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202016773dci2021 · 3 years

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Henrik Ibsen "A Doll's House" 1973 Film adaptation review.

Henrik Ibsen, 'A doll's House', 1879.

‘A Doll’s House’ Patrick Garland, 1973.

When watching the 1973 film adaptation of ‘A Doll’s House’ by Patrick Garland it was the staging that stood out for me. I noticed how they lived in a very large house, indicating that the Helmer’s are a family of some wealth, the director chooses to produce the play this way because in the late nineteenth century if you were known to have wealth, you had power. I believe that Garland has chosen to indicate and show that the Helmer's have wealth because then this allows us to think, its the nineteenth century, Torvald will have power over Nora and her decisions, which we see to be proven throughout the film.

Throughout the film the scenes are mainly within the drawing-room of the Helmer’s property, this is significant because most of the important topics are discussed in this room, from Krogstad threatening Nora, Dr. Rank confessing to Nora he is dying, and his love for her, to the main argumental scene of which Torvald and Nora both change. The director, Garland, has chosen for the film to play out like this because it very nearly mirrors Ibsen’s original play. This allows viewers to have the experience of imagining this was Ibsen’s original form of play. The setting is key to this play because it is called ‘A Doll’s House’ allowing viewers to wonder why a doll’s house? What is so significant about that? But as we are watching the film unfold, we can see that it is almost like Nora is a doll, and she is trapped there in that house with Torvald and he is the player, making her decisions on where she goes, who she sees, and her opinions and actions.

Nora meets Mrs. Linde after 10 years. (Garland, 'A Doll's House', 1973.)

Nora and Torvald discover that Dr. Rank is dying. (Garland, 'A Doll's House', 1973)

I looked at the costumes that Nora wore, I can see how her behavior has changed throughout the film, at the beginning she is in a blue flower dress, she is represented as happy and cheerful, further along in the film, after being threatened by Krogstad, we see that Nora is in her fancy dress outfit whilst this scene is playing out you can see her mood is changed, she is worried, trying to prevent Torvald from getting him and opening that letter. When they arrive home after been happy and seemingly in love all night the change in Nora is very visible, Nora is straight-faced and scared and distant from Torvald. At the end of the film when Nora has made the choice to leave Torvald she is dressed in brown plain clothing, I believe that Garland chose the nuance of costume to replicate and imitate Mrs. Linde's loneliness. This is significant because when Mrs. Linde first arrives at the Helmer’s house, she is a widow, desperate for work and all alone, she is in something very similar, Plain brown clothing. I think this is significant because it addresses the sense of maturity, loss, and sensibility, all that we know Nora doesn’t seem to be. So, when we see Nora in very similar clothing at the end of the play, we notice Nora is different, she is not the same ‘pet’ or cheery wife she was the day before. The director has chosen to set the film out like this, the significance in clothing, because it allows the audience to notice the change in Nora throughout the film and develop a connection with her as a human, a wife, not just as a pet or an oblivious, unknowing wife.

"Torvald: You've destroyed my happiness. You've ruined my whole future. it doesn't bear to think about. I am at the mercy of a totally unscrupulous man! I am completely in his power! He can do anything he wants with me and I shall have to do exactly what I am told, without a murmur. To think that I shall have to stoop so low because of a woman's irresponsibility" Torvald, 'A Doll's House', 1.11.41 - 1.12.07, Garland, 1973.

Nora's moment of self-discovery. (Garland, 'A Doll's House', 1973)

If I were to think about the times of the late 19th century, and what it was like for Ibsen to write this play, we can see how well Garland has adapted and moved along this play into a film. For one there is the development of technology, The director uses specific stage angles and camera shots to create the envisionment that we, the audience, are there in the theatre watching Ibsen's play been performed, not just watching a film.

I have chosen to focus on the theme of Conflict whilst reviewing this film adaptation and the scene I believe has the biggest conflict is the final scene. This is because Torvald has learned all about Nora’s dealings with Krogstad and he is furious, he doesn’t understand her reasoning, she is conflicted at this point in the play to keep acting like this sweet and innocent wife Torvald believes he has or to take a stand and do what she believes is right, standing up for herself not letting any man or person hit her, try to force themselves on her, or even call her stupid when she believes in the decisions she made with Krogstad. There is conflict in this film when Krogstad decides to let Nora free of her I.O.U and Torvald is happy and forgiving of Nora but then Nora at this point has seen a different side of him and is conflicted on her next course of action.

"And this is what I've got to thank you for? After looking after you so well through our marriage. Do you understand what you've done to me, you stupid woman" (Torvald, 'A Doll's House', 1.12.32 - 1.12.40, Garland, 1973)

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Garland, 'A Doll's House', 1973.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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AFI Fest 2020 Features Some of the Year’s Best Films

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This year, like just about every other film festival that managed to put on some kind of show in 2020, the 34th annual AFI Fest went nearly all-virtual. The yearly American Film Institute event, which usually combines major studio and independent releases, bypassed its usual eight-day blitz at the famous TCL Chinese Theatre complex in Hollywood for an online simulacrum that did not perhaps offer up the same glittering premieres and major studio contenders as in past years, but still managed to offer up a number of superb offerings.

“Attending” a film festival from one’s desk or couch can be a tricky proposition, so it remains to be seen how successful AFI Fest was overall with paying audiences (screenings were ticketed for the public). But as with other such events we’ve experienced this year, like Fantasia, the technical aspects were flawless and the ease of use and screening windows made the event largely stress-free. And we saw some truly extraordinary films, some premiering for the first time, and others coming from other festivals we missed. Check them all out below.

Anthony Hopkins and Riz Ahmed Lead Parade of Talent at AFI Fest

The Father

The best film we saw at AFI Fest was The Father, director and screenwriter Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his own stage play. Anthony Hopkins stars as Anthony, an elderly English man who is suffering from the onset of dementia. Olivia Colman is his daughter Anne, who is planning a move to Paris to live with her partner and is desperately trying to find a new caregiver for her father after he scared off the last one.

But as the film goes on, the viewer begins to wonder what is actually happening? People drift in and out of the narrative under different names, Anthony’s spacious apartment seems to change around him, and time itself seems to bend. Then we realize: we are seeing almost all the events from his point-of-view, which means that none of what we see can truly be trusted–making what could have been a conventional drama about illness and memory into something brilliant.

That realization, coupled with absolutely heartbreaking work from Hopkins and Colman, makes The Father a devastating look at a slow-motion nightmare from which there is no escape. Anthony (the character) is at once recognizable as a certain kind of man (and as such is both charming and mean-spirited), and the legendary actor (we swear we saw a flash of Hannibal Lecter in there at one point), makes his long, slow descent into an unmoored new reality even more profound. A nearly perfect film. (5 Stars)

Sound of Metal

Just as The Father brings us inside the world of someone in the grip of dementia, Sound of Metal gives us an up close look at what it feels like to suddenly go deaf. Riz Ahmed is excellent as Ruben, a recovering drug addict who drums in a heavy metal duo alongside his girlfriend, singer/guitarist Lou (Olivia Cooke). The two tour the indie rock circuit in a beat-up but cozy RV that also serves as their home. However, their gypsy lifestyle is upended when Ruben abruptly loses his hearing.

Director Darius Marder (who co-wrote the script with Abraham Marder) does not give into sentimentality, even as Ruben moves through grief, loss, denial, anger and self-pity, all the while clinging to the possibility that he may find a surgical way to restore his hearing. His journey also takes him to a home for deaf people in recovery (headed up by the marvelous Paul Raci, whose own life story involving deafness is remarkable), and eventually opens his heart and mind–at least a little–to the understanding that he can still live a fulfilling life. The excellent sound design is the final touch on a captivating and highly original story. (4 Stars)

Nine Days

Winston Duke (Black Panther), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), and Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) star in this striking directorial debut from Edson Oda, who also wrote the script. Duke, one of our favorite up-and-coming actors, plays Will, an enigmatic being who once lived on Earth as a human and now decides which souls get their chance to proceed to do the same. When a slot becomes available due to an unexpected death, Will and his colleague Kyo (Wong) welcome five new applicants to their way station, one of whom (Beetz) challenges Will’s method of selecting a new soul.

Based on the concept alone, Nine Days would make an interesting double feature with Pixar’s upcoming Soul. The film touches on a number of sophisticated ideas about what defines humanity and what it means to live, doing so in a compelling and deeply moving way. Duke, Wong and Beetz are all excellent, as are Tony Hale (Veep), Bill Skarsgard (It), and Erika Vasquez as fellow applicants. This is a surreal fantasy that strikes at some truths about how we live. (4 Stars)

New Order (Nuevo Orden)

The sixth film from Mexican writer-director Michel Franco is less than 90 minutes long but will leave you battered and devastated. As a wealthy “white” family celebrates the marriage of their daughter with other upper class guests at their posh estate, trouble is brewing in the streets of Mexico City. The “brown” workers, including people toiling away at the wedding itself, erupt into a furious revolution in which almost no one is spared. But the forces behind the seemingly spontaneous uprising may not be what they seem.

Franco spares no one in this harrowing and absolutely relevant descent into societal breakdown, as the screen fills with the screams of the tortured, the murder of women and children, and the flames of burning bodies. He may cut away at the last minute in key instances, but you are fully aware of what’s happening nonetheless. The film’s hard-nosed approach extends to the motivations behind the chaos, which are more opaque and not as straightforward as one might expect. New Order will leave you shaken and disturbed–as it should. This may not be science fiction. (4 Stars)

Belushi

The first major documentary on the life and career of late comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi touches as expected on all the personal history, creative development, and psychological complexity of a man who many consider one of the great comic geniuses of his time. With many of the interviews with key people done as audio only (for an oral history project), director R.J. Cutler fills in the visual blanks with animation, excerpts from private letters, and various film and video clips, creating a shaggy, kaleidoscopic vision of a too-brief and just as frenetic life.

Since Belushi’s career is well-documented (although it’s weird to realize he only starred in seven films), and the circumstances of his death sadly all too predictable, what stands out most about the film is the central relationship with his wife Judy, who provided an anchor even when Belushi self-destructively pushed her away. Belushi the movie doesn’t offer many surprises beyond that, but does make us wonder what he might have done had he stuck around. (3.5 Stars)

I’m Your Woman

Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) stars in this new melodrama from Fast Color helmer Julia Hart, who weaves themes of motherhood, loyalty, love, and family into a 1970s crime thriller with a decidedly feminist bent. Brosnahan plays Jean, whose sheltered life as the wife of professional thief Eddie (Bill Heck) is upended by his gifting her with a baby (not hers) and then disappearing shortly thereafter. Jean learns that Eddie has betrayed his boss and that she and the baby must go on the run, with help coming from a surprising source.

I’m Your Woman kicks off in bracing fashion, laying out the contours of Jean’s dreamlike, aimless life, then ripping it all out from under her in a gritty, fast-paced first half. But the movie nearly grinds to a halt in its second hour, with a lot of exposition and some confusing narrative strands slowly letting the air out of the proceedings. Brosnahan is great in as a woman who must finally fill in the blanks of her own life, with excellent work as well from Marsha Stephanie Blake and Arinzè Kene as unexpected allies, but the movie doesn’t achieve the triumphant moment it’s striving for. (3 Stars)

Apples

This Greek dystopian fable could serve in some ways as a more metaphorical companion piece to The Father. A product of Greece’s recent wave of “weird” filmmaking (led by Yorgos Lanthimos of Dogtooth and The Favourite fame), this debut from director and co-writer Christos Nikou is set in an Athens where a strange virus is causing people to experience abrupt and almost total memory loss. There’s no cure and no one recovers, and while some amnesiacs are claimed by their families, others become part of a program to give the afflicted a chance at starting a new life.

Movies

Toronto International Film Festival 2020 Movie Round-Up

By David Crow

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By Don Kaye

Two of those in the latter category are Aris (Aris Servetalis) and Anna (Sofia Georgovassili), who try to recall the past while attempting to build a new future. He’s as melancholy as she is cheerful, and their different approaches are indicative of the ways all of us might face having our entire existence rebooted. Apples takes turns being absurd, sweet, and poignant, and while it’s a bit too self-consciously strange, it’s a touching twist on classics like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. (3.5 Stars)

Uncle Frank

Six Feet Under and True Blood creator Alan Ball has written and directed this intimate look at a New York University professor (Paul Bettany of WandaVision) who finally comes out to his semi-estranged South Carolina family when he returns home for the funeral of his father. Frank is aided in his efforts by his niece Beth (Sophia Lillis of It), who has always admired her worldly uncle, but didn’t even know his secret herself until attending NYU as well.

Bettany is fantastic, and supported by strong work from Lillis and Peter Macdissi as his longtime partner Walid. But there’s something that feels pre-programmed about the way the plot proceeds, and the film’s last half-hour goes off the rails in overwrought fashion. The engaging cast, led by Bettany’s dignity and humanity, steer it back however. (3.5 Stars)

One Night in Miami…

You can read a much more comprehensive review of Watchmen star Regina King’s directorial debut here, where movies section editor David Crow liked the movie a bit more than us. But after a slow start, there’s no denying that One Night in Miami… (adapted by Soul co-writer Kemp Powers from his play) builds to a powerful and inspiring finish.

Powers’ scenario envisions what happened on the night that Cassius Clay (El Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and football star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) all assembled in a motel room after Clay defeated Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship. King can’t quite escape the movie’s origins as a play, but she projects confidence behind the camera and gets distinctive performances out of her four stars. Goree and Hodge are the strongest, but Ben-Adir’s doomed civil rights leader and Odom Jr.’s introverted singer are the heart of this timely story. (3.5 Stars)

The Intruder

A voiceover actress named Ines (Erica Rivas) has her vacation cut short by a tragic occurrence and comes home to find that the incident may have lasting supernatural repercussions in this low-energy chiller from Argentinian director Natalia Meta. The brooding atmosphere and sound studio setting seem almost like a deliberate nod to Peter Strickland’s eerie Berberian Sound Studio (2012), but Meta’s script can’t navigate the blurring lines between fantasy and reality as successfully.

The result is a movie that badly wants to be socially relevant enhanced horror but ends up being a sleepy letdown. Meta and the great Cecilia Roth as her mother both do their best, but there’s not enough substance to the story or Meta’s premise, and the scare tactics are predictable. (2 Stars)

Wander Darkly

We are mystified at the praise that this film has received since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, as we found it to be a confusing, pretentious mess. Sienna Miller and Diego Luna star as a young couple, with a house, a baby, not a lot of money, a growing distrust of each other, and all the pressure that brings to bear. Then their lives are changed in a horrific car accident from which Miller wakes up and begins a surreal journey through the couple’s past, with Luna as her guide.

Is Miller dead? Is she dreaming? The movie keeps the truth hidden but director/writer Tara Miele’s experimental non-linear narrative doesn’t pay off. The hopping through time and space is incoherent, even within its own rules (which are not clear either), and as a result the movie doesn’t build to anything emotionally true. The horror movie subplot and big “twist” at the end are also weak. Miller and Luna are both spellbinding, and have real chemistry, but they can’t save the film. (2 Stars)

The Boy Behind the Door

Two 12-year-old boys (Lonnie Chavis and Ezra Dewey) are kidnapped by a pair of what appear to be human sex traffickers in the tense opening moments of first-time directors David Charbonier and Justin Powell’s dark, dark thriller. Kevin (Dewey) is chained up inside the pair’s sinister house, which sits adjacent to an oil field; Bobby (Chavis) manages to escape from the trunk of their car, but valiantly enters the house to save his friend, knowing that at least one of their kidnappers is still inside.

After that gripping start, The Boy Behind the Door plunges further into inanity. The two boys are marvelous, but their characters are barely developed and the villains even less so. Stupid actions and implausible plot developments drain any believability out of what could have been a riveting tale, turning it into a subpar slasher movie that doesn’t even seem to know when it’s set: the boys don’t have mobile devices, yet Bobby treats an old rotary phone that he discovers like a find from an archaeological dig. Good cinematography and atmosphere can’t save this one from slamming shut on itself. (2 Stars)

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thebewisepodcast · 6 years

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Black Panther (2018) ~ A Shade Darker Than Black

What is darker than black?

black:

blak/

adjective: black; comparative adjective: blacker; superlative adjective: blackest; adjective: Black

1. of the very darkest color owing to the absence of or complete absorption of light; the opposite of white.

(of the sky or night) completely dark owing to nonvisibility of the sun, moon, or stars.

deeply stained with dirt.

2. of any human group having dark-colored skin, especially of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry.

relating to black people.

3. (of a period of time or situation) characterized by tragic or disastrous events; causing despair or pessimism.

(of a person's state of mind) full of gloom or misery; very depressed.

full of anger or hatred.

archaic

very evil or wicked.

"my soul is steeped in the blackest sin"

"a black deed"

"five thousand men were killed on the blackest day of the war"

noun: black; plural noun: blacks; noun: Black

1. black color or pigment.

2. a member of a dark-skinned people, especially one of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry.

"a coalition of blacks and whites against violence"

verb: black; 3rd person present: blacks; past tense: blacked; past participle: blacked; gerund or present participle: blacking

1. make black, especially by the application of black polish.

make (one's face, hands, and other visible parts of one's body) black with polish or makeup, so as not to be seen at night or, especially formerly, to play the role of a black person in a musical show, play, or movie.

"white extras blacking up their faces to play Ethiopians"

In the lexicon of the English language, what is darker than black? In both tone and spirit, the darkness that has lain beneath black history is a stain on the American experiment when viewed in the totality of the Constitution's promise. Within that light, the black experience, on any continent is the most unique, especially when juxtaposed against one another: from Europe to Asia to the U.S to the Mother. That notion, of unfathomable circumstance and indomitable fortitude, is the black experience encapsulated. Ryan Coogler's Black Panther (2018) manages to summon up thoughts of blackness, forcing the viewer to wrestle with her very nature, not shying away from all aspects of what it means to be black on a planet where blackness is not upheld in any esteem or glory in the eyes of the East and West. What matters at the end of Black Panther is how we view each other.

It is justified for me to start out by saying that I've seen the film twice, with some time in between to mull over my thoughts for as long as possible. I saw it on Friday, opening night with a packed crowd filled with human beings of all races and ages. We were trapped together, enclosed on all sides forced to embark upon the communal experience of cinema as an estranged family. In the blackness of the packed room, we were all one. Blackness tied us together for 2 hours and 20 minutes as we gasped, laughed and cheered in unison.

All three of Ryan Coogler's films: Fruitvale Station, Creed, and now Black Panther, have been about the black experience and black culture, each translating to relative box-office success. Through a superhero film, the director extraordinaire tells the most poignant and unreconcilable story of blackness yet as the narrative deals with blackness itself, both her intangible metaphysical properties and her very physical form.

As the cinematic superhero genre reaches 20 years of age and questions of genre fatigue begin to rapidly incur furrowed brows, ways to keep the genre injected with new life energy are tantamount to the cash cow that is currently a major contributor to keeping the industry afloat. On a cinematic level, Black Panther does just that by giving the audience valuable messages about culture, ancestry, and responsibility to grapple with no matter where they're from. Black Panther speaks to black men and women directly, though, asking all of African-descent: what does it mean to be you? Is it enough to know your history, cherishing the past and moving according to old paradigms and traditions as T'Challa believes to be true or is it about forging a new present by weaponizing history to destroy traditions that have not garnered enough fruit for the whole as Killmonger prescribes? This film lent the world an eye to view the eternal struggle of melanated people who seek liberation: the divisive nature of our history is blacker than the skin of the darkest displaced African.

And as T'Challa reaches his own answer by the end of the film, the past is not to be burned and our ancestors aren't meant to be deified. All human beings alive today must quell the desire to hover the grounds of both. The present must be used to define the present.

The performances within the film are the strength of the film. It is the characters that draw you in. There is an abundance of performances that are hands down the best of any Marvel film to date. The film places the performances of the actors at the forefront with moments of drama being the crux of the film over any action beat that is contained. The range of performances, from Michael B. Jordan's determined Killmonger to Chadwick Boseman's even-keel T'Challa, each felt believable in the skin they inhabited. There are two moments where I received chills at the depth of the drama and length of the characters' convictions. One was probably the most well-acted moment of the film between Danai Guerra's Okoye and Lupita Nyongo's Nakia. They stand before each other, black skin lit lovingly by Coogler's eye. Nakia prompts Okoye to flee but she stands her ground, refusing to overthrow the government of Wakanda and forsake tradition. The emotions are real on both sides, power coming from Guerra's voice and a level of closeness pulling away from one another that is real as hell. The second is Michael B. Jordan's final ten minutes as he is impaled by the blade and walks proudly towards death. He gives such an opened heart in that moment; an open heart that we haven't seen on full display since Fruitvale. All the performances are spectacular, hard for me to single out one instance. I love Mbaku and Winston Duke as him. I love the subtle beauty of Daniel Kaluuya's performance also.

The direction of the film is the true superstar, though. Ryan Coogler's skillset was a shining example of how to be a helmer of masterful storytelling. One of the beautiful pieces of direction was the performances that took place in the Ancestral Plane. What T'Challa and Killmonger see when they go under is a beautiful way to display what they each hold dear and the emotional challenges they seek to surmount. Killmonger's ancestry was tied to Oakland, the apartment which he grew up in and not the lush plain tied to Wakanda's ethereal ancestry. Michael B. Jordan's tears, revisiting that pain in his life both revitalizes his mission statement and forges his necessity to burn it all down after he rises again. The past is filled with both anger and sadness for both of our opposing energies. Killmonger's past is limited, notable by his lack of ability to stretch back to reach the grand consciousness of all of his ancestors, which is the plight of the modern-day African-American male. T'Challa's ancestry is laden with heritage and culture, a lineage of untampered blackness yet as the viewer and T'Challa learn, is also a hindrance to progression.

What is darker than Black?

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