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hat difficult to take him and his work seriously i do admire inglourious basterds and django unchained for providing fresh insights into their respective topics e g basterds depiction of the cultural and linguistic diversity in wwii era europe django s commendable bravely confrontational exploration of the slave trade but as they coast along and hit their b movie beats there are times when they simply can t be taken all that seriously and are in fact pretty embarrassing to behold this is because the films are strictly set in quentinland and thus are chiefly designed to offer up highly entertaining and visceral cinematic experiences via tarantino s now well established tools of choice flowery dialogue flamboyant characters impeccable fusions of music and imagery and of course elaborate displays of violence i perfectly understand that these traits are what tarantino s films are all about they re simply what defines his distinctive voice making him the filmmaker i and many others know and love and yet i m growing increasingly weary and agitated by both the public adoration that violent works like django which recently snagged two oscars including one for tarantino for best original screenplay continue to attract and especially the nature of many filmmakers relationships with violence as a part of their storytelling vocabulary which i d argue is a little too over dependent for comfort while people frequently seek out films for entertainment and escape i have long felt that a main goal of cinema should be to chronicle and explore universal human experiences after all what better way to connect with an audience and provide further insight into the human condition than to pick apart the stuff of everyday life in all of its beauty and complexity through this lens the abundance of violence in film becomes unspeakably perverse exactly how essential is violence to illuminating the human condition if so few of us have actually encountered serious forms of it with our own eyes for how long have we been tricked into thinking that murder is a useful tool for examining so called universal truths that murder is in fact one of those universal truths on a few occasions i have spoken with my close friend chris magee about the use of violence in cinema and its relationship to real life violence the last time we had a discussion on the topic we both agreed that the average north american will fortunately pass through his or her life without ever having to kill anybody shortly afterwards chris showed me a documentary on youtube that featured vietnam veterans talking about their experiences in the war specifically the extreme trauma they went through as a result of killing other human beings years ago that documentary plainly illustrated the real effects of violence the true nature of violence to hear those veterans stories then contemplate how tarantino and other filmmakers use violence in their work is more than a little off putting to say the least in some cases it simply feels wrong to see a detached obsessive fanboy like tarantino orchestrate his gleeful killing sprees set to pop or rap music behind the argument that it s only movie violence feels wrong and irresponsible again not because having so much violence in a film will turn viewers into killers but instead because it doesn t afford any respect to those who have actually had to face murder and death in their own lives that s why you would never want to see inglourious basterds sitting next to a world war ii veteran a situation like that makes the insulting nature of the film clear as day chris has also convinced me how a man like samuel fuller is infinitely more entitled to make a film about war than tarantino simply because of how much life the man has seen fuller lived a truly extraordinary life in which he not only served as an infantryman in world war ii but also worked as a crime reporter and novelist before making a name for himself in filmmaking fuller constantly drew from his own life when making his raw honest films he had a rich field of experience he could consult to inform the stories he told next to him people like tarantino who seemingly learned everything they know about the world just from watching movies are simply too detached from real life and as a result come across as pitiful phonies i m not saying that in order for a film to have any credibility or meaning to it it has to be based on actual experiences lived by one or more of its key authors however after not only observing tarantino and other filmmakers flush away human life onscreen in such a flippant manner but also seeing how ubiquitous and commonplace such films have become i think it would only be a good thing to see a more work that is based on something thoughtful and genuine like actual experiences rather than detached adolescent fantasy b violence handled in a more serious light more often in cinema and c more filmmakers do away with violence altogether in their storytelling regarding point b i not only think of tarantino who has long been a favorite punching bag for arguments like the ones presented here but also other filmmakers whose use of violence comes across as childish grotesque and stupid many have commented on the increasingly nihilistic worldview of christopher nolan s dark knight trilogy i myself can t help but think of the video game like anonymity of the gun wielding goons who threaten inception s team of dream hackers yes they re only dream figments but it s still unsettling to see how casually they are first conjured then eliminated throughout the film then there are the robert rodriguezes and michael bays of the world true juveniles whose fascination with noisy obnoxious destruction serves no constructive purpose and leaves no room for anything resembling a responsible or positive worldview sure these directors are clearly invested in providing escapism not contemplation but is this really the kind of escapism people want are they really so eager to lose themselves in films that are so sorely lacking in conscience and really that s what it boils down to for me i m just so weary and tired of filmmaking that lacks a conscience and utilizes death so thoughtlessly and frequently positioning it as the ideal way to resolve conflict just to get away from the nastiness and cynicism that saturates so much of film culture i have been taking more comfort in filmmakers who in fact don t feel they need to rely on screen violence to tell interesting stories in interesting ways and i feel so much better for it they have meaningful things to say about the world that are grounded in easily relatable experiences and come across as so much more positive and compassionate than the majority of the messages i d be likely to find in a heavily violent film along these lines i m specifically thinking of filmmakers like jean renoir the humanist par excellence jacques tati the gentle clown of french cinema and françois truffaut whose relatively rare uses of violence in his films often significantly come across as rather clumsy sometimes to great effect as in shoot the piano player sometimes to poor effect as in the bride wore black in any case he is better remembered for sunnier stronger films like stolen kisses day for night the wild child and small change more recent efforts from asian cinema have created an interesting dichotomy while park chan wook has been lavished with praise for his prettily framed studies of violence and its harmful consequences right up to stoker others like hou hsiao hsien apichatpong weerasethakul and hirokazu kore eda have been at work making some of the most peaceful and light hearted films you could hope to find if there is a cinematic father figure for these modern masters it is surely yasujiro ozu whose calm orderly family dramas say so much without resorting to outlandish scenarios indeed they hardly ever leave the households office buildings bars and train platforms of a bygone yet still familiar tokyo a number of his contemporaries in the japanese film industry hiroshi shimizu mikio naruse likewise remained quite content with the stuff of everyday life as for akira kurosawa while he is well known for creating some of the most striking scenes of violence in all of cinema one need only think of films like rashomon seven samurai or ran to understand that kurosawa s violence is nearly always in service to his critiques of mankind s stupidity and savagery kurosawa did not use violence lightly and made sure to put it to some constructive purpose in his films kurosawa was another big gateway filmmaker for me but these days i m more likely to turn to ozu it s not that i have lost sight of kurosawa s greatness nor have i grown scared of or extra sensitive to screen violence hell if anything i ve developed a pretty high tolerance level of all manner of movie gore but that s part of the point i m making here how did it reach that point where i and so many other viewers are unshaken by the carnage we see in so many films how wide is the disconnect between the seemingly harmless fantastical violence of the movies and the real thing i m not passing any judgments on anyone s tastes nor am i saying that i m done with violent films forever i d just like to take a bit of a break and lessen my intake of violent cinema for a bit and why not the way i see it having more playful compassionate and conscientious films in my viewing intake can only be a good thing yet while this is a personal choice in the way i watch and think about film it would be interesting to see more filmmakers follow this route as well to see them challenge themselves by turning away from violence and murder and towards more relatable and commonplace subject matter for their stories there is a delightful documentary tribute to ozu called talking with ozu available on the criterion edition of tokyo story as well as on youtube in separate parts in which such filmmakers as hou claire denis wim wenders and lindsay anderson share their personal connections to the japanese master in it finnish filmmaker aki kaurismäki offers up his words of gratitude and affection at one point voicing his admiration for ozu s aversion to violence what i respect most is that ozu never needed to use murder or violence to tell everything that s essential about human life while he admits in his typically self deprecating manner that he will never reach ozu s level kaurismäki can rest easy a deeply conscientious filmmaker in his own right he rarely resorts to violence and only ever lets it play a small part in his nourishing humanist tales but what about other filmmakers are there any who would be willing to take up the ozu challenge and ease off of the bloodshed in their own films pedro costa voices a similar wish at the end of a recent interview for mubi com s notebook in which he imagines a version of david fincher s the girl with the dragon tattoo devoid of any violence let s avoid every single murder killing weapon that s the challenge it s challenges in cinematic storytelling like that that i d be very happy to see more of after all there s something to be said for the filmmaker whose idea of an essential prop is a red teapot rather than a human skull yasujiro ozu s equinox flower quentin tarantino s django unchained posted by marc saint cyr at 10 11 am 5 comments labels aki kaurismäki akira kurosawa apichatpong weerasethakul hirokazu kore eda hou hsiao hsien non violent cinema park chan wook pedro costa quentin tarantino violent cinema yasujiro ozu wednesday march 20 2013 early 2013 activity rotterdam picks of 2012 rip donald richie shinsedai hello all i come to you today with a gathering of pieces most of which i wrote that have been recently posted my report on the 42nd international film festival rotterdam which i attended in january and february has just been posted in senses of cinema s 66th issue in it i talk about a healthy portion of the films i saw from the master stoker and the kaurismäki costa erice de oliveira directed omnibus film centro histórico to such pleasant surprises as manuela morgaine s foudre carlos lechuga s melaza alex pitstra s die welt sebastián hofmann s halley and anand gandhi s ship of theseus sebastián hofmann s halley anand gandhi s ship of theseus aki kaurismäki s segment from centro histórico i was kindly invited to join a few of my other colleagues in japanese cinema studies including chris magee and julian ross in sharing my thoughts on the passing of donald richie who was truly legendary for his contributions to writing on japanese film and culture click here to view the group obit the 2013 edition of the shinsedai cinema festival which has been showcasing independent japanese films in toronto every summer for the past four years and which i have been personally involved with for just as long has been officially cancelled due to a shortage of funds and sponsors read the announcement from chris the festival director here finally at both senses of cinema and midnight eye i listed and wrote about my favourite films of 2012 thanks for reading and happy first day of spring posted by marc saint cyr at 11 42 am no comments labels best films of 2012 donald richie international film festival rotterdam japanese cinema shinsedai cinema festival thursday march 7 2013 book plug directory of world cinema france hello all today i d just like to mention another film book project i ve contributed to that will be arriving in bookstores shortly the directory of world cinema france edited by tim palmer and charlie michael this is the latest in intellect books directory of world cinema series which consists of volumes of essays and reviews that cover cinema from countries as diverse as italy spain finland germany iran china and the usa i have previously contributed to the japan and japan 2 volumes and will have an essay on hirokazu kore eda in the upcoming japan 3 all of which edited by john berra this volume provides a pretty far ranging look at the rich body of work that makes up french cinema with chapters that cover such areas as horror comedy the avant garde and documentaries and reviews tackling films as diverse as last year at marienbad port of shadows rififi amélie the 400 blows the beaches of agnès zero for conduct and un chien andalou lots of ground is covered while room is still left for future volumes to explore as for my contributions i wrote the framing essay on the chapter that tackles one of french cinema s most well known phenomena the french new wave as well as the effects that it had on the french film industry i also wrote three of the book s film reviews the ones covering jean pierre jeunet s a very long engagement françois truffaut s the last metro and jacques tati s play time all films that are very close to my heart all in all i m very happy with how the book turned out and i m extremely thankful and flattered that tim and charlie included me in the project thanks guys and for any film folk who c...