Marwencol - Independent Lens

I was watching tv the other night and stumbled upon this documentary on PBS Independent Lens and it sucked me in.  It told the story of a man finding his way while  recovering from a brutal attack after a night at the bar.  He was targeted by a group of guys just because they overheard he liked to cross-dress.  The attack left him in a coma, and emotionally and physically scarred almost beyond repair.

The story of his recovery would have been interesting in itself, but his choice of self-therapy is what really blew my mind.  To escape the torture of the memories, he buried himself in a make-believe world of his creation.  He created a miniature town in his yard, Marwencal, and filled it with characters from his life.  He dressed up dolls to represent the townspeople and played out imagined story-lines.

But his creation would have gone unknown to everyone but a few people close to him, if not for his photography skills.  It turns out he had an instinctive knack for photography that he would use to capture scenes of his dolls in his imaginary town.  The documentary shows how by chance his photos were seen by a professional photographer, which lead to his very private collection of photos being exposed to the art-world.

At the core of this amazing film is the story of this genuine underdog.  A man with his world torn to shreds, and in the aftermath finds a way to channel his pain and anger into works of art that transcend his private experience and go on to inspire others.  It's a must-see.  You can check out re-runs on PBS.  Below are some of his amazing photos and the trailer for the documentary.  Here's the website for the film.

The Civil War - A film by Ken Burns

I am a huge Ken Burns fan. It's funny, when you watch a Ken Burns documentary, you think yep, this is exactly the way a documentary should be.   But then you realize no one made documentaries quite like this until he came along.  We all know it when we see it, that now-famous Ken Burns style: 1) telling a story from the perspective of a range of characters (from presidents to housekeepers) that we'll follow through the whole unfolding drama, 2) a 3rd person narration throughout the film with voice actors filling in quotations from characters in the story, 3) photographs depicting scenes from the subject matter that are zoomed in on and panned to mimic a moving image and provide better context, and 4) a musical soundtrack with a mix of era-specific tunes and modern-day originals to highlight story events.

Of course, these are the technical details of the Ken Burns style that wouldn't matter much if Ken Burn's story telling skills were not on the same level.   Luckily, Burns is up to the task.  He can take on a topic as focused as Lewis and Clark's expedition or as broad as Baseball or our National Parks, and tie together a compelling narrative that he can hold together for a 10-part, 10-hour miniseries, just as easily as an hour-long episode.

So I had seen just about every Burns documentary, except for his first and maybe his most famous, The Civil War.  Recently I started reading Gore Vidal's book Lincoln and decided I could watch the Civil War documentary sort of simultaneously (recently getting Netflix streaming on my blu-ray player also helped).  So I'm watching it, and it's awesome.  And you might think that 11 hours is a little more time than you'd like to spend watching a documentary.  But I find it's just like the WWII drama Band of Brothers. Once you finish the last episode, 10 hours in, you are easily ready for 10 hours more.

Below is the trailer for the series.  And just because I can... below that is Bob Dylan's video for "Cross the Green Mountain," which is a great song (shortened for the video) from the perspective of a confederate soldier from the soundtrack for the film Gods and Generals.  Dylan loves to play dress-up.

THE CIVIL WAR SERIES: Movie TrailerJason Robards, Ken Burns

Time out of Mind - Bob Dylan

 

So in yesterday's post I talked about my favorite movie of all time, and it got me thinking that I have never talked about my favorite musician, or my favorite album for that matter.  So it's Bob Dylan, and the album is Time out of Mind, hands down.  Some Dylan fans, when they think Dylan they think the classic 60's acoustic stuff.  They think Freewheeling Bob Dylan, or his self titled debut, or the many bootlegs from that era and stop there.  Of course, most also love his early electric albums (definitely some of his best) like Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, Highway 61.  But many fans see his religious albums (a post for another time) in the late 70's early 80's and his later drought in that decade and go no further.  But my interest in Dylan really begins with 90's Dylan.  There is something so perfect about an aged Dylan.  Because he spent his entire youth trying to sound old, trying to be that weathered, beaten down drifter that he sang about in all those early folk tunes.  But how could he really reach his potential until he truly became that old man, with most of his life in the rear-view?

His very best in my mind, yes better than those 60's classics is Time Out of Mind from 97'.  I'm not gonna try and describe how good it is, or why I love it so much, that may be nauseating.  Basically, it combines some of Dylan's best poetry of his career with the swamp beat rhythm of sound inspired by producer Daniel Lanois.  It's dark: like death is on his doorstep and he is letting out all the pain and regret and heartache that he has accumulated his entire life.  So, it's not a cheery album.  If there ever was the perfect rainy day album this is definitely it.

And after listening to the album countless times over a decade I thought the story was written on Time out of Mind until Dylan's 8th bootleg recording came out, Tell Tale Signs, in 2008.   Amazingly, 2 songs which could easily have been considered the album's best, Dylan axed for the final album cut.  One of them, Mississippi (My favorite song of all time), he included in his 2001 album Love and Theft and different cuts are also included in the bootleg album, and Red River Shore (worth the price of the album alone) are included in the bootleg release.  So, he makes an album (in my opinion his best) that went on to win album of the year at the Grammy's, and he didn't even include arguably the 2 best songs.  Crazy.

I wish I could post every song here but the copyright police would come calling.  Below are a couple of videos with songs from the album.  Forget the videos, just listen to the songs.  These are probably the most well known songs from the album (and it's probably why they are on youtube).  The first one you may have heard in a number of different movies, and the second one Dylan let Victoria Secret famously use in an ad.  If you are interested at all after listening just go buy the album.  Then dim the lights, put on the headphones and enjoy, maybe with a dark beer to drink (but that's just me).

The Tree of Life

Just saw the trailer for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, and I must say I'm pretty stoked.  I come into it a little biased since I hold his previous film The Thin Red Line above all others.  Yes, it is my favorite movie, and yes, it even surpasses The Goonies ;) (Although that movie wins the most viewed award for me).  I know for many people, his film The Thin Red Line was a failure.  Maybe what was most unfortunate was that it was released the same year as the hugely popular Saving Private Ryan, and though both films are about WWII, they couldn't be more different.   I guess I could try and explain how The Thin Red Line was much more than a war film, how it was a film about the human experience that used WWII as a backdrop to try and explain the underlying truths of  human nature.  But in reality my description would come up short because Terrence Malick is the only one that really could describe his vision.  And even then, the movie can mean something very specific to Malick, yet say something completely different to a viewer.

But regardless of what the movie was supposed to be saying, it has always spoken to me. The singing of the aboriginal peoples, the score of Hans Zimmer, the cadence of the nature images, and the raw emotion from the characters have all worked for me at a level so much deeper than any other film I have ever watched. Ebert describes this sort of feeling we can experience while watching a film as "Elevation."  He writes about it here.  He explains that for years when people asked him "how do you know a movie is great?"  He always replied "I feel a tingling in my spine.  People look at me blankly.  I explain that I feel an actual physical sensation that does not depend on the abstract quality of the movie, but on--well, my visceral feelings."  That's exactly right. The movies I hold higher than all others, are the ones that literally make my spine tingle.  And The Thin Red Line does this for me more than any other.  Ebert goes on to say "I have observed before that we live in a box of space and time, and movies can open a window in the box. One human life, closely observed, is everyone's life.  In the particular is the universal.  Empathy is the feeling that most makes us human.  Elevation may be the emotion caused when we see people giving themselves up, if only for a moment, to caring about others."

Just think about the movies that have really stuck with you.  I bet those films have brought you "elevation" moments.  For me, how about when Elliot hugs E.T. at the end, or in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, when Steve Martin brings John Candy home with him, or in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when (after both having their memories erased) the couple meet each other a second time and can't help but fall in love again.  Everyone has their own favorites.

So, my expectations are high for The Tree of Life.  Maybe too high...we'll see.

Game of Thrones - HBO

Just watched the first episode of HBO's Game of a Thrones, a medieval drama that follows a struggle for power in a mythical world.  All you Tolkien fans are getting excited, right?

Roughly from what I remember the show went like this:

• dreamy winter setting 
• an ambush and bloody feast by a (magical?) mythical beast (Think the movie The Village, if the beasts were real and it took place a few hundred years earlier)
• A cool title screen that introduces the different regions like a board game
• introduction of the main players all vying for power in this imaginary realm
• A secret plot to overthrow the king
• tits and screwing
• a dwarf
• a fat lecherous king
• the boy prince that watches his father behead a deserter
• more tits 
• a weird incestuous brother selling his sister to gain an army
• a beach-side wedding
• many more tits
• ceremonial killing
• a beach-side raping
• an underdog hero who will protect the king from plotting rivals
• more screwing (more incest?)
• and the possible death of the boy prince

Sounds like another winner from HBO!  And a dream come true for every guy who ever played role playing games as a kid.  Now with a chance to see boobs!

Roger Ebert's talk at TED

Great Stuff.  Ebert says, through his wife Chaz, "If I were in this condition at any point before a few cosmological instances ago I would be isolated as a hermit.  I would be trapped within my head.  Because of the rush of human knowledge, because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not need to scream."  Makes you question the whole Idea that the internet is a place for people to avoid real human interaction.  For some, the internet can be an outlet for expression that they cannot have anywhere else.