Universo

«Hay otros mundos pero están en este. Hay otras vidas, pero están en ti” » Éluard

Así, como un 8 tumbado

Hay universos

que se expanden en nuestras mentes

hasta crear

nuestro propio mundo.

Deva.

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7 Personajes desconcertantes de cine

Normalmente suelen pasar desapercibidos porque no salen más que unos pocos segundos o si tienen suerte un par de minutos tampoco tienen mucho diálogo, tan sólo una palabra  o una frase, incluso ni tan siquiera se sabe su nombre, tal vez un gesto o una acción pero ejercen algún tipo de influencia en el/la protagonist@. Resulta bastante más complicado de lo que parece encontrar este tipo de personajes para ponerlos en una lista así que yo me decanto por estos aunque seguro que habrá más:

1º) El sargento boina verde del cazador: Se trata de un veterano de Vietnam que los protagonistas se encuentran en el bar dónde estaban celebrando la boda de uno de sus amigos y como ellos se habían alistado le preguntan “¿qué tal es aquello” mientras presumen de su valor y de que ojalá los manden al sitio donde la lucha sea más feroz a lo que el boina verde responde una y otra vez “fuck”(mierda) mientras eleva su copa con lo que los tres protagonistas se enfadan con él mientras éste los mira muy serio como un anuncio de lo que les va a pasar. Su presencia es fugaz pero con ella se plasma perfectamente el infierno que vivían los veteranos de aquella guerra que pese a no haber sufrido heridas ni amputaciones físicas sí sufrían unas graves secuelas psicológicas.

2º) El buscador de la docena de huevas perfecta en Clerks: un desconcertante y a la par adorable personaje que buscaba la docena de huevos perfecta en lo que se define como “neurosos ovoide” que sólo afecta a los consejeros espirituales o a personas cuyo trabajo es tan insignificante que se vuelven locas. El procedimiento consiste en dejarlo tranquilo mientras le hace  todo tipo de absurdas pruebas a los huevos después pagan los que rompen y nunca molestan a nadie. Es importante tener orgullo y una escala de valores.

3º) El “Andrés Calamaro” de Forrest Gump: Un personaje fascinante que sólo aparece unos pocos minutos cuando Forrest Gump habla frente  la multitud enfrente del obelisco de Washington. El tío va con una camisa con la bandera estadounidense y unas gafas de sol y es como una especie de maestro de ceremonias. Cuando Forrest acaba de hablar sobre la guerra, aunque la gente no lo oye porque le cortan el sonido, el tío le dice “lo has dicho todo” y le pregunta su nombre, lo repite en alto y todos lo vitorean. Gracias a esto Forrest  se reencuentra con Jenny que está entre el público después de mucho tiempo sin verse.

4º) El personaje de Scorsese en Taxi Driver, un cliente de Travis Bickle que se sube al taxi, le da una dirección y le dice que espere el tiempo que haga falta porque va a matar a su mujer con una Magnum 44. Un monólogo de escasos tres minutos con una interpretación soberbia y que resulta uno de los momentos más deconcertantes y brillantes de la película

5º) El recepcionista del motel en el que un adulto Josh Baskin/Tom Hanks, de la película Big (1988) se hospeda. Un tipo desdentado, con camiseta de rejilla y que recibe a los protagonistas con un discreto pero desdeñoso erupto que dice mucho más del personaje que cualquier frase. Brillante

6º) El tarado, Pulp Fiction (1994), personaje inquietante cuando menos, enfundado en un mmono de vinilo que se encontraba en la tienda en la que capturan a Butch (Bruce Willis) y a Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) para someterlos a todo tipo de “actividades” y cuya naturaleza y finalidad en dicha tienda no está muy clara aunque nos podemos hacer una idea.

7º) Cucaracha, Apocalypse Now (1978) En mi opinión, el más desconcertante de todos, su fugaz aparición cuando llegan al puente de de “Do Long” con su original aspecto  y su mirada perdida, en esa especie de lugar sin ley en donde reina la demencia las drogas y la falta de  esperanza, este tipo coge un lanzagranadas M79 y guiándose sólo por su intuición pega un  pepinazo y acaba con la amenaza vietcong y sobre todo, cuando el capitán Willard le pergunta » si sabe quién está al mando aqui», él le contesta «Yeah» y se va.

Christine (2016). Character´s Psychology

She is a character perfectly developed in the script with a complex psychology influenced by external and internal factors, with a fairly evident evolution and whose interpretation by Rebecca Hall is more than outstanding. I do not understand why she was not given greater recognition.

The psychology of the character is complex because throughout history we are presented and I always talking about what the movie shows us, a series of internal signs or symptoms that can denote a certain type of personality disorder such as:

• Insecurity and doubts caused by a defensive attitude and that is quite aggressive in her social interactions as well as little accessible.

• Impulsivity, (changes her mind at the last moment to mount the video in the first interview he had already ruled out; she goes out in the middle of the night to cover the news of the fire; she runs to Bob Nelson’s house to ask for the promotion).
• Low self-esteem (she does not accept compliments and detracts from importance).

• Emotional fragility ( she collapses at the slightest stimulation as when she thinks her mother is talking badly about her behind her back with the neighbor and after seeing her room seems more like a scared little girl who does not know how the world works).
• Obsession for silly things which are taken very seriously (she records herself to improve her gestures and to correct mistakes, makes a list of the things she must do, she self-demands a lot, «do it better»).

• She believes that people speak ill of her behind her back and that there is a kind of plot to not let her develop her work (delusions). – Their way of acting is quite extreme, radical and opposite, it changes from calm to anger easily; from joy to sadness; from the most ruthless aggression to the most childish vulnerability or she can with everything or she is blocked and she feels useless; or she does it well or if she does not do it badly, she has no objectivity which causes her great frustration and those depressive moments.
• She behaves absorbingly with his surroundings, especially with Jean and his mother.
• She has episodes of anxiety triggered by a kind of phobia with artificial flowers and even what she suffers like a psychotic outbreak when she argues with her boss and then with her mother, that internal struggle that she maintains with his demons (loneliness, frustration, fragility) and that´s aggravated by external triggers such as their health, professional and personal problems that are magnified by the fact of being a woman, a journalist in the early seventies and that possibly the mental disorder she suffered had not even been discovered in that time being confused with others like depression.
• The evolution of the character can be compared with the description made by the arms dealer when he tells her that carrying a weapon makes a difference and there are four states: white (no threats), yellow (you are aware of your surroundings); the orange (you are aware of your environment and the threats in it) and the red (you are aware of your environment, the threats and are able to act). Christine goes through all those states among the history. He tells her that most people live and die in white and yellow but carrying a gun takes you to the orange level and allows you to be prepared for red.

Interestingly when it is supposed that she is this way, just before the outcome, Christine seems to have undergone some kind of change and this is observed in a brief sequence in which she does two things that she had not done in the whole movie, she puts on makeup ( she has self-confidence, she has no longer doubts, she is no longer fragile, she does not run away anymore) and the watch is removed, it is the only time we see her do it, there are other moments in history when she goes out without a watch, but this is the first and only time we see her take it off (her time is up).

The film does not explicitly show clear signs of the existence of a suicide tendencie but rather taking advantage of that character’s aforementioned characteristic of his dichotomous way of thinking passes from the hope to desolation, from life to death practically automatically.

In real life, Cristine Chubbuck did give indications of his intentions when he confessed to a partner, although in a very macabre joking tone, eight days before hes death that he had bought a revolver with the intention of blowing his head live, the partner did not give importance to the comment although he was very surprised because although Christine had a rather special sense of humor, that comment was too much even for her. On the Saturday before his death she confessed to his brother Greg that she intended to commit suicide but did not know very well how to do it and a week before he had given Greg´s fiancée a family jewel that he greatly appreciated.

Rebecca Hall’s work is brilliant because it perfectly marks her body language, her gestures, her looks, her level of empathy, her characterization, the tone of her voice, etc. It allows her to somehow give life to the character so that with another interpretation it would not be so credible and would not so devastatingly internal hell and helplessness that she experiences throughout history.

Reflexiones absurdas

Si la segunda temporada de «Por 13 razones» fue un pedo cerebral y la tercera fue una paja mental. ¿Qué será la cuarta?

Glücklich

«Hatte er denn jemals an irgend etwas so sehr sein Herz verloren, hatte er je irgendeinen Menschen so geliebt, so blind, so leidend, so erfolglos, und doch so glücklich?«

¿Cuánto habría amado a un ser humano tan ciega y apasionadamente, con tan poca suerte y sin embargo, con tanta felicidad?

Filloas de entroido

800 ml de leite

3 ovos

50 gr azúcre

50 gr manteiga

500gr de fariña

Raiadura de dous limóns

un pouco de sal (unha cullerada de café)

Mezclar todo ata obter unha masa escorregadiza, nin moi sólida nin moi liquida. Se está moi sólida engadir leite aos poucos ata acadar a consitencia desexada. Probar de sal.

Botar na tixola un pouco de manteiga e logo un cazo de masa ata cubrir a base e repetir ata acabar a masa

Ir botando azúcre anas filloas a medida que as imos facendo

Na Praia de Chesil. Opinión subxectiva

Normalmente gústame ler antes o libro que ver a película na que está baseada porque as adaptacións cinematográficas adoitan ser peores ca os libros, non siempre acontece máis normalmente sí. Na praia de Chesil faime sospeitar que se trata dunha boa adaptación inda tería que ler el libro para asegurarme.

O factor que a fai sobresair con respecto ao efecto de lelo consiste na súa espectacular fotografía vestiario así como as interpretacións dos protagonistas, sobre todo Saoirse Ronan cuxa beleza insípida pero abrumadora e o seu desbordante talento fan que encaixe na personaxe como unha luva. ( Recoñezo que non me gustaba esta actriz ata que a vin en Byzantium, en Lady Bird conquistoume e nesta namorume).

A historia é unha desas tramas que fan pensar ao lector-espectador e o enredan deunha forma tan sutil que rematas identificándote con ela nalgún momento da mesma. Un romance inmortal tipo Romeo e Xulieta cuxo destino resulta brutalmente traxicómico no cal se nos plantexa se somos produto das nosas decisións ou tal vez do noso entorno.

único aspeto negativo é seu ritmo máis bien pausado que non lento en case toda a metraxe e as dúas horas de duración que a fan nalgús puntos plausible deixar de vela a pesares do que resulta moi, moi recomendabel e inda sexas de vágoa fácil vaite resultar difícil que non che dea baixón.

Faráche pensar en moitas cousas.

Christine(2016). Soundtrack

In this story the soundtrack acts almost like a character so that every time a song is heard we see that it is directly or indirectly related to Christine’s mood or situation as if it were what he was thinking or a way of complement their inability to communicate with their surroundings and help the public to know better what ´s happening to her.

SPOILER Alert

The first song that sounds is Annie´s Song by John Denver, on the radio of Christine’s car, released in June of 74, while she´s going to volunteer at the hospital. The song says and Christine sings it while driving: “You fill my senses like a night in a forest / like the mountains in spring / like a walk in the rain / like a storm in the desert, like a calm blue sea”, there is still Hope as if he were telling us, «OK I don’t have the most interesting existence in the world but with my work and my things I am satisfied, I am pulling and the rest will be seen.»

The second song that is heard is “She lets her hair down (Early in the morning) The Tokens (1970) when she is talking to George for the first time alone in the dark assembly hall while her stomach hurts and he tells her: «I´m okay you´re okay» and then we can see the video about the strawberry festival that she had set up as a final sample of that kind of work that she loved to do and that gave her some balance and peace, in fact during the video, approves his first strawberry of the season and affirms «this is really juicy» before beginning his descent to the black vortex of misfortune. The song says something like: «She walks barefoot in the meadow early in the morning every day and wakes the sleeping flowers and leaves her hair loose when the sun rises and the morning shines brightly with that new light.» It is supposed to be the last time in history that Christine will be more or less happy.

The third song is put on the turntable of her room Christine herself is «I Wonder what´s shes doing tonight» by Tommy Boyc (1967), I wonder what she is doing tonight ”maybe in reference to what looks like a daily ritual that he does in his room that seems to be the place where he feels more secure, writing down and organizing ideas; removing the cushions from the bed before opening it; looking in the mirror where we see his most obsessive, perfectionist and self-demanding part, very hard on himself. This is the last moment to think after knowing the trigger of the story, that last attempt by Christine to try to maintain control before that obsession that is beginning to show us ends up consuming. Her mother asks her through the door if she wants to go out with her and Christine replies that she is going to bed, then she looks at her dresser mirror and says «do it better«.

The fourth song is “life’s little package of puzzles» by Spooner Oldham,” says something like: “the rain keeps falling and the wind blowing while the sun starts to rise in my hair, life is like a little puzzle in a box that comes with yellow, happiness, green and red sadness ”that Christine puts back on the turntable one night after getting mad at her mother after arguing with her for thinking that he was calling her paranoid and weird, as if he was trying to assemble a puzzle with the pieces that they have come to him in the “if it bleeds it leads” box but he is not able to complete it and he finds out on the radio of the police about a fire in a motorhome and calls Jean to go with her but he makes the report focusing it from a more human point of view focusing more on the victim and less on the fire itself so he does not get his boss to congratulate him if he does not rather ignore it which frustrates her even more.

The fifth that comes out is «Rock Your Baby» by George McCrae (1974) at the party 4th July at Bob Nelson’s house when George calls Christine to play the villar alone and she thinks he is hinting at her and instead of do what the song says «Woman take me in your arms / give cane to your baby … let love flow» runs away when Andrea interrupts them.

The sixth also at the same party while George continues to talk about his complicated life in the villar’s room is «I’m Leaving It All Up to You» by Sonny & Cher» (1966) that comes to say: «I’m leaving everything hanging by you / decide what you are going to do / now you want my love / or we finish ”and it keeps ringing when Christine leaves the party, or rather runs away from the party and wishes Bob Nelson a happy July 4th as if it were what he was thinking but he is not able to tell George. A missed opportunity.

The seventh song that comes out is “Tighter, Tighter» by Alive ‘N Kickin’” (1970) when Christine leaves the interview to buy flowers after suffering an anxiety crisis after learning that she surely cannot be a mother and stops at the gun shop / workshop from which she had heard the police say that the owner offered good stories to talk to him and try to find a «juicy» story. The song says something like: «You know what I’m going to teach you / nobody else before you / you always gave me wonderful feelings / woman, you’ve reached my soul / don’t go now» something like a call from destiny to enter the store and come into contact with the weapon.

The eighth song that is hearding is the last one that Christine puts on her record player while she is getting excited for the date with George is “Everything I Own” (1972) by Olivia Newton-John and that comes to say: “You never said much / but you kept showing me the way / and I know to observe you / that nobody could ever understand the part of me that I can’t let go / I would give everything I have, my life, my heart, my home just to have you again ”with what Christine’s degree of excitement and despair is emphasized by this appointment as she knows that it may be her last chance to channel her life and have control again after losing it to the flower and argues with Mike Nelson.

The ninth song we hear is «Please Come to Boston» by Dave Loggins (1974) when George picks her up in front of his house and while she walks excitedly towards the car is heard is the chorus of the song «Please come to Boston and she said : No, could you come home with me? / and she said: Eh! Restless ass boy, won’t you focus once? / Boston is not a city for you / there is no gold or anyone like me ”as if Christine were telling her that there is no turning back, that she will not return to Boston, to his particular hell his disturbing past in which he is supposed to have failed before and he would like to start something with him.

The tenth song we hear is «Laughing» by The Guess Who (1969) and is the most disturbing of all because in addition to being one of the most listened to, it simply breaks your heart. It Sounds when Christine leaves the restaurant bathroom apparently happy about how everything is going on and as she goes to the table where George is hearing: “Laughing, because you did this to me, laughing because it shouldn’t have been this way / you ripped everything off what I had and put this pain in me / Now I go alone / calling you / after losing the game / you took me by surprise / I didn’t realize you were laughing ”which is like a summary of what destiny had brought as a complaint from Christine, for everything she has lived and will then live something that will leave her totally shattered.

The eleventh song is «Sweet Cherry Wine» – Tommy James & The Shondells (1969) when he returns from the appointment with George and learns that he is going to Baltimore although practically not heard and is the only one that does not agree much With the scene. It is an anti-war song dedicated to Vietnam’s veterans in which brotherhood and love are encouraged.

The last song we hear is the Mary Tyler Show «love is all around» that says: How are you going to do it on your own? / This world is terribly big, this time you are alone / but it is time to start living / it’s time for you to encourage someone to give something / Love is everywhere there is no need to waste it / Can you have the city / why don’t you take it? / Are you going to do it after all? ” that a shattered Jean listens and sings when she puts on the TV to fight the penalty while eating strawberry ice cream. Christine Chubbuck really said that she used to listen to that song when she was very sad to cheer up with what is a great tribute to her memory and a good way to end the movie.

Christine (2016). Opening scene

Another brilliant part of the movie is the way in which the character is presented to us, a scene of almost two minutes, in which we see a rewinding tape, a control panel and some colored bars that give way to a sepia image, is Christine, framed in an image on television and moving artificially, stiffly, almost like a machine and then looks directly at the camera and her first words are «And we´re back in living color», while an interview with President Nixon begins.

Then the framing opens and we no longer to see the protagonist through the television but she is sitting on the set interviewing an empty chair with the only company of some plastic flowers, we are already in her world, something that will be a constant throughout history as if it were a «menine effect» in which the viewer is both observant and observed; then a moment of silence as he nods as if listening to the answer to the question he has just asked, a world in which the protagonist tries to talk to someone but is alone. It seems no important but the scene is already giving us many clues about the protagonist, those simple elements will represent her inner demons that will be present throughout history. Then the movie title appears just above the bouquet of artificial flowers.

The empty chair will represent her loneliness; hes inhability to connect, to be abandoned, to interact, no matter how much he tries throughout history every time a character tries to approach her to take an interest in her situation or simply to speak, she will be interrupted by something she breaks that connection or for Christine herself who, without pretending it, moves everyone who comes to her to take interest in her situation and whenever Christine asks for help or needs it, no one will be available and she will be left alone which will further aggravate her situation.

Artificial flowers will be an allegory of their frustration and fear of failure, Christine are those beautiful but lifeless flowers, sterile, attractive but unable to make you feel anything because they do not give off any smell, real but false at the same time, without freshness, ignored, almost a superfluous accessory, a continuous reminder of his personal and professional stagnation, of his lost youth, of the time she is spending. Christine herself will go out to look for fresh flowers awakened at a time in history but obviously she won’t find them and the artificial ones will still be there.

The flowers in the history are an important element in the plot because they will be the trigger for Christine’s paranoia as well as a cruel metaphor for her situation. They are going to be the drop that fills the glass of that physical pain that we see and the psychological one that we can intuit. The flame that causes the bomb to explode violently after having burned a very, very long wick.  The flowers have three moments in the movie, the first one when Christine is doing the false interview with Nixon, she looks at them, touches them but does not give them much importance and ends the fictional interview with the question to the empty chair: “Is it paranoia if indeed, everyone? is? coming after you?. The second is while he is recording an interview and he has just realized that he has to have an operation and that surely he will not be able to be a mother, which causes him a very strong anxiety attack while withdrawing from the set sobbing: “Someone get fresh flowers”

The third is when she argues with Mike Nelson when she can’t stand the frustration that causes him to not be able to make the juiciest stories and check that everyone seems to move forward except her and tells them that the flowers are fake» like us» who are a joke and then she arrives at his house and argues with his mother blaming her for being responsible for not knowing how the world works and suffering a kind of psychotic outbreak while screaming desperately: «Why won’t anyone just listen to me?» in a terrifyingly throaty voice.

A “fragile” sign attached to the packaging of a machine that they are putting in the studio and that they leave just behind their backs as labeling reveals its condition. All this in just two minutes.

Christine (2016). Script

Perfect script, by the book with all the elements that make a good story, you can sum it up in practically one sentence; manages to empathize with the characters for better or worse by masterfully transmitting the feeling of the main character at all times throughout the story something that Rebecca Hall exponentially multiplies with her magnificent interpretation which makes practically dare you to feel everything that is happening to Christine and you end up totally devastated; it establishes a cause-effect so that everything that happens has a motive, an impact and causes an evolution of the characters throughout the film; the presentation, knot and outcome are well differentiated and are appreciable thanks in part to those small interludes that are the puppet functions that Christine performs in the hospital for sick children and that also function as an indicator of the status of the protagonist is also noteworthy that each block begins and ends with a phrase that summarizes what just happened; The trigger and the pivot points are clear; that last opportunity that every story offers to redeem itself before finally falling into the abyss and ending the story by retaking and closing the opening scene in some way.

(It is recommended not to read the following if you have not seen the movie) The structure would be as follows:

1- Opening with the fictional interview with Nixon.

2- Presentation. The life of Christine, who seems to have everything under control and is able to meet the objectives that are marked by herself but abdominal pain appears as an alarm that something is wrong.

3- 1st Interlude: Puppet function. Decide to go to the doctor for the pain. The problems arrives.

4- The Detonating. «If it bleeds it leeds» (sensationalize the news with more morbid stories to increase the audience) and visit the gynecologist. Something changes, something happens in Christine’s bland life that escapes his control. He does not understand what he is asked because he believes that covering the news from a sensationalist point of view is missing his professional ethics and the audience as well as that it is a type of work that literally makes him ill. Scene with the couple in love in the restaurant. The pain persists. Wait for the results of the gynecologist.

5- 2nd Interlude: Puppet function. «Be Bold, be Brave»

6- Before the first turning point. Try to react to the fact by organizing her life with the list of things to do telling herrself : ” Do it better ”.

7- The first turning point. Enter the game. «Make your stories juicy.» He believes that the station is going to be closed and actually the boss is looking for a candidate for a promotion and decides to change his professional style from human and with a message to a more yellowist to get it.

8- The midpoint. Everything he tries goes wrong, something that is causing him more and more frustration because the reports with that new sensationalist style do not work since he can not stop giving them that human and thoughtful touch, the 4th July party, more frustration. Result of the visit to the gynecologist. Bad news. More problems. Her world seems to be about to collapse and crumble. The pain persists.

9- Everything is lost. Christine collapses. Episode with flowers in which all his frustration and helplessness overturns. They´re fake !!!, They are fake” shouts.

10- The last chance: Appointment with George. Logic of «yes but» analyzing his paranoia. Lose the game. «Follow your guts»

11- The second turning point. The alarm. Take the decision. The time is up.

12- 3rd interlude: Puppet function. She has nothing more to say.

13- The climax. Final. It´s all summarized to a headline.

14- Close. Life goes on.