Category: Corina Motofeanu

Don't we all dream in gold?

3/2/2016

CINEMA
Corina Motofeanu

I am not sure about the rest of the world, but certainly our Hollywood stars will have a reason to be dreaming in gold this Sunday for the 88th Academy Awards ceremony. It will reward the best films, actors and directors of 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in California.

The film that has the most nominations is The Revenant. I admit I tried to watch it. I got to the part where Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) witnessed his son’s death and was abandoned by his ex-comrades and then I capitulated. I really wasn’t in the mood to see all the sorrow and bad luck crowded into one film. Almost everyone is convinced that Leonardo will be climbing some stairs at the ceremony – I personally think that the Oscar will keep running away from him – and I think this film had enough publicity. Prepare for a subjective piece.

So I focused my interest on The Danish Girl instead. When I first read the synopsis, it reminded me of Billy Wilder’s movie Some like it hot. How come? For that in the latter, it was a bold move to dress Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as women. And I think The Danish Girl has some of the blood that was flowing through the veins of Billy’s film.

The idea in The Danish Girl is simple: it is the story of a persevering young man that desires to be himself. “I want to be a woman”, he says, even if that is in disagreement with the mentality of the time – interbellum. It is his quest of understanding femininity. Let’s just observe Einar’s interest in studying and replicating other women’s movements. Femininity is presented as the elegance in posture, the daintiness and gracefulness in a woman’s movements. The most persistent feeling I got throughout the film was the fluid delicacy that emanated from Einar. Along the way, the film uncovers the fragility and devotion lying in a woman’s heart. In the end, I think this is why society cannot come to terms with a man’s choice of feeling a woman. But we need to realise that effeminacy does not imply lack of courage, independence and power. Intriguingly, it took just a little game to initiate this impactful revelation.

I also hope you will have some time to look at the Foreign Language Film section to refresh yourself with a brand new testament that embraces a war which gets fenced by a mustang searching in the labyrinth of Sau for his son with only one thought in mind – ‘Viva Theeb!’.

Corina Motofeanu writes about cinema for The Manchester Magazine. She is a first-year Life Sciences student at the University of Manchester

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Film Review: Being John Malkovich

2/16/2016

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CINEMA
Corina Motofeanu

Have you ever thought what defines you as being … you? Is it actually you who makes the decisions? Or is it you who controls your actions? Even if you never asked yourself these questions then this movie might cast doubt on your conception of selfhood. Why? Because the question of what ‘self’ is combines with themes such as the relationship between artist – creation, manipulation and morals, all this against the background of a love triangle.

Craig Schwartz is an ordinary man, living with his ordinary wife in their ordinary house – or at least so it seems. Craig is a puppeteer, a puppeteer in a world that is oblivious to his art. While looking for a job, he finds an advertisement for a job at 7 ½ floor. And this thing is just the first in a row of odd events.

John Cusack’s impersonation of the puppeteer does manage to highlight the complexity of the character that lies in the character’s somewhat pathological art – puppeteering. As the title of the film puts it, ‘being’ is the central idea around which everything else revolves. Craig is a puppeteer because he wants to experience ‘…the idea of being someone else, of getting inside their skin, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel’. Malkovich has the job of ‘entering’ other people’s lives so that his acting would be genuine. The movie opens with the dancing scene of a wood puppet – the dance of disillusion and despair. As it will become apparent, the motif of dancing illustrates the difference between Craig’s art and acting – puppeteering implies manipulating. Craig’s performance of the dance, but this time in the body of Malkovich, highlights Craig’s ultimate desire of achieving near perfection in his art. Without being limited by his condition and without self-consciousness he reaches gratefulness in his performance. Each character that enters Malkovich’s mind acts according to their aspirations, and the body of Malkovich is just a way of keeping in touch with reality. It is ironic how an actor ends up being ’acted’. He would have never thought that a portal could ever enable other people to “enter” his mind. And who would? This wacky form of identifying with someone else opens up new possibilities for each of the characters, namely fulfilling their desires. It becomes obvious that people are defined by their desires – take a look at what happens when John Malkovich enters his own mind.

Even this conclusion opens up other curiosities – if the self is defined by experiencing perceptions, thoughts and emotions then the self is a consequence of consciousness but in turn if there is no ‘self’ to experience then will there be consciousness? As we see here, Craig’s self and Malkovich’s consciousness combine – Craig perceives and experiences the world through Malkovich. So he has his own self but without his own consciousness? And what happens to the self of Malkovich – if he still has his consciousness then how will his subconscious react? In the case of Craig’s wife, Lotte, this change in awareness leads to a revelation in her ‘self’.

The possibility of invading someone’s mind will not only bring money and fame but it will bring up the greed for love, it will push them to make sacrifices and ultimately it will illustrate the destructive power of ambition for one’s goals. But this opportunity does not last for ever, especially when other people’s life depend on John Malkovich’s mind – and they are willing to fight for it.
The recurrence of the idea of being inside someone else and its implications is what gives the film profoundness. It is even hard to believe that Kauffman’s original idea for the movie was "a story about a man who falls in love with someone who is not his wife." Yet, a touch of witty absurdity and a chaotic storyline completely turned the faith of this edgy movie. It is a roller coaster of concepts that revolve around one basic traditional idea – desires drive us.

Corina Motofeanu writes about cinema for The Manchester Magazine. She is a first-year Life Sciences student at the University of Manchester

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Guido! Guido! Guido!

11/1/2015

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CINEMA
Corina Motofeanu

As Fellini left behind his Italian neorealism period (1950-1959) and became interested in the work of the psychiatrist Carl Jung, his movies began to be confusing in terms of setting apart reality from the world of fantasy and memories. This is also the case with Otto e mezzo, where Marcello Mastroianni impersonates a renowned director, Guido, who is on the verge of making another successful movie but, as he himself admits, has ‘nothing to say but wants to say it anyway.’ Like Marcello’s previous character in La Dolce Vita, Guido also procrastinates, is exhausted by his erratic habits and longs to do something momentous with his life.

‘Guido! Guido! Guido!’ seems to be a leitmotiv of the movie as Guido is always surrounded by people who are either eager to know details about the movie or rushing him into making decisions regarding the scenario or the distribution. The penultimate scene shows Guido hiding under a table which is projected as a protective cage against the crowd who is fiercely asking for news on the movie – then a gunshot reduces everything to silence. Just as the end, the beginning involves a suffocating atmosphere. The only way to escape from the asphyxiating circumstances seems to be flying towards the sky – a metaphor for his high ambitions and aspirations – but he is soon dragged to the ground by a rope.

As the action moves along his idea of the movie is revealed bit by bit to the public. Symbolical scenes from the movie alternate with memories about his childhood as well as his imaginings of sensuality. The iconic ‘Asa Nisi Masa’ – correspondent of ‘Rosebud’ from Orson Wells’ Citizen Kane – is thought to signify Jung’s idea of the anima. The phrase makes the link between his childhood memories and his desires as an adult.

The central idea revolves around Guido not being able to find his inspiration. Critics blame his movie for lacking problematic ideas and not having an overall sense of purpose. Still, all that he wanted was to make a simple, honest movie, helpful for those who wanted to bury what had died inside them. However, he does not just question his talent but also his perceptions on his feelings, as another character is introduced and their relationship is analysed – his wife.

Nino Rota’s music, cameras following each movement of the actors, and the play of lights and shadows all intertwine into creating the atmosphere of this metaphysical world. A rather curious fact which can be easily noticed is the desynchronization of the sound and the actors’ dialogue. Most of the Italian movies in that time didn’t record sound on the set but post-synchronised it.
Although Gino seems unaware of what he wants to achieve, Fellini knew it precisely. It remains to be seen whether this is just "Un altro film senza speranza" ("Another film without hope").

Corina Motofeanu writes about cinema for The Manchester Magazine. She is a first-year Life Sciences student at the University of Manchester.

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Don't we all dream in gold?

Film Review: Being John Malkovich

Guido! Guido! Guido!

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