philosophy in film

If I could be one again, I would.

DRUGSTORE COWBOY
Written and directed by Gus Van Sant

[b]Bob: Upon entering my vein the drug would start a warm edge…Until the brain consumed it…I felt such pleasure that the whole world sympathized…It was grand then…Your worst enemy wasn’t so bad…The ants in the grass were just doing their thing…Everything took on a rosy hue of unlimited success…You could do no wrong…And as long as it lasted life was beautiful.

…

Rick: Jesus, Bob, you never told us anything about not mentioning dogs.
Bob: The reason nobody mentioned dogs, Rick, is that to mention the dog would have been a hex in itself.
Rick: All right, well, now we are on the subject, are there an other stupid things we aren’t supposed to mention that will affect our future?

…

Bob: We played a game you couldn’t win… to the utmost.

…

Bob: Diane was my wife. I loved her, and she loved dope. So we made a good couple.

…

Bob: I tell ya, no construction stiff working overtime endured more stress and strain than we did just trying to stay high.

…

Bob: All these kids, they’re all TV babies. Watching people killing and fucking each other on the boob tube for so long it’s all they know. Hell, they think it’s legal. They think it’s the right thing to do

…

Bob: A sheriff’s convention no less! Why couldn’t it have been a Tupperware convention?
Diane: Better yet an undertakers.

…

Bob: Well, to begin with, nobody, and I mean nobody, can talk a junkie out of using. You can talk to 'em for years but sooner or later they’re gonna get ahold of something. Maybe it’s not dope. Maybe it’s booze, maybe it’s glue, maybe it’s gasoline. Maybe it’s a gunshot to the head. But something. Something to relieve the pressures of their everyday life, like having to tie their shoes.

…

Drug Counselor: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Bob: Yeah, a few times.
Drug Counselor: What were they? What felonies were you convicted of?
Bob: [pauses] What do you want? You want my life story?
[Gets up]
Bob: I’m a junkie, I like drugs, I like the whole lifestyle. But it just didn’t pay off. You know, you don’t see my kind of people. Because my kind of people don’t beg dope, they go out and get it.

…

Bob: [about Tom] I bet he shot a million dollars in his arm.

…

Tom the Priest: Narcotics have been systematically scapegoated and demonized. The idea that someone can use drugs to escape a horrible fate is anathema to these idiots.

…

Gentry: Bob, tell me, who shot you
Bob: The hat.
Gentry: The hat?
Bob: Tell Diane to look out for the hat. Tell her, okay?
Gentry: Okay. It was the hat who shot you, right Bob?
Bob: No. The TV baby shot me.
Gentry: The TV baby shot you but the hat was with him, right? Tell me who the hat is Bob, so I can tell Diane.
Bob: Never mind, I’ll tell her myself.

…

Bob: It’s this fucking life. You never know what’s gonna happen next. That’s why Nadine spiked herself. It was the easy way out. That’s why Diane keeps going on the way she does. Most people don’t know how they’re gonna feel from one moment to the next. But a dope fiend has a pretty good idea. All you gotta do is look at the labels on the little bottles.[/b]

Young, hip, middle-class singles in grungy Seattle. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh, and they’re all white and beautiful.

SINGLES
Written and Directed by Cameron Crowe

[b]Salesman: This is the Genie Classic. You can’t go wrong with this garage door opener. Here’s the Liftrex series. We have the Liftrex and the Liftrex Super. Might be more opener than you need. And of course the Linear pocket-pager-beeper-garage-door-opener combo.
Linda: Just give me the best one you have. I’ll never lose it again.

…

Janet: Are my breasts too small for you?
Cliff: Sometimes.

…

Janet: Somewhere around 25, bizarre becomes immature.

…

Steve: I just happened to be nowhere near your neighborhood.

…

Debbie: Hey, guys, I’m gonna use that video date you got me last Christmas.
Bailey: It was a joke.

…

Andy: You know, it’s okay to loathe these people.

…

Young Steve: The man keeps moving until something squirts out of his penis.
Friend: What? What squirts out?
Young Steve: Spam!

…

Cliff: Look, Janet you know I see other people still. You do know that don’t you?
Janet: You don’t fool me.
Cliff: Janet, I could not be fooling you less

…

Steve: My friend and I have a long-running argument. He says that when you come to a place like this you can’t just be yourself you have to have an act. So, anyway, I saw you standing there so I thought: a] I could just leave you alone b] that I could come up with an act or c] I could just be myself. I chose c. What do you think?
Linda: I think that, a) you have an act, and that, b) not having an act is your act.

…

Janet: So I’m not an Amazon woman?
Steve: You’re from the high plains, Janet.

…

Cliff: That’s a very nice hat you’re wearing…and I don’t mean that in an Eddie Haskell kind of way.

…

Club Interviewer: Talking here with Cliff Poncier. Cliff, any comments on the “Seattle Sound” and Citizen Dick’s place in it?
Cliff: Well, I don’t like to reduce us to just being part of the “Seattle Sound.” I’d like to think of us as expanding more. Like, we’re huge in Europe right now. I mean, we’ve got records… uh, a big record just broke in Belgium.
Club Interviewer: Now, a song like “Touch Me, I’m Dick” is about…what?
Cliff: Well, I think “Touch Me, I’m Dick,” in essence, speaks for itself, you know. I think that, you know, that’s basically what the song is, um…about…is about, you know… I-I think a lot of people might think it’s actually about, you know,“My name is Dick, and, you know, you can touch me,” but, I think, you know, it can be seen either way.

…

The Mime: Let me tell you about love. Love disappears, baby!

…

Steve: I broke up with someone recently: Jennifer, my last girlfriend. I did it in a crowded restaurant. She just stared at me with that look: How can you pass me up? I told her we weren’t right and all the stuff we both knew. A week later I realized I was wrong, tried to get back together with her. She won’t see me. Now she’s with Tony. Tony knows my friend Bailey, who’s friends with the girl Tony’s going out with on the side, Rita. Rita who I broke up with to go out with Jennifer. So now do I tell Jennifer that I know Tony’s going out with Rita or do I tell Rita that I know about Tony and Jennifer? Tony will tell Jennifer that I was still going out with Rita while I was going out with her. How does stuff get so complicated? I don’t know.

…

Woman at clinic: Have you had breast implants before?
Janet: What do you think?
Woman at clinic [glancing down at her chest]: Uh, no.

…

Debbie: This is so unfair.
Pam: Okay, how much do you want for him?
Debbie: $200.
Pam: Outrageous!
Debbie: That’s what I paid.
Pam: $75.
Debbie: $150.
Pam: $80 and I’ll do the dishes all month.
Debbie: Deal!

…

Cliff: Tomorrow I got to sneak back in there and spell her name in rose petals.

…

Steve: Do you realize Janet that in modern day society there is almost no need to leave the house. At all.

…

Steve: What took you so long?[/b]

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, someone can’t figure out a way to make a buck on. Tragedy being the least of them at times. But someone should pay, right? There has to be a culprit. But how do we sort out our obligations when it is something this entangled?

Was it all just a patch of ice being in the wrong place at the wrong time? What if no one is to blame? Or was it more sinister. Or cynical.

Sometimes Mitchell seems to be the hero here, sometimes Billy seems to be. And by the time it gets down to us the experience may become reduced to…entertainment?

THE SWEET HEREAFTER
Written and directed by Atom Egoyan

[b]Mason: Nicole, did the Pied Piper take the children away because he was mad that the town didn’t pay him?
Nicole: That’s right.
Mason: Well, if he knew magic, if he could get the kids into the mountain, why couldn’t he use his magic pipe to make the people pay him for getting rid of the rats?
Nicole: Because… he wanted them to be punished.
Mason: So he was mean?
Nicole: No, not mean, just… very angry.

…

Zoe: (over the phone) So what’s the problem?
Mitchell: The problem is I have no idea who I’m talking to right now.

…

Mitchell: Tell me about the Ottos.
Risa: Wanda and Hartley. They lost Bear. He was their adopted son. A beautiful boy. Indian. Mitchell: Indian?
Risa: Yes.
Mitchell: That’s good. Judges like adopted Indian boys.

…

Mitchell: It should be said that my task is to represent the Walkers only in their anger. Not their grief.
Wanda: Who did they get for that?
Mitchell: You are angry, aren’t you, Mrs. Otto? That’s why I’m here. To give your anger a voice. To be your weapon against whoever caused that bus to go off the road.

…

Mitchell: Mrs. Otto, there is no such thing as an accident. The word doesn’t mean anything to me. As far as I’m concerned, somebody somewhere made a decision to cut a corner. Some corrupt agency or corporation accounted the cost variance between a ten-cent bolt and a million dollar out-of-court settlement. They decided to sacrifice a few lives for the difference. That’s what’s done, Mrs. Otto. I’ve seen it happen so many times before.

…

Mitchell: Listen to me, Mrs Otto. Listen very carefully. I do know what’s best. As we’re sitting here the town or the school board or the manufacturer of that bus are lining up a battery of their own lawyers to negotiate with people as grief-stricken as yourselves. And this makes me very, very mad. It’s why I came all the way up here. If everyone had done their job with integrity your son would be alive this morning and safely in school. I promise you that I will pursue and reveal who it was that did not do their job.

…

Mitchell: …I’ve sent her to the best hospitals, she’s seen all the best doctors. It doesn’t matter. Two weeks later she’s on the street. New York, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Toronto, L.A. The next time I hear from her, it’s a phone call scamming for money. Money for school, or money for a new kind of therapist, or money for a plane ticket home. ‘Oh Daddy, just let me come home…Please, Daddy, I have to see you…’ But she never comes home. I’m always at the airport, but she’s never there. Ten years of this, ten years of these lies, of imagining what happens if I don’t send the money, of kicking down doors and dragging her out of rat-infested apartments, of explaining why that couldn’t be my daughter in a porn flick someone saw…well, enough rage and helplessness, and your love turns to something else.
Alison: (softly): What…does it turn to?
Mitchell: It turns to steaming piss.

…

Risa: Is it true that you gave Nicole one of Lydia’s dresses? That she was wearing it when the bus crashed?
Billy: Yes.
Risa: Why did you do that, Billy?
Billy: You think that caused the accident, Risa? That it brought bad luck? Christ, it sounds to me you’re looking for a witch doctor, not a lawyer. Or maybe they’re the same thing.

…

Billy: There’s lawyers suing lawyers because some people were stupid enough to sign on with more thasn one if the bastards. There’s people pointing fingers and making side deals…dickering over percentages.

…

Mitchell: I can help you.
Billy: Not unless you can raise the dead.

…

Billy: Mitchell Stephens, Esquire. Tell me, would you be likely to sue me if I was to beat you right now? I mean, beat you so bad you piss blood and couldn’t walk for a month. Because that’s what I’m about to do.
Mitchell: No, Mr. Ansel. I wouldn’t sue you.
Billy: You leave us alone, Stephens. You leave the people of this town alone.

…

Mitchell: That’s my daughter. Or it may be the police to tell me that they’ve found her dead. She’s a drug addict.
Billy: Why are you telling me this?
Mitchell: I’m telling you this because… we’ve all lost our children, Mr. Ansel. They’re dead to us. They kill each other in the streets. They wander comatose in shopping malls. They’re paralyzed in front of televisions. Something terrible has happened that’s taken our children away. It’s too late. They’re gone.

…

Sam: Nicole, tomorrow Mr. Stephens wants you to make your deposition at the community center. Thought I’d take you over.
Nicole: Great.
Sam: You seem, uh, I don’t know. Distant, I guess. Hard to talk to.
Nicole: We didn’t used to have to talk a lot, did we Daddy?

…

Mitchell: She loved us both equally then…just as she hates us both equally now.

…

Mitchell: You’d make a good poker player, kid

…

Sam: I don’t know what she was doing in there. She was lying.
Mitchell: It doesn’t matter whether she was lying or not. The lawsuit is dead. Everyone’s lawsuit is dead. Forget it. Tell the others to forget it. It is over. Right now, the thing you got to worry about is why she lied. Now, any kid who would do that to her father is not normal.[/b]

Did Nicole lie? And, if so, why? If a lie, was it the right thing or the wrong thing to do?

Nicole: I wonder if you realize that all of us - Dolores, me, the children who survived, the children who didn’t - that we’re all citizens of a different town now. A town with different rules and different laws. A town of people living in the sweet hereafter.

The hereafter, yes. Sweet? I still don’t get that part.

Looks. Some got 'em, some don’t.

But what happens when you got 'em and then in the blink of an eye you don’t? Or if you’re not sure whether you got 'em or not?
Or if you’re not even sure if whether you got 'em or not is real is just a dream?

Looks and everything else for that matter.

OPEN YOUR EYES [Abre los ojos] 1997

Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar

[b]Doctor: Do you believe in God?
Cesar: Don’t start all that shit.
Doctor: I just asked a question. If you don’t want to, don’t answer.
Cesar: I don’t believe in God.
Doctor: How do you explain what happened?
Cesar: How do you mean?
Doctor: Your face.
Cesar: There is no explanation.

…

Sofia: I’m an actor.
Cesar: Actors aren’t honest. They’re able to show emotions they don’t really have or which, at most, they invent.

…

Sofia: It would be wrong if we did anything tonight.
Ceasr: Why?
Sofia: Pelayo. Remember? Your best friend.
Ceasr: He doesn’t have to find out. Besides, he’d do the same.
Sofia: I see friendship really matters to you.
Cesar: It does. That’s why I wouldn’t tell him.

…

Nuria: Cesar…do you believe in God?

…

Cesar: Let’s look at this. I’m not an idiot. Today, people change their breasts. They have hair transplants. They even change the color of their skin. Are you saying…you can’t do a simple operation and sort out this fuck-up?..I’m not just any patient. And this isn’t a welfare hospital. I’m willing to pay any amount!..Invent something! Experiment on me!

…

Cesar: Everytime I look in the mirror I want to die.
Doctor: Your case isn’t so serious. Just learn to accept it.
Cesar: And who will accept me? Will you explain to the people who look at me in the street? Will you tell them that looks aren’t important? That beauty is on the inside?

…

Sofia: They were to remove the plates today.
Cesar: And they did.
Sofia: And?
Cesar: Well, my ears are where they should be.

…

Doctor: You thought you were at home, but you suddenly realize you’re in a school. Or a hospital. Or a prison. Dreams are like that. And at times the mind behaves as if it were in a dream. You know what derangement is?
Cesar: For fuck’s sake! Say I’m stupid if you want, but this isn’t derangement!
Doctor: Then what is it? You tell me, because I don’t know. I don’t know what’s in here [tapping himself on the forehead] or why you killed your girlfriend. I don’t know who Eli is, or that man from the TV. I don’t know anything.
Cesar: That makes two of us.

…

Cesar: It’s a dream! It’s a dream! It’s a dream![/b]

How superficial is the depth of the arguments posed here? Art, religion, nudity, sex, blasphemy and the class struggle in a teeny tiny corner of the world.

SIRENS
Written and directed by John Duigan

[b]Norman: [reading from newspaper] The repetitious excesses of Norman Lindsay have long been a source of consternation to clean-living citizens of this country. For many years he has painted men and women who seem to be slaves of cocaine or a similar drug which has reduced them to frenzied and shameless morbidity. Today, however, not content with scorning all standards of public decency, he has chosen to profane the most sacred image of the Christian church, the Crucifixion.

…

Sheela: [talking about an outhouse] I should have warned him about the redbacks.
Estella: What are they?
Sheela: Small spiders with big teeth. They live under toilet seats usually.
Estella: How do you know if they’re there?
Sheela: By the screams

…

Anthony: I don’t think there’s anything sinful about the body. There’s a tradition of religious painting featuring the nude. lt’s a question of…how the artist uses the body that’s important.
Giddy: So, do you think Mr Lindsay’s paintings are crude?
Anthony: Some l think are profane.
Giddy: Oh, that’s good!

…

Anthony: So you’re a genuine believer in Atlantis?
Norman: Well, l lived there in a former incarnation.
Anthony: l ask because the cataclysm can be seen as an image of moral collapse and some think we’re going through a similar period of decay. Do you explore that in your painting?
Norman: l think people have always been decaying…whenever they can.

…

Pru: lmaginations are a luxury…Most people can’t afford them.
Anthony: l don’t think imagination is dependent on economics, is it?
Pru: ln a factory you’re doing exactly the same thing day after day.
Estella: An active imagination is what allows people to do that kind of work.
Pru: Oh, well, you’d know, of course!
Estella: l just think that’s what you’d have to do. You’d have to be imagining other things.
Pru: Please don’t tell us what the working class does and doesn’t think, thank you very much.

…

Estella: Did you get anywhere with Mr Lindsay?
Anthony: He insists it’s up to the public to decide for themselves if they want to see his pictures. Of course, they have to see them first to decide, by which time the damage has been done, but that is a bit of logic which is lost upon him.

…

Norman: When l was a boy, my mother used to try to instruct us on the sad story of Jesus, how He died on the cross for us. My whole being rose in revolt against the idea! lt’s a vile notion that a god should sacrifice himself for the sins of mankind, it’s a pestilent notion.
Anthony: Well, l couldn’t agree with that.
Norman: As for the suffering my poor pictures will cause a few people, it’s nothing compared to the suffering the Church has caused. The burning of witches, the Spanish lnquisition, the slaughter of pagan tribes and so on.

…

Anthony: l suppose there’s no point in trying to prevail on you to help persuade Norman just to withdraw that particular picture?
Rose: Mr Campion, have you actually seen it?
Anthony: Yes, very briefly in the gallery.
Rose: l was the model for it, you see…
Anthony: Ah.

…

Norman: lf God didn’t want us to play with these parts, why did He make them so much fun?

…

Norman: The fact is, the gloomy God of the Old Testament still has us by the scruff of the neck today. When He was invented, there were a lot of pagan religions that celebrated sexuality and fertility and so on. So how is this new religion to compete with something so popular? By saying that sex was evil and that women, the embodiment of sexuality, were responsible for the downfall of mankind in the Garden of Eden!

…

Estella: They’re trying to shock us, aren’t they?
Anthony: Well, church-baiting’s always been a popular pastime. l got an awful lot of it at university. The atheists always think it’s funny to roast the dusty old Christian. The great thing, of course, is not to be too dusty. You should have seen Lindsay’s face when l started quoting Joyce at him.

…

Estella: You’re very contemptuous of shrinking violets.
Norman: Dear Estella, l’m a shrinking violet myself. l choose to live not in the real world but in my head. l flee from the real world into my little studio and there before me is the unlimited canvas of my imagination.
Anthony: But your paintings, they do go out into the real world. While you have a wonderful imagination, most are stunted and you have no idea what effect they’ll have on people or what they might incite them to. Rape?
Norman: Mr Campion, in my opinion, the female body is the most beautiful thing in the world and if it turns you into a ravenous maniac l’d suggest it’s a good idea if your wife takes the greatest care to get undressed behind a screen.
Rose: Estella’s seen the pictures too. Does that mean we in danger from her?

…

Pru: You’re so patronizing, Mr Campion. Everyone has a rich imagination. What stunts it is capitalist exploitation. Go to Soviet Russia where they’ve been liberated, there’s an explosion of creativity.
Anthony: Have you been to Soviet Russia, Pru? Have you? I’m sorry, l thought for a moment someone knew what they were talking about instead of banging on in this tired bohemian way. The only thing Communism has exploded is every value, religious or otherwise, leaving a vacuum of moral anarchy.
Pru: Anarchy is freedom!
Anthony: Balls! Sorry. Sorry. Freedom for the strong to dominate the weak. lt’s exactly as before, just a different set of bullies.[/b]

Corruption in government. Corruption in the church. Corruption in the legal system. Corruption in the human spirit. And we are left to draw our own lines between the Hollywood version and the one we know about “in reality”.

PRIMAL FEAR
Directed by Gregory Hoblit

[b]Marty: On my first day of law school, my professor says two things. First was; “From this day forward, when your mother tells you she loves you - get a second opinion.”
Reporter: [chuckles] And?
Marty: “If you want justice, go to a whorehouse. If you wanna get fucked, go to court.”

…

Reporter: Where were you with the truth?
Marty: Truth? How do you mean?
Reporter: I’m not sure how many ways there are to mean it.
Marty: You think there’s only one? There’s only one that matters. My version of it. The one I create in the minds of the twelve jurors. If you want, you can call it something else like the illusion of truth.

…

Janet: Oh, Marty. Don’t tell me you think he didn’t do it. Has little Aaron Stampler gotten to you?

…

Marty: Yeah, I’m Martin Vail, from the public defender’s office. I’m handling the Aaron Stampler case.
Cop: Hmm, The Butcher Boy.
Marty: Yes, thank you, I forgot his real name

…

Marty: We saw each other for six months.
Janet: It was a one-night stand, Marty. It just lasted six months.

…

Alderman: Most people assume this land we’re walking on belongs to the railroad. But it doesn’t. It belongs to the Church.
Mary: The Church? So that’s the Rushman Foundation.
Alderman: That’s right. With a bunch of rich developers.
Marty: Including John Shaughnessy.
Alderman: Oh yeah. Then they got greedy. They bought up land and buildings around the Church property and tore them down. Our neighbourhood would disappear. I went to the Archbishop and said, “What are you doing to these people?” “They’re poor. They’re getting kicked out of their homes.” - “And they’re Catholic.”
Joey: Fucking A.
Alderman: He listened. I couldn’t believe it. He told them to stop developing around the Church property.
Marty: The partners hold buildings they can’t demolish and land they can’t build on. Shaughnessy loses millions.

…

Shaughnessy: This city doesn’t burn because I won’t permit it. I’m the great negotiator. You think people get that? The truth is I don’t care. The dumb bastards don’t even vote. They just eat, sleep, watch TV and occasionally fuck their wives.
Marty: Guess we should all thank you.
Shaughnessy: You’re welcome.
Marty: John, you need some new material. I’ve heard this great-city speech ten times already.

…

Shaughnessy: Your assistant’s been digging around in the Archbishop’s finances.
Marty: Yeah, well. How much did you lose when he pulled the plug from South River?
Shaughnessy: Let me tell you something. It’s a mistake to stick your thumb in the eyes of the city’s most powerful.
Marty: It’s not their eyes I’m aiming for.
Shaughnessy: Do not fuck with me, Marty.
Marty [stands up and leans over into the Mayor’s face]: John…the pipes are bursting again.

…

Marty: Your job is to sit and look innocent.
Aaron: I am innocent.
Marty: That’s it! That’s just how I want you to look!

…

Detective: The symbol B32.156 is actually catalogue code for a book discovered in a private reading room located in the church basement. That particular number, the B part, refers to a book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. When we opened the book to page 156 we discovered an underlined passage.
Janet: Could you please read this underlined passage to the court?
Detective: “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
Janet: Thank you. What does that passage mean to you?
Dtective: Well, to me it’s simple. The killer thought his victim was two-faced, dishonest in some way.

…

Marty: What were you doing at Aaron’s apartment? What were you looking for?
Alex: A tape.
Marty: A tape? A videotape?
Alex: Yeah.
Marty: Of what?
Alex: Sex stuff.
Marty: Sex stuff?
Alex: Do I have to draw a picture for you?

…

Tommy: Heeere’s motive.

…

Tommy: You told us the third man did it. You got your third man. And a fourth man and a fifth man…

…

Janet: Do you know what I would do if someone did that to me? I would kill him, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would stab him 78 times. I would chop off his fingers, slash his throat open, carve numbers in his chest, gouge out his eyes, I swear to God!.. But that’s me. No further questions, your honor.
Roy: Where the hell are you going?!
Janet: Excuse me:
Roy: Hey, you look at me when I’m talking to you, bitch!
Judge: Mr. Stampler!
Roy: Fuck you, lady! Come here!

…

Marty: You’re good. You are really good.
Roy: Yeah, I did get caught, though, didn’t I?
Marty: So there never…there never was a Roy?
Roy: Jesus Christ, Marty. If that’s what you think, I’m disappointed in you. There never was an Aaron counselor.[/b]

The experience of having an identical twin is one most of us will never share. In some respects it has got to be…weird? But surely not this weird.

DEAD RINGERS
Directed by David Cronenberg

[b]Elliot, Age 9: You’ve heard about sex…
Beverly, Age 9: Sure I have.
Elliot, Age 9: Well I’ve discovered why sex is.
Beverly, Age 9: You have? Fantastic.
Elliot: It’s because humans don’t live under water.
Beverly, Age 9: I don’t get it.
Elliot, Age 9: Well, fish don’t need sex because they just lay the eggs and fertilize them in the water. Humans can’t do that because they don’t live in the water. They have to - internalize the water. Therefore we have sex.
Beverly, Age 9: So you mean humans would have sex if they lived in the water?
Elliot, Age 9: Well they’d have a kind of sex. The kind where you wouldn’t have to touch each other.
Beverly, Age 9: I like that idea. Have you heard of scuba diving? It’s just new.
Elliot, Age 9: Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
Beverly, Age 9: Exactly.
Elliot, Age 9: [noticing a girl on porch] Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Beverly, Age 9: Yeah, you ask her.
Elliot, Age 9: Raffaella, will you have sex with us in our bathtub? It’s an experiment.
Raffaella: Are you kidding? Fuck off you freaks. I’m telling my father you talk dirty. Besides, I know for a fact you don’t even know what fuck is.
[retreats into her house]
Elliot, Age 9: [walking away] They’re so different from us. And all because we don’t live under water.

…

Claire: Am I bad? ls that it? You gonna spank me, Doc?
Beverly: It hadn’t occurred to me.

…

Elliot: She’s an actress, Bev, she’s a flake. She plays games all the time. You never know who she really is.

…

Elliot: Well, if you don’t go and see her, I will. And I’ll tell her I’m you…and I’ll do…terrible things to her.
Beverly: What sort of terrible things?

…

Claire: Do you take drugs?
Beverly: No. Well, for pain. Pain creates character distortion. It’s simply not necessary.

…

Claire: Listen, Doctor, l think there’s something wrong with you. I don’t know what it is, I can’t put a label on it, but you’re subtly…l don’t know…schizophrenic or something. Sometimes I like you very much and sometimes you’re an amusing lay. Not much more.

…

Laura: I’ve been hearing about you and the wonderful Mantle boys.
Claire: What are you talking about?
Laura: Claire, this is me, Laura. Please don’t be coy, it’s tedious. Dear Beverly, dear Elliot. Some claim they can’t tell the difference but not me, dear. It’s obvious to me that…Well, before I say anything gauche, tell me which one you’re seeing.
Claire: You mean there’s two of them?
Laura: Don’t be an ass, dear. Of course there are two of them. They’re twins. Identical twins.

…

Claire: I bet somebody who knew you both - how shall I put it? - knew you both really well could tell the difference. Without measuring your height, I mean.
Elliot: What do you mean?
Claire: Well, Beverly’s the sweet one, and you’re the shit.

…

Claire: Elliot, let’s ease up on the bullshit for a moment. You can be honest with me. After all, I am laying both of you, aren’t l?
Beverly: Er, now, hang on a…
Claire: It’s a sweet little act you have. You soften them up with all that smarmy concern and along comes Dracula here and polishes them off.

…

Claire: I’ve been around a bit. I’ve seen some creepy things in the movie business. This is the most disgusting thing that’s ever happened to me.
Elliot: I doubt that
Claire: What is it with you, chum? You can’t get it up unless little brother’s watching?!

…

Mimsy: Dr Elliot Mantle?
Elliot: Yes.
Mimsy: Special order from Escort Embassy. I’m Mimsy and this is my sister Coral.
Elliot: Hi. Would you like some of this?
Mimsy: Sure.
Elliot: Listen, so that I know which one of you is which l’d like you…
Coral: Coral.
Elliot: Coral to call me Elly and you, Mimsy to call me Bev.

…

Elliot: You contribute a confusing element to the Mantle brothers’ saga. Possibly a destructive one. It’s not personal. I think you’re terrific.
Claire: But I just don’t have a role in the Mantle brothers’ saga.
Elliot: I suppose if you liked us both in the same way it might make things easier. It has been known to happen.
Claire: I’m sorry but I can’t.
Elliot: Am I really that different from Beverly?
Claire: You really are.

…

Beverly: What if I take something when you go home?
Elliot: I’m staying here.
Beverly: What if I take something when you go to sleep?
Elliot: I won’t.
Beverly: How will you stay awake?
Elliot: I’ll take something!
Beverly: You’ll take an upper so that I don’t take a downer? This is crazy!

…

Beverly: [crying about Claire] Yesterday, I found out she was having an affair. She’s unfaithful to me, Eli.
Elliot: Bev, you mustn’t take it so seriously. She’s a showbiz lady. What can you expect?
Beverly: [sobbing hysterically] I’m in love with her! I have to take it seriously!

…

Wolleck: Fascinating. They’re quite beautiful. What are they?
Beverly: They’re gynaecological instruments for working on mutant women.
Wolleck: Mutant women? That’s a great theme for a show.
Beverly: No, it’s not for a show. It’s not art. I’m a doctor, I need them for my work.

…

Elliot: There seems to be some problem about surgical instruments. About holding them as evidence of a disturbed mind. Do you know what they’re talking about?
Beverly: I tried to tell you, Elly! You don’t know the kind of patients we’ve been getting lately. You don’t know what’s going on out there. The patients are getting strange. They look all right on the outside but their insides they’re deformed.

…

Elliot: Don’t do this to me, Bev.
Beverly: But I’m only doing it to me. Why don’t you get along with your very own life?
Elliot: Do you remember the first Siamese twins?
Beverly: Chang and Eng were joined at the chest.
Elliot: Remember how they died?
Beverly: Chang died of a stroke in the middle of the night. He was always the sickly one. He was always the one who drank too much. When Eng woke up beside him to find that his brother was dead he died of fright. Right there in the bed.
Elliot: Does that answer your question?
Beverly: Poor Elly.
Elliot: Poor Bev.

…

Claire: Tell me about these these tools.
Beverly: Tools?
Claire: Surgical instruments? You had them with you when you came…What are they for? Beverly: They’re for separating Siamese twins.

…

Beverly: Do you think the morticulator is required, Eng?
Elliot: I think everything is required, Chang.
Beverly: Why are you crying?
Elliot: Separation can be a terrifying thing.[/b]

THREE TIMES [Zui hao de shi guang] 2005

Directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou

A look at love from the perspective of three eras: 1911, 1966, 2005. The same actors interact in three vignettes. It shows the manner in which love will always be rooted in customs and mores – in frames of mind – that change [sometimes dramatically] over the course of time. Here it is situated within the same culture [Taiwan]. In other cultures, the contexts will vary even more.

Imagine for example how these stories would have played out in mainland China.

Then imagine any attempts to speculate [philosophically] on the manner in which love ought to embodied.

The “langauge of the heart” is no less the language of dasein.

Gattica for me was one of the deepest philosophical films I have seen in a while. What is flawed? It asked so many questions about the need to be more than “human” that it really spoke about those who desire to circumvent humanity, so that a struggle to be great is meaningless, and yet at the end we are shown what the difference is between human and more than human, less than the new “human” can excel through hard work. Sometimes the struggle itself to succeed against the odds is what makes us worthy, if you start with everything where is the need to try and hence who will be impressed by you, and how will you learn to struggle against the odds when you are really tested? A very cleverly made film. You’re not your genetics. Invalid is a matter of context.

Lives of quiet desparation will always be around. Even the ones we see in black and white. But this was a time right on the cusp of America’s own “cultural revolution”.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

[b]Sam: I’m surprised you had the nerve to show up after that stomping you took last night.
Sonny: Could’ve been worse.
Sam: Yeah, but you can say that about nearly everything.

…

Lois: Just remember, beautiful, everything gets old if you do it often enough. So if you want to find out about monotony real quick, marry Duane.

…

Sonny: I guess you’ll be glad when basketball season’s over.
Ruth: Why?
Sonny: Coach probably don’t get to stay home much during football and basketball season.
Ruth: My God, you don’t know a thing about it, do you?

…

Sam: If she was here I’d probably be just as crazy now as I was then in about 5 minutes. Ain’t that ridiculous?..Naw, it ain’t really. ‘Cause being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do. Being an old decrepit bag of bones, that’s what’s ridiculous. Gettin’ old.

…

Jacy: Well you married Daddy when he was poor and he got rich, didn’t he?
Lois: Scared your daddy into getting rich, beautiful.
Jacy: Well if Daddy could do it, Duane could too.
Lois: Not married to you. You’re not scary enough.

…

Charlene: Tell us about it. What was it like?!
Jacy: I just can’t describe it. I just can’t describe it in words.

…

Sam: You boys can get on out of here, I don’t want to have no more to do with you. Scarin’ a poor, unfortunate creature like Billy just so’s you could have a few laughs. I’ve been around that trashy behavior all my life, I’m gettin’ tired of puttin’ up with it. Now you can stay out of this pool hall, out of my cafe, and my picture show too. I don’t want no more of your business.
Sonny: We didn’t mean for anything bad to happen, Sam. We…
Sam: You didn’t even have the decency to wash his face.

…

Sonny: Nothing’s really been right since Sam the Lion died.
Lois: No, it hasn’t.

…

Lois: I guess if it wasn’t for Sam, I’d have missed it, whatever it is. I’d have been one of them amity types that thinks that playin’ bridge is about the best thing that life has to offer. Old Sam the Lion. Nobody knows where he got that name. I gave it to him. One night it just came to me. He was so pleased…It’s terrible to only meet one man in life who knows what you’re worth. Just terrible. And I’ve looked too. You wouldn’t believe how I’ve looked.

…

Truck driver: I’d like to know what he was doing with that broom.
Sonny: He was sweeping you sons of bitches, he was sweeping![/b]

Kids and sex – scatological no less! – among other things. Really, how the hell did did they avoid an NC17 rating? I guess because they didn’t actually show much.

These are some really strange [weird, bizarre] people. Unfortunately, there just aren’t enough like them in this world.

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
Written and directed by Miranda July

[b]Christine: [seeing his bandage] Whoa, what happened?
Richard: You want the short version or the long one?
Christine: The long one.
Richard: I tried to save my life but it didn’t work.
Christine: Wow. What’s the short one?
Richard: I burned it.

…

Saleswoman: I think everything’s gonna be computerized in twenty years.
Sylvie: Soup won’t be computerized.
Saleswoman: Why not?
Sylvie: It’s a liquid.

…

Michael: So, tell Ellen about the shoe guy. Did you go back to the store?
Christine: Yeah. And it turns out he’s a child killer. So, oh, well.

…

Andrew: Yeah, see, this is why you don’t want a village raising your kid…because there’s sketchy parts of the village and some of the villagers are junkies and child molesters.

…

Richard: …no more Internet when I’m not here. I have to be able to call you.
Peter: Maybe you should buy us cell phones.
Richard: No. Just stay off the fucking computer when I’m not here!
Peter: You can’t make us stay off the computer if you’re not here. You won’t be here to keep us off it.

…

Christine: We have a whole life to live together you fucker, but it can’t start until you call.

…

Christine: Fuck! Fuck you! Fuck me! Fuck old people! Fuck children! Fuck peace!

…

Andrew: Dude, did you just give her the family discount?
Richard: Yeah. She’s my neighbor, and I’m trying to work on my karma. Do you know what karma means?
Andrew: Yeah.
Richard: It means that she owes me one.

…

Robby: Say, “You poop into my butt hole and I poop it back into your butt hole…back and forth…forever”.[/b]

Been there? done that?
Ah, but they are ever so much more beautiful. And, come on, the ending is really not all that far removed from Hollywood

SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE
Written and directed by Steven Soderbergh

[b]Therapist: This unexpected guest notwithstanding, how are things with John?
Ann: Oh, they’re fine. Except for I’m going through this thing where I don’t want him to touch me…

…

Ann: Did he ask you to take your clothes off?
Cynthia: Did he ask me to take my clothes off? No, he didn’t.
Ann: Did you take your clothes off?
Cynthia: Yes.
Ann: Cynthia! Why did you do that?
Cynthia: Because I wanted to… I wanted him to see me.
Ann: You’re crazy. He could be bouncin’ it off some satellite. Some horny old men could be watchin’.
Cynthia: Ann! He wouldn’t do that.
Ann: You don’t know that for sure. [pause] Did he touch you?
Cynthia: No.
Ann: Did you touch him?
Cynthia: No.
Ann: Did anybody touch anybody?
Cynthia: Well… yes.
Ann: Don’t tell me… don’t tell me… don’t tell me. You didn’t!
Cynthia: I did.
Ann: You didn’t!
Cynthia: I did.
Ann: You didn’t!
Cynthia: I did!
Ann: Oh, my God. Cynthia! You’re in touble…

…

Ann: Nothing’s what I thought it was. John’s a bastard. Let’s make a videotape.
Graham: No, I…ahem…I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Ann: Why not?
Graham: Because I don’t think it’s a choice that you’d make in a normal frame of mind.
Ann: And what would you know about a normal frame of mind?

…

Ann: Well, what did he ask exactly?
Cynthia: Well, I don’t want to tell you exactly.
Ann: You let a total stranger record your sexual life on videotape, but you won’t tell your own sister?
Cynthia: Apparently.

…

Graham: No, it’s just, I, you know, I just think - right now I have one key and everything I own is in the car, and I just… I like that, you know? I mean, I just, if I get an apartment, that’s two keys, if I…get a job, you know, I might have to open or close, that’s more keys, you know, buy some stuff, I’m afraid it’s gonna get ripped off, or something, and I get more keys, and I just, I, you know, I just like having the one key, it’s clean.
John: Get rid of the car when you get the apartment. Still one key.
Graham: I like having the car. You know? The car’s important. You gotta be mobile.
John: In case you have to leave someplace in a hurry?
Graham: Yeah, or go someplace in a hurry.

…

Graham: Liars are the second-lowest form of human being on the planet.
Ann: What’s the first?
Graham: Lawyers.
Ann: Oh. That’s you, John.

…

John [on the phone]: Cynthia, John. Meet me at my house in exactly one hour.
Cynthia: You are scum. I’ll be there.

…

Graham: Yeah, I’m self-conscious. But not in the same way that you are, though.
Ann: Me? Me? You think I’m self-conscious?
Graham: Well, I have been watching you. I watch you eat, you know, I watch you speak, watch you move, and I see somebody who is extremely aware of people looking at you.

…

Ann: So, let me see. You said, um, you said that I should never take advice from someone that I haven’t had sex with, right?
Graham: Basically.
Ann: Right. And, uh, we haven’t had sex. Right?
Graham: No.
Ann: So I guess from your own advice, I shouldn’t take your advice.
Graham: I wouldn’t.

…

John: By definition, you’re lying to Ann, too.
Cynthia: Yeah, right, but I didn’t take a vow in front of God and everyone to be faithful to Ann.

…

Cynthia: So come on, I came all the way over here to find out what got Ann so spooked. Why don’t you tell me what happened?
Graham: “Spooked”? The videotapes are what got Ann so spooked.

…

Graham: Why don’t you let me tape you?
Cynthia: Doin’ what?
Graham: Talking…About sex. Your sexual history, sexual preferences.
Cynthia: What makes you think I’d discuss that?
Graham: Nothing.
Cynthia: And you just wanna ask me questions?
Graham: I just wanna ask you questions. That’s all.
Cynthia: Is this how you get off? Tapin’ women talkin’ about their sexual experiences?
Graham: Yes.

…

John: Things are getting complicated.
Cynthia: No, they’re gettin’ real simple

…

Graham: So, I don’t… I don’t understand, uh, what made you want to come here. I can’t imagine Ann painted a very flattering portrait of me.
Cynthia: Yeah, well, see, um, I don’t really listen to Ann when it comes to men. I mean, look at John, for Christ’s sake.

…

Graham: I remember reading somewhere that men learn to love the person that they’re attracted to, and that women become more and more attracted to the person that they love.

…

Ann: You know, my therapist…
Graham: You’re in therapy?
Ann: Aren’t you?

…

Graham: Do you have orgasms?
Ann: I don’t think so. I mean, I guess, since I’m not sure, that I’ve never had one

…

Ann: What did you think?
Graham: I thought about what you would look like having an orgasm.
Ann: I’d like to know what I look like havin’ an orgasm.

…

Ann: …my God, Graham. You just can’t walk up to her and show her you’ve changed like it’s some gift or somethin’. And look what you’ve changed into. Nine years. Nine years, and this is what you come up with?

…

Ann [grabbing the camera]: I just wanna ask a few questions, like why do you tape women talkin’ about sex? Why do you do that? Can you tell me why?
Graham: I don’t find turning the tables very interesting.
Ann: Well, I do. Tell me why, Graham.
Graham: Why? What? What? What do you want me to tell you? Why? Ann, you don’t even know who I am. You don’t have the slightest idea who I am. Am I supposed to recount all the points in my life leading up to this moment and just hope that it’s coherent, that it makes some sort of sense to you? It doesn’t make any sense to me. You know, I was there. I don’t have the slightest idea why I am who who I am, and I’m supposed to be able to explain it to you?

…

Graham: My problem? Do I have a problem? I look around me in this town and I see John and Cynthia and you, and I…I feel comparatively healthy.
Ann: You’ve got a problem.
Graham: You’re right. I’ve got a lot of problems. But they belong to me.
Ann: You think they’re yours, but they’re not. Everybody that walks in that door becomes part of your problem. Anybody that comes in contact with you. I didn’t wanna be part of your problem, but I am. I’m leavin’ my husband, and maybe I would have anyway, but the fact is that I’m doin’ it now. And part of it’s because of you. You’ve had an effect on my life.
Graham: This isn’t supposed to happen. I’ve spent nine years structuring my life so that this didn’t happen.[/b]

If only U.S. presidential elections were this sophisticated.

Alas, they are barely caricatures of the real thing. Or are they now role models?

Go Tammy!

ELECTION
Written and directed by: Alexander Payne

[b]Tammy: [narrating] It’s not like I’m a lesbian or anything. I’m attracted to the person. It’s just that all the people I’ve been attracted to so far happen to be girls.

…

Tracy: [narrating] None of this would have happened if Mr. McAllister hadn’t meddled the way he did. He should have just accepted things as they are instead of trying to interfere with destiny. You see, you can’t interfere with destiny, that’s why it’s destiny. And if you try to interfere, the same thing’s just going to happen anyway, and you’ll just suffer.

…

Tammy: [giving her campaign speech] Who cares about this stupid election? We all know it doesn’t matter who gets elected president of Carver. Do you really think it’s going to change anything around here? Make one single person smarter or happier or nicer? The only person it does matter to is the one who gets elected. The same pathetic charade happens every year, and everyone makes the same pathetic promises just so they can put it on their transcripts to get into college. So vote for me, because I don’t even want to go to college, and I don’t care, and as president I won’t do anything. The only promise I will make is that if elected I will immediately dismantle the student government, so that none of us will ever have to sit through one of these stupid assemblies again! [the student body erupts in huge cheers. They start chanting “Tammy! Tammy!”] Or don’t vote for me! Who cares? Don’t vote at all! [they all rise to give her a standing ovation]

…

Jim: Paul, what’s your favorite fruit?
Paul: Pears.
Jim: [goes to the chalkboard] Pears, good. OK, let’s say…
Paul: Oh, no wait! Apples.
Jim: Apples. Fine. [he starts drawing circles on the chalkboard] Let’s say all you ever knew were apples. Apples, apples, and more apples. You might think apples were pretty good, even if you got a rotten one every once in a while. But then one day… [he draws another circle on the chalkboard] …there’s an orange. And now you can make a decision, do you want an apple or do you want an orange? That’s democracy.
Paul: I also like bananas

…

Tracy: [narrating] Now that I have more life experience, I feel sorry for Mr. McAllister. I mean, anyone who’s stuck in the same little room, wearing the same stupid clothes, saying the exact same things year after year for his whole life, while his students go on to good colleges, move to big cities and do great things and make loads of money… He’s got to be at least a little jealous. It’s like my mom says, the weak are always trying to sabatoge the strong.

…

Tammy: [narrating] Being suspended is like getting a paid vacation. Why do they think it’s a punishment? It’s like your dog pees on the carpet and you give him a treat…Hendricks told me, “One more time” and I’d be expelled. Sounded good to me.

…

Jim: The sight of Tracy at that moment affected me in a way I can’t fully explain. Part of it was that she was spying, but mostly it was her face. Who knew how high she would climb in life? How many people would suffer because of her? I had to stop her, now.

…

Jim: Suddenly everyone knew who I was—that corrupt teacher who had tried to crush the dreams of an innocent girl. Overnight, all the good things I had ever done in my life evaporated. Soon the wire services picked up on the story. It was the kind of absurd news item people E-mail each other or post on the bulletin board at work.

…

Jim: [narrating] What happens to a man when he loses everything? Everything he’s worked for… everything he believes in? Driven from his home… cast out of society… how can he survive? Where can he go? New York City!

…

Tammy: Catholic school was great! I mean, the teachers kind of sucked, and they were supposedly way more strict. But you could get away with murder. The best thing about lmmaculate Heart was meeting Jennifer.

…

Tracy: When I got to Georgetown, I thought I’d finally be among people who were like me. You know, smarter, more ambitious people. I was sure that finally I’d make some true friends… It wasn’t like that at all. A lot of them were just spoiled little rich kids who didn’t know how lucky they had it. That’s OK. I’ve come to accept that very few people are truly destined to be special, and we’re solo fliers. I guess it really is like Dave said, “If you’re gonna be great, you’ve got to be lonely.”[/b]

One of those films that are supposed to “make people think”. But they take all of the things they thought before with them into the theatre. So what they might possibly think afterwards is still going to be all over the map. We will always be stumbling into each other’s narratives with narratives all our own.

It really didn’t change my mind about much. It merely reinforced what I already suspected about this fucked up world we live in today: that money doesn’t talk, it screams. And that love really isn’t all we need.

In the end it didn’t ring true for me. Instead, it sounded like what it is: scripted.

Just a note…

from imdb:

“Over 7,900 rubber frogs were made and used in the frog scenes. The rest were created by CGI. No real frogs were harmed during production.”

MAGNOLIA
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

[b]Frank: I am the one who’s in charge. I am the one who says yes! No! Now! Here! Because it’s universal, man. It is evolutional. It is anthropological. It is biological. It is animal. We! Are! Men!

…

Stanley: I’ve got to go to the bathroom
Jimmy’s assistant: Can you hold it?

…

Jim [looking down at a dead body in the closet]: What the hell is this, Marcie?
Marcie: That ain’t mine!!

…

Claudia: Now that I’ve met you, would you object to never seeing me again?

…

Frank: In this big game that we play, life, it’s not what you hope for, it’s not what you deserve, it’s what you take.

…

Thurston: It’s dangerous to confuse children with angels.

…

Claudia: I’ll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through the piss and shit and lies that kill other people.

…

Thurston: Brad, dear, who was it that said, “A man of genius has seldom been ruined but by himself”?..It was the lovely Samuel Johnson…Who also spoke of a fellow “who was not only dull but a cause of dullness in others.”
Donnie: “The cause of dullness in others.”
Thurston: Picky, picky!
Donnie: Let me tell you this. Samuel Johnson never had his life shit on and his money stolen! Who took his life and his money? His parents? His mommy and daddy?
Bar patron: Your parents took your money you won on that game show?
Donnie:Yes, they did!

…

Gwenovier: Actually, I’m confused about your past.
Frank: Is that still lingering? It’s so boring.
Gwenovier: Just want to clear some things up.
Frank: It’s a funny thing…This is an important element of “Seduce and Destroy”. Facing the past is an important way of not making progress. This is something I tell my men over and over and over.

…

Young Pharmacist: Strong, strong stuff here. What exactly you have wrong, you need all this stuff?
Linda: Motherfucker…
Young Pharmacist: What are you talking about?
Linda: Who the fuck are you, who the fuck do you think you are? I come in here, you don’t know me, you don’t know who I am, what my life is, you have the balls, the indecency to ask me a question about my life?
Old Pharmacist: Please, lady, why don’t you calm down - ?
Linda: Fuck you, too. Don’t call me “lady”. I come in here, I give these things to you, you check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions. I’m sick. I have sickness all around me and you fucking ask me about my life? “What’s wrong?” Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where’s your fucking decency? And then I’m asked fucking questions. What’s… wrong? You suck my dick. That’s what’s wrong. And you, you fucking call me “lady”? Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on both of you!

…

Jim: Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail.

…

Stanley: Dad? You need to be nicer to me.

…

Linda: I have to tell you something. I have something to tell you. I want to change his will. Can I change his will? I need to.
Alan: No, you can’t change his will. Only Earl can.
Linda: No, you see, I never loved him. I never loved him. Earl. When I met him, I fucked him, and I married him because I wanted his money. You understand? I’m telling you this. I’ve never told anyone, I didn’t love him but now, I know I’m in that will. We made that fucking thing, and all the money I’ll get. I don’t want it, because I love him so much now. I’ve fallen in love with him now for real as he’s dying. I look at him, and he’s about to go, Alan. He’s moments away from dying. I took care of him through this. What now, then?..I don’t want him to die. I didn’t love him when we met and I did so many bad things to him that he doesn’t know. Things that I want to confess to him. But now I do. I love him.
Alan: Linda, what kind of medication are you on?
Linda: This isn’t any fucking medication talking! Can you give me nothing? You have power of attorney. Can you go in the final moments and change the will? I don’t want any money. I couldn’t live with myself with this thing that I’ve done.

…

Frank: It hurts, doesn’t it? You in a lot of pain? She was in a lot of pain. Right to the end, she was in a lot of pain. I know because I was there. You didn’t like illness, though, did you? I was there. She waited for your call. For you to come. I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry for you! You cocksucker, I know you can hear me. I want you to know that I hate your fucking guts. You can just fucking die, you fuck. And I hope it hurts. I fucking hope it hurts.

…

Narrator: And there is the account of the hanging of three men, and a scuba diver, and a suicide. There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, “Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it.” Someone’s so-and-so met someone else’s so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”[/b]

This is a film the intent of which is to expose racialist thuggery. But I suspect any number of skinheads would revel in it. At least the first half. There is no dialogue speculating on why they do what they do other than in noting how there are fewer and fewer jobs for some because others are “brought over” by “the rich” to take them.

ROMPER STOMPER
Written and directed by Geoffrey Wright

[b]Gabe: [noting NAZI paraphernalia that adorns Hando’s room] Why do you have all this stuff?
Hando: Because I don’t want to be a white cooly in my own country. 'Cause it’s not our country anymore. 'Cause rich people, and powerful people brought in boat loads of human trash. Cheap labour, gooks mainly, and there’s gonna be more. I want people to know I’m proud of my white history and white blood. One day it might be all I have.

…

Skinhead: There are fucking thousands of them!

…

Hando: We can get any sort of gun we want from Bully. All we need is the cash. We need it up front.
Tracey: if you lot are going to shoot people we’re going.
Hando: Then go. We don’t want any fucking passengers from here on in.

…

Hando: I want guns. Luke, Magoo, Champ, Brett…I want revenge.

…

Gabe: You want to knock over a house, do you?
Hando: What about it?
Gabe: I know a place you could do.

…

Martin: Who the hell are you?
Sonny Jim: We came to wreck everything, and ruin your life.

…

Gabe: You live like shit! You can’t even look after yourselves![/b]

music over the closing credits:

youtube.com/watch?v=kdF2HPNFqTo

We have things. Then we want other things as well. We can either push the things we have aside or figure out a way to accommodate both. But the human heart [among other organs] isn’t always willing to accommodate us. And so we get the underlying turbulence marbled throughout love and lust and life?

The bottom line [one of them]: We only have so much control over the things we think we understand about our lives.

DAMAGE
Directed by Louis Malle

[b]Stephen: We must find a structure for this!

…

Stephen: Who are you? Who?! Are?! You?!

…

Anna: Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.

…

Stephen: I couldn’t see past you.
Anna: I think you’ve never seen much at all.

…

Stephen: What happened in Paris. The way I behaved. I’ve never had feelingd like this. I have to get them into some sort of order.

…

Stephen: I was distant as a father. I know I was. You see, I thought you could control life…but it’s not like that. There are things…There are things you can’t control.
Martyn: Uh, that’s right.
Stephen: Somehow you know that.

…

Ingrid: The owner of the flat called to give Anna instructions on how to work the boiler. And it just happened that Martyn was there. He’d never heard of the flat. Never heard of it. He took the address. It was chance.

…

Stephen: It takes a remarkably short time to withdraw from the world. I traveled until I arrived at a life of my own. What really makes us is beyond grasping. It’s way beyond knowing. We give in to love because it gives us some sense of what is unknowable. Nothing else matters, not at the end.

…

Stephen: I saw her once more only. I saw her by accident at an airport, changing planes. She didn’t see me. She was with Peter. She was holding a child. She was no different from anyone else.[/b]

A clash of cultures. Or, rather, a clash of cultures as they are imagined in Hollywood.

But this is a rather intriguing telling of narratives in conflict—one that revolves largely around “me” and another that revolves largely around “we”. Any intelligent man or woman is able to embrace the best of both worlds. Though I suspect none is intelligent enough to distinguish that philosophically.

Note: There is what has got to be one of the most passionaite kisses ever filmed. Truly, love and lust on an epic scale.
I wonder how many takes it took.

WITNESS
Directed by Peter Weir

[b]Rachel: Are you enjoying your reading?
John: Oh yeah. I’m learning a lot about manure.

…

Eli: 4:30. Time for milking.

…

Eli: You never had your hands on a teat before.
John: Not one this big. [Long pause; then Eli roars with laughter]

…

Rachel: You don’t understand. We want nothing to do with your laws.
John: Doesn’t surprise me. A lot of people I meet are like that.

…

John: [after Samuel and Rachel converse in German] What’d he say?
Rachel: He asked who you are, your name. I told him we didn’t need to know anything about you.
John: Book… John Book.

…

Rachel: Will you be coming back to take Samuel to trial?
John: There isn’t going to be any trial.

…

Rachel: My God, why didn’t you get to a hospital?
John: No, no doctor. Gunshot wound, they have to make a report. If they make a report, they find me…and if they find me they find the boy.

…

Schaeffer: Are you trying to tell me there is no way we can locate this woman? We’re talking about 20th century law enforcement, Sergeant.
Sergeant: Well there’s your problem, Chief. The Amish don’t live in the 20th Century, don’t think in the 20th Century. If the Amish have taken your man in I wouldn’t want to hang on a rope until you find him. The problem is, about every third Amish man around here is named Lapp. And we have upwards of 14,000 Amish around. And that’s just in Lancaster County. I don’t have the manpower to send a deputy to every Lapp farm to see if they’ve got your Rachel.
Schaeffer: Maybe, Sergeant, you could do a little telephoning.
Sergeant: Yeah, maybe I could. But since the Amish don’t have any phones, I wouldn’t know who to call.
Schaeffer: Thank you, Sergeant. It’s been an education.

…

John: How do I look? Do I look Amish.
Rachel: You look plain.

…

Rachel: You know carpentry. Can you do anything else?
John: Whacking. I’m hell at whacking

…

Eli: What is it with you? Is this the Ordnung?
Rachel: I have done nothing against the rule of the Ordnung.
Eli: Nothing? You bring this man to our house with the gun of the hand. You bring fear to this house.
Rachel: I’ve commited no sin.
Eli: Maybe. Maybe not yet. But, Rachel, it does not look good. You know there has been talk. Talk about going to the Bishop and having you shunned.
Rachel: That is idle talk.
Eli: Do not take it lightly. Rachel, they can do it. They can do it just like that…You know what it means, shunning. I cannot sit at table with you. I cannot take anything from your hand. I cannot go to worship with you. Child, do not go so far.
Rachel: I’m not a child.
Eli: But you are acting like one.
Rachel: I’ll be the judge of that.
Eli: No, they will be the judge of that. And so will I. If you shame me…
Rachel: You shame yourself.

…

Schaeffer: I know he’s with the Amish. God, I’d give anything to see him now. Can you see John at a prayer meeting?!

…

Eli: It’s not our way.
John: But it’s my way.
Eli: Book! No!

…

Rachel: I should tell you this kind of coat doesn’t have buttons. See? Hooks and eyes.
John: Something wrong with buttons?
Rachel: Buttons are proud and vain, not plain.
John: Got anything against zippers?
Rachel: Are you making fun of me?
John [softly]: No.

…

John: If we’d made love last night I’d have to stay. Or you’d have to leave

…

Eli: This gun of the hand is for the taking of human life. We believe it is wrong to take a life. That is only for God. Many times wars have come and people have said to us: you must fight, you must kill, it is the only way to preserve the good. But Samuel, there’s never only one way. Remember that. Would you kill another man?
Samuel: I would only kill the bad man.
Eli: Only the bad man. I see. And you know these bad men by sight? You are able to look into their hearts and see this badness?
Samuel: I can see what they do. I have seen it.

…

Rachel: He’s leaving, isn’t he?
Eli: Tomorrow morning. He’ll need his city clothes.
Rachel: But why? What’s he going back to? Nothing.
Eli: He’s going back to his world, where he belongs. He knows it, and you know it, too.[/b]

The “war on drugs”. As ludicrous now as it was back then. Of course, the most dangerous drugs by far – booze and cigarettes – are still legal. And political corruption may as well be.

Supposedly based on actual events. And actual characters.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Directed by William Friedkin

[b]Chemist: Blast off: one-eight-oh. Two hundred: Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Two ten: U.S. Government certified. Two twenty: lunar trajectory, junk of the month club, sirloin steak. Two thirty: Grade A poison. Absolute dynamite. Eighty-nine percent pure junk. Best I’ve ever seen. If the rest is like this, you’ll be dealing on this load for two years.

…

Popeye: All right! You put a shiv in my partner. You know what that means? Goddammit! All winter long I got to listen to him gripe about his bowling scores. Now I’m gonna bust your ass for those three bags and I’m gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie.

…

Popeye: If that’s not a drop I’ll open up a charge for you at Bloomingdale’s.

…

Weinstock: [to the Chemist] Thank you, Howard. Take what’s left there with you and good night. Ah-ah… not that one. The little one.

…

Walt: [seething] Jimmy! You’ve wasted two months on this! No collars are coming in while you two guys are running around town jerking off! Now go back to work! You’re off Special Assignment!

…

Boca: Look, I’m telling you, he’ll take the deal somewhere else.
Weinstock: So let him take sixty kilos of heroin somewhere else and find out how easy it is to put together half a million in cash. You won’t find there’s any hurry to do this kind of business.
Boca: The stuff is here! We can make the switch in an hour! Look Weinstock, I’m telling you they’ll split if we don’t move. This guy’s got them like that, he’s everything they say he is!
Weinstock: What about you, Sal? Are you everything they say YOU are?

…

Mulderig: Nothing in there except a New York City map.
Popeye: Are you bullshitting me? That car’s dirty. Take it in and tear it apart!

…

Cloudy: What was the weight of the car when you got it, Irv?
Irv: 4,795 pounds.
Cloudy: The owner’s manuel says 4,675. It’s 120 pounds overweight. Popeye’s gotta be right.
Irv: Listen, I ripped everything out of there, except for the rocker panels.
Popeye: Come on, Irv, what the hell’s that?!

…

Cloudy: Mulderig. You shot Mulderig!
Popeye. That son of a bitch is here, I saw him. I’m going to get him.
[/b]

But he doesn’t. Frog one vanishes into thin air.

The lies that Glass foisted on the “liberal” owners at The New Republic isn’t the scandal here. The scandal is the truth that journalists like this [across the board] refuse to own up to. Many of these “kids” don’t even grasp it. The corporate press is a function of political economy. It is summed up each and every year at the White House correspondents dinner.

And talk about men and women who live in a “world of words”. And it is always each other’s.

All that aside, this is still a riveting film. The inherent drama embedded in someone’s life falling apart at the seams. Someone in the “public eye”. However small that public might be.

SHATTERED GLASS
Directed by Billy Ray

[b]Stephen: I didn’t do anything wrong, Chuck.
Chuck: I really wish you’d stop saying that.

…

Adam: A major software company with only one phone line?

…

Adam: This guy is toast.

…

Adam: But there is one thing in the story that checks out.
Kambiz: What’s that?
Adam: There does appear to be a state in the union named Nevada.

…

Amy: Have you noticed the way Steve’s phone has been ringing lately? Did you see all those editors at the correspondence dinner? The way they were circling him?
Caitlin: Is that what you want, Amy? To get a bunch of smoke blown up your ass by a pack of editors?
Amy: Yes. Yes it is

…

Stephen: You don’t know how things go where I grew up, Caitlin. There are rules there. If your son’s not a doctor or a lawyer, you keep your curtains closed.
Caitlin: You’re writing for The New-fucking-Republic. Isn’t that good enough?
Stephen: Not in Highland Park.

…

Amy: How about the commas and dates? Are we supposed to circle those too?
Caitlin: Let’s just get this done, okay?
Michael: What the hell is this?
Catlin: Marty told us to circle all the commas in the last issue, so he could show us how we used them improperly.
Michael: What?!
David: He said, “Commas should always appear in pairs.” Apparently the issue was rife with comma errors.
Michael: “Rife”?
Caitlin: That’s what he said.

…

Stephen: It’s in my notes.

…

Stephen: I’m afraid that I’m…I’m going to do something, okay? Did you hear what I said?
Chuck: Yeah. It’s a hell of a story.
Stephen: Chuck, please?
Chuck: Stop pitching, Steve. It’s over.

…

Chuck: Caitlin, When this thing blows, there isn’t going to be a magazine anymore. If you want to make this about Mike, make it about Mike. I don’t give a shit. You can resent me, you can hate me, but come Monday morning, we’re all going to have to answer for what we let happen here. We’re all going to have an apology to make! Jesus Christ! Don’t you have any idea how much shit we’re about to eat? Every competitor we ever took a shot at, they’re going to pounce. And they should. Because we blew it, Caitlin. He handed us fiction after fiction and we printed them all as fact. Just because…we found him “entertaining.”[/b]

Again, making this a “big scandal” in our corporate media is like reducing the Nixon adminstration scandals down to the Watergate break in!

What if it’s even more mysterious than this? And what can we really know about someone we are not? After all, many don’t even have a clearer understanding of who they think they are themselves. How strange is it that others might go after what utterly appalls us? Or ask silly questions like, “what’s it all mean?”

Suffer the little children. And some big ones too.

MYSTERIOUS SKIN
Written and directed by Gregg Araki

[b]Brian: [narrating] The summer I was 8 years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours. Lost. Gone without a trace…Last thing I remember I was sitting on the bench at my Little League game. It started to rain. What happened after that remains a pitch black void.

…

Neil [narrating]: I met Wendy Peterson when I was ten. She was eleven, one grade ahead of me in school. If I wasn’t queer we would have ended up having sloppy teenage sex and getting pregnant, contributing more fucked-up unwanted kids to society. But instead, she became my soulmate

…

Man: I know what you’re thinking. That wasn’t safe. But we’re in Kansas, thank God, not some big city full of diseases. Plus, you’re only a kid.

…

Wendy: Even Hutchinson has its share of freaks. You trick with the wrong guy and I’d find pieces of you everywhere.

…

Neil: I am so fucking sick of this stinkin’ little buttcrack of a town!!!

…

Neil: I hate it when they look like Tarzan but sound like Jane.

…

Eric: I got a postcard from Wendy.
Neil: I think she’s mad at me because I owe her like 3 letters.
Eric: Yeah, her last P.S. is “Tell Fuckface to write me.”

…

Wendy: You’d better be careful.
Eric: Of what?
Wendy: I’m serious, Eric. You’re not in Modesto anymore. I see the way you look at him.
Eric: He’s so beautiful. I can’t help it. He’s like a god.
Wendy: You don’t have to tell me, I was infatuated with him too once. But I know all Neil’s secrets and there’s shit there you don’t even want to know about. Trust me. Once I’m gone, you’ll be all Neil has and you have to understand one thing. Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole. And if you don’t watch out, you can fall in and get lost forever.

…

Neil: Different folks, different strokes.

…

Eric: “Okay” is a relative term.

…

Wendy: We’re not in Kansas anymore, Neil. You have got to be so careful.
Neil: I know.
Wendy: Don’t “l know” me, Neil McCormick. This is New York City. You do the wrong thing with the wrong person and you die.

…

Dad: Brian, don’t be like this. I drove all this way. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.
Brian: Well, let me tell you what I want to know. Something happened to me when I was little. Do you know what I’m talking about? What happened to me that night I woke up bleeding in the cellar? Where were you that night?
Dad: You’re drunk.
Brian: Quit avoiding the subject! I was bleeding, I kept passing out! I wet my fucking bed and you never asked why! And what about that Halloween when I blacked out again? Something happened to me both those nights! What do you know about it? Tell me!
Dad: I’m sorry, Brian, l… I can’t help you.

…

Neil: Then we played the 5 dollar game.

Neil: [narrating] And as we sat there listening to the carolers, I wanted to tell Brian it was over now and everything would be okay. But that was a lie, plus, I couldn’t speak anyway. I wish there was some way for us to go back and undo the past. But there wasn’t. There was nothing we could do. So I just stayed silent and trying to telepathically communicate how sorry I was about what had happened. And I thought of all the grief and sadness and fucked up suffering in the world, and it made me want to escape. I wished with all my heart that we could just leave this world behind. Rise like two angels in the night and magically disappear.[/b]