The Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley has just started up a series of Eccentric Cinema: Overlooked Oddities and Ecstasies,1963–82. It started up Wednesday night with Milton Moses Ginsburg's COMING APART, starring Rip Torn.
Rip Torn (excellent in his first starring role) plays Joe Glazer, a psychiatrist with issues. He has set up a video camera inside behind a one-way mirror in a "kinetic art" piece, so he can voyeuristically film himself and the parade of people in his apartment. The movie is all stuff he filmed with this hidden camera, mostly from his coffee table (only a few times does he pick up the camera and change views to see out the window or to the side), complete with the pops and breaks of film. And what the film captures is a parade of perversion, degradation, humiliation, misogyny, and (maybe/barely) repressed homosexuality. Nobody comes off looking good in this movie (least of all Torn), and that can make it hard to enter its world--there's simply no one to sympathize with. And at times, it can make the parade range from tedious to unbearable (although there are moments, the party scene among them, where it reaches a height of lunacy that becomes psychological slapstick).
In the end, I found the framing the most interesting about it. Nearly always the camera is on the coffee table, facing the couch. Behind the couch is a full-wall mirror. So someone (usually Torn) will be sitting on the couch, in the foreground. The woman of the moment will usually be behind the camera, and all we see is her reflection in the mirror. This creates a disorienting, fractured space where the woman looks to be standing behind the couch, and Torn never turns around to face here. I'd have to watch again to make sure, but I don't think there was a connected eyeline in the entire movie (if there was, I'm convinced it was unintentional). It also means that in the cataclysmic ending scene (warning, spoilers) when an angry female ex-patient trashes the apartment and smashes the mirror, she literally smashes the entire (on-screen) world. Interestingly, Rip Torn is not even present for that scene, perhaps the only time the camera operates without him. And typing that, I just realized that means she found the camera, turned it on, and that's why she's trashing the place. I'm an idiot for not catching that sooner.
Okay, that's all I can say. I can't say I really "enjoyed" the film, but I can say it's hard to get it out of my head.
Showing posts with label PFA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PFA. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Jason watches "The Last Movie", "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?", and "Running on Karma"
And I believe I set a new record for length of a title in a post.
Tonight Holehead starts, so brace for horror reviews for the next week. But last night, Dead Channels and the Film on Film Foundation presented a double feature of actors turned directors making hilariously indulgent movies with movies in them. Whew!
First actor-director was Dennis Hopper's "The Last Movie". I had a hard time summarizing the plot, until I went to IMDb and found this plot summary:
Next they showed a bizarre comedy, "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?". I have to confess, I didn't actually know who actor/director Anthony Newley was before I saw this. I had read the brief description that this movie was autobiographical (he plays Hieronymus Merkin, real life Joan Collins plays his wife Polyester Poontang, and their two real life kids play their two kids), and that it destroyed his marriage and his career. I can understand why, since he comes off as a womanizing, drug abusing, child molesting creep who only cares about himself--but it's all presented ironically. And yet in making this movie Anthony Newley comes off as a total narcissist. Hieronymus Merkin has just turned 40 years old, and since he's so important he's donating all the historical artifacts (films, audio recordings, etc.) of his young life to an institute. He's also screening a work-in-progress documentary film about his life (and writing and editing it as he goes along). The audience is his mother and his two children, some critics, and the filmmakers (writers, himself as the director, etc.). The film portrays himself as a marionette, with his strings pulled by greater powers. The greatest of the greater powers is Milton Berle as Goodtime Eddie Filth (aka, the devil) who leads Hieronymus from his early childhood stardom to a life of women and carousing (oh yeah, this was the X-rated cut). Soon he has women lined up beside his bed (which is placed on the beach). As his fame grows, so does his appetite, until he shamefully admits he developed a longing for young girls (I don't know how autobiographical this was). The young girl he finally seduces is the Mercy Humppe from the title. But at the same time, he meets Polyester Poontang (Joan Collins) and is driven back and forth between them. Ultimately he dumps Humppe and marries Poontang for the very practical reason that he got her pregnant. But as much as he tries to settle in to the quiet married life, his thoughts always return to Mercy Humppe--and to other distractions Goodtime Eddie Filth has for him (including a film within the film within the film about a Princess and a Donkey).
So yeah, it had everything to love in it. I don't know how to end this review, much as Hieronymus didn't know how to end his movie. But there might be a moral in there about recognizing your dragon and in doing so, defeating it. Of course, given that this destroyed his career and marriage, I guess this would count as a Pyrrhic victory. But who cares about him, anyway? He died in 1999, and his movie is still around (in beautiful Technicolor) to entertain me.
Now the only problem with this double feature is it conflicted with the Johnnie To series at the PFA. Last night's movie was "Running on Karma". Now I happen to have seen it when it played at Indiefest in 2004. So you could accept the "rational" explanation that I just looked in my archives and did a cut-and-paste job below, or you can believe me when I say I was in two places at once (I'm a physicist, I can do that!).
Anyway, I arrived at the PFA to see "Running on Karma", starring Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau ("Infernal Affairs" and"Fulltime Killer" among many, many others). As the movie opens, he's working as an incredibly buff (think Schwarzenneger in his "Pumping Iron"days) male stripper named Big. He's busted for indecent exposure by a female undercover cop (Cecelia Cheung). Wacky hijinx ensue as she becomes enamored with him, but he can see people's karma and sees that she will be murdered. Meanwhile, he uses his incredible martial arts skills (which he learned back when he was a monk) to help her fight crime, in hopes that he can save her and change her karma. Ummm...and then things get weird. It was pretty cool. Whether you're a fan of Hong Kong wackiness, or just wanna see a male stripper in a muscle suit, it's a fun movie.
Tonight Holehead starts, so brace for horror reviews for the next week. But last night, Dead Channels and the Film on Film Foundation presented a double feature of actors turned directors making hilariously indulgent movies with movies in them. Whew!
First actor-director was Dennis Hopper's "The Last Movie". I had a hard time summarizing the plot, until I went to IMDb and found this plot summary:
Yeah, that's exactly what happens, but it doesn't describe the movie at all. You'd also have to say that it's a convoluted non-linear near-abstraction, shot in Peru--presumably with nearly everyone on cocaine--and edited for over the year--presumably under the influences of many drugs, but definitely under the influence of Jodorowsky's "El Topo". And you'd have to mention that the studio heads were befuddled by the final cut (even though it had already won an award at the Venice Film Festival) and only allowed a limited US run and no European release. And yeah, I can see how it can frustrate some audiences, but it's such an audacious spectacle that I just had to marvel at it. It's crammed full of ideas (or at least statements) about film making, reality, religion, violence, sex, and probably a whole lot of other things. I'm not sure if it forms a coherent world view, but it does form a picture of a hyperkinetic brain with a touch of ADD.A film shoot in Peru goes badly wrong when an actor is killed in a stunt, and the unit wrangler, Kansas, decides to give up film-making and stay on in the village, shacking up with local prostitute Maria. But his dreams of an unspoiled existence are interrupted when the local priest asks him to help stop the villagers killing each other by re-enacting scenes from the film for real because they don't understand movie fakery... Written by Michael Brooke {michael@everyman.demon.co.uk}
Next they showed a bizarre comedy, "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?". I have to confess, I didn't actually know who actor/director Anthony Newley was before I saw this. I had read the brief description that this movie was autobiographical (he plays Hieronymus Merkin, real life Joan Collins plays his wife Polyester Poontang, and their two real life kids play their two kids), and that it destroyed his marriage and his career. I can understand why, since he comes off as a womanizing, drug abusing, child molesting creep who only cares about himself--but it's all presented ironically. And yet in making this movie Anthony Newley comes off as a total narcissist. Hieronymus Merkin has just turned 40 years old, and since he's so important he's donating all the historical artifacts (films, audio recordings, etc.) of his young life to an institute. He's also screening a work-in-progress documentary film about his life (and writing and editing it as he goes along). The audience is his mother and his two children, some critics, and the filmmakers (writers, himself as the director, etc.). The film portrays himself as a marionette, with his strings pulled by greater powers. The greatest of the greater powers is Milton Berle as Goodtime Eddie Filth (aka, the devil) who leads Hieronymus from his early childhood stardom to a life of women and carousing (oh yeah, this was the X-rated cut). Soon he has women lined up beside his bed (which is placed on the beach). As his fame grows, so does his appetite, until he shamefully admits he developed a longing for young girls (I don't know how autobiographical this was). The young girl he finally seduces is the Mercy Humppe from the title. But at the same time, he meets Polyester Poontang (Joan Collins) and is driven back and forth between them. Ultimately he dumps Humppe and marries Poontang for the very practical reason that he got her pregnant. But as much as he tries to settle in to the quiet married life, his thoughts always return to Mercy Humppe--and to other distractions Goodtime Eddie Filth has for him (including a film within the film within the film about a Princess and a Donkey).
So yeah, it had everything to love in it. I don't know how to end this review, much as Hieronymus didn't know how to end his movie. But there might be a moral in there about recognizing your dragon and in doing so, defeating it. Of course, given that this destroyed his career and marriage, I guess this would count as a Pyrrhic victory. But who cares about him, anyway? He died in 1999, and his movie is still around (in beautiful Technicolor) to entertain me.
Now the only problem with this double feature is it conflicted with the Johnnie To series at the PFA. Last night's movie was "Running on Karma". Now I happen to have seen it when it played at Indiefest in 2004. So you could accept the "rational" explanation that I just looked in my archives and did a cut-and-paste job below, or you can believe me when I say I was in two places at once (I'm a physicist, I can do that!).
Anyway, I arrived at the PFA to see "Running on Karma", starring Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau ("Infernal Affairs" and"Fulltime Killer" among many, many others). As the movie opens, he's working as an incredibly buff (think Schwarzenneger in his "Pumping Iron"days) male stripper named Big. He's busted for indecent exposure by a female undercover cop (Cecelia Cheung). Wacky hijinx ensue as she becomes enamored with him, but he can see people's karma and sees that she will be murdered. Meanwhile, he uses his incredible martial arts skills (which he learned back when he was a monk) to help her fight crime, in hopes that he can save her and change her karma. Ummm...and then things get weird. It was pretty cool. Whether you're a fan of Hong Kong wackiness, or just wanna see a male stripper in a muscle suit, it's a fun movie.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Jason watches some Johnnie To--"The Mission" and "Fulltime Killer"
As I mentioned in a previous post, there's a Johnnie To series playing for about a month at the Pacific Film Archives. This is the first time in a few years I've been to the PFA for a non-film festival screening (AsianFest and the International Festival play movies there). But now I've decided to become a member and keep a closer watch on what's playing there.
But first, I want to gripe a bit about the BART. You see, the first movie was started at 6:30. It's a 45 minute trip on BART from Fremont to downtown Berkeley, then about a 5-10 minute walk/run to the PFA. I got to BART about 5:10, in plenty of time to catch the train that would get me there at 6:00. There was a train waiting there, but it was bound for San Francisco, not where I wanted to go. I wanted the Richmond bound train, and there was one scheduled in two minutes--perfect. Or so I thought, because as the San Francisco train pulled away, there was an announcement that there were no direct Fremont to Richmond trains, and if you need to go to stations on the Richmond line, take the San Francisco train and transfer about 4 stations up. Thanks for telling me! For that matter, thank you driver for taking off with no announcement, you can see people waiting in the station and you're the only train they can take!
Anyway, no problem, I could catch the next SF train, as long as there wasn't a long wait or a long transfer, I could still make it to Berkeley in plenty of time. So I got on the next train, which showed up 20 minutes later (so now I have exactly 10 minutes to walk up from the BART to the PFA, if everything runs on schedule). So the train craaaaawls through the first couple of stations, and finally gets to the transfer point at Bay Fair. There I get off, and I can see another train waiting for the station, just behind us. Must be the Richmond train, I'm still in good shape. I was right, it was the Richmond train I saw. But it waited there at 2 more San Francisco trains passed through! Are you fucking kidding me?! I eventually had to run as fast as I could from the BART to the PFA, and was still 20 minutes late. To the people running BART--and for that matter, all people working in public transit: The reason people don't use public transit is because they have places they're trying to get to and you are completely fucking unreliable!
Incidentally, when I got home late that night, I saw there were fliers in the Fremont BART station explaining that there was an electrical fire a couple of weeks ago between Fremont and Hayward, and so at certain times some lines might not run. As a result, you should add about 10 minutes to your expected trip time. 10 minutes? It took me over an hour and a half to take a 45 minute trip.
Okay, on to the movies. Of course, I missed the beginning of "The Mission", and talking to people afterwards I heard that I missed Anthony Wong cutting hair (and he's so cool, I have to believe he even made that cool) and a scene where they lock a guy in a trunk. By the time I got in, the team of 5 friends/bodyguards are already hired to protect a triad boss. There are frequent attempts on his life from the rival gang, and these serve as sharp, exciting exclamation points for the movie. But it's really held together by the quiet moments of downtime and horseplay among the friends. Whether they're hiding match heads in cigarettes (so they flare up briefly, surprising the smoker) or just playing impromptu soccer with a wadded up piece of paper, it's the easy camaraderie of cool guys being cool that makes this all work. In the end, of course, their loyalty is put to the test, and of course no matter what happens there will be action and cool guys. Lots of fun.
Then I finally caught my breath before the second movie. "Fulltime Killer" might've been the first Johnnie To film I ever saw, when it played at the SF International Film Festival way back in 2002. So I'll reach waaaaaay back into my archives and see what I wrote then:
Anyway, other than public transit frustrations, it was a good night. And the series continues all through June. I'll miss a lot of it for Holehead and then a week-long family reunion, but I'll be back for at least a couple more days of it.
But first, I want to gripe a bit about the BART. You see, the first movie was started at 6:30. It's a 45 minute trip on BART from Fremont to downtown Berkeley, then about a 5-10 minute walk/run to the PFA. I got to BART about 5:10, in plenty of time to catch the train that would get me there at 6:00. There was a train waiting there, but it was bound for San Francisco, not where I wanted to go. I wanted the Richmond bound train, and there was one scheduled in two minutes--perfect. Or so I thought, because as the San Francisco train pulled away, there was an announcement that there were no direct Fremont to Richmond trains, and if you need to go to stations on the Richmond line, take the San Francisco train and transfer about 4 stations up. Thanks for telling me! For that matter, thank you driver for taking off with no announcement, you can see people waiting in the station and you're the only train they can take!
Anyway, no problem, I could catch the next SF train, as long as there wasn't a long wait or a long transfer, I could still make it to Berkeley in plenty of time. So I got on the next train, which showed up 20 minutes later (so now I have exactly 10 minutes to walk up from the BART to the PFA, if everything runs on schedule). So the train craaaaawls through the first couple of stations, and finally gets to the transfer point at Bay Fair. There I get off, and I can see another train waiting for the station, just behind us. Must be the Richmond train, I'm still in good shape. I was right, it was the Richmond train I saw. But it waited there at 2 more San Francisco trains passed through! Are you fucking kidding me?! I eventually had to run as fast as I could from the BART to the PFA, and was still 20 minutes late. To the people running BART--and for that matter, all people working in public transit: The reason people don't use public transit is because they have places they're trying to get to and you are completely fucking unreliable!
Incidentally, when I got home late that night, I saw there were fliers in the Fremont BART station explaining that there was an electrical fire a couple of weeks ago between Fremont and Hayward, and so at certain times some lines might not run. As a result, you should add about 10 minutes to your expected trip time. 10 minutes? It took me over an hour and a half to take a 45 minute trip.
Okay, on to the movies. Of course, I missed the beginning of "The Mission", and talking to people afterwards I heard that I missed Anthony Wong cutting hair (and he's so cool, I have to believe he even made that cool) and a scene where they lock a guy in a trunk. By the time I got in, the team of 5 friends/bodyguards are already hired to protect a triad boss. There are frequent attempts on his life from the rival gang, and these serve as sharp, exciting exclamation points for the movie. But it's really held together by the quiet moments of downtime and horseplay among the friends. Whether they're hiding match heads in cigarettes (so they flare up briefly, surprising the smoker) or just playing impromptu soccer with a wadded up piece of paper, it's the easy camaraderie of cool guys being cool that makes this all work. In the end, of course, their loyalty is put to the test, and of course no matter what happens there will be action and cool guys. Lots of fun.
Then I finally caught my breath before the second movie. "Fulltime Killer" might've been the first Johnnie To film I ever saw, when it played at the SF International Film Festival way back in 2002. So I'll reach waaaaaay back into my archives and see what I wrote then:
"Fulltime Killer." If you're a fan of action movies and you haven't seen any of the plethora of hyperkinetic Hong Kong action flicks, well then you aren't a really fan of action movies. This is a great standard bearer of the genre, an action flick by and for people who love action flicks. The plot is bare-bones simplicity. There's an old professional assassin, the best in the business who charges the highest fees. Then there's an up-and-coming young assassin. Very skilled, but unnecessarily flashy, he pulls tricks like throwing a bag full of fake grenades at his target, then throwing one real one, and letting the target search all the fake ones trying to find the real one. Anyway, the young, flashy upstart is tired of working for chump change, and wants to take out the old professional and become the worlds greatest assassin, with all the fame and glory. He's also a huge fan of action movies, from all countries, and makes allusions to other action flicks all throughout the film. So playing, 'Spot the Reference' is half of the fun. I got most of them: "Point Break," " Leon: the Professional," "El Mariachi." There was also a reference to "Crying Freeman" which I know about but have never seen. And there was a reference to an obscure french film that I didn't get. But I think that's intentional, as later a character yells at him about how he looked all over and couldn't find the movie he was talking about. Anyway, the movie moves briskly through a few double-crosses, to the eventual showdown. By that time, they have so much respect for each other that they're drinking and joking together, just killing time before they kill each other. The final showdown is a warehouse, with weapons hidden in it patterned after a video game they both like. This is the kind of fun sensibility this movie has. It seems nowadays so many action movies are trying to take the genre in a new direction, which is a good thing (too many action movies just feel stale and uninspired). This one prefers to celebrate the old directions, and ends up being a flawless piece of good ol' fun.Yeah, I'll stick by that review. And I'll add that the love interest was also important (there's a love triangle between the old assassin "O", his housekeeper, and the young assassin). I'll also add that the young assassin is played by Andy Lau, who co-produced this movie, and he's cool as hell (it seems hard to believe, but 2002 might've been so long ago that I didn't know who Andy Lau was?)
Anyway, other than public transit frustrations, it was a good night. And the series continues all through June. I'll miss a lot of it for Holehead and then a week-long family reunion, but I'll be back for at least a couple more days of it.
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