Salo

Let me just break any composure right here and now. Holy fucking god.

Salo was banned in pretty much every country it could have seeked release in when it came out in 1975, and while that should have tipped me off, I've loved a great many films that were initially banned or scorned by the public. And for the first hour or so, I still didn't understand the utter disgust the public reacted to this film with.

And then I did.

I've done readings on and of Marquis de Sade, and while he isn't exactly my favourite writer, the occasionally disgusting moments of his prose cannot be matched by a visual representation. I managed to continue until the final scene of the film, which contains incredibly graphic torture. This I couldn't stomach. My hands were over my face within the first minute of the scene, and after several minutes, I literally begged my boyfriend to turn it off. It was very difficult to go to bed last night.

I rarely consider myself a majority opinion when it comes to the worth of a film, particularly one that does get to be banned, but in this case, I am in utter agreement with its critics. You need a strong stomach and a weak amount of empathy in order to actually enjoy this travesty brought to screen.

1/5

The Nimrod Flipout

This was a really pleasant surprise. Keret's stories are hilarious and full of the fantastic, but they're grounded it something that makes them more than just quick larks. Keret has the talent to pack a lot of meaning and a lot of craft into these short stories, some of which are only three or four pages long, all of which are immensely readable and almost addictive.

What fascinates me, though, is the sheer prevalence of Germans. Keret's stories generally involve outsiders, but none so many as Germans, Germans who finance Israel, Germans who boyfriends cheat on girlfriends with, with whom characters will have a fling. Within that is an exterminator who calls himself "The Eichmann of Termites", an unsettling image in modern Israel. Here, the balance to peaceful, understanding relationships are constantly undercut, and that is a thread that continually pops up.

Keret's stories are quick and breezy, but the undertones regarding the Germans is one thread of many. Keret deftly juggles the funny, the absurd, with more grounding images, and it's his skill in this that makes these stories such a pleasure to read.

4.5/5

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

If you know the basics of punctuation and are looking for something that offers more complex usage, this isn't it. What Eats, Shoots & Leaves does is blithly, humorously take the reader into the mind of the punctuation obsessed. I'm a bit of a grammar and punctuation freak, so I can totally attest to a lot of what Truss is saying, however, at the same time, most of the information she conveys is really only for those who slept through their English classes, and really, those aren't going to be the people who pick this up.

No, what Truss is doing is preaching to the converted, and unfortunately, her very basic guide to punctuation doesn't exactly fit into a book that is really for those people who are well versed in the basics. Yes, I know where a comma goes. Yes, I understand that ownership must be denoted, and that you're and your are different creatures. If I didn't, I doubt this book would have much appealed to me.

This works more as an extremely funny rant than the guide it proposes to be, but as a rant, it succeeds. It's only when Truss decides to be teacher instead of writer that the work falls down.

3/5

Mean

Ken Babstock has been hailed as the new face of Canadian poetry, nay, poetry in general! And while some of his poetry practically comes right off the page, those poems are littered among lesser, run of the mill works that makes it difficult to see why this praise is so lavishly heaped upon him.

There doesn't seem to be much of an editing process to Mean. Why else would absolute gems be heaped alongside poems that should have never made it past the editor's pen? While Babstock is clearly talented, Mean is a rough, uneven work that takes patience to work through.

2.5/5

The World Doesn't End

Simic's The World Doesn't End won the Pulitzer prize for poetry in 1990. He writes densely packed little poems, sometimes two lines long, usually a paragraph or two, in which the world is fantastical, where you spend your holiday in a snowglobe or remark bitterly about the author who created you.

Each poem inhabits its own little world, as large as the poems are small, and you see only tiny glimpses of these worlds in his poetry. Some of his poems strike you hard in the chest, but most do not. While each world is worth viewing, only a few are worth visiting again and again.

3/5

History Laid Bare

This is a fascinating read. It's a collection of source material, with few interjections from the author, of love and sex, from ancient times to the early 20th century. That may sound a little dry, right until you are staring at laws from thousands of years ago, accounts of Cleopatra's plainness, Catherine the Great's young male lovers, Edgar Allan Poe's propensity for obsessive courtship, and not just one woman at a time.

You discover that Mozart was a little scatological, Casanova lost his virginity in a threesome with sisters, and a lot of adventurers had a little too much fun with the natives. While long, each of the sources are short and informative, and the only times Zacks jumps in is for clarification and background. It's great to just pick up and read about Marx's softer side before putting it down and continuing on with your day.

3/5

Watchmen

I haven't been to theatres in awhile, but I sort of figured that Watchmen wouldn't exactly be a laptop or DVD experience. I was right. I'm not sure how enveloped I would have been if I had been squinting at a tiny screen, but in theatres, I spent the entire experience with my mouth open.

I must admit this: I knew nothing about the backstory. Less than nothing. I didn't want to know, since the buzz was so insane that knowing anything pretty much implied being let down. And I really, really wasn't let down. I was engrossed every minute of its (almost three hour) timespan, completely invested in this story, these characters, that I'd previously known nothing about.

I'm generally biased against comic book movies. The Batman revamps I find extremely interesting, but most of those movies tend to be complete cheese (Spiderman series), or, if not, then simple action. There is the rare exception, but Watchmen is that exception. It's more a dystopian science-fiction film than a superhero film, and maybe that's why I loved it so much.

I do have a caveat. I have a strong stomach, and if I didn't, I probably wouldn't have been able to handle the graphic violence within, some of it more graphic due to the implications (strong violence against women). When I raved about it to my mother today, I told her in the same breath not to watch it. If you can't handle violence, or can't handle a superhero film where the good guys aren't actually good, but human, then this is not the film for you. If you're looking for an intricate treatise on morality, or lack thereof, set in a compelling, horrifying world, well, then, go forth! Go forth at once!

4/5

The Piano

This week is feminist theory week in my film class, and, never the feminist, I was a little leery of what we might end up seeing. Something to divide the audience, appeal only to the certain female? While the two males I was sitting with didn't exactly enjoy the experience, I loved it.

The Piano isn't exactly what you'd expect if you wanted a radical feminist text. For one, it's a little too mainstream. But it is feminist. The protagonist is a strong female, the shots are from her point of view, the viewpoint exceedingly subjective and interior. The men are more helpless than films generally allow them to be. But it wasn't those aspects that entranced me.

In the crudest sense, it's just a good story. There are so many lovingly crafted details, so many perfect shots, perfect lines of dialogue, so many wonderful actors. It's an experience to spend with your eyes peeking through your fingers, with your hand over your mouth, leaning forward in your seat. It's very difficult not to get caught up, and I didn't avoid that.

As an complete aside, I think I'm a little bit in love with Harvey Keitel.

4.5/5