11/11/2012

"Waltz with Bashir" by Ari Folman (2008)

Waltz with Bashir is a documentary animation movie that narrates director Ari Folman's personal trip to recover his memory regarding his participation in the invasion of Lebanon and in the massacre of Sabra and Shatila (1982) while he was a soldier in the Israeli Army.

Different elements are shown in the movie, all interconnected.
1/ The story shows how post-traumatic disorder works in soldiers, how tricky and fanciful human memory is, and how memory hides from our conscious anything that causes us pain and shock. The trips and chats Folman had with some of his old Army fellows and one journalist who covered the events helped him to understand what happened to him.

2/ There is a depiction of the reality of war, with its drama, blood, death, fear, and normality. We see young teen soldiers doing a job that overwhelms them, and their fear being the trigger to kill, not hatred. We also see the happy every-day moments lived in their fight idle days and moments: soldiers listening to music, talking about girls, life plans, and  longing for home and a normal life.

3/ There is the narration of the events leading to the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, in which thousands of Muslim civilians (mostly women, children and old people) were pitiless slaughtered by a group called the Christian Phalangists, with the passive connivance of the Israeli Army. We witness with horror the impact that such barbaric acts had on the victims and on those who witnessed the events.

The movie succeeds at presenting such a harsh story by combining different elements in a masterly way.
[1] The movie creates an animated world that is alien and intimate at the same time. This is done by using an unique animation style that is very realistic (very similar to  rotoscopy), by using and odd combination of orange & beige hues, and great chiaroscuro, which create an ominous atmosphere that is surreal at times. The recurring image that Folman remembers -he and two soldiers emerging naked from the beach with a gun (as shown in the movie's poster)- shows very well the sense of spiritual abandonment, alienation and regret that permeates the movie.

[2] The movie paces and presents the research for Folman's memory as if it was a mystery movie. We walk side by side with him while he puts together the pieces of his past; the tempo (and the uneasiness) goes in crescendo and ends in the shocking non-animated final minutes of the movie. They moved me to tears.

[3] The movie uses an impacting and soulful soundtrack that will touch you. It mixes some classical music pieces, well known songs of the 1980s, and some songs and musical pieces specifically written for the movie.

[4] The movie showcases the importance of our oniric world to understand our present and to retrieve pieces of our past that lay dormant in our subconscious;  they are -and were for Folman- a doorway to any locked-in memories. In fact, the movie starts with a dream, and contains several oniric surrealist scenes.

[5] The movie mixes the harsh images and sub-stories with others full of intimacy, lyricism and poetry, and shows different facets of the life of a soldier and of War. 

My main criticism to the movie is that Ari Folman does not explicitly condemn the Israeli involvement in the massacre. He does so implicitly and from a personal point of view, which is full of regret and shame. In a way, the movie is politically correct for the Israelis. To me, the fact that only the Christian Phalangists are depicted as the barbarians and slaughters is a bit washing one's hands. If you see somebody killing frail people and do nothing to stop it or succour them, you are as guilty as the butchers themselves. Most of the victims were women, children and elderly people. How could a soldier do nothing to stop the slaughter? 

***
This is one of this movies that everybody should watch, not only because it is a piece of art, but because it as powerful reminder that War debases us all, destroys the lives of all the parties involved, except of those politicians who started them, and whom we elect.

One of the most amazing films I have seen in the last years. Multi-layered.  Confronting. Lacerating. Unforgettable.

11/07/2012

Good Service - 3

One of the things I have noticed lately is that, as soon as the staff spot you taking a picture of the food, the staff's behaviour changes dramatically and the service improves remarkably, while the level of "smileness" duplicates. 

It is great, on one hand, and a bit pitiful on the other. 

I have experienced the rudeness of a lady behind a counter being dramatically changed -going from mutant monster to an angora fluffy bird- as soon as my camera was taken out. The lady could change her behaviour while I was there, but the reviews on her restaurant always pinpoint the rudeness of the staff. So you cannot fake what you do not have. 

Angry staff should never be dealing with patrons. 

Any staff member should be genuine and nice to me whether I have a camera or not. Is that too much to ask?

Good Service - 2

"Was everything OK?" "How was everything?" 

Have you ever been asked this sort of question in a restaurant? 

I find them a bit intimidating, and it is never going to work with customers -or at least with me- unless they really-really loved what they had. If it is mediocre or bad, you, like me, won't probably say so.

For example, say that you had an omelette and you thought that you could have prepared it better at home despite you not being a good cook". Would you tell them just that? Of course not. You have manners, and, even if you are not that enthusiastic, you may say, "It was OK" in a languid tone. In these days, reviewing sites allow patrons to spill the beans on what you really-really think about a place without having to deal with a personal reaction that could not be pleasant. Most people asking for your opinion are really expecting you to replay what they want to hear.

I think that it would be great if some restaurants and cafés did what most hotels do - have feedback forms at hand (to be filled in and deposited in a feedback box or posted), asking about the patron's opinion on the ambience, service, food, pricing, serving portions, things that they did not enjoy, and so on. This would help businesses to improve and would prevent unhappy customers from venting their anger or disappointment online.

What about saying "I hope you enjoyed it"? I think I like this more than other open questions. Then, if the business has feedback forms, they could add "please feel free to leave any feedback in the forms provided". I like this the most. What about you?


Good Service - 1

hos·pi·tal·i·ty
1. Cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests.
2. An instance of cordial and generous treatment of guests.

How many people, business owners and staff working in the Hospitality sector have forgotten which industry they are part of and what does hospitality mean? Many, unfortunately.

Everything is in the service - to me. You could be serving ambrosia on an Versace plate or a coffee so good that it would make me levitate; still, if the service is lacking or bad, I would not return. 

One of my brothers worked at a restaurant and a bar for many years. It is a very stressful job, not always well-paid, long hours, early mornings, late evenings, little time for eating and going to the toilet, and, sometimes, low salaries. People arrive all at the same time (my brother called it "the big sh*t"), while other hours are so empty that you feel like a day has 48 hours. I know there are many struggling students working in the hospitality industry because it is the only option they have, and you see them struggling at doing their job and keeping up with their assignments. Business owners have it tough in a very competitive industry, high taxes and rental leases (especially in Perth CBD), expensive produce suppliers, expensive transport, difficulty in finding nice staff, among many hurdles. 

Still, patrons pay for what they consume, and they have to earn the money for it. The least we can expect is being treated nicely and having a good experience in our time out. 

Good service makes a business prosper and attracts customers and keeps them. It sounds obvious, no? Unfortunately, many businesses do forget a basic rule - a happy customer is the best ad they will ever have. And they forget it for various reasons: they are just focused on making money or surviving, selling an image, starting before they are ready, attending to more customers than they can attend to, taking for granted that customers will put up with any crap if the setting has hype or it is trendy, among many other reasons. 

To me, there are a list of things that any business in the hospitality industry should be doing to guarantee that the service is decent, good or excellent:
  1.  Choosing waiters/waitresses who are genuinely friendly and sociable, who are energetic and want to be there. They have to deal with all types of people and personalities, and usually work long hours, so they need to have those innate qualities to deliver.
  2. Choosing cooks who can actually cook. I mean, cook something better than the mediocre food that any of us can or could prepare at home. 
  3. Organising the staff effectively. A business can have the best staff around, and still offer a terrible service. If the restaurant, café or bar has good food/coffee/drinks and wants to get a reputation, it needs a plan: a set of rules and procedures to follow, a list of must and must-not, a "serving routine" in which details are given on how to take orders, cue people, serve, attend to, receive payments, and welcome and farewell patrons. Not only that, they need to invest some time in informing the staff about the food they are serving: produce origin, taste of the dishes, gluten free options, type of grapes of a foreign wine, and so on, so they can reply to any query. 
  4. Organising the layout of the restaurant having into account the needs of the staff, especially in the kitchen and serving areas. In fact, many restaurants' layouts prevent the staff from doing their job properly or make difficult their movements. For example, having enough space between tables, not only benefits patrons, it also allows the staff to move easily and avoid hitting patrons with elbows, dishes they are carrying, etc.
  5. A business should never host more patrons than those they can serve at ease and attend to properly with the staff they have. If they do, deficiencies in the service become obvious to visitors and the patron's experience is affected. If the business increases, you need more staff, at least at peak hours.
  6. A business should have EFPTOS. The last two times my wallet was empty of cash and EFPTOS was not available, my transaction cost me two dollars, which had to be added as an extra to the price I was paying.
***
As a patron, these are the things I find indicators of a good service, and that make me return to a business and be merry:
  1. The staff are friendly and respectful, and smile and greet customers.
  2. The staff treat regular customers as individuals, and remember their order preferences and name. This is especially important in cafés and bars where you always order the same. By remembering "the usual" they show their care and appreciation towards you. After all, you could go elsewhere and stop expending your money here.   
  3. The staff attend first to those people who arrive first.
  4. The staff are knowledgeable about their trade. They know their beans, liquors, wines or food. Not only that, they can even advice you if you are not sure about what to order.
  5. The staff leave their personal problems at home, so they attend to customers as fellow-humans not as money-making machines or an annoyance they have to put up with. If you cannot make it, fake it. I have plenty of crappy days, and I do not treat anybody badly when ordering my food or drinks. 
  6. The staff do not have a pose. They are humble and hospitable, and they treat customers without looking down at them. After all, they do not know who they are. I could be Denmark's Prime Minister, a famous Hungarian painter, a renowned German astrophysicist, a popular online site reviewer, or just a human being who has ordered something with courtesy and expects the same in return.
  7. The staff attend arriving customers fast, and serve food, coffee or drinks at a decent speed. Any on-going delays are mentioned upfront.
  8. The staff inform of any amendments, changes or missing elements in the printed menu - upfront. 
  9. The staff apologise for any mistake and mishap and offer a compensation to an unhappy customer who has a reason to be unhappy. 
  10. The staff deal elegantly with customers with foreign accents. They elegantly make you repeat your order if they do not understand, or show you the menu so you point to the item you want, or vocalise what they are saying. This is especially relevant in Perth, where the number of foreign students learning English is considerable and, most importantly, the number of dwellers born overseas is very high. 
***
Good service is what separates a good business from a bad one, and what makes some businesses thrive and others fail. Any business owner and manager wants to have a successful business. However, expecting customers to put up with crap, despite the fact that they pay for what they are consuming, it is not only insulting, it is stupid - like digging up your own grave. 

 I am your guest - be hospitable.

11/06/2012

"Letters from Iwo Jima" by Clint Eastwood (2006)

"Letters from Iwo Jima" narrates the events happened in the battle that took place on Iwo Jima Island in 1945 seen from the Japanese side. This is the counterpart to "Flags of our Fathers", that focused on the American side.

A war movie is never my favourite subject of interest. However, if the movie presents the events in a humanly way and is historically accurate, it certainly gets my attention. That is the case of "Letters from Iwo Jima". 

What makes this movie to stand out from other modern movies about WWII battles is: 
1/ that focuses on the enemy and the losers, and shows that they also were human beings with a heart and a family. 
2/ The movie shows that not everybody belonging to the same country sees things the same, has the same morals, principles or acts the same under the same circumstances. 
3/ Unlike other American Movies, the stereotypes and prejudices about the Japanese as barbarians and fanatics are not here.

Although we know what is going to happen from the beginning, the script, the dialogues and the war scenes are thrilling and engaging. It is the human part of the story what will attract viewers that are not into war movies, and what will keep the spectator interested and moved. 

On the other hand, the script is good enough to depict the different military principles and beliefs that Japan was facing at the time, in which modern and old values were colliding and the concept of dying with honour was being redefined. This is perhaps the aspect that captivated me the most, as we are presented with two different ways of understanding Japanese honour: 1/ the traditional ideal, which is very medieval, in which, when an unwanted end approaches, the only option is take your own life. 2/ The modern ideal of honour, in which the soldier does his best, no matter the result, and surrenders. 

At the same time, honour is depicted not only how a behaviour displayed in the battlefield, but also the way you treat prisoners. In that regard, the Japanese are shown to be more honourable than their American opponents. Very moving, and really relevant for the story, is the reading of the letter by the American prisoner's mother. It shows that in war all mothers are the same, all soldiers, even the most despicable and savage ones, have a heart and a family, and their fighting is in all cases not their wish or liking.

I especially loved the glimpses we have about the personal life of some of the soldiers and officials through their correspondence. Those glimpses help us to understand why they act in a certain way during the war, what motivates them to fight, to commit desertion or suicide. I missed more letters and glimpses on the lives of the more traditional soldiers, those whose concept of honour and fighting was old-fashioned, as we could have understood better their motivations instead of seeing them as silly fanatics. I think that a little bit of chopping of the fighting scenes would have allowed the viewer to have more empathy towards "the bad guys".

Although I liked the end, I thought it does not offer emotional closure to the viewer, as we do not see the main Japanese character going back home or meeting his family.

Most actors are terrific in their respective roles, playing with emotion, sensitivity and empathy their respective characters. The only exception was Takumi Bando as Captain Tanida, who I thought overacted.

The fact that the movie is shot mostly in Japanese really makes is believable. It is the only decent and respectful way to approach the Japanese point of view. Otherwise, the director would had been bending to the needs of the mainstream movie industry for the sake of... nothing. Despite being shot in Japanese, the movie has been very popular amidst mainstream viewers. There you have it!

A modern classic.

11/04/2012

Musing About: Perth Street Art-2 (Perth WA)

1.  It might be because I live close to the CBD and I move in central suburbs, but I rarely find proper graffiti beyond name tagging and stickers. I grew up in a place that hidden corners and empty walls are covered by graffiti, from ejaculating penises in areas where teens meet, to love declarations, unveiling secrets, insults, squatters promotion political anti-system tagging, colourful murals and everything in between - in any semi-hidden corner in the city centre or suburbs. In Perth, I am mostly used to wonderful murals in the lanes of the city or in abandoned empty walls, artistic tagging, and stickers. I am sure there are lot of dirty secrets written somewhere, but they are not around my suburb. Please point us to the dirty secrets.
*** 
2. Graffiti and vandalism are sometimes associated in the mind of our politicians and of many citizens. Some TV shows and a.c.a.s give the same bad name to destroyers of public furniture, buses and trains and those who do artistic tagging, graffiti and/or painting. Still, overall, there is a respect towards wall painting and street art in this city. So much so that the City of Perth and the City of Subiaco are sponsoring educational projects of street art targeting the youth and Perth lanes - Food Chain is an incredible initiative. The City of Subiaco was also behind the painting of the Gold Lane. Of course, if a government or institution promotes something, you are not going to find anything subversive. Still, it is great.

Education Institutions are also acting as sponsors and paying for murals on their campuses. An exhibition at the Central Institute of Technology in Northbridge called Street Art 2012, was held between 23-28th July 2012, sponsored by HepatitisWA with works, street-art style, showcasing "young people's creative interpretation of the key health messages associated with viral hepatitis". The guys were selected from several youth agencies and selected to raise awareness of hepatitis. Well, if that is the case why not doing Street Art properly in the streets where, using abandoned walls, where the message can be seen by hundreds the people and be called street art? Street Art on canvases indoors. Truly Odd!  

3. We do not have guerrillas cleaning up viciously and obsessively in Perth, but mostly people admiring the work of the artists or ignoring it. Yes, there are examples of cleaning guerrillas, like in my attached photos, but I have also seen cleaning of graffiti on murals painted by streets artists! I love oxymorons! I also have seem certain sticker areas being continuously cleaned and repeated in a loop of eternal resistance.


4. One thinks of New York, Tokyo, Berlin, or Manchester as heavens for Street Art painters and aficionados. Still, at least at present, a more more vibrant street art scene, and more in connection with Perth, is happening elsewhere. Just to put an example close to our shores, I am thinking of  the Malay city of Melaka and its wonderful riverside, and the street art  murals covering night clubs and businesses non stop, spreading to the walls of new buildings. I found street art in Kuala Lumpur incredible, too. I thought that Perth and Melaka share the idea and feeling that a city and its public and business spaces can be beautiful canvases of creativity, and that they look much better painted than in blank, grey or bare bricks. Still, Melaka's murals are quintessentially Malay, as they use motifs (traditions, myths, and ways of life) and colours that perfectly represent who they are. Our murals, in that regards, do not reflect a clear Australian or Perthian identity, or they have it in the fact that they are artistically individualistic.

5. I had this conversation with an art gallery owner. I told him, "why don't you call an street artist to paint your [ugly] building with a funky mural?" His answer was that there is no street art in Perth, and those making it in Perth act as if they were the last big thing. Yes, ugliness can be subversive and even provocative, but I disagree with his statement. Yes, we do not see any Banksy here, or subversive street art, although isolated examples do exist (I am thinking on those stencil posters glued on the walls after the death of Osama Bin Laden, quickly removed or sprayed over). 

Perth Street Art do exist and is indeed very artistic. Not as spontaneous, sub-culture, protest, provocative, and subversive as in other societies and countries. However, there is a reason for that. We live in a rich peaceful country with a democracy, where people live their lives as they want, choose their religion, politic and even their sexual orientation. Therefore, their ways of expression are never going to be the same as those of artists and people who live in societies where there are marked class differences, political oppression, racial and sexual extermination or alienation, extreme poverty, widespread corruption, or simply a big economical crisis. Perhaps our city is too bourgeois to have radical street art, or politically or socially mindful street art, but our street art is just artistic.  Is that bad?

On the other hand the sticker street art is quite personal, provocative, cute, daring, and eclectic, a bit funkier. Electric switch boxes, poles, and any type of traffic signs are spread throughout the city. There are a few people who have been doing so in the city and have just opened a collective exhibit in Perth Art Gallery Kurb. The girl behind the bunny stickers is not only a lovely girl, but a talented young artist with nice pieces for sale at ridiculous prices. She is talented and nice. Good start girl! I got my two stickers in my visit. Yoohoo.

 ***
6. Art, by definition, is subversion, reflection, transformation, subconscious approximation, cheekiness, provocation, a comment on the needs, hopes and illusions of the human soul and the society we live in. A window to or tap into the personal and collective subconscious. Not just a way of individual expression. In that regard, I miss from the Perth Art scene alternative conscious oriented street art focusing on our crap, as we have lots of it, too: immigrant alienation, refugee rejection, Aboriginal exclusion, cultural racism and biases, land and real state speculation, uranium sale, the projected pipe from the Kimberly, domestic violence, drunk violence, just to mention a few. I do not see them artistically explored on the walls of the city. It puzzles me that Aborigines and Aboriginal themes and issues are almost absent from our walls. I do not understand either why beautiful cannot be subversive, mindful and socially conscious. I do not expect Government sponsored Street Art to do this sort of thing, but I do expect non-commissioned pieces to do so. It is just a wish.

***
A few useful links for Street Art Lovers Below


"Antichrist" by Lars Von Trier (2009)

Antichrist tells the story of a couple's grief after the death of their child, their progressive alienation from reality, and their descend to a personal hell, especially after they retreat to their cabin in in the forest, which they call Eden. Antichrist also narrates the trip of the female character "She" to her inner hell, so she becomes a demon (or the Antichrist) in an Eden inhabited by only a man and a woman.

The movie is structured in four parts: Grief, Pain (Chaos Reigns), Despair (Gynocide), and The Three Beggars, plus a Prologue and an Epilogue.

The Prologue in black and white is a short masterpiece, classy image quality and tones, wonderful music and mood, perfect tempo. It really sets the mood of the rest of the film, and offers a lyricism that gets lost afterwards.

Once the first chapter starts, the movie, its colours, its lighting, the atmosphere, and the acting start to dig in and unsettle the viewer with an unidentifiable menace that you feel even before the couple moves to the woods. That menacing feeling grows at the same pace as the tempo of the movie, being suffocating when the tragic events unfold. There are amazing oniric, premonitory and surreal images blended with the real facts, but these are progressively intermixed, and the boundaries between reality and unreality, sanity and insanity, get faded out. 

The epilogue is very surreal, quite easy and light, more fairytale-ish in a way, and I thought that it did not glue well to the rest of the movie in story or mood.

The movie has only two actors, William Dafoe as He and Charlotte Gainsbourg as She, who carry out the heavy weight of the whole movie. Their physiques really suit the gloomy characters they play. In both cases, the roles are very demanding physically and emotionally, so their work has to be praised. I found, however, that their personal chemistry was somewhat lacking.

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle produces superb bucolic images, but also eerie oniric images and tones, that are not complacent or decorative, but the third character in the movie.

Antichrist is a psycho-thriller, and it is barely gory or explicitly violent until the last 20 minutes of the film, which are horrific. The violence and horror in the movie mainly come from the atmosphere and the dark places of the human soul where the story takes the viewer to. The fact that Von Trier was quite depressed when he filmed this movie, helps the movie to portray sadness, depression, mania, mental alienation and therapy with great accuracy. The movie has that profound eeriness that Japanese horror movies have, too, but explores other themes, and is not as entertaining, to be honest.

The surrealism of the movie is more Buñuel-Dali's in "Le Chien Andalu" than Tarkosky's, although some of the forest scenes and images would remind the viewer of the Russian Master, especially in The Mirror.

***
A few tags have been attached to the film by a few critics and, more often, by those people who have not watched the movie or follow what other people say without any further questioning. 

Critique given no. 1 - The movie is "offensively misogynistic" Really? I did not feel the hate towards women anywhere. The female character is a troubled spirit with a shocking behaviour, but if you consider that a proof of Trier's misogyny, you should categorise most Japanese horror film directors the same, as they have this sort of nasty women, too. To me, there is more misogyny in most Hollywood movies (in the way women are usually portrayed with regards to men and women) or in any bunch of randomly selected video-clips (where you will see women presented as trash and as pieces of meat) than in this movie. However, I don't see critics vehemently denouncing that.

The only misogyny in the film comes from the fact that the female character shifts the intellectual approach to her Ph. D. thesis called "Gynocide" (about the genocide of women through History) from a feminist one to a misogynist one. However, that is the direct result of her progressive mental and emotional alienation, in which she convinces herself that female nature is evil, as also her own nature, which explains the final horrific events. Von Trier offered an interview to Rotten Tomatoes, quite interesting, light and frank, that you might want to check if you want to see the movie or if you've already watched it

On the other hand, the male character is patronising, intellectually patronising, and his approach to his wife's problem, despite the love he has for her, is too clinical and emotionally detached - aseptically empathic if you want. So is not misogynist either.
 
Critique given no. 2: "The viewer cannot relate to the characters and their circumstances". Of course not. The movie deals with maniac depression, even schizophrenia at times, grieving, pain, and alienation. They are not sane characters. You do not need to relate to them at all.

Critique given no. 3: "The film is depressing". That's for sure, but, again, is a film about grieving and sadness, and the viewer knew that before watching the movie.
 
Critique given no. 4: "I do not know the point of the film", or "What is the movie about?". I think that, if the film had been more entertaining, you would not be asking that question. That is the director's fault. Still, the film has many different readings and interpretations. Some of the surreal and oniric images have no explanation, or as many explanations as you want. That is so, because our subconscious world is never straightforward or easily explainable: A fox eating itself alive, a gazelle with a dead foetus coming out, the sex scene under the tree, the dreams of the female character, some elements of European folklore and wizardry to mention just a few eerie (horrific to me) images. The mix of visual and narrative elements is overwhelming, and very complex.

*** 

Antichrist is an excellent movie, confusing a times, not entertaining enough, not easy to watch at all, with good performances. It contains horrific impacting images and moments that will upset you, especially if you are not into horror films. The film is still fascinating, but you are not going to recommend it to anybody to pass the time or have a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Just a warning. If you are interested in watching explicit sex images, you better chose another movie, because you will be disappointed with the ones here, as the number of them is limited, of short length, and anti-erotic. Nothing that will turn you on - Guaranteed.