Anthony Lane Ponders Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke's new film The White Ribbon won the Palm d'Or this year at Cannes. Here is a snip from Anthony Lane's article about Mr. Haneke from the New Yorker.

"As a rough rule, cinema can be sundered into two halves: six-o'clock films and nine-o'clock films. Most movies are nine-o'clock affairs, and none the worse for it. You get home from work, grab something to eat, head to the theatre, and enjoy the show. And so to bed—alone or entwined, but, either way, with dreams whose sweetness will not be crumbled or soured by what you saw on screen. A six-o'clock movie requires more organization: prebooked tickets, a restaurant table, the right friends. You're going to need them, because if all runs according to plan you will spend the second half of the evening tossing the movie—the impact and the substance of it—back and forth. So "Persona" is a six-o'clock movie, though it wont leave you with much of an appetite. As is "The Deer Hunter," whereas "Platoon," for all its sound and fury, works fine for a nine-o'clock. "The Reader" is a nine-o'clock movie that thinks it's a six-o'clock. "Groundhog Day" is the opposite. And "The White Ribbon"? A six-o'clock movie, if I ever saw one." —Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

My favorite Haneke movie? The Piano Teacher. Everything else by him takes superhuman strength to watch.

The Piano Teacher Trailer

Shopping

Cinema Revolution, a local video rental shop in Minneapolis, went out of business last week. This was promptly followed by a liquidation sale (five dollar entry fee) on of all of their foreign, cult, and classic collections. My roommate and I woke up real early today to get there on time for the 9 am opening. In retrospect, I should have grabbed a coffee and brought my camera.

We arrived at 9:12 am. Already one man had a box with more than thirty DVDs inside (I imagine he made giant swiping motions with his arms upon entering the building). When my friend took a peek inside, with his eyes, not his hands, the man immediately reminded him that "those were his." He also had a printed list of what he was looking for the length of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In line, we were startled by the woman behind us when she asked if "we could please hold her place." She sprinted to the front, her trench coat flailing behind her. "Someone is looking in my box!" No one was.

I followed a man around for seven whole minutes before I worked up the courage to ask him if he would be willing to give up his copy of Head-On. He explained that he was Turkish, and hadn't seen it yet, but if I gave him my work address he would bring it to me (after he had watched it, of course). How reassuring.

I bought two movies:
- The American Friend
- Oldboy

I'll forever feel cheated because:
- That dude had never seen Head-On and got to it first
- As soon as I said out loud that I hadn't seen The Decalogue for sale, the person standing in front of us walked up to the counter, grabbed the box set, and bought it

Moral of the story: watch Cinemania.

Dead-Alive

For You

Don't kid yourself, this is a genre film. Directed by Peter Jackson, and released as Braindead (why rename it?), this movie is about a hilarious rat-monkey who bites and old woman, and her son who tries to cover the whole thing up. When people say its gross (pretty much the only word I'd ever heard sandwiched next to Dead-Alive), they mean its over the top ridiculous. I was imagining Saw II type gore, but its delightful, fun, and completely unbelievable. No nightmares.

For Me

Even watching alone, I laughed out loud and at one point just stood up I was so shocked by how far Peter Jackson was willing to go. I often rant about how stunted the Zombie genre is (completely enjoyable, but impossibly hard to escape the ending), and Dead-Alive really challenges this. Maybe because its more a horror-comedy movie than a zombie one, but its structure truly surprised and refreshed my wary mind. I also liked that the allegory being told was front and center. I'd rather not have a film take itself completely seriously while trying to convince the audience that the "meaning" was an accident. Ooops!

(Does anyone else remember seeing this at the rental store when they were twelve and having a seizure?)

Dead-Alive Trailer

Good Dick

For Us

This is my new developmentally inappropriate obsession — I haven't been able to watch any other movie for three days. All you need to know is that its a tale about a boy who is crushing hard on a girl. Original? Yes. Watch the trailer (it'll give you a good sense of who these people are), then forget you ever saw it. The characters aren't what you think, and even though the back stories are a teensy bit weak, this is Marianna Palka's first movie. That she directed, wrote, produced, and starred in. What a slacker.

PS Good Dick is being independently released (even on DVD), so if you like it, buy a copy right away from this site. Limited amounts.

Goodbye Lenin!

For You

Goodbye Lenin! was nominated for about eighty billion awards. Which one did it win the most of? Audience! People went ape shit for this movie. Its quirky (coasting on the success of Amelie), makes for great talking points, and has a happy ending. Watchable with EVERYONE, even the people listed in your phone who you never remember meeting. And Moms. My public service announcement is that it takes place in Berlin, between 1989 and 1990. If you are space cadetting on what was happening then, look it up for Christ's sake.

For Me

Cute. Not cute enough. The two plot lines:
1. Family
2. Country
never quite meet. One needed to win the battle, and instead they accidentally collide, both of them feeling unfinished and sloppy. During the "precious moments," when you are supposed to really FEEL something (kill me), what I felt was the need to clip my toe-nails. This is because I'm a BRAT. Honestly, audience award! It'll only be the die hard compulsive alone movie watchers like myself that see wasted potential. And this is because I've seen more movies than you. Which basically means I qualify for Mensa.

Inglourious Basterds

For You

That rumor about Brad Pitt only being in the movie for thirty-seven minutes? Its true. This is also how much of the film is spoken in English. This isn't Quentin Tarantino's WWII movie, its his foreign film. Most of the things you love about his movies, if you do love them, aren't there, and its his weakest "story" to date. If you aren't willing to drink wine coolers with Tarantino, you might as well skip it and have a martini with your friends.

For Me

Tarantino dialogue is BRILLIANT when read! This is not a joke. I heart Death Proof, but I could barely stand the monologues. Too talkie talk talk. Inglourious Basterds is one giant conversation (yea, its violent, but only for twenty minutes and they're spread out like bread crumbs) and I never once got bored. Reading is fun! The Jew Hunter is fab — best thing in the movie, not counting my new lady crush Shosanna — and the opening scene is well worth putting up with Brad Pitt. I hate to say it, but Tarantino is basically a genius, and although this is not my favorite of his films, there is nothing truly wrong with it. Except the story. That's a little bunk, but I already said that. I will fo sho see it again. Preferably in a movie theater. (This will make sense once you see the movie. I hope. Does that put too much pressure on you?)

The Devil's Backbone

Uh, exactly the same as Pan's Labrynth. Since The Devil's Backbone was made first (right before Blade II. ouch), and doesn't have creatures fighting for screen time, I guess they're not EXACTLY the same. Here are some of the similarities:

- protagonist is a kid (but a boy)
- takes place during the Spanish Civil War (Del Toro is Mexican. WHAT is going on here. . .)
- able bodied men make me nervous
- creepy supernatural shit

During the first twenty minutes I couldn't stop obsessing about how the two movies were twinsies, but The Devil's Backbone really takes off, turns into a bit of a mystery for a while, and ends by neatly tying up all of its shoelace plot lines. I liked it, I'd recommend it, and you should watch it. Yes, it has subtitles. The movies I like to watch are foreign. Get over it.