Natalie's Listening to Dead Horse by G 'n R

Charlie, an acquaintance of an acquaintance. Says neurosurgery becomes boring. So, “it’s not brain surgery” is probably inaccurate. As is “it’s not rocket science,” ‘cause that’s just math. What’s really difficult? Hostage negotiation. Listening to parents tell you what’s wrong with your life choices without explicitly saying so. Ameliorating social ills without aggravating others. Being the politician that before entering office is known for his honesty, three months after he’s been elected. Hearing the gripes of the privileged when you are not. Fighting sentient armed robots.

“It’s not hostage negotiation.” It’s not trite so no one actually knows what you mean until you explain it, making it something you can’t just throw into the ambient dialogue to fill space. I tried it. You shouldn’t. Don’t try the robot one either. If you have to use one, the hostage negotiation is the better choice, but still unacceptable as I established earlier.

What does this lead to? The conclusion that our language is a trap. I can’t claim to know whether this is true in all languages, as I am unilingual. But in English…

Orwell hated idiomatic language, equating its unthinking separation of intention from expression with fascism. And I believe him. But if we avoid assorted clichés and instead try to be original with what we say we are bewildering to our interlocutors, are even harder to understand. So I don’t know what to do when I speak or write. There is no way to say something meaningful in a way that is transmitted pristinely to another. I can combine words in innovative ways in an attempt to match word for thought-pattern exactly what I want to say, but it will violate a syntax or the unique combinations will connote something different in the listener than my intention. Or I can use only established patterns like Pacey on Dawson’s Creek hoping that by throwing enough hackneyed phrases together that the familiarity of the rhythms will allow a deeper meaning to filter in to the other’s brain. Neither is what I need. So I will never be able to really explain anything of substance to anyone.

I still sleep okay.

Small thoughts about 18 films 10-18

10. Silk. So why did I see this one? I was a sucker for The Red Violin, the same director. I thought it would be beautiful - a trader ventures to Japan to collect silkworms in the decade preceding the Meiji Restoration and falls in love. But it wasn't that beautiful. Michael Pitt was impenetrable; I never knew what he felt. The scenery should had a bigger role. Maybe it's because I'm Canadian, where our literature presents setting as character as often as people.

11. I'm Not There. This was the Bob Dylan biopic. I'd rather watch this than any other biopic I can think of, except for maybe Capote. Because it tried to capture the person through several meta-analyses. It presented him as if his former lives (Woodie Guthrie, Arthur Rimbaud, etc.) were parts of his real life story, or through fake documentary of made-up people that were very similar to him. However, it also removed the bearings you have in a biopic, making me feel at times lost. This is maybe irrational, but part of me really wants to know how far I am into a film. What more do I need to commit to this? Should I be bracing for leaving this film world yet? I couldn't do that here.

12. Le Scaphandre et le Papillon. The story sounded bleak, a magazine editor suffers a stroke that leaves his only means of communication the blinking of his left eye. Through a simple system of alphabet recitations and yes or no blinks, he recites his memoir. Then I saw the trailer, and it looked like it would be in some ways whimsical, with his memories and dreams merging as he lives imprisoned in his body. It was neither. It wasn't bleak and it wasn't whimsical. Instead, it was sad, honest, and funny.

13. Alexandra. The only other Sokurov I had seen was Russian Ark. And this one wasn't an experiment, it was just a film. It presents war in a different way than I've seen. The Grandmother of a Russian Captain visits him on base in Chechnya. She treats all soldiers as her grandson, spoiling them with one hand while she disciplines them with the other. It's quite clever how she manipulates them. Then she visits the town without permission and creates a friendship with a local woman her age. It's this relationship above anything else that explains the perspective on war that the film portrays. It was equal parts refreshing to see these themes presented in this way, and unsatisfying that it didn't have more to say about it.

14. Flash Point. No, I didn't see SPL last year, so I can't compare this. This is Hong Kong action cinema. It was 2/3 a throwaway police drama, and 1/3 unbelievably exciting Mixed Martial Arts crazy shit. Unfortunately it was divided timewise this way too. After sitting through the first parts, it probably made the last sequences seem that much better. I need to see SPL.

15. La Fille Coupee en Deux. Claude Chabrol seems lazy to me. It's a story (or two stories) that I've seen many times. A woman must choose between two men, one significantly older, married and (depending on your sexual politics) abusive, the other rich and devoted but her own age and possibly unbalanced. The other story is what the rich can get away with. It is, however, told in one narrative. It just seemed to me that any time I tried to get a handle on some piece of symbolism or intention it was left meaningless. The film starts in an amniotic red, with overhead lights shaking across the screen, their light trails making them appear sperm-like. The character we are following is a minor character in the story, not one of the three, and not one of the rich. Does that sound like it fits the themes above? I don't know. It's still an enjoyable drama, but that depth is missing I think.

16. Dai-Nipponjin. A documentary film crew follows around a super-hero in his daily activities. When Japan needs him, he is electrically grown to building-sized, where he fights absolutely absurd "baddies". The documentary side is very subtle on the humor making me think I was missing a whole lot in the translation. Unfortunately, the big battles were done in CGI and didn't match at all with the documentary feel. I'd have liked to see it better integrated. Sony managed to do what I wanted to see in its Ratchet and Clank commercials years ago. Surely they could have done better? The last 20 minutes turns into Ultraman or some other reference that I have no clue about seeing as I ain't no Otaku. The absurdity of it is still funny, and the closing credits are brilliant, but I know I missed the meaning. I felt like the 12 year-olds watching Family Guy who think that the everything is random and I just want to tell them that Stewie hitchhiking in the rain is Bruce Banner, it's not random, it's referential.

17. Joy Division. I'm not going to watch documentaries in the theatre anymore. This was a good documentary, with some nice techniques that really reflect the subject matter. But it's still a documentary, and that's TV. I stopped going to Doc Soup and Hot Docs, why did I think I should go see this one? Should have seen Control instead despite my above-noted feelings about biopics.

18. A L'Interieur. Is there a word to describe the feeling that the entire audience was clearly feeling? It's better captured in phrases like "No...they wouldn't do that in a movie, would they? Oh god, they are. Should I plug my ears or shut my eyes, which part of the horror I'm about to experience will be the part that gives me nightmares, the sound or the picture?" This was brilliant. The antagonist shares a bit with Black Christmas' Billy, in that the motivation and behaviour are completely fucked up and unclear, making the tension that much better. This film builds up better than any I've seen in a long time. Alas, the ending has problems, depending on how you interpret it. I don't want to say more about it because you should see this if you are a sick bastard like apparently I am. I can't think of a better way to end the festival...

Small thoughts about 18 films 1-9

This is what I saw at TIFF this year (2007), in case you're interested:

1. The Mother of Tears. Asia Argento is a sort-of-hot version of her father. Seeing them stand side-by-side made it more apparent that she is sort of haggard-faced like him, but in four-inch heels her legs are far better than his. I'm commenting on her instead of the movie 'cause the movie was pretty bad. But not bad as in I didn't like it, just really poor ADR throughout, and atrocious dialogue. And the climax was incredibly disappointing.

2. The Man from London. This was the one by Bela Tarr that everyone at Cannes hated. Someday I will tell you about the worst Q&A ever that occurred after this screening, but not today. I quite like the film. I think people didn't like the fact that the plot wasn't strong, or even present, really. This is because the plot is a crime story, and despite that, very little happens. But people expect plot from a crime story. If the subject matter had been love or misery, 12-minute long shots of ship's hulls would be more acceptable I suppose. But I love that the film spent too much time on random tangents - people who had no place in the plot are given enough time to tell their own story through their actions - and how Tarr shows objects (and plays sounds) out of context that become real when presented later. It's fun guessing what it means, like when Owl Magazine used to have extreme close-up pictures that you tried to figure out, and it ended up being a close up of a carpet but you guessed that it was a sweater.

3. Frontiere(s). A French horror film that starts out in the midst of the Paris riots, and ends up as a Nazi Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It had every cliche possible, but somehow it made more sense to me than many similar horror films have in the past. I mean from a motivation point of view. And there were scenes in it that were sufficiently fucked up. I think the director's film Hitman will be worth watching when it comes out.

4. George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead. Yep. This is really good. Opening night of the zombie invasion again, like with Night of the Living Dead, but the social commentary is media, myspace, and the remake of Dawn.

5. Nightwatching. Peter Greenaway made this, and presented it like we were soooo lucky to be able to watch his films. But it was very interesting, without most of his usual tricks. Still plenty of penii shown, but a period piece that made me care about the characters, want to find out the mystery behind Rembrandt's The Night Watch, and revel in the beautiful tableaux he constructed. Martin Freeman (Tim from the Office) plays Rembrandt, and he was very funny, very vulnerable, and very human. Better cast as Rembrandt than as Arthur Dent.

6. Stuck. OMG Mena Suvari is thin. I shouldn't care, but it was strange because she's a pretty major actress I suppose, and she made Midnight Madness feel like a soulless gala because the photographers were smitten. It's entertaining and does a good job at showing how awful people are to other people, even when they are good in other areas of their lives.

7. Margot at the Wedding. What happened between Noah Baumbach and his Mom? I thought I could piece it together from The Squid and the Whale but I guess I wasn't quite there. Nicole Kidman is the fucked up mom in this one, and she shows exactly what not to do when dealing with children. Or people. Or dealing with anything. Or being. God, everyone is so hateful in his films. He makes hugging your children seem manipulative.

8. Sukiyaki Western Django. Quentin Tarrantino acts in this and his performance ISN'T AWFUL!!! Part of me loved the chaos of this film, but another part of me thought it could be a lot better. And I don't know why. Which makes me feel dumb. So, assorted impressions instead: The town sheriff does a good Gollum-styled conversation with himself. The leader of the Genjii (white) has great style and some nice sword-play. Best Akira reference ever. 20 minutes too long, but nothing was really redundant.

9. The Devil's Chair. I was so excited to see what appeared to be Hellraiser style, alternate-demon-filled-world, and was let down. Then there was the Trainspotting/Goodfellas freeze-frame with narration thing. It gave it energy, it removed the usual story-building blahs in a good horror. But it made the whole thing feel hollow. Have you seen Session 9? It wasn't good either, was it? And it had David Caruso.