BLUE JASMINE

BLUE JASMINE 

Without a dream in my heart

Tonight, a glorious and warm Spring-like Saturday night, I decided to confine myself at home with a thin crispy French baguette with crab spread followed by some prime Belgian chocolate and coffee, while watching Woody Allen’s latest film: Blue Jasmine. 

I didn’t expect much, especially after hearing from various sources that the high point of the film is Cate Blanchet’s performance. That, in itself, suggests that the film may be at best “enjoyable”.

This is indeed the impression one has at the beginning, especially with the constant alternate flashbacks (Something I never enjoyed in story-telling), until, quite unexpectedly but firmly so, we start getting more and more involved and drawn in to the story.  Obviously, this is a film directed by Woody Allen, which amounts to unusual levels of intelligence for Hollywood Standards, coupled with a deep understanding of human psychology and an uncanny talent for story-telling, and when these ingredients come together and the story works, the result is always a step higher than the best around.

Cate Blanchet plays Jasmine French (What a delightfully chosen name for her character), a delusional Park Avenue socialite married to successful multi-business owner and millionaire Hal, played by Alec Baldwin.  

When Hal is arrested on serious tax evasion and fraud charges, all assets are frozen and Jasmine, left with nothing, travels to San Francisco to be with her sister Sally, who has two hyperactive kids, and gets by with a simple supermarket job. Sally’s boyfriend Chili (played by Bobby Cannavale) and in fact her whole world represent the antithesis of Jasmine’s vanished privileged world.  In this set of circumstances, Jasmine struggles to find herself again, by making herself believe that she can craft a new reality, working and getting up the ladder from ground zero, but instead she quickly falls prey to her own delusions of grandeur, from which there is no escape.

The film is clever in that it shows life and human beings as they are, as they think and as they act in our modern western society.   I am often positively surprised with Woody Allen’s insight into human psychology and how easy he makes it for us to relate to the characters portrayed.  Cate Blanchet is indeed fantastic in her role but it’s the screenplay and directing genius that put it all in place for her. The dialogues are pure Allen and the tone of the film is neither that of a drama nor that of a comedy, it doesn’t rely on the usual emotion triggers we are used to, it handles serious emotions all the same with some naturally subtle comic scenes, something very few directors are able to pull off, especially these days..

Jasmine is the portrait of a woman who lived by an acquired idea of herself, in a world where not only fortunes are volatile, but also a whole set of circumstances and ultimately identity.  

In all Woody Allen films I can think of, characters are plagued with flaws from which they cannot escape, much like characters in Dostoyevsky’s tales. Flaws that determine behavior, ascension and fall. Flaws that are characteristic of our own human nature. Some of us accept these flaws and opt for forgiveness and acceptance, whereas others choose to mask and manipulate, which, as in all good Greek Tragedies, (another ever present element of Allen’s stories) always ends up in self-demise.   
Jasmine’s story is that of a downfall and the song “blue moon” to which she clings to the very end, is extremely well chosen as a song that seems to tempt and escape us at the same time.

Blue Jasmine is an intricate, intelligent film, delivered with an ease that characterizes one of our best contemporary directors. Highly enjoyable and highly recommended. 

Trailer:

RELEASED: August 2013

Director: Woody Allen

Running Time: 98 mn

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin

Rating: 3,5 stars

SOMEWHERE IN TIME

SOMEWHERE IN TIME 

“Time travel IS possible”

THE PLOT:

Richard Collier is a successful playwright who lives in Chicago and seems to have everything going for him except for the fact that he never found the “right one”. The film starts with an odd moment when, during a reception, an old woman approaches Collier and gives him an old and beautiful pocket watch. She whispers “come back to me” and then turns and walks away.

Eight years later, faced with writer’s block, Collier spontaneously decides to take a weekend trip. He drives aimlessly and eventually winds up on Mackinac Island, in Michigan, where he enters the sumptuous Victorian-era Grand Hotel.

While waiting for the dining room to open, he wanders into the Hall of History, a room where some artifacts from the hotels past are exhibited. There, and in a scene of rare beauty, he is captivated by an old photograph of a beautiful woman. 

After some enquiries he finds out that her name is Elise MacKinnon, a turn-of the century famous actress who once appeared in a play in the hotel’s theater. 

Collier becomes obsessed with her and soon discovers that an old caretaker of Elise still lives nearby. He visits her and that’s how he understands that the old woman who handed him the pocket watch, (on what would turn out to be the night she died), was in fact Elise, the same one as in the photograph that mesmerized him.

While there, Collier notices a book on time travel written by an old colleague professor of his, a book that according to Elise's caretaker, she had read over and over again.

Upon meeting the professor and discussing the possibility of time travel, Collier decides to try a self induced hypnosis in order to travel back in time and meet Elyse. He succeeds and travels back to the year 1912, the day prior to Elise’s performance at the grand hotel. 

Thoughts on Somewhere in time:

I sometimes wonder to which degree my own perception of events defines and may alter these same events. It does sound offbeat I grant you this, but something in me seems to sense that we only truly live in the world we are able to see and perceive, and somehow, in an intricate and elaborate plan, this world only truly exists through our own perception of it. There probably isn’t a definite objectivity we can ever grasp, and if there is one, it’s most certainly always out of our reach. Character, personality and perception seem to be the forging force at the setting of our own circumstances. The primordial utensil we rely on, is at the same time that from which we must naturally escape in search of a true essence of being (or non-being).The world we envision is there only to the extent of our desire..

Richard Collier wanted so much, and so passionately, to meet Elise, that he did in fact travel to a reality where they both could co-exist. How he did it defies logic, but then again logic is a process of thought within a limited system computed to our own limited understanding of things. It doesn’t quite matter to understand how this was possible in practical terms, and I praise the scriptwriter for giving us as little insight as possible on this matter, because what actually prevails in this story, is the overwhelming genuine essence of passion, which enables the impossible to happen.

Those who will question the why’s and how’s of the story, will miss the point entirely. The first step to enjoy this film, is quite simply to believe in it, become Collier..  Once we take this step, and if there is an inkling of passion in us, we will, as Collier, wish to never wake up again. “Somewhere in time” is a story of passion and dreams, a story of defying logic, if only for a brief moment. It’s this “leap of faith” often talked about and rarely taken, it embodies long forgotten dreams most commonly found in early childhood memories. “Somewhere in time” is devoid of the artistry of Erice or Tarkovsky, yet it reaches the same plateau in that it claims a life of its own once you allow its magic to unfold.

Trailer:

RELEASED: October 1980

Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Running Time: 103 mn

Cast: Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour

Rating: 4 stars

UNTAMED HEART 

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return

Bear with me for a minute: This isn’t Louis Malle, yet Untamed Heart touches at the same core, provided that you are familiar with feelings of passion and not too much of an intellectual to dismiss this film on the grounds that it looks like your typical Hollywood romantic drama recipe with a more or less predictable twist. No. Untamed Heart is in many ways flawed, in many ways naïve, in many ways inconsistent, but the real enchantment it contains easily throws away all these flaws, and removes any type of prejudice if only we let ourselves be enchanted.

Untamed heart is a modern fairy-tale about Love, Passion and Sincerity (all written with capital letters) that takes place in a working class setting in Minneapolis.

The film begins by showing us an event that occurred in the past at an orphanage. Adam is a small boy who lives at the orphanage. He has a serious heart condition that makes him faint and puts his life at risk, so much so that he needs heart surgery. A nun tells him a fairy-tale-like story about him having the heart of a baboon, possibly in view of encouraging him to feel stronger, more confident and less fearful of his faith.

The story moves to the present time, and now in his mid 20’s, Adam, (played by Christian Slater), is shy and mysterious, he never speaks to anyone, works as a dishwasher in a diner and lives alone with his dog.

Caroline, (played by Marisa Tomei), works at the same diner as a waitress. One night Adam saves Caroline from an attempted rape on her way home after work. Caroline is grateful and curious, and Adam slowly breaks his self-imposed silence and distance. Caroline is the first person he truly opens up to. Slowly, they find themselves inevitably drawn to each other.  

There is a wonderful sense of chemistry between them, and Christian Slater plays Adam with the right measure of mystery and innocence. Until the day he met her, all he had was his records and particularly a beautiful haunting theme he refers to as “magic”, Roger Williams version of nature boy, which I feel compelled to share here:

Untamed heart reminds us all that it’s Love that creates princes and princesses and not the other way around. The film is simply moving, and will make sense to anyone with a heart.

Untamed heart ends with the classic Nat King Cole rendering, and these hauntingly beautiful lyrics:

There was a boy

A very strange enchanted boy.

They say he wandered very far, very far,

Over land and sea.

A little shy

And sad of eye,

But very wise, very wise was he...

Until one day,

One lucky day he passed my way,

And while we talked of many things

Fools and kings,

This he said to me:

"The greatest thing

You’ll ever learn

Is just to love

And be loved

In return."

What I love about Untamed Heart is that it doesn’t try to aim higher than it actually gets. It doesn’t try to be an epic and shattering love drama. It’s just there, quietly and innocently illustrating how simple and how beautiful life can be if only we believe in enchantment. 

Well deserving of a solid 3,5 stars rating. Watch it.

RELEASED: February 1993

Director: Tony Bill

Running Time: 102 mn

Cast: Christian Slater, Marisa Tomei

Rating: 3,5 stars

EQUUS 

“At least I galloped - when did you?”

Peter Shaffer was traveling through the English countryside when he happened to come across a local news story of a young man who had blinded 6 horses. Shaffer wondered about what could have triggered such a violent act, and based on these premises, he wrote the play “Equus”

Equus is one possible explanation for this strange event, brilliantly directed by Sidney Lumet, based on Shaffer’s screenplay and with Shaffer himself on-set during filming.

 The story:

When 17 year old Alan Strang (played by Peter Firth), blinds six horses with a metal spike, he is referred by the magistrates to the care of psychiatrist Dr. Martin Dysart (played by Richard Burton). Dysart first tries to engage Alan in conversation by asking basic questions, but Alan is detached, uncooperative and defiant. He does not answer any questions but resorts instead to singing meaningless television jingles. 

In order to unlock the truth about what led Alan to blind six horses, Dysart opts for a series of sessions that include suggestion and hypnosis. 
In the meantime Dysart digs deeper into Alan’s life, visiting Alan’s parents, as well as Alan’s employer at the stable where Alan worked. However, as we slowly unearth pieces of the puzzle, a veil of opacity and confusion sets in. Contradicting stories and hidden secrets start to emerge.

As Dysart methodically unveils layer after layer in his search for the truth, he comes face to face with his particular predicament and starts questioning himself and his own moral authority. Slowly it is not only Alan who is under analysis, but Dysart himself, and with this, an entire set of values and beliefs we all take for granted.

Thoughts on Equus:

The story is presented in a slow but captivating manner, alternating fantastically well written narrative with flashbacks. Shaffer’s adaptation works so well, that I cannot imagine any stage version being better than this.

The opening scene is a close-up on an intricate dagger adorned with a skull, reminiscent of ancient Celtic mysticism. This is followed by a scene that feels like the setting for a Velázquez painting, in which Alan stands naked next to a white horse, in a deserted field at night. From this scene, Dysart embarks on a striking monologue that only becomes clearer in retrospective, when we later understand the extremity of the facts and all their implications.

Through his own analysis of Alan, Dr. Dysart comes to realize that something fundamental has passed him by, something Alan himself has embraced with a fury only paralleled in Greek tragedy, and something Dysart only ever admired from afar: The staggering depths of passion. Unbridled passion and worship, free of any vestiges of restraint, is really the essence of what is at stake here. The notion of Love with a capital “L” pales by comparison.

In Equus, Alan creates a God figure, a pagan God that grants him his ultimate escape. Through hypnosis and suggestion induced by Dr. Dysart, Alan recounts how every three weeks or so he takes out at night one of the horses from the stable he works at and rides him naked, shouting words of praise and love, becoming "one" with the horse.. His own sexual awakening and abandonment becomes the ultimate vehicle of worship.  

This bizarre yet profoundly unique act that seems to emanate from the fringes of madness, is in fact an expression of passion in its purest state, and ultimately, an act of defiance towards our human condition. Much alike Sisyphus defiance of death, Alan creates his own Eden and discards his “ball and chain” in ceremonial fits of passion.

But Equus “the almighty” is both a savior and a judge, a guide and a guard, looking at Alan’s each and every move. “I am yours and you are mine”. In mimicking his God Alan becomes chained. In Passion he unchains himself and finds bliss.

And so we have the setting for one fundamental question about life, when for example Dysart claims “I can’t see it because my educated average head is being held at the wrong angle”, “normality” and everything we take for granted is questioned. Society molds people and education removes the ability to feel deeply. Though Alan’s actions are demented, it is ironically only through demented actions that we can be reminded of passion and the ultimate real search for this sort of spiritualism generally lacking in our lives.

To quote Dysart again:  “Life is only comprehensible through a thousand local gods... spirits of certain trees, of certain curves of brick walls, of certain fish and chip shops if you like. And slate roofs, and frowns in people, and slouches... I'd say to them, "Worship all you can see, and more will appear...” 




This clearly tells us to observe better and longer. To not draw immediate conclusions, to not buy into ready-made philosophies but rather have a free unbiased mind, be critical, be attentive, and fearless..

Normality is our ultimate downfall.. “The Normal is the good smile in a child's eyes. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills like a God. It is the Ordinary made beautiful: it is also the Average made lethal”

To go through life and call it yours - your life - you first have to get your own pain. Pain that's unique to you. You can't just dip into the common bin and say 'That's enough!'...

Richard Burton gives one of his great performances, if not his best, and Peter Firth is clearly born to play this role, which he played more than 1000 times before on stage.

As far as the plot goes, one could argue that a trained psychiatrist would not dwell on such questions, but this is really beyond the point.

The point is: Does anyone really ask these questions, deeply, sincerely and without fear?

Equus is a film that asks no easy questions and offers no easy moral judgments. It is a mature, articulate and intelligent study of the human psyche that demands to be seen. It touches at the core of essential questions that are often hard to ask and remain almost always unanswered.

Very few people could have directed this film. Apart from Sidney Lumet perhaps only Ingmar Bergman could have approached it in such perfection as Lumet did.

Highly recommended and currently in my all time top 3.

RELEASED: October 1977

Director: Sidney Lumet

Running Time: 137 mn

Cast: Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter

Rating: 5 stars MASTERPIECE

GALLIPOLI- (GELIBOLU) The front line experience

I do not command you to fight, I command you to die. 
In the time it will take us to die we can be replenished by new forces.
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk)

GELIBOLU is the Turkish documentary on Gallipoli, by director Tolga Örnek.

Having seen several times Peter Weir’s film “Gallipoli”, I was interested in watching the Turkish counterpart, especially knowing that it is almost entirely based on surviving diaries, letters and photographs from both sides of the war.

Gelibolu surpassed all my expectations. It is an objective account of what happened at Gallipoli, in which director Tolga Örnek presents war itself as the sole enemy in an absolute unbiased and profoundly humane and heartfelt portrayal of events.

The film recounts the events as they unfolded chronologically, always coming back to the actual diaries and letters of two British, three New Zealand, three Australian and two Turkish soldiers, beautifully read by Jeremy irons and Sam Neil.

Against the backdrop of the war, we witness the path of these soldiers on both sides of the war, their thoughts, their wishes, their fears, their innocence laid bare though their letters, existing photographs and even films of the actual training camps in Egypt as well as battle scene locations and re-enactments.

There are also interviews with several experts, newspaper headlines and areal maps, all of it thoughtfully and meticulously assembled. Tolga Örnek’s documentary actually pierces through the story with a fierce realism that is perhaps only equaled by Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah.

There is, aside from the realism of the portrayal, a splendid and unique sense of intimacy in hearing these letters that make up the texture of the film. We feel that we know these men. Their words echo with tremendous accuracy the realities of war. The music of Demir Demirkan is simply beyond words. 

The pictures that follow are all taken from the film and portray real soldiers in the field and with their families.

On an inscription overlooking Anzac cove (Where the allied troops landed), one can read the following quote from Mustafa Kemal (Who went on to lead Turkey out of the Ottoman era as Atatürk):

Those heroes that shed their blood 

and lost their lives… 

You are now living in the soil of a friendly country. 

Therefore rest in peace. 

There is no difference between the Johnnies

and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side 

here in this country of ours… 

You, the mothers, 

who sent their sons from faraway countries 

wipe away your tears; 

your sons are now lying in our bosom 

and are in peace, 

after having lost their lives on this land they have 

become our sons as well.

From Wikipedia:

Mustafa Kemal exceeding his authority and contravening orders in so doing. His speech "I do not command you to fight, I command you to die. In the time it will take us to die we can be replenished by new forces" ( Turkish: "Ben size taaruzu değil, ölmeyi emrediyorum. Biz ölünceye kadar geçecek zaman zarfında yerimize başka kuvvetler ve kumandanlar geçebilir") has entered history.

The 57th Regiment, led by Lieutenant Colonel Huseyin Avni, fulfilled the order precisely. 

The entire regiment fell in battle.

Total Allied deaths were 43,000 British, 15,000 French, 8,700 Australians, 2,700 New Zealanders and 1,370 Indians. Total Turkish deaths were around 60,000. New Zealanders suffered the highest percentage of Allied deaths when compared with population size, but the percentage of Turkish deaths was almost twice theirs.

2015 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

The documentary ends with the narration of the longest Turkish letter to survive the battle, written by a young Turkish captain on May the 31^st 1915:

Monday, may 31 1915

Ariburnu

To my beloved father and mother,

Dear father, beloved mother,

During the first terrible battle I fought at Ariburnu, a bullet grazed my right side and passed through my trousers. God be praised. I was spared, but, I do not hope to survive future battles in which I will fight.

I am writing these lines so you have something to remember me by.

I thank God that he enabled me to become a soldier and reach this rank. You, as my parents, did all you could to raise me and make it possible for me to serve my country and my people. You are my heart, you are my soul and you are the inspiration to my life. 
I am eternally grateful to God and to you.

Beloved father, dearest mother, I entrust my beloved wife, and my dear son, first to God and then to your protection. Please do for them whatever is possible. Please help my wife in raising my son and providing him with the necessary education.  I know that we are not wealthy or people of means. So I know I cannot ask for anything more than what is possible. 
To ask would be quite in vain.

Please give the enclosed letter addressed to my wife into her own hands.  
She will be devastated. So please do what you can to console her grief. 
She will weep and mourn, please comfort her…

Dear relatives, beloved friends and comrades, farewell to you all.

All of you please bid me farewell and pray for my soul. I will pray for yours.

Beloved father and mother, I eternally entrust you to God.

Farewell

Your son Mehmet Tevfik

Mehmet Tevfik was killed 2 weeks later.

The film: Turkish original version)

RELEASED: November 2005

Director: Tolga Örnek

Running Time: 90 mn

Cast: (Narrated by): Sam Neil, Jeremy Irons

Rating: 4,5 stars