Cinema Blog #1: Double Feature - Bone and Moulin Rouge!

[jetpack_monkey]

I would like to keep this cinema blog somewhat accessible, without compromising the fact that I like my movies like I like my women -- esoteric. As such, I will probably alternate, something well-known and something not very well known at all. Something older, something newer.

In keeping with this, I'm starting out with a double feature: Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) and Bone (Larry Cohen, 1972).

Source: IFC showing (widescreen, DVR)	Moulin Rouge! Moulin Rouge! was actually the second half of my double feature tonight. I chose it primarily because my roommate had never seen it. Shock and dismay. My first experience with Moulin Rouge! came from my college roommate, CD. I thank him for this, if nothing else. At the time, I walked away dazzled and bewildered and completely in love. It was #1 on my Top 10 films of 2001. For one reason or another, I never bought the film on DVD, however. Given the choice now, over five years later, I'm not sure I would buy it. Certainly, it is a charming film, largely due to the effortless chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, McGregor and a typewriter, and McGregor and oxygen. His broad smile and expressive eyes betray every single emotion, spilling them onto the screen. It doesn't hurt that he's a looker. Luhrmann's hyperkinetic editing, once a source of joy and possibility for me, now seems really silly. Luhrmann's intent appears to have been molding a world of pop opulence out of turn-of-the-century Montmartre, utilizing modern MTV music video techniques and rock songs, in order to give a modern window into the feel of the Bohemian revolution. The goal is lofty, but I feel the execution leaves something to be desired. Cinema is supposed to be 24 frames per second, not 24 edits. Additionally, the film's heavy-handed approach to Satine's fate just bogs the film. I almost wonder if Luhrmann's MTV approach lead him to treat the audience like the lowest common denominator amongst MTV viewers (you know, the ones who watch TRL and keep demanding the same music videos over and over again). There are at least five terribly explicit reminders that Things Are Bad. Most of these reminders, incidentally, use the same overhead camera angle, which is repeated in Satine's last scene. Luhrmann would have found more success limiting the repetition and giving it more power in a few key uses, rather than let it degrade into an MST3K callback ("Oh, she's coughing! Overhead shot in 3, 2, 1... WOO!"). Still, despite these flaws, Moulin Rouge! has a certain voodoo that it does so well. The reworkings of popular music into showtunes make my musical geek heart skip beats. Luhrmann's eye for opulence rarely wavers -- he knows how to drape a film in beautiful decadence. Furthermore, there are sequences where his editing hits the target so hard that it aches -- The Tango de Roxanne, for instance. It's certainly a film I would not mind seeing once a year, which is probably more often than I see most of the films I actually do own.
Source: Blue Underground DVD	Bone I'm covering the films I watched tonight in reverse order, since I'm having more trouble expressing what I feel about Larry Cohen's directorial debut Bone. Three people, trapped and stifled in their societal roles, come together in emotionally devastating confrontation that exposes secrets, unlocks hidden shames, and forces them to revolt against or run from their current lifestyles. Here's an icky twist. The title character's stifling societal role is as a thug and a rapist. Given my extreme discomfort with rape sequences, I had the incredible misfortune to pick two films that feature attempted rape (although neither film consummated the act, thankfully). The back of the box paints a picture of an Americanized Luis Buñuel film, where the lives of bourgeois are turned up their head in an absurdist row. The IMDb page doesn't really dissuade this notion, listing the film's only genre as "comedy." I suppose it is a comedy, as it's certainly not a drama; the juxtapositions between moments of violence and domesticity are too jarring and often funny despite themselves. Additionally, one of the more disturbing sequences from the beginning of the film becomes set-up for a morbid, twisted, and darkly humorous finale. If I had to paint Bone as a comedy, it would be as a very very dark comedy, but it's probably best that such labels are left to the side. Cohen's later work (see It's Alive, God Told Me To, and Q: The Winged Serpent) would start with a basic "template" genre and then extends outward, grabbing hold of bits and pieces of other genres as it could. Bone does the opposite -- it has no real genre to speak of. There's no good way to pigeonhole the film, which is probably why it was a financial flop upon its initial release in 1972. Unfortunately, it's too late to continue. I might have more thoughts tomorrow. I might not. We'll see.

For those keeping track, I will definitely be watching and commenting on the following films soon: The Candy Snatchers and Blood Freak (both on 3/30), and Grindhouse (on or around 4/6).

Comments

[kittycat22.livejournal.com]

Having never seen Bone, I will say that I agree that Moulin Rouge loses out on the reviewing. When I first saw that film in theaters I was absolutely blown away. I thought it was a beautiful film and a gut-wrenching love story. Now, my own qualifications for film being somewhat less than lofty, I do still love this movie. I love Ewan McGregor's every movement and moment and I still feel a surge of "wow" when he first opens his mouth and starts singing "The hills are alive..."

Now, though, when I watch it I get annoyed by the number of times they beat you over the head with "Satine will die" and "Above all else, but especially above power and greed, love is important." I do, however, still love most of the songs beyond words and could happily listen to the majority of the soundtrack over and over again. I get a bit dizzy by the flashy cinematography, but still appreciate the way it's put together in an odd way.

But I am sad that I'm never as affected by the movie as I was the first time.

[midnightfae.livejournal.com]

I want my own Ewan McGregor. He will live in a little shoebox an sing to me before bedtime.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much exactly where I'm coming from. Yay critical agreement.

Luhrmann's finest film to date is probably Strictly Ballroom, if only because his editing actually allows the individual shots to breathe (and also because the man's only directed three movies, so choices are rather limited).

[midnightfae.livejournal.com]

I don't know... while both you seemed to love Moulin Rouge when you saw it and then, with time, have lost that love... I wasn't that impressed seeing it last night. And yet, the more I think about it, the more I'm really starting to like it.

I want to watch Strictly Ballroom. Hello Netflix!

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I recommend it. I keep considering buying Luhrmann's "Red Curtain" box set (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!), but I usually find something better to occupy my cold hard cash with.

[crevette.livejournal.com]

I loathed Moulin Rouge with the fire of a thousand suns when I first saw it. The editing, the use of contemporary music, the beating me over the head with the comsumtive courtesan and LOVE, the nauseatingly swooping camera angles, so forth and so on.

I may have to put Bone on my netflix queue.

[midnightfae.livejournal.com]

You really couldn't pay me to to watch Bone again. I actually quit halfway through it and started knitting while I waited for it to finish. I'd use your Netflix films for something better.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure I could recommend Bone. It's a film from a director still trying to find a voice for a myriad of opinions. The one he finds in Bone is somewhat offensive and often perplexing.

[empressvesica.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the first...It's fun, but a little like the music my formative years thrown in a blender with some bits and bobs from Fredrick's of Hollywood and this is what poured out.

ather than let it degrade into an MST3K callback ("Oh, she's coughing! Overhead shot in 3, 2, 1... WOO!").

I was more "raise your hand if you've seen Camille". Yeah.

:D

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I haven't seen Camille. I'm a bad classic movie fan. *hangs head in SHAME*

[desertwillow.livejournal.com]

YAY!!! YOU'RE COMING!!!!! If I am not down on the floor when you get there (I'm running booth that night I believe but I think on all of the regular movies) then let someone know and I'll try and come down to see you. I know when we close up and people start to leave I will be down in the lobby so keep a look out for me.

As for Moulin Rouge, I still love it but I think it may have to do with A) Ewen McGregor. He is on my get out of marriage free list. He is #1 on that list. and B) the fact that since it is based off of a Greek myth he uses a lot of elements from Greek theater namely constantly reminding you that Satine will died and he does it a hell of a lot less annoyingly than actual Greek tragedies. And even knowing that she dies from the very beginning I still cry at the end. I watched 2 days ago, and I bawled. Saw it 5 times when it was in the theaters, cried every single time. I think that it's a testament to Lurhman's story telling abilities that even knowing the end he sucks me in that much. That, or I'm a crier.

Oddly enough, I actually just placed an order for Satine's Red Dress for the Masque this year just minutes before I hopped on to eljay and saw this.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I see the correlation between Moulin Rouge and Greek tragedy. I read somewhere that part of the plot is taken from Orpheus, but it must've been so mangled along the way that it's been reduced to nothing in the final version. It bears about as much similarity to that myth as Pretty Woman does. I'd be interested to hear an argument in favor of direct Greek influences, though.

Хороший блог!

[ueleje.livejournal.com]

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