Third Eye Film Society ~ View topic

Author

Message

< Third Eye Film Forums ~ Couch With A View

jeremy

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:33 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

I watched Beasts Of The Southern Wild on the flight to Oz and wasn’t as smitten by its charms as some critics seem to have been. I can understand why many described the film as moving and magical. In parts, I felt this way about it too,... but, also feeling corralled by the (over)enthusiasm of others, I could be given to declaim it as sentimental and condescending. One dissenting critic branded it faux-k art. Ultimately, I felt it lacked the depth and resonances for its impact to live with me for long.

Perhaps, unlike an American audience, it took me some time to find my bearings. Indeed, I’m still not sure whether the isolation and neglect of the bayou dwellers and their poverty and ignorance were meant to be real or what we were shown was deliberately selective or exaggerated in order to paint a sense of separation. Coming from the land of big government, I’d expect the bayou to be awash with social workers brandishing care orders. I know the film wasn’t a documentary, but I’m remain puzzled why the film generated a sense of wonder rather than one of shame or anger.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild is framed in terms of the world view of a six year old girl, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis). It’s a perspective that makes the film's magical realism and other fantasy elements seem natural. However, it was also the film’s weakness – have you ever spoken with a six-year-old for long.

Hushpupy lost her mother in circumstances that are never made clear. Her father, Wink (Dwight Henry) is sick and possibly dying. He knows that he is hopelessly ill-equipped to raise his daughter and, accordingly, is determined to mould the young Hushpuppy into the unsentimental survivor that he feels she needs to be to overcome the deprivations of bayou life without a mother. Were it not for his fierce love and good intent, you and I might call his approach child abuse.

In this and other respects, Beasts Of The Southern Wild could be viewed as an allegory of the disregard the Government showed for the poor of New Orleans before and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. However, the film is rich with analogy and alternative interpretations that, like shadows cast by vigorous camp fire, never take on a definite shape. It doesn’t so much as defy analysis as make it reductive. Reminiscent of Terence Malik at his most discursive, Beasts Of The Southern Wild is an exercise in empathy best left to swim in the subconscious. It is not necessarily a weakness that this at the expense of plot and character development

Throughout the film, we take comfort in Hushpuppy’s stoicism and innocence. Unexposed or oblivious to the outside world where her abject poverty would be manifest, she doesn’t seem to crave material comforts. However, she does miss the love and succour of her lost mother. When Hushpuppy is alone, in her ramshackle trailer, we get to hear her mother’s disembodied voice - whether remembered, imagined or real - providing counsel and comfort; the detached tone and dreamlike quality of the film allowing this to be touching rather than maudlin.

Understandably, Hushpuppy has a sense that the world is out of balance. A discord that is presaged by the storm warnings and, in Hushpuppy’s mind, by the freeing of the legendary Aurochs, huge porcine animals, from their frozen prison in the Arctic ice cap. This confused, quasi-mystical natural history can easily be taken as an allusion to global warming and the polarised non-sense that surrounds it. When the Katrina-like floods strike the bayou the eponymous beasts run wild on the salt-wasted land.

Eventually, after much incident, including an alienating encounter with the authorities sent to help the residents of the bathtub, Hushpuppy finds some solace in the company of a waitress who is working on what appears to be a floating bordello. The waitress, who may be her mother or just a motherly substitute, provides the young girl with some comfort and food. This seems to restore Hushpuppy’s strength and morale following which she returns to the bayou, where she witnesses her father’s death. The film ends with Hushpuppy, still a Bathtub resident, lighting her father's funeral pyre.

It’s late. An Indian gentlemen is talking loudly in the room next door on what I take to be Skype. I am tired. I don’t feel up to making sense of it all and I am given to wonder whether it would provide any meaningful insight if I did. Maybe I could use some feminine succour to restore my strength and morale.See more
.

_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

billyweeds

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:02 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

jeremy--For someone who supposedly felt rather meh about Beasts of the Southern Wild, you spend a lot of time deconstructing it. And I get what you're saying although I strenuously disagree. My three main objections to your post are:

1) "Reminiscent of Terence Malick..." Anything in all of Malick should only be one-tenth as moving as any single scene in Beasts.

2) "...have you ever spoken with a six-year-old for long(?)" This is dismissive and silly. It's like saying, "All New Yorkers are the same."

3) "The film ends with Hushpuppy, still a Bathtub resident, lighting her father's funeral pyre." If this were all there was to the ending, I might agree with you. But Hushpuppy's last declaration is far from "I'm lighting my father's funeral pyre." Listen to it again. And again, if necessary. You're missing something, believe me.

jeremy

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 11:09 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

billyweeds wrote:

...

3) "The film ends with Hushpuppy, still a Bathtub resident, lighting her father's funeral pyre." If this were all there was to the ending, I might agree with you. But Hushpuppy's last declaration is far from "I'm lighting my father's funeral pyre." Listen to it again. And again, if necessary. You're missing something, believe me.

I will.

bartist

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 11:23 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

Because of the tone of magical realism, I wasn't really waiting for the ordinary drumbeats of plot. "Beasts" struck me as more of a vision, but far more coherent and insightful than any apparition that Malick has conjured.

Great to have you stop by and write a review, Jeremy. Hope that loud garrulous Indian gentlemen do not deter you from writing more.

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

Syd

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:38 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

The Three Lives of Thomasina: I hadn't seen this since I was a child, but I still remembered the scene in cat heaven with Bast and all the Siamese cats. Anyway, Patrick McGoohan plays Andrew McDhui, a town veterinarian in Scotland who is great with "useful" animals, but is insensitive to the love people feel for their pets. Karen Dotrice is his daughter Mary, who is deeply attached to her cat Thomasina. However, Thomasina is injured and stiff, and McDhui, who is busy with a seeing-eye dog that's been run over, sees how stiff Thomasina is, diagnoses her with tetanus, and orders his assistant to put her to sleep. This shatters Mary's faith in her father, and when the kids in town stage a funeral, Mary feels it's her father she's burying.

However, local "witch" Lori MacGregor (Susan Hampshire) inadvertently interrupts the funeral and scares the kids away. She discovers Thomasina is still alive and takes the cat to her cabin where she weaves and administers first aid and love to injured animals. Thomasina's lost her memories of her first life, but keeps having these nagging feelings.

I loved this as a kid, and it's really best when you're young or have kids. It's sentimental, but it has some very good scenes about veterinary practice in 1912, and the need for both skill and caring when working with animals. Susan Hampshire is charming, lovely and has a pretty singing voice as well. Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, who plays Mary's young friend Geordie, are best known for playing the children in Mary Poppins. Susan Hampshire would go on to win three Emmies in four years in the early 70s, notably for The Forsyth Saga and The First Churchills. McGoohan, you know about.

Last edited by Syd on Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:32 am; edited 2 times in total
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

Ghulam

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:44 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY

.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a decent enough movie but it is also forgettable.

.

Syd

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:55 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Tsotsi: Winner of the 2005 Academy Award for foreign film and popular here, but I just got around to it. Powerful film about a young street hood in South Africa who regains his conscience, with some scenes that had me biting my nails.

_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

marantzo

Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:58 pm

Guest

Syd wrote:

Saw it when it was current. Excellent film.

Ghulam

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:05 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY

.

I too liked Tsotsi a lot.

.

gromit

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 2:08 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

I had a similar reaction as Jeremy to Beasts.

The setting was a little hard to get comfortable with.
The colorful, exaggerated elements of The Bathtub didn't mesh well with the mythic/fantasy elements. I thought by far the weakest parts were the blowing up the water control system and the scenes where they are in and leaving the shelter.

I liked the focus on the little girl and there were some good scenes, but overall it didn't really come together that well.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

bartist

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:01 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

"Certified Copy" (2010) is another excellent Kiarostami film, where he again shows his brilliance with seemingly static tripod shots that somehow pulsate with meaning and emotion, and, as in "Like Someone in Love," (which I commented on 3-4 weeks ago), a knack for showing people in confined spaces, especially cars. Can't describe what happens without entering into spoiler country, as the viewers perception undergoes a disturbing alteration and a situation proves to be not what it seems. Juliette Binoche, a French woman running an antique shop in Italy, gives a sterling performance, as she becomes involved with a visiting British author, played by an opera singer* who proves to be an amazing actor - haven't seen him in anything else, but I hope he continues moonlighting. Kiarostami is a genius - there are sometimes scenes where you want to look away, but the camera doesn't and so you won't. I don't know how else to put it.

* William Shimell (and I see that he played "Geoff" in "Amour," two years later...)

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

billyweeds

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 7:25 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Revisited Fargo again last night. How wonderful can a movie be? This more or less defines "perfect" for me.

Watching Bridesmaids again and howling anew.

bartist

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 8:46 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

"He's fleeing the interview!"

Perfect. Yes.

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

knox

Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 11:39 am

Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1246 Location: St. Louis

Poking fun at indie films...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=M9J5ur-fi_g

Bart - for some reason, I had an attack of restlessness during CC. The twist/revelation didn't quite work for me, given that the woman's son appeared not to recognize the author at the beginning. Binoche was good - when is she not? - but the film just didn't come together.

bartist

Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:08 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

knox wrote:

I feel your pain, Knox. This seems to be what Kiarostami does - end the film abruptly, usually with a window shot, seemingly before the final act even takes place. He doesn't really give the viewer confirmation, resulting in the response (spoofed in your indie trailer parody) "wait, what happened?" I thought it was possible the son was playing along with his mom, that this was part of the game?

Has no one else here seen Kiarostami?? The usual indie/foreign buffs here have been notably silent.

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

All times are GMT - 5 Hours

View next topic View previous topic Page 2154 of 2427 Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 2153, 2154, 2155 ... 2425, 2426, 2427 Next Third Eye Film Society Forum Index ~ Third Eye Film Forums

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum