A Very Long Engagement

A Very Long Engagement (2004) Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

 

You may know this director from his work with Marc Caro on films such as “Delicatessen”, “City of Lost Children”, and “Amelie”.   This time, without Marc Caro, Jeunet takes a bit of a different path with his film, but still manages to mix the whimsy and the horrific without missing a beat.

 

Our story takes place around World War 1.   Audrey Tatou  (Amelie), who will eventually not be able to get away with playing 20 year olds (but not yet), is a crippled young girl, Mathilde, whose fiancée has gone off to war.  Despite all reports and signs that say that her fiancée, Manech, has been killed, she refuses to give up hope and launches an all out search for him.

 

Now, Mathilde lives with her aunt & uncle, since her parents were killed when she was a baby & then she contracted polio, but she still manages to get around fairly well.   She was made fun of at school by the other children because she was crippled, so she became very shy until a neighbor boy, Manech, managed to befriend her.

 

Now, it seems that Manech was part of a group of men that were to be executed for self-mutilation, that is, maiming yourself so you could be sent home from the front.  These scenes are quite inventive and are presented in a VERY darkly humorous manner.   But instead of being executed, this group of men were set loose in “no-man’s land” to fend for themselves, and while some witnesses that Mathilde manages to track down say they saw Manech killed, she eventually finds one that seems to think he was spared somehow.   

 

Mathilde never refuses to give up hope, and  she relies on certain little games that we’ve all participated in at some time in our lives, like, if she counts to 7 before a train enters a tunnel then everything will be all right, etc.    She also hires a private detective, Germain Pire (as played by the late Ticky Holgado, a staple in previous Jeunet & Caro films) to help her.

 

There is, however, another twist to things, like a prostitute named Tina who is out for blood, because one of the men supposedly killed was her man, or one of them, anyway. – maybe her favorite, I don’t know.  She has painstakingly tracked down the officers responsible for the execution of these men & has managed to do them in in amusingly creative (but nasty) ways.  

 

I have to say that while I knew this movie was by half the team that did some movies that I really love, I avoided it for a long time because it just didn’t look like it would be that good, and it’s sort of a romance, but not really.    I was very wrong in my assumption, and I’m quite glad I finally watched it, because I wasn’t at all disappointed.   Recommended!

Mister Lonely – 2007

Mister Lonely – 2007 director Harmony Korine Diego

Luna plays “Michael Jackson”, an impersonator living in Paris, just scraping by and living a very solitary life by performing for spare change and the occasional gig at an old folks home. At one such gig, he meets “Marilyn Monroe” (Samantha Morton), and she tells him of a commune made up of people just like them, which is in a remote area of Scotland. Since “Michael” hasn’t got much better to do, he agrees to go live with them, since they don’t have a Michael yet.

Now, Marilyn is married to Charlie Chaplin (who apparently used to be Buster Keaton) and they have a daughter, Shirley Temple. Also living in the commune are a foul-mouthed Abe Lincoln, The Three Stooges, Queen Elizabeth, The Pope, Madonna, Sammy David Junior, James Dean, and even…Buckwheat. There’s also Little Red Riding Hood (played by Korine’s wife) but that doesn’t really seem to fit as I wasn’t aware Little Red Riding Hood was ever a real person, but in this film, that doesn’t matter much.

You would think with that sort of premise & the cast that this would be some kind of goofy comedy and these people would be presented as “freaks”. They’re not. These people have such a passion for what they’re doing that they’ve “become” these people, in their minds, and they’re among friends with the same mindset.

Of course, these people go through trials and tribulations of life just like anyone else. There’s jealousy, there’s sadness, and there’s tragedy as the commune’s sheep have to be killed off because of disease. And of course, there’s the Three Stooges, with rifles, doing what needs to be done with grim faces.

The commune decides to build a stage and a performing hall and invite the locals to “The Greatest Show On Earth” where they all perform as their alter-egos, and while the cast is certainly enthusiastic about their production, the locals aren’t, and attendance is sparse. Then tragedy strikes as one of the members takes their own life, after which Michael decides to return to his old life in Paris.

Interspersed with the commune’s story (and seemingly unrelated to anything else) are some segments of a priest (played by director Werner Herzog) who seems to have found a miracle while flying his small private plane over a remote area dropping food, and by accident, a nun. The nun miraculously survives her fall from the plane so Herzog begins to take more nuns up to “stunt dive” and they all survive. This gains him and this particular order of nuns an audience with The Pope (the real one) and the film ends on an incredibly ironic note with the outcome of their journey.

Interesting casting choices in this film too, as there are two members of the cast from “Performance” (1970) playing The Pope (James Fox) and The Queen (Anita Pallenberg, former “Rolling Stones” girlfriend).

This is not a film for everyone but it is quite a departure from Korine’s earlier films (Julien Donkey Boy & Gummo). It’s incredibly strange, beautiful, and even a bit touching, and after you’ve watched it you’ll either wonder why or you’ll marvel at its oddness.

Christmas on Mars – 2008

Christmas On Mars – 2008 – Director Wayne Coyne

I’m not really fan of the Flaming Lips, although I have heard their music for years. When I read about this, though, I had to have it, because I have rather a big passion for non-traditional Christmas films (mostly horror) and this sounded very appealing.   And I found that I liked it a lot.

It’s Christmas eve on Mars at the isolated settlement where an expedition is housed, and the personnel there are suffering from cabin fever, and starting to see things, and become unbalanced. Along comes a rather strange being (Wayne Coyne, singer & songwriter of Flaming Lips) who appears out of nowhere just as a suicidal Santa runs out of Hatch Number 1 of the building, who of course meets with a horrible death, thanks to no oxygen.   What’s left of Santa is dragged back in, along with the Martian, who speaks not a word and is stoic throughout his questioning by the redneck commanding officer.   The biggest concern with the recently deceased (and now rather ghastly) Santa is getting the suit off him without ruining it.

Apparently one crew member is in charge of putting together a Christmas event for the rest of the crew, and the Martian is eventually volunteered to wear the Santa suit.  Strangely, the Martian does not respond to the commanding officer but meekly dons the Santa suit and follows the other crew member wherever he goes.

There’s a lot of strange things going on within this little colony, and there are equipment failures and crew members with degenerating mental states to deal with, but the benevolent Martian ends up wandering around by himself, and manages to repair the malfunctioning equipment which would have otherwise resulted in the demise of the entire expedition.

This is mostly filmed in black & white but some of the “psychedelic” color sequences are pretty interesting, and could be right out of some groovy 60’s or 70’s film, despite the fact that the viewer rarely knows what they’re supposed to be seeing during these scenes.

There seem to be quite a few influences for this, and I was put in mind of “Dark Star”, “Solaris” (the Russian one), “Eraserhead”, “2001″, and “Tetsuo The Iron Man”. The acting isn’t the greatest but that doesn’t really detract from the overall viewing experience. There’s quite a bit of dark humor to this too. I was quite impressed, overall, and this even manages to have a rather magical and mysterious feel to it, and even a relatively upbeat ending.   

Apparently this film took about 7 years to complete, and the actors are mostly members of The Flaming Lips, their friends, and families. If you like cheesy science fiction & non-traditional type Christmas films then check this out, I found it to be a rather fun and interesting experience & well worth seeing. Not for the kiddies though, by any means…a few gruesome scenes & plenty of language.   Overall though, well done and well worth checking out.

Sam 

Repo! A Genetic Opera

 

REPO!   A Genetic Opera

 

OK….for those that have been waiting for something to finally eclipse “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” as the next timeless cult midnight movie, well, keep waiting, because I don’t think that this one will quite do it.

 

Now, I’ve seen “Rocky Horror Picture Show” at midnight showings, at the old Cinema 150 in Santa Clara, CA (along with Bill & some others), and people REALLY got into it, and there were even people acting out the entire film in front of the screen, too.   I really can’t see that happening with this film.   The songs are catchy and maybe it’s from continual airplay over the years, but I can still hear “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” in my head, every once in a while, and I didn’t really find anything quite that contagious in “Repo!”.

 

The story is that of a future society, where there’s been a huge plague and many have died.   To survive a lot of people have undergone organ transplants, thanks to mega-company GeneCo, run by one Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino).    The problem is, though, is that these organ transplants are really expensive, and if one doesn’t keep up with their payments, well, the Repo Man shows up to take your organs back.    And this seems to happen quite often, ick.

 

A young girl named Shilo has been confined to her home for many years, thanks to a blood disease she inherited from her mother, who is long deceased.   Her father is a kindly doctor, who loves her more than anything, but he also has a rather disturbing alter ego as one of these Repo Men, and he seems to love his work.

 

Now, Rotti Largo has found out that he’s dying and he must decide who will take over GeneCo when he’s gone.   Will it be son Luigi (Bill Mosely, who has extreme anger issues)?    Will it be Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton, who has some extreme substance abuse and cosmetic surgery issues)?  Or will it be  Pavi (Nivek Ogre, from Skinny Puppy, who is a creepy womanizer)?    None of them is exactly the bedrock of mental health, but that never seems to be an issue in this film.

 

Then there’s The Graverobber, a young man who sneaks around graveyards at night to remove a certain chemical from dead bodies and manufactures it into a highly addictive and illegal drug, which is mostly illegal because it takes away from GeneCo’s profits.

 

This is actually a very well done film, and the music is great, but it’s not quite as memorable as I would like.   The film is clever, the film is nasty, and it’s a great midnight movie, and a cult-classic to come, I’d say, but it’s certainly not “the next” Rocky Horror Picture Show.    A lot of fun and worth seeing.   And don’t be frightened that Paris Hilton is in this, she’s watchable & tolerable for once. 

 

Sam 

Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah talai jone)

Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah talai jone) 2000, director Wisit Sasanatieng

 

 

This is presented as a western, and it IS sort of a western, although it’s made in Thailand so you can imagine that they’ve put their own spin on it, whether it be from creativity or from just plain ignorance of what a western is supposed to be like.   

 

Now, by saying this is a western, I’ve probably put a lot of people off, because nobody much watches westerns anymore, but this is different, to say the least.    First off, it seems to take place in modern times, the cowboy outfits are rather like those that a child would wear, at least 40 or 50 years ago, and there’s also a mix of genres, including a sort of  juvenile delinquent spin that was popular in the 50’s.  Plus, it’s got incredible deep saturated colors that  are incredible to see, it’s like watching a painting instead of a movie.    And as for the western bits, well, there’s even a good old-fashioned shoot-out, that would make fans of old cowboys movies feel faint….kind of a splatter western, but in an over-the-top style kind of like “Evil Dead”….more is better.

 

This is also a romance, for our hero, Dum (yes, really) is smitten with a young lady that he’s been in love with since they were kids, and he’s sworn to win her heart, even though her father has promised her to another.

 

The sets are quite surreal, to say the least, and the scenery is incredibly beautiful, for the most part, and then we shift to some incredibly violent gun-play and you’re left gaping at the screen.   There’s even a scene where Dum and a friend of his become blood brothers in front of a statue of Buddha…and then get rip-roaring drunk.   Not your typical western, indeed.

 

There are even some bits where we “go back in time” to when our characters were younger, which play out as though they were an “old time” film, complete with jumpy film and missing soundtrack bits, and oh yes, the soundtrack…well, it’s kind of  old-time Western music, with a definite “Eastern” spin.

 

This is a wonder to behold, and it may not be for everyone, but  I loved it.   It seems incredibly bizarre to take a genre that is so very  American and transplant it to Thailand, and the results are everything you might expect…or might NOT expect.   Truly strange & worth seeing. 

 

Sam

Tales from the Gimli Hospital

“Tales from the Gimli Hospital” (1987)

 

Director: Guy Maddin

 

 

Step into the darkly disturbing world of Guy Maddin, whose films always seem to take place in the 20’s or 30’s and yet have a disturbingly modern sense to them.   Filmed in black & white, and with great care to make them look far older than they are, his films are sort of an acquired taste, yet they’re also incredibly bizarre and interesting.

 

In an outbreak of smallpox in a small Canadian town, two hospital-ridden victims vie for the attention of the nurses and make fish out of tree bark. One goes blind and a nurse paints his glasses black. The hospital itself is above an animal barn, so there’s feathers and hay everywhere.    Surgery is conducted with farm implements, and due to lack of anesthesia, the nurses put on puppet shows to divert the attention of the patients.  

 

If all this sounds pretty out-there to you, well, it is, but if you’re already a fan of Guy Maddin it’s all pretty normal…..for him. If you’re a fan of David Lynch then you would probably like Guy Maddin’s films, although I can’t really say they have the same tone to them. Maddin also employs a nifty sense of deadpan humor in his work, which I like a lot. This is a delightfully weird film and not just a little creepy, but overall it has a bizarre quality to it that makes it quite unique and well worth seeing for the adventurous.    Maddin’s output hasn’t been prolific, but he has generated about a dozen films over the past 20 years, some feature-length, some not, and all worth checking out.

 

Sam

Northfork

NORTHFORK (2003)

Director: Michael Polish

If you’ve ever seen “Twin Falls, Idaho”, you might have some idea of what you’re in for with Northfork.   Or perhaps, not.   I suppose there would be some comparisons with the work of David Lynch but this is more eerily beautiful than creepily disturbing.

It’s the early 1950’s, and Northfork, Montana, is being evacuated, slowly, in preparation for a new dam. Once the evacuation of the town is complete, the dam will open & the entire area will be flooded. A group of state employees are assigned to the town to “assist” all who have not yet left, and some of the hold-outs are rather reluctant to go, much less chat with anyone about it.  In fact, some of them are armed and downright unwilling to do anything they don’t want to do.

Interspersed with all this is the saga of some eccentric people living in one of the houses, who, as the story rolls on, appear to be angels, sent to look for a “lost” angel.   There is also a young boy, abandoned by his adoptive parents (back to the priest that got him adopted in the first place) because he is “sick”.    Even though we see the young boy lying still in his bed, he appears to these “angels” and may well be the one they seek. One of the state employees (as played by James Woods) and his son, must also deal with disinterring his dead wife and moving her body to another location. These two also have the pleasure of dealing with a man who has built an ark and is waiting for the water to rise.

This is beautifully filmed, and the scenery is breath-taking. The story line is a bit difficult, but worthwhile, so stick with it. It’s a beautiful and eerie film, but it won’t be for all tastes, as in, those who have no patience. It’s even got its own droll sense of humor to it. Well worth seeing but not for all tastes.   The bad news is, though, that this may not be readily available, as it’s out of print & apparently didn’t rake in the big bucks…which is too bad, but try to get your mitts on it anyway.

Sam

Liquid Sky

Liquid Sky (1982)

Director: Slava Tsukerman

So, is Liquid Sky a FEEELM, or is it just a “cult classic”?    Doesn’t matter how it gets pigeon-holed to me, but you should really see it, if you never have.   Just don’t watch it if everything has to make perfect sense to you, because, guaranteed, you won’t like it.

Margaret (Anne Carlisle) is “an uptight WASP c*** from Connecticut”, according to her nasty girlfriend, Adrian.   Margaret is the one with all the cool fashions and make-up though, even though she is a bit…androgynous.    Imagine her surprise when a tiny alien spacecraft lands on the roof of their penthouse (unknown to anyone except for a German scientist who’s “sort of” in hot pursuit of it, and by “sort of” I mean he’s much more busy being seduced by a woman in a neighboring building that has a nice view of the action.) The aliens have come to earth looking for heroin but have apparently decided that they like getting off on Margaret’s orgasms, but this also results in the death of her sex partners (of which there are quite a few). Don’t think of this as a bad thing, they all deserve to die, more or less.   It’s just a bit unnerving for Margaret, though.  And by the way, at the time this was made, “liquid sky” was slang for heroin…maybe it still is, don’t know, don’t care.

There are unfortunately long stretches of talky bits, and due to the budget some of the effects are ultra-cheesy.  However, this has a sort of galloping weirdness to it that sucks you right in.  Also, lots of time spent, trying to figure out what to do with the bodies of former lovers.  Lots of strangely orchestrated scenes of traffic set to what sounds like harpsichord music.  And, a LOT of this appears to be a great big poke at the NYC music scene of the times, very minimalist rhythm box stuff, and the “stars” which think that they can go anywhere (like Berlin) and become famous with their crap (like Adrian).   By the way, I think Adrian wears a jock strap on her head throughout most of the film.   

Sam

The Science of Sleep (La Science des Reves)

The Science of Sleep (La Science des Reves) 2006

 

Director:  Michel Gondry

 

Stephane Miroux has been living in Mexico with his father since he was a child & his parents divorced.  Now that his father has died, Stephane returns to France to be near his mother, and has taken a job that she has arranged for him.

 

Stephane, as his mother says, has always had a problem with “inverting his dreams and reality”, as you’ll soon see, because Stephane seems to live in a world of his own creation.    Sometimes it’s pretty obvious when he’s dreaming and sometimes it’s not, so it’s rather a challenge to the viewer to make that distinction sometimes, since apparently Stephane can’t.   It’s not like he’s a dangerous character or anything, because his dreams seem to be of a much better world where things happen as he thinks they should.

 

And speaking of things happening as he thinks they should, he took the job his mother arranged for him at this business where they make calendars, thinking he’d be a graphic artist, when all his job is supposed to be is to put business names on calendars for other business owners to give away.    Stephane was rather under the impression he was to be a graphic artist, and he’s rather puzzled when no one seems very interested in his “Disasterology” calendar, which has a famous disaster for every month (plane crashes, earthquakes, etc.).   He also boasts some rather eccentric co-workers. 

 

Stephane is living in their old apartment while his mother is living with her new beau, and he meets two young ladies who live next door, but doesn’t want to let them know he’s their landlord’s son.   He becomes rather smitten with Zoe but it’s Stephanie that he hooks up with and he wants to show her “his world”, although at times you’re never sure if she can really see it.   Stephane and Stephanie sort of become an item but Stephane is so into his own little world that he seems to get frustrated with her and her inability to share it.

 

Stephane is also somewhat of an inventor, and he invents 3D glasses for real life (“isn’t life already in 3D?” asks Stephanie).   He also invents a sort of time machine that will allow one to travel into the past by only a couple seconds.   He also breaks into Stephanie’s apartment and mechanizes a stuffed horse of hers, too, and you’ll see that horse sometime later as well..  

 

This is a rather messy movie, but it’s rather a magical film and there’s tons of eye candy.   Don’t expect a tidy ending or something that necessarily makes tons of sense, because that’s not what this is about.    There’s nothing particularly dark about this though, it’s is all rather light-hearted fantasy.   Great soundtrack, too, including a Lou Reed song performed by a band dressed as furry mammals.   Very fun stuff.

 

Sam

Divine Intervention (Yadon ilaheyya)

Divine Intervention (Yadon ilaheyya) (2002)

 

I’m not truly sure of the origin of this film as it seems to have been a collaboration between several countries.   I guess it’s mostly Palestinian, but since Palestine is not recognized as a country then it’s released through a French company.  The basic story though, seems to be that of two lovers, non-Israeli’s living in Israeli-occupied territory,  who are separated by an army checkpoint and who go to great lengths to meet on the sly.  I guess the city in which this takes place is Jerusalem, and the film also focuses in here and there on little bits of life & society and how it is functioning in such a strange environment. The film begins with a bunch of youths chasing a Santa Claus up a hill in a very non-Christmas kind of setting; cacti, etc, presumably to stone him to death (also not a very Christmas-like setting).   There’s also a man driving a car through the crowded streets and waving and acknowledging his neighbors and acquaintances, all the while providing a foul-mouthed running commentary on what a bunch of scum they are.

 

This is chock full of black humor but it’s very sad in many ways too. There are some very memorable scenes, such as a woman slinking through the checkpoint like she owns the place, despite the fact that all the guards have their machine guns trained on her. She lifts her sun glasses and gives them “the look” (you’ll see “the look” a couple more times in the film) and they let her just stalk on by, after which their guard tower collapses. Also memorable is a group of men shooting at targets on a practice range, the targets being Muslim women, and the men perform choreographed moves while shooting that must be seen to be believed. A woman emerges from the last standing target as some sort of Super-Ninja and takes revenge on the men in ways that ALSO have to be seen to be believed, right before she spins off into the air and takes out a helicopter as well.

 

The main man of the story, Elia, (who I guess is also the director) has a bit of a tragedy going on with his father who is in the hospital due to a heart attack. This is a very interesting hospital as the patients in the cardiac ward can disconnect their monitoring equipment to go take a smoke break.  Most of the doctors, nurses, and patients wander around the hospital, puffing away.     

 

This is a rather stunning film and probably my first from this part of the world. It’s amazing to me that someone is able to derive humor from this situation and have it come off so well.   At times this is almost more a series of “blackout” sketches, some without dialog, than a full-blown “film”, but this does not detract from the power of it.   Trust me, this is a wonderful film and if you have an open mind you’ll probably find it fascinating.

 

Sam