The Culture Enthusiast: Movies

Imagining fictional characters

Books 10:40 AM

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A man for all seasons

Movies 11:31 AM

Don’t let the bawdy miniseries The Tudors fool you.

If you are anything like me all the knowledge you have about Henry VIII’s reign comes from the show The Tudors and the movie Elizabeth (perhaps a little from Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper” too).

Of course a better source would be some actual history studying, but may I suggest the movie A man for all seasons?

The movie focuses not so much on Henry VIII’s divorce and subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn but to Thomas More’s refusal to publicly accept it. (Thomas More was the king's advisor. He was canonised in 1935 - which unfortunately isn’t mentioned in the movie.)

Paul Scofield’s portrayal of Thomas More is extremely compelling – it’s no wonder he received an Oscar, a Bafta and a Golden Globe for his performance.

The Duke of Norfolk: Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!

Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

What struck me as the most impressive was More’s balance between trying to preserve his life and his uncompromising morals.

Despite being such a serious character, expect him to deliver some funny lines such as when he says: “Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?”

A true hero and a saint, Thomas More is the example of a man who is not afraid to stand alone.

PS: If you are wondering where the title comes from (clue: NOT from Jonhy English’s soundtrack) check this: Robert Bolt (the play and movie writer) borrowed the title from Robert Whittinton, a contemporary of Thomas More, who in 1520 wrote of him: "More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning; I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity: a man for all seasons."

Have you seen A man for all seasons or another movie about The Tudors?

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The Chronicles of Narnia

Letters 10:30 AM

Dear Mr. C. S. Lewis,

I'm writing you to apologize for having caved and watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader instead of finishing the book. I hope you don't get upset but I just wanted to get off that boat.

But don't worry, I won't do this again. Firstly, because in those two hours of the movie I could have finished the book, which I did by now. Secondly, your books are so much fun! It's better to imagine all the fantastical things that happen in the story than to see them through phony special effects. As strange as it might sound, it's much more realistic when we use our imagination.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the four books from The Chronicles of Narnia I've read so far. I loved how you were able to impart key aspects of Christianity in a beautiful simple way, in a way even children can understand and enjoy.

"Do not look so sad. We shall meet soon again."
"Please, Aslan," said Lucy, "what do you call soon?"
"I call all times soon."

One of the most moving passages I've ever read is the one when Aslan creates Narnia. I mentally clapped at your writing as I was reading, by the way.

Besides, your characters are so lovable. I can't get enough of Reepicheep. A little mouse who talks like a sophisticated gentleman. He looks like a character from a Jane Austen novel, with the difference that he is also an incredibly brave swordsman.

"We must all show great constancy," Caspian was saying. "A dragon has just flown over the tree-tops and lighted on the beach. (...)"

"With your Majesty's leave----"began Reepicheep.

"No, Reepicheep, you are not to attempt a single combat with it."

I can't wait to finish reading all the two remaining Narnia books, but at the same time I don't want them to end!

Sincerely,

Paula

PS: About that whole Narnia X The Lord of the Rings thing. Even though both have their merits, rest assured that I prefer Narnia. I couldn't finish the first Lord of the Rings book when I was a teenager. Perhaps I should give it a try now - but just between you and me, I probably won't.

PS2: Can I call you Clive?

Images via: 1, 2, 3

Have you read The Chronicles of Narnia or watched the movies? What's your favorite character? Where do you stand on the Narnia X Lord of the Rings debate?

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Time Bandits

Monty Python 10:55 AM

The movie Night at the Museum wanted to be

It might sound strange to hear that Terry Gilliam - member of Monty Python and director of movies like Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus - once made a movie for kids. And here's the beauty of it: it's a great kids movie and it's also a great Terry Gilliam movie.

All the characteristics of Gilliam's quirky aesthetics are there: the bleak and dirty scenarios, the plastic and ragged costumes, the faulty modern technology and of course - the explosions.

Kevin is a smart and curious boy who loves reading about History and all things interesting (he's reading The Big Book of Greek History in the first scene).

His parents, on the other hand, are obsessed with kitchen appliances, the newspaper and an extreme game show called Your money or your life (I can't believe this movie is from 1981 - were we always that obsessed with Reality tv?)

One evening, a Medieval Knight, with his horse and everything, enters his bedroom and quickly vanishes. The next night, Kevin is waiting for something to happen - with a camera and a flashlight. No knight comes, but a group of dwarves who claim to be international criminals. They have this map who allows them to travel in time. Kevin is unsure of what to do, but he must follow the little guys once this terrible huge bright face chases them. Things couldn't become more exciting.

"Who sent you? The gods?"

They go back to 1796, right into the Battle of Castiglione, and have dinner with a complexed Napoleon (Ian Holm). Later Kevin discovers that the terrible face was actually God (the Supreme Being) from whom the guys stole the map. To make matters worse, the devil is also after the map and following the group every step of the way.

The movie manages to be funny and at the same time incredibly interesting for kids (and adults who like History and adventure). Kevin gets to meet Napoleon, Robin Hood, King Agamemnon and even an ogre called Winston!

"- We're in the Middle Ages.

- In the Middle Ages?! Five hundredd years before the man we just robbed is even born.
Try that in a court of law."

Amazingly, the movie makes an interesting and yet accessible portrayal of God and the devil. (I say amazingly because Monty Python had his share of mocking and criticizing religion and especially Christianity. Moreover, I still couldn't fully get Dr. Parnassus - here's an interesting point about it.)

The Supreme Being, despite looking scary, is only trying to warn them to return the map. When Kevin asks Him why there has to be evil, He answers: "I think it has something to do with free-will".

The devil seems unable to convince even his stupid minions that he wasn't created and that he is confined to a dreadful place because it's part of his plans. He hates God's creations such as butterflies and daffodils and prefers microchips, computers and lasers!

If you didn't watch Time Bandits as a child, I strongly recommend watching it now. Many of us will identify with Kevin's tastes and will rejoice at how cool he is - so unlike modern nerds who are more like caricatures - see the guys from The Big Bang Theory. Besides, adults will be able to appreaciate Gilliam's quirckiness and enjoy spotting cameos from the likes of John Cleese, Sean Connery and Ian Holm.

When I was a child I would get goosebumps when Kevin appears with pictures of King Agamemnon and all his historical friends. I'd still love to have those polaroids.

Have you seen Time Bandits? Do you like other movies by Terry Gilliam?

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Which X-Men would you like to be?

Movies 4:13 PM

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Portrait of Jeanne Samary by Auguste Renoir

Art 2:57 PM

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Cool facts about Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton 4:52 PM

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Sherlock Jr.

Buster Keaton 11:14 AM

I confess I thought it was pretentious to say you liked Buster Keaton. I mean, it is rare enough to like silent movies, imagine liking silent movies that are not Chaplin’s.

After watching one of Keaton’s movies I have to reconsider and proclaim myself to be a big fan of him. The more I hear about his life, the more I wish I were his friend. Or at least I wished I were around when he released his movies, as opposed to being around when they released Avatar.

The first Keaton movie I saw was Sherlock Jr. I watch it as a part of an assignment for a “Literature and Cinema” class. For this same class, I had previously watched Chaplin’s City Lights, ModernTimes and The Pawn Shop. Chaplin fans forgive me, but I hated every single one of them.

Firstly, because that silly little smile of his never really convinced or touched me. So, one of the first things that I liked about Keaton was his motionless, dead serious face.

Secondly and much more importantly, it’s just like in that song by The Smiths, you know: “because the music they constantly play says nothing to me about my life”. As far as I know, Chaplin movies have the same message, they don’t allow different levels of interpretation. While a movie like Sherlock Jr., for example, is pretty much the story of my life.

In Sherlock Jr., Keaton’s character works at a movie theater and wants to be a detective. When he faces difficulties in his love life he turns to movies to figure out what to do. He actually copies the way things are done in movies in his own life. Now, to what level do we do the same thing? In what ways is that positive or negative? All these questions are raised while we are entertained in this hilarious comedy.

To make a long post short, Keaton is the best. Stay tuned because next week I’ll do a post on cool facts about him to make you even more in love with him.

Have you seen Sherlock Jr.? Chaplin, Keaton or both?

PS: You can watch the whole movie on YouTube.

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High Strung

Movies 3:32 PM

I remember when I was a teenager and I put High Strung on the VCR for my cousin to watch. I had seen it several times and this looked like a good option for a sleepover. After 4 minutes, she commented: “What a long scene!”. “Well, - said I - actually, this scene is pretty much the whole movie.” She protested and asked if we could see something else.

As I browse the IMDB forums I see that many people had the same experience. There’s no consensus with High Strung: some will know how to appreciate it, others won’t. A whole movie about a guy hanging around in his apartment, talking to himself and to the viewer complaining about menial things is not for everybody.

The things is: that’s not the whole movie.

First off, his monologues, despite dealing with totally different subjects, are incredibly cohesive. It always amazes me how he goes from complaining about the absurdity of the things he reads in the paper to how horrible watermelon popsicles with real seed are.

This is probably what attracts some people and scare off others. Many find his comments realistic or funny. Others just find them annoying.

I grant that the constant rants might be a little too much to take in, but Steve Oedekerk (writer and main actor) put much more into the movie. Even though I do think these bad tempered characters, like Larry David, very funny, it might get a little bit tiring if that’s all there is to it.

The twist in High Strung is that the annoyed writer of children’s books (priceless!) keeps seeing this weird looking Jim Carey whenever he closes his eyes.

Plus, he receives phone calls from a strange and scary voice telling him to be prepared for “8 o’clock”. Sounds like the plot of the “The ring”, but I will say no more because the ones who stick to the end will have a great surprise – not only funny and unexpected, but also inspiring.

That’s a considerable feat, if you consider that Oedekerk is not actually promoting a pessimistic outlook on life, but encouraging quite the opposite.

What are your favorite rants? I particularly like the “dating service” (little losers!) and the soap opera (Maaaaark???).

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The Passion of the Christ

Movies 6:45 AM

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(I wasn't really going to post anything today, but then I thought "if there is one movie appropriate to a Good Friday, is this".)

Back in 2004, when "The Passion of the Christ" was released, I tried to steer clear of the much warned explicit violence of the movie. Words like "graphic violence", "excruciating" and even "anti-semitic" kept appearing all over the place and I felt no inclination towards watching all that.

I still didn't see it when it came out on Dvd, even with a friend telling me how great it was. One day I caught it on Tv and was only able to bear watching until the scourging scene.

Finally, a couple of years ago I decided to watch it from beginning to end and I was amazed.

The point is: I was so reluctant because "The Passion of the Christ" is not an easy movie. And that's because the real events of the Passion were not also easy to watch. It is supposed to be that painful. The movie is violent because what happened was violent.

So, why should we watch it? For many reasons, but for one because truly understanding the Passion promotes a change in life.

It is so much easier for us to forget about all the suffering involved in the Passion when we should, in fact, re-assess our lives based on it.

"See mother, I make all things new."
(one of my favorite scenes)

And also, the violence is not random or exploitive. Sometimes we have this fairy tale image of the Passion and the movie makes it much more real to us. The movie helps us meditate on it as if we were really there.

If watching it now is difficult, can you imagine what it was like to have been there? Wouldn't it be easier then, to just go home, close the doors and cover our ears?

Another way of looking at it is imagining ourselves as the other characters of the movie. Do you know how in dreams psychologists say all the people from your dream are actually you? It's a little bit like that in the movie. We are like Peter who promises to never abandon Christ and hours later denies knowing him. We are like the people from Jerusalem who in one day cheer: "Hail Christ the King!" and a week later scream "Crucify Him!".

All we can hope for is that we receive the grace to follow the good examples of the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Mary Magdalen and Dismas (the good thief). They all stood by Jesus and allowed their lives to be changed by the Passion.

Happy Easter, guys!

What do you think of the movie and all the controversy around it? How was the first time you watched it?

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Melinda and Melinda

Movies 10:52 AM

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"Melinda and Melinda" starts with four friends arguing over dinner if life is in its essence comic or tragic. One of them begins telling a story and two of the friends shape it in a comedy and in a drama respectively. The movie is therefore half comedy, half drama.

The movie seems to ask: is it possible to tell the same story in both tragic and funny ways? And then, is it possible for any real life event to be interpreted both as funny and sad?

“Melinda and Melinda” seems intent upon answering “yes”. If you pay attention, you can see how thorough Woody was in matching the two stories. The details, circumstances and dialogues are indeed the same in both versions of the story. There is only one small difference in the stories: Melinda, the main character, is not the same.

“Tragic Melinda” reacts and interprets everything around her in a much different way than “comic Melinda”. Even though all the other details match, they are two different people. “Tragic Melinda” even looks for more drama in her life. Certain aspects of her life are indeed out of her control, but others do seem to be her own doing like over-drinking, smoking, self medicating, dumping the stable guy for a bohemian and so on. “Comic Melinda” doesn’t make such risky choices.

In the end, it is not so much a difference in genre or in the situations themselves. There would be no intrinsically tragic or comic situation, but it is all about the characters.

Aristotle’s definition of comedy and tragedy makes perfect sense here. Comedy portrays characters as worse than they really are, so we can actually laugh at their expense. Tragedy has noble characters portrayed as better than in real life, so we take pity on their fall.

Notice the choice of actors: Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell and Amanda Peet appear in the comic version, Chloe Sevigny in the tragic version.

But in the scenes with the four friends, our expectations are subverted. Ironically, the drama director is more easy-going and laughs in funerals, and the comedy producer is the closest to nihilism and a lack of belief in life (just like Woody Allen himself seems to be).

Since it is all a matter of characters, the question is which version you prefer. I prefer the tragic story, despite my general dislike for the actress’ performance. I tend to have sympathy for tragic characters and a bigger interest in their stories.

Plus, at least in “Melinda and Melinda” the tragic dialogues and situations ring true to everybody, they are universal, while the funny bits and jokes depend much more on personal taste. An example: in a very sad scene towards the end of “tragic Melinda’s” story, her friend says on the phone: “Let’s face it. Melinda is one of those people who will always need help.” (I got goose bumps just by typing that.)

The comic parts are much more subjective. For starters, all Will Ferrell’s lines come out of Woody Allen’s mouth and not from the character’s. The problem is that Woody Allen can play Woody Allen but Will Ferrell can’t. The scene where they are playing basketball and he says he didn’t change podiatrists not even when his podiatrist operated on the wrong foot is extremely funny - because of the joke not the way he delivers it. It would come out naturally from Woody but not from Ferrell. By the way, this strangeness happens throughout the movie in the literary references that the characters use in a dialogue. It’s hard to imagine Ferrell quoting Chekhov on a French bistro.

Going back to the question the movie poses, it’s not really a matter of looking at situations and asking if they are intrinsically sad or funny. It’s much more of a matter of which Melinda you are.

Which story did you prefer – tragic or funny? What about the actors' performances, specially Ferrell's and Radha Mitchell's?

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The Culture Enthusiast

My top 5 action movies

Imagining fictional characters

A man for all seasons

The Chronicles of Narnia

Time Bandits

Which X-Men would you like to be?

Portrait of Jeanne Samary by Auguste Renoir

Cool facts about Buster Keaton

Sherlock Jr.

High Strung

The Passion of the Christ

Melinda and Melinda

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