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Logorama!

Still from Logorama

If you get the chance check out this brilliant Academy award nominated short film. All the characters, backgrounds, everything really, is corporate logo art, all of which is used without permission.

A Single Man

A lot of people have been talking about A Single Man as an important film.
I've learned to be cautious in any expectations of a film, and this was no exception.

While the film has gotten generally good reviews, I was quite disappointed. The film is an achievement of sorts, the same way some music videos capture a certain spirit or sensibility. But ultimately this film is all about Tom Ford and his sensibilities. Ford's sensibilities as a fashion designer are prevalent in every aspect of the production and costume design. There is no subtly, and style and I felt that so much exacting fashion overwhelmed the film.
Make no mistake, he does these things very well and they add to the film in many ways, but excessive. The story was originally about an average middle class man, but there is nothing average in this film.

The real strength of the film are it's leads, Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, and they are both are really wonderful.

Firth is more handsome than ever and his restrained performance will likely earn him numerous awards. Personally, I felt he was being directed to be overly maudlin and it didn't feel authentic.

Moore is a vision of 60s stylish decadence... WAY over the top, but truly stunning to witness. The two also have a nice chemistry. The sequence where they dance together is one of the visual highlights of the whole film. Extremely memorable.

Every frame is a set piece, and every detail in every shot is hyper—stylized. In this regard the film really is well crafted and art directed, but the actors become part of that scenery too and that costs the film any emotional connection the audience may have.

It's all too perfect. No one had such a complete and perfect material life as is portrayed. I can appreciate the stylization to a certain extent, but it needs some imperfections to be believable, and unfortunately everything is too new, too exact... not a single thing is out of place.

I suppose you could look at it as a nostalgic love letter to the illusion we have come to believe was the quintessential everyday life of the early 60s, but it could have easily been so much more than that.

Every person in the film is achingly beautiful, perfectly groomed and dressed as if they are going to their own wedding or about to walk a runway. After a time it becomes caricature. Felliniesque even. Even when they are mussed, they are mussed just so...

To younger audience members who are not aware of how much this is over done it may appear like devotional tribute to those times. To those who know better and tire easily at overwrought nostalgia, it can appear farcical.

Ford does come close however at one point to really pulling it all together and out of the cliché pit, then he does something SO ridiculous, so cheesy (in my opinion) that it sinks the whole thing.

************SPOILER ALERT***********

Like the book, In the last scene with the young student, George's will to live is restored, but Ford takes the unnecessary step of actually having George die of a heart attack rather than go through the stream-of-conscious "what-if" approach that the book takes. And of course it is a spectacle. OH THE IRONY, THE TIMING!    OH, PLEASE!

It was bad enough for him to be forlornly carting around a gun all day, but this was too much.

I thought the heart attack sequence diminished the film, reducing it to a melodramatic cliche.

Ford simply tried too hard. WAY to hard.
All the scenes where George is alone almost all the color is drained from the scene, then when there are flashbacks to his perfectly fit handsome young lover everything is saturated and bright and full of color. This happens all through the film.

Emotionally everything is behind a wall of artifice, which is a shame. The characters feel distant, everything is played too precious and overly sentimental. Too many lingering pained expressions, too many PROFOUND comments, too many ironic incidents and lots of unbelievable behavior that is supposed to be every-day routine.
Almost nothing of his daily routine feels authentic. In the book this provided the momentum... in the film these details are reduced to flourishes of self pity.

If Ford had only art directed the film and someone more well seasoned was in the directors chair it could have been a masterpiece. He made a valiant effort.

It is beautiful to look at and is composed and acted lovingly. It really just needs a little dirty realism to ground it.

A note on the marketing of the film:

both posters play up the relationship between Moore and Firth, making it look as if it could be a straight romantic drama.

Firth actually was responsible for demanding that he appear on the reissue of the book alone, which is admirable, since the story is about accepting loss.

I would suggest to anyone really interested in this to read Isherwoods original novel. It is short, rich in subtle detail and is very moving.

Children of Men

Just got around to seeing Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men. 
It is an amazing film. I'm stunned that this wasn't a commercial success.The cinematography is incredible. The film features long takes while complex action unfolds.
bleak and moving. An Instant Sci-Fi classic.


Also included on the DVD is a documentary Cuarón directed called The Possibility of Hope. 
the sobering documentary explores how the themes in Children of Men relate to event currently going on in the world today. The film includes interesting philosophical observations by John Gray, Naomi Klein, James Lovelock, and Slavoj Zizek. A must see.

 

Here is an interview with the filmmaker about Children of Men.

Subtle reference to Pink Floyd's Animals. 

In the background is the Battersea power station 

with the giant inflated pig suspended 

between the smoke stacks.

Dylanesque

Finally got around to seeing Todd Haynes's I'm Not There, his extraordinary take on the many facets of the life and career of Bob Dylan.

The Film is wonderful. Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan is not to be missed.

 

Doctor X

We watched a great classic horror film last night. Doctor X, (1932).

It's also a great early example of color film (two strip technicolor). Produced before the motion picture production code was enforced, it includes themes such as murder, rape, cannibalism, and prostitution. The film also has a great comic sense. Great set design and lighting. A real forgotten classic. 

Check it out.

Quentin Crisp, Dandys, Patrick Angus

John Hurt as Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York

Outfest 2009 continues. We saw the new fictional biopic about Quentin Crisp's later years in New York, A Englishmen in New York. Very enjoyable. John Hurt reprises his portrayal of Crisp originally seen in The Naked Civil Servant in 1975.

Penny Arcade, one of Crisp's artistic collaborators was in attendance and spoke briefly before the film. She criticized the film somewhat citing particularly that the film does not include Quentin's critique of the gay community, which was included gay mens' obsession with sex and the limiting clichés and behaviorial stereotypes that left little room for gay people to flourish, explore and be themselves.

"When you know who you are, you can do it, you can be it, you can be seen to be yourself. That's the point. You first have to find who you are. Then, you have to be it like mad."—Quentin Crisp

The real Quentin Crisp

"In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis." —Quentin Crisp

The most famous dandy, Oscar Wilde

Lord Whimsy of the new dandy movement

It seems there has been a revival of dandyism too.... meet Lord Whimsy and some of his kind.

Naturally this brings up all kinds of discussions... ranging from excesses of fashion all the way to gender ambiguity, or inversion as it used to be called.

This all reminds me of an interesting book that came out a few years back called Sissyphobia. Sissyphobia is Tim Bergling's exploration and research of gay men and effeminate behavior.
(review by the International gay and lesbian Review).
Amazon link.

Sadly sissyphobia is still very much in play. Some effeminately inclined gay men, in an attempt to appear "straght-acting" over compensate, hiding the true personality, or worse become a hyper-masculine caricature.
Those bold enough to be themselves (especially in small towns) still must face discrimination,
though it is transgendered people that bear the wrath of the intolerant, ignorant, fearful and insecure.

But it has often been the fearless sissys, dandys and trannys that have blazed the trail for the rest of us. Quentin Crisp was keenly aware of this and wanted more gay men to embrace themselves, however they were, rather than wear any kind of mask, and boldly go forward.

Another aspect to the film I enjoyed was learning about the artist Patrick Angus, of whom I was unaware. Angus and Crisp were friends. Angus's paintings depicted erotic loneliness and some of the ways gay sought to share intimacy.

Crisp tried to help Angus get his work shown. Angus was a very talented painter and was an early victim of the AIDS Pandemic. Sadly, it is hard to find much information about him. His was a touching subplot to the film. Angus was portrayed by Jonathan Tucker in the film.

A painting by Patrick Angus

Don't miss "Examined Life"

I recently got to see an advance screening of Examined Life. It is wonderful! Don't miss this excellent and thought provoking new film by Astra Taylor released through Zeitgeist films!
The film opens May 1 in theaters. Watch the trailer here.

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas. Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.

Featuring Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwarne Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Sunaura Taylor, and the indomitable Cornel West.

While all of the philosophers in the film are very interesting my favorite is Cornel West.
To my ear West has the most impressive and resonant voice. In addition to being a philosopher he is also an influential writer, educator, and activist.
"To be an intellectual really means to speak a truth that allows suffering to speak.
"Chekhov, Coltrane, and Democracy: Interview by David Lionel Smith." in The Cornel West Reader (1998)"

He speaks like a poet. Even the cadence voice reflects the rhythmic complexity of Jazz music and the Blues. It is his powerful voice that opens and closes the film.
Cornel West is a national treasure.

All the philosophers in the film strive to enlighten us by reminding us that we are all connected, and only in embracing our connectedness can we unity and solve the many problems that face our society.


Check out this interview with Astra Taylor IFC.COM

More thoughts on Examined Life later....

Auguries of Brilliance

Patti Smith

"life is an adventure of our own design, intercepted by fate, and a series of lucky, and unlucky accidents...."

So says Patti Smith at the beginning of Steven Sebring's Documentary on her life and music, Dream of Life.


My partner and I went to see Dream of Life, the Patti Smith Documentary on Friday at the Nuart theater in West Los Angeles.

Directed by Steven Sebring, the film is structured loosely and nonlinearly. The film is as fiercely poetic and moving as Smith's extraordinary music. The experience was heightened by the appearances of director Steven Sebring and Patti Smith herself, who was witty, casual and candid.

As we were all exiting I found myself beside her for a brief walk up the aisle to the lobby. I wanted to say something, but only an emphatic "thank you" came to mind, and that seemed utterly underwhelming for what I wanted to express.

Standing so close to her I found the hair on my arm stood up and my heart raced and it was like being close to live electricity. While she has an intensely magnetic persona, I found her calm and disarming in person. When she was doing the Q&A after the film she spoke as comfortably as if she were in a room with a few close friends.

Don't miss this wonderful film celebration of Patti Smith's music, life and loves.