What d'ya know ...

It occurred to me today as I finished watching yet another film, that the latest string of movies that I've been occupied with all deal with some aspect of prostitution. I guess if you want to be a avant garde in your material you need to pick a subject that lies outside the Establishment. Of course, Hollywood, Julia Richards and Richard Gere changed all that with "Pretty Woman" ...

The Films

1. My Life to Live (Vivre Sa Vie) This Godard was probably the best of the lot with a very pretty Anna Karina forced into prostitution. The film treats prostitution in a matter of fact manner, with Karina always looking immaculate, pretty and ready for the next customer, who are invaribly balding middle-aged men. Of course, the film's really about existential angst and all that. And it ends very tragically, right after she has a conversation about life and love with a philosopher.

2. Mama Roma. A Parsolini film, it's about an aging prostitute who tries for a better life off the streets, selling veggies in a cart in Rome (The Colloseum is always in the background ...) But she's got a teenage son on whom she places all her hopes. These invariably come crashing down because of his irresponsible behavior.

3. Medea. Another Parsolini film but not quite about prostitution per se, though Medea DOES kill her brother and offers the Golden Fleece to Jason in exchange for herself! I can see why the Soviet film-maker Parajanov claims that Parsolini was a huge influence. There are some similarities in the strange 2-D painterly shots in this film and the endless "Color of Pomegranates". To make a comparison to another film -- very much in the spirit of Fellini's "Satyricon", though the shots are never stuffed with so much detail and excess.

4. The Grim Reaper (La Commare Secca). This was a film that Bernardo Bertolucci directed when he was 21! The idea was Parsolini's but Parsolini had moved on to other obsessions (Mama Roma) and suggested that Bertolucci shoot this. It's very much like Rashmon. A prostitute has been murdered and vcarious suspects are called in, each with their own tale to tell about that fateful night. The strange thing with this film, however, is that there is a clear HE did it at the end, which makes the rest of the film, well, irrelevant.

Two other films that are most definitely not about Prostitution:

1. The Little Soldier (Le Petit Soldat). A Godard film about a French deserter (the Algerian war) who ends up getting involved in a right wing terrorist plot. Long meditation about torture, highly relevant for today.

2. Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen). Another Bergman film. With a young Liv Ulman and Max von Sydow. It traces an artist's descent into madness where the desires of the past cannot be forgotten. There are moments where I think Bergman deliberately mimics Dreyer's "Passion of Joan of Arc", where the sound drops off and there are just these portraits composed only with austere light and shadow.