Intacto (2001)
Date of first viewing: Friday, June 27, 2003
Format: DVD
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Format: DVD
One Hour Photo (2002)
Date of first viewing: Monday, June 23, 2003
Format: DVD
This could have been a typical psycho thriller. The story has been done over and over. Lonely person idolizes someone who represents an ideal and slowly admiration becomes obsession. Friendliness devolves into stalking. Repressed anger erupts into full-blown psychosis. The end is usually fraught with screaming and running. Sometimes there's blood. The psycho ends up either dead or remains at large looking for his/her next victim. But One Hour Photo is not a typical thriller. It's quiet and deliberate, and in its understatement is scary as hell.Nevertheless, it's not the plot that interests me so much as what the film has to say about documentation -- the things we record and preserve -- and how the artifacts of our lives can be mistaken for the actual substance. Sy says, "If pictures have anything to say, it's this: I was here, I existed. I was young and happy and someone cared enough about me to take my picture." That's probably true. On the other hand, "Most people don't take snapshots of the little things. The used Band-Aid, the guy at the gas station, the wasp on the Jell-O. But these are the things that make up the true picture of our lives. People don't take pictures of these things." "Nobody takes a picture of something they want to forget."
And even though Sy knows how pictures only tell part of the story, he still allows himself to be seduced by the pictures of the "perfect" family. The family he didn't have. The family he wants to be a part of. Uncle Sy. He buys an old high school photograph from an antique dealer so that he will have a picture of a "mom" to keep in his wallet. His story is all about what is shown and what is hidden. The surprise ending is heartbreaking. He says, finally, to the police chief, "All I did was take pictures..." And in a way, that's all any of us do, no?
I'm a fraud, I thought to myself last Sunday at the meditation retreat. And then I smiled. Even chuckled. I'm a fraud. See the things I am showing you? See how I present myself in public? See what I choose to publish on this web site? Pictures. Only pictures. Even the wasp in the jello would be only a fraction of the story. And ultimately, none of it matters. Because, finally, the story itself is an artifact. Even if you could include the whole world in a moment, a second later the edifice crumbles. Reality cannot be preserved.
Our pictures, our snaphots, reflect our lives. But our lives themselves, our bodies and personalities, our beliefs and histories, are only shadows of what is eternal, aren't they? And what is eternal is change. There is freedom in knowing that your own life is the ultimate lying snapshot. That you are no more real than a photo. That the only way to be truthful is to acknowledge the fraud. To not believe in the fraud. Yet at the same time, to live it as fully as you can. Because even if all we are is pictures, we can be beautiful ones, can't we?
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Road to Perdition (2002)
Date of first viewing: Saturday, June 14, 2003
Format: VHS
and also sometime last year at the Shattuck Theater in Berkeley
I wasn't thrilled by this film when I saw it in the theater last year, and I'm still not impressed by it. I find it tedious. Will Terry disagrees. Here is our e-mail exchange:
Will: Cool balloons....the road to perdition rocked!
Beth: The Road to Perdition was artificial, overly ornate & precious, took itself way too seriously, and what was up with the American Beauty soundtrack? Oh, wait. Did you see American Beauty? Road to Perdition used the exact same cinemagraphic techniques. But American Beauty was about artifice and superficial appearances, so those techniques worked. Road to Perdition should have been grittier, not so stylized. The camera angles started to become soooo predictable in their cleverness after while.
Will: Damn...that there road to perdishon was bitchin...
Hmm... which sibling was dropped on his head and which one takes herself way too seriously?
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Monsters Inc. (2001)
Date of first viewing: Saturday, June 14, 2003
Format: VHS
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Tuck Everlasting (2002)
Date of first viewing: Friday, June 13, 2003
Format: VHS
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Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Date of first viewing: Thursday, June 12, 2003
Format: VHS
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Die Another Day (2002)
Date of first viewing: Thursday, June 12, 2003
Format: VHS
Who cares about Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry? We're waiting for Madonna. Thankfully, her part is just big enough to add spice and small enough for her not to suck.
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The Guru (2002)
Date of first viewing: Saturday, June 07, 2003
Format: DVD
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