La Jetée

"He ran toward her. And when he recognized the man who'd trailed him from the camp, he realized there was no escape out of time, and that that moment he'd been granted to see as a child, and that had obsessed him forever after... was the moment of his own death." 

What was Lynch thinking?

My review of Inland Empire (watched for my contemporary cinema film screening class)...

Never before have I finished watching a film and felt less certain of what I have just experienced than I did with Inland Empire. David Lynch’s 2006 low budget mind-bending film takes the audience on an unexplored journey, causing you to question reality and the human mind.

As the tagline for the film states, the overall storyline is about “a woman in trouble”. The woman, an actress (played by Laura Dern) gains the lead role in a film and as they begin shooting, it is revealed that the film is actually a remake of another production that was never finished due to mysterious events. Her life then takes a curious turn as the ‘real’ world and the fictional world of the film begin to merge and reality is questioned. The abstract nature of the film is enhanced by the occasional cut away to a TV show featuring three anthropomorphic rabbits.

Inland Empire was shot on a low budget with a DV camera making it look like a poor quality student film. If it were made by anyone but Lynch it would have been immediately disregarded. The problems I had with this film were its unnecessary length, how visually bland it was and the complete lack of any coherent narrative whatsoever. This film is certainly a unique experience, it intrigues me but at the same time I don’t think I could sit through it again for a long time. Perhaps if you go into the film not expecting any form of coherent narrative or film conventions then it would be easier to immerse yourself into this mysterious creation from Lynch. 

I enjoyed this review of the film...
 http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2081564.htm

Life in a Day

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I can't say that I had been anticipating the release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, as I was expecting it to be just another American blockbuster. However, my curiosity was piqued when I started hearing positive reviews about the film (plus the fact that James Franco stars in it helps) and when I ended up seeing it last week, I was pleased to find that it surpassed my original expectations.

I haven’t seen the 1968 original Planet of the Apes, just the Tim Burton re-imagining which I was quite disappointed by. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a prequel to and reboot of the original series, managing to maintain the mythology of the series while improving some of the weaker elements and making it more believable. It’s the first Apes film to feature animated apes rather than having actors dressed in ape suits. WETA just seem to keep improving and impressing audiences with their visual effects. The effects were seamless, not stealing the audience’s attention (except to admire how good they were) and allowing the narrative to carry on rather than take away from it. Motion capture technology is a wonderful advancement for the film industry and Andy Serkis seems to have a great talent for portraying non-humans.

The fact that the apes didn’t try to take over the world in the film (which just doesn’t seem realistic) but rather become the dominant species due to the spread of a virus that is deadly to humans but which the apes are immune to. This seems a much more plausible cause to the downfall of the human race and the rise of the apes. This is not shown in the film, just implied by the final sequence and the credits.

I had not previously heard of the director Rupert Wyatt and Apes was only his 3rd feature. I was impressed by his work on this film and I hope that he continues to make successful films in the future. I was also pleased to note that the cinematographer was an Australian, Andrew Lesnie, whose work (such as DOP on the Lord of the Rings films) I have a great appreciation for. 

The film sets up for a sequel, which will probably turn into a series so let’s hope they deliver. Apes is more than the average Hollywood blockbuster, with an interesting storyline and the involvement of some truly talented people. 

Arbitrary quote

"All I can do is be me. Whoever that is." 

                                                     - Bob Dylan 

The Fall

Incredibly beautiful film. That is all.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I'm not usually fond of American adaptations or remakes of films, but I think I may make an exception with David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, to be released in December this year.  

Did I mention I like quotes from filmmakers?

"We can express our feelings regarding the world around us either by poetic or by descriptive means. I prefer to express myself metaphorically. Let me stress: metaphorically, not symbolically. A symbol contains within itself a definite meaning, certain intellectual formula, while metaphor is an image. An image possessing the same distinguishing features as the world it represents. An image — as opposed to a symbol — is indefinite in meaning. One cannot speak of the infinite world by applying tools that are definite and finite. We can analyse the formula that constitutes a symbol, while metaphor is a being-within-itself, it's a monomial. It falls apart at any attempt of touching it. " 

                                                                                               - Andrei Tarkovsky

Ivan's Childhood and Andrei Tarkovsky

When I discovered the first films of Tarkovsky, it was a miracle. I suddenly found myself before a door to which I had never had the key.a room which I had always wished to penetrate and wherein he felt perfectly at ease. Someone was able to express what I had always wished to say without knowing how. For me Tarkovsky is the greatest filmmaker.  

                                                                                           - Ingmar Bergman

I can’t say that I’m familiar with any Russian films, let alone Russian directors so it’s quite unsurprising that I hadn’t heard of Andrei Tarkovsky. Tarkovsky was a film director, opera director, writer and film theorist – quite well known by many people around the world and considered to be one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century. 

He made his first feature film, Ivan’s Childhood in 1962 just two years after he completed film school. Adapted from the story by Vladimir Bogomolov, it is about a 12 year old orphaned boy who is a spy for the Russian army during World War II.  While made in the sixties, Tarkovsky chose to create the film in black and white, saying “in a black and white film there is no feeling of something extraneous going on, [and] the audience can watch the film without being distracted from the action by colour”. He certainly had a unique approach to films and filmmaking, which was only advantageous – Ivan’s Childhood won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1962 as well as the Golden Gate Award for Best Director at the San Francisco International Film Festival. 

It is not a typical war film with heroic soldiers in extensive battle scenes and is a film with very little violence. Instead, it is a film that explores the impact of the war on the people involved in it and the effect that the loss of family has upon people. The narrative is non-linear with frequent flashbacks or dreams that Ivan is experiencing that involve his mother and a happier time. Dreams and memory are recurring motifs throughout the film and throughout Tarkovsky’s other works. Water and reflections are significant motifs in Ivan’s Childhood and the forest setting of the film is quite impressive, resulting in some admirable composition. 

Ivan’s Childhood is a haunting, emotional film and one that I immensely enjoyed. Hopefully I’ll get my hands on a copy of Tarkovsky’s book Sculpting in Time as it sounds like an interesting read and I look forward to watching more of his films. 

Females + the Film Industry

It was probably going to happen eventually and writing about Jane Campion got me thinking about women in the film industry, so here’s my rant about it…

There are many people in the film (and television) industry that I greatly admire, respect and gain inspiration from. I wrote about Tarantino a few weeks ago, as he is one such example, but I find it difficult to think of females who have that same sort of impact upon me. That’s not to say that there aren’t talented filmmakers that are women, because clearly they are but the industry is one that is still very male dominated.

Sofia Coppola and Jane Campion are two of my favourite directors – but that’s only two out of who knows how many. As someone aspiring to become a part of this brilliant industry, it becomes difficult to imagine it really happening when so few women have actually made a name for themselves.

I find it such a relief when a film that is written or directed by a woman is actually a good piece of cinema, as we need to prove that we are more than capable of creating great works of art, because we are. This is why women such as Catherine Hardwicke irritate me so much, because I feel that her lack of talent reflects badly on female filmmakers. Others may disagree, but it’s my blog and that’s my opinion!

All too often, female roles are written by males – how are they going to be a satisfactory exploration if the role hasn’t even come from a female in the first place? There have been some good female roles written by men and Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) from Alien is certainly a great example but I feel that it’s something that doesn’t happen enough.

I think another quote from Jane Campion is suitable to finish with:

“I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population – and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are not going to know the whole story.”

(And a picture of Ellen Ripley being awesome)