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louiebotha
Reviews
Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979)
The Marriage of Maria Braun. To be just as cold as required
The Marriage of Maria Braun (MMB) is about a German girl (Maria) getting married to a German soldier (Herman Braun) just at the ending of the war. After being married for half a day and a night, Herman is send to the front again. To make ends meet, Maria starts working at a bar for mainly American soldiers and get to know a black soldier. She got word that Herman died at the front, and things develop between her and the American soldier. Herman walks in on them, in bed, and after a confrontation between him and the American, Maria killed the American. Herman admits to the murder, ends up in jail and Maria vows to wait for him. The country is in shambles; one sees people leaving everything that they are busy with for a cigarette. There are food shortages. It is in short, a time of survival of the fittest.
Basically this film projects Maria's attitudes - those attitudes she permits herself under the mentioned circumstances, as a metaphor for Germany's loss of soul after they lost the war, and how it proceeds to rebuild itself. For example, Maria has the following conversation with a peddler (played by Fassbinder himself); the peddler tries to sell her an excellent copy of Kleist and she remarks that "Kleist burns out to quickly, it does not provide enough heat for the cold". The peddler answers "That's another way to look at it. Right now, it's probably the correct way".
Maria meets a French/German business man, Karl Oswald after she bargains her way into the first class train compartment. She decides to get involve with Karl, "You're not having an affair with me; I'm having an affair with you". She also takes responsibility in the company, and after a while has the complete trust of the firm. When Karl says "I suppose we'll just have to wait for a miracle" she replies "I prefer making miracles then wait for them". In her own words, she has become the "Mata Hari of the economic miracle".
In a lot of Fassbinder's films he tried to expose the psychological processes which lie behind social mechanisms (see Freud); in other words, he liked pointing his camera at the bullsh*t, the false social mechanisms, the pretending. The direct approach Maria takes in this film is successful to convey this ideology. For example, she phones Karl and when he picks up the phone her request is straight to the point "I need someone to sleep with". As Fassbinder said "the emotions people felt did not exist at all and were only a kind of sentimentality which we thought we needed to be properly functioning members of society". He also remarked that his films are anti emotional.
I particularly liked the scene when Karl and Maria meet in the Munich restaurant (apparently, frequently visited by Hitler himself). Maria appears in control and Karl a bit on the down side, as if Maria's 'brutal honesty' wears him out, as if he is not completely up to the situation anymore. Karl says "I have to tell myself over and over that I love life". Maria replies "That's life isn't it. As if we signed a contract to enjoy life. And then we go out to eat and talk about food". I guess this is also about Fassbinder attitudes on relationships, to never submit completely to anyone. And why would you, if the central matter of most of his films is about "What love becomes in this society a commodity, an instrument of power, a weapon."
It was remarked that it is typical Fassbinder to have the scenes with Maria and Betti walking in expensive dresses in the ruins after the war - with these clothing essentially the wrong period. What I think he wanted to portray here were those attitudes, when you feel bad, that "you can always put on your make up and face the day looking great". But, Fassbinder was not interested in perfection. Any mistakes made in a film could just be corrected in the next project. Since he completed films (approximately 4 a year) the way other people rolled cigarettes, it is not peculiar that this film has some very bad scenes. Peter Marthesheimer, who wrote most of the script, mentioned that Fassbinder likely dreamed up the whole scene with Maria and the American in the park, overnight.
Hanna Schygulla is brilliant as Maria. Mostly, she just stares bluntly into the camera. In Maria's own words "It is a bad time for emotions. But, I like it like that".
There are different opinions about the end. After Karl died of a hart attack, Herman finally shows up. (Herman left for Australia after he got out of prison, to "become human again".) After the testament is delivered (made out to her and Herman in half), Maria forgets to close the gas on the stove when she lights her cigarette, and blow her and Herman up. For me it is obvious that she just did that by accident. At the same time, she must have been rattled when her dreams finally seem about to come true. She must have felt as if she was not herself anymore. She felt as if she had outlived herself.
Lost Highway (1997)
Lost Highway. An invitation to your house.
Lost Highway is my 2nd favourite David Lynch film. Unlike Eraserhead, which before also puzzled audiences, Lost Highway has a ratio of meaning that is just right. It desires to be analyzed. It is also his most frightening film. It is perhaps a film that you do not want to invite into your living room. My strategy to describe this movie is as before, to decide first of all what is real, and then what is not real. Lynch told audiences that this movie is about the OJ Simpson case. He was puzzled with the notion that a person can walk away from a crime, seemingly capable of forgetting that he did it.
The way I see it, the central character in Lost Highway has a split identity, triggered by murdering his girlfriend. As a grown up this character has the identity Fred Madison (someone who likes to remember things his own way, not necessarily how it happened), a saxophone player, played by Bill Pullman. Fred murders his girlfriend Renee Madison, played by Patricia Arquette, and ends up in jail. (But, for all that you know he was already in jail, for murdering her the first time. I don't know.) The 24 year old younger Fred is Peter Dayton, a mechanic, played by Balthazar Getty. Pete falls in love with one of the shop's main customer's (Mister Eddy, also known as Dick Laurent) girlfriend. The girlfriend is Alice, again played by Patricia Arquette. Mister Eddy is smooth as 'sh*t from a duck's ass' and on the wrong side of the law, with an abhorrence of tailgating. He and Andy are making porn/snuff films, with Alice as one of the actresses. My assumption is that Pete ends up killing Alice.
The truth grid of the story is thus the following: The main character, Pete Dayton, kills his girl friend because he can never fully have her, and keeps re imagining himself and her in fragments of the truth. He keeps re inventing the situation. Everything that does not stick to the grid is fabrications of Pete in his attempt to forget and re invent, and part of the process Lynch follows.
I'm going to highlight some important aspects of the film. Pete gets very likely jealous of Alice at one point. She asks him "Do you still want me Pete?" and tells him then "But, you can never have me". One never actually sees Pete murder Alice. My point is that what is happening, is kind off similar to what we have in Solaris. The beloved personality returns. No matter how many times Pete/Fred murders her, she always returns. In his mind, she might appear like twin sisters in a portrait. She doubles up like Dolly. If this movie would have continued, it could have opened with another manifestation of Fred, now middle age, and Patricia Arquette returning as his fixation. It is the obsession of a man that can never 'have her'. Fred meets a freaky looking mystery man played by Robert Blake at a party of Renee. The mystery man told Fred that they have met before, at Fred's house, and that he was invited into Fred's house by Fred himself, "It is not my custom to go where I am not invited". This is likely because Fred has murdered before, as the younger man, Pete. However, the mystery man said the same thing to Pete "We have met before, haven't we". We all know Lynch use mantra like phrases that reappear thru out his films. But I think this could reflect on the relativity theory and on the nature of time; on the configuration of Lost Highway, and likely of evil in itself. Pete invites evil into his house when he ends up murdering Alice, with the result that he is also then introduced to it at an earlier stage, to 'back up' the present. That is why he has met the mystery man before he even murdered Alice. The past is altered, and his parents, having watched parts of it, are 'lost for words'. It is kind off interesting that Fred decides to leave himself a message on his house intercom "Dick Laurent is dead". I think the mystery man whispered that in his ear, after Mister Eddy is killed. Linearly that is a tough part to explain, because the cops show up at that point. It might just fall thru the truth grid. It could be fabrication.
I'd like to add some references to Transendental Meditation (a process Lynch follows) here. The mantra needs to be repeated as easily as thoughts; as easily as thoughts manifest in your mind. It needs to float thru one's mind as effortlessly as clouds. I like to think here of the density of Patricia Arquette's words. Her voice has an ethereal quality. It must have appeared to Pete like utter magic on the phone. (Floating like smoke thru the holes in the receiver) It must have been an invitation that was inescapable. "Meet me at the Starlight Hotel at Sycamore, in 20 minutes" But her tease proved to be ultimately too much for him. "Miaaw miaaw. It's me. I can't see you tonight"
The film has spectacular moments. One of them is when Mister Eddy had Alice at his house the first time. This is one of my all time favourite scenes. Marilyn Manson's "I've put a spell on you" in the background. A fire blazing in the fireplace and Alice in her black underwear, sensually, and uncertainly awaiting Mister Eddy's orders. Mister Eddy's small nod for Alice, to approach him. The gun against her head. And, Pete asking her, "So, why didn't you just leave? You've must have liked it".
Inland Empire (2006)
INLAND EMPIRE. A David Lynch Odyssey.
It was said that the Orson Welles flick "Citizen Kane" taught people how to watch movies. I am convinced to many people wants to drill down to the truth in David Lynch's movies. Build it like a kid's puzzle in other words. DL jokingly said that he does not understand them either, and that all the interpretations valid are. But at the same time, it is not very original to conclude that the film is ¾ the dream of a women waking up around the end. I do think Inland Empire is dreamlike, but dreamlike mostly in a metaphysical way.
It is fun to grapple with the illogical elements in the film, to look for what Alice found in the rabbit hole. One is confronted with unexplainable events every day. For example, the other day, as I walked behind x I had the intention to tell her that she appears a bit 'white' in the face, but I decided not to. At that point she glanced over her shoulder and asked, "What did you say?"
For me, it works to decide which parts of the movie are true, and let the rest of the understanding spin of from these premises, using metaphor, parallel realities and surrealism. But I believe one should enjoy this film solely on the impact the spectacularly related scenes deliver in it selves, without concocting meaning to it.
Storyline: An actress (Nikki), casted in a movie "On high in blue tomorrows' is playing (Susan). Nikki is married to a very prominent Polish Hollywood player and on the point of betraying her husband with her co star, Billy (Devon Berk). It is secretly a remake of a Polish, cursed movie. The movie transgresses into surrealism almost immediately after Nikki doesn't realize that a line she played in a scene is only part of her role, and not in 'real' life. She walks thru a door with some kind off curse in graffiti written above, and grapple for the rest of the movie with madness. In a way the film pokes metaphorically at the movie-making industry, which can be viewed as 'filmed life' threaded parallel to 'real life'.
I think the group of dancing girl's portrayed different personalities of Nikki (watch her expression while they talk); they also emerge traumatically after Nikki had sex with Billy. One of them pointed out to Nikki, "It's strange what love does", a phrase, which tunneled a mysterious energy, and probably has something to do with Nikki falling in love with Billy, invoking the curse, getting some kind of split in her personality. I think the Polish actress who appears at the start of the movie deciding to watch a movie is in fact dead, in limbo, locked up in time, half born, in some minimalistic place where she mostly watches a TV program with 3 rabbits in a room. This room is severed with a feeling of what only they seem familiar with, of a deeper knowledge: What they are not going to tell us, but what we might find out. I believe this metaphysical plug in point is INLAND EMPIRE. She is likely the lost girl in the folk tale "A little girl went out to play, lost in the marketplace as if half-born...". She makes contact with Nikki, which is "a women in trouble", and seems to lead her in a good way, wanting her to escape the curse. For example, when the parrallel life Nikki saw ketchup on her husband's tshirt, it appears as if she could be dreaming his murder, and the Polish actress, who appears to watch this, murmurs "Cast out this wicked dream that has seized my heart". (My favourite line of the movie). At which point a murder with a screwdriver took place somewhere else. I think she also summits the psychologist (who appears to be one of the rabbits) to help Nikki.
Nikki's split parallel identities are a fantastic concocted mesmerizing mesh, but I think it symbolize mostly her schizophrenic adjustments to the situation she faces on a cursed set in a city of dreaming. And troubled the movie "On High
" is. This has likely something to do with the Phantom, or evil, who looks for a way 'into Inland Empire". I think the Phantom is the other coin end of the folktale "When the boy left the house evil was borne and followed him". Such is the haunting mood of the movie.
Look out for a 'lewensmoeg' Harry Dean Stanton, and his hilarious ways of getting some spare change from crew and actors. "I know I've got a lot of nerve, but it seems just like the other day I was carrying my own weight". And a terrifying scene with Julia Ormond, closely interviewed by a sweaty police officer, about a murder she is going to commit after being hypnotized. And also, this is a first rate performance by Laura Dern. I really liked the scene where Nikki's husband put his arm around Devon and give him some honest advice about the sacred vow of marriage.
I hope the decision of shooting the film on DV is not the actions of an old man getting a bit lazy (with all respect), because, for me, its lacks the cinematic grandeur of Mulholland Drive. In other words, it is not going to produce the same quality posters as Mulholland Drive. But it is a brilliant work, brilliant in its spectacular victory over the obvious, and brilliant in its portraying of the many dimensions we live in threaded closely next to each other. Do we want to 'break thru'? Do we want to dive into alternative realities, or force away the doors of perception? I think we do. Then maybe we should burn a hole into a thin piece of silk and fold it double and peer thru. And we should remember to wear the watch.
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Mulholland Dr : a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bumblebee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening.
Mulholland Drive starts with an innocent looking aspiring blonde actress (Betty) from Deep River, Ontario, arriving in Hollywood. The previous evening, a dark haired mysterious looking beauty had an accident in the street with the same name as the movie, after a bunch of racing youths crashed into her limousine. Concussed and with amnesia, she decided to hide in the apartment that was just cleared by Betty's aunt. Betty and Rita (the amnesia girl chose the name from a Rita Hayworth poster in Betty's room) seemed to get on superb, even after it is spilled that Rita is not known to her aunt. After a couple of nights with Rita on the couch, they decided to share the double bed. When a naked, flaming hot Rita kissed Betty goodnight ("Goodnight sweet Betty"), the inevitable follows.
It appears as if Mulholland Drive consist of two parts, because the movie dramatically changed in outward appearance after Rita opened a blue box with a blue key. It is said that MD is about a failed actress. I agree with that, so, I am thinking only the second part of the movie is real. Betty's name is now Diane. And she is just not "the Girl" anymore
things is going dramatically less idyllic for her in the city of dreams in the second part. The first part of the movie can be described as the surrealistic undercurrent of the movie, the knitted together dreams that Diane has, in her not so striking apartment, in her far less attractive reality than Betty. In fact, I am willing to speculate that Part I is the dream that Part II is having. In Part II's dream, the characters and storyline is tossed all over the place, but, with fantastic, deconstructive skill.
Diane is also an actress, like Betty. She is engaged in an unsteady relationship with a seemingly successful actress, Rita. But Rita is deliberately toying with her: Rita and Adam Kesher, also the director in Part I, is soon to be engaged. A tormented Diane hires a killer to get rid of Rita. He told her that the key will be where he mentioned, when Rita is killed. After she found the key, Diane shot herself. Another dream goes south.
The scene when they got the blue box that the blue key open, is vital to the key points of the movie. In the first part of the movie the night after they fooled around, Betty finds a muttering Rita next to her in bed "Silencio, Silencio
". Henceforth they head 2 am in the morning to a theatre with the same name, and find a wicked looking magician, which show is centred on the theme that things only appear real. "We hear a band, but, there is no band". In other words, it is all an illusion. Betty has a hysterical fit, and they decide to leave, but before doing so, they found the blue box in the chair next to them. When Rita opens the box, the real events, Part II, kick off. (I believe Lynch has said that he does not know what the damn thing is) The nightmare part II is having brings us such jewels as the scene where the Italian mob makes it clear to Adam that they will decide who will be the lead actress. I am particularly fond of this scene, because of the treatment that the supposedly first class espresso got from the mob boss. This is Lynch's coffee drinking scene.
I have read that there is a point of view that described Lynch's cinema as pretentious. Mulholland Drive, when I saw it the first time, in Brooklyn, with my friend M impressed me infinitely. Probably, one can say it is pretentious, if you want to say: "Life is not like that". The espresso scene, and the Cowboy scene, and the Winkie's scenes are certainly a bit over the top. Certainly a bit "unreal". This reminds me of another scene, also, brilliant. This is when Betty did her rehearsal. So in a way, when they started off with the rehearsal, one prepares oneself for a bit of acting, in the context where the movie itself is taken for real. One of the actors/producers/advisors on the set that watch the rehearsal, made this remark beforehand: "don't play it for real until it gets real. " It honestly is a remarkable scene, because of the force of the acting, and then when it gets real it manages to mix up the viewer's perspective on what is authentic - similar to the familiar illusions that tricks one's eyes into believing that one square is darker than another square, or one line is longer than another because of the adjacent structure. One seems to be asking oneself, "What is going on?" after the scene.
I guess in a way this film tricks our mind into unfamiliar alleys. Sure, after one has seen it, one can willingly favour a discussion that "both squares equally dark" is. It was all only an illusion. For me: I'm still amazed - being sucked up once by that vortex leading into the blue box.
La pianiste (2001)
The Piano teacher. Being on the verge of madness
The first time I saw a Michael Haneke movie I had to compel myself thru it. It was the seventh continent. But still, the movie was on my 'to get' list for a long time after that. I had difficulty getting my hands on an affordable copy. Why was it so grueling to watch? The qualities that made so many flock to movies - "human warmth", excitement, people shedding tears, bloodshed on an epic scale; these are omitted in the Haneke movies I've watched. The characters are not likable. They might be crying. They could be having sex as well. But it is like suddenly having insight in General Walther Model's emotional life. It feels alien. In The Piano Teacher, one is looking for what feels like minutes at merely a door closing, waiting for someone to emerge from it. It is almost like waiting for a reward, for watching this. Haneke, I read, is a courageous man. He does not compromise. He does not pretend. His movies are realistic. And slow moving. Time moves here like a glacier. His movies are like cold breezes from the poles.
It must have been the lingering and haunting memory of the seventh continent that made me rent The Piano Teacher, because I've watched "Time of the Wolf" a while ago and found it a boring movie.
The Piano Teacher is an incredibly rewarding movie. It's about a piano teacher, Erika Kohut, in Vienna. She is staying with her mother in a small apartment; in fact, they share a bed. Their relationship is strange; her mother is incredibly possessive, almost jealous. For instance, they get into a fight about Erika buying an expensive dress; it ridiculously gets out of hand (pulling out hair, slapping, etc). Then they made up with the mother remarking, "We are a hot blooded-family, this is the way it is". Erika is overall unable to express her emotion. Apparently, that is typical Austrian. Then, a student (Walter Klemmer) starts to pursue her and applies to enter her class, after being blown away by a conversation between them about Schumann's madness; His so called twilight right before he went mad, when he realizes he will soon "loose himself" completely. She senses that he has a hidden agenda and tries to shun him from entering her class by stating, "I feel unable to nurture Mr. Klemmer's virtuosity". He enrolls in her classes, but it become soon really obvious that he is unable to think about anything else than her. Eventually they get involved. This is where the movie gets really shocking. A better word is probably anti social. Ridiculous. I'm only going to comment here that Erika wants to run a pretty tight ship on sexual matters. She will state what when, where and how. It is quite obvious that she is a very repressed woman. Between classes also, she frequents sex shops. Or walks around in a road movie theater, engaging in an act of flagrant voyeurism when encountering a couple making love in their car. Simultaneously, she verbally attacks and manipulates one of her students when she caught him in the sex shop.
I've asked myself initially why the scene (Erika damaging one of her insecure students hands by secretly slipping broken glass pieces into her pocket) is in the film, to realize later on that Haneke deliberately try to make Erika not likable. Even Walter gets a bit disgusted at a point when she insist on him tying her up, hitting her, etc. She replies later on that this has always been inside her, the urge to be hit.
It seems as if Erika's governing dynamic is extremity; she is fluctuating only between scream and whisper (a quote from the movie about playing Schubert). She appears to be on the twilight of her sanity, like her idol Schumann. When she eventually fell in love with Walter, it is then also the only way forward - to fracturing her mind. It is inevitable because she is completely unable to cope with her own emotion. She gets even more radical: The letter she writes him, cannot be explained in sane terms. Walter's defense when he eventually ends up raping her is that "you cannot delve in people's inside and then reject them" but there was not much that could prepare him for Erika's twisted up inside. Erika's defense is basically, "Love is built on banal things".
In another director's hands, the film matter at hand could easily have turned this movie into a 'likeable' film, with agreeable characters. It is possible to alienate modern man from emotions, and to make the filmgoers identify with his struggle. It would have been possible to make society 'feels her pain'. But this movie is stripped. It does not want to be liked. It is strong, and clear. The long shots on Erika's face, clarify a lot. It is a clear shot of apocalypse.