philosophy in film

The experience of having an identical twin is one most of us will never share. In some respects it has got to be…weird? But surely not this weird.

DEAD RINGERS
Directed by David Cronenberg

[b]Elliot, Age 9: You’ve heard about sex…
Beverly, Age 9: Sure I have.
Elliot, Age 9: Well I’ve discovered why sex is.
Beverly, Age 9: You have? Fantastic.
Elliot: It’s because humans don’t live under water.
Beverly, Age 9: I don’t get it.
Elliot, Age 9: Well, fish don’t need sex because they just lay the eggs and fertilize them in the water. Humans can’t do that because they don’t live in the water. They have to - internalize the water. Therefore we have sex.
Beverly, Age 9: So you mean humans would have sex if they lived in the water?
Elliot, Age 9: Well they’d have a kind of sex. The kind where you wouldn’t have to touch each other.
Beverly, Age 9: I like that idea. Have you heard of scuba diving? It’s just new.
Elliot, Age 9: Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
Beverly, Age 9: Exactly.
Elliot, Age 9: [noticing a girl on porch] Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Beverly, Age 9: Yeah, you ask her.
Elliot, Age 9: Raffaella, will you have sex with us in our bathtub? It’s an experiment.
Raffaella: Are you kidding? Fuck off you freaks. I’m telling my father you talk dirty. Besides, I know for a fact you don’t even know what fuck is.
[retreats into her house]
Elliot, Age 9: [walking away] They’re so different from us. And all because we don’t live under water.

Claire: Am I bad? ls that it? You gonna spank me, Doc?
Beverly: It hadn’t occurred to me.

Elliot: She’s an actress, Bev, she’s a flake. She plays games all the time. You never know who she really is.

Elliot: Well, if you don’t go and see her, I will. And I’ll tell her I’m you…and I’ll do…terrible things to her.
Beverly: What sort of terrible things?

Claire: Do you take drugs?
Beverly: No. Well, for pain. Pain creates character distortion. It’s simply not necessary.

Claire: Listen, Doctor, l think there’s something wrong with you. I don’t know what it is, I can’t put a label on it, but you’re subtly…l don’t know…schizophrenic or something. Sometimes I like you very much and sometimes you’re an amusing lay. Not much more.

Laura: I’ve been hearing about you and the wonderful Mantle boys.
Claire: What are you talking about?
Laura: Claire, this is me, Laura. Please don’t be coy, it’s tedious. Dear Beverly, dear Elliot. Some claim they can’t tell the difference but not me, dear. It’s obvious to me that…Well, before I say anything gauche, tell me which one you’re seeing.
Claire: You mean there’s two of them?
Laura: Don’t be an ass, dear. Of course there are two of them. They’re twins. Identical twins.

Claire: I bet somebody who knew you both - how shall I put it? - knew you both really well could tell the difference. Without measuring your height, I mean.
Elliot: What do you mean?
Claire: Well, Beverly’s the sweet one, and you’re the shit.

Claire: Elliot, let’s ease up on the bullshit for a moment. You can be honest with me. After all, I am laying both of you, aren’t l?
Beverly: Er, now, hang on a…
Claire: It’s a sweet little act you have. You soften them up with all that smarmy concern and along comes Dracula here and polishes them off.

Claire: I’ve been around a bit. I’ve seen some creepy things in the movie business. This is the most disgusting thing that’s ever happened to me.
Elliot: I doubt that
Claire: What is it with you, chum? You can’t get it up unless little brother’s watching?!

Mimsy: Dr Elliot Mantle?
Elliot: Yes.
Mimsy: Special order from Escort Embassy. I’m Mimsy and this is my sister Coral.
Elliot: Hi. Would you like some of this?
Mimsy: Sure.
Elliot: Listen, so that I know which one of you is which l’d like you…
Coral: Coral.
Elliot: Coral to call me Elly and you, Mimsy to call me Bev.

Elliot: You contribute a confusing element to the Mantle brothers’ saga. Possibly a destructive one. It’s not personal. I think you’re terrific.
Claire: But I just don’t have a role in the Mantle brothers’ saga.
Elliot: I suppose if you liked us both in the same way it might make things easier. It has been known to happen.
Claire: I’m sorry but I can’t.
Elliot: Am I really that different from Beverly?
Claire: You really are.

Beverly: What if I take something when you go home?
Elliot: I’m staying here.
Beverly: What if I take something when you go to sleep?
Elliot: I won’t.
Beverly: How will you stay awake?
Elliot: I’ll take something!
Beverly: You’ll take an upper so that I don’t take a downer? This is crazy!

Beverly: [crying about Claire] Yesterday, I found out she was having an affair. She’s unfaithful to me, Eli.
Elliot: Bev, you mustn’t take it so seriously. She’s a showbiz lady. What can you expect?
Beverly: [sobbing hysterically] I’m in love with her! I have to take it seriously!

Wolleck: Fascinating. They’re quite beautiful. What are they?
Beverly: They’re gynaecological instruments for working on mutant women.
Wolleck: Mutant women? That’s a great theme for a show.
Beverly: No, it’s not for a show. It’s not art. I’m a doctor, I need them for my work.

Elliot: There seems to be some problem about surgical instruments. About holding them as evidence of a disturbed mind. Do you know what they’re talking about?
Beverly: I tried to tell you, Elly! You don’t know the kind of patients we’ve been getting lately. You don’t know what’s going on out there. The patients are getting strange. They look all right on the outside but their insides they’re deformed.

Elliot: Don’t do this to me, Bev.
Beverly: But I’m only doing it to me. Why don’t you get along with your very own life?
Elliot: Do you remember the first Siamese twins?
Beverly: Chang and Eng were joined at the chest.
Elliot: Remember how they died?
Beverly: Chang died of a stroke in the middle of the night. He was always the sickly one. He was always the one who drank too much. When Eng woke up beside him to find that his brother was dead he died of fright. Right there in the bed.
Elliot: Does that answer your question?
Beverly: Poor Elly.
Elliot: Poor Bev.

Claire: Tell me about these these tools.
Beverly: Tools?
Claire: Surgical instruments? You had them with you when you came…What are they for? Beverly: They’re for separating Siamese twins.

Beverly: Do you think the morticulator is required, Eng?
Elliot: I think everything is required, Chang.
Beverly: Why are you crying?
Elliot: Separation can be a terrifying thing.[/b]

THREE TIMES [Zui hao de shi guang] 2005

Directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou

A look at love from the perspective of three eras: 1911, 1966, 2005. The same actors interact in three vignettes. It shows the manner in which love will always be rooted in customs and mores – in frames of mind – that change [sometimes dramatically] over the course of time. Here it is situated within the same culture [Taiwan]. In other cultures, the contexts will vary even more.

Imagine for example how these stories would have played out in mainland China.

Then imagine any attempts to speculate [philosophically] on the manner in which love ought to embodied.

The “langauge of the heart” is no less the language of dasein.

Gattica for me was one of the deepest philosophical films I have seen in a while. What is flawed? It asked so many questions about the need to be more than “human” that it really spoke about those who desire to circumvent humanity, so that a struggle to be great is meaningless, and yet at the end we are shown what the difference is between human and more than human, less than the new “human” can excel through hard work. Sometimes the struggle itself to succeed against the odds is what makes us worthy, if you start with everything where is the need to try and hence who will be impressed by you, and how will you learn to struggle against the odds when you are really tested? A very cleverly made film. You’re not your genetics. Invalid is a matter of context. :slight_smile:

Lives of quiet desparation will always be around. Even the ones we see in black and white. But this was a time right on the cusp of America’s own “cultural revolution”.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

[b]Sam: I’m surprised you had the nerve to show up after that stomping you took last night.
Sonny: Could’ve been worse.
Sam: Yeah, but you can say that about nearly everything.

Lois: Just remember, beautiful, everything gets old if you do it often enough. So if you want to find out about monotony real quick, marry Duane.

Sonny: I guess you’ll be glad when basketball season’s over.
Ruth: Why?
Sonny: Coach probably don’t get to stay home much during football and basketball season.
Ruth: My God, you don’t know a thing about it, do you?

Sam: If she was here I’d probably be just as crazy now as I was then in about 5 minutes. Ain’t that ridiculous?..Naw, it ain’t really. ‘Cause being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do. Being an old decrepit bag of bones, that’s what’s ridiculous. Gettin’ old.

Jacy: Well you married Daddy when he was poor and he got rich, didn’t he?
Lois: Scared your daddy into getting rich, beautiful.
Jacy: Well if Daddy could do it, Duane could too.
Lois: Not married to you. You’re not scary enough.

Charlene: Tell us about it. What was it like?!
Jacy: I just can’t describe it. I just can’t describe it in words.

Sam: You boys can get on out of here, I don’t want to have no more to do with you. Scarin’ a poor, unfortunate creature like Billy just so’s you could have a few laughs. I’ve been around that trashy behavior all my life, I’m gettin’ tired of puttin’ up with it. Now you can stay out of this pool hall, out of my cafe, and my picture show too. I don’t want no more of your business.
Sonny: We didn’t mean for anything bad to happen, Sam. We…
Sam: You didn’t even have the decency to wash his face.

Sonny: Nothing’s really been right since Sam the Lion died.
Lois: No, it hasn’t.

Lois: I guess if it wasn’t for Sam, I’d have missed it, whatever it is. I’d have been one of them amity types that thinks that playin’ bridge is about the best thing that life has to offer. Old Sam the Lion. Nobody knows where he got that name. I gave it to him. One night it just came to me. He was so pleased…It’s terrible to only meet one man in life who knows what you’re worth. Just terrible. And I’ve looked too. You wouldn’t believe how I’ve looked.

Truck driver: I’d like to know what he was doing with that broom.
Sonny: He was sweeping you sons of bitches, he was sweeping![/b]

Kids and sex – scatological no less! – among other things. Really, how the hell did did they avoid an NC17 rating? I guess because they didn’t actually show much.

These are some really strange [weird, bizarre] people. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough like them in this world.

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
Written and directed by Miranda July

[b]Christine: [seeing his bandage] Whoa, what happened?
Richard: You want the short version or the long one?
Christine: The long one.
Richard: I tried to save my life but it didn’t work.
Christine: Wow. What’s the short one?
Richard: I burned it.

Saleswoman: I think everything’s gonna be computerized in twenty years.
Sylvie: Soup won’t be computerized.
Saleswoman: Why not?
Sylvie: It’s a liquid.

Michael: So, tell Ellen about the shoe guy. Did you go back to the store?
Christine: Yeah. And it turns out he’s a child killer. So, oh, well.

Andrew: Yeah, see, this is why you don’t want a village raising your kid…because there’s sketchy parts of the village and some of the villagers are junkies and child molesters.

Richard: …no more Internet when I’m not here. I have to be able to call you.
Peter: Maybe you should buy us cell phones.
Richard: No. Just stay off the fucking computer when I’m not here!
Peter: You can’t make us stay off the computer if you’re not here. You won’t be here to keep us off it.

Christine: We have a whole life to live together you fucker, but it can’t start until you call.

Christine: Fuck! Fuck you! Fuck me! Fuck old people! Fuck children! Fuck peace!

Andrew: Dude, did you just give her the family discount?
Richard: Yeah. She’s my neighbor, and I’m trying to work on my karma. Do you know what karma means?
Andrew: Yeah.
Richard: It means that she owes me one.

Robby: Say, “You poop into my butt hole and I poop it back into your butt hole…back and forth…forever”.[/b]

Been there? done that?
Ah, but they are ever so much more beautiful. And, come on, the ending is really not all that far removed from Hollywood

SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE
Written and directed by Steven Soderbergh

[b]Therapist: This unexpected guest notwithstanding, how are things with John?
Ann: Oh, they’re fine. Except for I’m going through this thing where I don’t want him to touch me…

Ann: Did he ask you to take your clothes off?
Cynthia: Did he ask me to take my clothes off? No, he didn’t.
Ann: Did you take your clothes off?
Cynthia: Yes.
Ann: Cynthia! Why did you do that?
Cynthia: Because I wanted to… I wanted him to see me.
Ann: You’re crazy. He could be bouncin’ it off some satellite. Some horny old men could be watchin’.
Cynthia: Ann! He wouldn’t do that.
Ann: You don’t know that for sure. [pause] Did he touch you?
Cynthia: No.
Ann: Did you touch him?
Cynthia: No.
Ann: Did anybody touch anybody?
Cynthia: Well… yes.
Ann: Don’t tell me… don’t tell me… don’t tell me. You didn’t!
Cynthia: I did.
Ann: You didn’t!
Cynthia: I did.
Ann: You didn’t!
Cynthia: I did!
Ann: Oh, my God. Cynthia! You’re in touble…

Ann: Nothing’s what I thought it was. John’s a bastard. Let’s make a videotape.
Graham: No, I…ahem…I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Ann: Why not?
Graham: Because I don’t think it’s a choice that you’d make in a normal frame of mind.
Ann: And what would you know about a normal frame of mind?

Ann: Well, what did he ask exactly?
Cynthia: Well, I don’t want to tell you exactly.
Ann: You let a total stranger record your sexual life on videotape, but you won’t tell your own sister?
Cynthia: Apparently.

Graham: No, it’s just, I, you know, I just think - right now I have one key and everything I own is in the car, and I just… I like that, you know? I mean, I just, if I get an apartment, that’s two keys, if I…get a job, you know, I might have to open or close, that’s more keys, you know, buy some stuff, I’m afraid it’s gonna get ripped off, or something, and I get more keys, and I just, I, you know, I just like having the one key, it’s clean.
John: Get rid of the car when you get the apartment. Still one key.
Graham: I like having the car. You know? The car’s important. You gotta be mobile.
John: In case you have to leave someplace in a hurry?
Graham: Yeah, or go someplace in a hurry.

Graham: Liars are the second-lowest form of human being on the planet.
Ann: What’s the first?
Graham: Lawyers.
Ann: Oh. That’s you, John.

John [on the phone]: Cynthia, John. Meet me at my house in exactly one hour.
Cynthia: You are scum. I’ll be there.

Graham: Yeah, I’m self-conscious. But not in the same way that you are, though.
Ann: Me? Me? You think I’m self-conscious?
Graham: Well, I have been watching you. I watch you eat, you know, I watch you speak, watch you move, and I see somebody who is extremely aware of people looking at you.

Ann: So, let me see. You said, um, you said that I should never take advice from someone that I haven’t had sex with, right?
Graham: Basically.
Ann: Right. And, uh, we haven’t had sex. Right?
Graham: No.
Ann: So I guess from your own advice, I shouldn’t take your advice.
Graham: I wouldn’t.

John: By definition, you’re lying to Ann, too.
Cynthia: Yeah, right, but I didn’t take a vow in front of God and everyone to be faithful to Ann.

Cynthia: So come on, I came all the way over here to find out what got Ann so spooked. Why don’t you tell me what happened?
Graham: “Spooked”? The videotapes are what got Ann so spooked.

Graham: Why don’t you let me tape you?
Cynthia: Doin’ what?
Graham: Talking…About sex. Your sexual history, sexual preferences.
Cynthia: What makes you think I’d discuss that?
Graham: Nothing.
Cynthia: And you just wanna ask me questions?
Graham: I just wanna ask you questions. That’s all.
Cynthia: Is this how you get off? Tapin’ women talkin’ about their sexual experiences?
Graham: Yes.

John: Things are getting complicated.
Cynthia: No, they’re gettin’ real simple

Graham: So, I don’t… I don’t understand, uh, what made you want to come here. I can’t imagine Ann painted a very flattering portrait of me.
Cynthia: Yeah, well, see, um, I don’t really listen to Ann when it comes to men. I mean, look at John, for Christ’s sake.

Graham: I remember reading somewhere that men learn to love the person that they’re attracted to, and that women become more and more attracted to the person that they love.

Ann: You know, my therapist…
Graham: You’re in therapy?
Ann: Aren’t you?

Graham: Do you have orgasms?
Ann: I don’t think so. I mean, I guess, since I’m not sure, that I’ve never had one

Ann: What did you think?
Graham: I thought about what you would look like having an orgasm.
Ann: I’d like to know what I look like havin’ an orgasm.

Ann: …my God, Graham. You just can’t walk up to her and show her you’ve changed like it’s some gift or somethin’. And look what you’ve changed into. Nine years. Nine years, and this is what you come up with?

Ann [grabbing the camera]: I just wanna ask a few questions, like why do you tape women talkin’ about sex? Why do you do that? Can you tell me why?
Graham: I don’t find turning the tables very interesting.
Ann: Well, I do. Tell me why, Graham.
Graham: Why? What? What? What do you want me to tell you? Why? Ann, you don’t even know who I am. You don’t have the slightest idea who I am. Am I supposed to recount all the points in my life leading up to this moment and just hope that it’s coherent, that it makes some sort of sense to you? It doesn’t make any sense to me. You know, I was there. I don’t have the slightest idea why I am who who I am, and I’m supposed to be able to explain it to you?

Graham: My problem? Do I have a problem? I look around me in this town and I see John and Cynthia and you, and I…I feel comparatively healthy.
Ann: You’ve got a problem.
Graham: You’re right. I’ve got a lot of problems. But they belong to me.
Ann: You think they’re yours, but they’re not. Everybody that walks in that door becomes part of your problem. Anybody that comes in contact with you. I didn’t wanna be part of your problem, but I am. I’m leavin’ my husband, and maybe I would have anyway, but the fact is that I’m doin’ it now. And part of it’s because of you. You’ve had an effect on my life.
Graham: This isn’t supposed to happen. I’ve spent nine years structuring my life so that this didn’t happen.[/b]

If only U.S. presidential elections were this sophisticated.

Alas, they are barely caricatures of the real thing. Or are they now role models?

Go Tammy!

ELECTION
Written and directed by: Alexander Payne

[b]Tammy: [narrating] It’s not like I’m a lesbian or anything. I’m attracted to the person. It’s just that all the people I’ve been attracted to so far happen to be girls.

Tracy: [narrating] None of this would have happened if Mr. McAllister hadn’t meddled the way he did. He should have just accepted things as they are instead of trying to interfere with destiny. You see, you can’t interfere with destiny, that’s why it’s destiny. And if you try to interfere, the same thing’s just going to happen anyway, and you’ll just suffer.

Tammy: [giving her campaign speech] Who cares about this stupid election? We all know it doesn’t matter who gets elected president of Carver. Do you really think it’s going to change anything around here? Make one single person smarter or happier or nicer? The only person it does matter to is the one who gets elected. The same pathetic charade happens every year, and everyone makes the same pathetic promises just so they can put it on their transcripts to get into college. So vote for me, because I don’t even want to go to college, and I don’t care, and as president I won’t do anything. The only promise I will make is that if elected I will immediately dismantle the student government, so that none of us will ever have to sit through one of these stupid assemblies again! [the student body erupts in huge cheers. They start chanting “Tammy! Tammy!”] Or don’t vote for me! Who cares? Don’t vote at all! [they all rise to give her a standing ovation]

Jim: Paul, what’s your favorite fruit?
Paul: Pears.
Jim: [goes to the chalkboard] Pears, good. OK, let’s say…
Paul: Oh, no wait! Apples.
Jim: Apples. Fine. [he starts drawing circles on the chalkboard] Let’s say all you ever knew were apples. Apples, apples, and more apples. You might think apples were pretty good, even if you got a rotten one every once in a while. But then one day… [he draws another circle on the chalkboard] …there’s an orange. And now you can make a decision, do you want an apple or do you want an orange? That’s democracy.
Paul: I also like bananas

Tracy: [narrating] Now that I have more life experience, I feel sorry for Mr. McAllister. I mean, anyone who’s stuck in the same little room, wearing the same stupid clothes, saying the exact same things year after year for his whole life, while his students go on to good colleges, move to big cities and do great things and make loads of money… He’s got to be at least a little jealous. It’s like my mom says, the weak are always trying to sabatoge the strong.

Tammy: [narrating] Being suspended is like getting a paid vacation. Why do they think it’s a punishment? It’s like your dog pees on the carpet and you give him a treat…Hendricks told me, “One more time” and I’d be expelled. Sounded good to me.

Jim: The sight of Tracy at that moment affected me in a way I can’t fully explain. Part of it was that she was spying, but mostly it was her face. Who knew how high she would climb in life? How many people would suffer because of her? I had to stop her, now.

Jim: Suddenly everyone knew who I was—that corrupt teacher who had tried to crush the dreams of an innocent girl. Overnight, all the good things I had ever done in my life evaporated. Soon the wire services picked up on the story. It was the kind of absurd news item people E-mail each other or post on the bulletin board at work.

Jim: [narrating] What happens to a man when he loses everything? Everything he’s worked for… everything he believes in? Driven from his home… cast out of society… how can he survive? Where can he go? New York City!

Tammy: Catholic school was great! I mean, the teachers kind of sucked, and they were supposedly way more strict. But you could get away with murder. The best thing about lmmaculate Heart was meeting Jennifer.

Tracy: When I got to Georgetown, I thought I’d finally be among people who were like me. You know, smarter, more ambitious people. I was sure that finally I’d make some true friends… It wasn’t like that at all. A lot of them were just spoiled little rich kids who didn’t know how lucky they had it. That’s OK. I’ve come to accept that very few people are truly destined to be special, and we’re solo fliers. I guess it really is like Dave said, “If you’re gonna be great, you’ve got to be lonely.”[/b]

One of those films that are supposed to “make people think”. But they take all of the things they thought before with them into the theatre. So what they might possibly think afterwards is still going to be all over the map. We will always be stumbling into each other’s narratives with narratives all our own.

It really didn’t change my mind about much. It merely reinforced what I already suspected about this fucked up world we live in today: that money doesn’t talk, it screams. And that love really isn’t all we need.

In the end it didn’t ring true for me. Instead, it sounded like what it is: scripted.

Just a note…

from imdb:

“Over 7,900 rubber frogs were made and used in the frog scenes. The rest were created by CGI. No real frogs were harmed during production.”

MAGNOLIA
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

[b]Frank: I am the one who’s in charge. I am the one who says yes! No! Now! Here! Because it’s universal, man. It is evolutional. It is anthropological. It is biological. It is animal. We! Are! Men!

Stanley: I’ve got to go to the bathroom
Jimmy’s assistant: Can you hold it?

Jim [looking down at a dead body in the closet]: What the hell is this, Marcie?
Marcie: That ain’t mine!!

Claudia: Now that I’ve met you, would you object to never seeing me again?

Frank: In this big game that we play, life, it’s not what you hope for, it’s not what you deserve, it’s what you take.

Thurston: It’s dangerous to confuse children with angels.

Claudia: I’ll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through the piss and shit and lies that kill other people.

Thurston: Brad, dear, who was it that said, “A man of genius has seldom been ruined but by himself”?..It was the lovely Samuel Johnson…Who also spoke of a fellow “who was not only dull but a cause of dullness in others.”
Donnie: “The cause of dullness in others.”
Thurston: Picky, picky!
Donnie: Let me tell you this. Samuel Johnson never had his life shit on and his money stolen! Who took his life and his money? His parents? His mommy and daddy?
Bar patron: Your parents took your money you won on that game show?
Donnie:Yes, they did!

Gwenovier: Actually, I’m confused about your past.
Frank: Is that still lingering? It’s so boring.
Gwenovier: Just want to clear some things up.
Frank: It’s a funny thing…This is an important element of “Seduce and Destroy”. Facing the past is an important way of not making progress. This is something I tell my men over and over and over.

Young Pharmacist: Strong, strong stuff here. What exactly you have wrong, you need all this stuff?
Linda: Motherfucker…
Young Pharmacist: What are you talking about?
Linda: Who the fuck are you, who the fuck do you think you are? I come in here, you don’t know me, you don’t know who I am, what my life is, you have the balls, the indecency to ask me a question about my life?
Old Pharmacist: Please, lady, why don’t you calm down - ?
Linda: Fuck you, too. Don’t call me “lady”. I come in here, I give these things to you, you check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions. I’m sick. I have sickness all around me and you fucking ask me about my life? “What’s wrong?” Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where’s your fucking decency? And then I’m asked fucking questions. What’s… wrong? You suck my dick. That’s what’s wrong. And you, you fucking call me “lady”? Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on both of you!

Jim: Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail.

Stanley: Dad? You need to be nicer to me.

Linda: I have to tell you something. I have something to tell you. I want to change his will. Can I change his will? I need to.
Alan: No, you can’t change his will. Only Earl can.
Linda: No, you see, I never loved him. I never loved him. Earl. When I met him, I fucked him, and I married him because I wanted his money. You understand? I’m telling you this. I’ve never told anyone, I didn’t love him but now, I know I’m in that will. We made that fucking thing, and all the money I’ll get. I don’t want it, because I love him so much now. I’ve fallen in love with him now for real as he’s dying. I look at him, and he’s about to go, Alan. He’s moments away from dying. I took care of him through this. What now, then?..I don’t want him to die. I didn’t love him when we met and I did so many bad things to him that he doesn’t know. Things that I want to confess to him. But now I do. I love him.
Alan: Linda, what kind of medication are you on?
Linda: This isn’t any fucking medication talking! Can you give me nothing? You have power of attorney. Can you go in the final moments and change the will? I don’t want any money. I couldn’t live with myself with this thing that I’ve done.

Frank: It hurts, doesn’t it? You in a lot of pain? She was in a lot of pain. Right to the end, she was in a lot of pain. I know because I was there. You didn’t like illness, though, did you? I was there. She waited for your call. For you to come. I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry for you! You cocksucker, I know you can hear me. I want you to know that I hate your fucking guts. You can just fucking die, you fuck. And I hope it hurts. I fucking hope it hurts.

Narrator: And there is the account of the hanging of three men, and a scuba diver, and a suicide. There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, “Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it.” Someone’s so-and-so met someone else’s so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”[/b]

This is a film the intent of which is to expose racialist thuggery. But I suspect any number of skinheads would revel in it. At least the first half. There is no dialogue speculating on why they do what they do other than in noting how there are fewer and fewer jobs for some because others are “brought over” by “the rich” to take them.

ROMPER STOMPER
Written and directed by Geoffrey Wright

[b]Gabe: [noting NAZI paraphernalia that adorns Hando’s room] Why do you have all this stuff?
Hando: Because I don’t want to be a white cooly in my own country. 'Cause it’s not our country anymore. 'Cause rich people, and powerful people brought in boat loads of human trash. Cheap labour, gooks mainly, and there’s gonna be more. I want people to know I’m proud of my white history and white blood. One day it might be all I have.

Skinhead: There are fucking thousands of them!

Hando: We can get any sort of gun we want from Bully. All we need is the cash. We need it up front.
Tracey: if you lot are going to shoot people we’re going.
Hando: Then go. We don’t want any fucking passengers from here on in.

Hando: I want guns. Luke, Magoo, Champ, Brett…I want revenge.

Gabe: You want to knock over a house, do you?
Hando: What about it?
Gabe: I know a place you could do.

Martin: Who the hell are you?
Sonny Jim: We came to wreck everything, and ruin your life.

Gabe: You live like shit! You can’t even look after yourselves![/b]

music over the closing credits:

youtube.com/watch?v=kdF2HPNFqTo

We have things. Then we want other things as well. We can either push the things we have aside or figure out a way to accommodate both. But the human heart [among other organs] isn’t always willing to accommodate us. And so we get the underlying turbulence marbled throughout love and lust and life?

The bottom line [one of them]: We only have so much control over the things we think we understand about our lives.

DAMAGE
Directed by Louis Malle

[b]Stephen: We must find a structure for this!

Stephen: Who are you? Who?! Are?! You?!

Anna: Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.

Stephen: I couldn’t see past you.
Anna: I think you’ve never seen much at all.

Stephen: What happened in Paris. The way I behaved. I’ve never had feelingd like this. I have to get them into some sort of order.

Stephen: I was distant as a father. I know I was. You see, I thought you could control life…but it’s not like that. There are things…There are things you can’t control.
Martyn: Uh, that’s right.
Stephen: Somehow you know that.

Ingrid: The owner of the flat called to give Anna instructions on how to work the boiler. And it just happened that Martyn was there. He’d never heard of the flat. Never heard of it. He took the address. It was chance.

Stephen: It takes a remarkably short time to withdraw from the world. I traveled until I arrived at a life of my own. What really makes us is beyond grasping. It’s way beyond knowing. We give in to love because it gives us some sense of what is unknowable. Nothing else matters, not at the end.

Stephen: I saw her once more only. I saw her by accident at an airport, changing planes. She didn’t see me. She was with Peter. She was holding a child. She was no different from anyone else.[/b]

A clash of cultures. Or, rather, a clash of cultures as they are imagined in Hollywood.

But this is a rather intriguing telling of narratives in conflict—one that revolves largely around “me” and another that revolves largely around “we”. Any intelligent man or woman is able to embrace the best of both worlds. Though I suspect none is intelligent enough to distinguish that philosophically.

Note: There is what has got to be one of the most passionaite kisses ever filmed. Truly, love and lust on an epic scale.
I wonder how many takes it took.

WITNESS
Directed by Peter Weir

[b]Rachel: Are you enjoying your reading?
John: Oh yeah. I’m learning a lot about manure.

Eli: 4:30. Time for milking.

Eli: You never had your hands on a teat before.
John: Not one this big. [Long pause; then Eli roars with laughter]

Rachel: You don’t understand. We want nothing to do with your laws.
John: Doesn’t surprise me. A lot of people I meet are like that.

John: [after Samuel and Rachel converse in German] What’d he say?
Rachel: He asked who you are, your name. I told him we didn’t need to know anything about you.
John: Book… John Book.

Rachel: Will you be coming back to take Samuel to trial?
John: There isn’t going to be any trial.

Rachel: My God, why didn’t you get to a hospital?
John: No, no doctor. Gunshot wound, they have to make a report. If they make a report, they find me…and if they find me they find the boy.

Schaeffer: Are you trying to tell me there is no way we can locate this woman? We’re talking about 20th century law enforcement, Sergeant.
Sergeant: Well there’s your problem, Chief. The Amish don’t live in the 20th Century, don’t think in the 20th Century. If the Amish have taken your man in I wouldn’t want to hang on a rope until you find him. The problem is, about every third Amish man around here is named Lapp. And we have upwards of 14,000 Amish around. And that’s just in Lancaster County. I don’t have the manpower to send a deputy to every Lapp farm to see if they’ve got your Rachel.
Schaeffer: Maybe, Sergeant, you could do a little telephoning.
Sergeant: Yeah, maybe I could. But since the Amish don’t have any phones, I wouldn’t know who to call.
Schaeffer: Thank you, Sergeant. It’s been an education.

John: How do I look? Do I look Amish.
Rachel: You look plain.

Rachel: You know carpentry. Can you do anything else?
John: Whacking. I’m hell at whacking

Eli: What is it with you? Is this the Ordnung?
Rachel: I have done nothing against the rule of the Ordnung.
Eli: Nothing? You bring this man to our house with the gun of the hand. You bring fear to this house.
Rachel: I’ve commited no sin.
Eli: Maybe. Maybe not yet. But, Rachel, it does not look good. You know there has been talk. Talk about going to the Bishop and having you shunned.
Rachel: That is idle talk.
Eli: Do not take it lightly. Rachel, they can do it. They can do it just like that…You know what it means, shunning. I cannot sit at table with you. I cannot take anything from your hand. I cannot go to worship with you. Child, do not go so far.
Rachel: I’m not a child.
Eli: But you are acting like one.
Rachel: I’ll be the judge of that.
Eli: No, they will be the judge of that. And so will I. If you shame me…
Rachel: You shame yourself.

Schaeffer: I know he’s with the Amish. God, I’d give anything to see him now. Can you see John at a prayer meeting?!

Eli: It’s not our way.
John: But it’s my way.
Eli: Book! No!

Rachel: I should tell you this kind of coat doesn’t have buttons. See? Hooks and eyes.
John: Something wrong with buttons?
Rachel: Buttons are proud and vain, not plain.
John: Got anything against zippers?
Rachel: Are you making fun of me?
John [softly]: No.

John: If we’d made love last night I’d have to stay. Or you’d have to leave

Eli: This gun of the hand is for the taking of human life. We believe it is wrong to take a life. That is only for God. Many times wars have come and people have said to us: you must fight, you must kill, it is the only way to preserve the good. But Samuel, there’s never only one way. Remember that. Would you kill another man?
Samuel: I would only kill the bad man.
Eli: Only the bad man. I see. And you know these bad men by sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?
Samuel: I can see what they do. I have seen it.

Rachel: He’s leaving, isn’t he?
Eli: Tomorrow morning. He’ll need his city clothes.
Rachel: But why? What’s he going back to? Nothing.
Eli: He’s going back to his world, where he belongs. He knows it, and you know it, too.[/b]

The “war on drugs”. As ludicrous now as it was back then. Of course, the most dangerous drugs by far – booze and cigarettes – are still legal. And political corruption may as well be.

Supposedly based on actual events. And actual characters.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Directed by William Friedkin

[b]Chemist: Blast off: one-eight-oh. Two hundred: Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Two ten: U.S. Government certified. Two twenty: lunar trajectory, junk of the month club, sirloin steak. Two thirty: Grade A poison. Absolute dynamite. Eighty-nine percent pure junk. Best I’ve ever seen. If the rest is like this, you’ll be dealing on this load for two years.

Popeye: All right! You put a shiv in my partner. You know what that means? Goddammit! All winter long I got to listen to him gripe about his bowling scores. Now I’m gonna bust your ass for those three bags and I’m gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie.

Popeye: If that’s not a drop I’ll open up a charge for you at Bloomingdale’s.

Weinstock: [to the Chemist] Thank you, Howard. Take what’s left there with you and good night. Ah-ah… not that one. The little one.

Walt: [seething] Jimmy! You’ve wasted two months on this! No collars are coming in while you two guys are running around town jerking off! Now go back to work! You’re off Special Assignment!

Boca: Look, I’m telling you, he’ll take the deal somewhere else.
Weinstock: So let him take sixty kilos of heroin somewhere else and find out how easy it is to put together half a million in cash. You won’t find there’s any hurry to do this kind of business.
Boca: The stuff is here! We can make the switch in an hour! Look Weinstock, I’m telling you they’ll split if we don’t move. This guy’s got them like that, he’s everything they say he is!
Weinstock: What about you, Sal? Are you everything they say YOU are?

Mulderig: Nothing in there except a New York City map.
Popeye: Are you bullshitting me? That car’s dirty. Take it in and tear it apart!

Cloudy: What was the weight of the car when you got it, Irv?
Irv: 4,795 pounds.
Cloudy: The owner’s manuel says 4,675. It’s 120 pounds overweight. Popeye’s gotta be right.
Irv: Listen, I ripped everything out of there, except for the rocker panels.
Popeye: Come on, Irv, what the hell’s that?!

Cloudy: Mulderig. You shot Mulderig!
Popeye. That son of a bitch is here, I saw him. I’m going to get him.
[/b]

But he doesn’t. Frog one vanishes into thin air.

The lies that Glass foisted on the “liberal” owners at The New Republic isn’t the scandal here. The scandal is the truth that journalists like this [across the board] refuse to own up to. Many of these “kids” don’t even grasp it. The corporate press is a function of political economy. It is summed up each and every year at the White House correspondents dinner.

And talk about men and women who live in a “world of words”. And it is always each other’s.

All that aside, this is still a riveting film. The inherent drama embedded in someone’s life falling apart at the seams. Someone in the “public eye”. However small that public might be.

SHATTERED GLASS
Directed by Billy Ray

[b]Stephen: I didn’t do anything wrong, Chuck.
Chuck: I really wish you’d stop saying that.

Adam: A major software company with only one phone line?

Adam: This guy is toast.

Adam: But there is one thing in the story that checks out.
Kambiz: What’s that?
Adam: There does appear to be a state in the union named Nevada.

Amy: Have you noticed the way Steve’s phone has been ringing lately? Did you see all those editors at the correspondence dinner? The way they were circling him?
Caitlin: Is that what you want, Amy? To get a bunch of smoke blown up your ass by a pack of editors?
Amy: Yes. Yes it is

Stephen: You don’t know how things go where I grew up, Caitlin. There are rules there. If your son’s not a doctor or a lawyer, you keep your curtains closed.
Caitlin: You’re writing for The New-fucking-Republic. Isn’t that good enough?
Stephen: Not in Highland Park.

Amy: How about the commas and dates? Are we supposed to circle those too?
Caitlin: Let’s just get this done, okay?
Michael: What the hell is this?
Catlin: Marty told us to circle all the commas in the last issue, so he could show us how we used them improperly.
Michael: What?!
David: He said, “Commas should always appear in pairs.” Apparently the issue was rife with comma errors.
Michael: “Rife”?
Caitlin: That’s what he said.

Stephen: It’s in my notes.

Stephen: I’m afraid that I’m…I’m going to do something, okay? Did you hear what I said?
Chuck: Yeah. It’s a hell of a story.
Stephen: Chuck, please?
Chuck: Stop pitching, Steve. It’s over.

Chuck: Caitlin, When this thing blows, there isn’t going to be a magazine anymore. If you want to make this about Mike, make it about Mike. I don’t give a shit. You can resent me, you can hate me, but come Monday morning, we’re all going to have to answer for what we let happen here. We’re all going to have an apology to make! Jesus Christ! Don’t you have any idea how much shit we’re about to eat? Every competitor we ever took a shot at, they’re going to pounce. And they should. Because we blew it, Caitlin. He handed us fiction after fiction and we printed them all as fact. Just because…we found him “entertaining.”[/b]

Again, making this a “big scandal” in our corporate media is like reducing the Nixon adminstration scandals down to the Watergate break in!

What if it’s even more mysterious than this? And what can we really know about someone we are not? After all, many don’t even have a clearer understanding of who they think they are themselves. How strange is it that others might go after what utterly appalls us? Or ask silly questions like, “what’s it all mean?”

Suffer the little children. And some big ones too.

MYSTERIOUS SKIN
Written and directed by Gregg Araki

[b]Brian: [narrating] The summer I was 8 years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours. Lost. Gone without a trace…Last thing I remember I was sitting on the bench at my Little League game. It started to rain. What happened after that remains a pitch black void.

Neil [narrating]: I met Wendy Peterson when I was ten. She was eleven, one grade ahead of me in school. If I wasn’t queer we would have ended up having sloppy teenage sex and getting pregnant, contributing more fucked-up unwanted kids to society. But instead, she became my soulmate

Man: I know what you’re thinking. That wasn’t safe. But we’re in Kansas, thank God, not some big city full of diseases. Plus, you’re only a kid.

Wendy: Even Hutchinson has its share of freaks. You trick with the wrong guy and I’d find pieces of you everywhere.

Neil: I am so fucking sick of this stinkin’ little buttcrack of a town!!!

Neil: I hate it when they look like Tarzan but sound like Jane.

Eric: I got a postcard from Wendy.
Neil: I think she’s mad at me because I owe her like 3 letters.
Eric: Yeah, her last P.S. is “Tell Fuckface to write me.”

Wendy: You’d better be careful.
Eric: Of what?
Wendy: I’m serious, Eric. You’re not in Modesto anymore. I see the way you look at him.
Eric: He’s so beautiful. I can’t help it. He’s like a god.
Wendy: You don’t have to tell me, I was infatuated with him too once. But I know all Neil’s secrets and there’s shit there you don’t even want to know about. Trust me. Once I’m gone, you’ll be all Neil has and you have to understand one thing. Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole. And if you don’t watch out, you can fall in and get lost forever.

Neil: Different folks, different strokes.

Eric: “Okay” is a relative term.

Wendy: We’re not in Kansas anymore, Neil. You have got to be so careful.
Neil: I know.
Wendy: Don’t “l know” me, Neil McCormick. This is New York City. You do the wrong thing with the wrong person and you die.

Dad: Brian, don’t be like this. I drove all this way. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.
Brian: Well, let me tell you what I want to know. Something happened to me when I was little. Do you know what I’m talking about? What happened to me that night I woke up bleeding in the cellar? Where were you that night?
Dad: You’re drunk.
Brian: Quit avoiding the subject! I was bleeding, I kept passing out! I wet my fucking bed and you never asked why! And what about that Halloween when I blacked out again? Something happened to me both those nights! What do you know about it? Tell me!
Dad: I’m sorry, Brian, l… I can’t help you.

Neil: Then we played the 5 dollar game.

Neil: [narrating] And as we sat there listening to the carolers, I wanted to tell Brian it was over now and everything would be okay. But that was a lie, plus, I couldn’t speak anyway. I wish there was some way for us to go back and undo the past. But there wasn’t. There was nothing we could do. So I just stayed silent and trying to telepathically communicate how sorry I was about what had happened. And I thought of all the grief and sadness and fucked up suffering in the world, and it made me want to escape. I wished with all my heart that we could just leave this world behind. Rise like two angels in the night and magically disappear.[/b]

Some might find it hard to wrap their minds around this one. She’s just a kid. But then she is anything but just the kid we imagine being exploited and abused by the monsters out there. Precocious? Oh, yeah: “Think a baby reads Zadie Smith?”

On the other hand, this creep – and he really, really is a creep – deserved all that he got and more. But the movie jumped the shark when the crimes are ratcheted up and the plot becomes a…thriller?

HARD CANDY
Directed by David Slade

[b]Hayley: I guess they, uh, weren’t brass.

Jeff: Ah, so you and your mom are both wacked?
Hayley: I dunno. There’s that whole nature versus nurture question, right? Was I born a cute, vindictive, little bitch or… did society make me that way?

Jeff: Those letters are mine.
Hayley: Nothing’s yours when you invite a teenager into your home.

Hayley: You used the same phrases about Goldfrapp as they use on Amazon.com. Busted! By the way…I hate Goldfrapp.

Hayley: You remember what I said about not drinking anything you didn’t mix yourself? That’s good advice for everyone.

Hayley: Jeff, playtime is over. Now it’s time to wake up.

Hayley: Wow… You know, that is so thoughtful! You are speaking to me so selflessly! I mean, you just don’t want me to castrate you for my own benefit? Wow, I’m touched. Jeff, why don’t we imagine someone saying the same thing to you at a random moment? Imagine that when you downloaded this little girl… I was sitting by your side, saying, “Stop, don’t do that to yourself.” Would you have listened?

Jeff: Who the hell are you?
Hayley: I am every little girl you ever watched, touched, hurt, screwed, killed.

Jeff: Don’t…
Hayley: Jeff, you’ll save yourself so much time if you just drop that word from your vocabulary. I’m going to do what I want.

Hayley: This is what they make those federal laws for, Jeff. This is officially sick.

Jeff: You were coming on to me!
Hayley: Oh, come on. That’s what they always say, Jeff.
Jeff: Who?
Hayley: Who? The pedophiles! ‘Oh, she was so sexy. She was asking for it.’ ‘She was only technically a girl, she acted like a woman.’ It’s just so easy to blame a kid, isn’t it! Just because a girl knows how to imitate a woman, does NOT mean she’s ready to do what a woman does. [pause] I mean, you’re the grown up here. If a kid is experimenting and says something flirtatious, you ignore it, you don’t encourage it! If a kid says ‘Hey, let’s make screwdrivers!’ You take the alcohol away, and you don’t race them to the next drink!

Hayley: I shouldn’t have teased you. I shouldn’t have made you think there was a way out of this.

Hayley: Do you want some souviners? No? What should we do with them? We could see how far they bounce.

Hayley: [holding up a picture] Why is this girl so special? Huh? Why does she get to keep her clothes on?

Hayley: Yeah. You might. You might get jail time. I dunno: therapy, drugs, group discussions, notifying people when you move into a new house. How bad is that, really?
Jeff: It’ll ruin my career, ruin my life.
Hayley: Well, didn’t Roman Polanski just win an Oscar?[/b]

The human mind, the human heart, the human condition. The varibles, being infinite, make for some truly extraordinary interactions.

RAIN MAN
Directed by Barry Levinson

[b]Susanna: You use me, you use Raymond, you use everybody.
Charlie: Using Raymond? Hey Raymond, am I using you? Am I using you Raymond?
Raymond: Yeah.
Charlie: Shut up! He is answering a question from a half hour ago!

John Mooney: I can see you are disappointed.
Charlie: Disappointed? Why should I be disappointed? I got rose bushes didn’t I? I got a used car, didn’t I? This other guy, what’d you call him?
John Mooney: The beneficiary.
Charlie: Yeah him, he got $3,000,000 but he didn’t get the rose bushes. I got the rose bushes. I definitely got the rose bushes. Those are rose bushes!
John Mooney: Mr. Babbitt, there’s no reason to…
Charlie: To what? To get upset? If there is a hell, sir, my father is in it and he is looking up right now and he is laughing his ass off. Sanford Babbitt, you wanna be that guy’s son for five minutes? I mean did you hear that letter? Were you listening?
John Mooney: Yes I was. Were you?

Charlie: How do you know this car?
Raymond: It’s a 1949 Buick Roadmaster. Straight 8. Fireball 8. Only 8,985 production models. Dad lets me drive slow on the driveway. But not on Monday, definitely not on Monday.
Charlie: Who’s your dad?
Raymond: Sanford Babbitt. 10961 Beachcrest Street, Cincinnati Ohio.
Charlie: That’s my address. Hey, who’s your mother?
Raymond: Eleanor Babbitt. Died January 5, 1965 after short and sudden illness.
Charlie: Who the hell are you?
Raymond: Uh oh, fifteen minutes to Judge Wapner.

Raymond: Ten minutes to Wapner. We’re definitely locked in this box with no TV.

Charlie: [talking to the woman who answers the door] I’m sorry ma’am, I lied to you. I’m very sorry about that. That man right there is my brother and if he doesn’t get to watch ‘People’s Court’ in about 30 seconds, he’s gonna throw a fit right here on your porch. Now you can help me or you can stand there and watch it happen.

Charlie: You? You’re the Rain Man?

Raymond: Gotta get my boxer shorts at K-Mart.
Charlie: [gets out of the car and starts screaming] WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHERE YOU BUY UNDERWEAR? WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? UNDERWEAR IS UNDERWEAR! IT IS UNDERWEAR WHEREVER YOU BUY IT! IN CINCINNATI OR WHEREVER!
Raymond: K-Mart.

Charlie: When I was a little kid and I got scared, the Rain Man would come and sing to me.

Raymond: 97X, bam! The future of rock ‘n’ roll. 97X, bam! The future of rock ‘n’ roll. 97X, bam! The future of rock ‘n’ roll.
Charlie: Ray, enough already! Change the channel.
Raymond: 97X, bam! The future of rock ‘n’ roll. 97X, bam! The future of rock ‘n’ roll.

Charlie: This is a good one. ‘We don’t go out when it rains.’ This is a good one. I hope you appreciate this… because my business is going down the toilet. I should be in L.A. Instead I’m in the Honeymoon Haven Motel in Bumblefuck, Missouri… because you won’t go out when it rains.

Charlie: What are you writing?.. What the fuck is this? “Serious Injury List”? Serious injury list? Are you fucking kidding me?
Raymond: Number eighteen in 1988, Charlie Babbitt squeezed and pulled and hurt my neck in 1988.
Charlie: “Squeezed and pulled and hurt my neck in 1988?”

Charlie: Hey, Ray, you take a shower right?
Raymond: Yeah.
Charlie: Well the rain is a lot like the shower, you get a little wet. What do you say, Ray? What do you say?
Raymond: Of course the shower is in the bathroom.
Charlie: That’s the end of that conversation.

Charlie: Ray, you’re never gonna solve it. It’s not a riddle because Who is on first base. That’s a joke, Ray, it’s comedy, but when you do it you’re not funny. You’re like the comedy of Abbott and Abbott.

Raymond: [to Susanna] Are you taking any prescription medication?
Vern: He likes you, that’s just his way of showing it.
Susanna: When I touched him, he pulled away.
Vern: Don’t take it personal. He never touched me and I’m closer to him than anyone in the world, known him for nine years. It’s not in him. If I left tomorrow without saying goodbye, he probably wouldn’t notice.
Susanna: He wouldn’t notice if you left?
Vern: I’m not sure but I don’t think people are his first priority.

Charlie: Ray, all airlines have crashed at one time or another, that doesn’t mean that they are not safe.
Raymond: QANTAS. QANTAS never crashed.
Charlie: QANTAS?
Raymond: Never crashed.
Charlie: Oh that’s gonna do me a lot of good because QANTAS doesn’t fly to Los Angeles out of Cincinnati, you have to get to Melbourne! Melbourne, Australia in order to get the plane that flies to Los Angeles!

Raymond: [after Charlie throws underwear out of car] Uh oh. Underwear on the highway. Uh oh.

Susanna [kissing Raymond]: How was that?
Raymond: Wet.

Charlie: I just realized I’m not pissed off anymore my father cut me out of his will. You probably knew he tried to contact me over the years. I never called him back. I was a prick. If he was my son and didn’t return my calls, I’d have written him out too, fuck him. But it’s not about the money anymore. You know, I just don’t understand. Why didn’t he tell me I had a brother? Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that I had a brother? Because it’d have been nice to know him for more than just the past six days.

Dr. Bruner: Raymond, wouldn’t you feel more relaxed in your favorite K-Mart clothes?
Charlie: Tell him, Ray.
Raymond: K-Mart sucks[/b]

And what a great soundtrack.

“Ran” translated means “chaos” or “revolt”.

It is not for nothing that Kurosawa assigns the Fool the task of narrating the “meaning” behind this tale. The tale being one that exams the human condition sans blinders. You either turn it into a punch line or the terrible deeds [eventually] drive you insane.

Unless, of course, it is you who are committing them. But, as always, this meaning rings more or less true as dasein.

[Note: You can turn off the sound and the subtitles and marvel only in the film making itself. It is a visual feast. The sacking of the castle alone is extraordinary.]

RAN [1985]
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

[b]Kyoami: Man is born crying. When he has cried enough, he dies.

Hidetora: I am lost…
Kyoami: Such is the human condition.
Hidetora: This path…I remember…We came this way before.
Kyoami: Men always travel the same road. If you’re tired of it, jump!

Hidetora: What madness have I spoken? Wherein lies my senility?
Saburo: I’ll tell you. What kind of world do we live in? One barren of loyalty and feeling.
Hidetora: I’m aware of that.
Saburo: So you should be! You spilled an ocean of blood. You showed no mercy, no pity. We too are children of this age… weaned on strife and chaos. We are your sons, yet you count on our fidelity. In my eyes, that makes you a fool. A senile old fool!

Saburo: What misery!
Tango: What will you do now?
Saburo: I grieve for Father, not myself. The horror ahead of him…

Lady Kaede: …the banner My lord it belongs with the head of the house of Ichimonji.
Taro: But Father is keeping his title and insignia.
Lady Kaede: Without them, you are a shadow.
Taro: What do you mean? He made it clear that I am now in command.
Lady Kaede: In that case behave as if you are.

Lady Kaede: I was born and raised in this castle. It belonged to my father. I left it to marry you. My father and brothers, after the marriage relaxed their vigilance. Hidetora murdered them. Now I am back in my family castle. How I have longed for this day.[/b]

But for another day even more.

[b]Jiro: Don’t lick your chops yet. Taro is easy pickings. He is a weakling. His wife, Lady Kaede, is another story.

Hidetora [to Lady Sue]: Still the same sad face. When I see you it breaks my heart. It’s worse when you smile. I burned down your castle and your father and mother perished. And you look at me like that. Look upon me with hatred. It would be easier to bear. Go on, hate me!
Lady Sue: I don’t hate you. All is decided in our previous lives. The Buddha embraces all things.
Hidetora: Buddha again!

Tango: Is he mad?
Kyoami: And better off for it. In a mad world only the mad are sane.

Tango: He is himself again!
Kyoami: More’s the pity. He is better off mad.

Kurogane: Lord Jiro feels it unwise to keep you in his service. Men who betray one master may betray another. A reasonable point of view.

Lady Kaede: Lord Kurogane, at the Second Castle there is a supply of salt?
Lord Kurogame: Of course, why?
Lady Kaede: When you bring back her head salt it first. Otherwise, in this heat we’ll be unable to look at it. Lady Sue is so beautiful it would be ungracious to her.

Hidetora: What is this place?
Kyoami: Paradise!

Kurogame: There are many foxes hereabouts. It is said they take human form. Take care, my lord. Beware. They often impersonate women. In Central Asia a fox seduced King Pan Tsu and made him kill men. In China he married King Yu and ravaged the land. In Japan, as Princess Tamamo he caused great havoc at court. He became a white fox with nine tails. Then they lost trace of him. Some people say he has settled down [pointing in the direction of Lady Kaede] here.

Kyoami: I was the fool and made you laugh. Now the coin is flipped. Don’t be mute, say something. You speak nonsense, I’ll speak truth. We’ll see what comes of it.

Hidetora: I’m a worm, don’t crush me!
Kyoami: Who’d bother to crush a worm?!

Hidetora: He is dead. You and I live, but Saburo…you can’t die!

Tango: It doesn’t seem possible. He isn’t here to share this. Hidetora is also gone. Why?
Kyoami: Are there no gods, no Buddha? If you exist, hear me! You are mischievous and cruel! Are you so bored up there you must crush us like ants? Is it such fun to see men weep?
Tango: Enough! Do not blaspheme! It is the gods who weep. They see us killing each other over and over since time began. They can’t save us from ourselves. Don’t cry! It’s how the world is made. Men prefer sorrow over joy…suffering over peace.[/b]

Then that haunting final scene: a blind Tsurumaru at the abyss, the image of Buddha, the flute, the dirge.

Some things [as they say] have to be seen to be believed. But other things, even after you’ve seen them, you are at a loss to explain what exactly it was that you saw. You can barely express what you think you have seen. And be prepared for those who believe they have seen something entirely different.

The blurb on the back of the dvd: “From the nightmarish imagination of György Pálfi comes Taxidermia, a surrealistic assault on the senses following three generations of men [an obese speed eater, an embalmer of gigantic cats, and a man who shoots flames out of his penis], who are damned from birth.”

There are lives of others we can barely begin to imagine. But then we have wonder in turn: can they not barely begin to imagine our own lives as well?

TAXIDERMIA
Written and directed by György Pálfi

English language trailer:
youtube.com/watch?v=F_TReXQ_K1M

Of all the ways in which to imagine yourself dying, this has surely got to be one of the most harrowing…

If the end of this film stays stuck in your head longer than it stayed stuck in mine you have my sympathy. Yet there are people who claim this is actually a “happy ending”! If you are one of them then, by all means, let’s discuss it here.

When something torments us, what are we willing to endure in order just to know what happened?

THE VANISHING [Spoorloos] 1988
Directed by George Sluizer

Raymond: Let’s see…12cc is equal to…How much do I have? Yes, 18 minutes, 54 seconds. 18 minutes, 54 seconds is equal to 17 miles, more or less. That leaves me a margin of 3 or 4 minutes. That’s not bad. Not bad.

An anal psychopath? And yet he seems so normal.

[b]Raymond: At Martinez’s, you wanted to crucify anyone who kidnapped young girls. I even asked, “What if I’d done it?” You laughed in my face!

Rex: Sometimes I imagine she’s alive. Somewhere far away. She’s very happy. And then, I have to make a choice. Either I let her go on living and never know, or I let her die and find out what happened. So I let her die.

Rex: Know what I’m afraid of? That he’ll stop sending postcards. What if he’s dead? Then I’ll never know.

Television journalist: In this crowded square in Arles, there might be a murderer. You might see him, but you won’t realize it. He’s just another face in the crowd.
Daughter: Daddy, look! There we are!

Journalist: Do you have any idea what kind of person he could be?
Rex: I think…no, I’m sure…he’s…he’s very intelligent, can go unnoticed, and is a total perfectionist.[/b]

Bingo?

[b]Rex [from interview on tv] I hope this gentleman is listening. There’s something I want to tell him. I want to meet you. I want to know what happened to my friend. To know that, I’m prepared to do anything. I don’t hate you. I don’t hate anything. But I need to know. I need to know.

Raymond: Mr.Hofman. I’m the man you’re looking for.

Raymond: You can kill me. I acknowledge your right to do so. I’ll take the risk. But I’m banking on your curiosity. You want to know what happened to Saskia.

Raymond: Everyone has those thoughts, but no one ever jumps. I told myself: “Imagine you’re jumping.” Is it predestined that I won’t jump? How can it be predestined that I won’t? So, to go against what is predestined, one must jump. I jumped. The fall was a holy event. I broke my left arm and lost 2 fingers. Why did I jump? A slight abnormality in my personality, imperceptible to those around me. You can find me listed in the medical encyclopedias under “Sociopath” in the new editions.

Rex: What did you do to her?
Raymond: I’ll tell you. I promised you that. But the only way to tell you, is to make you share the exact same experience.
Rex: You’re completely insane.
Raymond: It doesn’t matter, really.
Rex: So she isn’t dead?
Raymond: Drink.

Raymond: Mr.Hofman, I’ve been analyzing what goes in your head for the last 3 years. You can leave. Even go to the police with the keys. But then, you’ll never know what happened to Saskia. On the other hand, drink and you’ll know. In less than 1 hour, I guarantee you.

Raymond: So?
Rex: I told myself: “Imagine you’re drinking.” Where is it predestined I won’t drink? So, to go against what is predestined, I must drink.

Rex [screaming]: HELP! HELP!..HELP!!..[then plaintively] Saskia…Saskia…

Newspaper headline: MYSTERIOUS DOUBLE DISAPPEARANCE AFTER SASKIA WAGTER HER FRIEND REX HOFMAN[/b]

Is this just a metaphor for all the other metaphors that have attempted to capture both the meaning and the meaninglessness embedded in both our industrial and post industrial world?

Insert “I” and pick one.

On the other hand: Jack Nance: “You guys get way too deep over this business. I don’t take it all that seriously. It’s only a movie.”

In any event, Pernell Roberts was sure a lucky guy.

From IMDb:

“The mutant baby was apparently created from the embalmed fetus of a calf, although David Lynch has never confirmed this or described how he articulated it. During filming when he watched rushes, he even had the projectionist cover his eyes when takes with the baby were playing, so that no one would know how it was made. After completing the film, Lynch reportedly buried the ‘Embalmed Calf’ in an undisclosed location.”

You can’t help but wonder then: If it was dug up how much would it go for today on ebay? How much would you pay?

ERASERHEAD
Written and directed by David Lynch

[b]Mrs. X: It’s Henry isn’t it? Mary tells me you’re a very nice fellow. What do you do?
Henry: Oh, I’m on vacation

Mr. X: I thought I heard a stranger. We’ve got chicken tonight. Strangest damn things. They’re man made. Little damn things. Smaller than my fist. But they’re new. Hi, I’m Bill.
Henry: Hello there. I’m Henry.
Mrs. X: Henry works at LaPelle’s Factory.
Mr. X: Oh. Printing’s your business? Plumbing’s mine. For 30 years now. I’ve watched this neighborhood change from pastures to the hell-hole it is now!

Mary X: Mother, they’re still not sure it is a baby!

Lady in the Radiator: [singing] In Heaven, everything is fine. In Heaven, everything is fine. You’ve got your good things. And I’ve got mine.

Beautiful Girl Across the Hall: I locked myself out of my apartment [pause] and it’s so late [long pause] Where’s your wife?
Henry: She must’ve gone back to her parents, again. I’m not sure.
Beautiful Girl Across the Hall: Can I spend a night here?

Henry: Oh! You are sick![/b]