In all of these films there is some kind of therapy going on. Mostly love stories, some comedies, mostly bad therapy, some good. In most of the movies where the therapist is female, she falls in love with her male patient...or, as we call it, countertransference love. When the therapist is male, he usually cures her. See Spellbound clip below where psychiatrist Ingrid Bergman falls in love with patient/colleague Gregory Peck.
According to Wikipedia, "A dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element. Many writers and critics look down on dream sequences as a cheap way to explain a character's motives without actually integrating them into the plot, especially when it is used as an ending, wherein the main character wakes up and realizes that everything that had happened was all a dream. This is usually considered an anticlimactic and ineffective way to wrap up a story or to explain previous improbable situations. More commonly though, dream sequences appear in many films to shed light on the psychical process of the dreaming character. For instance in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, the purpose of Pee Wee's dreams is to inform the audience of his anxiety and fear from losing his bike."
Mulholland Drive is at the top of my list. Most of the movie is a dream in which Betty, played by the extremely talented Naomi Watts, betrayed by her lover Rita in real life, imagines herself as Diane, a Hollywood ingenue/heroine rescuing the beautiful Camilla (Rita in real life). Her real life motives are more revenge oriented. The movie is full of idealization, mystery, plot turnarounds, and crazy, surreal David Lynch scenes. If you like an interactive movie full of symbolism and the subconscious mind, and a surprising lesbian love story (although, like the pulp fiction of the 50's, ultimately tragic) this gets my highest recommendation.
I loved the Oscars! I was hoping for Sean Penn (quoted above) for Best Actor, as you know, Slumdog Millionaire for Best Picture and Penelope Cruz for Best Supporting Actress. I was torn between Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet for Best Actress, and held out for Meryl, all the time knowing it would be Kate. If you want to see Hugh Jackman and Beyonce Knowles putting on their tophats again: YouTube - Beyonce Knowles performs with Hugh Jackman at OSCARS 2009. It was the best Oscars show: I loved the Oscar winners introducing and honoring the nominees...this way everyone goes home with something special.
Dustin Lance Black won for original screenplay for Milk...and some of the writing was good, but alot of it wasn't: his mythic-hero focus on Harvey prevented him from being able to tell the story of all the women in the movement...and his portrayal of Harvey's lover Jack is just downright racist and unforgiveable! His acceptance speech was almost better than the screenplay, referring to his 13-year-old self living in Mormon country, and making a plea for gay rights and same-sex marriage. Turns out he put himself in the movie: he was that 13-year-old kid who called Harvey, asking for help about being an isolated, lonely gay boy in the middle of nowhere.
Sean Penn's acceptance speech stayed exclusively on the civil rights theme, as did his press conferences, which I admire.
Even if the film "Milk" didn't live up to all my expectations, the speeches at the Oscars put the issue on the world screen, which may be even better.
If you haven't seen the film, Frozen River I strongly recommend it. It stars Melissa Leo, who won both the Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress for it, as a poor mother living in upstate New York near the Mohawk reservation. Through her financial desperation she encounters Lila, a native woman also in desperate straits, and together they smuggle illegal immigrants across the 'nonexistant' Canadian border, driving over a frozen river. These illegal and immoral issues are juxtapposed with the supremely moral acts that they do for each other. This movie is so emotional in its presentation, but always keeps the issues of poverty, racism and sexism in the forefront. See it.
I absolutely loved Sean Penn's portrayal of Harvey Milk. His range of acting is incredible...from Dead Man Walking to I Am Sam and Mystic River...to Harvey. He is my choice for Best Actor of 2008. The film was powerful in all the ways that have already been documented and that you can imagine, but I cannot give it my best recommendation. The gay rights movement in San Francisco in the 1970's was my own coming-of-age story. So to see these times portrayed as a male-only movement was disappointing. The film does pay special attention to Harvey hiring 22-year-old Anne Kronenberg as his campaign manager, and here is her famous line from the film:
"My girlfriends say you guys don't like women. Just asking, is there a place for us in all of this, or are you scared of girls?" She is the only woman in the film, and aside from her wearing a leather jacket, it's hard to tell that she is a lesbian. You never see her on the screen with another woman. You never see women in any of the street demonstrations, or marches...nor do we appear in the 'phone tree' scene...and believe me, I was there, as were all my gal pals...out in front, in the middle and holding up the rear. I know this is a drama, but it is hard to not see it as a documentary. If you want to see that, go to: Hulu - The Times Of Harvey Milk - Watch the full feature film now.
The question that this amazing film asks is, What if someone you love turns out to be a monster? Kate Winslet is stunning (at times beyond acting) as Hanna Schmitz, who you find out half way through the film was a Nazi guard at a concentration camp. You see this unfold though Michael's eyes, who, as a 15 year-old, had an affair with her. He is now in law school, attending a trial for war crimes, and he discovers her past in the courtroom. He is heartbroken, and at one point thinks he should help her when she admits to writing the directions for the crimes she is guilty of...but he knows she is illiterate; he lets it go, and does not try to help her. The older Michael, played by Ralph Fiennes, records books on tape to send to Hanna in prison and wrestles with his conscience as a second-generation German trying to cope with his complicit guilt. At the end of the film Fiennes and the incredible Lena Olin have a scene that cuts to the core of his survivor guilt, the other big theme of the movie.
This film was directed by Stephen Daldry and playwright David Hare, collaborators on The Hours, one of my all time favorite films.
This film is extraordinary and you must see it. The intense drama is like nothing I have seen in a film before...but that could be because it was adapted from a play. The theme of the movie is AMBIGUITY, and that can be so unsatisfying in a film! The depth and complexity of the conversation, which turns into a moral war, between Meryl Streep as the head nun and principal of the Catholic school in 196os New York City, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the head priest is stunning...it will keep you riveted to your chair. Two of my favorite actors playing very un-sexy roles, and doing it beautifully. The film conveys a 21st century critique of the gender roles of this mid-century battle, which I thoroughly appreciated.
Here's Manohla Dargis, film critic from the New York Times: "Despite its theological asides and weighty moral stakes, “Doubt” essentially boils down to a shell game: you think you see the pea under this or that shell, but the prize (answer) remains tauntingly out of reach. So does Father Flynn, a character who for a long stretch appears above reproach: a good, caring, forward-thinking man whose only crime seems to be tolerance. When he suggests that the school add a secular song to its Christmas lineup as a way of reaching out to the community, Sister Aloysius reacts as if he had suggested human sacrifice instead. That he seems to embody the spirit of reform handed down by Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965, makes him all the more sympathetic." By the time Meryl is done with him, you're not so sure he is a sympathetic character any longer...especially with all the bad-priest news that we have been inundated with for the past 5 years.
Viola Davis and Amy Adams are spectacular as supporting actors. This would be my choice for Best Picture of the Year.
I was completely taken in by Slumdog. I love modern Indian literature, and just finished reading The White Tiger, which is also set in impoverished, urban, modern India. In this movie, Jamal, a poor, illiterate slum kid from Mumbai goes on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and...turns out, he knows all the answers! The trick of the film is that each question throws Jamal into a flashback of traumas in his life, in a magical realism kind of way, so he can't help but know the right answer, as it all happened to him. It's filled with darkness and light, brutality and romance, a fantasy of getting rich fueled by poverty.It's captivating, and moving, and it has a happy ending! I highly recommend it.
Just in case there aren't enough good gay-themed movies out there right now, you might consider putting together your own queer film festival. Here is my list, made on this rainy day:
Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, Charlize Theron in Monster, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, Felicity Huffman in Transamerica, Cher in Silkwood, Ed Harris in The Hours, Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls, Kathy Bates in Primary Colors, William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider-Woman, Robert Preston in Victor/Victoria, Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game, Peter Finch in Sunday, Bloody Sunday, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, Ian McKellen in Gods and Monsters
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