DGP Movie Night

8th DGP Movie Night

I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

Red in The Shawshank Redemption

No new movies so far, but anyways, we welcome you to the next gathering of our happy little family. Have fun voting!

The Piano

Jane Campion, 1993, Australia / France

IMDB: 7.4/10
AMG: 5/5

Drama / Romance with Holly Hunter as Ada McGrath, Harvey Keitel as George Baines, Sam Neill as Alisdair Stewart, and Anna Paquin as Flora McGrath

Ada McGrath, a mute who has willed herself not to speak, and her strong-willed young daughter Flora find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, with Ada the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart. Ada immediately takes a dislike to Stewart when he refuses to carry her beloved piano home with them. But Stewart makes a deal with his overseer George Baines to take the piano off his hands. Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave. Campion imbues her tale with an over-ripe tactility and a murky, poetic undertow that betray the characters’ confined yet overpowering emotions: Ada’s buried sensuality, Baines’ hidden tenderness, and Stewart’s suppressed anger and violence. The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy of the Outback, complete with a Greek chorus of Maori tribesmen and a blithely uncaring natural environment that envelops the characters like an additional player. Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and the spaces between a character’s fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in characters’ gazes. And she guides Hunter to a revelatory performance of silent film majesty. Relying on expressive glances and using body language to convey her soulful depths, Hunter became a modern Lillian Gish and won an Oscar for her performance, as did Paquin and Campion for her screenplay. Campion achieved something rare in contemporary cinema: a poetry of expression told in the form of an off-center melodrama. - Paul Brenner

The Believer

Henry Bean, 2001, USA, US$1.5 Million

IMDB: 7.3/10
AMG: 4/5

Drama with Ryan Gosling as Danny Balint, Theresa Russell as Lina Moebius, Billy Zane as Curtis Zampf, and Summer Phoenix as Carla Moebius

In this powerful and disturbing drama, Danny Balint is a member of a gang of racist skinheads who espouses a vile but well-articulated philosophy of anti-Semitism. Danny also has a secret — he is a Jew, and was a top student in Hebrew school before he began to ask too many questions about the deeper implications of the teachings in the Torah and the Old Testament, leading to his expulsion. Angry and confused, Danny began to explore the philosophies of the neo-Nazi movement, which he soon came to embrace through a mixture of anger over the tragic history of the Jewish people, bitterness over his experiences in Hebrew school, and a loathing of himself. Danny soon becomes a key member of a skinhead sect led by Curtis and Lina, but while Curtis and Lina believe that the desire for cultural assimilation by many American Jews will lead to their self-destruction, Danny advocates a more direct and violent approach in dealing with the “enemy.” Danny gains the admiration of his fellow skinheads for his intelligence and commitment, and wins the affection of Carla, a group member with severe masochistic tendencies. But in time Danny’s beliefs begin to shift once again, just as the truth about his background becomes known to his comrades. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, The Believer was inspired by the true story of Daniel Burros, a member of the American Nazi Party who committed suicide in the 1960s when it was revealed by the press that he was born to a Jewish family. - Mark Deming

Stammheim

Reinhard Hauff, 1986, Germany

IMDB: 7.1/10
AMG: 4/5

Drama with Therese Affolter as Ulrike Meinhof, Peter Danzelsen as Defense Attorney, and Hans Kremer as Jan-Carl Raspe

The powerful depiction of a story that split a country, the movie was equally controversial. Based on the well-publicized Baader-Meinhof terrorists, it is the tale of five terrorists who were brought to trial and accused of the murder of four United States servicemen in a terrorist bombing. One of the defendants dies of malnutrition after a hunger strike. A second dies of apparent suicide, leaving only three defendants at the time of the trial. The trial itself was almost travesty in that everything from defense attorneys who would abide by no rules, the presiding judge being removed and defense attorneys and prosecutors switching with almost daily regularity happened during this long and complicated court battle. The action and drama, however, are outstanding and this movie garnered multiple awards and nominations. - Tana Hobart

Land and Freedom

Ken Loarch, 1995, UK / Spain / Germany

IMDB: 7.5/10
AMG: 3/5

War Drama with Ian Hart as David Carr and Rosana Pastor as Blanca

A reflective look at an idealistic young man’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War, Land and Freedom combines wartime drama with impassioned political debate. Director Ken Loach, better known for his intimate portraits of working-class British life, begins on familiar turf in the present day, with a teenage girl sorting through the belongings of her recently deceased grandfather. She soon discovers her grandfather’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War, and the film then flashes back to the 1930s to tell the story of young Dave Carr, intensely portrayed by Ian Hart. A dedicated young communist, Carr joins an international group of freedom fighters in order to wage the good war against fascism. The experience proves far less heroic than expected, however, as the fighters struggle with poor supplies, a lack of training, and internal discord. The traditional battles and romances of war drama follow, as Carr becomes involved in a tumultuous affair with a fellow fighter, but Loach and screenwriter Jim Allen give equal weight to more philosophical discussions about the nature and fate of socialism. - Judd Blaise

Bad Timing

Nicolas Roeg, 1980, UK
IMDB: 7/10
AMG: 4/5

Drama with Art Garfunkel as Alex Linden, Theresa Russell as Milena Flaherty, and Harvey Keitel as Inspector Netusil

Psychiatrist Alex becomes sexually obsessed with Milena, a woman whom he meets at a party. The pair become involved in an intense and mutually destructive love affair. The drama unfolds in a series of flashbacks, as Alex tells his story to police Inspector Netusil who is investigating Milena’s apparent suicide attempt. Alex’s obsession grows, but Milena stays slightly out of reach. Originally rated X, but somewhat toned down to accommodate an R rating, Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession is an interesting exploration of the nature of sexual passion and jealousy. - Linda Rasmussen

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Todd Solondz, 1995, USA

IMDB: 7.3/10
AMG: 3.5/5

Black Comedy with Heather Matarazzo as Dawn Wiener, Victoria Davis as Lolita and Christina Brucato as Cookie

Twelve-year-old Dawn Weiner is perhaps the most put-upon adolescent in film history in Todd Solondz’s bitterly hilarious black comedy Welcome to the Dollhouse. Dawn is bright but awkward, both physically and socially, and is appallingly unpopular among her peers, to whom she’s better known as “Weiner Dog.” Possessing little charm or grace and perhaps the most misguided fashion sense of her generation, Dawn is not an easy girl to like and practically no one seems interested in making the effort. If life is tough for Dawn at school, it’s hardly any better at home. While her folks dote on her gratingly cute younger sister Missy (Daria Kalinina) and look with pride to her bookish older brother Mark (Matthew Faber), Dawn is either ignored or treated as an annoyance. Dawn has developed a crush on Steve (Eric Mabius), the hunky guitarist Mark has drafted into his rock band (significantly, Mark is less interested in making cool noise or unloading teenage angst than in having another extracurricular activity to put on his college applications); Steve is polite but obviously not interested in her. However, Dawn has attracted the attention of a boy at school — Brandon, a mean-spirited junior thug whose idea of a good time is threatening Dawn with rape. – Mark Deming

Hotaru no haka

Isao Takahata, 1988, Japan

aka Grave of the Fireflies

IMDB: 8.1/10
AMG: 5/5

Anime / War Drama with J. Robert Spencer as Seita’s voice, Rhoda Chrosite as Setsuko’s voice, Veronica Taylor as the mother’s voice and Amy Jones as the aunt’s voice

Grave of the Fireflies opens on an evening in 1945, after Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II; and in a train station, the young Seita dies alone. The rest of the movie tells us, in flashback, how things have come to this. Seita and Setsuko are two young Japanese children growing up in the waning days of World War II. Much to Seita’s pride, their father is in the Japanese navy, and they live fairly content lives in Kobe despite rationing and the other privations of war. When their mother dies from burns suffered during an American fire-bombing raid, a distant aunt takes them in — and conflict eventually forces the children to try to survive on their own. At first, Seita and his little sister enjoy their idyllic lives in the country, but harsh reality eventually settles in as Seita begins to understand the difficulties of taking care of a young child when both food and compassion are scarce. – Emru Townsend

The Hanging Garden

Thom Fitzgerald, 1997, Canada

IMDB: 7.2/10
AMG: 3.5/5

Family Drama with Ian Parsons as Little Sweet William, Peter MacNeill as Whiskey Mac, Troy Veinotte as Teen Sweet William and Kerry Fox as Rosemary

Ten years after he disappeared from his family’s life, Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns home to Nova Scotia for his sister’s wedding. Despite the fact that he’s gone from a morbidly obese adolescent to a thin, handsome, self-assured young man, the reunion proves bittersweet. Although he reconnects with his loving sister Rosemary and his Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandmother Grace (Joan Orenstein), he is dismayed to learn that his parents’ rocky marriage has settled into permanent animosity. He also witnesses the toll his absence has taken on his abusive, alcoholic father, Whiskey Mack; his tight-lipped mother Iris (Seana McKenna); and Violet (Christine Dunsworth), the tomboyish younger sister he’s never met. The past lingers in the very air of William’s childhood home; disturbing visions of himself as both a waifish boy and a fat adolescent follow him everywhere. And it’s not just the ghosts who dredge up the past. Rosemary’s new husband, Fletcher (Joel S. Keller), flirts shamelessly with William, bringing back memories of the painful relationship the two shared as teenagers. When Iris disappears, William must confront not only the haunting visions of his past, but also the unfinished business he left behind.

The feature debut of writer/director Thom Fitzgerald, The Hanging Garden was the winner of the Air Canada People’s Choice Award for best picture and the co-winner of the Toronto-CITY TV Award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. – Brian J. Dillard

Baraka

Ron Fricke, 1992, USA

IMDB: 7.9/10
AMG: 3/5

Avant-garde / Experimental

Named after a Sufi word that translates roughly as “breath of life” or “blessing,” Baraka is Ron Fricke’s impressive follow-up to Godfrey Reggio’s non-verbal documentary film Koyaanisqatsi. Fricke was cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio’s film, and for Baraka he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on Koyaanisqatsi. The result is a tour-de-force in 70mm: a cinematic “guided meditation” (Fricke’s own description) shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period that unites religious ritual, the phenomena of nature, and man’s own destructive powers into a web of moving images. Fricke’s camera ranges, in meditative slow motion or bewildering time-lapse, over the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the Ryoan-Ji temple in Kyoto, Lake Natron in Tanzania, burning oil fields in Kuwait, the smoldering precipice of an active volcano, a busy subway terminal, tribal celebrations of the Masai in Kenya, chanting monks in the Dip Tse Chok Ling monastery…and on and on, through locales across the globe. To execute the film’s time-lapse sequences, Fricke had a special camera built that combined time-lapse photography with perfectly controlled movements of the camera. In one evening sequence a desert sky turns black, and the stars roll by, as the camera moves slowly forward under the trees. The feeling is like that of viewing the universe through a powerful telescope: that we are indeed on a tiny orb hurtling through a star-filled void. The film is complemented by the hybrid world-music of Michael Stearns. — Anthony Reed