Sin #71: Charming, To The Last

I love watching movies about the hypocrisy of the aristocracy in social gatherings. In Robert Altman’s brilliant “Gosford Park” we get to sneak into a lavish dinner filled with colorful and eccentric characters (who get involved in a mysterious murder case); there is the rich tenant having an affair with the maid, the wife who mocks and despises him, the sister complaining about everything in the house (including the marmalade and, especially, her allowance) and many more, which include unusual guests like an actor pretending to be the assistant of a clueless American producer.

“Gosford Park” features great performances from its amazing cast (a cast that features virtually every British performer, although the Harry Potter movies really have the distinction of featuring every English actor working nowadays). It’s really fascinating to see Altman juggle with so many stories and yet never lose focus of the big picture.

No one was better however, at poking fun of the Bourgeois like director Luis Buñuel with his two films, “The Exterminating Angel” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois”. Both are drenched in a surrealistic and morbid cloud that turn the whole affair into a black comedy of manners; “The Exterminating Angel” features the gathering of a wealthy group that through some strange force are compelled to stay in the house even after the evening is long over. They’re not trapped (the doors are wide open) but they simply cannot leave. It’s hard to unravel the meaning of the movie (even with some strange occurrences like the arrival of farm animals, which surely represent some kind of symbolism) but Buñuel keeps us involved up till the very ending, which seems appropriately weird in accordance to the past events. Buñuel made several movies in Mexico and “The Exterminating Angel” is one of his best (the most acclaimed of the era remains “Los Olvidados”, a potent social critique of the state of poverty in the country).

“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois” was made during his French period and also features a meeting between a group of aristocrats. This time dreams interweave with reality in a series of bizarre sequences. The film starts with the arrival of the friends of a rich couple at a lavish mansion; they were, through a misunderstanding, expected to arrive till the next day so nothing is ready. They all decide then to go to a fancy restaurant where they realize about the death of the owner and how their evening is interrupted by the funeral. They decide to leave. The movie follows this pattern over and over in sometimes hilarious results.

“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeois” is a very strange film; it doesn’t have a linear narrative and loses itself in its self-indulgent fantasies. With that said, I have to admit it’s never boring and some sequences are very inspired in a surrealistic sense (I specially love the whole subplot with the priest who becomes a gardener and can finally avenge his parents murder, at the hand of his family gardener).

These movies take us to the slick world of the upper-class, and the social distinctions of the “upstairs-downstairs” set of values. They’re all wicked fun at the cost of the bourgeois.

Sin #70: Grumpy Old Men

Few scenes are as poignant in the movies as the early sequence in Pixar’s “Up” that begins with Carl’s marriage to Ellie and ends sourly in her funeral. Time passes and he becomes bitter as he watches the neighborhood where he grew up in become one gigantic shopping mall. Carl spends his days missing Ellie, and reminding himself that he could never take her to Venezuela where she dreamed to live one day among the jungle and vast mountains.

Carl brings closure to his relationship with Ellie at the end of “Up” (with the help of a little boy scout named Russell and a talking dog appropriately named Dug) and is truly grateful for his adventures but there are certain seniors that aren’t so lucky. Take Walt Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood, in “Gran Torino”. After his wife’s death he becomes stuck in his old crippling home and hating the multiethnic cultures that have invaded the neighborhood (especially the Asian neighbors that seem friendly enough, although the teenagers are suffering from the gang violence and prejudice). Eastwood gets to say: “Get off my lawn” which seems to perfectly encapsulate geriatric behavior in today’s society.

“Gran Torino” isn’t one of Eastwood best movies, but it demonstrates that at 80 years old he is still one of cinema’s most important screen presences. His performance is like an anthology of the tough-as-nails screen personas he has played over the years and represents his swan song from acting (his late roles also pocked fun at his age, like in the funny “Space Cowboys”, where he shared the screen with other veteran actors like Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner and Donald Sutherland).

Another showcase for an acting legend is the British film “Harry Brown” which features yet another fantastic performance from the great Michael Caine. In the movie Caine plays a retired army officer living in a slum seized by violence, drug trafficking and vandalism. His best friend has recently been murdered by one of the gangs roaming the streets and he is off on a revenge rampage that takes him deep into the dark belly of the London criminal underworld. Contrary to Walt Kowalski, Brown isn't against the use of brute force against criminals (he does what it takes to bring justice, sometimes to brutal results). Although the movie has been compared to "Gran Torino", it is grittier and more involving giving us a chilling look at the most affected areas of South London (it has a "Death Wish" kind of vibe, and it also reminded me of Jodie Foster's “The Brave One”).

These movies show us that old age isn't necessarily a time of passiveness and that it's never too late to get a hold on life and learn through others (although I certainly wouldn’t recommend going on a killing rampage). It’s refreshing to see movies that showcase seniors in the title roles since most movies seem to be made by young people and are always about young people. “Up” is such a nostalgic trip because it gives us a lifetime in a few minutes and then begins with an old man waking up, which is how most of us will end up.

Sin #69: Moore Than Meets the Eye

My first encounter with the work of Michael Moore came right after he had won the Oscar for best documentary back in 2002. I became curious for the movie after the controversy with his speech (where he spoke plainly against President Bush, to equal measure of booing and cheering from the attending audience). I purchased “Bowling for Columbine” in DVD and loved it. Moore’s detractors said it was nothing but a piece of propaganda that fudged facts and manipulated the audience with weak arguments (some even said Moore was a traitor for making it) but there was no denial that Moore’s film had sparked debate among audiences about the purchase of guns in America (shedding light on the NRA and the gun-obsessed culture) and the policies of the US government on foreign soil.

After “Columbine” I decided to check out the rest of his work. I saw his first feature titled “Roger and Me”, a moving and observant portrait of Moore’s hometown in Flint, Michigan and the consequences of GM’s factory closure (it even had an impact on his own family since his father was a worker there). Then I stumbled upon “The Awful Truth”, a hilarious and insightful series of sketches where Moore and his team go on a quest to show society’s flaws (I still smile thinking of Crackers, the crime fighting chicken and Pistol Pete).

His most successful documentary came in 2004 with “Fahrenheit 9/11”, an adaptation of his book Stupid White Men and an attempt to stop George Bush from winning the re-election (an objective he sadly failed to realize even with the film making more than 100 million dollars at the box office, a record for any documentary). “Fahrenheit 9/11” won the prestigious Palm D’Or at Cannes and remains a fascinating account of a post-9/11 America.

Still, my favorite documentary is “Sicko”, which tackles the difficult issue of health care (certainly one of the biggest concerns in Barack Obama’s candidacy). In “Sicko” Moore travels to Canada, France, Britain and even Cuba to prove how distinctively flawed the US system really is (especially the corruption inside insurance companies). “Sicko” is not about big political statements but more about the people’s rights to receive proper care, in a way it’s the most humanistic film he has ever made.

His most recent movie might be his most ambitious, “Capitalism: A Love Story” tries to pinpoint exactly what went wrong with a system that rewards the rich (who own 80% of the world’s resources) and has failed to benefit the rest of a population that is quickly slipping into an economic recession. “Capitalism” shows us an angrier Moore, although he also seems defeated as tragedies continue to build. He gives us people losing their jobs and a government unwilling to help them (there is a powerful sequence where he shows a post-Katrina New Orleans that feels like a ghost town, even years after the catastrophe).

Michael Moore will always have a loyal following as well as equally devoted detractors. His biggest contribution is creating debate as well as making terrific entertainments. His movies are skillfully adept at creating moments of seriousness and pain and merging them with humor (contrary to a documentarian like Errol Morris, Moore is more interested in entertaining than educating).

Certainly all of his movies are wonderful modern works that capture a moment in our difficult political and social climate.

Sin #68: Things to Learn in Prison

Prisons have become a playground for the wicked. Every day we hear in the news about phone extortions directly from jail, bribes to guards and violence between inmates as many of the occurrences that happen on a day-to-day bases. Imagine yourself entering prison and facing a system that demands violence to survive (we realize that prisoners don’t enter to reform, they merely enter to strive).

In the French movie “A Prophet” we meet Malik El Djebena, a man caught between the rivalry of two groups: the Corsicans (the dominant mafia) and the Muslims (who seem to be comfortable in small schemes of drug trade and petty crime). Malik is offered a choice almost immediately, either kill an important Muslim and be offered protection or be killed. For Malik the choice is obvious although the act itself gets pretty messy and gruesome since he is not a killer.

“A Prophet” is an amoral tale that focuses on the crime scheme and its inner connections and how a man climbs his way to the top. Malik is far from your typical protagonist and there isn’t a single moment in the film where he is looking for redemption (even though he is sometimes tormented by some of his actions, especially his first murder).

For the most part guards keep a blind eye as long as they are being bribed and for inmates like Cesar Luciani (the mob kingpin) jail becomes almost a resort.

The characters in “A Prophet” don’t live the brutality of prison life as seen in “Hunger”, a spellbinding and intense Irish production that features a stunning performance by Michael Fassbender (who starred in “Fish Tank” and Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”).

For those who refuse to abide the rules there are a number of tortures that include endless beatings or confinement in a disgusting room covered in human feces. Death isn’t a far though for prisoners, even for terrorists who are willing to go to extreme measures like hunger strikes to protect their ideals.

“Hunger” contains several virtuoso sequences that transform a regular drama into a poetic and tragic tale (there’s a conversation between an inmate and a priest done in one take that is brilliantly acted). At the end we gaze at the amazing transformation of Fassbinder, who as Bobby Sands acts as the leader of the movement and its inevitable martyr.

Both Sands and Malik are criminals and while their movies never glorify their behavior they certainly observe how a corrupt system favors those who deserve punishment. The overall message is: the system is flawed. Even in a thriller like “Cell 211” there’s a strong element of social critique as the inmates of a Spanish prison take hold of the establishment and demand changes from the abusive staff. That film is mostly content on delivering an entertaining and arresting (no pun intended) experience but you can also realize that beneath its fictitious elements lies an accurate portrayal of prison life. It’s a very good movie.

“A Prophet”, “Hunger” and “Cell 211” are very different films, but each of them shows us that jails are dangerous and corrupt asylums that cannot be called places of healing. In our cynical times we are not permitted to witness a man that truly repents for his actions (I remember Morgan Freeman’s terrific speech in “The Shawshank Redemption” before the prison committee). As long as the system stays the same, the cycle of violence will continue forever.