Friday: The Man who Killed Don Quixote

https://www.cinetopiafestival.org

One of my favorite things about living in Ypsi is that we are close enough to Ann Arbor to get to all the amazing cultural events of our blue bubble without having to deal with the students on the daily. One of my favorite cultural things (besides the Farmer's Market, Festifools/Foolmoon, the Peonies and blah blah blah-- yeah...I love A2) is Cinetopia. I am a huge movienerd. I suspect growing up in my Great Uncle's movie theatre (my grandfather was a projectionist and I hung out up there quite a bit) in my tiny hometown of Vassar, Mich is the impetus for that personality trait...

ANYWAY... Terry Gilliam. Yowza! Pete got us back into A2 for more Cinetopia. He wanted to see Quixote. (I still want to see the Emily/Wild Nights flick so maybe we will get three posts from this year's movie festival. I need to volunteer next season.)

It appears that Gilliam took 25 years to make this flick. He started in '89. It was the closing film at the 2018 Cannes and was simultaneously released in French theaters. The break in the production is fully covered in wikipedia... "During Terry Gilliam's eighth attempt at making his infamous development hell project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Hurt was set to star as Don Quixote alongside Adam Driver. However, his declining health and eventual death led to project to be cancelled yet again; he was eventually replaced by Jonathan Pryce."  

Gilliam is special. He is ballsy. He is funny. He is tongue in cheek. He is American. His movies are unique and fantastic (see Baron Munchausen who BTW, is also an idealistic fictional male character, just  German not Spanish. Shit, I just realized that in Gilliam's "Brazil"  he uses the same idea of poorly maintained machines to satirize our Kafkaesque (dysfunctional) modern world.  This idea ties right back to Tolkien's distrust of industry and machines.

Gilliam's self referential cuts have got to tie into the constant use/placement of mirrors on set. The side mirror on the motorcycle... the broken mirrors on the Enchanter's armor in particular reflect the infinity funhouse of looking into the void. BUT UNLIKE Karuski, who hands us a logical explanation for the flights of imagination when Tolkien is in the trenches/fog of war. Gilliam has Driver's character Toby launch into drunken dreams, head bumps and spinning cinematography that is, for me, confusing and disorienting. I would love it if Gilliam could be a directorial filter on a legit narrative (just for shits and giggles maybe Gabriel Garcia Marquez' The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings?). Any piece of magic realism THAT HAS A PLOT. Gilliam's original pieces feel like beautiful story boards, there is always lacking a strong narrative skeleton to support the visuals. It feels...empty.

But yeah, Adam Driver. Damn, that kid has some chops. "Patterson" was truly amazing and he continues to impress. I was mesmerized by Toby's self loathing--his confusion and loss of passion. He studies himself and finds a gap between who he wants to be (auteur/artist) versus who he knows really is (directing an insurance commercial) the realization and frustrated disappointment of knowing you can make good art but you are stuck fucking the wife of your boss-- so you can buy expensive Italian loafers. (There maybe a recurring motif of a shoe fetish too... not sure...) This is soul crushing. Toby becomes another reflection of Quixote tilting at a windmills (ugly giants) that represent idealized ART not Chivalry.

Chivalry. Unrequited love...men seeking idealized women, it gets a little dull frankly. There are several interesting women in this flick, but they are left as empty and hollow as the narrative. I was happy to notice that Gilliam's daughter Amy was unit production manager, but that was not enough to take the female characters out of their shallow two dimensional roles. Women are passive, wounded and undeveloped. Only when Angelica owns her Sancho role (in a bad costume and as a supporting role of caregiver) does she read as a real human. sigh.

The dual narration of our two Quixotes as they ride into the sunset was weak and did nothing to ground the viewer. If Gilliam wanted to leave us floating in an unsettling and surreal metaphor he did a great job. 

Thursday: Review of TOLKIEN

I adored the new Tolkien biopic. It is truly a wonderful thing. Nicholas Hoult was as beautiful as a Greek statue as he showed us our protag, deep in his studies at Oxford. My heart was in my throat for most of the battle scenes. Despite my knowledge that he WOULD get back to Edith, I was genuinely worried for his safety in the trenches.

In his review of the film, Glenn Kenny from NYT wrote, "it doesn’t shy away from the conspicuously literary, treating the writer’s explorations of Wagner (sparked by his love interest and future wife Edith,  played by Lily Collins) and passion for philology (sparked by chats with the intimidating professor Joseph Wright, played by Derek Jacobi) with a commendable amount of detail." 


It was truly wonderful to see a portrayal of his early friendships, the boys who would become the inspiration for The Fellowship. It was a pure delight to see the intercutting of his imagination with the reality of grief and war that colors the trilogy.

Immediately, I saw the connection between Prof. Tolkien's obvious distaste for pollution and technological destruction of the environment. This connection is made when his mother is forced to move them to industrial Birmingham.  I settled in for a delicious ride of watching genius unfold. It was reassuring, as a writer, to SEE the obsession necessary to create not only "A" fantasy universe, but also THE FIRST fantasy realm. This film is an homage to the process of writing. I was just as thrilled to see his boyhood #2 pencil sketches of Smaug and Sauron, Shelob and Arwen on lined notebook paper-- as I was completely stunned by the visual treat of the ink from a fountain pen drying into the tooth of paper as his distinctive handwriting starts "In a hole in the ground..."

I do wish that we had got to see him meeting Lewis and forming The Inklings, (that time frame is reduced to a screen transition of "years later at Oxford") aside from my greedy desire for more of a good thing, it was a beautiful way to spend a couple of hours. I will watch it again I am certain. Dome Karukoski has given us the perfect prelude to a marathon of Jackson's masterpieces. Thank you.

Colorado

Sombrero Ranch, Estes Park 

Lilacs at Matt's student housing

My favorite rock in the ROCKy Mountains!

What a great weekend

Some pics from Matt's Commencement Ceremony

Crone Day

Gonna talk about something we as a society truly need to talk about. Menopause.

I haven't been a Maiden for quite some time, no surprise there eh? I have successfully raised three brilliant healthy babies into smart successful adults, so the Mother bit could get checked off, except they have all three insisted I remain on retainer. That's cool.  On to my Crone phase.

It has been a struggle. I want to celebrate an actual victory. Like PeriMenopause isn't hell enough, I am hypothyroid. No biggie, lots of peeps also have been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Take a tiny pill get on with life. But,  WITNESS ME!!! OMG the combination of those two things combined with my desire to do adventure things and be strong?! It has been a long time coming. Started early. FAILED. Got to 198 days once, NOPE. BACK TO SQUARE ONE (at least three times) Evil black clotty scary shit. At several points I felt like an actual dragon with scaly skin and dripping acid. Horrific cramps that assured me I was dying. I might have been less than pleasant to live with. Brain Fog, constantly cold. Shit hair and splitting nails. Weak, tired, MISERABLE. Bruises took months to heal. If I get a cold I may as well just curl up and hibernate till it is done. UGH. Shoot me now and put me out of my effin' misery... except...

I MADE IT!

My husband didn't leave me. I didn't stab anyone. I think most of my "friends" still kinda like me...

Tonight at midnight I will be officially 365 days without a period. I am menopausal. I DID IT! I MADE CRONE STATUS!

This is not a bad thing. According to my man Joe Campbell, the Crone brings helpful amulets. Baba Yaga is kinda cool.  I am going to make myself a cake!