Saturday, May 1, 2004

The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy serves up a pretty thick soup, thick and bitter; the kind of soup that talks back to you when your plate is served, saying "You'd better mean it before you start in on me." I've just been watching the incomparable Sir Alan Bates as the Mayor of Casterbridge. Pulling off bringing a man like that to life, seeing the moments in which he is likeable and in some way even appealing, and yet making sure we see all his selfishness and crusty foolishness, see the thoughts and suspicions move in his mind and behind his face... an amazing feat of great acting. Hardy doesn't really give anybody in his novels a chance to come off well, which is one reason I've resisted so far either reading his novels or seeing dramatizations of them. Misfortune, betrayal, trust and mistrust, terrible secrets, true revelations, slander and calumny, and lots and lots of suffering, misery and death. Oh, yes, there's a jolly way to pass an evening or two. If it weren't a masterpiece, none of us would waste our time with it. But I am a great fan of the work of Sir Alan Bates, so I signed on to watch this particular dramatization of Hardy's novel. I am watching an amazing and sustained performance, well-supported by a fine cast, by an adaptation by Dennis Potter, and by an excellent production. In the story, though, nothing good ever happens to anyone, almost, unless it is followed by at least four helpings of bad luck, evil chance, horrible coincidence, rustic rituals of casual cruelty, having deadly secrets come to light at the worst possible moment, and behaving badly at the time that tact and conciliation are perhaps most needed -- anything so as to make bad matters worse. There's something about watching even this excellent production of a Hardy novel that reminds me of my longstanding promise to myself never to attend any festivities on New Year's Eve. The few times I've broken my own promise, I've been extremely sorry. And, much as I appreciate Sir Alan's superb and absolutely on-target performance, it is unfortunate that the more successfully he and the others bring the novel to life, the greater the Hardy-esque depression. This production is so good I'm nearly suicidal. No Hardy novel can possibly end well, and this one is no exception. You know it's bad when you can't tell whether it is better to know the ending in advance, and be sure throughout just how terribly off everyone will be at the end, so as to steel yourself, or not to know for sure just what will happen and which people and relationships, if any, may possibly be saved from complete disaster, keeping hope alive as long as possible, but knowing it will be dashed. The life of every character that manages to survive to the end, it seems, will be blighted to some degree, generally more rather than less. Given that, you may consider me, after this, a Hardy abstainer. 7:43:43 PM     Spirited Away Again I just got done watching Spirited Away again, as I do whenever I'm feeling as though I'd like my soul soothed and my head reset. It works, every time. Every time I watch it I am astounded by how beautiful and how well-crafted it is in every way, including in its ability to seem simple and artless, one test of a masterpiece. It is visually stunning, with backgrounds of amazing complexity and beauty, both interiors and exteriors. I watch the interiors and am glad to be able to share such amazing spaces as the various portions of the palatial bathhouse of Yubaba and the larger-than-it-looks cottage of Zeneba. I see the exteriors and long again for the sea as Sen (as she is then) and Lin eat dumplings on the balcony and look out at it. The illusion of sunlight, clouds, rain, twilight, dawn and night, and the transitions between, are faultlessly and convincingly presented, with sun, sky, land, beautiful plantings, bushes and flowers, all adding to the film. The various characters, spirits, creatures, dragons, and others are fascinating to watch, and the story is perfectly crafted to carry all that is in the film -- which is a lot. But that 'a lot' is not allowed to get in the way of a good story. Neither is the story allowed to get in the way of the film. There are moments given to us that don't advance the 'plot' but which give us great delight and add to the film. For instance, there is a short scene in which a fat mouse re-enacts Chihiro's most recent action, to the delight of some enchanted soot-balls. And there are the subplots: what happens to a whole range of associated characters, skilfully made part of Chihiro's story as well as concerned with their own lives and actions. I am not one of those who feel that stories 'mean' something, that there is a key handful of symbols with simplistic allegorical meanings that are somehow applied by an author to create a story with some kind of washboard morality -- this is good; that is evil; out damned spot. I believe that the stories that do work, work well on many levels, and that those levels are there for us, and that we see those we need to see as we need to see them. After we look at many stories we can perhaps begin to recognize many patterns; but that does not make a good story predictable, much less simple, allegorical or formulaic. So if I say that the beautiful Spirited Away gives us a world in which Chihiro helps cleanse a river of its pollution, restores the name and many powers of another river, heals a dragon, takes the menace out of what seems to be a flight of angry birds by declaring, "They're just paper!" and refuses to be swayed by gold or gifts from her purpose of helping those who befriend her, you won't make the error of saying that the story 'means' you should be against pollution, or get out there on river cleanup, or that you should be friendly and help those you like and love lest all your gold turn to mud, or whatever. Glimpses of such ideas may be found within the story, but they are not the story, nor what the story 'means.' It was the pithy Samuel Goldwyn who reminded us that "messages should be sent by Western Union." Spirited Away is so much more than merely the sum of its parts -- or the sum of any collection of statements about it -- that I hope you will heed him, and watch this film in all its glory. 11:18:40 AM

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