Media update: Books & Film
First, two things: I am FINALLY going to see Stardust tonight! *glee* I can't wait. And second, has anyone else read Karin Muller's book Japanland? I'm nearly done with it and when I'm done, I'd love to talk to anyone else who's read it.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
Recently finished books
Evening by Susan Minot. I liked it. Every single review I saw referred to Minot's style, and I'm afraid it's impossible to discuss this book without mentioning the style in which it was written. It's beautiful and magical, incredibly spare and filled with sentences that run on and on and on with little punctuation. This is not a book that lets you get away with careless reading. Instead it demands complete attention to the tiniest of details in order to comprehend the full experience of a woman's life. Minot tells the tale of a terminally ill woman who, confined to her bed, is besieged by endless reflection on her life. Some memories come to her quite lucidly, while others are a mad jumble. Minot's style is of course purposely crafted for the telling of Ann Lord's life and the manner in which the story is told seems entirely dictated by the way that Ann's pain-and-medication-hazed mind wanders, focuses and wanders again.
It's a full life we see through Ann's recollections: three marriages, several children, travels around the world, sorrow, tragedy, joy, wonder. But again and again, Ann comes back to a key experience when as a young woman she engaged in a brief affair with a man that seems to cast a long shadow over the totality of her life.
I enjoyed the book despite the moments when I was reading while very tired and so had to struggle to concentrate on Minot's prose. There's a sense of exhaustion about the story, of sadness, but also of relief, as though by having the chance to cast her mind back and sifting through her memories, Ann Lord can prepare herself for the end of her life with dignity.
Children of Men by P.D. James. Wow. SO different from the film. In some ways I like the film better, and in some ways the film failed to discuss the real point of the book, and so failed to be anything truly memorable. After I finished reading the book, I went back and re-read the NYT review of the film which specifically compared the book and film. It's definitely worth a read, and points out all of the book's strengths very well. The review is here (f-locked). Behind the cut I discuss both the book and the film.
I liked the film, and I liked the book. I compared them a lot, naturally, although I should add that I'm not a purist about film adapations - I want the spirit of the source material to be retained, such as The Lord of the Rings, and I've loved film adaptions that are quite different from the source material, such as Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans [Michael Mann version] and Ondaatje's The English Patient)
The two seem to be about very different things - James' book is ultimately about the corruption of power and the inherent weakness of humans that makes them easy prey to strong, ambitious people. She writes of a world in which sometime in the early 1990s the women of the world became infertile and stopped having babies. A central plot theme in the book is the relationship between the protagonist, Theo (played by Clive Owen in the film) and his cousin, Xan (who is renamed Nigel in the film). Xan has effectively become the dictator of Great Britain and proves the point of the book that power is incredibly seductive and once gained by an individual, nearly impossible to relinquish. Xan took advantage of a devastating situation, and while I'm sure he thought he was a benevolent dictator who made hard choices under impossible circumstances, still, he allows terrible things to happen in the name of keeping peace.
The film, on the other hand, focuses on other things. It beautifully realizes the decaying world of James' UK and ably portrays the misery and desperation and also the apathy and degredation into which humanity has disintegrated. But instead of exploring the less exciting concept of power and corruption, the film chooses to become an adventure and a quest with biblical overtones - to escort a miraculously pregnant woman to safety.
I do like the way the film changed the pregnancy storyline, which was much more interesting to me than how it was pursued in the book. In the book, the woman who becomes pregnant is a free revolutionary with a deformed hand, but in the film it's a young woman from the immigration camps - inhabitants aren't even considered in the fertility tests. The film makes the point much stronger and clearer that the exclusivity of the tests mean that a possible return to fertility may not happen among the "elite" but it can come from anywhere, and so all people need to be considered equally and nurtured equally instead of the vicious treatment that less desirable people such as the immigrant workers receive.
However, despite this, many of the philosophical questions raised in the book fall by the wayside in the film, so ultimately, I appreciate the book more.
Recent films
The Bourne Ultimatum - a wild ride. Not much dialogue. I loved the hand-held camera work which gave it a wonderful, visceral feel, the far-flung locations (Turino!), and I also loved how this film tied in neatly to the end of the second film. However, despite liking it, it was definitely my least favorite of the three films. The first movie was wonderful and the sequels have been considerably less impressive.
Shaun of the Dead - hilarious! For me, not so much in a laugh out loud way, but still I thought it was wonderfully, deliciously humorous. I adored from the very beginning Shaun's utter obliviousness to the world around him - this allows us to see the escalation of the zombie crisis but at the same time we can fully inhabit Shaun's entirely boring, humdrum life, which of course provides a terrific contrast to the pandemonium that breaks out when he finally realizes what's going on and how it affects him directly. The characters were all fab, and I loved seeing familiar faces like Penelope Wilton and Lucy Davis.
Talk to Her (Habla con Ella) - I loved it! Pedro Almodóvar's 2002 offering won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2003, and it is defintely original. After all it yielded the film-within-a-film (entitled, I believe "The Shrinking Lover") moment in which a tiny, shrinking man who wants to be close to his lover...crawls into her vagina. And then he stays in there. Um, yeah. N and I were chuckling over this utterly WTF?! moment.
It was a fascinating film that follows a youngish nurse, Benigno, who cares for a woman in a coma. As the film goes on we discover Benigno's true relationship to the beautiful young woman upon whom he lavishes tender attention. Contrasted with Benigno's story is that of Marco, a writer, who falls in love with a female bullfighter (who is fascinating all by herself). When Marco's girlfriend is injured and falls into a coma, the two men's lives collide.
While the film has disturbing elements, I really enjoyed it - it was so interesting in its contrasts. Benigno endlessly talks to his unconscious dancer while Marco is unable to do the same with his bullfighter. The things we learn about both men and their relationships with the unconcious women is just...incredible. I'll leave it at that.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
Recently finished books
It's a full life we see through Ann's recollections: three marriages, several children, travels around the world, sorrow, tragedy, joy, wonder. But again and again, Ann comes back to a key experience when as a young woman she engaged in a brief affair with a man that seems to cast a long shadow over the totality of her life.
I enjoyed the book despite the moments when I was reading while very tired and so had to struggle to concentrate on Minot's prose. There's a sense of exhaustion about the story, of sadness, but also of relief, as though by having the chance to cast her mind back and sifting through her memories, Ann Lord can prepare herself for the end of her life with dignity.
I liked the film, and I liked the book. I compared them a lot, naturally, although I should add that I'm not a purist about film adapations - I want the spirit of the source material to be retained, such as The Lord of the Rings, and I've loved film adaptions that are quite different from the source material, such as Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans [Michael Mann version] and Ondaatje's The English Patient)
The two seem to be about very different things - James' book is ultimately about the corruption of power and the inherent weakness of humans that makes them easy prey to strong, ambitious people. She writes of a world in which sometime in the early 1990s the women of the world became infertile and stopped having babies. A central plot theme in the book is the relationship between the protagonist, Theo (played by Clive Owen in the film) and his cousin, Xan (who is renamed Nigel in the film). Xan has effectively become the dictator of Great Britain and proves the point of the book that power is incredibly seductive and once gained by an individual, nearly impossible to relinquish. Xan took advantage of a devastating situation, and while I'm sure he thought he was a benevolent dictator who made hard choices under impossible circumstances, still, he allows terrible things to happen in the name of keeping peace.
The film, on the other hand, focuses on other things. It beautifully realizes the decaying world of James' UK and ably portrays the misery and desperation and also the apathy and degredation into which humanity has disintegrated. But instead of exploring the less exciting concept of power and corruption, the film chooses to become an adventure and a quest with biblical overtones - to escort a miraculously pregnant woman to safety.
I do like the way the film changed the pregnancy storyline, which was much more interesting to me than how it was pursued in the book. In the book, the woman who becomes pregnant is a free revolutionary with a deformed hand, but in the film it's a young woman from the immigration camps - inhabitants aren't even considered in the fertility tests. The film makes the point much stronger and clearer that the exclusivity of the tests mean that a possible return to fertility may not happen among the "elite" but it can come from anywhere, and so all people need to be considered equally and nurtured equally instead of the vicious treatment that less desirable people such as the immigrant workers receive.
However, despite this, many of the philosophical questions raised in the book fall by the wayside in the film, so ultimately, I appreciate the book more.
Recent films
It was a fascinating film that follows a youngish nurse, Benigno, who cares for a woman in a coma. As the film goes on we discover Benigno's true relationship to the beautiful young woman upon whom he lavishes tender attention. Contrasted with Benigno's story is that of Marco, a writer, who falls in love with a female bullfighter (who is fascinating all by herself). When Marco's girlfriend is injured and falls into a coma, the two men's lives collide.
While the film has disturbing elements, I really enjoyed it - it was so interesting in its contrasts. Benigno endlessly talks to his unconscious dancer while Marco is unable to do the same with his bullfighter. The things we learn about both men and their relationships with the unconcious women is just...incredible. I'll leave it at that.