Contextual Exploitation and other musings

A few nights ago, in anticipation of the release of his new film Moonrise Kingdom, I caught up with one of Wes Anderson's earlier films.  Despite being a very acclaimed and respected director, I've never sought out his work, even though I very much enjoyed the one film of his that I'd seen prior (1998's rather lovely Rushmore).  So I popped the Darjeeling Limited into my DVD player and had another rather lovely evening.  The nice thing about Wes Anderson is that you don't have to study his entire oeuvre to spot the man's quirks and interests.  Despite the fact that some of his stories may dip into dark territories, the overall atmosphere is very light and frivolous, creating quite the odd juxtaposition.

And my, what dark places the Darjeeling Limited indeed stops at.  If you don't wish to know any plot details, then please brave on with extreme caution and trepidation.  From the start we know that Owen Wilson's character Francis has been involved in some of accident (it's as plain as the nose and bandages on his face.  Boom boom.).  As the film continues, it becomes apparent that this was as a result of a deliberate motorcycle accident.  This culminates in an incredible scene involving Francis removing his bandages.

In the midst of an exiting and nuanced performance by Wilson, this scene represents almost 'the eye of the storm'.  The frantic energy is gone, completely absorbed by the melancholy that almost threatens to burst from Francis' eyes. His face is bruised, not yet healed.  His body, as established in earlier scenes, still broken.  The spiritual trip he envisioned with his brothers has gone awry.  In this moment, Francis is completely defeated.  It's an wonderfully moving moment within the film on its own merits, but let us consider for a moment a larger context.  The Darjeeling Limited made its world première at the Venice Film Festival on 3rd September 2007 (thank you Wikipedia).  This was a week later than Wilson was admitted into a Californian hospital amid reports of depression and a suicide attempt.  Within this context, the scene above is completely heartbreaking.

There are many moments like this dotted in film history.  I can't have been the only one struck with sadness hearing Heath Ledger's Joker declare that he and Batman were "destined to do this forever".  Moments like these must be incredibly difficult for filmmakers and editors.  Owen Wilson was lucky enough to survive whatever ordeal he went through and is now happily (one would imagine) married and enjoying his deserved success.  In a few years, his brief dalliance with California's health system will no doubt be forgotten and people (Owen and Wes included) will hopefully be able to enjoy the warmth of the Darjeeling Limited without having the real world awkwardly intrude.  On the other hand, editing the Dark Knight must have been like stroking a raw nerve with a blunt and rusty razor, especially when there are lines that are so on the nose as the one mentioned above.  However, such lines are thematically pivotal to film and it is Ledger's performance (for the most part) raises the film to something more than just a cinematic summer distraction.

Yes, it's only fiction, but there's an awful lot of real people working on every film you enjoy and I bet each of them have a story that could rival the tragedy of any Hamlet or Willy Loman.  If only we could set them all to a kicking Peter Sarstedt tune.

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Other Musings

Images I have digested in the last 48 hours:

Moonrise Kingdom hit UK cinemas yesterday.  I went to an 11:40am showing, because I am a bad ass.  I was going straight from my hair cut, which I'm not sure about.  I am sure, however, that Moonrise Kingdom is very very very very very very very very good.  So good, in fact, that it inspired me to go home and cook French toast because it reminded me of my camping experience.  

My original plan for the evening involved going to bed around 9pm in order to wake up at 1am to watch Game 6 of the Devils/Rangers series.  I couldn't sleep so I watched the Prestige instead.  Good use of my time.  I might go into it further at a later date, but I really think that it is one of the most imaginatively constructed and downright incredible films of the last 30 years.  Why yes, that is a completely arbitrary length time.

Sleep exhaustion may have got the best of me, but last night's hockey game was incredible.  I've been an active New Jersey fan since 2008 and they've never been out of the first round until this year.  Now they're the Conference Champions.  In an attempt not to wake up my housemates, all my celebrating consisted of texting exclamation points to my brother and silently fist pumping.  I really wish I'd partaken in more team sports when I was younger.  Shame I let the PE department at my school put me down.

But that wasn't the only sporting event I was watching this weekend.  After waking up late and doing a bit of studying, I cooked myself some french toast and sat down to watch the qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.  I know lots of people find Formula 1 incredibly dull, especially when it's at a circuit that famously doesn't lend itself to overtaking, but I really love watching any skilled person go about their passion (see the previous post).  I find it so hard to comprehend how accurate these drivers are given the speeds that these cars travel.  Plus, it's sunny and it's Monte Carlo.  Hardcore yacht porn.

So, while everyone else was outside in the sunshine, I was moping about my room until I kicked myself into gear and went for a cinema trip.  I finally caught up with Julie Delpy's 2 Days in New York.  It's rather funny.  Definitely the best performance I've seen from Chris Rock.  Amazing what a talented person like him can do once someone gives him a well rounded character instead of a one-note joke dispenser.  

This is me and my new hair looking very impressed with Eurovision.

Going to the New Empress Film Quiz this evening.  Wish me luck!  

Bonus List:  Top 5 Wintery Summer Songs

5) Corridors - Observer Drift

4) Diagnosis - The Weakerthans

3) Heartbeats - The Knife

2) Close to Me - The Cure

1) Never Meant - American Football

Things I Find As Mesmerising As The Raid, Aren't Teaser Trailers Fun, and other musings

My my, haven't I been productive.  I hope you readers haven't felt too neglected while I've been flitting about like a social butterfly.  I feel pretty awkward.  Here I am, asking you cool kids to take me back and all I have to offer is the blog equivalent of a hastily garage bought bouquet of flowers, already looking worse for wear.  Maybe if we get them straight into some water, they'll buck up, much like our tenuous writer/reader relationship.  So get yourself into a bath, while I give you a poorly constructed list/essay inspired by a film I watched last week.

The Raid (or, if you hail from across the pond, the Raid: REDEMPTION - yes, the caps are necessary) punched its way into cinemas and into our hearts last week.  It is rather good, but I'm not sure if I can recommend it to people who find little to enjoy big action spectacles.  I don't say this as a self appointed "action fan" - mainly because I wouldn't label myself as that, but more that I find the notion of rejecting a film due to genre a bit ridiculous.  Fine, the overt violence displayed in films by the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa might be off-putting to many, but the truth is, that's not real violence.  What you see during the running time of the Raid has been as carefully constructed as any ballet you might see and that's what keeps me riveted during such films.  Obviously, it helps when you've a plot and solid actors drawing you into the stakes of a situation, but there's something I find incredibly mesmerising about the "let's put on a show" mentality.

I'm obviously a very special (and possibly warped) case.  I remember seeing films as violent as the Terminator at a very young age, but the fact is I always knew there was little difference (beyond budget) between Arnie slaughtering a whole police station and my childhood games of Cowboys and Indians (aside - actually the most often game we played in primary school was Jurassic Park.  The boys were the park goers (Neill, Goldblum, etc), the girls were velociraptors.  This explains why girls terrify me).  Although I loved that Terminator/police station sequence, what I always found more exciting and inspiring was the hilariously dated use of animatronics.  Such it looks nigh on awful now, but it really resonated as a kid.  I didn't just see Arnie rip his own eye out, that was a model, but someone built that model and that is awesome.

Sadly, special effects don't hold that mystique for me any more.  Some might blame computer aided imagery.  I definitely could point at least eight of my fingers at my laptop and shout "BLAME!" at the top of my voice.  Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate the hard work that goes into programming but unfortunately, unless you geek out over vectors and advanced geometry, the mystery of effects has diminished.  Compare An American Werewolf in London and An American Werewolf in Paris - just on the effects please, it's unfair to keep beating the corpse of ...Paris over ten years later.  I remember what I thought the first time I saw the transformation sequence in ...London.  It was "how?".  

Special effects and martial arts share a rather strange place in cinema.  Regardless of the quality of the non-fighting sequences in the Raid (hmm, I think that's all of five minutes), the film is inherently jawdropping, tense and, most importantly interesting.  Same with the special effects sequences in films like Terminator, An American Werewolf in London and the Thing.  In fact, you could replace all the non-effects scenes in the Thing with acting of the quality of the Room and it would still be recommendable.  Dancing and music should be two similar sets pieces, but beyond Astaire/Rogers and the musical hi-jinks of Chico & Harpo Marx, these things rarely work in film.  I guess when it comes down to it, it's easy to assign life & death stakes to fighting and gooey monsters.  I can't think of a tense dance/piano sequence (note to self: Speed with a piano, 30 notes a minute, no dissonance).

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So if you follow film as much as I do, you'll have probably seen the three big teaser trailers released today.  For those who haven't, please watch below (they're only a minute or so each).  

In terms of quality, from start to finish, you should probably watch them in that order.  Make sure to full screen the middle one though.

As mentioned in a post earlier this month, spoilers and information presented in trailers is quite the contentious issue.  I think all three of these are fairly safe.  In fact, there's no guarantee that any footage in the Anchorman and the Master trailers especially will reach the final cut.  I like teaser trailers.  I think they're a great way of establishing a mood for a film without giving away any of the tricks.  So the Master, for example, looks to be continuing the path of the American nightmare that was There Will Be Blood.  Skyfall is the most surprising, mainly because I don't have high hopes for anything Craig, Mendes or Bond related and that is an incredibly pretty trailer (Deakins!).  Anchorman 2 - sheesh.  I hope that's not going to be reflective of the finished product.  Painful.  At least it's getting straight to what people want.  Regardless of how ill defined they are, people enjoyed the KVWN news team.

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Other musings

I have no explanations for you as to why this took me so long to write.  I just haven't felt wonderfully inspired lately.  I may warm up the old creative muscle and try to write some fiction for next time.

It was Jonathan Hatfull(of http://jonathanwriting.blogspot.co.uk/ fame)'s birthday on Saturday. That was rather messy.  In fact, I don't remember much of it and I'm still feeling rather rough from then.  I have some odd grazes on my hands, wrists and elbows.  I'm quite happy for it to stay a mystery.  His birthday gift arrived in the post today.  Don't tell him!  It's a secret!

Everyone welcome my old friend Thomasin Bailey into the blogosphere!  You can find her and her musings on life via Shakespeare here: http://waxenhearts.blogspot.co.uk/ .  She's even brave enough to record videos.  Say hi, be polite.

Just when comic book movies were being taken seriously... http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/21/she-has-no-head-dear-marvel-stop-ruining-everything/

Devils/Rangers continues tonight.  Do you think work would mind if I turned up tomorrow with my face painted?  

That man just turned 40.  Boom.

To bed!  With Vanity Fair, New Empress and a big old glass of water.