Tuesday, October 4, 2016

"O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

As you may have noticed, I have written about my Mother, my Dad, my sister, my daughter, my son and Hubby.  When I made the announcement about taking a break from my regular schedule of Tuesday blog postings, one of my friends expressed regret and told me I still had many stories left in me. One of the topics she mentioned was my brother.  She wondered why I hadn't written about him.

You see, I have a brother too.

 


But I haven't written about him because I haven't seen or spoken to him since our mother's funeral in 1999 and even then we didn't really speak.  He just said something to whomever was nearby that he hoped he never had to come back to our home town ever again.  My sister hasn't spoken to him either.  And you know what?  We have no idea why that is.  Despite several attempts over the years to reach out and to find out, he has not responded.  So we gave up. 

We know we have a brother out there somewhere who wants nothing to do with us.

I have let it go. I haven't written about my brother because I don't think of him that much.  He doesn't play any kind of role in my life now.  He has never met my daughter, his niece, and only met my son once when my son was four. I asked my son recently if he wanted to meet him again, and he replied, "Why would I want a relationship with someone who doesn't care about his family?"


So like I said, I don't think of him that much.  And when people ask me about my family I sometimes forget to mention I have a brother. But I feel guilty about that...and shame.  Guilt and shame that I am part of an estrangement.  That somehow I am guilty of something that has caused it.  That I could have done something to fix it. 

When I was little, I loved the TV show "Father Knows Best."  I thought our family was just like that family: the wise father, the attractive mother, the older sister called "Princess," Bud, the older brother, and then the youngest girl, "Kitten."  Me.  My mother even called me "Kitten" sometimes.

But for all of my thoughts about my happy childhood and my middle class middle American upbringing that I likened to "Father Knows Best," it wasn't supposed to include the estrangement of my brother.  And yet I have to remind myself that I am estranged from him, which is not usually the happy ending you expect from a happy childhood and a "Father Knows Best" kind of world, complete with dog. 

 



Estranged. 

It's a word that feels very odd to say about my brother, considering the seemingly Norman Rockwell upbringing I and my siblings had - parents who stayed together, church every Sunday, stay-at-home Mom, home-cooked meals, dinner together around a table every night. Estrangement is the kind of thing that happens in families where there is abuse or divorce or some bad thing that happened, right?  But nothing like that happened in our family.  Despite that, though, my sister and I have to accept the fact that we are estranged from our brother, and it is highly likely that we will hear nothing from or about him until we hear he has passed away, if we outlive him.  And I feel some shame about that.

So what happened?  How does estrangement happen? Could I have done something?

When you think about it, it's surprising more family members are not estranged from each other.  Just because we have at least one parent in common, that doesn't mean that we will have anything in common with our siblings, and yet our expectations are high about what a happy family is.  We expect that we are all supposed to love each other and be there for each other no matter what. 

But when you consider that many of us are born at different times in our parents' marriage, sometimes in different generations years apart, that we may be of different genders, that when we become adults we have our own families and might have moved far away, that is a pretty high expectation that we would not only love each other, but actually like each other.  Just as in friendships, the relationships need to be nurtured or they drift away.  That is especially true if siblings move far away, have different life experiences or have lifestyles and beliefs that are very different from each other.

Families are strange institutions with their own hierarchy and roles. 

Birth order plays a role in how close siblings might feel to each other. I was the youngest, my brother was in the middle and my sister was the oldest. My sister was nine when I was born, my brother was 5.  They probably weren't particularly happy to have another sibling to contend with. 


(I don't look particularly happy in this picture either).

Those two were always closer, and I was more of the outsider, the "spoiled brat."  My sister got married and left home when I was 12 and my brother left when I was 14, so as the last kid left at home, I enjoyed some of the perks that my sister and brother didn't. There were always comments about how spoiled I was, especially when I got a canopy bed and my own pink Princess phone.

My brother being the middle child and a boy, though, had its own barriers. I don't think my mother liked boys very much or at least didn't understand them, partly because she had five brothers of her own and was probably tired of all of that testosterone. My sister was very accomplished and was held up to us as the standard.  I was the resident drama queen. He was squished between the two of us girls. Add to that a mother who was not easy to please and resentments will occur.

Likewise, I think the state of your parents' marriage over the years plays a role in how close siblings feel to each other.


My parents were 40 when I was born and by that time I think things were not so good between them.  Though they stayed together for over 60 years, it was apparent to me at the end that they were not particularly happy.  So I believe that the three of us kids had very different experiences with our parents. 


By the time I came along, my parents were probably not only tired of each other, but tired of raising kids. Later in my parents' marriage, when my brother and I were still living at home, my Dad wasn't home that much.  Though he and my brother shared a love of fast cars and guns, my Dad was gone in the evenings. He worked extra jobs to afford his "toys," though I also think some of that was to get away from his wife too. 



Also, when parents pass away, the family unit often falls apart.


In most families, the mother is the person who gets everyone together for holidays and the like, and often when the mother dies, if no one else really cares and steps up to make sure everyone still gets together, the family unit falls apart.  I met a woman recently who was a twin in a family with another set of twins and a sister.  Five children and they all live near each other and yet not only are they not close, they rarely see each other.  She shared with me that when her mother was alive, they would all gather at the family home for Sunday dinner.  Once she died, no one else took on that role and they all drifted apart. 

I can speculate all I want about my brother's estrangement.  I will probably never know the reason.  We can't know what's in the hearts and minds of others, and it's possible that he doesn't even know the reason himself anymore. 

But despite age differences, geography, disparity in lifestyles and beliefs or whatever leads to estrangement, the one thing siblings will always share are memories of each other and the life they shared growing up.



My brother used to love to torment me. 

His bedroom was across the hall from mine and he liked to try to shock me and get a reaction.  One time he called for me to come into his bedroom.  He was sitting at his desk reading a school book and had me come over to look at something in the book.  He asked me, "Do you know what that is?" pointing at a diagram in the book.  I shook my head no.  "That's a mammary gland!" and then he broke into loud laughter.  I'm not sure if I knew what a mammary gland was, but he just thought showing me that was the funniest thing.

He also used to like to tie me up into a straitjacket that he made out of one of his sweatshirts.  Then he would tie me to the end of the bed to see if I could escape.  I think this might have had something to do with a fascination with Houdini, but it was also a source of amusement because I invariably wriggled out.  He would like to show this off in front of his friends as in "See what the little twerp can do?" 

One vivid memory involved hockey in our backyard.  Our Dad would freeze the back yard in the winter so we could skate on it. My brother would let me play when the neighborhood kids came over to skate and he had me play goalie.  One time he told me to put on this special headgear because that's what goalies wore.  So I dutifully let him put it on me but couldn't figure out why all of the teen guys were laughing at me.  My brother had put a jock strap on my head!

So it was that kind of sibling stuff. 

When my brother was a teenager, my mother and he did not get along well and I think some of that affected my later relationship with her because of all of the disrespect I witnessed.  He was so bad, he called her Witch Hazel (a Looney Tunes character) and would come home from school and say, "Hi Haze."  The name probably came from the fact that when she was mad at him she would chase him with a broom.  One time my mother was chasing my brother with the broom and he was headed for the one room with a lock - the bathroom.  Wanting to stay in my brother's good graces, I yelled "Run, Lynn!"  Not a good idea.  My brother made it to the bathroom to lock the door so, frustrated, my mother turned around and whacked me instead! I have since learned to stay out of other people's arguments that included brooms!

But despite all of that, I, of course, loved the attention from my handsome, older brother, even if some of it was negative.

And it wasn't all negative.

 
We did things together: we went to the beach, we went horseback riding together, he let me sleep with him on Christmas Eve so we could go down and see what Santa brought together, we played ping pong and board games (though with the board games, if I was winning he would often say I was cheating and tip the board over!), and he would also impart his teen version of wisdom to me on what guys liked, how I should dress and what I should act like.






One very strong happy memory is sitting on the steps over at our grandparents' house.  They lived kitty-corner from us and we were over there all of the time helping them out and just visiting.  My brother was a  teenager and I was around ten or 11. We were sitting on their front steps and he was passing on some words of wisdom that I no longer remember, but I was giving him my full attention, and after our "talk," I remember him saying, "You know, kid, you're not so bad after all."

It is so sad when families fall apart and siblings no longer speak, especially when you consider all they shared growing up, and unfortunately, it happens more times than we would think. 

But it seems to me that the way to insure that siblings remain close is nurturing the importance of family to our children from a young age. 

I have some cousins who are all very close and have stayed close despite the fact that both parents have passed away.  Yes, most of them still live in or near the town where they were raised and they are all relatively close in age, which helps.  But we already know that living nearby or being close in age does not automatically create closeness.  No, I believe that the main factor for their closeness was their mother, who was a fun person to be around, and who, I think, probably nurtured the idea that the siblings should be close and look out for each other, which they are and which they do. 

But if that doesn't happen, no matter how close in age we might be or where we live, our interests and personalities could be very different.  And if we don't get along or have bad memories, then how likely are we to spend time with our siblings?  Just because we are related doesn't mean we like each other.  Relationships with our family members are really no different from our friendships.  Just as it is with friendships, it you don't work at them and nurture them, they fall away. 

However, if the parents consistently emphasize the love in the family, the importance of being there for your family and what each has in common rather than the differences, then I think siblings will remain close throughout life.

When I do think of my brother, I feel sad about the fact that we are estranged, and I even feel ashamed that our family fell victim to estrangement.  I know my parents would be very sad if they knew, but when I really think about it, it's not surprising considering the different paths we have taken and the fact that our parents have been dead for so many years.

I don't think there is anything I could have done.  He chose his path.  He chose to disconnect. 

I may never know why my brother cut himself off from his family.   At this point, the reason for the estrangement has probably been blown away by the winds of time. But my memories remain.  Memories of a time when we were not estranged.



I write this to close the gap in the family circle and include my brother in my blogging reminiscences. 

My parents would have liked that.  I also write this for all of you out there who may be estranged from a family member too. Perhaps it's not too late for you to make contact again.  If so, then do it.  But if not, there is nothing to be gained by feeling ashamed or guilty.  Unless you know in your heart you had something to do with the estrangement, then it's not your fault.  Even with members of our own family, sometimes we just don't know them, what drives them, how they viewed the life you once shared.

We may be estranged from our family member(s), but that does not negate the happy memories and where we once were: in a shared life. 

I write this to honor those memories, and in turn, I honor my parents.

Now when I think of my brother, I choose to remember him and me sitting on those steps at my grandparent's house and his telling me I wasn't "so bad after all."



I wonder what memories he has of me.





Thanks for Reading!
 
See you Friday
 

for my review of


"The Magnificent Seven"
 
and 
  
The Week in Reviews
(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

   
and the latest on


"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 
 I Die Project."
 

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Friday, September 30, 2016

"Bad Moms" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the movie "Bad Moms" as well as DVDs "How To Be Single" and "Dirty Grandpa."  The Book of the Week is "Wear and Tear," a memoir by the daughter of theatre critic Kenneth Tynan.  I also bring you up-to-date on "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Man with a Movie Camera."]


It's Comedy Week!

We've got single girls, moms, and an old guy and his grandson, all trying to cope with life...and it's all very funny...and all very "R" rated... so you will have to excuse me if this posting is a bit "R-rated" as well. 




Bad Moms


Three moms, who are overworked and underappreciated, decide they can't possibly live up to the standards of "The Perfect Mom" so decide to give up and be "Bad Moms!"

Mila Kunis stars as Amy, a hard-working mom who got pregnant and married young at 20 (in that order) and had two kids right away.  Now in her thirties, she is still married but her husband has checked out, she has a job at a coffee company run by bad stereo-type millennials, she comes home and cooks gourmet meals for her husband and children, does her children's school projects for them, attends all of their events, and participates in all of the PTA's bake sales. She is running full tilt trying to be a good mom. I am exhausted just writing that. But when she discovers that no matter what she does, her husband and children don't appreciate her and she can never please Gwendolyn, the snooty President of the PTA (Christina Applegate) and her minions (Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumulo), she decides "That's it!"  She is going to be a "Bad Mom."

She heads to a local bar where she runs into Carla (Kathryn Hahn), who is already there and well into her cups.  Carla is already a "Bad Mom," flirting outrageously with everyone's husband, wearing slutty clothes and giving the finger to protocol.  She is not sure she wants to be friends with Amy but eventually they commiserate and are joined by Kiki (Kristen Bell), who is a timid stay-at-home Mom with four kids who is slowly being driven crazy by them and her tyrant of a husband.

The three get drunk, go crazy in a supermarket in a very unbelievable scene and just generally thumb their noses at Gwendolyn and her expectations.  But when Gwendolyn seeks revenge by ordering the soccer coach to bench Amy's daughter (Amy's daughter is in middle school and already worrying about her college resume), Amy decides she needs to take action and run for PTA President herself.  You see, you don't get away from "mean girls" even when you are an adult. 

I had a bit of a problem with the fact that Gwendolyn, as PTA President, can order the soccer coach around because she has the power to fire him.  It's a rather unbelievable plot device, because since when does the PTA President have that kind of power?  In fact, some of the scenes were so outrageously improbable, I thought Amy was going to wake up and we would discover this was all a dream of being a "Bad Mom" and she would go back to her regular life.

However, those little criticisms were not enough to mar my enjoyment of this film. 

Yes, it's silly, but it's also fun to see solid female friendships and strong women take charge of their lives and buck the conventions of being the perfect mother.  And, of course, the ultimate message is that there is no such thing as the perfect mother. We unfairly compare ourselves to other moms who seem to fix the best lunches for their kids, volunteer for all of the events and dress their kids to the nines, and yet we find out they have the same insecurities that we do.  It's OK to be a bit "imperfect."

Don't leave when the credits role because at the end of the film the real life mothers of the six actresses playing the central roles sit with their daughters and they share what it was like to be their mothers.  Very touching.

Mila Kunis is a lovely film presence who can also be very funny.  Kristin Bell is a nice counterpoint as the mousy Kiki who eventually finds her voice, and Christina Applegate gets to over-act as the resident "mean girl" who has her own issues and eventually shows a softer side.

But it's Kathryn Hahn who steals the show.  She is absolutely a hoot.  One of the funniest scenes in the film is where Carla explains to Amy and Kiki what to do in bed when they encounter an uncircumcised penis (sorry, guys, according to this film that is controversial and, yes, ladies, it's that kind of movie).  Carla uses Kiki's hoodie with Kiki in it to illustrate, while giving explicit and hilarious commentary.  Really funny.  Though Hahn has had supporting roles in many films, she has not carried a film on her own since the indie "Afternoon Delight."  She is one of our most underrated actresses, and I think she deserves a Best Supporting Actress nom for this but, sadly, that probably won't happen as comedies usually don't get much recognition come Oscar time.

And I need to add that Amy's daughter is played by the talented and adorable Oona Laurence and that's high praise coming from me, considering how I feel about child actors.  You might recognize her as Jake Gyllenhaal's daughter in "Southpaw." 

This is a love letter to all of us "Bad Moms" out there who can't possibly live up to our own expectations of what a mother should be let alone the expectations of others.  So we might as well have some fun!

Written and directed by Jon Lucas (who is known for the "The Hangover" films) and Scott Moore, I didn't expect to like this film but it was a good comedy. I laughed.

Rosy the Reviewer says...all Moms and Moms-to-be can relate to this film.  You will laugh...and even get a little choked up at the end.  I did.


 
 

***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD






How To Be Single (2016)



The state of being single in New York City.  And it's not pretty.

Alice (Dakota Johnson) and Josh (Nicholas Braun) meet their freshman year at college, but four years later, Alice decides they need to "take a break."  Josh is devastated but Alice feels she needs to spend some time alone to find herself.  She has never been without a man and wants to know what that's like. She heads to New York City where she gets a job as a paralegal at a law firm and meets Robin (Rebel Wilson) who cares more about showing her the safe places to shag at work (where the cameras can't see) than orienting Alice to her new job.  She continues to fill Alice in on the single life and how to find a man.

In addition to Alice and Robin, we also meet Meg (Leslie Mann), Alice's obstetrician sister who is convinced she does NOT want children (that's supposed to be ironic) until she meets the cutest little baby you will ever see (except for my granddaughter, that is) and decides she DOES.  Finally there is Lucy (Allison Brie), a computer dating expert who spends her time in a bar working on dating algorhythms where she strikes up a friendship with Tom (Anders Holm a very cute ginger), a commitment phobic bartender, who is the link between the four women since they all end up in this bar eventually and with Tom!  However, Lucy never interacts with the other women.  I kept waiting for that and it never happened so that character was a bit of an afterthought, I thought.

Of course, Alice eventually decides the single life is not for her and wants to get back with Josh.  Guess what?  Yes, you are right.  He has moved on with another woman, sending us a clear message that if you want to take a break from your relationship you had better be ready for it to be permanent.

I was not a big fan of Dakota Johnson in "50 Shades of Grey," but then I wasn't a big fan of that movie, either.  But here she is adorable and funny.  Who knew?  She exudes a vulnerability that comes across on the screen and is very appealing. Rebel Wilson is always funny but one can't help but wonder how long she can keep up the raunchy confident fat girl routine.  I would like to see her in a drama and see if she actually has some acting chops.

But it's not a bad thing to see a female character who embraces being on her own. Unlike "The Lobster (see my review from last week)" where we are supposed to be sad and embarrassed about being single, Robin embraces it and spends much of the movie trying to educate Alice in the joys of being single.


So what did I learn from Robin about the current state of being single?
  • Never talk marriage as soon as you meet a guy (OK, duh.)
  • You must shave your pubic hair (OK, this is where you lose me and this is something I feel very strongly about - and so does Cameron Diaz, too, just so you know.  Read her book. What is the deal with women wanting to revert to toddlerhood "down there" FOR A MAN!!!!?  We have pubic hair for a reason!) 
  • Don't fall into a guy's "dicksand." (This is a single woman's code word for getting too hung up on a guy you are having sex with)
  • The time we have to be single is the time we learn to be alone (well, I didn't learn that from Robin.  I actually learned that from Alice).
Alice says at the end of the film:

"The thing about being single is, you should cherish it. Because, in a week, or a lifetime, of being alone, you may only get one moment. One moment, when you're not tied up in a relationship with anyone. A parent, a pet, a sibling, a friend. One moment, when you stand on your own. Really, truly single. And then... It's gone."

The strength of this film was not the comedy and Rebel Wilson's silliness, but rather, Alice's story of a woman getting used to being on her own and finding happiness without a man.

Directed by Christian Ditter with a screenplay by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein and Dana Fox, this was a fun movie for me because I was never really single my whole life.  But if this is any indication of what dating would be like, I don't think I missed much.

Rosy the Reviewer says...an over-the-top version of "Sex and the City" without Carrie Bradshaw's wardrobe...or Carrie Bradshaw, for that matter.  But it provides some laughs.





Dirty Grandpa (2016)


An uptight lawyer who is about to marry Bridezilla is tricked into taking his grandpa to Florida for spring break.

Grandma has died, leaving Grandpa (Robert De Niro) a widower. His grandson, Jason (Zac Efron), is about to get married to Bridezilla Meredith (Julianne Hough), but Grandpa, also known as Dick (perfect name for him), tells Jason he needs to go to Florida to the family home because that's what he and grandma always used to do this time of year.  He needs Jason to drive him from Atlanta to Boca Raton under the guise of playing some golf.  Dick guilt trips Jason until Jason relents.  When Jason tells Meredith he is taking the road trip, Meredith says she needs the SUV for wedding errands, for "the wine," so he has to take her car, a shocking pink Mini Cooper.  When Jason arrives to pick Grandpa up for the trip, he finds him unashamedly masturbating to porn and, let's just say, that sets the tone for the rest of the film.  You see Grandpa isn't heading to Florida to the family home.  He wants to go for Spring Break!

"Let's get in that giant labia you drove up in and let's get out of here," says Dick as they head off to Florida.

Those kinds of one-liners also set the tone of the film.

So off the two go on their road trip to Florida in the shocking pink Mini.  En route they meet Shadia (Zoey Deutch), a girl Jason went to photography school with before he became an attorney. I feel a romance coming on.  She and her friends are also traveling to Florida.  One of her friends, Lenore (Aubrey Plaza), a sex-obsessed college student (who is one of the best things about this movie, by the way, except for Zac's abs), is on a mission to do the college trifecta - have sex with a freshman, an alumni and a professor.  She gets the idea that Dick is a professor (and he doesn't disabuse her of that idea), so he becomes her prey and Grandpa is certainly not averse to that. 

In fact, Dick is enjoying his freedom now that Grandma has died and he wants TO GET IT ON!  He thinks that Jason is a disapproving downer and says, "What are you?  Vagina repellant?"  You see, Grandpa's bawdy one-liners are the backbone of this film.  He just keeps throwing them at you until you have to laugh.

As they travel around they get into all kinds of rowdy situations, some secrets are revealed and Jason finds himself.  It's a road trip/millennial/Baby Boomer/ buddy film with the Baby Boomer grandpa showing the uptight millennial how to live life.  We Baby Boomers did know how to live...it up!

But despite the bawdy humor, and there is a lot of it, there is a serious side to this film.  I didn't say original, I said serious. Jason is now an attorney working in a law firm where his father (Dermot Mulroney, in a very small role) and his fiance's father are both partners. Jason deals with SEC issues and bores everyone to tears when telling them what he does. But Jason once wanted to be a photographer and travel the world and Grandpa reminds him of that.  Grandpa clearly is on a mission to loosen the kid up and remind him of what he had once wanted to be.  And that wasn't an attorney.  Grandpa clearly has disdain for Jason's choice of career and calls Jason "Alan Douchewitz."

Despite the popularity of The Fokkers movies, where De Niro broke out as a comedic actor, I have never really been comfortable with him playing comedy.  I mean, after all, he was Johnny Boy in "Mean Streets," he was Travis Bickle, he was "The Deerhunter," he was the young Vito Corleone.  But I have to say he is very, very funny in this and seems to have settled into comedy quite well.

But Aubrey Plaza is just as hilarious as the sex-crazed college girl. Once she zeroes in on Dick, he doesn't have a chance.

After watching this movie, I have also decided that I need to see more movies starring Zac Efron and his abs. Zac Efron is one handsome guy and does a great job playing straight man to De Niro.  We also get to see Zac naked and that's the price of a ticket right there.  Grandpa gets Jason drunk and then Jason accidentally smokes some crack and ends up naked, well, almost naked.  He wears a stuffed animal as a cod piece and dances the Macarena.  Yay!

Directed by Dan Mazer and written by John Phillips, there is something here to offend everyone. "Dirty Grandpa" is pretty dirty, but it's also pretty funny.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you are easily offended, this is not for you, because it's raunchy, raunchy, raunchy.  But it's also funny, funny, funny.


 



 

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***


233 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





Man with a Movie Camera (1929)


A man travels around the city with his camera and documents a day in the life of a Russian city in the late 1920's.

I have always believed that less was more in films and that the old adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words" epitomizes filmmaking.  I am not a fan of films with long expositions and narration, rather letting the pictures tell the story.

Well, this film takes it to a "whole 'nother level!"  Not only is it a silent film, there are no intertitles, those subtitles that every once in awhile tell us what the characters are saying.  Here director Dziga Vertov, a member of a group of filmmakers called Cine-Eye who believed in the "honesty" of documentary as compared with fiction film uses every cinematic device of filming and editing - slow motion, animation, multiple images, split-screen, zooms and reverse zooms, blurring focus and freeze frames - to make this silent film that was ahead of its time and is a primer on filmmaking.  Verdov wanted to create a film using the "truly international language of cinema," and he has, because despite no words spoken or intertitles added, you are compelled to watch to see what will unfold as the filmmaker catches people unawares in the day in the life of a Russian city, a day that took three years to shoot.

This montage of modern Russian life begins with an unknown Russian city (mostly filmed in Moscow but also Kiev, Yalta and Odessa) coming awake.  We see people sleeping in beds, on benches in the park and on the ground. They awaken and then begin to go about their day.  We see our "man with a movie camera" pack up his equipment and set out to film (the cameraman was played by Vertov's brother). We see buses leaving their garages, trains on the tracks and then people at their jobs - in hospitals, barbershops, offices.  We see a baby being born, a person rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and then finally people at play at the beach, playing chess, exercising, playing sports. Throughout the film, we also see the film being edited (it was edited by Vertov's wife). The film ends with the subjects of the movie watching themselves in the movie in a movie theatre.  It's a film within a film.

Though there is certainly a political flavor to this film because of the Russian political images and slogans (it was made only 12 years after the Russian Revolution), the images also show people living their everyday lives and going about their business, no different from what was probably going on in the U.S. in the late 1920's.  In that way the film is universal.  They could be us.

Why it's a Must See: "In this film, Vertov combines radical politics with revolutionary aesthetics to exhilarating, even giddy effect...a non-linear form for cinema, a glorious tribute to everything that movemaking can be."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

The music is also a creative endeavor, created by Michael Nyman and performed by The Michael Nyman Band in 2002 at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you love photography and film, this is a visual feast and an education in filmmaking.
(Silent, in b & w)



 
***Book of the Week***




Wear and Tear: The Threads of My Life by Tracy Tynan (2016)


Tracy Peacock Tynan was the daughter of theatre critic Kenneth Tynan who also co-wrote the shocking "Oh! Calcutta!"  She shares her parents' lives and what it was like growing up with them in their glamorous world of 1960's London.

For a child of avant-garde parents, it actually wasn't so glamorous.  It was actually part privilege and part neglect. Tracy learned how to be very adult as she hobnobbed with the likes of Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles and dealt with her mother's drunken outbursts.

Her father, Kenneth Tynan is probably not well-known today, but in the 1950's and "60's" he was the popular and flamboyant theatre critic for "The Observer," where he championed the new British "angry young man" theatre like John Osbourne's "Look Back in Anger."  He also served as the literary manager for The National Theatre. Later he wrote for "The Evening Standard" and the "New Yorker" and co-wrote and produced the, for its day, shocking, "Oh! Calcutta!"  He and his wife, author Elaine Dundy, lived the high-life in London surrounded by famous people, but Tracy, as their only child, also remembers drunken fights and inappropriate behavior.

Her parents were also arbiters of style, and Tracy herself became particular about what she wore at a very young age, being an early proponent of flea market shopping and vintage clothing.

Later in life, Tracy found herself working as a costume designer for films, so it is fitting that her memoir centers around clothing.  She uses articles of clothing to remind herself of her life. Each chapter highlights an article of clothing that was meaningful. 

As a little girl, when her parents would have their naked, drunken fights, she would cuddle up under her mother's mink coat.  Lemon-yellow underpants reminded her of a time she was in trouble with her Dad. A pale blue chemise from Paris reminded her that imitation might NOT be interpreted by your best friend as the best form of flattery. As a teen, she made a gold-fringed flapper dress to impress a boy, but he was not impressed when she got drunk and threw up all over it. 

Tynan also shares stories about the films she worked on, again using clothes as a jumping off point to tell behind the scene stories- the maroon plaid dress for Genevieve Bujold in Alan Rudolph's "Choose Me" and the crepe de chine wedding dress for Ellen Barkin in "The Big Easy," which has one of the hottest sex scenes in film, by the way. 

As someone who is interested in fashion and also defines herself to a certain extent by her clothes, I loved the device of using articles of clothing to represent periods of her life.  However, Tynan didn't really need to use a literary device for her book, because it's obvious she has inherited her father's writing gift. She creates a world you want to inhabit with her. This memoir is engrossing from the first page, not just the name-dropping and behind the scenes stories which celebrity and literary mavens will enjoy, but her own life was interesting and she is very introspective, reflective and candid about it.

This book had that special something, that "X Factor," that je ne sais qua that makes for a fascinating read.  I couldn't put it down.

Rosy the Reviewer says...whether you love fashion or just a good read, this is one of the best memoirs I have read in a long time.  Highly recommended.

 

That's it for this week!
 

Thanks for reading!


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