Art as Politics, Bach through Portabella

Pere Portabella's The Silence Before Bach is why I live in New York City. Whenever I feel a little lost in the big city and dream of living somewhere greener with cheaper rent, I remind myself that I live in a city where I can go to the local movie theater and see something as wonderful as Portabella's Bach.

A lyrical look at the life and music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, the film explores the relationship between image and sound. Portabella gives us Bach's music on many instruments, some classical, some modern. The images that accompany the sound appear at first to only be connected through the simple relation of the image to the sound, but as the picture progresses the narrative fragments slowly start to connect, revealing a hidden portrait of the composer and of how music plays a role in life today.

For a film filled with sound, it's actually very quiet, it's simple and never shouts the answer to the audience. The opening images are of a barren loft with a self-propelled player piano that gives us Bach's “Goldberg” Variations. From there on we are treated to scenes of a man assuming the role of the actual Bach, a subway filled with string instruments, a horse dancing and present day truck drivers, one expressing his love for Bach on his harmonica.

What really stood out for me, was the film's ability to capture the pure beauty of music, specifically how Bach created something that changed humanity forever. In doing so, Bach has taken on the role of a political person, of someone who is working to overcome the negative in the world. Albert Camus wrote about this idea, that an artist who creates something beautiful, who gives something to the world, is as political as someone at a protest. He contends that authentic political existence can be about defying the things that are working to destroy humanity by connecting us with something that embraces it.

Bach and the many artists that fill the pages of history, have given us this gift and Pere Portabella has continued that vision, that action, by creating a document that puts Bach's music in a contemporary context for today's audiences. The film plays in New York for only 2 more days, so if you live here check it out asap.

If you don't, I highly recommended that you take the time to watch the clip below, sitting with it will give you a taste of how inspirational the film is. They may even encourage you to contact his production company, Films 59, to request the film in your area.

The chances of the film coming to DVD soon is not very likely. Portabella has had strong thoughts on home viewings and how they change the context of a work - although rumors of talks with Chicago distribution company Facets have given me some hope.

Watching the Unwatchable

a trip to the theater : Margot at the Wedding
(directed by Noah Baumbach)

One of the reasons we go to the movies is to experience things we wouldn't normally get to experience : a lifestyle, an event or a place etc. Part of the process of experiencing these things through watching a film is having a protagonist that you can align yourself with, that you can relate to in some way, so as to go through what they go through in the film. So when a film is stock full of folks that are so despicable that you can't relate to them, it's sometimes a lonely day at the theater.

Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding is one of those films that requires you to take the journey all by yourself. The main characters are all East Coasters whose background has afforded them the ability to spend their time thinking of only themselves. Their self absorption and associated neurosis makes the entire Margot crew seem inherently unlikable, and with the exception of Margot's husband (played by John Turturro) and her son (played by Zane Pais) all involved are in need of a reality check or at least a lesson in keeping quiet ( although I suppose all the fun would be lost is they kept quiet, for here we don't get to travel with the characters, but instead we get to laugh and cringe at their dysfunctionality).

Films like these always leave me feeling a tad mixed up inside, much more so than films that have more disturbing content. I've seen Fatih Akin's Head On at least 10 times, adore all of Fassbinder and even enjoy revisiting Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves now and then, so I'm not turned off by discomfort.

But while films like Head On and Breaking the Waves may deal with rougher issues than something like Margot at the Wedding, the main characters, no matter how messed up, are still better people deep down than I suspect Nicole Kidman's Margot is and ultimately I care about them despite the mistakes they make during our time together. This being said, I may not care for Margot, but the more I think on it, the more I enjoy Margot at the Wedding, I may have made the journey on my own, but it was a rewarding one nonetheless.

15 hours of Fassbinder

a trip to the theater (museum) : Berlin Alexanderplatz (episode 1)

(directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

Fassbinder fans who live in New York City have a lot to be excited about these days. MOMA's PS1 has an amazing exibit devoted to Fassbinder's 13 episode + epilogue Berlin Alexanderplatz. The exhibit consists of one theater space that plays 6 continuous hours of the series everyday, 14 mini-rooms that loop each individual episode and one large room where each episode plays simultaneously without subtitles next to each other. Not to mention the large amount of stills, storyboards and notes that drape the walls surrounding the viewing areas.













On my first visit to the exhibit, I wandered around in awe for quite awhile before episode 1 restarted in it's room. Thus far Berlin Alexanderplatz seems to be classic Fassbinder in many ways - the stylization, the music and the political mixed with the melodramatic. There does however, appear to be something different happening with the story of Franz Biberkof. I felt a supernatural or dreamlike element in what appears to be a very realistic story. This may be because of the strange lighting that defines the story: (click on the photo to read an explanation)

Overall episode 1 did a good job of giving back story without flashbacks or narration and also of setting up the different elements of character and place. It was fun to see "Fassbinder regulars" popping up all over place and i was especialluy pleased to see Brigitte Mira (Mother Kusters and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) and Hanna Schygulla (The Marriage of Maria Braun, Effi Briest and Lili Marleen) enter the story. The main character, Franz Biberkof, is a man seeking redemption but also a man who can't control his impulses. Thus far things are looking up for our "hero" but of course this is Fassbinder and episode 1 is appropriately titled "The Punishment Begins" - I for one can't wait for his world to start twisting.


Most of all though, I am excited that the exhibit allows repeat viewings - when you pay 1 admission you get a pass that lets you in as many times as you like. I'm hoping to figure out the timing on the theater space so i can watch episode 2 in all its glory.

a trip to the theater : eastern promises

(directed by david cronenberg)

i found my love of david cronenberg in college, when i was assigned to interview him for the film section of our school paper. in preparation for the interview i watched almost all of his films in a weeks time.

perhaps it was my intense immersion into his world or maybe it was just an instinctive connection, but something in his films clicked with me. on the surface this may seem slightly disturbing (as his films are usually quite disturbed in content and visuals) but really i think it's something more natural. cronenberg's films almost always deal with the body and focus on physical connectivity with machines, other people or fantasy. and when it comes down to it, the one thing that connects all people is the body.

his latest film, eastern promises is no different. on the surface, a classic mafia story, the film slowly reveals itself to be a meditation on the intimate nature of violence and how our bodies not only interact with this violence but how the physical marks we carry tell our stories. full of homoerotic imagery, body art and visceral scenes of bodily destruction, cronenberg weaves his characters and their journey with blood and ink to create a great, but understated piece of cinema.

he uses the cliche of genre in a such a controlled way and beautiful way that his film even begins to question "the surface" of what most folks think cinema or a movie is (or what it can be). i never thought i would see cronenberg with such a classic hollywood film, but it works, as he is critiquing what we see and what things appear to be - and who better to present that message to than the masses. it reminds of douglas sirk and how at first all thought his 50's melodramas were nothing but typical and 20 years later everyone realized they were nowhere near typical and that he had managed to get some pretty subversive material into the mainstream. it also doesn't hurt that eastern promises is an amazing well told story with strong performances and an engaging camera.

give a listen and look as the master himself talks about collaboration and working with actors:

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a trip to the theater: the charge of the light brigade,1968 (directed by tony richardson)


lincoln center is in the middle of their woodfall film series that is showcasing works from the studio that changed british cinema in the 60's. with the majority of editing complete on "the evolve documentary" - i was finally able to head uptown to partake in the series.

being that the original 1936 film based on the alfred lloyd tennyson poem is my father's favorite movie, i decided that the film for me to see was tony richardson's 1968 version. also of interest was the fact that vanessa redgrave would be introducing the film.

the mix of styles (animation,19th century) and moods (silly, devastating realism) make the film slightly off balance, but luckily it doesn't so much matter. the charge of the light brigade is a film you see and feel to understand the point..and while there may be moments of confusion about the direct path of the story, perhaps that's the point - as war itself is never without an underlying sense of befuddlement.

here is a small clip of vanessa redgrave and her brother corin talking briefly about what made the film revolutionary - unfortunately (or not) i ran out of memory right as corin launched into a very dramatic monologue of sorts that seemed to deal with acting and the importance of the film....

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a trip to the theater : in between days (directed by so yong kim)

as i sit down to write about this film, it's fitting that right next to me fellow members of my media collective and i are editing a scene for our upcoming documentary with the working title of evolve - it is fitting because the scene we are working on is about a young teenage immigrant and his adolescent experience.

since it played at sundance this past year, many have compared the film to other tales of awkward girls coping with and working through life as an adolescent. and deservingly so, they highlight the strikingly honest performance of jiseon kim in portraying the teenage protagonist. but to simply call so yong kim's film about a young korean girl sorting through teenagerdom a portrait of youthful angst, ignores what really helps to tie the film together, the location of her journey, toronto.

from the opening shot, where the young lady of our story, aimie, tells her absent father about the coldness of toronto, it is clear that where she is, is as relevant as who she is in the story. the brisk moments of voiceover to relay the letters she sends to her father, create the foundation for the plot of aimie's crush on her best friend tran.

it is location that sets her apart as on outsider in terms of language, defines her as a young woman without a father figure and also as having a mother focused only on her educational success and not on her emotional state. these elements make every glance that kim's aimie gives and every move she makes, take on a irreplaceable silent meaning.

the immigrant perspective allows the film to forgo traditional plot points and instead become an observational journey that feels instead of tells. it abandons the overused and too often seen and in turn aimie's story transcends her longing for tran to tell her he likes her and enters into a territory everyone, young and old, can relate to - an unfortunate rarity in films today.

a trip to the theater! : rescue dawn (directed by werner herzog)

last night eric and i went to see a special screening of werner herzog's new film rescue dawn hosted by variety and the museum of the moving image. i went into the film knowing very little except that it dealt with the vietnam war era, is the narrative version of a documentary (little dieter needs to fly, also by herzog) and that it was supposed to be intense.

i have never seen little dieter needs to fly - a decision i made when i learned that herzog was embarking on a narrative version of the story. to me, seeing a narrative is almost always better with the least amount of knowledge of the story as is possible, trailers and reading ahead can often give away ending clues or provide the audience member with predisposition that ruins the magic of watching something as "blindly" as possible. and while my viewing of the documentary will no doubt be without the same tension - i think i will still be able to benefit from and enjoy seeing the non-fiction version of dieter's journey, albeit in a different way.

i enjoyed the film immensely. the performances and look of rescue dawn help to break the barrier between reality and fiction. herzog actually takes you places, instead of digitizing them for you and watching christian bale has proven to me once again that he is one of, if not the best actor working today. what struck me most about the film was that despite the time and location that we find ourselves in, rescue dawn is less a look at times of war or patriotism, but instead encapsulates the human spirit and the power we all possess when it comes down to the wire. it's a story of survival and of our ultimate desire to live.

here is a little video clip of steve zahn talking about supposed tensions on the set and working with werner

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a trip to the theater! : strange culture (directed by lynn hersman-leeson)

in an effort to change things up : VIDEO!

this was taken at the human rights watch film festival at the june 18 screening of strange culture: the film highlights the recent events of artist steve kurtz. kurtz was preparing for an exhibition which would allow participants to test food for the presence of GMOs, scheduled to appear at the MMOCA in 2004, his wife tragically died from heart failure. distraught he called 911, but when the medics arrived and saw the scientific materials for the exhibition—all legally purchased—they called the FBI. dozens of agents in haz-mat suits searched his home, impounded his computers, books, cat, and even his wife's body, and held kurtz as a suspected bio-terrorist. three years later, kurtz has been released, but he still faces up to 20 years in prison on mail and wire fraud charges relating to his acquisition of materials for the art exhibit.

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