Movies & Music

"9 Songs"

Written/Directed by Michael Winterbottom

Featuring: Kieran O'Brien, Margo Stilley and some rock bands.

I was warned about this film a few years ago by a friend. At just barely an hour and six minutes, it's a mercifully short film about a love affair between a British man (Matt) and an American woman (Lisa) living in Britain. There's no back story. They just meet at a concert, and the year long tryst goes from there. There's no plot. No real story. Just a lot of sex. A lot of kink. A bit of tension.

Throughout the film, we are asked to slog through concert footage from several bands... I think I may have listened to the BRMC once or twice, but everything else here is shit. Because the couple met at a venue,  it's only to be expected that they spend a lot of time going to shows. But I have to say that this is the weakest aspect of the film. Winterbottom is expert at capturing sensuality, but not so much at capturing the feel of a live music venue.

There are also some vignettes where Matt spends some time in Antarctica, but it seems more like filler to push the film into the "feature length" category than anything to do with the relationship between him and Lisa. There is a bit where Lisa gives him a book on Antarctica, so I suppose that explains it, but it still seems random as hell to me.

I like this film because the unsimulated sex scenes are beautiful, and the chemistry between the two leads is used to great effect.

"Hoy y Mañana/Today and Tomorrow"

Written/Directed by Alejandro Chomski

Featuring: Antonella Costa

This is a nice little film from Argentina. It's a joint production with a Spanish film company. It's very raw, but also very pretty. Lots of cityscapes and vérité. Twenty-something girl struggles on her own. Her gas is cut off, then she is threatened with eviction. Her borrowing power is naught, and she has an untenable relationship with her father, who lectures her and then doesn't give her shit! So what does she do? She becomes a street-walker. Of course, there's some reluctance... fear... that sort of thing. She's got no pimp and no street smarts, so she gets ripped off a couple of times. And when she does manage a little scratch, it's stolen by a guy pretending to be a cop. She meets a Spaniard looking for a little fun away from the wife, and he's loaded. Of course, she doesn't hold up her end of any bargain with him, which leaves her with the worst kind of options: old dudes in seedy motel rooms.

The film is a low budget visual wonder. There's no candy coating the lifestyle here, unless you believe it a must that all prostitutes end up drug wracked and STD infected (I say this being an avid reader of William T. Vollmann, who is a master at capturing these things at their most ugly, most human). Costa is very endearing and relatable as Paula. And I love the theatre scenes.

***

"Option Paralysis"/The Dillinger Escape Plan

Without question, The Dillinger Escape Plan is my favorite band of the last 10 years. I have never loved a band as I have this one. Sure, I love Ornette Coleman. I love Albert Ayler and Charlie Christian, and some of that old jazz music. I think Ted Leo is a gifted songwriter. But this band just does it for me. In general, I have drifted away from their style of music, but not from them (I might indulge in a #12 tune from time to time).

From "Cleopatra's Sling" (the first song by them I heard), to "The Mullet Burden," to the entire 11 track masterpiece that is "Calculating Infinity" to "Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants" and "Mouth of Ghosts," they have proven to be a skilled, versatile band. They have a punk ethic and a virtuosic touch. They're down-to-earth guys who take their music seriously. Themselves? Not so much.

I could talk about the lineup changes, the genius of lead guitarist and founding member Ben Weinman (the only original member left),  but it's been done. I could use "Calculating Infinity" as a measuring stick to this, their fourth full-length release, but it's unnecessary. For the first time in their 13 year existence, they have released a dynamic, challenging, and extremely listenable record. I don't consider that a knock on their previous output. More, it's a comment on how they've managed to synthesize all their previous endeavors.

Here, you'll find tracks like "Chinese Whispers" and "Gold Teeth on a Bum," which seem to be a continuation and progression of the ideas and melodies found in "Milk Lizard" from '07's "Ire Works." "Widower," which is probably the most emotional song they've ever written... and includes some brilliant piano interplay between Weinman and guest musician Mike Garson (David Bowie). "Parasitic Twins," a song that, in parts, wouldn't be out of place on an A Perfect Circle record, and in other parts evokes 70's rock. The guitar solo at the end makes me think "Houses of the Holy" era Zeppelin.

And then there's this:



About 1:50 in, I was kind of expecting them to do some improv here, as it reminded me of some of their live sets, but it goes in a different direction. This is probably my favorite track on the record so far.

The most notable improvement here is the vocals. Greg has always had the dimensions. The ability (See: Spylacopa). But this is the first record where he really makes his mark, and it makes a big difference on the song writing end.

I recommend this to anyone who likes crisp musicianship, experimentation, and unpredictability. You can get it here: http://e-shop.season-of-mist.com/en/catalog/show/22675 that's the big package, but there are cheaper options if you're like me and have no money.

Movie Review: "Gegen Die Wand/Head-On"

"Gegen Die Wand/Head-On (US title)"

Written and Directed by Fatih Akin

With: Sibel Kekilli and Birol Ünel

I have tremendous respect for German director Fatih Akin. From a substantial standpoint, I believe he does what most of the best filmmakers do. He doesn't moralize. He doesn't instruct his audience, demanding judgment or teasing feelings forth one way or another. If there is any manipulation, it is very subtle.

So, I was blown away by "The Edge of Heaven" and was informed that "Head-On" is even better. I agree. Both films are similar in style, formula, and theme, but what is particularly powerful about the film I'm reviewing here is, and here's what I don't bring up often: how it made me feel.

More on that.

Cahit and Sibel are two different people with only one two things in common: they are crazy, and they are Turks living in a German world. Now Cahit, who has lost his wife and has attempted suicide by driving his vehicle into a wall, is a very assimilated, very drugs (mostly alcohol) and rock & roll kind of guy. Sibel seems to come out of nowhere (with no expository info except for maybe allowing the viewer to infer that perhaps she's attempted suicide a few times) and demand that he marry her. He thinks this crazy, and doesn't so much verbalize it as shrug her off. He eventually takes her for a drink, where she again entreats him to marry her: "I cook, I clean, I like to fuck." And when she, in a cry for attention, tries to kill herself in front of him (in that very feminine, "I'll show you, I'll slit my wrists!" sort of way), and they later get kicked off a city bus (largely for being noisy, but more probably for being Turkish and announcing it), the courtship seems to end where it began.

But...

Eventually he agrees. The scene where he and his "uncle" meet her family is interesting in that Cahit is so obviously not comfortable. He is taking part in a charade in which he has ceded all power to Sibel. The funny part is that he can't even keep his lie straight, and his Turkish, as noted by Sibel's brother, is awful. Perhaps this is sabotage. Perhaps it's nerves because he believes that if he fails, the crazy bitch'll really kill herself. Whatever it is, I'm already with this guy. In for the long haul.

So they marry; Cahit is fucking a hairdresser/barfly who hooks Sibel up with a job, and Sibel, in her youthful ways, enjoys clubbing and fucking random guys she meets. Their lives are shared only by law and by the four walls they sleep within. The beauty is that there's this tension building between them. It's a definite arc. Of a natural kind of romantic tension. The kind where they are both reluctant to realize something more intimate. Even to the point where when they decide to finally consummate, she can't follow through. This creates a suppressed kind of longing in Cahit.

I identify with Cahit as he slowly, unbroodingly falls in love with Sibel. You're quiet, but you don't stare out of windows on rainy days, or make indie music mixtapes or profess feelings in quirky ways, no. This shit's for real. No "aww" moments here. He sits in his flat while she's out one night, shooting a bb gun, looking at their wedding photo. Probably wishing it all wasn't so fucking fake. Okay, maybe that's a tad quirky, and brooding, but not intentionally. If there's a particular reason for it, Akin doesn't bother to spell it out or accentuate it through repitition. It just exists. Fine. She's young, beautiful, and nurturing in a way that is welcome for any lonely man. That is, if you don't mind your shithole being redecorated to accommodate her aesthetic needs. I mean, after all, shithole is the operative term. As damaged as she is, who could not appreciate her?

One night, Cahit, plaintive and drunk (as if the two were disjunct), ends up killing one of Sibel's lovers. The guy is bad mouthing her. She's not around. He knocks him the fuck out. Guy doesn't wake up. Now, normally I'm of the opinion that violence is bullshit, but I felt very sad for Cahit. This wasn't some random expression of machismo, it was the act of a man in the throes of drunken passion.

As one would expect, it all goes down hill for the both of them. He goes to jail, Sibel's family in Germany are disgraced by her, so she flees to Turkey where she works in a hotel managed by her sister. She does drugs. Gets raped. Gets beat up in a dark alley of Istanbul. Shit's getting hopelessly depressing fast.

When Cahit manages his way out of the clink somehow, he endeavors to find his love. Her life has changed. She has a child, and presumably a new life. There's not a lot of focus on this, because now the film is about Cahit... as it really always has been. The most powerful scene to me is near the end where he finds Sibel's sister, who refuses to tell him of her whereabouts. For some reason, and I don't know if this was written into the script, or if the actors decided to throw in their own bit of improv, but they switch to ENGLISH. Up until that moment, it was all Turkish and German, and then out of nowhere, Cahit explains his feelings en breve and that was all it needed. So little said so much. English, so denounced in some linguistic circles as being simple and inexpressive, grabbed me by the throat. He. Fucking. Loves. Her.


So beautiful.

Of note: I have talked very little of the compositional make-up of the film. The cinematography is beautiful but understated. A lot of beauty comes from the settings. In particular, there's a continuous musical underpinning filmed in front of a seaside cityscape.