Multiple Layers of Reality in Film, and in Us

Tags

art, Consciousness, creativity, Fanny and Alexander, Film, imagination, Ingmar Bergman, layers of reality, life, Movies, multiplicity, reality

In several of his films, Ingmar Bergman plays with the notion of multiple layers of reality. This can be seen as early as The Seventh Seal, and continues with Autumn Sonata, and Wild Strawberries, culminating in what was intended to be his final film, Franny and Alexander.

In some ways, Franny and Alexander is a tour de force. It speaks to us on so many levels. It can be seen, in part, as a family saga, a farce, a fairy tale, a theatrical play, a Gothic Romance, and a supernatural horror story. It is, in fact, all these things at once.

Yet each differing perspective can be seen as a different layer of reality, a different way of looking at the same material. Each appears as a separate backdrop against which the film can be seen, which, when lifted, offers a new view, a new level of perception, a new “reality.”

We can see this in the opening sequence. The first shot reveals a close-up of what appears to be an ornate building. As the camera moves down the building, we see a row of footlights and what now appears to be a stage. A series of painted backdrops are lifted to reveal new scenes. But it is only when the last backdrop is raised that we see a child’s face, huge, behind the scenes. This is when we realize that the stage is but a child’s theater and the row of footlights are candles. The camera seems to be inviting the viewer to see through these multiple layers of “reality,” perceptions of the real, to the final revelation, the child, or rather, the child’s imagination, as revealed through his dreamy gaze.

The film continues to pull back layer after layer of curtains to reveal the tenuous and shifting nature of reality.

In the final scene, the grandmother is reading from Strindburg’s “A Dream Play.” She reads: “Anything will occur. Anything is possible and likely. Time and space do not exist. On the tenuous ground of reality, imagination reaches out and weaves a new pattern.”

Reality is seen to be not singular, but as consisting of ever-deepening layers of reality, one on top of the other, in a richly dense and complex multiplicity.

I was reminded of this film when listening to one of Alan Watt’s talks that I wrote about in another post. And I wonder if the reason Bergman’s films resonate with so many people is that we sense a truth here. We see this perspective not only in film and art, about the mystery of things, these shifting perspectives and “layers of reality,” but we see it in science, how beneath these seemingly solid bodies lies unseen, shifting worlds that swirl and collide and contradict each other.

I question often what is real and not-real, and wonder if it’s more complex than that. Perhaps it’s not a case of what’s real or not, of one or the other, but shifting perceptions of what’s real, some dark, some light, that weave together a reality that is deeper and more complex than our superficial lives allow us to see.

POSTSCRIPT: In searching for photos for this post, I happened upon Roger Ebert’s review of the film, which also, surprisingly (or maybe not so), refers to the film as having “shifted into a different kind of reality.” I’ve added an excerpt of his review here:

“There are fairy-tale elements here, but “Fanny and Alexander” is above all the story of what Alexander understands is really happening. If magic is real, if ghosts can walk, so be it. Bergman has often allowed the supernatural into his films. In another sense, the events in “Fanny and Alexander” may be seen through the prism of the children’s memories, so that half-understood and half-forgotten events have been reconstructed into a new fable that explains their lives.

What’s certain is that Bergman somehow glides beyond the mere telling of his story into a kind of hypnotic series of events that have the clarity and fascination of dreams. Rarely have I felt so strongly during a movie that my mind had been shifted into a different kind of reality. The scenes at night in the Jacobi house are as intriguing and mysterious as any I have seen, quiet and dreamy, and then disturbing when the mad Ismael calmly and sweetly shows Alexander how everything will be resolved.”

What do you think? Have you seen any of Bergman’s films? Do you think there’s more to us, or reality, than what we experience in the everyday?

I first posted this, in slightly different form, in 2014.

A Sultry Simone Sunday

Tags

Before Sunrise, Ethan Hawke, Film, jazz, Julie Delpy, Love, love songs, Movies, music, Nina Simone, Romance, song

I first become aware of jazz singer Nina Simone when I watched the film Before Sunrise, with a young Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. They meet by chance on a train in Europe and spend the day together walking the streets of Vienna and carrying on an endless lively conversation before he has to catch a plane home to the U.S.. In the final scene, they are at her apartment waiting until it time for him to leave. He puts on a recording of Nina Simone. She entertains him by describing what the sultry singer is like at live concerts, imitating her sexy talk and sexy walk. We watch him watching her, becoming more and more certain, he’s not going to make that plane.

Since then I’ve become a fan of Simone as well, her voice having, as one music critic puts it, a “magnificent intensity” that “turns everything—even the most simple, mundane phrase or lyric—into a radiant, poetic message”.

Three favorites are below, as well as the film clip of that final scene I was telling you about. If you are a romantic, like me, it’s worth watching.

Otherwise, skip to Simone, and have a sultry Sunday.

In Bruges – “Like Being in a Fairy Tale”

Tags

architecture, Belgium, Bruges, culture, Europe, fairy tale, Film, History, In Bruges, photography, travel

In the brilliant dark comedy “In Bruges,” a mobster sends his two hitmen to Bruges to cool their heels after a job went horribly wrong. What the two men don’t know is that they were sent there so they could have a beautiful “fairy tale” experience before one partner was ordered to kill the other. Things don’t go quite as the boss had planned.

But he was right about one thing. The film’s brooding, atmospheric cinematography did create a fairy-tale, dream-like veil through which the city’s medieval history, fabulous architecture, graceful bridges, and misty canals are revealed.

In person, Bruges does not disappoint. It was one of my favorite stops on our European adventure and I’d love to see more of it someday. Three days was not enough. There are more cobblestone streets to explore, more art museums to visit, more boat rides down misty canals. More Belgian chocolate, beer, and waffles for that matter.

The city’s many canals, bridges, and swans are favorites, of course. Bruges is known as the Venice of the North, and since I wasn’t able to get to Venice this trip, it made this city even more special to me.

Then there was the history and the architecture! From the quaint little corners of the city . . .

. . . to the spacious and grand central plaza with its flags and cafes, shops and towers.

Bruges was full of comic surprises and delights . . .

from the sign above a restaurant “water closet” . . .

. . . to the intimate peek into a doctor’s office on display outside a ceramic shop . . .

. . . the comforting clip-clop of horses hoofs coming up behind you . . .

. . . or a great white whale rising out of the canal.

Then there was the chocolate, the waffles, and the beer . . .

I’m not much of a beer drinker but I did find a fruity blend that suited me quite well.

These were just a few of my favorite memories of this fairy-tale, dream-like city. For more, watch the film, it won’t disappoint.

The “Willing Suspension of Disbelief” in Fiction and Film

Tags

editing, fiction, Film, literature, Novel, Outlander, Reading, revision, TV series, writing

What draws a reader into a story and compels her to keep tuning pages? This interests me both as a reader and a writer with a novel ready to publish. It interests me because so many novels I start I never finish. I’m beginning to wonder if the fault lies more with me as a reader than with the writer.

As a writer I’m used to reading my own work with a critical distance and a skeptical eye, which are essential to the purpose of revision, but deadly to the act of reading for enjoyment.  What’s essential there is what Coleridge coined “a willing suspension of disbelief,” or “poetic faith.”

But if what we bring to the table, instead of poetic faith, is a skeptical and critical disposition, the novel may be doomed before it’s ever given a chance to work its magic on us.

Perhaps the reason so many novels I pick up fall short is because I’m reading through the wrong lens, with a critical eye towards revision, toward rewriting the page in my own image, rather than that willing suspension of disbelief, allowing the writer to draw me into the story in her own way.

A case in point: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

I had been looking for a steamy romance with a literary bent, having found nothing lately within either of those genres–romantic or literary–that held my interest.

Someone suggested I try the Outlander series. I was highly skeptical from the start. A time-travelling romance? It sounded far-fetched. But since I had nothing better to read and the book came with so many 5 star reviews and a huge fan-base, I decided to give it a try.

I was not impressed. The writing was fine, the characters okay, but the pacing was extremely slow. It wasn’t at all the book that I wanted to read and I kept thinking how to revise it to better hold my interest. But I kept reading because I wanted to get to the juicy parts, to see how the author and protagonist would handle the time gap, the sudden jolt 200 years back into the past. And I wanted to see who her love interest would  be.

Well, needless to say, I was disappointed again. Claire seemed barely phased by the fact she had been transported back 200 years. She saw it more as a logistical problem, how to get home, rather than “am I losing my mind, this can’t be happening” response I had imagined and felt would ring more true. Then when the first person she meets, a captain in the British army, tries to rape her, the whole thing seemed so implausible, I almost stopped reading right there.

But who would be her love interest? That question kept me going until I discovered it was this low-level member of a rebel band who had managed to get himself wounded, and was clearly several years her junior. If I had been writing the book I would have chosen the daring, hot-headed leader of the group, who while years older, seemed more exciting. Clearly this was not the book I was hoping to read and I set it aside.

But when the film series about the Outlander came out on TV, I decided to give it another try, and the film easily sucked me in. The music, the scenery, the costumes, the actors chosen to play each part, all were perfectly pitched to draw me in and sweep me away. The resistance I had initially for the series, and the critical distance I held it, melted away. The willing suspension of disbelief so needed for my viewing pleasure was in full force.

By the time the first season ended, I was so enthralled, I eagerly picked up the book again and began reading. This time I thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn’t understand why I hadn’t before.

I think we are more willing to suspend disbelief when viewing a movie than when reading a novel. The visual and auditory power of film-making does most of the work for us without the need to translate black letters on a white page into scenery or sounds. The musical score is an added bonus manipulating our emotions to match what the filmmaker wants us to feel, and when well-done it’s barely noticeable.

Much is required of both writer and filmmaker to make his or her creation “sing.” Both must learn their craft well and comply with the basic elements of story-telling, as I wrote about in my last post. But the filmmaker has more tools to entice the viewer into that willing suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy the film.

The writer has less to work with. So it’s essential for the reader, especially if the reader is a writer, to come to the work as a willing and eager partner. We must be willing to set aside our writerly prejudice to allow the story to work its magic on us.

Below are links to posts referenced here:

Sexy, Smart, Sweet, & Soulful

Speaking of Erotica . . .

Loss & Desire, and the Search for Something More in Life & Literature

 

 

Layers of Reality in Bergman’s “Franny and Alexander,” and in Us

Tags

Fanny and Alexander, Film, Ingmar Bergman, meaning of life, Philosophy, reality

In several of his films, Ingmar Bergman plays with the notion of multiple layers of reality.  This can be seen as early as The Seventh Seal, and continues with Autumn Sonata, and Wild Strawberries, culminating in what was intended to be his final film, Franny and Alexander.

In some ways, Franny and Alexander is a tour de force. It speaks to us on so many levels. It can be seen, in part, as a family saga, a farce, a fairy tale, a theatrical play, a Gothic Romance, and a supernatural horror story. It is, in fact, all these things at once.

Yet each differing perspective can be seen as a different level of reality, a different way of looking at the same material. Each appears as a separate backdrop against which the film can be seen, which, when lifted, offers a new view, a new level of perception, a new “reality.”

We can see this in the opening sequence. The first shot reveals a close-up of what appears to be an ornate building. As the camera moves down the building, we see a row of footlights and what now appears to be a stage. A series of painted backdrops are lifted to reveal new scenes. But it is only when the last backdrop is raised that we see a child’s face, huge, behind the scenes. This is when we realize that the stage is but a child’s theater and the row of footlights are candles. The camera seems to be inviting the viewer to see through these multiple layers of “reality,” perceptions of the real, to the final revelation, the child, or rather, the child’s imagination, as revealed through his dreamy gaze.

The film continues to pull back layer after layer of curtains to reveal the tenuous and shifting nature of reality.

In the final scene, the grandmother is reading from Strindburg’s “A Dream Play.” She reads: “Anything will occur. Anything is possible and likely. Time and space do not exist. On the tenuous ground of reality, imagination reaches out and weaves a new pattern.”

Reality is seen to be not singular, but as consisting of ever-deepening layers of reality, one on top of the other, in a richly dense and complex multiplicity.

I was reminded of this film when listening to Alan Watt’s talks that I posted last week here. And I wonder if the reason Bergman’s films resonate with so many people is that we sense a truth here. We see this perspective not only in film and art, about the mystery of things, these shifting perspectives and “layers of reality,” but we see it in science, how beneath these seemingly solid bodies lies unseen, shifting worlds that swirl and collide and contradict each other.

I question often what is real and not-real, and wonder if it’s more complex than that. Perhaps it’s not a case of what’s real or not, of one or the other, but shifting perceptions of what’s real, some dark, some light, that weave together a reality that is deeper and more complex than our superficial lives allow us to see.

I’m still piecing this together and will explore this further in another post.

In the meantime, what do you think? Have you seen the film? Does any of this make any sense?

POSTSCRIPT

In searching for some photos and links for this post, I happened upon Roger Ebert’s review of the film, which also, surprisingly (or maybe not so), refers to the film as having “shifted into a different kind of reality.” I’ve added an excerpt of his review here:

“There are fairy-tale elements here, but “Fanny and Alexander” is above all the story of what Alexander understands is really happening. If magic is real, if ghosts can walk, so be it. Bergman has often allowed the supernatural into his films. In another sense, the events in “Fanny and Alexander” may be seen through the prism of the children’s memories, so that half-understood and half-forgotten events have been reconstructed into a new fable that explains their lives.

What’s certain is that Bergman somehow glides beyond the mere telling of his story into a kind of hypnotic series of events that have the clarity and fascination of dreams. Rarely have I felt so strongly during a movie that my mind had been shifted into a different kind of reality. The scenes at night in the Jacobi house are as intriguing and mysterious as any I have seen, quiet and dreamy, and then disturbing when the mad Ismael calmly and sweetly shows Alexander how everything will be resolved.”

Popcorn, Anyone? My Top 100 Movies Challenge

Tags

100 Best Movies, Film, King Kong, Movies, Nathan Bransford, Nine, Pulp Fiction

Fellow blogger Nathan Bransford recently came up with a list of his favorite 100 movies, and challenged readers to do likewise.  I was intrigued by the idea and couldn’t help making a list just to see what I might come up with.

The list below isn’t necessarily what I consider the BEST movies (best produced, acted, directed, etc,) but they are the ones I remember ENJOYING the most. Ones I wouldn’t mind seeing more than once. Or twice.

I was surprised at what ended up on my list.  Some I never expected to see there weaseled their way in.  While others I fully expected to see were politely rejected.

The movies that did make the list seem to fall in three categories:  edgy, artsy, and feel good.  The best fit all three categories, like True Romance and Wings of Desire.

Even so, Pulp Fiction is top dog on my list, though I’m not sure why.

It’s certainly edgy enough, and some would say artsy, but feel good??

Not unless you see Butch sacrificing freedom for honor and coming back to save Marcellus from the perverts with a samurai sword as “feel good” (it kinda was). Or you see Vincent stabbing Mia in the heart with a needle to save her and then having the incredible good sense to stay loyal to his mobster boss and refrain from seducing his wife as “feel good” (it kinda was). Or you see Jules keeping Hunny Bunny from peeing her pants and getting her and Pumpkin–the young lover-robbers–out of the restaurant before they kill anyone as “feel good” (it really was, wasn’t it?).  And Jules transformation from hit man to the Good Shepherd?  Now wasn’t that something!

But Vincent getting popped on the pot was just too too sad, and the college kid getting his head accidentally blown off when the car goes over a bump–what a bloody bummer!

So you see my dilemma–how can you NOT put Pulp Fiction at the top of the list? Just talking about it makes me want to go twisting down the hall, all Mia-like, and pop it in the DVD player.

Then there’s the 81/2 and Nine rating dilemma.  Which goes higher on the list?  I mean, how can you top Fellini–that winged statue flying through the sky, that luscious scene on the beach, and the circus at the end, for goodness sake!  What’s not to love?

But then there’s Daniel Day Lewis in Nine!  I mean, come on–Daniel Day Lewis! And all those beautiful woman singing and dancing–Fergie on the beach belting it out for the boys, Penelope Cruz pole dancing and slithering down the stairs, and Kate Hudson all dolled up singing “It’s Italia” in this husky sex-kitten voice (who knew she could sing?).

And then there’s the amazing, marvelous Marion Cotillard stripping off her clothes while she flings her heart on the floor for that two-timing fool, begging him to “Take it all!”. (Don’t do it, honey, he’s not worth it!)  Talk about HOT, HOT, HOT!!! (Did I mention Sophia Loren? Nicole Kidman?)

And what to do about all those King Kongs?  Who knew I liked the big hairy lug so much?  But apparently I do, because all three versions of King Kong made my list.

So which gets top billing?  You’d think it would be THE CLASSIC Kong.   And while I do love Faye Wray, Naomi Watts climbed right over her (don’t let all that sweet vulnerability fool you). But even she couldn’t compete with the cheesier produced 1976 version starring bad boy Jeff Bridges and the sultry Jessica Lange–I mean, once again, HOT HOT HOT.

Then there’s the Before Sunrise and Before Sunset duo.  Who knew walking and talking could be so sexy and entertaining?  But how do I rate them?

Putting Sunrise first would seem to  make sense.  I mean, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were So Damn Cute in the first film, it just about broke your heart. While nine years later when Sunset was filmed, well, did you see those deep furrows on poor Ethan’s face, as Julie so indelicately pointed out? Shudder!

But, OMG, that sweet, funny song Julie sings at the end strumming her little guitar!  I knew poor Ethan was a goner right then and there. And so was I. Age before beauty, I say. Before Sunset gets top billing, no question.

Finally, what do I do with all those other classy foreign films I love so much– Ran, Rashomon, Ikiru, La Dulce Vita, La Strada, Fanny and Alexander, Wild strawberries–how do you rate those?

Well I didn’t.  I clumped them all together somewhere in the top third of the list. Just thinking about which one to put first made my head hurt.  Just throw them in there and get it over! I told myself. And so I did.

But what, you say? Where’s Casablanca?  Gone with the Wind?  All those Hitchcock classics?  Woody Allen, for Pete’s sake?

You can’t tell me Fight Club and Grease beat their films!  Well, sadly, they do.  I’m quite ashamed.  Really.

The truth is, I just never liked Gone with the Wind.  Rhett was all right, but that Scarlett was a bitch!  The whole movie was ruined for me by her whiney voice, pointy chin, meany-eyes, and temper-tantrums.  And Casablanca?  Did you see the ending?? Unbelievable! 

Now I know Hitchcock and Woody should be in there somewhere, but oddly, none of their films rose to the top of mind as being truly memorable.

Yes, there were certain scenes I’ll never forget–the plane chasing the guy in the cornfield, and all those birds!! (terrifying).  And then there’s Woody’s droll face and priceless banter and Diane Keaton, all cute and clueless and helpless looking.  I truly did enjoy them. Didn’t I?

So why are they all melting together in my mind?  Why does a surge of endorphins go dancing through my veins singing “fun fun fun” when I remember Independence Day, for pity’s sake, while the same endorphins just look at each other and shrug when I mention North by Northwest or Annie Hall.

It’s not my fault.  I myself would gladly choose to like the others more, but, alas, it appears I don’t.

So there you have it, my 100 favorite movies, the first third or so in semi-order of preference, with the second third more loosely assessed, and the bottom third, well they just didn’t get as much attention.

I’m sure other movies that didn’t get on the list will be clambering for my attention, and telling me off for leaving them out.  And no doubt, I may have been too hasty in putting this together. By next year, I may have a brand new list. I have no 2012 movies listed here, for instance.  But for now, I’m done. Whew!

What were your favorite all-time movies?  Which would you add to or leave out of my list?

Maybe now I’ll pull together my 100 favorite all-time books!  That should be fun–if it doesn’t make my head spin too much (ah, The Exorcist)!

My Favorite 100 Movies

1. Pulp Fiction
2. True Romance
3. Wings of Desire (original)
4. American Beauty
5. Lord of the Rings
6. The Two Towers
7. Return of the King
8. Nine
9. 8 ½
10. The Gladiator
11. Fargo
12. Before Sunset
13. Before Sunrise
14. The Godfather I
15. The Godfather II
16. Selma and Louise
17. LA Confidential
18. King Kong (1976)
19. King Kong (2005)
20. King Kong (1933)
21. Fight Club
22. Se7en
23. Mystic River
24. An Officer and a Gentleman
25. Boys Don’t Cry
26. In Bruges
27. Crash
28. Ran
29. Rashomon
30. Ikiru
31. Fanny and Alexander
32. Wild Strawberries
33. La Dolce Vita
34. La Strada
35. Love, Actually
36. Silence of the Lambs
37. Training Day
38. The Usual Suspects
39. The Graduate
40. The Big Chill
41. District 9
42. Donnie Darko
43. Dangerous Liaisons
44. Tootsie
45. Mullholland Drive
46. Rebel Without a Cause
47. Wizard of Oz
48. The Big Easy
49. Body Heat
50. A History of Violence
51. A Beautiful Mind
52. Good Will Hunting
53. Risky Business
54. Philadelphia
55. The Crying Game
56. Tree of Life
57. A River Runs Through It
58. Wall Street
59. The Interpreter
60. Dead Man Walking
61. Eastern Promises
62. Star Wars
63. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
64. Seven Samurai
65. The Dark Knight
66. Legend of the Fall
67. Sideways
68. Urban Cowboy
69. Primary Colors
70. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
71. Amadeus
72. The Exorcist
73. The African Queen
74. Dog Day Afternoon
75. Chinatown
76. Serpico
77. Independence day
78. Born on the Fourth of July
79. Top Gun
80. A Few Good Men
81. To Die For
82. When Sally Met Harry
83. Sleepless in Seattle
84. Grease
85. Easy Rider
86. Pretty Women
87. To Kill a Mocking Bird
88. Winters Bone
89. Reservoir Dogs
90. American History X
91. Braveheart
92. Pride and Prejudice (1996)
93. Forrest Gump
94. Bridget’s Jones Diary
95. The Bone Collector
96. Groundhog Day
97. Some Like It Hot
98. Trading Places
99. The Mexican
100. As Good as it Gets