Monthly Archives: February 2024

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 422 – Perfect Days

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Wim Wenders finds inspiration in Japanese public lavatories in Perfect Days, a slice of life drama about Hirayama, a janitor who finds quiet happiness in his routine of travelling from public convenience to public convenience cleaning, photographing trees in the park, being welcomed at restaurants by proprietors who fetch him his usuals, and reading books before bed. We discuss Wenders’ delicate touch and observational eye, Kōji Yakusho’s central performance, for which he was named Best Actor at Cannes, how small moments indicate whole avenues of a person’s life, and the film’s theme of connections between the individual worlds in which we live.

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.

 

José Arroyo in Conversation with Sean Burns on DOROTHY TOWERS and DEATH

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Sean Burns is a Birmingham-born, London-based artist; the author of DEATH, part of the LOOK AGAIN series of volumes interpreting the TATE’s collection through particular themes and published to coincide with TATE BRITAIN’S recent re-hang; and the director of DOROTHY TOWERS, a film in which I appear. In the accompanying podcast, we discuss these iconic Birmingham Tower blocks that are the subject of the film; how their design and location meant that generations of queers ended up living there and continue to do so; how these buildings have a patterned history but not just one story; there are different stories, different layers of stories, spectral and layered, plural. We discuss how ‘Queer’ in England is constantly re-written as something that only happens in London and how the film is often interpreted by audiences as a reclaiming and a validation of similar histories that have probably taken place in cities all over the country. It’s a film that also brings into play modernism, brutalism, drag, fashion, and urban design that prioritises cars over people. We discuss how the film was driven by a mandate to search but not necessarily to find; and how what is evoked is a layered history but one with the feeling that comes from a place in which death, mourning and sadness are spectral but not defining elements. A film aware of the perils of representation and thus conscientiously ethical in its approach. We talk also of Burn’s recent book on death, his obsession with Francis Bacon and George Dyer, how Ireland and Irishness are developing concerns, and whether death, mourning, and longing are themes common to all this work.

The podcast may be listened to below:

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

Thinking Aloud About Film: Out Of The Blue ((Chen Kun-Hou, Taiwan, 1983)

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We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS with a chat on OUT OF THE BLUE (Chen Kun-hou, Taiwan, 1983).

OUT OF THE BLUE is a  fascinating film to discuss in relation to all our previous podcasts on Taiwanese Cinema and Hou Hsiao-hsien; a film directed by Chen Kun-hou, the cinematographer on Hou Hsiao-hsien’s early films such as THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME (1982) and THE BOYS FROM FENGKUEI (1983). Chen Kun-hou is also the cinematographer on HE NEVER GIVES UP (LEE HSING, 1978), and of course Hou Hsia-hsien was the co-writer on Chen Kun-hou’s GROWING UP (1983) and this one. These films also share writer, Chu T’ien-wen (the screenwriter) who went on to co-write most of Hou Hsia-hsien’s films, this one based on a novel by Chu T’ien-wen’s sister, Chu T’ien-hsin.

Collectively, work that evokes an outpouring of creativity but as part of a circle of collaborators. And this particular film seems a turning point from the ‘Healthy Realist’ cinema that was and the comedies and musicals that followed; to what would become known as New Taiwanese Cinema. A key film, released just after BOYS FROM FENGKUEI; A film that takes its time, the camera lingers, yet never feels long, a story gently told about young love in trouble, filial duty, ties to family, small transgressions. Aspects bring to mind BEFORE SUNRISE (Richard Linklater, 1995)

Arguably, one can’t understand New Taiwanese Cinema well without having a context; and this series is a shortcut to that context, the virtue is that it’s preselected, the films that that national industry thought the best; and within THAT, OUT OF THE BLUE is arguably the key film of that transition.

The podcast may be listened to below:

 

he 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: 421 – All of Us Strangers

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Writer-director Andrew Haigh’s romantic fantasy, All of Us Strangers, flows beautifully from scene to scene, inviting the audience to question the reality of what they’re shown but seldom requiring them to – it’s about the feeling it creates. It’s a film about isolation, building and rebuilding connections, how the past reverberates, and in particular, experiences of growing up gay in the homophobic society of the 1980s. Its themes are universal and easily understood, but people who share those experiences will identify with it more closely than most.

We discuss the complexity and natural feeling of the protagonist’s conversations with his parents, who carry with them, alongside love for their son, those homophobic attitudes; the way scenes flow into each other; how letting go of those questions of what and how things are real allows us to get the most out of the film; and we ask those questions anyway. We also take the opportunity to revisit the ending of The Zone of Interest, discuss audiences proudly displaying their dislikes, and have another think about The Holdovers with that in mind.

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 Gary Needham on All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, UK, 2023)

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Gary Needham wrote me a few days ago saying ‘Jose, have you seen ALL OF US STRANGERS yet? I saw it at the weekend and wasn’t expecting to be absolutely devastated by it. I cried throughout, when I got home, and still can’t shake off its affect and resonance days later’. I felt very similarly and have been wanting to talk to friends about the film ever since I saw it as part of the London Film Festival tour at the Midlands Arts Centre a few months ago.

Gary is a knowledgeable and celebrated queer scholar; the author of Brokeback Mountain (2010); co-author with Glyn Davis of Queer TV:  Theories, Histories, Politics (2008) and Warhol in Ten Takes (2013); co-editor of Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide (with Dimitris Eleftheriotis, 2006); United Artists (with Peter Krämer, Tino Balio, Yannis Tzioumakis), and many more. He is currently finishing Sex, Gays and Videotape: American Independent Cinema and the AIDS Crisis and another on Arthur Bressan’s Buddies (1985) for the QUEER FILM CLASSICS series. In other words, an ideal person to talk to about this film.

The conversation takes as a starting point the following:

a)a quote from director Andrew Haigh in The Guardian: ‘A generation of queer people are grieving the childhood they never had’.

b)Cüneit Çarkirlar’s observation at the end of his thoughtful piece on the film in The Conversation that, ‘I watched it with a friend who afterwards said something that really resonated with me: “It felt like one of the truest depictions of growing up gay in the 1980s and 1990s”.’

c) Gary’s own school report from 1987 (see below):

In the podcast we try to mix very personal responses with various historical contexts and speak of the film’s setting in relation to queer childhoods in that period, section 28, trauma, erasure; the film’s formal and stylistic achievements; Andrew Haigh’s career; how the film speaks to psychoanalytic pain, a generational pain, grief, AIDS. The personal grounded in historical contexts as a platform for politics. It’s all in there.

It may be listened to below:

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 referenced the Section 28 Book which is this one: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/outrageous; and the dates of the introduction are 1988 with a repeal in 2003, which is quite some time for such a homophobic legislation to be in place. The wikipedia page is actually very good on it with infographics too (like the Tories anti-labour billboards) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28

 

The Weekend/Theo and Hugo piece with Cüneyt for academic reference is this https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17400309.2020.1800329.

If you don’t have institutional access feel free to contact José here or Gary on gneedham@liverpool.ac.uk. He is also on instagram as gary.needham.

 

The queer British cinema survey is up online here: https://www.academia.edu/104194486/Queer_Relay_in_Post_Millennial_British_Cinema

 

José Arroyo.

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 419 – American Fiction

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Writer-director Cord Jefferson’s debut feature, American Fiction, combines satire with family dynamics to fairly charming, if visually uninspiring, effect. Jeffrey Wright’s Thelonius is a novelist forced into a leave of absence from his teaching position, whereupon he returns to Boston and reconnects with his family, from whom he’s distant. He’s also furious that his latest manuscript has been rejected for not being black enough, and that what “black enough” means involves every negative stereotype of black people and culture imaginable. But when he sarcastically writes such a novel to shove society’s attitude in its face, it’s taken seriously by the white literary elite, who shower it with praise.

From the trailer, Mike was expecting more focus on the satire, and more energy à la Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You. It’s a surprise, then, that American Fiction spends so much time developing the family drama, but not an unpleasant one, and José finds that aspect the film’s most interesting. We consider the idea that the film uses the family story to practice what it preaches, offering a story about black people that doesn’t require them to be black in order to justify its existence – it’s a universal story about distanced siblings, a mother with failing health, and broken marriages. And we discuss the film’s ending, or lack thereof, in which the inescapability of the culture that demands stereotype is emphasised at the expense of a satisfying, earned conclusion to the story we’ve been told.

American Fiction doesn’t create a single artful image, and that ending is disappointing, but the film is also interesting, absorbing, and funny. Worth a look.

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: 418 – Maestro

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

We find Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s latest actor-director star vehicle, which dramatises the life of iconic conductor Leonard Bernstein, to be dishonest, illustrative, and superficial Oscar bait. We also find it cinematically ambitious at times, with great production values – not many films of this type are being made with $80 million budgets. A mixed bag.

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

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 417 – The Holdovers

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

Alexander Payne evokes the Seventies in form and aesthetic in The Holdovers, a comedy-drama about the students and staff forced to stay at a New England boarding school over Christmas. It exudes charm and, over time, warmth, as the frosty relationship between student and teacher thaws, Payne handles the meandering tone beautifully, and it’s full of good jokes. For José, it doesn’t quite reach the level of the best in its genre; for Mike, it’s a good genre film elevated by some mysterious cinematic alchemy he doesn’t understand.

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

Thinking Aloud About Film: He Never Gives Up (Li Hsing, Taiwan, 1978)

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We continue our discussion of the GOLDEN DECADES: CINEMATIC MASTERS OF THE GOLDEN HORSE AWARDS with a chat on He Never Gives Up (LI Hsing, Taiwan, 1979). Li won the Golden Horse Award for Best Director for his films Beautiful Duckling (1965), Execution in Autumn (1972), and He Never Gives Up (1978) setting a record in Taiwan’s film history that remains unbroken, marking the pinnacle of Li Hsing’s directing career. It’s also part of a run — Good Morning Taipei (1979) and The Story of A Small Town (1980) – of very successful films.  This is our opportunity, a mixed blessing, to see a ‘Healthy Realist’ film, ‘uplifting’, and we now clearly see why the New Wave — so clearly a response to ‘Healthy Realism’ — made such an impact. The film is based on a real story,  published as A Raft in the Storm, that dealt with a child overcoming disability.

This is what we’ve been able to find out about A Raft in the Storm:

the first screenshot  above is from Diaspora Literature and Visual Culture: Asia in Flight by Sheng-mei Ma and also the link to the second screenshot is (https://www.kkday.com/en/tour/932)

In the podcast below, we discuss the film in relation to its script, healthy realism, ideology, hope, disability, and the film’s trade in platitudes. Richard is the voice of reason; I despised many aspects of it.

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