Rashomon as Twin Peaks Cinema #20 - Disordered Stories (podcast)

When focusing on "disordered stories" - the theme of the Twin Peaks Cinema season/miniseries that closes this month after episodes on Back to the Future Part II and The Vanishing - it's hard to avoid the granddaddy of them all, Akira Kurosawa's gleaming prism Rashomon (1950). The investigation of a woodland rape/murder from the perspective of the three participants (even the one who diad) is capped by a surprise fourth point of view which throws all of the others into relief. Who is telling the truth? The bandit (Toshiro Mifune) who presents a boastful, fairly one-dimensional portrait of conflict? The dead husband (Masayuki Mori), conveyed through a medium in contact with the other side, who focuses almost entirely on his wife's "betrayal"? The wife (Machiko Kyō) whose version of events both condemns and exculpates herself by the standards of the day? Or the woodsmen (Takashi Shimura) who drags all of the self-mythologizing figures down to earth? Is even he implicated in the surrounding crimes? The first part of this podcast reads an older essay on the film to establish its narrative and themes before I offer newer reflections emphasizing the way this story, and particularly its telling, relate to Twin Peaks. There are certainly similarities within the world of the two works: setting, character, and particularly the way that this fragmented reality is rooted in the trauma of a woman victimized by powerful men (and determined to assert her presence despite their power). But the most striking connections may be how the storytelling elements *within* Rashomon are mirrored by meta elements *around* Twin Peaks. Just as the characters themselves in the Japanese film adjust, loop back on, and transform the story they're telling, so the creators of the American TV show would shift, reverse, and expand their perspectives over the course of years.

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LINKS FOR EPISODE 20

High and Low (LEFT OF THE MOVIES podcast #5/LOST IN THE MOVIES podcast #27)

This is the last "Left of the Movies" podcast to appear on the Lost in the Movies feed - when this series resumes in October, it will have its own feed. (Previous episodes include Medium Cool, Sorry to Bother You, High-Rise, and the climactic class violence of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Joker, The Irishman, and Parasite. On this episode I discuss the Akira Kurosawa film High and Low, which depicts class stratification via a kidnapping thriller set in a spacious high-rise apartment and the sprawling city below. At first tightly-wound around a specific location and playing in what feels like real time, the movie defied both my memory and expectations. A later influence on Ransom, the first R-rated film I ever saw (which I'm surprised I didn't mention in the review - I thought I had), High and Low dedicates itself to a shifting point of view which entertains us yet subtly undercuts our identification. What is achieved at the film's end, for all of the various characters? Is High and Low as clear-cut a morality play as it may initially appear, or are the police chasing a shallow victory at real, dangerous cost? In the surrounding intro and outro, I offer some thoughts on the current context: inequality, housing, and other denied, dangled, and threatened benefits for those who often shouldered the greatest burdens of the pandemic.

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You can also listen on Pinecast and Spotify

(and most places podcasts are found)

belated December 2020 Patreon podcasts: LOST IN TWIN PEAKS #23 - Season 2 Episode 15 and LOST IN THE MOVIES #74 - Twin Peaks Cinema: Rashomon (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Leland, Albert, Donna, Twin Peaks & Deer Meadow sheriff stations, One-Armed Man/Season 3 Part 17 & more)

UPDATE 1/2: The "Twin Peaks Cinema: RASHOMON" episode of Lost in the Movies was just published.

As the Lost in Twin Peaks podcast reaches the infamous Diane Keaton episode, there's a lot to discuss both onscreen (many people, including myself, have much to say about Keaton's unusual approach to the series) and off. The height of the Gulf War leads to one of my longer "historical context" sections taking a detour not just through 1991's war on the Arabian peninsula but also America's ambivalent relationship to the conflict between the Provisional IRA and the British government. That's for the top tier; for $1/month patrons, six months behind, I'm finally unveiling my coverage of the episode where Laura's killer is captured. That podcast is split into two parts and was opened up on the first day of the month, to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the episode's airing in 1990. On the other end of the month, my main monthly episode of Lost in the Movies (patron edition) is not quite ready for New Year's Eve though it should be available sometime this weekend; watch this space...

There's been a diverse array of "Twin Peaks Cinema" selections this year, and this month is no exception, switching gears from a surreal Robert Altman slice of New Hollywood to a blockbuster time travel comedy to an anime art/exploitation musical to, now, an iconic classic of world art cinema. On the other hand there's some continuity between last month's and this month's films: both Belladonna of Sadness and Rashomon are conceptually bold Japanese films set in medieval times, depicting sexual violence with a tinge of the supernatural (one of several commonalities with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in particular). Akira Kurosawa's international breakthrough is most famous for presenting multiple viewpoints on the same event, and in that sense it also anticipates the work of David Lynch; in an archive reading of a review from nearly a decade ago, I lay out how its scenario may be less "who's to say" than its reputation generally holds. Elsewhere in the podcast I cover characters, locations, and storylines tied to the conclusion of Twin Peaks' Laura Palmer arc; the long-promised film capsules, podcast recommendations, political reflections, and feedback readings will have to wait until January since my work on the most ambitious Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter yet has taken me right up to this month's deadline (and a bit past, in the case of this main podcast). See you in 2021.

NOW AVAILABLE: Lost in Twin Peaks #17 - S2E9 (Arbitrary Law/"Episode 16")

Lost in Twin Peaks #23: S2E15 (Slaves and Masters/"Episode 22")

Lost in the Movies patron edition #74: Twin Peaks Cinema - Rashomon (+ Twin Peaks Reflections: Leland, Albert, Donna, Twin Peaks & Deer Meadow sheriff stations, One Armed Man/Season 3 Part 17 & more)

Podcast Line-Ups for...

Patreon update #9: High and Low & Elephant (+ podcast recommendations & more)

update: this page now includes a link to the podcast

This week's podcast features a couple intense movies with very different approaches to violence. The first film in focus is an Akira Kurosawa masterpiece, enveloping the viewer in the ever-shifting world of a businessman who must decide if he'll pay the ransom for a servant's son, the cops who try to find the kidnapper, and the sociopathic kidnapper himself. The second film in focus stages a series of shootings, with no context or dialogue provided as we follow characters in long takes until either they deliver death or death is delivered to them. I also recommend a whole host of recent podcast episodes and continue my survey of Twin Peaks books with a discussion of Agent Cooper's "autobiography."

Episode 9: High and Low & Elephant (+ podcast recommendations & more)

Line-up for Episode 9

INTRO

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WEEKLY UPDATE/recent posts: tweeting 10 archive pieces a day until the 10th anniversary

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FILM IN FOCUS: High and Low

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FILM IN FOCUS: Elephant

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TWIN PEAKS REFLECTIONS: My Life, My Tapes: The Autobiography of FBI Agent Dale Cooper

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OTHER TOPICS: Podcast recommendations

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OPENING THE ARCHIVE: "Four's Company" (February - May 2010), this week's highlight (The Hurt Locker)

BECOME A PATRON

Seven Samurai

This is an entry in "The Big Ones," a series covering 32 classic films for the first time on The Dancing Image. There are spoilers.

The ethos of Seven Samurai – the values it stands for, or at least represents – is compellingly divided. On the one hand, there is a definite communitarian spirit: characters are scolded for striking out on their own, for seeking their self-advantage instead of playing a role that serves the group. Whether they are seeking cowardly self-protection or courageous glory, the message is the same: do not abandon your post, do not sacrifice your duties, for anything. Furthermore, the samurai themselves have little to gain from their actions; they are stoic and dutiful but, as Kambei says in the end, “We were defeated again. We didn’t win, the farmers did.”

Rashomon

This is an entry in "The Big Ones," a series covering 32 classic films for the first time on The Dancing Image. There are spoilers.

Is Rashomon a parable of relativism? Not exactly (sorry if that sounds like a relativist statement!). After all, the events (or rather, the different versions of the same event) portrayed don’t differ merely in perspective or this or that detail, but in the entire thrust of the action. Even the most anti-objectivist, open-minded, postmodern, pluralist thinkers would not claim that multiple accounts of a physical encounter, which completely contradicted one another, could all be “true.” When I first saw Rashomon, it quickly became my favorite Kurosawa – because of the lush visual (and sonic) texture and the cleverness of the storytelling. But I was baffled by the claim it offered some kind of concrete critique of “reality” and the “truth.” The point seemed a bit trite – after all, a man was killed, somebody killed him, and the different versions were all incompatible with one another. It’s possible nobody is right, but it’s a cinch everyone isn’t. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said in a heated political debate, “You’re entitled to your own opinions, sir, but not to your own facts!”

Remembering the Movies, Apr. 22 - 28

 Every Friday, we look back at films released 10-100 years ago this week.

Visit Remembering the Movies to further peruse the past

Some weeks are busier than others. This week sees three hugely popular films, any of which could take the top picture spot. Amelie is probably the most popular among the general public, while Yojimbo would have the lead among cinephiles, but my personal pick would be the iconic screen-cap from The Public Enemy. Ultimately the Amelie image, with its heroine sitting engrossed in front of the silver screen, proved too apt to resist yet I couldn't bear to part with the rain-soaked gangster's grin, so Cagney appears below. Yojimbo, along with the other seven other films (including Oliver Stone's first movie, and the recently deceased Elizabeth Taylor playing a young mother), appears after the jump.

On another note, the visual tribute has returned this week, though from now on it will be on Wednesdays rather than Thursdays. Next week's is one of my more imaginative ones, so stay tuned. On with the show...

Remembering the Movies, Oct. 29 - Nov. 4

Every Friday, we look back at films released 10-100 years ago this week.

Welcome to Halloween weekend, when masked men, manmade monsters, and ghosts (friendly or very much otherwise) wander those darkened streets - and darkened movie theaters. Most of the films here could be tied at least loosely to the holiday, even though only the silent horror picture is an outright creature feature. Yet we also have a traumatized visionary haunted by supernatural hallucinations, a junk yard filled with the despairing outcasts of civilization, and a memorable thriller villainess who terrorizes the family she works for. With a little stretching, even the Jimmy Stewart comedy could fall into the "trick or treat" category (his winning lottery ticket begins as a treat, and turns into a trick). By the way, if you're thirsty after pigging out on M&Ms and tootsie rolls, why not wash that candy down with an Italian soft drink (and then just try to get that jingle out of your head!). Enter if you dare...

The Hidden Fortress

The Hidden Fortress, 1958, directed by Akira Kurosawa

The Story: A samurai general guards and transports his clan’s gold and princess across enemy territory, departing from a hidden fortress in the desert mountains. Along the way there are spear duels, close escapes, pursuits through the forest mists, scrapes with the executioner, and even a paganistic wood-burning ritual around a giant bonfire. The story is told largely from the perspective of two pathetic and bickering peasants who accompany the general and the princess on their journey.