAaeOJGGi-4G0DANvx7makKezG9JMJ9mym8GVFE_uPSsMWlO3L98dlWV9YUUFGRmmORUr9M-kYt4q-M5uJM/s647/Nomadland+4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Some philosophers, usually objectivists, maintain that, yes, that is all there is to the self – the narrative story (or stories) that provides a comprehensible, temporally-oriented scheme of who you are. They argue further that any idea that there is some inner being constituting the true self is a self-deceptive hallucination. The only <i>existing</i> selves, they insist, are the fabricated narratives that have long been constructed (since caveman days) to facilitate human interactions extended over time.<br /><br />But there are other thinkers, both esteemed Western philosophers [15] and respected Eastern sages [16,17], who hold that there are really two essential aspects of the self:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>an outer, worldly, narrative-based self </li><li>an inner self that is founded on core-consciousness <br /></li></ul></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">According to this second, more nuanced scheme, it is the inner, core-consciousness-based self that is the true being that identifies who you are. And this is the self-perspective that I find more natural, and I would guess that Chloé Zhao thinks this way, too. It usually follows under this scheme that when a person’s inner core-consciousness gets the feeling that its constructed narrative-based self is somehow unfulfilling and leaves it disconnected from meaningful interactions in the world, it then feels alienated. This sense of alienation can be difficult to articulate, but it lies as a root element of existentialist thinking, and it has been eloquently expressed by such writers as Albert Camus [18] and Jean-Paul Sartre [19], as well as in a number of memorable films [20]. And it is Fern’s alienation that is the artistic key to <i>Nomadland</i>.<br /><br />As I mentioned, the film <i>Nomadland</i> doesn’t really seem to have its own narrative, and that comes down to the fact that the film’s main character, Fern, doesn’t appear to have a narrative-based self at all. It’s not just an unsatisfactory narrative-based self, as it often is with some people; here in Fern’s case, it is a virtual narrative void. She doesn’t appear to have had much meaningful interaction with her family when she was growing up. And now that her husband has died and she has lost her longtime job and home, there is nothing left of her adult life on which to base her narrative self. Her life is empty. And that is what makes the film problematic. Can a film succeed without being driven by a narrative journey? In the case of <i>Nomadland</i>, I would say it more or less does succeed. <br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even though I am aligned with the philosophical position that the narrative self is not the most intrinsic aspect of the self, having only a severely diminished narrative-based self, like Fern, would be an existential problem. And it is Fern’s existential problem that is on display in <i>Nomadland</i>. We viewers want to know more about what Fern is thinking and feeling in response to her barren circumstances, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlg8lGGmcL2bsPyDItMdKkX3HL7zMgdHEVzqJJRl0-fB4cnmoUkOdrWgd0eQA_Yb9JzroBIbl-5WKsdat4HBn1nVqxh-xgVu7Np8pdleWXH9PdZj1dQNQvd5R0rgxOwLmqhSu_ZNnt1za/s1390/Nomadland+2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="1390" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlg8lGGmcL2bsPyDItMdKkX3HL7zMgdHEVzqJJRl0-fB4cnmoUkOdrWgd0eQA_Yb9JzroBIbl-5WKsdat4HBn1nVqxh-xgVu7Np8pdleWXH9PdZj1dQNQvd5R0rgxOwLmqhSu_ZNnt1za/w400-h180/Nomadland+2.jpg" width="400" /></a>but her contemplative reticence gives us little to chew on and leaves us wanting more. Frances McDormand’s subtle, laid-back performance as Fern is crucial here. We follow her gaze and guess about her feelings all the way, but our fascination persists. And that is what lies at the heart of <i>Nomadland</i>.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">★★★½<br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A.O. Scott, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/movies/nomadland-review.html"><b>“‘Nomadland’ Review: The Unsettled Americans”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (18 February 2021, 26 April 2021). <br /></li><li>Brian Tallerico, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/nomadland-movie-review-2020"><b>“Nomadland”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (19 February 2021). <br /></li><li>Beatrice Loayza, <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/nomadland-2020-chloe-zhao-frances-mcdormand-american-drifters"><b>“Nomadland finds beauty on the rugged, ruthless open road”</b></a>, <i>Sight and Sound</i>, British Film Institute, (28 April 2021). <br /></li><li>MaryAnn Johanson, <a href="https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2021/05/nomadland-movie-review-aint-that-america.html"><b>“Nomadland movie review: ain’t that America”</b></a>, <i>flick filosopher</i>, (6 May 2021). <br /></li><li>Murtaza Ali Khan, <a href="https://www.apotpourriofvestiges.com/2021/04/nomadland-review-inspiring-tale-of.html"><b>"’Nomadland’ Review: An inspiring tale of survival that presents the modern-day American West in a new light”</b></a>, <i>A Potpourri of Vestiges</i>,, (4 April 2021). <br /></li><li>Marjorie Baumgarten, <a href="https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/2021-02-19/nomadland/"><b>“Nomadland”</b></a>, <i>The Austin Chronicle</i>, (19 February 2021). <br /></li><li>Chris Barsanti, <a href="https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review-nomadland-is-a-sorrowful-lament-for-lives-on-americas-fringes/"><b>“Review: ‘Nomadland’ Is a Sorrowful Lament for Lives on America’s Fringes"</b></a>, <i>Slant Magazine</i>, (12 September 2020). <br /></li><li>Roger Schank and Gary Saul Morrison, <i>Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence (Rethinking Theory)</i>, (1990), Northwestern.</li><li>Jerome Bruner, "The Narrative Construction of Reality", <i>Critical Inquiry</i>, 18:1, 1-21, (1991).</li><li>Jerome Bruner, “The Narrative Construction of Reality”, <i>Narrative Intelligence</i> (2003), Michael Mateas and Phoebe Sengers (eds.), John Benjamin Publishing Co.</li><li>Paul Ricoeur, <i>Time and Narrative, vols. I- III</i>, (1983-1985), University of Chicago Press. </li><li>Christopher Vogler, <i>The Writer’s Journey</i>, 2nd Edition, Michael Wiese Productions (1998).</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey"><b>“Hero’s Journey”</b></a>, <i>Wikipedia</i>, (17 September 2021). <br /></li><li>Joseph Campbell, <i>The Hero with a Thousand Faces</i>, 1st edition, Bollingen Foundation (1949), 2nd edition, Princeton University Press (1990), 3rd edition, New World Library (2008).</li><li>Dan Zahavi, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231955129_Self_and_Other_The_Limits_of_Narrative_Understanding"><b>"Self and Narrative: the Limits of Narrative Understanding"</b></a>, <i>Narrative and Understanding Persons</i>, D. D. Hutto (ed), Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 60, Cambridge University Press, pp. 179-201, (9 August 2007). <br /></li><li>Paramahansa Yogananda, <i>God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita</i>, Self-Realization Fellowship, (1 September 2001). </li><li>Ching Hai, <i>I Have Come to Take You Home: A Collection of Quotes and Spiritual Teachings from the Supreme Master Ching Hai</i>, Sophie Lapaire and Pamela Millar (eds.), SMCHIA Publishing Co., (1 January 1995). </li><li>Albert Camus, <i>The Stranger</i> (<i>L'Étranger</i>), Gallimard, (1942). </li><li>Jean-Paul Sartre, <i>Nausea</i> (<i>La Nausée</i>), Éditions Gallimard, (1938).</li><li>The Film Sufi, <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2008/07/existentialism-in-film-1.html"><b>“Existentialism in Film 1"</b></a>, <i>The Film Sufi</i>, (15 July 2008). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-81531726929980858912021-09-29T16:56:00.001+13:002021-09-30T14:57:41.162+13:00Chloé Zhao<div style="text-align: left;"> <b>Films of Chloé Zhao:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/09/nomadland-chloe-zhao-2020.html"><b><i>Nomadland</i></b></a> - Chloé Zhao (2020)<br /></li></ul></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512798575068184046.post-26684746413450032332021-09-18T17:26:00.001+12:002021-09-18T17:54:00.216+12:00“Fantastic Fungi” - Louie Schwartzberg (2019)<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Fantastic Fungi</i> (2019) is an entertaining documentary film that explores various aspects of ubiquitous but often overlooked participants in our biosphere – fungi, and in particular, their usually <i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7TurpNNVk6XW2mXZRfIpuBPiFzBeftR_jZcOESNFsy9bxJUoeC5DUkY6G0mFGDna1wdhNp2vxNlZ5z6WOkCmCxqQTt40xoof3WLDSRsFzkg0nNqB8gPHLyYV3why693SUc86yagh-TBY/s1127/Fantastic+Fungi+8.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1127" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7TurpNNVk6XW2mXZRfIpuBPiFzBeftR_jZcOESNFsy9bxJUoeC5DUkY6G0mFGDna1wdhNp2vxNlZ5z6WOkCmCxqQTt40xoof3WLDSRsFzkg0nNqB8gPHLyYV3why693SUc86yagh-TBY/w400-h216/Fantastic+Fungi+8.jpg" width="400" /></a></i>above-ground fruiting components, mushrooms. This film brings to the viewer’s attention the fact that fungi are absolutely crucial to the sustenance of life on earth. The film was directed and photographed by <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2021/09/louie-schwartzberg.html"><b>Louie Schwartzberg</b></a>, whose demonstrated expertise in time-lapse cinematography and CGI (computer-generated imagery) is a spectacular feature of the film. In fact the time-lapse imagery is so frequently occurring and dazzling that it may perhaps sometimes distract the viewer from some of the film’s other virtues. <br /><br /><i>Fantastic Fungi</i> was written by Mark Monroe (among whose earlier writing credits is the fascinating documentary <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/07/cove-louie-psihoyos-2009.html"><i><b>The Cove</b></i></a> (2009) [1]), and it was edited by Kevin Klauber and Annie Wilkes. There are numerous voiceover narrations from the various talking heads in this documentary, but one special narrative element is provided by previously Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson, who serves here as the unseen metaphorical voice of the fungi kingdom. I am not sure how well this particular narrative innovation works in this case, but it does provide an unusual twist to the presentation. Another aspect of the production that deserves comment is the music by Adam Peters. Unfortunately, I found much of the music to be littered with rumblings and mostly distracting from the viewing experience. In any case, the film has been largely well-received by a range of critics [2,3,4,5,6,7].<br /><br />Although <i>Fantastic Fungi</i> rambles back and forth between various topics about fungi, we can say that the film covers roughly four general areas of interest:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>The science of fungi</li><li>Fungi in ancient mythology</li><li>The impact of hallucinogenic drugs that have been derived from Fungi</li><li>Practical and medicinal uses of fungi<br /></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-Gfr-OwHCByfss1EwchR0c1I63JgV8ugK2p2Mv5o3GEtYFuZrv2q8ZNzEGq8bhFNtRMaml8t3Qo1Lv7MS3RxDuKOijPHxV_6J_7UsaQjja1BQAFhIITN22nd-XMdLWUbZoUwSO4EeS1I/s1184/Fantastic+Fungi+1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="1184" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-Gfr-OwHCByfss1EwchR0c1I63JgV8ugK2p2Mv5o3GEtYFuZrv2q8ZNzEGq8bhFNtRMaml8t3Qo1Lv7MS3RxDuKOijPHxV_6J_7UsaQjja1BQAFhIITN22nd-XMdLWUbZoUwSO4EeS1I/w400-h209/Fantastic+Fungi+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Throughout much of this journey, we are shepherded by Paul Stamets, a lifetime amateur mycology (the science of fungi) enthusiast. Despite having limited formal training in mycology, Stamets’s passion for the subject and hands-on explorations have enabled him to make a number of discoveries and contributions to the area. And as the film demonstrates, he is a rather glib communicator on the topic. <br /><br /><b>1. The Science of Fungi</b><br />In this topic area the viewer is given some interesting scientific information about fungi. The expert narrators concerning this material are, for the most part, Michael Pollan and Eugenia Bone, who are food journalists, and Professor Suzanne Simard, who conducts research on fungi at the University of British Columbia.<br /><br />Fungi are a primitive form of life that predates plants and animals. Indeed the oldest fossil remains of life are those of fungi dating back 2.4 billion years ago. And of course fungi are still prospering today, and there are now several million fungi species, more than six times the estimated number of plant species. <br /><br />A fascinating and most important structural component of fungi are the thin filamentary hyphae that exist mostly below ground and serve as the roots of the fungi. They spread out into incredibly complex network structures that are known collectively as mycelia, and they can form even <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rsWYkqd6jESm-vKlIX2NfqnuNVmxaVKWDNgjM2iDnajvdABDx-KbnJVPCzEe_wXzqXeZ5x0GRIGw3lu6qBO76un5gBNO_xedsipstxEODB-dFMRCPd4ctJOVAfZRIzvj2tqPXs12cBs4/s1135/Fantastic+Fungi+5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1135" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rsWYkqd6jESm-vKlIX2NfqnuNVmxaVKWDNgjM2iDnajvdABDx-KbnJVPCzEe_wXzqXeZ5x0GRIGw3lu6qBO76un5gBNO_xedsipstxEODB-dFMRCPd4ctJOVAfZRIzvj2tqPXs12cBs4/w400-h215/Fantastic+Fungi+5.jpg" width="400" /></a>more complex mycorrhizal networks with plants that a mycelium network may connect to. The expert commentators in the film liken the complexity of these network mycelium structures to that of the human brain, and it seems that these mycelium networks can facilitate the exchange of nutrients and information between the nodes (plants and/or fungi) that are interconnected in these networks. For more information concerning how these mycorrhizal networks facilitate the essential vitality and harmony of nature, I recommend you see Suzanne Simard’s <i>TED</i> talk, "How trees talk to each other" [8].<br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2. Fungi in Ancient Mythology</b><br />It seems that fungi have been known and cherished since very ancient times – even to ancient hominids that flourished before the appearance of Homo sapiens. This was presumably due to the powerful mind-altering properties of some mushrooms. The film has some commentary about this and refers to and shows some ancient temples in this regard. <br /><br />Reference is also made to the Stoned Ape Theory that was proposed by Terence McKenna in 1992, which advanced the idea that the movement from the early human species Homo erectus to the current species Homo sapiens was connected with the hypothesized increased consumption of psilocybin mushrooms (“magic mushrooms”) about 100,000 years ago. This allegedly gave consumers of those mushroom improved acuity and cooperation capabilities that ultimately provided them with evolutionary advantages. Thus, so this story goes, the consumption of magic mushrooms led to the emergence of Homo sapiens.<br /><br /><b>3. Hallucinogenic Drugs</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikzcXKLYTQd8XSu20RAenefqrfiy_PVO55Q1vUC6MXZvgMAvme6YP-5uyEReEJ4PIMPfBM-_kl6fIERTcaioR75Gol-ZYKWz5KB-KDvI0UdFgm0_97ZT32V21iFVy2cBLhf4wPvvsE9Sy-/s1133/Fantastic+Fungi+2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="1133" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikzcXKLYTQd8XSu20RAenefqrfiy_PVO55Q1vUC6MXZvgMAvme6YP-5uyEReEJ4PIMPfBM-_kl6fIERTcaioR75Gol-ZYKWz5KB-KDvI0UdFgm0_97ZT32V21iFVy2cBLhf4wPvvsE9Sy-/w400-h216/Fantastic+Fungi+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>At the beginning of the 1970s, 15-year-old Paul Stamets became inspired by reading some writing by an advocate of alternative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil, about altered states of consciousness. This was when Timothy Leary, LSD, and other hallucinogenic drugs derived from mushrooms were in their heyday. Consequently Stamets was eager to try out some psychedelic mushrooms. So he consumed a whole bag of magic mushrooms, and the resulting experience that he had changed his life. For one thing, it instantly cured his til-then lifelong stuttering problem. In addition, it launched his unquenchable fascination with the mind-bending possibilities of fungi. However, about this time there was a decades-long U.S. governmental suppression of psychedelic drug research (1970s - 2000), which hindered work in this field by Stamets and others. So Stamets started his own mushroom business and moved to Canada. In some respects this film is intended to renew a wider scientific interest in this area, such as existed in the 1960s and 70s.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4. Medicinal Uses of Fungi</b><br />A fascinating element of <i>Fantastic Fungi</i> is its discussion of some of the promising medicinal uses of fungi. However, because of time constraints, only a smattering of this material can be offered. A key item with respect to this topic is the fact that the human brain has neuroplasticity. That is, the neuronal structure of the human brain can change and grow throughout the course of a person’s life. But to facilitate this activity, the brain needs assistance to generate new neurological pathways. And this is where mushroom-derived chemicals such as psilocybin can play an important role in the brain’s chemistry. This is an ongoing topic of current research.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiscKSxJY4qI2rJM4N4zdfM_tqx9_KhBfcr4u2e9PFDLPSLkDYNHYCH7PgQTC8XHH6Vome5dHLRa8Ib3J6G7CrtTc6qiKkwU1TQWzBhgXech_NEgFNYLx3ADSUlMTzxU9BgTUWsghYQgBo4/s1139/Fantastic+Fungi+9.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="1139" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiscKSxJY4qI2rJM4N4zdfM_tqx9_KhBfcr4u2e9PFDLPSLkDYNHYCH7PgQTC8XHH6Vome5dHLRa8Ib3J6G7CrtTc6qiKkwU1TQWzBhgXech_NEgFNYLx3ADSUlMTzxU9BgTUWsghYQgBo4/w400-h217/Fantastic+Fungi+9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Overall, there is an important message we can take from <i>Fantastic Fungi</i>. We learn that fungi are fundamental instruments for the regeneration of life, and that as Paul Stamets tells us, “the entire ecosystem is infused with fungi.” Our reductive scientific models of the natural world have too often focussed on the individual entity or agent, and they have thereby overlooked the intertwined, multi-generational nature of life, in connection with which fungi play a fundamental role. Indeed what is emphasized here in this film and the essential point we come away with, in fact, is how fungi underlie and facilitate a most crucial aspect of the world, something that Buddhist and other spiritual masters have long taught – <b>the interconnectedness of all living beings</b>.<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">★★★</span><br /><br /><b>Notes:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Film Sufi, <a href="http://www.filmsufi.com/2009/07/cove-louie-psihoyos-2009.html"><b>“‘The Cove’ - Louie Psihoyos (2009)”</b></a>, <i>The Film Sufi</i>, (26 July 2009). <br /></li><li>Rex Reed, <a href="https://observer.com/2019/10/fantastic-fungi-review-brie-larson-rex-reed/"><b>“Charming Documentary ‘Fantastic Fungi’ Explores the Miracle of Mushrooms”</b></a>, <i>Observer</i>, (15 October 2019). <br /></li><li>Matt Fagerholm, <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fantastic-fungi-movie-review-2019"><b>“Fantastic Fungi”</b></a>, <i>RogerEbert.com</i>, (11 October 2019). <br /></li><li>Jeannette Catsoulis,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/movies/fantastic-fungi-review.html"><b>”‘Fantastic Fungi’ Review: The Magic of Mushrooms”</b></a>, <i>The New York Times</i>, (10 October 2019). <br /></li><li>Josh Kupecki, <a href="https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/2019-12-06/fantastic-fungi/"><b>“Fantastic Fungi”</b></a>, <i>Austin Chronicle</i>, (6 December 2019). <br /></li><li>John Defore, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/fantastic-fungi-1246280/"><b>“‘Fantastic Fungi’: Film Review”</b></a>, <i>The Hollywood Reporter</i>, (8 October 2019). <br /></li><li>Robert Abele <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-10-24/fantastic-fungi-documentary-mushrooms"><b>“Review: Mushrooms are the new superheroes in documentary ‘Fantastic Fungi’”</b></a>, <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, (24 October 2019). <br /></li><li>Suzanne Simard, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs"><b>“How trees talk to each other”</b></a>, <i>TED</i>, (31 August 2016). <br /></li></ol></div>The Film Sufihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04322383474504278378noreply@blogger.com1