One of this years most talked about films The Hunger Games is the latest film from LA native and director Gary Ross. Most known for his works Seabiscuit, Pleasantville and a personal favorite, Big, Gary Ross has brought to life a modern sci-fi masterpiece with The Hunger Games. With the film depicting a future society by the name of Panem that contains 12 districts, there is orchestrated chaos shown in this society with the ruled under advanced states of eccentricsm, class wars, the art of survival, sensationalism in the exponentially growing field of reality TV, consumerism as a whole and an oddly placed sense of retribution for a pass rebellion that defines the purpose and intention of The Hunger Games. There is an Alice in Wonderland and Fahrenheit 451 meets Nazi Germany aesthetic that characterizes this juxtaposed society. With these 12 districts in the Panem world, a boy and girl of any age are selected from each for inclusion into the savage Hunger Games. These are public spectacle games where these children fight to the death and the citizens of Panem are forced to watch and respect this aspect of their society. It’s the meeting of the Gladiator spectacles of Rome along with the technological big brother state of 1984; it’s a twisted potential of modern brutality in everyday society. This brutal and relentless game was brought on from a rebellion that occurred in the past and was the governments way of enacting control through fear and entertainment, something that is a deep metaphor for the society we do live in now. I felt like this movie was hinting at problems our society is headed towards, something that has been shrouded from the constant comparison to other films and the amount of “Hollywood” traits defining the movie. The potential reality of our society diving into this deep end is unquestionably real, something this movie touches on from beginning to end.
I had the pleasure of experiencing this new film at the Van Buren Drive-In located in Riverside, CA. It seems like the Drive-In experience has come a long way from my youth when you would stick a box inside of your car window and hope the speaker was working good. With a packed house, The Hunger Games presence on the big, big screen gave this movie a really endearing and huge feeling. The psychological impact of the movie was thrilling as I imagined myself strapped into a real life situation like this, forced to play a game to the death with people I had never met and were actually blood thirsty. Centered around main character Katniss Everdeen, played by actress Jennifer Lawrence, there is a resilience and sense of strength in honor that resides in her character that gives the movie a feeling of hope despite the crushing conditions of society they live under. The way she doesn’t allow the game she is forced into to change her humanity is a romantic look into how one would react in this situation and one that everyone as a society deep down can never let go. The inclusion of Woody Harrelson as a drunken mentor to Katniss comes at the hands of his former victory in the Hunger Games. Known as Haymitch Abernathy, Woody Harrelson does a marvelous job with this film and is one of my favorite characters. The Hunger Games from director Gary Ross is one of the best movies I have seen on the big screen in some time and a film that has left a reminder to the social framework that we have to be mindful of how far fear and destruction take away the morals and ethics that are hardly keeping society attached as is.
In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided between 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12′s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. Written by Suzanne Collins
Robert “Bob” Nesta Marley was and still is an international superstar. His death in 1981 cut his life and monumental career short but his music lives on and his popularity has grown exponentially. Not only did he leave 11 confirmed children behind, he left the legacy of bringing reggae music into the international spotlight. Bob Marley promoted the growth of the Rastafarian religion, that was before the 70′s, only known on his tiny island of Jamaica. His spirit has resonated through many cultures, generations and even armed conflict. All who love his music have their own reasons for identifying with the man; some feel his music is a universal truth and to others his music incites a sense of self-determination. Up until this point, the most detailed account of Bob Marley’s life has been chronicled through the eyes of Rita (his wife) in her book: No Woman No Cry and other attempts have been made in the past to document portions of Marley’s career as well. Whether it was record companies or bootleggers in the prior attempts, most releases have fallen short of accurately or completely displaying Bob’s whole story. Everything about that last sentence is about to change come April 20, 2012 when Marley enters into the consciousness of the eyes and ears of the world.
Marley, the new documentary by Academy award winning director Kevin Macdonald is of course based on the late reggae superstar Bob Marley and displays in genuinely perfect balance the singer/songwriter and musicians life from the cradle to the grave. The goal of this documentary was to find out as the director put it: “Why does he still speak to people around the world (because he clearly does) and why does he speak to people so much more profoundly than any other rock artist or popular music artist?” This question has not been answered by or even asked in any Bob Marley movies this reviewer has seen. This film goes above and beyond that scope. Not only does this movie show the motivation behind Bob’s sound, as an audience we are allowed intimate views into the reasons behind Bob’s lyric writing, relationships, sports, religion, politics, family, his role to his community and so many other areas of his life. Interviews from people that knew Bob best are included; whether it be band mates, room mates, lovers or family; a new perspective is laid out on Robert Nesta Marley as the world has never seen before. Many of the people interviewed had their own individual view of Bob as a man; this created a process of evaluation towards the interviews to create a linear story that was substantiated by correlation rather than face value. Bob Marley had the sense to not hold business agreements as paramount with his handling of his associates; (in business, personal affairs and life mates) so with his early passing those who relied on him had to sort out the issues with him leaving no formal will. Directly affecting the type of memories his band mates and family remembered due to the period of uncertainty after his death; this was barely and briefly mentioned in the film; which was definitely in good taste and I assume done to not take away from the greatness that was achieved by Bob Marley. Our screening access from the Bob Marley foundation to the prestigious Charles Aidikoff Screening Room in Beverley Hills this month provided one of the most marvelous settings to witness this film. As the screening room for some of the first screenings of Stars Wars from George Lucas among many other genre defining film, the rooms atmosphere set the stage high for Marley. With all expectations set to the highest level, Kevin Macdonald’s Marley instantly became the greatest documentary I had ever seen and a new guide book to how documentaries of this much weight and cultural important should be made.
Bob Marley in a scene from MARLEY, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Vivid imagery, footage never seen before, audio that has been cleaned up and given new life; all elements of Marley are on full display and left me without a single complaint the two plus hours the movie lasts. Songs that have been heard countless numbers of times sound sonically enhanced; something that pushed the music to a new level and gave Bob’s music an even new light. The opening track from the film, ‘Exodus’ is exposed for the driving beat of the bass drum more so than ever. With a stroke of pure genius, advanced editing techniques were used during the montages; the photos were presented in a manner that almost animated still images to fill in for the periods that little to no footage existed of Marley. 3-d photo imaging is bringing photos to life in a new way and this is one of the first films on Bob to extensively use this technology. Even BBC recordings that are relatively common and the most wide spread are given new light not to mention the rare recordings that receive a superb clean up and put in context with the reason the songs were created. New, current footage of Jamaica is shot very well and shows the island in its many states. The flyer over of the mountain side village that Bob grew up at really presents his upbringing potently is another reason why this film is so unique. There is an element with the focus on the mist in the mountains that Bob’s soul is ever present in the spirit of Jamaica. Interviews are done in a manner that make the viewer feel as if they are with the person speaking and engaging in the conversation and not just being spoken to. Also, the interviews are not the typical standard backdrop and stool environments; these are given the treatment of putting the subjects in their own environment. This allows the director to evoke pure interviews due to the comfort level. The overall treatment of the documentary is above and beyond visually appealing as I had no choice but to maintain attention through the duration of this extended length documentary.
Also worth noting, the creation of Marley rested upon Executive Producer and eldest son Ziggy Marley. Ziggy was very enthusiastic about the creation of this movie. He stated: ”There’s been a lot of things done on Bob, I think this one will give people a more emotional connection to Bob’s life as a man. Not just a reggae legend or a mythical figure, but his life as a man, you know?” This is the first movie on Bob that is approved by the estate of Marley and the help from the family is prevalent in the amount of knowledge and insight given to the audience. Executive Producer Chris Blackwell, Bob Marley and the Wailers’s producer that had a huge hand in helping the group become international superstars, has very important insights in this film. Insights that become very crucial to understanding how Bob Marley got his sound off the island of Jamaica. Blackwell knew what it was like to work with a mature Bob, he also new of the period of great transition since he oversaw the loss of Peter and Bunny and only to gain the I-Threes and Bob as a front man. Blackwell knew of the “Pasteurization” that occurred with his meddling in the music to make it more palatable for international ears. This is a great admission to the next section of Marley since this was part of the reason the Wailers were known in full after Peter and Bunny’s departure as Bob Marley and the Wailers. Relationships unfold and expand and the window of Bob Marley is more personal and inviting than ever before. I could not help but think right away that this is a film that everyone of all generations should experience as the inspirational power of Bob Marley’s legacy is needed in the world more than ever. Below is SCV’s extensive breakdown of Marley from Academy award winning director Kevin Macdonald.
Marley opens up with a beautiful shot of fisherman off the coast of Western Africa. The establishing shot that follows reveals that the beach is directly in front of a colonial slave post in Ghana. From this point most Africans were sent abroad for the purpose of slavery. There is a stark reminder of the finality; the interior of the fortress’s door stated: “Door of no return”. From this doorway it is estimated that 60 million Africans were relocated against their will and forced to work as a slave for the rest of their existence. Once the initial connection is made we are transported to Jamaica, beautiful aerial shots of the hills surrounding 9 mile (Bob Marley’s birthplace) are presented in glorious fashion following a very in depth photo montage of Bob set to ‘Exodus’. Bob’s first schoolteacher opens the films setting in Jamaica by speaking of his knack for being a musical child. Once we hear the first interview from the man himself, the viewer will be quick to notice the use of sub-titles to help the general population or non-patois understanding audience hear Bob’s words. Interviews with Rita Marley and Bunny (Wailer) Livingston reveal the discrimination Bob endured even from his own people due to his multiracial background. Since Bob was half black and half white, he stood out in the population around him for his light complexion. His own family would force him to do work as a child that was work suited for adults if he wanted a meal everyday. With his background displayed clearly in terms of his work ethic at a very young age, color is added in full in Marley to the dedication needed to be a musician in the Jamaican island nation when Bob was a youth. Instruments had to be handmade, guitars made from bamboo with stolen copper wire strings and drums made from cut down trees with calf skin heads, there wasn’t a Guitar Center that you could obtain your tools of expression with. An instrument called a “Rumba Box” would be created by bending three pieces of metal and attaching them to a box with a hole cut out to resonate. The only plentiful instrument was a banjo since so many had been shipped to the island for the colonizers consumption. This instrument is given a very bright focus and shows the type of sounds Bob was absorbing at the time, something the film achieves with the usage of archived clips and music from that era that Bob had nothing to do with creating. With the background given on Bob’s rural upbringings, the focus is then shifted once Bob turns 12 and his Mother moves him to the much more populated Kingston, Jamaica.
Bob Marley in a scene from MARLEY, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Cedella Booker (Bob’s Mother) decided to move herself and Bob to the ex slave port of Kingston. The photos of her in the film show a very strong women, a women of course who created one of the most influential people in modern times. As the film transitions from Bob’s rural upbringings and into his teen years, the film presents the first known photo of Bob taken. This film achieves a window of resurrection of his undocumented years in the most creative fashion with photos like this and many others. The film leaves no room in covering up the fact that little has been documented from his early years. We are told as an audience that there is no video and very few photos of Bob or his bands until 1972 as this was due to the economic circumstances in Jamaica in that period. As Bob would expand his horizons and gain more press, the documentation became heavier and heavier in the film for footage.
Bob’s musical career as a solo artist began and ended abruptly with his release of “Judge Not”. It proved to not sell well and the film shows how Bob had to rethink his approach. He sang with his classmate Neville “Bunny” Livingston and they eventually found a guitarist who played third part to add harmony. This was a tall and seasoned musician by the name of Peter McIntosh. Under the guidance of Joe Higgs, the film breaks down the formation of the groups new name The Wailers and their first musings as a new unit. The Wailers were able to get an early single and ska song named “Simmer Down” to become a top hit and as the film highlights, it was in every jukebox in Jamaica in 1964. During this period, Bob gained employment as a welder and that is where he met Desmond Dekker (another famous Jamaican singer that gained US airplay before The Wailers). Bob was becoming known wide and far on his island and he knew he would get off the island from his music well before he did. Bob’s Mother Cedella left to go live in the US when he was 17 years old and this was a period of self discovery for Marley as he started his journey into Rastafarianism. Mortimer Planno, a high priest of sorts in the religion took Bob directly under his wing at this point and the teachings, ideas and groundings of these experiences would stay with Bob until the moment he left this earth. With Bob’s new found guidance, this also allowed him more peace within his own skin as Rastafarianism provided Bob with a vehicle to be accepted as a man, rather than have to prove himself under any one nationality. The interview clip with Bob Marley explaining the strength he had to gather to find himself is marvelous in position of the other footage and interviews. This film pulls interviews from a very crucial point of his career when he had gained critical acclaim and was more aware of the person he had become. Bob also found Rastafarian guidance in Planno to fill the void created in the absence of his father, an element to the film that brought tears to my eyes when seeing the type of rejection he felt from his fathers family. The other change in Bob during this time was his courtship with his eventual wife Rita. Her accounts of Bob are priceless and really show the man that Bob was and the type of human connection that everyone around the world can identify with. She described Bob as “reserved” and “shy” and her charismatic way of explaining her history with Bob was of the most honorable level. The romance Rita began with Bob started with Bob actually giving Rita a letter describing his feelings due to his timidness since he at the time was not out spoken enough to actually tell her himself. This one of the many areas of the film that really pulled me in and really made me feel how personal and impression giving this film was going to get.
A notable and somewhat heart wrenching moment in the film was a portion with Bob’s half-sister Constance. Bob had tried to get help from his fathers side of his family in the late 60′s. This was of course the European side of his family whom had a thriving business on the island. The family that was truly Bob’s and who he had approached turned him down and the family did not even believe Bob and his claims of who his father was. The type of resonance that speaks out when you realize Bob took this horrifying experiencing and turned it into a positive one with the creation of a song is surreal. After being denied from his fathers side of the family he then went on to create “Cornerstone”. This song was played for Constance and also for Bob’s second cousin from the “European Marley’s” and it is shown on film their reactions while listening with headphones. His half sister humbly and in a almost breaking down mood reveals how she feels it is remarkable that Marley is his name around the world now. The lyrical meaning of “Cornerstone” was put in context to the two from the interviewer and it had an astounding affect on them both (and the theater). You could feel them realize what they had done and the type of people they were raised by. To feel them transition and realize this, it’s a moment of cinematic history that struck me in the throat and still does when thinking about it. The films transitional passage of key singles and gigs for the Wailers is never ending and his life shapes into a way never seen during this period of the 60′s and very early 70′s. After Bob tried to make a career at the legendary Studio One, Bob was frustrated with living on the studio property and not making any money (as this was the case for most Studio One artists). Bob tried his luck in the states and landed in Delaware, an unlikely place for someone of his talents, however this would give Bob access to sounds around the world he would never have dreamed of hearing in Jamaica. While in Delaware, Bob worked for the Chrysler plant driving a forklift and this is where he was inspired to write the song ‘Night Shift’. After months of working and staying in the basement practicing his guitar, Bob was ready to go back home for more “freedom” and to find himself even more. The films use of archival photos and videos that date each other perfectly shows how much of a different type of man Bob was becoming, nothing I have ever seen achieved with as much clarity to every part of the story. Not even into the height of his career and their is a deep understanding on the wisdom, experiences and walks of life Bob Marley gathered that would culminate in such a strong and energetic force musically.
Once Bob was back in Jamaica from his small travels to the States, Bob had a new found fire to promote and distribute his own records. Bob knew all the best sound system crews, dj’s and other musical icons of the island that created the grid of music interaction in Jamaica. The one who really designed sound in a completely new way and someone Bob was able to break out further into the public with was the always-entertaining Lee “Scratch” Perry. At this time Bob, Bunny and Peter would ride around the island on bikes and sell their records. Jamaican music had a hard time getting play on the local radio stations and the film highlights in the most honest way how The Wailers took this into their own hands. You would think this is Chess Records by the story that ensues as the group literally strong armed the most in demand DJ’s in Jamaica until they gained airplay. After Wailers tunes made it on the radio, they picked up momentum in the UK and the Wailers made it there to do some shows. This was the beginning of the end for the original Wailers. Producer and record owner Chris Blackwell found out where they were playing in the UK from all the buzz and he arranged a meeting with the group that tour. At the time the Wailers agreed to do an album for 4,000 pounds and Blackwell paid them on the spot. After the agreement, a series of promotional tours were to follow. The division of the original Wailers begins to show in the documentary as Peter and Bunny were very mistrusting and hesitant to go any further due to Bob being made the focal point of the group. The intricacy of marketing, label politics and the bands inner relationships is given a heightened feeling. The pace of the montage clips is always consistent with the mood and subject matter through the movie and this was the first section of the film that I realized how balanced the account of Bob’s life was in Marley. First Bunny left the band (being replaced by mentor Joe Higgs for a brief period) after he learned that the band was going to play in “Freak clubs” and there would be no pay for the second leg of the “Catch a Fire” tour. Peter followed a short time later due to the lack of his own solo work being ignored and the relationship of everyone is a focal point of the film that brings the film to the next big era of his career. This was the official end of the Wailers and the beginning of the new Bob Marley and the Wailers.
By 1974, the Wailers embarked on the Natty Dread tour, the second outing for the group on their new label Island Records. Bass player Aston “Family Man” Barrett recalled the very first show as a “Dynamite” performance. This new revamped version of the band included more sound than the original band with inclusion of the female backing vocal talents of the I-Threes, percussion and lead guitars. The pace of the film never seems unbalanced and even this far into his career, the level of anticipation is marvelous when realizing how many areas of the world this documentary has already touched on. By 1975, the group had reached new critical acclaim and was professionally recorded during a performance at London’s Lyceum Theater. The show, like so many during that era, was over sold and the energy from the crowd was passed to the band in full from how Rita Marley recounts in detail in the film. This was the official kick start to send Bob into the upper ranks of music on a world stage. The Island recording studio and house in Jamaica then became Bob’s house for business and rehearsal after this period as the group loved it there. The film shows what the house looks like now with stunning wood floors, multiple levels and a beautiful passageway to the house itself. Bob Marley and family residence proved to, as Bob states, “Bring the Ghetto up town”. It was also known for being “A Spot” as Cedella Marley called it due to the amount of people constantly hanging out and the open door policy. It was at this headquarters that Bob would play music, play soccer, exercise, eat cultural and religious (ital) food and discuss politics that would shape his thinking. The residence at the Island house or more commonly known to the people of Jamaica 56 Hope Road was within a few houses of the prime minister of Jamaica. This location is also where Bob would give a lot of his monetary gains back to the people. Neville Garrick, Bob’s artistic supervisor stated that Bob wouldn’t just give people a few dollars; he would give them enough to take care of themselves and their families. No matter where you are at in this film, it takes you deep inside the psyche and overall meaning of so many important parts to Bob Marley’s life and this section highlights how giving Bob was to his people in Jamaica. With these new understandings, the music becomes even more potent with songs from the Wailers new releases that have a feeling even heavier than before. Bob’s attraction to the ladies was also given a haven in Marley. His Girlfriend and eventual Miss Jamaica Cindy Blackspeare is one of the authorities presented in the film about the on goings at 56 Hope Road.. By this point in the film, the introduction of live concert material finds its way more and more into the film and the raw power of Bob Marley and The Wailers is presented in high definition and spiritual power.
Ziggy Marley in a scene from MARLEY, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
As the film transitions into the year of 1976, there is a clear defining representation given on how Jamaica was taken over by political violence. Bob had agreed to play a free show in Jamaica to create a cease fire among waring political factions and he did. There is an interview given with one of the heads of these factions and the type of picture he paints is very dark and truly allowed me to feel how dangerous and real this time was. During the preparations for this huge concert, The Wailers were practicing at their Hope Road band house nightly with official state secret service on the premises. On the evening before the concert, security was abnormally absent and there was a shooting that occurred while the band was rehearsing. The gunmen hit Bob, Rita and their tour manager and luckily they all survived the attempt on their lives. The film shifts to one of many climaxes at this point. There was much discussion within the group if they were even going to perform for Jamaica still or if they should leave the island for safety reasons. The films tone shades into a very deep and dark vibe as the picture is painted of a very bleak reality that was now placed on Bob Marley and those he loved the most. Bob was unwilling to leave the island before his performance scheduled and insisted on performing. He felt that Jah would protect him and if taking him was a part of the plan, it was something he fully accepted. During the concert, Bob spoke of this recent event and even opened up his shirt, revealing his wounds to the crowd. This footage has existed in the public realm for years and the clean up job on the audio and video brings the power of this experience to a new euphoric high. It’s truly a pivotal moment in the history of Bob Marley. Rita Marley was very revealing about the situation in stating that Bob leaving the island after this concert wasn’t out of fear but from feeling hurt that his own people would attempt to take his life and those closest to him. It wasn’t long after the shooting Bob fled to Nassau and then to live in exile in London. The weight of the film levels out and the scope of Bob’s happiness is rejuvenated after the film begins to explore his time in London and the rising popularity of his music.
Once in London, the Chelsea district to be exact; Bob and the Wailers all live in the same house with everyone living on their own floor. The film speaks about English pro football players who would routinely scrimmage Bob and company. Word is that the Wailers would actually win some matches here and there. Of really interesting importance was when Junior Marvin describes a unique recording technique Bob used during this time. As Bob’s lead guitarist and back up singer, Junior Marvin mentions Bob only slept an average of four hours a day because he loved to get up early in the morning and record due to the raspy sound in his voice. This is the period, however, when Bob would endure an injury that would stay with him until his last day. While in France and playing soccer in a park, Bob had his foot stepped on by a cleat of an opposing player. Bob simply had it checked, wrapped it up and kept playing daily. Months later this same injury would be diagnosed with melanoma. Located in his big toe, Bob was advised to get either the toe or his whole leg amputated. Not wanting to do any off that due to Rastafarian beliefs and the fear of not being able to dance or play soccer Bob sought a second opinion. He found a doctor that believed if they just cut off the infected area, Bob would be able to keep his toe and prevent the spread of cancer through out his body. He went along with the least invasive method and this was affirmed by his circle of advisers and looked down upon by his family and close friends. Those closest to Bob all agree that Bob was getting very bad advice, a part of the film that moves in emotion and feeling once again. The album Exodus was the main focus of this period and was a defining album for this timeless musician. Every section of the film highlights in great detail each album and the footage of the ‘Is This Love’ music video, Bob’s first into the new format of media, is some of the most charismatic and joyous footage with Bob. The inclusion of this video in this documentary was a perfect touch.
Rita Marley in a scene from MARLEY, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
By 1978, Bob was approached by the conflicting political parties in Jamaica to do another peace concert. With many new areas of growth in Bob’s band’s catalog, the late 70′s became a very energized period for Bob and his people and he always kept love for his island of Jamaica, regardless of the attempt on his life there. Bob was quoted as saying: “My life is important only if I can help many people”, this was to the affirmation that he would go ahead and organize and promote a peace concert. When Bob returned to Jamaica, his plane was surrounded by people just as Hailie Selassie’s was when he came to Jamaica, a reprise of the beginning of the film that focuses on the time when Hailie Selassie visited Jamaica and the effects it had on everyone. This was a powerful lift for Bob and his intentions. When the concert finally took place, Bob called for an impromptu meeting of the different political parties of the time. Political leaders Edward Seega and Michael Manley come center stage and shake hands and Bob raises their hands over his body and in his own while communicating to the crowd. It’s one of those hair raising moments when you feel what Bob’s importance was to this world every second that transpired. Bob was truly a man of unity in this action. He was able to accomplish in 30 seconds what a year of violence and negotiations could not do. The film also takes a lot of time to allow Bob’s kids that he raised himself to account for the type of atmosphere they experienced in his world. From perspectives of their father’s relationship with their mother to the politically heated situations that grew as Bob’s status grew, Bob Marley as a father and not a mystic is finally given proper honorable light. During the visit Bob took to Jamaica, Bob took his kids to Trenchtown as he always did when he returned to Jamaica. The film points out that he would go out of his way to prove his trust in his people by leaving his vehicle unlocked, showing his lack of spiritual importance in material goods. Bob was quoted saying: “My richness is life forever”, his spirituality was so strong that he knew earthly goods were only part of his earnings and the rest would be provided for him in the afterlife.
“Reggae music will get bigger and bigger and bigger till it reaches the right people!” – Bob Marley
The film is at full speed at this point, shifting through the stardom Bob was reaching and highlighting in micro detail, so many new parts to this complex story that have never been revealed. In late 1978, Bob and The Wailers played to two million people in six weeks during their tours in Europe. They even played a sold out show in Japan to four-thousand people that knew ever lyric even though they could not speak English. The film then touches on an element of Bob’s story that I think is really relevant by today’s standards. Even with all of this success, Bob was still wondering why his audience was still primarily white? At the time of his questioning, he was offered to play shows in Gabon for the groups very first performance in Africa. Bob agreed to perform as the honor was huge to be asked to play in Africa even though he didn’t understand the nature of the Ruler (or Dictator) who invited him. Once in Gabon, Bob Marley and the Wailers were contracted to play a few shows for a nominal fee and quickly Bob befriended the daughter of the ruler. The film becomes very dark at this point as Bob was able to find out that he was being lied to from his manager about the fee charged for the group playing in Africa. Bob was very excited about the chance to get on the continent and that was deflated when Bob found out that the promoters had been grossly overcharged. To add insult to injury the manager that arranged this essentially took the excess money for his own purposing. Bob and the band later questioned the manager for excess of three hours. They reportedly record the manager and ask him the same question a half an hour later and rewind the tape to show him being caught in lies. During the time of the interrogation of the manager from the Wailers, the band allegedly held the manager out of their 23rd story balcony to get the real story and he was subsequently fired for the dishonesty. The importance of Bob to the world that his ancestors came from is felt in full and you realize Bob might have threw him off that balcony if he had disrespected Africa in his name on any worst level. A man of extremes, both very warm in heart and very cold if forced into that position, this was a man who took complete control of his surroundings and left no apology for his actions. Bob was very excited to finally play in Africa and the reaction of the group speaking about the bands reactions to this is priceless. For the most part, they didn’t know how to react to the shows since the citizens of Gabon didn’t applaud at the end of songs or during the shows for that matter.
By 1980, Bob Marley and the Wailers were in full swing after releasing Survival and Uprising, two politically charged albums that took the importance of Bob to new heights. During April of that year Bob Marley and the Wailers were asked to come and perform at the independence ceremony for Zimbabwe. This is a period of the group that I have studied extensively as the groups travels were documented in great detail by audience recordings, soundboard recording releases, tons of press and so forth. Bob was at a fierce pace and the live footage included during this era really shows Bob and the group pushing each other to the max. New synthesizers were in place, but the spiritual and politically charged ethos of their roots and rhythms are as present and clear as ever. This film captures this era in the most sublime way, showing how important Bob was becoming by the month. The revolutionaries of Zimbabwe used the song “Zimbabwe” as a motivation for their efforts and this was very moving to Marley. With Bob’s own money in place to make the flight with gear possible, Bob and the Wailers agreed to do this historic concert in Zimbabwe and the band was slated to perform at the national stadium in the new nation. Lined with foreign dignitaries, the stadium was at capacity and there were 90,000 people outside who didn’t get a chance to get in. As soon as the Wailers took the stage, the 90,000 who couldn’t get in let themselves in and the security forces on the inside started using tear gas. This affected everyone in attendance including the band as the winds blew the gas towards the band as well. Everyone of course fled the stage with the exception of Bob. He was so into the performance that even with his eyes and throat burning he didn’t notice that the whole band had evacuated already. The films passage in this hectic situation never looses balance as Bob was stridently accounted as saying “Now we no who are the true revolutionaries”. This was of course in response to people fleeing the scene and the group coming back on stage with Bob to finish the set for the 100,000+ who were now in attendance.
When Bob returned to the states, his vision of connecting with African Americans became a reality as well as he had made deals with black oriented music radio stations to play his music. Bob was always willing to sacrifice on any level for his music to reach more people, it was because of this that he agreed to take a lesser role as up opening for the less popular The Commodores. The stage was set very high yet again for Bob at the famous Madison Square Garden in New York and the audience Bob was aiming for met his vibrations with great and raving reception. After blowing the roof off of The Madison Square Garden the night before, Bob and a few of his friends participated in a typical morning jog through Central Park. The movie becomes very dark again as they portray the story of when Bob collapsed in Central Park and the condition of his toe injury had come back full circle in his life. He seemed to have had a seizure and came out of it saying “Jah Rastafari!”. Everyone interviewed about this was shocked as they realized something went through him as he jumped up after collapsing and was on his feet like nothing happened. Bob was later checked by a doctor and was delivered the news that cancer had spread through out his entire body. The news was crushing as it was everywhere you could imagine and the affects were soon to come to a crashing apex. Bob was one of the most determined people in this world and this film honors that determination in every way possible. Bob would play his final show September 23rd, 1980 in Pittsburg Pennsylvania and the band was informed prior to the start of the set that that would be there last show. Put yourself inside of this situation knowing it’s the last show and the world you cultivated through this momentum has come to a hault from forces you can’t control. It was a very sad moment in Marley that left me stuck to my seat. Sound check reportedly lasted almost threes hours by Rita’s account and the Wailers just played the same song, “I am Hurting Inside”. The recording of the show epitomizes the feeling of the band and Marley himself as he went on to perform not one but two encores that night. Rita Marley accounts how she was surprised that he didn’t fall over dead after that show as she knew how much he gave that day. The film’s gravity starts to sink emotionally further and further at this rate as you realize what is slipping away from such an important person to this world.
Bob Marley in a scene from MARLEY, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
With his life on the line Bob decided to head off to Bavaria to a holistic hospital as at the time the head doctor there was one of the first to cure cancer. Bob went on the trip with Neville Garrick, a very close friend to Bob. Garrick referred to the temperatures in Bavaria as: “A fridge to keep people alive”. Marley was in high spirits despite everything tangible proving otherwise, a type of strength that was inspiring to realize existed in him still. Bob used chemotherapy to treat his cancer and this led to his hair falling out. Unable to deal with the pain of his dreads and what he earlier explains in the film in a candid interview as his identity, he elected to shave his head and deal with it all at once and not strand by strand. This was done ceremoniously with his girlfriend Cindy Blackspeare and his wife Rita. Rita read passages from the bible under candlelight. Bob celebrated one last birthday after suffering a stroke on his left side and the film incorporates photos, music and interviews to put as much closure and understanding on this aspect of his life as possible. Footage never released from this time is used in the film and it is very moving to see all of the people around Bob giving him all the love they could not knowing how much longer he would make it. After the stroke, Bob’s spirits fell considerably since he could no longer play guitar or sing properly. After Bob was deemed untreatable he was moved to spend the rest of his days in Miami at a Hospital. Here he was able to see his children and the visits were all filled with many people and nobody was able to really get time alone with the man. This is further explained by Marley’s daughter Cedella, a voice of reason that sheds a lot of new light into the man known as Bob Marley.
Robert Nesta Marley breathed his last breathe May 11th 1981 and I thought the inclusion of Neville Garrick speaking about the lack of a will being purposely planned by Bob to expose the true personality of those closest to him was the most honest thing that could have been placed in that section. The footage of his funeral, the general feeling of wake and the joy the people in thousands had during the service brought this film to a stunning apex. You get a true reality check that Bob was a man who really knew that as much love as he gave into the world, he knew not everyone in his circles would feel the same once it was time to get money for the estate and Bob’s legacy, something that is universal to all dealings of money and family.
As a Bob Marley fan, historian and musician, I will frankly say that this movie is and will be the most definitive collection and display of Bob Marley’s life in one location. Marley was originally being worked on by Martin Scorsese but his scheduling conflicted with further work and the documentary would fall in the hands of director Jonathan Demme shortly after. Creative differences would see his involvement stop in 2009 and Kevin Macdonald took the job and has made one of the most comprehensive and engaging documentaries ever made. It’s almost as if fate required the film to fall through the hands it did and for Kevin Macdonald to to bring it all together. Nothing in this film seems artificial, I went into this review waiting for tiny fragments to rip apart and I walked out with nothing in that regard. This movie is a triumph in the realm of documentaries. The purpose of the film was to not only show the walking steps of a man in a historical context but was to find out how Bob speaks to so many people across the world still. Marley exemplifies a multitude of realities that rarely come across this potently in a documentary. Bob’s world is superbly given the 35mm life, with a driving soundtrack and heartfelt accounts of a man that has had so many different stories told about him. For Marley fans, passive listeners, non fans and those who know nothing of the man; I am making a call for all of you alike to go and witness the inspiring story of a man that touched so many and continues to do so today. This is a movie that is going to have deeply resonating effects in the music community and the world in general. Regardless of the information that you may collect here, in books or other sources of information regarding the history of Bob Marley, this documentary presents the man in a visual aesthetic that is unmatched and has to be experienced to believe. Be prepared to be blown away by the efforts that are clearly on display in Kevin Macdonald’s soon to be award winning documentary Marley.
Based on title alone, film enthusiasts can easily overlook Ben Wheatley’s Kill List as yet another popcorn hit man movie begging for cheap action thrills. Often crime films force-fed the audience with 2-dimensional characters, who have no depth beyond the value of their violence. Instead Wheatley brings us 3-dimensional human characters that are deeply affected by the world in which they live. Wheatley does not need to take us through the grueling cliché of flashbacks to make us empathize with his characters. Each character has pivotal elements that are affects of their scarred military past.
We begin by following the films central character Jay (Neil Maskell.) He lives with his wife Shel (MyAnna Buring) and his son Sam (Harry Simpson.) We find him at a time where he has been out of work for eight months because of a bad back, which he is medicated for. Jay is distant from his child and his relationship with his wife seems rocky, yet both relationships seem ambivalent to him. Screaming matches commonly take place in front of their child that are followed by reconciliatory, playful family swordfights.
A dinner party is organized with Jay’s old army friend and partner Gal (Michael Smiley) introduces his new girlfriend, Fiona (Emma Fryer) at the party. Gal tries to convince Jay to go into business (perhaps back into) as hit men. Gal has a client that will be very profitable for both men. This should be enough set up in order to understand some of the deeper elements of the story. After this dinner party the film starts to take noticeable shifts in theme and genre. Hereto the film has felt like a gritty modern middle-class realist piece. Slowly our story morphs into the story of two hit men marking off a kill list. An awkward and increasingly suspicious client provides the kill list.
Note: In a Q&A with the director that Cinefamily held after their showing of the film, the director did not seem keen on the concept that his film was genre-blending. I think it is worth noting however that there is an unmistakable shift in what we perceive as genres and these shifts are effective because they take us along for the ride, making the audience believe that they stepped into different movie theaters featuring the same characters. Furthermore I believe I agree with the director on this issue that we shouldn’t pigeon hole our understanding of films to these narrowly confined stereotypes known as genres.
Perusing an Internet query of the film, one will be hard-pressed not to find many directors’ names listed in reference to Ben Wheatley’s direction of this film. Most common seems to be Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, which makes sense enough in reference to the gritty middle class realism. One director, which I have not read referenced, but who I kept thinking of throughout the film was Roman Polanski. This is all I have to say on other filmmakers though, because Mr. Wheatley’s film speaks very clearly for itself and does not need to be subjected to comparison.
I hesitate to write more about this rabbit hole of a film because I have no desire to recap it or potentially ruin the experience of the film. The best part of art is having to use your brain to draw conclusions about the experience. Instead of moving deeper into the story I will speak more to how the film was made and how the director made his previous feature, Down Terrace.
Wheatley began as a commercial director and animator. His first huge hit is his “cunning stunt” video, which, I believe, hit the Internet before YouTube was a household name. According to Wheatley in the Q&A, he was directing commercials and he decided he wanted to direct a short film. When trying to raise funding for the short he realized that it was nearly as hard as raising money for a feature, so he changed his mind and decided on writing directing a feature. He and two friends each saved up 2,000 pounds totaling 6000 (roughly $9,490) that was the budget of their feature.
Next he decided how much time he could ask crew and cast to commit to the project without it becoming overbearing for them. 8 days was the decision. He had friends that were actors so he wrote the story to fit the people he knew. Both his friend and his friend’s were actors so decided to use that as the basis of his plot. The father had a nice house, so the setting was all interior. He went on to say that more money found its way into little elements of the budget, such as a daily intake of energy drinks, so the cost of the film was greater than the speculated 6000 pounds. The film played some film festivals, got picked up and now Wheatley has companies producing his films (he’s already shot another film called Sightseers.)
This is all very important to understand the mindset behind the filmmaker. I am immediately reminded of people on the outskirts of cinema such as Roger Corman who could plow through movies (producing over 500 to date) and do so on relatively no budget. Corman stated recently in an interview with Tavis Smiley that most major productions don’t need the millions of dollars spent on films, even if they think they do.
Wheatley is driven to create film, even if that means breaking the foundation that most major films are created on. His ingenuity and production creativity should be inspirational for any coming of age filmmaker.
Kawasaki’s Rose is a study of the intertwining complex relationships of humans in a fragile post-authoritarian society. It offers a glimpse of people picking themselves up and piecing together their lives as well as the integrity of their relationships.
It is about human’s ability to rework the traumatizing past after years of pushing it back into secrecy. It is about the complexity of morality’s paradox in times where the line is easily lost between heroic and villainous acts in the need for survival and to save face.
This is the tenth film by the Czech-Slovak team of Jan Hrebejk (director) and Petr Jarchovsky (writer.) – most noted for their 2000 feature “Divided We Fall.” This is their first digital film, shot on two Red cameras, and also the first Czech film to deal with citizens’ cooperation with the Communist Party.
The film takes place in modern day Czechoslovakia and Sweden, but revolves around events behind the secrecy of the StB – a secret police force of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia that was in operation for 45 years (1945-1990.) Twenty years after its dissolution, the relations of many the Czech people are becoming torn apart by the slow unwinding of truths behind StB’s manipulation and usage of friends and families of those blacklisted.
“There has not been sufficient reconciliation with the communist past since 1990 – for many people this is linked to personal reasons. Because many people knew something about someone else, and many cowards and many heroes were not clear-cut,” director Hrebejk states, “We don’t want to relativize guilt: we want to present a realistic story about it, not just for those who remember those times but also for young people who have no experience of the totalitarian past.”
Kawasaki’s Rose tells the story of Pavel – a psychiatrist noted for his work in the study of memory – and his family in post-communist Czechoslovakia. Perhaps more heroically, Pavel is known as a dissident who used his medical position to save rebels from the iron fist of the StB.
Today, Pavel and his wife, Jana, live in an apartment beneath the family of their daughter, Lucie (with her husband, Ludek and her daughter, Bára.) In the beginning of the film Pavel’s daughter, Lucie is released from a hospital in which she has lived for two years battling a life threatening disease.
Lucie’s husband, Ludek, is a boom op and production sound mixer for a small television documentary crew that is compiling a series on rebels of the Communist era. The film crew is shooting a documentary on his father-in-law Pavel throughout the film. This is an interesting element because it feels as if we are watching an artist behind the scenes of a documentary.
Lucie’s happiness towards being given another chance to live is quickly subdued by her husband’s revelation that he has been cheating on her with his co-worker, Radka, the reporter in the documentary.
After he hides behind Radka to try and talk to Lucie about their triangle, Lucie kicks him out of the house. He uses this as fire to lash out at her father, whom he was already envious of. It is not long before he finds material to slander her father and the production crew finds a revealing twist for their documentary piece.
His material is a case file on an StB officer who implicates Pavel in giving information that exiled an artist named Borek. Borek also happened to be Jana’s –now Pavel’s wife’s – love interest before Borek became an alcoholic. While being detained Jana met Pavel and he was able to alter her medical paperwork to get her safely out of jail and into a relationship with him.
In short there are a lot of character’s and relationships to try to understand and study in this film. Moreover each character and their separate relationships bring a new understanding and revelation to the many themes and mysteries of this film. The themes of the film are indeed vast, but the most prevalent involve the role of memory in: politics, envy, love, family, loyalty, and, finally, betrayal.
Ludek feels overshadowed by this accomplished and well off family that he has wed into. The film leaves traces that lead us to believe his family, like many of the era, has been overshadowed by the dense cloak of the Communist rule. His actions are rash and childish. He acts without thinking and is hell bent on publically staining the name of Pavel.
Borek’s character opens many doors of resentment, yearning, and slander for the character’s involved. While the film does well to insinuate new found truths many of them, however paradoxical, are left to mystery. His existence becomes a sort of thorn in Pavel’s family and inexorably changes the paradigm under which they live.
Through Borek we meet his roommate, Mr. Kawasaki. The films multifaceted title comes into play here most literally. Kawasaki’s Rose is, in real life, a mathematically constructed origami rose with curled petals on the outside. Kawasaki, the character in the film, was an artist that painted these roses until his life was fractured by the death of his wife and daughter.
This film delves into the cultural study of the human condition in the face of ultra-real occurrences. The Communist Party’s interrogations provide the perfect backdrop for challenging questions that seem black and white. It is hard to believe that just 20 years ago people lived through this oppression and that they are still living in the wake of its deceit.
The most confident character in the film is the officer that interrogated many of the rebels. Through the lens of the documentary camera you hear both sides of his actions. He believes he needed to “pacify” rebels for the good of the country. Now, he lives comfortably with a large family and will forever maintain his deep secrets of torture. The people that live on the other side of his world do not live comfortably.
The lives of the people in this post-totalitarian society, unless lived in denial, will forever be torn apart and fractured by memory and deceit. The digger they deep into the truth, the more resentful and disgusted they become. In a microcosmic study this film delineates these truths through this tangled family and offers an eye opener for people who can not dream of living in such a world.
Every few years a film is loved by so many different types of film critics that you can’t deny its power and beauty. Such is the case this year with director Aki Kaurismäki’s newest film Le Havre. Set in the small French harbor city of the same name as the title, Le Havre shows how luck, compassion, humor, community, brotherhood and the quality and decency of human beings can be honored in a somewhat decaying and dehumanized world. With a soundtrack that spans orchestral scores from 20′s and 30′s cinema to the French pop and new wave foundations set in the 70′s, the cinematic relationship of sound and vision is given full attention in all areas of this film. The music selected for Le Havre blends so well with the style of film and the small port city setting that it as equally rewarding as the concept of the film itself. This film displays techniques that are superbly fashioned into the emotional fragments acted out scene to scene and no emotion is sparred in Le Havre because of it. Recently, this new film has been nominated for Finland’s Oscar submission. Janus Films is proudly representing the North American distribution of this film with premieres occurring in New York City and Los Angeles on Friday, October 21, 2011.
Le Havre is bringing back a renaissance in French pre-war cinema. It is the type of story that shows the possibility and hope in the prevailing nature of kindness, compassion and love that can be harvested in communities. It is a film that demands people to remember the goodness that can be left in larger portions of humankind that we see today. Cinema has always been a powerful tool to affect how people view this world and director Aki Kaurismäki has no hidden meanings or agenda in the presentation of Le Havre. This is a contribution in the film world that everyone can relate to but does not sacrifice artistic integrity to cater towards any pocket of culture or society. Films of the 20′s and 30′s paved a way for heroes and a few of the characters in Le Havre are made into these cinematic real-life heroic figures.
This is the type of film making you have to appreciate in a time we live in. With mounting and collapsing problems in the world, a film that shows the unlikely yet heroically compassionate interweaving path of a man’s yearning to help a young helpless boy who has been cruelly separated from his family is needed. Le Havre shows this type of interweaving path with refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) and a former bohemian and artist of Paris, France Marcel Marx (André Wilms). Marcel is an almost retired citizen of Le Havre who still carries himself as an aspiring author whose shoe-shining gigs serve as his day job. With much time on his age, the way Marcel is supported by his community and still carries himself in pride creates the perfect character for this story. It’s the type of character that has all too much to give when a young boy like Idrissa comes into his life from the way he has been helped from his community. His neighbors have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with him, something that allows the comedy of director Aki Kaurismäki to breath in tasteful doses.
When a container in a shipping yard is found on a rainy night in the port of Le Havre, the contents are searched the next morning. With it becoming unknown if anyone has survived being in the container from lack of air and food, they open it up and there is a large body of people who are stunned and humbled from the Red Cross aid. This container brings on an investigation from a possible Al-Qaeda connection, an interesting plot twist indeed. The path of Idrissa’s escape to London begins after his grandfather nods to his approval of escape and Idrissa manages to get away from the French police. Even with the comedy involved, the reality of refugees and their cruel treatment is ever present through out the film. It’s a very real and honest approach to shedding light to a severe problem. Idrissa finds Marcel Marx preparing to eat lunch by the port and the two, Idrissa still in the thick moggy Le Havre port water, start a conversation that would change both of their lives forever. Their conversation is cut off immediately as French police search the area and investigator Monet (Jean-Pierre Darrousin) interrogates Marcel.
Marcel’s wife, Arletty Marx (Kati Outinen), is an element of the film that really brings out the romanticism and hope that resonates so well with main character Marcel Marx. After falling ill, her contributions to the film show the wavering confidence Marcel interjects into the dynamic of his relationships with all of the other main characters. It is this fellowship in her neighborhood that allows Marcel to hide Idrissa from being deported by French police. The audience becomes so attached to young Idrissa and his mission to find his mother that contemplation on what you would do in Marcel’s situation is inevitable. No matter how unlikely or unpractical a situation can be in Le Havre, director Aki Kaurismäki has an unparalleled way of making you ask yourself some deep questions and feel downright responsible for good to come of this situation. I can’t tell you how much I love films that bring me in like this.
The romantic relationship with Marcel and his wife Arletty plays on the past eras of film in a way that can trap you inside the nostalgia of your own past, regardless of your age. From the setting of their home and all of the vintage items that are so common place to their characters, the director and cast nailed there parts to the t with showing the parallel worlds of old standards fading in a technologically advancing time. There are many moments where all the main characters present such an authentic captured state of the pre-war era films that when something modern dives back into the film, you are instantly presented with that common phrase, “Oh yeah…”. La Moderne, the local spot that is owned by Claire (Elina Salo) and where Marcel drinks wine, is a portal into the past just as much as what has been mentioned. La Moderne displays a vintage and beautiful jukebox with music from the Edith Piaf era always playing, something I’d love to add to my home.
Marcel’s personality in this movie is light hearted and at times raw, especially the moment when he tells young Idrissa after finding him outside and telling him not to go outside, “no wonder they put you on the ship”. This is the event that ultimately tips police off to the whereabouts of Idrissa and his connection with Marcel. From this point on, the logistics and likeyhood becomes less with Idrissa’s safe travel to London. The epic schemes Marcel and all of his friends pull off to get Idrissa to London and his family is something that we should all hold onto and believe in, regardless of the current world that faces us daily.
This is the type of film that makes me want to travel to the smaller towns of Europe and find these small havens of the past; locations in the world where the timeless and beautiful eloquence of culture outshines the savage state of greed that dominates the world. In an interview with Christine Masson, director Aki Kaurismäki had the following to say about how he picked the location for this film. “Basically the story could happen in any European country, except maybe the Vatican, or then especially there. The most logical places would of course have been Greece, Italy Spain because they carry the heaviest pressure caused by the problem (to say it mildly). Anyhow I drove through the whole seafront from Genoa to Holland and found what I wanted from the city of blues and soul and rock ‘n’ roll, Le Havre”. Location scouting can make or break a film and the selection of Le Havre was perfect for the dynamic use of different genre and era settings all clashed into the films script. In an interview with David Fear of Time Out New York, Aki revealed that he wrote the script in only ten days after selecting Le Havrne for the location of his new film idea. When told that was quick from David, he replied with laughs, “Normally it only takes a weekend. I’m getting old.” Directing film is a whole other world and Aki is gaining ranks among the most prolific in his genres.
One of the most interesting additions to this film is the inclusion of Little Bob (Roberto Piazza). Little Bob formed the new wave rock group Little Bob Story in 1971 in the small city of Le Havre. The bands story in the ranks of the new wave punk bands that were touring the UK and Europe are legendary. The fact that director Aki Kaurismäki included Little Bob into this films wacky twist that occurs to help young Idrissa is fitting to say the least.
93 minutes in length, the first 25 minutes or so dedicates itself to laying out the rich dynamics of how everyone’s lives will intertwine. Inspector Monet’s character creates immediate love and compassion in Marcel’s heart for Idrissa as his assignment to find the young boy creates a tension between the two that pulls you just as much as any other element of the movie. The addition of Arletty Marx’s medical condition causes the community around him to reach out and turns the tables from the grocer and Yvette in a way that is optimistic indeed. Most people these days don’t even know the people that live next to them, let alone have the chance to rely on these same neighbors. All of these delicate and complex relationships flourish after the characters are in place and everyone’s role is clearly signified. This film has a beautiful sequence of events and makes the view so fluid that time doesn’t become a factor. It really plays into that side of you that doesn’t want a film to end. Shot in a medium that reflects the films it pays homage and attributes influence to, Le Havre is already a masterpiece in its own right.
The European cinema has not much addressed the continuously worsening financial, political, and above all, moral crisis that has lead to the ever-unsolved question of refugees; refugees trying to find their way into the EU from abroad, and their irregular, often substandard treatment.
I have no answer to this problem, but I still wanted to deal with this matter in this anyhow unrealistic film.
For screenings across the United States starting October 21, 2011 in New York City and Los Angeles, check out the full list below. Please note, theaters may extend runs past the dates listed.
The cinema of Rainer Werner Fassbinder deals with astonishingly bleak outlooks on humanity, nihilistic lead characters, and cynical themes that boarder narcissism. His characters are often tortured by their own disdain, anxiety, and inability to cope with a world that refuses to accept them.
One of his films lesser known films, World On A Wire, has just been re-discovered and is being re-released theatrically. The film has never had a proper English release (or translation.) If it has been seen in English before, then it was a bootlegged version with poorly translated subtitles. This version of the film was restored from a recently found 16mm print and transferred to 4K resolution (although most projections of it will be from a Blu-ray in 1080p.)
World On A Wire is his 1973 farcical epic science fiction story about a society that needs to predict future trends for developmental purposes. The government sponsors a cybernetics corporation for the development of a computer program that accurately synthesizes and emulates life, because it is beyond them to understand where trends will go and what production will cost.
Enter Simulacron, a computer generated society (reality seems too harsh a word here) where the “people” are cognizant and emulate the societies of the “real” world that created the program. Simulacron predicts the social, political, and perhaps most important, economic trends 20 years ahead of the “real” world – Fassbinder describes these different realities as “World 1” (the real world, the creators) and “World 2” (the simulated world, the emulators.)
Likewise, the creators can add and delete people from the generated society of World 2. In fact the operators, can go into the society by means of methodology that is very reminiscent of “The Matrix” and “Inception”. As you can imagine adding someone to a busy society is less tricky than deleting them. Deleting someone either has to be a clever accident or the person has to be wiped from the entire memory of the society. This gives the designer of the world a massive god complex and likens the process of deleting someone to a calculated murder.
The film begins with the head of the cybernetics department behind the Simulacron losing his mind and eventually dying under seemingly mysterious circumstances. His colleague and our protagonist, Frank Stiller, is to replace the deceased man as acting president of the Simulacron division.
Stiller quickly finds that corporations have a great deal vested in the Simulacron and that his company would rather take the money than use the program for the good of society. This is little known knowledge to most employees and the public, but it is suspected by an investigative journalist who is trying to break the story. Stiller finds himself in the middle of a corporate and humanitarian struggle. He leads the audience to believe that he has humanitarian hopes and intentions for the Simulacron.
The film has many of the elements of a great science fiction piece: omnipresent and totalitarian powers that be, a protagonist on the run, and of course quirky futuristic gadgets. To its strength the film does not try to create a world that is conceptually too far away from our own world. Clearly it is closer to a 1970’s future than it is to a 2011 future but it still remains believable today.
In fact in some ways he does a great job of predicting elements that are prevalent in our modern society. While not directly, but surely similarly, the marketing ability of the program employed within the film can be likened to ulterior techniques that the Internet has been used for. After all, is the Internet not its own society within another? There is an interesting parallel between the Internet and Simulacron in that they provide similarly menacing techniques for corporate spying on people.
In terms of science fiction film comparisons, “World on A Wire” feels closest to Godard’s Alphaville. In fact there is a great, though brief, cameo in the film by Eddie Constantine, the lead in Alphaville. Like Godard, Fassbinder’s films are more like analytical essays than they are like shallow narrative filler pieces produced merely to entertain and distract the audience. In Fassbinder’s own words, “The American method of making films left the audience with emotion and nothing else, I want to the give the spectator the emotion along with the possibility of reflecting on and analyzing what he is feeling.”
Though the quote is not written directly about “World” it is a great philosophical explanation of the film. In the course of this three and half hour epic we grow with the main character; becoming emotionally attached and indignant as the truths of reality are revealed to him piece by piece. This film can be categorized as many things but it fits most comfortably into the classification of a neo-noir.
Fassbinder raises a lot of issues for analytical debate with the film. One of the hardest hitting is the existential crisis that Frank Stiller finds himself in coping with his role in his society. The thought that he may be a character within a computer program plague’s him. He grows paranoid and becomes a fugitive on the run. Quotes such as, “I think, therefore I am,” and, “you’re nothing,” become under the breath mantras for Stiller and distance him further from the people he is around. He finds himself questioning everything and himself. Those around him easily dismiss his existential breakdown as insanity. The company psychiatrist labels him as having “acute paranoia” and later, “psychological degeneration.” However, when the psychiatrist understands and believes in what Stiller does, he shows that he is not as strong as Stiller.
The film shares many of Fassbinder’s cynical themes, but unlike many of his films, the audience wants to have compassion for the characters. This is pivotal in relating the audience to this future world. The characters cannot be alienated from the audience. Many of the characters in the film are content with their life. They would rather go on living in ignorance than to seek or even try to understand the truth behind their existence.
As it was a film created for German TV the film is split up into two halves, with a nice intermission in the center. The length of the film is a bit much for the causal viewer but the film is not without its payoff. The end of the film is executed well and it leaves something for the cynical and the optimistic alike.
Sara Christina Gross is an elusive name in film and music these days. With the guest appearance on Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s first solo release and sounbtrack score, A Manual Dexterity, she displayed the vast sonic possibilities she was capable with her instrument of choice: the saxophone. The landscape of emotion in her phrasing was a perfect element to coincide with film and it’s a shame we never got to see the full realization with a release of the film A Manual Dexterity. Sara was later included on the Mars Volta’s masterpiece, Amputecthure and the all star group outing of Calibration. With her vast work in keeping busy in the music world, her output in film releases has been a slower process. In 2010, Sara’s long time friend and At The Drive-In and Mars Volta leaders Omar Rordiguez-Lopez released his first film feature, The Sentimental Engine Slayer with screenings at Tribeca and many other major film festivals. Sara was a force in this film, acting as associate producer under John Frusciante, Angel Marcelo, Frances Rodriguez-Lopez, and of course Omar Rodriguez-Lopez himself. Film is now a creative side of hers that has seen full fruition on her own terms with the release of, All Ear is Dread Hear with film maker Wil Magness.
Stunning, undefined and vastly large in scale when considering how the characters relationships exists, it took well over 3 full intense views of All Ear is Dread Hear to present a single calculated and meaningful response to my colleague when asked about its contents. Mysterious, intelligent, clever and raw, this is the type of creative expression that reflects all the great film makers whose innovative mind tricks and plot outlines out-weighed high production sets. Sara acts in the film along with fulfilling directing, and editing duties. She plays the roll of Jesse in All Ear is Dread Hear and the amount of characters introduced brings you to the thick moggy state of a Jack Kerouac read and the piles of rich content atmosphere and setting that unfolds from the smallest situation.
Within the very first minute of All Ear is Dread Hear, the viewer can immediately see how this short film differs from the rest. The simple and profound use of experimentation to aide the story. This is something that we at SCV look for while viewing films. Are the film makers looking to stray away from the plastic and used-up techniques of everyday cinema? Or is the film maker looking to further themselves and their story by use of fundamentally diverse tools. By now you may be wondering what the hell am I talking about, what tools? What techniques?
Let me just say that this film by Sara Gross and Wil Magness makes use of black & white, sepia, basically any kind of editing matte and tool known to man in the most interesting way I’ve ever seen.
The film starts off with a couple who get together in a motel room while confronting their past troubles. The type of music played throughout the first ten minutes are soothing, and very surreal works. Whether it be jazz, lounge, whatever you must call it; it is another tool that aides the story and fluidity of the film. The main character in this short film is a royal blue Cadillac.
I think it’s very safe to say that All Ear is Dread Hear proves to be one hell of a low budget film. The use of all the technical aspects of the editing and effects are very obvious to the common eye, and really puts truth to the cliche “a little bit goes a long way.”
All Ear is Dread Hear is a film split into three parts, the first being drama, the second being comedy, and the third being mystery.
These men praised directors like Hitchcock, Jean Renoir and Howard Hawkes as auteurs and denounced the more pliable commercial directors of Hollywood and French cinema.
The stories and characters in Truffaut’s films often feel as if they are ripped from pages of his own life. Indeed, one can see and feel the real and human elements in his films and relate them to their own lives.
The six film Doinel series is made over the course of 20 years (1959-79) and intimately follows the haphazard and amorous protagonist Antoine Doinel, who is played by Jean-Pierre Léaud .
The 400 Blows is a masterful achievement in the history of cinema. More over it is one of the most moving and relatable stories of coming of age. It is rare for a film to empathize so well with childish tendencies, which are generally dismissed and punished as negligent. Truffaut paints a young boy that finds himself at odds with the world. The audience is led to believe that this boy will never become anything of himself, but as a viewer conscious of Truffaut’s script being semi-autobiographical it makes you ponder what this disobedient child will amount to.
400 Blows follows 12 year-old Doinel in his adventures as resourceful and rebellious child. We find Doinel at a time in which he is distanced from his relationships with his authorities (at home and at school.) Doinel’s parents seem more troubled by his presence than nurturing towards his growth. He is a lower middle class child who does not know his real father. While his mother has remarried a man who is kind enough to give Antoine his name and his attention, his mother can’t seem to cope with the fact that she has a son to care for. The mother, the caretaker comes off as immature as her son.
Paris is young Antoine’s playground and he knows his way about: where to play, where to get money, and where to run. As youths tend to do, he thinks he has a grasp on life and the world surrounding him. However, his dissidence slowly teaches him a greater lesson, that of ignorance in the face of a vast unknown world.
Like much of its new wave followers, 400 Blows takes the filming out of the studio, into the streets and, in many ways, straight from our very own lives. The script takes a backseat in most of his films, which allows the actors to improvise a more humanistic character. Often this blurs the distinction between the actor playing a character and the human behind the actor. This point is enforced more so by the fact that the actor is just a 13-year-old child.
A script, in the eyes of auteurs like Truffaut, is a loose narrative binding a story, not a concrete mold that is inflexible. There is a scene in which Doinel is being interviewed by a psychiatrist. This is a single shot with jump cuts* of Doinel exposing his youthful antics in utmost honesty to his faithful and attentive audience. Léaud was unaware of the questions he was being asked before filming and his answers were improved from his own life experiences. His hesitation, his answers, and his sincere vulnerability come from the heart. “Truffaut’s camera is able to capture the boy’s hesitations, his embarrassment, and his charming macho bravado.” (Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies 11th Edition, p. 311)
Truffaut uses his camera to symbolically tell the undercurrents of Doinel’s jaunt towards maturity. In a famous shot where Doinel is shown behind a cage Truffaut summarizes his message without words. The tight close up of Doinel shows that he is alone in this world with nowhere to go. He finds himself isolated by society and the scale of the world is obscured to him, perhaps by him.
The film has a lesser-known title called “The Sea, Antoine, The Sea.” There is a power to this title that is lost in the obscurity of the The 400 Blows. Antoine’s adventure culminates on a beach, his first time witnessing the sea. We leave him on a freeze frame staring into the camera. His innocence and vulnerability, his isolation and freedom all culminate here. These themes leave the young man holding a bewildered look; both anxious and excited about the life he is yet to live.
Truffaut is not a household name; it could be argued that Godard and his film “Breathless” are more commonplace. After witnessing such a masterpiece, it’s hard to understand how Truffaut has been swept under the rug of American film history. Recognize them or not, there are many elements in Truffaut’s films that have made possible the type of films we see and love in our commercial Cineplex’s. This film is important because of the audience’s empathy with the characters. There is nothing polished about Doinel’s life. It is gritty and real, the funny moments are hard to laugh at because this could be your life, or the lives of your parents. This is something cinema tends to neglect and is lost in its continuing commercial exploits. – Erick R. Wilczynski
Glossary & Further Analysis:
Auteur – French word literally translating to “author.” It is a term used to describe the Auteur Theory, which states that the director is the sole creator of the film’s style and auteur leaves a mark in each film with his style. It’s what makes you say that’s a Scorsese, a Wes Anderson, a Kubrick, etc.
“La Politique des Auteurs” – Loosely translated as “The Policy of the Auteurs” – Comes out of Truffaut’s essay “A certain tendency in French cinema.” In particular, Truffaut was angry with two commercial French screenplay writers, -Alexandre Astruc and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze -who manipulated works of literature to fit their own political agendas. The directors point of view is as follows: “The subject of these notes is limited to an examination of film solely in point of view of screenplays and scenarists. But I think I should state that directors are and should want to be responsible for the scenarios and the dialogue that they delineate. ‘Films of writers’, I wrote earlier, and indeed Aurenche and Bost will not contradict me. When they hand in their screenplay, the film is finished. The director, in their eyes, is the gentleman who puts frames around that screenplay. And alas that is the truth. [..]“
“Cahiers Du Cinema” – Translates to “What is Cinema” – Is a French journal founded in 1951. It was helmed by co-founder and editor André Bazin. The authors of the journal were vehement critics and theorists of films and proponents of realism. “Bazin’s realist aesthetic was based on his belief that photography, TV, and cinema, unlike the traditional arts, produce images of reality automatically, with a minimum of human interference.” (Louis Giannetti, Understanding Movies 11th Edition, p. 186)
Jump cuts are editing techniques that disregard space and time. They are often jolting and cause a sense of distance from the absorbing world of the film. The term I used “single shot with jump cuts” means that the same shot was cut with no other shot to form a smooth transition. What happens here is an unexpected jump in the character’s placement and offsets the assumed timing of the movie’s reality.
French, English, Spanish
Directed by Woody Allen
2011
Starring Lea Seydoux, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Michael Sheen
The question Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011) poses is whether or not it is detrimental to the nostalgic folks of society to be “living in the past”. Anyone attempting to answer that question of course is going to be biased primarily by if they are a nostalgic person or not. You may say placing an affable actor like Owen Wilson as the lead, enamored with 1920s Paris, was a biased move. But I believe Woody balances this out by tastefully casting the classically beautiful Rachel McAdams as his fiancée; who exhibits the antithesis of fondness for his nostalgia. As the film develops it gets easier to see the gaping lack of logic in that first question. Despite where Midnight in Paris takes us through the magic of the movies, no one literally goes and lives in the past.
People get labeled with this condition for not moving along with their lives, they physically are not where their hearts and minds are. This is why Gil (Owen Wilson) is thought to “have a part missing” when he is around his fiancée and in-laws-to-be, because his heart and mind are somewhere else. This is where the most universal question in the film comes about. Does Gil’s removal from where his lady expects him to be leave him in a non-reality? It’s simply arrogant for anyone to go along preaching that the frame of mind that perpetuates them through life is the real or more favorable one. Lack of action taken is a problem in life, what difference does it make how one gets to a sense of stability and happiness? Without passion, life is mundane, why opt for mundane? This ability we have to pursue certain passions gets mistaken for delusional living; and I’m just saying what a pompous notion these people have that only focusing on the present day is a real way to live.
To me, Gil engaging in the act of time travel is not meant to belittle positivity in nostalgia, but only to comically exaggerate what his life could be with someone who would at least humor him and his nostalgic tendencies, his passion for a different time. This is quite easy with Gil’s time machine, but far from impossible without one. The film stresses honesty above all other things in life. Reflecting on his adoration for Paris night to night, he realizes this importance and (short of slipping into a life of denial) has no choice but to confront his fiancée. Has she been true to him?
When the truth that she’s been banging the pseudo-intellectual comes out the vitality of their life together is clearly non-existent. And would his life have been better off had he not pressed the issue, gotten married and never known the sour truth? I do not think so. This drives the point home that we should not be so dramatically concerned with the state of mind someone is in, be it nostalgic or otherwise, but above all else our concern should be with honing in on the most honest life personally for any given person. This respect for one’s self is not selfish but provides guiding light for cultivating open, honest and direct relationships. One of the all-time Woody greats. – Davey C. Silagi
For A Few Dollars More (Per Qualche Dollaro in Piu)
Directed by Sergio Leone 132 Minutes 1965
Spaghetti Western film master Sergio Leone took the genre of western cowboy’s and gave it authenticity. No longer were the actors clean shaved and typical in color scheme of bad vs evil. The actors Sergio Leone choose for the three films that make up his Dollars Trilogy reflects a more true state of the rugged, violent and self survival tactics one had to have in these harsh and brutal times of pre 20th century western life. The films were shot in the early to mid 60′s in Spain and presented a startling scope of genre shifting and epic proportions in the standards of westerns up to that point. No more clean cut cowboys, no more completely forsseable plot turns. Clint Eastwood status before the first film of the series, A Fisftul of Dollars, was laregely unknown outside of informal tv appearances. These three films changed his career and changed film just as much. The close ups and angles utilized to present the character known as Monco in all three movies is surreal and sublime. When I realize that Sergio Leone was an Italian director and conveyed something 1000′s of miles away in such a vivid and real way, I immediately gain a high level of respect for him and his vision. Shot in Spain, the landscape and cinematography are out of this world and give Clint Eastwood and the rest of this historic casts in this trilogy the perfect vehicle to authentically become something centuries before them.
I had seen A Fistful of Dollars a few times along with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (the third film of the trilogy) and I finally got around to seeing For A Few Dollars More this week. Long story short, I was completely blown away in the first ten minutes. The film was originally released in Italy in 1965 and saw a later english version in May of ’67. A copy of the first film with Sergio Leone and Eastwood (A Afistful of Dollars) was sent tto Clint Eastwood to premier for select people in the States before production began on anything new. With the dialogue in Italian, the people in attendance were blown away just as much from the cinematic power the film achieves every frame. Clint Eastwood has that calm yet not knowing what to expect demeanor about himself in all the westerns of this period. He always appears to be ready to show his lightning fast precision and skill with any firearm, yet has the time to re-light his ciggar before taking on a dueling match to the death. You can’t mess with a man of this scale, and this aura exists over him during the entire movie. Every scene I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see what unfolds.
In For A Few Dollars More, Monco (Clint Eastwood) is a rogue bounty hunter that is a mysterious character to all those of the towns portrayed in the film. His reputation spreads fast from the bounties he collects with ease. The film includes a really interesting twist with the inclusion of Van Cleef as Colonel Douglas Mortimer aka “Man in Black”. Equally as precise and possibly faster than Monco, the Colonel comes into the same territory as Monco and the two become very interested in one another. The two come to find each other in pursuit of one man and the antagonist of the film, “El Indio” played Gian Maria Volonté. El Indio is a brutal and savage criminal who commits horrific acts with a sick twisted laugh to accompany. He is so prideful on his ability to bring violence on an unparalled scale that he changes one of the bounty collection signs and adds a 0 as he feels he is worth much more than what they are willing to give for his body. With a flashback to El Indio killing a young womans lover while in bed and raping her, the tone for how these bounty hunters lives and El Indio and his large crew merge together is priceless. The ending is one of the best I have ever seen in a western and one I won’t give away here.
The score and soundstage post production for this film is equally as impressive. Composed by Ennio Morricone, the epic aspect of the film is heightened to the fullest potential scale. Western in tone but progressive in composition, the mixture of Ennio Morricone’s handle on the vast musical world in all directions gives the film a really cinematic and classic feeling right off the back. Flutes, towering trumpets, elegant whistles, driving percussion and powerful vocal additions, it’s a sound that is completely meant for this type of genre and specifically these films made in the 60′s by Sergio Leone. The film was shot completely silent for all on location footage. The soundstage added sounds in For A Few Dollars More is a feet of its own, an art form only mastered by few in the history of film.
The three films Italian director Sergio Leone created known as the Dollars Trilogy is a formal trilogy in the sense of a long story that spans over three different releases. It is more a window and major shifting point of historical film making from the pairing of two geniuses, Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone. The cinematographer on For a Few Dollars More was Massimo Dallamano. His vision is up there with the best in film history. If you want to find one of the films to view before diving into all of them, For A Few Dollars More is a perfect place to start. – Erik Otis
“I think [the Leone films] changed the style, the approach to Westerns [in Hollywood]. … They made the violence and the shooting aspect a little more larger than life, and they had great music and new types of scores. … They were stories that hadn’t been used in other Westerns. They just had a look and a style that was a little different at the time: I don’t think any of them was a classic story—like [John Wayne's 1956] The Searchers or something like that—they were more fragmented, episodic, following the central character through various little episodes.”
—Clint Eastwood reflecting on the impact of the Sergio Leone spaghetti western films they worked on together (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly).
Director: Sergio Leone
Producer: Alberto Grimaldi
Writers: Sergio Leone, Fulvio Montella
Screenplay: Sergio Leone, Luciano Vincenzoni
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria Volonté
Music: Ennio Morricone
Cinematography: Massimo Dallamano
Editing: Eugenio Alabiso, Giorgio Serrallonga
Country: Italy, West Germany, Spain
Directed by Michael Rapaport
Sony Pictures Classics
If Michael Rapaport’s new documentary, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, had only a mixed bag of music videos paired with footage of Q-Tip crate digging and Phife talking basketball for an hour and a half, many would stay through the end credits satisfied in blissful ignorance. What Rapaport presents in fact is a more controversial film that looks at the collaborative struggles of the music legends, A Tribe Called Quest, during their much demanded reunion.
Firstly, let’s catch up to speed. Beats, Rhymes & Life does a lot right. Mainly by presenting the first major music documentary on an entire hip hop group. For clarity, A Tribe Called Quest began as a small crew of friends who coined themselves “QUEST” early on and consisted of members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali, and Jarobi. They met fellow classmates and hip hop heads The Jungle Brothers and through them befriended De La Soul. The influence these three groups had on each other created a biosphere of positivity, camaraderie and love. Along with a handful of other acts, the three groups formed the Native Tongues collective.
This crew continued the afrocentric tradition of Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation while focusing on a party atmosphere that fit nicely against the backdrop of Keith Haring’s New York. The collaboration of ideas inside Native Tongues brought A Tribe Called Quest to a state of inspired musicality. They began to incorporate reflective, intelligent lyricism with an array of inventive beats and samples revived from dusty jazz records.
Whenever the coming saviors of hip hop emerge and stand against the corporate current dominating so many of today’s car stereos, believe they’ll cite the legacy of Native Tongues, or more likely “Tribe and them”, as an influence from their youth. No matter where or when those future rhyme sayers and beat makers will rise up, the youthful expression and aspiration of spirit shown in People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, The Low End Theory, and Midnight Marauders will be passed down to them if they’re at all destined for greatness. And if your plans include raising up a little hip hop savior of your own, you need only drop the needle at the edge of Low End Theory and let nature run its course. “Excursions” will have any small poet saying “I wanna do that!” in smiling awe to a hard buzzing bass sample and some of the most powerful verses to be released upon a mic.
A Tribe Called Quest – Jazz (We’ve Got) & Buggin’ Out
Returning to Beats, Rhymes & Life, you’ll notice the production is pieced together with the help of a few artists considered masters of their respective fields. James Blagden, who created the award-deserving short Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No, animates the pupil widening opening credits. Stones Throw founder Peanut Butter Wolf supervises the soundtrack, while Madlib contributes original music that stays true to the subjects at hand. Mos Def, Pharrell, The Roots and Common lend their time to talk up Tribe in interviews as do The Beastie Boys, The Jungle Brothers and Prince Paul. Their stories recreate an era when hip hop began exploring avenues outside of battle rap.
The documentary’s overall goal is beyond name drops and storytelling. Its purpose is to step outside the Behind The Music mentality by painting a rare portrait of brotherhood colliding with ego. Q-Tip himself says the hardest part of being in a group is considering others before yourself, and that’s a central theme in Tribe’s story. The internal drama that takes place on the screen and behind the scenes of the groups 2008 reunion tour presents much to be discussed, and Rapaport spends a heavy amount of the film’s energy on this subject. At times, though, it seems that Tribe hands the fodder to Rapaport in heaps when the stakes get high.
A lot can be said about this documentary, and that’s why I’d like to suggest you not see it alone. The love atmosphere of Tribe is always pulsing through the screen and Rapaport ultimately portrays the group in a way that will carry the attention of newcomers and die hards through the documentary’s entirety. Catch Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest with anyone you can and plan on sticking around afterward, there’s Tribe to talk about. – Nick Bernal
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest is now playing in theaters nationwide. Check out all the dates HERE.
Hero at the time of its release was easily the best wuxia (Chinese martial arts fiction) film to be released in the modern age of film making. Consisting one of the premier martial artist and actor of this Chinese based film genre, Jet Li provided the perfect role for the nameless character he plays in Hero. This movie is based in the transitional time of China’s history when the different states that make up what is now known as China were very divided then became unified as one under the King of Quin in 227 BC. Jet Li plays a character whose background is of little importance to this movie. What is important is his ability to get very close to the King in his own palace. Recent attacks by three assassins on the King’s life have forced him to create laws in which prevent anyone coming more than a 100 paces within reach to him. The only way to get this close is to bring back proof of the death of these three assassins. These three assassins are Long Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword. The assassins all come together to form the perfect scenario for Jet Li’s nameless character role to kill the tyrannical king. The movie has the psychological feel of the classic 70′s martial arts films and has the look of modern film such as the Matrix with the in depth and precise nature of the cinematography. Jet Li is one of the best film actors in this genre in the last 20 years and this is one of his crowning achievements.
Jet Li paints one picture, the King paints another and the final resolve of what really happens comes to full realization once Jet Li is within 10 paces and undeniable striking distance of the King. The only thing holding back this nameless secret assassin is the news from the emperor himself about the unification of his land to become “peace under heaven”. The cinematography for Hero is stunning on so many levels as the fight scenes and different scenarios played out really need this advanced form of film making. Cinematography was headed by Christopher Doyle who has well over 40 films completed under his belt during his tenure in film making. Beautiful body movement with stunning angles and rich organization of colors that capture many degrees of martial arts movement and the surroundings these ancient warriors dwelled in. Receiving tons of accolades, Hero went onto to become an instant classic in the martial arts genre. It now serves as a window of how modern technology is shaping the overall aesthetical ability of the way martial arts can represent powerful meaning in film. The story and methods of the nameless assassins training allows him to devise an ultimate plan of killing the King. This represents a time that led to the formation of the Great Wall of China and the unification of millions of people. The message of unity beyond this region is one that I picked up from watching the film. The sacrifice of ones personal purpose for something much bigger has to be taken for communication and equality to occur in every region of the world. Hero is exceptional film making, a modern euphoric sensation through film of mental and physical proportions. -Erik Otis
Starring Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Chen Daoming, Zhang Ziyi and Donnie Yen
Sound Colour Vibration covers a wide variety of genres past and present and will continue to bridge the many cultures of music, film and art. SCV is a vehicle to present these three mediums of art as one collective window that shows the creative evolution of the human race in modern times. We cover timeless art, film and music, not just what's in or what record sales dictate. Our site includes interviews, album and film reviews, online art gallery, streaming music podcast series and much more. We are also known as SACVS (Sound and Colour Vibration Society). Learn more about the different areas that represent Sound Colour Vibration HERE
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One of this years most talked about films The Hunger Games is the latest film from LA native and director Gary Ross. Most known for his works Seabiscuit, Pleasantville and a personal favorite, Big, Gary Ross has brought to life a modern sci-fi masterpiece with The Hunger Games. With the film depicting a future society by the name of Panem that contains 12 districts, there is orchestrated chaos shown in this society with the ruled under advanced states of eccentricsm, class wars, the art of survival, sensationalism in the exponentially growing field of reality TV, consumerism as a whole and an oddly placed sense of retribution for a pass rebellion that defines the purpose and intention of The Hunger Games. There is an Alice in Wonderland and Fahrenheit 451 meets Nazi Germany aesthetic that characterizes this juxtaposed society. With these 12 districts in the Panem world, a boy and girl of any age are selected from each for inclusion into the savage Hunger Games. These are public spectacle games where these children fight to the death and the citizens of Panem are forced to watch and respect this aspect of their society. It’s the meeting of the Gladiator spectacles of Rome along with the technological big brother state of 1984; it’s a twisted potential of modern brutality in everyday society. This brutal and relentless game was brought on from a rebellion that occurred in the past and was the governments way of enacting control through fear and entertainment, something that is a deep metaphor for the society we do live in now. I felt like this movie was hinting at problems our society is headed towards, something that has been shrouded from the constant comparison to other films and the amount of “Hollywood” traits defining the movie. The potential reality of our society diving into this deep end is unquestionably real, something this movie touches on from beginning to end.
