Blog Directory CineVerse: May 2012

Pencilling in "Eraserhead"

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Last evening, CineVerse tried to dissect the dessicated carcass that is "Eraserhead." For those intrigued to learn more about this puzzling picture, here are some of the major talking points of our group discussion:

WHAT STRONG IMPRESSIONS DID ERASERHEAD MAKE ON YOU?

  • Creates an unsettling feeling with disturbing, surrealistic images and sounds
  • It’s hard to discern fantasy from reality in many scenes
  • The film plays as more of a nightmarish dream than any kind of consistent representation of factual reality
  • The title character barely speaks, and the film features little dialogue
  • We feel disoriented and alienated from characters and information (or lack thereof) given in the movie: Lynch seems to make an intentional decision to isolate us and his characters and make us feel unsure and uncomfortable
  • For a film that can be sometimes horrifying, disgusting and in questionable taste, it has moments of outright bizarre hilarity
CAN YOU IDENTIFY ANY POSSIBLE THEMES THAT DAVID LYNCH IS ATTEMPTING TO EXPLORE IN THIS FILM?
  • The dehumanization of people in a highly industrialized world
  • Blame: Henry appears to be the scapegoat for and cause of the problems he encounters
  • A fixation on biology and how disgusting and grotesque the human body can be: the film depicts sperm, worms, orifices, dessicated bodies, organs, swollen cheeks, etc.
  • Growing up and maturing physically is a frightening idea
  • A disgust for sex: The act of reproduction and procreation has terrifying repercussions
  • Fear of fatherhood: The thought of raising children, especially as a single male parent, can be terrifying
  • Male impotence
  • The possibility of a parallel universe that exists besides the one we know, one that can be accessible via dreams
FOR A FILM THAT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO INTERPRET, WHAT ARE SOME POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHAT LYNCH MAY BE TRYING TO SAY HERE?
  • One theory is that Henry has lost his virility. He desires sex with Mary, but fears the consequences will be a nagging wife and a monsterish child.
  • One theory is that paternity kills Henry. According to one critic, “his little worm can no longer randomly explore the cracks and crevices of available love. His only choice is to accept the fine nature of heaven and take his own life" (original review found here).
  • One theory is that the baby is actually Henry, who may be recalling a troubled childhood: Mary symbolizes Henry’s mother, who left him behind with a deadbeat father; while the lady behind the radiator stands for the adoring family he always dreamed of.
  • This could be a demented take on the Bible: we have a Mary and a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, and a worm, like the snake in the garden of Eden. Perhaps the man pulling the lever in the beginning of the film is God, and the swollen female represents death.
  • Henry, the “eraserhead”, is both creator and destroyer, just as a pencil can create on its tip, it can destroy with its eraser on the other end
DOES THIS FILM OR THE STYLE OF DAVID LYNCH REMIND YOU OF ANY OTHER MOVIES OR FILMMAKERS?
  • The dark yet comical visions of Terry Gilliam
  • The odd characters and situations featured in films by the Coen brothers
  • Films by David Cronenberg, such as The Fly and Dead Ringers, where there is a seeming obsession with physical mutations and deformities
  • The bizarre, surrealistic images of past likeminded directors such as Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini, and Alejandro Jodorowsky
OTHER WORKS BY DAVID LYNCH
  • The Elephant Man
  • Dune
  • Blue Velvet
  • Wild at Heart
  • Twin Peaks the TV series
  • The Straight Story
  • Mulholland Drive

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Enter the demented world of David Lynch

Sunday, May 27, 2012

CineVerse continues its spotlight on cult films with an essential title in the genre: "Eraserhead" (1977; 85 minutes), directed by David Lynch, which is on the calendar for May 30. Plus, join us promptly at 7 p.m. for a trailer reel tribute to the most famous cult films of all time.

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Garp's world according to us

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Curious to learn more about The World According to Garp? If you enjoyed yesterday's CineVerse meeting, or if you missed it, here are some insights shared on Garp that may help better understand the film:

WHAT ARE SOME OF THIS FILM’S GREATEST STRENGTHS?

  • Strong source material: an acclaimed novel on which it’s based, and to which it stays true and faithful
  • An example of its faithfulness to the novel is the unrelenting sad and tragic last half hour, which wasn’t softened by Hollywood
  • Quirky characters, including a transsexual who becomes Garp’s best friend
  • Strong ensemble casting, including John Lithgow, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, Swoosie Kurtz and others
  • It comes full circle with bookended images: Garp floating in the air first as a baby, later as an adult
  • The film is loaded with ironic situations: man bites dog; mom is more successful a writer than her writer son; mom is a feminist, yet she “rapes” a soldier; mom doesn’t want Garp to write about her in his stories, but she goes ahead and writes about her son in her book; Garp despises the Ellen Jamesians who cut their tongues off and cannot speak, yet later he suffers an accident that prevents him from speaking; Garp always wanted to fly, but isn’t shown airborne until the last scene, which could be his last flight of them all
THEMES EXAMINED IN THIS MOVIE:
  • The decay of middle-class and family values and in direct proportion to an increase in sudden violence in our culture
  • Sexual confusion and the repercussions of lust and sex
  • How art (Garp’s writing) imitates life
  • The deep-rooted fears of many human beings, including an obsession with death
  • The irony that life can be filled with unexpected joys as well as unexpected pain and uncertainty—uncertainties about love, sex, violence and death
  • The pros and cons of feminism
  • Impending doom: The film is replete with foreshadowing: the undertow, the dangling piano, the crazy truck driver, the Grim Reaper Halloween costume, Garp’s “very sad” short story, Roberta’s “female intuition” for trouble, the first sniper, etc.
RECURRING THEMES AND MOTIFS IN JOHN IRVING’S STORIES, INCLUDING GARP:
  • New England
  • Prostitutes
  • Wrestling
  • Vienna
  • Bears
  • deadly accidents
  • absent parents
  • writers
  • Sexual differences and deviancy: rape, asexuality, transsexuals, pedophilia, adultery
OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR GEORGE ROY HILL
  • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  • The Sting
  • Slap Shot
  • The Great Waldo Pepper
  • Funny Farm
OTHER NOVELS BY JOHN IRVING
  • The Hotel New Hampshire
  • The Cider House Rules
  • A Prayer for Owen Meany (adapted into the film Simon Birch)
  • A Widow of One Year

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Cimino scores a bulls-eye

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Thirty-four years ago, one film was bold enough to take aim at audiences with a Vietnam War bullet of a story that, beneath its shell, didn’t necessarily preach an anti-war or a pro-patriotism message. It simply shot through the heart with its utterly realistic portrayal of everyday men whose lives are drastically altered by the monstrosities of war.

Directed by Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter is considered by many to be the seminal Vietnam War movie of the 1970s. Thanks to stellar performances by Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken (all nominated for acting Oscars), John Cazale and John Savage, a gripping screenplay co-written by Cimino, and stunning cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond, it is also among the most critically praised films of that decade, going on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Walken).

The Deer Hunter tells the story of a trio of Pennsylvania steelworkers– three ordinary Midwestern guys who enjoy bottled brew and buckshot season as much as any man’s man–before, during and after their horrific experiences as soldiers and skin-of-their-teeth survivors in Vietnam.

While comprising only a third of the film, the Vietnam sequences are among the most psychologically intense and brutal depictions of war ever captured on celluloid. Particularly disturbing is the “Russian Roulette” scene, in which De Niro and his POW friends are forced by their Vietnamese captors to play a suicide game with a loaded gun to the head–a violent vignette that, after 20 years, still haunts viewers.

The movie proved to be as physically exhausting to shoot as it is emotionally exhausting to watch: De Niro was nearly seriously injured during a helicopter stunt, and shortly after filming was completed, Cazale–who had earlier wowed audiences as brother Fredo in The Godfather films--died of cancer.

Surprisingly, 1978 proved to be the coming out year for a handful of important Vietnam War-related films: the anti-war epic Coming Home was a critical and popular success, earning best actor and actress Oscars for Jon Voight and Jane Fonda; and Who’ll Stop the Rain, and The Boys In Company C garnered rave reviews for their realistic portrayals and rich character studies. And only a few months after the Deer Hunter’s release, Francis Ford Coppola’s groundbreaking Vietnam War myth Apocalypse Now hit theaters.

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Move over Gump, here comes Garp

Sunday, May 20, 2012

He's no Gump, but he's definitely a Garp. Robin Williams will capture your imagine in “The World According to Garp” (1982; 136 minutes), directed by George Roy Hill, chosen by Tom Nesis. It's up next on May 23--hope you can join us.

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Compusion for "Repulsion"

Friday, May 18, 2012

If you enjoyed CineVerse's exploration of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" on Wednesday, perhaps you'd like to know more about what makes the main character, Carol, tick. Here's a quick "dissection" (pun intended) of this seminal psychological horror movie:

WHAT STANDS OUT AND LEAVES A LASTING IMPRESSION ABOUT REPULSION, PERHAPS BEYOND WHAT YOU EXPECTED?

  • Threadbare plot
  • Minimalistic design: this is a simple black and white, low-budget picture without a lot of frills, tricks or special effects
  • Polanski is a master at constructing suspense and unsettling mood via a brilliant combination of techniques:
    • Sounds and music: the film employs a clever audio design in which sound is like its own character in the film: bells, drumbeats (like an executioner’s march), an orgasmic cacophony, clocks ticking, taps dripping are examples. Often, extended moments of eerie silence are suddenly punctuated by a shocking sound or music.
    • Clever camera moves, like unsteady handheld shots that follow Carol as she moves about, extreme close-ups of ugly faces, the use of a distorted fisheye lens to depict Carol’s growing anxiety, and radical zooms like the zoom into the family photo
    • Quiet, drawn out fades used to transition between scenes
    • Distorted sets built to express Carol’s unhinged mind
    • The juxtaposition of stillness and/or quiet with sudden, violent action and/or sound
  • There's an overt use of phallic symbols throughout the movie: the candlestick weapon; the newspaper story about eels; the Leaning Tower of Pisa photo; the straight razor, etc.
THEMES AT PLAY IN REPULSION
  • Alienation, isolation and confinement
  • Irrational paranoia
  • Violation and the crossing of boundaries: Polanski has a penchant for featuring characters who trespass some limit imposed on them by society
  • The outsider trying to ward off exterior (or are they interior) threats
    • Carol represents purity (clad in white, angelically beautiful) threatened by outside (or are they inside) forces. Her apartment symbolizes her virginity as well as her fractured psyche.
    • It’s interesting that she kills a rabbit (a symbol of reproduction) and destroys all the phallic symbols we previously identified
    • Carol is a foreigner living in a city that’s unknown to her
    • She may also be a homosexual, which is implied
    • Carol is living in a more conservative community (London) that can be hostile to her (e.g., the threatening phone call she gets)
    • She fights the pressures placed upon her by organized religion to mate and start a family
    • It’s interesting that sex and religion are correlated in the film through the juxtaposition of sounds of erotic moaning and church bells.
  • The dangers or repercussions of sexual repression
  • The blending of fantasy and reality: we’re not sure of the verity of any of the incidents we see—did they really happen, or were they all just in Carol’s head?
POLANSKI’S DIRECTION AND VISION IN REPULSION HAS BEEN CALLED “HITCHCOCKIAN.” WHAT HITCHCOCK MOVIES DOES REPULSION RIFF ON AND REMIND YOU OF?
  • The opening credits sequence is reminiscent of the credit sequence in Vertigo and the closeup on the dead eye of Marion Crane in Psycho;
  • Repulsion is similar in tone and subject matter and in how it builds suspense to Psycho; Also, like Psycho, the atmosphere is claustrophic and lonely and those who trespass meet with violent ends
  • Carol is a kindred spirit to James Stewart’s crippled Jeff in Rear Window in that both are isolated figures residing in urban settings who each share a skewed world view
  • Carol is an cold, beautiful blonde, just as many of the main characters in Hitchcock pictures.
  • Polanski makes a cameo in this film and other movies of his, just as Hitchcock did
HOW IS REPULSION DIFFERENT FROM PSYCHO?
  • In Psycho, we see the murders and their aftermath through the eyes of the victims and their survivors; in Repulsion, we get a subjective view of murder and madness through the eyes of the disturbed killer
  • Unlike Psycho, Repulsion doesn’t attempt to explain away Carol’s psychoses through Freudian easy answers or psychobabble
  • Unlike Psycho, Repulsion illustrates an existence where there seems to be no distinct delineation between hallucination and reality.
WHAT OTHER FILMS COME TO MIND AFTER SEEING REPULSION?
  • The credits that slash across the eye also evoke comparisons to Buneul’s surrealist classic An Andylusian Dog, in which a woman’s eyeball is slit with a razor
  • Val Lewton’s low-budget psychological horror movies of the 1940s like I Walked with a Zombie and Cat People, which employ simple tricks like eerie quiet and shadows
  • Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend is similar, in that the main characters in both movies are isolated and suffer from hallucinations and feelings of the walls closing in on them and having cracks in them
  • Cocteau’s 1946 classic live action French adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, in which the hallway walls are magically endowed with hands
  • A film called Jeanne Dielman from 1976
  • The last shot of The Shining seems to borrow from the final image in Repulsion
  • Nightmare on Elm Street, which also depicts similar nightmares about entrapment
  • More contemporary examples are Clean, Shaven from 1994, and Antichrist from 2009.

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Gallop, don't walk, to your local library for this film


The Oak Lawn public library will present the following movie free of charge: War Horse (2011, 146 min, PG-13), Wednesday, May 23 at 2 p.m. Learn more by clicking here.

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The artsy side of horror

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Roman Polanski could certainly weave an eerie tapestry on celluloid, as evidenced by films like "Rosemary's Baby," "Knife in the Water," and, of course, “Repulsion” (1965; 105 minutes). We've slated it on the CineVerse schedule for May 16, as chosen by member Dave Reis.

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Saturday, May 12, 2012

If you joined CineVerse this past Wednesday, you were probably intrigued by the French classic "Jean de Florette." For a better understanding of the film, here are some of our group discussion talking points:

WHAT DO YOU ADMIRE ABOUT THIS FILM? DOES ANYTHING STAND OUT TO YOU AS DIFFERENT, UNIQUE, UNCOMMON AND INTERESTING?

  • Who is the main character? Arguably, it could be nature or the land itself.
  • Also interesting that the 2 villains are given such strong focus; they are not cut and dried simple bad guys—they have complex layers and shades of gray and are capable of kindness and all range of emotion instead of being simply heartless and hateful
  • The direction is somewhat invisible: director Claude Berri chooses to keep the camera at an objective, detached distance and not rely on closeups and fancy camera moves or edits for emotion.
  • This is a film that requires patience, as it moves quite slowly, but builds strong characters and relies on esthetic touches like vibrant cinematography and accurate period settings and costumes to help tell the story
  • The movie seems less an exercise in dramatic plot and suspenseful storytelling than a Greek or Shakespearean tragegy
  • It is a deceptively simple tale and for that reason likely appeals to a broader and more adult base.
  • It contains "realism" in that it's principally about people, their lives, and the implications of choices we make, and can therefore apply to anyone's life - as opposed to science fiction, wild adventure etc..
  • The film depicts cruelty without violence

WHAT THEMES ARE EXAMINED IN JEAN DE FLORETTE?
  • The cruelty and relentlessness of human nature and greed
  • It’s in our nature to act to the detriment of others
  • The universality of fate
  • Man is responsible for his fellow man
  • Townfolk vs. countryfolk and city vs. pastoral life
  • A man’s destiny that comes into focus over a number of years
OTHER WORKS THAT REMIND YOU OF JEAN DE FLORETTE
  • Tess
  • La Vida Que te Espera
  • Places in the Heart
  • The Field starring Richard Harris
  • Masterpiece Theater

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Silence is golden

Friday, May 11, 2012

The weather is getting hotter--and so is the CineVerse poll. This time around, CineVerse asks: What is the greatest silent film of all time? Is it Chaplin's The Gold Rush? Murnau's Sunrise? Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin? Vote in our new survey, found in the left sidebar of our home page. Cast your vote by the end of June. 

FYI: Here are the results of our former poll, which asked: Which film most deserved to win the 2012 Best Picture Oscar? The Descendents (33%) was tops, followed by a three-way tie between The Artist, Midnight in Paris, and The Help.

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There's no crying in baseball!


The Oak Lawn public library will present the following movie free of charge: A League of Their Own (1992; 128 min) -- Monday, May 14 at 10 a.m. Learn more by clicking here.

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CineVerse files now easier to access

Monday, May 7, 2012

Want to read a CineVerse Reflections handout or listen to a recorded group conversation instantly? It's now easier than ever to access these and other files on our web site. Simply visit our home page at www.cineversegroup.blogspot.com and click on any of the choices in our blue horizontal linkbar at the top. A full list of all the movie titles we've ever screened and discussed over the past 7 years is now listed alphabetically, all on one page.



Text files, including the current CineVerse schedule, can now be viewed fully and easily with the built-in Microsoft Word Web App interface.



Explore and enjoy our new and improved links--compliments of CineVerse!

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A French delicacy, served up fresh this Wednesday

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Witness the acting chops of one Gerard Depardieu, a la “Jean de Florette” (1986; 120 minutes), directed by Claude Berri, chosen by Peggy Quinn. This World Cinema Wednesday special is on the CineVerse schedule for May 9.

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Help us pick a poll winner

Saturday, May 5, 2012

We need to break a 3-way tie in our current CineVerse poll, which asks the question: which film most deserved to win the 2012 Oscar for best picture." Help us break this deadlock by voting in the poll, featured on the left sidebar of our CineVerse home page. Polling will close at the end of the day Monday, so get your vote in now!

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Navigating "Cape Fear"

Friday, May 4, 2012

Cape Fear (1962), screened and discussed two days ago at CineVerse, proved to be a fantastic study in suspense. For those who wanted to learn more about what makes this film tick (and your nerves pop), peruse these talking points:

HOW WOULD “CAPE FEAR” HAVE PUSHED THE ENVELOPE FOR A 1962 FILM IN TERMS OF VIOLENCE AND ADULT CONTENT?
  • Although the term “rape” is never used (“attack” is the substitute word), it’s essentially what the entire revenge plot is all about
  • The implication is that Cady is going to sexually assault both the wife and young daughter of the protagonist: that would have been shocking for early 1960s audiences
  • The censors wanted many things cut, including shots featuring Mitchum’s naked chest; his quotes that “Nancy is getting to be almost as juicy as your wife” and “I kept her busy for 3 days”; and a scene where Cady intentionally knees a man in the groin
  • Cady even kills a dog, which would have upset many viewers
  • According to one critic, it was the first of a subgenre of movies that attacked the nuclear family and “values of ordinary American decency”
  • It was also the first of a class of films that exposed the pitfalls and failings of a liberal justice system where criminals get off too easy—a theme that would be repeated in pictures like Dirty Harry, Straw Dogs, Fatal Attraction, Pacific Heights, Ricochet, Unlawful Entry, and Just Cause.
CAPE FEAR HAS BEEN CALLED A HITCHCOCKIAN FILM. HOW DOES THIS MOVIE LOOK AND FEEL LIKE AN ALFRED HITCHCOCK PICTURE?
  • Director J. Lee Thompson worked under Hitchcock himself earlier
  • The suspenseful pacing of this movie is patterned after successful Hitchcock formulas for suspense
  • Like Hitch, Thompson builds tension and fear by concentrating on the actors’ facial and physical reactions to stimuli, by utilizing shadow and light properly, by implying things instead of overtly expressing them (to engage the viewer’s imagination more), and by creating a false sense of relief before tightening the knot again
  • The score of this film is by Bernard Herrmann, a frequent Hitchcock collaborator, and the tense string arrangements are reminiscent of Psycho, Vertigo and other Hitch masterpieces
  • Martin Balsam plays a police chief here and a detective in Psycho for Hitch
WHY ARE ROBERT MITCHUM AND GREGORY PECK WELL CAST IN THEIR ROLES?
  • Mitchum imbues a strong, intimidating physical presence and creeping menace with his smirking facial expressions
  • Mitchum had been associated with one of the big screen’s all-time great villains in Night of the Hunter prior to this movie
  • Mitchum had also been arrested for vagrancy previously in Savannah, Georgia, where some of this film was shot, and was sentenced to a chain gain: it’s ironic that he’s playing an ex-con
  • Peck is also playing against type—he’s typically known for playing characters with the moral high ground, like Atticus Finch; in this film, he resorts to animalistic, primal urges to kill
HOW ARE CADY AND BOWDEN SYMMETRICALLY PARALLEL CHARACTERS?
  • Cady is a lawbreaker who becomes a lawyer of sorts (in that he learns the law enough to know the loopholes); Bowden is a lawyer who transforms into a lawbreaker
  • Contrast the upscale Southern property Bowden lives in with Cady’s fleabag hotel rooms and streetwalking life
  • Cady is a vigilante, while Bowden enlists the aid of others
  • Cady has dysfunctional and abusive relationships with women, while Bowden has a positive, healthy relationship with his daughter and wife
THEMES EXPLORED IN THIS MOVIE
  • Taking the law into your own hands: how far are you willing to go to protect you and your loved ones when the law cannot protect you?
  • The failings of the legal system
  • The de-evolution of man: the human being’s capability of acting like an inhumane, primordial animal
  • Beware that when fighting a monster, you don’t yourself become a monster, as Nietzsche said
OTHER FILMS BY J. LEE THOMPSON
  • The Guns of Navarone
  • McKenna’s Gold
  • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

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Change to May schedule

Thursday, May 3, 2012

This is a heads up that, due to a scheduling conflict involving a member's previously slated selection, we'll be swapping the dates of two films in May. Repulsion is now scheduled for May 16 (formerly May 30), and Eraserhead is now slotted for May 30 (formerly May 16). You can view the revised May-June 2012 schedule here

Please make note on your calendar of this date swap. CineVerse apologizes for any inconveniences this may cause.

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Algiers revisited

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Last week, CineVerse dissected "The Battle of Algiers. Here are some of the talking points of that discussion, which may shed light on better understanding the film.

KNOWING THAT THIS FILM IS A FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE ALGERIAN INSURGENCY AGAINST FRANCE THAT ACTUALLY OCCURRED SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER, WHAT IMPRESSES ABOUT THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS?

  • Shot in documentary style for heightened realism
  • Black and white chosen: meant to mimic the look of grainy, high contrast newsreel footage of the day
  • Filmed on location in Algeria using real locations in the European quarter and the Casbah and in areas that were previously bombed and attacked
  • Use of long lenses and intentionally awkward and jarring camera movements and angles, suggesting that what we’re seeing is real
  • Scenes are presented as if they are snippets of history, when actually many of the events in the film quite possibly never happened
  • Many nonactors and native Algerians are cast, and an actual FLN leader who had been imprisoned produced, acted and wrote the original script
  • The film works as a thriller, adventure picture, war movie, and pseudo documentary
  • It’s timely, topical and relevant today, considering the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, especially between the Israelis and Palestinians and between American occupying forces and Iraqis and Afghans.
  • The picture presents a fitting example of 21st century warfare: a superior military presence forcing its will in a foreign land that craves its independence
  • It’s gripping in its suspense and forces a conflicting emotional reaction of out viewers: for example, on one hand, you may be rooting for the bombs planted by the women in the cafĂ© and elsewhere to fail; conversely, you may be rooting for their side and thus hoping the bombs go off
IS THE FILM BALANCED IN SHOWING BOTH SIDES OF THE WAR, OR IS IT TOO HEAVILY BIASED IN FAVOR OF THE REBELS?
  • It shows atrocities on both sides: the Algerians bomb and kill innocent Europeans, and the French forces bomb innocent Algerians in an apartment building, too
  • You could argue that the filmmakers’ sympathies are with the FLN, as evidenced by touches like Ennio Morricone’s mournful score that kicks in after the French blow up the home of a terrorist; the score is silent when Algerian bombs are used against French police strongholds
  • The film objectively shows the tactics of both sides, although it’s obvious that the French tactics failed because they eventually granted Algeria its independence
  • The film presents a moral paradox: even if it seems as if it’s subtly rooting for the Algerians, it does show their ruthless, bloody methods, warts and all

THEMES EXPLORED IN THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
  • The chicken or the egg: would the Algerians resort to horrific terrorist actions if the French were not controlling their country? Would the French be so harsh in its military offensives and defensives if the opposition weren’t so ruthless?
  • This film asks the question: What is the difference between revolution and terrorism, or between colonialism/foreign occupation and state-sponsored terrorism?
  • No change of this nature comes without inflicting a terrible price, and no country can always afford the final bill

NOTES:
  • The tactics used and details depicted in this film were studied by the Black Panthers, the IRA, and even the Pentagon, and many of the methods used by the Algerians were later adapted by Guevara and Castro in Cuba, the Viet Cong, the Palestinians, South African militants, and Iraqi insurgents.

DOES THIS MOVIE REMIND YOU OF ANY OTHERS?
  • Schinldler’s List, in that natives from the ghetto are tensely rounded up in both films
  • Z (1969)
  • State of Siege

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George Clooney and a slice of pineapple

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Oak Lawn public library will present the following movie free of charge: The Descendants* (2011, R, 115 min) -- Thursday, May 3 at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. A land baron tries to re-connect with his two daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident. Directed by Alexander Payne. Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller. Learn more by clicking here.

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