5 posts tagged “movie”

The Lives of Others was released last year to much acclaim, and even stayed at the local theater here in SF for a whopping five months. I could ramble off the plot and what not, but as every good screenplay does it tells you what the premise is about in the first 10 minutes. The clip on the left tells you pretty much all you need to know in five. Most German films that have dealt with it's history tend to focus on the Nazi regime, such as the recent film Downfall. However, this film is different it chooses to focus on an almost equally as troubling period of German history which is the state of East Germany and the reach of it's state security service, the Stasi. The Stasi worked in ways similar to the Gestapo, by employing citizens as informants to help them discover who they would deem a "threat" to state security. At one point the Stasi had 300,000 informants watching a population of around 17 million. This is only a small example of the methods used to collect information on it's own citizens.

  The Lives of Others is a fantastic meditation on personal freedom, the role of the artist in society, morality, power and the abuse of power. Please rent this one you will not be disappointed.


P.S. The man on the left (Uli Muher) was actually monitored by the Stasi back in the day. His wife even informed on him on a regular basis.

For a good deal of time now, I have been harboring a massive man-crush on the deceased actor William Holden. For me he embodies many attributes that would comprise the definition of the word "masculine", but not in a stereotypical McQueen fashion, or the more cartoonish roles of Mel Gibson. No doubt, he starred in some very memorable films from the past 50 years, which I'll mention later, but he never really seemed to playing the role of "movie star". I have always felt that he seemed like an outsider of sorts. A man who enjoyed his craft, but was never comfortable in the system or necessarily his own skin, but never outwardly showed signs of this (unless you count alcoholism). He seemed to project sincerity, but with hints of self loathing coated with a veneer of jaded cynicism. Not to mention he could be charming, moody and was able to pull off comedy roles with elan. Holden lived a troubled life due to alcoholism. He killed a man in a car accident in Italy due to it and later died in the early 80's after hitting his head after passing out. However his memory lives on in numerous films and a wildlife refuge in Africa (pictured on the left) which he founded in the 60's.



  

The roles that certainly cement this image in my mind would be Sunset Boulevard followed by Stalag 17. In Stalag 17 Holden plays a prisoner in a POW camp who makes his way by any means possible by gambling, making hooch and being the foremost cigarette dealer in the bunk, and just to be clear he charges money for all of this. I don't want to give the plot away in case any of you dear voxers have not seen it, but needless to say he's a pretty cynical opportunist of the first rate. Some of the comedic sequences seem a little dated and ham-fisted, but this film crackles with snappy dialogue and Holden won an academy award for his role.

































Listed amongst the AFI's top 100 is Sunset Boulevard. Holden believed that his win for Stalag 17 was in compensation for being snubbed for Sunset. Holden finds himself in the company of an eccentric, deluded woman played by Gloria Swanson by accident after fleeing from creditors that want to repossess his car due to late payments. This glorious film is a wonderful meditation on wealth, morality, fame and facing one's own mortality. If for nothing else, please watch it for the ultra film-noir opening sequence.

My favorite Holden film, The Wild Bunch. Set on the border of Mexico and Texas around the time of World War I, Holden and his gang of outlaws face an uncertain future after a lifetime of robbing banks and trains. The days of the old west are rapidly coming to an end. Socially and technologically life is changing all around them. As pictured on the left, the machine gun in my  opinion is symbolic of this. It was the dawn of mechanized warfare where unbelievable amounts of people could be killed with minimal effort. Just a prelude to the horrors of World War I. The only thing that holds this ragtag group of bandits together is honor and nothing else, because they have nothing else. No home, no country and no family. All they have is each other. Holden is pitch perfect as the rugged outlaw with the checkered past and a life of regret. This is probably one of my favorite films. The editing and cinematography alone are masterworks.