pauraque_bk | rl update :: David Thewlis in "Naked"

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rl update :: David Thewlis in "Naked"

Mom's back from hospital, should be okay. Her medication was exacerbating her heart condition, was what it was. Hugs to everyone who offered support.

chresimos, I'm sorry I was short with you; I was just frustrated that I couldn't get in touch with one of my co-workers.

I couldn't get to the hospital for the longest time because of work responsibilities -- if I hadn't been there, a bunch of paychecks would have bounced, and I decided I couldn't do that to my employees, knowing that at least one of them was in danger of being evicted due to late and bounced checks (my boss's fault) in the past. Still, I felt horrible for not being with her right away.

I also had to pay $70 for her prescription, because the insurance was wonky. Hurray.

I couldn't sleep much last night, so I rented a movie, "Naked". I've wanted to see this for ages -- Mike Leigh is my favorite director -- but somehow kept putting it off. In retrospect, I'm glad I saved it until I'd seen quite a lot of his other work, because it ended up seeming like a natural progression.

I saw "Life is Sweet" when I was quite young... it was probably too mature for me, but I managed to digest it. Same with "Secrets and Lies". Those two are both insular, about families, about things most people can relate to. About people who are trying to be kind to each other. Often failing, but trying. Some of these people are sort of making it in the world; their battles are against themselves and each other, not against the wolf at the door.

It was years later that I saw "All or Nothing", which opens up more of the world... you meet more people, families and broken pieces of families. There's more awareness of the forces of society, the dangers, the possibility of destruction. These people are so alone for the majority of the movie, dealing with all the small indignities that break them down alone, alone. She's brittle and sharp like a bird, she deflects what comes at her, though it chips into her every time. His sad dog eyes just swallow and swallow and he can't speak, he can't declare himself as an observer, allow himself to exist. It takes them seemingly forever to be able to touch each other again, to feel, to breathe -- but it happens, overwhelmingly subtle. This is one of the few movies that has ever made me cry.

"Naked" did not make me cry. It's nothing at all like the quiet desperation of "All or Nothing" -- these people do nothing but express, though almost never with emotion. Johnny cloaks himself with verses riddles words words words and batters people with them relentlessly, and fucks them relentlessly. Like trying to tenderly touch a lover's face while wearing boxing gloves: Impossible. Numb. Liable to hurt someone.

These people are also alone, and they stay alone. There are no families. Only fleeting-spiderweb connections, so easily pulled apart.

Overlaid on the psychological desperation is the very real threat of physical harm -- a rape by someone who's-- who's barely human, and refuses to leave, a lingering, incomprehensible demon lying half-naked and casual on a couch that isn't his.

And we find ourselves wanting Johnny to come back... to do something, to protect them. To talk the demon out of existence (exorcism). But he can't, when confronted with this evil angel (ivory statue, touches his hand, so different from Johnny's too-real naked skin and bones), he breaks and cries and then curls up to sleep. Wordless.

And more than the others, this movie is about the world. How it goes on, how it ends.

This movie is absorbing to the point of hypnosis. Johnny repulses you and draws you in, and ends up just clutching you by the throat at arm's length. David Thewlis is inconceivably brilliant in this role.

That said... this movie isn't for everyone; it was left unrated in America to avoid the dreaded NC-17. I've consumed more disturbing stories than this one, but only in fanfic. Actually, fandom people might be particularly well-equipped to appreciate this story -- it has the breathless experimental taste of fic that's brutal and unflinching and full of sex that isn't porn, isn't erotica, isn't rape, isn't consenting -- defies categorization. You don't normally see this kind of story outside of fic, or at least I never have.

But if you think you're the type who can handle it, I'd give this movie my highest recommendation.

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This movie is absorbing to the point of hypnosis.

This was exactly my reaction to it. I've watched it now a few times in the past few days (and count myself damned lucky to have even found a copy; it appears to be quite rare) and I keep coming away with increased admiration for Thewlis's performance, which is all the more mesmerizing for being largely improvised.

*nods* "Naked" seemed less improvised than some of Leigh's other movies, though I imagine it's equally so. What it is, I think, is that Johnny talks like a person who isn't making this stuff up off the top of his head -- he's thought about it, it's boiled and stewed, and just now he's letting it out. Mesmerizing, definitely.

I found a copy right away at the local video store, but when I went to the usual places I buy videos and DVDs, none of them had it. I may order it online.

Quite right. When I tried to express my feelings of this being a fic-tied film to others about at the time, it seemed to go over their heads --- along with some of the subtleties of the film --- but I'm glad it's well understood here. Similar to the relationship in Marcelo Piñeyro's Plata Quemada, by which time I frankly didn't even try explaining the connection.

Naked is brilliant -- the things left unsaid in this made it a work of cinematic art, and Thewlis was spectacular as the man who both repulsed and managed to make one ache. I'm glad you found it enjoyable!

I'm glad you get what I mean about it being fic-like, because the thought came to me somewhere in the middle, and I wondered if it was a really inappropriate reaction.

Often I think that fic -- good fic -- is way out on the cutting edge of what a story can be, what people will consume as art. Near-total lack of censorship or concerns about what will "sell" has created an environment where writers can push themselves to the absolute limit.

Marcelo Piñeyro's Plata Quemada

I've never heard of that one, what can you tell me about it?

Oh, agreed. It really is no surprise that fandom can turn out such high quality art, what with its lack of restrictions, as well as a foundation in canon that allows the writer to worry about things that will affect the piece on a more thought provoking level, as opposed to having to explain it all from step one. Having an audience in fandom is having them caught up and ready for the stuff that matters. Mm, films that reach that level do tend to leave an impression behind.

Hm, Plata Quemada...well, I enjoyed it, and I mainly bring it up because it made me think of fanfiction more than once. It's from Argentina, and it deals with Ángel, Nene, and Cuervo, three men who work on a botched bank robbery and then have to hide out when Nene is wounded and the authorities start on their tracks. Ángel and Nene are known as The Twins, for they are inseparable, and are in fact lovers -- and this film mainly deals with how their relationship both strengthens and breaks apart while laying low miserably in Uruguay. Its known for its fierce and scattered eroticism, as well as its stark and gripping view on gay love, but I think anyone involved with fanfic, particularly slash, will see it for that and more. I don't know, try it if you'd like, its also Not Rated here -- at the very least, its not a brainless ride.

Glad to hear your mom's feeling better, Eo. It must have been scary enough.

I've never seen any of Mike Leigh's films, although your description of All or Nothing reminds me somewhat of Terence Davies' Distant Voices Still Lives -- if you've seen it, do you find them similar as film makers at all? (Naked sounds distinctly non-Davies-like, though.)

Terence Davies... he did "The House of Mirth", didn't he? I don't think I've seen his work, though I keep meaning to. I'll rent "Distant Voices Still Lives" if I can find it, and let you know.

I saw Naked on Canadian tv a few years ago ---- I still can't believe they aired it uncut! I wonder if there's a DVD out yet...

I don't think there is a DVD, at least not one that I could find online.

It is rather boggling that they'd air that on TV... was it really late at night?

Yep, I think it was the CBC late movie, every once in a while they like to throw in something strange like Blue Velvet or Straw Dogs ...!

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