Category: Movies

Pinocchio and Deceit


Pinocchio and the Truth

Pinocchio

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” – Keyser Söze

I recently revisited the story of Pinocchio, the little wooden puppet who became a boy only to discover that his nose would later spring to life, and would do so repeatedly–every time he told a lie.  Pinocchio’s nose stood up for truth, unconcerned with the shame its actions brought upon the young lad.

Though I empathize with young Pinocchio because of the social embarrassment the growth of his nose certainly caused, I also envy the instant Pavlovian work that took effect in his life; the very moment he would fib (stimulus), his nose would grow (response). In my life, I often lack an immediate cue after I’ve strayed from the truth.

In fact, I am capable of living out years with my deceptions, unaware of their existence.  I can also intentionally weave elaborately constructed tales that are spun from lie upon lie.  So I need to think twice before laughing at the apparent lunacy of Pinocchio for fibbing time and again after recognizing what his nose would do as a result.

Knowing the consequences of deception is not alone fully sufficient to enact change.  In my life I’ve found that the sheer act of engagement in telling lies can cloud my mind, causing me to more easily believe they are truth.  These implied or spoken fallacies move me further away from the truth of my condition, that I am flawed.

To become a real boy, Pinocchio had to be saved and restored.  An admittance of weakness and imperfection was required.  I, like Pinocchio, am in need of help.  I need the Master’s handiwork to be made new.  Attempting to achieve a genuine makeover any other way would be fruitless.

Death needs a vehicle

Death Needs a Vehicle - Anton Chigurh on a Segway

Death needs a vehicle

Observances of the film “No Country for Old Men”

Past, Future, Present.
America. A country where young men like Llewelyn Moss consult their newborn dreams and the old men like Ed Tom Bell try to bury their new, extraordinarily uncomfortable nightmares. Youth seek out their future, envisioning it without a passing thought of death. The aged recall the past, when the death they palpably feel and discuss was a more sensible, comprehendable kind.  Abiding in the underappreciated ever-present, standing alone is Anton Chigurh.

Death Set in Motion.
In the apocalyptic desertscape of West Texas he stands motionless. Yet, once given a vehicle, he becomes unstoppable. He is modern, fledgling evil—the kind that mystifies the old guard, that goes unacknowledged or underappreciated by the new. He is aided by both the lawful (police who set him in motion, upon cuffing him and escorting him to a local station in their patrol car) and lawless, yet is beholden to neither. A short time after bringing Chigurh to the station, the young officer is strangled by the very instrument he foolishly thought could stop the free momentum of the tall, dark, odd creature. After escaping in the squad car, Anton continues to swap lives for vehicles, seeking to maintain forward momentum. Those who try to stop him fall in his wake. The flip of a coin (as Llewelyn’s wife wisely states) is not likely to make a difference in one’s fate, but providing a tank of fuel that will keep him moving just might. His efficiency improves as he trades in land transportation options in favor of a plane ride to El Paso, to seek out Llewelyn’s wife. He takes flight AND maintains altitude even after landing and traveling about town (note the repeated airplane engine sounds that accompany him toward the end of the third act of the film). He is the Prince of the Air. Satan. Death. In the end, as Chigurh drives down a residential road another car collides with his. He survives the crash, but is forced curbside. Finally, he is made motionless. But a newer generation of naïve ones arrive via bike on the scene and attend to his needs, remobilizing him once more. “You never saw me,” he says as he hobbles away, taking akward toddler steps. They never did.

The Wild and Wilder Wests.
The old lawmen realize the west they once held some sway over has become untameable. They are resolute in trying, but try with zeal they do not. Their trying to tame the modern, wilder west is a trying by appearances, largely. Rather than speeding their actions toward an encounter with the killer of men, rather than trying to put a stop to death, they are okay with keeping a few steps behind, having some coffee, sitting on the sofa and pondering aloud the point of it all when they sense what terrible and unpredictable a thing is in their midst. This is not the tamer, more linear wild west of bygone days. Not the west where the bad guys in black came to town by horse or by train to drink and filander and kill in the familiar way (pistol shootouts on designated playing fields and town streets). This death travels by sheriff’s car, flatbed truck hauling chicken coops and Dodge RAM. With improved, unpredictable modes of transit, the capacity for evil and mayhem has increased. And the potential for killing more swiftly and violently has been made possible by technology as well. Modern cattle killing machinery proves efficient when pointed toward mankind.

Death, the Great Equalizer.
Chigurh kills all types—men, women, old, young, rich, poor. If the path you choose leads you to him, it’s a poor mode of transport you’ve taken, and he’ll likely kill you for it. Mexico,

Giver of the Good Life.
Chigurh follows Moss and his money all the way to the border, but stops short of entry. Death does not belong in Mexico. Its activities are reserved for America. Suddenly ambivalent to Moss’s plight, Anton is content to wait stateside at a hotel to deal with the bounty hunter Wells. He even keeps away from no man’s land—the land where Moss’s fortunes lie—literally, between the U.S. and Mexican border entry stations. Moss, conversely enters Mexico, bloody and exhausted. And this neighbor to the south, seen briefly in the film becomes for him a land of joyous accompaniment (Mariachi band), drink, and physical rest and restoration. The No Country for Old Men Therapeutic Spa, if you will.  Much preferred over the USA where there is only toiling to try and hold on to treasure that isn’t really even his. All violent Mexican nationals have left for the states to do their bidding freely and violently (so long as they avoid Chigurh).

Dreams Direct.
Llewelyn surveys a desert scape. It’s a mirage, isn’t it? A suitcase containing millions. And though his waking dream becomes all about creating a new trailer-park-free life for his family, his nighttime dream summons him back to the gruesome crime scene. This dream pulls him away from his family, out of the marital bed and into the black night of the dead. He cares to honor and reward a dead man more than his wife. Upon returning with injury, he provides her no answers about said injury or the money’s history but instead packs her up for a journey with out him, pushing her away from his presence. This proves to be their last correspondence. Llewelyn’s next night dream proves no more successful in helping him realize his goals of financial freedom for his family. Though he is guided to the tracking device hidden within his money case, death looms too close to gain much separation and only anti-familial connections are made. Though he temporarily buys time by escaping from Chigurh and regains his swagger through the healing help of foreign nurses, upon his return to the states, while awaiting reunion with his true family, he is left only enough time for brief flirtations with a bikini-clad woman.

The Bell Tolls: Delay the Fight you Cannot Win.
Ed Tom Bell doesn’t care to see what’s befallen Moss recur on himself and his family. In between his police duties, he makes time for his kin to sit and take at painstaking great length about his thoughts and hopes and dreams dashed or redirected. And his retirement with family is ultimately seen through. But how? The old sheriff stares into the tv screen in Llewelyn’s trailer park home and sees the shadow of death reflected in himself. It’s the horrific image he’s surrendering to more and more with the passage of time…for like an image baked into the pixels of a tv screen that’s long since been shut off, this image will not retreat. He knows what’s gone before (Shigur) will come again. It hasn’t really left. He realizes he is in the valley of the shadow of death. And while Moss stands in the valley with his shotgun and binoculars, not noticing it overpowering the expanse above him, Bell sees, and keeps at bay. He’d rather make sense of it from a distance. Even as he opens the door to the scene of a crime where he believes Shigur would return, he scarcely moves beyond the doorway. And he certainly does not survey the motel room crime scene thoroughly.
He knows who lays in wait.

Chess with Death – The Grim Reaper in Film

Chess with Death

Chess with Death – The Grim Reaper in Film

You may be familiar with the Monty Python bit found in the final act of “The Meaning of Life” in which “death” aka the Grim Reaper crashes a country cottage dinner party, or perhaps the segments featuring he (or rather, it) that are found in Woody Allen movies “Love and Death” and “Deconstructing Harry.” And whether you’ve seen the film or not, you are certainly familiar with the famous imagery in Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” showing a medieval knight partaking in a game of chess vs. the dark-cloaked one.

But here are some interesting facts about “Death” in film that you probably don’t know…

1) According to information I gathered from IMDB.com (Did you know “death” has its own IMDB page? See http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0035562/), death was first portrayed onscreen in the 1913 silent film appropriately titled “The Angel of Death.” Acting the part was Herbert Brenon an actor and director from Dublin, Ireland. Alas, I could not find a photo of Mr. Brenon in costume and, in general, I could not find much information online concerning “The Angel of Death.” Apparently the film was produced in Germany, a land that became known for its bold abstract expressionist films such as “Nosferatu” and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”

2) Death has a name…several, in fact.
AKAs for death in film = The Grim Reaper, The Angel of Death, Mr. Death/Mr. De’ath, Abuela muerte, Raver, Angelo della morte, Death Angel ‘Azrael’, Der Tod, Devil’s Reaper, Kuolema, La mort, Gregg, Lucy, Michelle

3) Many noteworthy actors have portrayed death over the years.  Among them are…
• Unsurprisingly, Vincent Price (in “General Electric Theater’s “The Ballad of Mender McClure”)
Christopher Lee, who stands next to Vincent Price as a master of the macabre played death on an SNL skit from 1978 and again in the 1996 movie “Welcome to the Discworld” and in the 1997 TV series “Wyrd Sisters” and “Soul Music” Typecasting? Or does death have a name: Christopher?)
Orson Welles (in “The Hearts of Age” an 8 minute short from 1934)
Jim Carrey (uncredited, in “High Strung” from 1991)
Dan Castellaneta, famous for giving voice to Homer Simpson, also lent his vocal talents to the voice of death in episodes of the TV show “Earthworm Jim.”

4) Death has picked up steam.
Of the 554 film credits to his name on IMDB.com, 397 are from year 2000+. Of those, 135 are from years 2010 – 2015.

The end.

Academy Awards Trivia – Answers to Oscar-winning Movies

Academy Awards Trivia

In celebration of the Academy Awards, we at Art|Tech Circle recently put together twenty five image puzzles.  Each of the images depicts an Oscar-winning movie from the past.

Hopefully, you discovered this little diversion and were able to come up with all of the answers.  If not, you can go to the 25 puzzles X page now before checking out the answers below.

Okay.  Now hopefully you’ve had a chance to review the puzzles.  So without much further adieu, the answers.
Ready?  Here they come. Consider yourselves sufficiently warned.

Academy Awards Trivia answers

EASY
1) The King’s Speech
2) The Hurt Locker
3) Million Dollar Baby
4) The English Patient
5) The Silence of the Lambs
6) Dances with Wolves
7) Driving Miss Daisy
8) Kramer Vs. Kramer
9) Shakespeare in Love
10) Crash
MEDIUM
11) Casablanca
12) An American in Paris
13) Out of Africa
14) My Fair Lady
15) No Country for Old Men
16) Midnight Cowboy
17) The Last Emperor
18) West Side Story
19) A Beautiful Mind
20) The Sting
DIFFICULT
21) Braveheart
22) All about Eve
23) A Man for all Seasons
24) The Lost Weekend
25) How Green was My Valley

Academy Awards Trivia – Guess Oscar-winning Movies

Academy Awards Trivia

In celebration of next Sunday’s Academy Awards Ceremony, we at Art|Tech Circle have put together twenty five image puzzles.  Each of the images depicts an Oscar-winning movie from the past.

The image puzzles cover many decades and many genres.  If you know anything about the movies, you’ll find many of the puzzles to be relatively easy, but only real film buffs will likely come up with the correct answers to the more difficult puzzles (without cheating).

So pull up your most comfortable recliner, grab a carb-loaded snack ‘n a fizzy beverage, and study the pictures below.
Will you be able to answer all twenty five puzzles correctly?
Find out next Sunday night, right here, where our
Academy Awards Trivia answers will be posted
.

Now that we’ve gotten that all out of the way, here are…

#1Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#2Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#3Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#4Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#5Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

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#8Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

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#10Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#11Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#12Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#13Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#14Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#15Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

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#20Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#21Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

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#24Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

#25Academy Awards Celebration - Oscar Movie Picture Puzzle

Frozen on Frozen

Frozen on Frozen

“It’s show business. No show, no business.” – Dick Wolf

Green lighting any big-budget motion pictures is, by virtue of the price tag, a big gamble.  But movie studios are in the business of producing movies.  Hollywood producers are paid to sniff out and pay for the next story idea that will capture the imagination—ahem, and dollars—of moviegoers.  Although they can’t always forecast what will hit, they know a hit when…reports trickle in showing BIG weekend box office numbers.

And did they ever hit with Frozen.  By April of 2014, the Disney animated film (which opened in November of 2013) brought in over $400 million in the U.S. alone.  The budget for the film?  An estimated $150 million (see box office details here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/business?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4).

What made Frozen a certifiable sensation?  Was it the skill of Disney animators and background artists who brought a winter wonderland (based on Norwegian woodlands and fjordlands) peopled with rich characters to life?  Was it the fairy tale element, wisely incorporated into the film, based on the story “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen?  Was it the voicework lent to the characters?  The lines the characters spoke and sang?  Was it the musical score?

As is the case with any successful film, ’twas a mixture of the above, an amalgam of the work of numerous contributors that made the film work. But I venture there is a key moment that struck a chord with the primary target audience, children, and more specifically, young girls.  That moment?  It’s the obvious choice: the moment when Queen Elsa, restrained from being herself by her parents and her position, literally let her hair down while ascending a tall mountain, donned a shimmering icy blue dress, and taking on a newfound poise and posture, belted out the now all-too-trite refrain “Let it go!”

Though Frozen producers didn’t realize the financial success of their film until after its release, I they must have envisioned it when they first experienced THE moment.  When Idina Menzel, the soprano behind Elsa’s virtuosic voice sang that chorus to them, they could surely see parents aplenty letting go of their hard-earned dollars at the movieplexes.

The momentum of the film may finally be slowing, now that Christmas 2014 is over and Santa has delivered all the Frozen DVDs and Elsa ‘n Anna dolls and other merchandise.  (Did Banana Boat or Hawaiian Tropic come out with a 100+ SPF Olaf sunscreen?  Just sayin’ there was an opportunity there.)  All the daddy ‘n daughter duets of Idina’s chart topper and Oscar winner have been posted to YouTube.

CODA.

But the makers of that Frozen musical moment aren’t done.  This Sunday, Idina Menzel will be singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.  And the composer-lyricist team who wrote THAT SONG have a new number that’ll be delivered by Neil Patrick Harris during next month’s Oscar broadcast.