Never Look Away (2018)

NeverLookAwayIt’s been a long time since a film has moved me to the extent that this tour-de-force has when it collided with my life. Donnersmarck’s masterwork follows the life of an artist from his boyhood through his youth and into adulthood. Set in Germany at the outset of the Second World War and spanning decades the three-hour feature captures the multifarious complexities of life in times of war. Without excess sentimentality or caricature, he expresses the true philosophical horror of Nazism as well as its’ powerful comprehensiveness.

The plot starts with the protagonist’s beautiful aunt Elizabeth (played by Saskia Rosendahl) coming to a psychotic break and being ‘treated’ by a doctor who, despite the pleadings of the family reports her to the health commission for forced sterilization; it would not be the last time the central theme of eugenics emerges in a violent instantiation in the picture. When she learns that she is to be sterilized she pleads with the director of the gynecological hospital to spare her, it is one of the most monumentally moving scenes of the feature where a woman, a beautiful woman, uses every avenue at her disposal to plead for her progeny, for her genetic line, for a chance at motherhood. The horrific scene concludes with the head of the hospital Herr Professor Carl Seeband (expertly played by Sebastian Koch) proceeding with the enforcement of the plan and signing off on her extermination for the purpose of freeing hospital beds for German soldiers. In the contemporary culture where motherhood is so often denigrated the stark reality of the human imperative to procreate, and the mystical magical gift that is the ability to create life come together in this infinitely tragic scene to relieve us of our blasé clichés .

Our protagonist (played by Tom Schilling), witnessing his aunt forcibly taken from the family home by orderlies, grows up painting, and after the war enrolls in an art school in Dresden where he is pushed into creating socialist realist art and is continually having to reconcile his passion with his work. The work he produces he recognizes as deeply fake, and although enjoying great success asks his friend to paint over his work to use as canvasses when he makes his escape to West Berlin with his wife (the daughter of the very same Professor Seeband). I will refrain from continuing a retelling of the intricate and believable plot in favor of the impressions that the director was able to impart.

‘Never Look Away’ indeed does not let us look away, we cannot help but see the strengths and downfalls of Nazi philosophy, Socialist Realist art, the post-war Avant-garde movement, justice and loyalty, conformity, and, importantly, the strange mysticism that lives alongside us. One key differentiator of this film was complete avoidance of the Holocaust, or more generally any reference to Jews of the time. The fact that all the characters were German makes the horrors of the Third Reich more personal of a story around the family of the protagonist. Seeing the monstrosity they inflicted on their own people, their own families, brings home the scale of the tragedy of the time in impossibly clear contrast.

Technically the film is exceptional – the score is perfect, the visuals ingenious, and the acting superb. Not a single central or secondary character felt out of place or underperformed. The direction opened up a difficult and deep story to bloom and gift us an experience that aught join the cannon.

 

Worth watching  9.5/10

The Florida Project (2017)

This work is a stunning and unexpected gem in contemporary American cinema. Starting from the very first the film immerses you in the world of a wonder-filled child. As you are jarred by the contrast of the beautiful saturated colors of a sun-drenched Florida neighborhood and the relative squalor of the little girl Moonee’s (our protagonist, played by Brooklynn Prince) family; namely, her all too young mother.

The director Sean Baker walks the fine line between realism and social commentary, all too easy would it be to slip into a tragic highlighting of the plight of the working poor. Instead, intelligently, and resourcefully, he pulls off something much greater, artful, and real. He takes us into a beautiful world which doesn’t hide the ugliness of poverty, doesn’t romanticize it, but shows the viewer a nuanced and heartening child’s point of view. As you are alternatively sucked into a frame of perceiving the infinite possibility of imagination while we follow our protagonist, and judgment when we have a sober look at the mother (expertly played by Bria Vinaite).

This is a real film, not preaching judgment but relaying a life; a life that is too easy to imagine, to see as real, contemporary, and urgent. The story has heroes, villains and myriad small narrative threads of the same sort that we are all mired in as social animals. This tapestry of lives and choices is the whole film, and is executed with a minimum of dialogue, leaving at the forefront the deciding role of the child actors. The fact that this is pulled off convincingly, and with high quality, is a testament to the production and great risk the director took by basing the success of his endeavor on the performances of kids who aren’t old enough to understand the import of their play.

Worth watching 8/10

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

This powerful feature twists the fate of an unlucky heart surgeon ‘Steven’ (played by Colin Farrell) between guilt and supernatural revenge. After botching a surgery resulting in the death of a patient before his time our protagonist befriends the son of the deceased – ‘Martin’. The relationship is portrayed in an unemotional, cold light with a great deal of attendant uncomfortable weirdness.

Steven’s family is sketched out with minimalist precision, like cuts of a knife; the director (Yorgos Lanthimos) masterfully lays out a highly-functional family that is taught with unspoken tensions. The wife ‘Anna’ is played by Nicole Kidman and just might be her best performance ever, and the two children do not disappoint. Several times during the film their earnest pleading faces pounded through the screen to crushing emotional effect.

The young son soon loses control of his legs, making him effectively paraplegic, and as all potential medical reasons are ruled out in the controlled confines of the hospital the doctor meets again with Martin, who tells him that he must choose a member of his family to kill in order for ‘this’ to stop; by ‘this’ he explains a progression of symptoms that would befall his wife and two children in a precise sequence.

As Martin’s words transform into reality the doctor is completely run to the end of possible scientific explanation and must confront his fate. When the last stage is upon him and time effectively running out for all three of his loved ones he takes responsibility into his own hands and ends the nightmare of the curse that plagued his family. There is no happy ending.

The film’s cinematography is perfect, the soundtrack is a bit obvious, atmospheric, and intended to disconcert the audience. Overall the film is a startling success that transposes old-testament fears onto contemporary life, pitting reason against scientism.

 

Worth watching                8/10

Meaning of Life: Being

BEING

The second answer to the meaning of life is that life itself is the meaning of life.

This solution may sound quite close to the first answer (denial) but has several differentiating properties that are mostly informed by eastern philosophies and a faith that meaning exists but it lies within the fabric of life inherently. Another way of saying this is that the meaning of life is experiential and not to be found in reason or words. Words are encapsulations of thoughts that have enough commonality between the experiences of those communicating in order to share common mental space. But meaning is embedded within personal, non-translatable experience.

This approach is very appealing in an intellectually lazy way. But proponents of this approach would argue that intellect simply gets in the way of a conscious connection with meaning. An analogy that comes to mind would be to ask of the meaning of light to a photon. In the case of the photon its meaning lies within its existence, its key property (light) is its existence in the first place. Alan Watts often makes this point that seeking meaning is futile because we (consciousness) are meaning.

This approach to meaning also implies a certain invisibility of meaning – like the fish swimming in water yet ignorant of waters’ existence due to its ubiquity. So even if it acts as an emotional salve to the existential wound, it fails to placate the intellectual thirst for a philosophy (or specific distillation) of meaning as it supplants it with a faith of all-encompassing meaning inherent in living.

 

2016-2017

USA

The Handmaiden (2016)

I watched ‘The Handmaiden’ alone late Sunday in an empty theater on the night of the super-moon. Such a strangely fortuitous confluence of events may have colored my enchanting experience with Park Chan-Wook’s latest marvel. The film is structured in three parts corresponding to the three protagonists viewpoints and is progressively more erotic (if not pornographic) as it carries on.

With an impeccable score, and the vibrant rapturous cinematography that characterize Park’s films ‘Handmaiden’ seduces the viewer into a hard won faith of an honest love story served on a bed of lies.

The film is relentlessly self-contradictory; a pornographic film that rails against pornography; displays of perversity with an indignation to their existence, and a hopeful optimism against a heady suicidal hopelessness. Like a layered paper cut-out the viewer learns more and more of the same story as its retold – there is never a trace of boredom in the retelling.

The whole composition of the film, from script, through performance, to score and editing is masterful. Nothing is overlooked by the directorial mastery of Park Chan-Wook and the film is a delightful triumph of form and taste.

 

Worth Watching.   8/10

Frankenstein (NT Live)

Frankenstein (NT Live)

Watching the National Theater production of Frankenstein directed by Danny Boyle was a layered cake of surprises. At the very base of it lies the surprisingly strong source material, the power of which is easily forgotten – I had mentally stowed it away after reading the Mary Shelly novel decades ago. The craft with which the material was adapted to a play, preserving the essence and drama whilst bolstering the contrasts and underlying dilemmas was masterful, indeed superior to every rendition of the story in the format of film. Finally, the execution of the performances forced me to reevaluate Benedict Cumberbatch’s facilities as an actor as he shines so brightly.

The gripping two hour performance is a theatrical triumph with colorful visual experiences, exceptional performances, and very intelligent set design that seamlessly transports us around the world following the agony of Frankenstein (Jonny Lee Miller) and his monster (Cumberbatch). Secondary performances did not disappoint, with Elizabeth (Naomie Harris) portraying passionate goodness and innocence without triteness, and even the child actors maintaining the reality of the given circumstances.

The questions that the work deals with are timeless and universal – the limits of science, the centrality of pride and ego in accomplishment, the meaninglessness of life, the relation between Man and G-d, the grand importance of the link between parents and children, and the crucial impact of early experiences. These questions do not dissipate through time, as hunger reoccurs in man daily, they reoccur throughout our lives, throughout societies, throughout histories. The treatment given in this performance was far from shallow, and deserving of our careful and undivided attention.

 

Worth watching              8.5/10

http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

Meaning Of Life: Denial

DENIAL

The first answer to the meaning of life is to deny the question.

If one accepts that recognizing the central question of meaning comes at a psychological cost, and then further construes the answer as non-existent or beyond their personal capacity to discover then instead of being tormented by an unending existential crisis it is a pragmatically superior solution to ignore the question. That is – to live in such a way that leaves no room for the question to affect consciousness.

Arguments against the denial of the question are non-pragmatic but ultimately fall into the realm of practical – that is how will you keep yourself distracted from the question from the duration of your life? As all human activity when done with high regularity ultimately leads to disinterest based on the neural properties of the brain. Specifically our sensory systems are designed to detect change, and due to habituation/adaptation reward systems can get saturated from all non-chemical means (even chemical means crash into habituation/down-regulation effects and don’t spell more than a very temporary escape). [Note: The hard problem of consciousness will be sidestepped at this time.]

The solution to the practical concern will be found in variety. If one maintains enough separate interests and has the freedom and will to pursue them then theoretically with a sufficient variety the habituation/saturation problem can be avoided.

This answer to the meaning of life is ultimately the weakest and least satisfying one I have come to. It might be robust to various critiques but its fundamental advantage is practical, leaving untouched moral and metaphysical concerns (and in that absence lies its strength).

 

October 29th, 2016

Miami, FL, USA

5 to 7 (2014)

This surprisingly beautiful and romantic film comes from a very unconventional place. It is the story of an affair between a young man and a slightly older married woman. It does not source its drama from the secrecy and lies that are so often the base of works on affairs, but from the nuances and limited possibilities of the relationship context.

The acting of Anton Yelchin and Bernice Marlohe is impeccable, and the directors’ (Victor Levin) choice of voice overs is not distracting, nor facile – it blends elements of the literary into the tapestry of the film. The film is about love, and when love strikes, life itself becomes literary, overrun with poetry.

The cinematography is unobtrusive and the score is well matched. ‘5 to 7’ balances realism with romance, and so is able to paint in colors of carnality without them taking the main stage. The perfection of the ending unexpectedly delivers such completeness and power that the film takes its place as a great romantic film.

 

Worth watching       8/10

The Pledge – Friedrich Dürrenmatt

This phenomenal short novel should be read in one sitting and without interruption. Dürrenmatt crafts a compelling, immersive narrative with an economy of words and descriptions. He brings to life believable characters, voices and settings using no more than that which is given to us in everyday life. His extraordinary talent lies in presenting and exploring deep, unsolvable and painful questions head-on and with unflinching pragmatism and a poet’s sensitivity. A synopsis of the story here is immaterial, it is a detective story, yet it is firmly in the realm of literature, not genre. In a conversation about art not too long ago I spoke with a friend about the necessity of mastering realism in the development of a painter, so once mastered they can hone in on what is artful about their work and endlessly pursue more purified expressions of their vision. In this work the author has succeeded in crafting a pure story, telling us his vision, with great power and clarity. A diamond; small, impeccably cut, perfectly clear, and completely brilliant.
Worth Reading   9/10

‘Opening Night’ (1977)

John Cassavetes stars in and directs this complex film that was recommended based on a conversation regarding ‘Birdman’. Although thematically similar, the films are very different.

‘Opening Night’ is a film about star actress Myrtle Gordon (played by Gina Rowlands) who is forced to confront the fact of her aging through the character she plays in a production of ‘The Second Woman’ (a fictional play within the film relating to aging and the loss of feminine power which it entails). On the surface the film is about the actress’s struggle with acceptance of these harsh facts of life, but at the same time the character is self-aware enough to realize the implications of her performance upon her career and the shift in the types of roles her future will hold based on this performance (her first playing a mature lady). What ensues is her struggle with the play itself and her role in it. The producer and playwright are well executed secondary characters that do not sink into the background and are allowed agency in the narrative.

Among the most interesting and powerful scenes are conversations between the playwright Sarah Goode (played by Joan Blondell) and Myrtle. Sarah movingly tries to realize her vision through the resistant actress. She repeatedly asks Myrtle her age, a horribly painful question for woman struggling with acceptance of it, as well as the viewer who has empathy for her. However, Sarah does not provoke and prod her out of malice but out of artistic integrity –  she seeks to produce a faithful rendition of her script.

The final component of the film is the rehearsals and opening performance of the play itself which morphs with Myrtle’s volition in varied and unpredictable ways.

Overall the film was very strong, moderately paced, and unrelenting in its’ depiction of a woman’s tragedy of aging. The hard facts of missing those crucial and too-fast vanishing windows of time for falling in love, creating unions and having children – as well as the impossibly heavy burden of missing them and winding up alone to face the abyss.

 

Worth watching.             8/10