Promises of the Flesh

Something I've shied away from in this forum is the straight-up review. Reviews are a dime a dozen (probably cheaper than that in this age of blog-bling), and until the dawn of consensus critical sources like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, there was no way of telling whether a review was "right" or "wrong".

Which brings up the question of whether or not a review can be right or wrong for more than one individual at a time. If so, perhaps only in the cases where the review reader sought out the subject of a review and compared notes.. which we don't often do for things reviewed in a harsh negative light.

Viggo knows how to deliver a message.

A while back I came up with a gimmicky approach to the movie review that I thought might be fun. The idea is that one man's trash is another man's treasure, so why not write reviews from the pseudonymous personality of someone hardwired to love the movie in question. Every review would more or less be a rave, but regular readers of the column would get an insight into what they could expect from the movie by which personality was reviewing it and how it rated for the kind of reviewer who, in theory, is predisposed to loving it.

Isn't it unfair to the moviegoer to have the same guy reviewing MR. WOODCOCK and EASTERN PROMISES?

Ultimately it sounded like too much work for a lark, but maybe one day...

My aside aside, I just returned home from director David Cronenberg's latest film EASTERN PROMISES, which is hands down the best movie I've seen all year. Rather than write review-type stuff about it I wanted to jot down some comparisons of my experience today to the one I had watching Cronenberg's last film, also starring Viggo Mortensen, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.

As great a time at the movies as I had today, I had the opposite watching HISTORY. I thought then that Cronenberg had officially lost his touch (SPIDER was thoroughly unwatchable) after a two-decade run as one of the most exciting directors in the business.

Twins... how many of us have them?

As sure-handed as PROMISES felt, HISTORY felt scatterbrained. As sharply-directed and "in the pocket" as the actors felt today, they felt attention-starved and mismatched in HISTORY. William Hurt was Oscar-nominated for his laughable, scenery-gorging, late-period Brandoesque supporting role in HISTORY: Mortensen will be nominated for his elite, coiled, hypnotic leading work in PROMISES.

As piecemeal and wildly uneven in tone as HISTORY felt, PROMISES felt like a seamless fabric of writer, director and cast working in unison.

I haven't felt that good watching a movie in the theater in a long, long time. How you feel about a movie doesn't necessarily say that much about the movie itself, even if you're a top flight film critic, but nonetheless what I felt as I was watching EASTERN PROMISES (including the relief of seeing a cinematic hero return to form) was so good I felt compelled to share it.

This still from Cronenberg's RABID has always freaked me out.

"You need language for thought. And you need language to anticipate death. There is no abstract thought without language. And no anticipation. I think the anticipation of death without language would be impossible."
- David Cronenberg

"My dentist said to me the other day: I've enough problems in my life, so why should I see your films?"
- David Cronenberg

Dog Ears #5: Crash

No no, not that CRASH, J.G. Ballard's 1973 novel CRASH. I was drawn to the book to see what longtime fave David Cronenberg was thinking when he adapted Ballard's work for his controversial 1996 film of the same name.

Hitchcock would've loved Deborah Kara Unger

Note to self- it can be dangerous to wonder what David Cronenberg was thinking.

Overall I found the book to be dated, repetitive and sophomoric, and not nearly as hot or disturbing as I expected from a quasi-legendary book of underground erotica. Thankfully it was short, 'cause if I read either of Ballard's favorite words ("glans" and "pubis") one more time I was gonna crash my foot into the book's spine.

After CRASH, I doubt I'll ever read Ballard's EMPIRE OF THE SUN which Spielberg adapted in 1987 (unless I hear good things about it from you of course).

The good news is that the book was chock full of dog-earable words that I'm excited to finally look up, not to mention a turn of phrase or two that aroused my literary side.

p22. "It was not the sexuality of the posture that stayed in my mind, but the stylization of the terrible events that had involved us..."

p39. "At times I had even speculated on the kind of traffic accident in which I would die."*

* I included this quote because it reminded me that during my first stint in Los Angeles (1995-2001) I had a premonition that I would eventually be killed on one of the city's many highways. Thankfully I haven't felt that same foreboding this time around.

p41. buccal |ˈbəkəl| |ˌbəkəl| |ˌbʌk(ə)l|
adjective / technical
of or relating to the mouth : the buccal cavity.
• of or relating to the cheek : the buccal side of the molars.
ORIGIN early 19th cent.: from Latin bucca ‘cheek’ + -al.

p42. "Listening in a bored way, the women patients lay in their beds. Two of them were suspended with their legs in traction, as if involved in the fantasies of a demented gymnast."

p50. autogeddon. I assume this word was the creation of the author... it bugged me every time I read it. As far as neologisms go, though, it's pretty weak salsa.

p54. penumbra |peˈnəmbrə| |pəˌnəmbrə| |pɪˌnʌmbrə|
noun
the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object.
• Astronomy the shadow cast by the earth or moon over an area experiencing a partial eclipse.
• Astronomy the less dark outer part of a sunspot, surrounding the dark core.
• any area of partial shade.

p57. vitrified > vitrify |ˈvitrəˌfī| |ˌvɪtrəˈfaɪ| |ˌvɪtrɪfʌɪ|
verb ( -fies, -fied) [ trans. ] (often be vitrified)
convert (something) into glass or a glasslike substance, typically by exposure to heat.

i had to vitrify that glass

p65. invigliator > invigilate |inˈvijəˌlāt| |1nˌvɪdʒəˈleɪt| |ɪnˌvɪdʒɪleɪt|
verb [ intrans. ] Brit.
supervise candidates during an examination.
DERIVATIVES
invigilation |-ˌvijəˈlā sh ən| |1nˈvɪdʒəˌleɪʃən| |-ˌleɪʃ(ə)n| noun
invigilator |-ˌlātər| |1nˌvɪdʒəˈleɪdər| noun

p77. "A week after the inquest she was waiting at the taxi rank of the Oceanic* Terminal as I drove away from Catherine's office."
* LOST fans will enjoy the name of Ballard's fictitious airline.

p99. treadle |ˈtredl| |ˌtrɛdl| |ˌtrɛd(ə)l|
noun
a lever worked by the foot that imparts motion to a machine.
• any of a row of metal spikes set on an angle on a spring within a plate laid across the entrance or exit of a parking facility, used to prevent drivers from using the facility without paying.

p144. sulcus |ˈsəlkəs| |ˌsəlkəs| |ˌsʌlkəs|
noun / Anatomy
a groove or furrow, esp. one on the surface of the brain.

p148. anneal |əˈnēl| |əˌni(ə)l| |əˌniːl|
verb [ trans. ]
heat (metal or glass) and allow it to cool slowly, in order to remove internal stresses and toughen it.
• Biochemistry recombine (DNA) in the double-stranded form following separation by heat.

p151. columbarium |ˌkäləmˈbe(ə)rēəm| |ˈkɑləmˌbɛriəm| |ˈkɒl(ə)mˌbɛːrɪəm|
noun ( pl. -baria |-ˈbe(ə)rēə| |ˈkɑləmˌbɛriə|)
a room or building with niches for funeral urns to be stored.
• a niche to hold a funeral urn.
• a stone wall or walk within a garden for burial of funeral urns, esp. attached to a church.
ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: from Latin, literally ‘pigeon house’ .

mummy, where are the pigeons?

p177. invagination |inˌvajəˈnā sh ən| |1nˈvødʒəˌneɪʃən| |ɪnˈvadʒɪˌneɪʃ(ə)n|
noun chiefly Anatomy Biology
the action or process of being turned inside out or folded back on itself to form a cavity or pouch.
• a cavity or pouch so formed.

p205. hypogeum |ˌhīpəˈjēəm| |ˈhaɪpəˌdʒiəm| |ˈhʌɪpə(ʊ)ˌdʒiːəm|
noun ( pl. -gea |-ˈjēə| |ˈhaɪpəˌdʒiə| |-ˌdʒiːə|)
an underground chamber.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin, from Greek hupogeion, neuter of hupogeios ‘underground.’