Sunday, October 31, 2010
Metropolis (1927)
Happy Halloween everyone!
I gave it a good try to attempt to horror-ify my posts in honor of this month but alas outside responsibilities demanded my utmost focus and attention.
I will end the month with a movie that I just recently watched that has been stuck in my mind. This movie was amazing, dark, exciting, and oddly enough disturbing. It's a movie that is referenced in movies, novels, and general geek culture. Crazy thing is, this movie was made in 1927!
"Metropolis" is a german silent movie that deals with human communication, love, and robots. That's right, ROBOTS. There is also alot of reference to Babylon and other biblical references which I didn't get at first which really annoyed me.
Here's how the story goes: there is an upper city, where the rich walk and play, and a lower city, where the workers live and toil. There is a main Rich man who runs the city and his Naive son. The Naive son falls in love with a saintly woman named Maria who resides in the lower city. As he chases after her, he discovers the harsh world of the lower city and empathizes with them.
There is a pretty scary part where one of the workers dies as he is working the main machine. The main machine then turns into a hungry temple where people are led to it's hungry mouth. Without any preparation, it becomes a pretty scary scene. It was pretty confusing and shocking.
I guess it's the film during that time but the graininess and jerky movements of the actors is just plain scary! Especially when your sick out of your mind and watching the movie in the pouring rain. And you have a fat black cat that insists on digging her claws in her leg at every scary moment.
Anyhoo, the Naive son is touched after hearing a rousing sermon by Maria to the workers to wait for the "mediator". The workers are fed up with endlessly working and are ripe for a riot. Only the calm word of Maria convinces them to wait.
Which brings us to the main lesson of the movie: 'The mediator between head and hands must be the heart!". The hands are represented by the workers and the head is represented by the Rich Man.
Meanwhile, the Rich Man meets with a mad scientist named Rothwang. The connection between the two is that the Rich Man married Rothwangs daughter,Hel, who just passed away. In his grief, Rothwang creates a robot in the hopes of capturing Hel's essence.
The Rich Man finds out about Marias sermon and demands Rothwang to take care of her. Rothwang then kidnaps Maria and then inserts her likeness into the robot.
That part just plain confused me. Maria was helping by calming the crowd. Without her as a buffer, anything would spark the workers into a frenzy. How was it going to benefit the Rich Man by wiping out Maria? Dumbass...
So begins a double cross scheme. Rothwang uses the Fake Maria to lead the Rich Man to believe that she is following the Rich Man. The Fake Maria then begins to destroy the solidarity of the workers and corrupts the rich men.
The rest is just crazy, dramatic, and like I previously said disturbing. There aren't any jump scare scenes or gore. The horror comes with the atmosphere and tone of the movie.
The one part of the movie that has refused to leave my mind is the dream dance by the Fake Maria. She does this crazy, uncomfortable dance. It is just weird. Something about her chest seems a huge disconnect from her body. The actress, Brigette Helm, who played Maria/ fake Maria did an amazing job. In fact, this actress is who made the movie really mesmerizing for me.
With silent movies, the acting is often over exaggerated and dramatic to convey the emotions of the actors. You could easily differentiate the real Maria from the Fake Maria. I really loved how she played Fake Maria. Helm would distort her face and twist her body in an awkward way.
There is a reference to Babylon. I have no idea if I'm going to get this correct, but there was a fake pariah that the people followed which led to their doom.That's where Fake Maria comes in. The Fake Maria instigates the downfall of the city just like the Fake Pariah brings the Apocalypse. Right? I dunno.
Theres also a reference to the Naive heading to his fathers place which is the "New Tower of Babel". From what I know, Tower of Babel was supposed to be the epicenter of learning all the languages.
Communication is a strong thread in this movie. With every lack of communication, problems ensues. From the workers listening to the Fake Maria instead of reason results in the flooding of the lower city. Lack of communication between Rich Man and Naive son results in the Naive son placing himself in danger (which is a good thing later however).
This was my first silent movie so it was kind of difficult to get used to it. The orchestra movie was really beautiful and set the tone of the movie seamlessly. The movie is also split into parts so it's a pretty long movie to sit through.
I can understand why this movie was so powerful. It was way before it's time. Even though the movie was silent, the acting was pretty lowkey and to the point. It was just simply amazing and has not left my thoughts at all.
Plus, I think the Naive son looks like Gerald Way...
Happy Halloween everyone!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Labyrinth (1986)
What would be a better happy counter to "Pan's Labyrinth" than "Labyrinth"?
Several reasons why "Labyrinth" is famous:
1. David Bowie
2. "Dance Magic Dance"
3. Jim Henson muppets
4. Jennifer Connonelly
5. DAVID BOWIE
What is it about David Bowie that makes him so ethereal, alien, awesome, and freakin' sexy in this movie????? I'm gonna have to say it was the cape and the crystal balls.
Before "Crank Yankers", muppets use to make the movies or television shows wholesome and silly. Think Alf, Sesame Street, Eurekas Castle, the list goes on."Labyrinth" gave muppets the ability to be creepy and slightly disturbing (come on. those orange things were tossing their own heads around while singing!!!). The designs were grotesque and nothing was friendly about them. Even the big goofy thing was intimidating. It was almost as if Jim Henson had a closet of emo muppets he wanted to unleash upon the world. Thank you!!! Happy muppets can be a bit too overwhelming...
Before I go on, I must say:
I love this movie. I love this movie. I love this movie. This was one of the pivotal movies in my adolescence. I was immediately attracted to the Demon King (I'm not gonna shirk from the truth)and it became my own personal fairy tale. As much as I want to believe I matured, I still feel I am like Sarah before the Demon King: I'm still dancing around living the stories in my mind. Although I do have friends, so not quite like Sarah.
Clarification out of the way, I can talk about this movie objectively. This is not all entirely happy silly movie with muppets.It is a dark and sad movie. Even though the muppets are to add comedy, the music is to somewhat uplift us, there are alot of dark elements: loneliness, kidnapping, delusions, unrequited love, truth, the meaning of friends. What the hell!
"Labyrinth" involves a young girl, Sarah, who loves nothing more than to dance around the park LARPing characters from her fantasy novels. She is stuck babysitting for her baby brother one night. As she attempts to console his crying, she unknowingly summons the demon king (David Bowie in all his glory) to take the baby away. In order to save him, she must solve the labyrinth in thirteen hours.
That's not a happy story right?
The Demon King is hopelessly and cruelly in love with Sarah. He obsesses over her even as he places obstacles in her path. There is a song that Bowie sings towards the end that really shows how much more he wants to possess her instead of loving her. Plus the dance he has with her in the ballroom is incredibly creepy.
Really pretty but creepy. Why the hell does he even love her? Why would he love a pansy like Sarah in the first place? I guess a good argument would be that he eventually fell in love with her since she gains the power and strength to work through the labyrinth.Eh. Still kinda weird but I tend to glaze over that.The muppets are not beautifully made. They're scary and sad almost wiry and underloved. Ugly. Sad. Ew. Think Elmo if Elmo was thrown in a garbage bag full of test tubes teeming with pathogens.
The first ally she meets is urinating against the labyrinth walls.
Stories with labyrinths are RARELY happy stories. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with solving the inner puzzle within out soul conscience. Often times the journey of self-discovery is never smooth and is always full of facing dangers. No one really wants to admit to themselves that they are immensely flawed in any way.
That's why the muppets and the music are perfect in counterbalancing the dark aspects of the movie. It opens up the movie to be acceptable for children. It's pretty much another fairy tale; adult themes hidden in song and dance.
I must have been warped the first time I watched. This was beautiful and romantic to me.
Actually I still think that way....
I though it would be funny if I added a video review from the Nostalgic Chick. See if you agree:
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
I will give you a better preparation for this movie than I did.
It's not just "scary". It's holy-shit-this-is-my-childhood-fairy-tale-horror-come-to-life- scary. The type of scary where your grabbing the nearest stuffed teddy bear.
It is definitely a movie that everyone must see. After watching this movie, there are usually two extreme reactions : those who absolutely loved it and those who are terrified of ever seeing the DVD cover again.
Why? Simply put, this movie is incredibly hard to watch. Several reasons:
1. alot of darkness
2. very, very, effin' violent
3. alot of blood
4. the Pale Man. Oh,dear fluffy clouds THE PALE MAN
5. Unless you understand Spanish, you have to break the trance by reading the subtitles
(Can be a bit distracting but can also be a relief at focusing somewhere else.)
My advice:
1. don't eat while watching this movie.
2. keep the lights on
3. don't look under the bed/closet
4. don't look too hard into the trees
5. don't watch this alone
It's really easy to stay in my comfort zone of fantasy and romantic comedy movies and just relax. Except that it can just get so freaking boring. You can predict the story line for most of these movies. There's only so much shrugs and goofy grins a person can take before it can become incredibly superficial. To a point where it stops being enjoyable. That's when I venture into movies that shake me out complacency.
Plus the adrenaline thrill that your alive is a good jump start to living.
I can pretty much force myself to sit through a gruesome movie (admist wiggling and covering my eyes) once and then my brain goes into complete shock. An overload of cruelty and violence triggers the automatic mental metal door to slam shut (cue in the "Get Smart" theme song). I'm limited to only one or two of these kinds of movies a year. I'm that much of a pansy.
After I spend a few months breathing and recapturing my thoughts from where it has scattered, I start to analyze. I try to understand my fear and coax it into submission. Slowly and steady I will started to analyze the movie itself. If I'm brave enough, I will force myself to watch it a second time to let the reluctant appreciation set in.
I have to admit appreciation for the dark and the scary. It either takes an incredibly unhinged
person to release their inner demons or a person who just understands Fear. It goes back to the whole balance of yin and yang. Light and evil. In order for me appreciate the light I need to look back and recognize the evil. It won't do anygood if I don't understand that it's there.Although the movie is fictional it's still realistic in it's proportions of human cruelty. That exists. Worse acts exist. I just hope that I will be lucky enough not to experience it.
Guillermo Del Toro (director and creator) is one who understands inner fear. Just watch the "The Power of Myth" featurette on the DVD.You can tell that he understand what was triggering the inner fear in his audience.
"Pan's Labyrinth" is a modern fairy tale/ horror. A young girl on the edge of adolescence along with her pregnant mother is forced to stay with the stepdad in the country. The stepdad is a fascist leader hell-bent on killing the rebels hiding in the woods and all who aid them. To escape the torture and oppresion, the young girl runs off to discover an ancient faun. The faun informs the girl that she is the long lost princess of the fantasy world. In order to claim the throne, she must go through several tests.
Through the fantasy there is a lot of violence tucked in every possible corner. I know the movie is set a few years after the Spanish civil war. Of course there's going to violence. I just hate watching it. I always flinch when someone get's slapped or punched. I'm squealing at the moment a knife heads towards the body.I'm just completely overburdened by the sadness and horror of it all.
It's been a year or so since I've seen this movie. It still terrifies me. I had to force myself to listen to what other people had to say about the movie before I could even begin to analyze. I just remember not registering that this movie was a fairy tale. My mind just started going into shock once all the crazy stuff started happening. My mind was refusing to focus on the movie. It was frantically focusing on anything on the screen that was visually pleasing. Anything. There was nothing. It's all scary. Even the little girl kinda makes me nervous.
This is the way fairy tales were described originally and Del Toro really nailed that. It is an amazing movie in it's layers of meanings. I only caught on to the "girl on the verge of adulthood" part. But there's also the grouping of threes and facial mutilation. Wow. Alot of stuff.
I'm pretty much gearing myself for a second viewing of the movie. Slowly gearing up.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
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