Loving Vincent (2017)

Loving Vincent (2017)

Directors: Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman

Cast: Douglas Booth, Saoirse Ronan, Chris O’Dowd 

It has always baffled me how artists are unappreciated when they are alive. That whole thing that only after an artist has died do people truly care about their work. If you know anything about the story of Vincent Van Gough, well, then you’ll know he was one of these artists. He had many personal and internal struggles to deal with in life. Was he crazy? Why’d he chop off his ear? Why did he shoot himself? Van Gogh’s life and work has been the focus of many films throughout the years. For example, Paul Cox’s Vincent (1987), Robert Altman’s Vincent and Theo (1990), Vincent Minelli’s Lust for Life (1956) and most recently Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate (2018) starring Willem Dafoe as Van Gogh. So, Van Gogh’s life was one filled with all the elements for a good film, tragedy, passion, art, love, poverty, money (or lack thereof), so it’s no surprise so many films have been made about him. 

Today I will be talking about Loving Vincent (2017) a film that tells the story of what happened to Van Gogh during his last days on earth, when he committed suicide by shooting himself in the gut. The story unfolds from the perspective of a character called Armand Roulin, the son of a postman who was good friends with Van Gogh. You see, this postman has the last letter that Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo Van Gogh and so he wants his son to deliver this letter to Van Gogh’s brother. The film unfolds as we meet all the different characters that Armand meets in order to deliver the letter. In the process, Armand gets to know who Van Gogh was and the consequences that led to his demise. 

I connected with this movie immediately because it’s about the story of an artist and I am an artist myself, so I am quite sensible to the turmoil’s and tribulations that come with being an artist as well as that special kind of sensibility that we live with, a sensibility that not all possess or understand. Seeing how Van Gogh was bullied and tormented for seeing the world differently, for not being able to fit into that mold that they all wanted him to fit into is heartbreaking. Van Gogh went through many psychological struggles because society didn’t accept him and because he lived mostly in poverty. All Van Gogh wanted was for people to understand how deeply he felt about things, to understand the passion and lust he had for life and beauty. So sad that people would only understand this many years after his death. So, if you are an artist (or an artist at heart) you’ll be able to connect with this film. 

But one of the most amazing things about this movie is how it was made. Each frame was hand painted by a group of more than 100 artists from over twenty different countries. The film took four years to complete! Now try and wrap your head around how difficult it is to oil paint every frame of an entire film, all while still trying to tell a compelling and intriguing story! A lot of films can become an exercise in execution and try and impress with how well they were made while losing that all important element, a good story. This does not happen with Loving Vincent, a film that delivers both a good story and an amazing execution. I wanted to know what truly happened with Van Gogh. Did he truly shoot himself or was he murdered? I loved how the film was told like a detective story, as the main character picks up pieces of the story as he tries to deliver the letter. 

The fact that every frame of the film was hand painted gives us a very unique looking film. Sometimes we as viewers take so many things for granted because at the end of the day, all we have to do is watch a film. Sometimes we are oblivious as to all the hard work that goes on behind the cameras in order for a film to get made. In the case of Loving Vincent, we shouldn’t take anything for granted because it achieved something that had not been done before to this extent. It’s a film miracle. A wonder to behold.  

I loved how the film incorporates so many of Van Gogh’s paintings into the film. Many of his portraits and characters jump to life and walk around many of the beautiful vistas that Van Gogh painted. The film is like seeing all of Van Gogh’s paintings coming to life and breathing, while never losing Van Gogh’s particular style and colors. It’s amazing. I felt like I got to know who Van Gogh was after watching this film and connected with the painter in a more profound way then before. You’ll get to know Van Gogh’s thoughts and feelings because one of the films director’s Dorota Kobiela, made this film after having studied Van Gogh’s painting techniques and analyzing the letters he wrote throughout his life. This is a unique and visually dazzling film, one that requires admiration for how it was made, this isn’t just any old film, it was painstakingly made to give us, the viewers something truly special.  

Rating: 5 out of 5

Byzantium (2012)

Title: Byzantium (2012)

Director: Neil Jordan

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Sam Riley

One of Neil Jordan’s most recognized films is Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) which to me is not only one of his best films, but also one of the best vampire movies ever made. I personally hold it in my top five because it’s very theatrical, gothic and even epic, the Gone with the Wind of vampire movies. What I enjoyed the most about that film is how it focused on the “eternity” of the vampire and how they deal with it. Decades of existence pass through them, yet how does that affect a vampire? Do they get on each other’s nerves? Do they grow weary of each other? What do you do when you get bored with eternity? What do you do when people start to notice that you don’t age or get sick or die? What do you do when you stay stuck in the same age all your life? Above all this, Interview with a Vampire also delivered on the gore, the blood and fantastic effects. It has all the elements that a good vampire movie should have. On top of this, it presented us with the idea of sympathizing with its creatures, these vampires aren’t completely evil; instead some of them are battling with their vampire nature, they are just trying to make sense of their crazy existence. So of course I was thrilled when I learned that Neil Jordan would be tackling the vampire genre once again with Byzantium.  Was it any good?  

Byzantium focuses on two female vampires; a mother and a daughter team who go by the name of Clara and Eleanor. Clara, the mother, makes her money by double timing it as a prostitute and as an exotic dancer while Eleanor, the daughter, does nothing but mope around, writing poetry which she throws away just as soon as she writes. Young Eleanor is confounded by the fact that she can’t tell anyone that she’s a vampire. She feeds on old people who are on the brink of death, or people who are on their death bed. So anyhow, one thing leads to another and mother and daughter end up on the streets, without a place to live in, so Clara in a desperate move hooks up with a guy who has inherited a hotel called ‘Byzantium’. Can mother and daughter live here for a while? Can they settle with this guy? At the same time, Clara and Eleanor are on the run from a group of vampires who call themselves ‘The Pointed Nails of Justice’. They are a brotherhood of vampires who think that Eleanor and Clara are an abomination and should be eliminated. You see this brotherhood, emphasis on the word ‘brother’, have a rule: no sisters allowed. Will they ever catch Eleanor and Clara?

Byzantium is a movie that touches upon themes of feminism. Its main characters are two females, a mother and a daughter, so it is very much about what women and what they endure in a society dominated by men. These are two girls surviving in a world that condemns them for being women. The secret brotherhood of vampires wants them eliminated because women aren’t allowed to be vampires, so right there we’re talking about a society that looks down on women, an ailment that sadly still plagues our modern society. It’s something I personally despise in general, women should be treated as equals, when they are treated as less, well, it’s just another form of bigotry and bigotry and I just don’t get along. I like stories like this one, about women rebelling against the prevailing chauvinism in society. On the other side of the coin this is also a story about a mother who’s having a hard time coping with the fact that her daughter is all grown up and ready to fall in love and take the world on her own. Clara fights with Eleanor because Eleanor falls for a human, same as a real mother would fight with her young daughter for falling in love with a young man. There’s always that difficulty parents go through with letting go when their children grow up, this movie addresses these issues.    

One good thing the film doesn’t do is forget that it’s primarily a vampire film, and a horror film. This is something that Neil Jordan himself mentions in the audio commentary; he wanted to augment the horror elements in the film, which is why the film starts out in a pretty gory fashion; with Clara decapitating some dude with a piano string. Another gory detail, the vampires in this film don’t have fangs; instead they have a nail that grows whenever they need to puncture someone’s jugular to feed. So gore hounds won’t be entirely disappointed. These vampires might be sultry and poetic, but they sure as hell don’t hesitate to slit someone’s throat. It’s interesting to note that this movie can have elements of teenage love, yet doesn’t lose its horror edge.  So in that sense it’s similar to Interview with a Vampire because it weaves visual poetry and a classy aesthetic with gory violence. And speaking of visual poetry, well, this one is filled with beautiful compositions and color. The whole color palette of the film mixes intense colors, with cold blues, it’s an interesting mix. The whole film takes place in this sleepy, rainy coastal town, it makes for creepy, deeply atmospheric visuals.

So yes, I enjoyed Byzantium a lot because it’s a mixed bag of classy aesthetic, sultry visuals an atmospheric setting with just the right amount of gore and blood. It’s a film that plays with very real themes, amongst them feminism and mother-daughter relations. Also, it asks important questions like: do we always have to be like our parents? Even when they don’t realize what unreliable parents they are? Even when they themselves don’t realize what bad examples they are setting? Do we have the right to simply reject them and walk away? Is blood thicker than water? Do differences between parents and siblings have to sever ties completely? Or does love prevail in the end? These are heavy questions that Byzantium both asks and answers. Though nowhere as perfect or complex as Interview with a Vampire was, Byzantium is still a solid vampire film from a seasoned director like Neil Jordan who’s no stranger to horror films, we can’t forget he’s the director behind In the Company of Wolves (1984), a fantasy tinged retelling of little red riding hood; with the horror elements amped up. Highly recommend that one if you haven’t had the chance of checking it out, it’s an interesting mix of horror, surrealism and fantasy. Byzantium shows a thing or two to modern filmmakers. Mainly that a vampire film can be about teenage vampires falling in love…without losing its edge. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Hanna (2011)

Title: Hanna (2011)

Director: Joe Wright

Cast: Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan

Review:

Sometimes, a certain director will make only one kind of film. Let’s say for example Martin Scorcese is known for making primarily gangster films and thrillers, John Carpenter is known for making horror films and Ivan Reitman is known for making comedies, well, Joe Wright the director behind Hanna is a director primarily known for making period films like Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007). The hyper stylish Hanna isn’t exactly the kind of movie you’d associate Joe Wright with, yet here he is, taking a stab at something different and yes, even commercial. But that’s all cool in my book because to stay in the Hollywood game, you gotta make a real moneymaker every now and again to keep the studios happy and let them know you can bring in the moolah in between your artsy period films. And Hanna was a winner, so we’re sure to see more Joe Wright films in the near future. In fact he’s working on his next period film right now, Anna Karenina based on Tolstoy’s famous novel. But how was Hanna, Wright’s attempt at making something stylish, modern, hip and ‘cool’?

 I have to say it went exquisitely well! This film tells the story of Hanna (Ronan) a 16 year old girl who’s been raised entirely in the wild by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA agent. Hanna’s father wanted to raise her away from modern society. She’s read encyclopedias and famous works of literature, but she’s never faced the real world outside of the woods, she doesn’t even know what music is. So one day, when Hanna is particularly anxious to experience the real world on her own, she tells her father; his answer? He presents Hanna with a switch. If she flips the switch, they will come looking for her. And she will have to run out into the world on her own. But the question quickly arises: Just who are ‘they’? And why do they want her so badly?

 So yeah, I loved this movie for various reasons. Number one, the symbolisms. The idea of an overprotective father who wants to keep his child away from the big bad world is representative of how a parent will most of the time try and protect their child from the horrors that this world has to offer, which last time I checked are many. The parent will try and keep their child in their nest for as long as possible, teaching the child values and a way to see the world, all in preparation for when said child has grown and wants to experience the world for themselves. When that happens, and the child decides to be independent of family unit, there is definitely a ‘switch’ that gets flipped, for you are no longer under mommy and daddy’s protection, now you are facing the big bad world all on your own with only your wits and what you’ve been taught to guide you. Fortunately, Hanna was taught well. She’s an expert in all sorts of deadly fighting skills; she’s a weapon’s master and an agile killer. In fact, Hanna and her father are both so deadly that the government will stop at nothing to find them both.

 The film criticizes the modern world with all its technology and machines. Hanna is raised in a world that is void of any sort of technology, no television, no music, no phones, no Playstation, no MTV. She leads a very Amish sort of life with her dad in the woods When Hanna first goes out into the world and confronts a girl of her same age, the girl does nothing but talk about pop stars and tv shows, a language totally alien to Hanna. When Hanna enters a ‘modern’ house hold, she is bombarded with all sorts of distractions and stress inducing machines. The radio blares! The television set tries to sell you something! The alarm clock sounds! Everything hisses and beeps and squeaks at her. All these mechanical contraptions are shown to cause a great amount of stress to Hanna who is only used to the chirping of birds, or the sound the wind makes when it hits the leaves in the forest. I loved how the film criticizes this aspect of modern living, how we are so accustomed to machines as part of our lives that we don’t realize how stressful they can actually be. Immediately, the beeping of a text message came to mind.

 But my favorite thing about the film was its subversive aura. This my friends is a film that absolutely hates the governments evil doings. The villain in the film is a government operative called Marissa, played with evil glee by the always awesome Cate Blanchett. Marissa lies, kills and cheats every step of the way to achieve her governments’ goals. And like many governments, she even relies on the help of gangsters, hired killers and low lives to get things done; which reminded me of my own government in my own country. When they wanted to take over the University of Puerto Rico to make life impossible for students what did they do? The actually paid ex-wrestlers to muscle the students around and intimidate them! Ex-wrestlers got paid millions of dollars to intimidate students! Just goes to show how governments will go to any extent they have to go to get what they want; which is exactly what happens in Hanna, a film that mirrors how many governments are behaving in the world. I love it when films do this, because it shows that these are not isolated incidents in the world, and that artist’s take notice of these events and express what they see in their world through their films, through their art. Hanna is just one of an increasing number of contemporary films that portray the government and its militant force as the enemy, as evil. If you want to watch another extremely subversive film that is one hundred percent revolutionary, watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), that one surprised me with its subversive aura.

 Saoirse Ronan whom I loved in Wright’s Atonement steals the show once again. Hanna is her film, and she dominates it quite well. The character of Hanna is portrayed with a naïveté that I loved. The world is new and awesome to her, and I loved the fact that she is so ready for it. A symbolism yet again. It is so essential for a parent to truly prepare a child for what really awaits them out there in the world, for when they are out there on their own; it’s what the parents have taught them that will help them make the proper choices when the time comes. If a child has been taught well, he or she will have a better chance at making it in this big bad world. If not, he or she will have to learn the hard way. Hanna was prepared in more ways than one, and so she faces the world admirably. But aside from the parents preparing you for the big bad world, it also speaks about how rebels need to prepare themselves, arm themselves, train themselves in order to achieve a proper revolution. Also, something can be said about the fact that Hanna, the revolutionary of this film is so young. The film speaks about how the new generation needs to rise up and take matters into their own hands! Governments are afraid of young people rebelling against them, because it’s always been the newer generations that complaint, it’s always been the young that tells the old “your doing things all wrong!” This is the reason why so many governments attack college campuses and education in general. We cant have lot’s of little Hanna’s running around the world now can we? Educated and ready to take matters into their own hands if need be.   

 Finally, Hanna has two other good things going for it: its stylish look and its music. And I have to mention both of these at the same time because Joe Wright directed and edited this film in a way that visuals match perfectly with the soundtrack. The beats supplied by The Chemical Brothers for the films soundtrack match perfectly with the beats of the editing of the film, with the flashes of light, with the action. Hanna offers us a brilliant marriage of visuals and sound. There’s not a bad thing I can think of saying about this film which means only one thing, Hanna gets a perfect score from The Film Connoisseur. Now go see it!

Rating: 5 out of 5