Videodrome.
Max Renn is the president of a less than savoury TV station: Channel 83 specialises in everything from softcore porn to hardcore violence. Publicly, Max justifies the choice of programming as a means of economic survival: he offers viewers content they won’t find on other networks. Privately however, Max regularly indulges in the reprehensible activities available on his channel. While searching for new content, Max discovers Videodrome: a plotless show centred around torture and murder. Around the same time, he meets Nicki Brand, a radio personality interested in masochistic sexual experimentation who becomes fascinated by Videodrome, even considering appearing on the show. What unfolds in David Cronenburg’s disturbing, visionary, sci-fi thriller is a hallucinatory mindfuck where the line between television and reality not so much becomes blurred, but is obliterated from existence entirely. Intriguing. Disgusting. Bleak. Original. Class.
Tootsie.
Michael Dorsey is a struggling actor. It’s not that he’s a bad actor, quite the opposite, it’s just that he has a reputation of being difficult to work with on account of his infuriating perfectionism. After preparing his friend Sandy for the role of Emily Kimberly, a powerful, independent woman on a daytime soap opera (for which she is immediately rejected), Michael confronts his agent about his lack of work and, upon learning no one in America will work with him, decides on the only logical course of action: he auditions for the role of Emily himself. Dorothy Michaels becomes immediately more successful than Michael Dorsey, as she is awarded the role of Emily after a frank exchange with the soap’s director. While working on “Southwest General”, the soap in question, Michael falls for his co-star Julie, who begins to develop a serious friendship with Dorothy, while also attempting to set her up with her father, Les. Dorothy’s portrayal of Emily captivates and inspires female viewers to break free from the shackles of their male oppressors, motivated somewhat by the sexual harassment and condescension she experiences, and witnesses, from her male colleagues. Tootsie is a genuinely funny film featuring some progressive concepts, quite a few dated ones, and more than little cheesy 80’s cliche. Michaels learns about himself as a person and grows throughout the experience, something that is hopefully shared by apprehensive viewers of this comedy classic.
L’argent.
A spoilt teenager and his accomplice knowingly purchase a photo frame with a fake 500 franc note. The owner of the shop lambasts the grifted employee, though he himself has fallen for the same con twice before. Rather than seek reparations from the guilty party, the owner instead hands off the fake notes to entirely innocent fuel delivery man, Yvon. After stopping at a cafe, Yvon attempts to pay his cheque only to be reprimanded for the forged notes and subsequently arrested. Yvon’s life gradually descends into a nightmare as he loses everything, while the guilty are never held to account. Robert Bresson’s engrossing, sublime picture, based on a Tolstoy novella, serves as a metaphor for capitalist society, with more than a little philosophical undertone for those willing to explore more thoroughly. O money, God incarnate, what won’t we do for you.
The Ballad of Narayama.
A small Japanese village lies in the shadow of the great surrounding mountains. The families of the village live together, old and young, in small barns. The relationship the residents share with death is strange. There is no grief. No mourning. The animalistic nature of the village’s occupants allows them to only consider the survival of the family. For prospective parents a daughter is a blessing as she can be sold for food, while a boy is likely to be killed at birth as he would simply be another mouth to feed. When residents reach seventy years old, they must make the trek up to Narayama, where the mountain god awaits them; if they refuse they bring great shame upon their families. Granny Orin, the matriarch of one of the families in the village, is 69 and therefore approaching her ubasute, the mandatory death ritual. The story follows Orin in her final year of life, as she attempts to tie up the loose ends in her family. The Ballad of Narayama is an epic tale of family, sex, death, nature, honour, tradition and survival; a film that exudes little emotion until the powerful finale. Bizarre brilliance that earned director Shôhei Imamura the 1983 Palme d’Or.
Nostalgia.
Russian poet, Andrei, is writing a biography on 18th century Russian composer Sosnovsky; his research of the musician requires travelling throughout Italy. Andrei is accompanied on his journey by translator Eugenia, a beautiful young woman who is in love with him. Upon reaching a small town, Andrei meets Domenico, a man who, years ago, had locked himself and his family away for seven years awaiting the apocalypse. The locals of the town label Domenico a lunatic, while Andrei believes his actions to be righteous and his faith devout. The two spend some time together as Andrei increasingly understands Domenico’s “insanity”, all the while witnessing strange hallucinations and dreams of his past that reflect the nostalgia and longing he feels for his family and his native land, as well as his lack of emotion toward Eugenia and Italy. The wonderful cinematography of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalgia is symptomatic of the director’s belief that cinema can be elevated to a higher form of art, while the themes of faith and spirituality resonate through the characters; it is hardly a coincidence the protagonist and Tarkovsky share the same name, further illustrating his thoughts and philosophy. Nostalgia requires unwavering concentration and attention to detail, but the reward is a strange, beautiful, intelligent art house masterpiece you won’t regret.
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