Pablo Neruda gets to a small non-descriptive island in the south of Italy and asks the post office to have someone deliver his mail personally while in exile. Massimo Troisi is the mailman who plays a touching role of someone who in life actually wrote poetry.Philippe Noiret plays Neruda and the sweetheart of the southern Italian town is Maria Grazia Cucinotta.
There is a subplot on the front of an election about to occur on the island and it's link to organized crime, that is tied into the family that Massimo marries into. This is because during the water works proposal the elected party is about to support Massimo's in-laws are approached to serve food to the workers. The proposal falls through once the election folds.
Massimo has to deal with an overprotective aunt which follows the stereotypical control that used to be prevalent on small rural towns and may still be where the daughter is not allowed to venture off with a young man without family consent, or the suitor has to keep his hands off the young lady until the wedding day. Pablo Neruda gets caught unwittingly in this romantic romantic comedy as the inept postman approaches him for words of poetry to use in order to win the girl's love and acceptance.
The film is broken up with classic religious symbols that parallels the families importance and the necessity of the girl to comply with the rule of her elders. There is a moment that could have been touched on in the romance when his love is threatened by the aunt and then the film cuts to a brief romantic moment between the young lovers toying with a ping-pong ball they used during a table game at their first encounter. Then the suitors are already in the chapel with the priest about to give permission for Neruda to act as a witness. There is no confrontation directly between the aunt and Massimo on the liberty he has taken to meet his girl in private and one can only imagine that this was worked out behind the scenes.
What makes this a romantic comedy is the improbability of meeting the girl of your dreams if you can't say two words to begin with. Troisi portrays the simple-minded southerner with efficacy while Neruda is thrown into the comic soup because of the favor the postman asks to bring the two together and then since the aunt objects his asks Neruda to remove him from the generated embarrassment. Neruda complies and this seals the friendship enough so that he is asked to be the best-man even though, technically speaking communists were frowned upon to partake in church services. The stereotypical reaction of the priest to Neruda's participation and the straight-laced attitude of the aunt when reacting to the postman's poetry using naked metaphors add to the humor.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Planet of the Apes: A political film
From what I was able to gather it was not until the film was being made that the producer finally discovered that his film was going to be political. Strangely during the shoot breaks the orangutans hang around only with their 'own kind' as did the chimpanzees and the gorillas. Behind the costumes were people who were otherwise friends with those wearing costumes of another ape. Apparently their behavior was modified by their outward appearances and that said much as far as the politicized movie was concerned. And in the film one can see the parallels between the class system we have and the sociological order that was set.
Before when people made movies with apes the movie was either a comedy or a poorly done Japanese sci-fi. This film had to have the seriousness that would be wanted to show that the apes were in authority and they commanded the astronaut prisoners they captured after their space craft landed. Care was taken so that the prosthetics that were used would be real enough so that the apes would be as expressive as they normally would be; smiles would be registered as such and frowns equally so too. Their hands and fingers would be covered with simian fur and their nails colored brown. One mentions all this because the costuming of the film was proportionately larger than in other movies. Here there were tens of apes all modeled to look real and capable of of convincing the public that they were in command once the humans had destroyed their world in some atomic war.
In order for the masks to work it took good actors to make their expressions possible. An inexperienced actor might not have exaggerated facial expressions well enough. If the chimpanzees kissed as did happen to copy the body language of their human cousins, it has to be realistic. Large name actors were called forth so that there acting would be given credence and the film would be publicized well. Not all of them stayed on like E.G. Robinson who gave up his role because of the unaccommodating facial prosthetics and costume to be worn for hours on end.
About the politics in the film? Since the different apes were each given a different role that later came into conflict among each other one can say that an analogy had been made between their social order and ours. Our class system goes through an upheaval from time time to create a new social order. One may say that the Arab spring, an ongoing process to bring democracy to the countries of autocratic rule in the region is an effort to create a new social order there. Pity that those in power for decades today are so vain as to think that they can hang onto power for ages, just as the gorilla general and the aristocratic orangutans thought their positions should be unquestioned and untouched.
Before when people made movies with apes the movie was either a comedy or a poorly done Japanese sci-fi. This film had to have the seriousness that would be wanted to show that the apes were in authority and they commanded the astronaut prisoners they captured after their space craft landed. Care was taken so that the prosthetics that were used would be real enough so that the apes would be as expressive as they normally would be; smiles would be registered as such and frowns equally so too. Their hands and fingers would be covered with simian fur and their nails colored brown. One mentions all this because the costuming of the film was proportionately larger than in other movies. Here there were tens of apes all modeled to look real and capable of of convincing the public that they were in command once the humans had destroyed their world in some atomic war.
In order for the masks to work it took good actors to make their expressions possible. An inexperienced actor might not have exaggerated facial expressions well enough. If the chimpanzees kissed as did happen to copy the body language of their human cousins, it has to be realistic. Large name actors were called forth so that there acting would be given credence and the film would be publicized well. Not all of them stayed on like E.G. Robinson who gave up his role because of the unaccommodating facial prosthetics and costume to be worn for hours on end.
About the politics in the film? Since the different apes were each given a different role that later came into conflict among each other one can say that an analogy had been made between their social order and ours. Our class system goes through an upheaval from time time to create a new social order. One may say that the Arab spring, an ongoing process to bring democracy to the countries of autocratic rule in the region is an effort to create a new social order there. Pity that those in power for decades today are so vain as to think that they can hang onto power for ages, just as the gorilla general and the aristocratic orangutans thought their positions should be unquestioned and untouched.
Portrait of Dorian Revisited
The portrait could never change, but it did and took on the ill-fated look of a man filled with demons. How could anyone look so horrible on the inside? Ask Dorian who would stoop to slyly wield an influence on unsuspecting youth and cause the suffering he did among those that admire him, at one time.
He was the subject of a portrait with strange power that the artist felt when he painted it. He was drawn to paint eternal beauty but there would be a curse on this as was instigated by a common friend whose value system was projected onto Dorian, it seems; a value system that made Dorian grow demonic with each encounter he made and leave people kill themselves or get killed. He would want to rid himself of that curse bu each time he wanted to do good as through marriage there was his sadistic mentor who would have think of pleasure first.
So pleasure then governed his days as he took his cues from his mentor and according to the curse which was supposed to have been laid upon him by the cat stone idol, he developed episodes of falling into the spell of being another man content to do debauchery with no respect for the other individual. Such as the case when he fell in love or rather lusted after a young singer. She visited his home and fell in love with his Chopin music, sad she called it but she was sad to see that the only way to keep Dorian was to put her principles aside and stay over the night rather than leave for home.
She was attracted to the man who later destroyed her stating that after the affair he could no longer see her, She took her life and word did get back to Dorian whose facial expressions would stay stern no matter who had fallen because of the power of his pen or because he decided to become moral for a day once his period of reveling at the east London pub was over. Her brother would follow her fate as he would try to trace who the murderer was only to be to killed at a fateful hunting event. Originally he had mistaken Dorian for someone else when he saw him at Dorian's favorite haunt only Dorian had to have been older than he appeared.
It was Dorian's painting that would show his aging all the time while the man would gallivant and break hearts and minds along the way. Dorian would store this painting away so that the artist would not ask to see it although eventually he was shown it as Dorian allowed a glimpse of his horrible world to the man who created his image in oils. That man had to be destroyed because he had witnessed the terrible transformation of the painting and to Dorian suddenly stricken with desperation, this could not be tolerated.
Then he decided to marry his niece and get away from the habit of cruising the pubs at night but he soon felt remorse for having chosen her and wrote her a letter of refusal just as he had done to his previous love he met at the east end pub. To witness that 'good' moment he drove back to his London mansion to see if the change would register back on the painting and the grimaces of horror would soften. There was something positive, he thought but in order for the painting not to 'cause any more harm', as he put it, he decided to stab it and stab it he did by cutting through at the level of his heart. He had externalized his ills and the painting could only have reminded him of his past guilt. He died upon stabbing it as its ugliness was transferred to him. The portrait returned to its original state with a dagger through it and his second lady was free from potential harm.
He was the subject of a portrait with strange power that the artist felt when he painted it. He was drawn to paint eternal beauty but there would be a curse on this as was instigated by a common friend whose value system was projected onto Dorian, it seems; a value system that made Dorian grow demonic with each encounter he made and leave people kill themselves or get killed. He would want to rid himself of that curse bu each time he wanted to do good as through marriage there was his sadistic mentor who would have think of pleasure first.
So pleasure then governed his days as he took his cues from his mentor and according to the curse which was supposed to have been laid upon him by the cat stone idol, he developed episodes of falling into the spell of being another man content to do debauchery with no respect for the other individual. Such as the case when he fell in love or rather lusted after a young singer. She visited his home and fell in love with his Chopin music, sad she called it but she was sad to see that the only way to keep Dorian was to put her principles aside and stay over the night rather than leave for home.
She was attracted to the man who later destroyed her stating that after the affair he could no longer see her, She took her life and word did get back to Dorian whose facial expressions would stay stern no matter who had fallen because of the power of his pen or because he decided to become moral for a day once his period of reveling at the east London pub was over. Her brother would follow her fate as he would try to trace who the murderer was only to be to killed at a fateful hunting event. Originally he had mistaken Dorian for someone else when he saw him at Dorian's favorite haunt only Dorian had to have been older than he appeared.
It was Dorian's painting that would show his aging all the time while the man would gallivant and break hearts and minds along the way. Dorian would store this painting away so that the artist would not ask to see it although eventually he was shown it as Dorian allowed a glimpse of his horrible world to the man who created his image in oils. That man had to be destroyed because he had witnessed the terrible transformation of the painting and to Dorian suddenly stricken with desperation, this could not be tolerated.
Then he decided to marry his niece and get away from the habit of cruising the pubs at night but he soon felt remorse for having chosen her and wrote her a letter of refusal just as he had done to his previous love he met at the east end pub. To witness that 'good' moment he drove back to his London mansion to see if the change would register back on the painting and the grimaces of horror would soften. There was something positive, he thought but in order for the painting not to 'cause any more harm', as he put it, he decided to stab it and stab it he did by cutting through at the level of his heart. He had externalized his ills and the painting could only have reminded him of his past guilt. He died upon stabbing it as its ugliness was transferred to him. The portrait returned to its original state with a dagger through it and his second lady was free from potential harm.
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Magic Gardens
There are ways to cure polio besides the electrical stimuli that used to be administered to the legs thinking that if the muscles where shocked then the person would walk again. Just a visit to the secret garden but you must not tell anyone if you know how to keep something to yourself. This is where an orphan girl managed to bring a father and son together although know one was supposed to know about the garden. It was locked up by the widowed uncle whose wife died there, the story goes.
The garden in England was first sighted through the hole of a real one, there through the magic of a robin who understood the orphaned girl's command to be taken to this place. She only knew about through a key that she picked up from her aunt's room and was invited to go there through a maidservant who told her that is where her mother used to spend her time outside the mansion. The girl knew this to be a magical place and was instructed not to tell. She dutifully warned a manservant who used to tend the animals of the mansion. They soon bonded and would reunite to plant flowers of every kind. Such was the garden that when the Emperor of India lilies were planted, they immediately took root. aside from that the meadows of the secret place were full of newborns critters and the air was joyful. This was to be the escape for the orphaned girl whose mother, a sister to the aunt had died and she was taken care of an evil godmother figure..
The garden in England was first sighted through the hole of a real one, there through the magic of a robin who understood the orphaned girl's command to be taken to this place. She only knew about through a key that she picked up from her aunt's room and was invited to go there through a maidservant who told her that is where her mother used to spend her time outside the mansion. The girl knew this to be a magical place and was instructed not to tell. She dutifully warned a manservant who used to tend the animals of the mansion. They soon bonded and would reunite to plant flowers of every kind. Such was the garden that when the Emperor of India lilies were planted, they immediately took root. aside from that the meadows of the secret place were full of newborns critters and the air was joyful. This was to be the escape for the orphaned girl whose mother, a sister to the aunt had died and she was taken care of an evil godmother figure..
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