Change Your Image
fecund-2
Reviews
Wagner (1998)
Kafka-esque, Soviet Unrealism
In a worker's dystopia, Elena's dream of a new apartment comes true after a ten year wait. Though it isn't all she'd hoped for...
The bureaucratic nightmares of the Eastern bloc are hilariously parodied, and Elena's job operating a hydrolic press named "Wagner"- not knowing of the composer- is an appropriate ribbing of Soviet realism.
Knowing this film's history makes it more impressive. It was the first full-length feature film made in Bulgaria in three years, due to the economic shambles of the country at the time. The quality of the film stock varies, but it's fortunate that the film was made at all.
Other trivia- The female lead, Ernestina Chinova, is married to the director/writer and starred in a Bulgarian television soap opera. The spoken dialogue is stronger and more colorful than the translated English subtitles... this is according to comments the director made at a San Francisco screening.
Seventeen (1983)
Dense slice of life
This documentary follows a high schooler in Muncie, Indiana. The situations and conversations are amazing, the subjects had either total trust or complete ignorance of the documenters. Teen pregnancy, racism & cross burning, automobile fatality, drugs, heavy drinking & all night parties all touch the life of our protagonist & her circle.
Originally produced for PBS for part of their "Middletown" series on Muncie, but was not included.
D.O.A. (1980)
Shows political insecurity
The film features not only punks and their performances, but also the reactionary times they played in. It's fascinating to see how threatened the powers-that-be felt, threatened by youth culture. (And it's too bad that the reactionary politicos of today are too secure to be threatened by any populist movement...)
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
97% Less Agenda then the Leading Media
This excellent piece of filmmaking is propelled by its player's character flaws. None are portrayed without their good sides, and every single one is likable, most of the time. And yet each person in the film has some weakness that leads inexorably to a tragic end... every one makes you want to yell "you idiot!" at least once... and lest ye think that these reviews have given the whole story away- they haven't.
The film is a telling of a true tale, without alterations to the major facts, leaving it free from cliché. There's no gay agenda here. Look closely and it's hard to tell if there are any truly gay characters. Brandon, a self-professed "messed up girl", begins the film with the delusion that she's a straight male. Lana thinks she's dating a man, tries ignoring the biological truth, but in the end hesitates when Brandon looks a little bit girlish. This is no "Torch Song Trilogy", there are no parables here. It's a history in the Shakespearian sense.
What can we learn from this history? There are many angles... from a law and order perspective, both Brandon and her friends/tormentors committed property crimes and paid with jail time. Her murderers, well, they rape and kill, and are sentenced to life in jail. Brandon at her worst was a con, but was condemned to a life of fear and a brutal death. It is hard not to feel sympathy for a person suffering cruel and unusual punishments.
And history remembers the living best. A "where are they now" blurb states the whereabouts of the living protagonists. Presumably those killed are now six feet under. It is odd to criticize the choice of who was mentioned after the film.
From an acting perspective- it goes back to the weaknesses. Every cast member sets you up to like their character, then shows their less likeable side. It works so well. So what if the corpses barely breathe at the end, the magic is in the acting, not playing 'possum!
And to comment on the stop motion/slow motion- watching carefully- the romance scenes are filmed in real time. There is almost no slow motion, and it only happens during the brutality near the end. The stop motion worked well as bridges between scenes, but not so well when leading directly from dialogue.
Hillary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar for this film, she deserved it on the merits of her acting alone... and it can't always be said that Oscar winners are so deserving! It's interesting to compare this film with the one that captured the Best Actress Oscar in '96, "Fargo". Both are true stories, both depict senseless brutal murder committed to cover up earlier crimes. While the filmgoing public can readily condemn the killers in Fargo, who kill to hide fraud, Boys Don't Cry (whose killers kill to hide a rape) causes a controversy. Is that a tribute to the filmmaker for showing all sides of the story, or an indictment of our sorry world?