This should be read as a direct continuation of; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/france-wins-oscars.html
45 Years: Although I may have
neglected to mention it earlier one of the central characters in Les Revenants
is a single mother who is about to marry a man who will become the step-father
to her daughter.
The fact that the fiance is played by a Frenchman of north
African origin while the show is set in a rather rural French town poses all
sorts of questions about immigration and belonging. This have become big topics
within French society throughout 2015. However this show was made in 2012.
Suddenly the single
mother's tragic first love returns as a Zombie looking just as handsome as he
did all those years ago. This of course raises issues about how you never
really forget your first love and all subsequent lovers end up being compared
to them.
In 45 Years a couple
who have been married for, well, 45 years see their relationship placed under
great strain when it emerges that the husband's first love who is thought to
have died tragically is in fact still alive.
So as with The
Revenant and The Martian it is the same story only told in a different way.
If The Revenant is a
star vehicle intended to win Leonardo DiCaprio a long over due Oscar then 45
Years is intended to win its star Charlotte Rampling an Oscar she has been
waiting much longer for.
A highly acclaimed
British actress Charlotte Rampling's credentials as both an actress and an
artist are beyond dispute. A contemporary of Andy Warhol she has served as a muse
for many respected artists and fashion designers while appearing in far too
many critically acclaimed movies, TV shows and stage plays for me to even
attempt to list here.
Very much part of the
European Arthouse movement of the 1960's and 1970's Rampling has a reputation
for appearing in extremely provocative, challenging and controversial roles.
In 1969 she took the
female lead in "Three." Essentially this is about two men and a woman
who are on a road trip across Europe and are all engaged in a sexual
relationship with each other. In the 1960's to suggest that a woman could not
only enjoy a sexual relationship but sexual relationships with multiple
partners was ground breaking the same way that an earthquake is ground
breaking.
In 1986 Charlotte
Rampling appeared in "Max. Mon Amour." Here she played the
upper-class wife of a British diplomatic in France who embarks on a sexual
relationship with a monkey. I can't say that I'm familiar with a movie that
sounds like a paycheck but I suspect this bestiality theme could serve as a
metaphor for posh white women's strange sexual fascination with black men. In
short the underpinning of Idris Elba's celebrity.
In 1987 Charlotte
Rampling appeared in "Angel Heart." In the form of Lisa Bonnet this
was probably one of the first mainstream American movies to feature a black
woman in a central role alongside many other black actors and actresses. It was
probably also one of the first mainstream movies to feature an interracial sex
scene between a white man and a black woman.
Charlotte Ramplings
most controversial roles though came were her appearances in two movies that
deal heavily with Nazism in attempts to explore the ideology and rise of Nazi
Germany.
The first "The
Damned" (1977) tells the story of how a German industrialist family come
to support Adolf Hitler and the Nazi war effort. At one point this portrays the
so-called "Night of the Long Knives" as a massive gay male orgy. In
probably its most infamous scene the son gives a performance at the
grandfather's birthday party as the 1930's German sex symbol Marlene Dietrich.
This of course poses all sorts of questions about sexuality and gender
identity. I understand that 39 years later at the 2016 Oscars a movie called
"The Danish Girl" was nominated.
The second film
"The Night Porter 1974" is probably the most controversial of them
all.
Along with
"Beyond Good & Evil" 1977 and "The Berlin Affair" 1985 this is the first of three movies made by Italian director Liliana Cavani which
are known as "The Nazi Trilogy. Together they explore the history and
ideology of Nazi Germany from its roots in the work of Nihilist philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche through to the alliance with Imperial Japan.
In The Night Porter
Charlotte Rampling plays a Jewish prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp who is
viciously sexually abused by one the guards. In the years after the war
Rampling's character discovers her abuser working as the night porter at a
hotel and proceeds to engage in a consensual sadomasochistic relationship with
him.
This movie raises all
sorts of complex issues about the way that the Nazis perverted something as
natural as passion and love into something so dark and violent. The theme of a
Jewish concentration camp survivor seeming to crave the abuse of the past did
lead to some writing the movie off as sort of pro-Nazi pornography. However if
they'd paid attention they'd have realised Rampling's character is the daughter
of a Socialist rather than Jewish.
Even today you will
struggle to find a TV network prepared to broadcast The Night Porter because it
still has the power to rip your face off like an angry Chimpanzee. In
fact I think it was only after I raised it at a European Union (EU) security
summit the UK broadcast regulator - OFCOM - granted a special, one-off
dispensation to a channel closely linked to the British Forces Broadcasting
Service (BFBS) to show it late at night in faded 4:2 with a soundtrack full of
hiss to minimise the impact.
However it was
initially released at a time when many people who fought in World War Two were
not only still alive but often in positions of great power. The central theme
of Nazis working in secret to absolve themselves of their feelings of guilt so
they could re-enter mainstream society undetected was therefore very
controversial.
As such it's one of
those movies a lot of people probably wanted to give awards too but were
terrified of the backlash. In fact towards the end there's a scene where the
male lead - "Max" - is on the telephone with a character named
"Oscar." He ends the call with the pointed phrase; "Goodbye
Oscar" while the words; "possibly forever" hang in the air
unspoken.
Even today it remains extremely controverisal because we currently have the 14th Genadier Division of the Nazi Waffen SS proudly marching through the streets of Ukraine. We also have EU member states such as Poland telling us we should endure every hardship to support these gallant heroes. Meanwhile Poland is trying to erase any evidence of its own Nazi past even going so far as to deny that the Auschwitz death camp is or ever was in Poland.
It almost goes
without saying that without a movie like The Night Porter and its graphic
depictions of sadomasochistic sex movies like "50 Shades of Gray"
would simply not get made. The Berlin Affair centres around a lesbian
relationship between a middle-aged German woman and a much younger Japanese
woman. As such another film nominated this year "Carol" seems to
directly owe it a debt for paving the way.
Thanks to the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) the ideologies of Nihilism and Nazism are
once again very relevant topics for discussion.
The big commercial
movie of this year's Oscars is "Mad Max: Fury Road." Set in an
unspecified desert nation this centres around a brutal warlord who keeps women
prisoner as sex slaves. One day led by a ferocious female warrior - sporting a Charlotte Rampling style haircut - these sex
slaves escape and the warlord tries to hunt them down. So basically it's ISIL's
treatment of the Yezidi and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG/J)
attempts to defeat them then.
Ramplings other big
role this year was of course in the TV mini-series "London Spy."
Produced by the BBC's *ahem* 'Special Projects Division' this was the UK's
foretelling of how the COP21 Summit would go.
It centres around the
character of Daniel Edward Holt played by Ben Wishaw who is supposed to serve as a metaphor
for yours truly. Suddenly Holt'sgay lover disappears and he is forced to
navigate the high stakes world of international espionage and politics to
discover what happened to him.
In one key storyline
the British intelligence services purposefully infect Holt with HIV/AIDS.
This is a reference to the argument between the US and Brazil over the
inclusion of the REDD+ program in the agreement which I'm sure is now known as
"The Sheen Clause" as it was revealed that the actor Charlie Sheen is
HIV+ as part of the argument.
That storyline also
introduces the concept of "The Certainty of Failure" and the need to
accept it.
However I think the
key sequence occurs close to the end when Holt carefully sends out copies of
this world changing theory to everyone he can think of. The intelligence
services simply gather up every single copy and send them back to Holt having
replaced every page with blank paper.
This perfectly summed
up what happened at COP21. US President Obama swept in at the last minute to replace the
agreement everyone had been working on for five years with something so watered
down it may as well have been blank pages.
Sadly if ratified
those blank pages are the only action the World will be allowed to ever take to
combat climate change.
The other thing of
note about London Spy is that is contains a lot of gay sex. The movies - like
the British TV industry - of course aren't bound by the US Federal
Communication Commission (FCC's) ridiculous "No Nipples" rule expect
when they're shown on US TV.
In the absence of
such a binary rule where the presence or absence of a particular body party
determines whether a scene is sexual or not the movies tend to rely on a more
general interpretation of each scene. This is harder to define but generally
questions are asked about whether any sexual content is necessary to the story.
For example even a
poorly skilled film maker should be able to convey not only whether a couple
are having sex but whether they're having hot, passionate sex or bored, married
sex without actually having to show a penis going in and out of a vagina. So
when trying to get a movie passed by the censors film makers and their lawyers
end up having long discussions about things like "the degree of
thrusting."
The sex in London Spy
is not only between men but it leaves you under absolutely no illusion as to
exactly what is going on. The type of sex portrayed is also of the sort that
would be considered extreme and a bit disgusting by many gay men. For example
there is one scene where I think five men are all having sex with each other.
During this sequence one of the men is shown very clearly rubbing lubricant
into his anus.
This of course was
broadcast in an atmosphere of new found British prudishness where the mere
sight of a female nipple on "War & Peace" caused palpitations
across the nation. Therefore if you weren't aware of the BBC's special projects
division you could quite reasonably conclude that London Spy was only being
allowed to get away with it because it was gay sex. This would make it an
example of pro-gay affirmative action or positive discrimination.
The Academy of course
has a long history of affirmative action - particularly towards black people.
Even as far back as
the late 1980's the Academy noticed that black actors were being held back by
this culture that you simply can't put black faces on screen. The Academy
challenged this by nominating black actors and directors for awards they
probably didn't deserve in order to give them an excuse to put black faces on
TV in order to normalise it. TV shows like "Scandal," "Orange is
the New Black," and "How to Get Away with Murder" are now simply
taking advantage of the opportunity that the Oscars provided for them.
Matters really came
to a head when the proverbial disabled black lesbian Queen Latifah - star of such
classics as "Taxi" and "Bringing Down the House" was
awarded Best Supporting Actress for her role in "The Help" in 2008.
This was a bumper year for black nominees and was done to help Barack Obama get
elected as America's first black President.
Looking back at this
year's themes that may well be a source of regret for many.
With black talent
really coming through the ranks in mainstream TV the Academy seems to have
tapered off its affirmative action program and is now only handing nominations
and awards to black talent that genuinely deserves it.
The "Oscars So
White" protesters have really not taken this progress in good grace.
So to my mind
Charlotte Rampling's comments on French radio in which she accused the Oscars
So White protesters of being racist against white people should have sealed her
Best Actress victory. After all it was clearly a woman who is no stranger to
controversy having a bit of fun.
It also raised a
serious point. The debate of whether there should have been more black nominees
is not only a question of what black candidates should have qualified for this
list but also of what white candidates should have been denied a place?
I suppose at best
Spike Lee's "Chi-raq" could have worked as a reference to the
Blacksploitation sub-genre rather than The Hateful Eight. However it's far from
clear if Lee was intentionally mocking himself and Taratino certainly did a lot
more with the theme.
Plus in a year where
France looms large a title that can easily be confused with a very famous
French President is likely to cause confusion and conflict meaning it's a
definite no-no.
15:25 on 29/2/16 (UK date).
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