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September 2008 | Home
U-M HERITAGE »
The year they cancelled J-Hop
For nearly 80 years, it was the social event of the year.
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- Exactly how much housework does a husband create?
- U-M Heritage: How to date women, circa 1943
- University of Michigan 2008 Graduation (Story and Video)
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The defiant one
U-M track star Ralph Rose started an Olympic tradition when he declared that the US flag "dips for no earthly king."
Health
Mom's mood, baby's sleep
Depression in new mothers can lead to erratic sleep in their babies, which can in turn lead to depression later in life. But there is a way to address the problem.
TALKING ABOUT WORDS »
Pigskin
It's not just the spread offense that's new. Football's peculiar lexicon has changed over the years too.
TALKING ABOUT MOVIES »
Summer 2008's best movies
A look back at the past season's best films and performances
Summer 2008's best movies
September 17, 2008
Great performances from the summer of 2008: Patricia Clarkson (above) in "Elegy," Penelope Cruz (below) in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," and Heath Ledger (bottom) in "The Dark Knight"
All in all summer 2008 wasn't too bad for filmgoers looking for something a bit above the usual seasonal fare. Big action pictures left lingering impressions, and a number of indie-type movies offered memorable doses of provocation. As a film teacher, I couldn't help but note some very interesting cinematic techniques used to carry the narratives.
In the action category the clear winner was "The Dark Knight," a true blockbuster sequel from the Batman franchise. This, however, was a different kind of Batman narrative, brooding less on the depressed protagonist who frets about the perils encroaching upon the lives of urban dwellers. "The Dark Knight" offered rocket-paced combat between Batman and the Joker.
Three key elements in the film stand out for me. Foremost was Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, an interpretation that redefined the antagonist of superhero action movies. As portrayed by Ledger, the Joker becomes an unforgettable villain whose angry, in-your-face makeup conveys a figure of dark, monster-like proportions. He's an unrelenting cajoler and public menace. Batman and the Joker may return in the near future, but who'll be able to live up to Heath Ledger?
Also memorable was the film's climactic tailoring which cleverly incorporated into the plot not one ticking-clock sequence but three, intercut together to convey the extent of the evil schemes devised by the Joker to "break the spirit" of Gotham's people.
And then there was the unforgettable prosthetic makeup that transformed Batman's rival, Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent, into yet another antagonist: the angry Two-Face, who becomes hell-bent on revenge. The prosthetic craftsmanship was eerie and remarkable in its disfigurement of human anatomy.
Among the lower-budget, character-oriented summer movies, two remain in my memory: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Elegy." While very different in cinematic styling and narrative tone, each tackled the subject of complicated sexual relationships.
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is a Woody Allen film about two spirited young American women (Vicky and Cristina) who become entangled in unexpected love affairs with the same man in Spain, the sexually hungry artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem).
"Elegy", directed by Isabel Coixet, is the story (from a Phillip Roth novel) of a distinguished college professor, David (Ben Kingsley) who enters into a sexual relationship with a beautiful student.
Parallel complications run through both films: Juan Antonio has an estranged wife from whom he can't extricate himself romantically; David, the suave professor, is in a gratifying 20-year, no-further-demands sexual relationship with a lovely woman of his own generation. Their new alliances won't come without peril for all involved.
Two of the best things in these movies are Penelope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson—each of whom appears in both films. Cruz is the fiery, estranged wife in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and is the student lover, Consuela, in "Elegy." Clarkson is a housewife with secret dalliances in the Woody Allen film and is David's beautiful older sex partner, Caroline, in "Elegy." It's not often that a filmgoer has the opportunity to receive, simultaneously, evidence of what makes screen actors like these two women such startling presences on the screen: actors as assured and nuanced as they are beautiful.
And then there were the cinematic approaches to the development of the two narratives.
Most screenwriters and screenwriting coaches complain that voice-over narration is a cop-out, a lazy method of plotting and characterization. So it was a pleasure to come across two films in which voice-over wasn't a short cut, but rather complemented other narrative elements to make the films more, not less, textured.
"Vicky Cristina Barcelona" incorporated a full-running voice-over narration that has a light-hearted, adventuresome quality to it. The omniscient narrator leads the filmgoer through the narrative, laying out the different personality characteristics of Vicky and Cristina, introducing new characters, identifying changing scene locations, and pointing out key moments for characters in the progression of the plot's ever-changing set of complications.
David, the intellectual professor, is the first-person narrator in "Elegy." Used more sparingly than in Woody Allen's film, the narration sharpens the focus of the script's efforts to deal with the internal feelings of a man torn between longings and self-doubts. The voice-overs are poignant, to-the-point mental asides that are both poetic and philosophical.
It was also interesting to observe that "Elegy"'s scriptwriter, Nicolas Meyer, drew heavily on another trick of the screenwriting trade—the role that a confidant can play in bringing forth critical insights into a character's thoughts and feelings. The numerous tete-a-tetes between David and his colleague and racquetball partner, George (Dennis Hopper), made for marvelous scenes while providing insight into the male psyche.
For anyone interested in the ways and means of film art, "Elegy" is as instructive as it is compelling, a good example of the meshing of form and idea.
Film historian and critic Frank Beaver is professor of film and video studies and professor of communication.