200 Films of 2012

What do the numbers 0, 1, 3, 3.14159, 5, 7, 21, 30, 40, 360, 1000, and 10⁹ have to do with this past year’s films?  How many films were made based on books, short stories, fables or essays?  What movie starred a Newport, TN, native?

Wrestling Tanka 001

John Cena vs. Umaga
World Heavyweight Championship
Last Man Standing
WWE: Royal Rumble 2007

Umaga, the brute
Cena, the noble hero
Epic, at its root.
     Brutality, well defined,
     For which, no ring was designed.

Devil's Backbone (2001)/ Orphanage (2007)

This was a double feature recommended to me by a physician that works in the clinic where I'm employed, us both being fans of Guillermo del Toro film.

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring Marisa Paredes; Eduardo Noriega; Frederico Luppi; Fernando Tielve; Junio Valverde ("Santi")
Spain; El Deseo S.A., 106min
Original title: El espinazo del diablo
Tagline: "What is a ghost?"

~~~O~~~

 

I can tell you what a ghost is:  It's a creepy little fucker lurking in the shadows, with fucked up eyes and popping out of the shadows.  Eeugh!

 

I have a greater comment on both films as a whole, after my review of "Orphanage," but with this film individually, I liked the pervasive presence of the defused (or is it?) bomb in the middle of the boys' home, foreshadowing the explosions - perhaps both figurative and literal - to come.

 

Frederico Luppi strikes a commanding presence, and no surprise there, ushering as he did (with great aplomb) the lead role in del Toro's directoral debut "Cronos."  His resolve to sit vigilantly, vengefully, and mortally wounded, with his shotgun, at a window overlooking the entry to the orphanage, waiting for the return of Jacinto so he can exact revenge, with only his record player to keep him company ... that's a dude you don't fuck with.  Even if he does keep spina bifida babies preserved in mason jars of liquor *hulp*.

 

The special effects are very good, and there is nice, subtle work done particularly in the POV shots that we get from the ghost - where vision is affected by a wavy distortion like that you get when you open your eyes underwater - and with the missing leg of the headmistress of the home, and I haven't verified this but I'm certain Marisa Paredes isn't short a gam to the tune of one in real life, so that makes her Spanish horror's answer to Lieutenant Dan.¹

 

A great film, easily a 3 count.

 

~~~O~~~

 

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Starring Belen Rueda; Fernando Cayo; Roger Princep
Spain; Picturehouse Ent., 105min
Original title: El orfanato
Tagline: "A tale of love.  A story of horror."

 

~~~O~~~

 

What is it with 2007 and creepy kids with burlap sacks on their heads?²

 

This film called to mind "Stir of Echoes" (ghosts having to irritate a living being to get their own detective work done), "What Lies Beneath" (a woman who can't say for sure if she's being touched by the supernatural, and a husband who thinks she's batshit crazy), and "The Others," although, admittedly, this last one came to mind mainly through the critical text on the DVD case.  Well, that and the story of an adult woman beseiged by child ghosts.

 

A very somber film, and it really cheats you, too, especially with the twists at the end.  It's no spoiler to tell you that everything is dead in "Orphanage."   It's not necessarily a mortal death, but certainly that's there.  But there's a lot of existential death too, because, as characters reveal themselves, you realize that some are dead inside; in one scene, a medium introduces herself to Laura by comparing the scars on their wrists, the older medium having more, as if you can count their age differences like you count rings on trees.  Even Simon, infected with HIV and treated (against better nature) like Schroedinger's cat³, .  And there are films that present stories of parents who have lost children, but few really convey by the third act the despair felt when you realize your child is gone for good.  The acting on the part of Rueda, rocking her Simon as she shoves pills down her throat by the fistful, wrenches your heart in the end, more than enough to make up for the "Saw"-like montage of clues⁴ leading up to the denouement.

 

2 3/4 count.

 

Both films, seen together, weave a context of the alienation of children, and the willingness on the part of adults to throw children away.  Children are helpless, defenseless to their plight.  Tellingly, the only adults that fight for the voices of these kids to be heard end up dead.

 

There's also the dichotomous concept presented of the preservation of childhood.  Santi, the ghost of "Backbone," is depicted in his underwater grave as if he's encased in amber.  The ghosts of the orphans who died in "Orphanage" are forever young; in a bit of foreshadowing, Simon in "Orphanage" repeatedly requests telling of the Peter Pan fable.  Unfortunately, living forever young is not an option in reality, and it's ultimately only achieved by young death.  Even Dr. Casares in "Backbone," who dies as an old man, spent his life attempting to return to his youth, taking measures as drastic as drinking the aqueous medium used to pickle spina bifida babies. 

 

Mentioning again the foreshadowing in these films:  Both films use foreshadowing to establish the pending doom, and in some films, foreshadowing can be so heavy-handed that it takes me out of a film completely.  However, sometimes, it can be handled to add an extra angle to a film, when you want to rewatch a film to look for the clues left behind.  When some go for the obvious - the "crazy old man" types in films like "Friday the 13th," for example - sometimes this conceit can go right - Jacinto in "Backbone" discussing his plans to get rich and burn down the orphanage & incinerate the horrible memories of the place; Simon's parallels drawn between his mother and Wendy in "Peter Pan."  Seen together, there's even a callback in "Orphanage" to "Backbone," when Carlos relays, almost verbatim, the "What is a ghost?" monologue from "Backbone" in an attempt to snap her back to her senses; seen separately, this might not have stood out so great.  These things would ordinarily be lost, subtle as they are (and, as foreshadowing, should ideally be), but - again, despite of (or in spite of) their absense in the final reels of clues (Thanks, "Saw!") - they are appreciated as a part of the greater whole.

 

¹A legless character in the film "Forrest Gump," played by bipedal actor Gary Sinise.

²"Trick or Treat" (2007) also features the character of Sam, a sinister child who wears a burlap mask.

³A concept from quantum physics that dictates that atoms - and, therefore, things made from atoms (like animals) - can occupy the simultaneous states of life AND death, and only our attention to these atoms defines their state at that time.  From Parsons, P.  (Ed.).  (2009).  30-Second Theories.  New York, NY: Fall River Press.  See also:  Talk of the Nation - Science Friday (NPR): Ask a Quantum Mechanic, 14 Dec 2012.  (http://www.npr.org/2012/12/14/167255707/ask-a-quantum-mechanic).

⁴A technique in itself stolen from "Usual Suspects."



First Lines: The Quentin Tarantino Edition

The tones of films are often set by the first lines of dialogue spoken in the opening scenes.  Here’s a rundown of the first lines from the films of Quentin Tarantino*.

Reservoir Dogs
  "Let me tell you what 'Like a Virgin's' about.  It's about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick.  The whole song, it's a metaphor for big dicks."
- Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino)

Pulp Fiction
  "Forget it, it's too risky.  I'm through doing that shit."
- Pumpkin (Tim Roth)

Jackie Brown
  "Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas, now boarding, Gate 103.  First class only.  Flight 710 to Cabo San Lucas, now boarding, Gate 103.  First class only."
- Girl at Security Gate (Colleen Mayne)

Kill Bill
  "Do you find me sadistic?  You know, I bet I could fry an egg on your head right now, if I wanted to.  You know, kiddo, I'd like to believe you're aware enough, even now, to know that there's nothing sadistic in my actions.  Well, maybe to those other jokers.  But not you.  No, kiddo.  At this moment, this is me at my most masochistic."
- Bill (David Carradine)

Grindhouse: Death Proof
  "Hold on, I gotta come up!  I gotta take the world's biggest fuckin' piss!"
- Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito)

Inglourious Basterds¹
  "Go back inside and shut the door.  Julie, go get me some water for my wash up, then get inside with your sisters."²
- Perrier La Padite (Denis Menochet)

* Minus Django Unchained.
¹This is the last Tarantino film that was edited by frequent collaborator Sally Menke, prior to her death in 2010. ²Translated from French.