medyuh

[garote]

"The Demon Haunted World" - The title makes it sound like a book of ghost stories, or some bad science fiction, but it's actually Carl Sagan's treatise on the scientific method, and how it interacts with nature, religion, ethics, politics, sex, education, economics, and everything else. In my opinion, this is the dissertation that Carl Sagan's entire life's work led up to, and his best gift to future generations. I can't recommend it enough. I give it two thumbs way up. There's an abridged version floating around too - try tackling that first, then the full version in pieces later on. There's a lot to absorb.

"A Marketplace Special Report: What Enron Says About America" - An amusing, easily digestable production explaining the Enron collapse, and how it effects our current and future economy. It starts out in 'Economics For Dummies' mode, but builds steadily on that, and gets very interesting - and disturbing - later on. I give it two dollar signs up.

"Terry Pratchett: The Carpet People" - Cute kid's story. Miniature thumbs up.

"Irreversible" - Gaspar Noé's crazy reverse-order flick. A fairly punishing film. I was expecting something really clever near the end, to make up for the hell it put me through in the first two thirds. Nope. Wasn't worth it. Interesting visual stylization, but not that interesting. Thumbs down.

"Jello Biafra - The Machine Gun In The Clown's Hand" - I used to really enjoy Jello's lampooning of the very worst politics in this country, but I think I'm getting too old to appreciate the guilty pleasure. When he veers off course, and gets into personal anecdotes and general comedy, he's great though. Thumbs halfway up.

Heh heh. On the list: 'The Core', which the Onion sums up like so: "Lacking a giant set of jumper cables, the government employs a ragtag team of physicists and astronauts to plunge underground in a jerry-rigged $50 billion phallus built by Delroy Lindo."

Comments

[ex-ilk.livejournal.com]

You first selection caught my attention because it's one of my favorites.

Thanks for the others!

[garote]

You're very welcome! It makes me happy that my list has connected me with a fellow reader.

And yeah - that book is so good, it pained me to think that I hadn't read it much earlier than now.

But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

Time destroys everything. Waiting for something special to happen in the end to make it all "worth it" is a waste of this moment.

Two thumbs way up to the film, and to a director who I believe will continue to Shock & Awe me!

Re: But I must disagree!

[garote]

Time also creates everything, and the near two hours I wasted watching this film created in me a feeling of tired irritation. I've seen better arguments for nihilism elsewhere.
How would you compare this film to, say, 'Saving Private Ryan'?

Re: But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to say that I found the film to be an argument for nihilism; actually quite the contrary. My friend karlvonbunko was so impressed with the film he managed to get the director on the phone - they discussed the movie at length: If you think about it, that ending can be taken in either way you choose - you may recall she survived the attack, (face exposed on the stretcher,) and therefore it's reasonable to assume that her baby survived as well. In those final scenes, I myself saw the small bulge in her belly, the foetus in the 2001 poster, and her alone in the park (without the jailed father) as the positive: that indeed, time creates everything, and in her case - a new life in defiance of the ugliness she endured.

Great art always inspires debate, nausea, anger, rapture, etc. I think I'm seeing evidence of that no matter where I see this movie being discussed; two camps, each passionately for or against. Any film that causes half of the theater audience to leave and the other half to remain transfixed in a state of awe stands out as something remarkable, in my opinion. Bravo!

I thought SPR was an incredible movie in its own right, but an entirely different movie at that.

Re: But I must disagree!

[garote]

Eh? You mean to say that time skipped forward at that point? I saw no real indication of that. The way I saw it, time was still going backwards, and she was sitting on the couch contemplating a possible pregnancy, before having her boyfriend over. Then before that, she was sitting in the park reading the book she mentions later on, when discussing destiny in the elevator. No bruises on her face, no bulge in her belly. What's more, when the antagonist is raping her in the ass, he casually mentions that he thinks she's starting to bleed. In other words, I saw no indication at all that she kept the baby.

"Any film that causes half of the theater audience to leave and the other half to remain transfixed in a state of awe stands out as something remarkable, in my opinion. Bravo!"
Remarkable? Certainly. That's not the same as, "worth seeing". When the lights came on at the end (and yes, several people did walk out before that), there was no buzz of conversation. I saw one girl who looked really unhappy, and an older couple that looked angry, but that's about it.

I think this film irks me on a personal level, because about a dozen years ago I found myself entirely desensitized to violence, and I didn't like where it was leading me at all. Since then I've been re-training myself -- to let these things effect me as they should -- by taking a more active role in choosing what I expose myself to. Because of that earlier time, though, it's still something I can turn on and off, like a light switch.
So I shut it off, and watched the movie. And it struck me as mediocre. Shock value just doesn't move me. Been there, done that. I know the world is nasty a lot of the time already.

On the other hand, since this film is out there and playing, I'm glad that others have had the capability to come away from it with something. If it was enlightening, more power to ya! You know what I think -- I think the film is a really good argument against a sexually repressed, and especially homophobic society. I think it's a wry statement that the villain picked the basement of a gay sex club to hide out. Not even the cops would bust in there. Nobody even knew where it was ... not the cross-dresser, not the taxi driver. And yes, raping a woman in the ass is a degrading act to perform on her, but would an ostensibly straight man prefer the ass so strongly? Or is he in the basement of a gay club for reasons more direct than hiding from the law? Perhaps he was lashing out at the society of breeders that has criminalized his sexuality. Would this explain his preference for a she-male whore? ... Or was he angry at the she-male because he didn't know? ... Or is that why he let her go, and instead brutalized a 'real' woman?

Eeh. Too much analysis.

Back to the hack.

Re: But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

Those are a lot of interesting thoughts and points to make about such a mediocre work!

Okay, that comes off sounding snide, but it's the bad movies that don't inspire that kind of analysis; Very little cogitation could take place about - for example - Ali G Is In Da House.. And your point about the message involving the consequences of society's bigotry is excellent.

A couple minor counterpoints: anal rape causes rupture and bleeding from the ass, (as I've heard,) and I thought that was what he was referring to. I don't think being anally raped would cause an immediate miscarriage, but what do I know. ` She could have been reading that book later on as well, and why not? ` I did see a bulge, and rewound to see it again. Or did I? Again, I think that whole sequence was purposefully ambiguous. Women start showing at about 4 months - is that enough time for the face to heal up? I think so. He didn't cut it up, he just kicked it.

I have exposed myself to an unbelievable amount of gore and disgusting reality-based information, and have never really become desensitized to it. If I ever did I would be alarmed. The rape scene in Irreversible made me nauseous and angry. In my opinion, treating me to some kind of delicious retribution at the end of the movie would have reduced it without question to the status "mediocre". My rage about the crime I witnessed should not have been neatly snuffed.

Isn't controversy fantastic?

Re: But I must disagree!

[garote]

He sat on her back and slammed her unconscious face into the cement floor of the tunnel, four or five times, very hard. Your face doesn't heal from something like that, and certainly not in four months.

Ambiguous? The transition between scenes was a simple fade, just like all the others. There was no indication that we went forward in time, instead of backward like all the other scenes.

Re: bleeding from the ass: So should I chalk it up to bad special effects, if there was no blood on his dick when he rolled onto his back afterwards?

Re: mediocre work. What can I say, I'm good. >:)

Re: But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

4 months, I mean, who knows? It depends on a lot of things. I don't think either of us are qualified to say, so whatever.

Does there need to be an indication? The one difference between that transition and the others was the introduction of classical music, (Beethoven maybe?,) as we first see the 2001 movie poster. (incidentally, in conceiving this film Gaspar told Karl that he wanted to do Eyes Wide Shut, "the way Kubrick really intended it to be." So that was a kind of homage.)

Well, since he wasn't actually raping her, and since it was like a 14 minute continuous shot of film, I don't know how much we're supposed to expect from the brief glimpse of his penis aftewards, you know? But maybe I'm being too forgiving. And I mean that - the end of this movie can be taken either way.

Mediocre work - all I can say is, that's your opinion - and I love you for it. : )

Re: But I must disagree!

[garote]

w00t!

Re: But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

After watching the end of the movie again, I must agree. You're right: I don't think there was an interruption in the reverse timeline. So we can assume (especially by your astute observation regarding the bleeding) that she loses the child, but probably survives the attack given the lack of head cover in her emergency transport.

Another friend of mine believes that the quasi-naked man in the first scene is the aged Pierre, post-prison.

Even acknowledging this, my own philosophical outlook about film and art in general exonerates artists from having to possess any kind of social responsibility at all. I believe in the absolute freedom to create and "say" whatever you want. Whether you can get it funded and feed yourself by doing so is another matter.

I am a lover of extremism, and I do believe that Gaspar has pushed the envelope with this picture. In my opinion, naked abject horror delivered in film is a respectable thing to accomplish in today's jaded world. (Although I do believe his overall message to clearly be anti-violence. Strange that movies about a bunch of peaceful people do not have the same effect on me.)

Re: But I must disagree!

[garote]

The aged Pierre? But doesn't he say that the reason he was imprisioned is because he raped his daughter?

Re: But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

He does. I'll ask my friend what his deal is. He's actually been working at a theater showing it in Portland, where there have been many interesting experiences with the customers.

Re: But I must disagree!

[garote]

Gnahahaha! I'll bet there's been!

I wonder if my friend Beatings has seen it yet. He lives in pr0nland, er Portland... Or Scott, or Miles, or Ben, or Xima...

Re: But I must disagree!

[zeroheretic.livejournal.com]

Okay, talked to him yesterday. He thinks the OTHER guy is Pierre. Not the naked fat dude, but the other dude.

[mirabilevisu.livejournal.com]

hmmm

something incredibly intriguing about a giant phallus penetrating the planet's core and making it's liquid flow freely again.

maybe it's just me

[garote]

ROFL

Piloted by Hilary Swank no less. >:)

It was pretty good for a larf. Try and see it at a drive-in.

Re:

[mirabilevisu.livejournal.com]

hush

i have a thing for hillary swank

we saw it in the theater already