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CINEMA XANADU: AUTUMN 2005: THE WORLD THROUGH CHILDREN'S EYES For our autumn season Daniel Usiskin has chosen three films that view the world through the eyes of children. Two are classics, the third a less well known but fascinating film from Vietnam, by way of France. Each is the debut film of directors who each went on to have an important influence on the way cinema has developed. Saturday October 1st: Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) (Satyajit Ray 1955) The first film in the acclaimed Apu trilogy, Pather Panchali shows the beginnings of the young boy Apu's life, his relationship with his sister, his harassed mother, ancient aunt and his priest father. From the opening scene, Ray strikes a graceful balance between nostalgic idealism and poignant realism. The lyrical soundtrack (music composed and played by Ravi Shankar) echoes the long, lingering shots of the small village road. The road is of course a metaphor for life: from the father's travels in search of employment, to the children's adventures following a candy vendor and searching for a train, to the family's bittersweet departure from the village following a catastrophic storm.  Remarkably, this was Ray's first film. His homage to Italian neorealism is obvious (location shooting in black and white, for the most part non professional actors, use of local dialect, loose plotting) and a link to our last season. Pather Panchali established Ray's reputation and that of Indian "Art Cinema". Widely acclaimed in the West, it was not however universally admired in India. For example, as described by Phillip French, the star of Mother India, Nargis Dutt, who subsequently became an MP, attacked Ray in Parliament for misrepresenting India abroad, and in a sneering newspaper interview claimed that the popularity abroad of the Apu trilogy was 'because people there want to see India in an abject condition'. Most critics however consider Pather Panchali to be one of the greatest films ever made. Many excellent reviews, which universally bear out the latter view, can be found at imdb.com. Saturday October 29th: Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973) Spanish director Victor Erice has only completed three films in a career spanning nearly three decades. This is his spellbinding debut feature, which was made towards the end of the Franco dictatorship but whose story unfolds shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1940. The following account of the film is slightly modified from an article at the Strictly Film School website. A detached, preoccupied scientist, Fernando, moves to the provincial tranquility of Castille with his young family in order to devote his time to the study of bees. He spends countless hours observing their daily ritual, manipulating their environment, recording the results of his interventions. He conducts various experiments and unsuccessfully attempts to force them to build a beehive in a crystal-like structure he has created. His wife, Teresa, languishing in the isolation of the remote town and her husband's alienated affection, occupies her time by writing longing, heartfelt letters to loved ones (? a lover) left behind during the war.
Ana, unsettled by the incomprehensible acts of the monster and the townspeople in the film, relentlessly asks Isabel to explain their actions. Isabel tells Ana that the monster is actually a spirit who cannot die and takes her gullible sister to an abandoned barn where she claims to see the spirit in the well. Intrigued by the prospect of finding the elusive spirit, Ana becomes obsessed with the idea of befriending the imaginary monster.  The Spirit of the Beehive is a visually poetic, haunting, and allegorical film about innocence, illusion and isolation. Victor Erice uses the recurrent imagery of the beehive to create a pervasive sense of claustrophobia and geographic disconnection: the honeycomb structure of the stained-glass windows through the house; the amber glow of the oil lamps and candles; the pervasive haze of the darkness of winter; bees that toil and die only for the good of the hive. Filmed in 1973 under the Franco regime, The Spirit of the Beehive is a deceptively lyrical tale of idyllic childhood memories and a disturbing portrait of isolation. Saturday November 26th: The Scent of Green Papayas (Anh Hung Tran, 1993) The following account is slightly modified from the review at Talking Pictures. In Tran Anh Hung's debut film, Mui is a ten-year old girl who comes from a small village to the home of a wealthy Saigon merchant to work as a servant in 1951. Mui personifies the innocence of a society whose grace and harmony has not yet given way to bombs and destruction.  True to the Buddhist ideal of being in the present moment, Mui studiously carries out her tasks, refusing to be affected by the torments of the younger son Tin, upset because of his father's desertion of the family. The mother is distraught over the recent death of her young daughter and looks upon Mui as her replacement, perhaps even her reincarnation. In one scene, the mother stands over Mui while she sleeps and weeps silently for the loss of her daughter and perhaps for a Vietnam that she knows will soon disappear. Her husband is a drinker and womanizer who has run off with the family's money. The mother is stoic and we only learn of her problems through the elderly grandmother who mourns her dead husband alone in her upstairs room. The second part of the film shifts ten years into the future. Mui has become a young woman. Because of the family's financial condition she has moved to the house of Khuyen, a professional musician and composer. Her leaving triggers in the mother a profound sense of loss for her "daughter" and a sense that the old way of life in her country is coming to a permanent end. Tran has also included some subtle political connections. Twice he imposes the sound of a screeching overhead jet-plane. Along with unexplained references to a "curfew", he is obviously alluding to the developing Vietnamese north and south conflict. An alternative, more feminist reading, would notice the way Tran expresses nostalgia for a way of life that in reality imprisoned women. Whichever political view you take, The Scent of Green Papaya, in its simplicity and awareness of the natural world, reminds us of the power of cinema to achieve grace and beauty. Please join us for drinks at 7.30pm. The films (to be screened at 8) will be introduced by Dan and followed by teas/coffee, dessert and discussion. |
Through Children’s Eyes
