I haven’t seen any forums yet about some of the greatest introducing sequences in the history of film. After watching “Inglourious Basterds” followed by “Once Upon a Time in the West”, I felt compelled to ask what some of you fine people think of those introductions, and also to elaborate on some of your personal favorites. Personally, I feel like the beginning sequence in “Inglourious Basterds” could pass for a short film – maybe even win an award for best short film at some festival or another.
The introduction to Watchmen is excellent. One of my very favorites is Michael Mann’s intro to “AIi” – with the Sam Cook medley of songs performed in Harlem. that was a fascinating reconstruction of the period.
a forum for those participating in the Lenton Film Series: 2010 – http://www.theauteurs.com/lists/4058 – especially those in Columbus, OH – but all are welcome.
there will be a second screening of Paris, Texas on Sunday.
How would you tell Jane’s story before the beginning of the film?
“I wrote a whole diary about what happened to her before. I just think she was a young girl, maybe coming from Europe, and when you meet someone, everything seems possible, crazy things happen that you never think could happen, and you just start to live. She met this man who made her laugh, and there was no wait, no demand or questions, no how or why. And somehow, for him, she was this young person who gave life to his world, and for her, he was this one person who gave her love and light. As soon as they have the baby, he starts to change. When a man needs someone, he tries so much to hold on to that, not to let it go, that his love becomes strange and overpowering. Love can be very threatening, suffocating; you can’t breathe anymore. And I saw the story that way: it just became a web around this woman with her child. He would not let the world touch her or spoil her; he would destroy this most precious thing in the world with his overpowering care; and she would become crazy, she would suddenly become violent, she couldn’t live anymore with herself, nor give to the child the love that he needed…So she left the man, she left the child – she left him in good hands, and in a way she never left him…
I don’t think she ever experienced any love or emotion, except the memories, after that relationship. Through that strange job and that strange room, with all those creatures and men, she may have tried to understand Travis, to get through to him through other men, through the work of helping other men, in whatever silly way. Helping these men is like communicating her love to him…it is not at all an accident that she would work in that place…she guided herself to that town and that place to do what she would do. There was nowhere else to go."
How do you see the ending?
“To me, that’s really a sign of love and a sign of a possibility and a new beginning. Through that act of his, she can really learn to love them again. A child really is the most important thing in a woman’s life. If your child is gone, there is no life – you torment your mind and your fantasy.”
I think the beautiful miss Kinski has spoken real insight into her character. This kind of insight (or most kinds of insight) are spoken or projected from our own experience, our own psychology, and our witness of the experience and psychology of others around us. and this particular one presents the always severe issue of our inability to actually embrace, understand, and remain conscience of our “oneness”. Oneness should imply or does imply that something isn’t just shared, but actually transcends the idea of a two individuals sharing life, because they are not two individuals anymore. and well represented in this film, and in the quoted material above, is the idea that there is no greater symbol of two individuals becoming one – than seeing their oneness incarnated through a child. a child is not just something shared, it is our literal oneness, living and breathing. and to fear or reject this symbol, or be jealous of it, is most definitely the root of all evil. and to abandon or abuse something made in your own image, is the most severe definition of “broken”.
and until we focus more on this most micro symbol of war and poverty in our very local communities, our global efforts to fight terrorism and our campaigns to end global poverty are quite certainly being done in vain.
Wim Wenders’s haunting family drama Paris, Texas has always had particularly ardent admirers. And as evidenced by recent reviews of the Criterion DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film, time has done nothing to wash away their enthusiasm. For Paste magazine, Andy Beta calls the movie “breath-catching and heartrending, infused with a humanity rarely captured on celluloid,” remarking that “none of the film’s emotional power has dimmed in the last quarter century.” At Film.com, Christine Champ writes, “Paris, Texas persists as an alluring emotional odyssey with mythical resonance. It’s deserving of cult status, and well worth watching again and again.” This is “one of the great movies of the 1980s and one of the great movies about America,” says Tribeca Film’s Elisabeth Donnelly, who also delves into the release’s supplements, concluding that “this DVD is a fascinating glimpse into the work and guiding serendipity that lead to a profound result.”
Paris, Texas also turned up in T, the New York Times’ style magazine, where Jonathan S. Paul contends that the film wields fashion influence: “After screening this German New Wave tearjerker, you might be surprised to find yourself coveting locally sourced heirloom denim. Paris, Texas isn’t just an epic drama that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; nowadays it feels curiously in step with the current culture’s ongoing American heritage trip.”
The final word, however, comes from Daryl Loomis at DVD Verdict: “Paris, Texas is a near perfect film in every way . . . Intensely personal and profoundly beautiful, everybody owes it to themselves to see this film, especially given the superiority of Criterion’s set.”
“Reconciliation implies a complete healing and restoration of the broken relationships between God, humans, creation, and also a complete mending of the brokenness within ourselves. Reconciliation is not one aspect of the Christian mission, but rather the centre point for all mission. When we engage in reconciliation – or orient our lives towards reconciliation – we join the Triune God who liberates, mends, heals, and makes whole.” – Seeds of the Kingdom
In the first scene between Travis and Jane (pink fuzzy shirt!), we see Travis revert back into his jealousy pattern almost immediately (“do you make money on the side?”). It is so distracting and oppressive that he has to beg her to stay, and then decides to leave himself without a goodbye (like four years ago). at this point, we know that Travis still has work to do within himself – and that some other things need to happen first, before he and Jane could move forward with a restored relationship.
but that doesn’t mean that reconciliation has not happened. there has been confession, and there has been a level of forgiveness between the two of them – two huge aspects of the reconciliation process. and there is a level of penance in the restored relationship between mother and son, facilitated by the father.
the key word is process.
“To me, that’s really a sign of love and a sign of a possibility and a new beginning. Through that act of his, she can really learn to love them again. A child really is the most important thing in a woman’s life. If your child is gone, there is no life – you torment your mind and your fantasy.”
“but that doesn’t mean that reconciliation has not happened.” – refers to the second scene between Travis and Jane – where “there has been confession”.
I am a whole week late with this reflection of the second film of the Lenten film series…i apologize.
“The Virgin Spring” (1960). Rape, Revenge, Church.
“Now I want tom make it plain that The Virgin Spring must be regarded as an aberration. It’s touristic, a lousy imitation of Kurosawa. At that time my admiration for the Japanese cinema was at its height. I was almost a samurai myself!”
- Ingmar Bergman in Bergman on Bergman, 1970
The most obvious Kurosawa comparison regarding the above themes and Bergman’s quote would have to be “Rashomon”. That being the case, I will share a partial comment i recently made on the film talk blog to get us started…
“I also just watched Rashomon for the second or third time, but it felt like a first. i had never before been so struck by the final scene with the infant, which carries a significant amount of symbolic weight. So much so, that i am not sure that kurosawa was making a film about the relativity of truth (that is so often written about), but that he was actually making a film about an ultimate truth, in regards to our response to our broken, dishonest, and violent nature.
so maybe he was suggesting, that by recognizing our broken nature and taking responsibility for it through an opportunity to reconcile broken relationships (adopting an orphan, re-unifying mother and child, frogs falling from the sky, hari and kris, etc) that there might be hope for redemption? – and if that were true, maybe “Truth” actually does exist, despite are incapability to be totally honest with ourselves? …to which i strongly feel, was the actual “point” of Rashomon, and seems to be a substantial truth of “Paris, Texas” as well."
and also a substantial truth of “the virgin spring”. bergman, as usual, digs as deep into our being as possible, forcing us to confront our humanity on it’s lowest level. interestingly, with this film, bergman allows us, encourages us to feel justified in the possibility and execution of revenge…at least against the two men who raped and killed his daughter. but they also had with them a child, their brother, who was innocent, traumatized, and abused. he witnesses this act of severe revenge, runs into the arms of the dead virgin’s mother, who embraces him – only to be ripped from her arms, thrown and killed by the raging father, furious with revenge. but immediately, the father is mortified by his act. and those of watching are unable to breath.
both bergman and kurosawa push us to the limits of our devastation. as if there can be no hope for reconciliation or redemption or enlightenment, until we are willing to accept that you, and I, and we, are capable of horrible atrocities against those we love and hate. we are damn vulnerable to it, and to not accept it in ourselves, makes our attempts at loving our neighbor, our God, and ourselves, feeble and surface. and i believe one of the essential foundations for the relational holocaust in the western post-modern world, is our inability to look in the mirror before we put on make-up.
Only after the two men in the respective films accept the worst of themselves, accept the worst of humanity, can they offer penance to God and neighbor. One rescues an abandoned infant at the gate of Rashomon, the other promises God that he will build a church of stone and mortar, right where the innocent virgin lay, raped and dead.
which is somewhat reminiscent of St. Francis confronting and embracing the repulsive and disgusting leper…
“One day, while crossing the Umbrian plain on horseback, Francis unexpectedly drew near a poor leper. The sudden appearance of this repulsive object filled him with disgust and he instinctively retreated, but presently controlling his natural aversion he dismounted, embraced the unfortunate man, and gave him all the money he had. About the same time Francis made a pilgrimage to Rome. Pained at the miserly offerings he saw at the tomb of St. Peter, he emptied his purse thereon. Then, as if to put his fastidious nature to the test, he exchanged clothes with a tattered mendicant and stood for the rest of the day fasting among the horde of beggars at the door of the basilica.
Not long after his return to Assisi, whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian’s below the town, he heard a voice saying: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” Taking this behest literally, as referring to the ruinous church wherein he knelt, Francis went to his father’s shop, impulsively bundled together a load of coloured drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian’s."
and in confronting and embracing our own poverty, our own repulsion and disgust and disease – only then will we be at the starting point of reconcilation and redemption – only then will we subvert the relational holocaust, rather than perpetuate it. i guess that could be true. at least, i feel that this is what is being offered by the medieval context of all three narratives – that “the salvation of humanity lies in it’s shame.”
“Over the years, Rohmer has received a great deal of attention as a writer of dialogue, or to put it more precisely, as a creator of films structured around talk. He has also been noted as a lover of beautiful young people, as a teller of tales, and as some kind of “moralist.” None of these observations is terribly insightful, least of all the charge of moralism, which seems to rise from a simple misunderstanding of the term “moral tale.” It has often been pointed out that Rohmer is a practicing Catholic, to suggest that his Christianity is at the center of his filmmaking. In fact, while his Jesuit education may very well have instilled him with piety, it also doubtless sharpened his spirit of restless inquiry into the roles played by chance, choice, and grace in life—none of which he ever fully embraces. The Six Moral Tales do not have “morals.” Rather, they are stories of people in the process of making choices that may or may not be moral, examining the basis on which those choices are made, and thus trying to divine the distance between the real and the ideal in the process.”
oh, and Irvin – thanks for the recommendation. i have seen the Dardenne’s “the child”, but not “the son”. “the child” was one of my favorite films of last decade, and i believe could also be viewed for future lenten film series’.
“Remember that moment when Marlon Brando sent the Indian woman to accept the Oscar, and everything went haywire? Things just very rarely go haywire now. If you’re just operating by habit, then you’re not really living.”
“A few weeks ago I had dinner with Twyla Tharp in her kitchen, and we were talking about the problems of the artist, or for that matter the individual, maturing in our society. Why do we have so few mature artists? Trying to answer this question, we began to speculate that your early years, say your twenties, should be all about learning—learning how to do it, how to say it, learning to master the tools of your craft; having learned the techniques, then your next several years, say your thirties, should be all about telling the world with passion and conviction everything that you think you know about your life and your art. Meanwhile, though, if you have any sense, you’ll begin to realize that you just don’t know very much—you don’t know enough.
And so the next many, many years, we agreed, should be all about questions, only questions, and that if you can totally give up your life and your work to questioning, then perhaps somewhere in your mid-fifties you may find some very small answers to share with others in your work. The problem is that our society (including the community of artists) doesn’t have much patience with questions and questioning. We want answers, and we want them fast. “My Dinner with Andre” uses some of my experiences of my six years out of the theater as foundation stones for a work which is made up entirely of questions and which i would like to dedicate to all, artists and otherwise, who are out on the road somewhere wandering, with no destination anywhere in sight, almost forgetting why the ever set out in the first place, yet still unable to turn back, because they honestly believe that the shortest distance between two points just might not be a straight line."
There are so many different trains of thought (though all pointing in a certain direction), it is hard to sit and think of where to begin with a review or reflection of the film. Also, it is fascinating (but unfortunate) to see so many parallels almost thirty years later. Cell phones, for one. Facebook for another. But those are still just another kind of electric blanket, separating us from reality, separating us from one another, lulling us into a deep trance. Is communication with another person “real”, if we can’t look them in the eyes? Is it real if we can’t touch them?
How much time is spent with machines, rather than with people? Which one do we prefer?
I have to say though, that the centerpiece of the film for me is the “death and resurrection” scenario, so well detailed and articulated by Andre. Even just listening and imagining presents a certain kind of confrontation with death and the celebration of life, possibly unparalleled by anything i have ever “seen” in a film or experienced in life. It is the kind of thing that the season of Lent is supposed to be about – a journey that brings us back to reality, so we can touch our humanity, engage our spirituality, confront our death and our fear, and with the blooming Magnolias and Dogwoods, become colorful and alive. it is a most necessary experience for us in the First World, in the Western World! Most Necessary. Otherwise, we are both the prisoners and the guards of our unseen prison.
“The strangeness of Ordet is something that no number of viewings, God willing, will rub off. I want to stress this strangeness. That Ordet is a great film, one of the greatest ever made, only a rash or foolish person will deny. But even less than with other great films can we afford to let the category of greatness limit our response, because Ordet demands more from us, and has more to give, than almost any other film.”
Yeah. Everyone is an idiot when they make the choice to communicate violently, for better or worse. Even the idea of comparing one film with another, or a filmmaker with another filmmaker, is quite useless, unless it is beneficial to both films or filmmakers. I, personally, have much to learn from all of you. Especially if I rate the same film five stars that you rate one star – I prefer to understand your perspective, than to immediately defend my own. Because this site brings so many lovers of all things film to the same table, we must approach it with humility, so we can become “fuller, deeper, more informed, and all-around better people”.
All that to say, we have enough war and poverty to deal with outside of this website. If we can’t be at peace with one another in our international film forums, how the fuck can we expect anything different in our global political forums?
Thank you for the open letter Jesse. I fully agree with you, and also ask that Dimitris and Blue K return.
Great Introduction! over 3 years ago
I haven’t seen any forums yet about some of the greatest introducing sequences in the history of film. After watching “Inglourious Basterds” followed by “Once Upon a Time in the West”, I felt compelled to ask what some of you fine people think of those introductions, and also to elaborate on some of your personal favorites. Personally, I feel like the beginning sequence in “Inglourious Basterds” could pass for a short film – maybe even win an award for best short film at some festival or another.
thoughts?
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Great Introduction! over 3 years ago
a different topic, but worthy…
when do we suggest that Tarantino is plagiarizing Leone?
regardless, both are outstanding at introducing their films…
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Great Introduction! over 3 years ago
The introduction to Watchmen is excellent. One of my very favorites is Michael Mann’s intro to “AIi” – with the Sam Cook medley of songs performed in Harlem. that was a fascinating reconstruction of the period.
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
a forum for those participating in the Lenton Film Series: 2010 – http://www.theauteurs.com/lists/4058 – especially those in Columbus, OH – but all are welcome.
there will be a second screening of Paris, Texas on Sunday.
…
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
Several good essays about “Paris, Texas”…
http://www.thefilmtalk.com/2010/01/27/blue-light-red-light-paris-texas-from-criterion/ – Gareth Higgins
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1363 – Wim Wenders
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1359 – Nick Roddick
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
Nastassja Kinski (Voices Under Your Skin)
Partial Interview (“Paris, Texas” – 1984)
How would you tell Jane’s story before the beginning of the film?
“I wrote a whole diary about what happened to her before. I just think she was a young girl, maybe coming from Europe, and when you meet someone, everything seems possible, crazy things happen that you never think could happen, and you just start to live. She met this man who made her laugh, and there was no wait, no demand or questions, no how or why. And somehow, for him, she was this young person who gave life to his world, and for her, he was this one person who gave her love and light. As soon as they have the baby, he starts to change. When a man needs someone, he tries so much to hold on to that, not to let it go, that his love becomes strange and overpowering. Love can be very threatening, suffocating; you can’t breathe anymore. And I saw the story that way: it just became a web around this woman with her child. He would not let the world touch her or spoil her; he would destroy this most precious thing in the world with his overpowering care; and she would become crazy, she would suddenly become violent, she couldn’t live anymore with herself, nor give to the child the love that he needed…So she left the man, she left the child – she left him in good hands, and in a way she never left him…
I don’t think she ever experienced any love or emotion, except the memories, after that relationship. Through that strange job and that strange room, with all those creatures and men, she may have tried to understand Travis, to get through to him through other men, through the work of helping other men, in whatever silly way. Helping these men is like communicating her love to him…it is not at all an accident that she would work in that place…she guided herself to that town and that place to do what she would do. There was nowhere else to go."
How do you see the ending?
“To me, that’s really a sign of love and a sign of a possibility and a new beginning. Through that act of his, she can really learn to love them again. A child really is the most important thing in a woman’s life. If your child is gone, there is no life – you torment your mind and your fantasy.”
Go to Comment
Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
I think the beautiful miss Kinski has spoken real insight into her character. This kind of insight (or most kinds of insight) are spoken or projected from our own experience, our own psychology, and our witness of the experience and psychology of others around us. and this particular one presents the always severe issue of our inability to actually embrace, understand, and remain conscience of our “oneness”. Oneness should imply or does imply that something isn’t just shared, but actually transcends the idea of a two individuals sharing life, because they are not two individuals anymore. and well represented in this film, and in the quoted material above, is the idea that there is no greater symbol of two individuals becoming one – than seeing their oneness incarnated through a child. a child is not just something shared, it is our literal oneness, living and breathing. and to fear or reject this symbol, or be jealous of it, is most definitely the root of all evil. and to abandon or abuse something made in your own image, is the most severe definition of “broken”.
and until we focus more on this most micro symbol of war and poverty in our very local communities, our global efforts to fight terrorism and our campaigns to end global poverty are quite certainly being done in vain.
Go to Comment
Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1373
PRESS NOTES: PARIS, TEXAS
Wim Wenders’s haunting family drama Paris, Texas has always had particularly ardent admirers. And as evidenced by recent reviews of the Criterion DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film, time has done nothing to wash away their enthusiasm. For Paste magazine, Andy Beta calls the movie “breath-catching and heartrending, infused with a humanity rarely captured on celluloid,” remarking that “none of the film’s emotional power has dimmed in the last quarter century.” At Film.com, Christine Champ writes, “Paris, Texas persists as an alluring emotional odyssey with mythical resonance. It’s deserving of cult status, and well worth watching again and again.” This is “one of the great movies of the 1980s and one of the great movies about America,” says Tribeca Film’s Elisabeth Donnelly, who also delves into the release’s supplements, concluding that “this DVD is a fascinating glimpse into the work and guiding serendipity that lead to a profound result.”
Paris, Texas also turned up in T, the New York Times’ style magazine, where Jonathan S. Paul contends that the film wields fashion influence: “After screening this German New Wave tearjerker, you might be surprised to find yourself coveting locally sourced heirloom denim. Paris, Texas isn’t just an epic drama that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; nowadays it feels curiously in step with the current culture’s ongoing American heritage trip.”
The final word, however, comes from Daryl Loomis at DVD Verdict: “Paris, Texas is a near perfect film in every way . . . Intensely personal and profoundly beautiful, everybody owes it to themselves to see this film, especially given the superiority of Criterion’s set.”
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
“Reconciliation implies a complete healing and restoration of the broken relationships between God, humans, creation, and also a complete mending of the brokenness within ourselves. Reconciliation is not one aspect of the Christian mission, but rather the centre point for all mission. When we engage in reconciliation – or orient our lives towards reconciliation – we join the Triune God who liberates, mends, heals, and makes whole.” – Seeds of the Kingdom
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
In the first scene between Travis and Jane (pink fuzzy shirt!), we see Travis revert back into his jealousy pattern almost immediately (“do you make money on the side?”). It is so distracting and oppressive that he has to beg her to stay, and then decides to leave himself without a goodbye (like four years ago). at this point, we know that Travis still has work to do within himself – and that some other things need to happen first, before he and Jane could move forward with a restored relationship.
but that doesn’t mean that reconciliation has not happened. there has been confession, and there has been a level of forgiveness between the two of them – two huge aspects of the reconciliation process. and there is a level of penance in the restored relationship between mother and son, facilitated by the father.
the key word is process.
“To me, that’s really a sign of love and a sign of a possibility and a new beginning. Through that act of his, she can really learn to love them again. A child really is the most important thing in a woman’s life. If your child is gone, there is no life – you torment your mind and your fantasy.”
Go to Comment
Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
for clarification…
“but that doesn’t mean that reconciliation has not happened.” – refers to the second scene between Travis and Jane – where “there has been confession”.
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
JYoungman – you can post whatever you like….
I am a whole week late with this reflection of the second film of the Lenten film series…i apologize.
“The Virgin Spring” (1960). Rape, Revenge, Church.
“Now I want tom make it plain that The Virgin Spring must be regarded as an aberration. It’s touristic, a lousy imitation of Kurosawa. At that time my admiration for the Japanese cinema was at its height. I was almost a samurai myself!”
- Ingmar Bergman in Bergman on Bergman, 1970
The most obvious Kurosawa comparison regarding the above themes and Bergman’s quote would have to be “Rashomon”. That being the case, I will share a partial comment i recently made on the film talk blog to get us started…
“I also just watched Rashomon for the second or third time, but it felt like a first. i had never before been so struck by the final scene with the infant, which carries a significant amount of symbolic weight. So much so, that i am not sure that kurosawa was making a film about the relativity of truth (that is so often written about), but that he was actually making a film about an ultimate truth, in regards to our response to our broken, dishonest, and violent nature.
so maybe he was suggesting, that by recognizing our broken nature and taking responsibility for it through an opportunity to reconcile broken relationships (adopting an orphan, re-unifying mother and child, frogs falling from the sky, hari and kris, etc) that there might be hope for redemption? – and if that were true, maybe “Truth” actually does exist, despite are incapability to be totally honest with ourselves? …to which i strongly feel, was the actual “point” of Rashomon, and seems to be a substantial truth of “Paris, Texas” as well."
and also a substantial truth of “the virgin spring”. bergman, as usual, digs as deep into our being as possible, forcing us to confront our humanity on it’s lowest level. interestingly, with this film, bergman allows us, encourages us to feel justified in the possibility and execution of revenge…at least against the two men who raped and killed his daughter. but they also had with them a child, their brother, who was innocent, traumatized, and abused. he witnesses this act of severe revenge, runs into the arms of the dead virgin’s mother, who embraces him – only to be ripped from her arms, thrown and killed by the raging father, furious with revenge. but immediately, the father is mortified by his act. and those of watching are unable to breath.
both bergman and kurosawa push us to the limits of our devastation. as if there can be no hope for reconciliation or redemption or enlightenment, until we are willing to accept that you, and I, and we, are capable of horrible atrocities against those we love and hate. we are damn vulnerable to it, and to not accept it in ourselves, makes our attempts at loving our neighbor, our God, and ourselves, feeble and surface. and i believe one of the essential foundations for the relational holocaust in the western post-modern world, is our inability to look in the mirror before we put on make-up.
Only after the two men in the respective films accept the worst of themselves, accept the worst of humanity, can they offer penance to God and neighbor. One rescues an abandoned infant at the gate of Rashomon, the other promises God that he will build a church of stone and mortar, right where the innocent virgin lay, raped and dead.
which is somewhat reminiscent of St. Francis confronting and embracing the repulsive and disgusting leper…
“One day, while crossing the Umbrian plain on horseback, Francis unexpectedly drew near a poor leper. The sudden appearance of this repulsive object filled him with disgust and he instinctively retreated, but presently controlling his natural aversion he dismounted, embraced the unfortunate man, and gave him all the money he had. About the same time Francis made a pilgrimage to Rome. Pained at the miserly offerings he saw at the tomb of St. Peter, he emptied his purse thereon. Then, as if to put his fastidious nature to the test, he exchanged clothes with a tattered mendicant and stood for the rest of the day fasting among the horde of beggars at the door of the basilica.
Not long after his return to Assisi, whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian’s below the town, he heard a voice saying: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” Taking this behest literally, as referring to the ruinous church wherein he knelt, Francis went to his father’s shop, impulsively bundled together a load of coloured drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian’s."
and in confronting and embracing our own poverty, our own repulsion and disgust and disease – only then will we be at the starting point of reconcilation and redemption – only then will we subvert the relational holocaust, rather than perpetuate it. i guess that could be true. at least, i feel that this is what is being offered by the medieval context of all three narratives – that “the salvation of humanity lies in it’s shame.”
Go to Comment
Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
“My Night at Maud’s” (1969) – Eric Rohmer…
“Over the years, Rohmer has received a great deal of attention as a writer of dialogue, or to put it more precisely, as a creator of films structured around talk. He has also been noted as a lover of beautiful young people, as a teller of tales, and as some kind of “moralist.” None of these observations is terribly insightful, least of all the charge of moralism, which seems to rise from a simple misunderstanding of the term “moral tale.” It has often been pointed out that Rohmer is a practicing Catholic, to suggest that his Christianity is at the center of his filmmaking. In fact, while his Jesuit education may very well have instilled him with piety, it also doubtless sharpened his spirit of restless inquiry into the roles played by chance, choice, and grace in life—none of which he ever fully embraces. The Six Moral Tales do not have “morals.” Rather, they are stories of people in the process of making choices that may or may not be moral, examining the basis on which those choices are made, and thus trying to divine the distance between the real and the ideal in the process.”
“My Night At Maud’s” – http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/436
ERIC ROHMER, 1920 – 2010 – http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/1390
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
awesome. JW – feel free to weave in children’s literature and film. totally appropriate.
and totally appropriate to discuss any of the films we have seen, at any time – kyle.
Rufus – you and I seem to have completely different (though not necessarily opposing) ways of reflecting on these films. i find that interesting.
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
oh, and Irvin – thanks for the recommendation. i have seen the Dardenne’s “the child”, but not “the son”. “the child” was one of my favorite films of last decade, and i believe could also be viewed for future lenten film series’.
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
Here is a bonus feature of sorts from the Criterion Collection – posted after Rohmer passed…
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1347
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
“Remember that moment when Marlon Brando sent the Indian woman to accept the Oscar, and everything went haywire? Things just very rarely go haywire now. If you’re just operating by habit, then you’re not really living.”
Louis Malle
Roger Ebert
Criterion Essay by Amy Taubin
When Noah Met Wally
My Dinner with Facebook?
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
“A few weeks ago I had dinner with Twyla Tharp in her kitchen, and we were talking about the problems of the artist, or for that matter the individual, maturing in our society. Why do we have so few mature artists? Trying to answer this question, we began to speculate that your early years, say your twenties, should be all about learning—learning how to do it, how to say it, learning to master the tools of your craft; having learned the techniques, then your next several years, say your thirties, should be all about telling the world with passion and conviction everything that you think you know about your life and your art. Meanwhile, though, if you have any sense, you’ll begin to realize that you just don’t know very much—you don’t know enough.
And so the next many, many years, we agreed, should be all about questions, only questions, and that if you can totally give up your life and your work to questioning, then perhaps somewhere in your mid-fifties you may find some very small answers to share with others in your work. The problem is that our society (including the community of artists) doesn’t have much patience with questions and questioning. We want answers, and we want them fast. “My Dinner with Andre” uses some of my experiences of my six years out of the theater as foundation stones for a work which is made up entirely of questions and which i would like to dedicate to all, artists and otherwise, who are out on the road somewhere wandering, with no destination anywhere in sight, almost forgetting why the ever set out in the first place, yet still unable to turn back, because they honestly believe that the shortest distance between two points just might not be a straight line."
- Andre Gregory
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
yeah. we can do that on Wednesday and Friday.
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
There are so many different trains of thought (though all pointing in a certain direction), it is hard to sit and think of where to begin with a review or reflection of the film. Also, it is fascinating (but unfortunate) to see so many parallels almost thirty years later. Cell phones, for one. Facebook for another. But those are still just another kind of electric blanket, separating us from reality, separating us from one another, lulling us into a deep trance. Is communication with another person “real”, if we can’t look them in the eyes? Is it real if we can’t touch them?
How much time is spent with machines, rather than with people? Which one do we prefer?
I have to say though, that the centerpiece of the film for me is the “death and resurrection” scenario, so well detailed and articulated by Andre. Even just listening and imagining presents a certain kind of confrontation with death and the celebration of life, possibly unparalleled by anything i have ever “seen” in a film or experienced in life. It is the kind of thing that the season of Lent is supposed to be about – a journey that brings us back to reality, so we can touch our humanity, engage our spirituality, confront our death and our fear, and with the blooming Magnolias and Dogwoods, become colorful and alive. it is a most necessary experience for us in the First World, in the Western World! Most Necessary. Otherwise, we are both the prisoners and the guards of our unseen prison.
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 over 3 years ago
“The strangeness of Ordet is something that no number of viewings, God willing, will rub off. I want to stress this strangeness. That Ordet is a great film, one of the greatest ever made, only a rash or foolish person will deny. But even less than with other great films can we afford to let the category of greatness limit our response, because Ordet demands more from us, and has more to give, than almost any other film.”
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 about 3 years ago
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 about 3 years ago
three really excellent essays and blog posts…
the only film that has everything
from the current
andrei rublev, monk-painter-theologian
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Lenton Film Series: 2010 about 3 years ago
Easter…
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An open letter to my friends dimitris and blue k: almost 3 years ago
Yeah. Everyone is an idiot when they make the choice to communicate violently, for better or worse. Even the idea of comparing one film with another, or a filmmaker with another filmmaker, is quite useless, unless it is beneficial to both films or filmmakers. I, personally, have much to learn from all of you. Especially if I rate the same film five stars that you rate one star – I prefer to understand your perspective, than to immediately defend my own. Because this site brings so many lovers of all things film to the same table, we must approach it with humility, so we can become “fuller, deeper, more informed, and all-around better people”.
All that to say, we have enough war and poverty to deal with outside of this website. If we can’t be at peace with one another in our international film forums, how the fuck can we expect anything different in our global political forums?
Thank you for the open letter Jesse. I fully agree with you, and also ask that Dimitris and Blue K return.
Peace.
Kyle
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An open letter to my friends dimitris and blue k: almost 3 years ago
for anyone interested, I find this post from The Film Talk’s Gareth Higgins to be at the heart of the real issue here…
http://www.thefilmtalk.com/2009/09/03/a-non-dogmatic-declaration-of-intent-part-1/
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Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier almost 3 years ago
Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
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Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier almost 3 years ago
Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
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Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier almost 3 years ago
Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier
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Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier almost 3 years ago
Yeah. Sorry, I was trying to embed the video, but as you can see…
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