THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/04/02 -- Vol. 21, No. 14
El Presidente: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
The Power Behind El Pres: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
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Topics:
Reviews This Issue
Frank R. Paul
Fermented Bean Curd Redux
Sputnik (comments by Charles S. Harris)
Studies in Horror (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
8 WOMEN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
QUITTING (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Reviews This Issue
This issue contains three film reviews from the Toronto
International Film Festival, each for a film currently in release
or soon to be. I am repeating my review of QUITTING which was
seen at the 2001 TIFF. The others were seen at the current TIFF
and the films are already being released to the public. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Frank R. Paul
For fans of Frank R. Paul's artwork, there is now a Frank R. Paul
Gallery web site at http://www.frankwu.com/paul1.html.
===================================================================
TOPIC: Fermented Bean Curd Redux
Thanks to the placement of the issue of the MT VOID containing the
article on fermented bean curd on my web page, I am now receiving
spam from people trying to sell me fermented bean curd. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Sputnik (comments by Charles S. Harris)
Shortly after the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, the
editors of the "Swarthmore College Phoenix" asked Charlie Harris
to write the lead editorial, putting this event into historical
perspective. In honor of Sputnik's 45th anniversary, we are
reprinting that editorial in full, with the author's permission.
Sputnik and the Santa Maria
Last Saturday at Swarthmore seemed like any other Saturday.
Students rechecked their mailboxes, grumbled about the food,
discussed the new space satellite, rushed to get to the Library
before 5 pm and then rushed to a square dance or Danny Kaye movie.
It is not surprising that in the midst of all this bustle few of
us stopped to think about what day it was: Oct. 12--Columbus Day.
After all, compared to the first step in the exploration of the
universe, how trivial seems some Italian's blundering into an
unknown continent (without even knowing it was unknown!). If he
hadn't done it, someone else would have--and maybe Lief Eriksen
beat him to it anyway. Such is our blase' attitude.
But let us consider for a moment. Columbus' voyage was no massive
billion-ruble government project, with a claim on an entire
nation's resources; it was the work of one man, with only his
faith and persuasive talents to use in wheedling 1,140,000
maravedis (a fabulous sum, for that epoch) from an absolute
monarch. This was no case of shooting 184 pounds of metal and
plastic into the air; Columbus was risking the lives of 110 men--
and his own as well--on the risky assumption that they would not
sail off the edge of the world.
We may not think much of his actual achievement, but we cannot
help being moved by Cristoforo Colombo's example of personal
courage and conviction, an example all too lacking in our
highly-touted "Age of the Atom." [-csh]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Studies in Horror (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
At this year's World Science Fiction Convention I was on a panel
to discuss whether TV producers tend to shy away from putting
real horror on TV. Is it that they are afraid to frighten away
their audiences? In specific, they asked if the television
program BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is just an old adventure series
with "new tailfins."
Well, I have my own opinions about BUFFY. First, there is one
that is not particularly controversial. BUFFY is not
frightening. At least it is not scary in the usual sense.
There is little horror in any medium that I find approaches
being frightening, but certainly BUFFY does not scare. Nor do I
think it is intended to scare. I don't think most of what we
call horror is intended to frighten, but I will return to this
point.
I never watched the BUFFY series when it was first broadcast and
at the suggestion of friends I started seeing the series on re-
broadcast. I have seen most of the first three seasons. I was
willing to watch that much, though I have to admit I never
really been able to force myself to become very interested in
the series. That is ironic since it would seem to be a natural
for me to like it. I have liked horror from an early age. I
like vampires and demons in films. I love horror films. So why
am I so unsatisfied with what I see in BUFFY?
Well, what I like about vampires and werewolves in films is just
what BUFFY is trying to get away from. At least in part in the
films I like, that they are a credible as threat, even if their
existence seems less possible. They are mystical and powerful.
The prototype of the vampire slayer was Van Helsing in the Bram
Stoker novel DRACULA. Van Helsing fought vampires at great
personal peril because he was only a vulnerable human. And he
did not know all the rules himself. Any special powers he had
were purely academic. Literally academic. He had studied the
folklore of vampires as a scholar and he knew only what he had
studied. He used the remedies of folklore. Buffy occasionally
studies the folklore or talks to her "watcher." But Buffy's
first and most frequent weapon against vampires is not folklore
but martial arts. If she faces a more potent evil, she uses a
better karate kick. Why is she any more able to karate kick
vampires than anyone else (say someone is in shape)? Well, she
is a vampire slayer and this apparently makes her karate kicks
more effective against vampires. In DRACULA Van Helsing was
weak and Dracula had the strength of ten men. In BUFFY it is
the slayer who is super-powered and the vampires and demons are
weak. It is hard to imagine who is the target audience who is
excited by the frequently one-sided fights in BUFFY. There are
frequent scenes of Buffy exterminating vampires one right after
another without mussing her hairdo or her makeup. She certainly
never works up an unglamorous sweat. One might as well watch
someone swatting flies. And the horror and fear element that
Hammer films put into a Peter Cushing Van Helsing trying to
destroy a Christopher Lee Dracula is just totally missing.
In the series Buffy is rarely threatened. In fact, she makes
fun of the creatures she must defeat. When faced with a potent
foe she says things is her most nasty and testy voice "All
right. I get it. You're EVIL!!!" Then she kickboxes it to
death with the outcome rarely in doubt. I think there is a
deliberate attempt to play to a teenage audience telling them
vampires and werewolves and demons frightened their parents.
But we are made of sterner stuff and for us creatures of the
night actually knock down real good. If Van Helsing had only
known. This is not horror. If anything it is a sort of anti-
horror. BUFFY just knocks down vampires and demons like a
stevedore in a bar brawl. That may not be so inappropriate in a
series that seems to have reduced demons to bikers with funny
makeup jobs.
This is sort of a counterfeit of horror. Next week I will talk
a bit about what I consider to be the real horror. I will say
what really has frightened me. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: 8 WOMEN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Several different genres of film get kidded in this
French country house murder-thriller. One man has been murdered
and eight women review their relationship to him in this drama-
comedy-musical-mystery. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
Most of the fun of 8 WOMEN is that it is cliche. We have a
country home, lavish but snowbound. In it are eight woman and one
dead man, a knife in his back. One of the women has to be the
killer. But can the women figure out which one is the killer? Is
it the victim's mother, his wife, his sister, one of his
daughters, or one of the servants?
The snow has isolated them in the house, and the phone cord has
been cut so there are no police to do the detective work. Maybe
if the eight women can talk out the murder and the events leading
up to it they can figure out who the killer is. This one house, a
huge Gothic mansion, seems to have a lot of secrets, private
hatreds, and skeletons in every closet. But every few minutes the
investigation is interrupted as someone sings a song. It seems
this film does not just laugh at the conventions of murder
mysteries. It also pokes fun at that most surreal of film genres,
the musical. Also its use of bright, super-saturated colors is a
reminder of the MGM musicals of the 1950s. Satirizing the musical
and doing a good job is not an easy task. One rather suspects
that the jabs at the musical were writer and director Ozon's own
idea and he knows how to do it. Even when Woody Allen tried to
lampoon the musical in his EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU it came out
crudely done and leaden. Ozon's gives us about eight different
songs, each in a different style, and manages to keep his satire
subtle and light.
The screenplay was adapted by the director, Francois Ozon, based
on a play by Robert Thomas. It toys with the audience, pulling
the rug out from under the viewer and changing the plot every few
minutes so that nearly everybody comes under suspicion. And what
an "everybody" it is. The film is packed with popular French
actresses including Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert,
Emmanuelle Beart, Fanny Ardant, Danielle Darrieux, and Virginie
Ledoyan. I give 8 WOMEN a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +2 on
the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A group of very small-time hoods (make that micro-second
hoods) get their hands on the opportunity of a heist of a
lifetime. But the heist is not foolproof and these are just the
fools to prove it is not. In fact these hoods are a combination
of wickedly clever and painfully stupid. The result is amusing,
though it has all been done before, at least twice literally.
Slight but pleasant. Rating 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
We have all seen heist films like OCEANS ELEVEN where a crack team
of expert criminals get together for a crime that goes off like
clockwork. In this film a group of general incompetents get
together to pull a jewelry heist. Clockwork is just how it does
not go. In fact, just about nothing goes in the way you expect
from professionals. Still, somehow the crime gets pulled
together. WELCOME TO COLLINWOOD is a remake of BIG DEAL ON
MADONNA STREET (1958), a film that has already been remade at
least once as CRACKERS in 1984 by Louis Malle.
The whole sad story begins when petty criminal Cosimo (Luis
Guzman) is jailed with a lifer who knows where a really good job
is. This isn't just a good job, it's a Bellini! (What's a
Bellini? It's the kind of crime every petty criminal comes his
way just once.) The lifer is willing to tell Cosimo about his
Bellini because he is stuck in prison. Cosimo thinks he can put
together the crime, but does not want to tell anyone but his
girlfriend. Strictly not to tell anyone else. Right. The crime
is put together a bit at a time, but not quite like it was done in
RIFIFI.
The characters in this film are for Cleveland what Damon Runyan
characters were for New York. (In fact, one clever bit seems
borrowed from Runyan's "Butch Minds the Baby") The gangster
patter is humorous and the viewer will know the difference between
a Mollinsky and a Bellini.
Anthony and Joe Russo shot the film on location in the run-down
section of Cleveland, Ohio. The adaptation is fairly funny and
got more than its share of audience laughs. Overall it is a
decent comic crime film with neither any great virtues nor any bad
faults. Featured are William H. Macy, Isaiah Washington, Sam
Rockwell. George Clooney has a small role.
Nobody is going to get extremely excited about WELCOME TO
COLLINWOOD as a feature film debut of co-directors and co-writers
Anthony and Joe Russo. Still, it has moments. I rate it a 6 on
the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: QUITTING (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: From China, a country noted for downbeat films, comes a
true story of one mentally disturbed boy, a former movie star, who
ruined and terrorized his family until he was institutionalized
and reeducated. All of the major characters play themselves. We
see both the point of view of the main character and other members
of his family. The film is a real indictment of a system in which
eldest sons are spoiled and indulged to ridiculous lengths.
Rating: 6 (0 to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
Communist governments are usually dedicated to the principle that
utilitarianism is more important than their people's traditions.
The West generally puts this tendency in an unfavorable light.
There are, however, some customs that the Chinese people
themselves carry to extremes. One seems to be the spoiling of the
eldest son who will be expected to carry on the family line. In
QUITTING we see what power this custom gives an eldest son whether
he deserves it or not. However, we also see the heady and
corrupting influence that the infusion of Western culture has had
on China.
QUITTING is the true story of Jia Hongsheng. In the early 90s he
was a noted film and TV actor, but he destroyed his career with
drugs. Early in the film he is living with his younger sister and
his parents come to live in the same apartment. From the moment
his parents arrive Jia treats them in the nastiest manner. He
seems to have no interest in their opinion of him at all. He
orders them around and insists that they spend their little money
on luxuries for him and repays them with nastiness. Rather than
work, he spends his time in his room listening over and over to
cassettes of the Beatles. He is drunk with Western culture. And
any Western culture is new to him. We see him and his friends
dancing to "Oh My Darling Clementine" as if it is the latest Top
100 song.
The film jumps around in time telling of relationships with
temporary friends whom he grows to dislike. Without apology he
spends his parents' money on drugs. He announces that he is
really the son of John Lennon. The final straw is when he crosses
the last taboo and hits his father. His parents report him to the
police and the first step is taken toward his recovery. It is
unusual for Chinese movies to talk about current-day problems in
China, though this film is really more a warning about foreign
influences. The first hour is a thoroughly unpleasant experience.
Eventually when the government puts him on the road to recovery
there seems to be hope creeping in.
Any film from so different a culture will have unintended messages
for Western viewers. The "nice apartment" where Hongsheng lives
looks a bit like a concrete monstrosity to us. Zhang Yang directs
a screenplay he co-wrote. Nearly all the important characters
play themselves. Frequently they play in painful scenes they
lived just a few years earlier. Yang laments that while his film
is full of references to Western music, including Beatles songs,
none could actually be heard in his film. The price of using
Beatles songs is far beyond the budget of Chinese filmmakers.
Film excerpts are apparently easier and we see Hongsheng watching
TAXI DRIVER with posters in his room.
Deep down this film is pro-government and anti-Western culture.
While watchable, it is not one of the best films to come from
China. I give it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4
to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
The foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy
of truth.
-- Albert Einstein
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