& a blog

it has been an incredibly rich semester for film at brown. in addition to providence’s beloved french film festival (run by richard manning and the amazing people over at the mcm department) there has also been an israeli film festival, and soon enough, the ivy film festival. this is not to say anything of the dean of the college’s “reel law” series which has screened law-themed films throughout the semester as a way for brown students to consider law school, or the archaeology department’s iconic monthly screenings which challenge students to “see Tomb Raider, then THINK ABOUT IT!” in short, it feels like film is everywhere at brown, or maybe that’s just how i see it, watching movies nearly four nights a week at either the festival de jour or as a newly minted projectionist for two mcm classes (chinese cinema & censorship in hollywood).

israeli film festival

the israeli film festival was really a treat. running between february 7 and february 18, it brought nine recent israeli funded or directed films. all of them dealt directly with questions of israeli identity, and by virtue of their thematic contents suggested that the israeli experience was a very dramatic combination of war, family fighting, and major considerations of politics and religion. at least, that was what on screen.

shiva

unfortunately, i only managed to catch two of the films. the first was “shiva” or “the seven days.” it was a family drama, set in a potent political scenario (war) along which a family must mourn the death of a pivotal family member and in the process everything breaks apart. the most interesting thing about this film must have been the style of highly static cinematography employed by the director. long shots unmoving shots employed in this film play up the whole theatricality of the drama (not in the sense that it is overacted, more in the sense that it is a very visceral, performative movie).only the concluding shot employs motion, which feels very dynamic and liberating within the film’s extended stasis, and thus the conclusion offers some hope that life might get back to “normalcy.”

waltz with bashir

this was the cherry on top of the israeli film fest. this was the big draw (pun intended). because art director david polonsky was on campus for the screening, and took a q+a after the film, EVERYONE (who was anyone) was outside the avon (pretty righteous screening spot) a half hour before the doors opened. which is why i got there an hour ahead of time. there, in the lightly falling snow, thinking forward to next week’s french film festival, i began to appreciate how much was going on for film on college hill.

they didn’t start the movie for a half hour (which i will always begrudge them because it meant i couldn’t stay for the q+a) but the film was worth. vivid, hypnotic, and haunting at the same time, the animation lent itself to the film’s theme, recovering memories of war through the filmic process. like a dream, the color schemes shift, and the characters take on the dynamics of puppets and projections. their spectrality becomes a compliment for the ephemerality of memory. no one can remember who was there or what happened. it was great film, but also politically problematic, as it defitely shelved issues of guilt by employing the shock of being soldier. like the film, we are confused by our responsibilty towards what we see, we do not know how to re-act to what we see, and that is both the film’s final point (signifyed with a transition to “real footage” at the end of the film which actually simulateaneously documents the particular historical moment, and abstracts the film’s tragedy into a universal, much repeated tragedy).

french film festival

i volunteered to poster for this year’s festival, which not only scored me 8 free tickets (!!!!) but also got me a shout out in the festival’s pre-film slideshow, which i confess felt pretty good. thus far, i’ve used 5/8 but plan on catching either bluff, or azur & ashmar sometime over the weekend. the two films i have seen have been very good. its without a doubt the best fff since i got to brown.

naissance des pieuvres (water lilies)

the french love taboo. they love them because they are so potent and produce vibrant scandal when trespassed upon. in water lilies, taboo is tortured out by adolescence, as three young parisennes struggle to find their place in society. each girl, masterfully selected by the director, manages to operate as a perfect antidote to other two. there is floriane, the beautiful, bisexual “slag,” marie, the slight, flat-chested lesbian, and anne who is overweight and desperate for men. each girl’s struggle is played out by appeals to the others’ strengths. which makes it a very “ring true” adolescent tale, with all of the hopes of teenagehood with all of its debilitating misgivings.

one scene stands along in this movie, and when you see the film, you will know the scene. i have heard a cinema be so quiet. the only sound was that of the questionable actions in the film, and the particularly french sound of a taboo being torn to shreds.

captaine achab

a wonderful character study, captaine achab blends a pre-moby dick story with a sort of new england huck finn adaptation (as noted by my roomate, jeff knowles). achab is a vermont boy whose life in the wild is first undone by the death of his mother (whose vagina we find ourselves staring at as the film opens) then the death of his father (at the hands of a wild woman with whom achab falls in love). domesticated by his aunt, achab employs a clever ruse to escape his life in vermont, fabricating the intrusion of a wanted criminal and then travelling down the connecticut river in a small row boat. actually cornered by the same criminal who he pretended came for him, achab is knocked unconscious and taken all the way down the connecticut river to new haven, where he hears “the murmur of the sea” and begins a new, dark life.

captaine achab is the best movie i didn’t expect see. with waltz with bashir nominated as it was for an oscar, i knew i was off to see great things. by achab was really an outstanding film, shot beautifully, written wondefully, and causing a total re-evaluation for me (who has always hated moby dick) of melville’s seminal work.