606 Club

A darkened room. Cherrywood. All four walls covered with bookshelves. Cigar smoke still lingers in the thick forest green carpet. An old man is still sitting at his desk with yesterdays newspaper when...

"Papa! Why are you sitting in your study? Grandma said dinner is ready"
"Hi Sweetheart..."
"Come on! Let's go eat."

He looks at his granddaughter and suddenly realizes how fast she has grown up. Wasn't it yesterday he was holding her as a newborn in the hospital? Now she's already twelve, although an outsider would guess much older.

"No, sweetie. Just a moment. Go get my Jean Toussaint for me."
"Alright Grandpa, but Grandma's gonna get mad."
"I'll tell her it's all my fault. Play Lament For Kenny."

The smooth jazz notes hit his hear as he closes his eyes. His mind drifts as it follows the music up and down. He can't tell if it makes him feel content or sad. Jazz has that way with him. It has that way with most people, he thinks.

"This is pretty good music Papa"

"I know sweetheart..."

The music continues to play as the two sit in the room. They both forget about dinner as the camera fades to black.

Out of the Past

“Out of the Past” is often referred to as the quintessential film noir, and for good reason. Many prominent characteristics of the genre are included in Jacques Tourneur’s film. However, just because it is the epitome of film noir does not necessarily mean it is a great film. Yes, it has a sexy femme fatale, but I would prefer Rita Hayworth in Charles Vidor’s “Gilda” to Jane Greer any day. Hayworth is cunning but remains likable throughout the film, whereas Greer does not have the same mass appeal. “Out of the Past” also has dramatic cinematography, but it does not hold a candle to Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” and the infamous close up of Norma Desmond aka Gloria Swanson. The mood set by Tourneur is most definitely fatalistic, but Orson Welles did a much better job setting the mood eleven years later in “Touch of Evil.” The final trait of film noir that Daniel Mainwaring did get dead on is the suggestive banter and also many memorable one liners...

Kathie Moffett: "Can't you even feel sorry for me?"
Jeff Bailey: "I'm not going to try."
Kathie Moffett: "Jeff ..."
Jeff Bailey: "Just get out, will you? I have to sleep in this room."

"Out of the Past" was not at all a bad film, just an overrated film noir.

Alexander Adolph: The True Con Man

A documentary film is often confused with a reality film. In one way, a reality film is really an oxymoron. A film is a work of art, a vision, a dream. Reality is none of those so it is impossible to view a film and have it be “real.” Even when filming reality, the process of capturing certain moments and then editing them skews the truth therefore creating something completely original. Once it is understood that a documentary is an artist’s vision of the truth, the viewer becomes conscious of the manipulation that can occur when viewing a film like Alexander Adolph’s "Con Man Confidential."

Adolph’s film was extremely sympathetic to criminals that ruined hundreds of peoples lives. The clips placed in between the interviews, such as the golf scene or the toy car scene, paired with the nostalgia-inducing music made the viewer imagine they were in the mind of the con man. There were two noticeable themes that the con men shared that also made the viewer understand where they were coming from. One common thread was they all had some sort of traumatic past or childhood, such as spending years at a home for child delinquents or being severely beaten by their parents or having to give up their toy cars for other children to play with them. Another was how all the con men said how stupid their victims were by mentioning things like, “if they would have just checked, made a call, looked it up etc....”

After viewing the film, you really had the feeling that you got inside the mind of a con man. It is hard to imagine that Adolph wanted the viewer to feel anything less than pity and possibly even empathy toward the con men at the end of his film. Adolph’s excellent organization of the documentary into how they conned, their past, their lives as con men, and finally the consequence of their actions, made a perfect circle out of the most imperfect lives.

Monsieur Jude Law et Le Samourai

The massive impact of celebrity on American culture is undeniable. Although it can be argued that the impact is not as great here in England as it is in California, famous personalities have a universal effect of captivating their audiences.

With the opportunity to witness first hand the mayhem that surrounds/is celebrity, we took off to the screening of Jean-Pierre Melville’s "Le Samourai." The most obvious feature of the the audience was the percentage of female attendees. While it is impossible to know for sure how many were at the Institut Francais to view Melville’s film and how many were there to see the Jude Law, the majority must have attended because of the latter. The people in the front row were giddy as school girls and their cameras came close to matching the number of flashes that go off when the paparazzi are constantly following Jude. It was also noticed that some ladies even left twenty minutes into the film, after they had seen there fill of Mr. Law.

The media portrays celebrities such as Jude Law as alcohol absorbed and lusting after everyone and anyone. From this fabricated image the media creates, (although not all of it is untrue--after all where there’s smoke, there’s fire) we stop thinking of actors as artists. For that reason, it was surprising to hear Jude talk about Alain Delon and his character Jef Costello with such fervency. One memorable anecdote from the night was when Jude told the audience how much he loved the opening scene, with Delon lying on the bed, almost lifeless-looking, except for the bellowing smoke coming from his mouth. When we viewed the film, I took note of this scene and it definitely made it more significant to me knowing Jude Law himself picked it out.

The Blessing

The Sketch gallery is an event in itself but when coupled with Claire Hooper’s The Blessing, it is an unforgettable experience. Twelve screens simultaneously projecting video means that her work surrounds you 360 degrees--unusual for a piece of art and the first time I have seen anything like it. A strong theme seen throughout the video was the idea of an unknown power that has the ability to overcome you. This idea was seen in the man having an epileptic fit, the man dreaming (or having a nightmare?), and, more subtly, the theme of pyramids and triangles. Ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians thought the pyramid symbolized the rays of the sun and triangles were often used to send energy upward to a single point in the heavens. The triangle is also the physical shape of a deeply sacred number, the number three. To incorporate the idea of “The Blessing” think Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, although there are countless other examples. In The Blessing, Hooper uses a kaleidoscopic effect to emphasize the man having a seizure (an out-of-body experience) exemplifying the excess of mystical power. This idea of mysticism is shown again when the man is looking into the pyramid trying to find answers but to what question? The pyramid is also a prism that reflects light, or truth. Hooper’s work is powerful to the viewer because of scenes in the video that were shot in the same room we are sitting in. We become a part of the art, the art consumes us. In the Sketch pamphlet, a quote from Saint Teresa of Avila’s description of the 'Rapture' is used that encapsulates what Hooper’s installation meant for me, “you are being carried away you know not where.”

SACRED: Discover what we share

Not being raised under any organized religion, I walked into SACRED without any preconceived thoughts. After seeing the exhibition, the effort made by the British LIbrary in organizing the collection of texts from Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths was acknowledged and appreciated. Since religion has not had any profound impact on my life thus far, I was surprised by the emotional reaction I had. It is hard to imagine all the violence, wars, and deaths that have come from religions that, in the end, have only slight differences. More blood has been spilled over these differences when, in actuality, religion is supposed to be a vehicle for peace, for love. When walking through the exhibit there were times when I had to take a second look at whether the text was from Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, or the Qur'an which shows the degree that the three texts and beliefs molded together. The motto the British Library chose to promote the exhibit summarizes it best, “Discover what we share,” because, after all, like the holy texts, we are not much different.