This is a fascinating book of oral history about everyday life in North Korea
over the last 30 years or so. Some of the hardships, sadnesses and
brutalities described here are almost beyond belief and those whose
stories populate these pages are truly courageous, strong and remarkable
folk. The book is slightly let down by its poor editing with lots of
repetitions slipping through the net but the histories described here
are so compelling that one is inclined to forgive this very minor
weakness. The final chapter, simply called 'Waiting', is a fine piece of
poetic journalism and the world still waits to see what will happen
next in this troubled part of Eastern Asia.
Some of the anecdotes are also quite funny in a very grim way and the lyrics from the NK patriotic song translations are notable for their directness.
'Where are we Going?':
Where have we gone? We have gone to the forest. Where are we going? We are going over the hills. What are we going to do? We are going to kill the Japanese soldiers.
And here is another timeless classic 'Shoot the Yankee Bastards:
Our enemies are the American Bastards Who are trying to take over my beautiful homeland With guns that I make with my own hands I will shoot them. BANG, BANG, BANG.
For those who don't know it, Hank Williams' hit song of 1952 'Kaw-Liga' tells the story of a wooden Indian statue that falls in love 'with an Indian maiden over by the antique store'. Tragically, since he has a stubborn heart made of knotty pine he is unable or unwilling to approach the maiden. Like Duchamp's Bride and her Bachelors she is destined to remain forever beyond his grasp until eventually she disappears one day, bought by a wealthy customer and the old wooden Indian curses his luck wishing he was still an old pine tree.
This song, along with many other Hank classics, features heavily in Wes Anderson's latest film 'Moonrise Kingdom', an amiable fantasy very much in line with Anderson's previous films in terms of style and direction. Whereas some directors such as the Coens or Daniel Aronofsky move from subject to subject finding material that engages them in different genres, Anderson has invented his own cinematic world and seems happy to endlessly refine it. A similar director perhaps would be Tim Burton in that he has a desire to forcibly project 'his' world onto celluloid, sometimes at the expense of narrative coherence but whereas Burton takes his inspiration from gothic literature and Expressionist cinema, Anderson has less obvious influences to my mind. Maybe a bit of Gatsby here and a soupçon of Jacques Demy there but by and large he has formed his own mode of expression and is thusly hailed by some as one of America's few bona-fide old-school auteurs along the lines of Fellini, Antonioni and Hitchcock. A few others think he is a mere hipster puppet master, all style no substance, all charm and no bite. I hugely enjoyed 'The Life Aquatic' and 'Rushmore' so I suppose I tend to be 'Pro-Wes' in general but I realise that charm, like invective depends on ceaseless inspiration and when the well runs dry there is little to fall back on. Thankfully here Anderson is full of the ol' charm-beans and has made to my mind perhaps his best film yet.
Going back a little, if you took only one frame from any of the afore-mentioned directors' films you could probably identify who made what immediately and Anderson's films share this visual distinctness which in my book is a definite achievement. The art department on 'Moonrise Kingdom' must have worked a huge amount of overtime - every piece of clothing, fabric, wallpaper and decoration is meticulously and beautifully put together and although the film is nominally set in the 60's the overall design doesn't set out to conjure up that era at all but instead presents us with 'WesWorld' where form is content and the medium is absolutely the message. Unlike some of his other films however which are picaresque in the extreme this one has a very definite 3-act story with beginning, middle and end and consequently I think is one of his most impressive efforts. The obsession with uniformity, the search for acceptance in spite of eccentricity, the damage done by quarreling parents to their children and the quest for an authoritarian but lovable father figure are four themes that are found frequently in Anderson's movies and all are present and correct here but whereas in previous films these kind of pop up in a somewhat haphazard way, here they have a stronger narrative force driving them along and the film's overall emotional impact was higher for me compared to some of his other work.
I also found it funnier. The story is like something Enid Blyton or Arthur Ransome of 'Swallows
& Amazons' fame would have written had they lived in New York around
the time of 'Annie Hall' - basically a tale of ripping Boy/Girl scout derring-do with a bit of existential angst thrown in for good measure. The heroes of the piece are a young boy and girl who decide to run away from the society which surrounds them on a small island off the coast of New England. Both are outsiders, both seek to escape their troubled environments and the story of this escape is done with great lightness of touch and filled with great little moments including humourous cameos from notably Tilda Swinton and Harvey Keitel. Many of the usual Anderson acting stable appear here such as Bill Murray and all are good but the film hangs on the two central performances by the young actors, both of whom are outstanding.
By presenting us this light-hearted story in a space and time which is a few steps removed from our everyday reality it's as if Anderson expresses his feelings of not quite feeling at home in this world and seeks to create some kind of version of his ideal world on the screen, which is perhaps what all film-makers do in some way. Nothing in the frame ever feels as if chance was present in the movie making process and the director's control is always absolute. This approach may eventually lead to stagnation at some point but for now Anderson has given us a little gem of a film that goes some way to answering his critics and makes one wonder where is he going to go from here. And unlike poor old Kaw-Liga I think in creating the world and characters of 'Moonrise Kingdom' he is far more successful in breaking free from the shackles of one reality and materialising the objects of his desire. In a word, charming.
On this day nine years ago in 2003 Sam Phillips moved on up to the great recording studio in the sky. Arguably one of the most influential music figures of the last 100 years, Phillips' Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee unleashed Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins on the world and it has never been the same since.
It's nigh on impossible to single out one favourite track from the Sun catalog but I've always had a soft spot for this one.
For further reading check out Greil Marcus' masterful book 'Mystery Train' which has an outstanding section on Sun Records and the dawn of Elvis.
Going through a bit of a Werner Herzog-fest at the moment. This is from a book published in 2002 -
'I have often spoken of what I call the inadequate imagery of
today's civilization. I have the impression that the images that surround
us today are worn out; they are abused and useless and
exhausted. They are limping and dragging themselves behind the
rest of our cultural evolution. When I look at the postcards in
tourist shops and the images and advertisements that surround us
in magazines, or I turn on the television, or if I walk into a travel
agency and see those huge posters with that same tedious image of
the Grand Canyon on them, I truly feel there is something dangerous
emerging here. The biggest danger, in my opinion, is television
because to a certain degree it ruins our vision and makes us very
sad and lonesome. Our grandchildren will blame us for not having
tossed hand-grenades into TV stations because of commercials.
Television kills our imagination and what we end up with are
worn-out images because of the inability of too many people to
seek out fresh ones.
As a race we have become aware of certain dangers that surround
us. We comprehend, for example, that nuclear power is a
real danger for mankind, that over-crowding of the planet is the
greatest of all. We have understood that the destruction of the
environment is another enormous danger. But I truly believe that
the lack of adequate imagery is a danger of the same magnitude. It
is as serious a defect as being without memory. What have we done
to our images? What have we done to our embarrassed landscapes?
I have said this before and will repeat it again as long as I
am able to talk: if we do not develop adequate images we will die
out like dinosaurs. Look at the depiction of Jesus in our iconography,
unchanged since the vanilla ice-cream kitsch of the
Nazarene school of painting in the late nineteenth century. These
images alone are sufficient proof that Christianity is moribund. We
need images in accordance with our civilization and our innermost
conditioning, and this is the reason why I like any film that
searches for new images no matter in what direction it moves or
what story it tells. One must dig like an archaeologist and search
our violated landscape to find anything new. It can sometimes be a
struggle to find unprocessed and fresh images.'
As the T-shirt says - 'No i dont know who won X-factor because im not a fucking moron'.
Watched this again last weekend - one of the key documentary chronicles of the hippie era. This is the moment where business and idealism met head on and the aftermath of which gave us both Baader Meinhof and, in a convoluted way, The Eagles...
The weekend ticket price of £3 to see Cohen, Hendrix, Dylan etc. on the same bill seems very amusing now. A great film, much better than Lerner's earlier 'Woodstock', this is one all lovers of music and anyone with an interest in the 60's should check out ASAP.
