Sounds Corroded

In my ears
Everything has a sound
I just need to stop and listen
All is bright
Birds of flight chirping
Brides of earth singing
While
Dark lurker 
awaits with  indulgence
His Transcendent rhymes
Lure my senses
Bells are chiming
pedram

Haneke Presents: "Amour"

 By Sunday morning the 65th Cannes Film Festival had its first masterwork and an overwhelming critical favorite in Michael Haneke’s “Amour.” A tender, wrenching, impeccably directed story of love and death, the French-language film stars Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a Parisian couple in their 80s — named Georges and Anne, as are most of Mr. Haneke’s middle-class couples — struggling with an increasingly debilitating illness and the specter of what comes next. One day over breakfast she suffers a frightening episode that leaves her briefly locked in a mute, seemingly unaware blankness. She’s there, but not, and then just as suddenly she returns.

A hospital stay follows along with an operation, a grim prognosis, a slide into helplessness, the expected accumulation of humiliations, natural and not, and swells of emotion. Half-frozen by a stroke, Anne’s body has begun to betray her, but Georges holds her so very close: he brushes her hair, bathes and dresses her. Somewhat stooped, with a shaky, hitchy walk, he trembles when he lifts her from the bed or a chair, but he keeps holding on. The first time he has to help her move from her wheelchair, she tells him how to grasp her properly, as if in a hug, a gesture that’s poignant in its literalness — they press into each other — and reverberant of an erotic life shared and still remembered.

Mr. Haneke has often turned his cool gaze toward power and violence, and in some respects he has done so again in “Amour,” one difference being that he’s also made room here for tenderness. Part of the film’s emotional force is due to the actors, both superb, and to the poignancy of watching these two familiar, now frail bodies of cinema, as it were, performing in a pantomime of sickness and death. This very real fragility makes a sharp contrast with the bodies cinema immortalizes — eternally young — and it seems telling that Mr. Haneke, who likes to pick at screen illusion, cast actors who starred in two of the most famous French films of all time: Mr. Trintignant was the titular man from “A Man and a Woman” and Ms. Riva played the nameless woman in “Hiroshima Mon Amour.”

“Amour” sent a charge through the packed, rapt 2,300-seat theater, and immediately suggested that there was more to the official lineup than the first few days had suggested. The competition had gotten off toa terrific start with Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom,” even if not everyone was equally convinced. A similar critical ambivalence greeted another strong competition entry, “Beyond the Hills,” from the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme in 2007 for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.” His new film centers on two young women who, after a reunion, are slowly and forcibly separated by different faiths: Alina (Cristina Flutur) believes in their friendship while Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) has turned to God and become a nun in a tiny Christian Orthodox sect.

Set largely in Voichita’s monastery, a windswept outcropping of buildings in the deep countryside, the story unfolds in atmospheric bits and narrative pieces. Alina and Voichita are lifelong friends, having grown up in the same orphanage. Alina, the stronger, more stubbornly independent of the two, has returned home after a stint working in Germany and thinking that she and Voichita will go off together. Mr. Mungiu, who prefers that viewers come to their own conclusions, never makes it clear if the women are lovers — “You will think whatever you will think,” he said during the party for his film Saturday — though a scene in which Voichita massages Alina’s back, then looks away when Alina turns over, baring her breasts, suggests private worlds of complication.

Shot on film and running two-and-a-half engrossing hours, “Beyond the Hills” explores the push and pull between the collective and the individual, between faith and free will. Voichita insists that she wants to stay at the monastery, where she and some dozen other nuns — along with chickens, boxes of bees and a kind of Greek chorus of incessantly barking dogs — live without electricity under the strict religious supervision of a priest. With mounting desperation and increasingly violent outbursts, Alina tries to change Voichita’s mind. Believing in a world of absolute good and evil, and confused by Alina’s passion, the nuns and priest respond by trying to ritualistically drive out the Devil, an ordeal that effectively pits one woman against a millennium of religious orthodoxy.

At his party, a typical Cannes beach affair with pounding beats and revelers swarming the open bar, Mr. Mungiu talked about his film, the difficulties of shooting in winter and working with a young, untested cast. He based the screenplay (originally 245 pages!) on a pair of fact-based books by Tatiana Niculescu Bran about a real nun who died after being gagged and tied to a cross for days in a Romanian monastery during an exorcism. (Ms. Bran turned her first book into a play, “Deadly Confession,” which was staged at La MaMa in 2008.) It’s a shocker of a story, yet while Mr. Mungiu’s sympathies are transparently with Alina he neither sentimentalizes her — he keeps her at both an emotional and visual distance — nor does he demonize the priest or, especially, the nuns.

“The film should be watched and judged from each character’s perspective,” he explained, giving the larger, suggestively political view. “This is how you will discover that it is difficult to say who is guilty, because the people who are really guilty are not in the film. They are the people who created this kind of society, the people who created education that completely lacks the very important moral values that people should have.”


@NYTIMES

My Album of The Month (February-March 2012)

Artist: My Dying Bride
Album: 34.788...% Complete
Year: 1998
In 1998, the band switched to a more experimental/gothic sound. 34.788...% distances from traditional My Dying Bride. Initially I didn't enjoy the album. Little by little some tracks grew in me.  The "The Whore, The Cook and The Mother " is the standout. I can consider this as a concept album, dealing with known MDB issues like love, sex, drugs and innocence. with solid composure and a genuine sound exploration.

More Than Meets The Eye II

Gerry: Gus Van Sant back to his experimental roots

Some fantastic material for my movie archive! I watched a number of great movies on my days off during recent months. I'd like to mention them. Moreover i added my personal scores which partly reflect how much i liked them. (I don't fully support the idea of rating artwork this way !) I've done so just to mark my initial personal impressions about each of these movies. My personal experience reveals the understanding and excitement about some artworks develop slowly. That's interesting to observe how my personal conception gradually changes by time. I'm willing to write a brief review about some of them in upcoming posts.


Hanna (2011) ; Joe Wright 6/10
The Trial (1962) ; Orson Welles 10/10
Les Asacias (2011) ; Pablo Giorgeli 7/10
The Holy Girl (2004) ; Lucrecia Martel 9/10
Gerry (2002) ; Guus Van Sant 10/10
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia (2011) ; Nuri Bilge Ceylan 9/10
Batman Begins (2005) ; Christopher Nolan 8/10
Army of Shadows (1969) ; Jean-Pierre Melville 9/10
A Good Heart (2009) ; Dagur Kari 6/10
My Sister's Keeper (2009) ; Nick Cassavetes 9/10
Angela's Ashes (1999) ; Alan Parker 6/10
A Christmas Carol (2009) ; Robert Zemeckis 8/10
Z (1969) ; Costa-Gavras 9/10

We'll Kick on From Here

Sir Alex insists United can take “great credit” in the 2011/12 season, despite falling at the final hurdle and in heartbreaking fashion.

The Reds were just minutes away from clinching an unlikely 20th league title... until two injury-time goals at the Etihad Stadium sealed the championship for Manchester City.

Celebrations turned to shock at the Stadium of Light, where United fans had just watched the Reds beat Sunderland 1-0 thanks to a first-half Wayne Rooney goal.

The result meant United finished the season on 89 points and lost the league only on goal difference.

“I think we can take great credit,” Sir Alex told MUTV. “We’ve had to contend with a lot of injuries this season so I’ve had to change the team around a lot. That didn’t always help us.

“I have absolutely no recriminations about our season at all. Yes, there were times we can look back and say we’ve done this wrong or we’ve done that wrong, but 89 points would have won the league in most seasons.

“At the start of the season I said 82 points would probably win it. And we’ve gone seven points ahead of that. It doesn’t matter, though. We’ve lost the league. There’s nothing we can do about it.

“We congratulate Manchester City. Anyone who wins the league deserves to win it because it’s a very difficult league to win.”

The boss, magnanimous in defeat, took a number of positives from United’s final game of the season 

“They’re a good bunch of lads,” he said. “The younger players will remember today. Sometimes a bad experience is even better for you.

“When you have a good character and a certain purpose about you then you shouldn’t fear the future.

“We did our best today and but for their goalkeeper we could have scored seven goals. We hit the post, the bar, their goalkeeper made some fantastic saves. We conducted ourselves in the right way. It was a good level of performance.

“Well done to the players: Sunderland’s not an easy place to come to. They’re very committed, as you expect from a Martin O’Neill team. We came out with a lot of credit.

“For us it’s a challenge and we’re good at challenges. We’ll kick on from here.”
@Manutd.com

My Author of The Month (February 2012)

Title: How Proust Can Change Your Life
Author: Alain de Botton
I read "How Proust Can Change Your Life": Another great book by swiss Alain de Botton way back in February. It's an exceptional talent that makes the most difficult issues understandable for the reader. The book introduces several dimensions of Proust's works and life; a blend of literary biography and psychology manual Focusing on some simple facts in his life. I understand the author has opted superficiality at times to underline some particular themes, it might affect some die hard fans of Proust but i presume this direction is wisely chosen by de Botton. Actually the book can be the optimum choice as an intro to Proust's world. 

Approximate Menace

Rivers of blood,

Drain thy heart

Beckoning the soul

to the heftiest  brawl

Weapons loaded

Yet heart stays calm

Palace, secluded

Approached by the prowl

Swords now naked

The clash's begun

pedram, May 2012

Quiet Carrington

The Life of David Gale

I watched Alan Parker’s “The Life of David Gale” on my vacation. It was an intriguing movie considering the plot and the convincing job by Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet. Unfortunately I must mention some weak points which appeared as fumbles to me. In such a real and tense context (including issues like rape, murder and suicide), some over-dramatic and scenes coupled with ultra-moralist blah blah damaged the picture. The movie is not coy about the anti-death penalty message. Unfortunately this overdid hampered the outstanding dynamic of the movie. The main characters are well executed and presented, however the peripheral ones are poorly dramatized. One exception is  Constance Harraway (Laura Linney), Gale’s colleague and close friend, which is well portrayed. Gale/Harraway relationship evolves in a comprehensible manner and dramatically contribute to the whole story. Laura Linney handled the complex role of Constance excellently. The final third of the movie was shocking to me. It appears that all false inquests were part of a bigger plan; a series of self-intended acts  such as euthanasia or serving as an innocent convicted to execution, etc. All and all serve Gale and Harraway social/political plan to hit out at pro-death penalty officials. The result is a heart-wrenching drama.

pedram, April 2012

My Author of The Month (January 2012)

I read "Nietzsche and Philosophy" by french Gilles Deleuze. The key point is the novel and sharp interpretation of then-underrated and unknown german philosopher. The book is concise and fluent, handling the difficult issue masterfully. To me it was an expert synopsis of major themes in Nietzsche's works.
pedram, May 2012

France Peresidential Elections 2012: TV Debate

The Socialist François Hollande has emerged with the upper hand from a bruising TV duel with the rightwing president Nicolas Sarkozy, as the two held their last rallies in the final 24 hours of campaigning before Sunday's presidential vote.

The first opinion poll for LH2 Yahoo showed French viewers of the live TV debate found Hollande to be the more serious candidate and also the nicest, most sincere and closest to their daily concerns. Sarkozy was seen to have been more dynamic and competent. Hollande was most convincing on the issues that worry voters the most: jobs, making ends meet as well as education, while Sarkozy was seen to be better on Europe, immigration and reducing France's debt.

Over 17 million French people watched the almost three-hour live TV presidential debate, more than watch an X Factor final in the UK, but fewer than tuned in to watch Sarkozy take on the Socialist Ségolène Royal in 2007.

Sarkozy is trailing Hollande by five to eight points in the polls and a classic televised battle of the personalities had been seen as his last chance to turn the election around and win over the large majority of France's 6.4m far-right voters he needs to have a chance at re-election.

Pollsters were sceptical that Sarkozy, who at times had seemed riled and on the defensive, would have done so. French presidential debates do not usually yield an outright winner, and some called this a draw.

But most commentators felt Hollande had won on points, delivering the most memorable lines, including repeating: "I, as president of the republic …" 16 times in a bid to gain in leadership stature. Newspaper columnists felt the debate would not produce an "earthquake" for the struggling Sarkozy, the most unpopular president to seek re-election in France. Hollande was seen to have cemented his advance.

He was given a further boost when the centrist François Bayrou, who took 9% of the vote in the first round, broke with his party's tradition and said he would vote for him. This was a blow to Sarkozy, who needs to secure as many Bayrou voters as possible.

If the TV slanging match was full of bile – Sarkozy called Hollande "a little slanderer" and Hollande told him "you'd be hard pressed to pass yourself off as a victim" – the political reaction afterwards was just as laden with invective.

Nadine Morano, a rightwing minister and Sarkozy ally, said the exchange with Hollande had been like "extracting pus". Sarkozy's special adviser called Hollande "grotesque". Jean-Marc Ayrault, tipped as a possible Socialist prime minister, said Sarkozy had been aggressive. Hollande said the nature of the debate had reflected the fracture, aggressiveness and tensions in society "after five years of Sarkozy".

But Sarkozy insisted that the election was on a knife-edge and all was to play for. "The opinion polls are lying. An election has never been this open … It's even more open after the debate," he told French radio.

He then gave a highly personal interview seemingly to show himself as more human and close to the people, saying he was so "rubbish" at technology that he didn't know how to work the three TV remote controls at home, and suggesting if his wife, Carla Bruni, wasn't with him he could barely operate the television.

At his final major rally in Toulon, he said the "left and its laxity" had "ruined" France.

Hollande, before giving his final open-air rally in Toulouse, was deliberately cautious about Sunday's vote, warning that nothing was won. Some observers have predicted the result could be closer than polls suggest.

Meanwhile, media fact-checkers were poring over the highly technical parts of the TV debate, when the candidates hurled statistics at each other. One French site calculated that Sarkozy mentioned a figure every 47 seconds and Hollande mentioned one every 1 minute, 36 seconds, although not all were accurate.

The final runoff vote takes place on Sunday.

@Guardian

by Angelique Chrisafis