Palindromes
I cannot help feeling that the stories of
many different and potentially inarticulate people are more interesting
than a contrived narrative that exists only in one articulate man's
imagination.
- John Cassavetes
In
my experience, I have found it to be hands down, every time easiest to
remove dimension from the people in my life and reduce them down to
either the greatest thing they've ever done or the worst thing they've
ever done. I think the same goes for filmmaking. It is far easier for
a director to remove dimension from the characters he is working with.
However, honest compassion for The Other has always risen up in me when
I can see beyond the best or worst thing about that person.
This "contrived narrative" is the norm for most American films, it's
The Director's story that the audience is allowed to sit in on. Like
in The Cider House Rules, a hero character goes on a journey.
Along the way he gains wisdom and switches sides from anti-abortion to
pro-abortion. Making an argument for a particular Point of View
through a fictional story is, I think, more and more expected from
audiences.
Palindromes opened theatrically last April
and has since played in 46 theaters. The director, Todd Solondz, is
one of the most challenging (and in my opinion one of the best)
directors living today. His films often ask the audience to sympathize
with some of the most unsympathetic characters and that in itself
places his work in with a small handful of American directors. With Palindromes
he asks the audience to sympathize with human beings on both extremes
of the abortion issue. He has caught a deluge of napalm-inflamed
criticism as a result.
I will not write a review for Palindromes here because I cannot write a better one than David Lowery wrote at Reversing the Gaze. But I will use an excerpt of Solondz's words from an interview with Dave Canfield at twitchfilm.com:
One of my favorite scenes is the Sunshine
Family Singers musical number. During the filming I was very moved by
it. The kids took such pride and joy into bringing that song to life.
Hopefully people can take that away with them without losing the
ability to decipher what’s being said in the song, which is rather
disturbing.
And the fact that some of the kids in the family are
disabled makes it even harder for people trying to decipher what you’re
up to as a writer or director. Are you making fun of kids with
disabilities? I guess my response would be 'Are kids with disabilities
not supposed to dance and sing?' What people are most often most
unhappy about is their own response to these sorts of things.
Film reveals for me the hideous and beautiful in humanity. A good
film forces me to swim in another's murky life. To look at them as God
in ruins. Often my response to what is on the screen reveals within me
what is ugly and in need of help.
It is far easier to watch films that reveal none of these things to
me; films that only ask me to sit and listen to one man's Point of View.
(originally posted on my godinruins.com blog 8/29/05)