Frederic Erk

Posts Tagged ‘Movies’

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Sense of wonder

In Uncategorized on January 20, 2010 at 11:33 am

James Cameron

Sense of wonder



A second look revealed that beyond its stunning visual experience, “Avatar” is a philosophic, and yet candid, interpretation of our duality between the reality of science and technology, and fundamental aspiration to love and sense of wonder.

“DON’T LOOK, watch” said Ruskin, so as I returned to Angers for a second look at James Cameron’s “Avatar”, I had the firm intention to observe, analyse and understand why this film is so popular, and the reasons of this success. That I was moderately successful is a fact, as I got carried away again.

The first time I saw “Avatar” the stunning landscape of Pandora, the home world of the Na’vi, really impressed me with its breathtaking floating mountains, formidable trees and enlightened forests at night. The scenes of flight, as the hero is mastering the skill of flying his banshee, are a marvellous moment of cinema. The romantic love between Neytiri and Jack Scully will certainly blossom into romance worldwide, as the excitement and adventure of their relationship are so charming. Yes, the journey of a life can begin with a smile, I know that.

“Avatar” belongs to the category of initiatory films, like “Jeremiah Johnson”, “Dancing with Wolves” and “A Man Called Horse”. I believe that “A Man Called Horse” is emotionally stronger than “Avatar” because the picture of the Indian tribe is cruel and realistic, as the survival in those mountains is tough. “Avatar” is a bit lacking when it comes to the Na’vi culture as I believe that the survivability of the tribe in the dangerous forests of Pandora would make their character both tougher and gentler. To me the Na’vi remain abstract and spiritual, not real. They could be the gentle inhabitants of Tahiti when the “Bounty” arrived.

James Cameron has chosen “Avatar” and not “Pandora”, or “Save the Na’vi!”. And I hope that there will be no pornographic attempt with “In the Na’vi” (not Navy, mind you.) As I stated before, porn industry is invading too many subjects, especially films. Back to the subject of “Avatar”, which is more healthy and hopeful. “Avatar” is a kind of modern Frankenstein being, the result of a genetic experiment to mix human and Na’vi DNA. Perhaps I missed the point in my earlier reviews of this film, exactly like critics thought that “The Sea Wolf” was a romantic story, while it was eminently philosophic.

I think that James Cameron is a man of paradoxes, as his films are filled with soldiers and mercenaries, but eventually only the warriors with an ideal do prevail, and technology is opposed to the wonder of Nature, but at the same time technology is the tool unlocking the Pandora box. James Cameron is like a promising child, whose innocent dreams are filled with the wonders of science and technology (O the Stanford T-shirt of Grace in the film!) and the belief in the fundamental values of Man, like courage, love and the sense of wonder.

It is precisely the sense of wonder which is so appealing to me in “Avatar”. Machines of war and destruction are so realistically rendered, like icons of destruction. Soldiers are superhuman, tough, courageous and enduring. Women are graceful and loving, but also dangerous and fighting when they have to. Think of the chopper pilot, Trudy, who is so cute and fierce.

The Na’vi are so integrated into Pandora’s harmony, both physically and spiritually, that they are not interested with the things mankind has to offer. The Na’vi are keeping to themselves, and don’t let strangers in, because they feel that humans are so filled with knowledge, violence and belief in science and technology, that they have become ill, or mad. The indifference of the Na’vi is one of fundamental difference of way of like and philosophy. While humans are educated and formatted the Na’vi practise a life long learning of the marvellous complexity of their home world. Where the humans send bulldozers, the Na’vi tread delicately.

As the film is closing on a rebirth, I think it would be interesting to think about the consequences of that battle for the Na’vi. Will Jack Scully remain a warrior in time of peace, and prepare his tribe to the probable return of humans on Pandora?  Or will he melt into the Eiwa Oneness of harmony and non-intervention, now that Eiwa has proven its ability to defend itself against predators? We shall see that in a sequel as I am sure that “Avatar” is the beginning of a new era for the next decade.

On a closing note I would like to talk about the truly revolutionary aspect of this film, which is to remotely pilot a living being by thought. That I was not shocked or troubled with this does prove how used I have become to the notion of virtual reality within the context of games. First person shooters and RPGs are games where you are piloting a being in a virtual world, and the better the game, the more you feel part of the virtual world of it. When Neytiri admires the fearlessness of Jack Scully, it is possible to think that Jack is safe in his laboratory, but this would miss the point of the fundamental empathy of Jack with his “Avatar”. He is his Avatar.

The idea of living a second life in a virtual world is not new, since “Tron” or “Matrix”. With “Avalon” I think it was the first time when reality was considered secondary, even irrelevant to the point of confusing the senses. And it is also the first time when it was stated that those venturing too far would not return. “Avatar” is going further with a seminal closing sequence, which has the power of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001, A Space Odyssey” when the human being ventures to touch the Monolith and is born again as a Star Child.

“Avatar” has multiple interpretations, but its true value is one of Hope in the fundamental values of mankind, which are not greed or destruction, but love and sense of wonder.

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Groundhog Day: Eternity in a nutshell

In Uncategorized on January 19, 2010 at 9:14 am

Harold Ramis

Eternity in a nutshell

A review of “Groundhog Day” by Harold Ramis


A weatherman is caught in a time capsule and condemned to relive the same day over and over, in spite of his multiple attempts to escape while trying to seduce the lady of his dreams.

The synopsis does not bring justice to the quality of the film and talent of Bill Murray. Harold Ramis, the director of “Ghostbusters”, is a man of paradox who likes to juggle with reality to the great entertainment of his public, and highlight the common miracles and tragedies of our every day life.

“Groundhog Day” is a film with unexpected depth, as the farce is cruel and the redemption, both inventive and touching. Bill Murray has the facial expression of a fox terrier about to pee, and he is irresistible. And we really share with him the agony of this modern Sisyphus, trying to cope with the absurdity of living the same day, over and over, without being able to modify destiny.

What Harold Ramis wants to tell us is that happiness and purpose in life do come as a reward to what we give to the world. Bill Murray will use and abuse the seemingly endless possibilities of living without future, from the hilarious kidnapping of the groundhog, to the helpless seduction of the woman he loves. But it is only when he realises the potential of his predicament that his journey truly begins.

This film is about the power I have, you have, and everyone has to transform his life into something marvellous and meaningful. I think of that transformation as nothing less dramatic than a revolution of values. Copernicus told us that Earth was not the centre of the universe. I believe it was important to understand we are part of Universe, not the centre of it.

Bill Murray is transforming the little city hosting a groundhog into a thriving community of people. So moving it is when he is trying to save that old man who is living on the street, and day after day, he will fail to save his life, as it was his destiny to die. What can be more awakening to the fragility of life than witnessing the same person die, over and over?

Personally I have seen that film many times, and yet I don’t feel trapped in a time capsule. I have seen it as a comedy, partly romantic, but tonight I watched with the eyes of a man who has seen death, and is coping with it. And the film has touched me, as it is a true lesson of life.

I think that there are very few films who can both bring me to tears and smiles. “Groundhog Day” is a comedy, but it is really a story of redemption and love. It is because Bill Murray does understand that he can change the world even for a single day, without expecting something in return, that he becomes a man. I think of Stanislaw Lem wonderful sentence: “He waited for the return of a cruel miracle without expecting it.”

As a way of life, it is a troubling lesson, and I am very sensitive to the idea of living the present and trying to get the most of it, without thinking about the future. Bill Murray does it when he begins to enjoy doing it, without thinking about doing it. I have felt the same marvellous feeling when planting trees and caring for my mother, or my dogs. It is a blessing to stop thinking about the future and enjoy the present in a meaningful way.

“Groundhog Day” is a fascinating love story. Beyond the sad endeavour to seduce a woman with her preferred dishes and drinks, Harold Ramis tells the story of the miracle of love. When Bill Murray is playing in the snow with Andie McDowell, there is that fleeting moment of eternity as he tries to get close, and relive the magic of it. Because he is trying to replicate happy moments, he is incapable of living the present. No comedy since Ernst Lubitsch “Heaven Can Wait” demonstrated so well the alchemy of love, and the grace of unexpected moments of truth.

It is a cruel miracle to relive the same day, over and over. It could be the definition of purgatory, as Hell is perhaps endless repetition of the same task, without giving yourself to it. “Groundhog Day” could be the comic variant of the nightmarish “Jacob’s Ladder” by Adrian Lyne. The time capsule of Bill Murray is symbolic of our condition of human beings, trapped in our destiny, but able to move mountains and change the course of history, say when we are in love. Which I am, lucky me.

Thank you.

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Four Brothers and a funeral

In Uncategorized on January 18, 2010 at 8:07 pm

John Singleton

Four brothers and a funeral

A review of “Four Brothers” by John Singleton

Imagine a family without a father, but with four kids adopted by a loving mother. And now think of her being murdered by a local gangster and the four brothers united to avenge her death.

Welcome to Detroit, Bro.

It is not Los Angeles, but Detroit suburbs in winter. It is Thanksgiving and it could be a peaceful time, but for the duty to look for answers. Why would anyone care to kill such a charming old lady? Is it a tragic mistake, or is there a hidden purpose? Answers seem to point at a local gangster with connections in the police and city council.

John Singleton has the gentle touch of a Chester Himes when it comes to describing the turbulent life and revenge of those four petty gangsters taking on the local big boss. It is a family of United Colors, where Latino girlfriends are cruising in the stairs while boys have a shower or a shit parlour.

The police is corrupt and inefficient, but for a black inspector, with whom the brothers used to play hockey on the streets. It is not the dark picture of a classic tragedy by James Grey as in the splendid “We Own The Night”. It has the Southern drawl of Harlem and the New Orleans. Family is about food, but without the spaghetti gore of Francis Ford Coppola.

The revenge will be bloody of course, and tragic for the little innocent brother, who is used to be consulted when it comes to homosexuality and various penis related issues. The local big boss will take a cold plunge in the icy waters of Detroit, but without too much fuss. Detroit is a city with a past of unions and big factories, and it is worth recalling that one should always be careful with his employees. Don’t expect Scorsese drama in sophisticated New-York, or James Ellroy madness in L.A.

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Agora (film)

In Uncategorized on January 14, 2010 at 9:47 am

Alejandro Amenábar

Heaven and Earth

A review of “Agora” by Frederic W. Erk

Since the days of Sergio Leone, there have been few films so talkative as “Agora”. This is not really a surprise as in Ancient Greece Agora was the open public space used for assemblies and markets. In Alexandria of the 4th century after the death of Jesus Christ, it is still an open public place, but assemblies and markets are debating Gods and scholars with tragic consequences.

The purpose of “Agora” is ambitious, perhaps too ambitious. Like the heavy bag Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) is using to demonstrate the trajectory of falling objects, “Agora” falls short of its original purpose, because Alejandro Amenábar has forgotten that the primary purpose of a film is to entertain. “Agora” has the lightness of a brick and Alejandro Amenábar the delicacy of a budding Wagner.

His film is balancing between two poles of attraction, exactly like the elliptic trajectory of Earth around the Sun. Alejandro Amenábar obviously could not decide if his film was about Alexandria, the fall of the Roman Empire, the bloodshed of religious fanaticism, Christianity, a woman loved by two men, or astronomy. This ambiguity is confusing because every time the film achieves greater empathy with its characters, Alejandro Amenábar introduces visual interference with long travelling views of Earth and stars.

“Agora” is a film about the belief in perfection in Heaven and on Earth. Christians worship one God, and the symbolism of the Cross is more dangerous to mankind that Gods with flower pots on their heads. Hypatia fails to understand Heaven because she believes that Heaven is perfect. Alejandro Amenábar thinks that the quest for an ideal of perfection is the greatest danger of all.

The Cosmos of “Agora” is about silent planets rotating around the Sun, and the turmoil of Alexandria around the core of the Library. Roman soldiers try to control vociferating crowds. Assemblies of priests and patricians argue without end. Hypatia is teaching students the Ptolemaic system of celestial orbits. Christians burn people on the public place and perform grand charity afterwards.

Since this is a film about bipolarity, Hypatia has two lovers, and she is oscillating between them, while keeping a reasonable distance, in an endless ellipse of attraction and repulsion.There is young Orestes (Oscar Isaac) who pursues Hypatia with public declarations of love. There is the slave Davus (Max Minghella) who is burning with passionate, but silent love for Hypatia.

If we use the metaphor of Earth elliptic orbit around Sun, then Davus is the aphelion as he is the distant lover, a thug of the Paraballani soldiers of Christ. Orestes is perihelion, closest to Hypatia, socially and intellectually speaking. Davus is a man of deeds and anger, fascinated with violence. Orestes is a man of words and compromise, delicate and fragile.

Hypatia is passionate about her quest to understand the laws governing the movement of planets. She is a woman in doubt, too. Her father loved a woman, and she is the fruit of that love. But to marry is to abandon studies and teaching. She wants to be free, and her endless fight to remain free and honest with herself is more moving than the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

When Orestes tries to convince her of his love, she replies he should find a proper muse like music for instance. Orestes then declares his love in public and plays a soulful melody with flutes. The next day Hypatia answers by presenting him with a shawl soiled with menstrual blood, and asking him if this is compatible with his desire of ideal love. To her only the love of philosophy and mathematics can be ideal.

The film is divided in two parts. There is the revolt of the Christians and fall of the Library of Alexandria. And there is the Second Revolt of the Christians, ending in the massacre of the Jews, the destruction of the civil authority of Rome and the violent death of Hypatia.

Alejandro Amenábar has no tenderness for his male heroes. They are weak, in perpetual doubt, and cannot provide protection and love to Hypatia without soiling or killing her. “Agora” is the story of men failing the woman they love. Hypatia will die virgin, and yet the deadly embrace of her killer is more erotic than vindictive.

It is a strange film. It has the grandeur of the last scenes of the “Fall of the Roman Empire” and “Schindler’s List”. But Alexandria is not Rome or Krakow. Egypt was always a thorn to the Roman Empire. While it took twenty years to a Gaul to become Senator of Rome, it took four hundred years to an Egyptian. Egypt was already decadent by the time Caesar landed. Five centuries later it is the receptacle of all decay the Roman Empire could muster.

The Christians’ Paraballani thugs own the streets like Nazi SA. Their religious understanding of Jesus Christ is to crucify all the infidels and absolute obedience to their charismatic leader, Cyril.

The two lovers of Hypatia form a strange combination of romantic ideals. Davus is the closest to a real lover, and he is the one who will kill Hypatia so she is spared the agony of torture. Orestes has the oily look of a decadent Greek student of philosophy. He spends time killing Christians, before joining their ranks to become Prefect of Alexandria. He will eventually betray Hypatia to counter the growing power of the Christian leader Cyril.

Rachel Weisz is convincing, and yet her fragility is ambiguous. Why does Hypatia enter the public arena to challenge the Christian leader Cyril? Why does she not focus on her studies only? This is intellectual interventionism in public affairs and she will pay the ultimate price for her commitment to an ideal of perfection and freedom.

Like Anna Politkovskaya in Russia, Hypatia will not yield. Her death is an obscene waste of youth and talent. The End of Times is nigh in Alexandria.

“Agora” is a political manifesto for tolerance. Alejandro Amenábar believes that our civilisation is fragile. 1,500 years ago the Roman Empire declined and fell because of internal bankruptcy, corruption and religious fanaticism. Fanaticism has the power of simple answers to complicated questions. It is rooted in our desire for perfection and spiritual elevation.

Our modern society has new idols of technology and science. Alejandro Amenábar is warning us of the danger of believing these idols will make our life perfect and happy. There is no happiness, but madness, destruction and fanaticism in the quest of perfection.

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La Discrète (film)

In Uncategorized on January 12, 2010 at 2:11 pm

Christian Vincent

The tang of finality

A review of “La Discrète” by Frederic Erk

The skies of August are set ablaze with shooting stars, and you will wonder how you could think of space as emptiness. If someone asked me about French films there would be that awkward moment of silence, so dreaded by lovers. I would think of those black-and-white classics with actors like Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Michel Simon or Jean Gabin. If I was German, I would answer “Les Enfants du Paradis”, which escaped Nazi censure by adopting the romantic tone of a defeated land. But I am French, and as such I want more than a glorious past, I want a thriving present.

As the questioner would begin to wonder if I have gastric issues, I would come to life again, and give one short answer, which is “La Discrète”. O, this is not a famous film, but it has the delicate and unforgettable quality of a French breakfast, when it is served in a popular café as you are surrounded with people talking about their daily life, and the steam of coffee machines.

There are three kinds of French film directors. There are the shitty ones; those who make shit; and those who are real film directors. Christian Vincent is a real film director. “La Discrète” is like a painting of Salvador Dali. The more you think of it, the more you will become fascinated with the depth of it. It is like a croissant, it looks deceptively simple and innocent in your plate, but will reveal great complexity and marvellous richness of taste.

Think of Machiavelli without the need to find a job, and you will begin to understand why French intellectuals can be cutting like the rapiers of their duelling masters. Christian Vincent has indeed the delicate pace of a Maistre d’Armes as he would take his time for the killing. French culture is about that Art of choosing few words, and yet unforgettable ones.

Antoine (Fabrice Luchini), the narrator and protagonist of “La Discrète”, has the virility of French intellectuals, which is coiled and dominating within the boundaries of a boudoir where sophisticated women are expected to fall for those mastering the art of duelling with words.

The film takes its title from a seductive artificial beauty mark upper-class women of the 18th century adorned themselves with to attract male attention. On the chin, it was called “La Discrète”. When Antoine meets Catherine (Judith Henry) it becomes his nickname for her in his diary.

The film is not a charming comedy of seduction, a Marivaudage in French, but a thriller in the game of love, as Antoine will discover that women, especially unsophisticated ones, master the supreme weapon of seduction, which is sincere passion. And there is no winner, only losers in that game, when it is played out of ennui or revenge.

His pride stung by a woman dumping him before he could, Antoine opens his heart to his friend Jean (Maurice Garrel), a rare-book collector and exclusive publisher, whose complex character is part father and confident, part Mephistopheles. Jean proposes a literary experiment to Antoine, both as a mean to elevate him from his condition of parliamentary speechwriter, and to take revenge against the opposite sex. Antoine has thus to write the diary of a romance, where he is to seduce a woman under 25, make love to her, and then break up with her after their first sexual encounter.

To Christian Vincent, Paris is a world of duelling genders with battles taking place in cafe before coitus in bed if the nuptial song was a success. Catherine has the intensity of a French Madonna, both in the directness of her speech and lovely sad smile.

The first meeting with Antoine is a scene of mutual bravado, as both know they have found a match, and yet wonder why. Antoine returns to Jean with a the description of an awful girl, too ugly and common. Catherine returns home wondering why a parrot like Antoine would like to sleep with her.

Jean is thrilled with the portrait of Catherine as he feels that Antoine is meeting resistance. Catherine is not the kind of sophisticated women Antoine is used to. She is a real woman, and seduction is not a game for her.  James Ivory would have painted a closed drama in Edwardian tones, but Christian Vincent has the cutting edge of French Man of Letters, and there is no pity in his story.

Every trick of Antoine is countered with the flat gaze of Catherine. Unmoving like a statue, she is seizing that caricature of a man. Their first night together in a chic place is a dazzling opportunity for approaching their true nature, as he is telling stories, and as she is guessing when they would be making love.

In that night of Paris, he is the one staying away from the warmth of her bed, while she is pleading for him to join her as her feet are so cold. As they are entwined, Catherine tells her story of a young woman who dared prostitution in England to observe how men grow infantile when it comes to having sex. Antoine is petrified as his world of beliefs in male superiority is destroyed, and his plot turned against him. How shallow his world is compared to the experiences of that little innocent looking girl.

Their parting is one of lovers, and learning that, Jean has to pull the strings with the brutality of a betrayed lover. The story ends as it began, with Antoine returning to his writing and Catherine coming back to her familial home in the countryside.

Visually the film is superb, as Paris is shown in shades of grey hues, and cafes have the glow of many forgotten battles. Schubert’s D817 Hungarian Melody provides the sad tang of finality when love stories fail.

Christian Vincent was in his twenties as he directed that masterpiece. I can only think of genius. The last comment of the film is that when you see someone, you only see the half of it. Indeed, divine Janus, looking forward and backward, God of war and peace in Ancient Rome, when we see we only see one facet.

This is the film which made me proud to be French. There were glorious masters, like Marcel Bluwal and his formidable “Don Juan”, or the fruitful years of collaboration with Italian film directors like Dino Risi, and I think of course of “Il Sorpasso”. But that is the past, however glorious, and Christian Vincent’s film is about today. Bravo, bravo!

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Violence des Echanges En Milieu Tempéré (film)

In Uncategorized on January 11, 2010 at 11:31 am

Jean-Marc Moutout

The French Dilemma

A review of “Violence des Echanges En Milieu Tempéré” by Frederic W. Erk

Destructive alternative

Destructive alternative

France is a land of contradiction. It is a Republic and has destroyed meritocracy. It has one of the last Communist Party in Europe, but elects reactionary and populist Sarkozy as President. French culture is elitist and exclusive, and yet the French just love American pop culture. We are a land of romantic lovers, and husbands rape and murder their wives in increasing numbers.

“The Economist” wrote in its survey of France dated 26 October 2006 that French teachers and intellectuals are leftists. This would explain the reluctance of French students to integrate the world of business. The contradiction is that France is hosting elitist Grandes Ecoles like “H.E.C” and popular Universities with radically opposed values of excellence and merit. France is “The Art of Impossible”, according to “The Economist”.

France is a land of social unrest and recurrent strikes. Winter time is for SNCF and Air France strikes. Summer is for truckers and farmers. French people are joking about Air France real job, which is to be on strike.

France has a Ministry of Culture, which is to distribute medals of merit to foreign artists and be lavish with tax payers’ money that French movie directors can make movies about French decline and American globalisation.

Film industry of France is about making movies no one wants to see. There are exceptions, though, to this rule of thumb. From time to time a French film director can make a movie, which is not about despair, suicidal intellectuals and ordinary French mediocrity. Unfortunately “Violence Des Echanges En Milieu Tempere” is not an exception to that rule.

This is the story of a young man, who goes to Paris to make a career. He meets a girl. His job is to provide consultancy services to companies in trouble. His mentor is a French ambitious Young Turk, who is making his living out of firing people and optimising profits for shareholders. The girl is leftist, anarchist and (surprise) working as flight attendant for Air France.

If the plot sounds familiar, it is because American movies have explored that subject with great assiduity and talent. Billy Wilder would have made a sarcastic masterpiece in the like of “The Apartment”. Alas, French director Jean-Marc Moutout has made a movie about a young ordinary French couple, which is discovering that living together is about sharing the same values in life.

The young apprentice in love and business will turn into a master, meaning that he will dump the girl and get promoted for firing people. His philosophy has evolved from empathy to self-pity and selfishness. Hollywood would have tried to find a balance between those two extremes. “Fun with Dick and Jane” is about two people trying to survive and who end up saving others. French ethics is the reverse. You begin with trying to save the world and end up caring for yourself only.

The movie provides a gallery of characters with a potential for elevating the story to the next level. There is the director of a workshop who is living the reorganisation of his business as a personal tragedy. He knows everyone in his team and has to choose who will stay and who will be fired. This struggle between his conscience and his loyalty is a credit to the movie. There is also the cook at the cafeteria who is dedicated to integrate French society as the son of an immigrant. His disappointment is the only tragedy of the movie.

The Spanish play “El Método” illustrated the manipulation of the individual in the sphere of business management and consultancy. It highlighted the personal choice of saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a Faustian dilemma. “Violence des Echanges En Milieu Tempéré” is a movie about the contradiction in French society between its elitist entrepreneurship and socialist values of integration and justice. It could have been the movie of a personal revolt and redemption, of a fight to amend the system by adopting its rules to better combat them. Alas, it is only the statement of a society of individuals living for themselves and hoping for the best, with no vision for the future.

French films are about destructive alternatives. “La Discrète” is about love and betrayal. “Violence Des Echanges En Milieu Tempéré” is about love and business. Why could a French director not make a film about someone in love and doing better in business? France is the land of Romance, and yet French lovers are cold dilettante. What they take, they forsake it. Why are the French so pessimistic? I am dreaming of my country laughing to destiny and challenges with a grin of universal meaningfulness. Shall we have another Revolution to achieve this?

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Cerro Torre, Schrei aus Stein (film)

In Uncategorized on January 10, 2010 at 12:44 am
Cerro Torre, Scream of Stone

Cerro Torre, Scream of Stone

Bruce Chatwin was a kid when he heard for the first time the name “Patagonia”. It was during a security exercise typical of the Cold War. Pupils would wear gas masks and follow their teacher, hand in hand. It was long before Chernobyl. But little Bruce thought that he wanted to go there, to Patagonia, where atomic radiation cannot harm you.

This is a story of a mad man. Werner Herzog has the stature of a Don Quixote. He has the slow deliberate speech of the dreamer. Werner Herzog is walking the thin line between madness and German romantic character. Voila, un homme! would have said Napoleon. His dreams are about lush jungles, great torrents and placid rivers. Madmen are walking those lands of freedom and conquering empires with words.

So it is than one day little Werner decided to climb a mountain. And he chose Patagonia for Bruce Chatwin. This is the land of the winds, where trees grow as shrubs. Everyday there is a victory of persistence against the winds. In that land of cracking icebergs, crystal clear lakes and blizzards, there is a mountain, unknown but for the best climbers in the world. Welcome to Cerro Torre, Scream of Stone.

Imagine a pillar of stone erected by forgotten Gods, where the winds can change the weather in a matter of minutes. The North face is defying the laws of physics, straight to the top like a needle covered with ice. And the South face is bare rock, golden to the glorious rays of the sun.

So came Ruggia, the most experienced climber in the world. Thrice he attempted to conquer the Cerro Torre, and thrice he had to turn back. He is stalking that mountain like Captain Ahab the White Whale, pacing and waiting for favourable weather. Like a magnet the Cerro Torre has the power to attract madmen and defeat them utterly.

His team of four people, including his mistress, is impatient and stirring. There is the potential rival of Ruggia, a young athlete, who believes Ruggia has not the guts to climb. And while Ruggia is driving to town for food, which is an expedition of two days, he decides to take his chance with Hans, the best friend of Ruggia.

When Ruggia returns, it is to discover that Hans is dead, while Martin is forcefully pretending he conquered the Cerro Torre. Deeply affected by the death of Hans, Ruggia decides to stay in Patagonia, while Martin returns to Germany to reap the glory of his allegedly conquest.

But the Cerro Torre is a powerful magnet and continues to attract both men in a spiral of death. In Germany Martin is a hero and soon the mistress of Ruggia is falling for him. But deep inside, he has visions of Hans dying and of his own fear. Ruggia has the life of a hermit, waiting for the right moment to face his destiny on the Cerro Torre.

Comes the Third Man, or what is left of him. Like Ruggia, he lives near the Cerro Torre. Refusing wine, he has the fanatic eyes of the believer. He conquered the Cerro Torre years ago, and lost his fingers on the summit. He did it for the love of Mae West, because she did not reciprocate. So he kept writing until she answered, Come, Come, and Have the Climb of your Life.

Martin is continuously challenged by Ruggia’s friends in Germany, so he decides to prove he can conquer the Cerro Torre in front of television cameras. Soon the area around the summit is full of television crew, but a blizzard is coming, and the Cerro Torre is waiting, silent pillar of stone.

The next morning has the eerie silence of a rebirth. Ruggia is walking to his destiny, firmly decided to conquer or die. Martin is taking on the South face, as he is climbing bare hands.

Soon the snow is back, and the wind is playing with both men, as they try to make progress. Eventually there is only one last obstacle, the crown of ice over a precipitous backdrop of 2,000 meters. While Ruggia is advancing slowly and painstakingly, Martin is rushing for the summit, until the ice ruptures, and sends him to join his fathers.

Left alone, but in shock, Ruggia finally reaches the summit to discover that the Third Man had told the truth. There is the picture of Mae West illuminated with the golden rays of the setting sun.

Werner Herzog is a man of spiritual beliefs. Who would want to risk his life conquering that summit, but a fool or a madman? And yet, Ruggia and Martin are two opposites of the same right stuff. Martin has the impetuosity and gallantry of youth. Ruggia has the quality and nobility provided by experience and age.

Cerro Torre is a scream of stone and hurt. Like Moby Dick, it has tectonic power and that terrible innocence of Nature. It is indifferent to the passion of Man. We think of Sisyphus as Albert Camus described how his face close to the cold stone became stone. And we share that exultation of Sisyphus when he is walking down his mountain, as for those blessed moments, he is God himself, master of his destiny.

Werner Herzog is a man who has decided to live sincerely and passionately. Nature has the power to reveal the folly of Man. Ruggia is pacing the summit of Cerro Torre, stumbling in a state of shock, dazed as he is of his hollow victory. Herzog has chosen the divine music of “Tristan and Isolde” by Wagner to highlight that moment of pure loss. We think of Aguirre, pacing his “realm” and making plans of conquests and marriage with his daughter, now defunct, to erect a race of Kings for 1,000 years.

To Herzog the folly of Man is the only hope for redemption. As Camus wrote, a hero is a man who accomplishes his destiny.

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Avatar (film) – Another approach

In Uncategorized on January 7, 2010 at 12:47 pm

Why Na’vi fundamentally differ from human race and how virtual reality could become the ultimate tool of exploration and discovery

Welcome to Gaia

Welcome to Gaia

The art of perfumes is about the successive stages of evolution in scent, from the first drop on your skin to the delicate melange of your own body scent with the base of perfume. It can be said the same about movies. Movies have a life of their own within yourself. They are progressively assimilated and digested.

So it is that after my initial review of Avatar I would like to write more about this movie.

Avatar is more an experiment than a true movie with a story. It is a visual experiment about virtual reality. I will not insist on the technical challenge of the movie itself, but rather on the perspectives it is opening. And probably the most interesting aspect of the movie is a kind of Jean-Jacques Rousseau  innocence about the destructive power of civilisation.

The society of the Na’vi is protohistoric. It has turned its back on technological progress to focus on the careful conservation of a balance between them and the creatures of Eiwa. The whole social structure and life of the Na’vi is about harmony. They kill only out of necessity. Their fighting capabilities are enhanced by a competitive environment. Their spiritual life is one of Pantheism.

Quite remarkably the population of the Na’vi is very small. There are not more than a handful of settlements on Pandora, each one with a designated area of influence. There are the horse masters, the fishermen and the people of the Forest.

If we compare the history of the development of the Na’vi to our own human history, it is a remarkable difference. We have evolved from hunter gatherers like the Na’vi to city dwellers. We have destroyed all competing species, including other hominids with intellectual capabilities superior or equal to our own. We have established ourselves on the top of the pyramid.

The Na’vi are integrated in the living process of Pandora. They are not dominating at all. They have kept competing species as a mean to sharpen the hunting skills of their youth, through the stages of an educational system based on mastering survival skills to the benefit of the community.

I have written that the Na’vi are a bit like the Indians of the New World, but I was mistaken. First, there is very little known of those prehistoric populations of the New World, as Americans are little interested to learn more about people they wiped out. Second, the little we know is showing us a very diverse range of civilisations. And not altogether harmless, or benevolent. Indian wars had their own Napoleons and Hitlers.

So that we must be careful about that comparison, because I believe it is misleading. And there is good proof for that. If we consider the shamanic power of the religion of Eiwa, and especially the revival ceremony, we could observe that the Na’vi are more like a kind of humanoid interface of Eiwa itself. They are Pandora, exactly like the trees and various carnivorous species.

Thus is introduced a fundamental difference with us, as human beings. We are part of planet Earth, but we think of us as a distinct part of it. When we talk about saving species and saving Earth, we use that bipolarity, not at all the Na’vi approach to Eiwa.

It is interesting to note that both main characters are making love, that is consecrating the physical and spiritual bond of their love, under the tree of Eiwa. Under the auspices of their ancestors. The Na’vi society has Eucharistic understanding of Pandora.

Robert A. Heinlein wrote in the Children of Methuselah about a humanoid civilisation based on genetic experimentation, and we are indeed more in the realm of genetics than Indian territory. Na’vi display facial characteristics and neuronal interface common to all major species of Pandora. Most probably those facial shining dots are acting like Lorenzini ampullae of sharks. They provide the Na’vi with a kind of sixth sense.

So it appears that the Na’vi are much more different from human beings than I previously thought. They are culturally alien. And it makes sense that a Marine Corporal is indeed the Chosen One to interface with them. What is a soldier but a man with abilities to adapt and learn from scratch?

There are two very interesting aspects of Avatar I would like to develop further. First, it is the first time ever than a virtual world is considered superior or equal to our own reality. Pandora is a Gaia experimentation. And the hero is exploring it as a virtual host in a body genetically artificial. Perhaps we will explore the universe like this. Imagine that instead of actually traveling there, we constructed computerised virtual world, exactly like the original distant of thousands of light years, and traveled that world within the context of neural interface. Fascinating, no.

Of course, the consequence might very well be a dissociation between our intellectual being and our physical body, a kind of disconnection between soul and body. On a very limited scale this is what is happening to avid gamers. They actually project themselves in the game.

As such the message of James Cameron is quite remarkable. Perhaps we should consider getting a new life and being born again, like that Marine Corporal who is forsaking the body his mother carried and cared for in her womb. We are really in the realm of the Children of the Stars in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, A Space Odyssey. Dave Bowman also made the choice of the Monolith.

A very interesting and thought challenging movie, indeed.

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Avatar (film) – Pandora’s box

In Uncategorized on January 5, 2010 at 10:31 am

Heterosexuality of James Cameron’s Na’vi humanoids has sparked a debate about heterosexuality as an ideal for mankind.

Browsing the web you will find people complaining that James Cameron represented the Na’vi with heterosexuality. They find this limiting and insulting, as well as scientifically biased. Frankly I have seen Avatar and the issue of heterosexuality is the basis of a romantic story. Period.

Law of Attraction

Law of Attraction

If we compare Avatar to other popular science fiction movies, yes, heterosexuality of the Na’vi is remarkable, as they really share a very high degree of emotional compatibility with the human race. Values of courage and family are encouraged and valued. Love making is basis for couple and procreation. We could even say that the Na’vi are more humane than many societies of today.

For instance, Na’vi girls are fighting with men, and could challenge them for combat and prevail. Strangers are welcome if they respect the harmony of the community. Living creatures are linked to the Na’vi for life, and death. Even their Pantheist religion is highly spiritual, and again nothing as horrible as religions we have known in the past of mankind.

No really, Na’vi are truly nice fellows. They even have on-board Internet with worldwide connection through trees of Eiwa. They are also fashionable. They have tails.

If you compare the Na’vi to previous alien civilisations we invented, even Captain Spock of the Enterprise would look somewhat shamed.

Now what is so shocking about the Na’vi heterosexuality? Some argue that James Cameron is advancing the thesis that an ideal world like Pandora should be inhabited by heterosexual humanoids. They believe that instead the future of mankind is about trans-gender.

German director Wolfgang Petersen presented an alien race with hermaphrodite sexuality in Enemy Mine (1985). The alien would bear a child in his womb, both as man and woman. And the human would understand the spirituality of this alien transmutation.

Heterosexuality of mankind is the pivotal axis of development of our species. It would be too extensive a study to review how fundamental it is to our identity as human beings. Let me just say that the procreative process requires both a male and female, and that attraction and love are playing an important role in that process.

Now if we consider that human beings are social animals, it does mean that human beings achieve their potential in the society of fellow human beings. And heterosexuality is a fundamental vector of that process. To ensure that our genes will be surviving, we must find a mate, and to attract and seduce that mate, we have to demonstrate social abilities. Okay, let’s say we are not all rock stars, will you?

So that the basis of Avatar story is indeed a love story. It is a journey of mutual discovery and completeness. And this is what makes Avatar romantic and charming. If we had Na’vi procreating like insects, hmm, I wonder if Mother Sigourney Weaver would be so attracted, especially after her egg-like experience in the Aliens series.

And about the future of mankind being trans-gender, whatever that means, please God protect us from this catastrophe. The world is perhaps not well managed, but spare us of the fury of people believing men and women are alike. They are not to the great power and glory of the human race.

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Avatar (film)

In Uncategorized on January 4, 2010 at 10:45 pm

A New Age remake of Pocahontas is bringing fresh air in the closed world of blockbusters.

Genre: Pocahontas with a tail.

Avatar

Avatar

This is the first time I going to the movies since 2001. Yes, almost a decade. I have an extensive collection of movies, and frankly I have a bad memory of my last experience in a movie theatre. It was dirty and people were eating and laughing, well, this is a movie not a restaurant.

But I am happy to have seen Avatar. The movie was really worth driving to town, looking for parking, and enduring the constant skritch-skritch of people eating during the movie. At least there is one advantage to deafening level of audio soundtrack, as it covers those digestive sounds.

The movie is impressive. As I stumbled down the stairs on my way out, I thought, Good Lord, I am a Navi’i too! Yes, it is really the stuff of big Hollywood blockbuster. Lots of effects, lots of everything, but I must say, with a nice touch of romanticism and poetry.

The story is basic. Marines are sent to a world called Pandora. The hero is disabled, but instrumental to the success of a biotech experimentation to infiltrate Pandora’s native population, the Navi’i. The planet is a paradise, but what is important to mankind is its mineral resources. And the Navi’i are a problem as their sacred sites are precisely located where humans want to excavate.

So our disabled Marine is sent to the Navi’i in the body of an Avatar, a combination of his DNA with Navi’i. His initiation is supervised by the beautiful daughter of a Navi’i tribe, and soon tender feelings for the Princess as well as conscience trouble our Marine. The more he is learning about the native culture, the more does his own appear alien and destructive. Comes what should, Humans invade Navi’i territory and it is all-out war.

As I said, the story is basic, but nonetheless effective. It is based on the shock of cultures, and our Marine could be the English sailor meeting Pocahontas.  The Navi’i represent the projection of our modern psyche and guilt. Whereas we consume and burn our world, the Navi’i live in total harmony, physically and spiritually with the home world.

Visually the movie is stunning, especially during the flight sequences. There is a poetry, both naive and touching in the description of life in the woods. Pandora’s world has erotic power in its orgy of night life, and intimacy of forests.

John Cameron’s series of Aliens and Terminator have been known to illustrate the transformation of American collective psyche since the days of Reagan. His Aliens already displayed the dark game of big conglomerates attempting to make profit out of horror. Terminator series also constituted a harsh critic against biotech research.

We are in 2010 and there is not one day we are not talking about greenhouse effects and financial crisis. Avatar is a candid, but compelling answer to that neurotic depression of our times, as we feel that as citizens we have lost the control of those conglomerates waging war in Iraq or Afghanistan, and whose stock options are more important that the life of innocent populations.

The most intriguing aspect of the movie is the duality of the hero between his heroic Navi’i avatar, both candid and courageous, and his own humanity, broken and suffering. The final scene is very touching, as the Princess is rushing to save her lover, only to discover that his host is dying. And as she is holding the broken body of the hero, she is a Pieta wonderful and caring as for her wounded child. A very beautiful and moving scene.

Finally with the advent of Second Life and online gaming communities, the idea of actually living and achieving a higher potential of life as a virtual host of an Avatar, well this is opening incredible perspectives. We had the power of imagination, and now we have the power of transportation and projection. The joy of running when you are disabled. The joy to be born again, with a meaningful life. And love.

Avatar is certainly the beginning of a new series for the next decade. Instead of fighting machines pretending to be human, or aliens ready to host inside our bodies, the fight is on between honest and sincere Humans, allied to Navi’i protohistoric society, versus mercenaries and conglomerations, reducing men to machines. Interesting change of perspective.

Avatar 2 the revenge of Humans, most certainly. There is no paradise without a price to pay for it.

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The Holiday (film)

In Uncategorized on January 3, 2010 at 10:52 pm

Genre: Christmas cake

The Holiday (2006)

The Holiday (2006)

American comedies since the blessed days of Frank Capra and Billy Wilder have explored all the possibilities of swapping and switching man and women, and even women for men. Nobody is perfect, dear. This time, and the idea is promising, two women are swapping their homes to evade their men.

The swapping will of course provide the catalyst for a chain of events, which will eventually give a new meaning to their lives. Both women will discover true love because they will start living for themselves and achieve their full potential in life.

The story unfolds as a typical Hollywood holidays blockbuster comedy, and this is too bad because the starting idea promised a lot of potential. There are however some very touching and insightful moments.For instance, when Cameron Diaz, still breathless from lovemaking, is talking about the future with her lover.

Lovemaking is the climax of first serious stage in a relationship. A woman would use that very special moment to talk about the future together. And Cameron Diaz is well inspired, because she is so negative about it. There is no way they could love each other without suffering, and saying that she is shedding light in a very dark corner of loving and planning. You must trust yourself and life, or the light is not there.

Frank Capra would have used the swapping of homes to make a marvelous movie about Christmas as well as a meaningful social fable. Alas, after the first 40 minutes, rather brilliant, I should add, the story is degenerating into a quagmire of good feelings and lavish interior designs. I said, alas, because the casting is excellent, opposing Cameron Diaz spontaneity to Kate Winslet eroticism. Jude Law is perfect. This guy has the sex appeal to make women howl in agony. Elie Wallach is very good, too. He has a twinkling eye, when he is touching Kate Winslet. Hmm, so old he is certainly not!

The plot does not surprise, it is a Christmas comedy and as such there cannot be enough good feelings. The problem is that good feelings don’t necessarily make great movies. Something is clearly missing, and the fastidious presentation of luxury goods, cars, and dream interiors of country homes does not help at all.

We could have hoped for a slightly more inventive conclusion. Cameron Diaz is running to the home she just left, and founds Jude Law singing happily under the shower, oh I feel so good, she is gone. But no, he is crying. Poor bunny. Or perhaps Cameron Diaz is running, slipping and bam!, there comes the groceries lorry, and she is flattened like a crepe.

Nonetheless I enjoyed watching the movie, while my cat was trying to prove he is a tiger. Between him and Cameron Diaz I was surrounded with far too many carnivorous teeth. All in all, this is a movie I would recommend to anyone with a nice couch at hand, if the weather is cold and snowy outside, and you want to feel warm and cozy.

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In Cold Blood (film)

In Uncategorized on July 15, 2009 at 10:34 am
Until your blood runs cold

Until your blood runs cold

The missing link in the greatness of American Evil is Nature. Consider the towns and its noodles of highways. But watch the sun rise over the Sierra, with Joshua trees like so many crucified Roman slaves. And truly the greatness of American Evil is in its open ranges, both bringing the heart closer to God, while opening perspectives for true evil.

Perhaps it is because the soul of America has been shaped in the dramatic landscapes of a New Frontier. So that Evil has the Shakespearian quality of a Crime against Nature and God. And where could that Crime flourish, oh no, not in the cities of sin, where whorishness is expected, but in the eternal open ranges of the Great Plains?

Nature is inspiration to Evil since Nature is about the circle of tenderness and bestiality. And American evil is not about psychotic killers or junkies, but about two frustrated men on rampage, wasting four lives, for what? For $10,000 in a chest. Read the rest of this entry »

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Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (film)

In Uncategorized on July 2, 2009 at 10:05 pm

Adapted from the autobiography of Carlo Levi, Christ Stopped at Eboli (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, 1979) is a masterpiece by Francesco Rosi. This is the story of Dottore Carlo Levi’s eviction to the poorest part of Italy as penitence to his political views against Mussolini. The arrival of Carlo Levi in a provincial town will reveal the exploitation of a rural population by the local bourgeoisie which is dedicated to fascist doctrine. It is also the tale of Italy as a land of two countries: Northern Italy and the government of Rome, and Southern Italy with men crossing the Atlantic to America.

The subject is not new, and we can recall the Taviani brothers’ attempt to explain the hard life of Italian farmers in Padre Padrone, but Francesco Rosi is using a remarkable combination of effects to build a very realistic picture of social life, which goes beyond the portrait or the denunciation.

Building the Legend. Gian Maria Volonte as Carlo Levi

Building the Legend. Gian Maria Volonte as Carlo Levi

The colors are marvelous with tones of sepia, brown and blue, while women are dressed in black, as if life there was always a matter of death. Tradition is to leave the black ribbons of Death on the porticos of homes, until they disintegrate by themselves, so that Time is really here the great Un-doer from fast floods carrying away the main Piazza and its Cathedral to the slow demise of seasons.

Great attention is given to music and lyrics, so different from Northern frivolities, and already pregnant with Arabic consonance.

Gian Maria Volonte finds here the true romantic character he always longed for since the days of Uomini contro, another drama by Francesco Rosi. He is a delicate and sophisticated Dottore always reminding his patients that he has no practical experience of medicine. Carlo Levi is a man of few words, something so rare among intellectuals. He spends most of his day marching from the city to the cemetery, beyond which he cannot go by order of the government.

This walk in company of a dog he adopted is a marvelous way to show the life of women at work, as all men in working age have gone to America. Remain only some shepherds, two doctors with no patients, and the local city governor, a fascist.

Irene Papas is again stretching that invisible border of womanhood only Greek women can cross without turning native. She is a marvelous woman nursing her many children, as she has been through seventeen pregnancies. She will refuse to the end that Carlo Levi paint a portrait of her, as it would rob her soul, so she pretends.

Very interesting is also the complex relationship between Carlo Levi and the local Fascist authority impersonated by Don Luigi Magalone. Both are treading softly and taking care, and yet Carlo Levi slowly builds the momentum of Righteousness based on his approach to the local population, which Magalone despises.

Thus the discourse in glory of the soldiers at war in Ethiopia becomes a cruel statement of the discrepancy and hollowness of political words compared to the facts that Italy can only lose at war. The story of the destruction of the Melfi becomes an allegory of the upcoming fate of Fascist Italy.

Francesco Rosi also displays his contempt for the arch-enemies of fascism, which are anarchy and communism. As other political prisoners are located nearby, Carlo Levi will eventually meet them, and there is really no need for silence, as they have nothing to tell. They just nod, but Rosi is already portraying the future legacy of violence left by Mussolini, which leaves no room to humanism.

Perhaps it could be objected that the theatricality of the movie does in the end deserve the power of its purpose, and the mystical aura of Gian Maria Volonte becomes quite embarrassing, considering that Francesco Rosi wants to portray the sorry state of rural peasantry.

It is a movie you will never forget as some images are so powerful. The disheveled priest has extraordinary power. Celebration of Christmas becomes a humanistic appeal to peace, and also quite unexpectedly a manner to display his utter contempt for a people of goats and bandits, who have never been visited by the love of God.

FREDERIC W. ERK

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Lili Marleen (film)

In Uncategorized on June 21, 2009 at 9:45 pm

Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed Hanna Schygulla after The Marriage of Maria Braun (die Ehe von Maria Braun) in this ambitious fiction about a song, a woman and a man. Lili of the Lamplight (Lili vom Lampschein) is a sentimental song of 1916 as Germany was well into the inferno of Verdun. It celebrates the love of a woman for a man, and is profoundly moving as it explores the theme of love and death in time of war.

Willie (Hanna Schygulla) is about to return to Switzerland with her lover when she learns that she must stay in Germany on the eve of war. Back to München, she finds a job as singer in a cabaret and reintroduces Lili of the Lamplight, without success. Soon Germany is at war and hard pressed, and a soldier is asking Belgrade radio to play that tune for his comrades. It is an instant success as about every soldier, German, Russian, American or British will listen to that tune every day.

German Evita Peron?

German Evita Peron?

Willie soon becomes immensely popular in war-torn Germany when she receives news from her lover, the Jewish pianist who had left her to return to Switzerland. He is involved in some Jewish underground activities, returns to Germany to see her and is eventually captured by the Gestapo.

Meanwhile Willie is willing to find the proof of concentration camps and provides the Jewish resistance with a film roll. The Gestapo is hot on her heels and she is about to get killed when the Resistance is playing its trump card by asking her to sing Lili Marlene in spite of the recent decision by Nazi authorities to forbid that ‘defeatist’ song.

The homosexuality of Fassbinder is obvious in this opus, as everything from acting to casting is so biased with the idea of sentimentality and a touch of Visconti. While Marriage of Maria Braun was a wonderful exploration of woman’s love and weak fundaments for German reconstruction, Lili Marlene is only a colorful book of splendid images and a mélange of grotesque situations.

Hanna Schygulla is not convincing in her role, as nobody could expect a woman to fall in love with a man like Mendelsohn. He is the perfect jerk asking her to smile while leaving her in Nazi Germany, so that abandoning her is perhaps less tough for him. His has the sexual power of Woody Allen in erection at 85. No really, the casting is mediocre. Mel Ferrer is again playing his role of upper class total prick.

Much emphasis is put on battle scenes while the song is broadcasted on all the battlefields. And the idea is working at first, because men do listen to women in such circumstances. Nevertheless the process is a bit overdone and dripping with sentimentalism.

Visually impressive with a flurry of reds and blue light effects, the future trademark of the Das Boot masterpiece of Bavaria studios, the movie is failing to convince, perhaps because we are used to that subject. The recent Black Book by Paul Verhoeven explores a similar story, and yet is more convincing as the main character is behaving like a real woman, and not like a decerebrated doll.

With a subject comparable to Visconti’s The Damned Fassbinder wanted to illustrate the monstrosity of Nazi Germany within the scope of a popular singer career. The integration of a thriller story with Jewish background is largely contributing to disrupt the narrative flow. Perhaps the flaw of the movie is its very subject, because a song is only a song, that is a moment of forgiveness and peace in a world at war. Nothing more, nothing less.

Frederic W. Erk

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La Belle Vie (film)

In Uncategorized on June 20, 2009 at 10:32 am

La Belle Vie
Television movie by Virginie Wagon (France, 2009)

Laura should have had second thoughts before asking her best friend Bea to replace her as personal assistant to Emeric de Rockwell, wealthy bank investment director in Paris. She will never get her job back, as M. de Rockwell will brutally fire her in favor of her friend Bea, dumbstruck and yet incapable to refuse that unique professional opportunity. Her job is anything but a stroll in the woods, as de Rockwell is humiliating her again and again, asking for constant care and even pursuing her to the death bed of her dying mother. To Bea, de Rockwell is the key to a world of marvel and money, so that psychological stress and torture are but a price to pay. It should be mentioned that she is taking care of her financial situation with great zeal, re-attributing bank investments on her personal account. Read the rest of this entry »

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Slap Shot (film)

In Uncategorized on June 19, 2009 at 3:37 pm

Comedy is an Art in itself, as it is very difficult to find a balance between profanity and witticism. A good comedy like Fun with Dick and Jane has some excellent scenes, but others not so good with acting getting out of hand. A truly excellent comedy like Slap Shot is about nothing in particular, but about everything with that particular glow only great directors can provide to portraying mankind’s tribulations. Read the rest of this entry »

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Shichinin no Samurai (film)

In Uncategorized on March 4, 2007 at 10:34 am

Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai, 1954) is a masterpiece of harmony and artistic accomplishment, which is brought to life with the vivid and forceful genius of a director at peace with himself and his performance. A true work of Art, it is a carefully and methodically adjusted Meisterwerk, based on a classic story of war and justice, of struggling humanity and survival, pregnant with a Shakespearian conception of Nature, revealing the generosity of well-tilled earth or magic spell of silent forests, where visual symbolism is paving the way for metaphysical redemption.

Read the rest of this entry »