Noriko's Dinner Table

This is not the best made film. It feels like a pulp film, inexpensively put together with questionable acting skills. The cinematography wasn’t excellent and even when the shots were carefully thought out, no magic displayed itself. But it was one of those rare films that, after it was finished, made me sit and think about the themes of the film. No matter what the technical problems of the film, the plot, themes and development weren’t among them.

This film acts as a companion to Suicide Club, which I have never seen, but the events of that film are referred to in this prequel. Can it really be called a prequel, since it shows event both before and after the previously made film?

Anyway, we’ve got Noriko, who is unhappy at home. She feels that she could find happiness on the internet and then she thinks she can find happiness living in Tokyo with her internet companions. But her friend, Ueno Station 54, AKA Kumiko, isn’t interested in helping Noriko find happiness, but to change society.

After Noriko runs away, her sister Yuka, puzzles out her own unhappiness and eventually pursues Noriko to Tokyo, only to find that she is no longer Noriko, but Mitsuko, an actress paid to act like missing family members to those who could pay for the service.

A heavy curtain of mystery weighs over the film, especially over the first two thirds. What is the real purpose of this group? Is there a Suicide Club or not? If not, why the mass suicides? What is Kumiko’s real purpose? There are answers to these questions, but not without our effort to piece them together along with Tetsuzo, N and Y’s father.

This is a more than worthy movie, with equal parts pulp and social commentary. 

Jay of the Dackal... wait, no... Day of the Jackal... yeah, that's it

One of the most enjoyably detailed films I have had pleasure to witness. Full of the kinds of realistic but intense specifics that make up a good thriller. This is a procedural told from two sides: the point of view of the assassin attempting to kill Charles de Gaulle, the hero of France, and the many officials and marvelous detective trying to stop the assassination before it takes place.

The plot is intricate, but never contrived and is never dull. Highly recommended.

What Controls A Person? (Memento)

80. Memento (2001)

Leonard, an amnesiac, wakes up every morning having to learn the basic focus of his life: his wife was killed and the man responsible is still at large.  Leonard must track down the man and kill him, for her sake.  As the morning wears on, he discovers the notes, tattoos and clues he has left himself to discover the attacker.

As a unit, the human race is powerful, able to change the surface of the earth.  As an individual, a human being is weak.  Yes, a single human being can be amazingly creative or destructive.   single human can change the flow of history, potentially.  But any plans a human can make can be disrupted by another person.  Each person is limited by their weakness.  And if another knows a person’s weakness, in detail, they can manipulate them to their own devises.  If a person’s weakness is lust, those who have the ability to sate that lust have complete power over them.  If a person’s weakness is fear, those who manipulate fear successfully have complete control over them.

And if Leonard's weakness is obsession, the one who feeds that obsession knowingly has complete control over him.  It is not the obsession that controls him, but the one who knows how to use the obsession to make him do as they please.

To understand and use a person’s weakness is the ability to control them.

Absolutely No Theme To This Group of Reviews

I've just started listening to Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews and am impress how many reviews they can punch out in such a short period of time.  I do this myself, but not as entertainingly as them.  Still, let's talk about the films I've seen this last week:

Do all the situps you want-- the film won't get tighter

Limitless (2011)
Lots of irritating edits, a meandering plot that doesn't go anywhere and the moral seems to be that if you're the smartest person in the universe, you can become rich, powerful and eff off anyone you want. Still some nice tension, sometimes. Mostly forgettable.  3/5

Kidman and Eckhart looking delightfully normal

Rabbit Hole (2010)
Amazing performances.  I don't think I've ever seen Kidman or Eckhart has ever given more realistic performances.  Every time I see them I know they are acting-- but not here.  It was wonderful to see them become these troubled characters.   The pacing and arc is almost perfect.  But still, the movie seemed pretty small.  We didn't see their anguish just after the death, we only see the grieving and the process their marriage goes through when it is subtle and seemingly without an end.  Brilliant, but I just didn't care enough, I guess.  Perhaps I should have.  Should I feel guilt about not caring enough?  4/5

Human existence is shocking-- even eating!

Life In a Day (2011)
This is the obvious choice for the winner of "Top Five films To Show To An Alien".  If you want to know about humanity, here it is.  It's all real, all ordinary and yet, somehow, extraordinary at the same time.  It is beautiful and disturbing, shocking and touching, dull and busy.  In the end, I felt that I spent an hour and a half watching cool videos on You Tube.  Lots of interesting stuff, but I don't know that any of it will stick with me next week.  4/5

Barbara Stanwyck involved in criminal activity-- running through a stop sign!

Witness to Murder (1954)
I watched this for Noirvember, but I was so tired on Nov 30, I finished the film in December.  Me falling asleep wasn't the fault of the film, though.  It was so much fun.  Barbara Stanwyck as a woman who witnesses a murder (in the first minute of the film!)  She turns all Rear Window on us, but with way more doubts than Jimmy Stewart.  George Sanders (Shere Khan!) is the killer who is causing doubts upon her sanity, both with the police and with herself!  There's some great points about feminism here (like when the policewoman is chasing the killer and then suddenly disappears so the MALE detective can fight with him!), and some Hitchcockian turns (but Vertigo is a few years later).  Still, great film.  4/5

Grant (looking aged) and Hepburn (looking eternally young)  in Beyond Sunset

Charade (1963)
This is not a thriller, in my mind, but a comedy.  Cary and Aubry just keep the sit com rolling and I haven't laughed out loud at a film for a while.  Just for fun, James Coburn, Walter Mattheau, and George Kennedy are there as the clueless bad guys.  My favorite bit is where the boy goes up to James Coburn and asks if he is a cowboy, like in the movies.  The film is so busy having fun, I don't care if the plot is a little confusing or the end doesn't make any sense.  It's like most Bond films-- the joy is in the journey.  4/5

By the way, all of these films can be watched on Netflix Instant, so if you have Netflix, you have no excuse.  And, yes, I do rate a lot of movies something other than a 4, it just happened to be a particularly good week for film.  My chooser ain't broken yet!

A Dark and Stormy Night, #3: Favorites

Here are some favorite thrillers of mine, as defined in the previous post.  No spoilers are included.  I hope I can encourage you to watch some or all of these classics.

Dial “M” for Murder

A cuckolded husband plots to rid his wife (who had an affair with a mystery writer) and obtain her fortune with the help of a college “friend”.  I recently watched this Hitchcock-directed classic, and it is an excellent example of a traditional formula of the thriller genre.   The husband is so smooth and conniving, Grace Kelly so beautiful and helpless, and the detective smart and manipulative.  It all takes place in a single apartment, there are five characters, a murder in the first act and new twists in the second act.  There is nothing exceptional about Hitchcock’s directing, and there is little innovative in the story itself.  But as an introduction to the genre, it is pitch perfect. 3.5/5

Deathtrap

Two playwrights of thrillers, two women (one a psychic) and a lawyer plot and scheme for fame and fortune in a house full of weapons. One of the greatest things about Deathtrap is that it teaches us about the genre itself.  It stars Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve as writers whose plots become horrifyingly real.  This is probably the cleverest of scripts in the genre, written by Ira Levin who wrote the original novels of The Stepford Wives and Rosemary’s Baby.  The movie is so self-referential it twists upon itself and mocks itself at every turn.  Such wonderful fun. 4.5/5

Sleuth

A cuckolded mystery novelist plots to get rid of his wife… by having his replacement steal his precious jewels?  This last week I watched Sleuth, which inspired me to write this series on thrillers.  It is an excellent thriller about a plot to steal, or to murder, or to humiliate… what actually occurs is hard to determine.  What is clear, however, is that Laurence Olivier and a young Michael Caine are at their best in acting.  They both ham it up, but neither at the cost of the other—rather they play off of each other so well that it is clear this film was a joy for them to work together. 4/5

A note: Sleuth is difficult to find, as it has not been released on DVD.  However, it is available, as a whole, on YouTube: 

My favorite thriller is:

Rear Window

A journalist is stuck in a wheelchair in his apartment (and Grace Kelly) with nothing to do but peep into his neighbors windows—but he suspects one neighbor of murder!  It could be questioned as to whether Rear Window even follows the formula.  But I think it does as long as you don’t mind bending a couple rules.  The two acts aren’t so clear, and most of the action doesn’t take place in the apartment our hero is trapped in.  Yet this is the least intellectual, most psychological of thrillers.  What happens in the bottom apartment is simply one act in a whole human menagerie, where a whole host of stories take place.  If the various apartments are red herrings, they are the most fulfilling of them.  And what happens to our three “heroes” becomes important to us.  I believe that Rear Window is the most perfect thriller ever made, and it gives me great pleasure to watch each and every time.  5/5

A Dark And Stormy Night, #2: Thriller

Despite this horrific experience, and the tremendous risk to my psyche, I watched other thrillers of this genre over the years and found I enjoy them immensely.  They are highly intellectual and rarely do they contain superior acting, for rarely is the actor called upon to display more subtlety than badly hidden jealousy.

One cannot make such carefully plotted dramas out of thin air. There are rules to these thrillers.  First of all, the space must be limited.  At first it was because most of the thrillers were originally performed in the theatre, but  later it was a standard of itself.   The space could be a single room, like the Spider’s Web, an apartment or a house,  or perhaps a manor, but one cannot just be wandering about the countryside namby-pamby like that Mr. Holmes.  The cast is also limited.  No more than eight members, and it could possibly be limited to two.  It has been mentioned that the classic number is five. 

Of course, there must be a murder, or at least the plotting or suspicion of a murder.  And there must be detection.  The putting together of the pieces is traditionally done by a detective, whether of the police or private.  Sometimes the plot is puzzled together by another party, but it is done through many twists, some surprises and multiple red herrings.

One more rule: there must be two acts.  Again, this is a device borrowed from theatre, but it gives some structure.  In the first act, the murder is committed and the basic plot is revealed.  In the second act, the original act comes to fruition, twists multiply, and, in the best thrillers,  the plot goes in directions we never would have suspected.

The thriller might seem stilted to some with so many rules.  But the best writers can make the tightest sonnet seem free of all restrictions.  Even so with the best thrillers.  In my next post, I will give spoiler-free descriptions of my favorites of the genre.

A Dark and Stormy Night, #1: Horror

The house was comfortable even for the family of five who lived in it.  It had four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room with a stereo system, a rarely used dining room and a family room with the central appliance: a television.  That was the object of my downfall, the focus of my destruction.

It was 1983 and cable television was still a nifty idea.  I had just graduated from high school and I had some time before I entered college, so I spent it watching television, for the most part, my favorite pastime.  I was a little addicted to television.  If it was on in the room, my eyes were glued to it, no matter how dull the video display was.  When the TV Guide appeared in our mailbox every Friday, I memorized its contents for every channel from 3pm to 11pm for the next week.  In this way, the rest of my family never had to consult the reference.  They just consulted me.  This was not a problem, or at least not yet.  Rather, this only led to the fateful evening.

Mysteries weren’t my favorite genre.  I preferred animation and comedy: Looney Tunes and MASH.  I did a lot of reading of Science Fiction, and mysteries entered my interest through the back door of Isaac Asimov.  Agatha Christie wasn’t unknown to me, but I’d not read a single one of her books.  In our new version of TV Guide I noted that on one of the newer channels we’d just obtained called Home Box Office there was a showing of an Agatha Christie play, The Spider’s Web.   I shrugged and  decided to try it out.

It was a locked room mystery.  Seven people could have committed the murder, and they all had excellent motives.  One by one they are accused and they all deny.  Their alibies are studied and found wanting.  I am the detective, and in my mind I play with different theories.  One is found wanting, so I  develop another.  The show is about to end, and the murder is soon to be revealed.  I lean forward to see if my final theory, the gem I had been polishing for the last twenty minutes, is as priceless as I consider it to be.

And then the screen turns to snow.  The cable had cut out.

The calm house is torn by a bloodcurdling screen as I rush the set.  I switch channels, frantically, seeking life.  

No good.  Every channel had shut down.  And the television remained inert, frozen for a whole hour.  

Meanwhile, I sat there, stunned, staring at the white and black pattern, near comatose.