The Movies
The Seventh Seal
Posted by Jeremy Robinson - Red Deer Advocate • May, 01 2012 9:41 AM • Red Deer Advocate
How often now do we get films that ask such existential questions such as "What happens to us when we die?" "Does God exist?" and "What's the meaning of life?" Do we still ask these questions within ourselves? Do we demand it in our films to ask them for us?
In 1957, Ingmar Bergman made his landmark film "The Seventh Seal" which dealt with issues such as life and death head on. There is no irony in the film, although today you can't help but think of the many parodies or homages other people have made of it. However, all that aside, "The Seventh Seal" has remained a powerful film, not only is it a deeply personal, and reflective work on life's great mysteries, it is also a scathing indictment of religious persecution upon God-fearing citizens.
The film begins at the edge of a desolate beach. A Knight named Antonius Block(Max Von Sydow) has returned home after ten years of fighting in the Crusades to a plague ravaged countryside. It is at this beach he sees Death (Bengt Ekerot) appear before him. Antonius' time has come to an end, but he is granted a reprieve from death as he challenges him to a game of chess; as long as they are still playing, Antonius will get to live.
The film then follows Antonius and his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) across the plague filled land. The early images of the film are filled with cold and empty landscapes, and shadows of death haunt the frame. The first sign of life is a man leaning against the rock, but when Jons goes to him to ask for directions, he discovers that it is only a rotting corpse, a terrible omen indeed.
Rashomon like comfort food
Posted by Jeremy Robinson - Red Deer Advocate • May, 01 2012 9:40 AM • Red Deer Advocate
A film like "Rashomon" has become like comfort food to me, it is a film I watch when I want to be told a story, and it keeps my interst from beginning to end. "Rashomon" is a great story about one isolated incident, it's compact in its nature, and classical in its period, you feel it will be a story with a very traditional structure but that's when the wool is pulled from under you. "Rashomon" took leaps and bounds from past films by telling the same story through different points of view. In a way each scenario is true, and each one is false, but as one character points out in the film "I don't care if it's a lie, as long as it's entertaining."
The scenario in question has to do with the interaction between a samurai, his wife, and a bandit in the forest. The samurai is killed, but each person involved gives a different testimony at the trial as to what really happened. The film begins after the trial with a woodsman who, as the only witness to the death gives his own account, and a priest contemplate over what has transpired. After being joined by a drifter, they reveal to him the different testimonies of each person.
We see the scenario take place through flashbacks, first it is by the bandit's point of view as we see him kill the husband with cocky bravado after he rapes the wife. The wife's story is set up differently; her account shows the bandit leaves after she is raped, and after seeing her husband's look of shame, she seems to be overtaken by an uncontorllable urge and she kills him. The husband is able to tell his version through the possession of a medium, he is the one who ends up killing himself after seeing the wife wanting to leave him for the bandit. The woodsman's story is told last, as it bring about elements of all three previous stories together, but even his honesty is questioned after he is caught in an earlier lie about not actually witnessing the murder.
Since "Rashomon", we have seen films done through various points of view before, so much so it's almost become cliche. American films have adopted this technique for genre films mostly in the mystery/suspense mode, but unlike "Rashomon", they come out with a logical conclusion that can be thought of as "the truth". "Rashomon" keeps its real truth uncertain, it's an allegory about the dark side of human nature, how the truth can become clouded through our natural sense of embelleshing it. How can we know what is true and what is a lie in a world full of lies? How can we trust people when we are all prone to lie in order to protect ourselves?
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Posted by Jeremy Robinson - Red Deer Advocate • March, 27 2012 7:37 AM • Red Deer Advocate
We assume it's in modern times when "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" begins. We hear the voice over of Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely) talk about over the years he's chronicled the many cases of Sherlock Holmes. But then he mentions that there were other cases, we get the impression that they were of a much more personal nature, and they shall not be revealed until fifty years after Watson's death.
It seems we all know the stories of Sherlock Holmes, even those of us who haven't read the books know the legend about the man who was a master at deduction. He liked to play his violin, smoke his pipe, and on occasion have a seven per cent solution of heroine.
Most films about Sherlock Holmes even before or after this one have only eluded to his personal habits, because it's mostly the mystery that's most important. But it always begged the question just what was the world's greatest detective like? Really? Isn't that the mystery that most people want to find the solution to?
"The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" is in my mind the definitive filmed version for Holmes affectionados, it's an original story not adapted from a book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it respects the source material and the man. There is a mystery involved, but there are more personal things at stake than usual.
Movie Review: The Artist
Posted by Jeremy Robinson - Red Deer Advocate • March, 27 2012 7:39 AM • Red Deer Advocate
Yes, yes, yes, this is the way movies should be made, this is how they were made all the time, back in the day. You know the time I'm talking about, the time where people like Orson Welles, Hitchcock, and Billy Wilder were making movies.
Back when Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin had the creative freedom to make any movie they wanted, back when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced along great art deco of the 1930s, back before all this digital technology, even before the days of television or that infernal Internet thing.
It's no doubt "The Artist" will bring up feelings for the biggest movie lover of that longing for the good old days when movie projections were bigger than life, I got that feeling right at the opening credits, and the beautiful black and white imagery that I saw. "The Artist" was a treat for the eyes, it captures that feeling of glossy Hollywood very well, complete with a tender love story and a lovable dog.
But that's where the similarities end, I was pleased by it's look, it's grandeur, it's charm, but I realized as I was watching it, what I was longing for were those real classic films that were made way back when, the ones that on more than one occasion took my breath away. What I can say for "The Artist" is, it's not without it's charm, it's an affectionate homage, but at times it feels too self-conscious to bring about that same old feeling we want from movies. At it's best, it succeeds some of the time but not all of the time.
The absolutely, positively, no doubt about it, best films of 2011
Posted by Jeremy Robinson - Red Deer Advocate • March, 27 2012 7:41 AM • Red Deer Advocate
And so we have reached the finale, the best films according to me, I've taken much time to deliberate and it is clear in my mind, that these ten films are by far the ten best experiences I had at the movies. Of course every person's top ten films are different, and had I been given to opportunity to see more, this might've looked completely different, but this was what was given to me. So now here we go.
1. Midnight in Paris Perhaps not a shock to some of you, I've heralded this film's praises, back when I first saw it on a warm summer day in July. Woody Allen's tribute to Paris was by far the most entertaining film I saw, full of wit, wisdom, and winning performances. Some films feel like they were made just for you, and that's the feeling I get when I watch this film, it's one of those special ones I can directly relate to, so why not make it the best of the year?
2. Certified Copy Famous Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami creates one of the most romantic mysterious films I've ever seen. Juliet Binoche and William Shimell play two people who, at the beginning look like they have just met, but the film takes a different turn, and then they start acting as if they are husband and wife. The film never makes it quite clear what their relationship really is, but it plays on the ideas about love, and art, and if the copy can be just as good as the original.
3. Meek's Cutoff Minimalist director Kelly Reichardt creates a vivid portrait of pioneer life. Most westerns are seen as epic stories, this keeps a quiet tone about a small wagon train of three families who struggle everyday to find a settlement. They begin to suspect their guide (Bruce Greenwood) is leading them off course on purpose. The film plays like a novel, with an involving plot, and high stakes, it ends abruptly but perfectly as nothing is quite resolved, but it's one where you realize, they're lives hang in the balance of the decisions they make, and the people they trust.
