philosophy in film

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61

BARTON FINK
Written and directed by the Coen Bros.

[b]Barton: Have you read the Bible, Pete?
Pete: Holy Bible?
Barton: Yeah.
Pete: Yeah, I think so. Anyway, I’ve heard about it.

…

Jack: The important thing is we all want it to have that Barton Fink feeling. We all have that feeling, but since you’re Barton Fink, I’m assuming you have it in spades.

…

Mastrionotti: Fink. That’s a Jewish name, isn’t it?
Barton: Yeah.
Mastrionotti: Yeah, I didn’t think this dump was restricted.

…

Geisler: Look, you confused? You need guidance? Talk to another writer.
Barton: Who?
Geisler: Jesus, throw a rock in here, you’ll hit one. And do me a favor, Fink: throw it hard.

…

Geisler: Mayhew, some help, the guy’s a souse!
Barton: He’s a great writer…
Geisler: A great souse!
Barton: You don’t understand…
Geisler: Souse!
Barton: He’s in pain, because he can’t write…
Geisler: Souse! Souse! Can’t write? He manages to write his name on the back of his paycheck every week!

…

Garland [to Barton, while trying to get Barton to go to Hollywood]: The common man will still be here when you get back. Who knows, there may even be one or two of them in Hollywood.
Barton: That’s a rationalization, Garland.
Garland: Barton, it’s a joke.

…

Charlie: I pulled off early today. Took your advice, went to a doctor about this ear. He says ‘You have an ear infection, ten dollars please’. So I says ‘I told you I had an ear infection, you give me ten dollars!’ Well that started an argument.

…

Barton: I gotta tell you, the life of the mind… There’s no roadmap for that territory… And exploring it can be painful. I have pain most people don’t know anything about.

…

Charlie: I could tell you some stories…
Barton: Sure you could and yet many writers do everything in their power to insulate themselves from the common man, from where they live, from where they trade, from where they fight and love and converse and…
Barton: So naturally their work suffers and regresses into empty formalism and… well I’m spouting off again, but to put it in your language, the theatre becomes as phony as a three-dollar bill!
Charlie: Well I guess that’s a tragedy right there!

…

Barton: I’ve always found that writing comes from a great inner pain. Maybe it’s a pain that comes from a realization that one must do something for one’s fellow man to help somehow ease the suffering. Maybe it’s personal pain. At any rate, I don’t believe good work is possible without it.
Bill: Hmm. Well, me, I just enjoy making things up. Yessah escape. Its when I can’t write I can’t escape myself, I want to rip my head off and run screaming down the street with my balls in a fruit pickers pail.

…

Barton: Look, uh, maybe it’s none of my business but don’t you think a man of your talent…that your first obligation is to your gift? Shouldn’t you be doing whatever you have to to work again?
Bill: What would that be, son?
Barton: I don’t know exactly, but I do know what you are doing with that drink is cutting yourself off from your gift and from Audrey and your fellow man and everything your art is about.
Bill: Oh, no, son, I’m building a levee—gulp by gulp, brick by brick, putting up a levee to keep that raging river of manure from lapping at my door.

…

Bill: Breech my levee at your peril!![/b]

62

Elephant in the post office, elephant in the school, elephant in the theater.

ELEPHANT
Written and directed by Gus Van Sant

[b]Girl in Cafeteria: What are you writing?
Alex: Uh, this? It’s my plan.
Girl in Cafeteria: For what?
Alex: Oh, you’ll see.

…

Alex: [after Eric gets into the shower with him] Well this is it. We’re gonna die today. I’ve never even kissed anyone before, have you?

…

Nathan: You’re fuckin’ sick. Don’t do this.
Alex: Eeny, meeny, miney, moe.

…

[We follow Benny down the hallway and watch as he comes upon Eric berating and standing over Mr. Luce]
Eric: Yeah, you did, and I should shoot you right now for it, you know I should. But I think I just might let you live, maybe, because I want you to know this… and the next kids that come up to you with their problems… that they’re being picked on, you should listen to them… no matter what twisted shit they say.
Eric: [Turns and shoots Benny through the heart] Fuck! Anyway, Mr. Luce, whatever. You know there are others like us out there, too. And they will kill you if you fuck with them like you did me and Jared. Get out of here, before I change my mind. Go!
Eric: [Mr. Luce gets up and runs for his life. Eric changes his mind and shoots him down] Bitch!

…

Alex: So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

…

Alex: At that time, there should be kids flushing out in all directions and well be able to pick them off one by one. Then, after that, you’ll hit your yellow line here, which is your plan B. You’ll go up through Mr. Luce’s office and take care of all that. While I go, on the red line, up through this hallway where we’ll have the best targets, dumb-ass jocks and shit. We’ll have a fucking field day down there. I mean, come on. You’ve got your tec-9 and your rifle and I’ve got my shotgun and my .223 on my back. And I got a couple of pistols and a knife. We have enough explosives to last us almost a day. Most importantly, have fun, man.[/b]

63

Of course: You’re dreaming that I’m dreaming that you’re dreaming this entire thing.

Admittedly, dispite the rather fascinating philosophical exploration into what is and is not “real” in or out of our dreams, I thought the plot of this film was rather, well, preposterous. Right up there with, “Beam me up, Scotty”.

INCEPTION:
Directed by Christopher Nolan.

[b]Professor: Mr. Cobb has a job offer he would like to discuss with you.
Ariadne: Like a work placement?
Cobb: Not exactly.

…

Cobb: You create the world of the dream, you bring the subject into that dream, and they fill it with their subconscious.
Ariadne: How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that its reality?
Cobb: Well dreams, they feel real while we’re in them, right? It’s only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what’s going on.
Ariadne: I guess, yeah.
Cobb: So how did we end up here?
Ariadne: Well we just came from the a…
Cobb: Think about it Ariadne, how did you get here?

…

Ariadne: What’s happening?
Arthur: Your subconscious is looking for the dreamer; me. Quick, give me a kiss.
Ariadne: [She kisses him and then looks around]
Ariadne: They’re still looking at us.
Arthur: Yeah, it was worth a shot.

…

Mal: You keep telling yourself what you know. But what do you believe? What do you feel?

…

Cobb: I can’t stay with her anymore because she doesn’t exist.
Mal: I’m the only thing you do believe in anymore.
Cobb: I wish. I wish more than anything. But I can’t imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You’re the best I can do; but I’m sorry, you are just not good enough.

…

Saito: If you can steal an idea, why can’t you plant one there instead?
Arthur: Okay, this is me, planting an idea in your mind. I say: don’t think about elephants. What are you thinking about?
Saito: Elephants?
Arthur: Right, but it’s not your idea. The dreamer can always remember the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake.
Cobb: No, it’s not

…

Cobb: I need to get home. That’s all I care about right now.
Ariadne: Why can’t you go home?
Cobb: Because they think I killed her.
Ariadne: [silence]
Cobb: Thank you.
Ariadne: For what?
Cobb: For not asking whether I did.

…

Eames: They come here every day to sleep?
Elderly Bald Man: [towards Cobb] No. They come to be woken up. The dream has become their reality. Who are you to say otherwise, son?

…

Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere.

…

Ariadne: I guess I thought the dream-space would be all about the visual, but it’s more about the feeling. My question is what happens when you start messing with the physics of it.

…

Cobb: They say we only use a fraction of our brain’s true potential. Now that’s when we’re awake. When we’re asleep, we can do almost anything.

…

Cobb: I’m going to improvise. Listen, there’s something you should know about me… about inception. An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.
Mal: The smallest idea, such as: “Your world is not real”. Simple little thought changes everything. So certain of your world. Of what’s real. Do you think he is? Or do you think he’s as lost as I was?

…

Cobb: In a dream…we create and perceive our world simultaneously. And our mind does this so well that we don’t even know it’s happening[/b]

64

Remind me never to go to Fargo. Or Brainard.

FARGO
Written and directed by the Coen Bros.

“Yer darn tootin’”

[b]Jerry: Well, he’s never done this before. But seeing as it’s special circumstances and all, he says I can knock a hundred dollars off that Trucoat.
Irate Customer: [stunned that Jerry still intends to charge him for something he didn’t order] One hundred… You lied to me, Mr. Lundegaard. You’re a bald-faced liar. A… fucking liar.
[pause]
Irate Customer: [to his wife, frustrated] Where’s my goddamn checkbook? Let’s get this over with.

…

Airport Lot Attendant: There’s a minimum charge of four dollars; long-term parking charges by the day.
Carl: I guess you think you’re… you know, like an authority figure, with that stupid fuckin’ uniform, huh buddy? King clip-on-tie there, big fuckin’ man, huh? You know these are the limits of your life, man. The rule of your little fuckin’ gate here. Here’s your four dollars, you pathetic piece of shit.

…

Gaear: I need unguent.
Carl: What?
Gaear: Unguent.

…

Marge: I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work, there, Lou.

…

Marge: Say, Lou, didya hear the one about the guy who couldn’t afford personalized plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404?
Lou: Yah, that’s a good one.

…

Carl: Who the fuck are you?
[Wade doesn’t answer]
Carl: WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!!
Wade: I got your damn money; now where’s my daughter?
Carl: I am through fuckin’ around here. Drop that fuckin’ briefcase!
Wade: Where’s my daughter?
Carl: Fuck you, man! Where’s Jerry? I gave simple fuckin’ instructions.
Wade: Where’s my damn daughter? No Jean, no money!
Carl: Drop that fuckin’ money!
Wade: No Jean, no money!
Carl: Is this a fuckin’ joke here?
[shoots Wade]
Wade: [as he sinks to his knees and falls back] Aww, Jeez.
Carl: Happy now, asshole? What’s with you people? Ya fuckin’ imbeciles!

…

Carl: [on date with hooker] So, how long you been with the escort service?
Escort: I don’t know, a few months.
Carl: Find that work interesting, do ya?
Escort: What’re you talkin’ about?

…

Hooker No. 1: Well, the little guy was kinda funny-lookin’.
Marge: In what way?
Hooker No. 1: I dunno… just funny-lookin’.
Marge: Can you be any more specific?
Hooker No. 1: I couldn’t really say… He wasn’t circumcised.
Marge: Was he funny lookin’ apart from that?
Hooker No. 1: Yah…
Marge: So, you were havin’ sex with the little fellow, then.
Hooker No. 1: Uh huh…
Marge: Is there anything else you can tell me about him?
Hooker No. 1: Like I said he was funny lookin’. More than most people even.
Marge: What about the other fella?
Hooker No. 2: He was older. You know, he looked like the Marlboro man…The reason I’m saying that is he smoked alot of Marlboros. You know like a subconscious kind of thing.

…

Norm: They announced it.
Marge: They announced it?
Norm: Yeah.
Marge: So?
Norm: Three-cent stamp.
Marge: Your mallard?
Norm: Yeah.
Marge: Oh, that’s terrific.
Norm: It’s just a three-cent stamp.
Marge: It’s terrific.
Norm: Hautman’s blue-winged teal got the 29-cent. People don’t much use the three-cent.
Marge: Oh, for Pete’s sake. Of course they do. Whenever they raise the postage, people need the little stamps.

…

Carl: Would it… kill you to say something? “No.” That’s the first thing you’ve said in the last four hours. That’s a… that’s fountain of conversation, man. That’s a geyser. I mean, whoa daddy! Stand back, man. Shit. I’m sitting here driving. Doing all the driving, man. The whole fucking way from Brainard driving. Just trying to… chat, you know. Keep our spirits up, fight the boredom of the road, and you can’t say one fucking thing just in the way of conversation. Oh fuck it. I don’t have to talk to you either, man. See how you like it. Just total fucking silence. Two can play at that game, smart guy. We’ll just see how you like it. Total silence.

…

Carl: [entering cabin, with shot-up face] You should see the other guy. [he sees Jean Lundegaard’s dead body] What the fuck happened to her?
Gaear: [watching TV and eating TV dinner] Uh, she started shrieking, y’know. She wouldn’t stop…
Carl: Geesus. Well, it doesn’t matter. I got the money. All of it. All eighty grand [he puts a couple stacks of bills down on table] That’s forty for you, forty for me.
[Gaear pokes at the stacks of bills with his fork]
Carl: That’s it, then. You can have my truck,I’m takin’ the Ciera.
Gaear: We split that.
Carl: [pause] How the fuck do you split a fuckin’ car, ya dummy? With a fuckin’ chainsaw?
Gaear: One of us pays the other for half.
Carl: Hold on! No fuckin’ way! You fuckin’ notice this? I got fuckin’ shot! I got fuckin’ shot in the face! I went and got the fuckin’ money. I got shot fuckin’ picking it up! I’ve been up for thirty-six fuckin’ hours! I’m taking’ that fuckin’ car! That fucker’s mine, you fuckin’ asshole!
[as usual, no response from Gaear]
Carl: You know, I’ve been listening to your fuckin’ bullshit all week! Are we square?
[no response from Grimsrud who continues staring at the TV]
Carl: [flashing his gun] ARE WE SQUARE?!!
[no response]
Carl: Yeah, ya fuckin’ mute. And if you see your friend Shep Proudfoot, tell him I’m gonna nail his fuckin’ ass!
[he exits angrily toward the Ciera; after a few moments, Grimsrud follows him out the door with an axe in hand]
Carl: [Showalter turns and sees Gaear striding toward him, axe raised] Oh no! Aaaaaah!
[Grimsrud brings the axe down toward Carl’s neck][/b]

65

The mystery of madness. And not just in Hollywood. This film, after all, is based in part on the actual murders committed by John List.

THE STEPFATHER [1987]
Directed by Joseph Ruben

[b]Jerry: Wait a minute, who am I here?
Sue: Jerry?
Jerry: That’s right. Jerry Blake. Thanks, honey

…

Jerry [tensely]: This kind of thing really gets to me, you know. That a man can be driven to do something like that to his own family, to his children. I don’t even want to know about it.
Neighbor: It makes you wonder though. What’s it take to make a guy turn his family into gainsburgers?
Jerry: Maybe they disappointed him.

…

Stephanie: It’s like living with Ward Cleaver.

…

Dr. Bondurant: Sounds like you had a strict upbringing.
Jerry: You might say that[/b]

66

In a pop culture world, royalty and the ruling class duke it out over hearts and minds.

THE QUEEN
Directed by Stephen Frears

[b]Alastair Campbell: You going to speak to the Queen?
Tony Blair: Yep.
Alastair Campbell: Ask her if SHE greased the brakes.
Tony Blair: Now, now.

…

Prince Philip: Sleeping in the streets and pulling out their hair for someone they never knew. And they think we’re mad!

…

Tony Blair: Will someone please save these people from themselves!

…

Robin Janvrin: The Prime Minister is on his way, ma’am.
HM Queen Elizabeth II: To be, Robin, Prime Minister to be. I haven’t asked him yet.

…

Cherie Blair: [impersonating the Queen] Thank you so much for coming, now fuck off!

…

Prince Philip: [discussing the guest list for Diana’s funeral] A chorus line of soap stars and homosexuals…Elton John wishes to sing at the funeral. Should be a first for Westminster Abbey.

…

HM Queen Elizabeth II: Do you think it wise for the boys to go stalking so soon?
HM The Queen Mother: Anything that gets them into the fresh air is a good thing.
HM Queen Elizabeth II: Well maybe they shouldn’t take their guns, I mean if a photographer were to see them it might send out the wrong signal.
HM The Queen Mother: If there is a photographer out there, he could be the first kill of the day

…

Prince Charles: Did we remember the Royal Standard?
Aide: Yes sir.
Prince Charles: And flowers?
Aide: Yes, sir.
Prince Charles: Good, because if we leave it to the royal undertakers, they’ll bring her back in a wooden ctate.

…

HM Queen Elizabeth II: Nowadays people want glamor and tears, the grand performance. I’ve never been good at that.[/b]

67

Incredibly [or not so incredibly] this film is based on actual events.

CITY OF GOD
Directed by Fernando Meirelles

[b]Rocket [Buscape as a boy]: A picture that could change my life, but in the City of God, if you run away they get you, and if you stay they get you too. It’s been that way ever since I was a kid.

…

Knockout Ned: Have you lost your mind? You are just a kid!
Steak and Fries: A kid? I smoke, I snort. I’ve killed and robbed. I’m a Man!!

…

Buscape: That was my first run-in with the Runts.[/b]

Li’l Ze with the Runts:

[b]Li’l Zé: Where do you want to take the shot? In the hand or in the foot. [To Steak: Go on, choose one and shoot. Kill one of them. I wanna see what you’re made of.

[Steak shoots one of the kids dead] Li’l Ze: Well done! You did it. You’re one of us.

…

Buscapé: What should have been swift revenge turned into an all out war. The City of God was divided. You couldn’t go from one section the other, not even to visit a relative. The cops considered anyone living in the slum a hoodlum. People got used to living in Vietnam. And more and more volunteers signed up to die

…

Cabeleira: Hey, Bernice. Listen, I’ve got something real important to say. Tell me, you ever heard of love at first sight?
Berenice: Sure, but hoods don’t fall in love, they just get horny.
Cabeleira: C’mon, you cut everything I say to pieces.
Berenice: Hoods don’t talk, they just vomit words.
Cabeleira: Jesus, I’m gonna stop wasting my saliva on you, you sure ain’t easy.
Berenice: Hoods never stop, they just take a break.

…

Buscapé: It was like a message from God: “Honesty doesn’t pay, sucker.”

…

Buscape [narrating]: The first time Knockout Ned saved a salesclerk from being killed by Carrot.
Ned: We said no killing! That’s the rule.
Buscape [narrating]: The second time, Carrot saved Knockout Ned’'s life by killing a man about to kill him. Ned learned that there’s an exception to every rule. The third time the exception becomes the rule.[/b]

Knockout Ned becomes one of the hoods he despised

[b]Ned: The war’s on. Let’s start with a prayer.
Buscape: A year later, no one remembered how the war had all begun.

…

Runt 1: The big deal is dope, you got it?
Runt 2: If you wanna be a dealer, you gotta start as a delivery boy, see?
Runt 1: This delivery boy business is real bullshit. The time it takes being a delivery boy, then security and then manager, is way too long.
Runt 2: What you gonna do? You’ve gotta wait for them to die…

…

Li’l Ze: They’re all dealers. They’re all fucking loaded. Hold-ups bring in chickenshit. The big bucks are in dope. Especially in selling coke.
Benny: I see. But you need money.
Li’l Ze: Not really. We’ll kill all these clowns and take over their business.
Benny: When do we start.
Li’l Ze: Now.

…

Buscape: This picture of the hood will guarantee my salary. This one will make me famous. It’ll even make the cover of a magazine. I won’t have to worry about Li’l Ze anymore. But the police?[/b]

The film ends with some Runts walking down the street:

“Cocoa robbed 3 houses in Barra”
“Better kill him”
“Who shot Roger?”
“It was Beef”
“Kill that fucker”
“We should kill the Chief and Gringo as well”
“What about Cherry?”
“Let’s go. Us two and 3 others”
“It’s a deal”
“Have you heard of the Red Brigrade?”
“No, but if they come, we’ll kill them”
“Who knows how to write?”
“Me, sort of”
“Let’s make a black list. We’ll kill them all”
“Put fucking Nightowl on there”
“And Crochet”
“Leonard too, he owes me money”
“And China-Man, he thinks he’s hot stuff”

And all of these kids are prepubesent.

68

Truly, a city of men. So much of what some construe as “senseless violence” here is rooted in testosterone. And poverty. And class. Gangs are a way to embed dasein in a ritual of necessity. Identity revolves around the gang “family”.

Right, and try explaining that to them.

It’s always a power struggle over who gets to say what things mean. And where all of the others get to fit into that.

CITY OF MEN
Fernando Meirelles

[b]Tina: It’s getting bad, let’s split.
Midnight: No way! We’re gonna kill the motherfuckers.
Tina: They have machine guns! They’ll massacre us!

…

Fasto: Fuck you all! The hill is mine!!

…

Midnight: When we get more guns, we’ll take the hill back.

…

Ace: Good morning, sir.
Boss: You were late again. The place was unattended.
Ace: There was gang war on the hill.
Boss: That’s your problem, not mine.
Ace: It was a real war. You probably saw it on TV.
Boss: Your fired. Go collect your pay.

…

Wallace: Come on, Ace. Am I not your friend? I’m not your friend? Then shoot me. Shoot me.
[Ace lowers the gun]
Wallace: Let’s get out of here. If you die, your son will be like us. Fatherless. Is that what you want?

…

Ace [in a letter to his wife] I don’t know how long it will be. But now you’re in there and I’m out here, away from the place where I was born, the place where everyone knows me, where everyone knows who I am, away from the place that used to be mine.[/b]

69

There’s no working class quite like the British working class. If for no other reason they’ve been at it longer than most.

ALL OR NOTHING
Written and directed by Mike Leigh

[b]Phil: …she might have done you a favor.
Ron: How do you mean?
Phil: Well, if it hadn’t have happened, you might have driven around the next corner and killed a little kid…It’s what’s-its-name, fickle finger of fate. If you knew what was gonna happen to you when you woke up in the morning you might never get out of bed…That’s life. The old clock ticks, the world turns around, the tide comes in, tide goes out. You’re born, you die. That’s it.
Ron [oblivious]: What’s your missus make at Safeway?

…

Penny: What have you got there?
Phil: Burger buns. Three dozen.
Penny: We ain’t gonna eat all them.
Phil: No, it’s all right. They’re long life.
Penny: What’s the expiry date?
Phil: 24th of October.
Penny: That’s four months away. What have they got in 'em?
Phil: Dunno. Chemicals.

…

Phil: Picked up at a doctor’s surgery at dinner time. Old bloke, only wanted to go to the next street. I says, 'Sorry, mate, I got to charge you… 'the minimum fare, L3.50 .
Penny: You shouldn’t have charged him nothing.
Phil: No, I know. I said, ‘Call it a couple of quid.’
Penny: No, you should have called it nothing.
Phil: He wasn’t having it, you know? He insisted on giving me the full fare.
Penny: You didn’t have to take it, though, did you?
Phill: No. But… it’s his what’s-its-name.
Rachel: Dignity.
Phil: Yeah. No price on that when you’re old.

…

Cecile: And your son? He work with you in the taxi?
Phil: Nah, he don’t do nothin’.
Cecile: Beg your pardon? How he don’t do nothing?
Phil: He does a lot of nothing.

…

Cecile: Do you love your wife?
Phil: Yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s funny, isn’t it? What’s-her-name, love. It’s like a dripping tap. Bucket’s either half full… or it’s half empty. If you’re not together, you’re alone. You’re born alone… and you die alone. Nothing you can do about it.
Cecile: You are right. It is fucking lonely.

…

Phil: Has he had an operation?
Penny: No.
Phil: I got lost downstairs. Bloke said, ‘Go upstairs…’.
Penny: All right, Phil, you’re here now, ain’t you?
Phil: What happened?
Penny: Well, he collapsed. Maureen was with him when I come up here. He’s got to take pills for the rest of his life.
Phil: You never know what’s going to happen, do you? It’s wossername…fait accompli. He might win the lottery tomorrow. It’s kismet, isn’t it?
Penny: What are you talking about?!

…

Phil: I’m determined to do it. Got to get started, get saving. Shouldn’t take long. I’ll work seven days a week. Start early, finish late. Do nights, weekends…
Penny: Phil, Rory’s in hospital!
Phil: Yeah. Sorry. But I made him a promise, and I’m gonna keep it.
Penny: What promise?
Phil:About going on holiday.
Penny: Phil, it ain’t about goin’ on holiday. It’s about gettin’ by week in, week out. It ain’t a game! Just ‘cause you suddenly got some bee in your bonnet… about gettin’ up in the mornings and goin’ to work… when you’ve been lying in bed for years till God knows what time! And we’re all supposed to be grateful… because you decided to do what normal people do. I get up in the mornings. Rachel gets up in the mornings. You make me sick!!

…

Penny: Your son’s in the hospital having a heart attack… and we can’t get hold of you. They know where I am in an emergency but we can’t get hold of his dad nowhere. Where was you? What have you been doing all day?
Phil: I switched it off.
Penny: I know you switched it off. Why’d you switch it off? I’d had enough. You’d had enough? Had enough of what? Working for five minutes, so you switched it off? What can I switch off when I’ve had enough? Had enough of getting up every morning, going to work… doing the shopping, coming home, cooking the tea… cleaning the house, doing the ironing… making sure everyone’s got clean clothes on their back. What can I switch off when I’ve had enough? Had enough of what, anyway?
Phil [quietly] Everything.
Penny: What everything? For God’s sake, Phil.
Phil: You don’t love me no more, do you?
Penny: What?
Phil: You don’t love me.
Penny: Phil, what are you talking about? What’s that got to do with anything?
Phil: It’s got to do with everything…You ain’t loved me for years. You don’t like me, you don’t respect me… you talk to me like I’m a piece of shit.[/b]

Then it evolves [or devolves] from there. Depending on the political spin you give it.

70

Here the old world meets the new world. But in the new world there are so many different ways to narrate the story. Not all of them legal. Nor easy to explain.

HEAD-ON [Gegen die Wand]
Written and directed by Fatih Akin

[b]Dr. Schiller: If you want to end your life, end it. You don’t have to kill yourself to do that.

…

Cahit: You won’t die that way.
Sibel: What do you mean?
Cahit: You gotta cut along the vein, not across it. Across is shit.

…

Sibel’s brother: Hey, brother-in-law you should come with us some time.
Cahit: Where to?
Sibel’s brother: The brothel.
Cahit: What would I want there?
Sibel’s brother: What a question!
Cahit: Why don’t you fuck your own wives?
Sibel’s brother [shocked] What did you say?
Cahit: Why don’t you fuck your own wives?
Sibel’s brother [enraged]: Don’t ever use the word “fuck” in connection with our wives!

…

Cahit: I’m sorry I ran off before. I apologise.
Sibel: That’s okay.
Cahit: I’m just a mental case, y’know?
Sibel: Aren’t we all?

…

Sibel: They’ll kill me.
Mann: Who?
Sibel: My family.

…

Sibel [now in Turkey] accosts two men in a restaurant: Listen guys where can I get some drugs?
Man [incredulous]: Are you out of your mind?

…

Sibel [in a letter to Cahit]: …God is putting us to the test. God? I don’t know what I’m supposed to believe after all of this. You pulled the short straw, but jail is the only thing I can compare my life to here.

…

Cahit: Where is your sister?
Sibel’s brother: I have no sister now.
Cahit: You have the same mother. What does your mother think?
Sibel’s brother: We had to save our honor. Don’t you see?
Cahit: And? Did you save it, your honor?

…

Cahit: When I met Sibel first time I was dead. I was dead long time before I met her. I’d lost myself. Then she come and drop in my life. She gives me love…and she gives me power. Do you understand that? Do you understand that? How strong you are Selma. Are you strong enough to stay between me and her?
Selma: Are you strong enough to destroy her life?
Cahit: No. I’m not.[/b]

71

Based on a true story. On the other hand, so much regarding America’s involvement in Vietnam revolves around big fucking lies. Personally, I lost count of them after Cam Ranh Bay.

RESCUE DAWN
Written and directed by Werner Herzog

[b]Duane: You’re a strange bird, Dieter. A man tries to kill you and you want his job

…

Dieter: No, I never wanted to go to war. I just wanted to fly.

…

Dieter: [on his birthday] What kind of champagne is this?
Gene: You just got to keep thinking protein, lots of protein.
Duane: It’s not bad. Squished insect larva.
Gene: Protein…

…

Duane: Be quiet!
Dieter: What?
Duane: Quiet.
Dieter: Why? I’m whispering.
Duane: Little Hitler’s coming.
Dieter: Who?
Duane: Shh! Little Hitler!
Dieter: Who’s Little Hitler?[/b]

He finds out:

[b]Dieter: Now what the hell is this? The Middle Ages?
Duane: Hey, listen. Don’t mess with these guys. You’ll regret it.

…

Duane: The jungle is the prison, don’t you get it?

…

Duane: You won’t make it out of camp. There are six guards posted during the day.
Dieter [chuckling]: Yeah. That is during the day. I’m going at night. [Duane smirks]. Why? What happens at night?[/b]

He finds out.

[b]Gene: Where am I gonna go? Where am I goona go?

…

Dieter: Which one of your feet is the worst off?
Duane: That’s a trick question, right?

…

Duane: I’m done.
Dieter: No. We’ll travel by night…
Duane: No, I’m telling you, I can’t go any further…just leave me here.[/b]

72

Based on the true story of the Papin sisters: Class struggle, God, incest, murder.

MURDEROUS MAIDS [Les blessures assassines]

[b]Lea: If we were rich…
Christine: What would change? Rich ladies have everything but I’ve seen them weeping in secret.

…

Mother: What’s the matter now? Praying again? Answer me!
Christine: I’ve decided to be a nun, like Emilia.
Mother [slapping her hard across the face]: Never! You’ll slave for others like I did!

…

Christine [to Lea on her first day at work]: 7:20 - Prepare Monsieur’s tray: coffee, cold milk, toast…7:30 - Take up the tray with the paper…9:30 - Bed…We could add: “Take a few minutes to pee.” [they giggle]

Remember this: “Yes, Madame. No Madame. Yes, Monsieur. No, Monsieur”. Forget their surname. And always speak to them in third person. Aunt Isabelle said a master is three people: the one he is, the one others think he is and the one he believes he is. Always address the last one.

…

Lady of the house [to Christine]: I see you’re satisfied with what I gave you. That’s good. That confirms my opinion. Convent girls are well brought up. The nuns teach you to respect property.

…

Lea: God, please stop this![/b]

He doesn’t.

73

The narrative of choice: Beauty—>Art—>Action—>Harmony of pen and sword

[yeah, right]

In the end, Mishima’s harmony – “purity” – becomes just one more futile assault on capitalism. On a modern world sans God.

MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS
Directed by Paul Schrader

[b]Mishima: When I examined my early childhood I see myself as a boy leaning at the window forever watching a world I was unable to change forever hoping it would change itself.

…

Mishima: In my earliest years, I realized life consisted of two contradictory elements. One was words, which could change the world. The other was the world itself, which had nothing to do with words.

…

Interrogator: You’re still too young and pure. You will learn to tone down your feelings.
Isao: If purity is toned down, it’s no longer purity.
Interrogator: Total purity is not possible in this world.
Isao: Yes, it is! If you turn your life into a line of poetry written in a splash of blood.

…

Mishima: All my life I have been acutely aware of a contradiction in the very nature of my existence. For forty-five years I struggled to resolve this dilemma by writing plays and novels. The more I wrote, the more I realized mere words were not enough. So I found another form of expression.

…

Mishima: My need to transform reality was an urgent necessity, as important as three meals a day or sleep.

…

Osamu: The guys at the theatre are even worse. They’re still having the same boring discussions about the “wounds of art”…They don’t even know that art is a shadow…that stage blood is not enough.

…

Mishima: Words are a deceit. In order to transform reality, the writer must be deceitful. But action is never deceitful. “The harmony of pen and sword”. This samuri motto used to be a way of life. Now it’s forgotten. Can art and action still be united?

…

Mizoguchi: [stuttering] It was as s-small as this, but grew so big… it filled the world like… tremendous music. That’s the p-p-power of beauty’s eternity. It poisons us. It blocks out our lives.
Mariko: Please, enough of your pride! Beauty is like a rotten tooth. It rubs against your tongue, hurting, insisting on its importance. Finally you go to a dentist and have it pulled. Then you look at the small bloody tooth in your hand and say, “Is that all it was?” That’s the way it is.

…

Mariko: Only knowledge can turn life’s unbearableness into a weapon.[/b]

[On the other hand, as Mishima learns, a certain knowledge of life may well make it unbearable]

…

[b]Mishima: The average age for a man in the Bronze Age was eighteen, in the Roman era, twenty-two. Heaven must have been beautiful then. Today it must look dreadful. When a man reaches forty, he has no chance to die beautifully. No matter how he tries, he will die of decay. He must compel himself to live.

…

Mishima [in narration after his “purity” speech is met with scorn and derision from the very soldiers he wishes to sway]: Body and spirit had never blended. Never in physical action had I discovered the chilling satisfaction of words. Never in words had I experienced the hot darkness of action. Somewhere there must be a higher principle which reconciles art and action. That principle, it occured to me, is death.[/b]

The rest is almost unbearable to watch.

Mishima: Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor!

Then seppuku.

74

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER:
Directed by Clint Eastwood

[b]Mordecai: What about after?
The Stranger: Hmm?
Mordecai: What about after we kill them? What do we do then?
The Stranger: Then you live with it.

…

Sarah: Be careful. You’re a man who makes people afraid, and that’s dangerous.
The Stranger: It’s what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid.

…

Preacher: See here, you can’t turn all these people out into the night. It is inhuman, brother. Inhuman!
The Stranger: I’m not your brother.
Preacher: We are all brothers in the eyes of God.
The Stranger: All these people, are they your sisters and brothers?
Preacher: They most certainly are.
The Stranger: …Then you won’t mind if they come over and stay at your place, will ya?[/b]

A short while later…

[b]Preacher [to hotel guests]: Friends, friends, don’t worry. We shall find haven for you in our own homes… [pause] …and it won’t cost you one cent more than regular hotel rates.

…

The Stranger: I’d like rifles and ammunition for everyone in the regiment.
Gunsmith: What regiment?
The Stranger: The city of Lago volunteer force
Gunsmith: Never heard of it
The Stranger: Well you oughta, you’re in it.

…

Stacey: I just want enough time to take one year out of my life back from Lago.
Cole: How long you reckon that’ll take?
Stacey: [grinning] For some of 'em; a lifetime.

…

Lewis: I got 18 people in my hotel! Where are they gonna go?
The Stranger: Out.

…

Stacey [shouting out into the unknown]: Who are you?!..[then bewildered] Who are you…[/b]

75

People are strange, but some people are stranger than others. Of course when you are young and beautiful others tend to make allowances. Or they fall in love with you.

Oh, and what we do we do because of what we think we know. But that may have nothing at all to do with what is true.

THE BRIDESMAID [La demoiselle d’honneur]
Directed by Claude Chabrol

[b]Message on Senta’s phone: I’m not available. Do the best you can.

…

Philip: Have you tried two men at once?
Senta: I’ve tried everything.

…

Senta: Are you sure you love me?
Philip: Of course. Of course I love you. Like I’ve never loved anyone before.
Senta: Then do something to prove it.
Philip: Sure. What?
Senta: I’ve been thinking about it. We’ll each do something tremendous to prove our love.
Philip: What do I have to do?

…

Senta: You don’t see things as they are yet. You still don’t see we’re very special people. That we’re above everything. Laws. Morality. But I know you will realize it. You’ll cut loose from all the pettiness weighing us down. You’ll see the world as it really is. As something mystical. Magical. You’ve taken a step towards that by killing for me.[/b]

Lust becomes love and the constraints fall away. But it is not what Philip [or Senta] thinks it is at all. In any event, she kills the wrong man.

Philip: Senta, you did it. You really killed someone.
Senta: I told you I did. I killed for you.
Philip: But it wasn’t Gerard, it was someone who had nothing to do with this!
Senta: So what? I killed for you. Just like you killed for me.

Unless, of course, he didn’t.

76

Some things from the past are hidden from one. Some things from the past are hidden from the other. And some things from the present are hidden from both.

As the director says of the film, “there are a thousand truths”.

CACHE
Written and directed by Michael Haneke

[b]Georges: My parents decided to adopt the boy. I don’t know why. They felt responsible in some way.
Anne: And then?
Georges: It annoyed me. I didn’t want him at home. He had his own room. I had to share, see. I was six!
Anne: So what did you do?
Georges: I told lies about him…

…

Georges: Can’t you just trust me?
Anne: I have to trust you? Why not the other way around for once? How about you trust me? Who refuses to give trust here? Imagine the shoe’s on the other foot? Imagine I say, “I may know who’s terrorizing us but I can’t tell you!”

…

Georges: Strange isn’t it? I haven’t fought since I was a child. I find it repugnant. Stop this stupid game!
Majid: Or you’ll kick my ass? That shouldn’t be hard. You’re a lot bigger than last time. But kicking my ass won’t leave you any wiser about me. Even if you beat me to death. But you’re too refined for that. Above all, you have too much to lose. What wouldn’t we do not to lose what’s ours?[/b]

Anne and Georges watch a videotape:

Georges: I’m going to leave now, but you can be sure of something. If you try to interfere in my life, scare my family or damage me, you’ll regret it, I swear.
Majid: You’re threatening me?
Georges: Yes, I’m threatening you. Believe me, I mean it.
Majid: I believe you. But you don’t believe me. I didn’t want anything from you. I never sent you a tape or anything else.

And then there is that wonderfully ambiguous ending.

77

Here we encounter philosophy before and after a panic. Something happens. And many of the ways we used to think about things no longer apply. You either reinvent yourself or you go under.

CONTAGION
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

[b]Dr. Sussman: Blogging is not writing. It’s just graffiti with punctuation.

…

Dr. Cheever: Someone doesn’t have to weaponize the bird flu.The birds are doing that.

…

Medical examiner: Well, the sulci are obliterated. Let’s look at the base…Oh, my God
Assistant: You want me to take a sample, or…
Medical examiner: I want you to move away from the table.
Assistant: Should I call someone?
Medical examiner: Call everyone.

…

Dr. Mears: At this point, I think we have to believe this is respiratory. Maybe fomites too.
Government official: What’s that, fomites?
Dr Mears: It refers to transmission from surfaces. The average person touches their face 2 to 3,000 times a day.
Official: two or three thousand times a day?
Dr Mears: Three to five times every waking minute. In between we’re touching doorknobs, water fountains, elevator buttons and each other. Those things become fomites.[/b]

Speculating on the origins of the disease:

[b]Health official: Somewhere in the world, the wrong pig met up with the wrong bat.

…

Dr Cheever: From here on out, I want no one working on this except at BSL-4. The last thing we need is for this to walk out of the lab on the bottom of someone’s shoe.

…

Dave: My wife makes me take off my clothes in the garage. Then she leaves out a bucket of warm water and some soap. And then she douses everything in hand sanitizer after I leave. I mean, she’s overreacting, right?
Dr Mears: Not really.

…

Dr Mears: You ever have to tell a man who just lost his wife and stepson that his wife was cheating on him before she died?[/b]

And this exchange of course was inevitable: Who can you trust when so much is at stake?

[b]Gupta: Let me bring Alan Krumiede [a freelance journalist…and fraud] into this debate. Alan, today on twitter you wrote that the truth about this virus is being kept from the world by the CDC and the World Health Organization to allow friends of the administration to benefit from it both financially and physically.
Alan: There are therapies we know are effective right now, like forsythia and they don’t even appear on the CDC website.
Gupta: On your blog, you also wrote that the World Health Organization is in bed with pharmaceutical companies?
Alan: Because they are. That’s who stands to gain from this. They’re working hand in glove. And the hand is reaching into our pockets.

…

Alan: Tell them what an R-nought of two really means, Dr. Cheever. Teach them some math. No? Okay, I’ll do it. On day 1, there are two people with it. And then there are 4. And then it was 16 and you think you’ve got it in front of you. But next it’s 256, and then it’s 65,000 and it’s behind you and above you and all around you. In 30 steps, it’s a billion sick. In three months.

…

Dr Cheever: As of right now, the mortality rate is fluctuating between 25 and 30 percent depending upon underlying medical conditions, socioeconomic factors, nutrition, fresh water. With the new mutation we are predicting an R-nought of no less than four. And without a vaccine, we can anticipate that approximately 1 in 12 people on the planet will contract the disease.[/b]

Then shots of a world turned completely upside down. For example, virtually all public domains are deserted.

78

The mind of a sadistic killer. But the mind of someone who is not insane. We can be repulsed. But that does not make minds like this go away. So Gods are invented to deal with them. Or the minds of men like Soo-hyun [or Dexter?] are fabricated as another possible antidote. But that’s often when the law of unintended consequences kicks in.

I have always been drawn to films revolving around revenge. The more exacting the better. What does that say about me?

I SAW THE DEVIL
Directed by Kim Jee-Woon

[b]Kim Soo-hyun: Ju-yeon, I promise you this. I’ll make him pay for your pain

…

Ju-yeon: Please don’t kill me.
Kyung-chul: Why not?

…

Kyung-chul: Why?
Victum: Huh?
Kyung-chul: Why do you look like you just stepped in shit?

…

Se-yeon: I know how you feel but I hope you’ll stop. It won’t bring her back. Whatever you do to punish him, things won’t change. Revenge is for movies.

…

Soo-hyun: Hands, feet, then head. Right?

…

Soo-hyun [beating Kyung-chul]: Why! Why! Why!..Why! Why!..Why! Why!

…

Detective: It’s agent Kim Soo-hyun, right? Want me to show you what he’s been up to? Make him stop. He can’t become a monster to fight the monster. You know that’s wrong.

…

Kyung-chul [mimicing his victums]: Let me live. Please. I beg you. Don’t kill me. Please…
Soo-hyun: Heard that many times, haven’t you? People begging for their lives. You enjoyed that, huh?

…

Kyung-chul: Fuck you. I don’t know what pain is. Fear? Don’t know what that is either…There’s nothing you can get from me.[/b]

All that is left for Soo-hyun to say:

I hope that you suffer even after you die.

But you need God for that. In the interim though he does come up with a rather ingenius execution.

79

Like Mindwalk, Stalker is a film in which intellectuals speculate [or pontificate] about the mysteries that link us all to existence. What is philosophical? what is political? what is religious? what is scientific? what is emotional and psychological? The Room, the Zone become projections for all of the turbulent contradictions that make up the lives we live.

Still, if you found a place that granted you your most innermost wish what would it be?

STALKER [1979]
Directed by Andrey Tarkovskiy

[b]Professor: Everything I told you before…is a lie. I don’t give a damm about inspiration. How would I know the right word for what I want? How would I know that actually I don’t want what I want? Or that I actually don’t want what I don’t want? They are elusive things: the moment we name them, their meanng disappears, melts, dissolves like a jellyfish in the sun. My conscience wants vegetarianism to win over the world. And my subconscious is yearning for a piece of juicy meat. But what do I want?
Writer: World domination.

…

Writer: A man writes because he is tormented, because he doubts. He needs to constantly prove to himself and the others that he’s worth something. And if I know for sure that I’m a genius? Why write then? What the hell for?

…

Stalker: Let everything that’s been planned come true. Let them believe. And let them have a laugh at their passions. Because what they call passion actually is not some emotional energy, but just the friction between their souls and the outside world. And most important, let them believe in themselves. Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it’s tender and pliant. But when it’s dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.[/b]

Unless, of course, it does.

[b]Writer: And what are you? A chemist?
Professor: A physicist rather.
Writer: That must be boring too. Searching for the truth. It’s hiding and you keep searching for it… While I am digging for the truth, so much happens to it that instead of discovering the truth I dig up a heap of, pardon…I’d better not name it.

…

Professor: Judging by his tone he is going to start sermonizing again.

…

Writer: One more experiment. Experiments, facts, truth of the highest order. There’s no such things as facts. Especially here. All this is someone’s idiotic invention…But we of course must find out whose invention it is. And why…

…And they’re all swarming around, journalists, critics, editors…And they all demand: More! More!..

…it’s a constant torment for me, a painful, shameful occupation, like squeezing out hemorrhoids. I used to think that someone would get better because of my books…In two days after I die they’ll start gobbling up someone else…

…I wanted to change them, but it’s they who’ve changed me. Making me over in their image…

…The future used to be just a continuation of the present, with all the changes looming far behind the horizon. Now the future and the present are one. Are they ready for it? They don’t want to know anything! All they know is how to gobble![/b]

And this was written years before the Internet world we live in now.

[b]Professor: Do you realize what will happen when everybody believes in the Room? And all come rushing here? It’s only a question of time…And not just tens of them, thousands! Unfulfilled emperors, great inquisitors, fuhrers, self-appointed benefactors of the human race! And they’ll come not for money or for inspiration…but to change the world!

…

Writer: I can see quite clearly now that you plan to overwhelm mankind with good deeds.

…

Writer: And something else. Why do you think this miracle really exists? Who told you that wishes actually come true here? Have you seen a single man who has been made happy here?..As a matter of fact, who told you about the Zone…about the Room?[/b]

80

Nihilism that [in the end] has a heart.

HEATHERS
Directed by Michael Lehmann

[b]Pauline: Now… it seems we were in a similar position on Monday when I thoughtfully suggested we get everybody together for an unadulterated emotional outpouring. But no. You took this as an opportunity to play yet another round of “Let’s Laugh at the Hippie.”
Paul: Pauline…
Principal: Shut up, Paul. Now I’ve seen a lot of bullshit. Angel dust. Switchblades. Sexually perverse photography exibits involving tennis rackets. But this suicide thing… guess that’s more on Pauline’s wavelength. Well, we’re gonna just write off today. And on Friday she can hold her little “Love-In” or…whatever

…

J.D.: People will look at the ashes of Westerburg and say, “Now there’s a school that self-destructed, not because society didn’t care, but because the school was society.” Now that’s deep.

…

J.D.: Chaos was what killed the dinosaurs, darling

…

Ram: [after watching J.D. flirt with Veronica] Let’s kick his ass!
Kurt: Shit, Ram - we’re seniors, man. We’re too old for that kind of crap. Let’s give 'im a good scare, though.
[They walk to where J.D. is sitting]
Ram: [Sticking his fingers into J.D.'s lunch] You gonna eat this?
Kurt: What did your boyfriend say when you told ‘im you were movin’ to Sherwood, Ohio?
Ram: Answer him, dick!
Kurt: Hey Ram, doesn’t this cafeteria have a “No Fags Allowed” rule?
J.D.: Well they, uh, seem to have an open door policy for assholes though, don’t they?

…

J.D.: Is your life perfect?
Veronica: I’m on my way to a party at Remington University… No, my life’s not perfect. I don’t really like my friends.
J.D.: I…I don’t really like your friends either.
Veronica: Well, it’s just like - they’re people I work with, and our job is being popular and shit.
J.D.: Maybe it’s time to take a vacation.

…

Veronica: [writing in diary] Betty Finn was a true friend and I sold her out for a bunch of Swatch dogs and Diet Coke heads. Killing Heather would be like offing the wicked witch of the west…wait…east. West! God! I sound like a fucking psycho

…

Veronica: Dear Diary: Heather told me she teaches people “real life.” She said, real life sucks losers dry. You want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly. I said, so, you teach people how to spread their wings and fly? She said, yes. I said, you’re beautiful.

…

Dad: Will someone tell me why I smoke these damn things?
Veronica: Because you’re an idiot.
Dad: Oh yeah, that’s it.

…

Veronica: This may seem like a really stupid question…
J.D.: There are no stupid questions.
Veronica: You inherit 5 million dollars the same day aliens land on the earth and say they’re going to blow it up in 2 days. What do you do?
J.D.: That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard.

…

J.D.: The extreme always seems to make an impression.

…

J.D.: I like it. It’s got that what-a-cruel-world-let’s-toss-ourselves-in-the-abyss type ambience.

…

Veronica: If you think I’m doing another suicide note you’re wrong!
J.D.: You don’t get it do you? Society nods its head at any horror the American teenager can think upon itself. Nobody is going to care about exact handwriting.

…

Veronica: You’re a rebel? You think you’re a rebel? You’re not a rebel you’re fucking psychotic!

…

Veronica: I say we just grow up, be adults and die.

…

J.D.: Seven schools in seven states and the only thing different is my locker combination.

…

Veronica Sawyer: Dear Diary, my teen-angst now has a body count.

…

J.D.: The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven.

…

Pauline: Whether to kill yourself or not is one of the most important decisions a teenager can make.

…

Veronica: Excuse me, I think I know Heather a little bit better than you do. If she were going to slit her wrists, the knife would be spotless.[/b]