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Reviews
My Dinner with Andre (1981)
A Great Talkie
When I first saw My Dinner with Andre, I didn't like it. It was the opposite of what I thought a movie should be. It seemed to be all talk and little action or movement (the formula for pure cinema is just the opposite). However, something about it stuck with me, and I was lucky enough to catch it again. The second viewing of this film really paid off. I had my bearings and could follow the conversation as it flowed back and forth from the transcendental and almost mystical explorations of Andre to the simple, practical, everyday appreciations of Wally. It suddenly occurred to me that what was happening was much more than just an unusual dinner conversation--it was a back and forth between the two great viewpoints of life. There is something wonderfully exciting and courageous about Andre's search for the truth and reality of things as he travels to mountains and deserts to find it. But there is equally something as exciting and brilliant in Wally's ability to see the miracle of a quiet evening at home (even reading the autobiography of Charlton Heston) or doing his errands and crossing them off the list. Both men are wonderful, and one realizes that this is not just a lot of talk and no action; as with many great artworks, everything is going on just under the surface--all the action is in the realm of ideas, not in physical motion. At the end, like Wally, we come away from the dinner with Andre quite changed for the better. Somehow the world is a little more beautiful, a little more alive, and we are a little more able to see its beauty and appreciate the miracle of it all.
The Vikings (1958)
Vikings is Smart Stuff
The movie The Vikings is a great example of a work of popular culture that transcends the basic formula of the genre and becomes something greater than anyone really may have intended. Through the sheer act of craft, the film makers have made something more than the sum of its parts. The central theme of The Vikings is transition,transitions from a primitive society to a more civilized society. The transitions include the love theme (physical spiritually), but also the areas of religion and science. Religion shows a movement from the Vikings' warrior god, Odin, who rewards mortals with Valhalla if they die with a sword in their hands, to the Christian god of love and forgiveness (Einar "lays down his life" for his brother). Katalla is the priestess of the old, and Father Godwin personifies new ("You are the watchdog of my fury" says Aella, although the Einar's only line to him is "Take your magic elsewhere, holy man"). The transition from a world of ignorance to one of knowledge/science involves the symbols of the fog and the compass. The fog is an archetypal symbol of ignorance, the inability to see. People still say that they "were in a fog" when they mean that they did not know where they were. The compass is the plot element that suggests the world of knowledge that is looming. The Vikings are trapped and helpless in the fog. Eric, through Katalla and Sandpiper, is the brother of knowledge, the one who can see through the fog. The Vikings deals with the theme of love in a very transitional momentfrom tough, biological, physical love to a love that merges the physical with the spiritual ("If our hands are touching, our souls must be touching"). The central object of love is the character, Morgana, loved by both brothers, Einar of the old world and Eric of the coming world, and wanted by the calculating and loveless Aella. The key scene that defines the Viking view of love is Einar's and Ragnar's discussion of women and love. Einar asks if his mother loved Ragnar, and Ragnar replies in a reverie, "Did she love me? I've got her bites and scratches all over me. Ah! What a woman!" Love for these men is physical lust. Contrasted with that is the beautiful scene between Morgana and Eric when they stop on the way back to Aella's castle. Morgana tries to explain to the man raised as a Viking slave that physical love is not enough, that the touching of the souls is necessary. Eric replies that if their hands are touching their souls must be touching, that the spiritual lies in the physical, that the one is the manifestation of the other. Eric here plays a role that he plays throughout the movie; he is the synthesis between the antithetical worlds of Ragnar and Aella. However, it is Einar who shows the true nature of brotherly love. He dies, allows himself to be killed, so that his brother can live. The answer to Eric's question, "Why did he hesitate?" is central. He waits for Eric to kill him because he knows that Eric is his brother, and perhaps because he knows that Morgana loves Eric more, and so he does it for her. This may seem out of character for such a warrior, but Einar has shown "non-warrior" reactions before and always involving love. His love of his father is clearly evident in their every scene together ("And all hail Ragnar's beard"); but he also shows a love of Morgana that is as much love as a Viking prince can offerthey forgo the ransom so that he might have her. Einar's final sacrifice for his brother and for the woman he loves has the archetypal Christian quality of the hero who dies so that others can live and thrive and make a better world. His Viking funeral that ends the film is a funeral for the old way of life and for the old way of seeing and thinking.
The use of archetypes runs throughout the film. Eric is the "hidden prince," the man whose royalty is not in his robes but in his character (Ragnar recognizes this just before he condemns him to the crab pool). The brothers, Einar and Eric, are the archetypal brothers like those who date back to Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Cain and Abel, or Castor and Pollox. They often represent the hunter and farmer or the physical and spiritual sides of a person. This pattern continues with Einar (the warrior, the physical side, power) and Eric (the more thoughtful, the insightful, the owner of the compass). The brother archetype leads us to other archetypal symbols. A theme of dismemberment runs through the movie. Einar loses an eye; Eric a hand; the two father figures, Ragnar and Aella, are torn apart completely like the old worlds they represented. The eye is an ancient symbol of vision, understanding, and knowledge. Einar's loss represents his lack of intelligence or understanding. Eric is missing a hand, the archetypal symbol of power. The scene that shows this complementary need of the two brothers occurs when no one will sail with Einar to attack Aella; however, when Eric joins in the leadershipbrawn and brainis complete. The tower, used by ancients and Christians to symbolize the inaccessible (or virginity when it shelters a maiden), holds the princess and must be climbed by the invading male warrior, and every Freudian can enjoy the symbolism of the battering ram scene (this is, after all, a very entertaining movie).
One of the real charms of the film is that it is this gem, this treasure where none was expected. The Vikings is that most delightful of filmsthe formula genre movie that transcends its own limitations and becomes something wonderfully entertaining and unforgettable.
The Eye Hears, the Ear Sees (1970)
a hidden gem
The Eye Hears, the Ear Sees is a wonderful documentary that analyzes and appreciates Norman McClaren's animation films. Direct interviews with McClaren help in understanding the making of these wonderful shorts and insightful commentary only adds to the overall effect. The film was made in 1970, and as a teacher I used it to show students of both film and creative writing how to think outside the normal lanes of thought and perception. One of the great treasures of the documentary is that many of McClaren's shorts are presented in their entirety, including Hen Hop, Pas de Deux, Neighbors, Spheres, and several others. These films have a beautiful synesthesia, mixing vision and sound until the sound and vision become two aspects of the same thing. McClaren's works are wordless, and his comments on them are enlightening. His recurring imagery of bird and egg gain cumulative meaning when they are seen in the series of his films together. The title of the documentary comes from Bottom's speech in Midsummer Night's Dream, when he wakes from his mystical adventures in the forest and says, "The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen...what my dream was." This documentary is a fitting appreciation of a great talent. It reminds the viewer of just how great film can be.