The Housewife Epic: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

by Andy Motz

Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning.

-Laura Mulvey

 Washing the dishes. Cooking dinner. Preparing the dinner table. Buying groceries. And meeting with male clients in the late in the afternoon before her son arrives home from school. This is the life of Jeanne Dielman, the protagonist of feminist filmmaker Chantal Ackerman’s 1975 masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. At three hours and twenty-five minutes it is appropriate to label the film as the housewife epic. It is a simple film narratively, but an utterly complex one thematically as Akerman subtlety deconstructs the idea that meaning for women is both found and fulfilled in the role of a homemaker. Jeanne Dielman lives in a small apartment in Brussels with her teenage son who is absent most of the day and only arrives home for only a few hours before his bed time. However even their time spent together is silent. The silence that pervades dinner, nightly walks, and preparation for bed is only disrupted by the boy’s strange questions and confessions about sex right before he falls asleep.

If this sounds difficult, it is. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is probably one of the most trying and laborious films one is ever likely to watch. Akerman takes her time as she follows Dielman’s daily activities, such as skinning potatoes or sending a letter, with lengthy single takes ranging anywhere from five seconds to eight minutes. In one of the films infamous scenes the audience watches her prepare meatloaf as she does the same hand motion of turning the meat loaf over.

And over.

And over.

And over again.

For minutes on end.

Despite the seemingly trite nature of the film, it is much more than just a test of endurance. Every frame is so carefully composed. Every scene builds upon the last. It is a film that demands the viewer’s full attention otherwise the experience is rendered pointless. There is not a wasted second or frame in Jeanne Dielman despite its extreme length. Chantal Akerman and her director of cinematography Babette Mangolte craft each frame carefully and with purpose. For example, each shot is divided into three distinct sections of color and objects. Take a look at just a couple of stills taken from the film below.

Watching the movie is like walking through an art gallery. One should approach each shot like one approaches individual paintings: examine it, study it, feel it, and try to grasp what is being communicated.

What exactly is being communicated?  After the first day passes it is noticeable that this poor women denies herself of any pleasure. The primary goal in her life is duty. She must always be active, never worrying about her own well-being. She has a job, a duty to fulfill as a housewife and she mustn’t fail. In one of the few conversations Dielman does have with her son she tells him of how his father and her met. The father was rich and Jeanne needed to find a husband so she married him. Love was never and still isn’t part of the equation for her. It is a struggle for her to write a letter to her sister, but she has to out of duty.  She listens to a neighbor talk endlessly, but purposefully never allows herself to express her feelings. She watches a baby for a short period during the afternoon, but simply sets the baby in its carrier on the table leaving the baby by itself until the mother returns. Duty is put above love, relationships, and pleasure.

This way of life that only sustain some one for so long and when the film begins, at first unknown to the viewer, Dielman is on the edge. It isn’t long before it becomes evident. The viewer watches Jeanne performing all these arbitrary chores over and over again so when something irregular happens it is jolting. When she forgets to turn off a light or she lets the potatoes cook for too long or her regular spot is taken at a local coffee house, it sticks out. The cracks are starting to open as societal expectations of women start to take their toll on Jeanne Dielman. This is what Chantal Akerman is indirectly questioning and exploring: the consequences that arise in societies that force women into certain roles as a means of controlling them. She is presenting a vision, perhaps an a bit of a hyperbolic one, of a woman stripped of her individual identity and the consequences of such a theft.

Much like completing the Herman Melville’s 500 plus page novel Moby Dick, sitting through all of this film feels like quite an accomplishment. And also like Moby Dick, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is an astounding, experimental, and brave work of art.

Image Sources:

http://blevo.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/photo-jeanne-dielman-23-quai-du-commerce-1080-bruxelles-1975-31.jpg

http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Jeanne_Dielman.jpg

http://artforum.com/uploads/upload.000/id21913/article01.jpg

http://cdn2.walkerart.org/static/cache/db/dbe05328ff06add117f77cc1878545e0.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion_images/current/current_1216_234.jpg

The Beaches of Ingmar Bergman

I sat on the rough rock staring out onto the ocean. The sun warmed by face, arms, and legs as a light breeze caressed my face. The waves were calm as they pressed up against the rocks, the ebb and flow was peaceful. I looked at the rock I was sitting on and pondered the small crevices and the crabs hiding within them. There was and still is something very unique about the ocean and the beaches its water washes up on. At times it can be harsh and violent yet at others so peaceful and soft. It is a place of mystery.

The waves, the water, and the rock combined reminded me that I wasn’t the only one whose mind had been drawn to this natural mystery. This section of the world also intrigued Ingmar Bergman it seems. This is evident by the numerous ocean and beach settings within his works. As I sat on that rock that sunny Sunday afternoon I pondered the different images of the shore Bergman evoked and what they meant for him, for me, and for the films they are apart of.

What is it about the beaches of Ingmar Bergman?

Persona on the surface (there are many, many layers) is about two women: an actress who has ceased speaking and the young nurse who is charged to take care of her. As a form of therapy the nurse takes the actress to an isolated beach cottage in hopes that she will regain her voice. They don’t go to the mountains nor do they journey to the desert. No, Bergman sends his two female protagonists to the beach.

It’s rocky, jagged, and pointed. The stormy weather leaves puddles everywhere. It is a devastating wasteland. In the most telling scene the nurse wonders out loud to her patient if life has any purpose. While describing existence without meaning Bergman cuts away from the two women and shows the audience images of the barren beach using it as a visual metaphor for existence. By taking a place and stripping it of not only its preconceived beauty, but also of its basic meaning Bergman has given the viewer insight into the meaning of this demanding film.

Through a Glass Darkly is the first film in Ingmar Bergman’s unofficial trilogy of faith. Each of the films have very distinctive settings: Winter Light is set in a small isolated village while The Silence is set in a maze-esque hotel. Through a Glass Darkly takes place on an island surrounded by rocky beaches; there is no sand to be found here either. In fact it feels even more dangerous that the one found in Persona with old wooden docks and the remains of a shipwreck.

The weather is chilly, the water is dark, and the violently shaped rocks are loose making it hard for a character to have solid footing. The opening images of the film are shots of murky choppy water. If one strains they can see the world below. This simple yet profound visual recalls both the title and the theme in which Bergman is exploring through out the film. As humans we are bound to struggle with God who can never be fully known, we strain and struggle but we still only see the world ‘through a glass darkly’. The film then cuts to the introduction to Bergman’s troubled characters, rising out of the ocean and onto the beach. It’s reminiscent of the evolutionary image of sea animals slowly growing legs and venturing out onto the new world. These people protrude out of the smooth darkness of the ocean and find themselves on the bright, but unstable beach.

Finally there is Hour of the Wolf. Ingmar Bergman’s “horror” film takes place on an island and some of the most mysterious scenes occur on the beach. The beach is where darkness resides. Darkness in all its allure and in all its terror. A tortured artist confesses to his estranged wife not only his affair with another woman on the beach, but also his killing of a small boy on the beach.

The scene of seduction is significant because it is the first time out of the films mentioned so far where there is a sense of actual warmth. The sun is out, the waves are calm, and the woman is beautiful. Isolated and drawn in the husband gives into adultery.

The murder of the young boy however occurs on an entirely different section of the beach. Once again it is rocky, mysterious, and elusive. While the husband, Jonas fishes a young boy slyly crawls along the rocks getting closer and closer to the unaware Jonas. He attacks and bites Jonas; in defense Jonas smashes the boys head into the rock. In hopes of washing away this nightmare he then shoves the boys body into the ocean, the scrawny pale body floats just below the water until disappearing into the darkness.

The beach is a place where this artist goes to be alone, but consequently it is this isolated state that opens him up to the figurative demons on the beach.

The typical picture that comes to an American’s mind when the beach is mentioned is one of crowds, sunshine, and group activities. Ingmar Bergman throws that image association in the garbage. He replaces it with images of emptiness, danger, and fear. Yet his beaches reveal truth. It is a place where his own questions are displayed, where his characters true colors come out no matter how deeply buried. There is hope to be found in this honesty no matter how dark or despairing it may be for it awakens one and Bergman’s characters from what John Patrick Shannely describes as the “dead habits of the mind” and opens up the possibility of journeying towards true understanding.

Note: There are many other beach scenes in Bergman film such as The Seventh Seal or Shame. Focusing on these three striking films however one gains a clear understanding of Bergman’s questions, struggles, and brilliant filmmaking.

 All pictures are taken as stills from DVD copies, courtesy of The Criterion Collection and MGM Home Entertainment.

A Dangerous Method

by Andy Motz

The screams of a young disturbed woman can be heard through the enclosed carriage as horses drag it along the bumpy dirt road. Looming ahead there is a large building that holds the appearance of a serene hospice. It turns out to be a psychiatric ward run by the one and only Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). The woman screaming and convulsing is Sabina (Keira Knightley), she has been shipped to this place due to her bizarre violent outbursts. She comes at a busy time for the up and coming doctor. His sensitive wife is pregnant with their first child and he is in communication with the even more famous Sigmund Freud about his controversial ideas of sexuality.

This is the set up of David Cronenberg‘s recent film, A Dangerous Method. A film so restrained and cold that it seems even more of a diversion from Cronenberg’s earlier work in the eighties and nineties. The film is about sexuality, but it is more about the psychology behind it than the actual bodily aspect. Even his last two films, Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, contained carnal visceral elements reminiscent of his bizarre and surrealistic (some might claim perverse) fascination with the human body, yet that is nowhere to be found in this new film. Is this a bad or good thing? I suppose it depends on one’s taste.

Still a more restrained Cronenberg is not automatically equivalent to a lackluster one. A Dangerous Method is a compelling look into the minds, worlds, and actions of these two highly influential psychologists and the issues they wrestled with.  The screenplay, which is at times seems obviously adapted from a stage play, is a character study that chooses three fascinating characters to focus in on.

First off, there is Carl Jung a quiet man who believes he and Freud should move forward in their field going so far as to help patients rise above their problems. Then, there is Freud himself (played marvelously by Viggo Mortensen) who believes their duty is to diagnose the problem, nothing more. Finally, there is Sabina a woman seemingly born with sadomasochistic desires (she enjoyed being spanked by her father at the young age of five), but because of this strives to help others in the psychoanalytical field.

Jung and Sabina soon embark on a bizarre sexual/intellectual affair that continuously conflicts Jung himself while simultaneously fulfilling Sabina’s unusual desires.

As noted above the main conflict is over the overall purpose of psychology. Should psychology simply prescribe the problem or should it search to find a solution?  One’s life experiences often informs his or her answer to this question. Freud, a complacent man with a wife and seven kids, believes he has found the answer to why people act the way they do. Therefore it is his duty to inform society of these reasons and end there. Carl Jung, a man who feels oppressed by his wife and drawn into a fulfilling but unsettling affair, questions Freud’s conclusions and fights to find a solution. He wants a solution for others because he can’t find one for himself.

Indeed America has embraced Jung’s train of thought, but is this the dangerous method the film is titled after? Is trying to save people dangerous? By keeping ones distance such as Freud’s theory and practice does it is easy to live one’s own life uncomplicated by patients. Jung fails hopelessly however in trying to heal Sabrina, in fact one could say he only messes her up more.

So is that the “dangerous method”? Getting involved with a patient? For Sabina it is an infatuation. For Jung this relationship enables him to fully embrace his sexual nature.

Is embracing fully all of ones desires the “dangerous method”? Carl Jung has a brief encounter with renegade psychologist, Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel), whose own philosophy of life is simply if the mind, heart, or flesh desires it act on it. He says this as one who has impregnated multiple women all of which he has abandoned. In the end, Jung’s relationship with Sabina isn’t freeing, but constricting. The immediate feelings of immense pleasure go away and the affair has ugly, dangerous ramifications on both Sabina and Jung’s life.

Whatever the viewer ultimately concludes the “dangerous method” actually is in this well-acted, meticulously composed, and perhaps too of cold of a film, one thing is for certain: David Cronenberg has crafted another interesting piece that takes conversations of old and transforms them into relevant thought-provoking discussions for the present.

Image Sources:

http://images.askmen.com/entertainment/movie/1322164176_a-dangerous-method_1.jpg

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/images/review_a-dangerous-method-e1324027474750.jpg

 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B5lUpszdHkE/TvnquaHzj4I/AAAAAAAACi8/QZ4iO6Lo65U/s1600/Dangerous+Method.jpg

Sundance Film Festival 2012: Last Day

by Andy Motz

Wuthering Heights

Hands down the best film I saw at Sundance this year. U.K. director Andrea Arnold shatters every filmmaking rule when it comes to making British period pieces. She brings Emily Bronte’s classic novel to life in a way that would probably make the Bronte sisters very proud. Gone are the perfectly lit and sunny mores. In their place is a gritty realistic version of what is was truly like to live in the countryside during eighteenth century Britain. Arnold also decides to move away from dialogue heavy storytelling towards a narrative that is guided by images. Wuthering Heights embraces the senses of sight, touch, and sound to tell the story of two lovers. Incidentally by making the film in this particular style Andrea Arnold creates a tale that is not constricted to a specific time period. The teenage angst, unfulfilled love, human brokenness, and haunting memories in this adaptation become universal. The relationship between the angry misunderstood Heathcliff and the quiet adventurous Kathryn is one of little speech, but one of true connection. They spend the majority of their time together in nature as equals as their attraction for each other grows stronger. However those who have read Wuthering Heights know that Heathcliff and Kathryn’s period of bliss is short and soon misery will follow not only them, but also all who are in some way connected to either character. It is a brutally heartbreaking film because the pain, loss, and desperation are brought to life in such a visceral way. With breath-taking visuals, brilliant editing, natural cinematography, and camera work that places the audience right in the world of the characters Wuthering Heights is a groundbreaking cinematic achievement.

Simon Killer

A man by the name of Simon travels to Paris in hope of recovering from the recent break-up with a long-time girlfriend. He enjoys his time alone, but it is obvious that the isolation is becoming an agitation. One night while walking the streets of Paris and only moments after rejecting an offer to visit a strip club he enters a ritzy brothel. One incident leads to another and soon Simon has slyly forced himself into the life, and apartment, of the prostitute he meets that night. At this point in Anthony Campos dark second feature one realizes that Simon is not your typical post-graduate young man, but instead a sick, professional, and deeply untrustworthy sociopath; a symbol of men’s terrible vices such as greed, selfishness, and chauvinism. Simon Killer is a cold film that is easy to appreciate, but hard to love due to such a disturbed and ambiguous protagonist (or is it antagonist?).  While much is left ambiguous in the film, one thing is for certain: Anthony Campos is one talented director. His use of long uncut takes allows the audience to be voyeurs into the twisted world of Simon and his uncanny ability to seduce, befriend, and manipulate. He also presents a vision of Paris that is rarely seen in the movies. Instead of a romantic beautiful city Paris is a cold seedy place that is claustrophobic and dangerous. Complex, thought-provoking, and meticulously detailed, Simon Killer is an uncompromising film that is unafraid to look at the darker side of human existence that is very much a reality.

Image Sources:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RocBLuyRuso/Tt1CIPZoU6I/AAAAAAAABnw/yzGdk1MwGVM/s1600/Wuthering%2BHeights.jpg

http://cdn09.film.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/simonkiller645__120121111300-630×298.jpg

Sundance 2012: The Horror of Human Nature

by Andy Motz

Compliance

Shockingly based on true events Compliance is a chilling disturbing film that cannot help but raise some uncomfortable, but important questions about human nature.  The film takes place on a normal busy Friday afternoon in a small town fast food restaurant. The workers are all recognizably human and are no different from anyone of us: The teenagers who dread work, the middle-aged boss who is in love, and the older experienced part-time janitor. Then the phone rings. It is a police officer with unfortunate news. All too quickly an already stressful day takes a dark turn. Within the next couple hours many of these folks lives will be shattered and destroyed. Compliance had the entire audience squirming in their seats, yet no one could budge or leave.  Yet despite the disturbing subject matter no one left the theatre.  It is a tense well-directed film that contains a cast of talented unknowns that all add a dimension of realism to the film. Without their performances Compliance wouldn’t be as successful as it is. I’m not sure if I’d ever watch it again or at least again anytime soon, but I’m thankful for its serious probing of our potentially dangerous instincts to trust other humans above our own moral beliefs.

Excision

Playing as one of the features in the Midnight Sundance Selection Excision is undeniably a lot of fun. High-class art? No. A solid gross shocking unique vision of adolescence? Most definitely. Paula is a stereotypical social outcast whom all the popular girls make fun of. Her relationship with her mother is constantly strained and her Dad is emotionally absent. Her only comfort in life comes from two places: Her younger sister and her psychosexual fantasies that fuel her actions in real life. An example is her own bizarre and sick desire to lose her virginity while she is menstruating. Excision certainly pushes the envelope, but one can’t help but appreciate writer/director Richard Bates understanding of the horror genre and how it can be used to reveal deeper truths. It one looks past all the awkward sex, bloody fantasies, and a fantastically disturbing finale Excision is a story of growing up in a suburban landscape where to be considered a real woman one has to conform to socially constructed rules. Unfortunately Bates has not quite acquired directing skills needed for a full-length theatrical feature. The framing and cinematography gives the film a very cheap and made for TV feel limiting the films ultimate potential.  Still Excision is a quite a fun ride and Bates has a lot of potential as a future horror filmmaker.

Image Sources:

http://www.sundance.org/images/articles/leads/Compliance-Article-1.jpg

http://www.saltlakemagazine.com/site_media/uploads/excision-still.jpg

Sundance 2012: Missed Opportunities

by Andy Motz

Keep the Lights On

The biggest disappointment I’ve seen thus far at Sundance, Keep the Lights On, is an underdeveloped, drawn-out, poorly-acted film with way too many missed opportunities. The film, written and directed by Ira Sachs, tells the story of two men (Erik and Paul), and their turbulent nine-year relationship. Nine years full of affairs, drug addiction, and the inability to face their own personal problems. Yet none of these issues are fully, honestly, or even realistically explored — in part due to a screenplay that feels like a first draft, and also due to the surprisingly terrible acting from the entire cast.  This is especially problematic when it comes to the character of Erik. He is the center of the screenplay. The audience sees the story through his eyes. The camera focuses on Erik’s reactions to express the turmoil and tragedy of it all. Therefore Erik’s flat performance  (courtesy of Thurn Lindhart) hurts the film tremendously.  The movie’s biggest flaw is its inability to connect with its audience. One does not believe, let alone care about Erik, Paul, or their supposed heartbreaking relationship. Keep the Lights On desperately wants to make one feel the downfalls and triumphs of these two men, but it ends up being somewhat of a raw shell with a hollow center.

Wish You Were Here

An impressive directorial debut from Kieran Darcy Smith, Wish You Were Here is an interesting drama thriller hybrid that fulfills the drama aspect, but falls short in terms of being a rewarding thriller.  Told in a fragmentary non-chronological order, married couple Alice and Dave (the excellent Joel Edgerton) go on vacation with Alice’s sister Steph and her new boyfriend Jeremy.  After a blurry crazy night of partying and drugs Jeremy goes missing without a trace. Post vacation life is anything but easy for the three who must continue on with their daily lives.  Slowly but surely, piece-by-piece, the truth of what happened that night rears its ugly head and the characters are not as innocent as they would like each other to believe. Wish You Were Here demonstrates how one night, one decision can forever alter our lives and the lives of those we love. With an especially harrowing conclusion of the second act the film is constantly compelling. Still with all this suspense and mystery the big reveal feels a bit anti-climatic. The build up through out the entire movie deserves a more satisfying conclusion than the one that is given. The character of Steph is also strangely absent in the later half; she is used for a plot twist early on and then forgotten. What is frustrating is that the relationship dynamics between the three leads are so well developed, if only the story had been just as strong.

Image Sources:

http://keepthelightsonfilm.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/KEEP_THE_LIGHTS_ON_Thure_Lindhardt_Zachary_Booth_byJean-Christophe-Husson.jpg

http://recordpreserveshare.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/wishyouwerehere.jpg?w=490&h=329

Sundance Film Festival 2012: Alcoholics and Honey Delivery Men

by Andy Motz

Smashed

From the synopsis Smashed sounded like an intense gritty drama: A married couple whose relationship is based around getting wasted is put to the test once the wife decides to attend AA meetings and attempt sobriety. However director/co writer James Ponsoldt takes the film in a different direction than most in the substance abuse genre. Smashed is a full on dramedy that focus’s not only on the brokenness of the characters, but their humorous quirks as well. The best aspect of the film is certainly the performances, especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the main protagonist, Kate. Winstead brings not only heart and realism to the movie, but she also bursts with comedic energy. Yet Smashed is a dramedy that is much better in the moment than it is in retrospect. At times it is moving, at others it is a bit too obvious lacking subtlety and subtext. Still due to the actors in both large and small roles make the film an entertaining indie.

L

With an approximate number of walk out at twenty-five-people Babis Makridis (writer of Dogtooth) L is certainly one of the most divisive films at Sundance this year (along with Tim and Eric). It’s bizarre. It’s creative. It’s intellectually engaging. It’s difficult. It’s aesthetically astounding. And it’s brilliant. It is hard for one to even describe the plot of this absurdist piece of cinema. It tells both the universal but also personal story of Man (that’s his name) struggling to find answers in a world where nothing is certain.  Man lives in his car alone. Once and awhile his ex-wife drops off the kids and he takes them driving around the city. He seems content with this. His career is one of driving to pick up honey for a rich man and he is very good at it. Still he continuously has reoccurring nightmares involving his best friend who lived in the honey fields as a bear only to be shot by a hunter. All this is only the tip of iceberg. Needless to say Samuel Beckett would be proud. In L’s short eighty minute running time it manages to explore the mysterious truth of our existence: that humans will always be searching for truth and answers. We change, our beliefs change, our friends will react differently to our changes, and life’s questions will never fully be answered. Babis Makridis explores this and more in a way that is truly unique, never boring, and constantly challenging.

Image Sources:

http://cdn05.film.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Smashed_MaryElizabethWinstead_AaronPaul_byOanaMarian.jpg

http://www.atthecinema.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/L.jpg

Sundance Film Festival 2012: Body Builders and Performance Artists

by Andy Motz

Marina Abramovic The Artist is Preset

One form of art most often dismissed by the public is the seemingly always controversial and confrontational performance art. This enlightening and thought-provoking documentary creates a portrait of a woman who many critics call the queen of performance art: Marina Abramovic. Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present is carefully constructed film that chronicles both her artistic/personal past and the retrospective exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, which presents her with another challenging performance piece. This results into a great exploration into the rhyme and reason (yes there is a purpose) of Abramovic’s works therefore broadening ones own understanding of how to approach and intelligently engage with controversial works. The best aspect of the documentary though is how it manages to demonstrate the ability of her performance art to strip away exterior falsities and forces. Abramovic’s galleries reveal humanities deep desires for connection and honesty transforming her work and this excellent documentary into a very spiritual piece of art.

Teddy Bear

Channeling Daren Arronofsky’s The Wrestler filmmaker Mads Matthiesen tells the story of a body builder, named Dennis, with some serious social issues, especially when it comes to his relationships with the opposite sex. In part due to his controlling mother who continues to treat him a though he was still ten years old(he still lives at home). Attempting to discover not only himself but, on a subconscious level,  break free of his mothers psychological grasp he travels to Thailand. The rest of the film chronicles Dennis’s struggle to find love with woman and find a balance in his uneven relationship with his Mother. Teddy Bear is a very touching and well-acted movie about where humans will look for love.  Yet for some reason it never becomes something truly powerful or memorable. It is a very good film with no distinctive flaws and a tender heart, but it never fully reaches greatness. Something is missing.

Image Sources:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2687/4421751197_e876cce77b_z.jpg

http://www.sundance.org/images/filmguide/2012/120125-1.jpg

Truly Seeing: Lee Chang-Dong’s Poetry

by Andy Motz

In her classic memoir Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Anne Dillard sees things with fresh eyes and child like wonder. An afternoon relaxing under a sycamore tree provides her with profound thoughts on mortality, time, the past, and God. Instead of ignoring the nature that is all around her she decides to really “see” it for the first time. There in which she finds beauty and peace.

“To really know what an apple is, to be interested in it, to understand it, that is really seeing it,” says a poetry teacher to small class at a community center in Lee Chang-Dong’s moving film Poetry. The teacher encourages the grown adult pupils to see life for the first time; there they will find inspiration for their poems. One particular student is a sixty-six year old woman, Mija, who has never written a poem. She barely makes it into the class because she forgets to sign up. However this class and this teacher’s recommendation to see unbeknownst to her might be her saving grace.

In the past two hundred years this is exactly what poets have done. As a coping mechanism to life’s brutality’s they look deeper at life to fully understand its many complexities. The great British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson did this on numerous instances throughout his life. In his poem The Lady of Shallot Tennyson takes a 15^th century tale and through poetry re works it to comment on topical societal issues such as the struggle for a woman to find freedom and equality amongst male counter parts. In an even more personal poem Tennyson sees the world differently than he ever had before.  In Memoriam A.H.H. was a reaction to a death of a close friend that caused him to question the existence of God and the randomness of existence. Through the art of poetry he is able to work through his struggle and understand life in a way previously unattainable. He begins in a state of despair and slowly by the end poem he arrives at some sense of peace; his vision is renewed.

Line 55

“I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,

And gather dust and chaff and call

To what I feel is the Lord of all,

An faintly trust the larger hope.”

Compare that with the last stanza of the poem:

“With faith that comes of self control,

The truths that never can be proved

Until we close with all we loved,

And all we flow from, soul in soul”

T.S. Elliot with his poem The Wasteland is able to cope with the loss of WWI by confronting it and fully realizing the newly devastated world. Emily Dickenson often offered readers new insights into death and how humanity perceives or approaches it. Even a more modern-day poet such as Madeline L’Engle seeks to truly understand the characters of the Bible with her use of poetry in her collection A Cry Like a Bell.

Some offer a new way of seeing that is positive, but others are quite depressing. Both are ultimately beautiful for they open up a world one would never understand other wise.

Poetry is all Mija has. She strives to gain inspiration from looking at an apple, at a tree struggling to see with fresh eyes. When first introduced she seems like a well off elderly woman, yet as the film progresses it is revealed that Mija is anything but. She is on government welfare, she lives in a female oppressed male dominated society, doctors tell her she has Alzheimer’s, and she shockingly finds out that her fifteen-year old grandson participated in multiple gang rapes causing the girl to eventually commit suicide.  The situations get worse and worse with Mija becoming more and more desperate to do anything it takes to resolve the overwhelming tribulations.  Make no mistake Poetry is a dark grueling film that runs in the vein of Lars Von Trier. At two hours and twenty minutes it certainly isn’t an easy ride, but Yung Jun-Hee masterful performance as Mija draws one in making it near impossible for the viewer to remain detached during the films running time.

Yet like In Memoriam and The Wasteland writer/director Lee Chan-Dong does not allow pessimism to win the day. He offers a solution. That solution is finding that new way of seeing. While first and foremost an art form poetry can be a therapeutic tool as well. Poetry can break through the walls of suffocating external realities and discover a wealth compassion, beauty, and truth in places one never cared to look. That is what Poetry in all its complexities and darkness is about. It is an artist utilizing one powerful art form (cinema) to reveal the saving power of another one (poetry).

Sources:

Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature.New York: Norton, 2006. Print.

Image Sources:

http://www.haggardandhalloo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/poetry-the-movie.jpg

 http://www.go386.com/movies/images/2011/05/26/photo148903.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XFiSkFbdb6U/TUZBvx_fvVI/AAAAAAAABfo/j3C3mqwalII/s1600/Poetry_2-web.jpg

The Descendants

by Andy Motz

Crowd pleasing Oscar-bait. This is what I had pre-judged The Descendants to be. I dragged myself to the theatre, knowing from the trailer and from friends that this was going to be one over-hyped mediocre film. The film started and George Clooney began his narration, which was essentially witty exposition. I shifted in my seat. As The Descendants continued however the voiceover’s ceased and the impossible started to happen. I tried to fight this budding likening of the film before my eyes. “I have to dislike this film, it has to be overrated,” I kept telling myself.

Soon enough I gave up that mindset and allowed myself the chance to enjoy what unexpectedly turned out to be a funny, painful, and, best of all, human film.

In a superb performance George Clooney plays Matt King, a distanced father and husband living in the beautiful islands of Hawaii. His wife is currently in a coma after a water skiing accident. He also is in charge of deciding whether or not to sell a large amount of natural Hawaiian land that was owned by his relatives hundreds of years before. His young daughter continues to get in trouble at school, his eldest is at a reform school due to her substance abuse problem, his father-in-law is a cold uncouth man, he finds out his wife was planning to leave him for another man, and then comes the icing on the cake. Matt gets the news that his wife will never come out of a coma. In her will she requested that if this particular situation would happen the doctors must take her off the feeding tube, allowing her to starve to death.

Obviously Matt King now has a lot of issues to deal with and juggle that he can no longer ignore; he is forced to engage in the messiness that is life where as before he was able to keep a safe distance.

The screenplay by director Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon is the shining light of the film. It manages to fully develop all of the multiple storylines without ever bogging the film down. The differing arcs and subplots interweave with each other quite naturally and even wrap themselves up in an unforced fashion. This is the key to the script: it strives for realism. The Descendants never stoops to easy laughs that cheapen the characters and it fully realizes the harsh circumstances that these once materialistic characters now find themselves in. Payne and Faxon have a keen and experienced ear at knowing how much dialogue is just enough without bordering on the excessive. The first twenty minutes are perhaps a tad bit exposition heavy, but once it takes off one forgets the openings voiceover.

There is nothing faulty with Payne’s direction in The Descendants, but there is nothing spectacular either. The lighting, music, camera angles, and camera movements add nothing to story, but neither do they detract from it. Payne does a fine job of capturing the wonderful acting from the entire cast however small or large their role is. Like the screenplay the camera isn’t afraid to present Matt and his families tragic situation realistically especially in the third act where the viewer sees Matt’s starving bed ridden wife multiple times. This is not a quirky comedy this is a family drama about death and responsibility.

The opening shot is of a traffic jam that resembles Los Angeles. The last shot is of the Hawaii most human’s first think of: the sandy beach, the blue ocean, and green mountains. These two shots are symbolic of the journey Payne takes this particular family on. They start off jammed, angry, bitter, overwhelmed, but slowly move towards a sense of peace. The journey is a compelling relatable one that despite my preconceived notions won me over.

 Image Sources:

http://livingchandler.com/files/2011/11/The-Descendants-2.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/post_images/8658/decendantslafca.jpg?1323642542

http://www.indiewire.com/static/dims4/INDIEWIRE/c756dd5/4102462740/thumbnail/680×478/http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/f8/eac170113c11e18c76123138165f92/file/TheDescendants_wp.jpg