Somewhere (Directed by Sofia Coppola)/2010
Arthur Schopenhauer said that the essence of a human being is a consciousness separate from the rest of existence, and because of this separation, suffering and boredom are inherent to human existence. We are either in a state of psychological of physical suffering, or if we manage to work our way out of suffering, we become bored.
Schopenhauer, taking the Buddhist cue, thought that the only way to escape these two negative states was to detach oneself from the fundamental desire to dominate others and our inexhaustible hunger to accumulate things; we need to let go of the inherent grasping of being a living organism.
Sofia Coppola’s movie Somewhere is at home with Schopenhauer’s pessimism. It follows the life of a superstar, Johnny Marco. Johnny is very rich and successful and has an endless supply of new sexual partners and luxurious hotel rooms, but he is completely bored with life. Because he has it all, there is nothing in life that can excite him; he has the occasional thrill of a new sexual partner or luxurious hotel suite. However, these things still come with a certain level of suffering, as the partners do not appreciate being disposed of after one-use and each luxurious hotel room eventually becomes like all others.
Johnny has a daughter who he seems genuinely affectionate towards. He seems happiest when with his daughter. Yet, in his state of confusion, he fails to see this, and does not get any meaning or satisfaction from being a parent. Coppola is either pointing to the fact that being a parent also fails to provide meaning in life, or Johnny is simply blind to what could provide him meaning.
Stylistically, Somewhere is mostly ultra-realism. Coppola focuses on the day-to-day realities of being a superstar; she does this with such an eye for detail that one can sense an autobiographical aspect to this film. One of the unique aspects of Somewhere is that it shifts between ultra-realism and symbolism.
It made me wonder: if she wanted to display the mundane realities of daily-celebrity life, then why not just film a celebrity going about their daily life? In response to this, I would say that, as is the case with quantum physics, as soon as someone knows they are being watched on camera, they cannot possibly act in the manner that they would if no camera was following them. The best we can therefore do is either create non-fiction that captures our view of how people actually act, or film people doing what they would do as if there was no camera watching them (something that can only work as a proxy due to them knowing they are being watched). And because pure realism is ultimately unattainable, I cannot see anything wrong with shifting between ultra-realism and symbolism, though it may confuse some viewers.
True Romance (Directed by Tony Scott)/1993
True Romance is my favourite Quentin Tarantino film, which is interesting as he is not the director (Pulp Fiction is my second). He wrote the movie script but it was directed by Tony Scott. I am not anything close to a Tony Scott fan, but for some reason this collaboration managed to produce a unique, dreamy and ultimately classic film. While having some of the signature Tarantino violence, it is not as ubiquitous as his other films and the movie as a whole has a more thoughtful, caring feel to it.
This film is stacked with stars that were about to break into the limelight and others who had been around for a while. It stars Christian Slater (Clarence) and Patricia Arquette (Alabama). They fall intensely in love after meeting during a late night showing of triple feature martial arts films. We discover that Alabama had been a call girl for 4 days, which leads to Clarence killing her pimp and them ending up with a large supply of someone else’s drugs and on the run; a classic tale of lovers on flight.
The supporting cast features Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, and James Gandolfini. Walken only appears for about ten minutes, but it is the best 10 minutes of his career. He plays a Sicilian Mafia boss in what is one of my favorite scenes of all time. He interrogates Clarence’s father Clifford (played by Dennis Hopper). Walken is a sharply dressed, tanned, intelligent and softly spoken psychopath. Clifford sees the writing on the walk and decides to go out with a bang by telling them a story that would be most offensive in a long lasting and durable way. Words cannot do justice to the brilliance of this scene – just watch it!
This film is mostly described as a dark romantic-comedy. On reflection, I think this movie (and most of Tarantino’s other films) could be best described with the literary term ‘magical realism’. It displays some aspects of human life, but exaggerates them and creates a world that is more intense and colorful than our own. Even while violence and killing is going on, perfect dialogues take place: too perfect to ever take place in reality. Tarantino creates fantasy worlds, and while his worlds can often be excessively violent and sinister, the world of True Romance is lighter and more beautiful than his others.
The greatest irony and the comedy in the film is the despite the uniqueness and the intensity of the events that went on Alabama maintains a zen "That's the way it goes" attitude; that ultimately human will has nothing to do with determining one's fate and whatever happens was always going to happen. Yet at the same time the beauty of True Romance is that despite the futility, human beings fight for what they value the most: love.
Arthur Schopenhauer said that the essence of a human being is a consciousness separate from the rest of existence, and because of this separation, suffering and boredom are inherent to human existence. We are either in a state of psychological of physical suffering, or if we manage to work our way out of suffering, we become bored.