Monthly Archives: January 2024

Thinking Aloud About Film: Four Moods (Taiwan, 1970)

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We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS, with a chat on Four Moods, a portmanteau film, originally conceived as a project to raise funds for Li Han-Hsiang’s then ailing Grand Motion Picture Company in Taiwan,

The four short films that together compose FOUR MOODS are:

-First, Joy, directed by Pai Ching-Jui, a bold beginning, shot as a silent film, with diegetic music but no dialogue

-The second is King Hu’s Anger, which no doubt King Hu’s fans will rejoice at.

-Sadness, the third, is directed by “godfather of Taiwanese cinema” Li Hsing, and possibly misnamed as it’s perhaps more about self-destructive anger and vengefulness than anything else.

-Happiness, the last, and our favourite, is directed by Li Han-hsiang himself

 

All involve ghosts, hauntings, and desires.

 

A historically and culturally significant film, featuring four of the most popular and accomplished directors of the time. Fabulistic and allegorical, … And yet, the length of the podcast testifies to the limits of our understanding. The frustration of watching these films is the bounds of one’s knowledge, and we would encourage listeners who want to know more to read these excellent articles by Andrew Heskins and Hayley Scallion.

The copy kindly made available for viewing is brown and a bit murky colour-wise and does not deserve to be publicised as a restoration. The sub-titling, particularly of text within the narrative, could be improved. That said, w’re very glad to have seen it and recommend it to others.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

If listeners are keen to pursue these interests, we have podcasts on other films by these directors:

José Arroyo

 

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 416 – The Zone of Interest

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he Zone of Interest is a title that accurately reflects the film it adorns: it’s a term used by the Nazis to euphemistically address the 40 square kilometre area surrounding the Auschwitz concentration camp, conspicuously refusing to mention the factory of death it enclosed, conveying a culture of at best wilful ignorance of and at worst tacit complicity with the Holocaust. Similarly, Jonathan Glazer’s film is conspicuous in its refusal to show us the interior of the camp (with a notable exception, which we discuss), instead keeping its attention on the surrealistically normal country house with which it shares a wall, which is occupied by the camp’s commandant, Rudolf Höss, and his family. The film is not interested in imagery of suffering, torture, and death: its subject is the culture and mentality of those who administrate and benefit from it.

There’s a huge amount to discuss in this thought-provoking film, and we reflect on our own experiences visiting Auschwitz, now a museum and memorial, in so doing. Our key insight from visiting, something obvious on paper but not clear until we were there, was the industrial nature of the camp, in which it used its victims up for the labour they could extract, allowing them to starve to death as the energy content of their bodies diminished, and replacing them with a steady intake of others. The film conveys some of this in the businesslike manner in which Höss’s job is conducted – it’s all phone calls, meetings, conferences, folders, agendas. And we discuss Höss wife, Hedwig, and her complicity; the soundtrack, which beds the film in a constant hum of machinery and movement from the camp, and the ending, which offers a surprising and effective flourish that grounds everything we’ve seen in documentary reality.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

https://soundcloud.com/eavesdroppingatthemovies/416-the-zone-of-interest

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 414 – Poor Things

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Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest absurd comedy, Poor Things, creates a wonderful confluence of themes, all through the lens of Bella, a grown woman with a child’s brain, experiencing the world anew and detached from emotion. We discuss Bella’s attitude to the world she encounters, the men who try to control and cage her, Lanthimos’ idiosyncratic visual style and comedic sensibility, the examination of the nuances of sex, what Mike finds lacking in the brothel scenes, and more.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 415 – The Beekeeper

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The Expendables films set Jason Statham up as the logical inheritor of the action hero crown formerly held by Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme and so on – and true to his status as such, Statham has many rubbish films under his belt. The Beekeeper is the latest, in which we learn of a programme of state-sponsored vigilantes – the Beekeepers – who act on their own terms, when something goes awry, to protect the hive that is the USA.

That the film is trash doesn’t mean it’s not fun, and Mike had a good time with the story’s daftness, the obviousness with which its cogs turn, and the action, which, while far from brilliant and heavily reliant on sound effects, is also intense and entertaining. José decries the film’s politics, dumbness, and use of British actors in so many of its American roles.

Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

Storm Over The Yangtze River (Li Han-hsiang, Taiwan, 1969)

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We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS, with a response to Storm Over the Yantze River (Li Han-hsiang, Taiwan, 1969). It’s a historical spectacle, based on a true story, well-deploying hundreds of extras. The newly restored version looks smashing but we do wonder if you have to be Taiwanese to fully appreciate it. This story of spies, counter-spies, traitors who are heros, betrayals across sectorial lines, is difficult to follow, particularly as there are actually four groups fighting for supremacy and we, perhaps because we know so little Taiwanese history, found it difficult to tell them apart. Nonetheless, we loved the hint of camp, Li Hua Li’s performance as the powerful Mrs. Chou Chien Lu, the Bond-inspired espionage gadgetry, the look of the film and the way it was composed. Richard compares it to Operation Crossbow (Michael Anderson, 1965). The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

 

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 413 – Priscilla

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Hot on the heels of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, which cast the titular rock & roll icon as the victim of a life controlled by his manager, comes Priscilla, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, which tells a similar story of a life controlled – but here, Elvis is the culprit. in 1959, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu meets 24-year-old Elvis during his military service in West Germany; by 1963, she’s moved in with him at Graceland, his famous Memphis estate. But the romantic life she desires is kept from her.

Priscilla is as rich an experience and as rewarding in conversation as we could have hoped for. Coppola intelligently and insightfully weaves together themes of unequal power dynamics, in which pleasure is withheld; the societally-defined roles of men and women and how they harm those who enforce them upon themselves; the significant age difference between Elvis and Priscilla, especially exacerbated by her youth; why and how beauty is constructed; and so much more. Its gaze is a female one, and a particular one at that. It understands the appeal of Elvis to Priscilla, the world in which she becomes involved and the men for whom it’s maintained, and the ways in which it deceives her, restricts her, and leaves her disillusioned. A marvellous, complex film.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Thinking Aloud About Film: Good Morning Taipei (Li Hsing, Taiwan, 1979)

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We return to Hou Hsiao Hsien and to Taiwanese Cinema. Hou is the screenwriter for this transitional melodramatic musical: a hit and winner of the Golden Horse Award. Part of a series of films, some in new restorations, that are being screened under the title of GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS. In the podcast we discuss it in relation to the healthy realist films of a previous generation, Hou’s first films as a director, Spanish musical melodramas featuring children and British 60s musicals such as LIVE IT UP (Lance Comfort, UK, 1963). A very enjoyable film that makes us look forward to the others in the series.

The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

We have previously podcast on Growing Up, which is also part of the series, and which may be listened to here:

Hou Hsiao-hsien 25: Contexts 15 – Growing Up (Chen Kunhou, 1983)

We have also discussed Hou Hsia Hsien’s other collaborations with Kenny Bee:

Cheerful Wind:

Cute Girl:

Green, Green Grass of Home: 

 

 

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 412 – The Goldfinger

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In 2002, Tony Leung and Andy Lau starred in the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs, which Martin Scorsese remade in the US as The Departed; twenty years on, the inspiration flows in the opposite direction, Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street a clear reference point for this fictionalised tale of real-life stock market manipulation, deeply embedded corruption, and the growth of a multi-billion-dollar company from meagre beginnings on the back of scams, confidence, and lies, with Leung starring as the charming, oleaginous company founder, and Lau as the anti-corruption official on his tail. We had terrific fun in The Goldfinger.

Which isn’t to say it’s a perfect film. We have our issues. The imagery could be more expressive – though director Felix Chong (another Infernal Affairs alumnus: he wrote the trilogy) clearly has an eye for visual impact, and there’s lots to be impressed by. We’d like to know why Lau’s corruption investigator believes that chasing Leung’s CEO is worth the disruption and danger to his family, beyond simply justice. We’d like any similar insight into what drives Leung, beyond simply greed. And if it is simply justice and greed, we’d like it to be better sold, bigger and brasher. We’d like the clash between the two to be more explosive. And the rather pat ending induces eye-rolling. But never mind all that. The Goldfinger is an entertaining and exciting tale of the rise and fall of a business empire that lived and died based on the fundamental corruption of the system and interests that built and supported it.

Listen on the players BELOW , Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 411 – The Boy and the Heron

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Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese animator and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, who has previously announced his retirement three times, tells us all that The Boy and the Heron (as it’s titled in most of the world; How Do You Live? in Japan) is really, honestly, for real this time, I’m super serious, his last film. His longtime producer, Toshio Suzuki, has already cast doubt on this new claim, but for now, here we have Miyazaki’s final film, which tells the story of Mahito, a young boy in wartime Japan, who loses his mother in a fire and is evacuated to his aunt’s countryside estate, whereupon he meets a talking grey heron that promises that his mother is alive.

José sees The Boy and the Heron as a masterpiece of cinema, a film that does things that other films have forgotten to do, a doorway to thinking about life, loss, and worlds within worlds. Mike… didn’t really get on with it, but he puts it down to taste and maybe mood – any objection he has can be equally levelled at things he loves. We easily agree that Miyazaki’s and Ghibli’s reputation for visual design and craft holds, with image upon image here that dazzles. As for what it all adds up to? Take José’s side. It’s better to like things than be bored by them.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

 

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

In Conversation with Prof. Dolores Tierney on MUBI’S Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema

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Richard and I have been much impressed and greatly entertained by MUBI’s programme of Mexican genre films: Spectacle Every Day — The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema.

We’ve already podcast on each film individually:

Trotacalles/ Streetwalker (Matilda Landate, 1951)

Mas fuerte que el amor/ Stronger Than Love (Tulio Demicheli, 1955)

El esqueleto de la Señora Morales/ The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales  (Rogelio A. Fernández, 1960)

El Espejo de la bruja/ The Witch’s Mirror (Chano Urueta, 1962)

La Mujer murcielago (René Cardona, 1968)

Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema is, however,  a programme that continues to fascinate so we’ve asked Dolores Tierney, Professor in Film and Media at the University of Sussex  to come talk to us, contextualise the programme, and highlight issues that arise from from it and that might enhance our understanding of Mexican Cinema in general and these films in particular.

It might be worth bearing in mind that MUBI”s selection is culled from the Locarno Film Festival’s second retrospective of Mexican cinema — the first was in 1957 — this past August.  The Locarno programme was curated by Olaf Möller with the participation of Roberto Turigliatto and brought together 36 films spanning the 1940s to the 1960s, many of them little known outside Mexico. The focus of our discussion is MUBI’s selections, currently 5 of the 36 films shown in Locarno.

 

As you can see below, Professor Tierney has published widely on Mexican Cinema:

 

In the podcast we praise Trotacalles and discuss why Matilda Landate isn’t better known, Prof. Tierney explains how Mexican cinema was a transnational cinema almost from its beginnings and how its film industry benefited from the US’s geo-political policies in relation to propaganda over its rival Argentina, who was seen as being too sympathetic or at least nonchalant towards Germany.  We talk about Mexican Golden Age Cinema and how this program benefits from highlighting genre, exploitation and cult films. A sparkling talk, generating thought, highlighting links between elements that might seem disparate (Batman and Lucha Libre), and inspiring further viewing of Mexican cinema. The podcast may be listened to here:

The podcast may  also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT

and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546

Prof Tierney has also provided this note with references:

 

Podalsky, Laura (1994) “Negotiating Differences: National Cinemas and Co-productions in Pre-Revolutionary Cuba” Velvet Light Trap 34, 59-70.

Talks about the early 1930s Cuban films made by PECUSA and about the 1940s onwards co-productions with Mexico like Mas fuerte que el amor (Tulio Demicheli, 1955), how involvement with the Mexican industry was the only the only way Cuban productions could really continue. From the mid to late 1940s Mexican Cinema (mostly its cabaret based melodramas – the cabareteras) had been featuring Cuban dancers/actresses (Maria Antonieta Pons, Ninon Sevilla) and famous musicians (Rita Montaner, others) who had migrated there for work. Cuban filmmakers without resources in Cuba (PECUSA had sold off all the Cuban studio equipment/buildings) had to reach out to Mexico, Argentina and Spain to fund co-productions.

 

Rashkin Elissa (2001) Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream

I was referring to her book where she writes about Landeta.

 

I didn’t refer to Ana Lopez’ work on travelling filmmakers – but when I talked about Tulio Demicheli I was going to talk about other travelling directors from Argentina like Carlos Hugo Christensen (who Ana wrote about) who were invited around different countries in Latin America to make films, so Demicheli’s invitation to Cuba was not so unusual.

Lastly Prof. Tierney also highlighted Mexican Cinema BFI: London, 1995 ed. Paulo Antonio Paranagua (trans. by Ana M. Lopez).

 

José Arroyo

 

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 410 – Ferrari

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Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz star as lovers, business partners, and rivals, in a motorsport biopic that’s much more about the drama off the track than on it. In 1939, Italian racing driver, team owner, and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari founded the car manufacturer that would become one of the best-known and most prestigious marques in history; Ferrari the film tells the story of events in 1957, with the company in financial difficulties and his wife, Laura, distanced from him as they grieve the recent loss of their son, Dino. She tolerates Enzo’s dalliances with mistresses, as long as he’s home before the maid arrives – but his second family is secret from her.

Mike sees an opportunity to right his wrongs from our podcast on Ford vs Ferrari, aka Le Mans ’66, in which, he declares, he overfocused on insignificant details, while José rightly and happily enjoyed the big personalities, charming and interesting central friendship, and entertaining, dramatic races… by suggesting they’ve switched seats. José finds the cultural specificity of the time and place in which Ferrari‘s set lacking, criticising missed or misunderstood nuances, and is let down by Driver’s blankness in key scenes opposite Cruz, whose brilliant performance subtly conveys Laura’s richly complex competing feelings. Details schmetails, counters Mike: here we have a big brooding drama about deep interpersonal clashes, grief, loss, power struggles and ambition, centred around an actor with fake grey hair and a faker Italian accent – what’s not to love?

As with Ford v Ferrari, we both enjoyed Ferrari. It’s just that one of us did so with a big, beaming, untroubled smile, and the other with a raised eyebrow that said “hmm”.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 409 – Next Goal Wins

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In something of a return to the sort of film that made his name, Taika Waititi co-writes and directs a quirky, charming comedy-drama set in Polynesia. Next Goal Wins adapts the true story of the American Samoan football team (and the 2014 documentary about it that gives this film its title), famously one of the worst teams on the planet, who begin the film in despair following their 31-0 world-record international defeat to Australia. Seeking new inspiration, they recruit Thomas Rongen, a Dutch-American coach with a reputation for losing his temper and getting sacked, to lead them in their quest for World Cup qualification.

We discuss Waititi’s comedic style, to what extent the film requires knowledge of the culture and sport it shows, the complexities of Rongen’s history and relationship with his ex-wife, and how Fassbender, not known for his work in comedy, fits uncomfortably into such a role, but what he brings to it dramatically that you wouldn’t typically expect. Most of all – we have fun! Next Goal Wins is an immensely likeable and charming film and it’s Christmas, after all. Or at least it was when we saw it.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

 

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.