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mhdrijgers
Reviews
Broken Flowers (2005)
Jarmusch lacks sense of psychological reality
'Down by law' was great and I like the sense of humour of Jim Jarmusch, but in 'Broken flowers' the script and the cast lacks sense of reality. The idea of the film is nice, but it is very much a pity that the story is far from convincing and even ridiculous. The main character Don Johnston (Bill Murray) visits his old girlfriends after his actual girlfriend left him. Don Johnston has lived the life of a Don Juan. In reality a Don Juan is a man with a great talent for talking and dealing with women and they are usually very handsome or very rich and/or famous like indeed Don Johnson without the 't'. Don Johnston misses all these 'qualities'. His ex-girlfriends are all very pretty and his last girlfriend (Julie Delpy) seems at least 20 years younger. Already at the beginning of the film you wonder why such an attractive young woman had a relationship with such an unattractive much older man. Bill Murray is a good actor but in this film he does not convince at all being a Don Juan. In this role he acts rather silent and behaves uneasy in the company of women. His best friend must tell him what to wear and to buy pink flowers for a woman. A real Don Juan knows what women want and what they like to hear and he certainly does not need any advice how to get information from women! A Don Juan is an expert in getting what he wants from women, while Don Johnston acts like a broddler. Bill Murray would have been much more convincing as an older bachelor who always failed in dating women. Sorry Jim, but obviously you don't know anything about Don Juans and women. Ask your best female friend for advice next time when you write a script and select a cast!
Grizzly Man (2005)
Herzog slaps in the face of a dead man
Since I was a young girl of 15 and I'm 51 years old now, I was an admirer of films made by Werner Herzog. He seemed to be a sincere man and filmmaker. However recently I saw Grizzly Man and that changed my mind.
I'm angry and upset after seeing Grizzly Man. Not because Timothy Treadwell is dead, although it's quite sad he and his girlfriend died so tragically. He himself might think it's okay to 'be one with a bear' ending up in the bowels of a hungry straying bear who probably had negative experiences with people before meeting Treadwell. No I'm upset because Herzog has misused the hours of film-tape of Timothy Treadwell that ended up in his hands. In Grizzly Man he presents Timothy Treadwell as a crazy man with a death wish. But haven't we all our twists? Many people take risks every day when they smoke tobacco (risc of lung-cancer), drive a car (risc of a car-accident), eat or work too much (risc of a heart-attack), walk in the street at night (risc of robbery or rape) or like Herzog himself stand on top of a building and be shot etc. It is just not fair. A man who dedicated his life for helping the bears and who filmed them so beautifully does not deserve to be portrayed the way Herzog did. Timothy Treadwell filmed himself like someone else writes in a diary. In my opinion it was also an outlet for him. He planned to make a film but I don't think he would have chosen the parts about himself Herzog chose. Herzog lacks respect. He undermines all Timothy Treadwell was fighting and living and dying for. With Grizzly Man he confirms the prejudice that bears are so dangerous and should be dominated and controlled by human beings and hunters. The fact that Timothy Treadwell loved bears and talked kindly with them, does not turn him into a lunatic in my eyes.
Herzog really disappointed me. He says Timothy Treadwell crossed some nature's line that shouldn't be crossed. As if we should draw a line between nature with its wild animals on one side and ourselves at the other side where we have to stay in the human part. How ridiculous. We human beings are animals too. We are part of nature and that's what most people have forgotten. And this forgotten or unknown part scares them and makes them destroy it. According to my opinion people try to separate themselves more and more from nature. We create jungles of concrete and in stead of being happy that there are some animals who want to live with us, we want them out of our sight and have them killed (mice, rats, pigeons, seagulls, crows etc.) Unlike bears, these animals can't eat us, but we invent an other excuse to kill them for these animals might spread diseases. In reality not many people die because of these animals and not many people are eaten by bears either. With his film Herzog encourages the idea that we should fear nature instead of loving it. Why didn't Herzog interview Charlie Russell for example in his film? Russell is a bear-expert too and he knew Treadwell and even advised him a few months before his death to have pepper-spray. Treadwell however didn't want to use anything that could harm or even make a bear sneeze.
Herzog used Timothy Treadwell's tapes and made his own film showing his own limited ideas about bears and nature regardless the ideas and ideals of the man who made the tapes. When Herzog had made a fiction film showing his own material only, I would not have a problem with this. I would disagree with the message of the film, but I wouldn't be angry with him. But now I am truly angry with Werner Herzog for he took Timothy Treadwell's material to promote an idea he hated. How wrong and unjust towards the man who filmed it originally! And that is not fair nor sincere.
In Alaska live 35.000 bears and the authorities think it's okay to kill 6% of them annually. On Kodiak Island 160 bears are killed each year. Timothy Treadwell wanted this hunting to be stopped. Werner Herzog does not agree with Timothy Treadwell and agrees with the authorities. The fact that Herzog uses the material of Treadwell to turn it against him and his ideas, is not sincere and inappropriate. Grizzly Man is not a requiem for a man who lived and died for animals living in the wild. On the contrary, it's a slap in the face of a dead man who cant't defend himself anymore. Shame on you Werner Herzog!
Plainsong (1982)
Plainsong, a lovely film to never forget
In 1983 I saw Plainsong at the annual Filmfestival and have never forgotten it. It's a beautiful poetic film and refreshing in being plain. The hopes and expectations (and disappointments) of 3 young women is filmed very lovely and realistically in the Nebraska of the pioneers. Even after 26 years I remember clearly some scenes that impressed and moved me. In my life I've seen thousands of films and this one is definitely in my Top 10. Ed Stabile proved being an excellent and talented director and writer. Plainsong won the Press Prize at the International Film Festival in Antwerp in '83. It's a lovely film to never forget.