I Don't Want To Sleep Alone, Man in the Chair, The Elephant and the Sea
There is a running motif in I Don't Want To Sleep Alone that best describes the theme of the movie which the story and its characters revolve closely around in a nearly plotless environment. The motif is hands, which express in a physical sense the altruistic nature and potential that people possess inside them. This nature encompasses acts such as the kindness of a stranger in need, the care given by close loved ones, and even extends to submission to god by praying. Tsai Ming-Liang's movie is about this humility being part of what makes us human, and expands further on this theme by showing characters take this humility at their worst -- taking kindness for granted or having it expose jealousy in others, and more significantly, the fact that the way we give is never entirely altruistic and there is always the expectation of return.
The camerawork is very Ozu-like in the way it cuts from scene to scene with little moving shots, and mostly from a low angle. This makes the characters seem closer and more human, and let's us focus very intently at their actions and dialogue. There is a truthfulness to shooting it in this barebones way, which still allows for some beautiful portrait like shots. There is little dialogue in this film, since it relies very heavily on character movements and the framing of the camera around these movements. In this way, it is a slow steady snapshot of interactions and isolated characters acting upon eachother in their environments under the instinctual need to care, but again for the sake of reciprocation at some later date.
I would be interested in seeing more of Ming-Liang's work as this was the first I have watched of his. I really liked his deliberate yet subtle style which requires some work on the part of the viewer, but rewards very well for that effort.
Man in the Chair in contrast was completely unenjoyable. About 5 or 10 minutes into the movie I knew I wanted to leave but didn't have the gumption to get right up and do it. Rather than encapsulate my thoughts into a boring paragraph or two on why I hated it, I thought instead it might be more useful to list things out as part of a larger conceptual topic of Things I Vow Never To Do As A Director:
- Make my movie hip. This includes excessive use of the same kind of boring music (e.g., indie rock), long sequences enabling songs to be played out in their entirety against abstract images, the use of music by famous bands to enhance my work, or the use of music to force a mood on a scene that doesn't exist in the scene by itself. This also includes the usage of any slang specific to a certain decade (unless the decade plays a specific role in the movie's overall story), and any use of brands, products, or other imagery to denote either a certain type of style or a period of time that is supposed to be deemed "cool". I would like the films I make to be timeless (see also: review of Rocket Science).
- Use excessive overproduction in either the camerawork or editing room (e.g., fast zoom, jump-cuts, use of abstract fx) that fail to have anything to do with individual scenes or the overall movie, or force my viewers to take specific notice of them (see also: Eagle vs. Shark and claymation sequences).
- Make gratuitous references to self, film industry or director influences to boast industry cred.
- Use a poor script.
- Use the dialogue of a character to force my personal agendas in such a way that compromises the integrity of the character and overall movie.
- Use poor actors.
- Treat viewers as if they are stupid (see also: poor script) through oversimplification of scene construction.
Perhaps I will add more to this working list as things evolve throughout the fest.
2 Days in Paris, the film I was originally scheduled to see afterwards, was a complete bust. It turns out this was a gala screening which requires a special ticket, and Full Series Passholders once again get screwed out of another little "extra." Tickets were mostly sold out at that point too, so instead I went to see The Elephant and the Sea.
Any hopes I had about seeing something to bring me out of my movie slump this past week were completely torn apart by this movie. It was completely awful. One of the interesting things about it is that it is from Malaysia and the director really tries very hard to emulate Tsai Ming-Liang's style with the use of steady shots, low camera angles, simple scenes drawn out, lots of use of natural lighting and little dialogue. Having watched Ming-Liang's newest earlier in the day, it was a good reference point to compare the two movies together. Ming Jin Woo's film seems to go mechanically where Ming-Liang does, but the feelings and thematic elements are lost. In I Don't Want To Sleep Alone I felt watching it a very strong sense that I was seeing pieces of a larger puzzle or an overall concept. Elephant and the Sea instead felt like simple snapshots. I could visually see where ties could be created, and there was a bit of a storyline following throughout, but none of it really made much sense at all. I actually shut my eyes for long portions of this movie and didn't miss anything.
Audience Watch: There were a handful of walkouts during I Don't Want To Sleep Alone and another smaller handful during Man in the Chair, and even still more during The Elephant and the Sea. I'm really starting to suspect something is up with this year's fest. Either I've been picking the wrong movies, or there has been a serious drop in programming quality over the past year.