Archive for the ‘bullies, architecture, preservation’ Category
Unpacking the Tensions in ‘Armand’
Armand, the film creation by Scandinavian film royalty Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann’s grandson of Halfdan Ullmann Tondel is uncomfortable but offers up a feast of realizations about our lives
Elizabeth, played by the risk-taking actress Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person In the World), finds herself confronting the school board of her six-year-old son. What could such a young boy do to warrant the condemnation from the parents of another boy, his friend, and why do the principal educators though uncomfortable, still feel its their duty to accuse. The victim’s parents are at first patent with Elizabeth’s shocked response to the accusation. They are all from the same community and have history; so why would this sensitive issue be put in such a formal setting? This is where the real mystery begins.
Small towns have secrets and judgments and memories of its citizens that go back to their own student days. Elizabeth’s husband is recently deceased and the judging teachers at first want to be sensitive with her because of the loss, but Elizabeth is out there emotionally and doesn’t fall into the shaming that the system seems to need to put on her. Much is made of her laughing scene which for me was a bit long…but everything else she does is so beautifully strange and at same time, familiar, as if we are watching her and ourselves in our private spaces. She reveals herself through public through outbursts, and dancing…she is beautiful and they all want to judge her and it seems also be her or be with her. As an audience we want to condemn the condemners for their inability to probe themselves and project their fears and insecurities on the single woman… the societal witch, who is bursting with real life.
There is much to explore in an educational documentary on what is normal child play…here though we see adults acting like they did in their own childhoods, gossiping, having nosebleeds and wanting to avert responsibility.
I spoke briefly to the director wondering if he had seen the film Suddenly Last Summer, where Tennessee William”s character, Sebastian Venable, played by Julian Ugarte, is seemingly cannibalized by a culture that need pieces of him for themselves. Elizabeth’s world is like that. As the town’s actress, she serves as the vessel for all their unrequited impulses and we see how dangerous non actualization can be. Only when the truth is revealed, and the ‘children’ re draw the lines on the playground, do we experience the tension leaving our own bodies. The rain purifies and she, with Buddhist equanimity, moves on.
The director who has worked in an elementary school has much talent for showing the everyday intimate responses that is part of the human experience. He’s got the genes for it.
Boys Will BE Boys…Pity
Last night I was in the both illuminating and uncomfortable position of witnessing a grownup professional man trying to outdo, compete and basically belittle a female from the same professional group. It was misogyny in action. As I stood watching this architect “John” carry on, it reminded me of an old English film, where the elitist school master is trying to shame a female student who dares to want to study math.
The episode occurred at an event I happened upon at my local center of good activity, St. Mark’s Church. It was a reception for The Grassroots Preservation Awards, honoring people involved with the preservation of New York buildings. After my dog Darling received her usual round of accolades for complete cuteness, I started to chat with an architect, Ronnette Riley. Our conversation covered everything from Malcolm McLaren, about whom I made a film to 9/11 conspiracies. She is feisty, smart as a licorice whip and a lot of fun. She was the first woman from her family of fireman and investigators to go to college. She graduated Berkeley and Harvard Graduate School of Design and worked for Philip Johnson. She has run her 100% woman owned architecture firm for many years doing a wide range of projects; to say that her trajectory is long and full of substance is saying too little.
“John’s” argument with her was his insisting that she didn’t believe in preservation work. According to Ronnette, “I’ve had 15 preservation projects, compared to his five.” One of her successes is the Restoration Hardware Building on lower Broadway where she maintained the beautiful white facade, among other details.
Apparently, John had had a dust off with her in the past about this subject and took the opportunity at this lovely event to go at it again. Well, Ronnette is no lily and gave as good as she got. But I felt like I had fallen into a time warp what with this smug, tweedy, too old to act like a school boy fart behaving in a way I had believed was a a thing of the past. Perhaps he represents the last vestiges of a dying breed, but probably not.
Still, kudos to the for their honors. Karen Ansis received the Mickey Murphy Lifetime Achievement Award for her work with Landmarks Conservancy and honors were given to Bowery Boys, George Janes, Susan Olsen and Senator Brad Holyman.
Ok, now I remember the film this reminded me. It was the footage of the great The Germaine Greer- Norman Mailer debate. Bullies must be resisted.
notjustaboutsex 