No Glowing Feelings for Afterglow

Straight interviews are always a little difficult to read. There are often thoughts behind the interviewer’s questions that aren’t necessarily apparent to the reader. Often when a person is interviewed, the pertinent or entertaining information is highlighted and informatively placed together while the rest is edited out.

In the case of Afterglow, the entire interview, which I imagine lasted quite a while, was recorded and published into a book. For a person who is not familiar with the status and personality of Pauline Kael, it is hard to understand the reason to read such a long interview with her. Although the introduction was meant to give a background to her life, it seemed as if the author was so awed by her that it seems to be a very biased view. During the interview, the impression of Pauline Kael is that she is a very opinionated and strong minded woman. By going through lists of movies and giving her opinion on them, Kael seems to be forcing others to feel the same, upsetting other if they don't agree with her opinions. Afterglow doesn’t necessarily highlight Pauline Kael in a great light, which seems like the authors main goal.

Once Upon a Time

In a generation where music is heard through ipods and expensive equipment, the beauty of listening to a record player is often disregarded. Yet many consider the small imperfections to add to the quality of the music. The same can be said for cinema. Recently, films have been reduced to pieces of amazing cinematography, and close to perfect digital editing. It leads to the question, when art is created, is the process considered art?

The film Once highlights a story where an Irish, street musician meets a Czech woman who inspires him to record his music. Due to several performances of full songs, the film is reminiscent of a music video, where the visuals in the film aid the performance of the music and not the other way around. The film quality itself is very low budget. The whole film seems as a home video, the irony is that a home video is shown during the film and is of even lower quality. The camera is often shaky and sloppy. Several times, the characters heads are cut out of the viewing screen and the camera doesn’t always capture the best angle for the audience’s pleasure.
Yet that added to the general attitude of the film being a home video, an insight into the process of creating music with a touch of human drama. There is a scene with a party at someone’s flat. The shot opens with a big stuffed bear in the hallway showing the random objects and clutter that are in most peoples houses are seen, not a clean cut room where every item is a prop.
The storyline was also very realistic, having awkward moments while the characters were becoming acquainted. As the characters grew more comfortable with each other, their personality was shared to the audience through to one another in serious conversations on busy sidewalks and cafes. The camera catches glimpses of these conversations as if on the outside looking in. It somewhat seems voyeuristic to have a camera following while they go about their business.

The main characters, the Irish guy and a Czech girl, are played by Glen Harnsard and Marketa Irglova respectively. The guy lives with his dad, who owns a vacuum repair shop and the girl lives with her mom and her son. The girl’s difficult life is slowly revealed. She has to work odd jobs as a street salesman and a housemaid to support her mother and daughter. The music she creates with the Irish guy seems to be an escape for her. She creates lyrics for a song “If you want me, satisfy me” which portrays her feelings and emotions for either the guy or her child’s father, which we aren’t completely certain. The guy also uses the music as a shield. On a public bus, he makes fun of his tragic experience with his old girlfriend singing “Fuck her, she’s gone” in heavy metal.

The interactions with all the other minor characters are also very realistic, such as when the storekeeper says to the guy “yur gorgeous” when he tries on a suit, it provides a second of comedic relief that has nothing to do with the story. Although the characters achieve their goals, it is shown that they are still not completely happy about their situations in life. In this way, the small imperfections seem allowable in this film especially for being low budget. The awkward moments, the sad and angry moments seem to capture the humanity. Perhaps the audience can also find an escape through the music and emotions that are presented.

Poisonous Fish

In the New York Times today on the front page, there is an article on the mercury levels found in Sushi. This is obviously information that was already known to the restaurant owners/managers as many restaurants are shown to have signs warning children, pregnant women, and frequent diners. The mercury levels were found to exceed warning when sushi is eaten once a week with one serving size. However, the story fails to mention whether small intakes of mercury, if only eaten once in a while, or large amounts at one sitting will affect the consumer differently. Also, what happens when the fish is cooked? Does the mercury vanish? Will one day the illustrious market of sushi be banned? or will we be able to find a way to remove the mercury from the delicacy? Only time will tell. 

The False Pandemic

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/science/22flu.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

The debate remains, whether information be censored by the government or given freely. One of the biggest arguments for the former can be seen in this article. When people hear of a new strain of virus, people panic. Even when thus far, it has only affected birds. It’s not difficult to remember the mad cow fiasco, where every piece of meat in the local supermarket was questionable to the average consumer. Meanwhile, even though the news of bird flu was released, people have continued to import birds, leading to the spread of the virus.

 The virus has yet to affect humans in a pandemic as was prophesized and now people have been lulled to a state of complacency. The real question is, what will happen when the virus actually strikes.  An idea is to vaccinate the population in preparations for the war against the virus, but often that leads to a newer and ultimately tougher strain of virus that cannot be dealt with. 

A New Soundtrack Era

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/arts/music/21juno.html?_r=1&ref=music

Ben Siserio, a critic for the NYT, has in the past highlighted famous musicians such as Alicia Keys and Amy Winehouse. This time he explores the underground scene of punk-meets-folk through the artist, Kimya Dawon. Of course lately, Dawson has climbed to the charts after her hit soundtrack of the film ‘Juno’, yet she is troubled by all the attention, unlike the more outrageous members of pop culture today.

In this article, not only does Siserio highlight Dawsons popularity, but he tackles the changing artistry behind film soundtracks as well. Instead of the blockbuster pop soundtrack, there is a growing popularity in the indie or folk genre. He uses the popular examples of Garden State and how the soundtrack went on to sell 1.3 million copies.  

In this way he lifts up Kimya Dawson for being the next new craze, sighting her songs being performed in bedrooms for YouTube. He ends his piece interestingly by describing her unique method of performance. She pleads with us to take her normally while gathering her audience into a group hug. 

From Novel to Film; A Tragic Love Story

From Joe Wright, director of Pride and Prejudice, comes a brilliant adaptation of the novel, Atonement, by Ian McEwan. From the very beginning of this film, the music compliments the film well. It heightens every small sound, incorporating mundane noises such that come from a typewriter, some footsteps, a slamming window to create an intensely charged atmosphere. The music is very much in sync with the characters emotions as it often dramatically rises, falls, or stops with the character. The musical theme of the movie tends to be one of longing and regret sometimes intensified by the dark passion in the relationship between the characters. At one point in the movie, there is a surprising sad then happy twist to the otherwise steady melodic theme. A group of soldiers sing a hymn watching the ocean among the general chaos of the army’s encampment, shortly after, we are introduced to an makeshift pub with the army patrons singing a joyful song. The chosen musical themes compliment the scenery well.

            The scenery chosen for this film is also very brilliant. We can see from the very beginning the director’s affinity for beautiful landscapes. Often used as filler in other films, in Atonement, these landscapes helped set the mood of the piece. For example, from the beginning, the rich lawns with fountains and flowers framed by untamed trees and streams shows the darker side of this seemingly lighthearted film. Also, when Robbie comes upon the sight of hundreds of soldiers upon the beach with the water and the light in the horizon, it is breathtaking and magnificent. Robbie walking through the fields in France while Cecilia waits at a cottage by the ocean gives us a powerful message of the beauty of the world and of love which is torn apart by the war. The scenery hints that everything beautiful is from nature, while the impure is found in humans by misunderstandings and arguments.

The general plot is that of the innocent yet sexually charged love between Cecilia (Keira Knightly) and Robbie (James McAvoy), which is misunderstood by the 12 year old sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan). After Briony comes upon a rape scene, she falsely accuses Robbie of being a sex fiend, sealing his fate away from his love. Further in the film, there is a scene that Robbie is walking through the apple orchard and comes upon rows of dead young girls is ironic as it was a young girl who sealed his fate to the army.

Knightly and McAvoy seem to contain genuine chemistry on stage and portray the love story in the manner that it should be taken. Although Ronan is a rare find and is brilliant as a girl of 12 years, the character that replaced her as the 18 year old and then as the old woman do not seem to match. Romola Garai as the 18 year old Briony acts the script well, but seems unattached and blank, not like the remorseful character she is trying to portray. Yet overall the novel was captured well in the film. Wright did a brilliant job of staying true to the plot while highlighting the emotions not usually visible in adaptations of novels.