Film Columns 2009

Tulku; Note by Note

Another Atlantic Film Festival has come and gone, and most of my film choices were not good ones this year, so I sat through four not terrible but still disappointing films. The only excellent one of five I saw was Tulku, which I’m sure many of you also saw  – in fact, sitting in the theatre before the film, seeing so many familiar faces, it felt almost like Shambhala Day! You could say I’m biased as far as the subject matter of Tulku goes, which I found fascinating, informative and poignant – hearing Gesar Mukpo’s story and quest, as well as those of the other tulkus in the film. But also considering the technical aspects, things that I always notice and appreciate in films, I thought this one excelled. The cinematography and choice of settings that added so much to the texture and stories being told, the musical selections, the skilful and smooth movement from scene to scene – not that I’m an expert, but I offer my congratulations to Gesar and all who were involved in the making of the film.

I’m not going to say anything about the disappointing films I saw at AFF, so if you’re really interested you can give me a call or send me an e-mail. So now I’ll switch to TV, in case a film I saw recently on PBS turns up again and you have a chance to see it. Note by Note is a documentary I had heard of some time ago, but since it never appeared at the local video rental places I had just about given up on ever seeing it. It follows the making of a Steinway concert grand piano from start to finish at the Steinway manufacturing company and studio in New York City. I had had no idea what this entailed, the fact that it’s all done by hand, and how many skilled craftsmen of various kinds are involved – quite a mixture, including immigrants, who brought their skills with them, and ordinary New Yorkers. One of the most interesting things was hearing these cabinet makers and other craftsmen talk, some of whom had known nothing about either music or pianos before starting as low level apprentices years earlier, and how much pride and satisfaction they now felt in their work. Yes, music is another passion of mine, but even if you have only a minimal appreciation of it, I feel certain you’ll really enjoy this documentary if you get the chance to see it.

Bergman Island

This is the time of year when more films of the type I enjoy show up at the theatres, but instead of talking about them, I want to mention a fascinating 2004 documentary I rented recently from Video Difference called Bergman Island. Yes, it’s about Ingmar Bergman, legendary filmmaker who died in 2007, and it’s mainly interviews with him on Faro Island, where he had a home for many years and lived exclusively for the last few years of his life. I learned it’s also where some of his most well-known early films were shot, and the documentary includes footage from a few of them. Perhaps this documentary was so evocative for me because I watched many of the early Bergman films when I was young, and my love for interesting, thought-provoking and beautiful black and white cinematography came from those experiences. So if you’re familiar with and fond of these films as I am, I think you’ll also really appreciate this documentary. And if you’ve never connected with Bergman, especially his earlier films (I’ll name my favourites in a minute), then I urge you to make the introduction now, and this documentary might inspire you. He not only directed films but generally wrote them too, and I admit that even in some of his films that I loved and was haunted by, I sometimes didn’t know what he was trying to say, but that didn’t matter for some reason.

Here’s a personal story of the first time I saw The Seventh Seal, one of his most famous, which I think I’ve seen at least seven times! I was in my second year at a small American college which showed a film every Friday night in one of the main lecture halls. In keeping with the style of many of the older buildings on campus, this lecture hall was actually a chapel with high wooden beamed ceilings and pews rather than chairs. I was taking an advanced biology course that involved a lot of lab work, and my lab partner and I had to do something in the lab at the same time that The Seventh Seal was being shown. Already a Bergman fan, I was really miffed that I’d have to miss it, but it turned out that because my lab partner was one of the regular projectionists, he offered to show the film again just for us when we were done in the lab. So there I was, alone at midnight, sitting in a pew in a medieval-style chapel watching The Seventh Seal. For those of you who’ve seen that film, you might understand why it really made an impression on me!

Favourite Bergman films: Summer with Monika, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Magician, Through a Glass Darkly, Shame, Cries and Whispers. I’m not as fond as his more recent, colour films, but I certainly wouldn’t say they’re bad!

Carrington; Besieged

I recently decided to watch two films from over 10 years ago that I had loved and that continued to haunt me. I rarely revisit favourite films as I’m afraid the second experience will be disappointing and spoil the memory of the first one. In both of these cases, though, I’m pleased to still highly recommend the films, though I also have to admit that the first viewing was more intense.

The films are Carrington and Besieged, both stories of unusual love relationships involving eccentric people, and both also visually beautiful with wonderful performances by the principal actors.

I’ll start with Carrington, a 1995 British film focusing on the 1906-1932 relationship between artist Dora Carrington and writer Lytton Strachey. Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce play the leading roles, Pryce winning best actor at Cannes for his portrayal of Strachey. And I think this is one of Emma Thompson’s very best performances, though if you go to the “Rotten Tomatoes” website you won’t see much praise for either the film or her performance! (Maybe I’ll write a column sometime on how to sift through film reviews and decide who you agree with.) Anyway, Carrington and Strachey lived together for many years and obviously had a very deep and passionate connection, even though he was openly gay. During that time they also both had romantic liaisons with others, but everyone around them seemed to realize that their own relationship, though not the conventional romantic kind, was their most intense and devoted.

Besieged is Bernardo Betolucci’s 1998 film and, in my view, his best since 1987’s “The Last Emperor”. Again, you won’t always see positive reviews of it, as I discovered once when I looked it up on IMDB.com (which I prefer to Rotten Tomatoes because it gives you all kinds of information about the film and everyone connected with it, plus reviews by ordinary people). The thing that struck me most when I first watched this film and also this second time is how little dialogue there is; most of the story is told by the camera, including of course the actors’ facial expressions, and music also plays a major role. Starring Thandie Newton, who became well known for her later role in “Crash” but in my view is much more impressive here; and David Thewlis in a role very different from his Harry Potter and other villainous ones, the story is of a young African woman living in Rome following her husband’s arrest, studying medicine and supporting herself as a maid in the home of an eccentric British musician, who has fallen in love with her. That’s all I’m going to say!