{"id":2926,"date":"2005-03-25T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-25T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/this-post-is-brought-to-you-by-the-letter-m\/"},"modified":"2005-03-25T10:14:00","modified_gmt":"2005-03-25T10:14:00","slug":"this-post-is-brought-to-you-by-the-letter-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/03\/this-post-is-brought-to-you-by-the-letter-m.html","title":{"rendered":"This post is brought to you by … the letter M"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I have always liked the letter M. The M volume was my favorite of all the World Book Encyclopedia volumes, for it contained both \u201cMythology\u201d and \u201cMotion Pictures\u201d. M is also the first initial in the first names of both my sisters. And it is the first letter of the last three films I saw that I have not blogged yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple nights ago the wife and I watched <\/span>Munchhausen<\/a><\/i> (1943), the film that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels commissioned in order to prove that the Germans, as enmeshed in the war as they were, could still produce sumptuous, colourful epics to rival the productions of Hollywood. In this, he succeeded; what\u2019s more, because the film has a certain sexual frankness (Munchhausen sneaks away for a tryst with Catherine the Great, topless women frolic in the Sultan\u2019s harem, etc.), it\u2019s possible the international audiences of its day might have found the film even <\/span>more<\/i> impressive than the somewhat more constrained American films of that time. And thankfully, there is virtually nothing of the Nazi ideology in this film, beyond one or two relatively harmless references to the \u201cfatherland,\u201d so modern audiences can enjoy it without all that other baggage. FWIW, I have never read the original Munchhausen legends, but I recognized a number of story elements from the 1988 Terry Gilliam film (which, incidentally, I have not seen in <\/span>years<\/i>, though I was once quite a fan) \u2014 the King and Queen of the Moon with the detachable heads, the man who runs extremely fast, etc. \u2014 and I was impressed by how convincing some of the special effects were in this much older film. I also liked that servant of the Sultan whose only job is to swing a pendulum, count the seconds, and tell time; he\u2019s a human clock. Definitely worth a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, Robert Altman\u2019s <\/span>McCabe and Mrs. Miller<\/a><\/i> (1971) \u2014 look, <\/span>three<\/i> M\u2019s! \u2014 which I have wanted to see for some time because it was one of the first major Hollywood films to be made in the Vancouver area, thus paving the way for today\u2019s much-vaunted \u201cHollywood North\u201d. (Mike Nichols\u2019 <\/span>Carnal Knowledge<\/i>, with Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, was also made here around that time.) I like seeing Warren Beatty in films that were made before he began acting as his own writer and producer and director, and Julie Christie is great as the Cockney bordello madam who knows exactly what her clients want and how to treat her whores right \u2014 the scene where she critiques Beatty for his ignorance and lack of class in such matters is a hoot. There\u2019s also a very nice winter-y feel to this film, in scenes like the one where a guy throws a jug out onto the ice and then shoots <\/span>around<\/i> it to make the jug float, or in the final scenes, as Beatty plays cat-and-mouse with his would-be killer in the snow. Could be worth seeing again.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, last night, <\/span>Moolaad\u00e9<\/a><\/i> (2004), Ousmane Sembene\u2019s deservedly lauded film about so-called female circumcision, and a woman who offers sanctuary to four girls who are fleeing such a ritual. The woman invokes an ancient spell to give power to her offer \u2014 the men dare not risk the curse that would fall on them if they were to enter her house and take the girls away \u2014 and it is interesting to see how everyone insists on the necessity of following their ancient and basically pagan traditions even as they try to justify those traditions in the light of their community\u2019s conversion to Islam some centuries ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, technology and the mass media are presented here as forces of enlightenment, though not necessarily at odds with religion: early on, a man says he wants to listen to the Koran on the radio; later, the men blame the woman\u2019s rebellion on her radio, and so they round up and destroy all such devices; near the end, the woman boasts that she heard the grand imam say on the radio that female circumcision is <\/span>not<\/i> mandated by the Koran; and the last two shots in the film are that of an ostrich egg perched atop the mosque, followed by a similarly-angled shot of a TV antenna. (Has the antenna supplanted the mosque? Or does it supplement it?) This is a striking contrast to a lot of other films, which tend to portray such modernizing, globalizing forces as a problem that small, isolated villages would be better off without.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am also struck, once again, by the very different rhythms of African life, as seen in the handful of African films that I have watched, and the way the villagers meet and greet each other through some fairly elaborate rituals; I was particularly reminded of Cheick Oumar Sissoko\u2019s <\/span>Genesis<\/a><\/i> (1999), an Africanized version of the Bible, in which characters ritualistically recite the stories of their communities and the lineages of their ancestors; nothing in <\/span>Moolaad\u00e9<\/i> is quite <\/span>that<\/i> extensive, but there is a parallel in the <\/span>formality<\/i> of the characters\u2019 social interactions.<\/span><\/p>\n

And lastly, as one who got married just weeks ago, and as one who recently saw the documentary <\/span>Inside Deep Throat<\/i> \u2014 in which we learn that apparently one of the legal arguments brought against that famous porno flick by the prosecution was that it might give women the erroneous idea that clitoral orgasms are as valid as vaginal orgasms \u2014 I have to say I really, really don\u2019t see why anyone would object to that part of the female anatomy. Why would American prosecutors expect any court of law to care? And why would the men in this tiny African village <\/span>want<\/i> their women to go without that kind of sexual pleasure? One of the very few potential drawbacks to <\/span>Moolaad\u00e9<\/i> is that we never hear anyone make any argument as to the reasons for female circumcision, beyond a repeated assertion to the effect that that\u2019s just the way it has always been done, and therefore women who are not \u201ccut\u201d are less likely to find husbands. If the villagers have actual <\/span>reasons<\/i> for this practise \u2014 any awareness as to <\/span>why<\/i> their ancestors took it up \u2014 the film never lets us hear them. But then, I guess it\u2019s always possible the villagers <\/span>don\u2019t<\/i> have any reasons, which, itself, would be a part of the problem that needs depicting.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always liked the letter M. The M volume was my favorite of all the World Book Encyclopedia volumes, for it contained both \u201cMythology\u201d and \u201cMotion Pictures\u201d. M is also the first initial in the first names of both my sisters. And it is the first letter of the last three films I saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThis post is brought to you by ... the letter M<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have always liked the letter M. 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