Change Your Image
miguel bakunin
Reviews
La maman et la putain (1973)
Criticism of liberated love's practice
A great movie, rather challenging than really entertaining. Sadly, no memorable quotes here, but this one's my favorite: Alexandre: If you're leaving someone that you have loved, you have to say what I'm telling you now: "Farewell, I'm going." But to disappear, to hide like a criminal, is ignoble. (didn't watch it with English subtitles)
In my opinion, this expresses it all. There is so much tactics involved in the relationships between Alexandre and the others, and yet everyone longs for a little bit more truth. However, knowing the truth can hurt even more, as Alexandre experiences. Common interpretation is that the movie criticises the mere possibility of "liberated love" by depicting the unwanted implications on the people involved. It does, indeed, show this in a convincing manner, but I would appreciate it if the reasons had been treated a bit more in depth: it's not that liberated love is in itself doomed to failure, but people (especially men, I think) should work on themselves and try to overcome the ruling morals before and not through practicing liberated love.
That said, the movie's realistic though and really worthwhile watching.
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
depressingly realistic, but too much fuss about marriage
I loved this movie from the start, and even after the sixth time watching it's still great. The main theme of the movie, Harry's point that men and women can't possibly be friends, is bitter and really a problem. Harry and Sally, who at first are little attracted to each other, develop an intense platonic relationship, but when finally "the sex part gets in the way", all seems lost at first.
There's one thing that I dislike much about this movie as well as about other stories that tackle the same topic: it's that marriage is depicted as the summit of love. The interludes with couples telling the stories of their relationships and how long they've been married already could be meant ironically since love doesn't always play a great role, but altogether the movie seems to hold that when two people love each other there's only one more thing to be done: get married; instead of just being happy to have found each other and to fit perfectly together.
In a way the movie plot both supports Harry's theory and provides a way out: keep away from the other sex, or if you can't, marry the person of your interest. ouarg!
But nevertheless: for all its absolutely great dialogues (Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal play their parts very well) it's really worth watching.
Schindler's List (1993)
let's correct the image of the evil german nazi?!
Cinematographically perfect, deeply moving, tragic, horrifying -- and yet I give the movie an F.
The movie depicts a German nazi who slowly becomes aware of the criminal nature of national socialism and from that moment on tries to save the lives of Jews by hiring them for his alleged matériel factory.
Now, the point is, the film premiered at a time when the majority political as well as public opinion in Germany agreed (it still does, and more than ever!) that there should be a close to the debate about "this darkest epoch in German history". I have the disagreeable feeling that in Germany - maybe elsewhere, too - the message of movie is: "Yes, there *were* Germans opposing nazism, but now lets no longer talk about this topic. Period."
However, as long as the causes for fascist thought persist, history has got to be told!
Spielberg does tell an impressing story, but unfortunately the wrong one; which is not to say that Schindler didn't take the right decision, rather that it would have been wiser to make a movie about a non-nazi antifascist.
Frances (1982)
sympathetic characters and horrifying plot
Trying to live one's life according to one's own principles is, as can be seen in this movie, sometimes really dangerous. Frances Farmer had to experience right that: the movie "Frances", which is based on her biography, proves it: from an impudent high school girl to an independently thinking woman, she permanently got in conflict with authorities.
The greatest disadvantage of the movie is that it lacks a good deal of background information on why things happened the way they did. But keeping in mind that and how society and the state usually repressingly react to deviant (not only sexually) behavior, one can easily imagine this background. I should like to mention that Frances was supportive of the anarchist/communist movement in Spain during the 1930's, which means she must have been rather leftist herself. That and the fact that it was back in the conservative 30's makes me owe her great respect and sympathy.
I really recommend the movie as an impressing piece of evidence for the fact that eccentricity obviously has a limit even for Hollywood stars.