Glue, Escape and a Lady Named Morvern

The 2002 film Morvern Callar by Lynn Ramasy we view a story of death, life and travel through the experiences of a Scottish girl after the suicide of her boyfriend. Life is unclear and bleak but something remains; the urge to keep moving forward. Much of Morvern Callar resides in the desire to keep moving.  If Morvern were to ever stop it would mean that she is not only stuck in the past but she might be forever stuck to the corpse in the hallway she once called a boyfriend. For movement is not a symbol of moving on from grief in Morvern Callar but rather the break from emotional restraint and control from one body to another.
The story of Morvern Callar is one of Morvern, a Scottish girl who finds that her boyfriend, James, has committed suicide around Christmas. Leaving a novel to be published, she steals it and makes it her own and travels to Spain on vacation with her friend Lana. However this travel does not come free as Morvern has used the money for James funeral fund to do this and learned that Lana and James had an affair. As Morvern wanders we see her psychological state slip as she wanders around and never finding a clear answer to anything she sets out to do.
One key scene to embrace this idea begins at 34:30. Morvern drags James' body to the bathroom and places him within the tub. What begins in a gruesome scene of Morvern, while naked, hacking apart his lifeless body. His blood spurts back onto her form as the song “I'm Sticking With You” by The Velvet Underground plays. The scene is jarring mixing Morvern's grief with the anger she has and playing it out on his lifeless form as a sick revenge.
Yet the music that plays here is relevant and important. The lyrics refer to someone being “made of glue” and the title is called “I'm Sticking With You.” When a viewer hears this it jars them to hear a sweet sounding love song become as twisted and mutilated as the body of James. But as the blood spits back to Morvern so does his spirit.
For James has become stuck like the song implies to Morvern. As he buries him in the Moorish hills in the next scene she begins to see bugs, a reoccurring motif. The bugs, most likely roaches or things that find them selves buried in the dirt like his body is, follow her through Scotland and Spain. The become an extension of James like his blood has, they attach themselves to Morvern.
For Morvern this gives reason to her movement.  With Jame's suicide he has stopped his movements and attaches to her. He leaves everything to Morvern as if to leave mementos of control to her. Though she is basically free to do what ever she pleases with the money and story he still clings to her even in death. James keeps returning through Lana, through his blood spraying onto Morvern, through the bugs in the dirt in a stranglehold. Morvern can not settle in the past, with the past. So just as she cuts his body to pieces she must cut herself into pieces as well. To keep going, to prevent an emotional suicide, Movern must make herself unstuck to all of the old and move forward.Thus we come to the resolution. Morvern Callar is such; for Morvern to keep herself from dying she must keep moving. If she does not move the blood, the bugs will stick and burrow into her and forever hold her to him.
For here movement is a break from James' control and his sins as much as it is the escape from grief. By escaping his control, both physical and emotional, can Morvern move forward with her life and attempt to find her purpose. With her movement forward we finally see a new light and thus a more clear vision of the woman that is Morvern Callar.

Is this blog Holy?

 In the 1959 film Pull My Daisy by Robert Frank, religion and the new generation come together in a quite clash. However the do not come as a opposing force but rather two sides who can not understand trying to understand. This crisis provides context not to how religion can alienate but rather how the two can understand and make a new meaning.

At the 13:37 mark of the film the party gathers around the table to eat when one of the bishop says “I don't know anything” and is asked in return that he should surly know what to say. What he replies is that “he doesn't know how to say what he truly wants to say.” Peter asks if he has ever played ball or seen girls in tight dresses. When the bishop replies back with a yes Peter asks him if “baseball is holy.”

Here we see the beginning of a crisis. Religion, as a term, is widely definable. Within Pull My Daisy we see both Christianity being represented and Buddhism being talked about. Both are widely respected as two forms of a religion or a center of worships and practices around a central figure or central set of figures. Buddhism and Christianity can be a clashing set of religion on their own as a monotheism, or a singular deity based religion, or a polytheism, or multiple deity based religion.

But Peter brings in a new clash; man-made religion. As the bishop begins to fade into another thought around 14:10 we see people staring at a massive American flag and a preacher. As he preaches the flag billows in front of him almost blocking him as he preaches. The lines between religions is blurring or is rather crossed and entwined with one another.

Religion for Pull My Daisy is complex not unlike any dealing with religion. But what it brings to light is that religion is not just divine right but rather things like American and baseball. When Peter asks if baseball is holy is not just to question the Bishop and his faith but our faith. The film begins to implicate us into this as well.

For what is the difference between a bishop to Christianity and a player to baseball. Each one holds a place in their own hierarchies. What the film questions is why is there a difference between their religions. How is swearing to an American flag any different from the bible. The image of the flag displaying before the man with the bible is so important. When one does not notice the two slip across one another but when they do they begin to question the structure and realize that they are very similar.

This connections to around the 20:20 mark. Peter begins to ask the Bishop if each object is holy. Each object is clearly not a thought of religious item. Is car, women, basketball, you me holy? What matters is that its what we think. But because we have questioned it we drive the bishop away and thus traditional religion away.

The coming together fails in Pull My Daisy. The meaning does not become clear for the characters but it does for the viewer and thats what matter.

Upon Close-Up Inspection..

In John Cassvetes 1959 film Shadows, race conflicts and love arise during the beats era in New York City. By using subtle hints in acting to portray larger emotions we are given a “realistic” glimpse into the world of the artist. However, this is not the traditional realism we expect. By utilizing close ups we are given an uncomfortable but self-damning look into the the world of these artist.

When the door bell rings at 44:37 the scene of Leleia kissing Tony is interrupted. We see a thumb pressing harshly on the button with no clear indicator of who is pressing it. Lelia moves to answer and has Tony fix himself up as the camera cuts back to Hugh, her brother, and his manager Rupert coming in. We then cut to a first-person shot as we move closer to Leleia as if we have taken Hugh's place and see what he has not; that his sister is in a relationship with a white man.

Tony already looks upset.

We soon begin to see Hugh and Leleia begin to reunite as the film cuts back between Tony and their happiness. Rather than seem happy himself he looks upset and put off. From here more close ups become apparent. As Tony seems more uncomfortable so does Lelia and Hugh as does the viewer. The constant cuts do not push us back from the film but bring us into the scene and align us as the fifth person in the room.

As the 45:00 minute mark nears we begin to focus more on Tony's face. He seems to appear blank but in the micro-movemets revealed to us we see more. He has come to the realization that the woman he has slept with is black and blurts that “he has an appointment.” We then cut to Lelia, her disappointment.

What becomes interesting is at 45:49. We get a medium shot of Hugh and Rupert but Tony cuts into it. He is leaving the space by cutting through the others. When he passes Rupert we see the understood disgust. His look is one, brought forth by a pseudo-close-up of “can you believe this guy.”

When a close-up is used we do not tend to think of it in terms of realism. To define realism from one point of view it is what we expect of an accurate representation of the reality we live, almost like a photograph. Here we do not see that. What we have a version of “true realism.”

The term true realism comes from Andre Bazin, a French film critic and theorist. For him realism could be a fictional film, such as Jean Renior's The Rules of the Game , 

The Rules of the Game. Oh Hi there Renior. I see you on the right.

or the “documentary” Nanook of the North. What he enjoyed was a “faith in the reality.”

To paraphrase from my lectures in “Foundation of film and new media” taught by Amy Rust, faith in reality can be described as a unity of time and space that gives revelation rather than addition. Though this scene does not do what a film like The Rules of the Game does with long takes or blocking in depth it does show some signs of this faith.

When we see Tony's face when he sees Hugh, though it is seen via a cut, we see the revelation. It is that he is uncomfortable and we are asked to confront it too. When the close up is used in this scene they are not only to reveal mindset without uttering a word but to ask us to feel the discomfort. Tony says very little until he says “I have an appointment.” It is then the tone shifts for the characters but as a spectator we have already been asked to indulge in this discomfort via the close up.

When we view this discomfort we are brought into and through the world. When this occurs we have encountered a new realism unfamiliar to us as the spectator and thus gain a new relationship to Shadows.