Bakjwi (Thirst)

Chan-wook Park's new film is a complex film that is not easy to classify. Nominally a horror movie, the central character is a vampire, the film actually has elements of comedy, theology, melodrama, cultural invasion (and its analog of viral invasion of a body), romance and few other things as well. It's a film that has almost too much on its mind. The film takes its own matters and mixes them with classic European literature, in this case Emile Zola's "Thérèse Raquin". It's an odd mix that doesn't always gel, but none the less has an incredible power. Here it is almost 24 hours since I saw the film at Lincoln Center (with a post film discussion by the director) and I find my cage is increasingly rattled. Its not so much what happens is bothersome, its more that its wide reaching story and its themes ring a lot of bells in retrospect.

The plot of the film has a will loved priest deciding that the best way to help mankind is to volunteer for a medical experiment to find a cure for a terrible disease. Infected with the disease he eventually succumbs and dies, but because of a transfusion of vampiric blood (its not explained) he actually survives. Hailed as a miracle worker the priest returns to the hospital where he had been ministering to the sick. Unfortunately all is not well. The priest finds that he needs blood to survive. He also finds that he has all of the typical problems of a vampire, and its no not possible for him to go out during the day. Things become even more complicated when he becomes reacquainted with a childhood friend and his family. The priest, some of his animal passions awakened becomes taken with the wife of his friend. From there it all goes sideways.

An ever changing film, this is a story that spins through a variety of genres as it tells the very human story of a man who finds that his life has been radically altered by a chance event and finds that he is no longer who he thought he was. It's a film that you have to stay with to the end because the film is forever evolving into something else. Its also a film that has a great deal on its mind and the themes its playing with are constantly being explored in a variety of ways

The film has enough going on that one could, and people probably will, write books discussing the film.

The two of the strongest parts of the film are its vampiric elements and its romance The vampire part of the tale is brilliant. There is something about how it lays out the ground rules and the nature of the "affliction" that makes such perfect sense that it kind of pushes the old vampire ideas aside. Sitting in the theater last night I found myself amazed at how impressed how well it worked. I think the fact that it played more or less straight is what is so earth shaking. Here is a vampire who just wants to have a normal life. It's contrasted with what happens later, it makes clear that living an existence of hunting humans really isn't going to work. Its not the dark world of Twilight or Lost Boys, rather its something else. I personally think that the film changes the playing field from a hip cool idea or dream into something more real and tangible. (The sequence where the powers kick in is just way cool) The romance is also wonderfully handled. Sure the sex scenes are steamy and well done, but it's the other stuff, the looks, the talk, the gestures outside of the sex that makes this special. I love the looks, the quiet stares as the forbidden couple look at each other hungering for each other and unable to act, the disappointment and heartbreak of betrayal both real and suspected, and the mad passion of possible consummation. This is one of the great screen romances of all time. It perfectly captures the feeling and emotion of deep passionate love (and lust). If you've ever loved deeply I'm guessing you'll find some part of your hear on screen, I know I did. The statement "I just wanted to spend eternity with you" has a sad poignancy to it. It's both a statement of what was the intention as well as the depth of emotion. The tragic romance will break your heart.

I won't lie to you and say that the film is perfect and great. Its not, as good as the pieces are and almost all of them are great (especially the actors who I have unjustly failed to hail as amazing) the whole doesn't always come together. The various genres, thematic elements and tones occasionally grate against each other. Frequently I was wondering where the film was going. I hung in there even though the film seemed to be wandering about aimlessly.

I liked the film a great deal. I loved the pieces more than the film as a whole. Its been pinging around in my head since I saw it, and I'm guessing that it will do so for several days more. Like or love is irrelevant since this is a film that really should be seen since it has so much going on that it will provide you with enough material to think and talk about for days afterward. One of the meatiest and most filling films of the year.

Underground

Underground is a 1995 Yugoslavian film by bosnian Emir Kusturica. It won the golden palm at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Here is my take on the movie: Firstly, if you look at the original title of the script (done by Kovacevic, NOT Kusturica) which is also given as the opening sequence line, you see that it is an allegory (the title is Once Upon A Time There Was A Country), so I don't see the point of calling the film historically wrong... It was never meant to be historically right, otherwise it would have to leave out all the consequent exaggerations so typical of Kusturica - the length of time spent in the basement, the more theatrical than movie-like acting, the visual motives and so on. This maybe a bit difficult to accept as there are some documentary sequences in there, but I see it more of a context building element than an attempt to mislead the viewer about Yugoslav history.

Secondly, people seem to like the first third of the movie for its humorous elements and I guess because they can follow the plot easily (the whole WW2 theme in the exposition, I must admit, I enjoyed as well)... The second third starts as the Allies bomb Belgrade and kill more than the Nazis did 4 years before that, so maybe the Western people are inclined to disagree with the rest based on this line, I don't know...

Thirdly, I don't see where the Serbian propaganda element kicks in ... If you think the documentary sequences of Slovenia and Croatia welcoming the Germans with glee, and Serbia fiendishly being left out, is done purposefully for slandering the Croats and Slovenes, I hate to disappoint you, but Serbia saw no such celebration, so there is nothing of that kind to show... Instead the plot balances this out as it is set in Belgrade, where the supposed wartime "heroes" of the story (never ethnically identified as Serbs) collaborate with the occupation forces when they have a personal interest in doing so, and vice versa. Again, historically there were antifascist elements throughout Yugoslavia, but it's also a fact that Croatia became a fascist independent state at the time.

Somebody mentioned the Muslim element as being totally absent, and I agree with that to an extent, but Kovacevic's novel was finished in early 1991, before the war in Bosnia escalated into what we now know. And, besides, Muslims were not considered a nation but a religious group until the end of WW2, and since there is no mention of the Caholic or Orthodox church in the movie, I don't see why there should be mention of Muslims.

I understand most Wasterners consider communism to be the Soviet kind everywhere, but I saw this movie as a commentary remark on the inequality of the proclaimed and the apparent, not of communism or Yugoslav socialism, or any -ism for that matter. Petar Popara is proclaimed an electrician, Marko Dren a poet, neither one a real politician, but both of them high ranking communists. They are petty criminals before the war who only get into the party ranks to continue their criminal activities when the war starts. Marko, the educated one, continues his criminal activities by using slave labor of the basement inhabitants to make and traffic guns after the war. He is a typical opportunist since he does this for personal gain, lies to the wretched people below that they have to do it for the war effort, and keeps Petar Popara inside in order to be with Natalija up above. This is just what makes the characters and relationships so complex, and in my opinion, the reason why this movie has a universal story. If any propaganda is shown, this one is the anti-war, anti-politician kind.

Back to the story, I especially liked the Old Man character as he is the insider. He is the only one who knows what's going on above, yet stays in the basement, he is Marko's accomplice, and he "steals time" by winding the clock backwards, which as I see it, is a comment on the Balkans always lagging behind the rest of the world based on misguided trust in people who claim to be the saviors and are "on your side." The basement youth is totally oblivious to the world, as exemplified by Jovan, Petar's son, born on the first day of the basement exodus, with the side story of going out with his dad to fight the "goddamn Germans" and not knowing the difference between the sun and the moon, based on his fathers stories and drawings(myths and realities of history as told by the idolized wise).

As for the movie being co-produced by the Serbian Broadcasting Company, I can safely say that Serbian cinematography and movie productions in the nineties were definitely not purely regime-oriented. How else would you explain RTS having co-produced Pretty Villages - Pretty Flames? Based on all this, I can't say that this movie is even in the same league as Tanovic's Oscar Winner No Man's Land someone recommended instead of Underground. That movie is a simple story of civil war told in a simple good guys - bad buys way. If I were as cynical as some other reviewers here, I could say that it was Muslim propaganda, as many other US produced movies on the Bosnian war subject, as it openly gives the impression that Serbs are the root of all evil, they are stupid and only do things if you hold a gun to their head, whereas Bosnian Muslims are fun-loving pro-Western dudes forced into waging war, but would rather listen to the Rolling Stones, and they are so altruistic that they would even help the enemy in the ditch. Talk about historically wrong...

The author is from serbia and goes under the pen-name of BOJAN-.

Secrets and Lies

"Secrets and Lies" is an exquisitely crafted movie, a recognition of the ties that bind us, although we often contest and deny such ties, for myriad reasons. Leigh is an immensely talented director, in control of the many resources at hand and he marshals said resources for compelling ends in this movie.

In this case, the film is, as mentioned, a recognition of the ties which bind and how they are sometimes unseen and, even when recognized, sometimes denied. The story that Leigh tells is that of the Purley family, a family with problems like any other. I hesitate to use the term dysfunctional because it seems the vast majority of families are of this nature and it is rare, the family which is "functional". Indeed, such a family might be somewhat dull to watch during the course of a film because, well, where would the conflict be? In any case, the family which Leigh depicts consists in a man named Mo Purley (the amazing Timothy Spall, who has starred several times for Leigh), a successful photographer who has attained a level of success at which he can now buy a nice house with his somewhat superficial wife Monica (Phyllis Logan). Mo has an older sister named Cynthia (the astonishing Brenda Blethyn) who lives a more banal life. She had a child at a young age and missed out on her education and so works in a factory and seems somewhat obsessed with retaining her youthfulness (and indeed she has remained in good physical shape, even if her looks have worn down, as they might by one's early 40s). Cynthia's daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook) works as a city sweeper and resists her mother's advice on how she might better herself. The two women live together in a small house and are short-tempered with one another much of the time, familiarity and proximity might sometimes induce.

Roxanne seems the most happy with her life although it would not be satisfying for many. She seems happy because she does not, apparently, wish for much more than she has. She is quite happy with her relaxed relationship with a construction worker Paul (Lee Ross) and their routine of watching television and having a couple of pints at the pub many evenings. Her lack of ambition is not to indict those who have goals, but simply to affirm the value of appreciating what one has.

The development which propels the story forward is that a young Afro-Caribbean optometrist, a successful and more composed yin to the Purleys' yang, Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) decides one day to track down her biological mother. It turns out to be Cynthia, who herself is at her wits' end, discouraged with her dull and monotonous life and with very little self-confidence. Cynthia, however, is a very nice person and is greatly loved by her younger brother for her role in raising him after their mother died when they were children. The relationship between the successful black optometrist and the white factory worker transforms both lives, giving both new appreciation for the wonderful complexity and richness of life.

I must admit that I thought that the revelations in the film were not particularly shocking at first. I thought to myself that I had seen many more jarring and shocking developments before. That said, the acting in this film is second-to-none. Spall, Jean-Baptiste, and Blethyn in particular are exceptional and, although I have seen some critical comments of Frances McDormand for her Oscar-winning performance in "Fargo", I do not think she was undeserving of the award, at least to the degree which some commenters seem to believe. Yes, her performance did not require the emotional range of Blethyn's, or the control of Baptiste's but in enlivening a bland Minnesota police officer, McDormand admirably imagined the cadences and persona of anonymity, and made them compelling. That said, I would not have had a problem with Blethyn winning. Her reaction when it sinks in that the girl she had given up for adoption has found her, is amazing. And the gradual transformation which this revelation has on her life is also amazing, as imagined by Blethyn. In short, Blethyn's performance was Oscar-worthy.

Baptiste is also amazing, embodying, with such restraint, the opposite of the out-of-control lives which burden the Purleys. She is the essence of class and provides a soothing counterpoint to the chaos of the Purleys' lives. And for me, Spall is better than both ladies- which is saying something. One can see the strain that these uneasy relationships are having on him and how he attempts to remain on an even keel amid the tensions and sniping between other family members. He retains this composure until a memorable explosion toward the end of the film. Were he not so composed throughout, the story would have no emotional center. Spall is fantastic.

Leigh's direction is admirable in its restraint. He recognizes that he has a winning story and he elicits measured performances from his actors, building up to the climax of the film without giving up any tension along the way. The metaphor of Mo's photography and his ability to elicit appropriate reactions from family members with obviously conflicting agendas and attitudes is representative of his abilities to steer the feelings of family members away from the harmful, hurtful reactions which they all wish to unleash on one another. He captures snapshots of groups as they wish to be captured. However, the mode in which they are photographed usually does not reflect their actual feelings at the time, and indeed may obscure peoples' true feelings about being there, in those circumstances, with those people.

In short, this film captures persuasively the degree to which we hide our feelings from one another and how revelation might be better for our mental health and may not actually harm us as much as enable us to come to terms with ourselves.