Date: Sun, 5 Nov 95 21:23:45 EST From: Krishin Asnani Subject: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air To: bsb@ans.net, cballard@ans.net, vijay@ans.net, rao@ans.net, shiao@ans.net, rcl@ans.net, selina@ans.net, djb@ans.net, surekha@ans.net, ldl@ans.net, elaine@ans.net, edeline@ans.net, becker@ans.net, mel@ans.net, georganne@ans.net, martin@ans.net, dmreddy@ans.net, glinka@ans.net, sonecha@ans.net, sbb@ans.net Cc: johnhall@acs.bu.edu, bziel@mail01.mitre.org, Chris_Berube@star9gate.mitre.org, jpdia@ods.com, panjwani_prakash@msah2.cig.mot.com, lilie@watson.ibm.com, mprasad@midway.uchicago.edu All That Is Solid Melts Into Air -------------------------------- Exploring relationships between men and women seems to be a dying art these days in the American film industry. Doesen't the resulting evanescence of watching one action picture after another bother anyone? Except for Woody Allen's monumental "Husbands and Wives", I can't think of one Amercian film in this decade that has explored relationships with depth and thoughfulness. It makes you wonder if these men who write and direct 99 percent of the American films ever reflect on their relationships with women friends and lovers. Instead of hanging out in film houses, perhaps I should visit caves and try figuring out the differences between stalagmites and stalagtites. But I hear the dog races at the newly designed race track in Bridgeport, Connecticut are to die for. Ah, the wonders of a Republican economic stimulus program! Anyway, the good news is that the film, "Leaving Las Vegas" that I saw last Sunday was exceptional and it's easily one of the best films of the year. Nicholas Cage (playing Ben Sanderson) is a well to do screenwriter in Los Angeles whose wife (with a small child) abandons him and subsequently, Ben becomes an alchoholic: in a hilarious shot, Ben with a gleeful smile on his face fully loads the shopping cart at a liquor store. You never quite know why Ben chooses this sordid path. In his own words that mix glibness with thoughtfulness, "I can't remember whether I started drinking too much because my wife left me or my wife left me because I drank too much". You only have to scratch his soul's surface to see the gigantic blue funk he is in. This is captured in a scene in which Ben using his characterisitically charming insouciance tries to pick up a woman at a bar and fails miserably. At the end of this opening sequence, he gets fired from his job and Cage reacts humorously in front of his boss as if he were a sobbing kid aplogizing to his mother. What moved me throughout the fim was that his brand of does not elcit any symapthy, empathy or understanding from us; he simply carries his vulnerabilities on his sleeve for everyone to see. We are then treated to languorous opening credits which set the melancholic tone of the film. Effervescent shots of Las Vegas at night are juxtaposed with moody and melodic jazzy tunes. Ben has decided to move to Las Vegas. At this point I thought the film will be about a recovering alcoholic. No, it's nothing banal as that. You see, Ben has decided to drink himself to death. This is the kind of behavior I was expecting from Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman". Pacino did a great job in that film but he magically got a new leash on life after solving a banal prob for Chris O'Donell. That never rang true to me tho this picture gets in right in making sure that depression is unadorned with the falseness of perfunctory resolution. I am thinking at this point of the film, a bit optimistically, that maybe we will get flashbacks of his life where he will try to reconcile with his past and live on. No such thing. After Ben burns the picture of his wife and child, we never see them again; all that is solid in his life has melted into air. My film professor, attempting a definition of "Drama": When you get someone in a room with a ticking bomb in it....and all the windows and doors are locked. In this film, Ben is the ticking bomb, all exits are locked but one of the doors has a crack in it which lets in a glimmer of light in this dark room. The name of this light is Sera, a prostitue in Las Vegas, played to perfection by Elizabeth Shue. Sad thing is that all glimmers are temporary. This relationship is explored deeply and what touched me most is their acceptance of each other with all the major vulnerabilities. No one tries to reform anyone; the understanding that this couple reaches with each other is absolutely breathtaking. The way they respond to each other scene after scene makes you want them to reform but Ben specifically asks Sera that even if they live togather, she cannot ask him to stop drinking. Sera's role becomes the brief shinning light that Ben will see. The shot that summarized for me their relationship had no words to it: Ben jumps into the swimming pool, standing on the floor of the pool with a bottle of beer to his lips and then Sera dives in to the pool to kiss him. Without giving away any more scenes, Cage and Shue give us some of the finest performances of this year. It's a very unusual role for them but they do a super job exploring the entire range of their characters. What adds to the texture of this relationship is the musical quality of the film with many slow songs written and sung by Sting. Janet Maslin at the New York Times faults Shue's character as being "just a prostitue with a heart of gold". Janet can be a cold and inconsiderate bitch sometimes. Forgive her on this one. The best review I read after I saw the film was, as usual, by Terrence Rafferty at the New Yorker who ends his excellent review by stating: "The movie is terribly, crushingly sad, but it's honesty is invigorating: it names its poison and downs it, neat." -Krishin Date: Mon, 6 Nov 95 8:24:42 EST From: Krishin Asnani To: STEPHWAGS@aol.com, shiao@ans.net, bsb@ans.net, selina@ans.net, elaine@ans.net Subject: [Laura Milan : Re: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air] From: Laura Milan Subject: Re: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air To: krish@ans.net (Krishin Asnani) Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 07:38:03 +0000 (UTC) Ya know Krish, I saw the 1995 Swamp Buggy Championships on the sports- channel a couple weeks ago. Perhaps you could start following that for entertainment. It'd probably be better than sitting in caves :) The winner of the races gets to pick up the Swamp Buggy Queen and jump into the swamp with her, dress and all. Pretty interesting entertainment :) Perhaps I should do something better with my time at 4am when I'm oncall... -laura Received: from interlock.ans.net (interlock.ans.net [147.225.5.2]) by bugsy.aa.ans.net (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id LAA256980; Mon, 6 Nov 1995 11:48:29 -0500 Received: by interlock.ans.net id AA13334 (InterLock SMTP Gateway 3.0); Mon, 6 Nov 1995 11:48:27 -0500 Message-Id: <199511061648.AA13334@interlock.ans.net> Received: by interlock.ans.net (Protected-side Proxy Mail Agent-2); Mon, 6 Nov 1995 11:48:27 -0500 Received: by interlock.ans.net (Protected-side Proxy Mail Agent-1); Mon, 6 Nov 1995 11:48:27 -0500 Date: Mon, 6 Nov 95 11:48:24 EST From: Dennis Shiao Reply-To: shiao@ans.net To: Krishin Asnani Cc: bsb@ans.net, cballard@ans.net, vijay@ans.net, rao@ans.net, rcl@ans.net, selina@ans.net, djb@ans.net, surekha@ans.net, ldl@ans.net, elaine@ans.net, edeline@ans.net, becker@ans.net, mel@ans.net, georgann@ans.net, martin@ans.net, dmreddy@ans.net, glinka@ans.net, sonecha@ans.net, sbb@ans.net Subject: Re: All That Is Solid Melts Into Air In-Reply-To: Your message of Sun, 5 Nov 95 21:23:45 EST | Except for Woody Allen's monumental "Husbands and Wives", I | can't think of one Amercian film in this decade that has explored | relationships with depth and thoughfulness. "Long Island Lolita: The Story Of Amy Fisher" (made for TV, starring John Goodman in the role of Joey Buttafuco). -Dennis. P.S. How does something melt into air? Doesn't it just melt?