The COVID Diaries--Part 3

Movies: various

Here's what I'm watching during the quarantine for  COVID-19.

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Antichrist

[Trigger warning: discussion of violence, child death, and genital mutilation]

Anyone who knows anything about Lars von Trier's 2009 film Antichrist knows why the film is so infamous. In addition to a self-disemboweling fox that says "chaos reigns" and a scene where an unconscious man is masturbated to completion and ejaculates blood, there is a full-blown self-clitoredectomy via scissors--and yes, you see everything.

An average person may ask "Why!? Why, God, why!?" But cinema buffs will simply answer: Lars von Trier. This is what he does, man. Antichrist is perhaps his most extreme film in terms of showing violence, but it is par for the course in terms of showing extreme emotion, degradation of women, and taking the audience to their limits.

Here's the thing: I fucking love Lars von Trier. The man himself is a horrible piece of shit by all accounts, but his movies are, in my opinion, very good and unafraid to really make you feel something. I would only recommend his films Breaking the Waves and Melancholia to the uninitiated since they are *slightly* more accessible.

Von Trier's films focus on women suffering* and Antichrist is no different. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe (both amazing in this movie) play a couple (unnamed) who lost their toddler son (they were having crazy monkey sex and the kid fell through a window, which adds a layer of guilt to the whole thing). The husband is a psychologist and is convinced his grief-stricken wife will improve if they go out to a remote cabin in the woods called Eden where she spent the previous summer working on her thesis. Well, things don't go as planned and eventually the woman, and all of nature, turn on the man.

A big idea in the film is that women and nature are both inherently evil. The woman's thesis was on "gynocide"--basically, the torture and murder of women throughout history. But her work on the thesis convinces her that women ARE, in fact, evil...and eventually this plays out in reality as she attacks the man and tries to kill him. In addition, the film touches on severe depression and grief and the ways is can destroy a person if not handled correctly.

*You may be asking, "Jenny, why do you, a feminist, like the work of a director who focuses so much on women suffering?" I answer: because I personally feel that there is more to these films than the overlay of misogyny. I think by portraying extreme misogyny, von Trier (who is arguably a misogynist himself) reveals how evil such hatred and violence is and, ultimately, how women (as a group) cannot be kept down and will always prevail in the face of it. That said, I understand why some folks avoid von Trier's films like the plague. They are not easy things to digest.

In conclusion: Antichrist is a beautiful film that depicts ugly things. But if you can get past the actual imagery to the ideas they represent, I think you will find that this film is an intense meditation on grief, guilt, and healing. Also: don't watch it unless you know exactly what you're getting into.

Grade: B+

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The Night Porter

[Trigger warning: Nazis]

Here's another movie that is very good, yet hard to digest. Italian director Liliana Cavani's 1974 film stars (a very, very good) Dirk Bogarde as Max, a former Nazi SS officer who works as a night porter in a hotel in Vienna. One day, a well-regarded orchestra conductor checks into the hotel with his wife, Lucia (Charlotte Rampling, also great). Lucia was the daughter of a socialist during the second World War and was sent to a concentration camp, where she became the plaything/lover/victim of Max.

Max is startled and terrified to see Lucia and she is shocked to see him as well. The film shows their "relationship" in brief flashbacks and reveals how Max tormented Lucia and then became her protector, in a way. The climax of the film is an infamous scene where Lucia, wearing only an SS cap, pants, and suspenders, entertains a group of SS officers by singing Marlene Dietrich's "If I Could Make a Wish". As a reward, Max gives her a box containing the head of a prisoner who had been bullying her.

Lucia and Max almost immediately fall back into the dynamics of their relationship, which could be called sadomasochistic but minus the "safe, sane, and consensual" part. Well, perhaps it is consensual (as Lucia argues to another ex-Naxi), but it is hardly sane.

Watching Lucia and Max's affair is, to put it lightly, difficult. The chemistry between Bogarde and Rampling is off the fucking charts, which causes the viewer to empathize with them and even root for them, against all reason and logic. However, the two lovers are doomed. Max is part of a circle of ex-Nazis who are keen on "filing" (i.e. murdering) any witnesses to their war crimes and atrocities and Lucia is no exception. When Max decides to choose her over them, he seals their fate.

Cavani's film is considered both a great work of art and a low-brow piece of exploitative trash. It is perhaps the Citizen Kane of Nazisploitation films which had a big moment in the 60s and 70s (and live on today in films such as Inglourious Basterds). I only recommend this film to folks who can parse the absolute evil of Nazis with a story in which a Nazi is still the bad guy, yet is humanized. Not everyone wants to watch that, for good reason, especially today. But in general, Cavani's The Night Porter is a challenging, well-acted film.

Grade: A-

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Certified Copy

Now here is a film I really thought I'd like more than I did, especially since it consistently appears on lists of "top films of the 21st century" and "top films of the 2010s". Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami directs Juliette Binoche (never not great) and William Shimell in a story about two strangers whose relationship changes dramatically over the course of one day.

Shimell plays James Miller, a writer whose new book, Certified Copy, argues that authenticity and originality in art are meaningless since everything is a copy of something and that a well-done copy of a famous work of art is as good as, perhaps even better, than the original. He meets Binoche (not given a name in this film) in Tuscany during a book talk and the two meet up and go for a drive. They discuss the ideas in the book and even argue a bit.

While in a coffee shop, a woman mistakes the two for a married couple. Binoche plays along, saying they've been married for 15 years. She tells James about the confusion and he plays along too. But when the two leave, they continue to act and talk as if they in fact ARE a married couple. They argue about their son's behavior, about how he fell asleep on their 15th wedding anniversary, and about other things couples argue about.

That's basically it--that's the movie. It's really less about the plot and more about the ideas, which boil down to: truth is in the eye of the beholder. The mystery of the film is: are these two actually married and just playing a weird, flirtatious game pretending to be strangers? The answer is: it doesn't matter. The truth is what you make of it. Just as Miller argues in his book that a copy is no worse than an original since an original is copying something or someone else, the film Certified Copy argues that inauthenticity is the same as authenticity if others perceive it to be true.

The film is peppered with weird little examples of this. For example, there is a scene in which it seems like an older man is talking down to and being quite mean to a woman, his wife. But then he turns around and it is revealed that he is actually on the phone, yelling at someone, and not at his wife. Another example is when Binoche mentions offhand that her sister loves costume jewelry and then later, while freshening up in a bathroom, pulls some costume earring out of her purse and puts them on.

Overall, I enjoyed this film. But I also found it a bit boring and meandering. It didn't suck me in the way I thought it would. And, this will amuse my readers, even though I can watch movies about Nazi love affairs and genital mutilation, as shown above, I really struggle to watch couples fight. It grates on me in a way more extreme content doesn't. While the "fighting" is usually playful in Certified Copy, there was enough of it that it got on my nerves big time.

Grade: B

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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Day

[Trigger warning: abortion]

I'm just watching all the cheery movies during the quarantine, huh? Cristian Mungiu's 2007 film takes place in 1987 Romania--not a very cheery place to live given the Communist government's extreme restrictions on its citizens, but an especially bad time and place to live if you're a pregnant woman who doesn't want to be pregnant.

University students and roommates Otilia and Gabita are planning on procuring an illegal abortion for Gabita. Gabita is meek and weak, so Otilia ends up doing to bulk of the work: borrowing money to fund the expensive, underground procedure, trying to book a hotel, and meeting with the abortionist, Mr. Bebe.

Mr. Bebe is extremely unhappy to find out that the women couldn't get a room in the hotel he wanted (presumably he's known at certain hotels and can be assured the workers won't rat him out to the authorities). He's further infuriated to find out that Gabita is well into her 4th month of pregnancy and not, as she told on the phone, only two months pregnant. Because of these hassles, and because he's a fucking despicable pig, Bebe makes it clear he expects to have sex with both women in exchange for the abortion. They go along with it.

The movie pauses to follow Otilia to her boyfriend's house for supper while Gabita recovers in the hotel room. At dinner, the older guests talk about the "good old days" when younger people respected their elders. Afterward, Otilia returns to help dispose of the fetus.

Obviously, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is not a happy film. It's a movie that shows how a corrupt government which limits people's reproductive choices (as well as career choices and freedom of speech, as Romania did during the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu. Communism isn't all that fucking great, folks) forces people into dangerous and degrading situations. I'm not just shitting on Romania here, because *obviously* it can/did/currently is happening in the United States. Anyone who is anti-abortion should consider the lengths people will go to end a pregnancy and maybe rethink their strategies.

But it's also a film about women taking care of other women, no matter the cost. And not in a feel good "sisterhood" type way, but with a grim sense that this is how women survive: by fucking an abortionist so their friend's life isn't ruined. Otilia is exasperated by Gabita's lies and weakness. She is forced to be the strong one. But women before her and after her have done worse to help a friend in need.

Grade: B+

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The Hypnotist 

Anna Biller's The Love Witch is one of my favorite movies. It's a sort of homage/parody of films of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, filmed in brilliant technicolor and with purposefully "classic" acting (I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, you just have to watch it). So I was delighted to see one of her earlier films on The Criterion Channel. The Hypnotist is a 45 minute film that is obviously parodying thrillers/film noirs of the mid-twentieth century. The set design, clothing, and use of technicolor could easily fool an uninformed viewer into thinking the movie was made 60 or 70 years ago.

However, unlike The Love Witch, which had a playful take on feminism and femme fatales, The Hypnotist doesn't really care to be anything but ridiculous and weird. Which still makes for an entertaining movie. An old, extremely wealthy man, Mr. Cooke, dies and stipulates in his will that in order to inherit his money, his three adult children--Charles, Beatrice, and William--must live together in the family mansion for the rest of their lives. Sadly, the Cooke children all hate each other, especially hard-drinking Beatrice and snide, effeminate Charles. So Charles hires one Dr. Schadenfreude ostensibly to serve as psychoanalyst to the Cooke's sickly mother, but actually to declare his siblings insane so that he, Charles, can commit them to an institution and keep all the inheritance for himself.

This overheated, intentionally poorly-acted (so, in a weird way, I guess it was well-acted!), cheesy short film was a hoot. Not nearly as good as The Love Witch, but it shows Biller's roots as a wildy creative visionary director.

Grade: B+

Dr. Schadenfreude at your service.