Post-Birthday, Post-Apocalypse....

If I learned anything from the Hughes Brothers' The Book of Eli, I learned that three things will survive the apocalypse. First and foremost, the violence, hatred and ignorance brought about by religion will survive us all well into the sun-scorched deserts of post-apocalyptic America. Wait, that's already three things. Let me start again, the five things that will survive the apocalypse are those three aforementioned principles of religious thought and advertising. Appearances by Dr. Dre's headphones, iPod, J. Crew (skinny jeans fit better when you're on a steady diet of cat meat), the Coffee Beanery, GMC, and Puma remind us of the sins of materialism and as Eli tells Solara, "Then, people threw away what people today kill each other for." But there is hope. For in the future with the voice of God ringing in our ears and advertising clouding our vision, there will be a prophet to lead us. No, it's not Denzel Washington or Mila Kunis who will murder anyone who might stand in the path of God's doing. And it's not Gary Oldman who rightly believes that the Bible is "a weapon." No, we humble sinners have found a voice, a gravely voice, the voice of Tom Waits.

THE BOOK OF ELI: Ohhh Sweet - The best video clips are right here

To be serious for a moment, I'm a fan of the Hughes Brothers and I thought Dead Presidents and From Hell were impressive films. If nothing else, the Hughes Brothers tried to defy the notion that directors should work within a genre or specific style. When the trailers of The Book of Eli hit Apple's website, I felt justified in maintaining this stance and I don't think I'm wrong, yet. Because as much as this film is about the hope and resolve given to Eli in his quest to protect the Bible, there is no question as to the moral hypocrisy that comes with it. Eli is violent and unforgiving arbiter of God's will and he kills upwards of forty people on his quest. At times he's called on to protect the defenseless but this isn't always the case. Early in the film Eli watches the murder and rape of two travelers muttering to himself, "Stick to the path, stick to the path," only to deviate from this "path" and save Mila Kunis from a similar fate. Why Eli chooses to save one over the other is perhaps only explained by the fact that Kunis's character is a believer and the others did not yet know the Word. Ultimately, this film is an Old Testament parable about the might and power of God, and it doesn't leave out the hatred and intolerance that comes with it. I guess you could say it renewed my 'faith' or complete lack thereof.

Post-Soviet Russian Film

I realize that the BBC is deeply invested in giving Russia as much dramatically bad press as possible. Life in Russia is difficult, and no one here wants to claim that our coverage of Russia's political/artistic/social/criminal/etc. climate should be of the 99% POSITIVE REVIEW FOR FATHERLAND variety. I lived there, I'm a realist, and normally I relish my daily BBC feed--their reportage is usually delightfully terrible in the Fox News Melodrama kind of way. But today's article on post-Soviet Russian film really irks me for some reason. Perhaps it's the wistful nod to Lenin's love of film-as-propaganda in the beginning?

The government saw the medium as an ideal propaganda tool and promoted it from the outset, building thousands of cinemas in urban and rural areas. Consequently, Russian film-making flourished.

Yes, film as an art flourished in the Soviet period, but the decades when film had to agree with party politics at the risk of the director's life hardly seems a period when we can simply state things were great for film.

Or maybe it's the assertion that Russia's new cultural low can be seen in 1. lower earnings for local movies when contrasted with American film sales and 2. The prevalence of popcorn and cell phones in theaters.

Seriously? Do I need to invest the effort in Googling the international profits of Avatar versus the latest British blockbuster, or can I save my finger strength? Are we really going to pretend that American theater floors aren't sticky with popcorn bits and soda, or that theateres don't glow with the pale blue shimmer of a million texting cell phones?

This is not to say the article doesn't bring up some good points about distribution, funding, bureaucracy, and a lack of local interest for local films, all of which hamper the production of new films in Russia. These are certainly problems, as they are almost everywhere in the world. But the article entirely neglects a tremendously powerful film tradition that continues in Russia today. It's a tradition that could have benefited greatly from BBC coverage, had the BBC been worried about increasing awareness of talented filmmakers and not churning out yet another article dedicated to depicting Russia as a barren criminal hell-scape.

Ok, rant aside, here are some films that have come out of Russia after the fall of the Soviet Empire, all of which I believe are of note. They're not the best movies Russia has produced in the last 25 years, not by a long shot. But they are some of my favorites, and they demonstrate just how active and versatile Russia's film community still is:

* Peter FM - A simple romantic comedy, and fun.

* Burnt By the Sun - Beautiful cinematography and incredibly well acted. A family drama about a Soviet general.

* 12 - A modern adaptation of 12 Angry Men done by the same man who directed and starred in Burnt By the Sun. So well adapted I'd swear it was from a Russian original, but possibly a little too optimistic for a piece on Chechnya.

* Kakooshka - Another romantic comedy, but not at all simple. It's set during the war and follows two soldiers - one Russian and one Finnish - who are stranded with a young Lap woman on her farm. I find this movie hysterical, but that could just be me.

I'm stopping at those four because Thad knows better than I do, and can post here also. But note there are a lot more modern films that I'm looking forward to. Here are five:

* Hipsters - this movie looks weird.
* We're From the Future - this movie looks funny.
* Taras Bulba - this movie looks beautiful.
* Mermaid - this movie looks fantastic.
* Morphine - this movie is based on texts by Bulgakov.

See? There's so much modern Russian cinema I was able to get through this whole post without mentioning Night Watch.

Send Me No Flowers

A hypocondriac who mistakes indigestion for an impending heart failure sets out to find his wife a new husband, lest she fall into the hands of a man who can't be trusted.

"Hindus have the right idea George, when the husband dies the wife goes with him. She throws herself right onto the funeral pyre; that way the husband doesn’t have to worry about her."

Yeesh. But, like all Doris Day and Rock Hudson films it's fairly sweet and sexless. I really like the opening, in which Hudson's character wakes to several medical commercials. It implies that the movie will have more fun with the hypochondria than it does. That feels like sort of a loss, but even without I find Hudson so very likable. Together I think he and Day have all the makings of a good pajama party.