The Memorial Debate Goes On

This isn't the memorial people hoped for.

The Station Agent & Shattered Glass

I cannot for the life of me understand how a film like The Station Agent has received so much good press! I mean, I like Aki Kaursmaki too, but as Lloyd Bentsen said to Dan Quayle in 1992 "I worked with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
I guess the moviegoing public is ready for the divine quirks of another Fellini, unfortunately, this wasn't he.
I won't go into much detail about this film beyond my visceral reaction, which was obviously not good!
I will say that I was struck by the pretention to be more (!!!) and by the fact that there was little coherence of style and clarity of intention in this film. Whether the desire was to make a naturalistic film or a surreal one, a buddy movie or a minimalist meditation on solitude (or to mix it all up and make a great inventive indie) it comes off not as a great stew, but a big mash and not successfullly at all. There are too many elements of clicheed eccentricity thrown in which, at the end, seem contrived, derivative and pedestrian. I just did not believe it for one moment (and it's not as if I care if the film is 'fantastic' or 'naturalistic').
In fact, most of the time, I sat in disbelief at the accolades and the success.
Meaning, as is seen in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, does not a dwarf need!
Or as a friend commented to me as we walked out of the film at the Angelika : "That was the Best Dwarf Movie of the Year"
And another friend added "...so far...".

N.B. BWT, I found ONE other reviewer who agrees with me, phew - David Ansen (of Newsweek).

Shattered Glass on the other hand was quite good. Compelling, interesting, thought provoking, accompanied by great acting.
OK, so All the President's Men it wasn't, but this film about Stephen Glass, who in his short stint as Associate Editor of The New Republic , wrote 41 articles for the magazine, 27 of which were pure fabrications, seemed to me less about journalistic integrity and more about human nature!!
Beyond the message of 'don't believe everything you read, even if you read it in The New Republic', what we have here is an interesting take on the mundane naivete of normal human relationships. In the earnest but honest environment of a progressive workplace, where most people give others the benefit of the doubt, this can turn out to be a real liability.
The film's disturbing portrayal of a seemingly normal-acting but troubled young man and the web of deception he weaves, manages to effectively and sensitively portray the creepiness, embarrasment and anger that are part of the nature of things that don't go 'right'.
The excellent performances all reinforce the elegant, thoughtful direction and mis-en-scene. What would seem to be an intriguing, but potentially slow subject matter becomes an intense and reflectively distressing work.

WTC Memorial Competition Finalists' Entries - Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial They Aren't

Great all around survey of the result to the WTC Memorial Competition on the New York Times Web Site, along with an audio and written commentary by Herbert Muschamp which I actually agree with.
My sense, viewing all the entries that were judged as finalists, is that there was nothing in any of them them which really resonated with the kind of depth, emotion, intelligence, sensitivity and creativity that is expected for this monumental project.

What we did see was lots of over produced verbiage about the essential truths of life, the desire to both acknowledge the tragedy and to look forward into the remainder of life with remembrance but with hope, accompanied by the elements. Nice words, which repeated themselves over and over in the texts of each finalists' entry.
For me the test will always be my own first and lasting reaction to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial by Maya Lin.
I will never forget the rush of excitement and profoundly moving emotion I felt on the day I experienced that great innovative place for the first time. I had never seen anything like it and neither had anyone else I knew. It was the combination of minimalism and respect, for abstraction of form, time and space, for the profundity of simple memory, for relevance of place and for purity of gesture beyond the contemporary, that shook the hearts of so many people and the foundations of memorial design.
This field of design has never been the same, and I can attest to that personally. When I submitted, along with Noa Brosh. a competition entry for the design of a memorial for the Holocaust in Boston, in 1991, we were overshadowed by Maya Lin's memorial at every step of the way. We tried to do this very intricate dance in which we both tried to avoid repetition (or worse, plagiarism ) and at the same time let the inspiration and respect we felt for that great achievement flow over us, influence us (and the result) deeply, but not uniquely and bluntly - it was a very hard task.
Here among these entries one can again see the influence of that seminal work on the language of memorial design, the results, unfortunatley, all seem poorly derivative ; no one single entry really touches on the most fundamental aspect of this kind of opportunity, to tap into the vein of the penultimate human experience, of life and death, to go beyond the banal references to eternity and embody something truly inspiring and new.
No, it seems the scale of the undertaking and (as Muschamp rightly says) the political sphere that established the timetable, couple with the lack of true perspective on the event in time - to not allow a creation of true transcendence to emerge.
Whatever will be there, will be forced and thus, by definition, flawed.

They say time is the only healer for mourners. The simplicity of that statement is truly lost in these finalists' designs.

Bush's Visit to the UK

As usual the Guardian presents us with the most original, thought provoking and effective response to a news (worthy ?) event - George Bush's official state visit to the UK (the first since Reagan's in the 80s). By publishing diverse letters of people from both the UK and the US reflecting on and reacting to the visit, we get a real sense of this latest chapter in the ever complex British - American relationship and the times!
To whet the appetite, the article starts off with two diametrically opposed points of view, Michael Portillo's (on the right) and Harold Pinter's (on the left). Cheers again, Guardian. The best online paper in the world!!! Bar none.

Ground Zero Part 200

Another salvo in the battle for the soul of Ground Zero, in NYT description of the struggle between Daniel Libeskind and David Childs of SOM for design control over the project. All as a reflection of the struggle between Governor Pataki and the developer Larry Silverstein.

Lost In Translation

Finally got around to seeing Lost in Translation tonight . Felt that rather than running to see it with "everyone" post the NYT article about Sofia Coppola, I would wait till the hype dies down as well as the crowds...with the hope that I wouldn't have to fight for a good seat.
Well the surprise is: the hype hasn't died down and the crowds are still filling the theaters on Saturday night in NYC.
The theater I saw it at was not only full, it was sold out!!

First of all: it's a very good film - funny, warm, gentle and sincere - mostly it feels natural.
Whether it's a great film...? Time will tell. Right now the odds are in its favor.
It has many great qualities, unique atmosphere, excellent acting, good sensibility, rhythm. Meaning.

I have to say that though his performance was excellent, understated and interesting, (and he is sure to get the (deserved) accolades, along with SC herself) - what really caught my attention was not Bill Murray's performance - but Scarlett Johansen's amazingly refined performance. I have never seen her before, but this was as fresh, honest, intelligent and subtle a performance as any I have seen in a long time. In fact, it reminded me of a performances in the tradition of Rohmer's young heroines rather than any recent American actress' performance I have seen. It is her depiction of Charlotte's contemplative moods, her smiles, her natural attractiveness, her coy flirtatiousness that makes the film come alive with its essential counterpoint. At the end this is her film . It is the deep precision of her acting which reflects the state of being of this young drifting soul in a mature and intriguing way and brightens her more mature counterpart. Only through her presence does Bill Murray's understated, sad clown truly shine.

The second thing that struck me about this film (and in a way this is still a compliment, though a veiled one) was how, despite it being a total insider's film, focused on the lifestyle of the rich and famous (maybe this is what brought out a bit of a chill in me), it still manages to exude emotion and connect.
This is remarkable for the fact that the actual details of these people's lives have nothing to do with most of our own (and I read in an interview Sofia Coppola gave to Greg Allen that she watched Antonioni's L'Aventurra - for inspiration - definitely not a populist film. It is, though, one of my favorite films of all time - a beautiful, gentle, existentialist film if there ever was one and a proper source for this one. If it matter, any resemblance to 'real' life in both films, though, is purely coincidental.
Setting the story in Tokyo, highlighting the most bizarre and alienating aspects of modern Japanese culture, beyond the fun and sheer entertainment value, was a great move. It heightened the distance between the 'world within' and 'world without', emphasizing the warmth internal value of the film, as well as the camaraderie of culture and they emerge as deep emotions, touching thoughts and deeply contemplative moments throughout the film. These gave the film a cool transcendent radience, leaving one feeling both moved and uplifted.
This is a film about a lot of things: the disorientation at the beginning of adult life and again in it's mids; the reality of never quite knowing; the strength of a deep human connections. Yet,, to me it was mostly a melancholy ode to the disillusionment of marriage, the false promise of conjugal companionship and the idea that marriage will create meaning in one's life. In
Lost in Translation marriage highlights the lack of meaning one's life can have, if you don't bring meaning to it yourself.
If your life is confusing to you, then its going to be even more so when it is contrasted with the framework of marriage's norms and expectations, and (in this case) a partner who is focused and knows what they want.
The film reflects on the fact that if you don't have direction then attaching yourself to someone else, doesn't provide for it.
In the penultimate scene of the film, on the bed at night in Bob Harris' room, Charlotte and Bob talk about life and marriage and it is this scene and the difficulty of navigating both your expectations and the reality, that makes the film much more than just pure entertainment (though it is a highly entertaining film ).

Ultimately it is up to the individual to make life meaningful. Sofia Coppola certainly has.

The Guardian's The world's 40 best directors is a good list of the current crop of mostly mainstream but still interesting directors working in the world today.
The majority are American and there are definitly some ommisions (like for example Olivier Assayas or Amos Gitai) but all in all the list is solid with a sharp Euro eye for the quirky, and David Lynch gaining the top spot. Strangely, a great director like Pedro Almodovar is no. 15. The inclusion of PT Anderson and Alexander Payne as well as the high placement of the Coens (no. 3) redeems any weaknesses in the choices made.
I will review this list in more detail in the coming week. I just wanted to get it out there first.

The debate over the future of ground zero continues on. This time, strike up one very interesting and big point in the Muschamp column. His analysis of the current state and direction of the Liebeskind Master Plan is incisive and erudite and continues his by now (in)famous assault on Liebestkind's design, philosophy and carreer, this time taking it to new and ironic heights with strong allusions to Fascist Architecture of the 30's. Ouch!

Intolerable Cruelty

First off, it's important to say that I have been a huge Coen Brothers fan since being blown away by Blood Simple almost 20 years ago. I can still remember seeing it for the first time and thinking to myself "Wow! That's different and amazing!" . It might be said that this is one of the films that affected my thinking about cinema, one of a New Wave (though small) of my generation, along with Paris, Texas, that same year and Sex, Lies and Videotape a few years later. (a random stream of consciousness list, without any pretentions for structure or comprehensiveness)