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Reviews
Efter repetitionen (1984)
An Important Look At How The Theater Mirrors Life And How Life Mirrors The Theater
`After the Rehearsal', a film by Ingmar Bergman, is a reflective look at the art of theater and its practical implications in our lives. Bergman keeps to a relatively tight plot and cast - there are a total of three characters and one setting that endure over the course of 79 minutes. More than anything, `After the Rehearsal' is a study of our actions: their sincerity, what drives us to them, and how they are mirrored in the theater. It attempts to define human relationships and their high level of self-interest, at times appearing quite existentialistic. `After the Rehearsal' brazenly takes a look into social psychology, aging and theater. The story in `After the Rehearsal' focuses on playwright and director Henrik Vogler, his current star actress, Anna Eggerman, and her mother and Henrik's former lover - Rakel Eggerman. It all occurs after a rehearsal for Henrik's latest `Dream Play' when he is awoken by Anna Eggerman who is looking for her bracelet - a mere pretension to spend time with Henrik. While her desire for Henrik is obvious - he continuously refuses to yield to her flirtations. In the middle of the film, there is a long flashback where we witness Anna's alcoholic mother Rakel arguing with Henrik on the same backstage. Towards the end of the film, Henrik and Anna frenziedly create a romantic story of their future together, passionately delving deeper into their improvised story until Henrik stops it - he will never be able to carry out his desires in person at his age. Bergman's `After the Rehearsal' is not about a plotline, but rather, about unearthing the truth of our actions. During the course of the film, Henrik, while in conversation, will have a voice over which lays bare his thoughts and feelings towards who he is currently addressing. His dialogue is always an act - trying to make his words match his thoughts and thereby amassing a waste of energy. His words betray his thoughts and we learn how truly detached and distant he is from his surroundings. His words become no more than lines in a play; trying to express a thought in the most pleasing and successful way. Anna Eggerman is no better off than Henrik - she purposely lies to him so as to manipulate him and witness his various emotional responses. Rakel also epitomizes this separation from society by her professed desire for affection and company but consistent alcoholism and belligerent actions aimed towards Henrik - she is a mourner who has damned herself to wallow in her own pity. It would be accurate to dub `After the Rehearsal' as an existentialist work. Not only does it focus on man's separation from one another and the pointlessness of his actions, but it attempts to define why man acts as he does. In a self-revelation, Anna Eggerman supposes that she is acting only to please others - and that since childhood she has merely put on a stage face to get her own way. She is so absorbed by her subconscious actions that she does not realize she has become an actress offstage. Furthermore, it describes the plight of Henrik. In addition to the isolation Henrik suffers from the world, he is also plagued by his old age. As age has taken its toll, he no longer has the energy to have a relationship with Anna and can merely imagine it. His (and the film's) final words most exemplify his incapacity and detachment from the world, occurring when Anna tells him she can hear the church bells tolling as he says `I only wish that I was able to hear the bells'. `After the Rehearsal' is a meditative film that is not afraid to ask questions and propose answers. It eloquently expresses its views through a tightly-woven story that does not fail to hold its audiences attention. It dissects why man functions as he does through intense confrontations, philosophical ponderings and quiet revelations. Bergman unmasks the existential themes of distance and cold self-interest that lurk underneath our every word. `After the Rehearsal' is a complex and vital look at humanity that everyone should sit through at least once.
Le notti di Cabiria (1957)
Fellini at his best - Spoilers
`Le Notti di Cabiria', Federico Fellini's 1957 Academy Award winning film, is a poignant, touching and timeless work of Italian cinema. The film details the life of Cabiria (played by Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina), a `night bird' who leads a cynical life of prostitution on the streets of Rome. Throughout the film, Fellini guides us through her search for true love, refuge, and eventual salvation. Her poetic story is one of sadness, hope, and the unending search for a true place to call home. Giulietta Masina's brilliant performance draws her audience into her ravaged world and leaves them forever changed.
Cabiria has been a prostitute since her youngest days - she recollects entering the streets at 15 with `long, dark hair', unaware of what she was getting into. As we learn in the opening scene, she has been consistently taken advantage of by men, yet attempts to walk a fine line between clinging to them in a search for true happiness and remaining ever independent and self-sufficient. As soon as the film opens, she is robbed by her pimp, and later spends the night with a self-consumed wealthy director. However, the director throws her in the closet as soon as his girlfriend arrives and in the morning quickly escorts a sad Cabiria out of the house, with all her hopes crushed. During the film Cabiria is frequently enticed by the promise of a new life in her encounters, yet consistently meets impending doom.
The most heartbreaking theme of the film is Cabiria's hopeless search for happiness and salvation. We see that her friends in the business are no better off - Cabiria's story is a universal account. She is cynical and cold only because of the tragedy she has suffered when she has chosen to share herself. However, she makes a gradual transformation throughout the film as soon as she meets D'onofrio - a handsome, intelligent and caring man who finds Cabiria at a comedy show. Cabiria is at first doubtful and aloof around him, but as the story progresses becomes more open and loving. She has finally found the answer in D'onofrio; she proceeds to sell her house and gather her life savings to live the married life as her mother had with D'onofrio. In the end of the film, her hopes are once again crushed as Fellini brings us to a cliff overlooking a river, the same setting as the opening scene in which Cabiria was robbed by her pimp and thrown into the river. Cabiria recognizes why D'onofrio has taken her there, breaks down crying and asks for him to throw her over the cliff. D'onofrio takes her life savings and leaves her on the cliff to her sorrows. Fellini ends the film with a shot of Cabiria looking into the camera smiling through her tears - she still has some hope for humanity inside her.It seems that no matter how desperate her struggles, Cabiria can not leave her life on the streets. She tells D'onofrio that as a teenager she and her friend Wanda had tried to escape the streets through starting a newspaper stand and could never get it off the ground. Perhaps it is something about Cabiria that keeps her working on the streets, perhaps it is her eternal hope in the goodness of mankind. She will never stop believing someone good is waiting for her out in the obscurity of the night. While at a holy site where Mary was to have appeared, she begs in tears for Mary to change her life. Her prayers, expectedly, are not answered. In `Le Notti di Cabiria', Fellini breaks our hearts through Giulietta Masina's brilliant portrayal of an infinite search for love amongst a dark world ravaged with deceit and pain.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
Failure?
In the short story `The Fall of the House of Usher', Edgar Allen Poe creates a horror masterpiece that leaves many questions to the reader's imagination. In the film adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher, Roger Corman ruthlessly distorts Poe's masterpiece, leaving a fractured skeleton of the original conceptions. Corman manipulates the plot and in doing so paints the main characters far from how Poe intended them to be. He takes away Poe's intentional ambiguity in the plot and makes his mystery masterpiece a five-cent horror show. The Fall of the House of Usher would have been a decent film if it was an unadapted screenplay or did not completely distort Edgar Allen Poe's vision of the story. Throughout The Fall of the House of Usher, the original story is continuously twisted. In the original short story, Phillip Winthrop visits Roderick Usher upon receiving a letter from the ill Roderick, who is asking for a visitation. Phillip is a friend and desires to help Usher. Once at the House of Usher, Winthrop briefly sees Madeline, yet does not know her. In the film, Winthrop is in love with Madeline, who he spent time with in Boston, and is coming to take her away. Roderick stands in direct opposition to Phillip and we see a conflict begin to boil. Suddenly, we view Roderick as a deceitful, kniving, crazed elderly gentlemen who has a perverted control over his innocent sister. Roderick's suffering and innocent affliction takes a backseat as Madeline's natural behavior away from the House of Usher in Boston points to a frightening, evil and manipulative control Roderick and the House have over her. In the short story, Phillip is not antagonistic, but rather a troubled friend who is afflicted by a certain evil. It is this type of distorted storytelling that Corman uses to lead us into a degraded understanding of the Usher nature. Countless changes can be seen in The Fall of the House of Usher. For instance, a chandelier falls right by Phillip as if it tried to kill him. At the end of the film, the house catches on fire, as where in the book it only crumbles and is consumed by the lake. Madeline, once free from her coffin, attempts to strangle both Phillip and Roderick, something completely unheard of in the story. Also, there is a personal relationship that develops amongst the butler and Phillip, as well as an elaborate chase scene throughout the house at the end. In one scene, Madeline walks Winthrop through numerous mausoleums where her family members are resting. Perhaps a reference to a short song written in the story, there is a hazy blue, Hunter S. Thompson esque dream sequence in the film in which Phillip encounters deceased members of the Usher family. At one point, Roderick goes as far to blame Winthrop for Madeline's death - further distorting Poe's intentional friendship between the two in the original piece. Lastly, in numerous shots we see paintings of former Ushers and descriptions of their evil crafts - something not described in as much detail in the original work (among countless other subtle differences). While Roger Corman successfully ruins the audience's understanding of the true nature of the evil that plagues the Usher house, he also succeeds at making a film that perhaps Poe would be proud of for its technical merit and gloomy aurora. Through high, overhang shots from a stairwell Corman enlarges the Usher house, both physically and mystically. He makes use of drastic 180 degree rapid camera swings. The acting is fairly weak; however, Vincent Price's (Roderick Usher) acting is notable. More notable, perhaps, are the color schemes Corman implores (centrally, red and blue) as seen through Roderick and Phillip's clothing as well as the dream sequence. Unfortunately, The Fall of the House of Usher underestimates its audience. It underestimates their ability to decide who Madeline and Roderick really are, what is plaguing them, and in largely to form their own theories as the story permits. It is a story told which does not fail to leave any unflinching detail out, attempting so radically that it leaves the viewer with a distorted perception of the House of Usher. If only a director who did not seek cheap shock and intensity could adapt this work, perhaps we could have a very intellectual and intriguing film - though perhaps he could consider using some of Corman's filming techniques.