Crackling Metacinema, Vanity And The Malaise Of Humanity: Fireplace For Your Home (2008)

There are a few times in your life when cinephiles discuss realizing they have viewed a piece of cinema that will invariably alter the entire way in which they understand cinema.  I recall moments like this occurring with, of course, Do The Right Thing, but more recently with works like Persona or Secret Sunshine.  These films, to varied degrees, not only ask questions about the role which cinema plays in our societal discourse on politics, religion, gender roles and variety of other heavily debated topics, but also reflect, through the medium of film, our own struggle as sentient beings trying to better understand our world and the reason for our being.  I know many who come to this through the existential woes of a Woody Allen film, while others find themselves mesmerized by the expressionism of Welles and Lang.  For most of my filmic endeavors, I was unaware of anything that managed to combine all the elements of cinema into one grandly poetic statement on human existence, while also providing a minimalist, yet cerebrally, focused examination of the minutiae of the daily grind.  At least this was the case, until I came across the wonderment and absolutely audacious experimental work Fireplace for your Home.  Without a solid director, one can only image the efforts and involvement playing into this work, whether it be the concern for domestic intimacy and the personal struggles of Japanese mastermind Ozu, or its concern for detailed everydayness of life, which emerge in the work of Akerman.  Yet, Fireplace for your Home, is far more than a domestic narrative and branches out to a larger, fully realized consideration of the politics of oppression and the passion of revolution, invoking, quite modestly, the work of Jean-Luc Godard.  Of course, not all the films references and homages are subtle, one can quickly see the "on the nose" references to fire, as it relates to classic Douglas Sirk melodramas, or more blatantly its decided leaning on the metaphor of flames and burnings that make David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me an essential cult classic.  What Fireplace for your Home does, as a piece of cinema, is manage to both set up the perfect creation of all things known to cinema, only to immediately burn them down and reject their creation.  I once thought that the closing scene of the star child from 2001: A Space Odyssey to be the most audacious statement of art in cinema, however, when the log in this film comes to a complete ashen incineration and falls apart, everything I understood about art, culture and the meaning of life also went up in flames.

The film begins in deceptive simplicity,  darkness, perhaps the beginning of time welcoming the viewer with silence, only to be followed by crackling and the emergence of a faint light, arising out of seeming nothingness.  The birth of the universe perhaps, an opening that beautifully references every creation myth known to humankind, while also taking a decidedly scientific and philosophical approach to the the emergence of life, suggesting it exploded into everythingness out of physical necessity.  Perhaps, explosion, is the best word to describe what occurs in the next act of the film.  With the three logs slowly being consumed by fire, the film moves into its next moment of historical narrative, undeniably drawing on the Roman and Greek pillars, slowly being consumed by the fire of modernity, a rejection of classicism, so bold and vindictive, as to cause viewers to viscerally reject everything they are shown.  Of course, once the film rejects history, it cannot retract such actions, therefore, its instantaneous transfer into the post-modern, metacinematic world of affect theory demands that the viewers not only ask what the images of the flames and logs represent, but, subsequently, what does their relationship to the logs and fire mean in regards to their daily lives, as well as their own reactions and affects as they synthesize the images being shown.  It is at this point in the narrative that Fireplace for your Home becomes a consideration of semiotics, symbols and languages that embraces, what can only be described as a deconstruction of ecriture feminine, suggesting that oppression extends to such a degree of intersectionality that to depict anything would be to inherently engage within a discourse of power and privilege.  The result of this narrative shift, of course, where the self/other dichotomy becomes discussed, yet, in the traditional sense, these two division are clearly delineated and identifiable, but as the fire begins to falter, one cannot help but think of the way the yin and yang are at once different and the same, so to is the fire by its final flickers of light.  When the image finally fades and the viewers have been taken on the whirlwind of emotional and interpersonal reflection, they cannot help but recall the famous Biblical lines "vanity of vanities; all is vanity," for what is left after such an experience, nothingness, coldness or perhaps enlightenment.

It is no coincidence that such a work of art ends with a decided incorporation of Biblical metaphors, because Fireplace for your Home is truly a work that could stand up against all the classic works of literature, including "The Greatest Story Ever Told,"  in a much briefer time frame, this film manages to consider the necessity and problems of religion, while also questioning the proclaimed "brevity" of a certain work of the history of time, written by the late Stephen Hawkings.  Fire, of course, seems to be a major factor in every major creation story, as noted earlier, yet Fireplace for you Home, in its moments of pure cinéma vérité, manages to remind its viewers that fire does play a role in our daily engagements, both physical, and, as should be no surprise, metaphysical.  It is in this entrenchment within the physical, however, that a person can read into its clear dueling ideologies concerning the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution.  Marx would become famous for his creation of an economic, and eventually political, theory revolving around property, power, and oppression of the working class, yet through the fire, revolution is put in the forefront of this film and questioned both as an image of political action, as well inquiring as to what role the "hearth" and the "home" played into moving the proletariat into action.  Although to call Fireplace for your Home a rejection of communist sympathies and suggest it to be an embracing of conservative values is quite unfair, after all, who is to say that these logs represent any degree of heteronormativity, or even suggest the tradition of family values, remember it is a fire destroying things and not building upon itself, or, in this case, tradition.  In its single, uncut shot, the entirety of the capitalist tradition is cast away, there is no conspicuous consumption, or individual endeavors for success and promise of reward for hard work.  Viewers only receive one certainty, in the end, all things burn, it is far more important that as a society we value moments of shared experience, and that we must, simultaneously, be aware that a shared experience is still quite individual.  The film questions how it could be possible that any two people would ever admire, loathe or even acknowledge the same flickering portion of a flame, or, that the flame is anything more than a meaningless experience towards an eventual, arbitrary death.

Key Scene:  Every second of this film matters and nothing should be approached as lesser or greater, to do so would be to betray the vision of this film, which for all intents and purposes, manifested itself without human production and involvement, at least the IMDB credits seem to suggest such a thing.

I would say that you should go out and watch this, however, as I hope you have come to realize, this is very much an April Fool's Joke.  However, I did actually watch this, what kind of blog post would it be if I did not really commit to the viewing.  It is actually kind of soothing and makes for an excellent background ambience for reading.

Curiosity Often Leads To Trouble: Alice In Wonderland (1951)

It was an interesting task to consider which Disney vehicle I would incorporate into my women in film month, particularly considering the fact that female characters do occupy a considerable amount of the space within the companies near century of animated cinema.  My first instinct was to go with Mary Poppins, unfortunately, I was not able to obtain a copy in time and, instead, decided to choose Alice In Wonderland, a film that had long been sitting on my shelf begging to be revisited.  I remember moments of the film from my childhood, whether it be the croquet card scene, or the singing garden scene, however, there were many sections that I had seemingly forgotten all about, whether it be the oyster story, or the smoking caterpillar.  Suffice to say, Alice In Wonderland is an exceptionally trippy film, although this should be of little surprise considering that its narrative text does draw heavily from Lewis Carroll's book of the same name and history has shown it to be a piece of literature fueled heavily by some sever addictions to opium.  Yet simply having source material, by no means, explains the visual intensity of Alice In Wonderland, a world so magical that to call it expressionistic would suggest that it is simply some version of reality blown to extreme proportions.  The space of Alice In Wonderland certainly moves to grandiose terms, yet they are done so within a decidedly magical and notably subconscious state of mind.  Having watched Frankenweenie recently and been blown away by its stylistic choices, seeing Alice in Wonderland reminds me that even Tim Burton had to draw influence from previous examples and this highly visual film certainly had to have been such a point of reference.  If it were not to be notable for some rather intriguing considerations on the notion of a feminist awakening, Alice in Wonderland could certainly stand its own in comparison to some of my other favorite psychedelically based animated films, Paprika and Yellow Submarine.

Alice in Wonderland, with the exception of one additional character follows quite closely to Carroll's original text, and, as such, focuses on Alice, a young girl whose disdain for pursuing the learned things with gender attachments leads her to daydream about escaping to another world.  During one expose into dreams of another world, Alice witnesses a white rabbit with a watch run by her, feverishly concerned with making haste as to assure not being late for some meeting.  The curiosity of an anthropomorphic animal draws Alice into following him into his rabbit hole, an endeavor that quickly spirals into an inexplicable magical world of episodic encounters with baffling characters, whether they be a pair of gibberish spouting twins who tell her a story of decadence centered around a walrus and carpenter longing to eat some oysters, or a visit with a hookah smoking caterpillar who answers all questions with either repetition or even more perplexing questions.  All the while Alice finds herself attempting to learn the rules and intricacies of the world she has discovered, such as the trick of consuming food that either causes her to grow or shrink in considerable size as a result.  While most characters seem only passively concerned with her presence, the encounter with the cheshire cat, perhaps the narratives most famous character, aside from Alice of course, proves interesting in that beneath his clear veneer of playfulness he seems absolutely concerned with assuring Alice safely navigates the absurd world she has entered, one in which societal norms are disregarded by mad hatters and unconventional tea parties, as well as a place where authority figures are tyrannical, using their position to threaten as opposed to aid.  Ultimately, Alice finds herself needing to flee from the land when her life is threatened and when she reaches the exit of the rabbit hole she realizes that she has only been navigating a dreamscape, or so it seems, as she finds herself recalling the very real physicality  of her experiences, when talking to her tutor after awaking.

I mention this film being a text about an awakening of sorts, particularly in the feminist context.  It is no irony that the original book emerged from opium visions, something individuals initially engage in with the hopes of expanding their frame of reference or world vision.  Of course, as most drug narratives go the heavier a person becomes invested in said drugs, the more they will seek out an expansion, often becoming addicted or getting involved in more dangerous methods of achieving their new world vision.  Alice in Wonderland certainly considers these issues, however, I think it, ultimately, moves past this narrative and chooses to use the mind expansion rhetoric to help lead Alice from a state of internalized gender oppression to a larger realization of herself being the other into possessing her own space and identity, at times simply affirming that she is human when flowers berate her for not being like them, or in other moments actually growing to the point of bursting through trees, perhaps a pre-aware suggestion of bursting through a glass ceiling.  It would be one narrative is Alice simply travelled through the Wonderland with strict awe for all moments she witnesses, however, even in the moments of absurdism she seems keenly aware of oppression or illogical actions occurring.  She, in fact, is one of the few people who seems aware of the unchallenged power possessed by The Queen of Hearts, rolling her eyes at her tirades and enraged yelling.  The Queen shows Alice a problematic reference to ill-obtained power, that makes her reflect on everything she has experience up until this point and realize that her new discoveries of self-identity and the possibility of empowerment mean nothing if she uses these realizations as a means to appropriate power in her own terms and completely ignore a push towards egalitarian identities and societies in the process.  The closing scenes seem to suggest this understanding on the part of a young Alice and, undoubtedly, add a layer of feminist awareness to a super trippy film, a rather unusual feat on the part of the decidedly problematic Disney tradition.

Key Scene:  The oyster story is amazing and clearly serves as a point of reference for so many things produced by both Disney and later Pixar, not to mention it serving as a masterful story on the woes of decadence.

The DVD is already expensive, not to mention the bluray, but it is very much worth owning.  Yet should you find the money daunting, it is currently available on Netflix.

He's A Nowhere Man: Yellow Submarine (1968)

The story goes that the animated film, centering around the alter egos of The Beatles, known as The Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was made purely as a means to get the famous group out of their undesired movie contract, yet once they viewed the final product that was Yellow Submarine they were so enthralled and happy by the outcome that they agreed to provide a live-action epilogue as a pseudo thank you.   It takes only moments into this spectacularly psychedelic film to realize why exactly The Beatles would come to love such a film, one that is absolutely extraordinary in what it achieves via hand drawn animation, as well as societal commentary.  It is no small task to make a successful animated film, let alone one that is decidedly geared towards an older audience, yet in the careful hands of George Dunning viewers are provided with something spectacular.  While The Beatles  music has never been begging to be visualized it is clear that Yellow Submarine evokes the words, social outcries and existential angst that came to so obviously signify the work by the group for the latter portion of their career.  Like many of the great films, Yellow Submarine suffered from existing as nothing more than rotations on British television, yet when this particular piece of Beatles nostalgia was revived, a rekindling and remembrance of how truly spectacular this work was emerged.  Furthermore, the accessibility, universality and certainly the trippy nature of Yellow Submarine resulted in a whole new generation coming to love and appreciate The Beatles in a way transcendent of their music, and with a recent bluray upgrade, it only proves that more people will have a chance to discover this seminal work.  A mix of tragedy and celebration, Yellow Submarine exudes a poetic nature that demands its viewing, multiple times and with multiple people, as it truly proves to be something far grander than a film made by The Beatles to get out of an undesired movie contract.

Yellow Submarine begins with an introduction to the world of Pepperland, in which people sing, dance and exist in merriment to the tunes and beats of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  The idyllic world of Pepperland, however, comes under attack by the scrutinizing and condemning eye of The Meanings, a group of blue persons who live to causes sadness and depression, while always answering "NO" to any question raised.  Their wave of malaise sweeps over Pepperland causing all those existing within its colorful landscape to turn blue and freeze in time, including SPLHCB, who are specifically trapped in a bubble.  The only person who escapes the onslaught of this attack is Old Fred (Lance Percival) a wily elderly man who in a state of befuddlement takes the town's Yellow Submarine and travels to what we can assume to be Liverpool, since it is there that he meets up with The Beatles.  Of course, this vision of England, shown while Eleanor Rigby is playing, reflects the current state of Pepperland, as each of the band members moves through the streets and houses with a sense of desolation.  After many failed attempts to understand Old Fred whose phrases are nearly intelligible, the group agrees to join him on the submarine and travel to Pepperland.  This journey takes them forwards and backwards in time, even passing their past selves on the journey.  Along the way they pick up a mask wearing rodent whose name is Jeremy Hilary Boob, PhD., or as the members of the group suggest a veritable Nowhere Man as he spouts off poems, ideas and feelings that have no logical grounding.  After losing Ringo at least once, the group eventually makes it to Pepperland where they take on The Meanies, at first finding little success with their music, yet when they release the SPLHCB from their prison and realize that they have an uncanny similarity to them, they attack The Meanies with great success and bring vibrancy and life back to Pepperland.  The film then closes with the song All Together Now, as unity seems to be the suggested course of action for the future.

Yellow Submarine is, as should be obvious, inundated with the feelings and advocacy of social revolution so seemingly inherent in the sixties, especially 1968.  Primarily, this is a film that contests the notion that disconnect and social malaise are positive, particularly if said distancing is the result of heavy conservative values that dismiss any sort of revolution, whether it be rioting in the streets or speaking out politically.  The freezing of SPLHCB represents political suppression to some degree, especially since it is done by The Meanies, whose "NO" spouting ideologies represent the most dangerous variations of conservatism. One can extend this consideration to incorporate the pointing hand that is a weapon of The Meanies.  Its judgmental connotations, reflect another element of conservative values, ones in which individuals find scape goats for their problems, signifying difference as a means to separate, even if their actions harm nobody, or actually suggest egalitarian ideals or progressive actions.  Jeremy/Nowhere Man then becomes an interesting figure in this context because he exists both as a voice to transcend conservatism and the social malaise overtaking Pepperland (The Western Global Community), yet he has become so disenfranchised and disillusioned that any of the theories or ideas he promotes are so incoherent that they seem absurd or almost mocking.  This only makes The Beatles eventual love of their film that much greater, because it shows that they realize their place as musicians to provide commentary to society, one that advocates love and unity and answering "Yes" when possible, and doing so "all together now."

Key Scene:  It is a dead tie between the Eleanor Rigby and Nowhere Man scenes,  both of which are incredibly sad and poetically transcendent.

This movie will surprise you, and if you have not seen it in some time revisit the work, especially post-restoration, it is seriously a thing of beauty.  Grab the bluray immediately.

Well I See Split Ends Are Universal: Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)

I will start this off with a question I posed while watching this film, followed by a statement.  Is there an era where Jeff Goldblum does not look amazing? Probably not, and along with that thought I want to state that Earth Girls Are Easy might well be one of the most underrated comedies of the 1980's if not one of the most underrated films of the entire decade. With a healthy amount of influence from the New Wave movement of the 80's, a cast of actors who would be stars only years later and some of the best musical numbers, in terms of zaniness since Little Shop of Horrors, this has got to be one of the most misunderstood and overlooked films ever, certainly not deserved of the ungrounded 5.0/10 given to it on IMDB.  An argument could certainly be made that the films is dated, considering the costuming, cell frame animation and surfer dialogue spouted by most of the characters, but like my somewhat recent review of Clueless, I think a lot of the films magic comes in its rather exceptional satire.  Under the directorial eye of Julien Temple this film does not shy away from a visual metaphor and, indeed, embellishes ever moment to use a prop or sign to reinforce or undermine what is occurring on the screen.  Hell, some of the more intense scenes exude an almost Lynchian quality.  It is impossible to watch something like Earth Girls Are Easy without a wide smile and wider eyes, the character commit to the absurdity of what is going on, and even Jeff Goldblum's detached smugness manages to work beautifully within the musical.  With an equal number of SNL and In Living Color actors involved on this production the humor is rather obvious, however, it is no surprise that many of the laughs come from unexpected moments.  A film that uses both The B-52's and Depeche Mode in its soundtrack while also deconstructing notions of otherness, male sexual promiscuity and vanity cannot be easily shirked and it should not be as unloved as it stands to be at the moment.

The premise of Earth Girls Are Easy is as such, Valerie (Geena Davis) is rearing for what she hopes to be the inevitable marriage to her ideal husband the doctor Ted (Charles Rocket) despite their love live having gone to the dumps, made all the more problematic by his wandering eye.  Valerie's coworker Candy (Julie Brown) suggest that she undertake a makeover as a means to rekindle things with Ted, unfortunately, her act is a little too late as her attempts to surprise Ted, result in her catching him in an act of infidelity.  Meanwhile, in the expanses of outer space three aliens, in desperate hope of getting laid botch their controls and crash land on earth, in of all places Valerie's pool, only hours after a fight with Ted has led to his being kicked out.  The three aliens Zeebo (Damon Wayans), Wiploc (Jim Carrey) and Mac (Jeff Goldblum) emerge from the pool to a frightened and uncertain Valerie.  Yet after much misunderstanding and a realization that it will take at least a day for her pool to be drained in order for the spaceship to be removed, Valerie agrees to take the aliens in and hide them.  However, their colorful furry bodies will not pass as humans, and she recruits a befuddled Candy to help.  Upon cleaning them up to make them look more human, it is apparent that they are not bad looking, least of all Mac who Valerie takes a liking to instantly.  Obtaining a surprisingly substantial amount of information and language from one afternoons worth of language, the aliens fit nicely into the absurdity that was the West Coast in the 80's.  Yet, Ted returns into the picture when he realizes the error in his ways and while seeking forgiveness has a falling out with the aliens, leading to their eventual arrest and placement in a hospital.  Ted sees the aliens as the medical break through that will assure him success, while Valerie only possesses concern for their safety and after much back and forth she is able to return the trio to their ship, realizing that it is best for Valerie to stay with Ted, Mac uses his alien techniques to cause the couples hormones to run wild, yet it proves unsuccesful as Valerie now loves Mac.  Elated Mac invites her to join them as they return to their planet.

A couple of brilliant things are going on in this film, the first being the clear condemnation of the America under the hyper-conservative eyes of Reagan.  Ted represents an individual who wants all that wealth entails as well as an unbridled masculine privilege, particularly in regards to those who work under him, as opposed to Valerie who appears to want to exist in a state of self-expression and enjoyment as her employment at Curl-Up and Dye suggests.  The film contrast this image of hyper rigidity with an equally problematic free hippie liberalism via Woody (Michael McKean) whose demands that every one chill and be cool push a varied form of conformity.  Aside from the "otherness" of the aliens as a commentary all its own, perhaps suggestions of interracial love or at least communal unity, the intense observation skills of Mac, Wiploc and Zeebo display a commentary on the necessity for listening and learning, particularly for an assured unified society.  The aliens succeed in companionship because they, better than the humans in the film, pick up on cues in the world around them and in any instance that their actions may be seen as violent or aggressive, it is always the result of  ignorance or misunderstanding on the individual they are engaged with.  In fact, if any person in the film is incapable of evolution it is Ted with his philandering ways, a habit he shows no intent of altering.  Only Valerie is able to obtain the drive to learn from the aliens, something that comes to fruition when she leaves Ted to join Mac on a new planet.  This is a migration to the unknown on an intergalactic level, transcendent of the woes of late 80's America, yet all to keen in its inherent suggestive nature.

Key Scene:  Dat reveal of Jeff Goldblum!  You will know what I am talking about.  I was prior to this film gay for Brad Pitt, but I might add Mr. Goldblum to that list as well.

This fim needs a revival and I hope at least one person who reads this takes my reviews earnestness to heart.  Either purchase a copy or watch it on Netflix.  Who knows maybe this vibrant an cinematic film will get an HD upgrade if enough people show interest.