"Bara prata lite" (Talk) is a short film from 1997, described by its director, Lukas Moodysson, as the Swedish Psycho. A tale of loneliness and isolation, in which a retired man seeks desperately to establish a connection to somebody, or indeed, anybody in his surroundings, talking to people whom he has no business with. Most people ignore his plea for human contact, until one day someone wants to talk to him by her own free will... What happens if you crave for a little talk for so long, and when you seem to get it, they suddenly want to cut it short never to start again?
I think I have posted enough of his films already so that now I should post something about Tim Burton himself. I chose the funny "ten decades" interview with Burton and Depp about the production of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007). I think other than the fact that the interviewer's mistake is hopelessly funny, such occasions are to be treasured, as unexpected situations always reveal something more... It also illustrates well the humour that is always there in a Burton movie, inseparably fused together with the eerie bits. Sweeney Todd is a remake of Stephen Sondheim's musical about a homicidal barber, a Victorian urban legend who appeared in penny novels of the late nineteenth century and revived in the musical in 1979. As in so many Burton movies, Johnny Depp takes the lead role. I also included a trailer from Sweeney Todd here.
Other than the films already mentioned before some further titles I feel obliged to mention are "Batman" (1989) and "Batman Returns" (1992), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and more recently "Alice in Wonderland" (2010). I also anticipate his future "Dark Shadows", a vampire legend with Johnny Depp based on a BBC series, scheduled 2012. All these have that silverish dark Gothic environment, Burton so much excels in creating. I have also decided to include something from Batman to the end of this post. Now, that Nolan's series is out, this topic is even more interesting. I like both adaptations, as they show two different sides of the same story. One of my favourite characters, the Joker, the epitome of madness, is especially interesting for me in both adaptations, and I think I will come back to that in a later post. But here, I will just post a short scene of the fabulous Jack Nicholson playing the role of the Clown Prince of Crime. His performance fits into Burton's half humorous half sad gloom, and indeed in only forty seconds, you are convinced that Nicholson's Joker takes the fun of killing seriously...
Ok, just another scene from Sátántangó. Director Béla Tarr very much likes long monologues. I mean we all know that in a similar everyday situation there are likely to be short(er) contributions to a conversation from either parties, which can be, depending on the situation, down to the fact, or more emotionally heated, but rarely a concise statement of the standpoint or philosophy of a party on the matter at hand. But these monologues give you the feeling of such situations, because they relate those thoughts, perhaps only recognised by an outside viewer, that are there but are never pronounced. Here an artist can use his refined skills in rhetorics and turn even a drunkard into a Cicero of his own existence. The scene here is when the main characters, Irimiás and Petrina, are told that they have no choice but to cooperate in police activities. And while doing so, the police captain starts a monologue on order and freedom. Is it only me, or here and there he does seem a bit drunk...? Anyway, to me the most interesting part of it all, is the one about people being afraid of freedom despite the fact that there is nothing frightening in it, and kind of expecting order from authority despite the fact that there are many frightening things in order. I believe there is some truth to this. On an individual level, we may all look for our own solutions to a problem like that. What this is on a social level, if there is any satisfactory, is or should be open for argument. But the "beauty" of a situation as the one in the clip is that you cannot argue or even defend your individuum because you have no choice but to cooperate! When expected norms which should make living together easier intend instead to determine you, be it in the name of any ideology, I believe that is alarming...
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), the well-known Italian tenor was one of the first opera singers to recognise the possibilities in sound recording. His recordings cover most of his 25 year long carrier, a not unrelated consequence of which is the fact that he still has admirers, among others myself. It is difficult to choose from such an amount of material. Finally, I have decided to post two recordings, the first of which could easily be the first I heard from him, his definitive performance of the traditional Neapolitan song, Santa Lucia. In the case of the second recording, I have passed the decision to Woody Allen. Allen has used opera themes in many of his movies, so it came as a pleasure if not a surprise when I heard Caruso's voice in Match Point. The haunting recording that recurs many times during the movie, is his that of "Una furtiva lagrima" (A furtive tear) from Gaetano Donizetti's opera, "L'elisir d'amore". Caruso's untimely death was preceded by a rapid deterioration of his health after he suffered a throat haemorrhage on-stage. He was previously declared fit to perform by his doctor. Less than a year later he died at the age of 48.
I have recently come across a discussion of the famous Smith, Jones and Robinson puzzle, while looking for something to read in the library. When I solved this little puzzle, I remembered what I was told as a child: in mathematics, every word matters... I thought I would share this problem here, perhaps others may get tempted too, and do something completely different when they were supposed to work... :)
On a train, Smith, Robinson and Jones are the fireman, brakeman, and engineer, but NOT respectively. Also aboard the train are three businessmen who have the same names: a Mr. Smith, a Mr. Robinson, and a Mr. Jones. Here is what we know:
Mr. Robinson lives in Detroit.
The brakeman lives exactly half way between Chicago and Detroit.
Mr. Jones earns exactly $20,000 per year.
The brakeman's nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman.
Smith beats the fireman at billiards.
The passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman's lives in Chicago.
Another video from Life in the Undergrowth. This time an ant hunting beetle larva vs. an ant looking wingless wasp, methocha. Looks like all hunting techniques have their disadvantages... Surprise for the larva, relief for the ants, and motherly pleasures for methocha...
"Vincent" (1982) is an early stop motion short of Tim Burton, about a boy, whose childish games involve imagining himself as a Gothic hero, another Vincent Price. For one reason or another, we have the feeling of Gothic around us, and some are more sensitive to it than others. I imagine Tim Burton could have had similar childhood games... He had become one of the most talented directors to express the sort of feeling since then, and still you have to say at this point that he appears a quite cheerful fellow in his interviews. In fact even in this short you can sense the sort of humor he usually hard-wires into his stories. Acting out this darker side of our inner selves is perhaps sometimes the only way to also maintain an everyday life more approachable to our environment. Similarly, Vincent Price, who also happens to be the narrator of the story, was probably one of the happiest horror actors ever, his "secret" being as he often explained is taking it as a game. There were of course examples of horror actors becoming depressed, but if we go down on this lane, I think it is perhaps more interesting how many comedy actors ended up tragically, I would guess much more of them than horror actors...
