Cinematic Concerns

Hey guys,

A friend from university has just completed his film, Jarum Halus (based on Shakespeare's Othello) and is about to go on general release in Malaysia come January. Check out the trailer below and do look out for the film.

This is the forty-seventh film I saw at the Hollywood Arclight Cinemas.

It is a film that has been simultaneously praised for being unsensational, and criticised for taking its time (i.e. "slow"); some say it's fair, others that it is decidedly unsubtle, too black and white. Whatever Academy Award-winning director Gavin Hood did, he did right, I guess.

The acting was good all around. This time round I was more focussed on Omar Metwally, partly coz he looked like a classmate of mine, and also because he was the Palestinian terrorist leader the Mossad squad had to share a room with in Munich. His role here is the most unforgiving, and Metwally clearly gave it his all. At the same time, this is a film that is populated by Academy Award winners Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin and Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal. (And Golden Globe nominee Peter Sarsgaard, by the way.)

Is it worth watching? Yes, I think so. Just that this film is, uniquely, less about trying to force the issues down on people, and a little bit more about Hollywood entertainment. (The irony of that statement of mine is that there are film critics who do say that the film IS about forcing issues down on people.) Thing is, the film isn't too brutal, and while it presents both sides of debate (almost everyone on one side and Meryl Streep on the other, pretty much ... but the big lass can hold her own, right?) it doesn't anguish its presumably dumbed-down target audience. Which may be a good thing - why preach to the choir? (I'm talking about films like Syriana.) On the other hand, it might have landed itself in a zone where neither the dumbed down audience (who are going for Reese and Jake) nor the intelligentsia appreciate the film.

Anyway, in order to strive for that middle ground, the filmmakers have given a film that is decidedly conventional in almost everything, from story to cinematography, to editing (I was so aware of the juxtaposition of husband and wife in two disparate worlds ... such an oft-used empathy-generating device). The score worked well enough - composers unrecognised.

As a result, it was a so-so film ... until the filmmakers threw a twist at us in the end, one that is entirely unforeseen, has nothing to do with the story but instead is a twist in the structure of the story. Very interesting move on their part - I liked it, coz it's one of those moments where my head flies, as if that moment when one is projecting oneself off a cliff and the horizontal force is still stronger than gravitational force. Unfortunately, the film gets punished for it - it has earned itself a 6.1 rating at IMDb.com by disgruntled viewers who don't know what to make of it, calling the film 'stereotypical' among others.

How Good I Think The Film Is: 7.5/10
How Much I Liked It: 7.5/10
At What Point Did I First Looked At My Watch: 3 mins

PS - From the words of the most eloquent American film critic, Walter Chaw:

"At various points in the film, it's useful to ask yourself why a conversation about this topic isn't inspiring anything like introspection or controversy. Is there another side to the torture question? Of course there is. Is it addressed in this film about torture? Only about as much as race is addressed in Tsotsi, white South African Hood's movie about fucking Cape Fucking Town, South Fucking Africa. What I'm saying is, No, not in any useful way. The right speeches are made in long, carefully-posed monologues to the right people in order to best elicit righteous applause from the kind of assholes interested in going to a movie made explicitly to pander to their particular viewpoint. Those who watch this gruel are the same who criticize the sloping foreheads clamouring for the next Michael Bay picture without having the self-reflection to understand that the impulse to get tongue-cleaned by viewpoint-affirming bullshit is one and the same."

Well, thinking about it, I did notice, with some annoyance, those silly buggers a couple of rows behind me clapping and cheering when a not-so-good character gets a verbal come-uppance.

This is the forty-sixth film I saw at the Hollywood Arclight Cinemas.

While Elizabeth was a strange film, it was still clearly a film, one with characters and story. It's not that I cared greatly about that film - it was a pretty uncomfortable movie, as I recall - but since then Cate Blanchett has blossomed into a new Meryl Streep, while Shekhar Kapur has turned into one of the most interesting filmmakers to me based purely on one film he did in between: The Four Feathers. On top of that, the marketing people had the audacity to use Steve Jablonsky's heroic ending track from The Island to score the trailer.

Hook, line and sinker. I was obsessed.

Well, this sequel of sorts is no longer a film. It is now an opera. It is a case of misdirected marketing - I thought it would take another direction from the first one and become half political thriller, half battle epic. But no, it is an opera, pitting characters in colourful and elaborate-being-an-understatement gowns against each other amidst sumptuous production design and forceful music. (Didn't help that the cinema speakers were not functioning too well that day and created noisy echoes.)

I could have enjoyed the film if I knew that. Sigh.

As a result, I was left wondering why is the director doing this, why?

After thinking about it though, I realised that I did like some of the scenes, but the movie as a whole didn't hold up. I thought Samantha Morton's portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots was showy - but thinking about it later, I realised I'd rather watch that again over many of the other scenes in the film. I just can't help it - I love overacted scenes. Another favourite moment was when Elizabeth has to deal with the embarrassed Austrian prince. I was completely uninterested in the quasi-romantic stuff - unfortunately half the film. The battle sequence committed the mistake of too much setup for too little bang. And Cate Blanchett's horse wouldn't stay still.

Once more, I felt like I wished the filmmakers had gone for a more conventional route in making this film. It must be an interesting story - the imminent attack of Spain and the female monarch's actions to deter that. Some of the lines that attracted me most to the film - other than the most obvious one: "I, TOO, CAN COMMAND THE WIND, SIR! I HAVE A HURRICANE IN ME THAT WILL STRIP SPAIN BARE IF SHE DARES TO TRY ME!" ... hell, that line rivals Angelina Jolie's "In my womb I carried my avenger!" - were "This Armada that sails against us, carries with it the Inquisition", and "By God, England will not fall while I am Queen!". And yet that aspect, that of David and Goliath, didn't come through very strongly in the film. Similarly, the moment where Eddie Redmayne playing the young assassin crashing through the lines and screaming at the top of his lungs "ELIZABETH!" while quiveringly aiming a gun at the Queen was a lot more momentous in the trailer than in the film.


If I were making this, for example, I would have strove to horrify the audience with the following fact: that Mary, Queen of Scots was clumsily beheaded; had to be chopped three times, and for the second one the executioner actually missed and chopped her shoulder, causing blood to spray all around. Very messy.

Also, having been working on sound editing for days before, it has now become glaringly obvious to me if there were errors - in the case of this film, I keep hearing the room tone noise rise and fall according to the beat of the dialogue lines; and the battle cry was almost certainly recorded in an ADR studio.

Ultimately, a missed opportunity.

How Good I Think The Film Is: 6/10
How Much I Liked It: 7/10
At What Point Did I First Looked At My Watch: 12 mins
Oscar Noms That It Deserves: Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction

As I type this, I'm resting a little bit. It has been a rather difficult few days. Oct 17th, today, is the scheduled deadline for us to hand in our submission materials (i.e. our thesis films), and the process of filmmaking being what it is, the numerous setbacks and delays dominoes down the line, thus causing us editors and post-sound guys (especially post-sound guys like me) to have to slog through these last few days, accomplishing near-impossible tasks. (Like my friend Alejandro who was given 6 projects, which dropped down to 4, of which 2 were given to him very last minute, of which 1 was given so last minute - today - that honestly nothing could be reasonably done by then.)

So here's how it happened - at least I'll try to recall, the last few days have been a blur. The phrase 'have been a blur' is cliched, but honestly, understanding it is a cliche by no means lessens the impact of it.

Friday, Oct 12

Last day of school.

After school ended around 5.30 pm, hung out waiting for 9 pm to arrive: my post-sound guys (Ryan, ) are mixing my film, after coming up with tons of ideas for the sound design of my short film, admittedly not an easy feat. They begun to prepare the board.

By the time I left at 2 am, they were still ... preparing the board. Long night ahead of them.


Saturday, Oct 13th

This is why I didn't stay with my post-sound guys. My producer signed us up for a 24 hour film competition held by Apple, which begins at 6 am. As you can imagine, it was a frantic shoot, though our story is fairly simple (as it should be). My post-sound guys chipped in during the afternoon - found out from them that they were mixing till 10.30 am and were very tired, but that they finished the job, which sounds good. Then it was editing. I wanted to leave but my producer insisted I stay. So I played Civilization IV to pass the time.


Sunday, Oct 14th

Uploaded it 3 hrs earlier than the deadline. Left for home and got to sleep.

Woke up at around 11 am, and off I went to school to finish up on the project of which I'm solely in charge of the sound design (editing and mixing). For reasons I don't recall anymore, I didn't actually do much work. I do remember chatting with Julian (another director) and his editor Brian; went for dinner at Denny's. Briefly considered ditching work for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. But went back to work anyway.


Monday, Oct 15th

Slept for two hours on the floor in the audio editing suite - not uncomfortable.

Continued editing till the morning, then went for breakfast at Caffe Etc with another sound editor, Alex. Then it's back to SSL Thesis Mixing Class - not so much a class as a time set aside for us graduating students to mix.

The stress is getting to me. There were moments throughout the day where I thought I wouldn't be able to work. You see - I wanted to rush finish the sound for my project so that I could send it off to the Glasgow Film Festival (deadline: Friday), and that entails converting and rendering and burning a DVD and getting an international money order and paying exorbitant amounts to make sure it gets there on time. I also really wanted to take advantage of my student status to apply for the Berlin Talent Campus, a program held concurrent with Berlinale. Then there's the project I'm mixing.

Well, I missed out on the Berlin Talent Campus deadline - couldn't upload the files I needed to upload for the application. And I would eventually give up on Glasgow Film Festival too - even though I really, really wanted to submit my film for that one.

Still, I was signed up for the AFI Fest Volunteers and they have an orientation meeting that evening, so after working until 5 pm, I got home for the first time since the morning before, showered, and walked to the AFI Campus where the orientation is held. It's promising, and I was secretly chuckling to myself over the fact that I've seen many of the major films ... at Telluride.

On my way home, stopped by at a Chinese restaurant I've never been to before (a tad expensive) and checked out this huge supermarket which I've never been aware of after a whole year being here - shall visit it soon. Got to school at 9.30 pm, where I await with some anticipation over what Ryan would show me for the sound design for my film - it had to be re-recorded because for some reason their mix wasn't recorded on Sunday even though they pushed the right buttons. (This foreshadows the upcoming problems with the mixing process.)

I was utterly horrified with what I heard ... just horrified, no other way to explain it. And such a pity - the sound editors were so excited over the work they've done, and let's just say their enthusiasm was very infectious. It threw me off completely - I was embarassed, disappointed, furious, miserable, then gave up. I simply gave up. I had work to do. I guess.


Tuesday, Oct 16th

Manny had to just upmix the score for Julian's project, shouldn't take too long. It did take long. Not that I blame them - not at all! - but honestly, sound editing and mixing is one major complicated business. Still, I got to mix the project throughout the night, with the help of Brian who seems to think this is fun. Then the Italian director (Alessandro) came in late in the process to make his desired changes.

And then it was morning. Director took us to Mels for breakfast - was good, except I was so close to falling asleep that I probably did fall asleep without realising for five seconds at a time ... and interestingly, I couldn't finish the food. After breakfast, dragged myself back home to sleep. It was 8 am.

Then it was 2 pm. In between I was woken up by a call about another sound job. Interesting how fate keeps thrusting me sound jobs. Anyway, went to school, got picture taken for the graduation screening purposes, then off to do more work. I had now decided that I needed to take all the sound work I've done before the sound guys came in, furnish it a bit then mix it, just for the graduation screening, since the deadline is in less than 24 hours at this point. I shall work with them later on to get to a final mix, after the deadline.

On top of that, Alessandro is going on about how excited he is to see the new special effects sequence, which I now have to design sound for and then mixing just that bit. Constant usage of the words 'perfect solution', 'masterpiece' and any quoting of lines from his films was one more step to my blowing up, unbeknownst to the oblivious director.

Well, there were complications with all those plans which I won't get into, this being as long as it is. Suffice to say, I strategised my way and planned the most optimal schedule possible to get things done, all spoiled because we couldn't really record our sound mix. It was fixed, and one person got to record, and then no one else could. We don't know what - it's midnight and no one could help.


Wednesday, Oct 17th

So Manny was going to take a short time to record Julian's proper.

I started at 4 am.

I had 2 hours to mix my own project.

Then at 6 am, I switched to Alessandro's for the sound effects and to mix in just that part.

And I woke up at 7.30 am when the guard walked in.

So I woke up with a start and actually get to the sound effects and quick mix.

And then it was done.

And then all that is left is the final hurdle - getting Greg to do the print master.

Which involved lots of waiting.

Past noon.

Past 1.30 pm.

And then I got to give mine to him, and it was done. Finally done.

Not done. I got called in coz there were sync problems with Alessandro's which no one could remember why it happened but it doesn't matter coz we're short of time and need to hand it in anyway.

Then I felt it was finally done. Proper. So I rewarded myself by finally going to watch Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which I've been waiting for months to see.

...

...

...

...

...


You didn't think it was over, did you?

I walk out of the cinema and saw that I had a voicemail. Alessandro the Director called me. Tells me that they couldn't hand the tape in on time, which didn't surprise me due to the insurmountable obstacles they have (won't bother listing), despite Tommy the editor's valiant efforts. (Poor little bugger, the fella worked himself to the bone.) Which means they don't get to have the 5.1 mix.

So use the stereo mix. No, Greg said something about a 4.1 mix. I said I don't know how to do a 4.1 mix, as simple as it must be. Given more time, I could have - but they were given an extended deadline till 9 am.

I want the best, so must figure out how to do the 4.1 mix, says the Director.

I explained, rather long-windedly, that it honestly doesn't matter all that much whether it's stereo or a 5.1 surround mix. It's like scrambled eggs and sunny side up and poached. Stereo mixes sound just as good.

I want the best, so must figure out how to do the 4.1 mix, says the Director.

I explained further that I don't know how to do a 4.1 mix, and that the film didn't really need more than a stereo mix (at least that's how I feel), but that I did it coz it was an interesting experience plus the Director is always talking about 'the best'. But honestly, the stereo mix is fine. Director is concerned about the film feeling amateurish. I said, well, when you watch a film on the laptop, it's almost always stereo and great sound there too.

I want the best, so must figure out how to do the 4.1 mix, says the Director.

Come early in the morning, says, the Director.

I explained further, tried to make him understand that there is no problem at all with the stereo mix and his film and --

I want the best, so must figure out how to do the 4.1 mix, says the Director.

I give up.

Director calls again. Says the room is open and we should do it. I have to do it, I guess.

This business sucks.

Lesson to learn. It is never over when you say it is over.

It is never over.

Significant films, both Hollywood mainstream blockbusters (those that didn't manage to snuggle its way into the summer season) and Oscar-vying 'serious' films that will be opening in the final two months of this year.


[*] Want to see it
[**] Extremely desperate to see it
[^] Absolutely no interest in seeing it
[~] Seen it


NOV 2
---------
American Gangster (Ridley Scott)
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet)

NOV 9
---------
Lions For Lambs (Robert Redford) *
No Country For Old Men (Ethan & Joel Coen) ^
Southland Tales (Richard Kelly) ^

NOV 16
----------
Beowulf (Robert Zemeckis)
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Zach Helm)
Love In The Time Of Cholera (Mike Newell) **
Margot At The Wedding (Noah Baumbach) ^

NOV 23
----------
Enchanted (Kevin Lima) *
Hitman ^
I'm Not There (Todd Haynes) ~
August Rush (Kirsten Sheridan) *

DEC 7
---------
The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz)
Atonement (Joe Wright) **
Leatherheads (George Clooney)

DEC 14
----------
The Kite Runner (Marc Forster) *
I Am Legend
Juno (Jason Reitman)
Cassandra's Dream (Woody Allen)
Youth Without Youth (Francis Ford Coppola)

DEC 21
----------
National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (Jon Turteltaub)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (Tim Burton)
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly/Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon (Julian Schnabel)
P.S. I Love You (Richard LaGravenese) **

DEC 28
----------
The Bucket List (Rob Reiner) ^
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson) *
Alien vs Predator: Requiem
Charlie Wilson's War (Mike Nichols) *
The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep
Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) ~


I have to say, unless there will be significant additions to this list, this looks like one of the weakest Oscar seasons I've seen - to the point that inane blockbuster films are encroaching the sacred period.

This is the forty-fifth film I saw at the Hollywood Arclight Cinemas.

And it was a truly traumatising film, at least for me. Not as traumatising as, say, The Pianist, but still ... And yet, the film isn't particularly violent. The sex scenes were violent, yes, and truly, here is how you make an NC-17 film that isn't pretentious or exploitative. I can see why James Schamus and Ang Lee insisted on its inclusion and barely flinched when the MPAA slapped that rating on it, acknowledging it with surprising nonchalance.

(To non-film-industry-savvy people, NC-17 is seen as a death blow for films, and studios would do everything to avoid it, in particular this one, which is produced under Focus Features, which is in turn a subsidiary of a major studio, Universal Pictures. For example, Team America was rated NC-17, and that sent the Parker and Stone team cutting the film to the barest minimum required to drop to an R rating. The reason for this is that NC-17 is stricter than R - under 17s strictly not allowed, ID checking is required, and they did in fact check mine. This means an entire potential demographic for a film pretty much disappeared, leading to substantially lower - say, 95% - revenues. Okay, enough Hollywood talk.)

All I knew about the film was based on the trailer: that it is the story of a peasant girl who is recruited as a spy to infiltrate into Tony Leung's character's circles; that there are lots of graphic sex scenes in it. And it's interesting that this is actress Tang Wei's first role, fresh out of film school. And that it was shot partly in Malaysia, in Penang and Ipoh. I was in Penang a couple of weeks before Ang Lee was due to shoot there and it was then that I found out about that fact. That generated some excitement in Malaysia of course, though back then all we knew about it was that it was a Chinese film with a weird title. That was a little bit over a year ago, when I was awaiting my departure for Hollywood to begin film school.

As you can gather from all the digressions, I didn't come into the film with a clear, unbiased mind.

To me, Ang Lee has been a very mixed director - usually the negative. I was disappointed with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as it was with many Chinese people who saw it. The Ice Storm, however, engaged me a lot and I liked it just as much as I did American Beauty. Then came Hulk, which I liked a lot (except for the fourth act) - and that made me the laughing stock for the longest time, especially at the Warwick Student Cinema (I still got elected as Films and Administration Officer though ...). I thought Ang Lee was very innovative in that film, with the editing and all, and I always felt like he seemed to be gunning for an Oscar with a comic book-adapted movie. Brokeback Mountain was a bore, despite the whatnot surrounding it.

With all of that background info which hopefully allows you to locate where your movie preferences lie in relation to mine, I'll say that this film by Ang Lee impressed me more than any of the other films he's done that I've seen.


I won't delve much into the story, as I usually don't. In fact, the story is fairly basic - what makes the film good is the depth in which Ang Lee explores the characters and their actions, their behaviour. The film is long; incidentally, just as long as The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, and of course lots of things happen throughout the course of the film; yet I don't remember much of them. The whole thing felt like a memory - I remember how I felt in general, but not the scenes themselves. I remember feeling very heavy-hearted (sorry, in Chinese mode right now and thus translating directly from Chinese expressions) walking out of the cinema, the entire film pressing down on my head and shoulders. I remember chuckling at little gestures and details that reminded me that I haven't seen a period Chinese film for some time now - especially one set in 1930s China. I remember getting affected by the sex scenes - but totally unlike the way one is affected looking at pornography. (It was part revulsion and part ... je ne sais quoi.)

The actors were really top-notch. Impeccable. Tony Leung is always good; here, he is at once menacing and enigmatic. And yet, Tang Wei, in her debut feature role, stole the whole show; I kept thinking that one way to describe the film, is to say that it is the portrait of a woman, a woman who is asked to betray herself and which she does, so utterly completely. She manages to speak four different languages in the first 15 mins - very capably, I might add. That, I've been waiting to see in cinema and now I've seen it. And both actor and actress were incredibly daring with the sex scenes, but I guess we've already known that. American-born Wang Lee-Hom impressed me - back in Asia he used to be derided, in particular for that Stanley Tong film with Aaron Kwok, China Strike Force. Here, he plays a passionately patriotic university student and does so with appropriate intensity, and yet manages to convey the strong undercurrents of the feelings he is struggling to suppress so clearly to the audience.


The only thing I was mildly annoyed with was what I assumed to be the way Ang Lee structured the plot - before realising that it might be a mistake made by the cinema. At some point the film shifted back to an earlier time period without announcing so; but, having not read any such complaints in other reviews, I guess the cinema screwed up and mixed up a reel. Which is rather unfortunate, as I was completely thrown out of the story, trying to figure out what Ang Lee is doing with the plot and why, and was never fully able to get back into the film.

One thing that definitely annoys me in most Ang Lee movies, is how he doesn't announce the motivations of his characters, and the things they do, while ultimately true to their characters, tend to happen very suddenly and inexplicably - at least to me. For example, I always thought that the sex scene in Brokeback Mountain happened very arbitrarily - where were the signs between Ennis and Jack before hand? In Hulk, why did Bruce Banner change into the Hulk for the first time at the office? His anger then didn't seem to be enough. Why did Zhang Ziyi jump off the bridge in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Maybe I'm too insensitive to the nuances? I don't know. At any case, it is the same here - a character does something that completely surprised me, and came out only at that moment and was never foreshadowed.

Perhaps due to my ego, I rarely see a film which led me to think, while watching it, "I am incapable of making such a film". Obviously there are many a film that I simply wouldn't know how to direct, but when I acknowledge it, it surprises me. This is one of those times. It is far too hard, because the film goes so deeply to explore the situations the characters are in, and plays the scenes out so unflinchingly, so - let's use the word - nakedly. The only death that is seen in the film is one such example - you will undoubtedly understand what I mean when you see it.

And oh, this is also the first time I appreciated Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography. Might sound weird to film students who saw him get nominated for an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain (all those sheep ...). But I - just for the record, I suck at cinematography, so my opinions are valueless to most - thought he did a shaky job at Alexander and thought he did alright with Babel.

Those of you who have to watch the censored version, I honestly think the film is a different one from the one I watched - but I definitely understand that it is impossible for the uncensored version to be shown everywhere in the world. That my friend Swifty reported that Malaysians were falling asleep watching the film at the cinema also proves how difficult a sell such a film is. I still await with curiousity how well the film does at the international box office. Reviews here in the United States are very mixed - but Ang Lee and James Schamus already anticipated that, stating publicly that the film was made for Chinese audiences and not Western audiences (indeed, watch how he films the mahjong scenes).

I won't be able to work on those sound editing assignments I'm meant to be doing for the whole day now. Sigh.

How Good I Think The Film Is: 9/10
How Much I Liked It: 8/10
At What Point Did I First Looked At My Watch: 15 mins
Oscar Noms That It Deserves: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, Best Foreign Language Film (Taiwan)

PS - The film also reminded me of Notorious, as I've only just seen it last week (fell asleep twice in it actually ... yes, I have no respect for Mr Hitchcock, alas) and Cary Grant makes a cameo in this film.

You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
Вы можете быть не заинтересованы в войне, но война заинтересована в вас.

(Originally, "You may not be interested in the dialectic, but the dialectic is interested in you.")