Reviews

If you're interested in watching a warm and fuzzy movie that soothes you into it, nice and slow, then don't watch Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher. This movie is anything but warm and fuzzy. From the second it starts we're already in deep. Even before we see the opening titles we enter the world of our leading lady, Erika Kohut, played by Isabelle Huppert. We see her arguing with her eccentric mother, as they play tug-a-war with Kohut's newly bought dress. We see Kohut pull her mothers hair so bad her mother cries, claiming she has a hole in her head. After this we are given the opening title sequence, and in between title cards we see hand playing the piano, as we listen to the music, we hear Kohut's voice unabashedly critiquing the students. From the second the film starts, to its starting ending, this film is intense. From the very beginning you are drawn in so deep, it's overwhelming, and never once does this let up. There is not a light hearted moment throughout the film, and if there was I think it would throw the rest of the film off. We are constantly bombarded with sick fantasies, self mutilation, pornography, hatred, and bitterness. The tale of Kohut's disturbed state of being, and her search for someone to aid her in it, is riveting. Kohut finds a man, Walter Klemmer played by Benoit Magimel, who is sexually interested in her, but because of her sadist and masochistic lifestyle, she frightens him. But like the viewers, Klemmer is in deep. This film's intensity and frankness (no beating around the bush here) are outstanding, and truly moving.

Rob Reiner's This is Spinal Tap is one huge joke. And, of course, I mean this in the nicest way possible. It is a Rockumentary portrait of a fictional band so caught up in themselves they cannot see their own demise. While being an absolutely hilarious satire, there's another deeper level of complexity to it. The films absolutely assumes that it's viewers will understand all it's jokes, and understand that it is in fact, a fake rock ‘n roll documentary. It is a film within a film. The director/narrator of the internal film is the director of actual film, Rob Reiner, bringing a whole other level of reality to it. This is what makes the film so humorous, its reality. I was hardly born when the film was released, but from what I've read, there was some serious confusion and gossip as to the reality of the film, which is the big joke (this reminds me of the hype that came with the release of the Blair Witch Project in select cities. When I first saw it there was still the rumor that it was all true, making the film horrifying). It is so funny because all of the things the fictitious band, Spinal Tap, was doing on their tour, had (or could have) actually happened to actual band around this time period. We laugh when we hear the ridiculous lyrics, the over-the-top stunts, and the excessive musical equipment (double bass and amp that goes to 11) because we've seen it before, and this film isn't afraid to make that punch below the belt.

Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums is unbelievably funny, witty, and overall just great to look at. The gorgeous set and costume design leave the film's date/time frame ambiguous, while making the film extremely visually stimulating. The film is filled with such warm colors, like browns, oranges, and pinks, with the exception of the one very blue bathroom suicide attempt. In addition to the great attention given to the colors used in the film, the costumes almost take on roles of their own. There aren't many costume changes in the film, making the select few very significant. Chas Tenenbaum (played as an adult by Ben Stiller) as a child cared about nothing more than his business and making money. He was never seen in anything than his suit, even when working out or when playing with the BB gun. Chas as a child is very professional and mature. He grows up to be an extremely immature man who stomps around throwing pity parties and picking fights. This change is expressed through his wardrobe with the change from his suit as a child, to wearing an ADIDAS jogging suit, always red except for once black at his father's funeral. Another effective use of costuming was with Gwyneth Paltrow's character, Margot Tenenbaum. As a child Margot seemed to wear nothing except her striped dresses and fur coat. When returning to the house as a adult, the first place of hers we enter is the closet were Eli Cash is waiting, and we can see the clothes still there, and then we see her wearing them again. Margot's character hasn't had much development since she was a child, and the costuming for her would infer that she is going back to her childhood dress because she is moving back into the house she lived in as a child. She's going back to that mindset and living with all the same people again.

The set design also added a whole other layer to the film. From the warm pink walls of the Tenenbaum's home on Archer Avenue, to the closet filled with board games, to Royal's head stone at the very end, it all adds to the ageless, timeless, warm feeling we get from this film.

Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is a film filled with bright and vibrant colors and sounds. One of the most interesting things about the sound is the language used in the film. The characters speak in English, Hindi, and Punjabi. Not only does the movie use three different languages, but sometimes they switch between all three in a single sentence. All the different languages emphasize the variety of characters in the movie. However, even though the languages switch so often, it switches with great ease, and it is easy to understand every word said in the movie.

Another element of the sound that stands out is the singing and the music. While it's easy for us to see that they are living in the 21st century, because of the cars they drive and the electronics they use, the music they sing in their wedding ceremonies really emphasizes that they still use ancient customs and, in a sense, are traditionalists. We can also see this with the mix of languages. It seems like the older grandparents were the ones that never switched languages, always using their ancient Hindi language. The more modern characters could freely switch languages, showing a new diversity. An element of the film that did seem to stick to India's traditional roots was the beautiful bursting colors. Throughout the entire film bright yellows, oranges, reds, and greens are used, but this idea of color really confronts us when the wedding planner, Dubey, is setting up the tent for the wedding. The tent he is using is white, which seems normal to any American that knows the tradition of the white wedding. But the second the father of the bride in the film gets a sight of the boring tents he demands it be taken away. Dubey informs the father that it is the newest trend, I believe he says something to the effect of, `it's very 21st century'. However, the father will still not stand for it, and demands a more traditional and colorful tent. The wedding is also filled with huge stands of bright orange marigolds that also seem to serve as a snack. All of the dresses and tunics of the participants in the wedding are also brightly colored.

Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is bright, vibrant, colorful, and filled with tradition while moving into a new century. The color adds to the beautiful images of the film, and the traditional and more modern sound keeps us all aware of exactly what's going on in the story, because the language is so easy to understand despite its rapid switches.

CONTAINS SPOILER: Julio Medem's Lovers of the Arctic Circle not only have the word `circle' in the title, and not only mentions circles several times throughout the film, but moves in a cyclic manner. Even the characters names are circular. Ana and Otto can be read the same forwards and backwards, also known as a palindrome. The movie ends in the same place as it begins, with Otto in Ana's eyes, creating a circle of the film (not to mention the circle of Ana and Otto's eyes themselves, emphasizing the importance of the circle). However, as mentioned in the film by Otto, just because the film is set up in a circle, doesn't mean the circle is complete. When Otto is flying to the Arctic Circle to see Ana after several years of being apart, he says to himself that his life is a giant circle, but it just isn't connected yet.

When the film ends, we are left with what seems like an ending from one of those `choose your own adventure' books. In the beginning of the movie, Otto goes over the different ways a situation could have turned out if a tiny, seemingly meaningless different move had been made. This seems to be what we get in the end of the movie, only no one spells it out for us like Otto did in the beginning with the soccer ball kick. It's refreshing to watch a movie that doesn't tell you exactly how to feel in the end. The end makes you think, and you can decide for yourself what happens to Ana and Otto in the end. Does Ana really get hit by the red van? Does she really die? Does Otto actually die in the crash? Is any of it real, or is it all a dream? Medem seems to leave it up to us in the end.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: While being utterly offensive and completely disgusting, John Waters' Pink Flamingos has to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I can understand how someone could walk out of this movie, or call it vile, but I think those people took it too seriously. I mean, how seriously can you take a movie about two different families competing for the title of `filthiest people alive'? Maybe it's because I had already heard all of the buzz about the movie, so I came into it prepared to be grossed out, and ready to laugh (which I did a LOT), in any case, Pink Flamingos may hold some underlying message about the lower ends of society (which I wasn't exactly able to pull out, I was laughing too hard) it's still a movie that goes out it's way to be shocking and grotesque, and the wrong audience seeing it definitely brings out a strong negative reaction. After the film, I couldn't help but wonder how Waters made this movie. All of Waters' films have their own strange style to them, but some of the things that were in this movie were completely insane (i.e. the male stripper with the fluctuating anus). I was baffled by the idea that someone had all of these ideas in his head, and the only thing I could picture in my mind was John Waters sitting at his desk with a pad of paper and a pencil listing out every single taboo he could possibly come up with. This movie was fun for everyone, in the sense that I think there was something for everyone to feel disgusted by. I mean, this movie had everything. I think the best portrayal of this is the job description of the Marbles. They are a couple who kidnap young hitchhiking girls, have their butler rape/impregnate them, keep them locked in a basement, and they die after childbirth they sell the babies to lesbian couples, using the money to fund porno shops and a heroin ring in elementary schools. Besides the ridiculous number of taboos listed above, the film also tackles incest, murder, beastiality, robbery and vandalism, etc (not the mention the great Divine eating dog shit). I think one of the most interesting characters of the movie was Divine's mother, Edie. Reading reviews claiming this woman was a 250 pound grown woman that never left her play pen, and ate nothing other that eggs, was a vast understatement. The thing that baffles me the most about this character is how in the world they found someone to play her. Edith Massey, the woman who did play Edith, was said to have had trouble remembering lines for the movie, so they had to cut some out. This stuns me, considering her lines didn't seem to consist of anything more than cries out for the egg man. So, is this woman really like this in real life? This leads to another important aspect of the film, it's reality. I've read that the dog feces Divine ate were real, and I cannot help but believe that the chickens killed in the rough sex scene between Cookie and Crackers were actually killed (if they weren't, it was disturbingly realistic). The reality of this film, I believe, is it's strongest aspect. We're not bombarded with cutaways and silhouettes or what is going on, we see everything. Understandably, some found this honesty and reality to be revolting. A scene to pops out in my head is when Divine performs oral sex on Crackers, her son in the film. It's not often we see those kinds of things, so graphically, in movie theaters that don't have `XXX' in the title. The truthfulness of the film (along with some poor camera work) gave the film a real documentary feel. Obviously, the film was fiction, but because of the look of the film and it's lack of inhibitions, I felt like everything I was watching was actually real, no holds barred.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: Vittorio de Sica's The Bicycle Thief uses several formal film elements to illustrate the depressed economy of the post-war Italy in which the film takes place. One element that really struck me was the mis-en-scéne in the film. The most striking of which, was the pile of bags of linens. When Antonio and his wife, Maria, were forced to pawn their linens to afford the bicycle, the man in the back that had to put away the linens had to climb, what seemed to be stories of bundles of linens. Seeing how many people had to pawn their bed sheets really affected me and proved to what an impoverished state this family/town was in. Another aspect of the mis-en-scéne that was effective were the costumes, especially Antonio's frayed and worn jacket. This was really apparent in the restaurant scene when Antonio took his son Bruno out to eat. They were the only ones in the restaurant in such disheveled clothing. Bruno kept catching dirty looks from a well dressed little boy sitting at another table because Bruno was wearing his torn up jacket and shorts. In the beginning of the film a large group of men stood outside waiting to hear news of jobs that were available to them. All the men looked poverty-stricken and some were hostile. All of those unemployed men had to stand outside waiting to hear about `good government jobs', and for many, only to be denied. The Bicycle Thief makes for a great example of neo-realism in Italy in part because of all these great examples of mis-en-scene depicting the depressed economy of Italy.