THE DREAMERS

Movie of the week:
THE DREAMERS

The old joke goes, "If you don't remember the 60's, you were there." It's a reference to the notion that everybody was drugged up during that time. It's a gross exaggeration at best.

People my age remember the 60's with great reverence and awe. You might think it was the time of King Arthur or of the Renaissance. "The music was the best, and things - man, things really seemed to matter." What a load of crap!

I remember the 60's. Maybe I wasn't drugged up enough, but what I remember was great political unrest. I remember the doomsday clock and how ultimate nuclear destruction was a very real and eminent reality that loomed over the landscape to remind us that each day could be our last. I remember that any time someone powerful and influential came along that promised real political and social reform, the hand holding the strings behind the curtain made sure that that person disappeared. I remember the country being torn apart by a huge abyss between the generations - neither side could understand (or even tried to understand) the other. We were so alien to our parents, it was as though we spoke a different language. The 60's weren't a time to wax nostalgic, they were a time to have survived.

And yet .........

I do wax nostalgic about the 60's. After all - they were my formative years. I was young and the world was my oyster. It may have had a lump of crap in it instead of a pearl, but that was alright too. Even though the world may come to an end at any moment, or maybe because of it, life was sweet, and beautiful, and exciting. It was a time for marching in the street. It was a time for revolution, and it wasn't limited to the US. Europe felt it too - especially France.

This is the setting for this week's movie THE DREAMERS - also known as "An American in Paris, ..... Getting it On, and Taking It to the Streets". Matthew, an American college student goes to study for a year in Paris in the late 60's. There he meets a beautiful young woman, Isabelle, and her brother, Theo (are they twins?). They are drawn together by their love of the cinema (they're always going to the movies), and by the fact that they're young and the world is their oyster and that oyster may have a lump of crap inside, instead of a pearl, but so what? It's what the French would call "joie de vivre", the joy of living.

This is a great looking film. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, who also made such films as Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, and The "Last" Sheltering Sky (just kidding about the last “Last”). He imbues the film with a dream-like quality that’s almost like a reverential “memory” of the time, in the same way that former flower children remember the 60’s.

I’m sure not everybody will like this film as much as I do. I really don’t care if you do or don’t. I’m just recommending it, and as many of you know, my recommendations need to be taken with a grain of salt. Everybody’s tastes are different, so you must watch it to decide for yourself. I can only tell you why I liked the film. So here are some final thoughts to leave with you.

1. It has a great soundtrack. It features music from the late 60’s ("The music was the best, and things - man, things really seemed to matter.").
2. For those Americans who are subtitle impaired, although the story takes place in Paris, and all the characters except for Matthew are French, almost all of the dialog is in English.
3. Jake Gyllenhaal was initially considered for the role of Matthew but turned it down because of the explicit nature of the nude scenes. And yet he made Brokeback Mountain - go figure. Oh, did I mention there was nudity? No? Silly me.
4. Leonardo DiCaprio was offered the role of Matthew, but turned it down because he was in pre-production with another movie. Michael Pitt was a good casting choice for Matthew as he evokes a DiCaprio-like persona.
5. There are many references to classic films throughout the movie. Some are explicit and others are more subtle. Those of you who are becoming film buffs may recognize some of these.
6. There is a lot of nudity in this film. Not that that’s a bad thing of course, but if that sort of thing bothers you, tough titties (quite literally). No, really, just don’t watch the movie.
7. If nudity does bother you, do you not ever visit the museum of art? They’re filled with paintings of nudes. For that matter, nudes exist on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel! How is film any less an art form than oils? …….. but I digress.
8. Would it help you to think of THE DREAMERS as a painting by that great Italian artist, Bernardo Bertolucci? … except that the painting moves around a bit? and talks? and you can watch it from your living room? DaVinci was also Italian. …. and the guy who sculpted the Venus de Milo (actually, I think he was Greek – but I had to mention Venus de Milo at least somewhere in this article because it represents a key scene in the film – worth the price of admission).
9. “I don't believe in God, but if I did, he would be a black, left-handed guitarist.” – Amen.
10. What’s it about? Hell if I remember. I was too drugged up at the time.
    

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote a terrific review of this film. His article gives more insights to the background of the film, as he was in Paris during that period, and because he knows Bertolucci personally. You can read his review here, it's worth a look.

See THE DREAMERS
And enjoy.

SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE

Revenge movie of the week:
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE

Let’s face it, revenge is sweet!

Everybody has thought this at one time or another. How many times have you wanted to exact vengeance on someone who has hurt you or otherwise wronged you? You understand, logically, that you often can’t, or even shouldn’t. The same old litany runs through your head, “Revenge hurts me more than it hurts you.” Or, “I’m above all that.” Or, “Revenge makes me no different than you.” That’s a load of crap. It certainly doesn’t stop me from whiling myself to sleep, dreaming up creative and elaborate ways to utterly destroy my enemies. It’s probably fortunate that I don’t have a lot of enemies.

You may never actually go through with your dastardly plans, but it’s still fun to watch someone else do it – in the movies - because it's not real, you see. The movies give us that freedom. Hence the popularity of such revenge-based films as Kill Bill, Unforgiven, The Count of Monte Cristo, and of course Animal House (the whole parade float sequence). In these films, there is a “wronger” and a “wrongee”. The wrongee gets wronged and the rest of the film chronicles how the wrongee plans and executes vengeance on the wronger. Despite the almost exact spelling. there is no confusion about who is who. In SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, it’s not that easy. There’s more than one wronger and there’s more than one wrongee, and of course, just for the heck of it, some people are both.

Chan-wook Park, of South Korea, has made what is known as his “Revenge Trilogy”. SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE is the first of this series. Park doesn’t make vengeance very easy in his films, nor should he. These people are blinded by rage or base hatred. They act quickly and without thinking. They often make bad or illogical decisions that can have dire consequences down the road. That’s the fun of this film. In his later movies, he investigates the concept of planning your revenge over a long period of time – that’s fun too.

This movie is not for everyone. It can be rather violent at times (duh!), but not as much as you might think. The violence is not absurd or surreal as in “Kill Bill” or “Sin City”. Instead, the acts are realistic, something you might do if you were angry enough and just didn’t care anymore. That’s what makes them ever so much more satisfying, I think.

A brief synopsis: A young deaf man lives with his sister. His sister took care of him as they were growing up and now he must take care of her. She's ill and needs a kidney transplant. He tries to donate one of his, but he’s not a match. Another problem, he has only about half the money he needs for a kidney plus the operation. Still another problem, his boss just laid him off from work. Then, things start to go horribly wrong. Face it, if things didn’t go horribly wrong, nobody would watch this movie. So – this man’s life goes to hell in a hand basket – for your amusement – so you’d have an interesting movie to watch. Now, don’t you feel somewhat obligated to watch his film? Hmmm?

I already mentioned the violence. But here are some other things to keep in mind before deciding whether to watch this film.

1. It’s in South Korean (and South Korean sign language) with various language sub-titles. But mostly, it’s in the language of “Vengeance”.
2. If you ever visit Vengeance, it good to know the language.
3. If you do ever get to Vengeance, be careful because it’s a dangerous place. The landscape’s not pretty, and especially stay away from the seething pressure cookers near the waterfront. Maybe it’s best to just get drunk and pass out. Better yet, just go to Aruba and chillax, as they say.
4. At the risk of giving anything away, just in case you were counting on it, - time travel does not play a significant role in this story. Sorry.
5. There is some sex and nudity. Not much, about the average amount for this type of movie. What does that mean? To help put this in perspective, let’s say it has more sex and nudity than The Sound of Music and somewhat less than Deep Throat. Does that narrow it down some?
6. This could be the first time that “The Sound of Music” and “Deep Throat” were ever referenced in the same sentence.
7. There are no references to either of these movies in this week’s film.
8. Once, in the 4^th grade, my teacher yelled at me in front of the class, and to get her back, I actually put a thumbtack on her seat. I actually did it! And ……… she actually sat on it! ……….. Unfortunately, she sat on it at an oblique angle and bent the point before it could pierce her butt. ………. ummmm, I forgot the point I was trying to make here. Oh well.
9. Perhaps you’d like to share your own revenge vignettes here by posting a comment.
10. It doesn’t have a happy ending, so put that expectation out of your mind right now!

Enjoy.

MULHOLLAND DR.

Movie of the week:
MULHOLLAND DR.

Last week I recommended a movie called The Straight Story by David Lynch (of Eraserhead and Twin Peaks fame). I said that the film was probably the most accessible of Lynch's movies. Unlike most of his other movies, it has wide appeal. It’s played straight (no pun intended), without venturing into the Twilight Zone. It delivers a feel good pay-off. It promotes positive social values. In fact, it has been praised both by film critics and spiritual leaders for its life-affirming message.

MULHOLLAND DR. is not like that.

No doubt that if you’ve heard anything about this film, it’s that it was strange and didn’t seem to make any sense, “What does it all mean, anyway?” For my money, this is the best and most entertaining of all David Lynch’s films, and is one of “FranksFilms 10 Favorite Films of All Time.” I will go as far as calling it brilliant! But – is it hard to follow? Does it make no sense? Well …….. yes & no. If it sounds like I’m being mysterious, that’s because this film is the ultimate mystery. Let me explain.

When you look up into the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere, Cassiopeia looms right on the horizon. It’s hard to miss – it’s the constellation that looks like a big “W”. But, if you stand on your head, it would look like an "M". And, if you were out near our sun’s nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, it would look somewhat different. If you look at it from even further away, it doesn’t look like a “W” at all. There may even be a point of view where it actually looks like a “P”……. could happen. In fact, there is probably only one viewpoint (our local neighborhood) from which you can see the W. This movie is a little like that.

The film is a mystery, and it IS mysterious, and chances are that, by the end of the movie, you will not have yet figured it out. Lynch doesn’t explain everything to you at the end like a Scooby-Doo adventure. You may be a little unsatisfied immediately after the film (I didn’t, but you might), but you WILL think about it afterward. You see, everything makes perfect sense if you look at it from the correct viewpoint, and it will probably make no sense at all if viewed from, say, the Crab Nebula. The more you think about it, the closer to Earth you get, and the more it looks like a W. When you finally see the W, you’ll wonder how you ever missed it in the first place.

I suppose you could cheat, and look it up on any number of film discussion sites on the Internet. I think that more has been written about this movie than any other I’ve seen – because of the “mystery” you see. However, I urge you not to (note that I didn’t include a title link at the top). It would ruin the whole enjoyment of the movie if you knew about the “twist” at the end. It would be like knowing the end of The Sixth Sense or Scream or Lucky Number Sleven before watching it. If you already know the surprise ending to the mystery film – why bother?

The film is long-ish (2 ½ hours). Why should you invest the time?

1. The film projects an atmosphere that’s quite unlike ordinary movies. Besides, why bother with ordinary movies when you have a film like this one?
2. You can sense something mysterious just under the surface. It’s not outwardly obvious, it more of an inkling. Except, now and then, mystery pokes its head out of its hidey-hole and grins right at you, leaving you to gape and say, “What the…? What was that? What the @!!$#%* was that!”
3. There is great and mysterious and wonderful chemistry between the two main characters. As Martha Stewart would say, “It’s good thing.”
4. Despite the mysteriousness of it all, Naomi Watts plays her character with such wide-eyed wonder that you can’t help but like her.
5. If you watch this film on DVD, don’t try to skip forward or backward using the skip/back scene button – as in, “What just happened? Wait, go back, I want to see that again.” The entire film appears as a single scene on the disc. Skipping ahead puts you at the end of the film, and skipping back brings you all the way back to the beginning. I’m mystified as to why they did it that way. I guess it’s a mystery.
6. Pay attention! There are clues. Mysterious ones.
7. There is a single point in the film, when you instantly realize that you have been looking at things from the Crab Nebula. It’s safe, I think, to say this because knowing that it’s coming will, in no way, prepare you for it. These kinds of discoveries, that come around occasionally, are what I love about watching films. You can still be surprised and be caught off-guard.
8. David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” was one of the most unique, interesting and innovative programs ever to air on American television. When it premiered in 1990, it was unparalleled in atmosphere and style and eeriness. It directly influenced shows like Northern Exposure, and dozens of others to follow. If you watch it today, you’d be amazed that such a series was ever put on television, and it would still feel new and unusual. MULHOLLAND DR. is a lot like that.
9. What the…? What was that? What the @!!$#%* was that!
10. Quick summary: A mystery mysteriously arises. The mysterious heroines are mystified. We, the viewers, become mystified. As we all delve into the mystery, everything dissolves into a mysterious enigma. Perplexed, the heroine struggles to solve the enigmatic puzzle, but alas, is overwhelmed by conundrum. Man! Now that's conundrumatic!
    
11. Not to be confused with Mulholland Falls. Also a good movie, but not as good as this one.
    

If I give the impression that the film is just one big unfathomable mess that you won’t be able to follow, the truth is exactly the opposite. It’s totally watchable and enjoyable, and you’ll be able to follow it just fine. If you reach a "disconnect", you may realize that you need to follow a different path, but again, you should be able to do that just fine. Will you solve the mystery? I can’t say, but give yourself a chance and watch the film without knowing too much before you see it.

Make lots of popcorn for this one.
Enjoy.

GOODBYE LENIN!

Movie of the week:
GOODBYE LENIN!

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, not everybody was happy about it. Sure, lots of people who were sick and tired of looking over their shoulders, and living in a repressed police state. But there were people who supported the communist regime, people who were members of the communist party, in good standing. Promises were made, expectations were expected. These people were suddenly standing around saying, "Now, what?"

This is the basis for a totally original comedy set in East Germany (not generally known as a hotbed for comedy). Christiane is a mother living in East Germany in 1989 (you can probably already guess where this is going). She is an avid supporter of the Communist regime. She doesn’t do it out of fear. She’s not corrupt. It’s not for money or for prestige or for privileged treatment. She supports the government because she believes in the ideal of communism. She supports it because this is her country, and all is right with it, and why don’t we all just give it a chance to make it work. She defends communism the same way that Americans support and defend democracy, even though we live in an imperfect realization of it.

Christiane has a son, a good boy. He loves his mother and wants her to be proud of him, but – he has a girlfriend, and she is a freedom-fighter. One day she spies her son taking part in an anti-government rally (such things were common right near the end). So great is her shock that she suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma (did I mention that this was a comedy?). When she comes to 8 months later, the wall has come down and communism is no more.

However …….

The doctors tell the son that his mother’s heart cannot withstand another shock and that he should not excite her. He decides not to tell his mother about the political turn of events. The lengths that he goes through to preserve the appearance that nothing has changed provides most of the hilarious moments in the film. How long can he keep up appearances with McDonalds and Coca-Cola billboards springing up all around? I mean, she does have a television.

The film is funny and heart-warming and thoroughly enjoyable. However, I don’t think it thoroughly depicted the full extent of the culture shock that must have been experienced in the East after the Berlin Wall came down. So – here’s a few examples of stuff they left out.

1. Increasingly difficult to find Borscht-Cola.
2. Friendly surveillance cameras no longer follow you around the house, making you feel less secure.
3. People who “watch” surveillance monitors – suddenly out of work.
4. Suddenly, the Krumpsturdt-mobile – no longer a status symbol.
5. Only given one month to come up to speed on current fashions. Besides, what to do with the old lederhosen?
6. All those new bright colors hurt my eyes.
7. Can now travel to the West, but have no idea, what-so-ever, where the “good” brew haus's are.
8. Steroid use for female athletes now frowned upon.
9. Competition for strudel contest now includes all of West Germany.
10. What’s this “Oktober-fest” I hear tell about?

In German with various language subtitles.

GOODBYE LENIN!
Enjoy.

PRINCESS MONONOKE

Movie of the week:
PRINCESS MONONOKE

What is the greatest action movie of all time? Is it Star Wars? Is it The Lord of the Rings? Is it Lawrence of Arabia? There is a very significant portion of the earth's movie-watching population who believe that it's this week's film, PRINCESS MONONOKE.

Now, I’m thinking that you’re feeling a little skeptical. You’re probably thinking, “From the looks of it, it’s a cartoon, right? How can you possible place a ‘cartoon’ in the same category as Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings, or Lawrence of Arabia? Besides, I’m an adult, and can’t waste my time watching cartoons.” You’d be half right. It IS a cartoon, an animated cartoon. The Meriam-Webster Dictionary defines an animated carton as

a motion picture that is made from a series of drawings, computer graphics, or photographs of inanimate objects (as puppets) and that simulates movement by slight progressive changes in each frame

…,. And thus are the likes of Pokemon, Bevis and Butthead, Spirited Away, Finding Nemo, Fantasia, Barnyard, The South Park Movie, and PRINCESS MONONOKE, all bundled under the same heading. AND, if you consider that many movies made today are heavily laden with CGI graphics (computer animation), would it be wrong to also place a film like "The Lord of the Rings" under the “cartoon” heading? So – maybe you’d be half right, about calling it a cartoon.

But you wouldn’t be right about the waste of time.

Being an adult doesn’t mean you can’t watch animated films. Not all animated films are for children - any more than oil paintings, hanging in a museum are any less adult (or real) than photographs. The Japanese understood this. In Japan, animation is a serious art form. As many animated films are made for adult audiences as are made for children. Nearly one-fourth of the box office take comes from animated films. Is it any wonder that some of the best (like this week’s movie) come from there?

PRINCESS MONONOKE is another masterpiece from that master animator-storyteller Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. He is responsible for two of my past recommended movies My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away. He has sometimes been compared to Walt Disney, a visionary in animated films. But unlike Walt, who would mostly oversee teams of animators in a project, Miyazaki draws many of the scenes himself. He drew 80,000 individual cels for PRINCESS MONONOKE. Not many people still “draw” animation by hand anymore. Computers are great and produce almost any result and look you want, but there’s something really fluid and free flowing in hand-drawn animation. It’s his attention to this kind of detail that has earned him the respect by all in the business. The folks at Disney revere him as a god. Maybe that’s why they bought the video distribution rights to the whole Studio Ghibli catalogue.

PRINCESS MONONOKE has themes that are common in most of Miyazaki’s films, that of human’s interaction with the embodiment of spirits of the forest. Here the main character, Ashitaka, a young prince on a quest for a cure to a deadly disease, happens upon a war between the forest spirits (led by a young human girl, San, the princess), and the citizens of a mining town who are clearing many of the trees for profit. What’s a boy to do?

Here’s why I think you might just like PRINCESS MONONOKE.

1. Sometimes you watch movies to see the real physical world. Like the one around you. It’s easy to relate to this kind of movie. This is good. But sometimes, you want to see something that you can never see in the real world. Something that shows you what is possible, only in the imagination. This is good – your imagination needs a good movie now and then.
2. It’s suitable for the whole family – to a point. There are some battle scenes which may be a little too intense for very young children (say, 10 or younger).
3. It reinforces positive social values …….. if you like that sort of thing.
4. The version released in the US has an English language soundtrack (no subtitles to read). However, I am told that it is better with the original Japanese soundtrack. I don’t know about that – I watched it with the English soundtrack and liked it just fine.
5. If you only like “conventional” movies and don’t like anything “strange”, then forget about it.
6. On second thought, don’t forget about it. Sometimes you have to take a chance with a film because you just never know – you might like it. Besides, how else will you expand your horizons?
7. I’m not always right. I know some people who hate hate hate this movie. I make no guarantees. I make only recommendations.
8. It’s on the IMDB to 250 at # 114, between Cool Hand Luke and The Sixth Sense, just to show the caliber of film we’re talking about. It also appears in Steven Jay Schneider’s book, “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.” It also scores a 92% on the tomatometer.
   
9. Film critic, Roger Ebert wrote a great review of this film. You can read it here.
10. Princess Mononoke – Princess Schmononoke!

This is among the very best of animated films. I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t. So, ……. Enjoy.

THE STRAIGHT STORY

Movie of the week:
THE STRAIGHT STORY

I have a self-propelled mulching push lawn mower. I’m pretty sure that I’m the only person in my neighborhood to use one. I proudly use it once a week to cut my grass and make my lawn all even and beautiful. However, this isn’t quite the status symbol of suburbia it used to be, since all my neighbors have riding tractor mowers. I, myself, am not allowed to have a riding lawn mower for exactly the same reason that I’m not allowed to own power tools. The logic being – the greater the power, the greater the potential for disaster.

There exists, undeniably, an irresistible allure of powered machines that appeals directly to the Y-chromosome. I find myself staring longingly, in the hardware store, at band saws, and nail guns, and power painters, and compressors – and I don’t know why. I watch my neighbors as they mow their tiny swatches of grass, striding atop huge machines, finishing in a half dozen passes – and I totally get the man-machine relationship. That’s why I can really understand the Zen of the main character in David Lynch’s, THE STRAIGHT STORY.

76 year old Alvin Straight has a dilemma. He just got word that his estranged brother, who he hasn't seen in a million tears or so, is dying, and he’d like to see him one last time. His eyes are bad and he can’t drive. There’s no on else who can drive him, plus he has no car. But he does have a riding lawn mower, and with luck, he can use it to make the 300+ miles to his brother’s house.

I suppose he could have taken a bus. But when was the last time you took a bus somewhere? It only beats walking in the sense that if it rains, you stay relatively dry. In the end, it’s still a bus. No romantic adventures ever took place on a bus. Besides, the mower will take a long time, and he has a lot of thinking to do. Also, there’s that whole man-machine thingy that I talked about above.

If you’re familiar with any of David Lynch’s other work (Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Dr.), you might be thinking that perhaps Alvin Straight drives off into the countryside and into the Twilight Zone, but no. That doesn’t happen. It’s not that kind of movie. The arc of this film never deviates and is without twists or kinks. It’s perfect and true just the way it is. If you think that sounds boring, then you’d be wrong. It’s virtually impossible to dislike. And, it's based on a true story.

A half-blind old man, traveling through the countryside on his John Deere lawn mower, sleeping under the stars, and getting with nature, there nothing more Zen than that – a perfect road movie. It’s like a combination of Kerouac, Motorcycle Diaries (except with a lawn mower), Ulysses (except for all that sailin’), Natural Born Killers (except for all that killin’), Kung Fu (except for all that fightin’), and maybe Anne of Green Gables (except for the fact that this is not about a girl at all, it’s about an old man who rides off on his John Deere mower on a journey of self-discovery and to reconnect to a long lost brother, one last time).

THE STRAIGHT STORY ranks #217 on the IMDB top 250, between Rosemary's Baby and Arsenic and Old Lace. In addition, it scores a 95% on the tomatometer. Film critic, Roger Ebert, had much to say about this epic odyssey through Middle America in his review of THE STRAIGHT STORY. Check it out.

Just in case, after reading my essay above, you’re considering getting me a present (my birthday is coming up), here is a list of power tools I’m not allowed to own.

1. table saws
2. any other kind of saw
3. actually, anything that has to do with cutting
4. nail guns
5. anything else with a point
6. chain saws – especially chain saws!
7. tractors
8. ladders – I know it’s not a power tool, but the potential danger is obvious
9. cordless drills – I actually bought one of these, and I haven’t accidentally drilled any holes in myself yet. Although I did manage to drop it on my toe once, and ended up limping for a week or so.
10. propane torch – again, not a power tool, but fire is fire! And as Frankenstein-films once said, “Fire – bad!”

Get THE STRAIGHT STORY and enjoy.