Immeasurable Decadence: BREATHLESS

The love for cinema, like any cinephile will often explore and contemplate the contrast in films; storylines, actors’ performances, parallels of aesthetics, and of course themes and as Jean-Luc Godard once said, “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to” and of course, “There’s no such thing as intellectual property.” Perhaps, the conjecture of these statements is where his true reinvention of cinema really reverberated among the masses and what better vessel than his infamous 1960’s BREATHLESS or as the French say À bout de soufflé “Out of Breath.” So when asked about my thoughts on Godard’s film I said, “I LOVED it.” Of course after having the left side of my face numbed from the dentist and having so much more to say on the matter, challenged my ability to articulate in that moment since I probably sounded like an incomprehensible drunkard. My precise thought once the credits rolled and, I mean this with such delicate pure-ness, as I seldom tend to drop the f-bomb when I say, “That f -er broke the rules!” Not that I’m a complete stickler for rules, but I understand now why he’s so revered. Change. Real change.

BREATHLESS is very much alive and continues to be thrive has having this edgy seductiveness which coincides with Jean-Paul Belmondo’s character, Michel who very much personifies himself in the same fashion of Humphrey Bogart. While being on the run, he finds a deep love in an American girl named Patricia played by Jean Seberg who’s a student aspiring to be a journalist in Paris. The two make an unusual pair, and with that rebellious chemistry is what truly electrifies the screen. A mismatched duo plunging into an unconventional love story betrothed by crime, curiosity, and infatuation, all funneled through their own self-absorption and with the cinema verite look really encapsulates a brevity of humanity’s narcissism. Oddly decadent and widely braven at the time, it squeezes the independent spirit into fruition, just as John Cassavetes’ delivered in his directorial debut of SHADOWS in 1959, which was essentially the moment American cinema changed forever.

Perhaps you can surmise Godard and Cassavetes are similar forces just on opposite ends of the world. Both united in the same era of making groundbreaking films, undermining the studio systems and the Hollywood culture that made cinema enticingly viable for the masses. Prior to becoming filmmakers, Godard was a cinephile, a critic at heart while Cassavetes was an actor, who created a workshop that brought methods of really tapping into the heart of characters. And with such talent both Godard and Cassavetes knew they could break another barrier. So their curiosities and knowledge brought them to take a daring risk which brought everyone on the planet independent filmmaking. Sure it was probably rough and bumpy at first with guerilla style filmmaking, bad audio, out of focus shots, and of course the notorious, rebel-defying aesthetic of the “jump cut” but I’m sure it was liberating, being able to call the shots without any other influence pushing their own agenda. Actors but their trust in their directors’ fortitude to preserve and fully submerge themselves in something experimental.

Aside from the compare and contrast charade, let’s get back to the brass tacks of BREATHLESS. Without air is to be without life, without life there is nothing but death and personally is essentially what drives the plot to its outcome. The final close up shot of Patricia’s face as she rubs her thumb across her lips, a total Bogart trademark and yet she embodies the cool, calm, collectiveness much more than Michel. As much as Michel captures the look of Humphrey Bogart, he chases Patricia, even pleads with her to flee with him to Italy which fully doesn’t embrace the Bogey-ness. Most if not all of Bogart’s characters never chased women, which was part of his appeal. If anything Patricia embodies the full spirit of Bogey because she wasn’t doing the chasing. She played it cool, calculating the best maneuver to remove herself from Michel’s insatiable teancaity to fulfill his needs. Patricia lured herself as bait just enough to come to her senses and refused to follow her emotions which would have been a deadly trap. The girl had enough on her plate with being an American in Paris, pregnant, and working to establish herself as a wholesome journalist. She had zero interest or embraced the thought of sharing any time to fully commit to an un-serious dalliance of a criminal’s misgivings and tortured bruteness. After all he did admit to calling himself an “asshole” in the very beginning of the film, so there's that.

In studying the numerous sequences where Michel and Patricia are walking around Paris, something fascinating stuck out at me. It was seeing the curiosity on everyone's faces, just random strangers strolling their neighborhood not fully aware their witnessing the guerrilla-style filmmaking in its total pureness. If you look closer you can see the passerby stare at them or turn their heads trying to figure what is what, or who they are. Its such a fun chunk of reality fused into a fabric of fiction blurring the line between life imitating art and art imitating life. I love that distinction between the two. Also in another vibrant example is how Godard uses part of William Faulkner's brilliance as a playful dialogue piece to distract our two characters while sharing their bed. In the passage of Faulkner's "Wild Palms", Patricia reads, "Between grief and nothing. I will take grief." When Patrica asks Michel, he responds with, "Grief is stupid. I choose nothing. It's no better, but grief is a compromise.You have to go for all or nothing." Its a stunning statement, conflicting in so many ways, yet zealously contrary whether its intentional or not. Anyone who knows me, knows I love to pontifcate into the heady realm of grief. Experiencing it, studying it, producing films and writing about it as it's very much the thread that connects us to one another. The unfortunate power of loss and how we transcend from it, sometimes half-willingly and sometimes wholeheartedly. Okay, I may have spiraled down the rabbit hole a smidge. So what exactly does this mean for Michel and Patricia? Its something to say out loud and as it lingers in the air, one chooses grief and the other chooses nothing. Think long and hard about the ending and notice which character ends with what. This is the immeasurable decadence of Jean-Luc Godard's BREATHLESS.

#cinephile #jeanluckgodard #jeanseberg #jeanPaulBelmondo #Bogey #Film #Cinema #IndependentCinema #JohnCassavetes #Paris #Franch #FrenchCinema #1960s

A-HAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm Conflicted: JOKER

I often enjoy the nuances of overreacted theatrics such as maniacal laughing and interpretive dancing, consequently, I feel morally ashamed when it’s expressed after callously killing someone. Stripping away this story down to its bare essentials, JOKER such as it is, is a character study, nothing more, nothing less. It’s heartless nature at times alleviates itself from tension created by the sheer uncomfortable situations brought on by the unkindness of humanity. If you’ve survived A CLOCKWORK ORANGE then you’ll probably survive JOKER because they share the same DNA, in terms of happy go lucky songs intertwined with expressive dance all riding on the dark force of evil. So this quote from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE fits perfectly for the film JOKER.

“When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.” – Anthony Burgess

A case in point. Nonetheless, if I had to surmise the central themes in JOKER, the first could be found in the quote above. Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Arthur Fleck (AKA Joker) was dealt a shit hand from the get go. As the story unfolds, we learn, he did not choose to be abused as a young child. He did not choose to have a mother who was delusional. He did not choose to be beaten up. Nor did he not choose to have brain damage. So once he’s backed into a dark corner, of course he’s forced to defend himself. When you lose your sense of worth, your job, your therapy, medication, and become beaten down by society when you’re looking for answers of course you’re going to snap. And what director Todd Philips does is so manipulative and stealthy. He’s created a natural-like hot box of oppression, which in turn probes us to feel empathetic and side with the self pity of a madman. Is that the joke behind all this? Like pulling the rug out from under the audience as if we’re in some Charlie Chaplin film? We’re watching Joker's humanity being aggressively turned inside out with no reinforcing hope of redemption. That’s bleak. No wonder I felt so grimy when the credits began to roll. It leaves an unpalatable taste in my mouth. Fix it! And how dare you for using Charlie Chaplin’s MODERN TIMES as some socio-economic commentary that dances around the edges of some showy correlation. NO!

Let me take a breath.

OKAY. The only brilliance in JOKER is Joaquin Phoenix’s idiosyncratic performance, (mostly his dance moves) some timeless quality songs, overindulgence in set design, with some crisp cinematography. Other than that, the story sank like the Titanic. Why? Because you forgot to throw in a little speck of optimism. Instead, we’re left with an unchallenging, predictable, too on the nose, clichéd, and yet profoundly praised $50 million film. Why? Some viewers just don’t want to be so inundated with darkness, we live in 2019 for crying out loud. Isn’t that enough? There’s plenty of real crazy people out there that the media reports on and ironically jokes about from time to time. So now, JOKER becomes this strained fixture reflecting the mythical lunacy of chaotic fantasy that almost closely parallels our present day. Society is a mess, no doubt there which has more often than not been reflected in our entertainment. Yeah, I’m looking at you, city of Los Angeles, and your downtown rat infestation, where typhus is roaming the streets because you’re too ridiculous to remove the piles upon piles of garbage. It’s still a problem with a simple solution. It’s called giving a damn! Of course this is just one example that was cleverly heard in an audio bit in the opening of the film. That piece of news is something we're still dealing with today, folks!

Let me take another breath.

Aside from the ceasing to exist motif, I believe media and society play an elemental role throughout the film. Take for instance, the introduction to Robert De Niro’s character, Murray, who’s a late night TV talk show host. His sole demeanor represents how the media can shape society by poking fun at people. People who are not privy to a certain set of societal norms shall we say which is something we practically bathe in today. As an aside this is really where journalism took the wrong road in sensationalizing the news essentially damaging society. Now, as a segway, I have to warn you of SPOILERS here because the subject matter I talk about coincides with sensationalism and what happens to Murray. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. (Just skip the next paragraph if you haven't seen the film, yet.)

What was Joker’s sole motivation for shooting Murray pointblank on live television? As we’ve seen in previous scenes, Joker glorifies, Murray as an influence to aspire too and as we’re watching the sequence where Joker is being interviewed on his show, we’re really witnessing his birth into complete mayhem. Arthur admits to murder, which obviously stuns everyone, he cracks a dark, inappropriate joke, that offends everyone. We’ve seen this pattern before repeatedly all leading up to the final crescendo and the point of no return for Arthur. It’s the kind of insanity that’s been sensationalized before. Remember Christine Chubbuck? If you were around in 1974, of course you do. I would argue that was the birth place of American news taking that dark turn into mayhem, blurring the line between emotions and factual commonplace. Consequently, in some morbid ways Chubbuck’s suicide became a light inspiration for Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film NETWORK. It’s interesting to see this narrative cascading itself through spans of decades in Hollywood pictures. Details are rearranged here and there, but the sentiment still remains in tact. The struggle and subject finds a way to preserve its relevance now more than ever. Our media is filled with so much violence, its suffocating.

The final theme that ties everything together is narcissism, which is all funneled by Joker's expression of body movement. If you've seen any of Joaquin's body of work, you'll know he contorts himself into all of the characters he plays and those are the best kind of actors to work with. There's always that hunger and drive to work it out and get it right. Sure any actor can memorize lines and act, but to truly get into the psychology of said character you always have to dig deeper which is why research is so critical. Plus using your body to convey emotion is one of the most powerful things to observe on film because in it you can't always be sure what it means and the entire industry was birth on this notion. Remember the silent films? There's a layer of mystery that words cannot always express what emotion gives us. Take for instance Joker's over-effusive laughter. It's not infectious because as you listen to it linger on it slowly morphs into someone's pain. You hear pain in his laughter and that's never easy to stomach. It's a kind of grief that transcends into something most don't often always recognize; narcissism. The laugh and body movement are ostentatious, fueling this lack of empathy which narcissists are notoriously known for. You can pity a narcissist forever until it bites you in the ass, because they're so devious in showing you who you want to believe they are when in reality they cower behind a facade. In this instance, clown makeup.

In the case of JOKER, it stoops to the level of misrepresentation on so many levels. A person’s mentally disturbed psyche utilizes sadistic humor and violence to convey his misgivings which is construed as a political statement by the masses creating havoc, dismay, injustice, fear, anger, corruption, and misinformation. A plague that very much haunts us today which seems to be justified by? You guessed it, narcissism. But I get it this is just a movie, I shouldn’t lasso such deepness, on the contrary awareness spawns’ contemplation and I believe that’s worthy of something.

So if you like watching civilians parade in clown masks advocating violence and destruction as an excuse for civil unrest, by all means you’ll probably enjoy this film. Given its such a weird dichotomy living in a world where we know violence occurs on a day to day basis and absorbing a film mirroring it so meticulously, it becomes unsettling because we’re forced to reflect on what it means to us and what we see, hear, and feel. In some instances, it almost feels like watching an in depth two-hour PSA about mental destruction, juxtaposing society’s intense decay denoting all the vices built upon inequality. And if that fills your emotions with anger, then that makes two of us. And if you have a weak spot for Joaquin busting those sick dance moves on the staircase to Glitter Band's "Rock n Roll Part 2" that's fine too. You'll love this film with deep conflicting thoughts. Guilty.

#Joker #JokerMovie #JoaquinPhoenix #ToddPhilips #RobertDeNiro #WarnerBrothers #Clowns #Crime #Thriller #Anger #ArthurFleck #Cream #FrankSinatra #MovieReview #FilmBlog #Cinephile

MIDSOMMAR WRECKED ME

MIDSOMMAR wrecked me. Don’t get me wrong there’s catharsis in this film and even that isn’t entirely fulfilling. It’s the journey to get there that’s excruciating and exhausting. This is very much a superior “horror” film one I may rank up there with Lars Van Trier’s ANTICHRIST. Yeah, that one wrecked me too. There's just some imagery you can never shake or erase from your memory ever and this is the power in Ari Aster’s films. I saw that in HEREDITARY and I should have known that going into MIDSOMMAR. Oh, silly me. There’s so much psychological warfare it nearly blurs the line at times where you question your own sanity and moments where you begin to recalibrate your own dating history. Ughh! Did anyone else get flashbacks of your own personal demons you battled in the past? They like to slowly creep in except this time, I attempted to mentally combat them with an imaginary constructed house of defense just like Jami Lee Curtis did in the HALLOWEEN reboot. She was armed and ready for Michael Meyers' return. Silliness aside, I can’t think of a better film I’ll see this year. (I’m talking about MIDSOMMAR not HALLOWEEN) I guess that’s what happens when Hollywood is on a superhero bender and Disney hooking its greedy mouse claws in owning every major studio that ever was. (I'm still in shock they bought 20th Century Fox) Yeah, its seriously sad times in the entertainment industry. Aside from the gloom, I’m grateful A24 exists. In fact, I’ll probably only watch A24 distributed films from here on out because they know how to satisfy their particular audiences. Well, that and the Criterion Collection obviously. Cinephile mecca!

So the epitome of hell in MIDSOMMAR is that its a two-and-a-half-hour journey of taking mushrooms, while enduring the death of a relationship, all sprinkled on top with a commune celebrating its festival that occurs every 90 years in Sweden. Oh and your friends are invited to partake in this as well. I’m sure this makes the Swedes roll their eyes and laugh at Americans overdramatizing their sacred pagan rituals into a horror story when in reality the true horror resides in how our characters’ treat each other. That’s right I went into full over analytical mode and found when I separated the whole religious denominator divided by the emotional/rational bandwidth of these characters minus the actions they took, I came to the conclusion (with the exception of Dani’s character) that most of the male characters are self-absorbed aided by their own selfishness which equates to their own demise. Guess it never pays to be selfish.

MIDSOMMAR is magical in a sense of delighting its audience into the wonder beyond a community that wholeheartedly believes in sacrifice. After the film, I read Aster’s script and there is so much left out of the actual movie that a particular dialogue tied it all together quite nicely for me. Which made me wonder why he removed it or if it was even filmed? Perhaps it was too on the nose? Either way, hopefully it will be in the director’s cut which I assume will be four hours of hell. But essentially, and obviously sacrifice is the biggest theme aside from loss and grief and also the realization Dani’s dating an asshole.

In the immensely dreadful, disturbing, first act, Dani (Florence Pugh) undergoes a tremendous loss and that’s a sufferable horror within itself. Several months later her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his anthropology college bros are leaving to Sweden for a month to a small village known as Harga where the week long festivities begin. Dani also tags along with them, although everyone is reluctant of her being there. She tries to put on a brave face but internally she’s emotionally breaking down which is often shown in her a series of panic attacks. Once they arrive to Haga things obviously go array slowly and then catapults into pure insanity. And through that insanity you’re watching the breakdown of Dani and Christian’s relationship slowly and painfully coming to an end. Dani is vulnerable and Christian’s only concern are for his own needs. Anyone who’s been in this type of relationship will see this. I almost feel like this is a fable of sorts, like the tortoise and the hare? What happens to the vulnerable and what happens to the selfish ones? I won’t spoil it. But look at the mural below!! Now take deep exaggerated breaths.

Now, the precursor to the impetuous breakdown is heartbreaking and distressing, especially from Dani’s eyes and its captured in a sequence that’ll I’ll say is my favorite part of the whole film. It’s the moment Dani comes back from blessing the crops as the community’s new May Queen. She curiously wants to know what going on in one of the barns. Naturally, one of the girls warns her not to, but again human nature and curiosity can’t always be resisted. Dani witnesses another horrific image that cuts her to the core AGAIN and suffers. And you feel for this girl. Breakdown after breakdown, and you know this particular one is the final nail in the coffin. But what’s beautiful about this sequence is how the group of women collectively surround her with their empathy. Like genuine empathy. Her pain is their pain. And as they embrace in this little circle of a cathartic cry session of wailing women, it becomes a domino effect of recycling emotion. It’s terrifyingly haunting to watch on screen and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a filmmaker capture that before well without the regards to Toni Collete's heavy breakdown in HEREDITARY. I'm still in awe one moment, terrified another, and then exhausted by the onslaught of heavy emotional that hits you like an avalanche. That’s a ton of energy. I’m sure all the guys in the theater were gripping their armchair because its never easy seeing anyone displaying that level of pain especially if it’s someone you deeply love.

I was at odds after watching MIDSOMMAR and my first reaction (which is never my final reaction) was it's a glorified version of the original WICKER MAN but with a sharp focus from a female's perspective. Ultimately, its a portrayal of a twisted fairy tale laced in suffering, rebirth, betrayal and acceptance and what’s so parallel is the timeline of the festival’s customs and traditions coincide with what the characters represent in a lifecycle of their own journey. Obviously the ending of a relationship is never easy albeit, Ari Aster makes this grand gesture dazzled in allegory for something tumultuous that should be recognizable by every human being with a soul. It's a mind-boggling feat. Impressive, glorious, disturbing, and tantalizes the brain! The ending of a relationship is like a death. You ache, you grieve and eventually you accept and sometimes do batshit, crazy things. This is all illustrated in the very first shot of the film. Remember that elaborate mural? The entire story is in that mural which seems like a series of Tarot cards. It feels creepy because it's meant to. Elaborate with color that doesn't seem harmful but playful and that's the real kicker to this whole film as its infused with flowers, dancing, singing, a celebration that mirrors many things in life. Yet beneath the surface there is a true omen to sacrifice. Something people do every day and even though this is a graphically disturbing film it demonstrates humanity's demeanor. Are we all monsters of our own devices? Not necessarily. But all the newcomers who came to Harga had their own agendas whether it being a thesis or looking to get laid and from that point, there was very much a disconnect between them and in being within their environment. This draws the ferocious line of being selfish or accepting sacrifice which is a fundamental aspect of being in a relationship with someone.

MIDSOMMAR by any means isn't an easy film to stomach, emotionally and perhaps physically for the average viewer but if you're strong and willing, go for it! I can't say enough conflicting good things about this flick. Its discombobulating, clever, deeply and thrillingly like an aphordisac for the confused soul to contempt life's greatest misadventures. If you can handle blatant imagery of the trauma that's bestowed upon the human body, which in essence represents the symbolic means of ritualistic sacrifice then by all means please watch this film, and if not well you can read the script which is even grittier than what was shown in theaters. The performance of Florence Pugh, who plays Dani comes off natural and doesn't even feel like she's acting. Actually all of the performances were incredible, nothing didn't feel overplayed but almost as if you felt like you knew these characters to some degree. Sound design, cinematography, creepy musical moments, special effects make up, even how movement is conveyed was intrinsically hypnotic. An incredible haunting tale that will never be forgotten but probably herald as one of the top horror films for decades to come. It even comes with a "moral to the story". So if you're dating an arrogant, selfish asshole, well do yourself a favor and dump the person, because yourself worth as a human being deserves better.

#Midsommar #BearinaCage #Pagan #Rituals #Sweden #Horror #Films #Cinephile #AriAster #Celebration #Mushrooms #Dancing #Singing