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poetry

Last Call – Dylan Thomas Rages

November 25, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“You think your self-destruction is grand theater…. You’re just a performer in your own pathetic vaudeville show.”

Legend has it that on November 3, 1953, famed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas spent the day at The White Horse Tavern in New York. When he got back to his hotel, he claimed to have had 18 double whiskeys, which he considered a record. Soon he collapsed into a coma from which he did not recover. Last Call is a dark, yet poetic fictive version of that last day (and via flashbacks his family life and the weeks leading up to that fateful day). It should be noted that this is not meant as a biographical film in any factual sense. This is much more about trying to capture “the truth of the person” rather than events.

Thomas (Rhys Ifans), one of the most influential poets of the 20th century, is in the US for a lecture tour. At various colleges he is worshipped by the crowds (mostly young women). Yet, he is far from happy. He is a mixture of insecurity, narcissism, and alcoholism. On the day in question, he goes to the White Horse at 9:00 am and orders a double. When it comes he begins to tell the bartender Carlos (Rodrigo Santoro) and others at the bar that drinks need to have names to be more than just a drink. So with each of the 18 double shots that Carlos pours for him through the day and night, he christens it with some aspect of life. Drink number one is innocence, number two is enthusiasm, and he continues hitting on hope, faith, disappointment, death, resurrection, success, disappointment, and many other bits of wisdom. As he names each drink, he pontificates to those present about each aspect of life—and especially about how his life is playing out as a tragedy.

Between these various scenes in the bar, we flashback (and occasionally forward) to episodes either on the tour or with his wife in Wales. (One of the affectations of the film is that everything in the US is in black and white, everything in Wales is in color. That leads to a few interesting hybrid scenes when he hallucinates his wife, who is still in Wales, speaking to him in the bar.) In those scenes various supporting characters show us much of the failure in Thomas’s life.

Writer/director Steven Bernstein say the film is “a kind of long poem”. Other than when Thomas is reading his poems on the tour, the words all come from Bernstein, but they are written with the same kind of free verse cadence as we might expect from Dylan Thomas. We first note the poetic aspect of the film when in the first scene we hear Dr. Felton (John Malkovich) tell his friend “I’m not one for poetry.” Yet as he explains why he doesn’t care for poems, he is being very poetic. Bernstein fills the film with such poetic language.

There is also a bit of visual poetry, most noticeable in scenes where Carlos dances (once with a mop in the background as Thomas speechifies and later a bit of a tango with a young fan of Thomas’s) or during a scene where Dr. Felton performs an autopsy on Thomas as various onlookers pass out.

The use of color scenes amidst all the black and white scenes is also a kind of visual poetry. Those color scenes, all set in Wales, reflect Thomas’s concept of home and love. Yet, it is something he struggles to accept and to give. Those scenes include times of intimacy with his wife, but also of distance, such as his wife’s letters to him begging him to send money for the family.

While the film shows us a variety of relationships that Thomas has, for me the most interesting side character is Carlos. He serves not just as the one who keeps filling Thomas’s glass, but as a foil to his ideas. Thomas obviously thinks of him as an uneducated servant. But it turns out he is very well educated, quoting Shakespeare and Aquinas freely. While others look at Thomas with awe, Carlos sees him as a fraud. He tells Thomas that for all his words, there’s nothing there. For all his fame and success as a writer, he is a failure as a human being.

There is a certain irony of watching Thomas seemingly drink himself to death. One of his most famous poems is “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, which speaks of fighting against impending death. (We hear the poem being read on the lecture tour.) Yet the man we see in this film seems to be challenging death to take him. In one scene with Dr. Felton, the doctor asks him “Do you want to die?” over and over. It is a question Thomas fails to answer. Unlike the words of Dylan Thomas in the poem, the character in this film is far from raging “against the dying of the light”. He rages, but seemingly at life itself.

Last Call is showing in select theaters.

Photos courtesy of K Street Pictures.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: biopic, Black and White, poetry

I’m Thinking of Ending Things – And Thinking and Thinking

September 15, 2020 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

How best to describe I’m Thinking of Ending Things? The easy answer is that it’s a Charlie Kaufman film. (He both writes and directs.) His scripts (cf. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Synecdoche, New York) are always mind games (not only for the audience, but for the characters as well). He leads us through a twisted perception of reality. He challenges us to think about what identity means. He challenges us to think about what reality means. He challenges us to think about what life means. I would categorize him as an existentialist, but one who might befuddle Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jessie Buckley as Young Woman, Jesse Plemons as Jake in Im Thinking Of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

The story centers on a young woman (Jessie Buckley) and her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) on a road trip to his childhood home to introduce her to his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis). The young woman (in voice over) speaks of a thought in her mind of ending things—specifically, her relationship with Jake, which she thinks is going nowhere. As they drive through the snow, they talk about many things, sometimes in great depth.

Jesse Plemons as Jake, Jessie Buckley as Young Woman, Toni Collette as Mother, David Thewlis as Father in Im Thinking Of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

Perhaps you’ve noticed I haven’t told you the young woman’s name. It keeps changing. At various times she is called Lucy, Louisa, Lucia, and possible Amy. Her clothes change from time to time as well. And she is studying painting, quantum psychics (or physics), neurology, and/or genealogy. The disjointedness of her identity is just one part of the intentional confusion of the film. The young woman also sees the characters at different times of their lives. There is a bit of a dream/nightmare quality to what the young woman is experiencing.

As all of this plays out on the road, at the house, and on the road again going home, the discussions touch on poetry, musical theater, physics, cinematic history and criticism, and David Foster Wallace. People deliver very long quotations from a wide range of sources. And finally, we arrive at an empty school in the midst of a blizzard where we see a pas-de-deux based on Oklahoma in the hallways while the janitor (is it an old age Jake?) cleans the floors.

Guy Boyd as Janitor in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

Yes, that is a lot of input for a film. There are lots of moving parts in this invention. If I were to try to look at this film in depth, it would require a dozen or so viewings, plus various trips to the library to search out some of the quotations and people who are mentioned or alluded to. It would end up a term paper (or maybe a dissertation) with several chapters. But of course, most of us won’t be going down that rabbit hole. Instead we can just enjoy the rabbit hole that is this film.

Jessie Buckley as Young Woman in Im Thinking Of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

Like I said, it’s a Charlie Kaufman film. We know going in that things will get strange—that we may not know what is really happening. And what we experiencing and how we interpret what is happening is really what Kaufman is trying to get at. Our reactions are the real point of watching a film such as this. Our perceptions, our feelings, our sense of self are really what this film is ultimately about.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is available on Netflix.

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Netflix, Reviews Tagged With: based on a novel, cerebral, existentialism, philosophy, poetry, road trip

A Quiet Passion – Emily Dickinson and Spiritual Contemplation

April 21, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“God knows what is in my heart. He doesn’t need me to be in pews to remind him.”

While watching A Quiet Passion I was struck by how well Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) would fit in with today’s “spiritual but not religious” sentiment. Her thoughts (and poetry) were often on thoughts of significant theological import, but she seemed to want nothing to do with any outward participation in church.

Death and eternity are a constant presence and topic in her thoughts. This gives some people the idea that she is a morbid writer. However, in the film we are reminded that death was handled in a much different way in that time than today. It was the norm that people would die at home with family. It was a part of life, and a part of life that seemed to fascinate Dickinson.

The 19th Century American poet was something of an unknown at the time. After all, women were not expected to be writers. Yet she spent most of her life as a semi-recluse, spending her time on her poems, most of which only came to light after her death. This film gives us an overview of her life, from school (where she begins to show her ambivalence toward religion) through her time where she always lived with her family. She is content to be with the family of people she loves. Thoughts of marriage and a new family don’t appeal to her.

Dickinson is portrayed in this film as witty and intelligent. Early on she makes friends with other women and they have wonderful conversations. Dickinson is shown to be something of a proto-feminist. (She notes at one point, when slavery is being discussed that “gender is slavery”.)

But as the film progresses she retreats more and more into her home—and even her room. When a potential suitor comes, she only speaks to him from the door to her room, where he cannot even see her. As time passes she becomes more melancholy. She also becomes more judgmental and cruel in how she relates to those (even in her family) who do not live up to her ideals.

From a faith perspective, of interest in this film are the religious themes that seem so important to Emily, even though she does not want the trappings of the church—indeed, often rebels against anything churchly. The themes she brings up besides death and eternity, as mentioned above, include sin, salvation, and the interplay of atheism, agnosticism, and humanism. It is not that she was irreligious and anti-religious—many of her poems have overtly religious themes—but her spiritual musing are not what was common in the church of her time. However, there may be many today who find within her spiritual understandings something they can identify with.

Photos ccourtesy of Music Box Films

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: biography, Cynthia Nixon, Emily Dickinson, Keith Carradine, poetry

Neruda – Poet on the Run

December 16, 2016 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Pablo Larraín has started to become known to American filmgoers with stories about Chile’s history and social issues such as No and The Club. (He is soon to become much better known here for directing Jackie.) His latest Chilean focused film is Neruda about the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and how the Cold War played out in Chile.

neruda-luis-gnecco

Besides being a famous poet, Neruda (Luis Gnecco) was also a politician in post-war Chile. As a Communist member of the Senate, he was disappointed when the president (who came to power with the help of the Communists) made connections with the United States. After denouncing the president, Neruda was impeached and ordered arrested. When he and his wife, painter Deia del Carril (Mercedes Morán) go into hiding, Police Prefect Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal) sets off in pursuit. The cat and mouse chase becomes increasingly more dangerous for Neruda, but he toys with Peluchonneau, leaving clues along the way. At the same time, Neruda is seeing the life of the common people and writes much of Canto General, his famed volume of poetry. In Europe his story becomes the focus of people like Picasso who see him as an example of the oppression of the arts.

neruda-gael-garcia-bernal-left-and-diego-munoz-right

Americans often have a monolithic view of Communism. We think of the Soviets and Chinese. But South America has had a long history of Communism that from time to time comes to power in various countries. They have also had right-wing governments that have repressed the Communists. Neruda reminds us that many of the intellectual elite favored Communism, especially during the early years of the Cold War. Neruda was essentially a country club Communist. He was upper class, educated, well known. He may have thought his position would provide him safety, but it did not. The world of workers he saw while avoiding the police and trying to escape Chile was much different that the comfortable life he had led. Yet there is no “aha” moment of transformation either for him or for Peluchonneau.

I expect this film probably plays better in Chile than in America. Chileans would have a much better understanding of the political swings of their history and how this film speaks not only of what happened at that time, but how it may reflect more recent events. But Larraín is a master of connecting us with a given time and social zeitgeist. While I haven’t seen Jackie yet, I expect that will prove the case in that film as well. For those who see that and find his work interesting, Neruda can serve as a good introduction to his broader work.

Neruda is Chile’s official entry for Oscar consideration.

Photos courtesy of The Orchard.

 

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: AFIFest, Chile, Communism, Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Official Oscar entry, Pablo Lorrain, poetry

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