THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
01/18/02 -- Vol. 20, No. 29
Big Cheese: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Little Cheese: 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:
Film Festival Returns: FERMAT'S LAST TANGO
(announcement by Mark R. Leeper)
THE SHIPPING NEWS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Film Festival Returns: FERMAT'S LAST TANGO (announcement by
Mark R. Leeper)
Nova episode: "Proof"
FERMAT'S LAST TANGO
Those long-time members of the science fiction club will remember
that at one time we ran an active film festival out of our home as
part of the club's activities, through the magic of video. We
would like now to try to revive that tradition as long as people
are interested. And here anyone is invited who is interested. You
do not have to be a member, though it would help if you let us
know how many people to expect.
We are beginning the festival with a most unusual entry. Usually
we show feature films. Neither of the items we are showing is a
feature film. There is very little popular entertainment with a
basis in mathematics. There was, however, an actual play produced
off-Broadway on the subject of the solving of Fermat's Last
Theorem. In 1637 the mathematician Pierre de Fermat claimed to
have proven that A^n + B^n = C^n has no integer solutions for n
larger than 2. ("^" denotes exponent.) It was however
inconvenient to show the proof in the space he had available.
Invariably when he claimed to have a proof, he did. But he never
wrote this one down before he died. For most of the 356 years
since Fermat claimed to have a proof, mathematicians had been
trying to find such a proof. The task proved maddeningly
difficult. It was the mathematical equivalent of a buried
treasure. There was always the feeling it was just out of reach.
In 1993 Princeton mathematician Andrew Wiles made world-wide
headlines by apparently proving the conjecture. Well, not
actually.
On Wednesday, January 23, the Leeperhouse Film Festival will show
two very different accounts of this story. On will be the British
account of the story shown on the BBC and re-broadcast as part of
the PBS Nova science series. This will be presented at
approximately at 7:30 PM and run for an hour. Following that we
will be showing (through the magic of DVD) FERMAT'S LAST TANGO, a
musical fantasy about the solving of Fermat. Reviews can be found
at
http://www.curtainup.com/fermatslasttango.html
and
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/ob/12_12_00.html
Please believe these reviewers do know theater even if they are,
as they seem to be, unable to copy accurately a simple
mathematical equation off the wall. (Do you BELIEVE they BOTH got
it wrong??? Jeez!)
Anyway, if you need directions, let me know. In fact if you are
planning to come, let me know so we know how many to expect.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE SHIPPING NEWS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: An American newspaper worker whose life is in disarray
finds a chance to belong to a community and to heal himself in a
Newfoundland fishing village. This is the familiar plot based on
the novel by E. Annie Proulx. Actor Kevin Spacey and director
Lasse Hallstrom have each made similar but more enjoyable films
before. Engaging, but nothing special. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1
(-4 to +4)
I would like to call attention to what I think is an unrecognized
subgenre of film. It is not wide enough to be a genre by itself,
but it is a story that is fairly commonly done. Let's call it a
"Salt of the Earth Redemption" film. The main character of the
story is somebody who is leading a life that is somehow lacking.
The person may or may not realize his (it is almost invariably a
male for some reason) life is out of joint, but it is. The person
is forced by circumstance to go to some place he would not
normally go and where he does not fit in. At first the misfit is
a little boggled by the strange people of this place. They have
their own ways and they are not his ways. But the longer he is
there the more he finds that he understands and really likes these
people. And in this remote place he finds what has been lacking in
his life. I suppose it is sort of an obvious plot. You want to
paint a portrait of an exotic people and want to show them in a
favorable life, so what better way then showing the contact
transforming some visitor's life? Films in this subgenre include
GRAND HIGHWAY, LOCAL HERO, A GREAT WALL, and perhaps WITNESS and A
STRANGER AMONG US. The story may even be traced back to the story
of Joseph in the Bible who did not fit in in his own land but rose
to prominence and power in Egypt. Swedish director Lasse
Hallstrom built his international reputation on one such film, MY
LIFE AS A DOG. Kevin Spacey played the likable eccentric native
in MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.
Quoyle (played by Kevin Spacey) is living a life that is a string
of wrong decisions and failures. He is a minor functionary on the
Poughkeepsie News when he marries Petal (Cate Blanchett), the sort
of woman euphemistically called a "free spirit." Bunny's ties of
marriage and motherhood come and go as she finds convenient. They
have a daughter, Bunny, though Petal is a constant threat to both
Quoyle's custody of her and Bunny's health and safety. Then
multiple tragedies remove Petal from the picture and force Quoyle
and Bunny to go with Quoyle's aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) to travel to
Newfoundland as a family responsibility. Being there brings a set
of new failures and leaves Quoyle and Bunny living in a leaky old
house in Newfoundland. He gets an unexpected job reporting for
the local newspaper. Eventually Quoyle finds that he likes the
locals, though no attempt is made by the writers to romanticize
the Newfoundlanders and even less so their forebears. The
chilling Newfoundland climate has fostered a people who are cold
and hard as the ice. Quoyle finds the history of this place, and
not least of Quoyle's family, painful and one that some viewers
will find it disturbing.
Some humor is generated by the newspaper's grim determination to
make the most lackluster news in the world sound at least
moderately dramatic. To do this they publish expedient
exaggerations and the occasional intentional lie all in the name
of making the news engaging. Once Quoyle learns to dramatically
headline the bland, he uses the technique to describe the events
in his own improving life. There even are the beginnings of a
romance as Quoyle discovers an attractive widow played by Julianne
Moore.
THE SHIPPING NEWS is well acted. Spacey plays a character much
like the one he played in AMERICAN BEAUTY. Perhaps his is even a
little less spirited here. Hallstrom and Proulx are anxious to
explain the eccentricities of the people but makes them only a
little more respectable and not a whole lot more likable. It is
about grim people living in a grim part of the world. The viewer
understands them but is never really comfortable in the setting
the way one is in Bill Forsyth's LOCAL HERO or in Hallstrom's MY
LIFE AS A DOG. I rate this film a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1
on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
The public is a fool.
- Alexander Pope
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