Author: jeff

Mother—a story of loneliness, obsession and grief—is an extraordinary film. Though it maintains Bong Joon-ho’s interest in sophisticated tonal complexity and generic self-reflexivity (hallmarks of earlier releases Memories of Murder and The Host), I’ll argue Mother to be his most successfully cohesive work of cinema, which is due, in part, to the multidimensional portrait of a woman in her late-sixties who dominates the narrative and will undertake whatever is necessary to protect her child (a mentally-disabled adult in his late-twenties) from unjust accusations of murder in a small, South Korean city. Kim Hye-ja, who plays the title role, is simply astounding. Kim appears in nearly every scene, and her character’s unlikely journey into the political quagmire of corrupt lawyers, provincial police detectives, disaffected teenagers, and South Korea’s penal system leads to discoveries and revelations which confound and, at times, provoke and disturb. This is surely screen acting at its finest. Furthermore, Bong Joon-ho toys with audience identification and reception, casting Kim (who appears to be South Korea’s version of Harriet Nelson having played mothers on television for decades) to play the morally ambiguous and certainly unglamorous role of the upstart detective who conducts her own procedural examination into the violent death of a young girl in order to clear her son’s name and presumed guilt. To build on the above comparison, the young man who plays the son, Do-joon, is Won Bin, a South Korean actor and sex symbol (just think Ricky Nelson). I won’t give any more away, but will comment on the first and last shots of the film, which present a sublimely ecstatic vision of human subjectivity that is best described as uncanny (which is about as close as I’m going to get to referencing Sigmund Freud).

Michael Haneke’s latest, subtitled “a German childrens’ story,” is an austere, black-and-white, period film set in a small, northern village a dozen or so months before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Beautifully photographed, rigorously self-disciplined, and meticulously crafted, The White Ribbon plays like mid-career Ingmar Bergman without the joie de vivre . . . and that’s not such a bad thing. Narrated by the village schoolmaster—who openly acknowledges he is an unreliable witness—some thirty or so years after the events depicted on the screen, the film opaquely yet convincingly illustrates Foucault’s dictum that power functions as a locus of struggle. In the film this struggle appears to be between an ambiguously malevolent group of children, their soft targets, and the authority figures (baron, doctor, pastor, the steward of the baron’s estate, fathers, husbands, etc.) who exercise discipline and control over said youth, who will, presumably, freely participate in the atrocities of Nazi Germany fifteen to twenty years down the road. Continue reading Die Weisse Band (The White Ribbon)

I’ve seen all of these but seven and cannot disagree with the number one entry. What are your thoughts? Was really pleased to see This is England at number thirteen (ok, it is a British newspaper, but nobody seemed willing to take me up on Meadow’s excellent little film–Chris I’m pointing my finger at you–so I gloat in hopes you will queue it up). Seems like a good place to start thinking about the decade even if the glories of 2010 are still yet to be determined . . .

I’m directing a musical. It’s kicking my ass. Forgive me if I watch a little television to unwind or, better yet, to displace the songs from Urinetown: The Musical which haunt me 24 hours a day. Haven’t watched a lot but there are three shows worth recommending. I know I will be the only one to commit to its April 15, 2009 deadline, but ABC’s “Flashforward” is entertaining if you dig post-9/11 anxiety narratives. Check out the cold opening from this past week’s episode (you’ll have to sit through a Disney commercial and about 35 seconds of “previously on” footage which I will ask you to ignore before the show’s clever mash-up of Bjork and cataclysm). Another show that has produced two top notch episodes and two decent eps is ABC’s half-hour sitcom “Modern Family.” The pilot is brilliant and worth your twenty-two minutes. And, finally, there is Fox’s “Glee,” which is fantastic (or maybe I’ve been watching too many teenagers sing and dance for the past three weeks). It’s definitely worth checking out.

The Society for Cinema and Media Studies will be holding their 2010 conference in Los Angeles. The conference theme is as follows: “SCMS at 50/LA: Archiving the Future/Mobilizing the Past.” I’m not really sure what that means, but I never really do. A close look at the conference program for 2008 suggests a fairly broad array of topics and approaches. Wouldn’t it be fun to put together a panel? I’m sure we could find some way to unite our interests. I delivered a paper at their 2003 Minneapolis conference, but I am not an active member. Anybody know more? Anybody interested?

Anybody watching this hilarious, profane television show on HBO? It is completely wrong in so many good ways. Episode 1:2 featured a somewhat forced cameo from Will Farrell but was very, very funny nonetheless (directed by David Gordon Green). Good stuff (and maybe as good as “Summer Heights High” which is now out on DVD and worth the effort).