take that U.S. government.

"you saw nothing at shutter island..."

Martin Scorsese's long over due Shutter Island masks murder mystery through the complexity of the human mind. Elegantly photographed, the film sets finite spatial definitions contrasted with the illusive expanse of the psyche. From the preview, one would anticipate a "psychological thriller," constantly awaiting twists and turns, jumps and bumps around every creepy corner. And to a certain aesthetic sense, the film delivers just that. Audiences will get their surprises and "ah hah" moments, accompanied by the stylistic violence of any Scorsese film. But I'd like to offer a different take on what could be considered a film on par with say, Se7en or Silence of the Lambs. I would argue that this is Scorsese's Hiroshima, Mon Amour.

A film that is well know by the director who so often attributes his love of film to rise of Modernist European Cinema, like that of Italian Neorealism and the New Wave, it is an easy connection to be made between the director and his product. For at the very core of Shutter Island is the deeper issues of trauma, memory and the deconstruction of the lucid image. Like Resnais' Hiroshima, Scorsese seems to playing with question of the "truth of the image" and our own retrospective perception of events. The film centers on Teddy (Leonardo DeCaprio), a marshall, sent to Shutter Island to investigate the escape of a patient. Naturally, being confined to the psychologically traumatic space of the confined mental institution, we see a paranoid downward spiral of our protagonist. Since I don't want to ruin the film for all those who haven't seen the film, I won't go too into detail. But this deconstruction of the notion of defined spaces, memory and a parallel image of trauma (which we receive through repeated parallel editing sequences between events on the island and Teddy's experience as a U.S. soldier liberating a Nazi concentration camp) are akin to the experience of Emmanuel Riva's character in Hiroshima (the drop of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, paralleled through her experience in Nevers). The two images in present and past blend to create a doubled representation of memory, especially collective memory. For as we continue on with Shutter Island we are asked to constantly rethink the just-passed. Images, and verbal cues serve to dislodge our conception of memory and time, and subsequently those events of a further past. And like Hiroshima, the film utilizes a collective memory (WWII) to deconstruct our seemingly lucid images of the past in the present, just-passed. For if one cannot cognitively reconstruct even the present moment, one must question all images of memory itself.

Scorsese seems to be referencing this issue of traumatic memory through the poetic gaze of the camera, whose point of view is unclear. We as the viewer are not in a privileged position, the action is neither determined by our gaze nor dependent upon it. Instead the psychology of the character takes over the frame, to construct an image of memory that extends beyond the flash back sequences. By the end of the film, the soft focus and elegant photography become an entirely mental phenomena. Like Hiroshima, Mon Amour the fragmentation of the narrative through parallel editing sequences, flash backs and disconnected point of view shots, Shutter Island's image is one conceived of through the reconstruction of memory through another. And ultimately our temporality becomes entirely dismantled through the course of the film. It becomes unclear what is collective and what is subjective. Instead, like Hiroshima, we are left with the deconstruction of present reflective bearings to bring about a reconstruction of the cinematic image and suggestive "reality."

Now, without having proper comparisons between the two films, I by no means suggest that Scorsese's film copies Resnais' Hiroshima, Mon Amour. I would rather call it a homage to an effect, as he reflected in his acceptance speech of the Cecil B. DeMille Award at this years' Golden Globes: "the past is never dead, it is never even past."

ego much?

Today, James Cameron announced plans to write an Avatar novel. I just have to wonder what happens when he gets to the end of his VHS of Fern Gully 2. What happens after Pocahontas dies of small pox? Does James Cameron have the answer? Lets hope so.

Valentine's Day...budump-bump-chhh

pun me once, shame on you. pun me eight-bazillion times, shame on me.

growing anticipation

"...the two movies in question are a scrappy indie war drama and the most expensive movie of all time...'Does it feel like a David and Goliath story?'"- EW, 12/19 February 2010

So, the match is finally set. On one side we have the highest grossing movie of all time, blasting forth with undying spectacle. On the other, we have what could be, the lowest grossing best picture winner of all time; a gritty composition of raw talent. Honestly, who are you rooting for?

Oscar Noms

So this morning I rose in my typical annual excitement for the release of the 2010 Oscar nominations. Somewhat disheartened by the Academy's announcement to expand the Best Picture category and the incredibly lack-luster award season thus far, I was looking for something to really throw me for a loop. But in their ultimately more conservative fashion, they failed to provide not one shock or surprise. I will not say that I had guessed the nominees verbatum, but the 2010 list is full of the expected, shaped by the last few weeks of the award season and the box office returns of one single, undeserving film (which I will leave unnamed for the very purpose of limiting its already over-saturated exposure).

Best Picture:
I think just about everyone had guessed their core five films: The Hurt Locker, An Education, Up in the Air, Precious, and Avatar. But the other five remaining spots opened the category up for some mediocre contenders. So now we have what I would like to think of as the most over-hyped film of the year, Inglorious Basterds, and the inevitable addition of the most critically acclaimed picture of the year, Up. These were not surprising choices for me based on the repetitive tone of the season, but I was enthused by a single film that made it into the bunch: Niel Blomkamp's District 9.

Blomcamp Boom:
I am undoubtably biased in this subject, but the aknowledgement of Blomkamp's brilliant directorial debut is my glimmer of hope this season. With nominations in Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Editing, and Visual Effects, this low budget cinematic wonder is a true representation of award recognition at its finest. Now, I anticipate that it will likely be aligned with Avatar and continually compared within the scifi genre. Everyone will say that Avatarreigns superior within the list of generic conventions. However, I would like to argue in opposition to this gross assumption. District 9 poses a break from the genre in support of a greater message at hand. Though the film ultimately emphasizes a weaponry and space craft world of aliens and invasion, the metaphorical allegory for the state of South Africa is one that takes it beyond the space-spectacle. Now, Avatar on the other hand vomits genre convention and spits Disney plots in our face (I will not continue to rant in order to spare everyone the grief.) But Blomkamp's vision of a neo-contemporary world is one that promises his genius in years to come.

Bye-Bye Boys Club
My hat does go off to this years' set of nominees for ignoring the ever-present influence of the Hollywood "Boys Club." The small set of acclaimed directors tends to dominate the Best Picture and Director categories year after year. Names like Scorsese, Howard, Spielberg, and Eastwood, have repeatedly made it onto the nominations list out pure "tradition" with little question to the merit of the work. But this year, despite the typical inspirational drama by Eastwood, Invictus is missing from the Best Picture category and Clint from Best Director. And frankly, though I believe the film to be painfully formulaic, it certainly had more merit than some of the other nominees at hand (which shall remain unspoken). But recognizing cinematic merit in this case, over the name , shows progress. We have, for the first time in my lifetime, the real chance for a woman to take home the Best Director prize. Let's make it happen, rather than allow James Cameron's ego to get any larger.

Hopeful Surprises
Well as much as the nominations fail to impress me, I hope that as voting for these categories ensues, the Academy chooses to think beyond box office numbers and traditional award winners. Spice this thing up a bit, I need a little excitement, for without award season, all I have is terrible chick flicks and b wolf movies to entertain me...