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Movie Monday
For those of you who are waiting for the pictures from Knitting Friday, there's been a slight delay. My photographer was getting in the car by Sam's Club (not that this place is important but it wasn't like he was coming out of a B.Y.O.B. restaurant) and clunked his head on the door frame. Now, he knows why they have a rubber gasket around that frame; not to protect the door but your head. Well, it didn't knock him silly but he has a black eye and spent two days feeling pretty low (possibly the strain of flu which also going around) and I didn't have the heart to ask for pictures.
I know, I'm setting back women's lib 20 years by not being able to use a camera, but have no fear, I promise I will post the pictures.
And now some random thoughts before my movie pick:
1. Is Obama looking at his presidency as a constitutional law professor? That is, we have three separate branches of government and each, executive, legislative, and judicial, should operate without interference from any other branch. That's the way it should be; that's the way the founding fathers ideally saw and wrote it in our founding papers. But presidents like Lyndon Johnson knew how to use the iron hand in the velvet glove with Congress (OK, I'm sure many times the gloves came off) and he was able to get through historic and important domestic policy (Medicare, Civil Rights Act.)
2. Second thought: Does Obama not understand the Manichaeism view of the world? That is: human life is a battleground between the forces of good and evil. These two forces can exist in the same person or can exist ala LOTR as a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. I say this because he seems to want everyone to get along; have a meeting of minds where the "evil" forces (tea-baggers, birthers, etc.) will "see the light." Unfortunately, it ain't going to happen and he has given all who oppose him and his policies much too much time to get their messages out. At this late date, I think it might be too late for Obama to find his voice and use it effectively. It isn't all his fault though. This is what happens when you elect your hero. You project too much of yourself into him. He/she is the metaphor for what you might have been. You're always disappointed.
And now the movie: Local Color (2006)
This is one of those "small" movies where almost everything is perfection. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays a Russian master painter. Nicholi Seroff, living in the U.S. with a tragic past which has prevented him from continuing his art. Trevor Morgan is the 18 year old aspiring artist, John Talia, living with philistine parents who gets a chance to spend the summer with Seroff as an apprentice. Samantha Mathis plays Carla their neighbor during that summer. And, Ron Perlmann gives an over-the-top performance as the effete art critic, Curtis Sunday.
But it is the three players, Mueller-Stahl, Morgan, and Mathis who carry the picture to a bittersweet conclusion without pretense. For example, in the scene where the two actors, as artists, work with mentally retarded children (who are not actors) you feel a true rapport with these children; or the scene where Morgan walks Mathis home and they share a kiss. It has a sweet and right feeling; and thank goodness not an introduction to the Summer of '42 as one reviewer said.
One expects perfection from Mueller-Stahl but Morgan holds his own and more. I had my doubts at the beginning of the scene towards the end of the movie where he and Mueller-Stahl exchange angry and frustrated words about their lives and disappointments. It could have been played maudlin or superficial but it wasn't. You sensed the deep feelings from the old man at the end of his career and the young man hoping he could even have a career.
I learned that the director, George Gallo, is an artist and you see his artistic skill in the shot compositions. The movie looks like it had the thought process of a painter behind it but without this process in any way detracting from the film.
Savor this movie. Take your time with it. There is no CGI but there are heroics. In its simple, quiet way it gets to the soul of art and tells you how important it is in all our lives.
I know, I'm setting back women's lib 20 years by not being able to use a camera, but have no fear, I promise I will post the pictures.
And now some random thoughts before my movie pick:
1. Is Obama looking at his presidency as a constitutional law professor? That is, we have three separate branches of government and each, executive, legislative, and judicial, should operate without interference from any other branch. That's the way it should be; that's the way the founding fathers ideally saw and wrote it in our founding papers. But presidents like Lyndon Johnson knew how to use the iron hand in the velvet glove with Congress (OK, I'm sure many times the gloves came off) and he was able to get through historic and important domestic policy (Medicare, Civil Rights Act.)
2. Second thought: Does Obama not understand the Manichaeism view of the world? That is: human life is a battleground between the forces of good and evil. These two forces can exist in the same person or can exist ala LOTR as a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. I say this because he seems to want everyone to get along; have a meeting of minds where the "evil" forces (tea-baggers, birthers, etc.) will "see the light." Unfortunately, it ain't going to happen and he has given all who oppose him and his policies much too much time to get their messages out. At this late date, I think it might be too late for Obama to find his voice and use it effectively. It isn't all his fault though. This is what happens when you elect your hero. You project too much of yourself into him. He/she is the metaphor for what you might have been. You're always disappointed.
And now the movie: Local Color (2006)
This is one of those "small" movies where almost everything is perfection. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays a Russian master painter. Nicholi Seroff, living in the U.S. with a tragic past which has prevented him from continuing his art. Trevor Morgan is the 18 year old aspiring artist, John Talia, living with philistine parents who gets a chance to spend the summer with Seroff as an apprentice. Samantha Mathis plays Carla their neighbor during that summer. And, Ron Perlmann gives an over-the-top performance as the effete art critic, Curtis Sunday.
But it is the three players, Mueller-Stahl, Morgan, and Mathis who carry the picture to a bittersweet conclusion without pretense. For example, in the scene where the two actors, as artists, work with mentally retarded children (who are not actors) you feel a true rapport with these children; or the scene where Morgan walks Mathis home and they share a kiss. It has a sweet and right feeling; and thank goodness not an introduction to the Summer of '42 as one reviewer said.
One expects perfection from Mueller-Stahl but Morgan holds his own and more. I had my doubts at the beginning of the scene towards the end of the movie where he and Mueller-Stahl exchange angry and frustrated words about their lives and disappointments. It could have been played maudlin or superficial but it wasn't. You sensed the deep feelings from the old man at the end of his career and the young man hoping he could even have a career.
I learned that the director, George Gallo, is an artist and you see his artistic skill in the shot compositions. The movie looks like it had the thought process of a painter behind it but without this process in any way detracting from the film.
Savor this movie. Take your time with it. There is no CGI but there are heroics. In its simple, quiet way it gets to the soul of art and tells you how important it is in all our lives.
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