POETS UNITED - MONEY

“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” - George Lorimer 

The topic for this week’s Midweek Motif at Poets United is “money”. Here is my contribution: 

The Will 

And finally the will was read,
At the appointed time,
To all interested parties
As stipulated to the solicitor
By the testator. 

“I give all my tangible personal property
And all policies and proceeds of insurance covering such property,
To my son…”
How odd, that he only called me “son” after his death,
While when he lived he simply ignored my existence.

So I have my “father’s” money,
Making his other relatives sour,
Their eyes dripping poison, choosing for me a slow painful death
(Had their eyes been daggers
I would have succumbed to multiple wounds and an easy death).

The stranger who on his deathbed acknowledged me
As his son and legal heir, made me a millionaire.
And yet how poor I feel, when no tears came to my eyes
At his death;
When no sense of loss accompanied his passing…

He left me money, but no memories;
I have no photos in an album;
He taught me nothing, we never spoke;
I know nothing of him, I have no knowledge of his heart;
He spent no time with, he took no interest.

The money willed to me, is but an afterthought,
A neat sum to buy some ease for his troubled conscience;
Atonement for sins of omission,
A purchase of a ticket to heaven,
Where all good fathers go.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE DAUGHTER

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” - Virginia Woolf

We watched Simon Stone’s 2015 movie “The Daughter” at the weekend. It starred Sam Neill, Miranda Otto, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Schneider, Odessa Young and Ewen Leslie, with a story based on Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck”, adapted by the director, Simon Stone. The story is updated to modern-day Australia and there are some quite fundamental changes to the plot, including (possibly) the ending.

The film is set in Tasmania although it was filmed around the very atmospheric Snowy Mountain towns of Tumut and Batlow. A timber mill belonging to a wealthy landowner closes the greatly dismayed workers are sacked while the aloof owner Henry (Rush) plans to marry his much younger former housekeeper. His estranged son Christian (Schneider) returns for the wedding looking for someone to blame for his mother’s suicide. When Christian learns of his father’s previous infidelity he feels compelled to reveal all to his childhood friend Oliver (Leslie) that his wife Charlotte (Otto) had an affair with his father. Oliver is devastated his up till then excellent relationship with his daughter Hedvig (Young) is affected. The thoughtless and irresponsible revelation of the truth by Christian (whose own life is immersed in lies) leads to a tragic consequences that will affect everyone’s lives.

The movie is well made, the acting is excellent and the cinematography wonderful. Geoffrey Rush has a relatively small role and I found Sam Neill’s acting much more commanding and masterful. The real honours are deserved by Odessa Young, playing the daughter of the title and also an excellent presence by Ewen Leslie. Paul Schneider’s character was a real stinker and I found that he suited the role as he was quite an unlikeable actor (or maybe it was the role?). The music by Mark Bradshaw was suitably atmospheric and appropriate, while the cinematography by Andrew Commis suited the plot well.

Ibsen can be quite heavy and his ponderous plays are often depressing and hard to digest. Although this movie was hardly a laugh a minute, there was the odd scene where the mood was lightened without detracting from the melancholy and dramatic story. We found ourselves involved in the action and we felt the pain of the characters’ plight. The claustrophobic family situations and the hidden truths that are slowly and recklessly revealed create a great tension and lead well to the film’s dramatic conclusion. As far as the actual ending is concerned, there is ambiguity and the viewer may opt for Ibsen’s tragic conclusion or a more optimistic and happier one…

A wonderful Australian film with a great bunch of actors, good pace and plot and enjoyable (although uncomfortable at times) to watch. Not one for you if you like fast-paced action thrillers and adventure stories. This is quiet and melancholy, exploring people’s feelings and their damaged psyches.

MOVIE MONDAY - INTERSTELLAR

“Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.” - Isaac Asimov

I was wary about Christopher Nolan’s 2014 movie “Interstellar” before watching it, as his 2010 film “Inception” had disappointed me greatly (see my review here). However, after watching this 169 minute epic at the weekend I was pleasantly surprised. The screenplay was by the two Nolan brothers, Christopher and Jonathan, and the film starred Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Matt Damon and David Gyasi.

'Interstellar' is the story of a future earth dystopia, where climate change and a plant blight does not allow crops other than corn to grow. Worsening conditions and disease amongst the population mean that humanity’s extinction is almost certain. The hero of the movie is an ex-NASA test pilot named Cooper (McConaughey), who is a widower, and a dedicated family man (now corn farmer as all scientific jobs have been scrapped). He has two children, and is especially partial towards his bright daughter Murphy (named after Murphy’s Law). Cooper is invited by the now covert and top secret NASA to become humanity’s last hope in finding a new home, as a wormhole has appeared near Saturn. This provides a portal that will warp a spaceship to another galaxy in quest of a habitable planet. Heading the project is Professor Brand (Caine), a brilliant physicist, whose daughter (Hathaway) is also an astronaut that accompanies Copper on his mission.

This is an intelligent science fiction movie, not one based on pyrotechnics and arcade-style shoot-‘em-up chases in space. Although one has to suspend scientific belief now and then, most of the science is valid and to their credit, the Nolans did consult with astrophysicists when writing the script and making the movie. Relativity and the way that time becomes elastic for those who travel very fast through space is significant in the storyline. Alternate universes where more than three dimensions exist are also explored in the film. However, more importantly, the film’s main focus is that of love. How important is love to human beings and what are we capable of doing to ensure the safety of those we love. There are other themes, including the gregariousness of humans and the scourge of loneliness, the concept of heroism and altruism, especially as they relate to the good of society and humanity as opposed to the good of any one individual, and how honest are we as individuals, as organisations as a species…

The acting in the movie is excellent, with McConaughey pulling out all stops and delivering a suitably heroic performance, although his first allegiance script-wise is to the concept of fatherhood. Hathaway looks prematurely aged in the film and is quite a far cry from the ingénue roles of her early career. She plays her role convincingly and has good chemistry with McConaughey, although their relationship is not one of lovers. Caine in his old age has mellowed and as one would expect delivers his lines well and looks the part of a brilliant if flawed scientist. The musical score is brilliant and composer Hans Zimmer, adds considerably to the action, but even more importantly underlines the emotional motivation of the characters. The cinematography and special effects were of the standard one expects nowadays of Hollywood and were suitably unobtrusive so that they did not detract from the meat of the movie.

Nolan has made some very interesting and in some cases extremely good films. Some say “Inception” would be his masterpiece, but I beg to differ. Other people would say it’s “The Dark Knight”, or “Memento”. His remake of the Norwegian thriller, “Insomnia”, was excellent, not something that one can always say about remakes. His vision of the “Batman” sagas, starting with “Batman Begins”, is a gem of the super hero genre. There are many others, with a favourite of mine “The Prestige”, adapted from the novel of the same name, which is dark and disturbing, although quite entertaining.

We thoroughly enjoyed the movie and even if there are some inconsistencies and flaws in it, one can overlook them, as in totality this is an emotionally satisfying film and one that gets the viewer to think a little, going beyond simple entertainment and eye-candy value of many of the standard science fiction films.

ART SUNDAY - MURILLO & FATHER'S DAY

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” Sigmund Freud

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) was the youngest of fourteen children of a Sevillian barber, Gaspar Esteban, and his wife Maria Peres. In 1627, his father died, a year later he lost his mother. Murillo’s elder sisters and brothers were already grown up and could take care of themselves, while the 10 year old Bartolomé was adopted into the family of his aunt, married to a wealthy Sevillian doctor. Murillo was apprenticed early to a painter Juan del Castillo (1584-1640).

When, in 1639, Castillo left Seville for Cadiz, Murillo did not enter any workshop of a known artist, as it was the traditional way of all the beginners, but preferred to stay independent. It is said that to gain a living Murillo started to make sargas - cheap paintings on rough canvas sold at country fairs, and shipped to America by traders. Obviously his paintings appealed to the taste of the public, besides they revealed a certain talent of the young man. That was why the Franciscan monastery in Seville commissioned this unknown artist with a cycle of 11 paintings with scenes from the lives of Franciscan saints, which, after their execution, brought Murillo fame.

The artist dated his works very seldom. The first dated canvas belongs to the cycle for the Franciscan Monastery: One of the paintings is dated 1646, thus the whole series is usually dated 1645-46. But some art historians consider that the work took a longer period, of approximately 1642-1646. The canvases of the cycle are executed in different styles; thus some art historians consider that Cuisine of Angels (Miracle of St. Diego de Alcada) was inspired by Rivera; Death of St. Clara was influenced by van Dyck; and Velazquez had an effect on St. Diego Giving Charity. Even if it is really so, no wonder, the young artist was studying, during this long work his own style of soft forms and warm colours was being formed.

At some point in his life, probably in the late 1640s, Murillo is believed to have visited Madrid. In any case, after 1650 his style changed, which might be the result of his meeting with Velazquez and studying of the works of Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyck in the royal collections in Madrid. On February 26, 1645 Murillo married Beatrice Sotomajor-i-Cabrera; soon their first daughter, named Maria, was born (died 1650).

In 1647-1654 the artist painted a lot of ‘Madonnas’, small in size, the canvases were aimed for home altars: Madonna of the Rosary, Madonna and Child. Already in his early religious paintings for the Franciscans Murillo widely used the genre scenes, which soon became a separate subject in his works: The Beggar Boy (1650), Grape and Melon Eaters. (c.1650), The Little Fruit Seller. (c.1670-1675) etc. Today considered somewhat sentimental, his genre scenes nevertheless represent a new way of perception. Murillo’s ‘children’, as well as his ‘Madonnas’, very soon became popular not only in Spain. Thanks to them he was the first Spanish painter to achieve widespread European fame. To the 1650s, also belong many of his portraits. Unfortunately, we do not know anything about the depicted people, even when they are identified, and we know their names.

With fame and multiple commissions the financial position of the artist became secured. It is known that in 1657 Murillo invested big money in a trade company in the New World, he bought slaves for his household. In 1662, he was admitted to several religious organizations of Seville. These organizations reminded in their structure and activities the later mason loges. Murillo also took an active part in the social life of his city. Thus he was one of the founders of the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville, which was opened in 1660, with Murillo as its first president.

In January 1664, Murillo buried his wife. Though 20 years of his life were still ahead, and during these 20 years he would painted 2/3 of all his known works, Murillo would never fully recover from this blow. During 1664, he could not work, at the end of the year he moved with all his surviving children (Jose Esteban, aged 14, Francisca Maria, aged 9, Gabriel, aged 8, Gaspar Esteban, aged 2, and infant Maria) into the Convent of Capuchins. From 1665 to 1682, he painted many of his major religious works, such as those for the Santa Maria la Blanca (1665), of the Caridad Hospital (1670-74), of the Capuchins (1676), of the Venerables Sacerdotes (1678), of the Augustinians (1680), and, lastly, of the Cadiz Capuchins, together with a large number of pictures made at different times for the Cathedral of Seville or other churches and many devotional works for private individuals.

It was said that the artist died in poverty. This is contradicted by the fact of the many commissions he had had; more close to the truth is the version that he gave away his money as charitable contributions to the religious organizations of which he was the member. The story about Murillo’s death sounds a little apocryphal: Murrilo had accepted a commission from the Capuchin church in Cadiz. For the first time in his life he went to decorate a church in another city. While working on the Marriage of St. Catherine (1682) Murillo fell from the scaffold, he was brought back to his native Seville in critical condition, where he soon died, on April 13, 1682. After his death he left very modest private property, but many pupils and innumerable followers. His works influenced later Spanish painting and anticipated 18th-century European Rococo painting.

Above is his painting “Return of the Prodigal Son” 1667-70 (Oil on canvas, 236 x 262 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington). The Prodigal Son, also known as the Lost Son, is one of the best-known parables of Jesus. It appears only in the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. By tradition, it is usually read on the third Sunday of Lent.

The parable relates the story of a father who has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance before the father dies, and the father agrees. The younger son, after wasting his fortune (the word ‘prodigal’ means ‘wastefully extravagant’), goes hungry during a famine, and becomes so destitute he longs to eat the same food given to hogs, unclean animals in Jewish culture. He then returns home with the intention of repenting and begging his father to be one of his hired servants, expecting his relationship with his father is likely severed. Regardless, the father finds him on the road and immediately welcomes him back as his son and holds a feast to celebrate his return, which includes killing a fattened calf usually reserved for special occasions. The older son refuses to participate, stating that in all the time he has worked for the father, he never disobeyed him; yet, he did not even receive a goat to celebrate with his friends. The father reminds the older son that the son has always been with him and everything the father has is the older son’s (his inheritance). But, they should still celebrate the return of the younger son because he was lost and is now found.

The father of the parable is an illustration of the Heavenly Father. God waits patiently, with loving compassion to restore us when we return to him with humble hearts. He offers us everything in his kingdom, restoring full relationship with joyful celebration. He doesn’t dwell on our past waywardness, provided our repentance is genuine.

Happy Father’s Day!

POETS UNITED - FATHER

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” - PopeJohn XXIII

Poets United this week has challenged participating poets to write a poem addressing some aspect of fatherhood. This is in view of the upcoming celebration of Father’s Day in the USA. Here in Australia, we celebrate Father’s Day on the first Sunday of September. Nevertheless, the sentiments are the same never mind what the date of the celebration is! Here is my poem:

Father

A memory:
An album leaf in the book of images of my mind;
A beach, some blue,
The sound of waves breaking.
Bright sun
And the smell of salty water carried by the wind.

Above all else, a firm and loving hand
Holding me tight.

Never again have I felt so safe…

MOVIE MONDAY - REVENGE (TV SOAP)

“While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself.” - Douglas Horton

Soap operas are an extremely popular and an immensely prolific genre of TV program. This type of serial drama and suspense features related story lines about the lives of multiple characters. They can be found locally produced in almost every country of the world and reflect that particular society’s culture, mores and values. The stories typically focus on emotional relationships to the point of extreme melodrama. Usually, the lives of the rich and poor are contrasted, the soapie often allowing the “common people” viewing it to live vicariously the lives of the rich and famous. The term “soap opera” originated from this type of drama series having been sponsored by soap manufacturers in the past.

We have watched a large variety of soap operas, originating from the USA, Australia, UK, Scandinavia, Greece, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina, etc, and it is surprising how similar they all are in terms of characters, plot lines and conclusion. They all seem to pander to basic human needs and desires: Desire to be rich (and perhaps, famous); need to be loved and to love; desire to be desirable and to feel wanted; need to live in a society where justice is served; desire to allow people to reach their full potential; a wish for the good to be rewarded and the bad to be punished; and of course for the heroes and heroines to live happily ever after…

Production values vary immensely, with some extremely polished series where good actors sink their teeth into interesting and involving plots of some originality, to series that are ludicrous, with bad actors hamming up stock melodramatic situations or wading their way through badly disguised fairy tales. And of course, there is everything in between. It does depend a lot on the creative team behind the series, and not so much on the country of origin, as one may see extreme bathos and surprising quality in any one country’s output of soapies.

At the moment, we are watching the USA soapie “Revenge” whose first season began in 2011 and it is still going strong this year, in its fourth season. It stars Madeleine Stowe, Emily VanCamp, Gabriel Mann, Nick Wechsler, Josh Bowman, Christa B. Allen and Henry Czerny. The series was created by Mike Kelley and as is usual with soapies, it is written and directed by a whole team of people, who obviously keep the suspense up and ensure that enough plot twists and turns maintain viewer interest.

“Revenge”, as the title implies, takes as its premise a common desire of many of us to avenge ourselves on those who have done us wrong. The plot commences thus: As a summer to remember begins in the exclusive Hamptons of Long Island NY, new arrival Emily Thorne dazzles the members of high society by making herself known in the exclusive social circle of Grayson Global CEO Conrad Grayson and his socialite wife Victoria. But it soon becomes clear that the beguiling young philanthropist has a dark past. Emily was once known as Amanda Clarke, a young nine-year-old whose life was torn apart when her father (Grayson Global hedge fund manager David Clarke) was falsely accused of channelling money to a terrorist organisation responsible for the downing of a commercial airliner. Now living under an assumed identity, she is determined to seek vengeance on the people who destroyed her father’s life (the two main conspirators being Conrad and Victoria Grayson) by making their lives come crashing down around them.

The production values are high, the acting is excellent, direction tight and the pace rapid and with few pauses for reflection. Unlike many other soapies, there is not much time wasted and the viewer is kept engaged without becoming bored. We are watching this on DVD, without ads and we are enjoying it much more than watching it on commercial television. Of course there are numerous clichés, many stock dramatic situations and predictable character traits. However, there is enough originality, humour and likeable characters to maintain viewer interest in what is proving to be a very long-lived series. The IMDB score for this series is 8/10 from about 90,000 voters.

This series started being remade in 2013 in Turkey as “Intikam”. Yagmur Ozden moves to a yali (Bosporus mansion) at a rich neighborhood on the shore of the Bosporus in Istanbul. Her real name is Derin Celik. Her father, Adil was framed for a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Derin was sent to an orphanage and believed that her father was guilty. Adil wanted her daughter to learn the truth and kept a diary to be given to her. Derin learned the truth about her father when she was 18. But it was too late. He died in jail as an innocent man. Derin comes to her childhood neighbourhood with a different identity to seek revenge against the people who betrayed her father. The lead role is played by the captivating Turkish star Beren Saat who has in many other quality Turkish TV soapies.

MOVIE MONDAY - NEVERWAS

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.” - Iris Murdoch

We watched a quirky and quite enjoyable film at the weekend, which was interesting because it was a fantasy film but with its feet firmly planted in reality. While we expected it to follow the likes of the Narnia Chronicles () or something like “Stardust” this was a poignant story with a believable plot and the twists supplied by explanations based on psychology. The 103-minute film is Joshua Michael Stern’s 2005 “Neverwas” starring Aaron Eckhart, Ian McKellen, John Hurt, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Brittany Murphy. Stern also wrote the screenplay.

Gabriel (Ian McKellan) is a hospitalised mental health patient whose terrors of childhood abuse have driven him away from society and into the forest in a fantasy realm called ‘Neverwas’. Zach (Aaron Eckhardt) is a psychiatrist who leaves a promising academic career in a prestigious institution to take a position in a small independent mental hospital where his celebrated writer and father Tom (Nick Nolte) was committed. While there, Zach encounters Gabriel, who recognizes Zach as the child of Tom’s ‘Neverwas’ book. Haunted by the story of Zach Small, the boy hero of his father’s best seller children’s book, Zach attempts to bring peace to the troubled minds of the mental patients and understand the clues which Gabriel delights in leaving for him.

In the process, Zach evaluates the troubled relationship he had with his father, comes to term with his father’s early death and heals his relationship with his eccentric mother (Jessica Lange). Zach tries to piece together a route of discovery, to what ‘Neverwas’ really is, despite night terrors, and maniacal enchantment. He is helped in this by fellow seeker, Maggie (BrittanyMurphy), an attractive reporter and fan of the ‘Neverwas’ book. Together, they search to find the truth, and in the process outwit the system of stifling bureaucratic medicine, legal blockades, and commercial exploitation of ‘Neverwas’ through following Gabriel’s clues.

The film outlines some mental conditions (although it is not meant to be a documentary about them, nor is it a comprehensive psychiatric vade mecum) and explores the way in which these conditions can impinge upon the lives of families and how they can have long-term effects as children who grow up with parents who struggle with mental illness. The fantasy element is well-handled and if one’s expectations of the film are not misplaced (this is not a fantasy film per se), one can enjoy it immensely. If you watch this film expecting sorcery, dragons, magic and lots of special effects you will be disappointed.

The performances are excellent and McKellen and Eckhart have a good chemistry together. Hurt is his usual self, although his role is relatively small. Nolte and Lange play supporting roles, but they do these with aplomb. The characters are not only believable and one can relate tot hem, they evoke the viewer’s sympathy, and one truly hopes that good things will happen to them after what they have been through. Ian McKellen’s performance shines, while Aaron Eckhart’s performance as a man seeking answers to the mysteries of his troubled youth reaches out to anyone who feels as if they’ve lost touch with their inner child. There is beautiful cinematography, lovely autumnal colour, creative camera angles, and an excellent score to boot.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF FAMILIES 2014

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” - LeoTolstoy

The International Day of Families is observed on the 15th of May every year. The Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 with resolution A/RES/47/237 and reflects the importance the international community attaches to families. This International Day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.

The International Day of Families has inspired a series of awareness-raising events, including national family days. In many countries, that day provides an opportunity to highlight different areas of interest and importance to families. Activities include workshops and conferences, radio and television programmes, newspaper articles and cultural initiatives highlighting relevant themes.

The International Day of Families in 2014 marks the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family and offers an opportunity to refocus on the role of families in development; take stock of recent trends in family policy development; share good practices in family policy making; review challenges faced by families worldwide and recommend solutions.

There is no single view or universal consensus on what makes up a family. Families are far too diverse and dynamic to be pigeon-holed or strictly defined. Yet in any culture, the family provides a natural framework in which individuals (and especially children) can receive the emotional, financial and material nourishment and support that is indispensable to their development. If a family has children, their normal, safe, supported and healthy growth and development should be foremost in that family’s activities.

Families all over the world have been undergoing many profound changes and transformations. Family size and structure have changed markedly and continue to evolve in response to powerful social, economic and technological developments. One important transformation is urbanisation and a continuing shift from extended to nuclear families. At the beginning of the 20th century, 15 per cent of the world lived in urban areas. As of 2003, 48 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. The proportion of the world population that is urban is expected to rise to 61 per cent by 2030. As a consequence of this significant transition, the rural, farm-oriented family is increasingly being replaced by the urban, industrial and service-oriented family. Agrarian life-styles based on the extended family have changed dramatically towards urban life with the increasingly common nuclear family.

Mothers play a critical role in the family, which is a powerful force for social cohesion and integration. The mother-child relationship is vital for the healthy development of children. And mothers are not only caregivers; they are also breadwinners for their families. Yet women continue to face major (or even life-threatening) challenges in motherhood. Childbirth, which should be a cause for celebration, is a grave health risk for too many women in developing countries. A woman in a least-developed country is 300 times more likely to die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications than a woman in a developed country.

Violence against women, many of whom are mothers, remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations of our time. It has far-reaching consequences, endangering the lives of women and girls, harming their families and communities, and damaging the very fabric of societies. Ending and preventing violence against women should be a key priority for all countries. Access to education is also something that should be everyone’s right. The benefits of educating women and girls are not only important to individual families but to whole countries, unlocking the potential of women to contribute to broader development efforts. Statistics also show that educated mothers are much more likely to keep their children in school, meaning that the benefits of education transcend generations.

Fathers in many societies have been moral teachers, disciplinarians and breadwinners. Increasingly now, there is an emphasis on the father’s role as a co-parent, fully engaged in the emotional and practical day-to-day aspects of raising children. Recent research has affirmed the positive impact of active involvement by fathers in the development of their children. Yet challenges persist for fathers, as well as for society and social policy. Too many men have difficulty assuming the responsibilities of fatherhood, often with damaging consequences to families and inevitably society at large. Some fathers inflict domestic violence or even sexual abuse, devastating families and creating profound physical and emotional scars in children. Others abandon their families outright and fail to provide support. Researchers continue to explore how the presence or absence of fathers can affect children, in areas such as school achievement and crime.

Families can be the place where humane values and human progress are fostered and developed. We should be creating the conditions families need to fully realise their potential. As families develop in a supported social environment, they are also the beneficiaries of that development. Where development is slow or absent, a family’s ability to meet the needs of its members will be impaired. And where development is undermined by conflict, and instability prevails, families are undermined as well, robbing societies of an essential building block for peace and prosperity.

MOVIE MONDAY - AL OTRO LADO

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real father.” - PopeJohn XXIII

A very good Mexican film for Movie Monday today. It is Gustavo Loza’s 2004 film “Al OtroLado” starring Carmen Maura, Héctor Suárez, Vanessa Bauche. Loza also wrote the screenplay for this movie, and it was selected by the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the Official Entry for Mexico in the 78th Annual Academy Awards in the Foreign Language Film category. Although the film did not win an Oscar, it was awarded the prize of the Jury at the 4th Latin America Film Festival in Bremen in 2006. The film also won awards at the Lleida Latin-American Film Festival 2006 and the Newport Beach Film Festival 2006.

The film is a drama featuring three stories on a similar theme about the bonds between children and absent fathers. A Mexican boy, Prisciliano, experiences the absence of his father who decides to go and work in USA as an illegal immigrant. A Cuban boy, Ángel, who lives in poverty with his mother and grandfather, longs to visit his father who lives in USA. A Moroccan girl, Fatima, attempts to reunite with her father, who is working in Spain. The stories are interwoven and the themes are explored in each case with the dangers facing the children who seek their fathers highlighted as the film progresses.

The Mexican story is the most extensively covered and is strengthened by the quasi-fantasy inset of an ill-fated Pre-Columbian princess who haunts a lagoon. The Cuban story was quite tragic and the Moroccan tale had us squirming with its realism, and we were very concerned about poor little Fatima’s fate. As the tales mingle, the pathos of the three children who all wish to be reunited with their absent fathers makes for compelling viewing.

The acting was extremely good and the three children played admirably. After all it is their film, with the adults having supporting roles. The cinematography was very good and the music outstanding – sympathetic to the action, appropriate and never intrusive, but always noticeable. I guess that is what good film music is all about.

“Al Otro Lado” is a modest movie, 90 minutes long, but nevertheless contains great storytelling and avoids cheap sentimentalism, which it could easily have descended into. Telling the story from the viewpoint of the children, reduces it to its most essential and human component, with emigration seen as terrible thing that separates families. The stories are told sincerely, with some funny moments and some poignant ones.  We enjoyed it very much and recommend it most highly.

MOVIE MONDAY - FREQUENCY

“Our heirs, whatever or whoever they may be, will explore space and time to degrees we cannot currently fathom. They will create new melodies in the music of time. There are infinite harmonies to be explored.” - Clifford Pickover
 

We had some cold and wet weather over the weekend and it was very pleasant to be able to sit at home in the warmth and watch a movie in the afternoon. It was a rather interesting film that we did watch, Gregory Hoblit’s 2000 movie “Frequency” starring Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Shawn Doyle and Elizabeth Mitchell. The film was a science fiction drama based on the premise that communication between the future and the past is possible under a set of certain electromagnetic conditions triggered by solar flares. Once you get over this conceit, you can immerse yourself in the possibilities suggested by the movie, including the famous paradoxes where the possibility of time travel in one form or another allows one to change the course of history.
 

For example, one paradox is the idea that if one were able to go back in time, the time traveller could change things in the past by interfering with his own family history. The grandfather paradox and the idea of autoinfanticide are typical of this: In this paradox, a time traveller goes back in time and kills his grandfather at a time before his grandfather met his grandmother. If he did so, then his mother or father never would have been born, and neither would the time traveller himself, in which case the time traveller never would have gone back in time to kill his grandfather… Autoinfanticide works the same way, where a traveller goes back and attempts to kill himself as an infant. If he were to do so, he never would have grown up to go back in time to kill himself as an infant.
 

The plot of the movie has as follows: A rare atmospheric phenomenon triggered by solar flares in the 1960s and the 1990s allows a New York City firefighter in the past, to communicate with his son 30 years in the future via short-wave radio. The son uses this opportunity to warn the father of his impending death in a warehouse fire, and manages to save his life. However, what he does not realise is that changing history has triggered a new set of tragic events, including the murder of his mother. The two men must now work together, 30 years apart, to find the murderer before he strikes so that they can change history again.
 

We enjoyed this film as a thriller/mystery more than as a science fiction movie. Time played a role, but the interweaving stories of past and present were what made the film interesting and involving. The characters were interesting and believable, the family relationships portrayed were authentic and believable and the situations that father and son find themselves in through the tenuous connection over time are often poignant, sometimes humorous and at other times filled with suspense and mystery. The acting is very good and both Quaid as the father and Caviezel as the son do a sterling job with the material that has been given to them.
 

Toby Emmerich, better known as a film producer, wrote the story of this movie and he has managed to combine a great many original features with some old standards of the “Time travel” theme. The strong serial killer plotline that runs through the movie adds so much to the story and as the film progresses becomes an integral part of the story. Michael Kamen has provided an intelligent film score that doesn’t intrude but invests the action with suitable suspense and mystery. Cinematography by Alar Kivilo and film editing by David Rosenbloom contribute to the polished feel and look of the film. Watch it!

MOVIE MONDAY - THE DESCENDANTS

“Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect. If it's not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long.” - Amy Grant
 

I must begin this movie review by saying that I have watched several George Clooney films and have been quite disappointed. The greatly lamentable “Men who Stare at Goats” is one example, the muddled and rather boring “Syriana” being another lemon, and the so-so “The American” is another one. When we watched yet another Clooney film at the weekend, I had great reservations, but ended up pleasantly surprised. This film was quite a decent one, and Clooney does show his mettle as a serious actor.
 

The movie we watched was the Alexander Payne 2011 film “The Descendants” starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller. This was a rather run-of-the-mill drama that would appeal to a wide audience, but especially women given the lead actor and the plot. The movie is set in Hawaii and one gets to see some of the lush scenery, but not as much as I had hoped… The subplot does have a lot to do with the land as Matt King (Clooney) is a lawyer and the head of a trust that holds many acres of prime Hawaiian land that is in his family and must soon be sold for development making all the family members very rich. The question here is one of heritage and despoliation of the environment and of ties with the past. Throughout much of the film we see this aspect explored and how the “descendants” of the original owner of the land will deal with the pressures put on them by a capitalistic system.
 

The main story involves Matt King (Clooney) having to cope with the serious boating accident of his young wife, which has left her in a coma with no hope of ever recovering. King’s two daughters, the feisty and rebellious teenager, Alexandra (Woodley), and the younger more vulnerable Scottie (Miller), have been rather distant from their father and their mother’s state has forced the survivors to come together and re-establish damaged relationships. What does not help is the discovery of the comatose mother’s guilty secrets and the way that Matt King must cope with those in order to allow himself to heal and then help his daughters cope with their loss.
 

The film is standard drama, competently acted and has won multiple awards: The 2012 Oscar for best writing, adapted screenplay; the 2012 AFI Best Movie award; 2012 BFCA Best Actor award, 2012 Golden Globe Best Movie and Best Actor awards, etc, etc. The young Shailene Woodley does an excellent job of playing the rather volatile but feisty Alex King and she has the meatiest role in terms of a transformation. She rises to the occasion with aplomb and no doubt we shall see a lot more of her good work in the future. All the other actors played well, including a small but very well-played supporting role by Judy Greer as a betrayed wife. There are some lighter moments, for example when Alexandra’s insensitive loud-mouthed friend Sid (Nick Krause) comes into the scene, but there is always a tension and sadness in the background.
 

The film is a good one to watch when one is in a receptive and fairly high spirited mood, as it otherwise can be a little depressing. It may be too slow for the liking of some and there are no high speed chase scenes and other adventure action shots. It is a drama, there is a lot of talking and character development and it des make the viewer think a little, “What if it were me in that situation, what would I do?” Ultimately this is a redemption movie, where the themes of “sinning” and “forgiveness” are explored, with the subplot around heritage and what we pass on from generation to generation – the tangible as well as the intangible.