sat through from nine to seven in my first film analysis class. we started talking about screenplay, ands i guess most of this course will e all about screenplay. Interstingly today we watched two movies, Children of Men and The Lives of Others. This post is basically about the former….
It is an adaptatioon of a book by the same name by P.D James, directed by Alphonso Cuaron. The story basically science ficiton set in the near future but minus the whizzing bullet cars and highways in teh sky. The best part i guess about teh movie, is that it is set in a London that that looks like just lie it is today. Just that all the terrorism that is a part of the story has destroyed a lot fo London. To read a summary of teh movie, go elsewhere, here i just plan to jot down those points whih came to my notice while we watched this movie.
1 It reminded me of V for Vendetta iwth teh whole Big Brotherish kinda government system.
2.THe scen where Theo’s cousin the minsister, tries to save all teh peices of art from being destoyed strikes a very very senitmental chord nd it reminds me of that scen form The Day after Tomorow, where they are about to burn the gutenberg Bilble. It just reminded me that in times where social systems collapse and the whole world is caught up in a halocaust of some sort where people die by teh millions, there is this whole question of what happens to teh art and literature thast we have crated over teh millenia? Art woul be teh only only social memory that we would leave behind on teh face of this planet, as a prooff tthat we existed here. It brought me to tears to think that the desperation of teh situation, where humanity is being wiped away and there is this one man trying to save all the art in teh world, bringing them to a safe haven in his care.
3.The violence in teh movie was neither overdone nor underplayed. It was strikingly reale. Not much of fire, yet the destruction shown was horribly real. No barrels of gasoline blowing up to give effects, but the sheer power of teh violence is well potrayed. Also teh sound of the gun fire was well done.
4. There are a lot of religious symbolisims hidden in teh movie. There is a general air of discrimination among religions in the movie, with the characteers confusing budhisim, hinduism christianity and islam. I guess it was really trying to say thsat in times of such desperation, people lose all faith, and all conviciton that life is good anymore. Thye try to find some solace in some form of religion which is why we see Mirian so earnelsty trying out Tai Chi, Budhisim etc.
5. The general persecution of the immigrants has a very Nazi touch to it, reminding me of teh holocaust and concentration camps.
6. The fact that teh people who fought for immigrant rights were called teh ‘fishes’ and here again i keep thinking aout relgios symbolisim, considering that the fish was teh sign of the persecuted early christians.
7.Anotehr theme that i though was intersting was teh fact that the earliest civilisations were facinated with the female body and mind. It wasnt untill much later that The Goddess acquired a consort, who became a husband,. and then as modern semitic religions go, Gods became bachelors and teh subject of feminien divinty and sexuality was completely suppresesd. Interesteingly like a friend said, this movie kind of symbolises how the goddess was put down and the world was alsmot ending in chaois, and then a woman becomes the saviour of teh world, and humanity is reborn with her.
8. The goddess them led to many a Dan Bwrownish discusson abut goddess worship but i’m not going to talk bout that here.
All said and done, the movie was good because it has a touch of reality to it. It was science fiction and politics but it has mananged to survive teh plight of most sci fi movie and it has a very realistic touch to it. It could almost be true. Alsp , i liked the camera work. There was that on scene which was a single take and it lasted for almost a couple of minutes, and i though ti wa good. Also the shoot out scenes were very realsitic and there were a few singles takes among those too, with te lens getting spots of blood on it and all, giving it a very war documentary kinda oflook. real kinda.
Clive Owen was not bad in the movie. For most part he played the role of reluctant hero very well, but his performance has not revived that crush i had on him form King Arthur.The other charactrs were played well, but i seem to be more affected b th whole story line than the individual actors themselves…
all said and done, it was a nice movie, and for teh record, i cried almost throughout, and sniffled through the rest because i just cant get why people get violents, and why and how they can jsut kill other people like that. the blantant violence, it just distrubs me to think that man can be that way.
Children of Men is one of my all time favorite films. Technically astounding what with all the long shots and intricately orchestrated scenes.
One thing that struck me was the fact that suicide was legal (“The government is handing out suicide kits but Ganja is still illegal”)…when society collapses, when hope is lost, death seems to be the only solace.
As for Lives of Others…another brilliant brilliant film. The ending was so uplifting that I just sat there for over 20 minutes trying to take t all in.
my reaction to this movie was similar – i cried. but its not because of the violence or anything, i just couldnt believe how much i loved this film.
the symbolism, allusions, metaphors are all there. but when you look at the very technique of narration here, its a radically new form of storytelling. action defining character and character defining action, all beautifully captured in shots that are cryptic and open for interpretations.