Thursday, October 08, 2009
No Maps For These Territories
I've just viewed the William Gibson documentary where he talks about his writing process.
Most of the film is him riding around in a limousine in Los Angeles talking extemporaneously. I liked trying to figure out where the car was at the same time that I was digesting his ideas.
I really enjoyed hearing him talk about his background and about where his ideas came from. Gibson was the first person to use the term cyber-space in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.
I've read most of his novels but not his short stories. He is an impressive forward thinker.
Most of the film is him riding around in a limousine in Los Angeles talking extemporaneously. I liked trying to figure out where the car was at the same time that I was digesting his ideas.
I really enjoyed hearing him talk about his background and about where his ideas came from. Gibson was the first person to use the term cyber-space in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.
I've read most of his novels but not his short stories. He is an impressive forward thinker.
Labels: movies
Saturday, September 19, 2009
District 9
What a film! I loved it, loved it, loved it, in spite of the violence.
Generally, heavy violence in movies is a deal breaker for me. I avoid war movies like the plague. I haven’t seen Saving Private Ryan, Eastwood’s WWII oeuvre, or most of the well-known mafia movies.
In District 9 the violence and gore did not spoil my enjoyment of the movie at all.
District 9 is the story of aliens from a refugee ship that has been parked over Johannesburg for 20 years. The aliens look insectoid but walk upright and are much taller than humans. They have been banished to an interment camp in a neighborhood of Johannesburg called district 9. The movie is partially presented in documentary/news reporting format. There are reporters and “expert” narrations of the events.
The thing that won me over the most was how utterly real the portrayal of human nature seemed. The internment camp looked like a favela in Rio or a neighborhood the west bank or one of the many refugee camps of Africa. The comments by the locals about their distrust of the aliens could have referred to so many minority or displaced people. Then the bug-like appearance of the aliens was repellent to humans to justify their horrible treatment including the brutality and experimentation. The portrayal of the Nigerian gangs who moved into District 9 to exploit the plight of the aliens was dead on too. The main human character, Wikus van der Merwe, is self-serving and patronizing by turns. As his situation deteriorates and he finds that working with the aliens is his only salvation he sabotages his only means of escape. In the end he does realize that he must align with the aliens but by then it is mostly too late. I can’t wait for District 10!
Generally, heavy violence in movies is a deal breaker for me. I avoid war movies like the plague. I haven’t seen Saving Private Ryan, Eastwood’s WWII oeuvre, or most of the well-known mafia movies.
In District 9 the violence and gore did not spoil my enjoyment of the movie at all.
District 9 is the story of aliens from a refugee ship that has been parked over Johannesburg for 20 years. The aliens look insectoid but walk upright and are much taller than humans. They have been banished to an interment camp in a neighborhood of Johannesburg called district 9. The movie is partially presented in documentary/news reporting format. There are reporters and “expert” narrations of the events.
The thing that won me over the most was how utterly real the portrayal of human nature seemed. The internment camp looked like a favela in Rio or a neighborhood the west bank or one of the many refugee camps of Africa. The comments by the locals about their distrust of the aliens could have referred to so many minority or displaced people. Then the bug-like appearance of the aliens was repellent to humans to justify their horrible treatment including the brutality and experimentation. The portrayal of the Nigerian gangs who moved into District 9 to exploit the plight of the aliens was dead on too. The main human character, Wikus van der Merwe, is self-serving and patronizing by turns. As his situation deteriorates and he finds that working with the aliens is his only salvation he sabotages his only means of escape. In the end he does realize that he must align with the aliens but by then it is mostly too late. I can’t wait for District 10!
Labels: movies
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Recent Movies
I've seen a few movies in the last couple weeks that I have not mentioned here.
The most recent one was: The Secret Life of Words, a 2005 movie with Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley.
I'm not sure what motivated me to put it in my Netflix queue but it was one very touching movie.
The story takes place mainly on an off-shore oil rig off the coast of Denmark, I think.
When the movie begins we see some disconnected video of an industrial explosion that is hard to sort out.
Then the story goes to a factory where most of the employees are women working on some kind of assembly line.
One of the workers is a hard of hearing woman named Hanna who seems more like an automoton that a person. She is called into the bosses office and told to take a vacation because the other workers think she is "difficult".
She goes to an undetermined coastal city, checks into a hotel. While eating at a chinese restaurant she overhears a phone conversation about needing a nurse for a patient that can't be moved. Out the window we see an oil rig that appears to be on fire. She tells the guy that she is a nurse and volunteers to go take care of the guy.
She goes out to the oil rig where Tim Robbins is the blinded burn victim. She begins taking care of him and over the course of her time on the rig we begin to learn more about both Hanna and the burn victim's life on the rig.
The performances are wonderful. The story is very powerful. We get an explanation of why Hanna is so robotic. A gem of a movie. The kind of story that stays with you for a long time.
The most recent one was: The Secret Life of Words, a 2005 movie with Tim Robbins and Sarah Polley.
I'm not sure what motivated me to put it in my Netflix queue but it was one very touching movie.
The story takes place mainly on an off-shore oil rig off the coast of Denmark, I think.
When the movie begins we see some disconnected video of an industrial explosion that is hard to sort out.
Then the story goes to a factory where most of the employees are women working on some kind of assembly line.
One of the workers is a hard of hearing woman named Hanna who seems more like an automoton that a person. She is called into the bosses office and told to take a vacation because the other workers think she is "difficult".
She goes to an undetermined coastal city, checks into a hotel. While eating at a chinese restaurant she overhears a phone conversation about needing a nurse for a patient that can't be moved. Out the window we see an oil rig that appears to be on fire. She tells the guy that she is a nurse and volunteers to go take care of the guy.
She goes out to the oil rig where Tim Robbins is the blinded burn victim. She begins taking care of him and over the course of her time on the rig we begin to learn more about both Hanna and the burn victim's life on the rig.
The performances are wonderful. The story is very powerful. We get an explanation of why Hanna is so robotic. A gem of a movie. The kind of story that stays with you for a long time.
Labels: movies
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