Memories will be lost like tears in the Rain: outubro 2016

The Old Dark House - James Whale - 1932

Have a potato.

Um magnífico filme de terror com a sensualidade pre-code, com humor e personagens fantásticas.
The Old Dark House não tem monstros carismáticos como Fankenstein ou Dracula mas tem muitos elementos fundadores do género, nomeadamente a separação das potenciais vitimas ou o constante assobio do vento.
James Whale é um mestre das sombras.

The Devil Rides Out - Terence Fisher - 1968

The Angel of Death was summoned. He cannot return empty-handed.

O ocultismo, o satanismo ou práticas equivalentes têm presença regular nos argumentos do cinema.
Fisher consegue fazer um filme sólido mas não particularmente interessante.

The Brides of Dracula - Terence Fisher - 1960

Transylvania, land of dark forests, dread mountains and black, unfathomed lakes.

As produções da Hammer marcaram uma época. Individualmente a qualidade dos seus filmes é duvidosa mas no seu conjunto constroem um imaginário inspirador.
The Brides of Dracula não é muito creativo mas enquadra-se bem na série B dos filmes de terror.

Drácula de Bram Stocker - Francis Ford Coppola - 1992

I have crossed oceans of time to find you.

O Dracula de Coppola é sobretudo romântico, muito longe do terror do Nosferatu de Murnau.
A qualidade estética e a perfeição artistica são evidentes, mas insuficientes para resistir à tentação pop de Coppola.

Cross of Iron - Sam Peckinpah - 1977

- What will we do when we have lost the war?
- Prepare for the next one.

É raro ver a WWII na prespectiva alemã, na prespectiva de um exército em retirada onde a loucura cresce e em que a falta de sentido da guerra é mais evidente.
Apesar do alcoolismo Peckinpah tinha um estilo bem definido e eficaz. Fora dos westerns voltou a encontrar homens solitários e derrotados, envoltos em circunstâncias onde a violência é o único caminho.
Sam Peckinpah filma a violência como poucos, pena que muitos o interpretem como glorificação em vez de sentir o horror.
Uma guerra sem glória.

Under the Skin - Jonathan Glazer - 2013

Why here?
Because it's... It's nowhere.

“My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddle strings and harps, drums and tambourines I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony. “- Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet.
An old proverb says “The eyes are the window to the soul”. The opening shot of Under the Skin shows an infinite void thru an artificial human eye, giving us an early clue to the film’s theme. Masterfully done in Kubrick’s 2001 style.
Under the Skin, or The girl who fell to earth as Allan Fish would call it, follows the emotional journey of an alien invader. Jonathan Glazer brings Abbas Kiarostami style into the science fiction genre.
The main character, Laura (Scarlett Johansson), is a soulless alien. Disguised with a woman’s body, she introduces herself anonymously in our planet. A dead body tell us it’s an ongoing process, they are constantly present among us and this story is not an isolated event. Ants and flies appear as symbolic elements to give us a glance of how human beings are seen by those alien creatures. Laura meant to be a sort of black widow, attracting lonely men for dubious reasons, on the service of their civilization. In a recurrent scene, inside a house, those men get trapped on the spiders net, a mysterious black fluid. We also see a man on a motorbike, played by Jeremy McWilliams, a professional rider who delivers some wonderful images driving on Scottish wet roads. His character is a kind of foremen, who examines Laura’s eyes constantly, looking for the threatening awakening of a soul. It happened before with other girls, and with it comes rebellion.
At first is not easy to connect with the film, events unfold slowly and ambiguously. Wonderment only emerge when we start to put our attention where the action in fact relies, the eyes of the alien girl, where a soul tries to breakthrough.
A disturbing scene shows a toddler weeping, left alone on a cold beach, while Laura walks away. It’s heartless has it could be. On the opposite side a major turning point occurs on a particular brilliant scene. Laura falls on the street with anonymous passers helping her to stand up, a gesture of kindness happens spontaneously on the sidewalk. Eventually the girl comes aware of the changes she’s going thru, looks into her eyes in the mirror and knows she has to run away. Laura tries to become human, to feel emotions and pleasure, but ultimately she as to deal with the limitations of her nature, which she can’t overcome. On an ironic ending she succumbs on the hands of human cruelty.
Since there are many abstract and ambiguous events going on, all kind of questions arise. If we approach this film as a regular science fiction endeavor, scenes will lead to doubts and thesis more than to clarification. Under the Skin comes from a book from Michael Faber but reportedly the connections between them are sparse. Along with the white serial-killer van, there are too many similarities to sexual harassment to be ignored. The science fiction element could be just a plot trick to exchange genres, and the black fluid could work as a sort of symbolism to a sexual act, instead of a meaningless plot device. Speculation rises necessarily, the lack of explanation will surely be uncomfortable to many but I can’t see much benefits on that approach. The temptation to find subtexts and allegories can only diminish the work of Jonathan Glazer. There is room to conceptual thinkers but the film gets more impressive when we try to understand the character presented to us. The facts are abstract the feelings quite explicit.
The plot really resumes on the birthing of a soul thru the contact with the human species. The film believes our society can help to incept a soul on an alien, being that a fantasy, a hope or an odd believe.
Under the Skin feels very much related to “Taste of Cherry” by Abbas Kiarostami. The improvised conversations take place in suburban Glasgow instead of Iranian rural villages, but still dialogues unfold inside cars or thru car windows, using stationary mounted cameras. Many of the film scenes are captured with hidden cameras, the sidewalk scene uses cameras from a passing car, a store and an apartment windows, looking for a spontaneous response from the unaware crowd. Like on many of Kiarostami works Jonathan Glazer combines cinema with the capture of real life without the director filter. People on their everyday life, wearing Celtic football scarves, never before seem to find a place on alien movies.
Glazer’s minimal style is constructed with very shallow shots on the urban environment that contrast with deepness achieved on Scottish landscape scenes. Silence is constant, favoring our anguish, and along with very dry quotidian sounds gives even more strength to the magnificent score by Mica Levi. The director also brings some of the spirit and style of neorealism into science fiction genre with the presence of non-professional actors, informal conversations with weird funny accents, the lens focus imperfections, natural light and a sometimes a rough finishing. Glasgow streets seems to come from a Ken Loach’s film, making the film more believable, easier to connect emotionally and more able to raise intimacy.
Jonathan Glazer is known mostly for his work on music clips and commercials. Sexy Beast (2000), Birth (2004) were his previous experiences in full features were interesting but not overwhelming. Ten years are reported with Glazer wondering about Under the Skin, and well used they were once he decided to focus on the perception of change. Built on a sort of coming of age grammar he tells the story from the alien’s point of view. The story advances not thru events but almost exclusively with the actress face expressions. He had tried it before, on “Birth” he has a four minutes close-up on Nicole Kidman's face. Scarlett Johansen is an actress with a very thoughtful choice of projects and able to deliver in very different spectrums of work. She prove it again here. As one of the men said “Your eyes. There's summat about your eyes.”
Under the Skin could reach far more emotional involvement but introduces an unusual style and thematic approach to alien invasion resulting on a truly inspirational and original work. It builds slowly as a memorable movie, but I’m quite sure there are few recent movies within the genre that will resist time like Glazer’s work.
Under the Skin is built on set pieces with predictable results, like the Free Jazz improvisations by John Coltrane. Aesthetically brilliant, its purity comes close to what should be the essence of cinema.
Watching the closing credits I recalled Sophia Loren’s words:
“If you haven't cried, your eyes can't be beautiful. “

The Great Escape - John Sturges - 1963

I'm going... out.

O fascínio pelos eventos reais não transformam The Great Escape num bom filme.
A realidade supera a ficção.

Stalag 17 - Billy Wilder - 1953

Anybody here want to double their bet?

Billy Wilder dirige com a habitual competência o filme fundador da temática dos campos de prisioneiros e das tentativas de fuga dos POWs.
Stalag tem hoje uma imagem deteriorada pela quantidade de cópias de qualidade duvidosa que originou.

Men in War - Anthony Mann - 1957

Battalion doesn't exist. Regiment doesn't exist. Command HQ doesn't exist. The U.S.A. doesn't exist... We're the only ones left to fight this war.

Um ensaio interessante sobre o isolamento.
Anthony Mann nem sempre parece estar consciente da ideia central do filme e no final desistiu completamente do conceito. Desta forma, resta apenas o despertar de uma nova ideia num filme que fica aquém do seu potencial.

I Was a Male War Bride - Howard Hawks - 1949

Well, it's such a dull story. Who would care?

Uma comédia romântica sem interesse, apesar de um bom momento no palheiro.

The Story of G.I. Joe - William A.Wellman - 1945

For those beneath the wooden crosses, there is nothing we can do, except perhaps to pause and murmur, "Thanks pal, thanks."

Ernie Pyle morreria em combate pouco de pois da conclusão do filme.
A homenagem à infantaria transforma-se também numa homenagem a quem conta as histórias das guerras.
Gosto da forma como Wellman transporta a acção para uma posição secundária e consegue um dos melhores filmes de guerra dos anos 40.

A Walk in the Sun - Lewis Milestone - 1945

Dear Frances, I am writing you this letter relaxing on the deck of a luxury liner. On shore the natives have evidently just spotted us and are getting up a reception - fireworks, music and that sort of stuff.

Archimbeau está covencido que as guerras se sucedem sem fim. Imagina-se a combater no Tibete 10 anos depois, mas nessa altura talvez tenha sido personagem num filme sobre a guerra na Coreia.
Um filme de guerra, intervalado com irritantes interlúdios musicais, que se tenta concentrar nas personagens .

Memories will be lost like tears in the Rain

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