"Yara" / "Ears, Eyes and Throats: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976 - 1981" 190908

Yara

Being an American watching foreign films has become perplexing - always anticipating some sort of violence to be just around the corner, confused when it isn’t, and needing to re-watch movies just to remove that gnawing expectation and just enjoy the experience. It’s getting tough to remember that narrative conflict can be rich and propel well-told stories without people having to hurt each other.

(Spoilers ahead)

In Yara, a young girl’s development into a young woman is laid out via day-in-the-life scenes amid the remote mountains of Northern Lebanon. She lives with only her grandmother, is occasionally visited by a travelling grocer, helpful cousins, and – increasingly – Elias, a charming young man who jokes (?) that he wants to take her with him to Australia.

We witness her simple life - doing chores, chatting with her Sitti about her deceased parents, eating stuffed squash, feeding the animals, venturing out to find lost sheep and chickens, worrying about a marauding jackal that threatens them from time to time, etc. 

This is framed throughout by a rapturous mountain landscape.

So what holds our interest besides the sierran beauty? Where’s the conflict?

Simply that she is no longer a little girl who, even in a remote, mostly abandoned village, must now pay heed to how others perceive her budding femininity, how to respond to her growing relationship with Elias, and how will she face the challenges and precariousness of her future.

Ears, Eyes and Throats: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976 - 1981

Peter Conheim has curated a fascinating time capsule of oddball music films from around 1980. The San Francisco scene is represented first by the Residents, the Offs, the Dils, the Avengers, Renaldo and the Loaf, and hmmm, my band MX-80 Sound.

The last section features “Bored in Pittsburgh: The Obscure Film That Immortalized 1980s Punk” Bill Bored’s scattered tour of Pittsburg’s scene with the Cardboards, Hans Brinker, the Shakes, and the Dykes.

Some of the footage is pretty awful, some conjures fuzzy nostalgia, and some is a flat-out scream (like The Dykes’ “Hysterectomy”), but it’s all quite spellbinding in that way that looking at a one’s checkered past – including everything from the idyllic to the cringe-worthy parts – tends to be.

2016 Film capsules

Anomalisa

Charlie Kaufmann doesn’t know how to make a movie that doesn’t automatically have more going for it than most everything else around it. Anomalisa is so inventive, disturbing, beautiful, and it has maybe the most realistic love scene ever filmed – all with animated (cartoon) characters! David Thewlis provides the voice for the tortured male lead, with a splendid  Jennifer Jason Leigh as the only other character not voiced by magnificent Tom Noonan?!? Repeat viewings gain heft.

Arrival

Denis Villenueve doesn’t know how to make a movie that doesn’t automatically have more going for it than most everything else around it. Here you have a sci-fi alien movie unlike anything that came before it. All of his previous flicks are completely different from each other, save for a brilliantly adult take on each subject. Incendies is a flat-out masterpiece. Can’t wait for his reboot of Blade Runner 2049. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

Big Short

How do you make a film about the 2005 housing disaster without glazing your audience’s eyes over? Like this. Everyone does a great job, and Christian Bale … wtf?

Bigger Splash

When you look up “ugly / beautiful” in the dictionary, they got a picture of this fine film. The cast is knockout good, topped of course by Tilda Swinton, as a fragile (Bowie-esque) rock star, and Ralph Fiennes … wtf? How does he go from M. Gustav to this? Luca Guadagnino packs a enough fireworks into the principle narrative to allow the refugee crisis to play subtly, yet somehow pertinently, in the background.

Captain Fantastic

Vigo & company are splendid in this story about a renegade family living off the land. Favorite scene when the cops pull the bus over and they swing into full Christian drag to avoid the bust. (A real life version of this happened to me in 1969 when my pal Jeffrey Morris quickly whipped out a bible from under his seat in a VW square-back as the Tuscon AZ cop asked if we had any drugs in the car. “No officer, we get high on the lord.”

Elle

A tough one. to take, but Verhoven is back in European arty mode, and Isabel Huppert crushes it. Once you get past the sensational build-up, a fascinating and revealing look at how differently upper crust types might see the world and their place in it.

Hail Caesar

“Only the Coens” exhibit #273 – Herbert Mercuse has a featured role in this madcap comedy. Great cast, having a ball and sharing the joy. Brolin is terrific, Swinton has two roles, but Fiennes … wtf? Some thought this one was light, but I’m going with deep, and … “would that it were so simple” … hilarious.

Hell or High Water

Bridges, though he’s still in his damned mumble-core phase, continues to make me pine to hang out with his characters, regardless of how unpleasant they may be.  I guess age compels one to great representations of melancholy.

Hunt for Wilder People

Taika Waititi continues to amaze, in the lowest key way possible. From Flight of the Conchords, through Eagle vs Shark and What We Do In The Shadows, to this - do any of their premises sound more than just amusing? But, no … he and his gang keep you fully engaged. Sam Neill leads a zany cast.

Jackie

Went into this one expecting standard biopic fare, but when I walked in a few seconds late, Mica Levy’s soundtrack’s opening strains disabused me of that notion.

Everything about it was well thought out and against the grain, meaning I’m going to have to revisit this one soon. Still, did I mention the soundtrack?

Knight Of Cups

Speaking of “against the grain,” Terrence Malick’s latest work doesn’t really even bother with any grain in cinema that’s preceded him. Tree of Life made a stunning, perfect, declaration; To the Wonder continued the thought (though I thought of it as more an alternate exercise to the family narrative in Tree Of Life); and Knight Of Cups pushed it out there where there’s no turning back.  Can’t wait for Song to Song. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2062700/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_1

Manchester By The Sea / Margaret

Wow. We’ve moved well past melancholy to outright grief, and it’s magnificent. Lonergan, Williams, and Affleck have somehow managed to draw us inside an extreme experience rather than lay out prurient grief porn,. We immediately followed by watching an earlier Lonergan work, Margaret. The guy sure knows how to make one feel what it might be like to be principally involved in a horrid death. 

Midnight Special 

Jeff Nichols might be the best story-teller in film. I want to see all of his movies more than once … plus, you always get Michael Shannon.

Moonlight

A rich character study, laid out in groundbreaking form and substance that heightens understanding and broadens conceptions. Gripping performances and narrative.

Neon Demon

Refn’s color and lighting schemes are getting brighter, but his characters’ souls are as dark as ever – maybe even darker.

Nocturnal Animals

Another ugly beautiful film – there seem to be way too many of them these days, but life imitates blah blah blah … . The form kinda made me forget all that, and appreciate fine craft. Plus … Michael Shannon and Amy Adams.

Revenant

I didn’t want to see this because I assumed the soundtrack would be saccharine / schmaltzy. You know what happens when you assume, eh? Great score, cinematography, narrative, bear carnage, and a despicable Tom Hardy. Dale-Bob says check it out.2016 

Border 190903

The best thing about seeing a movie without knowing anything about it is that you get to be blown away by something that you might not have seen at all if you’d read a synopsis or review beforehand. 

Since I first swooned to Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula when I snuck to my grandmother’s TV for “Shock Theatre” at midnight when I was a kid in the fifties, I’ve pretty much absorbed enough vampire flicks for at least one lifetime. So I might have taken a pass on, say, “Let The Right One In” - or at least let it slide way down my priority list if I’d known that much about it. 

It’s exceptional enough, though, that someone (probably my friend Thor would have convinced me to give it a try. But as it was, I went in cold - without any preconceptions - and . . . Holy Moly!, I did not see that coming!

Thor did suggest I see “Border” before it left the big screen with no hint to what or why - except that it was written by John Ajvide Lindqvist who, you guessed it, also wrote “Let The Right One In”.

I still can’t believe anyone could come up with a modern fairy tale so perfectly engrossing and resonant. And after taking “Border” in a second time, I’m sticking with it easily being one of the very finest films last year … and beyond. Ajvide Lindqvist has pulled off a one-two artistic punch the likes of which is extremely rare.

As for the spoiler: the main character recognizes revenge (even justifiable) for what it is and has no taste for it, despite the sacrifice her choice requires:

“I don’t see the point of evil.”

Since revenge in movies has been on my mind a lot lately, this one sticks out. 

“Border”’s conception and execution - story, soundtrack, direction, tone, acting, make-up (!), camerawork … did I mention soundtrack? – is spot-on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMs28A1s1OA

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 190804

After being gleefully on the edge of my seat throughout Quentin Tarantino’s whirlwind trip to 1969 LA while it was being gloriously projected on 35mm film at The Cal, I left the theatre with that really bitter taste in my mouth that always surfaces after the titillation stemming from his fantasies wears off.

It’s not hard to figure out why. Viewing “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” one day after the third of three grizzly mass shootings in one week, I recoiled as Tarantino once again arrived at his default response to complex issues – the orgasmic, violent slaughter of really loathsome people, en masse.

The characters he’s chosen to target are all men and women you can’t possibly root for. This time “dirty hippies” needed righteous revenge smote upon them, following on the heels of wild west scumbags (among whom Jennifer Jason Leigh was viciously singled out for some inexplicable reason), vile slave owners, sadistic Nazis, etc etc etc..

And though not at all squeamish about cinematic violence, I’ve long found his versions of it to be well choreographed but, at best, of dubious socially redeeming value. At worst, it knowingly legitimizes and contributes to the cancerous upsurge of our national fetish for doing each other harm.

QT’s a clever guy whose impressive technique is undeniable but, given that he’s already found a way to drastically alter actual history to suit his whims in several films, why isn’t he capable of evolving to find revisions more compelling than obligatory bloodbath finales? I guess I’d just like to see him collaborate with a visionary screenwriter and/or join talented filmmakers who have something fresh to say, and who can think outside the box.

Now, get off my lawn!

Salonen and Blomstedt 190220

Salonen and Blomstedt 2019

Elania and I thought we’d go check out the new guy at the SF Symphony in his first appearance since being named principle conductor.

wow… 

Esa-Pekka Salonen assembled and masterfully executed a perfect program to highlight his and the orchestra’s considerable skills. Much more a precision conductor than MTT, though (like my conducting hero, Robert Shaw) rather than stultify, Salonen’s firm control over every last detail led to glorious, flowing, forward motion. 

The way he gleamed and swung with the band made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Everyone was fully engaged to render one of the tightest live performances I’ve ever heard from a full orchestra. 

It started off with Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s 2017 “Metacosmos”. An auspicious beginning, letting everyone know that modern music was going to be coming at us in the most transcendent way possible. And inaugurating his tenure with a gorgeous tone poem by a woman sent another delightfully clear message.

Next was the crowd-pleasing “Also Sprach Zarathustra” which he somehow managed to make seem not laborious at all after the whiz-bang intro (Ah, those long winded, always-in-need of an editor, post-romantics), but instead serving as a fitting companion to “Metacosmos”. 

Then, Sibelius’ “FourLegends From Kalevala” filled the second half, taking us through a wide array of moving narratives.

A short Q&A after the concert gave us a further look inside his humor, thoughtfulness, and direction. One obvious but notable example: “How do you compare your composing and conducting?” “With conducting, I start from the end of a piece and work backwards. Composing is the retrograde.”

Lucky us.

As a freshman in college, I played Reiner and the Chicago Symphony’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony #6 “Pastoral” on an endless loop, up to and including an orgasmic afternoon out in our Midwestern back yard while a monster, killer, horror, green sky, lightning and thunder storm approached. The storm section of the symphony climaxed at just the right time for me to get completely soaked.  

After a lifetime loaded with exposure to and performance of his music, getting by without any more Ludwig Van wouldn’t be that much of a sacrifice. But in the last 3 months, we’ve somehow managed to catch sterling live performances of the 7^thin Athens, the 9^thin Seattle, and the 6^thin SF last night. Not a bad way to go, I guess.

We went not so much for this piece, though it’s always a big, comfy chair that never disappoints, but to experience conductor Herbert Blomstedt in the flesh. Never got a chance when he was the principle conductor before MTT, and it seemed fitting to finally catch up with the Swede after taking in the new Finnish guy, Essa-Pekka Salonen, a week ago.

Blomstedt appeared to almost hobble to the podium, causing some concern that (at 91) he might not be up to the task. No worries at all once he got there. He conducted without a stick, spent most of the piece forcefully emphasizing the upbeat to propel things along, and lived up to his reputation as a warm, fluid maestro.

Side note: He arranged the orchestra in “European Seating”: 1^stviolins, celli, basses on stage right, percussion and woodwinds in the middle, 2^ndviolins, violas, and brass stage left. Have to say this works best for me.

After intermission, Mendelssohn’s “Scottish Symphony, #3” was another sweeping, beautifully orchestrated pastoral, but … where the hell were the bagpipes?