The Seventh Seal (1957)

What a fantastic, evocative film. While I had certain issues with the narrative, this was visually breathtaking. And it provided a very stimulating meditation on death, the meaning of life and the political uses of religion.

The modernist sentiment is summarized well by the Knight (who has returned home from the Crusades) as he plays chess with Death:

My life has been a futile pursuit, a wandering, a great deal of talk without meaning. I feel no bitterness or self-reproach because the lives of most people are very much like this. But I will use my reprieve for one meaningful deed. 

The context is medieval Europe and the Black Plague -as well as the Inquisition. All very appropriate subject matter for this modern expression of alienation, existential philosophizing. It's cynical when it comes to religion - but shouldn't it? And it draws on appropriate, apocalyptic imagery from the Book of Revelations. It's appropriate because that book is fucking scary!! But the scary revelation here derives not from angels blowing the trumpets of the Last Judgment nor is it from (say) the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (although obviously Death does play a major role here); rather the scary revelation the film represents is Nietzschean: the idea that god is dead. That god exists is a fiction we use to avoid reality. 

Max von Sydow is stunning here. He adds charisma and magnetism to the role. There is a nobility and dignity to his performance of the Knight. His melancholy demure, eloquence and Scandinavian looks makes him reminiscent of Shakespeare's Hamlet, somehow; this resonance is cemented even further by the memento mori which are everywhere here.  I can barely believe that from this rather high brow film von Sydow would go on to star in other, very much low brow films: most notably Ming the Merciless from Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon (1980) film. The latter, however, is alot of fun, even if it is uber-camp. Either way, he is stunning. **** stars from me. 

Mysterious Skin (2004)

OMG what a disturbing film about child abuse and its after-effects.  This was a terrific film in that sense; it made me laugh in a couple of place (it has a fairly good sense of humour) - only to make me feel incredibly uncomfortable as the full significance of what was going on became unfolded. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fantastic here and shows real skill in conveying the character - a rent boy on a path of self-destruction.  That character may be a cliche but the film carries it off quite well.  Strangely the acting skills of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, which are wildly apparent here, did not translate so well in Christopher Nolan's recent offerring Inception (2010), a much hailed but I think deeply flawed film (but I digress)...

The film got you to feel for the characters.  I found myself wanting to shout at Neil (Gordon-Levitt) as he got himself in risky situations - such as going home with people who were very clearly undesirables.  How could he be so stupid!?!  I rarely shout out in the middle of a film, so that is really something.  And the UFO abduction narrative relayed by Neil's co-abused Brian (Brady Cobert) created a real sense of pathos; the aliens, as in Louis Nowra's play Summer of the Aliens - are in fact the abusers, the adults that corrupt the lives of the innocents.  The ew factor is high.  And that ew factor is exacerbated by the fact that child abuse is apparently alot more common than we think....

While I think this is a terrific film, I did wonder about certain aspects of the narrative and how 'realistic' they were.  I can't speak with authority here, but I wonder (for example) about the representation of the activities of the hustler Neil.  In his home hicktown (whose name escapes me), an indeed in NYC, it was as if he would spend alot of his time getting sucked off by others (usually ugly fat middle-aged old men) - and get paid.  I would have thought that it'd be more likely to be the other way around - he would have to be servicing them.

The abuser, the coach, was not the typical looking pedo that we see in the press.  Instead of a dirty old man type, he was actually quite, well, handsome, sporting a vaguely Magnum PI-cum-Village People mustache.  Indeed, Neil has a crush on him as soon as he sees him.  Ok, I can accept that perhaps not all pedos are ugly just as not all are ex-catholic priests etc.  But then the details of the abuse emerged: coach would suck them off (despite the fact that they did not look old enough to be 'capable') and then, err, he get them to fist him....! Ewww.  Is that typical pedo abuse?  Somehow, I thought the abuse would more likely be rape: the kids would get penetrated.  My point is that I found this rather odd - but maybe this is an expression of my ignorance of pedofilia more than anything else.  Alternatively it might have something to do with production decisions in the light of film censorship.  It would be interesting to read Scott Heim's novel, on which the film was based, to see if that may have been the case.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Mysterious Skin is a powerful, disturbing experience.  **** stars from me.

A nice commentary appears here: http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2006/03/skin_flick_1.html
The novelists blog: http://heim.etherweave.com/weblog/index.html

Google Buzz Bust

An interesting article from Ars Technica re another privacy problem for Google.  For the original source, see: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/google-coughs-up-85-million-to-settle-buzz-privacy-suit.ars

Google coughs up $8.5 million to settle Buzz privacy suit

By Chris Foresman | Last updated 3 days ago

The fallout from Google's Buzz social networking aggregator continues: the company has agreed to settle aclass action lawsuit over concerns that the service's original configuration violated users' privacy. While Google has made numerous changes to the service since its February launch and maintains that it did no wrong, the company has agreed to pay out $8.5 million to end the litigation.

Buzz launched in early February to a lukewarm reception, which was quickly followed by an enormous controversy over concerns that the default settings revealed private information. At the heart of the problem was an auto-follow feature meant to facilitate quick adoption. Users quickly found, however, that it could reveal their Google accounts to people they'd like to avoid. Journalists were concerned that confidential sources could be revealed to the public, while one woman noted that her private Google account was auto-followed by her abusive ex-husband.

Google worked quickly to make changes, turning the auto-follow feature off in favor of recommendations, and making some features easier to opt out of. Still, it wasn't long before a federal class-action suit was filed on behalf of all Gmail users who were automatically opted-in to the Buzz service.

Google has also faced criticism from advocacy groups like EPIC and the EFF, US lawmakers, and foreign governments.

In the proposed settlement submitted to the court this week, Google agreed to make efforts to better educate Buzz users on issues of privacy and the particular privacy features that Buzz offers. Additionally, Google also agreed to pay out $8.5 million to a fund which will be disbursed as cy pres awards for organizations that focus on Internet privacy policy or education.