Photo from Daily Grind House

There is beauty in watching films of which you have no idea what it is about, what is going to happen, who are the actors and who directed it. The kind of film that was presented to you in surprise. The element of surprise will always be present. The same thing happened when I saw David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. Eastern Promises was indeed a surprise. For an audience who did not know what to expect from the film, the opening scene of Eastern Promises was a shocker. That throat slashing scene is totally unexpected.You know the opening scene is good when you instantly catch the audience's attention, including the unwilling ones. Eastern Promises' effect is just like that.

As the story progresses, it keeps on getting interesting at the same time, questions arose. Then, a young girl bled as she collapsed. The girl was brought to the hospital where the midwife, Anna (Naomi Watts)

photo from Fiancee Bodas

, found her diary inside her bag. Unfortunately, the girl died, leaving her child alone. Next day, Anna's Russian uncle, Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski), was reading the diary. We get to know that the girl is named Tatiana. Uncle Stepan told Anna to bury the diary, her secrets, together with Tatiana's remains. But Anna is determined to find Tatiana's family so that the baby will not go on fostering program. Anna found Trans-Siberian's calling card in the diary. Thinking this will lead to finding Tatiana's family, she went to the restaurant. At this point, Cronenberg established the importance of the diary in the story.

Photo from Post-Punk Cinema Club

When Anna arrived at the restaurant, we see two gangster-looking men, Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) and Kirill (Vincent Cassel). At this point I was sure they are the bad guys. When Anna rang the door bell, an old man, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), open the door. He let her in, showed her around and was incredibly nice to Ana. Semyon, I thought, is the one going to help Anna.

There were occasional sleepy stretches all throughout the film, maybe because of the lack of music, but still Eastern Promises is one surprising film. 

photo from Pop Babble

Probably the best scene from this film is the fighting scene between Nikolai and the Chechens. Tuns out Semyon set up Nikolai as Kirill so the Chechens will mistaken Nikolai as Kirill. The scene was set in a public bath, Nikolai fought naked with no weapons. This scene is undeniably violent. The use of knives instead of guns made the scene more violent. Two dressed men armed with knives, versus a naked man without any weapon, this shows how Nikolai is so inferior of the two Chechens. I could not remember how many times I looked away because I could not take it anymore. This scene is so intense our whole class was going crazy and screaming at the top of our lungs while watching this scene. The  most brutal, gruesome, painful and intense scene I have watched to date.

But what I liked the most from Eastern Promises is its major plot turn. At first who I thought the bad guys turns out actually the good one, and the good guy is actually the bad one. It was revealed that Nikolai is not a mafia or a chauffeur, he is actually an agent of the KGB, a Russian government security agency, who penetrated the Russian Mafia organization in London. I love how at first I thought he is dangerous, and mysterious when he started to help Anna, only to reveal he is an ally of the good.

photo from New York Times 

I recommend Eastern Promises to people who love crime films. This is a crime film that actually has a story. A god story.   

Watch the trailer here:

Then

Paramount Pictures
photo from American Cinema

During the period of 1930s to the late 1960s in Hollywood, the studio system controlled everything from the directors, writers, stars, equipment, filming and the likes. All of the people who worked for the studios lived under one roof in acres of lot owned by the studio. All of them were under an exclusive contract with the studio. This means they cannot work for another studios. Studios acres of lot where they also shot films they made. From the pre-production stage, down to the distribution, and even the promotion of films, everything was controlled by the studio. They distributed films they made only to the movie houses they owned. For example, MGM then owned thousand of studios,and they would only distribute their films in movie houses they owned.

Marilyn Monroe
photo from Wikipedia

In the Star System, actors were being taken care of as if they were gems. The Star System honed these actors into superstars. They prepared them for super stardom by giving them thorough training for dancing, singing, acting and the likes. The Star System created almost perfect being from then normal people. These actors were being owned by the studios they were under contract with. Actors were usually under contact with studios for five to seven years. They were expected to be perfect all the time; no negative images and dirty acts, that's why these kinds of things happened without the people knowing.

Now

In the present time, it seems that The Studio System and The Star System then, is the total opposite of what we have today.

Studios are still there, but the studio system is already gone. The studios no longer monopolize all the works in the film industry. The directors no longer work for a studio system alone. Directors now can work with whatever studio they like to work with, or they can work on their own. The studios no longer distribute films in their owned movie houses; films are being distributed anywhere. They no longer film in studio acres alone, they film outside. The stars no longer work under a particular studio alone; actors can now work anywhere they please. And negative images and dirty acts are no longer being covered.   

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Source:
Jenkins, S. (Director). (1995). The Star [documentary episode]. In American Cinema- 100 Years of Filmmaking. Arlington: PBS.

No words were uttered, yet, Un Chien Andalou is one of the most powerful, shocking, and confusing films I have ever seen. 

The film opened with a man, portrayed by its director, Luis Buñel, sharpening a razor, then tests the razor in his own thumb. It seems that this prologue prepares us for what is yet to come. Un Chien Andalou, is a film that has no plot and jumps into one scene from the other. A classic example of a Surrelist film, Un Chien Andalou is irrational, unconventional, and undoubtedly weird.

eyeball slitting scene from Un Chien Andalou

The film continued with Luis Bunuel going to his balcony then stares at the moon and clouds. He then slid his razor through the Woman's eyeball, and weird enough, the woman seemingly accepts what was happening. We are yet only in the first part of the film, but, Un Chien Andalou already shocked the audience. The story is just about to unfold, but it seems like Luis Bunuel already brought us to the climax. 

Because of my knowledge that this scene is about to come, I braved myself and kept my eyes open while this scene is playing. I don't know if it was a good decision, but it my second time watching this film, I skipped this part. One is enough for me.

still from Wikipedia

In the next scene, we see  a Man wearing a nun's habit, with a box with diagonal designs that he was wearing around his neck. The Woman I saw earlier is alive sitting in a room. It seemed that she was anticipating for the Man to come. She looked at the window and saw the man collapsed on the ground. She rushed to him and kissed him all over his face. We were brought back to the Woman's room with the Man's clothes placed on the bed. The Woman opened the box with diagonal designs and got the necktie out of the box the put it together with the other clothes. She sat and stared at the bed. The necktie moved on its own tying itself to the polo. We then see the guy who was wearing a nun's habit earlier, now wearing coat and tie, standing inside the room. He was deeply staring at his hand. His hand was focused and there were ants coming out of his hand. 

The next scene is at the road down the room with a lady moving a cut hand with a stick. She was surrounded with people trying to know what was happening, while there are policemen trying to stop them from interfering. One police took the hand and put it inside the box with the diagonal designs. How did the lady get the box? She hugged the box and stood in the middle of the road. The people and policemen left her. We then see the Man and the Woman watching what was happening. The Man was watching the lady and it seems that he was anticipating for a car to hit the lady. And true enough, the lady was hit by a car.

Then the scene was back to the room. The Man assaulted the Woman. He wants to get her on bed but she fought back. He felt her breasts but the Woman was stopping him. But a little later, she allowed him to. The Man started imagining himself touching the Woman's breasts with no clothes on. His eyes were up, seemed like he was having a high fever or something, while blood is dripping from his mouth. Do you really bleed while having so much pleasure?  Then back to reality, the Woman stopped him, she ran to one corner, took something that what looking like a tennis racket and was ready hit him. The Man stepped back and started pulling two grand pianos, with animals that looked liked donkeys, that seems to be rotting and their eyeballs missing and with blood on their eye sockets, atop of the piano. Plus two priest tied together. The Woman got to escape on the door near her, and she caught the Man's hand on the door. The hand that was caught was the hand with ants coming out of it.

still from Wikipedia

In the next scene we see the guy back in a nun's habit lying on the bed. Then a guy came, dragged him out of the bed, took off the nun's habit and threw it all out of the room. He made the Man faced the wall with his hands up. The guy's face was not being shown. Who is he? When the guy's face was shown, he looked exactly like the Man. The guy gave the Man books to hold on to. When the guy was about to exit the room, the Man faced him, the books turned into guns. The Man shot him. The setting changed and the man fell in an outdoor place. He hold on to a lady's naked back before he totally fell on the grass. The woman faded away, then a group of men found him lying on the grass field. Then  two men walking was shown. One men from the group sought help from the two men. They seemed not to entertain him, then on the next scene we see the two men together with the group, the the men bought the man and took him away. 

still from Wikipedia

The next scene is back to the Woman. In the room, she was staring at a butterfly. The Man was there, he covered his mouth, when he removed his hand, his mouth was gone. The Woman started to put lipstick on. The Man's gone mouth became black and the Woman put out her tongue to tease him. He went out of the door and we were brought into a beachfront. Where wee see her lover waiting for her. Was this all a dream? But while walking by the sea, they saw the box with diagonal designs at the shore. It was drifted by the water towards the shore. The couple continued to walk. The end.

When the scene of the Man came, in my mind I was thinking that this is the start where something about the eyeball slitting would make sense of. But rather than my question being answered, as the story progresses, I just added more questions to my list. I kept faith that it will all make sense at the end of it all. I've waited until the end, yet all I've got were questions and no answers. None at all. And the end of the movie, I was like "What the hell happened? Someone explain this to me." I am trying to process in my mind what it is all about. Are they symbolism? If they are, what do they symbolize? Are they dreams put together? Dreams that have deep meanings? And my question that certainly needs to be answered, what is the message of the film? I think it is the first film that I have watched that I understood almost nothing at all. I will not pretend to be intellectual and analytic, I did not get it. This surrealist film is indeed surreal. 

I may need to read more about the film, surrealism, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and other things from this film to be able to decode it, to be able to make sense of it.

My mind is really trying its best to give a coherent explanation about this, but this is the only answer that satisfied my need of explanation:

“When everything gets answered, it's fake.” 
― Sean Penn

People always seek answers to questions. We want explanation of things we do not understand. If we get no answers, we try to make our own explanation of things. We always want validation. We want concreteness, security, assurance. Maybe what Un Chien Andalou is trying to tell us is that you don't always need answers  to everything, that science not applicable to everything. You have to accept that there are really things that are existing with no answers why they are existing; or why something happens out of the blue. The are unanswered questions, and let them be. And why? Because mystery adds beauty to life.

You may watch the film here and please do share your thoughts below!