September recaps

Complete list:

1. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
2. The Machinist (2004)
3. The White Countess (2005)
4. Underworld: Evolution (2006)
5. Der Untergang/Downfall (2004)
6. Barefoot in the Park (1967)
7. Anne Frank: The Whole Story (TV)(2001)
8. American Gigolo (1980)
9. The Accused (1988)
10. Lady and the Tramp (1955)
11. Match Point (2005)
12. Citizen Kane (1941)

The Accused

Jodie Foster received her first Oscar by playing Sarah Tobias, a rape victim, in this 1988 movie. From the cinematic point of view, there is nothing special about this movie in general. I think it represents a typical movie made in its era. But the theme, and the plot that revolves around it make it a completely different film to appreciate and to be used to contemplate upon the society we live in.

Sarah Tobias is a “white trash”: she smokes pot and gets drunk. Someday she walks in a bar, drinks a little too much, dances provocatively, and before she can do as much as scream for help, she gets gang-raped by three men, with the encouragement of a group of bystanders who cheer and clap throughout the process. Nobody else in the bar has any sense to help her, until a fratboy, whose friend is one of the rapists, calls 911 as Sarah struggles herself free and runs out.

The rape scene, so flagrantly displayed, enraged me. But I was more incensed by seeing the provoking bastards who cheered at such violence. The rapists were jailed, but not on the account of rape. In the later part of the movie, the plaintiff took the bastards to court in a seemingly impossible case to put them in jail. It was in this proceeding that the jury had to make a decision whether the cheerers had committed a felony by encouraging a gang rape on a woman whose decency was questionable.

My question is this: what’s the victim’s decency got to do with rape? It’s like saying people with questionable morality do not deserve justice. A prostitute is treated differently from, say, a 50-year old housewife. People judge them with different standards. Why is that? A rape is a felony, no matter who the victim is. Period. And people who encourage a felony to happen are just the same as the perpetrators. To think that this kind of lowlifes, people who clearly can not discern between the right or wrong, can get away because they think they do not commit the crime, just repulse me in the deepest sense.

4/5.

Der Untergang

It’s very hard to acknowledge that the pure evil incarnate, Adolf Hitler, was a human, just like us. From watching Der Untergang, that is the perception I got. A few days after watching it, it amazed me that, instead of contempt and utter disgust towards the people responsible of conducting the ultimate crime against humanity six decades ago, my reaction at the time was something like, “these poor people, stranded in a bunker and disillusioned by hope of nonexistent army who would come and rescue them from the nearing enemy.” Pity? I don’t think so, but it was not exactly the reaction I initially had imagined of.

Perhaps because it was made from the point of view of Traudl Junge–Hitler’s secretary–and more chronologically than narratively, that we viewers are shown an unbiased, truthful account of what happened during the fall of Third Reich from the inside. Rather than hating Hitler, I found myself hating the faithful servants more: Goebbels, the propaganda minister, and his wife, who poisoned their own six children to death. The rest of ranking officials were nothing but a (very) nationalistic bunch who allowed themselves the comfort of death by suicide than being captured. (If it was up to me, these people should’ve been gassed and mass-buried.) Hitler himself surprised me. A contradiction, he offered his non-military servants a flight out of Berlin to save themselves, but dismissed the chance of sparing the lives of civilians when discussing tactics to defend Berlin. He also suffered from Parkinson, was capable of nurturing a pet dog, and showed compassion to Goebbel’s children (who adored him). From his speeches it could be seen what a evil maniac Hitler was, what I didn’t see coming was his being a human, and I found it hard to accept that.

Despite being more documentary than entertaining, running at two and half hours, this movie quite bored me. That, and the lack of a climax. See the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun burn would be satisfying, maybe.

The White Countess

Historical Shanghai in 1930s. A blind American diplomat entangled in some night life entertainment of the city. An aristrocrat Russian woman making a living from the night life. Backdrop: imminent Japanese attack (occupation?).

From the cover jacket, that is what The White Countess essentially promises. A love story in the part of westernized China where cultures clash and politics is involved. Great story, I thought. And the cast!

The incredibly slow pace of storytelling quelled my eagerness to watch it till the end in one sitting. I had to take a break in minute 76, where I thought it was going to be interesting. Until that very minute, there was no love story, no Japanese attack, no political upheaval. If anything, there was this mystery Mr. Matsuda, who made his aquaintance early in the beginning, and set off to help the American guy create heat in his night life establishment. Who Mr. Matsuda was, what he did and what his motivation might be was never explained.

Countess Sofia Belinskya lives with her dead husband’s family and a daughter. Her profession, since meeting Todd Jackson, blind American diplomat, is being a host (basically greets guests and entertains them in strict conversational way) in his dream bar, newly established after he succeeded in gambling in a horse race. This bar is named The White Countess because of the Countess, who impresses him in a way. He respects her, probably loves her, but the atmosphere is never laden with their chemistry together. Their deeper connection, should I assume so, comes from the unexpected introduction of her daughter to him. See, the diplomat once had a daughter (and a family), but they are all dead leaving him alone pursuing a life he chooses anyway he likes. So, at a time, the evil family of Countess Sofia, who quietly feel ashamed of her but can’t live without her money, decide to flee to Hong Kong, where life under British governance will be better. Their plan was to bring along the daughter without the mother. During that time, Japanese soldiers start dropping bombs and moving in the artillery in the city. Will Sofia get her daughter back? Whatever happens to Todd?

That, my friend, is all I can summon up about the story. It ends in what I call a wtf? scene, a minute before I imagined this was when the story would turn out to be more interesting. Sadly, that was all, and the rest of the story was for my own imagination to create.

I wouldn’t be disappointed by the ending had the direction was more depictive. As I said before, it promised a great deal of entertainment. The historical backdrop and the couple who couldn’t help but falling in love in such situation. Nonetheless, James Ivory did successfully build a beautiful background of Shanghai in 1930s and the opposite cultures clash. The scenes at the end of the movie are not to miss. Classic chinese boats you see in Hong Kong postcards.

3.5/5.

The Machinist

The Machinist has something very similar to Fight Club. Except it’s darker and almost horrifying, for a person who doesn’t watch horror flicks. From beginning to end, darkness never escapes each scene. At Trevor Reznik’s machinery factory, at his lone apartment, at his call-girl’s place, at the airport, at the bar, everywhere. Darkness also clouds the protagonist (or antagonist?), who hasn’t been sleeping for a year, maybe delusional bordering on paranoid, and questions who he is. Symptoms of schizophrenia?

One thing you’ll notice first about Trevor Reznik is that he’s slimmer than a supermodel. His call-girl says, “if you’re any thinner than this, you wouldn’t exist.” Bones juts out from his back. He’s practically a living skeleton. The way I imagined it, if he was a Thanksgiving turkey, a family of 4 wouldn’t be contented with the dinner. Amazing was the transformation Christian Bale went through (shed off 60 pounds?). He, who was all shaped and built in Batman Begins? Are we talking about the same person?

The story itself is not all that spectacular. I was let down when the ending was revealed. I was bracing myself for a closure similar to Fight Club. That somehow the imaginary friend Trevor Reznik befriended with was actually his other personality. That would make up for the plot holes still unsolved until the end, I figured. Well, it’s not that grand, though it does have something to do with personality. Too bad, after all it was so well directed.

2.5/5.