Plot:
Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is a broken man in more ways than one: Unable to walk after a fall from a horse in a movie stunt gone awry, his girlfriend ran off with the movie's leading man and he is hospitalized in 1915 in a Los Angeles hospital feeling very sorry for himself.
He launches on a plan to end his life that features befriending a five year old girl(Catinca Untaru) with his ability to tell epic stories In exchange for the continued telling of his elaborate tale, he bribes her to steal lethal pills to be used for his ultimate demise.
Commentary:
This is the work of a master film maker. The elaborate story told to the child uses 18 countries as the location for the footage. The scenes are beautiful, the story alittle too complicated for me but what stands out the most is the underlying immorality of the plot itself.
Imagine this selfish man devising a plan to use a five year old girl as an assistant in the act of his suicide when he is the very person with whom she has developed a loving relationship that sustains and softens her isolation during her own protracted period of hospitalization.
Image the ruination of her life once she comes of age and realises what she has done. The hours of therapy, if she is lucky, to free herself of guilt, to free herself of love for this cruel man. Imagine her struggle to come to terms with what he was really like and to grasp the significance of his evil, self centered uncaring nature!
This is a horror film with an agenda that is so callous towards the emotional life of a child that it made me recoil. Yet, it might just be part of the general misuse of children in the film industry, a trend I hope will one day be reversed.
Linda Zises
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
children in feature films
Two films are about to be released that feature children as main characters: The remake of The Red Balloon and the Fall.
It is interesting that there are labor laws that restrict chikldren under fourteen years of age from working at blue collar jobs and yet we sit through films where the children, young children are put to work for our entertainment.
What is this all about? In both of the above films the children are not even teenagers and yet they are on the screen shot after shot, working.
Is anyone else upset about this phenomenon?
Linda Zises
It is interesting that there are labor laws that restrict chikldren under fourteen years of age from working at blue collar jobs and yet we sit through films where the children, young children are put to work for our entertainment.
What is this all about? In both of the above films the children are not even teenagers and yet they are on the screen shot after shot, working.
Is anyone else upset about this phenomenon?
Linda Zises
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
ladies film club: introduction
The ladies film club is for those women who are reticent about writing and yet they have a significant input in the film industry with their dollars spent in support of the industry.
The ladies film club is also a place to meander and write without having to stick to a specific format. It is hoped that the films seen will function as a jumping off point for discussions of women's issues
This second agenda of the Ladies film club differs from the blogs that review films such as Criticalwomen on film.
Rather than being a conveyer of information, it is hoped that the ladiesfimclub will generate discussion among many women who want to explore the ideas triggered by films and documentaries. To particpate it is not necessary to see the film or documentary.
Example of current themes might be
violence in films
sex and the child
women exploited in films
the need for documentary films.
In anticipation of a lively discourse
Linda Zises
founder
The ladies film club is also a place to meander and write without having to stick to a specific format. It is hoped that the films seen will function as a jumping off point for discussions of women's issues
This second agenda of the Ladies film club differs from the blogs that review films such as Criticalwomen on film.
Rather than being a conveyer of information, it is hoped that the ladiesfimclub will generate discussion among many women who want to explore the ideas triggered by films and documentaries. To particpate it is not necessary to see the film or documentary.
Example of current themes might be
violence in films
sex and the child
women exploited in films
the need for documentary films.
In anticipation of a lively discourse
Linda Zises
founder
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