Not much happening on the noise film front. Just finishing up with school. Finally taking a break and watching a few movies.
Anamorph
There's one point in the movie where I thought, "Oh my God... they're doing a serial killer flick based on actual aesthetics." There's a copycat killer on the loose. In a lecture, the detective played by Willem Dafoe talks about photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson saying that he was trying to capture "the moment of truth." And I'm thinking, "that's how he's going to get the copy cat--the copy cat can't capture truth, he can only create a lifeless semblance of it!" But then the movie veers off into the domain of not caring and making no sense. This is the way NOT to make an ambigiuous ending. The anamorphic images, the camera obscura and giant pantograph are, in the end, just gimmicks. But I like the idea of creating a mystery in which aesthetics is part of the solution.
Basic Instinct
Watch this for free on hulu. I never saw Basic Instinct before but a few minutes into it, it became obvious that from the mysterious blonde to the psychological gobbledy gook to the Northern California scenery, this is an homage to Hitchcock. Paul Verhooven's talent lies in his ability to cartoonishly stretch believability without breaking the film. The sex scenes, for instance, were more funny than sexy but not so much that they take you out of the movie. Basic Instinct is less about erotic thrills and more about cinema in its purest form. Like a good Hitchcock film, Basic Instinct isn't about anything in particular. It simply does what cinema does best which is build suspense and jerk you around.
The Dark Knight
The newest Batman movie is similar to Basic Instinct in that they exist primarily to jerk you around. What makes The Dark Knight more distasteful than Basic Instinct (or Nolan's similarly jerk-you-around The Prestige) is its aspirations toward profundity. Beyond the plot twists and turns, Nolan wants to ask questi0ns about the human condition: What's more important--personal or global good? What is the nature of sacrifice? What is heroism? What motivates the psychopath? How do we maintain our humanity in the face of life and death decisions?
The problem is that these concerns are all driven by the film's antagonist. My friend who worked at a music store told me that his boss would swipe any money he found lying on the counter by the cash register. This was meant to be a lesson about putting money away quickly and not leaving it out in the open. The lesson my friend learned was not that someone might steal money but that his boss was a jerk. Same here. The Joker's simulated crises tell us only one thing—he is a jerk. So the movie is over two hours of watching a jerk doing things that jerk you around. I found it exhausting.
The Host
I posed the following conundrum to Maria awhile ago. There are two planes, exactly the same, experiencing the exact same engine problem. One is filled with Americans, one is filled with Koreans. The planes descend and the air masks pop out. When they land, all of the Americans are alive and all of the Koreans are dead. If you know the answer to this problem, then you'll understand why The Host is so Korean. That and the part about not being able to feed the hero when he was young contributing to his off-kilter demeanor.
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