Elliot’s watching week of 5-2-21: Sound of Metal; Borgen

Elliot’s watching week of 5-2-21: Sound of Metal; Borgen

Darius Marder’s 2019 film, Sound of Metal, starring Riz Ahmed at Ruben in a career-making role, is a vivid and powerful look at the life of a young man, a drummer in a fiercely loud tock band, who is experiencing a rapid and sudden loss of hearing. He seeks some medical help, but he is in the nomadic life of a rock roadie, living in an airstream with his girlfriend (Olivia Cooke), the lead singer - they are in no position to get proper medical attention. As Ruben’s hearing deteriorates, his girlfriend brings him to a rural treatment center for those with deafness, a place run by a religious/charismatic director who’s guiding principal is that hearing loss is not something to be “fixed” but must be accepted and lived w/ to the fullest. R has trouble adjusting to the life in the clinic, with its strict regulations (his girlfriend can’t stay with him - putting of course a huge strain on their relationship). Aside from the intelligent drama and dialog, what’s particularly striking about this film is the way in which it allows us to experience and sense how the world is experienced by those w/ no hearing and, later, how the world sounds and feels to those w/ cochlear implants. There are some really powerful, beautiful, sometimes scary sequences, in particular toward the end when R tries to reunite with his girlfriend and to come to terms w/ his life without hearing. I think this film outshines the admirable but only loosely dramatic Nomadland and should have copped the best picture award. 

Season Three of the Danish series Borgen held our interest throughout the 10 episodes yet it did feel like a bit of a falling off from the drama, both political and familial, of the first two seasons. Two reasons: First, the central, driving element of the plot, which in this season entailed the career comeback of ousted prime minister Brigitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen), felt much less consequential and more diffuse than in previous seasons; in essence the PM  is struggling to set up a new political party that will can win just enough seats to be determining factor in a new government. Well, that entails endless discussions about the various parties and their strengths/weaknesses, really tough going for an American viewer and a diffusion of energy for all. Second, the personal stories of the two lead women - Nyborg and her top communications assistant Katrine (Birgitta Hjort Sorsensen) - both lead to relationships that somehow just don’t feel right: Nyborg w/ a slick British architect (leading to many scenes in English, and I don’t think Knudsen acts as well in these) and Katrine with a smoothie way too old for her and work colleague to boot, big mistake. The season is kept aloft, though, by the newsroom drama involving Torbe (Soren Malling) as he tries desperately to keep a bit of integrity in the newsroom as he’s pushed to chase ratings through gimmicks - and he also gets in a misguided relationship with one of his co-workers. So in short the bar was set high by the first two seasons and, though there’s still plenty of reason to watch this developing drama, the tension and energy seem to be drifting a bit; the door is obviously left open for passage onto a 4th season. 

Elliot’s Watching week of 4-18-21: Borgen

 Elliot’s Watching week of 4-18-21

Season 2 of the Danish series Borgen from Adam Price picks up right where Season 1 left off - and, to its credit, I can make the highly unusual observation that Season 2 is actually better than the debut (almost invariably the course of a miniseries is downward over time). This improvement is I think the result of two factors or trends. First, perhaps recognizing that there will be little interest in or tolerance over time for further elucidation (and at times confusion) about the many Danish parties and splinter groups that the Prim Minister Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen, a tour-de-force - she owns this role!) must hold together to form a government so instead the series examines the role a small country like Denmark can play or must play in world events that would seem far beyond its ken. So we get a few episodes about the PM’s efforts to broker a peace agreement between warring African nations (based obviously on the Sudan) and episodes on climate-change politics, pressure, and responsibilities. Anyone who’s worked in government will recognize the veracity of the portrayal of life inside a major government office, and most will recognize the role of the media - exaggerated here, but still on point - in political coverage. The second key element that advances this season is excellent integration of personal and family crises into the main plot - never feeling tacked on or gratuitous, but growing out of the lives of the characters and interwoven with the political/media responsibilities: a case of childhood abuse, several relationships on the rocks and worse, and the PM’s struggle to help her teenage daughter who is experiencing panic attacks - a struggle that, unfairly, calls into question Nyborg’s capacity to serve in high office. 

Elliot's Watching Week of 4/4/21: Borgen, Tavernier, Marx Brothers

 Some years back we watched w/great interest the first season of House of Cards and then, looking for another great series on political life, we went to the Danish series Borgen (which I’m almost sure translates as “The Castle,” which maybe is how Danes ID their parliament building?) and found it - at least based on the first episode - incredibly confusing and a lot of talk about small doings and deals, as the new aspirate for the (first Danish) Prime Minister negotiates with numerous splinter parties hard to keep straight to build a coalition for governance. Time has gone by and House of Cards over these years became increasingly absurd and improbable - couldn’t even watch the final season - and people continue to recommend Borgen, so we gave it another look and, yes, the first episode still was difficult to follow, but over the course of the 10 episodes of Season 1 (of 3) the series developed a credible and intriguing set of political (and personal) decisions most of them involving governance w/ the minuscule majority - but also decisions about media coverage - all of which seemed quite accurate to me, based on my 40+ years experience in media and governance - as well as various family tensions and pressures, which also - though I have no direct experience here thang God - seemed realistic. The series is highly engaging, thoughtful, and through-provoking w/out being condescending or over-the top. Yes, the Danish Parliament is not on the same scale of world events as the White House and U.S. Capitol - but in a way that makes it more fresh and fruitful sounds for new material and perspectives. Definitely looking forward to 2 more seasons. 

After nearly a century (!), the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup (1933) is still laugh-out-loud hilarious and a weirdly prescient, apocalyptic look at a world on the brink of war devolving into complete and utter chaos. It’s not a film meant as a social commentary, but the message is still there: The world is full of crackpots and weirdos who, once they get their hands on power and authority, are likely to destroy all that they touch. The story line:  the kingdom of Fredonia (what seems to be a small, Eastern European country) is nearly bankrupt and the great benefactor - played to the hilt by the great Margaret Dumont - will loan the treasury $20 million of her inheritance if they will appoint her choice - Groucho, playing Rufus T. Firefly - as the new leader. And off we go - as Groucho imposes his will and tangles w/ two “spies,” Chico and Harpo, hired by the opposition to get the dirt on Groucho. Great scenes and great quips - mostly put-downs - reign from beginning to end: Chico and Harpo’s utter destruction of a noisome peanut vendor, the spy report to the would-be usurper (I think we been following the wrong guy!), Groucho’s leering commons to the wealthy Dumont, and of course the famous “mirror” scene, plus many other moments before the world explodes. Is the film dated? Sure, in some ways: Groucho’s put-downs of women are at times uncomfortable, and too bad a remark about “darkies” can’t be edited out, and Chico’s Italian-American schtick is off-putting. But in the end, their targets are the stuffed shirts, the corrupt, the humorless, the bullies, and the self-regarding - and all those who get in their way (including at times themselves) and who richly deserve his ire and his barbs. Worth watching it for the “trial” alone (“What’s a big gray animal with a long trunk?”). Note also that the Criterion Channel has a 23-minute collection of home movies from Harpo’s family, narrated lovingly by his son. 

Bertrand Tavernier’s film The Clockmaker of St. Paul (1974) is a bit of a curiosity today - the plot itself, based on a novel by Georges Simenon (who wrote some 500!) seems pretty thin and illogical, particularly to American viewers whose understanding of the processes of the judicial system differ greatly from that of the French - but you have to give Tavernier his props from creating a cop film that’s just plain beautiful to watch, start to finish. The creaky plot - the eponymous clockmaker is shocked to learn that his only son is a suspect in a murder investigation, and even more shocked that his son is on the run and has rejected all of his efforts to help (he is bolstered in his struggle by one close friend and by a highly sympathetic police detective) - just never seems quite right and we can never quite comprehend his son’s motives or why he has become such a pariah, let alone why he, a sweet and temperate young man, would shoot another to death. But to his T’s credit, the plot does move along nicely and in the process we get an almost documentary look, a time capsule if you will, of a French city (Lyons) off the tourist radar, ca 1970 - a look at the buildings, the riverfront, the neighborhoods, the countryside, and various iconic spots in town, notably the minuscule airport and the ancient cathedral with its strange mechanical clock. So, even though I figuratively raised my eyebrows at a few points in the film - would people really behave this way? - at other points I felt drawn right into the city and its culture, especially the omnipresent French passion for great food - and not just for the super-rich. The animated friendly conversation among 6 or so buddies, including the clockmaker, at the outset of the film establishes the clockmaker and his venue quite well - it could almost be mistaken for a Pennebaker or Weistman documentary of its era. 4/10/21

The Danish House of Cards: Borgen

The Danish series Borgen (I think it means The Castle?), from abut 2010 (at least that's when it's set) is the Scandinavian House of Cards - not a direct remake, as the American HofC is of the British original, but a story about electoral and back-room politics in Congress, under the scrutiny of a highly aggressive media and with a subplot weaving through the main narrative about a TV journalist and her complex relationships with two "spin doctors" (the Danes use the American term). This particular series is about member of the moderate party, Birgette, who struggles to put together a coalition of minor parties to become the first female prime minister in Denmark. It's very different from American politics, even more about horse-trading than our two-party system, and it's a little hard to follow at least for most American viewers - a lot of talk (which means a lot of subtitles) and a lot of subtle distinctions. It's very good and probably quite true to life, but from the first three episodes it's a little bloodless as well - we certainly like Birgette and her family, and maybe that's the problem: She needs to be a little more unscrupulous and cold. And maybe that's what she learns over the course of the series. It all seems a little quaint and I'll be very jingoistic here - but, truly, it's hard for an American viewer to get all that caught up in a drama about the Danish parliament - the pressure is so high but the stakes seem so low.