But there is another, more explicit image of antidigestive expulsion to consider. In the early sequence in which Adam Kesher is confronted by the Castigliane Brothers in the studio conference room, one of the mobsters (played by Lynch’s composer Angelo Badalamenti) requests and is served, albeit with great trepidation, a cup of what one of the studio suits calls ‘‘the finest espresso in the world.’’ Everyone in the room seems apprehensive, even terrified, about whether or not the mobster will like the pull. In fact, he not only does not care for it but spits it out into a napkin and then bellows ‘‘is shit!’’ To emphasize the note of excorporation, his brother (Dan Hedaya) simultaneously blows his nose into a handkerchief. There are a few more verbal exchanges, and then the nose-blower gives Adam the alienating message: ‘‘it’s no longer your film
With its mix of rectal, nasal, buccal, verbal, and filmic dispossession, this sequence alludes hugely to abjection. But it also effects displacement, as I promised, as well as condensation...
But what do we see – or more importantly, what does Diane see – just before this enraging kiss? We get a point-of-view shot in which Diane stares down into her cup of espresso and then looks up to see the Angelo Badalimenti figure, he who appears in the dream as the quasi-vomiting Castigliane, staring implacably at her from across the table. If we take this visual information back to the dream’s conference room, we can finally appreciate what the dream-work has done, what Lynch has so brilliantly represented the dreamwork as doing: for in this condensation, Diane’s own anger, disgust, and nausea are fused with the image of a cup of espresso and a glaring, hostile face, and all of this is compressed into the single overdetermined figure of a raging, coffee-spewing gangster. In reality, it is Diane who wants to puke her espresso; in the dream the gangster spits it out. In reality, Diane says ‘‘This is the girl,’’ while in the dream the Castigliane Brothers repeat it. In reality, Diane is the thanatical force ‘‘behind’’ the missing girl’s murder, the great big asshole doing the dirty work of death; in the dream, the mob and the blackened bum are assigned responsibility. In the dream, everyone in the conference room is scared of Castigliane and anxious about whether or not he will approve of the espresso. In reality, no one at the dinner party cares about Diane or imagines how she feels or gives a shit whether she likes (or is like) her espresso or not. No one cares whether Hollywood directors like Diane or not, for she, like the espresso, came ‘‘highly recommended’’ but the director, as Diane puts it at the dinner table, ‘‘didn’t care’’ for her. In other words, and like other words, and like countless other turds, Diane, like the espresso, is disliked, dispossessed, abjected, cast out.
The word ‘‘espresso’’ itself even means ‘‘to press out,’’ but since it also resonates with ‘‘quick,’’ and ‘‘quick’’ means ‘‘alive,’’ as in the opposition between the ‘‘quick and the dead,’’ we can press out another strained interpretation and say that no one gives a shit about Diane’s living or dying. And this quick observation can press or drive us towards the question of Diane’s suicide, which I do want to approach as question rather than as conclusion, even though it would seem to be the end of the road. But before we arrive at that destination, we have to make a quick stop, perhaps even a rest stop (the rest being silence) at the Club Silencio.
_________________ And here we always meet, at the station of our heart / Looking at each other as if we were in a dream /Seeing for the first time different eyes so supreme / That bright flames burst into vision, keeping us apart.
Kim ki-duk's 'Moebius' is stunning, for those capable of seeing it beyond the literal.
Its a terrible and daring commentary on our times, and the sheer travesty and joke the male penis has become, as well as the emotions of a woman.
The Mobius strip is a non-orientable surface with only one side and one boundary;... "if an ant were to crawl along the length of this strip, it would return to its starting point having traversed the entire length of the strip (on both sides of the original paper) without ever crossing an edge."
The film metaphorizes the male penis as a moebius strip that connects disconnections. Incest takes on a new pathos, and its the sheer genius of Kim ki-duk to show the Freudian horror of Monotheistic Xt in the Moebius equivocation latent in it:
Those who are familiar with Norman Brown's theory of "polymorphous sexuality", will see how non-sexual organs of the body have to become eroticized --- this is the convergence of Dionysian Christianity Brown was aiming at during the leftist/marxist cultural revolution - the state of child-like non-differential pleasure, and Kim ki-duk plays out that logic to its rightful end. A master.
As always he tries to save the last bits of dignity of man, of family, of being human, by sub-merging worst human nature under a mirror that reflects the increasing internal castration of our very sanity. What's fantastic is the mechanics of dark humour that reflexively comes out to relieve the depth of nihilistic depravity. The Feminization of our spirit.
This film should be added to the example of A War Like No Other.
OhFortunae
Gender : Posts : 2311 Join date : 2013-10-26 Age : 30 Location : Land of Dance and Song
_________________ 1. "Youth, oh, youth! | of whom then, youth, art thou born? Say whose son thou art, Who in Fafnir's blood | thy bright blade reddened, And struck thy sword to my heart."
2. "The Noble Hart | my name, and I go A motherless man abroad; Father I had not, | as others have, And lonely ever I live."
Great movies in this thread; thank you all for sharing... Particularly enjoyed "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"; immediately put the movie on repeat. What a terrible feeling that was...
This is my favorite movie from horror genre and possibly my favorite movie of any genre.
I haven't watched it in few years, I don't want to over watch it. It has the best child actors EVER, they are so young, but they can mess with your mind and give such an impressive performance...
Probably my 2# favorite movie of all time after The Innocents: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074811/ The Tenant (1976) by the child molesting Jew (Roman Polanski)
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
3# on my list. Withnail and I (1987), British black comedy. I haven't yet seen a movie which top any of these 3 movies, masterpieces. (unless you really want to read into some artsy movies, which I haven't done)
Last edited by Jarno on Fri Sep 04, 2015 8:11 am; edited 2 times in total
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
I haven't watched this in a while so I don't know if it holds up, but I remember liking this movie a lot.
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) British psychological thriller: "Single mother Ann Lake arrives at the Little People's Garden preschool to collect her daughter, Bunny. The child has mysteriously disappeared. " Bunny Lake Is Missing
[quote="Jarno"]3# on my list. Withnail and I (1987), British black comedy. I haven't yet seen a movie which top any of these 3 movies, masterpieces. (unless you really want to read into some artsy movies, which I haven't done)
The intro instrumental song is a rendition of " AWhiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum:
_________________ Life has a twisted sense of humour, doesn't it. . . .
* * *
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
Space Odysee:2001, one of my favorites too...I'm sure everyone has seen it, but it's worthy to mention. It has aged well, there are really few new movies I can watch because I can't tolerate CGI, it ruins the movie experience for me really easily...
On my list, this one is up there with A Clockwork Orange. How cliche, right.
I didn't like clockwork orange, but I might give it another try. I haven't seen Rope, but going to watch it someday, for some reason I have never heard of it even though its Hitchcocks' movie.
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
Do watch Rope if you can. I believe Hitchcock had in mind the Leopold and Loeb murder when he produced the movie. The references to Nietzsche's moral theory are accurate in that Nathan and Richard were readers of Nietzsche. The popularity behind the crime also comes from the defense argument used at trial.. forget the lawyers name..same dude in the evolution trial when the teacher was charged with teaching evolution or something like that.. famous trial. Anyway, same lawyer. The lawyer uses the determinism argument to exempt Nathan and Richard of responsibility. That was ballsy, and he didn't do too bad, actually.
Rope isn't a reenactment of what actually happen.. it's not a depiction of actual events. Only the murderers and the reasons for the murder are accurately portrayed. These two murdered a teenage boy with a chisel.. one drove while the other stabbed him to death. In the movie they strangle a dude and put him in a footlocker.
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
One of the reasons I didn't like clockwork orange when I first saw it was because of the nudity, I find nudity/sex scenes usually very distracting. Many times nudity is just a cheap way to get more people to watch the movies/series.
Like I tried to watch pilot episode of Game of Thrones, but I just press alt + F4 during the first fucking scene, which probably came in first 5 minutes. I even heard someone say they watch GOT just because of the fucking scenes and "hot chicks".
One of the reasons I didn't like clockwork orange when I first saw it was because of the nudity, I find nudity/sex scenes usually very distracting. Many times nudity is just a cheap way to get more people to watch the movies/series.
Like I tried to watch pilot episode of Game of Thrones, but I just press alt + F4 during the first fucking scene, which probably came in first 5 minutes. I even heard someone say they watch GOT just because of the fucking scenes and "hot chicks".
Clockwork Orange is an all time great. Regimentation of nature. Use of slang as a sign of anti-sociality and disaffection. Denial of the feminine except for its commercially viable shadow forms. The denial of human cruelty (and cruel humans) as a necessary and unavoidable component of man (like when he imagines himself as a Roman distributing lashes). There are also themes of child sexual abuse (or corruption of sexual instincts to benefit society and institutions such as the bed scene with his teacher), and, neo-fascism/communism and the EU.
Game of Thrones has to be the most obvious example of feminist/emasculation propaganda of TV. They lured males in with the prospect of an epic battle between Kingslayer and Ned Stark. Then they proceeded to undermine and destroy every representation of masculine order. Stark beheaded. Kingslayer loses a hand. Lannister dies on the toilet. The hound beaten in a swordfight by a woman and left begging to be killed by a little girl. The only permitted male heroes are the crippled boy, the bastard child of Stark and the dwarf. All representations of disorder. Meanwhile all of the movers and shakers are women. Khaleesi and her dragons, the mysterious red women who gave birth to smoke, little Arya the tomboy killer and her magic friends. I stopped watching it a while back because it became too predictable.
On a similar note, Breaking Bad was the most intense show (although somewhat unrealistic) on television and (or because) it had almost no sexual content whatsoever.
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
Great response, at least the nudity in clockwork has some "purpose". Now I really want to watch GOT just to see the emasculation you were talking about, this is one 50 yo feminist "cuckold" guy I used to talk in the gym always talked about GOT.
Speaking of series,the only ones that I really enjoyed was Oz and Dexter, I can't think of anything else. Dexter have a lot forced, unrealistic diversity, Oz has diversity too, but it has an excuse because it's all about prison.
Anfang
Gender : Posts : 3989 Join date : 2013-01-23 Age : 40 Location : Castra Alpine Grug
First I thought Game of Thrones would be something like a LotR clone but then I got into it and the first season and also the second one were good. But then the plot got more and more spun to please modern sensibilities. The whole show depicts the destruction of more or less patriarchal order being replaced by scheming queers and damsels of all sorts. The weak ones kind of stumble into power in a world which seems to favor the haphazard. Although the setting is at first glance brutal times the social dynamics of success are taken from modern times of security and plenty.
Dexter was interesting for the first two seasons then they either failed with their story arcs or they repeated the ones from season one and two in a slightly different manner.
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
Dexter was interesting for the first two seasons then they either failed with their story arcs or they repeated the ones from season one and two in a slightly different manner.
I think the Lila "saga" was the best, but I stopped watching it after the trinity killer, I really liked the ending of season 4, it should just have ended there, but they ruined it by continuing it. I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't watched it, but it's an extremely harsh ending (thats why I love it).
But...Season 5 has good episodes too, where dexter is trying to "handle" his emotions, but they could have just easily fit these scenes in 1 or 2 episode.
On a similar note, Breaking Bad was the most intense show (although somewhat unrealistic) on television and (or because) it had almost no sexual content whatsoever.
I'm more of a movie goer than a series show trender. There are simply far too many shows out there for me to keep up with. They churn them out like canned food. It staggers me to think who has the time in their schedules to devote to watching three or four different shows. Breaking Bad was the one show that really intrigued me due to its complex portrayal of the dysfunctional yet poignant modern masculine psychology in extremes. It had more worthwhile depth. I wrote an analysis on it in the Adyton.
Dexter, i only watched the first season and part of the second. The cliche psychopathic persona with that "likable" charming personality turned me off and bored me. His character was simply too laden with hyper-inflations of panache and quirky gusto that had viewers so enamored with him, and seduced by his comical "uniqueness". Like morons, who walk around with t-shirts depicting Charles Manson.
Your observations of Game of Thrones sounds spot on.
Then you have the runaway grossly over-popularized zombie bullshit shows. The walking dead, and now the "Fear the Walking Dead". Film producers and directors lack so much creativity and are so insufferably dull, all they can do is just perpetuate a mindless trend and cash in on more money, rather then create something new.
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
The cliche psychopathic persona with that "likable" charming personality turned me off and bored me.
I noticed this too and I agree, but I still like the show. I and everyone else hate the Dexter's annoying sister. I can also overlook that all serial killers in it are caucasians, no minorities (like all negrocentrists I've talked to claim most serial killers are white, even though its not true). I don't think it as a "masterpiece", it has a lot of flaws, but I think it's satisfying to watch.
I can identify with dexter on some aspects, not grieving or feeling about certain things like "normal people" do. But of course his reasons are a lot different, his inherent inability to feel (or maybe because of the tragedy).
I was in funeral of my godfather few years ago, not that I didn't care about him, but I thought that the funeral lamenting ruined it, everyone was so serious there. I don't think it's respectful to the dead to grieve about them like that, and my godfather was a humorous man, so I don't think that serious/sad atmosphere was fitting. He was already in his 70's, had few children, passed his genes, nothing tragic about that, he lives on. So at first I felt like Dexter there, smiling to everyone, while everyone else were dead serious.
Carlin wrote:
I'm more of a movie goer than a series show trender.
I can't call myself "movie goer" just because I can only name so few movies I like that came after year 2000. I hate watching new movies at home, the sound mixing is fucking awful that makes me have to adjust the volume every 5-10 minutes, they keep whispering their lines, and when I turn up the volume after like 5 minutes the action scene begins and BOOOOOOM, everything is so loud all the sudden and have to turn down the volume again. That alone makes me want to press alt + F4, which I do usually.
Anfang
Gender : Posts : 3989 Join date : 2013-01-23 Age : 40 Location : Castra Alpine Grug
Dexter Morgan as a personality is rather boring and his social interactions are detached and off in some way. Now that's explained in the show as due to him having been made into a serial killer through a traumatic event,which is a very modern, sec. humanism kind of interpretation: Dexter was not really born with those potential qualities but he was made into a serial killer through the evil doings of other men and now he struggles to regain his goodness, a.k.a.humanity. ... But... ...that's not really due to good acting on M.C. Hall's part, instead he played the same doofus+gay in Six Feet Under. That seems to be his personality, not an act.
Anyway what is interesting about the show is the suspense of (not) getting caught and how he manages to evade it through his own actions. That's the heart of the show. Character wise the show is a mess and not interesting at all. And that it did very well story-wise for the first two seasons.
Season 3 is very weak. Season 4 is better again and Season 5,6 and 7 from what I've seen were rehashing elements of Season 1 and 2 and were so so. It gets very weak towards the end again.
Jarno
Gender : Posts : 2282 Join date : 2015-08-27 Age : 32 Location : Finland
Michael C. Hall plays a homosexual who is living together with a black police/security man. I think that sums it up for a review. Haha.
He and his brother (heterosexual) run a family business, a funeral home. Pretty much every relationship they depict in the show is dysfunctional on some level. All filled with liberal cliches about life and its struggles.
