Monday 19 November 2012

Fanny och Alexander
(1982)

RATING:80%
FORMAT:DVD

[Fanny & Alexander]

A somewhat jarringly-elliptical narrative partly conceals a profound - albeit theatrical - meditation on functional families. Despite the title, this film really focuses on the experiences and imagination of Alexander as his father dies to be replaced by a strict authoritarian. In this way, we see the difference between families that function and those that do not.

Ghosts and what they represent - our deepest memories - haunt this drama as the dead affect the living, and the living affect the next generation with memories of them when they, in their turn, are gone. The acting is superb and the cinematography lush or ice-cold as emotionally necessary. The critique of Christian fundamentalism is particularly pointed in that religious literalists always loudly proclaim their worship of god when they are really doing nothing more than worship themselves.

The characters here present people as they really are - warts and all - a bit like the Addams Family but immensely likable for all that. An almost entirely-enveloping fictional world that you do not wish to leave - like a warm bed on a cold day.

Copyright © 2012 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
Posted by Frank TALKER™ at 17:14
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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.



Albert Camus… (1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)