Thoughts about Hitchcock/Truffaut (book)

I'm not a huge fan of Hitchcock. I've seen several of his films. The Birds. Vertigo. North by Northwest. I've seen his films as part of Literature or Film Studies classes. And the images and music of Psycho are etched on my brain so much that I will never forget them. Yet, I'm more of epic/dystopian then a thriller/suspense kind of movie goer. Aside from that Sir Alfred's filmmaking career was long and came about with hard work and a never give up attitude that is a really good example to follow for an aspiring filmmaker. The book takes the reader from when he was making films in England to the glory days of his Hollywood works under David O. Selznick.

The Hollywood days include his most memorable films which I have mentioned already. In the final chapter of the book Truffaut summarizes the final years of Monsieur Alfred's output. I haven't seen any of those films. I really should take a look at Marnie which starred Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren. In the book Hitchcock comes off as a workaholic who never did much else than make films. That much seems true, but little is mentioned about the personal life of Hitch which might reveal a more nuanced character. I guess I should read a biography if I want that kind of material. This was rather an interview about films and filmmaking.

Hitchcock sure knows his technical stuff when it comes to filmmaking. Several times that stuff went over my head. I don't have much of a background in cameras and such. Yet it also revealed what a micromanager Hitchcock was. It's too bad he never won an Oscar for directing. You would think he would have for Psycho? Or Vertigo? But no, it was not to be. His films were however successful at the box office for years until attitudes and fashions changed. His later films were flops made with no name actors. It wasn't like the late 50's and early 60's when Hitch was working with actors like Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant. Actors whose time in the spotlight had passed.

Hitch went out with more of a sputter then with a bang. But his films still live on and are remembered by generations of film fans.

Star Wars Rogue One, thoughts

Nothing like Star Wars to take you away from Earth for awhile. I was on the edge of my seat as everything collided in the end. Can't beat the Empire for villains or the rebellion for heroes. I guess it's box office that everyone seems to talk about when talking about a franchise film like Star Wars. Last I checked it was rocketing to a billion dollars. Will it reach a billion worldwide? I don't know. I think people would be disappointed if it doesn't. People will say it's not as good as a movie that's involved in the trilogies and such.

I went to see the film with my Dad and my brother and his family; his wife, my two nieces, and my nephew. Halfway through the film my sister in law changed seats. I think she was embarrassed that she got stuck sitting next to me. Oh well. It seemed like everyone enjoyed the film. We went out for ice cream after. Maybe we should have went out for pizza? No one could decide. It seemed like everyone wanted to go home and do their own thing. Myself included. It was a Wednesday so I guess they were off schedule.

Anyway the theater was packed. The only seats available were in the very front. It's been like that at all the screenings I've been to in the last month or so. Star Wars is good for Hollywood. And in particular Disney. Disney had taken the lion's share of profits from North American theaters. It's a record year for the film industry. Yet there were some flops and misses. Like Superman vs. Batman. Analysts have said that film should have gone on to a billion dollars at the box office. It didn't. Also the Ang Lee picture Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk really bombed.

Well we'll see if Star Wars continues it's massive popularity. The next film is due out in December of this year, 2017

Thoughts about Fences

This was the best acted film I've seen in quite awhile. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis put forth performances that are rewards season gold. Washington also does a good turn at directing. I haven't read the play or script of the movie, but I did read an August Wilson play as part of a course on Playwriting in grad school. It seems one of the most unique qualities of Wilson's plays are his language use. The dialect comes across as unique to the American South and African-Americans. I think I liked that par the best. Once I got a hang of the dialect the movie was much more enjoyable. The opening sequence really pulled me in. Perhaps it lags in the middle, but I thought it was a very good movie. It really speaks to how American black people were mistreated under segregation for so long. The lament that Washington's character has about not making it in baseball is funny and sad at the same time. That opening monologue is entertaining and emotionally moving.

Perhaps it will get a bunch of noms and put the Oscars So White controversy on the ash heap of Oscars history? I hope so.

Hacksaw Ridge, thoughts

I saw this film twice. And the first time was awe inspiring. The second, perhaps not as much. The battle scene on the ridge was epic. American and Japanese soldiers battling to the death in the final stages of the Pacific War, what a sequence! Mel Gibson really knows how to show the gruesome details of the battles of the Pacific. Heads exploded, arms were shot off, it was an emotional and shocking sequence. The final scenes of the Japanese committing seppuku were also good. I saw Letters from Iwo Jima a decade ago and that was a film that dealt with the Pacific arena. I really liked that film too. It was done by Clint Eastwood and starred Ken Watanabe. The story in Hacksaw is based on true events. And it seems almost unbelievable, yet the doc footage at the end of the film reveals that Andrew Garfield's character was a real person.

The film was shot in Australia of all places. It's supposed to be the American South, but I didn't notice any difference at all. The back story of Andrew Garfield's character is also based around the American South. It's a small town and it seems like everyone knows everyone else. It recalls a time in America when things were much different from what they are today.

I liked the film. I guess it's also the comeback or rehabilitation of Mel Gibson? I haven't heard that he apologized for any of his remarks during his DUI debacle. I hope he makes more films that are as quality as Hacksaw.

Cinema and Sexuality

The Art Mission, the Art House cinema that I go to frequently keeps showing films that deal with sexuality. My sexuality is determined; straight white male. I've never been with a man. I guess that could change? Yet, I'm 36, perhaps it's too late? Anyway I have thought about whether I could be gay and usually reach the conclusion that on the spectrum I tend more to the middle while staying on the heterosexual side. A friend of mine explained sexuality as more of a spectrum than black and white. Anyway they have screened a number of films that deal directly with sexuality. Moonlight, which was released recently, deals with a gay black teenager in Miami. He is teased and bullied by everyone in the movie except a drug dealer who becomes a father figure for the young boy. In The Handmaiden the lead actress and her handmaiden become lesbian lovers. The love scenes seem like softcore porn from the seventies only updated with handhelds. And JT Leroy which is a doc about a fake author who says he's a gay boy, only to be revealed as a girl, and the whole story of his past is revealed as a phony.

In each of the stories sexuality plays a role. Is JT Leroy heterosexual or homosexual? Is he a gay boy or a straight girl? The definitions of gender are played with over and over again. In Moonlight the story seems to be that the gay teenager is still gay even after growing up and becoming just like the father figure drug dealer. It seems to say that you are born the way you are. You can't change you're sexuality. In The Handmaiden it is less about where you are on the sexuality spectrum and more about the plot to deceive the man of his intentions to marry the young heiress and bilk her out of her inheritance. I suppose that points to more of an Asian definition of sexuality which is more fluid then the Western one. In Asia Buddhism is a big religion. And in Buddhism, Buddha can be man or woman. There is no gender bias inherent in the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam where God is very much a man.

All the films are great yet none of them were breakout hits and big successes like Milk or Brokeback Mountain which really seemed to signify a change about acceptance of LGBTQ characters in film and in society. Those films seemed to normalize gay characters. It also seems that these films were harbingers of things to come. After those films, LGBTQ people gained the right to serve openly in the military, then the Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was legal. Two major victories for LGBTQ people and their allies. I don't know where the gay liberation movement is headed next? Perhaps more acceptance of their lifestyles? It seems that it has come along way in the past decade or so. And film has been instrumental in those political changes.

Blog about The Handmaiden by Chan-wook

I saw this film about two months ago. I thought it was really good, perhaps a tad pretentious in all the flashbacks and back stabs, but that's what makes it such a good film. I think it should at least be nominated in the Foreign Film category for the Oscars. I saw it at the Art House theater near where I live. It was a Tuesday night. The time had just changed so the days were getting shorter and daylight only lasted until about 5:30 in the evening. I've been hosting an Indie Film night now for almost two years. There was a member of the group there and we talked about the film afterwards. We both agreed that it was a good film. The film is rather sexually explicit. It veers into softcore. And it reminded me of Blue is the Warmest Color, a French film about young lesbians who fall in love hard. That film leaves little to the imagination. Neither does The Handmaiden. Yet I really enjoyed the film. So many turns and twists in the story. It went from one person's perspective to another's then bakc to that person then on to another. I thought it worked well. I wasn't confused at all.

I hope the film gets some awards. I'll probably watch it again sometime.