"Drawing Restraint"

I'm so tired tonight. For the first time in over a month I got up before 12 noon. I got up at 10 a.m. There was a lot to do today. The main part of it--i.e., two hours of it, was dedicated to watching Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It is free to get in to see this film. Be ready to follow image after floating image. The primary setting for the film is the sea and two ships. But then in any Matthew Barney work I've seen there have been many scenes, many mise en scene. I will write more about it later. I encourage anyone to go see it. There were children under 12 there!

To be or not to be a Francophile.

A friend of mine gave me a Merchant/Ivory film called "Le Divorce." I can't really understand why it was so bad, but then when I
think about Paris and what a Parisian flat would look like and etc., it was all too weird. Alot of it was shot in studio and then the street scenes were filmed in France.

There was so little to the plot line that Paris is really the star. In the end, everyone is happy, even those who got divorced. He gets his Soviet mistress and she (oh, I forgot to mention there are two sisters, both American at the heart of the story) is left to a new French guy who doesn't look at all like her husband. I think this film was made for Barbara Streisand.

It's been so long since I've blogged.

July 4th I cleaned a friend's toilet and surrounding areas. July 5th I thought of an old karma bum of mine. The 11th brougt the full moon and attempts to read from Amma but a better sense of "Pee Wee's Playhouse.' But today, July 14th, I saw a film that I thought rocked very hard in so many ways.

That film is "Crossing the Bridge--The Sound of Istabul." It was narrated and by Alex Hacke, the bass player for Einsturzende Neubauten. I saw them play at the Fillmore in summer of 2000. Now I was seeing this guy playing music with some very esoteric Turkish musicians. The film takes off to reveal so many aspects of Turkish music, for example the fact that one may find a 5/8 beat pattern or a 1/3 1/3 3.

If you've heard of Mercan Dede, you've heard of one of the more well-known experimental/house/beat in Turkey. A well-known rapper was interviewed. He sees rap as a political vehicle more than sounds about sex, violence and gangster stuff. Ah, this film had so much depth in showing the people of Turkish music from the street musicians to the Turkish elite of music. Even Kurdish music and that Romany were heard.

"The Break Up" and "Keeping up with the Steins"

We who go the cinema often find ourselves surprised to see films that are somewhat incategorical. Genre? Yes. But category? No. How can one define "category"? It's really a kind of gothic word with some French mixed in. But definition? Who cares, I can't find exactly the right word to describe the fact that some films are on the actual viewing stupid and then yet with some value as a film? Who would like to debate this one? If I could summon up the Heidegger in me I would try but I don't have a dictionary at hand.

In any case, I saw the two films listed above at the Balboa Theatre which often puts together two films with similar styles or themes. I want the day to return, though, when the Balboa showed "Keep to the River on your Right" with Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies."

The two films in question, though, "The Break Up" and "Keeping up with Steins" were silly movies with silly people and comedic potential...possibly. There were few laughs in "The Break Up." It was structurally as a film quite sound yet without any depth. I suppose when Jennifer Aniston is in a film she will always be tan no matter the season or place. Vince Vaughn's character is a quandry. You might know what I mean if you've seen pictures of him.

That statement makes me just as 'shallow' as one of the girls in the Hebrew school of "Keeping Up with the Steins." A bar mitzvah party on a cruise ship? ,,,in Dodger's Stadium? ....Darryl Hannah as a hippie wonderwoman?--these are the aspects of this film that one might find funny. I really liked the performance of the boy whose family is trying to keep up with those Steins in the bar mitzvah party arena. Some might find the reunion of the grandfather with his son simply amazing but the film's
main event is rather miraculous.