Clash (Eshtebak) (2016)

Wow wow wow! This movie was incredible. What a pleasant surprise! It was so intense and rich in character. It is an intricately woven story that borrows from real life drama. The politics is super interesting by itself, but the human element adds a dimension of emotion to this movie. You sympathize with these characters and you feel for their country. And the drama is very natural, the conflicts between the people in the truck are very believable. It is politically charged and this colors the narrative.

What stands out most obviously is the style, shot entirely from within a truck. The camera must have been really small and portable to navigate in this small space between so many people. It makes you feel claustrophobic just watching. There is a light that hangs in the center of the truck that I'm assuming has a microphone hidden inside of it. They film sometimes from the perspective of the characters looking out the windows through a grate, and moving from window to window to follow the action outside. But the camera never leaves the inside of the truck itself. They stuff so many people into this little space and it is hot and everyone is irritated and fighting with each other. Maybe this comparison is inappropriate, but it's like 12 Angry Men with much higher stakes.

The way in which they stage the exterior riots is stunning. There are a lot of extras who are quite well choreographed throwing rocks and molotov cocktails and pointing lasers. It feels like an authentic representation of what Egyptian streets were actually like following the most recent military coup. Everyone is on high alert and no one is safe. In fact, one of the most interesting dynamics is between the Muslim Brotherhood and the army supporters in the truck, and then the two American journalists. Their relationship is constantly shifting from the benevolent to violent. And ultimately this is the force that drives the film into its climactic and emotional ending. Overall, a very rewarding experience.

I waited in line by myself for about an hour and a half to make sure I got into this movie. Now I know I didn't have to get there so early. I was second in line, but we get last priority as Cinephile badge holders. I was afraid I wasn't going to get in when they stopped the lines, but it turned out that there was plenty of room. They were just really slow seating everyone. We watched the cast walk the red carpet, though we didn't know it was the cast at the time. They seemed very down to Earth, just happy to be there, representing Egypt on a big stage (though Egypt probably doesn’t appreciate the representation). 

Masculin Feminin (1966)

We sat next to Professor Mason, who actually teaches this movie so she was able to explain a little bit to us. This is a new restoration. It is a very difficult movie. It allegedly takes several viewings. My takeaway is that Godard tells his story (it arguably doesn't have much of a plot) in a non-linear fashion. There's a bit of story here, a parallel story there, and a whole mess of a love quadrangle. He really likes to linger on the misogyny and he makes no effort to hide it. It is quite overt. And Professor Mason said this is somehow a movie about birth control, which was illegal in France at the time and this was supposed to educate young people. And yeah, it was in the movie a bit, but was that the whole point of it? Cause there was a lot of seemingly unrelated points.

I did appreciate the acting. They all do facial expressions very well. And the viewer often reads the characters' reactions in dialogue. By that I mean that in dialogue, the camera often focuses on just one participant. We hear the other speaker off camera, but we watch the one person react, and it really emphasizes physical acting. And the retro music plays a big part too. There is apparently a big emphasis on sound in this restoration. And the score comes in and out at awkward moments and in snippets. I'm not sure if this is intentional or part of the restoration. It sometimes even overpowers the dialogue in a weird imbalance. And at times, it seems out of sync with the picture but again, that may be intentional.

There are intertitles that have some great one liners accompanied by gunshots that sort of cue the viewer in to what the scene is supposed to evoke. But you really have to think hard about it. And to be quite honest, I didn't get enough sleep to think that hard at that time of day (12:30). I dozed off a bit and I was sitting right next to the professor. She may or may not have noticed, but if she reads this by any chance, then I guess she'll know. When I came to, I surprisingly saw Brigitte Bardot make a brief cameo, but I'm not really sure what that was about. I think somewhere there was a political message about Communism, which would make sense because Godard was really into Marxism. I kind of had some traumatic flashbacks to Kuhle Wampe. Brecht's distancing effect is definitely present. Godard was trying to get me to think about my condition, but I was not having it.

I'm trying to appreciate Godard, but at the end of the day, I just didn't really follow. Maybe it takes another viewing, but there's so much out there to see I don't know if I'm going to get to another viewing.

Cafe Society (2016)

Café Society is a return to form for Woody Allen after some not-so-great movies in the last few years. It was actually quite reminiscent of some of his earlier work, relying on the same themes and characterizations and brilliant use of his beloved jazz that brought him fame. I could not help but see a little of Woody Allen in Jesse Eisenberg as Bobby. Eisenberg really embodies the neurotic, quirky, fast-talking, exasperated, sarcastic characters that Allen used to write for himself. This was especially apparent in the scene with Parker Posey in which he has an awkward encounter with a hooker. He says everything he's thinking as it comes to him in his high-level lightning-fast thought process. Allen holds nothing back in his dialogue.

All the acting was actually quite memorable for the right reasons, including all of Bobby's very-Jewish family back in the Bronx and a surprisingly adept Steve Carrell playing far away from his iconic character on the office. But of course, Allen is known for his female characters and Kristen Stewart is just superb. In her very first scene, she has just a couple lines of dialogue, but she has this afternoon glow (and smile to match) about her that radiates and holds your attention. And this lighting effect recurs several times for Stewart's character. There are some really great shots in Central Park that are made whole with this effect. She shows so much depth in her facial expressions and delivery that it makes me wonder if I have overlooked her work in the past (though on second thought I don't think there is any redemption for Twilight). She nails both the plain but charming secretary and the elegant society woman.

As for the story, it has been incorrectly marketed as a story about old Hollywood, but I think a majority of the film actually took place in Allen's beloved New York (it is even sort of anti-Hollywood). He doesn't use the words "café society" until Bobby returns to the east coast. In fact, for the first half of the film it seemed as though Bobby would stay in the middle class and not rise to the upper intellectual class that Allen typically writes about.  I think it is Allen narrating the film as well, though I wasn't entirely sure. Much of the plot is actually told to the audience through the narration instead of shown, which is a stylistic choice that works in well-written comedy. Like a classic Woody Allen plot, there is an impossible love triangle. It is delightful and fun. Have we seen it before? Yes, but it is good to see the master of romantic comedy returning to what he does so well.

Now, we're rubbing shoulders with this high society. We walked down the red carpet that the cast did and into the palace at the 11pm screening at Cannes. That was an experience in itself.

BSO: The City & Mahler's 5th Symphony (2016)

I have had the pleasure of attending countless (I have actually lost count) concerts at the Baltimore Symphony for the last three years through the unbelievable Student Select Program. Some of my favorite concerts have been Nobuyuki Tsuji performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performing Shostakovich's Violin Concerto, and the concert I heard this evening which might be my last. I don't usually write about classical music, but I will use this concert to reflect on why I love classical music, the BSO and Baltimore.

Marin Alsop led the orchestra in a fabulous rendition of Mahler's 5th Symphony. I thought his 9th was my favorite, but I totally change my mind. Every movement of the 5th is a knockout, especially the famous, gorgeous Adagietto. The difference between listening to a recording and hearing the orchestra live is that it is an experience. You are not just listening to music--you're feeling the music. There are so many moments in the 5th Symphony that give you goosebumps and make your hairs tingle. You can physically feel the music flowing into you. There are moments that allow you to just exhale and release all the stress in the world and bask in the beauty of the music. And it is incredible.

Maestra Alsop has proven herself time and again as a force to be reckoned with and has led the BSO to become a truly modern orchestra. She is a really big deal and she has done some wonderful things with this orchestra. She helped start OrchKids, a program for underprivileged youths modeled after Venezuela's El Sistema using the power of music in a humanitarian way to save children. She was the first woman (and she is openly lesbian) to direct a major American orchestra and was the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms (twice!) and she is the only conductor to be a MacArthur Genius. She is a trailblazer--for sure a future Kennedy Center Honoree.

As part of the BSO's 100th Anniversary, a piece was co-commissioned (with Carnegie Hall) about Baltimore to be composed by Peabody professor and Pulitzer laureate Kevin Puts. The result was "The City" accompanied by a short film by James Bartolomeo. The piece makes great use of percussion. Instead of putting the percussion all in the back as usual, they were spread out, with a percussionist on the left and right sides of the orchestra and another in the back, spreading the sound and creating a call-and-response in the concert hall. The film cut perfectly with the rhythm of the drums. It included stills, video, news and time-lapse footage of "The Greatest City in America": Baltimore. It is ostensibly about the attractions of Baltimore at first, but it soon becomes clear that it is really about the people. While the music was amazing (the best 21st century piece I've ever heard), I was especially moved by the video and found myself tearing. I've been thinking about my final months in college but it really hit me while listening to this piece about Baltimore. I'm going to miss Baltimore. I never would have thought that I'd say that one or two years ago, but finally in my third (and final) year of college I began to explore the city more and have grown fond of Baltimore. Baltimore has a strong sense of community that is almost unheard of in New York. I regret that I wasn't more involved in the community beyond Hopkins and I wish that I had left the Hopkins bubble more and earlier. Absence, or anticipated absence, makes the heart grow fonder. The video made me feel nostalgic and I think nostalgia is the most powerful sentiment (I think that's why I like Cinema Paradiso so much). That's right, I teared even before the part about the uprising. But like Stravinsky's Firebird, Baltimore musically rises from the ashes and the people rejoice in song and dance. Meyerhoff Hall (which is beautiful) is without a doubt my favorite place in Baltimore. And I'm so lucky to have enjoyed so much time there.

Tokyo! (2008)-- Merde

Denis Lavant as Merde is so creepy and devilish that you can understand the havoc he wreaks. He speaks a made up language that only three people in the world understand. And this language is complete gibberish, but it is spoken in a very dramatic way. The movie is three times as long as it should be because we have to wait for the interpreter to translate Japanese to French to gibberish. The courtroom scene is pretty cool. We simultaneously follow three shots all within one frame in a split screen. So we see real time reactions. And we anticipate what the reaction will be because we get the translation before the audience does. The opening tracking shot is also very well done. Merde stumbles across several blocks of Tokyo, eating flowers, licking people and generally scaring the public. And the camera keeps up right in front of him. 

Harold and Maude (1971)

This cult classic is so awkward and hilarious and brilliant. The premise is so bizarre that you can't help but laugh. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon make such an unlikely pair that their chemistry is kind of unreal. They bond over their hobby of attending funerals for fun. Harold stages elaborate suicides that are each more ridiculous than the last. It shouldn't be funny but it is. Once you get past the first suicide and you realize that he is not actually dead, you start to lighten up and laugh at Harold's misery. And he drives a hearse! The crazy old lady is a great complement to morbid Harold. Good eccentric characters like Maude can carry the whole film. While Harold drags the movie along, lingering for comedic effect, Maude moves it forward. Together they just work.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

I can't say I've ever been a big fan of the Western. This movie is the classic anti-western, a parody of the classic genre. And it is quite funny, sometimes seemingly unintentionally. Sometimes it is just funny because you don't know what to make of the unusual scene you just saw. The soft songs of Leonard Cohen are a hilarious contrast to the untame, uncouth wild west. And Mrs. Miller's Cockney accent sticks out in the Pacific northwest.

Robert Altman's signature is all over this film. He loves to use zooms, both fast and slow. The slow zooms draw your attention to a small detail that you otherwise would miss. The fast zooms have a comedic effect. They are kind of cheesy at first, but the timing and frequency is perfect as you get used to them. Altman also pioneered complex sound mixing techniques. At first, I thought the sound was bouncing off the walls making it difficult to understand and distinguish dialogue. But that is actually his technique to immerse the viewer in the scene. When everyone is talking over each other, you don't actually hear any of it clearly. Instead, you read the ambiance of the scene rather than the actual dialogue.