Do you perchance enjoy people watching? I thought I did and this made using public transportation tolerable if not appealing.
Well this very afternoon, I got more than I bargained for.
Concentrate… Do you feel a rant coming? It was an old dude. Hell, I’m an old dude, but this guy… This guy was evidently so old, he reverted to child-like.
Right hand plugged and dug in the right ear. Gross, but not as gross as the left index finger exploring, scraping his nostrils to the point where a deviated septum became a real risk.
Scratch that. His septum was probably bent five ways from Sunday decades ago. Anyway, he scraped the result of his excavations onto the stainless steel pole passengers are supposed to hold on to.
Nice. Very nice.
Then, he danced the cavity Macarena: right hand, right ear again, left hand pinching nostrils, with occasional index forays into the nose. In between exploratory moves, he looked at his fingernail’s harvest and spread the results on surfaces for all to enjoy.
Tiled steps in San Francisco: an instance of a neighborhood bonding
Many times before, driving to and from one of our favorite diners in the city, we found ourselves looking up to a not-too distant hill, a rock outcropping, really, covered in grass and a few trees, which seemed to promise sweeping views of the San Francisco.
Looking closer, there seemed to be long flights of stairs leading to the top.
“Immortal” – (2004, France, 103 minutes – rated R)
Well aren’t you lucky..? Two Midnight Movie Madness recommendations within a week!
This is a bit of a curio for sci-fi fans. Written and directed by Enki Bilal, based on two graphic novels from his Nikopol trilogy, “la femme piege” and “la foire aux immortels” (“the female trap” and “the carnival of immortals”).
Watch the trailer here:
Bilal (born Enes Bilalovic) moved to France at age 9, in 1960 or so.
“The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest” – (2009, Sweden, 147 minutes – rated R)
The third installment of Stieg Larssen’s ‘Millenium‘ trilogy moves deeper into a dystopian present made of corrupted power cells both part of and unknown to government bureaucracy, in other words, the tapestry widens.
That was obscure, but the trilogy takes its time exposing Larsson’s vision of power and its abuses, of unseen environments where human monsters are made, flourish and devour everything available to them. Provided it is sanctioned, and at times even without approval.
The mythological sphinx, while not to be confused with the Sphynx, does combine elements of other species. How many of us have observed, while watching a cat “he/she looks like a bat! An Owl… A panther, monkey, rat, wolf, bird….”
I often think of Tito as a wolf with stripes, but as to Mazuzu Whang…
“Do you know what the Bush is about?”
A key question both asked answered by Melbourne detective Nathan Leckie (Guy Pierce) as he tries to turn Joshua ‘J’ Cody (James Frecheville) into a witness against his own family.
“Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream”.
This quote from Ingmar Bergman about Andrei Tarkovksy applies to few directors, whose films are like echoes which never fade, feeling of déjà vu from things you’ve never seen.
Can there be a more “controlled” medium than animation, I don’t know. But this may be the most interesting dichotomy (or seeming contradiction) about the Quay brothers, in that they will show you elaborate images for your imagination to use as canvass and subject.
They seem to shy away from the notion of script, well maybe not shy away, so much as discard. I think they see scripting as restrictive to the creative process of story telling: the characters as well as the decors are enabled to follow their own rhythm and narration.
This, of course, is how most of us dream.
The Quay brothers’ second film, as their shorts and previous feature, is not easily described. They themselves appear like 18th century automatons, speaking in the halting way of people born into a world of opinions, hostile to developing ideas.
Their literary, visual and musical references are just this side off mainstream, not obscure so much as… Uncommon yet surprisingly attainable, and are woven in loose tapestries which invite you to pull whichever string twitches tantalizingly, following yet another rabbit hole of sorts: the décor itself is an actor.
“The piano tuner of earthquakes” would I think appeal to anyone who truly enjoyed Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast”, Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth”, Tim Burton’s “nightmare before Christmas” or Tarkovsky’s “Stalker”.
To try and outline a synopsis, or post pictures or a trailer, in the case their movies would be restrictive and so I do not. Instead I would simply tell you that if you have read this far, you will likely want to continue this dialogue by watching the Quay brothers’ oeuvre.
“The piano tuner of earthquakes”… Such a title, and it is just the beginning.
This French movie, filmed in the U.S., will hopefully be available on DVD in coming months. I doubt it will gain exposure in theatres as the subject matter is likely too dark and depressing, but the trailer alone hints at a masterpiece.
“Rubber” is the story of Robert who, wandering through the desert, gains awareness and special, powerful, psychic powers. One central theme of “rubber” is extermination, you may even call it genocide.
You see, Robert is a used tire. A car tire. Rolling aimlessly, unknowingly, through the desertic landscapes of the American Southwest, discarded. Used up. Until that moment when Robert rolls up languidly to a junkyard where humans are burning stacks of old tires: Robert’s kin. From then on, Robert’s burgeoning psychic powers will hone themselves into a weapon which he will turn against this humanity who created his people only to reject them after 40.000 miles or less.
