Bustin Makes Me Feel Good

"I think he can hear you Ray."

Sexism and misappropriation of occult religious symbols aside, Ghostbusters has to be, hands down one of my favorite New York movies of the 80s. I watched it twice last week, once for Halloween and the second time just to watch it again with my sweetie. Lets not talk about the incredible cinematography, or the wonderful use of familiar local NY City neighborhoods, high rises, isolation, politics, horror and haunted spaces. Lets not even talk about the amazing score! I could listen to the Ghostbusters score without even watching the movie. Lets not talk about the strange joy of watching the city get trampled by a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. That special effect still wows me every single time. I'm like a kid again.

The thing that I loved then as now in addition to all those things and more was Bill Murray and the way that all his wierdassness fit into this movie like a glove. All of his oddities of his usual comic performance took off like a rocket with Ivan Reitmans direction.  We could see this begin to emerge with Reitman in "Stripes" (1981) another film I enjoy but in "Ghostbusters" Murray's formidable power is at it's highest. You almost feel as if Reitman gave Murray free reign to do whatever he wanted. Watching Murray in this film even now, feels like new. Nothing about it feels dated or imitative because no one else is like Murray. No one else takes these chances with dialogue, comic timing, meter and arbitrary self reference. From the very beginning, you're on his side. There's something wrong with him and you don't know what but you sympathize. His cynicism, overconfidence, selfishness, sentimentality and dare I say romantic idealism/read sexism are a strange mix in the character of Peter Venkman, but somehow Murray makes it work in a way I can't imagine any other actor doing. For me, I don't think any other vehicle came along for him that worked as well until "Rushmore"
in 1998.

 For me, Murray is not as great a straight dramatic actor as he believes himself. He is Bill Murray. He has never strayed from his Bill Murrayness in any successful way that I'm aware of. I cringe when I think of his portrayal in a 1984 version of "The Razor's Edge", a film whose second remake in 1946 is among my favorite films. Murray was awful in it. Just miscast and terrible. And I don't care how people rave over "Lost in Translation." His performance in Coppola's Japan wack off fest was fine but nothing close to his performance in "Rushmore" where his poker face, flat delivery, unique comic timing had re-emerged as something which had become more refreshing, more evocative and more pleasurable to watch.

Mandela

I cannot even describe the feeling I get inside when I watch this trailer. I've seen "Sometimes in April" so I know that Idris has what it takes to own this kind of role. And although I cannot imagine what an overwhelming undertaking it was for him to play such a giant, I can already see that he has taken this project to soaring heights. If a movie trailer is a promise of what it will deliver as a feature than this one is going to be history making. I have been waiting for so long for Idris to be offered the lead role in a film with weight and guts and heart and vulnerability, all of which he has in spades as a performer. I am so looking forward to this. I kind of want to see it with a large group of people, friends and family that I love. This has to be one of those kinds of film pilgrimages like when my High School took us to see Malcolm X and Schindler's list.

Fave use of light: Witness

Weir Worlds

So "Film Scene Friday" didn't take at all. I guess I'm bad at giving myself reoccurring blog deadlines even on subjects I love. I'm going to move on now to technical aspects in movies only true film lovers can appreciate. Like use of lighting. Yeah, this is usual that portion of the Oscars where you usually go to the bathroom are start a side conversation or just nod off. But I watch movies I really love over and over for technique on many levels. Light is kind high on that list and "Witness" directed by Peter Weir aside from being one of my all time favorite movies ever is also pretty high up there on my list of movies whose use of light knocks me out time after time. The use of light to convey something painterly and holy, warm and natural, even menacing is a skill Weir used masterfully in Witness.

Lets not even speak of framing and composition. Every shot is a masterpiece. From the opening shot of tall wheat swaying gently in the wind to the closing shots of John and Rachel (Biblical much?) part ways, each into their own separate worlds after changing one another for life.

Claire Morning

The truth is I’m very fragile inside. When I was a young girl, I was always the worrier, the over thinker, the romantic, daydreaming weirdo who was touched deeply by things no one else really noticed. I was very quiet and shy and living in my head. I always had my face in a book and I connected very deeply to the interior of certain fictional character narratives. I felt their feelings, remembered their memories.  I got very emotional at the movies, very attached to stories. I still do. I cried while watching Joan of Arc in the dark in my film class this semester. I can’t help it. I was always the one thinking things that no one felt needed to be bothered. I liked to bother those things. I dared disturb the universe.  Mystery intrigued me. The unknown was where I most wanted to go, the mysterious places where no one was. This is one of the reasons I have always felt so connected to characters played by Claire Danes.  The strength of her fragile portrayals have always been compelling to me. 

 “I Love You, I Love You Not” is certainly not one of the best movies ever. I think the worst thing about it is the horrible title, but the film itself is one of my personal favorites. This morning, on my way to work, I started singing “Daisy Bell” a song that is sung in the film. I think the tune just comes to mind at particularly beautiful times when I’m alone and my heart is feeling light.  I decided to check Netflix to see if the film was streaming since I had to be to work an hour earlier than normal at work this morning and no one was around. Immediately I was swept away again. An adolescent girl is profoundly disturbed by the historical tragedy that pervades her Jewish descent, which she feels will keep her from ever being “normal.”  She is in love with the hopelessly, carelessly beautiful and popular Ethan, played perfectly by Jude Law whose talent I have always found to be brilliantly sensual and cruel at its best. 

Claire Danes is just incredible. Delicate, powerful sensual, she just embodies that time of life so well. And for me, it’s like watching the way I was at that age in a mirror. The feeling, for whatever reason of never being able to fit in, the longing for someone so much, and yet the need to live with that someone more in your mind, in your dreams where it’s safe as opposed to reality where things have a tendency to fall apart and never live up to those dreams. And then there is the story of her grandmother’s survival from the Jewish concentration camps in Auschwitz. Her Grandmother, “Nana”, played just superbly by the great Jeane Moreau, still lives with the memories of being ripped from her own safe memories of normalcy. She lovingly employs the tools of story and beauty and a life of bohemian intellect as diversions to keep her own spirit from being torn apart by the betrayals of her own youth and the deep friendship she shared with a beautiful girl who eventually turned away from her when she needed her most. The connection that Daisy and Nana share with one another, the time they spend together although primarily in leisure is essentially in a space of unearthing hidden wounds and healing from them. 

For me it is heartbreakingly beautiful and it still gets me right at the core. Something about the romance between Daisy and Ethan, between her grandmother and her long lost friend and most evidently, between her and Daisy, mirror each other in the most devastatingly touching way. It never fails to reduce me to tears. Claire Danes could never be normal and thank God. Because how could we ever relate to someone normal, whatever that is? It’s taken me a long time to accept the beauty in the things in myself which do not “fit” in an idea of social normalcy and I consider it a triumphant victory. When I see these things reflected in art and media and any form of personal expression, I applaud them not only out loud but from deep within. Normalcy is a fantasy, a romance. And we need that illusion for contrast in the study of our lives. The truth is much more complicated, and if we look closely, with care, with sensitivity, much more beautiful than any fantasy.

Chris Messina: 28 Hotel Rooms

"What do you like about me?"

I guess I've been on kind of a Messina kick ever since I happened upon "Giant Mechanical Man" a few weeks ago. I remember seeing him for the first time in "Six Feet Under" one of my favorite tv series ever several years ago. I didn't think much of him one way or the other. Then I saw him in "Humboldt County" and wasn't sure what to think. By the time I saw Messina next in "Away We Go" which I loved, I knew at the very least that I liked it when he showed up in a film. After  "Giant Mechanical Man" which I watched over Spring Break I kind of fell like a ton of bricks for Messina and went searching for anything with him in it that was streaming on Netflix and am now obsessed with "The Mindy Project" which is an amazing show with a fantastic cast in it's own rite but which is even more so somehow because a dramatic actor like Messina is on it for some odd reason I can't imagine but am deeply thankful for.

Last night after watching Messina in "28 Hotel Rooms" I'm convinced he has real talent. In fact most of the time I find it hard to believe he is acting. I tend to feel everything he's doing as if it's actually happening and not carefully rehearsed. "28 Hotel Rooms" just to be clear is not just a film to watch so you can see Messina's penis. Although if that's all you're looking for, yeah, you're gonna get some full frontal Messina. Far from the sensation of nudity or sex for that matter, this film is a skillfully edited collection of scenes chronicling the intimacy that evolves between two people, both in relationships or married to other people as they hook up in hotel rooms during business trips over an unknown period of time. The hotel door numbers are used as intertitles/time stamps and nothing else. We see this couple, who they are, what they learn about each other and themselves only when they meet up or end up in these 28 Hotel rooms. It took me a while to really get drawn in because I had a little trouble connecting to the female lead character played by Marin Ireland who I have never seen before. Her character is someone whose conservative ideals are very at odds with my leftist sensibilities and yet it's these kinds of films which make you squirm in discomfort that make you realize how much you have in common even with someone you may never want to speak with or have anything to do with in real life. Her character evolves from a seemingly cold and distancing exterior in the beginning to something inevitably more human and vulnerable by the end. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It's just what happens and it's interesting and a bit harrowing to watch.

Messina's power as I recognize now, even in "Six Feet Under" is in an understated kind of delivery. The irony about this though is that he is able to be about six or seven different versions of his character during the course of this movie. I won't say that he doesn't have range. He does. But at the core is something very "Messina-like" which consists of an astounding ability he has to let himself be on camera without doing too much. He's definitely physical but he never seems to be putting on an act. His very Jewish New York accent, his endearing sort of sideways smile, the way he lets things in with his eyes, feels very much like something I've seen him do to some degree in many of his performances and yet he always seems to temper each performance to make all these same elements evoke something different in the viewer each time. Much is due as well to the director, Matt Ross who creates these somewhat airless hotel interiors where it feels often as if you're right there in the room like a voyeur, observing these two people. Very rarely does he use a musical score when they are dialoging and even when they're not, he just lets the silence be what it is and there are a few really long, pregnant silences where all you can do sit with the awkwardness of what may  may not be happening between these two characters while nothing is being said.

Fave Film Scene Fridays: Dangerous Liaisons

I'm going to skip over the film that is next in line for my next Fave Friday film Scene, "Bob Roberts" in order to talk about my favorite scene in the number ten movie on my fave film list, Dangerous Liaisons. It is a film that I have been a rapt fan of since I first saw it years ago with a great friend of mine as a teenager and have just finished viewing again tonight.

"Her eyes are beginning to close."

There is not one frame, not one move, not one word in this film which has not been calculated to a most intelligent perfection. Everything about it is done masterfully, set design, shots, historical period costumes, music. It is a ballet of wickedness about two very very very bad people who play the most dangerous game of all.

Glenn Close as the Marquis deMarteuil and John Malkovich as Valmont are at the top of their game in every move they make. They meet each other as equals in every scene matching wit for wit and topping one another at every evil turn.

However it's watching Malkovich in this film that always gets to me. He does things so nuanced and clever, so insanely brilliant in this role that I believe them to be yet still unrealized.  With a deadpan, near sickening nonchalance, he delivers a performance that engages you through subtly built up emotional layers to empathize with an absolutely horrible human being. He does something internal that you can actually watch on screen not unlike the method acting process itself as he commences with playing a game he is so well versed in (namely seduction of the deeply virtuous) that he practically does it with hands tied behind his back. By the time he realizes that the line behind which he claims no "illusions"exist is crossed, it is much too late.

My absolute favorite scene in this movie is another completely wordless one, which could not have conveyed it's message more powerfully in any other way. It is the scene in which Valmont realizes he's in love with Madame deTourvel the pious married woman he is determined to seduce. They are all in attendance at an intimate classical singing performance when de Tourvel arrives, and her presence is like something you can feel rising up and driving wedge between the perverse but tight bond between Valmont and de Marteuil. She sits a few seats down from the couple and smiles politely at him. It's like watching him take a bullet. He is nearly undone by her effect on him and astonished possibly that he is even capable of feeling it. Madame deMarteuil watches all of this cooly and with learned dismissiveness as if she is not also reeling from it's affects. Valmont tries to compensate for this momentary lapse by kissing de Martueil's hand as a way of affirm his singular devotion to her, but it's too obvious and for the viewer appears to more strongly declare his genuine affections for Madame deTourvel.

Fave Film Scene Friday: Before Sunset

"I didn't forget about you and it pisses me off"

In the sequel to “Before Sunrise” Jesse and Celine encounter each other once more. When Celine attends a talk Jesse gives in Paris for his first book which chronicles the one day they met nine years ago in Europe they find that much of the magic and intimacy of that chance encounter is still burning beneath the jaded and domestic surfaces of their present daily lives.

There are many moments in “Before Sunset” that I love, so many little sparks and bursts, ebbs and flows that reflect the ease and comfort of their initial back and forth banter from "Before Sunrise." It's like revisiting old friends watching them learn more about one another and re-remember each other all over again. But the scene I love most is in the cab ride when all the shit comes down, when all the pretense is dropped and Celine loses it for a few minutes and lashes out at Jesse for returning and seemingly dangling his marriage and family in her face.  Jesse tells her finally how miserable he really is in his marriage and how even on the day he got married he was thinking of her, how he has a reoccurring dream about her passing him in a train car. “And you go by and you go by and you go by…and I wake up with the fucking sweats….” So much happens in that car ride, it’s almost as if they turn a new corner in their own relationship that begs a whole new question of them in a matter of minutes through sheer, brutal revelation.

Favorite Film Scene Friday (on a Saturday)

My second week doing this and already I've flaked. Well I'm doin it anyway.
My next favorite film scene is from the second movie on my fave list, "Before Sunrise." For a dialogue junky like me, this film is just a parade. And for a person who loves to travel it's got everything I want going for it. There are so many scenes in "Before Sunrise" movie I can call my favorite but the one that really gets to me every single time is one that actually has no dialoge at all.

Jesse and Celine who have only just met hours ago on a train walk into a used record store in Europe and Celine selects an album by Kath Bloom that she likes. She and Jesse go into a listening booth to hear it. What happens in that minute and a half between them is so palpable, sweet and intimate and playful. Whenever I watch it I imagine a range of different things they could be thinking. I imagine the unsaid dialogue that is being exchanged between them as the music and Kath's singing sort of shamelessly exposes Jess and Celines' building affection for one another.

Fave Film Scene Friday: All About Eve

What makes you a woman?

Margo is being driven back to the theater in the city after having spent the weekend upstate with friends Karen and Llyod Richards who unbeknown to her have emptied the gas tank just enough run out of fuel on the way back. They've had it with Margot's bratty bad temper and feel it's about time she learn a lesson by making her miss the first show of a play she's starring in written by Lloyd.

The scene in which Lloyd leaves Margo in the car with Karen to see about getting some gas a few miles ahead is a scene which is perhaps the most somber and lacking in high drama and theatrics of any in the film but it is one of my favorites because it expresses a universal and modern theme of career woman all over America which is that somehow, no matter how much you achieve in this society professionally as a woman, you're still not perceived as being whole or complete without a man. In this particular case of course, Margo totally buys into this idea and longs to have the completion she feels a husband would provide despite the own great personal success. The role of Margo Channing actually mirrors Bette Davis' own life very similarly. As a huge hollywood star she lived to regret the compromise she surely made in her commitment to career over her commitment to her children and failed marriages. But she wanted it all. And like a good friend of mine always says, as a woman you can have it all, just not all at the same time.

Next Friday: Before Sunrise

Favorite Film Scene Friday

 Someone drained the gas tank

Hi film goers! It's been a while. And I've seen some films I love like "Skyfall" and some I'd rather not talk about such as "Django." But I haven't seen any I'd like to go on about at length about for the purpose of a review in quite a while. However, like most avid film lovers I am always watching new films and old favorites  at home; on Netflix streaming mostly. I'm one of those who watches my favorite movies repeatedly and find new things in films I love all the time or just appreciate the ability of a beloved film to repeatedly have the same genuine effect it's had on me from first viewing. Aside from the list of favorite films I have listed in the left sidebar of this blog, there are probably tons of others in my personal collection that I've not even included there.

So that's given me an idea. Every Friday I will post a small entry on one favorite scene from one of my favorite movies. For the sake of order and a little rigor, I will begin with the first film in my fave list and work my way down. I will still review the occasional film if I am moved but this way I will actually be motivated to drop a line here at least once a week.

Film is such a large part of my life but it's a busy life so as much as I think about it I don't always have the time to share my thoughts. I will actually be taking a film studies class this Spring and I am super excited about it to say the least.

So stay tuned to my very first "Favorite Film Scene Friday" this week starting with "All About Eve!" EEEEEEEEE!!!! How will I ever choose one scene?