Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Movie review:
Throne of Blood
Directed by Akiro Kurosawa
Throne of Blood is assumed to be an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as it plots the story of a feudal warrior, Washizu, who serves and will later usurp the throne of his Master, Lord of Cobweb Castle.
The grand epic, set in ancient Japan, is worth watching just for its Zen staging and costumes alone. The sparsely furnished houses interior or Lady Washizu make-up and dress for example, contributes to its minimal theatricality. This complements most profile shots and thin conversations taken often from a slight distance; that alienates the audience and makes them feel as if they are watching a play.
The story is suffused with prophetic and mythological symbols. When Washizu and his comrade in combat is lost in the forest, their encounter with a witch, spinning her yarn, creates an eerie suspense. The room with the blood spattered walls that Washizu came back after murdering the Lord is a parallel of history on blood shed over the fight for the throne.
Despite a violent storyline, the movie, in accordance with its theatre aspect, leaves room for imagination. There is only one instance of real blood in Washizu’s and his wife’s hands. Killings are swift and Washizu refuses to open the package containing his comrade’s head.
The negative portrayal of woman, concurrent with traditional Eastern thinking, is evident with the female witch and Lady Washizu as passive aggressors, who are the real culprits in all the atrocities. The former is responsible for making the prophecies that Washizu will become the Lord while the lady was the one to suggest suspicions and suggestion to kill the Lord. Otherwise, they are the weaker sex as widows who weeps and servants who scatter away after Lady Washizu goes mad.
Throne of Blood
Directed by Akiro Kurosawa
Throne of Blood is assumed to be an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as it plots the story of a feudal warrior, Washizu, who serves and will later usurp the throne of his Master, Lord of Cobweb Castle.
The grand epic, set in ancient Japan, is worth watching just for its Zen staging and costumes alone. The sparsely furnished houses interior or Lady Washizu make-up and dress for example, contributes to its minimal theatricality. This complements most profile shots and thin conversations taken often from a slight distance; that alienates the audience and makes them feel as if they are watching a play.
The story is suffused with prophetic and mythological symbols. When Washizu and his comrade in combat is lost in the forest, their encounter with a witch, spinning her yarn, creates an eerie suspense. The room with the blood spattered walls that Washizu came back after murdering the Lord is a parallel of history on blood shed over the fight for the throne.
Despite a violent storyline, the movie, in accordance with its theatre aspect, leaves room for imagination. There is only one instance of real blood in Washizu’s and his wife’s hands. Killings are swift and Washizu refuses to open the package containing his comrade’s head.
The negative portrayal of woman, concurrent with traditional Eastern thinking, is evident with the female witch and Lady Washizu as passive aggressors, who are the real culprits in all the atrocities. The former is responsible for making the prophecies that Washizu will become the Lord while the lady was the one to suggest suspicions and suggestion to kill the Lord. Otherwise, they are the weaker sex as widows who weeps and servants who scatter away after Lady Washizu goes mad.
Movie reviews:
Le Beau Serge
Directed by Claude Chabrol
1958 in French approx 97 mins
When Francois (Jean-Claude Brialy) went back to his hometown, his friend, Serge (Gérard Blain) brushed past, looked back but failed to acknowledge him. It would serve as a precursor to what the audience would expect later, as we witness the love and conflicts they had for each other.
Le Beau Serge, translated as Handsome Serge features rugged but good looking Serge as an aimless truck driver who drinks for breakfast and ill-treats his wife, Yvonne (Michele Meritz), who has lost their first child. When Francois entered his life, Serge was suddenly at a lost on how to react to this Parisian, so intent on changing him.
Such conflicts are of course the result of the strong bond between both protagonists, particularly of Francois towards Serge, whom he thinks need help. Their relationship can even be hazily misconstrued as homoerotic. When Serge hugs Francois for the first time they met or when they were having their heart to heart conversations, it is overwhelming to witness such intense feelings on the screen.
The women seems to fall second place and held in traditional molds. Yvonne for example, as a bitter wife, had to watch and let her husband have his way while he was dancing with other girls at the dancehall. Marie (Bernadette Lafont) is just another “sex kitten” whom Francois and Serge had relations with.
It is also a movie about the clash of the new and the old: Francois Parisian Vs Backwater Towner Serge shows the discrepancy of values and morals between a city person and what happens to people when they are left in towns that no one goes to. Francois, for example, could not understand why an incest could happen. The latter could only say, “The earth’s like granite; they can barely scrape a living. They work because they’ve no choice... We’re animals, but who cares? Everyone can’t simply leave. You understand? It’s like a baby couldn’t walk if there were no one to show him how.”
Despite its bleakness, the movie shines through with notions of courage and bravery. When Francois braves the snow to find a midwife and Francois for Yvonne, it is almost impossible to think that friendship and love cannot conquer all difficulties.
Day for Night
Directed by Francois Truffaut
English Dubbed Version
A movie on what happens behind screen that thrives on a sense of chaos from start to end. Francois Truffaut occasionally refers in this movie, Americans meaning Hollywood, reminds us that he was a French director who had to deal with many problems at the set. Even the first scene we see was to be re-shoot a couple of times due to some errors. Then, there are other situations arising out of human control such as getting Valentina Cortese to open the right door for a particular scene which had to be taken many times. That was hilarious.
Welcome to the world of movie making. Day for Night is a comedy of what goes on behind the scenes which you will never see in your collector’s DVD deleted footage. Modern Movie Making has been elevated into out of proportion status such that audiences never understand and see artistes as real people who has as much problems as they do. They could be fucked by drinking habits and cannot recite stage scripts properly (Valentine Cortese) or an aging gay closet (Jean-Pierre Aumont).
Perhaps Truffaut was dispelling the myth of movie making but the irony of the director becoming an actor as a director is not lost on the audience as he was constantly bombarded by requests and problems, almost up to his neck.
We also see the importance of improvisation when tragedy happens; how important the crew from hairdresser to stage designer is and what they had to do at times to get things going. Not easy to be part of a movie which is more a team effort more than anything else.
There is nothing too heavy handed but for showing us the ridiculousness of how things can go berserk; and great lengths producers and directors live in their jobs, only to barely scrape past only creates silly afterthoughts. That while we admire the dedication of those behind screen, we feel stupid to have believed in the Hollywood Stars phenomenon.
Adaptation
Directed by Spike Jonze
Adaptation switches back and forth with documentary shots of man’s possible origins to Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) trying to write a script for a book, "The Orchid Thief" to Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), the author, trying to get an interview with her protagonist, John Laroche, who is a notorious orchid poacher. The main issue however revolves around Charlie, a nervous and stuttering writer who has no fucking idea how to adapt the book. After all, as he claims, no one has made a movie about flowers before.
The haphazard piecing of shots with flashbacks might be confusing initially but Spike has apparently arranged the plot to progress in an almost natural way for the climax to build up. For example, after we see Charlie reading the book and asks himself a question, the scene immediately switches to a narration of Susan explaining her side of the story.
Besides a non linear way of direction, the camera also uses unconventional shots such as having an incomplete head of Donald or the shadow of Susan which can be disconcerting to watch. Donald, Charlie’s brother, also likes to lie down and talks to his brother which makes jolts the audience out of their seats (if they notice how unusual such a make-up is).
Adaptation is also spiked with sarcasm, sometimes violent. The first scene we see of Adaptation is John Malkovich talking to the cast in a studio while filming “Being John Malkovich”. The film which can be seen as a mockery on personalities and film making is now being rehashed and “sampled” to warn the audience of another John Malkovich rip off, which of course, Adaptation was not. John Laroche accident, as another example, shows a truck driving past his car; killing his in laws. and losing his wife and front teeth.
One of the strongest connotation is perhaps its Woody Allen influence, found in our middle aged bald and big Charlie, the screenwriter, as he mused about his writing and wanders about the room panicking, unable to sleep and worries about his screenplay. Like most Woody movies, his paranoid behaviour was in contrast, ironically, opposite his identical twin brother; Donald, who has wrote a b grade screenplay about psychos and split personalities that movie makers has lapped it up.
Take some time to watch this unusual movie about writing for movies and try to pick up those jokes underneath the lines.
Yojimbo
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Yojimbo was Kurosawa’s box office sellout, which would be later remade “ A Fistul of Dollars” by Sergio Leone in 1964 and made Clint Eastwood famous. This monochromatic movie features Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro Kuwabatake, a ronin (a swordsmen with no master) who comes to a town plagued by two opposing gangs at loggerheads creating unrest; headed by Seibei (Seizaburo Kawazu) and Ushitora (Kyu Sazanka).
With his sense of justice, Sanjuro decides to eliminate the troublemakers by playing them off each other at first. His ploy was foiled when the local officers arrived. No points for guessing that Sanjuro will continue to play them out.
Yojimbo is an easy movie to watch without much food for thought and some of the intended jokes are more idiotic than funny. For example, when Sanjuro walked off and climbed up a platform to watch the two gangs face each other in a battle, either side was afraid to clash and made the first move. Instead of being portrayed as ruthless, the gangs acted more like stupid and petty criminals, more capable of bullying the locals and capturing people from the other side for blackmail.
Despite being light-hearted and silly, this cannot be taken as a trademark of Akiro who has directed many other different genres and inspired many Hollywood directors. It is at least worth watching for it was to inspire the “spaghetti westerns” genre.
Le Beau Serge
Directed by Claude Chabrol
1958 in French approx 97 mins
When Francois (Jean-Claude Brialy) went back to his hometown, his friend, Serge (Gérard Blain) brushed past, looked back but failed to acknowledge him. It would serve as a precursor to what the audience would expect later, as we witness the love and conflicts they had for each other.
Le Beau Serge, translated as Handsome Serge features rugged but good looking Serge as an aimless truck driver who drinks for breakfast and ill-treats his wife, Yvonne (Michele Meritz), who has lost their first child. When Francois entered his life, Serge was suddenly at a lost on how to react to this Parisian, so intent on changing him.
Such conflicts are of course the result of the strong bond between both protagonists, particularly of Francois towards Serge, whom he thinks need help. Their relationship can even be hazily misconstrued as homoerotic. When Serge hugs Francois for the first time they met or when they were having their heart to heart conversations, it is overwhelming to witness such intense feelings on the screen.
The women seems to fall second place and held in traditional molds. Yvonne for example, as a bitter wife, had to watch and let her husband have his way while he was dancing with other girls at the dancehall. Marie (Bernadette Lafont) is just another “sex kitten” whom Francois and Serge had relations with.
It is also a movie about the clash of the new and the old: Francois Parisian Vs Backwater Towner Serge shows the discrepancy of values and morals between a city person and what happens to people when they are left in towns that no one goes to. Francois, for example, could not understand why an incest could happen. The latter could only say, “The earth’s like granite; they can barely scrape a living. They work because they’ve no choice... We’re animals, but who cares? Everyone can’t simply leave. You understand? It’s like a baby couldn’t walk if there were no one to show him how.”
Despite its bleakness, the movie shines through with notions of courage and bravery. When Francois braves the snow to find a midwife and Francois for Yvonne, it is almost impossible to think that friendship and love cannot conquer all difficulties.
Day for Night
Directed by Francois Truffaut
English Dubbed Version
A movie on what happens behind screen that thrives on a sense of chaos from start to end. Francois Truffaut occasionally refers in this movie, Americans meaning Hollywood, reminds us that he was a French director who had to deal with many problems at the set. Even the first scene we see was to be re-shoot a couple of times due to some errors. Then, there are other situations arising out of human control such as getting Valentina Cortese to open the right door for a particular scene which had to be taken many times. That was hilarious.
Welcome to the world of movie making. Day for Night is a comedy of what goes on behind the scenes which you will never see in your collector’s DVD deleted footage. Modern Movie Making has been elevated into out of proportion status such that audiences never understand and see artistes as real people who has as much problems as they do. They could be fucked by drinking habits and cannot recite stage scripts properly (Valentine Cortese) or an aging gay closet (Jean-Pierre Aumont).
Perhaps Truffaut was dispelling the myth of movie making but the irony of the director becoming an actor as a director is not lost on the audience as he was constantly bombarded by requests and problems, almost up to his neck.
We also see the importance of improvisation when tragedy happens; how important the crew from hairdresser to stage designer is and what they had to do at times to get things going. Not easy to be part of a movie which is more a team effort more than anything else.
There is nothing too heavy handed but for showing us the ridiculousness of how things can go berserk; and great lengths producers and directors live in their jobs, only to barely scrape past only creates silly afterthoughts. That while we admire the dedication of those behind screen, we feel stupid to have believed in the Hollywood Stars phenomenon.
Adaptation
Directed by Spike Jonze
Adaptation switches back and forth with documentary shots of man’s possible origins to Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) trying to write a script for a book, "The Orchid Thief" to Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), the author, trying to get an interview with her protagonist, John Laroche, who is a notorious orchid poacher. The main issue however revolves around Charlie, a nervous and stuttering writer who has no fucking idea how to adapt the book. After all, as he claims, no one has made a movie about flowers before.
The haphazard piecing of shots with flashbacks might be confusing initially but Spike has apparently arranged the plot to progress in an almost natural way for the climax to build up. For example, after we see Charlie reading the book and asks himself a question, the scene immediately switches to a narration of Susan explaining her side of the story.
Besides a non linear way of direction, the camera also uses unconventional shots such as having an incomplete head of Donald or the shadow of Susan which can be disconcerting to watch. Donald, Charlie’s brother, also likes to lie down and talks to his brother which makes jolts the audience out of their seats (if they notice how unusual such a make-up is).
Adaptation is also spiked with sarcasm, sometimes violent. The first scene we see of Adaptation is John Malkovich talking to the cast in a studio while filming “Being John Malkovich”. The film which can be seen as a mockery on personalities and film making is now being rehashed and “sampled” to warn the audience of another John Malkovich rip off, which of course, Adaptation was not. John Laroche accident, as another example, shows a truck driving past his car; killing his in laws. and losing his wife and front teeth.
One of the strongest connotation is perhaps its Woody Allen influence, found in our middle aged bald and big Charlie, the screenwriter, as he mused about his writing and wanders about the room panicking, unable to sleep and worries about his screenplay. Like most Woody movies, his paranoid behaviour was in contrast, ironically, opposite his identical twin brother; Donald, who has wrote a b grade screenplay about psychos and split personalities that movie makers has lapped it up.
Take some time to watch this unusual movie about writing for movies and try to pick up those jokes underneath the lines.
Yojimbo
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Yojimbo was Kurosawa’s box office sellout, which would be later remade “ A Fistul of Dollars” by Sergio Leone in 1964 and made Clint Eastwood famous. This monochromatic movie features Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro Kuwabatake, a ronin (a swordsmen with no master) who comes to a town plagued by two opposing gangs at loggerheads creating unrest; headed by Seibei (Seizaburo Kawazu) and Ushitora (Kyu Sazanka).
With his sense of justice, Sanjuro decides to eliminate the troublemakers by playing them off each other at first. His ploy was foiled when the local officers arrived. No points for guessing that Sanjuro will continue to play them out.
Yojimbo is an easy movie to watch without much food for thought and some of the intended jokes are more idiotic than funny. For example, when Sanjuro walked off and climbed up a platform to watch the two gangs face each other in a battle, either side was afraid to clash and made the first move. Instead of being portrayed as ruthless, the gangs acted more like stupid and petty criminals, more capable of bullying the locals and capturing people from the other side for blackmail.
Despite being light-hearted and silly, this cannot be taken as a trademark of Akiro who has directed many other different genres and inspired many Hollywood directors. It is at least worth watching for it was to inspire the “spaghetti westerns” genre.
