8th Image From Persona

In 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something. Woot!


I snapped this shot from Ingmar Bergman's Persona (1966) months ago. I'm not even sure it's the 8th thing you see in that famous rapid experimental montage that opens the film. I typed up a list of all the images flashing by, some of them repeated: projector lamp, phallus, cartoon, tarantula, young boy, etcetera but promptly lost the list and buried this photo accidentally in a folder within a folder within a folder. (Ah disorganization!) But as with the film its culled from, the image came back to me like a dream. Persona always comes back and demands that you return to it, too.

That is to say that I think of Persona the film as the mute actress (Liv Ullman) it gazes upon and the audience as her frustrated nurse (Bibi Andersson) who struggles to understand her before succumbing to some sort of symbiosis. Persona may make little narrative sense but its emotional and psychological effects are large. It haunts, compels, questions and demands rescreenings. Simply put: it's indisputably great.

"08th" the series
This short-lived blog experiment didn't work out exactly as I planned --too much work and too odd -- but I'm still proud of it. Found some interesting things in interesting movies and what better way to wrap it up and say goodbye than on 08/08/08. Did you miss any of the earlier episodes? Chase the label and view them all.

• "FEAR!" in Batman Begins
• Line of dialogue in Volver
• Costumes in Marie Antoinette
• Description of Elizabeth
• Close Up of Carrie's hands
• Shot of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain
• Kill in No Country For Old Men
• Character in Showgirls
• Use of Magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  

8th Mention of Fear in Batman Begins

Every 8th in 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something. Woot!

Of all the superheroes coming to a movie theater near you the one we're most excited for is strangely the one that gets overworked in the movies and is definitely getting overhyped. Bring on Batman and The Dark Knight, please. Before we can piece the whole 2 hour movie together with all the different cuts of the trailer.

I recently rescreened Batman Begins and, boy howdy wonder... I'm not saying someone doesn't own a thesaurus but the screenplay doesn't waste any time hammering home its basic theme "F-E-A-R"

Roughly the first seven exchanges about fear go like this...

4:43 Henri Ducard: I speak for Raz Al Ghul, a man greatly feared by the criminal underworld.
9:23 Bruce Wayne: I seek the means to fight injustice to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful
9:52 Henri Ducard: To manipulate the fears of others you must first master your own.
10:38 Henri Ducard: You are afraid!
10:53 Henri Ducard: Tell us Mr Wayne. What do you fear?
11:58 Thomas Wayne: You know why they attacked you, don't you? They were afraid of you. ...........Bruce Wayne: Afraid of me?
12:03 Thomas Wayne: All creatures feel fear.
...........Bruce Wayne: Even the scary ones?
...........Thomas Wayne: Especially the scary ones.

At about the fifteen minute mark we get the eighth fear reference, the famous double murders that have been reenacted in the pages of comic books and movie screens innumerable times occur again. Bang. Bang. Poor little rich kid Bruce Wayne becomes an orphan. His depressive journey to crime fighting in a rubber cowl has begun. But it's a movie so the dead always get final last words.

15:29 Thomas Wayne: Bruce, it's OK. Don't be afraid.


As a rare and special treat I thought I'd offer up a little mp3 to drive the point home further. Don't be afraid... and if you are talk about it incessantly! Apparently it's very cathartic.

What theme will The Dark Knight hammer into us and will we love every second of it?
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8th Line in Volver

Every 8 days in 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something. Woot!

Spanish living legend Pedro Almodóvar is known as a world great director but he's also a world great writer. He won a well-deserved Oscar in February 2003 for his screnplay to Talk to Her. Subsequent efforts Bad Education (2004) and Volver (2006) haven't won as many statues but their screenplays are terrifically layered; filled with both abundant dark humor and character detail.

Here's the 8th line of dialogue spoken in...Volver

"Burned to death! That's the worst way to die"
-Sole (Lola Dueñas)

Many movies trip all over themselves as they screech to a halt for exposition. Not the films of Almodóvar. Volver collects exposition like bees collect pollen, buzzing quickly from gorgeous flower to gorgeous flower. It's doing a lot of work all the time but it plays beautifully --like you're eavesdropping on casual if stylized conversations. Until, that is, you watch the films a second or third time. It's then you realize how much you already knew but didn't know you knew as the new chapters unfurl. That cemetery sequence in Volver is just great, great stuff.

The 8th line of dialogue in Bad Education isn't as emphatic or expressive, just a quick exchange in a doorway but how about that title sequence that precedes it? It's nearly as enthralling as Volver's end credits... those delicious florals. Here's the 8th cleverly illustrated title card in the previous film.


Almodóvar sure does love the hot mess trannies. If you haven't seen either of these fine pictures, time is a wastin'. Get on that, will you? Before you know it it'll be a year from now and everyone will be talking about the reunion of most of the Volver cast for Los Abrazos Rotos (2009).

previously on "o8th"
Costumes in Marie Antoinette, Descriptof for Elizabeth, Carrie's hands, murders in No Country For Old Men, Magic in Harry Potter and more....
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8th Costume Worn By Marie Antoinette

Every 8 days in 2008 we'll celebrate the 8th something of something. Whoa, Specific!

I once read that Madonna's Evita held the record for most costume changes in a movie. I'm not sure if that's accurate or if the record still holds, but surely Kirsten Dunst all dolled up for Marie Antoinette would rank in the top twenty. So much attention is paid to her dressing and undressing that Marie herself, in an elaborate ceremony intended to put her in her sixth ensemble remarks that "this is ridiculous". The rebuke from a typically chilly Judy Davis:

"This, madame, is Versailles"

Her first seven elaborate outfits, with the exception of a rich champagne wedding dress, are mostly in blue or pink which seem to be her signature colors. For the eighth number, legendary costumer Milena Canonero (who won her third Oscar for this movie) puts her in this ivory with a floral motif.


On this very night and in the very next shot, the dauphine will try to consummate her marriage in an insanely floral bedroom. Ironically, though Marie is finally settling into life at court, becoming friendly with her husband and wearing the "warmest" of her colors thus far, the response is chilly. The dialogue that overlays this image is as follows

Woman at Court #1: She doesn't seem the least bit interested in him.
Woman at Court #2: She is Austrian. They're not exactly the warmest people.
Aunt Sophie: But it's true. Her brother Joseph is so cold. He's an awful man.

It's going to be a long movie night for Marie. Her husband won't be responsive. The court won't ever be kind. Her life won't be long. This, madames et messieurs, is Versailles.

previously on 08th:
Descriptor for Elizabeth
Close-up of Carrie's hands
Kill in No Country For Old Men

8th Descriptor for Elizabeth

Every 8 days in 2008 we'll celebrate the 8th something of something. Whoa, Specific!

I was going to save this until next week, since... who will care about anything other than Oscars today? But I also want to put all things 2007 behind me so here you go... Ever since Oscar nomination time I've been trying to ignore the silliest of the main honors, Cate Blanchett's 'this one goes to 11' star turn in Elizabeth the Golden Age. For the most part while the film was ravaged, her work was praised (my review). But it's not as if she doesn't share that film's impulses for excessive grandeur and bold strokes... she's just infinitely better at selling and controlling them. So while the film is stinking up living rooms across the country on DVD and Cate will undoubtedly be thrilling on the red carpet tonight, let's revisit the original.

Cate's bewitching first closeup in Elizabeth (1998), turning to the camera while dancing

The poster to The Golden Age used the tagline "Woman. Warrior. Queen." I had forgotten that the original film also preferred a grocery list of nouns as descriptors. The DVD menu opts for "Heretic. Traitor. Queen. Assassin. Lover. Outcast. Prisoner... ELIZABETH" [cue huge orchestral score]

Setting aside the informal and abundant "milady" and "madame" here's where the first eight descriptors take us. "Sister", "Heretic", "Bastard" are bandied about first as the Queens advisers try to convince her that her Elizabeth is a threat to the throne. Her arrest starts with the royal address "Princess" and ends with the common "Prisoner" [tough demotion, that] Once she realizes the gravity of her situation, Elizabeth tries more florid self-titling "True and Faithful Subject" and "Your Majesty's Most Humble Servant". This last identity she assumes for the Queen herself. The royal's response? The eighth adjectival noun...

"I see you're still a consummate actress"

Hee. That about sums it up. She's really quite terrific in that movie.
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8th Close-Up of Carrie's Hands

Approximately every 8 days in 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something -- whoa, specific

The rest of the internet is going on and on about Marion Cotillard's Psycho Janet Leigh murder recreation in Vanity Fair , so I thought I'd hit the showers, too. I love Carrie. It's easily my favorite Brian DePalma picture. All of its excesses thrill me from the soft core of the title sequence to everything about Piper Laurie's Jesus freak mama-from-hell to the Psycho like sound cues when Carrie uses her powers.

The first scene is a volleyball game which Carrie loses with her clumsiness ("You eat shit") Right away we know this abuse is common for Carrie from her classmates [Aside: Karen Allen plays the queen bee heather (Chris) and Amy Irving is her veronica (Sue) in this early collection of mean girls] As the opening credits roll, the girls hit the locker room and DePalma and his cinematographer and composer lull you into soft-core land with slow motion nude girls and Carrie's sad theme playing.


The volleyball game, the actual opening scene, is all long and medium shots. So the first true close up of this classic anti-heroine is actually of her hand reaching for the soap, so I thought I'd count that out (pictured above). On the 7th shot, Carrie drops the soap. Something's wrong. uh oh... Which brings us to the 8th closeup of her hands and the reveal which sets this whole bloody (sorry) story in motion


Carrie has become a woman. She thinks she's dying. Her classmates attack mercilessly again ("plug it up! plug it up!"). Her psychic rage is triggered for the first but relatively harmless time. The gym teacher sends her home ... and boy is Carrie in for it when her mama realizes she's received "the curse"

8th Shot of Ennis Del Mar (and more on Heath Ledger)

Brokeback Mountain just keeps getting better. The more I look at it the more classically and perfectly structured, shot, acted, and edited it is. Since I'm still reeling from the tragic loss of Heath Ledger, I was looking at the movie this morning. Ang Lee's deliberately quiet and langorously paced drama introduces Ennis Del Mar in longshot as he walks to his destination and waits. And waits some more. He rarely lifts his head up, but stays all stiff and internal. We get our first closeup at the sixth cut to him as Jack Twist's (Jake Gyllenhaal) sputtering vehicle disturbs his peace and quiet. But when Jack gets out of the truck and looks at him, Ennis immediately shrinks back into himself, head bowed, staring at the boots (the bottom right highlighted image, which is the eighth).

It isn't until Jack's back is turned that Ennis Del Mar finally allows himself a peek...

Jack, in contrast, isn't so shy about the looking.


And 8th extra: Ennis Del Mar's eighth line in the movie (only one of which -- "I don't eat soup" -- isn't delivered to Jack):

I'm saving for a place myself. Uh, Alma and me, we --we'll be getting married when I come down off this mountain.

It's only the second personal thing that Ennis has told Jack. Jack, sympathetic to the first story about Ennis's parents, ignores this one completely and jumps immediately back to his previous griping about their work.

Aside about this new 8th series: Why do I love minutae and lists and numbers so much? 20:07? 08th? top 10s? Who am I, Peter Greenaway?

Um. So... OK I'll just let this out. All navel gazing averse readers please be off to other blogs but I guess I have to get this off my chest...

Having dealt with terrible real grief in my lifetime I am not prone to judge how other people do the same. So I've waffled on whether or not to even mention Heath Ledger's tragic passing again, or rather the media and public reaction to it... because I've felt (surprise!) judgemental. Grief is a personal thing and the aftermath of sudden death, especially, is so beyond the realm of normal human emotional pain that when I hear people talking about Heath Ledger, I try and detach. We all deal with these things differently. Live and let live Love and let love. So why am I having such a hard time listening to Hollywood talk about him?

Daniel Day-Lewis's remarks on Oprah (the day after Heath's death) felt extremely genuine and sad to me --the less said about Oprah trying to deal with the sudden disruption of Oscar conversation the better --but his dedication of his own SAG trophy to Ledger @ last weekend's ceremony made me uncomfortable. Even though I feel the same way in regards to Monster's Ball (FB win) and Brokeback (FB win). I understand that this same exact speech really affected others deeply. Which I'm glad for. But the only thing I could think was: again? And 'oh god, no'.

Maybe I'm just jaded from so many years of awards show watching but I've seen the way a speech from one ceremony will mirror a speech from the last one and so on and so on, until it's as clichéd as Jamie Foxx's call and response or Hilary Swank's 'girl from a trailer park dream' or as baffling as Jennifer Connelly's inability to memorize the words "thank you" after winning every prize or any number of repetitive awards season thank yous. Is Daniel going to keep tying his awards run for There Will Be Blood to memories of Heath Ledger. And if so, why?

I keep reading about how great he was in I'm Not There but before his death he was barely mentioned in the Blanchett-obsessed reviews and media coverage. I'm distrustful of the sudden great love. I was also reading some annoying bits about John Travolta slobbering over Heath at Out in Hollywood and it felt so distasteful. Why is Heath Ledger suddenly everyone's favorite actor? Was he their favorite actor before his untimely death? I'm skeptical. Where were Hollywood's votes when he lost the Best Actor Oscar two years ago? He lost despite giving a performance that was so obviously going to become legendary. No offense to Phillip Seymour Hoffman (honestly, no offense. He's quite good in Capote) but Ennis Del Mar was a legend-making performance that was pitted against a traditional type of very good performance. Excuse the generic analogy but it's like comparing a Mona Lisa to a fine painting and choosing the latter. Maybe the Mona Lisa is just too hard to really stare at. Too much to see?

So I'm sorry to brain vomit but I've been uncomfortable. If we're talking about the 5 stages of grief I guess I'm in my anger phase. But better to let it out than to hold it in like Ennis.

The truth of my discomfort might be simply this: I just don't like to connect Heath Ledger to other actors. I mean, other actors not named Jake Gyllenhaal for obvious reasons. The greatness of movie stars is often intrinsically tied to the way they are only, in the end, themselves --no matter how much people want them to be "the next" ...whomever. I don't want to connect Heath Ledger to James Dean or Marilyn Monroe or any other celebrity lost too soon. I don't want to look at Daniel Day-Lewis and think of Heath Ledger. When I look at Daniel Day-Lewis I am looking at him to see Daniel Day-Lewis. Whom I also love. When I look at John Travolta I don't... well, I don't want to look at John Travolta.

To be fair I can tell you that I relate to the urge to make everything about oneself. I cringe at Mickey Rooney's SAG antics and Travolta's "everyone in Hollywood is my best friend" neediness because I probably see too much of myself in it. But then I also know it's not just me. I think we all have moments of self-absorption but we civilians don't think of it as a character strength and our weaknesses don't get broadcast for the masses. Famous people are playing in a different universe. They are essentially asked to succumb to this urge fully. Everyone wants a piece of them. Everyone wants their picture. Everyone wants to hear their thoughts about everything they feel about themselves and everyone and everything else --even shit they know absolutely nothing about. Who can blame them for disappearing up their own asses?

But still... If you didn't know Heath Ledger and you're famous why not say something simple like "our thoughts go out to his family" and leave it at that? The only people I really want to hear from at this point are Heath's family, Michelle Williams, Naomi Watts and Jake Gyllenhaal. And even then, I don't want to hear from them unless they need to speak to work through their emotions. Grief is intimate and important to work through in an honest way. The media always makes it into something generic and public and cheap.

[/therapy session]
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8th Kill in No Country For Old Men

Approximately every 8 days in 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something -- whoa, specific

*spoilers* from No Country For Old Men follow, obviously

I've seen No Country For Old Men three times and it remains, for the most part, an unnerving experience. Certain moments within Anton Chigurh's (Javier Bardem) relentless demonic pursuit of Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) are only truly terrifying the first time through but others seem to fester like open wounds becoming more troubling with repeated viewings.


No Country... has a much lower body count than many casually destructive action films but the deaths hurt more. That the subject matter seems to be the inevitably of death, life's unavoidable defeat (such a nihilistic author, that Cormac McCarthy) obviously contributes to the disturbance. So does the movie's occasionally merciless sick joke tone...

oh, hell's bells they even shot the dog

The first two murders (a cop and an unfortunate driver on the highway) come courtesy of Chigurh and aren't given much if any context in the larger narrative. I'm not counting the deal gone wrong that sees several dead people at once --one only mostly dead "agua"-- since these killings took place offscreen and I can't tell how many victims there are.

More loss of life follows: a dog (the only onscreen kill not committed by Chigurh) and two 'managerial types' that the big boss must be displeased with. He's not one to articulate his reasons --but god, that's a harsh on the job performance review.

Five dead so far.

And then comes the first of the two long motel sequence (about 45 minutes in) which combined undoubtedly won the film its well deserved Oscar nominations for sound. Llewellyn has the money and three Mexican drug runners and Anton are all in hot pursuit. When Anton bursts into the room where he thinks Llewellyn and the money are he blows away two of the Mexicans with his creepy pressurized weapon. Upon entering the already bloody bathroom, we see the 8th victim of No Country For Old Men. He hides in the shower shaking from fear.

And a very peculiar thing happens.


Chigurh pulls the shower curtain closed before the kill. This brutal murderer who gets off on killing or performs it with bored ease, averts his gaze (for the one and only time) from his own in-progress atrocities. Why? It's a troubling incongruity in this disturbing film.
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previous episodes of 8th
...character intro in Showgirls
...use of magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

8th Character in Showgirls

Approximately every 8 days in 2008 we celebrate the 8th Something of Something. How specific

In Showgirls, 1995's gaudy masterwork, we spend our first eight minutes with spazztastic Nomi Malone played by Elizabeth Berkely. Elizabeth first "acts" with SAG members playing a shady truck driver, a coingirl and a sleazy john as she arrives in Vegas. Then the true supporting characters begin to emerge. Molly the seamstress, the fifth character introduced, rescues Nomi from the streets taking her into her home (a trailer) and into her workplace where we meet several characters in succession starting with bossy Gay, naked bitch Annie and Annie's arch enemy, the 8th character introduced

...sequin tossing Julie

(from left to right: Julie, Molly, Gay)

Gay: Julie, what happened?
Julie: I don't know. It just ripped.

Oh Julie... always with the waldrobe malfunctions, you minx!

Nobody speaks of Julie (Melissa Williams) when they talk about Showgirls and that's a shame. Within her very first minute of screentime Verhoeven and Esterzhas crown her Showgirl's Resident Queen Empress of Foreshadowing. She telegraphs it all: leztastic rivalries "who wants to see her snatch anyway?", evil seed planting "Wouldn't it be great if one of these nights she just fell down the stairs?", and future wardrobe 'accidents.'

So give it up for Julie in the comments.


Bitch aint' playin
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prev episode of "08th": use of magic in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

...on to newest TFE postings
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8th Use of Magic in Order of the Phoenix

So, I had this bright idea for a series in 2008 called 8th. Where I count out the 8th something of something. Whoa, specific! We'll play on every 8th / 16th / 24th unless you think it's stoopid. [I know it's the 9th. I'm tardy]

The movies, like the books, in the Harry Potter franchise use magic as wallpaper. It's always there in the background adding flavor. This is the interesting part (I love those newspapers with moving pictures. Why can't my blog shapeshift like that? ) Once you get to the spells, the big ones in the battle sequences, it's just boring CGI energy ball hurling. So I thought I'd count to the 8th use of magic in Order of the Phoenix, figuring they'd stack up quickly. It wouldn't take long.

After the Petronus charm, a prissy talking letter, a flashback to a sad Avada Kedrava, a little illuminating wand, some broomstick escapades, the unveiling of a hidden house, and teleporting twins... we get to a Weasley novelty magic, the extendable ear. Our heroes want to know what the adults are talking about in the other room. So they drop this nifty magic down the stairwell to listen in at the door.

Maybe I'm too old for these movies because I only vaguely remember wanting to hear what adults were saying behind closed doors when I was a kid... but now I know what you'd hear in most households and it's boring. You're better off watching TV, kids.


They hadn't count on Crookshanks' feline urges. Of course he's going to pounce at dangling objects anywhere near him. That's what pussycats do.

In a lick lipping cutaway in the next scene it's suggested that he ate the ear. ewww. But yeah, they'll eat anything... or at least consider doing so. But because all movies bleed into one in my cinephiliac hippocampus, I immediately pictured Crookshanks running off with the ear only to deposit it in Little Lumberton, causing all sorts of problems in a whole 'nother film.


Crookshanks, you ginger devil!

Hey, maybe David Lynch should direct Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
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