Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Harmonia (A) on January 11, 2007 at 15:25:36

In Reply to: Sort of agree, but the open-ended aspect of Cuaron's tale also provides an easy cop-out that arguably weakens the story. posted by Audiophilander on January 11, 2007 at 11:27:36:

Where does he do that?

I've seen CoM twice and I never took saw that in the film. Maybe the cause of infertility was science, maybe it was terrorism, but no one knows and Cuaron doesn't tell us because he's completely uninterested in the why of the infertility. (And so should you be.) He just wanted to use the premise to hang the movie on.

There are people shown in the film that (naturally enough) proclaim the infertility is God's punishment. That would be a given considering the film's setting and the cultural history of Britain. But they're just there for texture and context. They're not proclaiming Cuaron's POV.

It was to avoid such religious/scientific baggage that Cuaron left the exposition out. The film would then become a film about why women are infertile instead of a film about what happens to society when people lose hope. I think Cuaron was absolutely right in NOT explaining the infertility. It doesn't work against the film - it clears the slate. It lets us see the the seeds of the that fictional dystopia are already planted here in the present. That's why the choices the filmmakers made about not having the movie look "futuristic" are so brilliant - that's us, 20 years from now. It's still recognizable as our own world. And the long takes, the wide shots, the kinetic hand-held camera thrust us into the reality of that place.

I don't understand why you feel the film is "anti-cultural diversity" either. How is that shown in CoM? I would have said the film is strongly the opposite. We have a white guy hero, an African heroine, a black british "baddie", Celtic and white British baddies, British troops of various races herding refugees of various nations/races into camps - refugees which include white Europeans, black Africans, Arabs, Jews, gypsies, Russians, Spaniards, etc. In the book, the pregnant woman is white. In the film, she's a third world, black refugee. Cuaron is a third worlder living and working in the first world - you think he's anti-diversity? Do you think Cuaron was advocating for the status quo - pro deportation of all refugees, Britain for Britons????? Did we see the same film????

I honestly don't see the importance of christian symbolism, although one is certainly free to apply this interpretation. I think you ascribe to the director something that isn't there - Cuaron wisely doesn't make much of it, leaving it in the subtext. He's frankly more interested in the political and social ideas beyond religion.

I'm well aware that anytime you have a baby that could provide hope for mankind some people are going to see this as a direct analogy to the nativity - hell, we even got mom in a manger. And that's perfectly OK. But these analogies are teasers. It ain't what the movie is about. The inner journey of Theo is just as important as the Key and her child, in fact, it's even more important. It's Theo's emotional journey and redemption that is the heart of the movie.

I'm also confused about the Muslim vs christianity you cite? Do you mean the marching at Bexhill??? There were many other ethnic groups collected there, including at least one other bunch marching. It would be natural in a refugee camp that people would live and organize around shared ethnicities. There would be confliicts, both internal and external. I don't believe that kind of reductionism is what the director intended at all. The mess at Bexhill

BTW, I love Brazil and Clockwork Orange, saaw them both in theaters when they came out and own them on DVD. But they are very different films about very different themes by very different filmmakers. There is room for more than a handful of great dystopian films, and they SHOULD shart new territory, they should be different.

V fo Vendetta I can't put in that company. I felt was a fairly weak if interesting effort.

I would say CoM is the best fiml I saw this year - and that included Pan's Labyrinth, UNited 93, Army of Shadows and The Death of Mr. Lazaresu.

I find it interesting...when Brazil came out I was defending it, when Clockwork Orange came out I was defending it, when blade Runner came out I was defending it (though I always hated the VO), now I'm defending CoM. Come back and ssee me in 15 years.