Sunday 22 February 2015

Sunday Mornings: Coffee, Reflections and Music

The old codger in me was tested recently. I ordered the movie A Little Princess for the film club I run in my school. Halfway through the 97-minute-long film, I realised that I wasn’t cut out for this riches-to-rags-and-back-to-riches phony story anymore. I was taking the mickey (silently, of course) of everything in the movie: the implausible plot, the weak performances, the beyond-caricature dramatis personae, the obvious manipulation of feelings and emotions. Even the interaction between white, (ex) rich girl, Sara and black servant Becky had me muttering: She can’t even pull off a credible Harriet Beecher Stowe! Yes, I confess, I was behaving like a grumpy, old git, but when you have been exposed to the sugar-coated Hollywood machine for so long, you might begin to understand why I was playing Mr Grinch.

A Little Princess was made in 1995, twenty years ago. Twenty years! Has anything changed in the film industry in the interim? Yes, looking on the positive side, some things have. We have better films and better-written scripts. Also, nowadays with movies aimed at the younger generation, we usually get a nod in our direction, too. A wink at us, oldies. Companies like Pixar make intelligent films. Yet, the mission statement of the film industry remains the same: whatever happens, she (Always a she. apparently characters in children's films are not allowed to be gay) marries the guy at the end. Don’t believe me? Exhibit A: Frozen. I was looking forward to watching it with my film club (silly me, every single member had already seen it and knew the songs by heart) because I was told that the story was so original and the score was so original, too, and the animation was so... well, you get my point.
Alittleprincessposter.jpg
A change is gonna come?

Bloody Frozen. Or should I say: Bloody Frozen? That is how I felt after the final credits rolled up. Beyond cold. What’s so original about a girl who depends on a man to save her sister? There was a moment in the film when Elsa is on the verge of confessing her secret to her sister Anna and I willed her – actually willed her! – to make a comment along the lines of: You know what, Anna, I’m dating Nigel Farage. There, I’ve said it. I know he is married to that German woman but I also know that he can’t tell Teuton from Slavic. It’s all the same to him. We have similar opinions, too. I mean, have you seen all these bloody foreign princes coming here to eat our food? At least I would have hated her, but hated with passion and with good reason. But no, we got another bland character, or rather, a whole set of them instead. And a catchy tune that has probably been incorporated in the torture regime in Guantanamo.

Not all animations bring out the dormant old codger in me. My favourite kids’ movie in recent years has been Kung Fu Panda. The main reason is that we get well-rounded characters with a back story and flaws and virtues like everyone else. The eponymous hero is fat and clumsy and remains fat and clumsy until the end, even after he defeats the dangerous Tai Lung. It is a funny movie but instead of laughing at the characters I was laughing with them. There is even a message about the way we bring children up and how, the damage we might cause them in childhood, will probably emerge later in life with unpredictable consequences. That’s what happens to Tai Lung. Others might opine that there is a certain undercurrent of biological determinism in the movie. This mainly applies to Tai Lung as he was seen as “destined” to be bad. Whatever your view of the movie is, the fact that we can interpret it in different ways is evidence of the good quality of it.

I can hardly say the same about A Little Princess or Frozen. My brain went dead for an hour and a half. I know that some of you will say that it is only a movie and the implausible plot follows a long, historical line of implausible plots whose main objective is to rake in the greens. Yes, I agree. Some of you might also point at new female characters emerging in a sort of counterculture movement (Cat, the PhD student dreamed by Will Brooker being a case in point). Yet, they usually end up copying their male counterparts, including violence.

The only solution I can see on the horizon is when studios stop seeing movies as the word I mentioned before, “industry”, and begin to see it as what it was at the beginning of cinema: an art. An art that is not dependent on gender or stereotypes. An art where characters do not have to break into song every five minutes telling themselves to “let it go”.

A recent item on Thought for the Day, Radio Four’s flagship religious section, had me scratching my head. Two babies, born with jaundice, were put in an incubator. They were handed back to their mothers who checked with hospital staff to make sure they had the right infant. Ten years later and after some DNA tests... well, you can imagine what happened.

The reason why the case came to the attention of the media was that the hospital in which the babies were kept was found guilty of negligence. However, that was not the salient point of the mix-up for me. What I wanted to find out was the parents’ reaction. Would they love their child less now that they knew it wasn’t biologically theirs? Or was faux-biological, paternal love strong enough to withstand this challenge?

The answer was provided by the bishop Richard Harries, who read the item in his Thought for the Day slot. One of the mothers said: “We were so afraid to lose one another that we realised how much love we have for each other. We don’t need the same blood to feel part of the same family”. End of head-scratching for me.

Whilst Richard used Jesus as a prop to illustrate the fact that we all belong to a big family, a religious family, this story of children being brought up by accidental, surrogate parents returned once more my faith – humanist faith – in my fellow humans. Believe me, I needed that after A Little Princess.



© 2015

Next Post: “Let’s Talk About...”, to be published on Wednesday 25th February at 11:59pm (GMT)

31 comments:

  1. Don't get me started on Disney movies and how they remake fairy tales.

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    1. They have got better over time but the formula remains the same. :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  2. You get to watch movies while you’re working, that’s something at least. True, many are not worth watching. Do you discuss them with the kids? How do they rate the derivative ones?

    You’ve given us Hilde Knef; I am amazed and surprised (not the same, from one foreigner English speaker to another); I love her, and have recently bought several of her ITunes collections for my phone. I listen to her and others like her, like Dietrich and Leander - while I’m walking the dog. Not that I’m old enough to have listened to the grand Divas much before, but my mum did.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Friko. We always discuss the movies before and after. And if the movie is of a left-field, non-mainstream nature, I will usually add the odd comment here and there during the screening. I am lucky to have very clever kids in my film club. We have unconsciously struck a deal: every three or four commericla movies, I get to screen a "difficult" one.

      I first came across the music of Hilde Knet about 20 years ago when I was sitting my Grundstufe and Mittelstufe exams at the Goethe Institut. I needed something to challenge me and her voice was so crisp and clear. I love it. I'm trying to keep up with music in German as much as my personal finances allow. I have go ta couple of CDs by Barbara Morgenstein even though a lot of her songs are heavy on techno with very few words.

      Greetings from London.

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  3. Some fairy tales remakes are great but there are those which aren't really that good in my opinion. Personally, I like it when there's a twist in the story. It makes me look at the story I grew up with and learned to love from a different perspective. :D

    Thanks for sharing your reflections. I'm always looking forward reading them.

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    1. Especially when you get rid of the "fairy" part of the story! :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  4. Movies with good scripts you say? Ummm maybe one or two a month, if that. I don't care how good a script is if it a remake or reboot or redo or rip off, that is lazy arse writing and trying to cash in, i.e. Ghostbuster reboot. But Pixar do make great movies. Dreamworks make some good ones too, kids movies from those two are almost always good. Disney uses the same formula over and over again. If it ain't broke, don't fix it is there model.

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    1. Dreamworks is great. I should have mentioned them in my post. :-)

      Greetings from London.

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  5. well i am glad that th emother still loved her regardless of blood,
    love is not only as deep as blood, thank goodness...at least in some...

    i have come to expect most movies to have shallow characters
    and portrayals of love...sadly....

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  6. I can't make an intelligent comment about films because I don't (or VERY rarely) see any. I gave up on them years ago and now only watch by recommendation - which are few and far between. I don't even watch television these days, except to catch up on the news. However, I do still have an opinion on the love of babies. Actually I find it hard to understand how a parent can get it wrong... nurses, yes, but ... a mother? I knew my son at birth and would have known him even if surrounded by 50 babies. There's a connection, you see, unseen but there. Still, I bow to superior knowledge on the subject. Still, I'm happy that the mothers and babes in question loved each so much all those years. They will never lose that love, no matter what happens in the future.

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    1. I agree. There's a connection but when you add in the trauma of birth, the jaundice and everything else, I gather that most of the relatives must have been glad to just see the babies alive and well. I fel tthe connection with my two children from the moment they came out. Maybe because I was there when they were born.

      Greetings from London.

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  7. I don't get bothered by soppy plots - we need that as well as thought provoking stuff although it's depressing that Hollywood concentrates so hard on it. Hldegarde reminds me of Marlene Dietrich!.

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  8. Oh, I love Kung Fu Panda -- very funny film! At least in the end of Frozen, one sister saved the other.

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  9. haven't seen frozen yet but yeah - there are some really flat movies and some really good one that even though for kids have some great wisdom, intelligent jokes and an interesting storyline... one of my favs lately was - ich, einfach unverbesserlich - ha dunno the english title though

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  10. I have a four-year-old granddaughter, so am well acquainted wth Frozen. I have not, yet, chewed my arm off rather than watch it again.

    But - on the subject of films - I'm just back from the Far East, where there's the customary razzmatazz about the Oscars, with a comment - 'Haven't we got enough biopics of successful white men?' That hit home - so I looked at who is up for awards, the actors and directors, and yes - they're right. Somehow that feels more pernicious to me than Frozen, which is a cartoon. Where are the films to show the successes of men and women of colour?

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  11. I'm out of the loop when it comes to kidlet movies. I think I'm grateful for that, for the most part. Still, I would be happy to watch alongside a group of bright kids and have them discuss it.

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  12. No la conozco.
    Hoy te dejo mis saludos de amistad, un buen domingo.

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  13. Since I'm an empty nester now, I don't get any info on kid movies.

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  14. I hardly watch movies anymore...at least not at the theaters, anyway. I am very picky about the movies I like to watch. I prefer suspense, based on true stories and I hate movies that use foul language a lot.

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  15. I cannot recall ever having watched an animated film for children, so I have no sense of whether or not they have gotten better or worse in recent years. I will rely entirely on your judgment, CiL.

    However, thanks to cable television, especially Turner Classic Movies, I have watched dozens of older films I would not have had the opportunity to otherwise see. My latest fascination has been movies from the 1930s. From my perspective, the "golden age" of movies was the 1940s. My criteria revolve mostly around the writing (story-telling) and the acting. No matter which era one is considering, I think upwards of eighty percent of all movies have no redeeming value -- and, especially, no artistic significance.

    Family, tribe, confederation, in that order, I think. And, I have a hard time understanding how parents could/would not know something was wrong in the situation you describe.

    I did not realize Hildegard Knef was a singer as well as an actress. I enjoyed her performance.

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  16. I am, I guess, lucky enough not to have seen either of these movies! But I enjoyed reading about your consternation. Thanks. k. (Manicddaily)

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  17. I really like Kung Fu Panda

    Take care!

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  18. Thank goodness the mother still loved her, regardless of blood ties...really warms the heart when love overrides all else, doesn't it?
    I really like Kung Fu Panda too...it is genuinely funny and entertaining...unlike so many others!

    Have a great day:)

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  19. Hello greetings and good wishes.

    I watch movies occasionally but not kid movies. The last movie I saw was a Hindi movie called TWO STATES== which is a love story of two people belonging to two different states in India speaking different languages and following different customs. Love prevails in the end although the in laws create too many problems for the lovers to get married.

    I am amazed at your interest in watching all kinds of movies and offering a detailed comment. Commenting on movies needs special skills and you are good as a commentator.

    Best wishes

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  20. Disney y sus peliculas marcaron nuestra niñez, pero ahora han perdido poder, apuestan mas por series como Hanna Montana o Jonas Brothers, ya no hay Blancanieves, ni Mickey Mouse. Ahora me gustan peliculas estilo Shrek.

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  21. That does pose an interesting question--nature vs. nurture. Would you love the child you raise more or less than the child you found out was really yours?

    As for movies...they all frustrate me these days. I always think movies were great in the 80s/90s, but maybe it was just that I was younger then and didn't know better!

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  22. I very rarely watch the big mainstream films - I love really obscure films and I'm lucky i live very near an art house cinema that shows obsvure films. Not all of them are good of course, but generally are at least a refreshing change to the mainstream

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  23. Haha, and here I was thinking I was the only one who hasn't fallen under the starry-eyed spell of Frozen. I still can't understand what sets it apart so much for it to be that big a hit (and adults are fawning over it, too, no less!)!

    I watched Little Princess quite a long time ago, so I don't remember what my overall response to it was but I vaguely remember being turned off by the derogatory way the protagonist talks about her time in India (or was it in Secret Garden?).

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  24. Fairytales Hollywood style... I liked them as a kid though probably I liked more Woody Woodpecker and Tom and Jerry cartoons than Cinderella. Did they make me believe in the Prince who will come one day? Maybe... a little bit... :-)
    Very touching the answer of one the mothers with the switched babies.

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  25. Kid movies can sometimes be a welcome relief due to their inspirational/positive quality :)

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