the enigmatic

MOMA Screening: Naissance des pieuvres (Water Lilies)/Man

2008-03-31T00:22:39Z

Water Lilies was the main feature at the MOMA today, part of their New Directors series. It was preceded by a 15-minute short titled Man, a gripping little film about two sisters and their encounter with a man that one of them has met online. It was written and directed by the newcomer Myna Joseph, who was at the screening.

Parisian Céline Sciamma is the writer and director of the full-length feature, Water Lilies, a film in French with English subtitles. Sciamma wrote the screenplay as her thesis while in school and made the film shortly after. She currently writes for a French TV series and this is her only feature-length film so far. She was at the screening and there was an interesting and informative Q&A afterward, in which she discussed her vision for the story.

Set in any-suburb-anywhere, the film is about a teenage girl Marie, her chubby friend on the synchronized swimming team and a pretty and self-assured girl on the team to whom Marie becomes drawn. There is almost no adult presence; the two or three adults that we see are on screen for no more than a minute. Likewise, the role of men and boys in the film is not as important and Sciamma is not commenting on teenage boys or their behavior. What's important is the view of Marie and other teenage girls like her and their perception of the boys. They don't "get" boys; they're attracted to them and/or fear them, but they don't understand them.

Synchronized swimming is the activity of choice for the main characters in the film. The sport is not any bigger in high schools in France than it is in the U.S., but it's a sport that Sciamma discovered as a teen and became obsessed with. In the movie, it's a microcosm of many of the themes and psychological terrain that are explored in the film. On the surface, the routines look beautiful and effortless; but in reality it takes great effort, as we're given a glimpse at what the swimmers look like from underneath the water, a sight that is hidden from the spectators. For Sciamma this is a symbol of being a teen girl. On the outside she must be feminine, pretty, confident and make it all look effortless, while the turmoil hidden beneath the surface.

The movie shows us the shifting personal relations between Marie and her friends as they have their first sexual encounters, the competitiveness between girls, and the ways in which girls can be cruel to one another. We see this competition and cruelty among the members of the team as well.

This film has a very naturalistic feel to it, which I really liked. Sciamma's vision was to cast actresses who were very physical, and it was the right choice. The film has a sensuality and emotional rawness that helps to express what these girls are going through. She also insisted on using actresses who were the age of the characters. Only one actress had made a feature length film before this. These were less experienced newcomers who were very committed to this film, and Sciamma and the cast worked together with a coach. In particular, there is one scene that was very risky and difficult to pull off. As with the casting choices, the director's decision to use no adults was the right one. She wanted the audience to identify with the teenagers; without the presence of adults we're immediately drawn into the film through the eyes of the girls. This is a teen film that goes over territory we've seen before, but it does so without being clichéd.

Highly recommended.

The "Favorite Films of All Time" Post

2008-02-15T04:14:17Z

Some classics, some masterpieces, some guilty pleasures:

A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Makiewicz)
Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz)
Alice (Woody Allen)
All About Eve (Joseph L. Makiewicz)
Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise)
Blood Simple (Coen Brothers)
Bossa Nova (Bruno Barreto)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
Clerks (Kevin Smith)
Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger)
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene)
Desk Set (Walter Lang)
Det Sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman)
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet)
Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands – Bruno Barreto)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg)
Easter Parade (Charles Walters)
Fanny och Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)
Fargo (Coen Brothers)
Gay Purr-ee (Abe Levitow)
Giant (George Stevens)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)
Gunga Din (George Stevens)
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen)
High Noon (Fred Zinnemann)
Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa)
King of Hearts (Philippe De Broca)
La Mano en la Trampa (The Hand in the Trap – Leopoldo Torre Nilsson)
Laura (Otto Preminger)
Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon - Albert Lamorisse)
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – Julian Schnabel)
Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows - François Truffaut)
Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo)
Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones - Luis Buñuel)
M (Fritz Lang)
Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs – Wai-keung Lau, Sui Fai Mak)
Mujeres al bordo de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Pedro Almodóvar)
Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)
No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock)
Now, Voyager (Irving Rapper)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen Brothers)
Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus – Marcel Camus)
Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)
Ratatouille (Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
Ruthless People (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker)
Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)
She’s Gotta Have It (Spike Lee)
Singing in the Rain (Stanley Donen)
Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese)
The Color Purple (Steven Spielberg)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola)
The Heiress (William Wyler)
The Hudsucker Proxy (Coen Brothers)
The Misfits (John Huston)
The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)
The Seahawk (Michael Curtiz)
The Searchers (John Ford)
The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont)
The Stranger (Orson Welles)
The Thief of Baghdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan)
The Third Man (Orson Welles)
The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee)
To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
To Have and Have Not (Howard Hawks)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)
Wo de fu qin mu qin (The Road Home – Zhang Yimou)
Ying xiong (Hero – Zhang Yimou)
Zelig (Woody Allen)

Books Read in 2007

2008-02-03T05:36:16Z

Just thought I'd tally it up for the year. :)

Aching for Beauty
Atonement (reread)
Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos
El Club Dumas
Empress
Empress Orchid
Freedom Next Time
Frontiers of Heaven
Geisha: A Life
In the Empire of Genghis Khan
Love in the Time of Cholera (reread)
Mao’s Last Dancer
Massacre in Mexico
Mistress Oriku
Nine Parts of Desire
No Country for Old Men
Os Sertões
Raise the Red Lantern
Red Azalea
Samba
Tales of a Female Nomad
The Asian Mystique
The Book of Disquiet
The Fifth Book of Peace
The Girl Who Played Go
The Good Earth
The Good Women of China
The Heart That Bleeds
The Kite Runner (reread)
The Last Empress
The Woman in White
Through the Brazilian Wilderness
Wild Ginger
Woman Warrior

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

2008-02-02T04:15:50Z

It's been a few weeks since I've seen this film. I should have written about it right after I saw it, but I got side-tracked with holiday season gigs. Here are my impressions only of the film, as I think I will have to watch it again in order to write in more detail.

First and foremost, this was a beautiful, deeply touching film. The cinematography is gorgeous. Told from Bauby's point of view, what's inside his head and what he sees, I was drawn in right away and felt for his plight. Julian Schnabel is a painter first and a director second and he brings a painter's eye to the creation of the film. It is indeed a work of art and makes my list of all-time favorite movies. And the transfer from book to screen has been handled with great skill and success.

Max von Sydow deserves an Oscar nomination for this film. He has two scenes in the entire movie, and they are stunning, particularly the second scene (a telephone call between father and son), which is heartbreaking. In just two small scenes a sense of intimacy and love is conveyed.

Mathieu Amalric was fantastic in a physically limited role. His only means of facial expressions were his one eye, plus his voice over on top of that. He was phenomenal in an extraordinarily difficult role.

Despite the sad subject matter, this film is not depressing at all. In fact, I left the theater feeling uplifted. The subject matter is handled with heart and humor. Many people have described it as a "triumph of the human spirit". But it's much more than that. It's about the people in Bauby's life as well, and how, with patience, persistence and selflessness, they learned to communicate with him and in some way drew him out, beyond the boundary of his "locked-in syndrome", and helped enable him to express himself. This is a story about the human capability to love and to go out of their way to assist another person. In short, it shows human beings at their very best.

An Open Letter to Johnny Depp

2008-02-01T03:18:20Z

Because it had to be said.*

*******

Dear Mr. Depp,

Recently I caught a few interviews in which you discussed your preparation for the role of Sweeney Todd. I’ve always admired and respected you as an actor, and I understand that as an actor you needed and chose a process of preparation that worked best for you, within the timeframe that you had. But as someone who has been working for over fifteen years as a professional singer (and working on the craft for a lot longer than that) I found your comments and dismissive attitude about the music, specifically the singing, to be quite upsetting.

Your viewpoint about vocal coaching appears to be very narrow. There is a lot more to our training than standing in front of a piano doing scales - a great deal more (and since I’m a woman, obviously no one has ever told me to “bring it up from the bollocks”). It starts with natural ability. After that it’s about cultivating the voice; but there are also the physical demands of breath control, muscle and stamina development. And many facets of the craft that we work meticulously to master have nothing to do with actual voice building but with musicality, conveyance of emotion, performance, and much more. Every one of those elements must be combined to create a flawless and moving performance that is satisfying for the audience and touches them both emotionally and spiritually. And I’m not only speaking of operatic singing – we’re not all opera singers, as you seem to believe. There are as many styles of singing as there are of music. My gigs have always been varied and I adjust the style in which I sing to do justice to the music and the specific song. I realize that this is something that you do not take seriously. But for me, singing isn’t merely my profession. It’s also my heart and soul, my art - it’s what I live to do and I do take it seriously. Your seemingly blasé attitude and callous remarks about something that is my life and passion were insulting and hurtful, not to mention that they smacked of arrogance and self-justifying laziness. Your words belittle the work of people like me, who put their blood and sweat and heart into building these skills and who struggled to begin their careers, and still struggle to keep them going. Even worse, because you’re a renowned celebrity interviewing with widely circulated magazines and speaking on widely-viewed programs you have managed to perpetuate your ignorance among the general public.

It’s been several weeks since I caught these interviews and I chose at the time to let your remarks pass. But this profession is changing quickly due to the dire state of the economy and the lack of funding, and I felt compelled to write to you now. The singers’ guild is nowhere near as efficient and powerful as the Screen Actors’ Guild. Major companies and venues are not renewing singers’ contracts. Those whose contracts are being renewed are now given less performances - and less pay. All of these talented professionals paid their dues ten-fold and worked hard for years to build careers that are now in jeopardy. Even non-union jobs are becoming fewer and farther between. The prospect of no longer being able to do this work is heartbreaking. I wanted you to know who some of the people are that you insulted. Perhaps next time you'll take that into consideration before you speak in public about something you know nothing about.

I have always had great respect for your craft and the hard work that you put into it. It’s unfortunate that you don’t share that same respect for mine. Needless to say, I did not go to see this movie nor am I planning to. Frankly, given the attitude that you and Mr. Burton seemed to have toward musicals, it makes me wonder why you bothered making one at all. I do still consider you to be a talented and accomplished actor. But my respect for you has been knocked down several notches.

Sincerely,
A professional singer in NYC

*******

*This letter has been sent to several publications as well.