Departures and my right-brain

I saw the film Departures last night, which won this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It is the story of a newly unemployed cellist who returns to his hometown in need of a job. He takes the job of a Nokanshi, which is a profession to prepare the dead for the coffin (and cremation) – while the grieving family watches – through a ritual of cleansing, meticulously dressing and applying make-up to a corpse. Now, it sounded intriguing. Hey, I liked Six Feet Under and Only the Lonely, which both had their share of preparing the dead. Plus, in winning the Academy Award, the film beat out the stiff competition from The Class (from France) and Waltz with Bashir (from Israel). So, I figured there must be something to it. But, that said, I never expected the effect it actually had on me, which was simply astounding. But before you read more – have you seen the video of Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard brain researcher, talk about her own stroke? If not please watch it before reading the rest of this blog. It's great. So, what happened as I watched the film at the beginning was this left-brain commentary in my head: “Gee, this ritual takes a long time. It is sort of weird. The Japanese sure are meticulous. We certainly do death differently. I wonder what is going to happen to make this movie special. It is so slow...” But then, while watching another one of the rituals with cello music providing the soundtrack, the film just captured me and my internal commentary silenced. I went all right-brain, shifting to pure emotion of a surprising profundity. Big tears were streaming down my face for much of the rest of the movie. I felt this almost primal connection to everybody and elephants (because they, too, ritualize their dead). I felt empathy to all who have ever grieved and realized my tears – and the tears of the mourners - were bittersweet. That somehow this ritual was truly creating a feeling of peace and acceptance of death. And, in that way, it was incredibly life-affirming. So, like Jill Bolte Taylor, I must say that silencing the left-brain from time to time is a wonderful experience. And, this film did it for me. Opera does too - but that is a different blog...

Favorite movies by genre

I have decided to become a real facebooker and fill out my profile. They ask for favorite movies. I have a list of all my favorite movies by genre that really doesn't fit. So, I am dumping that list here and then linking people to it. Not really resuming the blog....

Every movie I listed above I have seen at least twice and usually more, so they are fully-tested all-time favorites.

comedy (general): Groundhog Day, Heaven Can Wait, Defending Your Life
romantic comedy: Modern Romance, House Calls, Notting Hill
screwball comedy: His Girl Friday, Easy Living
slapstick/ silly comedy: Airplane, Take and Money and Run
black humor: Harold and Maude, Fargo
mockumentary: Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman
cult/quirky: Night of the Comet, Nashville, Kill Bill (both)
children: Parent Trap (original), Wizard of Oz
animal: Babe, Old Yeller
sports: Hoop Dreams, Damn Yankees
animation: Finding Nemo, South Park, Waking Life
teen: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Adventures in Babysitting, Valley Girl
romance: Casablanca, To Have and Have Not, The Graduate
tearjerker: Terms of Endearment, Bambi
musical: West Side Story, King and I, Cindrella (from TV)
drama (general): All About Eve, Caine Mutiny
buddy film: Midnight Run, Shanghai Noon, Trading Places
crime: Gauntlet, Pulp Fiction, Roaring 20s
westerns: Butch Cassidy, Zandy's Bride
gambling: Big Hand for a Little Lady, The Sting
prison: Bad Boys (w/ Sean Penn), I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
war: M*A*S*H, Schindler’s List
disaster: Titanic, Poseidon Adventure
action/adventure: Terminator 2, Under Seige, Bourne Ultimatum
suspense: Coma, Misery
mystery: Last of Sheila, Usual Suspects, Memento
film noir: Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd, Body Heat
horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (with Donald Sutherland)
slasher: Scream, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
science fiction: Total Recall, Empire Strikes Back
politics: The Candidate, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, American President
fish out of water: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (original), Starman
journalism: Teacher's Pet, Broadcast News
documentary: The 7-up series, anything from Errol Morris
foreign language: Fire; State of Seige
filmed monologue: God Said, Ha, Letting Go of God (both Julia Sweeney)
series: Lord of the Ring, the Bourne series
made for TV: Special Bulletin, The Positively True Story of the Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom
made for web: Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Chad Vader series
TV mini-series: Elizabeth R
historical/biography: Amadeus, Reds

As should be clear, my favorite genre is romantic comedies or romances with comic elements.

Some movies I really like but I didn’t find a good slot for:

• I love romantic comedies so I could have gone on and on with that. Some more of my favorites are: Hearts of the West, Pillow Talk, Move Over Darling (the last two Doris Day films), Dave and Annie Hall.
• And yet more romantic comedies: I love Jean Arthur movies (she was a romantic comedy star in the 30s). Best known for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (listed above). My other favorites of hers are Easy Living (listed above), The Devil and Miss Jones, You Can’t Take It With You, The More the Merrier and Talk of the Town.
• I love movies written/directed by Albert Brooks. Think of him as the west coast Woody Allen. Being from the west coast, I like him better than Allen. Defending Your Life (on the list) is probably his best. If you like it, though, then see Lost in America, Modern Romance and Real Life (which is a mockumentary)
• I think Bill Murray is a great comic actor and often has great material. Groundhog Day is my favorite but I also like What About Bob?, Stripes and Ghostbusters.
• There is no gay male movie that I particularly love, but I do have four favorite films with lesbian themes: Fire (mentioned above in foreign film), Desert Hearts, Bound and Kissing Jessica Stein.

What's missing. Look, the truth is I admire Hitchcock far more than I like him. If I don't want to see a film again, it isn't on this list. There isn't a film of his I want to watch again. Hence, zippo. And, while I really enjoyed watching the Godfather series and Goodfellas at the time, Tony Soprano has blown them out of the water for me. When I recently rewatched Goodfellas, I realized it was missing something: a sense of humor. The same is true for the Godfather series (to a lesser degree). To me, if there is no humor in a drama - it isn't real life.