A Single Man

I saw the film by Tom Ford when it came out in 2010, and was impressed by Colin Firth preparing a role that was, in essence, a one-man-show with props of other actors (he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor but did not win). Mr. Firth, unfortunately, was all that could be recommended for this film. I thought it was a little too something - ostentatiously gay? Visual? Superficial? Self-promotional? I'm not sure.

So, I liked the movie, but not as much as I thought I would. I saw a spot for it on Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood and various commercial spots...it seemed a lot deeper and artier than it actually was. In fact, I thought it was actually complete crap, and Colin Firth's character was a sleazy and maladjusted type for attempting an affair with a student.

Nonetheless, I have been looking for some Christopher Isherwood stuff, specifically the Berlin Stories or Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin, as they were published in Europe. I'm planning to write my own "Vienna Stories" and would like some inspiration as to how to format my collection. Since these stories are more famously known (and set to music) as Cabaret, and in that form likely Isherwood's most famous works, I figure they're a good place to start.

However, when I went to the library, I didn't find what I wanted. They did have A Single Man on the shelf, however, and I decided, well, any Isherwood is better than no Isherwood.

What I love about A Single Man is that George is overtly and unapologetically gay in 1960's California (before the hippies, mind you - circa 1961). Isherwood's writing style, choice of scene and structure, never let the reader forget George's sexuality. In fact, Isherwood's style is pretty sparse, borrowing a page from Hemmingway's book in that it has very little physical description of characters or place; though it is better (i.e. not as bare bones) as The Sun Also Rises, for example. In concentrating on  the sensual aspects of live, the novella is charmingly and grippingly sensory - not erotic, not bogged down in details or description, just sensual. The ocean scene, where George goes for a dip (naked midnight romp?) with Kenny in the Pacific is one of the few exceptions to this, but in its description, continues to center on emotions George feels, rather than the temperature of the water, as an example. And it is critically important to George's psyche - the ocean, the young man, symbolize George's rebirth after Jim's death.


I was pleasantly surprised that the novella far exceeds the film. Isherwood's character George, far from being the superficial, self-conscious and self-promoting type of gay man Tom Ford made him out to be, is down-to-earth, sarcastic and outrageous as only a gay man can be, and though wounded by the loss of the love of his life (Jim, who passed away in a car crash visiting his folks in Ohio), George perseveres, does not assault himself by minimizing his love, like society is wont to do, or falling into an almost-affair with a student - he more or less fantasizes about sex, but does not delude himself into grander emotions, or actually committing any acts. Besides, Kenny (the student) doesn't have much to offer George beyond a nice body. Aside from scratching an itch, Kenny's not much of a catch. He's pretty dopey.


The one thing I hate about A Single Man (which was ambiguous in the book, but more ambiguous in the film) is that George dies at the end. Why does he die, when the book is about persevering despite obstacles?! It was so annoying, because it implied that a person cannot be total, complete, without another person to live with, love, and more importantly, have sex with. Most of the time protagonists in such situations are women falling all over themselves for a man, but obviously anyone can fall victim to the mentality - the sex part almost always shrouded in innuendo in anything pre-Woolfe (or pre-Anais Nin) for the woman. Gotta keep those Victorian double standards in working order...

Anyway, I think it's ridiculous that anyone should ever want to be defined by another, in any way. Yes, love is powerful, and I think true love does exist, but it is not the be-all and end-all of an existence to get married (or move in together) and "become" that other person, or have that other person become you. Sure, people need relationships, another to guide them, help them and give them the chance to become the best they can be through love and support and faith in their love. And it is painful to lose someone so dear and necessary to you. But that does not mean when you lose someone, you should not go on living! You are still you, not the other person and you deserve to continue your life, perhaps diminished, but hopefully not for long!

Losing love and losing faith are not one in the same, and though losing both can be devastating, no one says you have to.

Film Fantasy

Some interesting news has come my way: a film might be shot in my apartment! Well, I use "my" loosely...the apartment I'm renting. I'm not quite sure the filming dates, or the type of film (drama, I assume) or even if the crew will decide to film here (though it's looking pretty good), but the cinematographer, director and director's assistant have come to look at the apartment several times, which is a good indication.

The film director is Barbara Albert. I didn't recognize her when I met her (she is purportedly quite famous in Austria) but after doing a Google search, I discovered that I have actually seen one of her films: Free Radicals, one of my many "art house" picks from the APL during my college days...I liked it, I think. The thing is, I had a bit of trouble following the various schizoid plots. Which is the point of the film, I guess, that life make no sense, it's just a bunch of meaningless events strung together by the fact of experiencing them. Which is not necessarily a philosophy I agree with, but at least I found the film interesting. I assume Ms. Albert's latest project is in a similar vein. She likes doing disconnected vignettes, so presumably the apartment will be the setting for one of those.

The cinematographer promised that if they do choose the apartment, filming will be brief, I wouldn't have to do anything, and filming would occur sometime in November. If this comes to fruition, we'll see how many of those promises hold true.

In any case, I find it quite exciting, having considered a brief film career (after finishing a screenplay with the one and only CB) -- and who knows? I might end up writing for Hollywood one of these days. At least I can cross my fingers...or daydream as the case may be. Writers should always look into possibilities, even if they are little logical or plausible.

Let's All Go to the Movies...

At this point, my jet lag seems to have dissipated, so I can finally update...


For anyone reading this blog, you probably know already that at times I am opinionated, critical, a heartless cynic and an all around twerp when I have a bone to pick with society at large. And that by making a list of adjectives to describe my self-righteousness only means I have made said list.

Well, my point is movies. I'm a-talkin' CINEMA here, people. Having been sequestered from the cinema due to the lack of proximity of a theater to my residence in Amstetten, I've been going through movie withdrawal symptoms for a couple of months.So, when I got the chance to watch some: in-flight movies, Netflix and renting videos from the local Family Video, I regarded  it as the highlight of my entertainment life (NB - Family Video? Is that just a Wisconsin thing? Or a Green Bay thing? Mom has brought me to the realization that many things I used to think of as normal and a part of everyone's childhood are really things unique to where I spent my childhood).




In Flight
Let me start with the in flight movies proffered by United on the way from Frankfurt to Germany. I can't remember the exact selection of films offered. I only remember what I watched: The Switch - you know, that one with Jennifer Aniston where she and the guy from Arrested Development where Jennifer decides she wants a baby, but instead of adopting, she decides to hire a sperm donor and have her "own." Regardless of typical social mores and confidentiality, sanitary medical practices, etc., the sperm is switched - and that guy, a.k.a. Jason Bateman, actually becomes the father of the child...incidentally named Sebastian - what I wanted to name my sister while my mother was pregnant with her (Sam ended up being a girl, obviously,  and my parents voted me down anyway).  I'm not going you know, rate this movie with stars or anything. Suffice it to say, I killed a good two hours on the plane.

Also on the list of in-flight films was The Romantics, something I had actually wanted to see. The previews made it look pretty good - and, well, a lot like the sort of thing I or one of my friends might write for a writing workshop (those of you in master's programs, you know what I mean!)...it was first a novel. But the actual production is not stellar. If you are interested in rehashing Dawson's Creek mixed with Rachel Getting Married with as many immature and irritating portrayals of young people as the former and more boring-ass long camera shots than the latter, you're in for a treat. I can't figure out what was more annoying: Katie Holmes' anti-acting or the idea  that a complete asshole who uses you for sex can ultimately be the love of your life, if he would just dump his current girlfriend - incidentally your former college roommate whom you never really liked anyway.

Home

At home, I  watched lots of movies: a nice little Mel Brooks marathon, including Spaceballs and The Producers (the 1968 original). Always entertaining, and lots of fun.

I finally got to see Eat Pray Love, which was grossly disappointing. Don't know what I was expecting, but I didn't get it. Maybe the book is better, but Julia Roberts is a middle aged brat, with an attempt at pithy, visceral vignettes which were actually predictable and annoying shots of her wandering around Italy, India and Bali. No real emotion, no real interesting nuances of a woman's life. I'm not sure if Elizabeth Gilbert herself is an immature and artificial poser, or if Julia Roberts' portrayal of her in the film made her seem indulgent and narcissistic. Javier Bardem was, hands down, the best part - and the only real actor - of the whole film. 


Another Family Video rental was Easy A: again, disappointing. What is the film industry coming to? Although Emma Stone's rendition of a dorky-yet-precocious teenage girl is charming, it is oftentimes too charming - bordering on goddamn annoying. The writer, director and anyone else involved in the content of the film have obviously not been anywhere near teenagers or a high school recently, if ever. No 17-year-old I've ever known has been so self-aware, nor so candid about sexuality.  It also seems not to have occurred to them that teenagers have sex all time, and one Olive Penderghast type's supposed exploits would never make headlines in a huge California school such as the one the character attends. The plot is ridiculous, the puns and pop culture references are nauseatingly "with it" and the ending it trite. I have a feeling said "writers" of this flop have started, but not finished, The Scarlet Letter, having missed the whole point of the novel: sin and repentance, etc. while still retaining the original novel's sentiments of overblown bombast. Go figure.

Mom, Sam and I went to see Black Swan in the theater. Natalie Portman was great, as she often is. The plot was pure thriller: contrived and creepy but with a ballet twist. Maybe a cross-genre chick flick? Vincent Cassel was utterly French and a total creeper (though, by the end, he and Natalie seemed well-matched...) and I couldn't decide who was freakier, him or Barbara Hershey as the psycho overprotective mom. Predictable? Yes - once we figure out Natalie's character is going insane, there's only so far insanity can go. Self destruction often manifests in self mutilation, and, in extreme cases, suicide. Duh. And it wouldn't be the same if she went to a psychoanalyst... For me, the film was trying too hard to be French (or "new wave"?) a la Polanski's Repulsion (1965) with a young, attractive and psychotic Catherine Deneuve. If you see one, you should really see the other.


Return
On the return flight, I finally got to see Goethe! as I had been planning to (but never did) in the theater. From the same vein as Marie Antoinette or The Young Victoria, this is a costume drama all the way - one that probably only a Germanic audience (and Germanophiles) will find intriguing. As I have mentioned before, I love Goethe and Romanticism and the 18th century in general. Goethe! is basically the telling of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, implying how much Goethe did actually steal from real life - well, hey, he was 24 when he wrote it, what do you want? - but perhaps relied less on actual biographical evidence and more on what the director wanted to have happen with Charlotte Buff and Goethe.


I then watched  Going the Distance which, like most romantic comedies, was predictable but cute. And refreshing to have someone who isn't much of a stud play a leading role - sorry, Justin Long. Plus, I really like Drew Barrymore. She seems a lot more genuine that certain other starlets out there...


The third film I watched was Mammuth a new French film with Gerard Depardieu. OMG! Very French, and laugh-out-loud funny! Though probably only to a sleep deprived American who knows French, sitting in the cabin of a 747. It's about a man who works in a slaughterhouse and is getting ready to retire. His wife realizes he won't get his full pension if he doesn't get all of his paperwork into the French Social Security office. So, he takes a road trip on his rusty old motorcycle from the 70s! Perfect.

Goethe!

I noticed in the paper the other day that a movie is coming out about the life of the young Goethe...

Of course, I have to go see it, right? I mean, a) it's about Goethe's life and any self-respecting German major would go see for that alone; b) though the reviews were not great, it has eye candy (Alexander Fehling, anyone?) and it's a costume drama. What more could I ask for? As far as I'm concerned, it's already tied with Young Victoria...and c) whoever titled it put an exclamation mark at the end. Genius.




So, I'm looking up showtimes online...and guess what? It is playing in Vienna, or Linz. Not Amstetten. And, yes, Amstetten does have a cinema. This means that I have to make an "excursion" to see this movie!!! WHY?? Well, my options are limited, and must wait until the weekend. This weekend, perhaps! Because Tuesday is Austria's national celebration, (26 October - which is incidentally, my parents' 25th wedding anniversary this year) I get a four-day weekend! Which will most certainly find me in Vienna. Because, well, Amstetten isn't big enough for a four-day weekend. Plus, isn't it always exciting being in a capital city on the day of national celebration?

I was in Berlin on 3 October three years ago (Tag der deutschen Einheit) and I was in Paris on 14 July two years ago (Bastille Day) but I was never in Washington, D.C. on July 4.








 Sad sad sad, because when I was 12, we took a road trip to see certain Civil War battlefields, and catch up on some American history. It was really one of the best family vacations we ever had. We went to Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg; took a tour of Monticello and Madison's house, Mount Vernon, and Colonial Williamsburg. We got into Washington D.C. on  July 6. Two whole days late! And we didn't even stay there. We took a bathroom break near Capitol Hill and moved on to Gettysburg.

Parade at Colonial Williamsburg

Well, I would consider these things important! National pride and all...it's always great to get an insider's view of such things - if you can objectify your own nation's world P.O.V. Which I think I can do (and do do) pretty regularly.

You may have picked up I have a thing for the Enlightenment...or the 18th century on the whole...

I think it's the hairstyles. This picture is of men, and, thus, cannot count. If you're in doubt, look up Marie Antoinette. Oh. That and the whole Enlightenment attitude of "pure faith is not good enough! We must find truth in analysis!" I analyze things to death.